The American Captain

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Hey, listeners, this is Dan
Baltimore ahead of podcasts for Voyage Media.

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Season two of Allegedly is coming up, but between season one and season two,

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we wanted to get you this mega
episode. It's longer than our usual

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episodes and it's just an incredible story
of survival of a regular person thrown into

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a remote prison, not knowing if
he'd ever get out. This is the

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American Captain. This is film and
television producer Chris Goldberg. In my job,

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I often get to meet people whose
incredible true stories should be a movie,

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from Private Eyes to Mossad spies and
undercover agents. But the guy I'm

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speaking to you today, Michael Churchward, aka the American Captain, might have

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one of the craziest stories I've ever
heard. And all started in the nineteen

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nineties and the Mediterraneum. Michael was
a captain of a private mega yacht.

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Alongside his partner in life, Stephanie, who is chef on board the vessel,

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we found ourselves managing and running one
of the most glamorous exclusive meggiots in

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the world, which involved a great
deal of wealth pageantry that was unimaginable.

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She was a little over two hundred
feet beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boat with

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all the toys and bells and whistles
that comes with having one of the exclusive

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Meggiots and quite frankly the busiest Meggiott
at that time in the world. Our

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homes were made up of ports of
call like Monte Carlo, can all up

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and down the south of France,
the Greek Godance, throughout the Mediterranean,

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and mister r who owned the Pecante, was one of a kind and he

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was of incredible wealth. He was
a billionaire, but you wouldn't have known

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it. As I got to know
him, I immediately click with him.

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He said, Michael, you're going
to work for me, but the crew

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will work for you. That ship
will be yours to command. That will

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be your responsibility. I'll send it
where I want, but you run the

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ship. And for him to say
that was beautiful. That's what I wanted.

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In the summer months, we were
cruising the Greek Audience with guests on

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board. We dropped off our first
group of guests in the island of Mickinos.

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Our itinerary at that time was to
make our next landfall on the west

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coast of Turkey in the port of
Kushanasi, a young the Turkish port authority

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board of the gangway then was held
up by my first officer, but he

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wanted to speak to the captain.
And I remember being really annoyed because I

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was really tired and irritable from an
overnight sale. But I marched down the

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gangway. Stephanie was right there.
She sounded alarmed a little bit, and

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I said, it's okay, don't
worry about it. I got this from

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the with these people. I know
them, they know me. I went

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up to the ship's safe. We
have a wat one hundred dollars bills.

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Just knowing and just knowing and familiar
with these foreign ports of call, that

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it just might be needed to let
us go about our business and on our

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way. The Turkish PortMaster, who
once again I had known and had known

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me for years in it coming in
and out of these ports, felt very

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very uncomfortable detaining me. They weren't
sure what was going on. He would

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not tell me why I was being
detained. He whispered to me, Michael,

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you are going before a magistrate.
You're being arrested, and they're going

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to hold you. And I said
for what what are you talking about?

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What have we done? And I
will say this right now. Stephanie had

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learned through the years of sailing around
the world with me, not only was

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she our chew fought board, but
she was the gate keeper for me and

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really really protected by well being.
I handed to the money. I gave

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her some instructions. I said,
this will all clear itself up. Just

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keep the crew and together, get
prepared for the next guests. It'll sort

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of self out, I'm sure by
tomorrow, and phone mister r our owner.

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Get a hold of him immediately at
what she did. Now, for

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legal reasons, we have to tell
you this is an episode of allegedly.

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Because of when and where this all
occurred, we could not independently verify all

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the elements of this story. So
this is a true story allegedly. It's

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Michael's personal account of what happened to
him. To protect the innocent and not

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so innocent, you'll hear us bleep
out some real names. The next morning

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I was told that the American consulate
was coming down. One was a pretty

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young girl, Turkish American girl called
who was very concerned, very sweet in

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her demeanor, but business life.
I liked her immediately, but then there

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was her other partner from the American
Consulate, a man named and Honestly,

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I don't want to sound nasty,
but I could tell immediately, not just

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from his physical looks, was which
was just to be kind, repulsive.

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He was unkept, he was ungroomed. Quite frankly, he was he was

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not an attractive man. But the
minute he opened his mouth, I just

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went, oh no. He immediately
had a demeanor and an attitude that automatically

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thought that I had done something wrong. And he said, You're going to

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prison. You're going to prison for
forty days. Nothing I can do.

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We got to catch the bus back
to Yazmer. I freaking, what the

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fuck are you talking? I literally
got him up against the wall and just

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trying to hold my temper. Says, where you're not going anywhere? What

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the hell is going on? He
says, there's nothing I can do.

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You're going before a magistrate today.
They are going to hold you for forty

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days. They came to get me. I was taken in front of this

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inside this gothic, smelly old building. I stood in the middle of the

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courtroom, and by this time the
port police had replaced by a whole different

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group of armed military guards with machine
guns and so forth. I was not

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handcuffed. I was still still in
my boat uniform. And I looked up

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at this judge, big black robe, but he had this high color of

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red some kind of apparatus wrapped around
the back of his head. And I

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just was mesmerized at looking this.
If it didn't look so in the stury,

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it might have been comical. The
only words I could understand where Circuit

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Prison, Sircuy's Prison started stamping,
slamming the stamp on the desk, American

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captain Sircuate Prison. Boom boom boom. Before I knew it, the guards

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had grabbed me, shackled me,
and dragged me out of the courtroom.

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Stephanie is trying to speak and yell
and scream. I was sowing in the

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back of this tiny, little foreign
automobile of a minivan with two other Turkish

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prisoners, and I could see up
the back window as we pulled away.

