Post-Prison Life and Media Appearances

Hey, I'm Amara, host of Black Girl G on I True Crime podcast. Over four years and more than two hundred episodes, I've been telling the stories of missing and murdder Back women and girls. stories that are too often ignored. These are real lives, real families, and real cases that deserve the spotlight If you're looking for true crime with heart, purpose, and a mission for justice This is it Listen to Black Groon on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast Their stories matter and I won't stop telling them Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Casual Criminist. As always, I am Simon, your host today's episode of Scrooge McDg the Terrist brought to you by my writer Dennis, thank you, Dennis. This is an absolute beast. Three hour. Ted has included a little comment at the frontier from one of these things from one of the previous videos like a comments on YouTube saying Arati, thank you if I'm pronouncing that right. Denismate, can you please write a novel? I'm serious And so that is did. is it's fifty two pages long. There's two three pages, two pages, three pages of like a preamble Basically a fifty page script We're going to be a Row while Settle in, relax. I hope you enjoy the show. If you're new here, welcome. The format of course is I've never read this before. Dennis has essentially written me a book and I'm going to sit here for probably the better part of my workday when you include breaks and everything and read this book to you. Maybe it'll take more than one day. Let's find up. Let's jump in crime a lot of faces. Yet upon Gloser inspection most of them Terrifyingly human. There's something strangely captivating about the macre beckoning us to explore. For sun, this's the ther of the chase, the challenge of piecing clues together, the satisfaction of seeing justice served, but sometimes we find ourselves magically drawn to outlaws and villains, for reasons that are not so easily explained. Yeahah, and sometimes it's just because people are sick sometometimes I'll be like yeah, I'm gonna skip over the bit where the person's removing people's eyes and inserting them into their butts and then taking them out and eating them I made that up, don't quite know how where I all that from. But it's like I'll skip over that bit because I' be like I didn't need to read that. And I don't think you need to. People will be like, Simon, read the disgusting bits. Simon. I I can't believe you cut that out. I'm like, o, this channel isn't for you, you sickcho. We're here toit Enterertain up to heal As I always say,ess less sore and more CSI. This applies not only to true crime stories but also to fictional ones. We root for Walter White, Dexter Morgan and Tyla Durd and with sincere admiration, utterly oblivious to the fact that by idealising them, we've missed the point of the plot entirely. yeah I I haven't seen Fightlub in a really long time. I definitely with Dexter, Dexter Morgan, the serial killer who kills the bad guys. I was like, I was rooting for him hard through that show. With Breaking Bad, I rooted for Walter White at the beginning and then very quickly I didn't because he became a ster. like No one was rooting for Walter White by the end of their show, were they Surely not. You were just like, I hope he either gets killed or his cancer comes back and kills him I hope his cancer comes back and takes him away from the world. is a phrase that should never be uttered. But in Walter White' case, deserves it. He became a monster This is not necessarily because we approve of their actions, but due to a faint glimmer of recognition Oh yes to know about Walter Walter White more than like Dexter Morgan. My desire to kill anybody is pretty much zero But my desire to become a mess kingping? Well, let's talk about that Their primal desire for violence and destruction still lurks beneath the paved surface of civilization, and even though this force rarely erupts, we can sometimes feel its tamed movements in the unchartered trenches. of our own psyche. It is with this uncanny blend of horror and self observation that we peer into the true crime abys, leaving us wondering if the difference between the perpetrators and ourselves It's truly that're profound. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes it's like, o, okay, this person did this because of that I'll be like, yeah I've been like I could put myself in that position Lad' I this slight people. I feel like on one episode, I was like, yeah I could kill someone, if necessary. And people were like, o, Simon st study. And I'm like, Is that so unusual? Like there's definitely situations where it would be like, people do this every day, like legally in like wars and And's like, Yeahah, you're that position. I'm pretty sure I could do that And if you think you can't, you probably could because the military and stuff really good at training you to be able to kill people. It's kind of what they do. There was something I don't want to butcher the facts too much, but I think I made a video about this once. There was Until like the mid twentieth century I think it was after World War two Soldiers were really bad at killing other people. They'd be great with guns, they'd be good at all of this stuff. but when it came to killing someone, they were like, o no, I don't like that. That's another person. And so what they did is they started changing the targets in target practice to cutouts of people and it made it much easier and the soldiers became much more effective at killing people. And I think this was an American specific example, but I think Vietnam became the first war where this kind of post rination of shooting at targets of people rather than just circular targets became a thing. I'm sure I'm butchering these facts, but it was like a crazy statistic jump of how many people were willing to kill people after just changing what the targets looked like. because the military's really good Get people to kill people what a genius insight, Simon. Well And when the credits of yet another episode roll, we may be left with the low key impression of having learned something about ourselves subdued and sealed away by the much greater force that is our morality. I mean, you're the one watching the guy who is literally twenty two writers locked up in his basement for entertainment purposes. You're in no position to disagree, Dennis, we've talked about this D I mention the basement, you've got to mention that you're free and happy and living on the outside, Dennis. come on. Am I right, Dennis? At first glance, this episode unfurls the career of a terrorist, an out of control mastermind driven by the lowest of motives, toying with human lives as though they were entirely worthless. I'll report un arguably the most notorious crime series of post war Germany, committed by a twisted soul that could have gone down in the annals as a disgrace, but let me emphasize The important part here He actually became a national hero instead. I just recorded an episode. I can't know what it was and it was titled like Oh, it was the Choppered episode. that David wrote for me. And David lives in Australia and he was like, this guy's like revered. And I finished that epode being like, ye, he's piece of, isn't Apparently he's beloved in Australia as an outlaw. And I'm like, yeah, that's ' he told like a really good fictitious story of his life. But the guy's a douh Or he was. he got he died, I think it was cancer I think he drank so much his liver died. That was it. hisis liver died And he got like cirrhosis, not cancer Is cirrhosis cancer is that a type of cancer? Probably not, right? That's just when your liver gets all ruined because you drank too much. This is the story of the most cunning, most intelligent offender we've covered on this channel so far. His genius being reminiscent of an over the top movie character. Even though this is a truthful account of re events, every other paragraph will feel like a Hollywood screenplay. yet the deeper we delve into this roller coaster of a case, the more you'll realize this episode is actually all about you. Also, as an unexpected detour from our usual narrative journey, we're not dissecting the past, we're confronting it head on. For the first time, onn the casual criminalist, I personally scored an exclusive interview with the elusive mastermind himself, who, despite now leading a secluded life, agreed to share his side of the story with us. Oh this is cool. Denis sent me a box hold He sent me a copy of this dude's autobiography. which is entirely in German. So I won't be reading this later. A sign photo of the dude. I already like him. Its it's also in German, but this is still very cool. I didn't crease this, Dennis, I'm sorry, the postal service creased it I don't know why the box was qu quite beat up. It was an experience, to say the least, easily the weirdest encounter of my entire life. And I say this as someone who was once lectured about Japanese rope bondage by a Nun at an airport cafeteria Okay I dare propose a wager. Over the course of the next few hours, you'll carve out a vivid image of this perpetrator and forge your own moral verdicts about him, and you will feel somewhat certain about your conclusions. Yet once I reveal his utterly surprising response to one specific and very basic interview question, I assure you any initial conclusions will be upended in an instance Depending on your interpretation, this might very well be our first episode where the culprit is genuinely the good guy. Okay, let's see I feel a little bit biased because I've got his autobiography, he's signed this thing for me, but I'll try and be impartial. Okay, let's go Scrooge McDuck greets his nephews Habbg ninet twenty two A foreboding calm cloaked to the street as if the boulevard of shuttered shops and closed restaurants had been paralyzed of sudden anticipation No footsteps echoed through the night, no voices betrayed the presence of any nearby pedestrians, only the distant noise of passing cars the silence But if someone had been there to witness the moment, they would have detected a certain unease tugging at their attention. The flimsy pieace was deceitful and vibrant to the touch. A premonition of something vast hung heavy in the atmosphere, as a sinister pulse wormed its way through the towering facades flanking the street You could hear it emerge from the golden shop windows, where high end household items were flaunted, visible to all, yet out of reach for most. The insidious ticking noise was not a metaphor. It emanated from a makeshift pipe bomb hidden in the houseware section of Hamburg's carstt department store The good guy put a pipe on in a department store Denis He's not a strong star for him. I also do feel like I'm reading a novel I feel like this this is how novels sound in my head when I read them A the stroke of one AM. I don't know why. It's like that very like novelly voice The hour hand of a mechanical timer met with an electrical contact, igniting a dance of destruction. Pinpoint sparks shot up from the cellophane wrapping, setting off a series of electrical discharges that raced through the wirings The moment they reached the backpowder core, a resounding boom echoed across the desolate ars, like a gunshot, starting a race against time blast up ended shelves, cracked floor tiles, smashed hundreds of expensive porcelain items and sent their fragments flying like artillery shrapnels The deafening pressure wave reverberated through the corridors, leaving nothing behind but a trail of destruction, debris, and streaks of pulverized glass that drifted slowly to the ground. that After the deep rumble had wafted up and down the walls a couple of times, silence settled in again Within minutes, the sounds of sirens heralded the arrival of first responders from every direction, in a flash red and blue Police cars, fire engines, and ambulances converged on them all, and just like an orchestra, each section played its part in perfect sync. Denis Mate, this could be a book I feel like this is this It's very, very nice Like, all of these metaphors are so thought out. I feel like I'm genuinely reading a book. To keep on look as a The antiterrorist god swiftly set up a perimeter around the Carat complex, and just outside the police call and paramedics stood ready and prepared for the worst. At the same time, a phx of firefighters charged into the smoke choked building, their faces etched with determination and concern as they scanned every corner for signs of human victims, yet, despite a backdrop ripped straight out of a movie pressing concerns were quickly allayed. As it turned out, the building had been utterly empty at the time of the attack, devoid of even the most solitary night janitor cleaning crew scheduled for that night and the temporary workers assigned to restock the shelves weren't due to arrive With a deep sense of relief, the experts also confirmed that the damage, while considerable, did not pose any threat to the structural integrity of the building. The tableware section had indeed been reduced to a wasteeland, yet the building itself was virtually unaffected, and so once any immediate dangers had been dispelled, the real investigation began with a late night phone call, summoning one of Hamburg's most capable investigators to the scene As Detective Michael Dellecky's car glided through the city minutes later, his piercing blue eyes remained focused on the road ahead and his calm face betrayed the extraordinary wisdom that he'd amassed through his accelerated career. As the chief investigator of Hamburg's Police, Delecki wore his authority with the same ease as his neatly pressed suit, a testament to the balance he had struck between the demands of his job and the compassionate nature that defined him. It's like a movie, Dennis. I'm like,h it's like I imagine that it is playing out like a movie in my mind. This should be a movie. Is this a movie in Germany? At this point in his life, he had been quite the public figure. The media had taken to calling him the genius every once in a while and not without reason. His ability to unravel even the most twisted and convoluted of cases was the stuff of noir folklore and his file of awards and commendations could paper the walls of his office. The air was still stained with the accurate tang of explosives when Elecki arrived. From the outset The prospects were looking grim. The forensics team painted a bleep picture of their findings, or rather a lack thereof Th eyewitnesses, let alone suspects, no fingprints on the bombbs's components, it is amazing how like a bomb can go off. and the police will be like, yeah, we'll find the pieces And we'll place it back together, like a jigsaw puzle, and then maybe we'll get some fingerprints off them. And it's like it was a bomb! It literally blew up! And even though rudimentary DNA analysis was a tool available in nineteen ninety two, any traces of biological material would have been incinerated anyway. The security cameras had been skillfully dodged by the person who'd placed the explosive device during the previous day, and for all they knew, the culprit might as well have been a ghost fast paced tide of updates ebbed and flowed, each incoming report is illuminating as a match in the Mariana trench. It seemed The case had reached a dead ends before it had even begun. On the other hand, Inspector Deleaci felt as if he was missing something blindingly obvious. His subconscious mind tried to point his attention towards a certain memory sureurely, he was just fooling himself Being a man of facts, he decided to disregard his gut feeling for now I feel like I'm a man of fact. L definitely, My logic cyber brain works over timee compared to the other side. That gut feeling about stuff is often not like, oh its that's not like the opposite of logic. I feel that that's that feeling you get about something because you have so much knowledge notot that I have like some. super knowledgeable brain. But it's like, you know, when you've accumulated knowledge about something and then you have a feeling about it, it's not just completely unfounded. It's like all of that knowledge is like in the back of your mind and it's like subconsciously pushing you towards one decision or another. You know what I mean? Like that there's a book about this, like the chunked knowledge and stuff. about the chess masters, where it's like they make the moves even though they're not really aware of why it's quite so good. theirir brain's like working subconsciously on why it's so good. You know what I mean? Lost in those thoughts, he ran his finger across the film of Ash and Cinder the blanket of the floor. In his experience, the absence of evidence could sometimes speak volumes as well, so his mind began to inventory everything that seemed to be conspicuously absent. First foremost Human victims. Bomb technicians have quickly been set to reverse engineer the triggering mechanism, confirming the chosen time frrame was neither a technical fluke or a matter of luck, but a deliberate choice by whoever designed it. Yeah, I mean if that happened, I think my first feeling as a wouldould beh the timeos off at the wrong time. They said it at three AM instead of three PM like when the stor behaving If someone places a bomb, like terrorist, assum a terrorist is a pipe bomb, they generally want to kill people not just blow up a department store The fact that that was deliberate, super interesting. was That was that famous story where there were some terrorists somewhere and they set the timers like they They got the time zone wrong or something. So they setify like the wrong time zone. and they were going to like go to there were suicide bombers. They were going to go or they weren't suicide bomb They they were going to place the bomb somewhere And it