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Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash.
And I'm Elena. and this is morbid this is morbid oh my god we're in a silly goofy mood today we are it's monday it's monday it's It's Monday.
Wait, what day is it though?
It's Monday. Monday.
Monday. Yeah, and usually Mondays we're feeling a little like because it's the start of the week, you know.
That always sucks for everybody.
Yeah. But today I'm feeling goofy.
You are. You are. You are.
Don't make me laugh because I'm sick.
and i will start like i will start like mucusing everywhere i won't do that i'll be very serious good this is a wild case though that i'm gonna tell you today oh it's what else is new it's wild it's got twisties it's got tourneys it's got um not sarah tourneys but we love sarah tourney they love sarah tourney you should listen to her podcast you should listen to her voices for justice justice and also disappeared is her new podcast you should go listen to it disappeared is a really good yeah i mean they're both fantastic shout out to sarah tourney we love her sarah sarah um but there is some twisties
and tourneys in this one it's uh like a lifetime it's a whirlwind it is like this this is a movie like this entire thing is a it's from the 40s oh baby yeah we're so swanky Exactly where you know, me, I do.
I know my whole life.
I'm like anything past 1950.
I don't know her. So her 1970 and above and above.
Yeah, which is good.
But actually we cover all all things.
I have a couple old ones coming up on the roster.
You know, it's spooky season.
It feels like old timey makes sense.
Correct. But yeah, this is from the 40s.
It's very 40s. It's got some really inept detectives in it.
Yeah, that's very 40s.
Which is always fun and very 40s of us.
And it's in New York.
Oh, oh, my God. I'm working on a New York one right now, too.
Look at that. East Coast. What's up?
What's up? So, again, this is a story about lies, some stalking, an attempted murder.
Oh. And there's tons of twists.
Oh, but attempted? So does nobody die?
Someone dies. guys oh you said that interestingly i did you said that with a little twist in your eye too all right i'll let you just go girl i was literally hoping you would do that i'm gonna let you go go go go go go go the girls that get it get it yeah i was gonna say i don't even know if i should i should explain that one it's all you need to know is vpr ick ick uh ick ick okay Okay.
I just lost my tab.
Okay. So we're going to talk first of all about the person that's kind of, there's two people at the center of this story.
Okay. There's a woman named Olga and a woman named Pearl.
I love the name Pearl.
And they were both put into situations that are unthinkable, to be quite honest. So let's start by talking about Pearl because we're going to kind of follow her story first and then we're going to talk about how Olga plays into this okay so in the fall of 1946 19 year old recent high school graduate Pearl Lusk left her father's home in Quakertown Pennsylvania for New York City the big apple where she was just determined she was going to start this whole new life she was going to be a big city gal she was ready for it go girl and And of course, and think about like 1940s New York.
Oh, fuck yeah. That must have been a wild scene.
Everyone was looking all fabulous.
That's the thing. No matter what, even though like old timey stuff, you're like, yeah, like the shit that was going down in the day, we don't want to be around for it.
It was not like a time to be alive.
But this fashion, a time to be alive.
Like why don't we dress like that?
Yeah, like men wearing three -piece suits.
You know, women wearing like these really cool, cool just like hats and that was the first thing i thought was hats i love a layering moment i feel like it was a lot of cool layers there was and the jackets that women used to wear i immediately thought of the jacket the jacket of it all yeah it always hairstyles yeah it gives me i mean i reference this all the time but it gives me i think of peeky blinders and how everyone looks fucking amazing in peeky blinders and like i want to look like that i want to go to that i want to go to there uh but yeah so 1946 she's off to new york city to start
a new life and of course she didn't really have a ton to her name at this point, she's 19 years old she just graduated high school so she spent the first month or so living with her mother and stepfather in their apartment in Brooklyn she was just kind of staying there to get herself on her feet find a job, and it wasn't long until she did find a job as a sales girl at the Oppenheim Collins department store in Manhattan sounds cool and luckily this was what gave her the ability to get her own furnished room in a building on the city's Upper West Side.
Okay. So now she has a job.
She's got some income.
She's got a cool place to live.
She's feeling like the move was worth it.
Like she's she's on her way.
She's like let's go big city.
She's like life is just beginning.
Let's go. But now with some cash money flowing in she's also able to decorate her apartment to her liking.
Make it like her personality.
But she's also able to like kind of upgrade her own look.
Yeah. She ended up trading in.
She had like a very girlish aesthetic.
like young girlish aesthetic at first she was a high school student after all makes sense but now she's you know 19 she's moving into her 20s she's like i want to be like a little more mature in my style she got a new hairdo oh of course ready to go a woman that changes her hair is about to change her life there you go i chopped my hair recently i hope you don't change your life too much hopefully it's like in a like a just addition to my life yeah new book yeah there you go new book new hair new hair, new book, let's go.
Now, also, Pearl's job at the department store gave her a lot of social opportunities, because now she's around people her age, she's meeting all these people, and soon she's taking lunches with friends and coworkers, and she's having dinner dates at the cafeteria with men she met working at the store.
It's like sex in the city.
I was just going to say, she is sex in the city -ing it.
Let's go. I wonder who she is.
She's thriving. I wonder which It sounds like she is, and I'm so worried for her because I hate when everything starts off so happy.
She's not going to keep that way.
She was doing the damn thing.
She was on a path that everyone hopes to be on when they move to the big city, to be honest. You had somewhere to stay to get on your feet.
You got on your feet.