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I'm looking out the back window and
I caught Stephanie's face just and her green

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eyes, her crystal green eyes just
welling up with tears, and I just

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let out a giant mom and I
mean, we're talking at bellow that way

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deep came from weight don you've inside. We finally arrived at the military prison,

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Circain military prison, and I could
hear a bunch of screaming and shouting

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at Turkish just sitting there huddled outside
this office door, in this concrete building,

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sitting on the concrete floor. Dingy, dirty, hot, grimy,

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all the adjectives that you could even
imagine. The stale smell just permeated the

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whole area, and to the point
where it almost made you gag. There

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was like a single light bulb hanging
just as you could pitch as dingy us

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it could be. And sitting at
the desk was the command It was hot,

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steamy, no air conditioning, and
the Turkish military guards all had these

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stained, grimy, sweaty uniforms on. And there were three guards standing behind

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me, big sinister looking just as
you can imagine. And the commanants set

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up the desk and he started saying
something in Turkish, and he looked up

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smiled at me in this wolfish,
weird, freaking grin. That instant is

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when I absolutely knew and felt the
danger I was in. All of a

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sudden, I realized I was in
real, real, real, trouble,

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and then he screamed and shouted something
in Turkish. I assumed they wanted me

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to take my shirt off. I
didn't. I wasn't doing it fast enough.

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And these three guards grabbed me so
violently, ripping my shirt off,

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had me down, ripped my pants
off, slammed me against the rick wall,

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cracked my head, stunned me,
and before I knew it, they

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had my legs at and all I
could see, all I could see and

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hunting. All I could see is
just the one Turkish guard putting on the

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plastic glove and I'm screaming, and
I'm screaming at the top of my lungs,

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and yet I remember thinking later I
wasn't even hearing myself scream. It

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was almost a conscious blackout. After
a few beatings, hard blows and of

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course the infamous fucking Turkish strip search, which by the way, believe me,

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they were experts at it, and
I endured it, and the next

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thing I know, that picked me
up. I could barely even stand,

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and I just remember looking up at
the Turkish commandant sitting at his desk and

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thinking, through that smile, I've
never experienced that kind of emotion before.

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No question. If I could have, I would have killed him right there.

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Anyway, I was taken through the
courtroom into the Turkish cell and all

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I could do is I just clasped. I just remember feeling stunned and trying

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to get a grip on the reality
of where I was from, just literally

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not more than twenty four hours earlier, being the captain of one of the

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most luxurious megiots in the world,
sitting in this dungeon of a hell hole,

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it was literally a hole in the
ground, sixteen Turkish prisoners screaming at

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me in a foreign language. The
impact to my psyche was staggering, and

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right then I kind of understood this
was going to be survival and literally nothing

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else but pure survival. As Michael
settled into military prison life, amazingly,

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he still had no idea what he
was being detained for or why he was

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arrested. Finally, Stephanie was able
to get in and hey a visit,

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and she was only able to see
me through a small barred opening in the

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wooden door. Being able to see
her face, I could those tearful eyes

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just crushed me. But she was
able to convey to me what mister r

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had found out and where this all
originated. The arrest warrant was an Interpol

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warrant originating Increase some six to seven
eight years earlier from and as soon as

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she couldn't even get it out of
her mouth because she didn't understand. But

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the minute she said it, I
knew what it was like. Some crew

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are bad, some owners are bad. Went to work for a Greek owner,

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real bad guy, and I was
warned against him, but I took

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the job and he ended up sending
us to the Caribbean. But unmknownst to

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me and it was proved out he
was a criminal, and he set me

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up and accused me and the crew
of stealing his boat. He had set

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me up with I'm insurance scam,
and that's where the inner Pol warrant originated.

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It was always there, never disappeared, and I had sale all around

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the world with that in place,
and never once was detained until now.

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But finally realizing why he was in
prison didn't make things much easier. It

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would be a battle to clear his
name in a very different system than what

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Michael was used to in America.
As the days passed inside Sirgay Prison,

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the military compound under absolutely squalor conditions, Stephanie was able to set up shop

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in Turkey. She was not going
to leave me, got a little place

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to stay in a little dungeon,
little hotel near the prison she was taking

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long attack. He rides in the
middle of nowhere with the promise of my

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release for of course, the cost
of American US dollars. The danger she

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faced, everybody was pulling on her
here and there, and I couldn't stop

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worrying endlessly night and day about what
she was going through. But she was

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desperately, desperately trying to find us
a lawyer that could communicate and navigate the

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judicial system, which did not exist. And it is not like anything we

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have it in America. There is
no such thing as due process. And

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one Stephanie did find his lawyer,
Michael, was not exactly impressed by what

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he saw. And I'm not even
sure how to begin with this, but

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she was in her forties, very
plump and bust to us, with red

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lipstick, spiked high heels. When
I first got when she first came to

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see me to tell me how much
she was going to help me, I

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just went, oh, my god, you had got to be kidding me.

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But we had paid her forty eight
thousand dollars, which, believe me,

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set her up for life in Turkey. And within five minutes I was

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shaking my head. I go no, no, and just talking to myself

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this this, this is this is
a fake. This is not real.

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She proceeded to tell me how many
people she knew, how well she was

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connected, and that she would have
me out in three days, three days.

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Michael, you will be out.
Three days, you will be out,

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and I just go no way,
no way. She could not get

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me out. I was not released
in three days. Again, after several

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weeks, Uh Stephanie was able to
get inside inside again to see me.

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She had was wearing the Muslim gear
you know of the Muslim women, and

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that's how she had she had to
blend in. When I saw her face,

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I just my heart sunk. She
was gone. She was real thin.

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And the fortieth day had arrived.
They could only hold me forty days.

