#38 Justine

Heavyweight

Growing up, Justine’s father always told her unbelievable stories about his life: that he was a big winner on Jeopardy; an outlaw who robbed banks armed only with flowers. But now, as an adult, Justine has started to question—are her father’s stories so unbelievable because none of them are true? In the process of fact-checking her dad’s life, something surprising emerges that neither Justine nor Jonathan ever saw coming.

Credits

Heavyweight is hosted and produced by Jonathan Goldstein.

This episode was produced by senior producer Kalila Holt, along with Stevie Lane and Mohini Madgavkar.

Special thanks to Emily Condon, Alex Blumberg, Sharon Mashihi, Connie Walker, and Marie-Claude.

The show was mixed by Bobby Lord. 

Music by Christine Fellows, John K Samson, Blue Dot Sessions, Ben Alleman, Bauble, Chris Zabriskie, Shanghai Restoration Project, and Bobby Lord. Our theme song is by The Weakerthans courtesy of Epitaph Records.

 

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2021-10-21 35 min Transcript

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Transcript

Hello, Mary Cloude. 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.760 But Jackie's not answering the phone, so you're college. 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.920 That's why I was phoning. I know this sounds totally paranoid, 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.840 but do you think has Jackie been avoiding my calls? 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.759 She's avoiding your calls? 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:22.759 Why? 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.959 She has life and children and maybe she wants to 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:26.920 spend a few minutes. 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:28.200 Well, she gives her children. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:29.320 I'm supposed to talk to you. 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:31.240 You don't think this is like some kind of cry 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.559 for help that she's kind of like isolating and everything. Yeah, well, 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:37.040 I just had a couple questions that I was going 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.279 to ask Jackie, but maybe since you guys are such 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:40.720 good friends, maybe you can answer them. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.960 Yeah, it's literally four o three I need to leave, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:44.920 So this is okay. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.120 I was just going through my bar mitzvah rs vps 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.519 and I noticed that Jackie did not attend. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.280 Do you know why did you read your barmst phone 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.280 the same Saturday as a very popular kid and everyone 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.000 went to his yes steadiers Eric Leidenheim. 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:02.840 Where she was? 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:15.959 Well, I guess at least she was at Temple from 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:22.520 Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode. 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:39.760 Justine right after the break, This is me, this is 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:40.360 your daddy. 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.880 Okay, I love you more than anything. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:44.759 Okay, You're the. 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.640 Greatest thing, says Slice Bread. You're the greatest thing since 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:49.400 can beer. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.480 In two thousand and seven, Gary recorded himself onto a 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.960 series of dictaphone cassettes, which he gave to his daughter Justine. 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.800 Ever since Justine was a kid, he's worked as a 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.720 mattress salesman. But he'd always tell Justine's stories about the 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.240 wildlife he once led. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.280 And I kept saying to him, like, you need to 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.760 write a memoir, Like you can't just end your life 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.000 as a mattress salesman. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.080 Gary said there was no way he could write a memoir. 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.160 He'd get too caught up in every little detail, and 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:23.000 titles can be such a hassle. What would he even 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:23.480 name it? 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.480 And he goes, but I'll compromise. What if I'd just 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:29.960 tell my life story into these tapes and you can 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:34.160 have them. 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.360 Gary's life, as he tells it, is one full of heroism, debauchery, 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:39.840 and brushes with fame. 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.320 He got into Georgetown from high school. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.800 My room was the same room that President Bill Clinton 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:48.280 had when he was a freshman. 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.119 But then he got there and realized it was all bullshit, 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:53.200 dropped out. 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.799 Of Georktown after getting straight a's the first semester there, was. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.720 Bored, so he transferred to Antioch. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.440 At Antioch in nineteen sixty nine, Gary fell in with 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:09.040 a revolutionary crowd and began protesting Vietnam in a revolutionary way. 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.080 Robbing banks and giving the money to anti war causes, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:19.240 and got in legal trouble because of that stuff. I 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:21.800 mean seven years in the federal penitentiary. He says. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.480 I'm going to give you the actual story of just 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.200 say it with flowers, banded bank rapper. The only reason 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:29.320 why I called that because the newspapers called. 