Things are going well.
You're meeting new people.
You're going on dates.
Everything's great.
On Thanksgiving Day that year, she was approached by a stranger while riding the subway on the way to visit her mother for Thanksgiving Day.
we're out rare she was a little busy she's got stuff her social calendar is full it's fucking thanksgiving she's busy she's got shit to do she's on her way to see her mom so she was not really in the space to like appreciate that somebody was like you know hitting on her essentially okay um and like good for her she was like i'm just not i don't have well you don't have to appreciate every man or woman that hits on you no of course you don't and that's the thing she and she also just was like you know what because here's the thing she She was a little interested.
She said the man who introduced himself as Alan LaRue was polite, he was charming, and she said he was among the most handsome men she had ever seen.
So it wasn't that she wasn't interested.
She just was like, you know what?
I got a lot going on.
I don't have the bandwidth to, like, accept this right now.
Okay. So she just kind of was like, you know, I got a lot of stuff going anyways.
I'm going on a lot of dates.
I'm hanging out with a lot of people.
I got a life. I'm working.
And she was like, you know what?
I'm not really desperate.
to I'm not gonna accept a date from a stranger when I don't have to oh that was her feeling about the whole thing good for her she was like I already got some lined up but like whatever yeah so she didn't even she wouldn't give her address and she wouldn't give her name when she was asked she was just like oh yeah so Pearl was just let's play a long game yeah she said whatever but she was like oh you were good to look at so thank you for that yeah thanks for the uh but you know so she leaves she has a great time at Thanksgiving you know I I imagine and then uh -oh Oh, because just one month later, Pearl's
entire confidence and happiness was shaken a little bit because after just three happy months working at the department store, she and a ton of other sales girls were laid off when the holiday season ended.
So now she has no job, no income, no social opportunities.
They're kind of dwindling down because she's not around these people anymore.
So she's very much in a more vulnerable state at this point.
And that's when she ran into Alan LaRue again.
She ran into him. How strange in the big city.
She meets him on the subway by happenstance.
And then she meets him a month later on the train back from Brooklyn the day after Christmas.
Huh. Oh, and weird that it was like both holidays.
Yeah, exactly. Now, she's feeling down at this point.
She's had to run a bad luck.
Like, this isn't a good time.
Like I said, she's feeling vulnerable.
She's feeling like she's desperate to get some income.
come and so she you know at this point she's like my social calendar is not full anymore i'm not working you're still hot you're still good looking so she's like you know what sure she agrees to join him for a drink at a bar in time square because he approached her again yeah he approached her again and she was like i'll go out with you in time square it's busy yeah lots of people now during their mini date he was very sympathetic to what she was saying he listened to everything and and he was like, oh, my God, that sucks.
Like, I know how that feels, and later she told the assistant district attorney he seemed interested in me like any other man at first, but the more I talked, the more I felt like he had some different kind of interest in me.
Huh. So it turned out that Pearl, her intuition was right on.
Listen to your gut, baby.
Alan did think she was beautiful.
He did like her, find her charming, but he also had something else in mind for her because after they talked some more, he said you know what it's kind of like you know it's serendipitous that we would run into each other now again because he said you're have you're down on your luck you're looking for income and he's like as it turns out i have a job that needs to be done and it's yours if you want it and she was like wow this is i'd say very fortuitous you don't even know my fucking credentials buddy that's right but you know they've talked on this date so he's like you seem you seem chill i'm
gonna to take a chance on you.
Well. Hey, weirdos.
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Hey, weirdos. You know, Ash and I have covered some seriously dark tales about romance gone really wrong.
Oh yeah, there are so many cases where too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.
Well, get ready for a love story that's gonna blow your minds because this one is happening right now, and get this, it's hosted by our friends Hannah and Saruti from Red Handed.
Meet Travis. He falls head over heels for Lily Rose.
She's gorgeous, she's understanding, and she's literally perfect.
And she's not human.
That's right, Lily Rose is an AI companion, a computer program designed to be Travis's dream woman.
And at first, it seems like a perfect relationship.
But when Lily Rose's behavior starts getting strange, this love story takes a dark and twisted turn that no one saw coming.
Follow Flesh and Code on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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So he explained to her, he said, I'm a private detective and I work for an insurance company.
And this insurance company specializes in insuring jewelry.
Which is all, it seems pretty valid of something to, you know, this isn't too far -fetched at this point.
And he said he, his job was the guy, basically they relied on him to investigate and find any stolen jewelry.
And he's like, so when somebody steals jewelry, I have to do the whole investigation.
I have to find a way to get it back so the insurance company doesn't lose out.
That checks. So according to Alan, he said that there's this young woman named Olga.