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Everybody was looking forward to it.
And after the day after that fortieth

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day came and went, I was
not released. I was devastated, looking

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at her face, crying. I
just I couldn't help, but just whispered

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harshly to her, but lovingly as
best I could, communicating to her.

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Stephanie get home. It was soon
after that Stephanie finally left for the United

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States. Then the word came that
through the grapevine, the prison grapevine,

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that I was being transferred to Bougia
Prison is Mere Turkey. And I knew

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nothing. I hadn't known anything about
it. But the other inmates, and

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particularly one was frightened for me.
He made it very known, shaking his

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head that no, no, no, you know, he was so so

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worried about me being transferred to Bouzia
Prison. They wanted to get rid of

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me and get me out of there, and they thought they could hide me

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by sending me to the most infamous
prison practically on the planet. I learned

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later it was number three on the
Human Rights hit list for human rights violations.

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It is Mere Turkey, was a
maximum security lockdown. Down through this

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dark, filthy maze of tunnels,
literally underground, going through large heavy steel

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mock gates. I think I counted
eight or nine steel gates that we passed

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through, and it got darker in
danger and wetter. Prisoners I could hear

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starting to scream and chant that was
as I was being shoved and prodded with

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the black batons, the big thick
turkey black batons, and I'm screaming inside

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my head. I go no.
I mean, I knew immediately with every

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fiber of my body this was a
bad, bad place. I mean,

205
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by this time I was a little
bit hardened, but I didn't quite quite

206
00:18:17.240 --> 00:18:22.160
understand where I was going and what
I was doing until we got to the

207
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last cell gate, big heavy cell
gate, and they opened it up standing.

208
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Right there, right at that last
cell date, was this tall,

209
00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:45.400
handsome I later learned Iranian prisoner with
this flowing gown on including slippers, who

210
00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:52.839
spoke the most perfect words of like
Oxford English, Welcome, captain, welcome.

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00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:59.839
I was stunned. I couldn't even
speak. He just come with me,

212
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.119
we have a place for you.
And all around him, scampering all

213
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.519
around him were these prisoners, other
prisoners in rags, and just like these

214
00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:15.559
scallywags. He escorted me, and
he had two concubines at work that he

215
00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.200
looked after, two young boys that
waited on him a hand and foot.

216
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:25.319
He would invite me in for tige. He wasn't an art thief in Beverly

217
00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:30.039
Hills, incredibly wealthy. He was
one of the premier opium smugglers out of

218
00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:36.480
the hills of Afghanistan. He had
connections, huge connections from the outside which

219
00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:41.880
took care of the guards families,
enabling them to smuggle everything he needed to

220
00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:47.720
exist comfortably in there, and he
shared it with me. He shared his

221
00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:52.599
wit, his knowledge, and he
knew everything going on in the prison system,

222
00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:57.759
including all about me. He would
tell me things that were happening in

223
00:19:57.799 --> 00:20:03.680
the newspapers and the media about me
that I was unable to hear about because

224
00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:08.640
I had no content. One of
the things this colorful and memorable prisoner told

225
00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:14.799
Michael was that his old friends at
the American Consulate were on their way to

226
00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:19.279
the prison to see him. And
I quickly asked, can I get a

227
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:22.920
piece of paper from you? And
I wrote, I hadn't written note to

228
00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:27.440
the consulate that I was going to
try to smuggle out, just to get

229
00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:33.720
back to Stephanie to tell them somehow, some way what was happening to me

230
00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:40.039
and what I was experiencing. And
I did just sat I was able to

231
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sit down next to our across from
her, and of course a Turkish guard

232
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:48.079
prison guard set right at the at
the entrance to the door, and I

233
00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:55.720
was able to have a one on
one with Jean. The look of concern

234
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:59.200
on her face when she saw me
hit me with like a ton of bricks.

235
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I didn't really lies what I had
transformed into and what I was looking

236
00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:06.559
like. I'm sure I'd look like
some kind of beaten animal to her,

237
00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.240
but she wanted to quickly, wanted
to try to have some kind of conversation

238
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about niceties. Are you okay?
Do you get enough t get? I

239
00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:19.400
got stop? I fucking I told
her to stop. I don't give a

240
00:21:19.480 --> 00:21:23.599
fuck about the niceties. What are
you doing? What are they doing to

241
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:27.559
get me out of here? I
Am going to die in here. And

242
00:21:27.640 --> 00:21:30.880
I said to her with a whisper, I've said I'm gonna slip. I'm

243
00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:33.519
gonna underneath. I'm gonna I've got
a letter. You gotta get it to

244
00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:40.039
Stephanie and mister R please just take
the letter. And she agreed to so

245
00:21:40.279 --> 00:21:45.519
under the table, I tried to
slip to her this letter and she grabbed

246
00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:51.160
it and she got it. And
in that minute, thinking that the guard

247
00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:56.279
was half asleep, he wasn't.
He saw it and boom, he screamed

248
00:21:56.319 --> 00:22:00.880
at her, screamed at me in
Turkish. Other guards came in and escorted

249
00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:04.319
me out, and that was the
end of that meeting. And then of

250
00:22:04.359 --> 00:22:12.880
course that led the solitary confinement.
That's right, solitary confinement. As if

251
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:22.039
things couldn't get any worse for Michael, and literally my darkest, darkest hour,

252
00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:29.240
I definitely thought, is this really
how I die? A depression hit

253
00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:33.839
me that was so heavy it ate
as I later, as I sat in

254
00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:41.720
solitary deep despair, was briefly was
able to get in to see me briefly

255
00:22:41.880 --> 00:22:44.720
through a crack, a crack in
mont of the cell block, and he

256
00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:48.519
told me literally whispered to me,
captain, you're going to be leaving here

257
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.160
soon. You're going to And I
tried to crawl over and hear it,

258
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:55.720
and I go, what you are
leaving here soon? Which just stunned me.