went off an hour early and blew them all up Murder or even attempted murder could therefore be ruled out, and good old terrorism appeared, or rather unlikely as well as violent extremists typically strived for maximum carnage. Then again, Carstard wasn't just a random chain of muls, not in the least. For centuries, the company stood synonymous with a lifestyle of economic pride, national wealth, and opulence. The brand's name carried a rich tapestry of historical significance and symbolism that almost reached back to the birth of Germany itself. It sounds like Harr's or Selfridge's, right What do you have in America? What's like What's the Harrids of America Like I feel like it's in New York, right? You got a big shopping street Fifth Avenue, something like that. Is there some like big store but it's like super nice and have all this cool sh inside really expensive. Deli Ever since the first Emperor had been crowned, Carstad would gladly align itself with those who currently held the reigns of power. If you know anything about European history, then you're probably aware that this is not necessarily a good thing. In other words I don't know, it's a business. it survives Like You know, you gott to do what you got to do. You don't want to take it too far. You don't wantan to be like IBM 's like, why are you working on IBM? we're working on a system to document the Holocaust. Oh, Okay. That was IBM, right? I't want to get it wrong and shout IBM out for doing something horrible pretty sure it was IVMe. In other words, Karnow was an obvious target for several types of political extremists. If it came down to that, Adleki concluded, they should receive a confession letter shortly. The first light of dawn had barely crept over the horizon when the task force got their assumption confirmed. A cell of radical anarchists publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. According to their statement, the bomb had been intended to protest Western consumerism Only a few years prior, the same group had carried out a similar attack and an empty office building, lending their words a sheen of credibility. Ist so stupid? How are you gonna to protest Western consumerism by setting off a bomb? Yeah, yeah, it's really going do a lot to stop people from shopping. Well done. It's just insane. And they did it an office building? Not even a shop Yet, by the date after another letter arrived at the Carstat branch, this one not only contained a written message but also a drawing of a custom metal piece that had been used in the bomb's construction, proving the authenticity of this author beyond any doubt. Therefore, authorities directed all their attention towards the new one. The contents were remarkably straightforward. In rather plain language, the seenter demanded money, no socio philosophical outpourings, no political stipulations The request was as austere as it was simple. Give me a million marks, or there will be another explosion in a different cast out stor, but one way more powerful. ot here a German mark was the currency before the introduction of the euro. I remember this. I remember going to Germany when there were German marks. I can't remember quite what I think you got three German marks for every one pound. feels about right. this must have been in the early two thousands, late nineties. We used to go We'd have this crazy school trip every year. where we wouldd go to the German Christmas markets in Arken which I think is in West Germany somewhere, but it would be a day trip. So we'd get on a bus at like three in the morning That bus would cross the channel We' drive to the Christmas market in Arkhen, spend like the afternoon or the day in Arkhen, doing the Christmas markets and buying. And then we'd drive back and get back at like midnight. It was like a day trip to Germany. It was really far and we'd do it like every year I think for like years one to four My schools are from like twelve to sixteen something I' every year we took every year that I had to learn German, which I now don't speak at all. I know that Schmetelling means butterfly. sorry, coincidentally, one million marks from nineteen ninety two is pretty much equal to one million US dollars today when injusted for inflation. That makes everything very easy. So he wants a million dollars, does he? If the company was going to agree to pay the ransom, they were asked to place an ad in a daily newspaper stating this cryptic sentence Scrooge McDuck greets his nephews then received further instructions. As Deleucki perused the letter for the uptteenth time, he was once again assailed by an uncanny sense of dejavu. The course of events vaguely mirrored what had happened four years prior. Even though this mental connection was more of an instinct than a logical conclusion, everything felt strangely reminiscent of that one c widely regarded among the most embarrassing blunders in German police history Could it be him? againgain. Was the unknown perpetrator, the same mastermind who fooled the police back in nineteen eighty eight Yes It must be him, Delecki contemplated, as his adrenaline levels spiked through the roof. Yet he decided to keep this suspicion under wraps until he had the hard evidence to support his hunch. Of course, the note was also scrutinized by an armader of profilers, and indeed they quickly arrived at conclusive verdicts, which would certainly have been helpful to Detective Delecki if those deadsore assessments had not directly contradicted one In the realm of crime novels and movies, there is the common trope of law enforcement never ever bending to the demands of extortionists. An fan of the genre will find the ment all too familiar. We don't negotiate with terrorists. except governments negotiate with terrorists and like blackmailers all the time. Yet in reality, this concept could have be further from the truth. Simon recently released a todayafail video about the topic in case you're interested Oh, that doesn't feel so recent, What was that? I don't even remember it. Thereere's a quick summary, Most governments and law enforcement agencies do ask have some kind of codified rule that precludes any kind of negotiation with criminals and terrorists as a means of deterrence. Yet it is very open secret that these principles are constantly being breached for obvious reasons. Yeah, happens all the time. Isn't like prisoner exchanges a classic example with that At the Russian' arm The Russians arguably not terrorists. And they did that prisoner exchange where they got that basketball player, the woman who got arrested for like having weed or whatever. and they exchanged the fing merchant of death for her. So I'm like That' sort of negotiation goes on all the time. I'm not saying that that's negotiating with terrorists, but it's like, yo You got the merchant to death And in exchange American got a basketball player who got arrested having a little bit of weed on her or something. wasn't it even a frame up or something? First of all, we need to consider Carstat's image, which was like a picasso painting. that good at second glance. harsh. I will spare you the details. Let's just say, I paid compensation to the Jewish community in the late nineteen forties. You fill in the blanks. Executive management was hellbent on not appearing like a bunch of sociopaths who would put avarice before human life a clever strategy sometimes called public relations. Reportedly, they not only offered to pay the ransom out of their own pocket, but they also considered adding a little tip to the requested sum at some point just to make sure the elusive monster was entirely satisfied catch the man behind the curtain, but simply to fulfill his demands. They basically begged Detective Delecki to simply let them comply, though there are sources contradicting this notion. I mean this is all well and good. really encourages terrorism It's like, ye yeah we just paid it We were happy to pay it. think you'd just be like, ye, so didn I didn't set off a bomb but I'm going to you just like vague threats. I only want ten grand. So come on, let's go. G me my marks. But more importantly, extortionists are rather stupid on average, meaning they were often screw up when given the opportunity. The German Special operations unit reports that nearly all police guided cash handovers result in the extortionists' arrest, a trend echoed globally Nearly all people The worst case scenario for criminal escaping with the money S is statistically negligible, but let's insert an almost for foreshadowing purposes. The decisive factor, however, only discernible to an expert investigator, lay in the date on the ransom nototes stamp, showing it had been sent off before the bomb's detonation. Basically every single extortionist in the history of recorded criminology had made their demands only after the leverage had taken effect. They accounted for the possibility of failure Or what if the bomb had failed to detonate? What if it had been discovered and diffused hours ahead of the scheduled time? But this person had no such contingency concept of defeat. They were either a full blown narcissistic psychopath or they'd done this before. Both possibilities made it exponentially more likely that they were willing to follow through their threats. After weighing the various factors, it was ultimately decided to comply with the request and respond in the desired manner, so the agreed upon signal graced the very next issue of the local newspaper, Scrooge, McDuck. It's his nephews It read in bold, black ink, an innocuous sentence laden with heavy significance for only a small circle of insiders. Then again, what is the meaning of that phrase Moving forward, the media will start referring to the nameless extortionist exclusively by Scrooge, and he will gladly accept the name for himself. So in case you're not an expert on the lore of Donald Duck comomics, here's a quick rundown. Scrooge was iss the rich dude, right? Who has that giant tower of money I was always like, that's awesome and he just swims in it. There was that amazing family guy sketch where Peter jumps into like his own giant pile of mudoney. and he's like he breaks all of his bones and he's like, A no, money is a solid, not a liquid. Donald Duck is a wealthy and anthomorphic duck shaped capitalist pig created by Disney. He's a duck and' not a pig. known for his insatiable thirst for wealth and his ruthless pursuit of profit. This bourgeois enemy of the working class first appeared in a comic strip Brittain and drawn by Carl Barks in nineteen forty seven, and he serves as a child friendly manifestation of selfishness ever since When I was a kid, I was like, awesome he' rich message he Hekake the completely wrong message. Not like that guy's a capitalist pig, but I'd love a tower full of money. But beneath all of his superficial riches, he's also shown to have a heart of gold. The essence of his character seems to be the following insight. There's more to life than money. Scrooge McDuck learns this lesson in every other comic that he's involved in only to forget this newly acquired wisdom by the time the next comic is published, so he can learn it all over again. evenven though he is a portrayal of reckless greed He is not a glorification of such traits, but a critique. Yet if that is the case, why choose him as an alias for your very reckless and greedy extortion games? Well We'll come back to this question later, but feel free to speculate in the meantime. Spoiler alert, you're as wrong as all of those aforementioned profilers were My guess would be it's like just irony. I guess I'm wrong because I'm not a profil a profiler that's got it wrong. so I'm also going to be wrong. But it's just like You know, took away like me, took away the wrong message star But it's nice to have a giant tower full of money. A small side note, Scrooge McDuck is called Daggabut Duck in Germany. I decided to go with the international equivalent for clarity and consistency, yet strictly speaking, the mysterious extortionist was using the German Daggabut duck. Keep this in mind if you want to decide to further investigate the case after watching this video, or if you're German There's the bi autobiography, biraphy? Oh, no, it's in German. I can't find out It's Arno Funk wrote this so I get it guess is a biography. Wait, did we find out this dude's name yet? No, mayaybe this dude's name is Arno I still don't know. I think it is ono I'm trying to read this dude signure and I think it says A no fununke, so I hope that doesn't spoil anything Over the next few days, Dellaci and his team of investigators looked out for Scrooge's reaction with a queasy feeling. Will he reply through the newspaper? Was he going to send another letter by mail? What exactly were they even searching for? They had been working non stop on this case for days now, grasping at every straw to no avail, and the weight of it was beginning to show A few policemen had even started studying Donald Duck comics just in case.p like ye yeah did. I'm reading comics for research. Despite his reputationational for mental fortitude and thriving under pressure, the case had quickly taken its toll on Inspector Dalaki. Sleep had turned into an elillusive luxury and excessive amounts of bitter coffee made both his mind and his heart race non stop. But among all those uncertainties, there was one thing they somehow knew for sure. manyany stages of escalation lay ahead of them. My words can hardly convey just how spot on their instincts were The radio silence dragged on for two seemingly never ending weeks. To everyone's surprise, when Scrooge finally did reach out, he did so by simply calling the Car Start service hotline from a public phone booth. While this method of contact ranked low on the list of expectations, the task force had fortunately prepared for this eventuality. An officer, rather than a random employee answered the call, as a recording device captured each syllable for later analysis Scridge He obviously did not take the risk of engaging in a personal conversation, inststead, he played a tappe recording of an extremely distorted and pitch shifted voice, reaying yet another set of instructions. The barely intelligible message guided investigators to a specific luggage locker at Hamburg's main railway station. Afraid of finding another explosive in there, the emergency services sped off with no delay yet when the bomb squad carefully opened the locker and inspected its contents, they discovered something else entirely A mechanical contraption of metal and mystery whose purpose was difficult to tell at first glance, Ohh my god, if I was the bomb squad, I'd be like, A It is a bombs Like you looking for a guy who plants bobin so you open a locker in a public place and there's a mechanical device in there. you're like,h Be beinging the bomb spe being in the bombbscots got to be fucking terrifing. Your job is to just go up in that big suit and deal with bombs and possibly get blown up. how useful is that big suit? If a bomb goes off, it's a bomb? Imagine a backpack with an elaborate metessal chassis and magnets attached to the rear side. Nither the explosive experts nor inspector Dlecki have ever seen anything like it before. Fortunately, the ominous object came with a short user manual of sorts written in the familiar font of Scrooge's typewriter. The ominous device was a ell developed height tech solution For secure money delivery, the letter explained, a self developed high tech solution for secure money delivery What is this? It instructed police officers to place the money into the bag like component and fasten the zip tightly. Once the cash was safely stowed inside, they were supposed to attach the entire apparatus to the rearmost carriage of a specific train. The magnets were aligned precisely to fit the outer coupling mechanism the ingenious twist, inside the metal block was boxed as a clock mechanism very similar to the one that triggered the bomb previously. Oh, it's going to drop somewhere isn't it?'s deactivate the magnets, like electromagnets or something at a specific points And drop it along the line where the gu will be waiting. But instead of setting off an explosion, it would release the hooks holding the back opponent at a certain time. The money filled container would therefore drop onto the railbed at some secret point during the train's journey at a predetermined location, known only to Scrooge himself, who would merely gather the spoils from the tracks and vanish like a whisp of smoke. On the backside, Scrooge provided the exact train they were going to use was an inter city express named Cathy Colowitz scheduled to travel. herevery train in Germany is named after an important person Cathay Kovz who was a painter and sculptor and one of the most famous German artists of the twentieth century. I always feel it nice when you're It feels fancy when youre on a train, it's like know the A seventeen It's like the Cathy Colwz or the Albert Einstein. you're like, wow, look at this. Scrooge's plan seemed completely ridiculous, but undeniably brilliant. You see, the two cities were almost three hundred kilometers apart. There was no way to deploy officers across the entire route. Telaky's gaze darted back and forth between Scrooge's device and the policeman who surrounded him in eager anticipation of orders. The train in question due to depart in a couple of days. Maybe there was enough time left to gain the upper hand after all. The police technicians found themselves tasked with a new objective. reeverse engineer the gadget, figure out the timer's configuration, and then calculate the location at which Scrooge would be waiting for the cash. It was his engineering expertise against that of the entire police force, which does sound like an easy win on paper. Doesn't it? It does. I mean, I can think of ways that you