she worked as a secretary for the croydon hat company and she had stolen some jewelry from a client of their insurance company and he had reason to believe that olga still had the jewelry and was holding it like carrying it on her person like how it was wearing the jewelry now here's the rub though olga had figured out who alan was and that he was following her so she would immediately recognize him if she saw him again and she would just take off with the loop so he said the other issue here is i can't go right to the police with this because i haven't technically proven her guilt this is what i'm
supposed to do is investigate this stuff and he's like so i can't go to the police yet with this i have to like prove the guilt first so this is why he needed a random very unassuming person like pearl who could go close enough to olga to obtain irrefutable evidence of her sticky finger guilt now as a lover of detective stories and dime dime store novels at the time pearl thought this sounded great she's like in her hair she gets to be she's like i get to be part of like an investigation like a detective thing a private eye like this is exciting like this is what i moved to new york city for right
like this kind of fun stuff and it's not something that where it's like they're investigating like this heavy yeah it's like just a jewelry thief it literally sounds like a detective story or dime store or not like it literally does also detective larue lol there you go so so she not to mention this was also going to help with her loss of income at this point because he was like I'll pay you like absolutely like you'll be on the payroll okay so she was like hell yeah I will absolutely help with this so he was like this is great you're gonna be great she's not gonna suspect a thing you know she's
like you're he's like you're a woman she's not gonna be scared of a woman or like feel like you're following her for some nefarious reason sure so the next morning pearl met alan outside a building on west 39th street and it was there that he explained okay this is the first phase of the plan he said you're going to go into the offices of the croydon hat company where olga works as the as like one of the secretaries and what she was going to do was she was going to go up to the secretary and hope hopefully it was pearl or olga or excuse me olga you thank you yeah and asked to speak with another
secretary who goes by the name of Sadie White.
OK. And he said there actually isn't anyone working there named Sadie White.
But you're going to go up there and you're going to get a good look at Olga because you're going to talk to her.
You're going to be right there in front of her face.
And he said, while you're talking to the receptionist, you'll get that chance because that's going to be Olga.
Right. So he said, I need you to know her when you see her.
You need to be very clear of what she looks like.
So he gave Pearl a photo of Olga and he said, make sure you find her, that secretary.
Secretary and he's like go study her make sure you're able to recognize her and he was adamant that she recognized her even in a crowd like in a subway crowd like I want you to be able to point her out because I don't want you to be obvious about you trying to see if she has the jewelry so Pearl did it she she went in she talked to Olga and she returned back to Alan and she said oh I've memorized her like I memorized her face I know her clothing I could pick her out and Alan told Pearl to take the rest of the morning off and then to meet him at his apartment on East 17th Street later that afternoon.
And they would go into phase two of the plan.
Okay. And he's like, take this time, keep looking at that photo, get to know her.
This is so bizarre.
I have no idea where we're headed.
That's the thing. Like you cannot have any idea where this is headed.
You really can't. No. Now Pearl just kind of spent the time, like she looked at the photo.
She knew who it was.
Like she was like, I was standing right in front of her.
So she went to see a movie and she talked on the phone with some friends before meeting Alan at his apartment at around 3 .30pm.
When she went in the apartment, he was holding what he said was an x -ray camera.
And this was the key to catching Olga and retrieving those jewels.
According to Pearl, the camera looked like just an ordinary shoebox wrapped in brown paper like you would carry out of a department store.
But she said on one end there was a hole in what looked like a camera aperture.
And on the other other end there was a short piece of wire loop that hung out of the bottom of the box okay so you would like pull that it would take the photo remember we're in the 40s of course not like um and so this what didn't seem like totally out of the ordinary here and he explained to her all you do is point this at her and pull the wire and he said the x -ray photo would capture if she was wearing the jewelry hidden somewhere okay and he was very serious when saying he said this is what this is what we need in order to go to the police and say look she has the the jewelry sure and he
He was very serious saying, but don't snap the picture where she can see you do it.
Take it when she gets off the train in Brooklyn.
That's where she lives.
You want to be right behind her when you follow her out of the train so you can take it at close range.
You want to be only two or three feet away from her when you snap the photo.
Okay. And she was like, all right.
Now Pearl left Alan's apartment.
She went back to the Croydon Hat Company building and she waited for Olga to come out.
She finally saw Olga come out of the building after work and begin her commute home.
so Olga came out a little after 5 and she made her way towards the Times Square station and caught a train to Brooklyn Pearl followed her onto the train not too close but she did sit across from Olga on the train okay and again she looks like she's just holding a package right it's like wrapped in brown paper Pearl then aimed the camera at Olga and pulled the wire and she was like I think I got a good photo like that's it so she got off the train she went to the bar in Times Square where she met Alan again and she was like Like, everything went awesome.
Like, Alan was like, shit, like, how close were you to her?
Like, you know, had she noticed you were following her?
Like, did anything go wrong?
Did she seem suspicious?
And Pearl explained that Olga had only been a few feet away from her and she took the picture.
She didn't seem to notice her.
Everything seemed like it went great.
So Alan was like, that's amazing.
I'm going to get the picture developed tonight and I'll meet you tomorrow morning and I'll let you know how it turned out.
Yeah. Now, when they met the following day, he was like, bad news.
The picture wasn't good.
why did i suspect that so he told pearl that he believed it was the camera to blame he was like it's not you you did great like good job but he was like you know what i i'm gonna get us a better one like that was kind of like not not great anyways like i'm gonna make sure we get a better one like give me a few days and i'll be able to get a better one okay so she's like all right so a few days later on december 31st uh 1946 new year's eve new year's eve they love holidays they You really do.
You're right. Pearl called Alan at his apartment and he said he was able to get a new X -ray camera.
And he said, meet me at the laundromat near Union Square, which she did a little after 8 a .m. Now, Pearl said when he handed this camera to her, it was different.
It was bigger. It was heavier.
And it wasn't wrapped in brown paper now.
It was wrapped in Christmas paper.
Okay. To make it look like a Christmas present.
Yeah. Inconspicuous.
Yeah. And Alan explained Pearl was to take the camera.
go to the train station in brooklyn follow olga from there once they were on the train get close to olga not too close take that picture just like you did before same old things keep the same chill way you did it and he but he added remember to aim it low at her waist okay and he she was like why and he was like i think that's where she's probably carrying the jewels pinned inside her dress at her waist that's what we've gotten information that that's what she does why would How would anyone keep Jules pinned to their waist?