259
00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:03.359
Within twenty four hours, the extra
extradition had started. Turkey could not

260
00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:10.079
did not want to take any more
pressure from the international community by holding me

261
00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.519
there at Bouga Prison. They wanted
me out, so that extradition process started

262
00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:22.960
once again. Paraded back up through
the dungeon and the screams and the American

263
00:23:22.119 --> 00:23:27.079
captain then this, and at that
point I had survived it. I knew

264
00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:32.559
I was moving forward, although I
was terrified, but I felt a sense

265
00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:38.720
of a bit of respect by the
Turkish guards, the inmates that I had

266
00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:44.920
survived that place, and I was
moving forward and being extra tited to Greece,

267
00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.559
and through the hard work of Stephanie
and many others, mister r the

268
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State Department, so many people,
I was able, as a foreigner to

269
00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:59.720
get a trial date incredibly quick in
the Greek system. And when I tell

270
00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:07.880
you, a courtroom in Greece is
like nothing most Americans could possibly understand.

271
00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:12.799
There were several trials going on at
once. The screaming and the shouting,

272
00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:18.359
and the and the chaos of being
we were being interrupted by other lawyers from

273
00:24:18.359 --> 00:24:23.240
other trials and so forth. But
I stood firm in front of a three

274
00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:30.200
judge tribunal. I finally got to
a court to where all the hard work

275
00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:34.720
by everyone could show this these judges, this tribunal, that I was innocent.

276
00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:41.000
I had all the documentation, everything
to prove that I did not do

277
00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:45.519
this, and I thought I would
be released that night. And that's that

278
00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:51.839
was my mindset going in uh.
And it started off well, they were

279
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:56.559
speaking great, stamping papers as they
do, lawyers, screaming at each other,

280
00:24:56.599 --> 00:25:00.440
back and forth and uh. And
then my intern, her standing right

281
00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:04.279
next to me, was whispering.
A female was whispering in my ear.

282
00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.799
On the first count of major theft, innocent, acquitted, and I'm calling

283
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:17.559
and I'm looking around back at Mark
and Stephanie. I'm smiling, my lawyer

284
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.759
is smiling. I'm going okay,
second cut of major whatever it was,

285
00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:26.079
the charges I've made up, acquitted. I was found innocent, innocent,

286
00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:32.799
innocent. Then it came to the
last charge, of which was a misdemeanor

287
00:25:32.839 --> 00:25:38.079
of mischief, misdemeanor mischief guilty.
I looked at her and I go,

288
00:25:38.359 --> 00:25:41.160
okay, all right, I'll pay
a fine, just get me out of

289
00:25:41.160 --> 00:25:45.319
here, give me out, and
she and she just looked at me with

290
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:51.400
her face just dropped. Three years, three years in prison for a fucking

291
00:25:51.440 --> 00:26:00.119
misdemeanor. I screamed at amongst all
this chaost off the high ceilings, I

292
00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:07.119
scream of no, just bellowed and
echoed, and I literally became delirious in

293
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:12.319
my anger. I could feel Mark
and Stephanie trying to reach me and grabbed

294
00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:18.720
me as the guards just once again
grabbed me, shackle me, escorted me

295
00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:23.200
to a small area waiting room,
and then towards the end of the day,

296
00:26:25.319 --> 00:26:29.440
I finally was able to speak to
my lawyer, who initially tried to

297
00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:33.640
be optimistic, and Michael, you
won your case. You're going You're going

298
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:36.799
to be out. You'll be out
with time served. You'll be out in

299
00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:41.799
ten months, less than a year. I looked at him with a look

300
00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:49.160
that said it all, and I
just whispered venomously to him, you can

301
00:26:49.319 --> 00:26:52.839
find a way to get me out. I don't care what it takes,

302
00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:57.200
what it costs, find another way
to get me out. And I told

303
00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:03.319
him I will not survive. I
will die in this prison. You gotta

304
00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:07.160
get me out. And he looked
at me a little bit, with a

305
00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:08.880
little bit of a frightened look,
and he said, Michael, we may

306
00:27:08.960 --> 00:27:15.480
have one more chance, one more
chance. I'll come to see you in

307
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:17.960
a while. I'm not sure when, but I will come to see you.

308
00:27:18.759 --> 00:27:22.799
I was taken back to myself,
obviously crashed and burned. I just

309
00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:27.680
hung in myself, didn't leave it
for a few days, but I finally

310
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:34.920
mustered up enough energy to fight.
The all dangerous, chaotic, definitely dangerous

311
00:27:36.359 --> 00:27:41.119
phone lines. Are five payphones on
the wall, with all these outlaws of

312
00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.599
inmates behind you, getting in line
and screaming and shouting. And finally I

313
00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:52.279
got to one of the payphones,
calling long distance collect and I reached Stephanie.

314
00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:56.200
Her voice on the other end,
and I heard a slight whisper,

315
00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:00.920
whisper, go, Michael, are
you okay? I could tell something was

316
00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:04.680
different in her voice, something even
her the way the words she used were

317
00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:08.359
different. And I said, Stephanie, are you okay? Are you okay?

318
00:28:08.359 --> 00:28:12.599
And I'm cupping the receiver, trying
to talk with her ten thousand miles

319
00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:18.519
away, and she said it,
She said it, and it hit me

320
00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.799
like nothing else had hit me.
Michael, I am having an affair.

