Lives of Crime | 1. Education of an Assassin Part 1

Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son and I'm like, who is this person?

Welcome to the Boys and Girls Podcast.

A ranged marriage is basically a reality show and you're auditioning for your soulmate

and who's judging. Only your entire family, I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition,

hoping to find love the right way. And instead, I found chaos, comedy and a lot of cringe.

Listen to Boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Dickenpole show are geniuses. We can explain how AI works,

data centers, but there are certain things that we don't necessarily understand.

Better version of Play, Stupid Games, When, Stupid Brises.

Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time.

I actually thought it was. I got that wrong.

But hey, no one's perfect. We're pretty close though. Listen to the Nick Dickenpole show

on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're

in the shower. Or it's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly just chipping away

and refining. Take two interactive CEO, Strauss Selnik, and our own chief business officer, Lisa

Coffee. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your

podcast. To listen all at once and free, subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Steve Fishman from Orbit Media, creator of Hit True Crime Podcasts,

like my friend The Serial Killer, Empire on Blood, and The Burton. Today, I'm introducing

a new show. It's called Lives of Crime, True Crime from True Criminals. In Lives of Crime,

we bring you, in their own words, accounts from killers, swindlers, teenage Ponzi

schemers, drugs, munkers, con artist, counterfeiters, and more. They've paid their debts to society

and are free to talk, and they do. They give us slices of criminal life like you've never heard

before. Most of the stories will be told over one episode, sometimes the stories demand more,

and that's true of today's story. So this one will be a two-parter. At the center is what might

be the most frightening love triangle in history. It involves Larry Masa, a teenage delivery boy

at the local supermarket, a beautiful older woman customer, and her husband, a mobster known as the

Graham Reaper. Can you guess why? We call this episode the education of an assassin, part one.

One day, while working at the supermarket, getting ready for my deliveries, this gorgeous woman walks

in. She's in a fur coat, has all kinds of beautiful jewelry on, made up very well,

and just stunning, and she comes over to me and opens up a conversation.

She tells me her name is Linda. She is a knockout, and she asks me if I would personally

deliver the groceries to her house. And I said, of course, it would be my pleasure.

On one of the visits to her house, she has a bottle of wine out, and it's the middle of the day,

I'm working, so I have to turn down the wine. But she brings me some tea, and now the talk gets

a little bit more personal. She's asking me how I stay in such good shape. I see you have nice

arms and shoulders. She's talking about my abs. Then just comes out and asks me if I fool around.

And I never forget that. I felt a little insulted. I said, of course, I fool around.

Do you think I'm gay? Of course, I fool around. And she asks me if I would come over that night.

But I told her, I said, I got school, I have karate, I have to go to the gym. So she says,

why don't you come over if you're done? She convinced me to go over, we'd have a good time,

I want to get to know you better. So I go home, I ask my dad for the car, I get the car,

the electric 225, brand new car, and I drive down and I walk up the steps and she's dressed

impeccably, just sexy and a black jumpsuit with a zip it out runs the whole front. It was open

just enough. This is like a dream. I'm thinking back to the movie to graduate. I'm not even 18 yet,

although I lied and told her I was 18. And I know she's got to be at least 30-ish.

Is this really happening?

Before you know it, we were kissing passionately and the clothes were coming off.

So Linda and I are now getting pretty hot and heavy. This is going on almost every night.

And after a few weeks, I start wondering, is she alone? How come we could only meet late at night?

And eventually she mentioned that she had kids. So they were very young, they go to bed early, left us

every night. But now it was begging the question that my head, there's got to be a husband.

But I don't really want to know. I'm having too much fun. We're getting closer. The love

word is starting to come up a little bit and we're feeling it. Ultimately, I need to know.

I need to know what's going on. Is there a father? Is there a husband?

And I remember the day she confided in me and told me that, yes, I do have a husband.

His name is Charles.

This now goes on for about six months. But she's starting to talk more about my future.

She wants me to be a very successful guy like her husband.

And starts talking more and more about him. She tells me she'd like me to meet him.

What? What are we going to say, Charles? This is Larry, my boyfriend. I mean, how do I meet your

husband? She says, no, it's not like that. He's a busy guy. He's very influential.

Starts giving me these little bits of hints. Linda was very convincing.

OK, if you want me to meet him, I'll meet him.

But she had a way to do it. They were opening up a new company, a supply company.

And she suggested to her husband that Larry would be ideal to be the sales manager.

I still can't get it in my head that I'm going to meet this guy.