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.520 Gary says, sure he was a bank robber, but he 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.960 never used a gun. Instead, he'd walk into the bank 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.280 with just a bouquet of flowers and use hypnosis on 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:41.800 the teller to get what he wanted, like. 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.680 Using his powers of persuasion, which supposedly he learned on 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:47.240 an ashram. 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.000 Gary says he broke out of prison, auditioned for the 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.720 game show Jeopardy, got on, won the game, and then 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:55.480 got arrested. On the flight back home. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.960 I went seventeen thousand dollars, so I kicked ass and 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.800 I want to fucking at the La fucking airport and 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:03.280 they fucking drive me off the plane. 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.760 Once he was back in prison, Gary says he won 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.040 a prison bridge tournament with his partner H. R. Haldeman. 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.320 Was HR. Haldeman, who was the chief of staff of 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.720 the Nixon Weisshause, the second most powerful man of his country. 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.840 Labor Day bridge tournament in September of nineteen seventy six 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.480 at Lompoke Federal Penitentiary. 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.000 The tapes are filled with hour after hour of stories 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:25.320 like this. 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:27.920 Later on, I lived in the cave, I went to 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.599 spy school, and I bought a horse. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.919 Gary stories were out there, but he had this magical 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.640 quality that made anything seem possible. He could get justine 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.120 tickets for sold out concerts, appointments with doctors who were 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:47.839 booked solid. 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:51.240 She idolized her dad, and all my friends knew how 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.280 cool he was. I was always talking about my dad. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.360 It's so silly. I have this one memory of when 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.240 I was in high school. So I was dreaming, like 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.680 from my dad's point of view, that he was driving 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.600 over a bridge, like on accident. And I was awakened 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.159 from that dream by my dad calling me on my 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:12.240 cell phone at like two in the morning and I 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.200 picked it up and he had a dream that I 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.880 was dying, and I couldn't wait to tell my friends 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.599 because it was just like, we have this cosmic connection, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:21.880 me and my dad. 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.040 But there are other things about Gary that, looking back 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.480 on as an adult, Justine has a hard time reconciling 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:33.760 with the dad she's so adored. For one, they're cosmic connection. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.280 Gary would often tell Justine that the two of them 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.880 were different than everyone else, different than her mom, who 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.200 divorced Gary when Justine was only three, and different from 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.880 her brother Stephen. She and Gary were a gang of two. 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.920 We are smarter, we get it. We were different from them. 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.479 And then when I became a mother, I just felt like, 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.559 you know, it's kind of inexcusable. I was just able 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.760 to zoom out a little bit and see some of 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:19.320 the inappropriateness of things. He is an addict, and sometimes 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.560 he would be completely wasted driving us, which was like 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.480 scary for me. I remember crying a lot in the backseat. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.200 We would go to restaurants and there were times when 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.000 the patrons of the restaurants would call the police because 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.159 they were concerned about our welfare and I would be 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.560 like making jokes to the waitress to try to like 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.200 diffuse the situte. Like he would be really embarrassing and 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.240 obviously drunk, and I would say, hey, can we get 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.000 the guy some milk? You know, like just a nine 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:49.520 year old trying the smooth things over. 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.240 If the kids needed a babysitter, Gary would find the 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.760 neighborhood teenager and pay them in marijuana. Other times he'd 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.760 leave the kids to their own devices. Justine and her 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.680 brother Stephen would wander over to the Lowe's hardware store 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.799 beside their apartment complex and occupy themselves for hours playing 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.840 hide and seek among the appliances. Justine says Gary would 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:14.200 often drop her off at elementary school with her hair 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.280 unbrushed and a half eaten Big Mac wrapped in tinfoil 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.520 for lunch, and when middle school rolled around. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.040 He would like show up drunk in the cafeteria during 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:24.680 lunchtime to come talk to me in. 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.760 Did you at this point did your friends still think 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:29.600 that he was cool? 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:31.080 Yep? 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.240 What was it that made them feel that way? 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.160 He would bring me money, which was you know cool? 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.520 When you're in seventh grade, he would crack a lot 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:47.320 of like inappropriate jokes like he he would talk about 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.360 sex like there are absolutely no boundaries in terms of 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.040 what he felt was appropriate for kids. He just treated 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:55.560 us like adults. 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.280 I'm not sure I'm a good parent. I'm sorry for 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.920 everything I've done wrong. I'm sorry for well living the 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:04.320 incredible lifestyle I live. 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:07.600 At this point in her life, Justine knows her dad 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:11.360 can be manipulative. She knows he's an addict, but she 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.360 still wants to believe that's not all he is. A 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.000 Part of her holds to that childhood belief that her 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.200 father's life truly was the stuff of memoirs. Those stories 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:25.040 feel like her inheritance. Yet at thirty one, she's forced 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.280 to ask herself, are those unbelievable stories about robbing banks 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.160 and winning Jeopardy so unbelievable because they're simply not to 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:33.840 be believed. 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:40.160 As I get older and my childhood begins to feel 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:45.000 more and more alarming to me, like I realize that 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:50.839 I have to know what was true, Like I have 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.760 to know this is my dad we're talking about, and 0:08:53.840 --> 0:09:00.840 if none of it's true, then that's completely insane and 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:07.200 I need to reevaluate everything. You know, if he's telling 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.720 these same lies in great detail, over and over, like 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.280 he's a fraud and a pathological liar. I just want 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:25.040 to I need to know that I started to discover 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.160 little things that he said that weren't so true, Like 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.520 there have been so many times when he's told me 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.839 that he's dying. I thought that he would never even 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.360 see me graduate high school, like I always have thought he. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:43.240 Was dying after a lifetime of drug use and alcoholism. 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.160 Gary is in consistently poor health. It's just not clear 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.559 exactly how poor. Since he's been saying that he's dying 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:56.079 for over a decade, the prognosis is murky, like Justine's 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.080 fairly certain he does have hepatitis. 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:03.200 Oh, diabetes too, he got diabetes and that you like, Yes, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:04.920 they had to like remove a toe, you know. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.160 And you've seen you've seen this, uh this missing toe. 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.040 Yes, I was there in the hospital. 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:13.120 I'm sorry to have to ask that. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.480 I mean, I haven't seen the toe, but I've seen 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:16.360 like the lack of a toe. 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.960 I've seen the lack of a toe. Okay, Yes, Gary 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.040 stuck to the same stories, often verbatim, for decades. So 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:26.839 at this point Justine doesn't feel like sitting down with 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.400 him to re examine, and requestion will yield new results. 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.880 She needs a neutral outsider to train an objective eye 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.880 onto Gary's stories and finally offer some clarity. And what 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.240 and what do you? What do you want me? You 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:46.240 want me to bring my powers of fact checking and 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:47.400 research to bear. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.440 Or yes, you know, listen to the tapes. Maybe try 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.560 and pull out a couple of claims that you think 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:57.400 could be verifiable one way or the other. Yeah, start simple. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.000 Did he go to Georgetown? 0:10:59.120 --> 0:10:59.200 Like? 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.320 Start there? Yeah, and then just see what we can 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:03.199 verify and what we. 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:13.280 Can't after the break the facts. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.680 Listen, I'm not making this shit up. I don't have to. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:23.880 I'm sorry. 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.080 These tapes sometimes are incoherent, and I'm sober, I'm half drunk, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.800 I'm totally drunk. But it's the real daddy. 