could do this now where you could have do it, like with encryption and stuff. where they were going gonna be able to break into and figure it out. But is this a mechanical device I surely How can you I mean, I wouldn't know possibly hide something like that in a mechanical device. As the nerds set about analyysing the device, Delecky and the head of operations once again exchanged weighted glances. There was no denying the truth. Scrooge was the very same criminal who had outsmarted the police four years prior. The Motus operandi was more refined this time, but essentially identical Could this be their shot at redemption a chance to rectify a humiliating defeat? Though Delecky was not directly involved with the catastrophic failure from nineteen ninety eight, he took the challenge somewhat personally. The entire German law enforcement had been outsmarted by a criminal genius, humiliated, ridiculed, and relieved of half a million German marks. The memories of this bitter defeat had haunted thousands of crime fighters ever since maybe This was their faful opportunity to rectify a major slip up. Oh no, I'd just be thinkingh it was really hard the last time. And now we're going to get taken again and it's going be for twice as much. The detective' sentimental contemplation was interrupted when the technicians announced a surprisingly swift breakthrough. Scrooge made a grave evereror by simply recycling the design of the bomb's trigger mechanism, which was both familiar and rather simple To begin with. After unscrewing the box and rans sacking the inner blend of wires and security and circuitry sorry, they had discovered that everything was connected to a slightly modified alarm clock set for five fifty two PM. This is way too obvious This is way way too obvious. Although Scrooge had disabled the display, they could easily reconstruct the alarm time. The detectives huddled around a map, feverishly calculating the precise location of the train at the moment of the drop. It was a mathematical conundrum everyone had encountered countless times during their school days, never imagining that one day it would be the key to potentially saving lives. The location, they pinpointed was a minisule village barely a blip on the map Nestled a hundred kilometers from the bustling city of Hamburg. or you guys again taken for a ride? This was too easy It's a red herring. that maybe the train's just going to go all the way to the final destination where the guy just grabs it. It just gets into the station and he's waiting there just to collect the money. It never drops off or he takes it at like before it leaves or when it pulls into a station, something like that. Or maybe that is it will drop at that point. Yeah, thats what that's okay. that's what I'm thinking what's going to happen. So this train is obviously going to stop several times along its three hundred kilometer journey. And if there was no mechanism, the only point that he could collect the money would be when it pulls in to specific stations, so the police would be stationed at every specific station along the route. But by dropping it off at some point along the route at this tiny little village, the police are going to wait exclusively there So if I were the police at this point, I would very much, just in case, station people at that tiny village where it's due to drop, but also I would station police at every well, one on the train, looking out the back, and then two, also at every station, right That's the that's the Checkking all the boxes planned. At exactly four hundred forty, on the specified day, Kathy Colvtz roared out of Hamburg's main station with the ominous device firmly attached to its rear. Members of the Scrooge Task Force sped down the highway in unmarked cars hours ahead of the Intercity Express. They mentally prepared for the inevitable arrest and their well deserved moment of sweet sweet victory. Oh guys we're ten pages in, it's not happening They envision Scrooge standing in the middle of nowhere, nervously watching the tracks, waiting for his ill gotten gains to fall into his hands, completely unaware. pending Domon. The catatermouse game was building up to the climax. The team had arrived early, leaving them to stew in the seemingly indeterminable stretch of time before the big showdown. With the villagers ushered into their homes for safety, the assembled officers assumed they had in positition scanning the area for anything out of the ordinary. They slinked from one vantage point to another, ensuring every possible angle was covered. And then, when all preparations for the surprise party were completed the suspense began. The moment And the minutes inched by, and the trees's shadows grew ever so slowly Picemen fixed their gaze on the tracks, where their adversary was due to materialise at any moment. Despite not being physically present himself, Delecki was filled with an overwhelming sense of tension as he anxiously awaited news from the field squad waiting back at the headquarters, his thoughts drifted to nineteen eighty eight when Scrooge, then, still under a different name, had pulled off a very similar plan successfully but not this time not again. The sun had dipped low in the sky by now, casting a golden hue over the surrounding field, but no trace of the extortionists was in sight. The small army of officers still hunkered down, hidden within the bushes and trees, but nothing happened. After a while, frustration and confusion crept in, eroding their initial confidence, had they somehow gotten the drop site Maybe Scrooge had caught on to their plan changed his mind. I mean, why why are they so sure that he's going to collect it immediately after the train goes past? It's just going to be on the tracks. He could come by an hour or two later and collect it. He could come by days later and collect it, assuming doesn't think the police are on to him. Eventually, the train's headlights crested the horizon in the far distance. Kathy Colvz approached the ambush spot at exactly five fifty two PM just as they had calculated. With a hiss of compressed air and squeezing brakes, the vehicle came to a halt. No suspicious figure appeared anywhere The ensuing silence seemed to mock the investigators' confusion as they slowly began to understand that they were very very screwed. The metal box was still dangling off the last carriage. bag of money was gone The extortionist had outplayed them a second time, and now they stood there in the middle of nowhere, shaking their heads in disbelief. The trick blindingly obvious In a stroker twisted genius, Drogge had placed a second timer inside the box completely concealed from view. The visible one was nothing more than a ruse, a decoy designed solely to lead investigators astroke. The true mechanism had triggered mere minutes after the train left Hamburg While the police officers were prematurely celebrating and getting into position for victorious arrest, Scrooge had already absconded with the money. Okay That's And I think my plan's better. Just go to a station and pick it up. Like if you got the decoy one in there and a real one, there's still the chance that they can discover the real one. I mean, they didn't but they could have. As the reports reached Deky back in Hamburg, he couldn't help butarvel at Scrooge's cunning. This was a game of chess played at the highest level, he thought, but it wasn't checkmate just yet. Scrooge may have eluded capture for now, but Delecky had set up a multiayered trap on his own. Scrooge's alarm clock was fake, So was the money stuffed into his bag. is just beginning. The money stopped into the bag being fake, he's gonna to discover that very quickly and then he's going be like, okay, I guess we're doing another bomb. pursuit of happppiness In nineteen fifty, Arno Funker was born into a world that seemed determined to smother every spark within him. Growing up in Rudau, a rather primitive village in West Germany, his life was imbued with an ae of misery from the very moment he drew breath, Even though roughly five years had passed since Hitler's ballistic withdrawal from active politics The aftermath of the Third Reich continued to shroud the ravaged nation like an everlasting shadow. There was a deep seated sense of guilt, shame, and remorse well earned by an awful lot of people And for those who had staked their lives on opposition to the regime, the sheer scale of inhumane atrocities was still an unresolve The war remained vividly present to those who survived, with partially disfigured cities and occasionally bombed out buildings serving as constant Within the timespan of only twelve years, the Nazis had industrially murdered eleven million people and started a war that would cost fifty million more lives. And that's not even counting the thirty million deaths that would result from war related disease and famine It had been the single worst calamity in the entire history of our species, a magnitude of suffering beyond any human comprehension I introduced the Pedro Lopeoskell of Evil in another episode, and just going by the number of fatalities, this scores a thirty point three million out of ten It is psychologically just impossible to truly grasp any of this And yet we have a whole nation of people who for the most part actively or passively contributed to what it had happened And then of course, the next disaster loomed on. Germany had been divided into two parts since nineteen forty nine, and the extent of this rift was slowly dawning on both sides. While the western part, guided by Allied forces, made slow but steady progress in establishing a self sustaining democracy, the easastern sections seemed to slither from one dictatorship to the next, merely swapping the Nazi Party as their oppressor for the Soviet Union The potential for escalation was obvious to everyone from the beginning And as we know today, this global conflict would eventually push the world to the brink of nuclear armageddon This was the joyful land of milk and honey into which Arno had been born A depressing climate Information about his formative years is pretty limited, compelling us to lean heavily on his autobiography B Along with his anecdotal tales whose origins can't be definitively confirmed. I did my best to weave the individual data points into a coherent narrative, though this was only possible by applying a medium sized dose of interpretation. The forthcoming section rests upon somewhat unstable ground, but I believe we can piece together a plausible framework scattered hints available. To my understanding, Arno was a very special tart child to begin with. It didn't take long for his parents to notice his strange and peculiar traits. As a toddler, Ano seemed solemnly withdrawn and introspective, ensconced within an invisible fortress that severed him from the world outside. littleittle to no interest in anything Instead of reacting to voices or engaging with toys, his eyes stared blankly into the void, like a computer processing complex calculations behind a frozen user interface It was no life sparking in his pupils but unfathomable intensity that scared his mother ered his father. As Zano grew older, his parents remained hopelessly overburdened with his unusual habits, wondering whether they were raising an extraterrestrial He would only talk when absolutely necessary, completely lose himself in the dullest things imaginable, and react in ways that were just Off Throughout his childhood, he struggled to make any friends. On the one hand, there were only a few peers of his own age living nearby, but on the other hand, communicating with anyone seemed to be an overwhelming challenge touano in general Technically speaking, Ridu was an outskirt district of West Berlin, yet the distance to the actual city stretched so far that it was mostly seen as a separate village in its own right. Life there was rather simple and arguably a little backward even for the time. In the cluster of half timbered houses and gardens there was no running water, no sewage system, no continuous electricity supply, and with every little rain shower, the dirt roads transformed into crazy how like times have changed. like no running water in Europe ty years ago, No, six seven, seventy years ago. Pretty nuts. I mean, I guess there are places now like Like yeah, I think about it. I have a little house in the countryside that doesn't have running water. It has a well with a pump. mean Does that mean running water? It's like it's in the middle of nowhere. There's no like sererving it because that would be insane. So there's a there's a well And you turn it on when you arrive and it pumps water to is that running? I guess that is running water, isn't it Yet as Arno grew into school age, he found a lot to like about their surroundings. Amidst the bushes, forests, and mud pits, he would encounter one fun adventure after another, even though he continued to take them on alone. Arno was also fond of the desolate allure that emanated from an abandoned railway station south of Ridau, unaware of the profound influenceced trains would eventually wield over his life. In the pre modern society of nineteen fifty, psychological deviations were often frowned upon And vastly misunderstood. People, even children, were expected to conform to societal norms, and if they couldn't, they were quickly labeled as abnormal outcasts that needed to be punished for their shortcomings. Arno's father lacked empathy and understanding for his son's unique needs. He deemed his behaviour indicative of a flawed character, a problem that he believed could only be resolved through physical discipline. A yes Let's beat the weird out of him. Consequently, Arno faced regular beatings just for existing For the most part, his father tried to avoid Arna. He hated being reminded of his existence But if he was somehow forced to deal with the child, he would often resort to violence. The young boy quickly figured out the pattern and how to escape it by not daring to exist. in front of his father's eyes. For the lack of personal love, he instead sought emotional connection with the nearby farm animals The Funkca family owned a chicken coop behind the house, whose feathery inhabitants quickly became Arno's dearest playmates. He would spend entire days just sitting among them, as if the hens understood his innermost nature better than humans ever could. One day, however, when the smell of dinner drew Arno into the kitchen, he became suspicious at the sight of the meat on his plate. He ran outside to count his friends and to his shock, one of them was missing His father found this reaction extremely funny at first, but when Arno flatly refused to eat his best buddy He exploded with anger in the blink of an eye and spanked Danno into submission. Apart from assaulting his offspring. Mr. Funker pursued a wide range of other hobbies as well, such as drinking excessive amounts of beer, losing money in the lottery or abusing his wife in front of his son. By the time Ano was ten, the situation had spiraled out of control even further to the point where his mother just couldn't take it anymore In early nineteen sixty, she made a life changing decision for Aano and herself, starting a new life free from brutality, by escaping to New Cole, a working class suburb in the western sector of Berlin. You might assume that violence and possessive tormentor would make every effort to keep his punching bags in his clutches. Yet much to my surprise, Mr Funker neither applied any force nor psychological pressure, Quite the opposite. His indifference towards his family apparently outweighed his seeming narcissistic impulses, so he was mostly fine with the decision and simply allowed them to go U to this point. sounds like a bit of a parenting guide for those who seek to raise serial killers, but despite all of that, Anna would later describe these early years as the in his entire life. fromrom our perspective, Urban Berlin may seem like the lesster of two Eils acccording to Honor himself decidedly not. Known for its vibrant art scene, gritty streetscapes, and winding alleys lined with trendy cafes and alternative restaurants, Nukn serves as one of the world's largest hipster hotspots in contemporary times. Yet when Arno ended up there in nineteen sixty, it was arguably even worse Between the rundown facades it reeaked of decay and poverty for miles around, arguably even worse. The attitude among the locals was rough and governed by social tensions. neeighbourors remained strangers and everyone was drunk In a cramped and dismal corner of the city, the Funker family had taken up residence in an unassuming backyard hovel, hidden from side by a l labrinth of shadowy staircases Ane found himself immersed in a world that bore no resemblance to his former life. Gone were the days of wandering through the woods, communing with the wildlife, basking in the tranquil stillness of expansive crop fields And their place Ao now faced a grimey and treacherous metropolis. Yeah, I would think If you're poor Right? etter Isn't it better to like live in the country? We have a bit more space And there's less crime and stuff and everything's just less expensive rather than in the city where everything's expensive and there's going to be crime and too many people. I't know, I'd always be like the country sounds way better and you can grow some of your own food, you can have your own chickens. That sounds way nicer. I guess there's more opportunities in the cities so you can get a better job and earn more money, but then everything costs more. I don't know, Do that make sense His surroundings were a gross mockery of nature. Trees had been replaced with so black anded chimneys. Chickens had given way to verinous rats. Lush meadows had been supplanted by foul smelling landfill sites and the gentle bird song drowned out by the relentless