I'm not real sure. But Pearl did exactly what Alan told her to do.
She caught the seat opposite Olga on the train and they began deboarding the train.
She decided to wait until they were getting off the train because he had told her to do that initially and she didn't do it the first time.
Oh, okay. So they began getting off the train and Pearl was standing a few feet behind Olga.
She aimed the camera at Olga's lower body, pulled the wire to take the picture, and she she said the camera jerked in her hands and made a loud explosion happen oh this caused immediate confusion and panic and chaos everywhere yeah and when pearl looked up because she was just stunned at like what the fuck just happened like she's like did this camera just blow up what the hell happened pearl looked up olga was laying on her back on the platform holding her leg and her leg looked as though it was nearly blown off oh my god just shattered completely ruined seconds later a security guard rushed
over to pearl because pearl was splattered in olga's blood and holding that box uh -huh and the security guard was like what the fuck yeah and they were you and and i guess pearl answered i just took a woman's picture and somebody shot her and pearl told the security guard before she was grabbed by police she was like i i just took her picture she was like i i don't who shot her like she had no idea like what happened what the fuck so police officers took her they ripped open the parcel that she was holding that's not a camera and inside was a sawed -off shotgun 12 gauge shotgun mounted between two
cream cheese boxes what yes and if you look it up it is the most wild picture when you see what it actually looked like let me see like oh my god i'll just look up uh pearl lusk guys like and we'll we'll post some of these photos so you can see but the actual photo of the sawed off 12 gauge shotgun gun what the fuck i'm at a loss no like truly at a loss i'm at a true loss for like that that must have been a heavy package so this motherfucker like just made like and the cream cheese boxes are wooden by the way they're not like philadelphia cream cheese immediately what i pictured you are not alone
i am here with you because i also so thought of the Philadelphia cream cheese cardboard box I was like wow that why would they be between that but that must have been really heavy and she said that it was heavier it was much heavier and much bigger so I wonder what he had done in that first box yeah I know like because it was smaller she said it was like a shoe box I'm like did you just put a handgun in there and it just didn't work or was he just trying to like was there nothing in there like really yeah and he was just trying to see if like she followed protocol that's what i wondered initially
was is he testing her to see if there was actually but then i'm like i don't know but it makes sense though like that he was testing her because when she came back to meet him he was like how to go did she suspect you did you get close to her what did you do like he wanted to see like did you do it right can i trust you to actually do it this time like that kind of thing i could could see that being the case we will never know my god pearl looked down at olga and then looked at the gun in her hands at this point and she was like holy shit i'm the one who shot her like she had no idea oh and as
she was being pulled away by the police officer she looked down at olga and was starting to cry her eyes out and she said i'm awfully sorry i shot you there was a a new job you see and i thought i was taking your picture with an x -ray camera like she started to just try to explain it to this woman whose leg is blown off i know like bad timing pearl but i get it like i get you're trying to be like i did not mean to shoot you oh my god i guess olga looked at pearl and then looked away and said this time he got me he can have me now if he wants me i'm a cripple what happened to the police i called
them but he was too smart for them oh no so she knew like exactly what had happened here what the what the fuck is happening right now i'm about to tell you so pearl was immediately taken into custody where she explained her side of the story and said she was an avid reader of detective and confession stories quote -unquote right um and that was one of her the reasons that she was helping this man alan larue and she and so when When detectives showed Pearl a photo of Olga and her husband, Alphonse Al Rocco, taken several months earlier in a New York City nightclub, she said, that man's Alan LaRue.
Oh, my God. So this was Olga's ex -husband?
Yes. What? And she said, that's the man who hired me to shoot Olga.
What? And she said, he even has the same clothes on.
Oh, my God. Like, that is him.
That's creepy. So detectives questioned Pearl and a separate set of investigators were at the hospital taking a statement from Olga and she explained that the man Pearl thought to be Alan LaRue was in all likelihood her ex -husband Al Rocco.
And she said they had been married in May 1945 and divorced a year later.
Oh wow, so that was a bad marriage.
So let's talk about them.
so olga trapani uh met al rocco in the spring of 1944 and after one year of dating they married in may 1945 okay now despite their daughter having dated him for a year before getting married olga's parents told reporters that they really didn't know al like even though they like were around him they met him they spent time with him they were like he was a mystery like we still don't really know him oh that must have creeped them out yeah and by the winter of 1947 the most they knew about him was that he was of italian ancestry and of average height and weight that's what they could say about him
they didn't even know like what he did for work they didn't know anything about him a reporter for the new york times wrote that they knew nothing of his work sometimes he disappeared for months occasionally he returned with lots of money and just as often with none what yeah okay he's a sketchy fucking character yeah and others who knew rocco seemed Seemed to know just as little about him.
Like his landlord, he was like, he was a quiet guy.
Like, that's all I know.
Like, I don't know.
I guess he was Italian is all I could say.
Like, other than that, I don't know.
And although they didn't know a lot of details about him, Olga's family did not like him.
Well, yeah, I'm sure that probably like not knowing anything about the guy that your daughter is going to marry, you're not going to like that.
Yeah, they all got a vibe that he was a bad person.
All of them were like, something's off here.
And after their divorce, a few months before Olga was shot, they saw him get even worse.
They saw a very bad side of him.