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.679 It's the real meat, I must confess. As I begin 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.160 looking into Gary stories, I expect to quickly discover that 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.640 all of his stories are lies. I've met plenty of 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.920 Gary's in bars, on greyhound buses, and even at a 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.880 few public radio conventions, charming liars who lie to self 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.480 aggrandize or for no discernible reason at all. But as 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.600 I start the process of fact checking disproving Gary unequivocally 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.200 turns out to be more difficult than expected. I keep 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.560 phoning and emailing Georgetown, but no one gets back to me. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.760 I look through an old Jeopardy archive, but it only 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.960 goes back to nineteen eighty five, years after Gary would 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.520 have been on the show. And while I do discover 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.960 that H. R. Haldeman was an inmate at Lompoke Federal 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.160 Penitentiary on the dates Gary said, I can find no 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:24.439 record of a Labor Day prison bridge tournament. Finally, though, 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.320 I alight upon one small claim I can weigh in 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:32.160 on with confidence. So I phoned Justine with the news scared. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:34.600 Does it feel like stuff is getting real? 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:36.240 Yeah? 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:36.920 Is that okay? 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.360 Yeah? It's about time something got real. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.959 Now the most underrated man on the history of the world. 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.160 Just so you know, a band called Buffalo Springfield has 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.959 Neil Young in it. Also Richie Fury, by the way, 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.760 who was a friend of mine in Yellow Springs, Ohio. 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.800 Had Gary been friends with a member of Buffalo Springfield. 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.360 I'd gone to Fire's website and filled out a contact 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.200 for him that said it was for all inquiries. My inquiry, 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.839 I explained, was that I was trying to figure out 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:13.200 whether someone's dad was a pathological liar, and so might 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.680 mister Fiura be able to tell me if he remembered 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.160 hanging out with a man named Gary in Yellow Springs, 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:24.080 Ohio in the early nineteen seventies. The next day, I 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:28.400 got an email back from Richie Fire's manager David. He 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.320 said that Richie left Yellow Springs in nineteen sixty four 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.800 and does not recognize the name, so that that came 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:37.640 back negative. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:43.480 Okay, I'm really happy right now. 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.000 Really? Why? 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:51.960 Yeah, I guess it's the clarity. Wow, that's one. I 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:53.559 feel a little bit lighter for some. 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.400 Reason, and like, Okay, learning your father is a liar 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.160 is never good news, but for just it's better than 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:04.679 the years of not knowing. To misquote the most underrated 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.640 band in history. Something's happening here and what it is 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.560 is becoming increasingly clear. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:13.560 The clouds are opening up a little. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.360 Your dad did not know one of the members of 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.280 Buffalo Springfield. 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.400 And so the cloud's part And now I feel lighter. 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.080 It's great Buffalo Springfield is still bringing joy and meaning 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:40.240 to people. Justine mentions another musician story I should look into. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.840 There's a local celebrity blues guitarist named Jean Deear, who 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:47.200 Gary always claimed to have discovered. They were great friends. 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.920 Gary said, until a big falling out. 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:54.080 Believe me, Christine, I've heard from so many people that 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.720 I'm an asshole for ever putting any money into Jean Dear. 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:01.480 I've sponsored him. I found him, pay for dental bills, 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.320 pay for home bills, fight it so much for him. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.040 He just thinks he's God because he can play guitar. 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.200 Well, he may be a good person to contact. I'm sure. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:12.400 I'm sure he's got information and stories. 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.400 I would say as far as discovering me, I'd have 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:18.760 to give him a thumbs up on that. 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.320 This is Jean Dear, and gen Deere says Gary is 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.640 telling the truth. Back when Jeane was twenty three years old, 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.760 he and his band were playing a small Indianapolis bar 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.240 one night when Gary just walked up to him. 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.480 I'm on the stage. He got a fool stick under 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.880 his arm, a drink in that hand, and then the 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.520 other hand he's handed me for money. He goes, take this, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.480 take this. I'm his first time I re saw him, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.040 said take this. I want to record you guys. I 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.120 want to make you famous. 