clatter of factory machinery. Arno felt suffocated by the oppressive brick structures that loomed above him, casting a power over his young life But soon He would find, but this Charles Dickens hellscape was only the beginning of his tbs. Mrs. Funkurer, a weary single mother toiling from daunt or dustp put food on the table, was all too aware of the perils that lurked in the urban jungle beyond their doorstep. In order to shield her son from these dangers, she resorted to locking him away in his room, making him a prisoner in his own home. For reasons known only to her, she subjected him to this confinement not only during workdays but also on most weekends she was unnerved by his peculiar behavior or maybe she was simply unwilling to face the reality of having a child she never wanted. a fact, Aro was thoroughly aware of In his autobiography, Arno recounted the crushing weight of boredom as the ultimate test of endurance, one that undoubtedly caused lasting damage to his mental health. Also, his isolation did certainly not help to improve his lacking social skills, but it did introduce him to a passion that would come to define him for the rest of his life The boy would spend countless hours hunched over a canvas, his hands a blur of motion as he poured his soul into each stroke of the brush Through his artwork, he sought a fleeting respite from the drab darkness that threatened to swallow him whole. Despite his young age, Arno's talent for proportions and perspectives was undeniable, and some of his early work still survive as a testament to his prodigious skill. Absolute layan Exceedingly impressive, but also very concerning. His motives clearly serve as a reflection of this inner struggle. Children locked behind prison bars, fences and barbed wire in front of meadows, teddy bears brutally pierced with iron spikes. It sounds like the sort of thing. you did that in school, the teachers would be like So, Mr. Mrs. Whistler, Considered your child seeing a psychologist, we just want to make sure everything's okay because they keep drawing teddy bears with spikes through their faces. no! She seems so normal. As time wore on, his paintings grew increasingly somber, a clear indication that while Aard may have slowed his descent into the abyss, it would neither halt or reverse it, not even the most opaque colour could conceal Mrs. Funer, though aware of her son's disquietening artwork, maintained her iron grip on his freedom. Arno's only reprieve from his confinement came in the form of brief trips to the communal toilet which they shared with other tenants, and of course He was allowed to leave for school Ano attended the notorious Rutley School, a rather problematic institution to this day plagued by violence and drugs among the students and resignation among the teachers It had been a catch basin for those without prospects, and Arno blended seamlessly with this backdrop. By no means did he cause much trouble for his teachers. He attended the lessons impassively, often isolated himself to the last row, and constantly lost himself in his own imagination. In terms of academic performance, Arno navigated his early school years as if it was nothing. Failure It was quite the norm in this school, yet he seemed to defy the odds He moved effortlessly through any intellectual challenge, conquering test after test with an ease that belied his reserved manners Languages though in every strong suit. Arno struggled to wrap his mind around the nuances of both German and foreign tongues, but he managed to pass his exams with little more than a shrug nonetheless. Mathematics and the sciences, however For a different story altogether in these realms, his mind raced at the speed of light, drawing connections and solving problems that would have left his teachers gasping for breath he paid any attention to them complicated formulas bent and twisted to his will, rearranging themselves into neat solutions before his eyes. Geometric patterns snapped into place as if guided by an invisible hands, and when he contemplated scientific experiments, a detailed three dimensional model would materialize in his mind's eye as tangible as any object in the physical world. This assessment By the way, was not based solely on his autobiography. Other sources scientifically and reliably confirm his extraordinary intellectual abilities and we will have more on those. a little bit later. Arno's life of boredom. shift dramatically the day discovered the wonders of the library. Each day on his way home from school he would load his arms with stacks of books which he would exchange for new supplies the following day. Stories of adventure and fantasy held this little appeal for him as he rarely managed to emotionally connect with the protagonists. Instead, he found solace in the crisp, clear lines of nonfiction, textbooks on technology electronics physics and chemistry became his sustenance as he devoured them with a voracious appetite. As the weeks and months passed, his academic expertise grew to a level that was nothing short of extraordinary And yet This newfound knowledge did not bring him the pride or sense of accomplishment one might expect. Arno had no idea how other people functioned and what intellectual capacity corresponded to the average. Therefore, he failed to recognize that he was exceptional. For him, becoming an expert in basically every type of science was simply a way to fill the endless hours that stretched before him. His mind was a tempentuous sea nonetheless, roiling with feelings of worthlessness and despair that threatened to pull him under at any momentack A cloud of emotional numbness dogged his every step, casting shadows on any glimmer of happiness test the gleam But Arno's autoactic pursuits price The more he focused on cramming the entire body of engineering wisdom into his brain, the less seriously he took school. Soon he had intellectually transcended so far beyond the reality of the classroom that he had completely lost touch with the topics the teachers discussed. The school's climate of self abandonment had caught up with him at some point, even forcing him to repeat two years of school after failing most of his exams. And is common practice in the German educational system, even though scientific studies have repeatedly showed that it is among the worst things one could do to a struggling student. Really? To have them repeat a year? But whyes if they do fail Can they go on to the next year? They don't know how to do stuff, and then they're just going be extra lost. How do you deal with that? Even I, the author of this episode, have been forced to repeat two of my school years, somewhat ironically for failing my English exams This is crazy. Den is's English is better than mine. I would have no idea that this was written by someone who didn't speak English as a first language, and it's certainly much better than anything I could possibly write. Among other things, yet here we are, shout out to Mr. Landstein, my former English teacher, who called me a hopeless failure instead of providing me with any kind of support. He did anyway In fact,, you know funny parallels. my German teacher is kind of a bit of In fact, this horrible experience was the catalyst that led me to pursue a career as a high school teacher myself, with the lofty intention of providing my students all the attention and care that was missing in my own educational journey. Unfortunately, within my first week of working at a school, I understood that the problem is not only the person in fronts of the classroom, it is the entire educational system that needs to be overhauled, perhaps even completely replaced after gave up on this career path. Yeah. The educational system is in for a hell of a shake up though, isn't it? Like this u Chad GPT and stuff. you mess around with that and you don't know if you don't understand something, it will tutor you to understands it, which is nut. Like you can just be like, I don't understand this. Can you help me learn it? And it'll be like abbsolutely. H's lesson And he were like, ok, let's get going. I'll just get going. It's crazy. Anyway, Ano did not care about failing school or about literally anything else regarding his future. Instead, he was brooding about gloomy thoughts and unanswerable questions. By the time he had turned into a teenager, he'd internalised the theory of being fundamentally broken of having some kind of major defect in his head. tumor growing in his brain, an insatiable black hole that exclusively feasts on positive feelings. At times, he struggled to remember what joy even was. I mean, it does sound like he has a flaw in his brain. But it sounds like the sort of flaw that can like be treated. Yeah. I mean But unfortunately, This was the nineteen fifties. As a young adult, Arno's entire life had evvolved into a desperate pursuit for happiness, or not even necessarily happiness, but just any feeling at all. He dropped out of school at the earliest possible opportunity, which took away even the faintest semblance of orientation. Devoid of purpose, Arno aimlessly meandered through his days, observing the lives of others with the keen analytical eye a scientist He dissected the vibrant, bustling world that swirled around him, seeking to replicate the formula for happiness that had eluded him for so long Is there a By mimicking the actions of those who appeared content, their joy might somehow seep into his own desolate existence. He lacked intuition on how to be happy, so he straight up copied the habits of others. I mean, makeake it do you make it. It's not bad though Like, there's that whole thing about like if you just smile, you'll feel better And that works, dude. You just be like I feel miserable. You're just like, a And then it was like, You do feel slightly better, don't you? It's like E Like I force myself to do that sometimes. And'm like, Oh, I don't want to do that. You're like, O, big, let's go. Arno strolled through public parks, indulged in culinary experiences, immersed himself in literary masterworks. He frequented pubs, reveled in the magic of the silver screen, marveled at the exhibitions of every museum that Berlin had to offer. Among the places he visited frequently was the Mall of the West A sprawling temple of luxury, a glittering monument to opulence hailed as the pinnacle of human contentment. Arno never made a purchase, instead he observed the sea of smiling faces, hoping their attitude might someday rub off on him But it never did. In the evenings of these eventful days, Anna would go to bed without having felt anything, falling asleep to the same sinister thoughts that had haunted him since childhood. Again and again, he consciously decided to have a good time But it only ever felt fake, forced, a hollow pantoma of genuine emotion He was a robot unable to process the data of joy. Happiness was a foreign language to him, a concept he could describe only theoretically. The more he tried to do the right things in life, the more his soul withered away. However, Arnao never harboud anger or envy. He believed the fault lay solely within himself, a malfunction in his inner workings, for which no one else held responsible. The following years were a collection of even more false starts. Since nothing and no one could truly stimulate him anyway, he simply let himself drift he embarked on a series of vastly divergent career paths, each one a vain attempt to find a place where he belonged. He dabbled in sign painting, seeking to harness his experienced hands, but the march of progress and the rise of automation had rendered his skill set entirely obsolete. Turning to the realms of entertainment, he briefly tried his luck as a disc jockey reasoning that surely a fun profession would first foster a fun disposition Alas, his lack of musical aptitude doomed the endeavor from the outset. He would later drive a truck for a beverage company, because finding joy in simple things was a widespread phenomenon, or at least he had heard about that. It didn't work then. returned to mananualel Labor, hoping that physical exertion would spark life within him Yet his stints as a construction worker and a mechatronics technician, which is a real world simon. Mechatronics, okay, don't know what it is. left him feeling just as empty as before. What is meechatronics? Technology combining electronics and mechanical engineering, well there you go could have guess that, cant I? No matter the job, Arno almost immediately grew apathetic. The monotony of routine chafed at his spirit, leaving him yearning for the freedom and expression that he found in the arts. It sounds like you need to be an artist, mate I guess that there's not a lot of money And that is there, but you could I mean crracked at least, that seems to be something you do find joy in like painting. So just work, drive the truck and then paint. a lot of people do jobs they don't like so they can pursue their interests. My coffee is so cold. I've just been so absorbed in this story. I had a hot cup of coffee when this episode started and now it is stone ass cold He tried time and again to break into the world of commercial creativity as a side hustle, and there we go. But each foright led to another failure. Photography offered a fleeting glimmer of hope for a while, but ultimately his innate shyness proved his undoing once more. He felt as if he was intruding on oers' private moments with his lens in an unethical way, even though that was exactly what they paid him to do. ultimately to a small car repair shop, where he found work as a spray painter. But it was not passion that tethered him there, but the friendship he forged with Hinz, his boss quite a big deal for him This way he could at least ease his all consuming loneliness a little. But one must not draw any wrong conclusions He was still beyond miserable As he entered his mid thirties, Arno's suicidal tendencies began to take the shape of concrete plans. In his imagination, he had already put an end to it countless times, but he had never acted upon it in any way. Nonetheless, when Hines was looking for a specific wrench one day, he instead discovered a genuine handgun and a single bullet hidden in Arno's personal tool drawer That was not something people just had randomly lying around as owning a firearm is a serious criminal offence in Germany. Heinz had been well aware that his employee was in pretty bad shape, but it was only now that he truly understood the extent of his suffering Upon confronting Arno, the latter explained that he wasn't really planning on shooting himself anyime soon. He just wanted to keep all possible options open. Oh my god Asen I'm not planning on killing myself. I wouldn't discount the idea. Hinz immediately ordered Arno to dispose of the gun and Arno obliged under Heinz' strict supervision. Yet, in a beautiful twist of fate, this sombber encounter strengthened the bond of friendship between the two men, which led to a positive spin on Arno's general mood. He never shared his inner darkness with anyone up to this point, and Heinz' sincere attempt at understanding him felt somewhat uplifting I get the feeling because that that happiness thing is kind of like It's like this base. level that you're at right. And then you have these events in life. So I imagine that's like cool and his friendship of his strength, but he's going to return to that kind of base low level Right? Be it just doesn't really change that much But that was not the only change Arno noticed around this time. He observed a novel peculiarity that made itself felt increasingly often And it worried him quite a lot. Every other day, he would experience severe episodes of dizziness and disorientation as if he were heavily intoxicated all of a sudden. His eyes would turn into long, dark tunnels, taking in their surroundings through a thick blends of frosted glass. Everything sounded as if his ears were deeply submerged underwater, as he had trouble keeping his balance. This is you need to see a doctor. During the following months, these attacks grew in intensity and duration within a year they completely replaced his default state. If that happened to me more than once, I'd see that if happened once I'd be like that was weird and it hopefully it would never happen again. Like I once had a migraine. N had a migraam in my life. this was years ago, never had a migraam since. It was horrible. And I finally I was like, o, I see, this is like not a headache. This is an absolute disaster And it went on for hours And then it completely passed and it's never happened since. But if it kept happening, I'd go to see the doctor. I wouldn't wait a year. He did his best to conceal this issue, but it would only get worse. The quality of his work suffered greatly as a result, but Heinz cut him plenty of slack, knowing of Arno's difficulties. On particularly bad days, Heinz would drop his duties and take Arno for a stroll along the nearby railway tracks, hoping that this act of emotional support would help him in some way. Heinz sounds like an absolute legend This sounds like a super nice dude And in fact, the symptoms appeared to slowly diminish over time, not because the actual problem disappeared, but because Anu had developed and adapted strategies to appear functional to the outside world despite his inner suffering point, his coping mechanisms have become so effective that he managed to continue his job as a spray painter without drawing unfavorraable attention from his cow workers And this was quite the dramatic irony. You see, many years later, it would be discovered that the lack of car paints was to blame for his neurological deterioration. Toxic particles had entered his circulation through his lung tissue, gradually accumulating in his brain and causing severe damage over time. The devastating side effects of spray paint