I go back and forth with her. I think it's insane. I'm very uneasy about this.

It's going to make me start feeling guilty about our relationship. And she doesn't want to hear it.

She's laughing at me. No, you don't know. Don't worry.

It leads to this night where we finally set it up that I'm going to meet.

Hello, gorgeous. It's Lala Kent, host of Untraditional Lala. My days of filling up cups at Sir

may be over, but I'm still loving life in the valley. Life on the other side of the hill

is giving grown-up vibes. But over here on my podcast, Untraditional Lala, I'm still that Lala.

You either love or love to hate. I've been full on oversharing with fans, family and former

frenemies like Tom Schwartz. I had a little bone to pick for Schwartzy when he came on the pod.

You don't feel bad that you told me I was a bootleg housewife? I was flipped a pizza in your lap.

Oh my god, I literally forgot about that until just now, sorry, I don't want to blame

all of that. I got to blame that one on the alcohol. This is about laughing and learning when life

just keeps on life and because I'm a mistake so that you guys don't have to. We're growing,

we're thriving and yes, sometimes we're barely surviving, but we do it all with love.

It's unruly, it's unafraid, it's untraditionally Lala. Listen to untraditionally Lala on the

iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my

podcast, Math and Magic Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind

the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest

minds in market. I'm talking to leaders from the entertainment industry to finance and everywhere

in between. This season of Math and Magic I'm talking to CEO of Liquid Death Mike Cicero,

financier and public health advocate Mike Milken. Take two interactive CEO Strauss Selney.

If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore run the risk of making

horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business. Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston

and her own cheap business officer Lisa Coffee. Making consumers see the value of

the human voice and to how that guaranteed human promise behind it really makes it

biased to the top. Listen to Math and Magic Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing on the iHeart

Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, ambitious, well-intentioned,

barotias and wealthy mother looks like in the black community. This woman's history month,

the podcast, Key to Pause of Sweetie, celebrates the power of women choosing healing,

purpose and faith, even when life gets messy. Love is not a destination you have to work on it

every day. Key to Pause of Sweetie creates space for honest conversations on self-worth,

love, growth and navigating life with grace and grit led by women who have lived,

inspired and tell the truth out loud. I have several conversations with God and I know why

it took 20 years. To hear this in more, listen to Key to Pause of Sweetie on the iHeart Radio

app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

I'm waiting for this guy Charles to pull up. I'm looking out the window. I needed a drink to

calm my nerves a little bit and I remember it was vodka instead of wine. So I'm sipping a vodka

and I'm still thinking he's a doctor or some kind of traveling businessman.

I see cars go by and my heart's pounding a little bit. Finally, this big black fleet would

roam, Caddy. The cause will like limousines. He pulls in the driveway, expensive hub caps on,

the door opens. He gets out of the car and he doesn't start walking to the house.

He swagger. He had a walk that almost like a shock. If a car blew to horn, he didn't turn his head

his whole body turned. I noticed the dark sunglasses at night, the jewelry, the pinky ring.

He had a sport jacket on, dress slacks. If you're looked in a dictionary on the mobster,

you'd see that picture. As he walks up the step, I open the door and I say, hi, I'm Larry.

He sticks his hand out and in a deep, barry white type voice says to me, I'm Greg.

I'm stunned. I put my hand out, shake his hand and he puts a smile on his face, pleasure to meet you.

I follow him into the kitchen. He grabs a bottle of scotch, pours two scotches.

This is okay. I'll have a scotch with him. I never had scotch before in my life and I remember

not liking the taste, but I sipped it with him. I knew it was a smart thing to do, so I took a

sip of it with him. He says he's going to go upstairs for a few minutes and change.

Soon as he walks out of that room and goes upstairs, I tell Linda, Greg, I thought his name was

Charles. And she starts laughing like it's funny. And I says, what's going on? She says,

oh, he just uses that name. People just use other names. I don't get it.

We now start walking out to the car. Greg takes the lead. She wants me to sit in the front,

but both of them. I says, no, Linda, I'll sit in the back. Everybody should be comfortable.

Let me make sure he's comfortable. He's driving. He's telling me to sit in the front. I says, no,

no, I'm okay. I'll sit in the back. I get in the back and I see him looking at me through to

Merrill while he's talking to me. And I'm just still wondering how this is all happening.

We'd go a few miles to a restaurant called Serrentos when we walked in everybody in the

place. The cook came out at a back who was the owner Ralph. The waiters came over to him. The

bartender who was Ralph's son came from behind the bar. Everybody shook his hand or kissed him,

which is the first time I saw two men kiss and walked us to a back table, Greg's table.

