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[The Deadly Cost of Greed: Two Tragic True Crime Accounts]-[For the Love of Money]

MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories · B2 · 2025-01-16

True crime
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📋 Summary

The Destructive Power of Materialism: Two Tales of Greed

This episode of the Mr. Ballin podcast explores the dark reality that "money is the root of all evil," presenting two chilling true crime stories where financial desperation and obsession led to cold-blooded murder.

The Loan Shark: A Facade of Wealth Built on Blood

The first story centers on Alan Ruby, a 19-year-old student who became dangerously addicted to projecting a "lifestyle of wealth and grandeur" on social media. Despite having no income, Alan used his father’s money and stolen credit cards to fund a lavish, "phony lifestyle" that included trips to Paris and expensive fashion. When his father’s newspaper business began to falter and the family faced financial strain, Alan refused to abandon his fake persona.

After being caught stealing from his grandmother and ordered by a judge to enter an addiction program, Alan’s behavior only escalated. He turned to "loan sharks" to maintain his image. On October 9th, 2014, facing a $3,000 debt he could not pay, Alan made a horrific choice: he murdered his entire family, believing he would become the "sole heir to the family's estate" and clear his debts. Following the murders, he attempted to destroy evidence—tossing a DVD and the weapon into a lake—before partying in Dallas. His insincere reaction during police questioning led to a quick confession, resulting in a plea agreement that sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Western Russian Farm Animal: A Betrayal Behind the Pages

The second story details the case of Cori Richens, a Utah woman whose husband, Eric, died under mysterious circumstances in March 2022. Initially, Cori presented herself as a grieving wife and mother, eventually writing a children’s book titled Are You With Me? to help her sons cope with their father's passing. However, the facade began to crumble when an autopsy revealed Eric had died from a "lethal dose of fentanyl"—five times the amount required to kill.

Prosecutors allege that Cori, who had been secretly stealing from Eric and taking out loans in his name, murdered him after learning he was seeking a divorce to protect his assets. Evidence suggests she had even attempted to poison him previously with a fentanyl-laced sandwich on Valentine's Day. While Cori claimed she was sleeping, her digital footprint revealed she had been up during the night "googling things like how to destroy electronic evidence." The suspicion surrounding her grew further after she attempted to profit from her husband's death by promoting her grief book. Cori Richens is currently charged with aggravated murder and remains in custody, awaiting trial for a crime that investigators believe was motivated entirely by the desire to keep her "money faucet" from being turned off.

🎯Key Sentences

1
money is the root of all evil.
2
it's about a student who takes drastic measures to pay off debt.
3
She's in over her head and head over heels.
4
we all need to cut back on our spending because money's tight right now
5
it's unclear if it's going to turn around.
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📝Key Phrases

1
take drastic measures
2
in over one's head
3
head over heels
4
cut back on
5
money is tight
Expand All

📖 Transcript

Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature two stories that prove that money is the root of all evil.
The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.
The first story you'll hear is called Loan Shark, and it's about a student who takes drastic measures to pay off debt.
And the second and final story you'll hear is called Western Russian Farm Animal, and the plot of this story is so absurd, it sounds like badly written fiction.

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