were mostly unknown or disregarded at the time, meaning he would continue to inhale even more poison for years to come A simple face mask. could have prevented all of this, dude. Spray painting without our masks just seem so insane today because it's like, yeah, well, you'reoling aerasolizing something that goes and stays on a car for years. And just breathing that in. it's like that's not a good idea That's not good idea. The stuff that, you know, you see nowadays in the that's not a good idea. Like I don't know, pollution in cities. it's not you' just wanderingong and like a buzz up and you're like, o. Breathing that in P'robably not good for me, is it? And I imagine it like, years, people would be like, yeah, yeah, no, no, there were internal combustion engines in cities, like in densely populated areas where people lived permanently. And people were like, that's insane. Did't they realize how bad it was? They was like, ye, not really. As the nineteen eighties drew to a close, Arna hit rock bottom. He was both bodily and mentally broken. hisis life was devoid of meaning and passion, and his quest for happiness had led him to an abyss. On all levels, except physical, he considered himself dead. But with this ultimate resignation, came a strange, rekindled drive A I was aware having nothing left to lose. So why not go all in? Among all the things he tried in order to finally be happy, there was one thing he had not attempted yet. A strategy that, by all appearances, was guaranteed to work. It may seem shallow, but according to his observation, the super happppy all had one characteristic in common. they were also super rich. Wh is that I guess on the outside Bsight are rich people happier? Yes they are. I mean I used to not have much money and now I have more money. And I think I'm about the same It's just like, you know, stays the same. I'm more satisfied. I think might get quite a lot of satisfaction, but Happiness, I don't know if if that really changes that much, does it? Following this logic, Arno decided that becoming incomprehensibly wealthy would be his last shot at fighting happiness. He also concluded that as a virtually dead person, there were no he had no negative consequences to fear whatsoever, so he might as well try the criminal path right away. This is amazing. This is like a Walter Wh This raansom thought nestled itself into his brain like a brand new operating system, a completely overhauled self image that shaped his decision making. He could assassinate the Pope if he wanted to. He could strip stark naked in the middle of the street and pretend to be a guerilla, who was to stop him me as a corpse on probation, he was pretty much invulnerable. In fact, he did not have to ponder for long until he identified the appropriate target for his get rich fast plan. Arno set his sights in a very familiar institution that proudly stood as a melting pot for happiness and money, seemingly unlimited amounts of money. West. During the research phase this episode, I consulted a certified psychotherapist who among other things specializes in working with former criminals. God that's gott to be an interesting job just like analyzing criminals. I will elaborate on her input later on, but I think it is important to emphasize a couple of things at this point. First and foremost, we're not diagnosing anyone in any way. Yet, to her professional eyes, it did seem possible that Arno was suffering from major clinical depression. Yeah as I was saying, this is treatable, that like black hole inside himself, that pit of despair They're all nineteen eighties, there are drugs for that. Given the Narano himself would later publicly agree to this assessment on multiple occasions, I think it's fair to let that stand I decided to include this insertion right away to point out the following There are effective treatments for depressive disorders. If you recognize a pinch of your own mental state in Arno's biography, then please know that help is always available. Being depressed is not a part of your true self even if it feels like that. It's a disease that plays tricks on your mind. as someone who has suffered from depression in the past I can guarantee that there is no reason to be ashamed, and it is not a sign of weakness either actually mean it, you can tell someone tell someone right now. Yeah, entirely agree. It's like It's just it's just a trick and it can be fixed most of the time which is cool. Arno had also been a man of data, facts and figures, Thus, he thought little of mysticism in the supernatural. Nevertheless, he could not shake the feeling that destiny was steering him in a certain direction. As a positive byproduct of his disastrous childhood, he held immense knowledge of technology and chemistry. And as luck would have it, he also had access to a fully equipped workshop thanks to his job to build a bomb materialized all by itself. Despite these fortunate starting conditions, there were still plenty ofurdles ahead. Buing a bomb is neither easy n or without risk, especially considing Arnna's unpredictable bursts of sudden dizziness. Any technical blunder would result in instant death. Al Jesus Christ, he's like, I really hope I don't want have one of those spray plate blackouts right now Whoops? Also, without the internet, suitable blueprints were hard to come by. In modern times, of course, everyone knows about the casual criminalist the world's number one learning resource for criminally insane. Someone pointed this out the other that it's like, o my go, we dive into these so deep. and Simon points at everything that's wrong that it started off as a joke that this would be helpful to criminals. And now it's like, oh my Godd, it is actually helpful to criminals It kindinda bad. But in the late nineteen eighties, people had to cope without Simon' sel for guidance, which made things incomprehensibly more difficult. Furthermore, the project required a considerable upfront investment as the individual components and some specialised tools had to be acquired. In fact, the lack of funds caused the biggest delay to the plan, but nonetheless, Are made steady progress. It' just that a super weird thought But it's like, YouTu's been devotizing so many of my episodes lately that I should just become crimal consultant. It' like you want to commit a crime I'm a guy. I'll consult with you. I've learned a lot about crime while not being a criminal. D don't get any ideas. I'm not doing that It's just a joke. The bomb was not the only invention that sprank from his ingenuity. Planning several moves in advance, he also devised a method for the subsequent money handover, a novel, madcrap strategy that required a pulley system, a diving suit, and two more gadgets that he needed to assemble in addition to the explosive device. These were the most productive weeks of his life. By day, he worked diligently at his job, painting cars with a steady hand and an artist's touch His colleagues were oblivious to the secret arto carried within him. yet they did notice that he seemed increasingly well, happy. Yeah, I remember this. Like I've had times in my life where it's like like now I feel like I've been working on the same things for like a long time. Like sometimes I start on a YouTube channel or whatever and it's like, yeah, let's go. And even that's now kind of like, okay, yeah, that's what I do. But I remember like back in the day when you'd be starting a new project And I'll be in the office for like twelve hours, fourteen hours, just working, working, working on some new thing and just being excited and being like, yes, we're doing this, we're doing that. Let's go. And Yeah, no, I feel that, I feel that. I wasn't like making bombs. but I feel that like The rush of finding something new and exciting. At closing time he would bid his coworkers farewell with a big smile on his face, pretending to head home over the night. But home was far from his destination. He would simply slip around the corner and wait, his heart pounding with excitement as he listened to the fading footsteps of his colleagues. When he was certain that Heinz and the others had disappeared, he would sneak back into the workshop and continue tinkering on his devices The workshop was transformed into an entirely different world in the Moonlit toowers, his blowtorch cast dancing shadows onto the walls as the scent of oil and metal mingled with the cool night air Harno's heart swelled every time he approached his secret project, the very thing that consumed his waking thoughts and sweetened his dreams. This is fascinating. Like he's just like, he's like, fuck it. I've got nothing left to lose. I was gonna kill myself. That was my path. I was so deressed. That's my path and it's like f Let's become a criminal. Let's go, what if we got toleose nothing. And it seems like he's actually found something that genuinely excites him, which is kind of awesome. He had never experienced such joy, such passion in any other pursuit. He would paw through books about electrical engineering, scavenge through scrap dealers' yards for the perfect parts, and draw detailed sketches by the flickering light of a single bulb dangling over his head. The sound of turning screws became a symphony that accompanied his newfound sense of p His brain rewarded him with frequent rushes of endorphins for a change, and he found himself thriving in the world of danger. Arno lived and breathed the fun in dysfunctional. At times, as he collapsed into his bed at the end of a grueling day, he was embraced by a peculiar comforting sensation It was the anticipation Livving. she of crrime In the spring of nineteen eighty eight, Arno stood back to admire his creation with an air of pride The bomb, concealed, as an unassuming cardboard box, was nothing short of a masterpiece. He had labored over every intricate detail, ensuring that not a single telltale sign would reveal the nature of its contents. Arno knew that on set in mot, the box would change the course of his life. As the fateful day dawned, Arno found himself at the entrance of the Mall of the West. hisis masterpiece cradled in a nondescript plastic bag, his palms were sweaty knneeees weak. Ams were heavy Get that reference there, Denis. He was nervous, but on the surface he looked calm and ready, bleading, blending in with the throngs of shoppers who milled about. Days earlier, he had scouted the perfect location for his sinister plot, a quiet, unremarkable corner toy section. With a surreitious glance to ensure he was unobserved, he set the box in place, made sure it was out of the reach of children, and activated the timer, scheduling its detonation for the early hours in the morning when the all would be devoid of life. I still to put this in the toy section, I'd go put it in like the old person's like where they sell those u You know those weird bags, th old people weir wheel around behind them Like that's where I put it. or in the toy section. L there's like I'm sure my bom is a masterpie, but just in gays I' going to blow some people up, I'd rather blow up two old people than some kids because I hate old people From the very outset, Arno had been determined to avoid human casualties at all costs, His ethical compass would not allow him to sacrifice innocent lives for his own gain, even if it meant forgoing the strategic advantage that that leverage would afford him He also understood that killing people would have garnered more attention But Arno's underlying sense of justice would not yield to this temptation For those familiar with true crime stories the broad strokes Arno's story might seem all too predictable. Time and time again, the world has witnessed a childhood marred by abuse, isolation, and negligence which can breed violent attributes. But Arno was an exception to this grim pattern. I honestly think most people are an exception to this grim pattern. Sure, there's a pattern on the casual criminalals because it's true crime podcast, but most people who come from childhoods marred by abuse isolation and negligence grow up to be I mean, people with bad childhoods, they're not all monsters. Most people are not monsters, it just increases the chance of you becoming a monster. I also don't think Anna is a monster. He had never tortured animals, never harmed his peers, and never exhibited a propensity for deception or stealing prior to, you know, his crime series revolving around deception and stealing. After this point, he was the embodiment of careful calculation and prudent restraint As far as I know, he wasn't even into questionable morography like a normal person As he left the ball empty handed, a p tell not you're doing nothing to help with German stereotypes thereate. As he left the ball empty handed, a poted cocktail of excitement and terror coursed through his veins, but the emotion that weighed heaviest upon him was guilt. He was under no illusions about the morality of his actions, and he did not commit this crime out of some twisted sense of righteousness Yet he rationalized it a necessary evil, one that he had to embrace in order to survive. Before heading home, he tossed the ransom note into the mall's mailbox. Arno did not manage to fall asleep that night, not even with the help of a drink. or five. His thoughts were consumed by the possibility that someone, despite his best efforts might come to harm. As the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, he obsessively monitored every news channel, anticipating the breaking story of his nefarious plot, but to his astonishment. Not a single report mentioned an explosion As the hours ticked by, and still no news of his bomb surfaced, suspicion and un eease began to gnaw at Arno's already frayed nerves. Unable to quell the mounting dread, he eventuallyccumbed the urge to investigate. Still slightly inebreriiated, he climbed into his car and spread back to the department store. Upon arriving, Arno's gaze was immediately drawn to a small slip of paper, affixed to the corner of the main entrance door a white sticky note adorned by a single green dot. The site brought a wave of relief washing over Aro. In his ransom letter, he it explicitly requested the company to single their willingness to pay pay via precisely the sign. So they had both received and accepted his demands. What about the bomb? Perhaps it had been discovered and diffused in the nick of time he reasoned. then again It no longer mattered. The green dot served as a promise, a guarantee that he was about to receive his much needed windfall. Does he need the windfall? He doesn't need the mny. He's just like want the munny. Anna had done his homework. In the movies, extortionists usually requested the money to be put in a public waste bin and also do not call the police he was not thataive. O obviously they'd get the police involved no matter what. so he had come up with a plan to fool them. Actually, let's go through it from the perspective of the investigators and maybe put up that galaxy brain Because this one is nothing short of a magic trick. It's admittedly somewhat complicated, so I included a sketch of the setup Act one. Iinure yourself as a season detective. A ransom note had arrived just days before, directing you to a unique radio frequency at a specific time and date. Y task Tune in for additional instructions. No way. It's like a movie. You mull over your potential strategies. One of your first ideas is to simply trace the signal back to its origin in order to ensnare the perpetrator. To facilitate this, you bring in your tech squad. They assure you that once the transmission is initiated they can easily triangulate the signal's source location, so you and your techno wizard set up the necessary equipment in anticipation of the big day. As the appointed hour arrives, your team swiftly identifies the signal and ascertaines its origin wasting no time you jump into your vehicle, making a be line for the signal's source, as indicated on your radar But what you find is far from what you expected, upon investigating the area, you discover not an extortionist, but a self made gadget, a radio transmitter connected to a cassette recorder and aet timer, all taped to a random tree in the heart of a bustling public park. The apparatus had sent the instructions autonomously. Annoyed by this successful feint, you listen intently as the looping tape crackles to life, the distorted and unrecognizable voice barely discernible amid the static It speaks of a nearby lake, where you are to deliver the ransom With your trusted police colleagues by your side, you gather the cash and drive to the designated body of water. The sun dips below the horizon as you arrive. You cautiously step onto a small wooden jetty, the old planks creaking under fooot. At the end of a footbridge, you discover a small box connected to a steel cable, the other end disappearing into the dark, still surface of the lake This is so crazy. This is such a plan. Where's it go How's he going to get that money? He's like Oh, is he in the diving suit? They said there was a diving suit involved earlier, right? Is he under the water? Is he Is he in the lake right now Aack too The turn. You placeace the money into the box, as requested. As soon as you release your grip, the box springs to life, plunging into the lake with a resounding splash. It seemed as if the steel cable had pulled the box off the jetty broadly into the direction of the opposing shore. You deduce the extortionists must be hiding on the other side of the lake, pulling in the money like a fisherman reels in a catch. With adrenaline surging through your veins, you and your police team race around the pond Determined to apprehend criminal before he could pull the loot across the depths of the water. Gasping for breath, you and your team reached the opposite bank, only to find it eerily deserted. No sign of the