321
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:29.200
And from that point I went numb. I couldn't hear anything else. I've

322
00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:33.279
just dropped the receiver, made my
way back through the fricken outlaw gangs of

323
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:42.240
inmates behind me, and trashed and
burned again in myself. And then a

324
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:48.319
couple of days later, one of
the old boys, an old boy doing

325
00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:53.200
life in prison for killing his business
partner, and I always enjoyed his company,

326
00:28:53.240 --> 00:28:57.359
always had little bits of prison wisdom. Decided he was going to pay

327
00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:04.319
me a visit, came into my
cell and told me, so, Michael's

328
00:29:04.440 --> 00:29:11.960
it's prison unwritten prison knowledge that a
girlfriend's only last a year. Maybe wives

329
00:29:12.039 --> 00:29:15.640
might last a year and a half, but they all will leave. It's

330
00:29:15.720 --> 00:29:21.519
your circumstance that you have to be
worried about. And I just I just

331
00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:23.680
looked up shaking my head. Here
I was. I caught myself. I

332
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:29.200
had to smile briefly because he was
a likable old boy, but I had

333
00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:33.279
I just caught myself listening to what
he was telling me. Here I was

334
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:38.920
taking wisdom from from some old inmate
doing life for murder, and and I

335
00:29:40.039 --> 00:29:42.640
just shook my head. Oh my
god, but it hit home. It

336
00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:48.160
hit home, and I tried to
regroup. Okay, after about three weeks,

337
00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:52.720
I finally get worried through it that
my lawyer was going to come to

338
00:29:52.720 --> 00:29:56.240
see me. And he had a
big smile, and there was a part

339
00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:57.480
of me that liked him. He
had a sharp suit on, but he

340
00:29:57.559 --> 00:30:02.880
was a little bit crooked. Why
I needed him. He proceeded to tell

341
00:30:02.880 --> 00:30:07.039
me, Michael, we're we're going
to appeal, and it's a gamble if

342
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:11.960
we appeal, there's the gamble that
they could give you more time. But

343
00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:15.319
that's our only last chance of getting
you out of here. Now. No

344
00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:21.559
foreigners ever released on appeal, never
ever, ever, But maybe we might

345
00:30:21.680 --> 00:30:23.680
have a shot. We might have
a shot to get you out of prison.

346
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:27.920
But you will have to wait and
be monitored for about a year a

347
00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:32.559
year and a half until your appeal
court day. And I looked at left

348
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.799
my lawyer, and I said,
do it, do it, whatever it

349
00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:40.039
takes. And as we were just
separating, and I look back and I

350
00:30:40.119 --> 00:30:42.000
go, how much is it going
to cost? And he said, oh,

351
00:30:42.200 --> 00:30:47.799
seven grand, seven thousand dollars And
I just sho, okay, I'll

352
00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:51.079
get Stephanie to give you the money. She will send you the money we

353
00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:53.519
need to make this happen. Well, then I knew I had to get

354
00:30:53.519 --> 00:31:00.400
a hold of Stephanie. I hadn't
talked to her since to day. She

355
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:03.680
had told me that she was having
an affair, which is crushed and hurt

356
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.559
me. But I needed to get
ahold of her once again. The waiting

357
00:31:07.640 --> 00:31:14.400
line for the five pay phones on
the cement wall that we're backed up by

358
00:31:14.440 --> 00:31:18.599
one hundred inmates, all screaming at
the top of their lungs, you know,

359
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:22.400
to get to each pay phone,
all monitored and guarded and regulated by

360
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:29.640
the Albanian gangs. And it was
treacherous. It was fricking dangerous to wait

361
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:32.599
in line, but I had to
do it. And you only got two

362
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:37.000
minutes, two minutes once you connected, and they were strict about it.

363
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:42.359
I finally reached that ten thousand miles
across the ocean. I hear the soft

364
00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:47.319
voice of Stephanie and she gets on
the line and I'm cupping the receiver.

365
00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:52.759
The gang of outlaws are just crazy
noise behind me, screaming and chounel.

366
00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:57.000
I'm huddling down, and I told
Stephanie, Stephanie, I'm gonna get out

367
00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:00.920
there. I'm gonna They're going to
appeal. I need to get you need

368
00:32:00.960 --> 00:32:07.519
to send seven thousand dollars to kill
our lawyer. He's going to bribe the

369
00:32:07.599 --> 00:32:10.079
judge. They are going to let
me out. They will release me on

370
00:32:10.240 --> 00:32:14.759
appeal. There was dead silence on
the other end, and I go,

371
00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:17.720
Stephanie, can you hear me?
Because Michael, we can't pay any more

372
00:32:17.720 --> 00:32:22.359
money. You know that this is
a con. They're gonna con you again.

373
00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:25.359
I go, Stephanie, They're going
to get me out. I will

374
00:32:25.400 --> 00:32:29.759
be able to get out of this
prison. And I could, and my

375
00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:34.160
time was getting up. I could
feel them screaming and shouting behind me,

376
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:38.680
all in a foreign language. I
just huddled down at the receiver right here,

377
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:44.359
right at my mouth, and I
just remember, with a fricking,

378
00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:50.400
strong, venomous hiss, I've just
said, Stephanie, you fucking send that

379
00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:54.759
seven thousand dollars, and you send
it today. And I could hear the

380
00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:01.559
noise behind me, and just send
the angu who was the enforcer for the

381
00:33:01.559 --> 00:33:07.039
Albanian gangs, this big monster,
the most feared guy in the prison.