There was already a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine on the table. His favorite two

wines. And I could see at that moment this guy was somebody. Greg told them, I found our new sales

manager Larry. Say hello. I started right away. I started going to different stores. I had a list

given to me. I go to these stores and I tell them who I was from Ulet's Applied Company. And

every one of these stores allowed me to take care of their fire extinguishes. We have paper products,

cleaning products. And they all said yes. I was getting accounts. I was like a star salesman.

Greg tells me he'd like me to come to his office, his headquarters on 13th Avenue where I'm getting

all these accounts. So one day I go and I see a sign on the front Wimpy Boys social club. This is

in a Ulet's Applied Company office. I walk in. There's all guys that address like Greg.

They all have jewelry on and Greg has an office in the back. There's a desk, a couch,

a chair in front of his desk. And he sits in a big chair behind the desk that's almost like a throne.

And he sits there like the king. Tell Greg, yeah, a couple of stores between 71st and 72nd

wouldn't do business with me. Carmine, he calls Carmine in. Go see these two stores.

The next day they treated me like I was the mayor.

This is all fine and good on one front where my business is growing.

But on the other hand, I realize this man is not someone to be messing around with. And I'm still

sleeping with his wife. And it's starting to weigh heavily on me. He's almost becoming a friend

to me, helping me out. He's setting me up in business. And here I am when he goes off on business

trips, I'm spending the night with his wife. If he finds out what happens in this world.

But I was thinking what the wrong head. We were addicted to each other,

linger in the eye. We were having sex at an abnormal rate. Morning, noon, night, overnight,

waking up in the middle of the night. The chemistry was so perfect. This older woman

with a testosterone-laden 18-year-old young kid, I could overcome it.

We started getting careless. Linda was very callous about it. There was one time where

we were coming back from the restaurant. And Greg said, you go home with Linda,

I'm going to go pick up the kids. The kids would buy a friend's house or a cousin's house.

So that would give us about 10 or 15 minutes. We walk in the door. We didn't even close the door.

Our clothes were coming off. And I see the car coming down the avenue.

I'm a nervous wreck. The car is in the driveway. The doors are open and

she runs out upstairs and I'm fumbling to get my pants up, waiting for him and the kids to come in.

And I feel flush and red and he's going to notice.

He comes in, he goes and gets two scotches.

Linda comes walking back down with a nice night down on.

And a big smile on her face. And Greg says, you look like the cat that ate the canary.

And I turned red. I mean the butterflies. I can't even explain it. It's like a championship

football game. You have the butterflies and you can't wait to run out on the field.

I felt this, the worry. And Linda's laughing and I sip the scotch. I became a scotch drinker now.

And when he goes up to change, I told her, I said, Linda, I said, we, we got to stop.

So I'm at the club every day. Greg, he's confiding in me. And I see all these piles of money coming

in on a daily basis. And I'm not a dummy. I know it's not legal. But what they were doing to me was

something, even at that age, I thought was accepted, you know, in Brooklyn, New York.

It was so much of it around. It was social clubs everywhere. He's introducing me to others

as his nephew. Now I'm getting respect from these guys, other made guys, captains. He's sort of

grooming me, showing me how to act like the other men. And Linda is in his ear all the time.

I want Larry to be successful. I want him to be respected like you.

Hello, gorgeous. It's Lala Kent, host of Untraditionally Lala. My days of filling up cups at Sir

may be over, but I'm still loving life in the valley. Life on the other side of the hill is

giving grown-up vibes. But over here on my podcast, Untraditionally Lala, I'm still that Lala,

you either love or love to hate. I've been full on oversharing with fans, family and former

frenemies like Tom Schwartz. I had a little bone to pick for Schwartzy when he came on the pod.

You don't feel bad that you told me I was a bootleg housewife? I was flipped a pizza in your lap.

Oh my god, I literally forgot about that until just now, sorry, I don't want to blame all

clothes. I got to blame that one on the alcohol. This is about laughing and learning when life just

keeps on life. Because I'm a mistake so that you guys don't have to. We're growing, we're thriving,

and yes, sometimes we're barely surviving, but we do it all with love. It's unruly, it's

unafraid, it's untraditionally Lala. Listen to untraditionally Lala on the iHeartRadio app, Apple

podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart Media,

and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers

of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries

while sharing insights from the smartest minds in market. I'm talking to leaders from the

entertainment industry to finance and everywhere in between. This seasonal math and magic I'm talking

to CEO of liquid death, Mike Cesario, financier and public health advocate, Mike Milken. Take two

interactive CEO, Strauss Selnik. If you're unable to take meaningful creative risk and therefore

run the risk of making horrible creative mistakes, then you can't play in this business.