extortionists, no box full of money, no steel cles You're left a puzzle over your predicament, failing to notice that the climax is already unfolding backack on the wooden walkway. What? What And They wouldn't have police still at the walkway I feel like you arrive and he's racing rounds, but surely some police are left there orr like at least watching it or something, no And even if they're not, surely that's a risk that that are' thinking about, that they might Ax three Stage As you and your team are busy scratching your heads desperately trying to figure out where the ransom had gone, the mastermind emerges from his hiding spot, close to the jetty, back on the other side of the lake. Casually steps out to collect the money from beneath the wooden planks. He climbs down between the reeds, grabs the box, and leaves So how is this possible? But let me explain. No person had been reeling in the wire manually. Inead, a self built winch completely with a battery powered waterproof engine had been responsible for the movement. Days earlier, Aru had dived to the depths of the leake to fix this ingenious device in place. As the gears started to turn, the container had only appeared to be moving across the water. but in truth, the pulley system attached to the bottom of the lake had redirected it straight back to where it came from. The steel wire pulled the money only a few misleing meters towards the middle the lake, then directed it back under the pier, perfectly poised for retrieval. A fairly convoluted plan if you ask me. While the basic idea shows a beer in the abstract, I couldn't help but notice the multitude of variables that were simply out of Arno's control, but was it ultimately successful Unfortunately It'sound to remain a mystery. You see, even though the M mall of the West management had initially agreed to comply with Arno's demands, the authorities intervened, instructing them to hold off on any payments for strategic reasons. Therefore, this marvevelous magic trick was never performed. The investigators did triangulate the signal, they did discover the autonomous transmission device, they did investigate the lake, but they never put any money in the box. The police's refusal to play by Arno's rules had set him on edge His aspirations of criminal supremacy were proving futile, even worse, his operations were running in the red. setetting up the underwater mechanism had drained his meager resources even further, and to add insult to injury, the authorities wouldn't even dignify it with fake money. Feeling dismissed, underestimated in this epic battle of brains, Arno knew that he had to promptly adjust their worldview drawing booard. Once again, days turned into nights as Arno's mind buzzed with activity, refining his gadgets and strategies seeking the flaw that had derailed his previous plan. It seems to me the flaw is that they're not taking him seriously, so he needs to do another bomb or two. until they take him seriously. Before long, he'd discovered a logical error in the electrical switching circuits of the bomb' but. Oh cake, of course the bomb never went off, so they'd just discovered it. An error that prevented detonation. Although the details of the issue were quite fascinating from an engineering standpoint, my kill dririve and editor emphatically advised me to leave out the details. Editor's note I' probably on a list just for downloading your original scam Yeah, yeah yeah, donon't go too much into bomb making instructions. It's even probably saying bomb making instructions. It's probably not a good thing to say. Now we're all on lists, Dennet. Undernturred, Arno set to work on a new bomb, an improved version. The process moved swiftly this time as he had learned from his previous trials and errors. He also devised a simpler method for the money transfer, one that didn't involve diving into murky waters or constructing elaborate machinery He aimed for efficiency, something less complicated, but no less clever Less than a month later, Arno was ready to strike again Disguised as a sales representative, he slipped into the mall of the West, clutching a gray briefcase with explosive contents. He knew the mall detectives would be on high alert, and he couldn't rule out the possibility of undercover police officers lurking between the customers. His heart raced as he made his way to the sports department, feigning interest in various items to blend him with the crowd. When he was certain that he had not aroued suspicion, Oo placed the briefcase on the floor triggering a small switch on the underside. a concealed flap sprung open, releasing the pipe bomb which silently rolled under a nearby shelf in a matter of milliseconds. With sweat beating on his brow, Ane picked up the empty briefcase and made his escape as if nothing That night, alcohol was once again the only solace that could lull him to sleep. Yet around midnight, a distant bang jolted him from his slumber. Panic surged through him, his synapses firing wildly as he wondered if the noise was real or merely a figment of his imagination. But as it turned out, the bomb had indeed worked this time. The explosion decimated the sports section in an instant, the resulting pillar of smoke triggering the all sprinkler system Goods on every floor were drenched, damaged or destroyed with a total cost of destruction reaching two hundred fifty thousand German marks, more than double what Arno had initially demanded. Fortunately, no one was injured, the store areas having been completely deserted just as he had predicted. may twenty fifth, nineteen eighty eight marked the day of Arno's first successful bombing, the inaugural Act, in a series of six Arno couldn't believe that he had literally blown up Germany's largest department store. It felt unreal and vastly different from what he had imagined. The preparation phase had been filled with excitement and a sense of success, but now that he saw the aftermath on the news channel You felt Arno's neurological impairment, already a he heavy burden now seemed to weigh him down even more. His steps faltered, and his overstimulated nerves screamed for relief, driving him to numb the pain with high briof alcohol. His conscience demanded him to surrender at the nearest police station immediately. his logical intelligence told him to go ahead with his plan, and the darkness of his soul enticed him to obtain a new gun. To regain control of his thoughts He chose to resume regular work for a couple of days without doing anything regarding his crime. Yet, despite his best efforts, he could not restrain himself from following the investigation closely. To his relief, however, there seemed to be hardly any progress, meaning that Arno soon felt sufficiently bold to arrange the second money handover operation Similar to the previous attempt, he transmitted the instructions via autonomous receiver, which he had in a treat on. He declared june the second as the date for the next phase, which gave him more than a month for further preparations. He had shelved with the idea of underwater cable winches because in retrospect he found the unpredictable nature of such a scheme to be unworkable, but what was Proper solution. sure yet. Inspiration struck during a walk along the railroad tracks near the auto repair shop where he worked. How about dropping the money a moving train. The attentive listener may recall four years later, following the second bombing, Arno would also resort to this method. However, in nineteen eighty eight, his plan was simpler, even a little half baked I feel like Just having someone on board just throw it out the window. Just be like, okay, I'm going to radio you. You're going be traveling on this train, officer with this bag of money And at some point I'm goingone I'm going to phone you or radio you or something. I'm going to send a signal. And you're going have to throw the bag out the window at that point. And that's where I am And by the time you scramble police there, I'm already going to be gone. That that seems quite simple. Maybe it's a little bit half baked But that's kind of the sort of thing I'd think of just a bag of money thrown out of a window. One could perhap imagine that Arno had used his remaining preparation time to conjure up a brand new invention from his seve, maybe a small crane, a robot, or a remote control helicopter or all the like. But this hadn't been the case. Instead Arno had simply instructed the police to board the rear wagon of a designated train and prepare themselves to hurl a fortune out of the window upon his commands, Eactly Though rudimentary in comparison to his masterful fully automated dropping mechanism of nineteen ninety two. The essence of his cunning remained intact. With the investigators in the dark about the precise location of the drop, they were unable to strategically position their troops along the sprawling route. Of course, it was entirely possible that the cops would jump out of the moving train and chase after him, but he prevented that pitfall by choosing a fast section of the route. Yeah jumping off a train trains travel much slower back in the day because Mat, I remember a mate of mine came into school one day when we were like It must have been eighteen was the last year of school and he was like bruised and battered I don't like What happens? And it was like Me and the other guy, we got drunk last night and then we almost missed our st station. The train was pulling away. so we just jumped out The train was moving quite fast, they fell onto the platform rolled over and gos were cut andbuised It's like, Ohh, dude The morning sun cast a golden glow across Arno's bedroom, as the surerill sound of an alarm clock rrouoused him froml restestless attempts of falling asleep. A good day to die, he mus to himself, feeling the weight of sleep deprivation and the after effffects of alcohol and spray paint lingering in his foggy mind. He reached into the depths of his drawer, retrieving his portable transceiver and a gleaming new handgun that promised heer fortune With a hint of uncertainty, he mounted his bicycle and swayed his way to work Throughout his shift, Arno did his best to maintain the facade of normalcy. He shewed away any doubts about his intention like a swarm of flies, and at any given opportunity reached for the drawer concealing his vodk stache. Like a prisoner awaiting the executioner's acts, Arno's heart pounded relentlessly in his chest as he pretended to focus on the work in front of him. As all the cars were shining in fresh paint, Heinz was calling it a day. Arno declared with some half hearted excuse that he had to stay a little longer Sitting alone in the workshop, he proceeded to drain his hidden reserves of valkol, his eyes darting between the radio and the pistol that lay menacingly before him The minutes ticked away, each one bringing him closer to the precipice of fate. In less than an hour, Arno would either be drowning in wealth and happiness, or he would find himself face to face with his maker Both options would bring an end to his misery, he thought. But if that was the case, then why was he still filled with doubts? he convinced himself of having no second thoughts, because that would be absurd at this point The g is already in motion eight thirtyM. Another automated transmitter hidden in yet another public place triggers. The tape informs the police of the exact railroad connection An who had chosen for the coup. He had settled on the track section, where he and Hines had wandered along every now and then, barely a few hundred meters down the hill. I feel like that's a mistake Don't do it so close to your work, Don't do it somewhere you know, you've got to choose something at random. eight fifty five PM. The train departs with policemen and bag of money on board. Arno empties the bottle and sets off to collect his grand prize Nine o'clock. Arno kneels down in the wild growth along the railwad tracks and waits, one finger hovering over the send button of his radio, one finger tppling the trigger of the pistol He had intended to calm his nerves with the vodka, but instead the mixture of ethanol, adrenaline and sleep deprivation made him tremble and shake. Fortunately, he did not have a dizziness attack, which was roughly a fifty foty gamble at this point nine hundred five PM. As the headlights of the train come into sight, Arno brings the radio to his mouth and speaks loud and clearly This is the extortionist. Throw the money out now, throw the money out now But nothing happened, the train passed his hiding spot at full speed, throwing a gust of draught in his face and vanishing into the sunset in a heartbeat. The clatter of the carriages quickly ebbed away, leaving Arnu in a situation he had not calculated in advance. He hastily stumbled onto the tracks to confirm that he had not missed the money drop And once he was certain of this to cold. Without thinking on I stormed off in a random direction, jumping across fences and bushes, crisscrossing between alleys as if you were shaking off a pursuer Buny longer mattered him and neither did his other exit strategy. He just wanted to escape. by any means necessary Arno ran until his muscles ignited in torment, and his vein surged with burning acid, as his lungs were about to disintegrate from sheer exhaust, and every nerve in his body begged him to stop. His foot then got caught in a chainlg fence. He immediately lost balance and lacking the strength to catch the fall crashed hard onto the asphalt floor. He tried to roll sideways It was a disastrous mistake the old adage about not running with scissors in your hands also applies to pistols. A deafening shot went off shattering the silence and hurling Arno's adrenaline through the sky His movements froze, Shell shocked and confused, disorientated, but he would snap back to reality eventually There was no red stain on his clothes or skin, the bullet must have missed him miraculously. Jesus Christ You got the safety on? Arno picked himself up and sucked in air as if he hadn't breathed for minutes. The world around him was spinning, thanks only in part of the vodka But now that he had a chance to think for a moment, it occurred to him that he had made an even more serious blunder. the dumbest blunder imaginable. The passing vehicle had been a freight train, but he was expecting a passenger train. He had got the timing wrong Checking his wristwatch, Arnmo realized that he could barely make it back to the tracks in time. With sweat flowing like rivers and a vision blurred from pain, he resisted the urge to punch himself in the face for being such a fool. He turned one hundred eighty degrees and continued to run. He was using a short range transmitter, meaning that the police meaneing that the policeman on the correct train still miles away at the time had not received his previous message. In conclusion Universe granted him another attempt With legs made from pudding, Arno collapsed behind the same buckthorn bush he had used as a hiding spot the first time dangerously fatigued, sloshed to the girls, and in clinical shock. He had set a new high score regarding his loss of control. Yes. I think this is a rule of the casual criminals, isn't it? Don't get drunk before doing your crimes. I think this one, donon't get drunk before disposing of a body But alsoplies, don't get drunk before doing your crimes. The gunshot had likely prompted residents to call the police to the area, which diminished his prospects of success even further He could hardly have gone any worse. He hadn't even brought a second bullet, which thwarted yet another option for him There was only one way left From the direction of the sunset, you could hear the rattling and squeaking of metal. Even though it was slightly delayed, this had been this had to be the correct train. Contrary to stereotypes about German punctuality on our train netork, actually one of the worst in Europe up to this date. Dlays are rather than norm than an exception here, so this caused no alarm on On the contrary, he was grateful for the extra minutes German trains are the wor. UK trains are terrible. This is the extortionist. Throw the money out now. throw the money out now. He spokeen to the radio again. With his gaze fixed on the approaching locomotive, he realised the push to talk button. He released the push to talk button and waited. anticipation simmered the coiled spring But again, nothing happened. Out of desperation, he relayed his radio message a second time, and as he was still speaking, the unthinkable happened. A small white dot seemed to draw a parabola across the sky, plummeting into the railway bed. straight in front of his eyes. At first, Ano was convinced that his befuddled mind was playing just another trick on him. There was no way that actually followed his instructions, he thought. Not in a billion years. yet the sudden squeezing of the train brakes betrayed that this was truly happening. Thinking quickly, Arno understood that an army of policemen was about to pour out of the train carriage and flood the surrounding area says now never. The braking distance would push the train several hundred meters down the track, giving him a slight head start in this race Yeah, okay. Wow. They got it to just stop the entire train. That kind of makes sense. I didn't think about that They'd be like, okay, stop the train and then we're going But a train takes a long time to stop because the train's real big. Could have you done this like, I don't know, threat into a canyon or something likeike a big or a river That sort of thing And then it' be like the train be on a bridge or something That seems like It would avoid that problem. He stumbled towards the package as fast as the last threads of energy allowed him. his wobbly steps danced on the treacherous ground as he fought for balance, a clumsy tango toward