So according to Olga's mother, once the marriage was annulled in early November 1946, so the only months before, Al became very verbally abusive.
And she said, quote, had constantly annoyed her daughter, threatening to kill her ever since their separation.
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so it didn't take long for long for detectives to learn not only had the couple had an abusive relationship and a very very aggressive and hostile separation but this was not the first time that al had tried to kill olga what on one occasion this is where the detectives and police in this case failed fucking miserably like shame shame on this one shame well that's that makes sense because she said like he finally got me he finally got me and he was like too smart for the police and it's true yeah he got away with so much when you hear all the shit he did that everyone just ignored oh the 40s on one
occasion in mid -october after the couple had separated already ready like they were separated not divorced al confronted olga at the train station in times square he took out a switchblade knife forced her into his car and drove her to a motel in poughkeepsie once they were there he forced olga to undress hid her clothes threatened to kill her and said if you don't come back to me i'm gonna murder you um what so she spent two days in that motel room being terrorized by him while he was trying to force her at knife point to come back to him somehow she managed to convince al to bring her back to
new york and once there she fled she ran away from him back to her parents home in brooklyn and a few weeks later on november 1st just before the couple's marriage was annulled al then shot at olga through an open window in her mother's kitchen jesus christ two of the bullets struck her in the right thigh and left her with a 45 caliber slug in her thigh and a permanent limp oh my god now you would think after those two incidences of um attempted murder assault and attempted murder yeah just those few things maybe you should be arrested or talked to perhaps scolded they were both reported to the police
both those incidents and olga made thorough statements but from the looks of things nothing was done to follow up or arrest rocco what yes he just terrorized her with no consequences and like the way that he terrorized her he literally kidnapped her and held her hostage and then shot her in the leg and they're like yeah and actually a few weeks later olga went back to work and she got a threatening call from al immediately she told detectives he said he was watching me he knew everything he knew when i went to work and that he did not aim the he did not aim right the first time but that when he
would aim again he would kill me so he literally was like i didn't aim for your leg i just aimed wrong i meant to kill you oh my god so olga reported it to the police who told her don't worry don't worry don't worry about it i have a permanent limp and a slug in my leg yeah fuck right off with that now in this case it's It's unclear whether they followed up on anything, but I couldn't find anything to say that they did or didn't.
Sounds like they did not.
In the days that followed that threatening phone call, Olga received daily threatening calls from Al Rocco and regularly saw him in the crowd at the train station and on city streets following her.
Oh, my God. And each time, every day, she reported the incident to detectives at the 66th Precinct.
And they didn't do shit all about it?
nothing one day just after christmas she was going this is even this is the saddest one i think she was entering the time square station and she saw al following her very closely behind her terrified so she panicked and she paid for her train fare and then she went up to the subway guard on the stairway leading to the platform and she said i'm being followed by my ex -husband he's very dangerous he's threatening me i'm very scared can i just stand with you until he's gone and the guard said no you can't what he said she could not stay there because of the people that were going down the steps at that time
so he was like tough what a fucking ass lady like like she's and can you imagine the panic in her voice when she's saying this piece of shit subway guard can you stand with me no you can't stand with me oh my god good luck out there I guess poor Olga now the last time that Olga had heard from Al was three days before the shooting on the train so three days before he shot her when he came to her family's home to confront her and the family members were like what the fuck and they heard him shout I'll kill you and kill myself Jesus and Olga reported the incident to the police like she had all the fucking
others of them and on the evening of December 30th detectives did come to her house to finally take a statement and Olga told the detectives that after everything she'd been through with Al over the past few months she was afraid she was like he's gonna kill me like it's very clear he's trying to kill me she said they told me that I should not be frightened and that they were going to protect me and that they would guard me when I went to work so it's like okay he's already shot her and she shouldn't be frightened well and it's like okay like cool they're saying they're going to to protect you
and like escort you to work and shit like clearly they didn't and she gave the statement from her hospital bed after being shot um when she left for work the next morning on the 31st she said there was no detectives anywhere and the only escort she had to the train station was her sister so bravo detectives bravo these people are fucked and you know they're not making any like written reports of this because at this point this guy would have had a stack like yeah Yeah.
Three inches thick.
Yeah. The amount that they did is.
Zilch. Zero. Goose egg.
Zero. Now, when Olga and her sister got to the platform at the station in Brooklyn, she said she noticed the woman carrying what appeared to be a medium -sized Christmas present.
Because she probably, I wonder if she saw her before.
She might have. And she said she was carrying a box, a rather large box, and it was wrapped.
And it had something that protruded at one end of the box.
and i'm assuming that is the handle of the sawed -off shotgun which i'm still a little confused by yeah uh but did pearl like pull a string or did she pulled a wire of some kind that that trigger that pulled the trigger okay but i'm wondering how the the part of like because it was a sawed -off shotgun shorter but i'm like that handle like not the barrel but the handle of the shotgun that's like on the other side was that wrapped too because you can't it's hard to to tell in the picture it looks like it might have been right it's hard because it's all unwrapped and like dissembled you know yeah
um now despite the bizarre details of what pearl was saying happened that day like you know that does sound insane like that sounds wild detectives said they were inclined to accept as truth a story too fantastic to be fiction which like i guess like someone making that up is pretty wild and olga's statement like on the scene i'm sure it really helps yeah now after taking statements from olga pearl and olga's family members investigators said that it was very clear that once his wife was not going to come back to him al rocco had concocted an elaborate scheme to kill her because if he couldn't
have her no one else was going to have her either now while olga is laying in roosevelt hospital in critical condition with a literal quote mangled left thigh detective started finally searching for al rocco now on january 1st the day after the shooting investigators learned that quote an unidentified man had called twice at pearl's rooming house asking to speak with her what so they were hoping they could intercept him because they were assuming he would call for another time when he couldn't get a hold of her so they brought pearl back to the rooming house and had her sit there with them a little
after 5 p .m. They waited for several hours, but he didn't call back.