382
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:12.440
He was the enforcer for the phones
hired by the Albanian gangs. He had

383
00:33:12.519 --> 00:33:15.759
hit the payphone, my payphone in
front of me, had hit it from

384
00:33:15.759 --> 00:33:22.359
the side and had literally exploded off
the wall, exploded. Nothing mattered in

385
00:33:22.440 --> 00:33:25.599
that moment, and I just remember
clutching it. I didn't want to let

386
00:33:25.680 --> 00:33:30.680
go of the phone until I heard
Stephanie say, okay, okay. I

387
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:35.319
went to that place where I was
absolutely not afraid to be hurt, and

388
00:33:35.400 --> 00:33:39.000
I reckon screamed at the top of
my lungs and inch away from his face,

389
00:33:39.319 --> 00:33:44.960
holding this fucking phone receiver, telling
him in English, which he didn't

390
00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:47.599
understand a word, that I would
stick it up his ass so far he'd

391
00:33:47.599 --> 00:33:52.400
be speaking to it on the other
end. He took a step back,

392
00:33:52.000 --> 00:33:57.519
and he looked at me and looked
around. I don't know, I think

393
00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:02.599
later I realized he might have sound
that saw that I would come lately insane,

394
00:34:04.079 --> 00:34:07.680
and I didn't care, and he
made his way back through the crowd

395
00:34:07.720 --> 00:34:17.760
and walked away. A couple of
days later, after the manga incident,

396
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:22.920
that I came to myself and I
could tell he wanted to scold me,

397
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:27.280
but he actually had some really incredible
news through the grape fine. As he

398
00:34:27.400 --> 00:34:30.920
always found out, my lawyer had
got word to him to get to me

399
00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:37.199
that he had received the seven thousand
dollars and that my appealed date court date

400
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:44.159
had been set for two more weeks. I just was elated, elated,

401
00:34:44.400 --> 00:34:49.239
although I knew he was trying to
temperate, and he said it usually doesn't

402
00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:52.119
work. It almost never worked with
a foreigner. So the day arrived,

403
00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:58.159
I ended up being escorted out up
to another court in front of another judge,

404
00:34:58.199 --> 00:35:00.519
and this time it was a single
judge, and there were a lot

405
00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:06.519
of men, maybe thirty guys inmates, all sitting there, all mostly Greek,

406
00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:10.599
all sitting there and each one being
called. All I heard all day

407
00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:14.800
long was I took about an hour
and a half, hawky, hawky,

408
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:20.039
Greek for no, no, no. I heard my name called, and

409
00:35:20.159 --> 00:35:23.199
my lawyer stands up and he's looking
at me, and he wasn't all that

410
00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:29.480
happy, but I I was as
nervous as could be. And the next

411
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:34.159
thing I know, the judge a
big giant stamp on the desk, nay

412
00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:37.760
nay, and said a bunch of
other words. And I looked at my

413
00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:40.639
lawyer and he's got this giant grin. I'm going, yes, yes,

414
00:35:40.679 --> 00:35:45.239
you're you're out. You're out.
They agreed, they agreed to let you

415
00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:50.480
out. An appeal. I couldn't
believe it. I couldn't believe when the

416
00:35:50.559 --> 00:35:55.039
judge actually granted me release. Well, the conditions of this release were serious.

417
00:35:57.079 --> 00:35:59.719
My passport would be would not be
given back to me. I would

418
00:35:59.760 --> 00:36:05.239
have no passport. I was instructed
more more like ordered not to leave the

419
00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:09.360
country at all, and I was
to be check into the police station every

420
00:36:09.400 --> 00:36:14.760
week, to be monitored and checked
on to make sure I did not leave

421
00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:19.760
that country. But I was finally
getting out of the prison, and I

422
00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:23.880
knew once I was out, I
could possibly implement my plan. But they

423
00:36:23.880 --> 00:36:29.519
were strict, strict orders. If
I made any effort, any effort at

424
00:36:29.559 --> 00:36:34.159
all, to leave the country,
I would be arrested and thrown back into

425
00:36:34.199 --> 00:36:37.159
prison. But none of that mattered
to me. None of it mattered to

426
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:43.360
be. I knew I had to
get myself home. I knew I couldn't

427
00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:46.199
spend one more day in prison.
I would either die or be killed.

428
00:36:46.360 --> 00:36:52.480
There is no question about it.
I had to get myself home. I

429
00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:55.599
didn't tell my lawyer, nobody,
nothing, what I had planned to do.

430
00:37:02.119 --> 00:37:08.480
I immediately went to the American Embassy, which was downtown Athens, saluted

431
00:37:08.519 --> 00:37:12.639
the marine guards. They let me
in and U and I will tell you

432
00:37:12.679 --> 00:37:17.119
when I walked into the American Embassy
and escorted into the department, every single

433
00:37:17.199 --> 00:37:22.159
person one they knew of me.
Of course, it had been in the

434
00:37:22.199 --> 00:37:27.239
news and had been talked about for
a year. I'm just so grateful how

435
00:37:27.239 --> 00:37:31.000
they treated me. They treated me
like a celebrity. They asked me if

436
00:37:31.039 --> 00:37:37.159
I was okay. They had followed
my odyssey for this whole year and just

437
00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:42.920
fantastic feeling. I was a little
fuzzy because of all the English being spoken,

438
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:45.880
so I had to kind of concentrate
and focus. I really wanted to

439
00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:51.400
get to the person who could maybe
issued me a passport, which I did,

440
00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:57.639
and I did request set Now for
the American embassy to issue me a

441
00:37:57.719 --> 00:38:02.000
passport was highly illegal, but I
was brought in to see at that time

442
00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:07.280
the ambassador, who was now high
up in the stage department os him on

443
00:38:07.400 --> 00:38:13.119
TV. He was wonderful. He
issued some orders. In three hours,

444
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:17.840
I had a passport, an American
passport, brand new, albeit it came

445
00:38:17.880 --> 00:38:22.480
with a small little piece of paper
in the front instructing in Greek and in

446
00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:29.239
English that I was not to leave
the country. I walked out the embassy

447
00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:31.679
doors. I was like my step
with it, out of the hots,

448
00:38:31.679 --> 00:38:36.440
given a jump. I saluted the
Marine Corps guards right at the gate and

449
00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:39.119
said thank you very much, and
proceeded to rip that little piece of paper

450
00:38:39.159 --> 00:38:43.360
out of my passport. So I
had already a plan in mind. I

451
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:49.159
made my way to the downtown Athens
bus station. There's a port on the

452
00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:55.400
very western side of the Peloponnese.
Whether all the ferries going to Ancona or

453
00:38:55.480 --> 00:39:01.239
Italy leave out of I need to
take an overnight bus trip, possibly hopefully

454
00:39:01.320 --> 00:39:06.480
get on the ferry and get myself
out of the country. I was terrified.