his destination But when he had made it, he knew his life was about to change forever, stacks upon stacks of money bills sealed in translucent foil. With a package firmly tucked under his arm, he bolted from the scene. hisis chest heaved, his lungs burned with the ferocity of a thousand sns. The pain swept into his bones like poison. Timal desperate urge propelled him onward. As he reached populated territory, he forced himself to slow his steps, which is great, because I can't think of an even stronger metaphor conveying intense exhaustion. Arno's plan was to slip back into the workshop and hide the money among the junken clutter until the hunntter died down. The area was surrounded by countless middle class homes, gardens and small businesses It would take the police months to search them all, leaving him plenty of time to smuggle the cash into his apartment at the first convenient opportunity Be in this strategy Re reared its head, when he ran into some men toiling away at the nearby petrol station. He knew them superficially as they had been, as they had been in work related contact before. Ano mustustered a feeble w from afar, silently praying, they wouldn't detect his glowing red face or catch sight of the bundles of money by his side. Arno suppressed his fight or flight instincts and proceeded at a leisurely pace, donning the guise of an ordinary evening stroll And thus he arrived at the workshop a sanctuary his cherished wealth. the door from the inside and sank to the floor R lay down Pillow of money He did it He actually it Arno was the owner of an immense fortune, waiting to be exchanged for happiness. He glanced around the dark shed as if fireworks were about to erupt in his honor A million marks, he reminded himself It was all his. He couldn't even begin to imagine all of the joy he would be feeling soon. I mean very soon, An any minute now Hours passed, and nobody knocked on the door. To all appearances there wasn't much activity outside the door at all. As the inky blackness of night had fully convinced him of his successful evasion, he straightened up and stuffed the money snugly behind a bunch of cbpleo boxes and empty vodka bottles. His gaze roamed again as if waiting for something to suddenly change. The workshop, though The not so great gat speed His forthcoming days unfolded as an unyielding saga of suspense. In every spare second, Arno would perch on the edge of his armchair, spellbound by the television's flickering screen, soaking up the news He remains on high alert, poised to react at a moment's notice, in case the authorities reported on any breakthroughs, yet the more he heard Mur he realized that the police were grasping at straws, their investigation flound The incident dominated the news coverage for days, which was no surprise given the sensationallist nature of the crime. but instead of closing in on his identity, the responsible investigators were stunningly open about being completely stuck. One news anchor called it An embarrassment for all involved before rhetorically questioning the investigators's abilities to even handle the case The media echoed narr. As as consequential news of the fruitless man hunt continued to rule the headlin, Za became increasingly emboldened, Sudy felt sufficiently confident to stop monitoring the media twenty four hours a day and return to his time honoud routine. Work, drink, hardly sleep, repeat. Even if there was no immediate threat to being caught, he refrained from recklessly splurging his newfound wealth for the time being. He decided to maintain a low profile for a little bit longer just to be sure Arno's tmile persisted, his neurological demons danced on his synapses, making him forget random things temporarily. One day, for example, another severe episode caused his memory of the money's hiding spot to evaporate. Driven to near madness, Arno tore open cushions, disassembled furniture and pried up floorboards, leaving his apartment in shambles. Only then did he recall that the money was stashed at the workshop And that was a huge problem the way. Approximately a fortnight following the incident, two impecably dressed gentmen paid a visit to the workshop as Arno toiled away in the spray room. He caught sight of them from his peripheral vision as they exchanged pleasantries with Hinz before vanishing into his office. As Arno observed Abaduo's demeanor, a chilling sensation crept up his spine. He felt an icy dread, as if fate' self had reached out and seized him by the throat One of them spotted a clipboard bearing a police sketch, which prompted Ano to suspect that the situation was less than favorraable Setting his spray gun aside, he secretly approached the conversation to eavesdrop. The bomb extortion case brings us here O of themen explained to Heinz. An eyeewitness spotted an individual of questionable behaviour near this location Okay take a look at the sketch Do you know anyone bearing resemblance to this man Now years later, Arno would describe this very moment as one of the two scariest events of his entire criminal career. The pair of policemen stood a mere meters from him and his ill gotten gains, flaunting his sketched visage to his superior. Saganda. H uttered followed by a pregnant pause. He scrutinized the image intently, or maybe he had instantly identified Arno's face and was now wrestling with his conscience, weighing their friendship against his loyalty to the law. When Heinz finally uttered the words Do't ring a bell Sorry, Relief washed over, I know, like a torrential downpour dousing the flames of his fears. I wonder if it just doesn't look like him It was like that I assume this is the people at the petrol station and they only saw him like from a distance They didn't know it was him because they hadd met previously So they can't have seen him that well With the customary give us call if you remember anything else, the officers departed as swiftly as they had arrived, and only now didano realize that his clothes were completely soaked with cold sweat. As soon as he heard the police car driving, Arfano announced his lunch break to his colleagues, stormed toward the petrol station across the street and and bought the first newspaper he could find.ure enough, The sketch was prominently displayed alongside a corresponding article for context. Apparently, a witness had been alerted by the gunshot, and then observed a suspicious individual running back and forth like a maniac Sarly him Luckily though, this mindful citizen suffered from either poor vision or a faulty memory as the sketch was hardly accurate. Yeahah, I didn't think about that. I thought that kind of happened in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, well good. Oh, I'm on this guy's side. Just by saying that I realize I'm on this guy's side Oh. There you go. How about that? Among the veterans of this channel, eyewitnesses are sufficiently known for their lacking reliability in general, but this one takes the cake for sureore The sketch was probably worse than having none at all. As a matter of fact, the investigators would later retract the drawing from circulation and publicly declare it a dead end after they'd put several innocent people through the ring or on its basis, adding yet another item to their list of world documented embarrassments. Looking at the drawing gave Arno a dangerous ego boost. The investigators were chasing after a bearded pumpkin. The remaining risk was negligible so he made a decision on the spot It was time to blow the dough Now, how would you convert a medium sized fortune into happiness. Since Simon is paying his writers, Oh no my battery just run out Since Simon ispg his right to per a word and it's going to be a three hour episode, the same question came up for me. Yeah it was It expensive one to make. So I droped some acid and this is the plan I've set it on. Hire a team of professional skkywiters to compose a giant smoke based Sdoku puzzle right above Berlin and challenge locals to solve with walkie talkies. Commission a custom waterat side fill with cooked spaghetti and marinara sauce that you can slip slide and slurp your way to the bottom That sounds gross. F an entire gallery of slinky feet sculptures and then display them in an underwater exhibition for scuba diving foot enthusiasts and the rest I'll probably spend on pointless nonsense. But since Arno was more the down to eararth type, he instead decided to abscond to the sund devil shores of the Philippines, the Emerald Arch ofelago that promised the Swed nectar of anonymity decadence. Yeah, I have to say like If you've got the proceeds of a crime. And there's been this big cash crime that's gone on. And then this poor dude's just like spending all this money in the town. That seems like that's going to draw attention. But if you're just like, yeah, book of light and just take like a shoe box full of money in your in your luggage. I mean, hope customs don't go through your luggage and then just spend it abroad. No one's going to know Right? That seems like quite a good plan Alongside him, he also invited his boss Heinz, who blissfully ignorant of the money's illicit origins had been convinced by Biano that a sudden stroke of good luck was responsible for their prepaid or inclusive trip What excuse did he use? A yeah it's like my rich aunt died. or I won a scratch card. It could work. A few weeks later but it's still risky A few weeks later the tour, them boarded a plane to Palwan Island, diving head first into a world of reckless hedonism. They gambled with a band and raced across the island in rented quads and drank like there was no dawn. Their holiday funs quickly vanished into the haze of laughter and a half remembered meriment. Yet there was a peculiar thrill to this rapid depletion, granting them a sense of invulnerability as if they were characters in a novel written just for them this euphoria was volatile. Barno'sind ebb and flowed like the tides that surged up the white beaches and retreated just as quickly. At times, he towered above the world, impervious and mighty, and the next breath self doubt devoured him, and he wondered if going on an abridled trip was but an ephemeral and hollow victory that l straight back to square one. Surprise Pkachu mean. Right on. Yet forado, their journey was not a mere pleasure trip, but a vventure with a concealed agenda. The tropical island state served not only as an eden for sun seeking tourists, it bore a more complex identity, partially steeped in, you guessed it, crime. O is he going to launder his money there or something During the late eighties, the Philppes served as a global hotspot for the unholy Trinity of money laundering, tax evasion, and under the table dealings. Yes, he is. This was not only an open secret, but a substantial part of the nation's economic system. On top of that, the lax airline safety protocols of the pre nine hundred eleven era allowed Arno to carry all of his cash on board without anyone checking their luggage they? I mean When you go to the airport and your bag goes through the scanner, They're checking for like weapons and metal sh They're not going be a bunch of cash in there Right? That's not what they do They're more interest Aren' they more interested on the other side? Like there's always those signs when you enter an airport like are you carry more than ten thousand pounds worth of cash? remember to declare it. L they don't care on the way out. It's on the way in And then they don't scan you It's just about whether you get palls over if you go through the red lane or through the green lane havewwaysays I don't know I've been pull over. 've walked through that green lan Many, many times. I don't think I've at least not in memory Do they think I've ever been pulled over and H a bag search for anything Not that I've ever smuggled anything that, you know you go through those aports. I imagine the Philippines I' never been to the Philippines I imagine it's one of those countries where you go through it they're like, Remember, we have the death penalty if you're smuggling drugs. And even though you have no drugs on you, you're walking through that be like, o no, don't pull me your size. I don't have any drugs, but I'm slightly scared that why someone did put drugs in my bag. Pull yourself together We can't take you anywhere. Oh God. His days on Palawan were therefore punctuated by secret visits to Shifty exchange officers Wh the sanctity of the law was a foreign concept. Here in the shadowy corners of commerce, Arno would trade in his stolen potentially traceable bills for unblemished ones with a knowing nod and a clandestine handshake. Each transaction was marked by a brokerage fee, a small price to pay for the peace of mind it offered. Other sources however, claimed that Arno simply bought random stuff in large denominations and kept the clean change, which sounds logical, but not half as interesting. Yeah, wait, why would you need to do anything dodgy? justust like say you've got, I don't know, how much do they have like half a million euros Just go to one place with five thousand euros. and change it into sayates whatever currency they're use in the Philippines. and then take all that money and then go to another place and go, Hey, I'm going home, I'd like to change these back to euros. And then you change back to euros and by the time you' done youve probably lost like, I don't know. twenty percent or something probably outrageous. But I don't know, ten percent And then You've got clean euros And then just go round all the go round like a hundred exchange offers or two hundred exchange officers, which I'm sure is possible Dame. Done. Why would That seems more logical than risking going to some dodgy place where they could get you in trouble. I've got a money laundering big brain. Anyway, by the time they boarded their homeood flight, Arnu had laundered the entirety of his remaining stash. Yet, amidst the tumultuous story, there was another pivotal twist. During one of the boozy party nights on the island, Arnu had crossed paths with a woman who would irrevocably alter his life by stirring in him tender tumult of first love. A romance as sweet as sugar canane unfurled between them, and despite the fleeting nature of their shared time, she chose to chase the setting sun with Arno all the way to Germany. There they enttwined their lives in matrimony and even brought forth a new life into their shared world. ang This revelation surely comes as a bolt from the blue, considering Arno's characteristically detached approach towards people. His emotional fortress was a confounding maze, opening up to others was a feat that eluded him Truly, fathom, the gravity of this relationship, in Arno's existence, one would likely need to pen volumes, but I choose not to do that. You see, in the aftermath of the Scrooge McDuck saga, Arno's wife tried best to remain a silhouette against the spotlight. She demonstrated no inclination for the glare of public scrutiny. Yeah, in the aftermath of it turning out that your husband set off bombs to make money. You wouldn't be like, Hello, yes, I'd love to talk to the police. You'd be like, Lave me alone St staying indoors, please leave me alone. And as it must be declared prematurely, she remains entirely ignorant of Ono's criminal ventures up to the point of his eventual arrest, her only culpability, if any, lay in her reluctance to probe too deeply There No probability there. You'd just be like, I don't want it no. Thank you very much. But in my opinion, this naivety is not justify dragging her into the limelight against her will, therefore out of ethical obligation, I refrain from painting her further into this narrative. Well done, and I like that. I think that is the ethical and correct thing to do. We haven't even mentioned her name, which is nice. By the way, it has been brought to my attention that there is a persistent and somewhat misogynistic stereotype haunting Filido women who happen to marry Affluent European tourists. Yeah, I've heard that. There's that American TV show, which I've never seen, but they talk about it on that podcast, the H three podcast ninety day fiance and there's the dude Is his name Big Ed and he doesn't have a neck And this was his story And I get the finion that's the story of ninety D Fiance. While the despicable realities of human trafficking and exploited to prostitution do exist and must be fiercely opposed, I caution against heavy generalizations. Their bond was woven from the delicate threads of honest affection, a far cry from the insinuations that such stereotypes suggest. Anyway, back in Germany, richer buy a wife and piles of freshly laundered money Arno moved into a larger home, skirting the boundaries of his legitimate finances by tapping into his dirty treasure. Yom, his money's all been laundered and stuff But still If you go and buy a house and you're like, hereere's a giant pile of cash. or if you go into a bank and you're like, here's a giant pile of cash, surely whoever German Scotland Yard or, I don't know deals with like money daunderer Is this Colum Jard or like FBI? whoo cares? They're gonna get a ring. The bank person's gonna be like, hello justust let you know This man who looks a bit like a peasant has arrived with tons of dirty money. figuratively and also Perhaps literally. This lifestyle appealed to him even if it was not the greatade salvation he had hoped for. In an interview he gave on Derman television in twenty twelve, Arno described this stage of his life as followed. I felt slightly better on the surface, but on a deeper level, nothing had changed at all. Upon his return to Germany, the extravagances of his once in a lifetime holiday came to an abrupt halt. In stark contrast, the subsequent years were anything but a party As a newly minted father, Rano instead tried to settle into Berlin's middle