Damn it. So detectives continued their interview with Perlusk and other investigators began looking for Al Rocco through his background basically.
They learned a lot about him, but they learned that the 28 -year -old, by the way He's 28 years old?
Yeah, he had served a year in the Bronx County Jail a few years earlier for auto theft, and he had a bunch of arrests for disorderly conduct, car car theft, all kinds of stuff like that.
Things they should have known when he was doing this to Olga.
Exactly. But the thing is, when they were looking at his criminal record, they were like, none of it, detectives were calling him a diabolical genius.
And they were like, when you look at his record, you're like, nothing really lends itself to that.
He's just a car thief.
Yeah. You know, like that's it.
And like disorderly conduct, you know.
And in fact, an evaluation conducted at Bellevue Hospital in 1938 of Rocco labeled him as a man of average intelligence.
Okay. you know he's not normal not below not above but they had opened up to tips from the public at this point and the first tip came in around 11 a .m on the morning of january 1st um that's when a brooklyn resident saw a man on brighton beach who disrobed completely and just entered the water okay according to the witness he said they said the man quote shed a gray tweed overcoat a brown suit a blue tie and a white shirt then wearing gloves underwear shoes and socks he plunged into the icy surf headed out to sea and disappeared i was wearing gloves oh like oh is he the loch ness monster like
what's going on here he just headed out to sea like just what do you mean police searched the water for hours and they couldn't find anybody in there and they showed the clothing that they did find they showed it to olga for identification and she said no like that's not his so it was just a random unrelated incident and this just goes away and i'm like where's that man that just went out to see and they don't know where like are we all just forgetting that that happened or like did that even happen or did the guy yeah like what that's such a strange story to tell very strange but and and i mean it
did happen because there was clothing found yeah they found the guy's clothing like the same clothing that this man had described weird now on january 3rd olga's condition took a turn for the worst oh no she had actually had to have her leg amputated and it left her in what doctors said was a fight for her life oh no um that same morning pearl lusk appeared in general sessions court which was a court mostly for misdemeanors at the time um she was sobbing like beside herself she's like how the fuck did i find myself in this situation yeah and she was explaining to them i was just a pawn in al rocco's
plan and she's like I genuinely believed his story about being a private investigator in pursuit of a jewel thief yeah I literally did and the assistant district attorney Jacob Grumet noted that investigators did believe Pearl was telling the truth that none of them believed she was lying but they said they wanted her held as a material witness because when they captured Rocco hopefully who he referred to as an arch fiend an arch fiend yeah they wanted her to be there as a material witness so the judge agreed okay it's like yeah and set pearls bear bail at ten thousand dollars and then remanded
her into the custody of the florence crittenden crittenden home which was a home for unwed mothers interesting but i think that's just where they were like because they were like we gotta keep track of you because i could see why they want would want to keep her because she would want to get as far away from this shit as possible and you want to hear exactly what this this guy told you.
Right. Tell me more.
Tell me more. Yeah.
Did you get very far?
Like, what happened here?
And so detectives finally figured out what their job title was at this point.
And they started working to find Al Rocco.
So... Imagine that.
Good job. Fantastic.
Because now that, you know, he actually almost killed Olga, now's the time to do their job, I think.
Yeah, once somebody is almost dead.
Yeah. They questioned several people and they all said, Said like acquaintances, people they thought might have seen him.
And they all said they had not seen or heard from Al Rocco in weeks.
I bet. Now, the big break came on January 6th when a neighbor, and this story is a little hard to follow.
Okay. So I'll do my best. Al is a little hard to follow, I guess.
Truly. So a neighbor of Al Rocco's first cousin.
So his cousin's neighbor.
Yes. reported his car had been stolen by a man who introduced himself as alan lamonte okay according to the neighbor dominic rizzo uh the man introduced himself as a friend of mrs rizzo's brother james capazoli i think it is capazoli so he's saying he knows this guy dominic's wife's brother Got it.
And her sister's cousin's best friend's brother twice removed.
Exactly. Now, Alan Lamonte explained he had recently come into possession of a large number of tools with instructions to give them to James Capazoli.
OK. Both the tools were in Cairo, which is a small town in the Catskills.
I know I thought Egypt.
I was like, he's going all the way to Egypt now?
I also thought that.
Right? Your face, I was like, you thought the same thing.
i sure did i was like this motherfucker is borrowing your car to go to egypt this is just a small town in the catskills so and he said his car had broken down so he had no way of getting there so i need your help so mrs rizzo dominic's wife called her brother james who said quote he'd be delighted to have the tools although he did not remember lamont he was like sounds awesome i don't know this guy but like i'll take the tools oh my god and despite her Her brother having no memory of the man claiming to be Alan Lamonté.
The Rizos, Dominic and his wife, invited him to dinner.
And then the next morning they drove him out to Cairo.
So they all got there a little after 1230 p .m. And they stopped for lunch at a local diner.
And Alan Lamonté finished first. So he told the couple, the tools were just a few blocks away.