455
00:39:06.519 --> 00:39:12.599
I had that anxiety that just consumed
that fiber of my body. Beyond

456
00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:17.159
the nervousness, I was exhausted.
I couldn't chance going through the passport check

457
00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:22.280
because if I was caught, if
there was, if there was any kind

458
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:27.559
of alert against me leaving the country, I would certainly be brought to back

459
00:39:27.639 --> 00:39:30.880
to prison and be serving a lot
of many, many many more. Here

460
00:39:36.519 --> 00:39:42.400
and I spotted him. I spotted
two guys having amstall beer big amstel Beers

461
00:39:42.599 --> 00:39:46.159
nine o'clock in the morning, drinking
away, and I decided to approach him.

462
00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:51.960
And as it turned out, they
were two English truck drivers. To

463
00:39:52.039 --> 00:39:57.400
be clear, Michael's talking about two
complete strangers, men that he'd never met.

464
00:39:58.119 --> 00:40:00.639
He was about to risk his entire
escape by asking them for the biggest

465
00:40:00.679 --> 00:40:07.559
favor possible. I've decided right then. Once they were engaging, they were

466
00:40:07.559 --> 00:40:15.679
friendly. I introduced myself as an
American, and I decided just briefly flat

467
00:40:15.719 --> 00:40:21.079
out tell them what happened to me
truthfully that I spent the last year in

468
00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:23.480
a Turkish and Greek prison. I
got to get out of the country.

469
00:40:24.239 --> 00:40:29.400
They were incredibly empathetic, and one
of the truck drivers said, well,

470
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:31.440
they never checked the back of the
back of the cab of the truck.

471
00:40:31.440 --> 00:40:35.960
They never ever looked there. Why
don't you just get in the back of

472
00:40:35.960 --> 00:40:39.480
the cab. We'll load the truck. You just stay on on the inside

473
00:40:39.519 --> 00:40:43.880
the truck until we get to the
other side. And I looked at the

474
00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:46.840
two of them, I go,
are you sure? And they both both

475
00:40:47.320 --> 00:40:52.920
looked at me directly, but I
can tell they were mesmerized by my story

476
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:55.239
angles and they said, yeah,
I'm right, Yank. We'll get you

477
00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:58.960
home. We'll get you home.
And they hid me in the back of

478
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:05.599
the truck onto the ferry. And
that's how I've made my way across across

479
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:14.360
into England. I had gotten out
of Greece. I couldn't believe the feeling

480
00:41:14.440 --> 00:41:20.400
I had. It was a crystal
blue hot day and I took a deep

481
00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:24.840
breath and I couldn't I almost almost
buckled my knees, and I've just had

482
00:41:24.920 --> 00:41:30.519
that. The English guy spotted me
and they came over and welcome, Captain

483
00:41:30.599 --> 00:41:37.079
welcome. And by that time I
think they even realized that they were part

484
00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:45.840
of a greater adventure. And I
made the decision then to call the American

485
00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:52.719
Embassy in Rome. And I got
onto a guy who I told who I

486
00:41:52.880 --> 00:41:55.280
was, told him who I was
and what had happened to me and what

487
00:41:55.320 --> 00:42:00.639
I was doing. And I was
very leary, very nervous to tell anybody

488
00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:07.400
anything but what I wanted to cover
myself if I was stopped by Interpol or

489
00:42:07.480 --> 00:42:13.599
security chats at Rome Airport. I
needed to have the American Embassy right there

490
00:42:13.920 --> 00:42:17.360
to possibly be able to take custody
of me. That was my only that

491
00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:22.239
was my hope in case something went
south. He agreed to meet me at

492
00:42:22.239 --> 00:42:25.639
the airport with the automatic weapons everywhere, the chaos going on, and I

493
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:30.199
just took a deep breath and I
told him to just keep an eye on

494
00:42:30.239 --> 00:42:31.639
me, and he said, I
will, good luck, You'll be fine.

495
00:42:32.199 --> 00:42:37.960
And I made my way through the
security lines back forth, got to

496
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:42.599
the window, looked at my passport, didn't really look at it, but

497
00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:46.480
my heart was like beating out my
chest and he stamped it, stamped at

498
00:42:46.559 --> 00:42:51.079
exit and I was through. Next
thing I know, I was on a

499
00:42:51.119 --> 00:42:55.840
plane flying to New York. I
finally arrived in New York City. I

500
00:42:55.920 --> 00:43:00.480
got off the plane, and you
know, most people might apply that I've

501
00:43:00.480 --> 00:43:04.239
just dropped to my knees, kissed
the ground, but it wasn't that.

502
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:08.880
For me. It was there was
a sense of being overwhelmed, quite frankly

503
00:43:08.960 --> 00:43:14.639
and completely out of focus. But
I managed to get to the phone immediately.