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.760 Gary financed and produced Jene's first album, and forty years on, 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:02.800 Gene is still making a living from his music alone, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:07.320 all thanks to Gary, and Jane says. If there was 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.200 any drama in their friendship, it played out on Gary's 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:10.800 side alone. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.040 I hold it and in very high regard. 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.560 I hadn't expected Gary's story about Gene to be true, 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.320 and as I continue in my research, more of my 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:30.280 expectations are upended. Hello, Hey, justin Hi, So a couple 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.920 orders of business on the docket. I'd finally gotten an 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:37.280 email back from the communications office at Georgetown, confirmed by 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.000 our records. Said the email, Gary attended Georgetown in fall 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:46.200 nineteen sixty eight, And yet another surprise. Spend some time 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:52.080 looking into this say It with Flowers bandit. This is 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.200 what I was able to find. There was a robber. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.760 I discovered several articles in a small Washington paper called 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:02.200 the Bellingham Herald, which covered the search for a say 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.520 It with Flowers bank robber. The robber had come into 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.240 a local bank wearing sunglasses, a pea coat, and a 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.280 stocking cab covering his hair. He stole eight hundred and 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.879 forty eight dollars and was never caught. There doesn't seem 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.680 to have been any hypnosis though, and the robber was armed, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.520 which is a significant departure from Gary's telling, But all 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.719 the other details line up. The year is right, nineteen 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.520 seventy four, and the robber was Gary's age and Gary's height, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.399 and he'd been carrying a bundle of white carnations, just 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:38.879 like Gary always said. Here's another telling detail. Have you 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:40.560 ever known your father to wear a beard? 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:42.400 Always? 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.840 What color would you describe as beard? 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.400 As being pictures I've seen from like the eighties where 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.720 he had a very full, long, disgusting beard. It was 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.479 kind of like a reddish brown, but like growing up, 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.199 you know, he would keep it closer to the face 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:57.840 so then it. 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:58.439 Was like darker. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.000 Well, according to this article, bank personnel said he had 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:05.880 quote British type reddish colored whiskers with about a five 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:06.560 day growth. 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.520 Like for me, this corroborates, like I feel like it 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.560 was true. 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.399 I mean, look like, is it not possible that he 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:21.320 read about this bandit who has never caught and took 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.280 credit for him. Maybe at the time. The reason I 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.960 sound skeptical is because I am. The job I've been 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.919 handed was to fact check, to allow the facts to 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.200 speak for themselves, But over the course of my research 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.879 something kept eating at me. I'm going to play something 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.720 for you from my first conversation with Justine that initially 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:43.520 I wasn't going to include. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.160 So this part, if it could please just remain off 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:47.560 the record. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:49.920 Sure it's like really important, okay. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.439 But that might like might give you some insight into well. 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.800 Originally this wasn't something Justine wanted to make public. She 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.520 since reconsidered, so I'm sharing it with her. Permisis. When 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.080 she was very young, around seven years old, Justine says 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:06.480 her father told her a secret. 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.760 He was like drunk and crying to me when I 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.840 was younger, and he told me this, And he said 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.879 to me that if I ever tell anyone that he 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:20.640 would wring my neck in public. When he met my mom, 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.959 she was pregnant with my brother, and my brother doesn't 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.720 know that he like my brother doesn't know that he 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:29.160 doesn't know who his dad. 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:33.280 Is, that is, Stephen doesn't know that Gary is not 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:34.680 his biological father. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:41.480 Like according to the public knowledge would be that my 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.960 brother and I are siblings from my mom and dad, 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.720 that we are their two children. But the truth is only. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.840 I am after his drunken confession. Gary never brought up 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:55.639 Stephen's paternity again, and until Justine mentioned it to me, 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.520 neither a. She she was terrified by her dad's threat, 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.840 so all the way into adulthood, she never told anyone, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:04.680 not even her mom. 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.600 And so my mom doesn't know that I know. Nobody 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.800 knows that I know. And it's like kind of a 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.000 painful thing because I feel like my brother should know. 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:16.119 But I just keep, you know, I try not to 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:16.719 think about it. 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.880 And so the secret made a silent home inside her head, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:25.159 becoming a wedge between her and Stephen. But when Justine 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.920 first laid all this out for me, I was incredulous, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:30.840 you know, given the fact that, like there's a lot 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.240 of doubts surrounding the veracity of the things that your 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.160 dad has told you. Have you ever questioned whether that 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:38.040 was that was the truth? 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:40.800 WHOA, No, I never have. 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.720 I was thrown by Justine's reaction. If everything her father 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.920 had ever told her was suspect, why wasn't this story 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:54.320 about Stephen's paternity suspect too, especially since it seemed to 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:57.520 belie an agenda. I mean, you're saying that he had 0:20:57.520 --> 0:21:00.159 all these techniques for like, you know, grouping yar you 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.480 two together against the world and everyone. I mean, that 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:05.199 seems to fit in with that. 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:08.240 Yeah, that's this is true. So there are a couple 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.600 of reasons why I think I never questioned it. 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.120 For one, Stephen is pale with bright red hair. Well 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:18.680 Gary is dark complexion with dark hair. Plus garyot also 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:22.200 revealed a secret about a cousin's paternity, which did turn 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:25.960 out to be true. So from Justine's perspective, in the 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:30.640 secret paternity department, Gary was batting a thousand. But from 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.000 my perspective, none of that is definitive. So as I 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:38.160 updated Justine on Buffalo, Springfield and Georgetown and the say 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.159 It with Flowers bandit, I continue to obsess over the 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.000 story of her brother, Stephen's paternity. You have any further 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:47.919 thoughts about the business with your brother? Gary had saddled 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.840 six year old Justine with an albatross of shame and 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.200 secrecy that adult Justine still couldn't laid to rest. 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.440 All of these couple decades, it's been like, number one, 0:21:58.720 --> 0:21:59.440 do not do that. 0:21:59.640 --> 0:21:59.960 What's work? 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.879 The secret she'd been entrusted with maybe wasn't even true, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:09.440 So to me, proving it false would relieve a huge burden. Plus, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.360 unlike some of Gary's other stories, there wasn't space for ambiguity. 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.359 He either was Stephen's dad or he wasn't, so proving 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:21.120 the truth about Stephen's paternity would inevitably shed light onto 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:32.360 everything else. Stephen's paternity was the master key. I ask 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.200 Justine if she's ever considered talking to her mom about it, 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:37.880 to see if the story is true. It's a new 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.160 idea for Justine, one that takes time to process. Until now. 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:44.840 She's always assumed she'd keep the secret her whole life, 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:48.840 But I keep nudging her. Have you continued to think about, 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:52.920 like talking with your mother? In February, Justine absolutely did 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:54.160 not want to talk to her mom. 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:56.000 It's really not my place. 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.439 But in March she was leaning towards maybe talking to 0:22:59.440 --> 0:22:59.840 her mom. 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:01.960 You know, I'm an adult now, so it's not like 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:04.320 I could get in trouble for bringing it up to her. 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.280 In April, though, she was back to not wanting to 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:08.040 talk to her mom. 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.000 I don't want to devastate her unveiling a secret that 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:14.680 she's been trying to keep from me, her whole life, 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:16.400 from everyone. 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.919 But then three months after our first conversation, Justine realizes 0:23:21.000 --> 0:23:23.520 there might be a workaround a way to fact check 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.400 her father's story about Stephen's paternity without confronting her mother. 