Sesame Street CEO Sherry Weston and her own chief business officer, Lisa Koffee. Making

consumers see the value of the human voice and to how that guaranteed human promise behind it

really makes it rise to the top. Listen to Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, ambitious,

well-intentioned, barotias and wealthy mother looks like in the black community.

This woman's history month, the podcast, Kite Pazza Sweetie, celebrates the power of women

choosing healing, purpose and faith, even when life gets messy. Love is not a destination,

you have to work on it every day. Kite Pazza Sweetie creates space for honest conversations

on self-worth, love, growth and navigating life with grace and grit led by women who have

lived, inspired and tell the truth out loud. I have several conversations with God and I know

why it's at 20 years. To hear this in more, listen to Kite Pazza Sweetie on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

One day Greg asks me to give him a lift downtown to see Scappy. He has to go to Scappy's Club.

He's the captain. He's Greg's immediate boss in the structure of the family.

And why is he want me to bring him? I'm concerned that I'm not coming home.

So I don't show up. I stay home, I stay in my little, I was living in my own little apartment

now downstairs in the basement of my family's house and my phone is ringing all night.

And the answering machine, I hear Linda. Larry, where are you? Greg was waiting for you.

He says, this isn't like you. You didn't show up. What's wrong? There's got to be something wrong.

Please call. She's calling me all night. I don't call. Finally, the next morning, I get on the phone

and I say, Linda, I think he was bringing me downtown to kill me. I think he knows about us.

She got so mad at me on the phone. How could you think that after all this time? He loves you like a son.

I go back to the club that afternoon and Greg is hurt. He says, Larry, why did you not show up?

I'm thinking he's going to be mad at me, but he's not. He's hurt that I let him down. I didn't show up.

And I says, silly stupid lie and I know he didn't believe it. I said, well, I got a flat.

I had to fix the tire. I was filthy. I went home to take a shower and then it was too late and I fell

asleep just one lie after the other. And I know he knows something's wrong. He says, he's just not

been the same, Larry. You're not the same, Larry. I met. This is borderline insanity now in my head.

It's over a year that I'm with her. I'm getting closer and closer to Greg.

I'm falling more and more in love with her. Something's got to give and we're getting dangerous.

Then one morning, I know he was home that night, but he says, come on over early. We'll have

breakfast. Well, if he will go to the club together, I do it. We're all this close. Not a problem.

I go to the house. I get there about 10. He made pancakes and eggs. He always did that for us.

And I'm having some coffee. Then he goes downstairs to get ready.

Greg has a ritual to get ready. Okay. I know him this well now. He's losing his hair a little bit.

So it takes a while for him to comb it over to the side. He puts a whole bunch of hair spray on.

He even used shoe polish to darken the bowl spot. Very, very egotistical. And I knew it took him

a long time to take his shower and get ready. About 10 minutes he took doing his hair.

So Linda, she straddles me. She straddles me on the breakfast chair. And I had a blow dryer

I'm a nervous wreck. And she doesn't want to hear no. Doesn't want to hear stop.

I know if this man comes up, he's going to saw my head off with a butter knife.

Just as the blow dryer went off, he comes walking them back up. We say goodbye to Linda. He leaves

he leaves her some money and we go off to the club together. And I am really off the

deep end at this point. I am not going to say a nervous breakdown, but that's where I felt like I

was heading. And he saw this in me. I went to the again in the morning to see him had coffee.

I went a little bit later. I missed the breakfast. I got there when I knew he would be done. I was

done. I was not going to go to the house anymore. I would go take care of business and go home.

So we get in the car and immediately Greg starts saying to me, Larry, I'm going to have a

conversation with you now. I now know he's a serious mob guy. I know he's a feared respected

Colombo soldier. And while we're driving to the club and he's dropping these hints of where he's

going with this conversation, I remember sort of looking out the window and drifting off the

hearing about this man's reputation. He's an enforcer. He's got a ton of hits under his belt,

whatever that meant. And I'm listening to this. And it's just all swirling in my head.