504
00:43:14.679 --> 00:43:17.440
First thing I did was get to
a pay phone and find the connecting

505
00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:22.119
flight to Fort Lauderdale. But I've
managed to call Stephen and tell her,

506
00:43:22.119 --> 00:43:27.199
Stephanie, tonight, I will be
in Fort Lauderdale tonight. She was there

507
00:43:27.239 --> 00:43:31.000
at the airport to meet me.
We both sobbed uncontrollably. But I had

508
00:43:31.079 --> 00:43:34.400
made it home. I had made
it home, and I told her,

509
00:43:34.440 --> 00:43:37.719
I don't care about anything else.
I'm home. You got me home.

510
00:43:39.199 --> 00:43:45.239
As the days evolved, I didn't
understand what had happened to me. I

511
00:43:45.400 --> 00:43:50.599
knew something was wrong because I couldn't
focus. I couldn't even go into a

512
00:43:50.679 --> 00:43:54.519
grocery store. And then the media
were on top of me, calling for

513
00:43:54.599 --> 00:44:00.000
interviews and even camped out in my
front yard. Again. That type of

514
00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:07.320
thing through. Stephanie starting to learn
and realize the entire community and how huge

515
00:44:07.360 --> 00:44:13.320
the effort was in our town of
Fort Latrille, that also spread nationally and

516
00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:19.840
internationally to famous pie pobol like Dustin
Hoffman, Ross Perot and of course mister

517
00:44:20.039 --> 00:44:25.119
R. Their efforts to get me
home was so I felt so intimidated because

518
00:44:25.159 --> 00:44:30.280
there was no way I could begin
to thank all these people. After being

519
00:44:30.920 --> 00:44:37.039
confused out of focus for a few
weeks, there was really only one person

520
00:44:37.159 --> 00:44:42.360
I felt I needed to go see, and that was mister R. And

521
00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:45.079
he had called me and I had
spoken to him and invited me up to

522
00:44:45.119 --> 00:44:51.599
his office in Palm Beach Gardens,
big big, huge building that he owns.

523
00:44:52.119 --> 00:44:54.599
He said one thing, and this
is this is the epitome of who

524
00:44:54.639 --> 00:44:59.760
mister R was. He said,
Michael, the world out there as a

525
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:07.440
uncle, and you're one of the
lions. I knew immediately he understood what

526
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:13.440
I was going through. He knew
what I needed again, he knew I

527
00:45:13.559 --> 00:45:16.079
needed to go back to see.
He knew I needed to be who I

528
00:45:16.320 --> 00:45:21.679
was. And I walked out of
the odd of his office as feeling more

529
00:45:21.719 --> 00:45:28.960
alive. I just felt like I
could move forward. And that's exactly how

530
00:45:29.639 --> 00:45:35.599
he set things up. A few
weeks later, he called and asked me

531
00:45:35.639 --> 00:45:38.840
if i'd be willing to go down
to Australia and take a look at another

532
00:45:38.920 --> 00:45:43.400
boat that he's interested in buying,
and I sworked. To this day,

533
00:45:43.599 --> 00:45:47.400
I still think he bought that vessel
for me. He knew I needed to

534
00:45:47.440 --> 00:45:58.960
be who I was now. Back
at the helm of the Meggiata, Michael

535
00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:04.760
finally had a moment reflect on what
he'd been through. And then we were

536
00:46:04.760 --> 00:46:08.719
getting ready to make our last long
trip from New Pheeva through the Galophicos,

537
00:46:08.760 --> 00:46:15.239
which is a long stretch of open
ocean up to the Equator. And I

538
00:46:15.360 --> 00:46:17.960
was up on watch and I'm doing
my captain thing, and I'm out on

539
00:46:19.039 --> 00:46:23.480
the wings looking through the binoculars,
and I see like this gurgle of ocean

540
00:46:23.719 --> 00:46:29.039
way off, way off, that
was building and building like a tsunami of

541
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:35.679
water. And I'm going, what, Oh my God, Go down below,

542
00:46:36.039 --> 00:46:38.440
get everybody, Get all everybody,
all the crew on deck, Get

543
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:44.440
them on deck. You've got to
witness it. I am talking thousands and

544
00:46:44.679 --> 00:46:52.360
thousands and thousands of dolphins swimming and
diving and jumping straight at us. They

545
00:46:52.400 --> 00:46:58.119
heard the hum of our engines from
miles and miles away and came and came

546
00:46:58.440 --> 00:47:04.880
running to greet us. And it
lasted probably three hours. The crew was

547
00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:09.199
exhausted. I just shook my head. Are you kidding me? That was

548
00:47:09.280 --> 00:47:17.400
a majestic moment. And I literally
thought to myself, right at that moment,

549
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:24.119
eighteen months earlier, I was in
the depths of these feign despicable prisons,

550
00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:30.639
and here I was, in this
beautiful paradise. Here I was.

551
00:47:30.800 --> 00:47:34.679
I was back where I belonged,
as captain of one of the great ten

552
00:47:34.760 --> 00:47:47.320
years. Allegedly as a production of
Voyage Media, the series is produced by

553
00:47:47.360 --> 00:47:52.239
nat Mondel, Robert Midas, and
Dan Bettimore. This episode, American Captain,

554
00:47:52.480 --> 00:47:57.079
was produced by Chris Goldberg Executive produced
by Michael Churchward. Michael wrote a

555
00:47:57.079 --> 00:48:00.719
book about his experiences. God Waits
Outside. It's available on Amazon. A

556
00:48:00.840 --> 00:48:06.079
link is in the show notes,
edited by John Higgins. Original music by

557
00:48:06.119 --> 00:48:08.599
Derlas Gonzalez. If you're enjoying the
show, please leave us a five star

558
00:48:08.639 --> 00:48:14.000
review on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you're
listening, and subscribe now for future episodes.