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.159 In reevaluating her past, A dormant memory is rattled loose 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.920 years ago conversation that took place at her mom's house 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:37.480 with her cousin Rihanna. 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:42.800 She had said something to me about Stephen's real dad. 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:46.760 I think I did block that out. I am really 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:49.919 honestly just now remembering that this happened. I think we 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.320 were looking through old photo albums that she had brought over, 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:55.159 Like I think maybe there was a picture of him 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:57.000 in this photo album. She was like, and this is, 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.280 you know, Stephen's real dad. Really don't remember many details 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:03.479 about that conversation other than that and I and I 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:05.359 was kind of uncomfortable, and I was like, yeah, yeah, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:07.719 you know, like, oh, okay, cool, next picture. 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:11.480 Huh. 0:24:12.720 --> 0:24:25.120 I can ask her about it if you want. Hello, Hey, hey, 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:26.240 it's just doing. 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:30.840 Justine told Rihanna she wanted to ask her something concerning 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:32.240 their family history. 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:39.080 Has to do with Stephen. Do you know what I'm 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:42.960 talking about? I'm bosing what you're talking about. You and 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:51.119 told me, am, okay. So when I was a lot younger, 0:24:51.160 --> 0:24:56.080 like seven or eight. My dad told me that he's 0:24:56.160 --> 0:25:03.480 not actually Stephen's dad. Correct. Okay, So when you say correct, 0:25:05.040 --> 0:25:19.640 what does that mean? I mean that he's not. I 0:25:19.680 --> 0:25:24.000 was told to keep my mouth shut, so was I Yeah? 0:25:24.720 --> 0:25:25.280 Yeah? 0:25:25.640 --> 0:25:30.439 So who told you my parents? Okay? 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:34.639 It seems like it's not just Rihanna who knows the truth. 0:25:35.359 --> 0:25:41.320 Justine's entire extended family does too. 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:48.840 Do you remember the Kirbys or you guys? You probably 0:25:49.359 --> 0:25:50.840 you guys weren't around them, were you? 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:55.080 Rianna and Justine are first cousins, but while Rihanna grew 0:25:55.160 --> 0:25:58.320 up with a family called the Kirby's, Justine has no 0:25:58.400 --> 0:26:03.560 recollection of any Kirbys. Rihanna explains why, and, in keeping 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:06.880 with the way she's been explaining everything so far, she's. 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:10.320 Blunt to my knowledge. What happened is your mom was 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:13.280 with one of them, and he didn't want to further 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:16.640 a relationship with your mom, so when she got pregnant, 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:20.600 she told her he didn't want anything to do with her. WHOA, 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:26.240 and does he know that Stephen exists? 0:26:26.440 --> 0:26:26.680 Yes? 0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:33.320 Well, I've always just felt like it's not my place 0:26:33.359 --> 0:26:37.400 to say anything to anyone if it's not you know, yeah, 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:41.160 I think it would devastate Stephen. I do too. 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:45.200 Stephen is known as the sensitive one in the family. 0:26:45.760 --> 0:26:48.960 Although he's fifteen months older than Justine, he's always felt 0:26:48.960 --> 0:26:51.600 more like a younger brother to her. As a kid, 0:26:51.640 --> 0:26:54.439 he was given to outbursts and tears, which made him 0:26:54.440 --> 0:26:57.879 an easy target for bullies. Justine remembers leaping to his 0:26:57.960 --> 0:27:01.399 defense and shouting down his tormentor. Just like when they 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:05.200 were kids, she still wants to protect her brother. As 0:27:05.200 --> 0:27:08.000 the cousins sit in silence, trying to decide what to 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:11.600 do next, Rihanna offers to send some pictures of the Kirbies. 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:19.720 I think, get them to you now. Okay, you're on 0:27:19.800 --> 0:27:26.240 Wi Fi, right, mm hmm okay, hang I just got 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:30.320 the Oh my god. 0:27:32.040 --> 0:27:37.080 Yeah, and there he is Stephen's biological father. He has 0:27:37.200 --> 0:27:40.560 red hair, a red goatee, and is the spitting image 0:27:40.680 --> 0:27:41.840 of Justine's. 0:27:41.400 --> 0:27:46.439 Brother that looks like exactly like him. And even in 0:27:46.520 --> 0:27:48.560 the one with like that red shirt or whatever, the 0:27:48.600 --> 0:27:56.280 orange shirt, that's like a face that he makes. Yes, sorry, 0:27:56.280 --> 0:28:04.920 I'm just like staring. Wow. Well, thank you for the 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:10.000 pictures and the info. I mean, I would definitely. 0:28:09.800 --> 0:28:11.520 Call that confirmation. 0:28:13.000 --> 0:28:19.160 Once Justine hangs up with Rihanna. She and I talk. Justinekay, 0:28:19.280 --> 0:28:20.000 how are you doing? 0:28:22.960 --> 0:28:31.920 I'm okay. It's a little painful to look right at 0:28:32.000 --> 0:28:36.840 the situation, just like talking about this secret. I feel 0:28:36.840 --> 0:28:40.640 a little bit guilty, so do I. 0:28:40.840 --> 0:28:43.680 Justine in fact checked Gary's paternity claims, not because she 0:28:43.840 --> 0:28:46.960 doubted them, but because I had I'm the one who 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:49.800 pushed this thing forward, but Gary wasn't lying. 0:28:50.840 --> 0:28:56.200 It actually does kind of relieve me to maybe come 0:28:56.200 --> 0:28:59.040 to the conclusion that a lot of the stories were 0:28:59.040 --> 0:29:02.959 based in truth. Mm hmm, Like it makes me feel like, Okay, 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:03.680 that's my dad. 0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:09.120 He's an alcoholic, Justine says, and a manipulator, but he's 0:29:09.160 --> 0:29:12.280 not a liar, or at least not a total liar. 0:29:13.160 --> 0:29:16.560 So having arrived at this conclusion, Justine and I decide 0:29:16.560 --> 0:29:19.320 to shelve the mission. She feels like the next step 0:29:19.320 --> 0:29:21.520 would be to talk to her mom, and she's not 0:29:21.600 --> 0:29:33.000 ready to do that yet. About a month later, I 0:29:33.080 --> 0:29:35.800 reach out to Justine to see what's new, and it 0:29:35.840 --> 0:29:37.640 turns out a lot is new. 0:29:38.200 --> 0:29:41.479 So gosh, this has been so crazy. 