And he's like, why don't you finish your coffee and I'll just take the car to go get the tools.
Come on. And they were like, absolutely.
Absolutely, Alan Lamonti.
Go right ahead. Imagine being that.
Yeah, just take my vehicle.
Imagine being that pure.
Take my whole ass vehicle.
Yes, go right ahead.
When two hours passed and there was still no sign of Alan Lamonti.
They waited two fucking hours?
Dominic Rizzo called the state police and reported the car stolen.
I can't believe it took them two hours.
And this is when they figured out that the driver was not Alan Lamonti.
It was, in fact, Al Rocco.
Whoa. And it was because Mrs. Rizzo identified him from his mugshot.
now wow a short time later state police picked up rocco's trail as he passed through pratsville and they began to chase him leading in the direction of a town called oneonta yes correct i did it right now more than 50 state troopers and two new york city detectives were pursuing rocco that evening and eventually they ran him into the woods near gilboa okay um it was there that he abandoned rizzo's car along the side of the road and they also found out that earlier that evening he had actually forced his way into a home a home of mr and mrs leroy lewis and he held the couple at gunpoint and demanded
they feed him and they told him and apparently he told them he planned to quote remain there indefinitely oh sure which is not something you want to hear from someone holding you at gunpoint you want to be like no i'd like you to leave as quickly as possible yeah like leave yesterday thank you and he told the couple i've got to stay i was framed i'd be like you've got to go now despite saying he was going to stay there indefinitely and that he had to stay after just a few hours he just changed his mind and fled into the woods and they were like godspeed they were like i'm gonna contact someone
i'm gonna call someone so state troopers reached their farmhouse this couple about a half hour after he had left and the couple said he went that away he went to that away uh following his trail into the woods they did eventually find al racco he was sleeping he was hiding in a sleeping bag near a large tree pretty near the farmhouse and they ordered him to surrender okay when he immediately refused immediately fought back so he refuses to surrender and a trooper fires a warning shot and then demanded him come out and they shouted come on out you skunk that's what they yelled and instead of being
the skunk that he was and coming out he drew his gun and he fired four four times in the direction of the troopers.
This ballsy motherfucker.
You know that's not going to go over well.
So the troopers return fire in what the New York Times described as a heavy barrage.
So I don't think Al's coming out of this one.
Spoiler alert. He's going to say, bye -bye, Al.
So the shooting lasted nearly two minutes, and when it finally came to an end, Al Rocco was dead.
One bullet had passed through his head, another through his chest. You're playing with fire, Al.
Yeah, I'm playing stupid games.
So Rocco hadn't even made it completely out of his sleeping bag.
Wow. And when detectives searched his body, they found $62 .93 on him in cash and change.
That's a good amount of money for breakfast. And they found two photographs, one of his ex -wife, Olga, and the other of a girl that state police inspector Charles LaForge refused to identify because, quote, he did not wish to hurt this girl.
What? I have so many questions.
Here are my questions.
One, who didn't wish to hurt this girl?
The state trooper didn't want to hurt her by releasing her identity?
Or two, you are somehow implying or inferring that Al didn't want to hurt this girl?
How the fuck do you know that?
He tried to kill his ex -wife on 65 different occasions.
The way I take that is that the state trooper didn't want to hurt her, like didn't want to upset her.
Yeah. But who the fuck is that?
Like I need what two photographs on him and you're not gonna tell me who that other photograph also she should probably know do you think it was pearl i hope she knows i don't think so he probably wouldn't have a photo of her i mean he's a stalker he might but like cameras were like oh yeah i know not easy what so like who's this other girl and what was the plan there that's freaky deaky i I don't know.
But we'll never know.
But later that day, detectives informed Olga of Al Rocco's death in the Catskills.
And she said, R .I .D.
She began to laugh.
Heartily laugh. Good for Olga.
Honestly, after everything she'd fucking been through.
Oh, yeah, she deserved to laugh.
She did. And then she began to sob.
And she said, at last, I'll be able to get a good night's rest. Yeah.
Which I don't blame her.
and when Olga's family heard the news they were also pretty pleased with the outcome Olga's brother Salvatore said I heard the wonderful news just as I was leaving the hospital I never felt better than I do now because my family and I as well as Olga have been worried sick about her safety as long as he was walking around yeah and it's true he terrorized that family yeah terrorized that family and the police did fucking nothing because that's the thing he also shot into their home he could have hurt anyone he could have killed anybody in that you You don't know if there's kids in that home or what.
Like you could have killed anybody.
Truly. He was so far beyond.
And then to involve this poor young girl to kill someone, to try to kill someone.
He's sick. Like he's a sick fuck.
Bye, Al. Rest in distress.
Now, days after the shooting, Al's body was claimed from the Bundy Funeral Home in upstate New York by his uncle, Philip Rocco, who returned the body to Brooklyn.
And after his death, Judge James Wallace ordered that Pearl be released from custody after a grand jury declined to charge her in relation to the shooting.
As she left the criminal courts building, Pearl told reporters, I want to forget it all.
I don't blame her. Now, according to Pearl's mother, Stella, they were going to retrieve some of Pearl's belongings from her room at the boarding house, and then she was going to leave the city.