And Larry, I'm going to have a conversation with you now. I think you're mature enough to handle

this. And I want you to know from the bottom of my heart, it's all true. Everything I'm going to

talk to you about. I know where he's going. And the butterflies again, I'm just eating up my

stomach. And I always said I would never admit it. There's no way I could admit it. If I deny,

deny, deny, just like that scene in the Godfather, I'll never forget it. The brother-in-law,

Carlo Rizzi is targeted for death by Michael Al Pacino's part. And Michael tells him,

I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to send you off the Vegas. That's your punishment.

Just don't insult my intelligence. Tell me the truth. And I had in the back of my mind that Greg

was this same kind of guy, cunning, smart. And he would try to get the truth out of me. And I

said, I will never admit it. Greg tells me, I understand, you know, that you and Linda got close.

She thinks the world to you. You helped her out at the store all the time. You know,

there were days the kids were sick. I really know you became a very good friend.

So now we get to the club. Get out of the car. I'm walking into the club. I'm a nervous wreck.

I'm concerned that if I waver, I'm not walking out of that club alive.

So I got to keep my composure and I got it tonight. I got to deny it.

We get there first. We walk in, open the gates. We go to back. He has his little ritual again.

He puts his keys down. He puts his cigarettes down. He gets his chest set up. He opens his drawer.

This is a gun in there. And if you have to get to it quick for whatever reasons,

if I had known that, then I might have passed out. He continues on. He says, Larry,

I know what's going on between you and Linda.

And I want you to know I'm okay with it. But it was my moment of truth. I looked at him and I

said, Greg, you know, I have a lot of respect for you. And I think you are far from an idiot.

Only an idiot wouldn't see what was going on. I don't know what came over me. I

guess my feelings for her were that strong where it was suicidal.

He busted out laughing. He banged the table, his desk. He got up with a smile on

and we were going to walk out to the front. So I got up with him. We walk out to the front.

He puts his arm around me as we're walking out. We pass a closet.

I knew at times there would be a shooter in that closet if the wrong answers came out from somebody.

We walk out to the front. It's a sunny day. He had his dark sunglasses on and there's

parking meters in front of all club. And he used to lean on it and soak up the rays.

And while we were out there and he says, I love having you around. You've made her a happy

person. Her happiness means everything to me. I don't want you to stop. I don't want you to change

anything. A strange calm came over me. I believed him. I didn't feel I was being set up.

And he told me which turns out to be one of the first rules I learned to be close in Ostra.

We could continue to severe. He said to me, but if anyone outside the three of us finds out

you and I will be killed. So he gives me this rule. I am feeling like one of his men now,

I'm with him. Not at the cards on the table. I'm not stabbing him in the back anymore.

Because now it opens up a whole new thing.

Now I'm seduced by Greg.

In the next episode of the education of an assassin, Larry comes of age. Killers may be born.

They're also made. In part two, the grim reaper takes Larry under his wing. Spoiler alert,

it ends with a bang. For more on Larry's story, read his book The Life, a true story

about a Brooklyn boy seduced into the dark world of the mafia.

The creator and host of Lives of Crime is Steve Fishman, executive producers,

Steve Fishman and Kevin Wardis, senior producer Simon Rentner, producer and engineer Austin Smith,

story editor Dan Bobkoff. Our sound designer is Bianca Salinas, assistant producer Eric Axelrod.

Special thanks to the inimitable Fisher Stevens, the glamorous Rhea Julian, and our agent said

WME Evan Crasick, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis. Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media in

association with Signal Company number one. Follow us at Orbit Media FM on Instagram TikTok and YouTube.

Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

Welcome to the Boys and Girls podcast. A ranged marriage is basically a reality show and

you're auditioning for your soulmate and who's judging. Only your entire family, I sacrificed

myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way. And instead, I found chaos,

comedy and a lot of cringe. Listen to Boys and Girls on the iHard Radio app Apple podcasts

or wherever you get your podcasts. On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Dick and Pohl show are

geniuses. We can explain how AI works, data centers, but there are certain things that we don't

necessarily understand. Better version of Play, Stupid Games, When, Stupid Brises.

Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time. I actually,

I thought it was. I got that wrong. But hey, no one's perfect. We're pretty close, though.

Listen to the Nick Dick and Pohl show on the iHard Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get

your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHard Media. And I'm kicking off a

brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing.

Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while

sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this season on Math and Magic,

CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cesario. People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments

that happen when you're in the shower. Or it's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly

just chipping away and refining. Take two interactive CEO, Strauss Selnik, and her own

cheap business officer, Lisa Koffee. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHard Radio app,

Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.