0:29:41.680 --> 0:29:45.760 So my brother came over the week before Stephen had 0:29:45.800 --> 0:29:48.280 come over to put up some outside lights, and while 0:29:48.320 --> 0:29:51.440 he was there, he asked, Hey, so what's going on 0:29:51.520 --> 0:29:53.440 with that whole endeavor to fact check dad? 0:29:53.640 --> 0:29:57.240 And Justine panicked, I was not prepared for this question. 0:29:57.440 --> 0:30:00.080 I hadn't thought up, like what was I going to 0:30:00.120 --> 0:30:05.240 tell him about why we were shelving it? So he 0:30:05.440 --> 0:30:06.400 kind of caught me off guard. 0:30:07.240 --> 0:30:09.800 She knew she couldn't say, well, one of the things 0:30:09.800 --> 0:30:12.560 we fact checked was your paternity, and since I didn't 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:14.880 want you to know that dad isn't your dad, that 0:30:15.000 --> 0:30:18.520 kind of ended things. But instead of just making some excuse, 0:30:18.920 --> 0:30:21.920 she was cryptic and vague, almost like she wanted Stephen 0:30:21.960 --> 0:30:25.040 to keep digging. There's this one thing she told him 0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:27.760 that I realized I wasn't ready to talk about publicly. 0:30:28.520 --> 0:30:32.760 And he said, well, you have to tell me, and 0:30:32.840 --> 0:30:36.600 I said, look at me, you need to drop it. 0:30:37.520 --> 0:30:39.120 You need to just accept the fact right now that 0:30:39.160 --> 0:30:42.920 I'm never ever going to tell you, and he goes, am, 0:30:42.960 --> 0:30:43.600 I adopted. 0:30:49.080 --> 0:30:53.719 So then he goes home and he says to my mom, am, 0:30:53.760 --> 0:30:58.360 I adopted, and she's like, where is this com what 0:30:58.400 --> 0:30:59.200 are you talking about? 0:31:00.120 --> 0:31:04.120 But then he asked my mom's parents. She's like going 0:31:04.160 --> 0:31:08.320 around asking the whole family and I adopted, and then 0:31:08.360 --> 0:31:10.360 he comes back to me and he said, just seeing 0:31:10.800 --> 0:31:12.360 I think I want to do like a twenty three 0:31:12.480 --> 0:31:15.800 year or something. Everyone's being weird when I asked this question. 0:31:17.440 --> 0:31:21.000 Then, early one morning, while feeding her son oatmeal, Justine 0:31:21.000 --> 0:31:23.400 received a call from her mother, who wanted to know 0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:27.080 why Stephen was asking all these questions. 0:31:29.440 --> 0:31:32.480 So I just said to her, like, do you want 0:31:32.480 --> 0:31:36.200 to talk about this now? And she paused for a 0:31:36.280 --> 0:31:40.920 long time, and she goes, I guess so, And I said, 0:31:41.680 --> 0:31:46.480 I've known the big secret since I was six, And 0:31:46.520 --> 0:31:49.400 then we just started talking about it. 0:31:50.840 --> 0:31:53.400 They decided to meet for lunch, where they continued to 0:31:53.440 --> 0:31:55.200 talk about it for two hours. 0:31:55.680 --> 0:31:59.800 Even the simplest of interactions with her before this, there 0:31:59.840 --> 0:32:04.800 was a level of like falsehood. I guess. I just 0:32:04.880 --> 0:32:08.760 really felt like I was able to be myself for 0:32:08.800 --> 0:32:09.560 the first time. 0:32:10.760 --> 0:32:14.400 Together, Justine and her mom, Lynn went through the whole story. 0:32:15.040 --> 0:32:17.440 Lynn explained how as a teenager, she hooked up with 0:32:17.480 --> 0:32:20.360 a childhood crush, a boy named Brian Kirby that she'd 0:32:20.360 --> 0:32:23.640 been in love with since she was thirteen. While Lynn 0:32:23.640 --> 0:32:26.719 had a curfew in rules set by her parents, Brian 0:32:26.840 --> 0:32:29.160 was a free spirit who could stay out all night. 0:32:30.080 --> 0:32:33.360 Their dates were basically impromptu makeout sessions and Lynn's backyard 0:32:33.400 --> 0:32:36.280 treehouse where she was out of view from her parents, 0:32:36.680 --> 0:32:41.520 And then at seventeen, she got pregnant. Brian ignored her calls. 0:32:42.000 --> 0:32:45.640 Then Gary appeared. Lynn was working at her parents' gas station, 0:32:46.000 --> 0:32:49.680 visibly pregnant when one day Gary drove up. The two 0:32:49.720 --> 0:32:53.320 of them started flirting, and a few months later Gary proposed. 0:32:53.960 --> 0:32:56.040 He promised Lynn that he would raise the baby as 0:32:56.040 --> 0:32:58.680 his own. Lynn thinks he wanted to be a father 0:32:58.880 --> 0:33:02.080 even more than he wanted her, so when they eventually 0:33:02.080 --> 0:33:05.080 got divorced, Gary panicked that he might lose the kids. 0:33:05.720 --> 0:33:08.400 He threatened Lynn, telling her he'd ever killed if she 0:33:08.440 --> 0:33:12.000 ever revealed the truth about Stephen. Lynn says Gary knew 0:33:12.080 --> 0:33:15.600 enough shady people to make it happen. For Lynn, that 0:33:15.800 --> 0:33:18.280 threat was enough to keep her from ever telling a soul. 0:33:18.840 --> 0:33:21.520 She was just as afraid of Gary as Justine was. 0:33:22.720 --> 0:33:25.120 Lynn is always believed that one day she would talk 0:33:25.160 --> 0:33:27.880 to Stephen about it. She just needed to wait until 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:31.520 Gary was dead so she'd be safe. But with Stephen 0:33:31.560 --> 0:33:34.720 asking so many questions, Justine doesn't think they can afford 0:33:34.800 --> 0:33:38.040 to wait. So what began as a need for Justine 0:33:38.040 --> 0:33:40.000 to know the truth of who her father really is 0:33:40.680 --> 0:33:42.560 has become a need for her brother to know the 0:33:42.600 --> 0:33:46.959 truth of who his father really isn't. Justine convinces her 0:33:47.000 --> 0:33:49.840 mother that, despite their fear, they owe it to Stephen, 0:33:50.360 --> 0:33:53.080 and together they devise a plan and set a date. 0:33:53.920 --> 0:33:56.959 And while they know telling Stephen the truth will have consequences, 0:33:57.520 --> 0:34:00.680 what they don't know yet is just how big those 0:34:00.720 --> 0:34:01.880 consequences will be. 0:34:02.920 --> 0:34:05.880 Okay, let's end this and go on to the next side. 0:34:07.840 --> 0:34:28.640 On next week's Heavyweight Side B. This episode of Heavyweight 0:34:28.719 --> 0:34:32.120 was produced by Senior producer Khalila Holt, along with Stevie Lane, 0:34:32.160 --> 0:34:36.920 Mohemy mcgawker, and me Jonathan Goldstein. Special thanks to Emily Condon, 0:34:37.040 --> 0:34:41.560 Alex Bloomberg, Sharon Mashihi, Connie Walker, and Mary Cloude. Bobby 0:34:41.560 --> 0:34:44.440 Lord mixed the episode with original music by Christine Fellows, 0:34:44.520 --> 0:34:48.439 John K. Sampson, Ben Aliman, and Bobby Lord. Additional music 0:34:48.480 --> 0:34:51.560 credits can be found on our website Gimbletmedia dot com 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:54.560 slash Heavyweight. Our theme song is by The weaker Thans 0:34:54.560 --> 0:34:58.080 courtesy of Epitaph Records. Follow us on Twitter at Heavyweight 0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:01.480 or email us at heavyweight at give fletmedia dot com. 0:35:01.480 --> 0:35:04.680 We'll be back next week with Part two and a 0:35:04.800 --> 0:35:08.080 special message from my friend Jackie. Jackie, if you're listening, 0:35:08.120 --> 0:35:09.520 please pick up the phone next week

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