She was like, I'm taking her home.
now after several weeks of recovery following having her leg amputated on her way home from work Olga was discharged from Roosevelt Hospital and in February she filed a claim against the neat city of New York demanding $200 ,000 it alleged that New York police failed to protect her quote at a time when the police knew she was in imminent danger of death at the hands of her criminal husband yep in a statement to the press her lawyer Samuel Douglas said the city having Having accepted her as a passenger on its transit facilities, owed her a duty to transport her safely to her destination and to protect
her from any danger that was known by it to exist with respect to her.
The city failed and refused to provide her with such protection and required her to use the city subway system at a time when she was likely to be killed by her husband.
The city owes her a moral obligation to compensate her for the serious injury resulting directly from its neglect to provide her with protection while she was on its subway system.
Boom. Now, the city refused to pay the claim.
Because they're assholes.
And Olga filed a suit against them, eventually taking the case to the state Supreme Court.
Finally, in April 1953, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city.
I did not see that one coming.
I didn't think you would.
They said, it is most unfortunate that some redress cannot be made, but ultimately they freed the city of any liability to the shooting.
That's a bunch of bullshit.
bullshit the court said they were sympathetic to what had happened no you're not uh the justices defended their decision though saying there's no basis for holding that the city should have anticipated that she would be shot other than the fact that um he previously tried to shoot her in that city he kidnapped her and tortured her in that city uh there's also the fact that she literally walked up to one of your subway guards and asked for protection and they said no thank you ma 'am good luck.
Correct. So there's that like blatant city should have protected her, didn't.
That subway guard literally said, get off.
Nah, there's a whole laundry list of ways that they didn't protect her.
Now, luckily in the years that followed, Pearl and Olga became friends.
I wanted to hear that so bad.
They would get together whenever they could.
Oh. And after leaving the city, Pearl married and eventually had children.
Olga stayed in the city.
She made a nice living for herself designing and selling costume jewelry hell yeah and al rocco is still dead that's that's good so didn't rise i'm glad that pearl he did not rise but pearl and olga came together and olga was like girl it's it's okay like we both met this asshole we both believed what he said holy shit you know like like and olga i'm like what a bad bitch just kept on going and she was like you know what girl i know that like he's a dick he's a manipulative dick and i know he He manipulated you into thinking that you weren't doing what you were doing.
I also kind of love the irony that she became a jewelry maker.
That is kind of fun.
That's fun. That is fun.
Also imagine if your mom was Pearl Lusk and she just whips that one out at the dinner table.
She's like, I shot a lady by accident carrying a Christmas package.
One time I got tricked into becoming an assassin.
You want to hear that one, kids?
You want to hear that story?
I'd be like, yeah, I do.
She's like, you ever heard of two truths and a lie?
Like, hell yeah, I do.
Damn. Damn. It's a wild, wild tale.
That's a doozy. With some twists and turns.
I'm so glad Olga didn't die.
It's horrible that she had to have her leg amputated.
To have that taken away from you is awful.
But could you imagine one, she died, would be tragic in and of itself.
Yeah. And then Pearl has to live with that for the rest of her life?
I'm so glad that didn't happen.
Exactly. Exactly. And Dave had noted when he was looking up stuff about this that he found this photo of when Pearl was initially taken into custody, like right after the incident.
Yeah. There's this like kind of famous photo of her and the detective and they're like smiling at the camera and it looks like a wedding photo.
What? It's like the strangest thing.
Do you have it? I don't have it up right now, but I will post it because it's just like a strange, very strange photo, very strange situation.
situation. What a time to be alive.
Truly. This story, I just cannot.
I cannot fathom it.
No, I never expected any of the things that came from this story.
And it's so sad because Olga's like this beautiful gal.
Yeah. She had her whole life ahead of her and she still did.
But it's like, now she's got to deal with the aftermath of this because of some asshole.
Seriously. That she met for and dated for a year.
And because in New York City, it had literally nothing to help her.
nothing wow absolutely nothing holy shit there's also a really great photo of um olga being brought out of the hospital and she's cheesing for the camera her hair is done her makeup is done she looks like a 40s goddess like it is it's a great one and she's got like flowers on her lap it's just a cool picture there's also one of her later where she's like all dolled up um and she's got like fancy like shoes and stuff on she looks great oh yeah she's she's a bad bitch holy i'm looking at this pearl lusk oh my god why is she cheesing right it's just like she's in fucking shock though i think she
just had no fucking clue wow yeah it's literally like we'll post one of these because it's just i don't even know how to like they're both literally in the back of the car the detective and pearl and they're both just looking at the camera like they just got married like if you told me this is a right after they got married photo i'd be like yes what an adorable couple wow it looks so happy together wow this is i've never heard a story quite like this it's a really wild one that's wild for sure truly wild oh my gosh olga is a fucking queen It's a queen.
She really is. Look at that hair.
She truly is. Wow. She's gorgeous.
She is a queen. Even the guy that's wheeling her out is just like.
Everyone's happy. You know, everyone's just happy to be here.
Unreal. But that is the truly wild story of the attempted murder of Olga Rocco.
It sure was. So we hope that you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you carry anything for anyone.
one, especially if it's a Christmas package, just say no. Never carry anything for anyone.
That has always been my stance.
It remains my stance.
Just don't do it. Especially like when...
Don't... If some guy named Alan LaRue asks you to do it, don't do it.
hey weirdos i'm elena oh my god i was like per quoi i literally you just sat there what i was waiting for i was like is there a queue i didn't know we were doing a bit i just want to be you if you like morbid you can listen early and ad free right now by joining wondery plus in the wondery app or on apple podcasts prime members can listen ad free on amazon music before you go tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery .com survey