class. He sheshifted into the epitome of normality, a walking, talking, embodiment of lawn maintenance, predictable fashion choices and meticulously organized sock drawers. He embraced the role of a respectable family man with Gusto going above and beyond to create a sense of stability around him. sad I'm so like dadsy and middle aged made sock draw. wn maintenance, I'm like, Yes, please His intention to assimilate into normal suburban life was crowned with some success. He superficially knew his neighbors and even gathered a collection of shallow friendships akin to shells on a beach that lacked the treasures within. His social orbit revolved around the idea of consistency but fell short of providing the inner fulfillment that he truly sought. Arno soon decided to quit his job because he simply no longer needed it. could called al be a reasonons unclear to him Life is better without lacquer paint in the brain, yes poor guy That's really like It goes in through your lungs and into your brain and then makes you have like these weird blackouts Dude This was like the eighties. Even though the damage caused during the previous years was largely irreversible, the lack of new toxins alleviated the symptoms to some extent. The downside of unemployment, of course, is poor sustainability. Half a million marks was undoubtedly a massive amount of money, but as a funny quirk of mathematics, numbers tend to get smaller if you keep subtracting from them. Aain surpris speak fac. Arn, sel taught arithmetic arithmetic genius was certainly aware of this fact as well. The first somewhat endurable phase of his adult life had arrived with a built in expiry a, looming hourglass, steadily emptying its grains over his head. The sand Arnault set himself a personal bottom line. The moment the funds dropped below the hundred thousand mark threshold, he would seek a new source of income. Unfortunately, that day dawned sooner than anticipated much sooner. And so nearly three and a half years later, he rented a nearby workshop and started constructing a new bomb alongside a complex dropping device. target The Kardstart Mall in Hamburg's Mchkeberg Street Is this the one we started out with Robin Hood This is dog people As you may recall, our episode began with the explosive events of nineteen ninety two Yes, it is. We then took a dime portal in order to trace Arno's life up to his first strike in nineteen eighty eight. Now we find ourselves back at the precipice of nineteen ninety two. You may wonder why I chose this anachronistic structure to begin with. I didn't even think about it because it flowed so nicely, Dennis. I didn't even think about it Well, the first draft of this script was written on twelve thousand five hundred and eleven post it notes, and then a strong gust of wind slightly rearranged the sequence. This is obviously a lie, but when my editor asked me the same question and I explained to her that I tried to keep up the suspense for time travelling viewers this way, as you cannot spoil an ending if you don't know where it is, she looked at me as if I was crazy or something, so I had to cook up that other excuse. It's not crazy, it works so well A dozen pages prior, we concluded the Hamburg saga with a stale made between the authorities and Arno, who had adopted the moniker Scrooge in the meantime. Scrooge had escaped capture thanks to his double layered timer mechanism, but detective Delecki, having learned from past errors, had left the extortionist with nothing more than one point five kilograms of worthless paper scraps Almost As you may recall, the real timer had dropped the bag barely a few kilometers after the train's departure. But when Arno went to pick it up, all he could see was authentic cash. The police had affixed four five hundred mark notes to the external surfaces of the foiled parcel, creating the illusion of real money all the way through. They also hid a tracing device within. Haevercrooge proved more perceptive than they hadd anticipated he saw straight through their bait and abandoned the package along This setack had plunged Arno into a precarious state, his funds had dwindled to dangerous levels, and the prospect of impending destitution completely overshadowed the minor triumph of another narrow escape. As we've emphasized before, Bomb construction is a task both laborious and expensive. hisis latest projects had drained his resources to the point of impending bankruptcy, a risky investment that had yielded returns. The paradigms changed As a result, Arno was no longer chasing a fantastic life of opulence and luxury, instead, he was hell bent on defending the normal life that he had grown to enjoy. Psychological studies have shown time and time again the agony of losing something greatly outweighs the pain of not having received the same thing in the first place. Yeah, of course, you don't miss what you've never had. In consequence, Ano's determination surged like a dangerous tempest His desperation metastasized into new levels of rage. This is dangerous. This could lead to recklessness. Like the first time around he was like, I don't have anything to lose. I'm just gonna make some perfect bombs using my genius brain. In a later interview, Arno explained that he felt as furious as he had never been before that day. When he had grabbed the sealed package with a triumphant smirk on his face only to find white strips of paper, his reaction was both intense and obvious. He immediately set about building the next bomb With the benefit of hindsight, Dalaki's decision to use fake money had been extensively questioned and debated. Obviously the idea of straight up paying a maniac to bl up random malls over a few years was untenable for law enforcement. Yeah, this was the thing at the beginning. donon't negotate terrorists because then the terrorists will do it again I negotiate with blackmailers and bombers for the same reason. The potential for inspiring copycats was all too apparent not to mention the challenge of explaining such a strategy to the taxpayers. Yeah and wasn't so we talked earlier about the prisoner exchange for the merchant of death, the basketball player, the American. And then a few months later, Russia arrests a journalist, like an American journalist, and you're like, whoo's getting free this time? It just encourages bad behaviour. Then again, the lack of fatalities thus far could only be attributed to Arno's cool headed moral consideration. Had it been wise to revoke such a volatile individual? It was now up to Arno to unmistakably demonstrate the depth of his resolve by raising the stakes with the police He felt obliged to teach them a lesson, he had to step up his game and infuse his threats with new credibility For the Scrooge Task Force in nineteen ninety two, all of this had been as clear as day. Yet all they could do was cross their fingers and hope that Arno would stick to his credo nonetheless. You may wonder why they did not simply close the malls as a security measure. Well this certainly sounds good on paper, but the sheer number of possible locations made it impractical, as it would best postpone the inevitable blast not for Stall it indefinitely Moreover, there was nothing preventing Scrooge from redirecting his attention to other structures, airports, train stations. school. While Arnao was busy crafting his fourth explosive device, the gears of the investigation relentlessly turned, sweeping up numerous individuals in the dragnet of suspicion. The vortex of scrutiny had caught quite a few, but one elderly gentleman found himself in the eye of the storm. His voice bore an uncanny resemblance to the one captured on tape, and his striking similarity to the sketch had him in the crosshairs following a neighbor's tip off. The man was known as a tinkkerer and a craftsman among his friends, and as a surprising twist, it was quickly discovered that his late brother had named him Daggabt, the German equivalent of Scrooge. Wow this is an unlucky dude. The wor condemning of all evidence, however, was his brazen loyalty to Marxism, and as we all know, only a bad person could ever be a communist vice versa. Thus, it seemed victory was practically in the bag, yet when the suspect was ultimately presented to Inspector Dalacy, who thought little of political bias and instead focus its attention on rock solid alibis for literally every single bomb attack and money handover but he was quickly let off the hook. Yeah, it's like that is so unfortunate. It's good there's a policeman, who's like, yeah, okay, let's actually you look at the real things. Incidents like these further shaped the public sentiment to the disadvantage of investigators. This was not their first failure. making headlines, and it would not be their last. The media had a field day with the incident, churning out countless articles and editorials about the blunder. Another embarrassment for the department. read one title. while another snigy questionions, Are the investigators still around? The tabloids, hungry for sensationalism pounced on the story, criticizing the investigative team and painting a picture of incompetence and clowny while implicitly praising Scrooge for his wits. Although they were not openly endorsing his actions, they still went for Scrooge outsmarts police, once again, rather than dangerous terrorists still on the loose. Arno closely monitored the media mixed feelings. Among the investigators, one face emerged particularly often. This epitome of lawful good, characterised by his penetrating gaze, appeared to helm the investigation and his name It was Michael Dalecki. The media presented him with great deference at first, but this would quickly change as his on camera contributions were often minimal discourag We have no new facts to report at the moment. He would repeat over and over again, likely a genuine admission. In one instance, Dleki withdrew the microphone, stepped aside, unaware that he remained within the camera's purview, and that the broadcast was still going. For a second or two, the entire nation could watch him shake his head in shame before the feed abruptly cut back to the studio. On separate occasion a reporter blindsided him with a question leaving him utterly dumbounded expected query When can we expect your inevitable resignation Gosh Wh? He's just Boy? Like Where do we expect your I'm doing my job I' try to catch a dude. Like I'm not gonna catch them all. What do you want? I'm not just gonna to quit every time I don't close a case. According to some retellings of the story, Arno found himself filled with empathy for Delecki on a personal level, despite his lingering anger over the counterfeit money. After all, it was his actions that had turned the insspector into the laughing stock of the nation, and this poor man was only doing his job However, there are pressing reasons to question this anecdote. Notably, Arno does not reference Dlecki in his biography, not even once. His name was not surfaced frequently in subsequent interviews either. Uncovering any direct commentary from Arno about his adversary proved to be a challenging task with a few existing remarks feeling somewhat ind differentere. Their alleged parasocial relationship between to Sherlock Holes vversus Professor Moriarti romance did likely not exist from Arno's point of view. I think of N Shellock Hmes and Moriarti, but catch me if you can Tom Hanks and DiCaprio's characters, but I guess that's not what this is. We can certainly assume he felt some degree of professional connection, though it did not carry a huge amount of emotional resonance for him, but we'll circle back to that later Te had also made an appearance on AachtenZeichen XY, Germany's equivalent of America's Most Wed. This show's format involved investigators presenting unsolved cases in the hope of garnerninging valuable leads from the public. During the broadcast, a phone number was displayed, enabling viewers to listen to Arno's nineteen eighty eight radio transmission free of charge. This is the extortionist Throw the money out now. throw the money out now. Perhaps someone out there would identify the voice. Arno doubted that he had concealed his voice of course, and upon hearing his own recording, he could confidently confirm it bore no resemblance to his natural tone. Arno's vocal pitch was a tenor clear accentuation, whereas the radio transmission was reminiscent of a cartoon robot suffering from a mild case of East German dialect September ninth. nineteen ninety two The explosion came sudden violence, drastically exceeding its predecessors. The blast echoed through the halls of Bremen's card starred Mall, a monstrous roar that shook the very foundation of the newly renovated building like an earthquake annihilating everything in its path of destruction Arnao's arsenal had evolved from rudimentary pipe bombs to military grade tools of warfare, so to speak. According to experts, the resulting damage exceeded the previous attack by a factor of roughly twenty five but as a silver lining. Despite everything, Arno had once again chosen to strike at night, with no lives lost and no bodies maimed. As the old headlines gave way to the next news cycle, the nation's kiosks were once again dominated by Scrooge. Interestingly, Arno contradicts this in his autobiography by stating I searched the newspaper's reports about the attack find anything. I'm not sure if this was a lapse in his memory or a result of some other confusion, but after unearthing the respective editions of several newspapers, I can attest that the blast certainly garnered proper attention. However, there was one aricle Arno did find, and it would profoundly influence him It was an interview with a criminology expert of questionable credentials who did his best at outlining a profile of the perpetrator. One line that stuck with Arno was this Detonating a bomb when the stores are empty is one thing, but detonating during opening hours would be quite another. There is certainly no danger from Scrooge. He would never dare take such a step Never. And you want to guess what Scrooge did next Is there all I don't he bill in the day Like this doesn't seem like any. he does seem to have a very strong moral compass about not hurting people. As a rule of thumb, the pace of any crime series will exponentially speed up over time, and this was true for Arno too. Not even a week after the Bremen attack, which he now deemed insufficient on account of the aforementioned article, he boarded a train headed for Hanover, his heart hammering a furious rhythm against his ribs. He was gripped With an unusual cocktail of feelings, the most disconcerting of which was his absolute sobriety. Not a drop of alcohol had passed his lips in preparation for this perilous mission, a venture of terrifying uncertainty. Good. Don't commit crimes while you're drunk. We know this, it's a rule. The absence of the familiar warmth in his bloodstream left his nerves raw and unprotected, and his impulse to change that in the onboard bistro was strong Hanover, in stark contrast, the kaleidoscope of Hno's emotion was a landscape of average as gracefully devoid of any distinctive flare. If you tied generic German city into any AI image generator, you will find yourself with Hanover.'s the type of fun I don't think I've ever been to Hanover Honestly unt until mentioned it was in Germany, I' have thought it was in the Netherlands It kinda sounds Dutch. It's a type of functional no frills architecture that makes you instantly lose on Geogesser, a masterclass in monotony, a parade of identical streets, geometrically precise rectangles, and palete of colours as muted as a winter dawn. I get the feeling that Deniz doesn't like Hanover Ano had been there many times before, and did not recognise anything specific as there is nothing specific to recognise for the better part For the better part of an hour, Arno meandered the city, absorbing its blandness. He noted the array of department stores, flanking pedestrian zones, virtually indistinguishable from one another. He chose one at random, but not before fortifying himself with a quick bite from a nearby fast food joint as he through his burger, Arno's thoughts drifted toward the upcoming steps of his mission. Unlike previous attacks, his approach was less calculated this time, less thought through, born mostly out of compulsion than strategic deliberation. This sounds like a mistake. Strategic deliberation has served you very well so far, Arno And now this feels like the sort of thing that's going to get you in trouble. Retiring to the privacy of a restroom cubicle, Arno, with his hands still trembling from the lack of liquid courage, gingerly unpacked his cargo His eyes flicked to his watch, it read seventeen thirty. With a few swift taps, he set the timer for seventeen forty five a mere quarter of an hour away. He carefully swaddled the explosive device in a cloak of black cloth, cradled the ominous parcel under his arm, and with unerring purpose, ventured toward the main entrance of the department store that sprawled across the street. This sounds like it's going to kill people dude cast out locations followed a predictable layout, so he immediately found his way around. As per the routine of past attacks, he ambled through the aisles, feigning interest in this or that all while vigilantly scanning for an opportune moment. The oppressive seconds ticked away, each one, amplifying the pressure mounting in Arnao's mind. His heart pounded in sync with each throb of the second hand on his watch se thir eight seeen thirty nine. The immensity of the situation was beginning to bear down on him. The weight of the concealed bomb grew progressively burdensome His frantic eyes darted around the store, desperately scanning for a suitable spot. Every potential location had its pitfalls. The toy section was rife with cameras, the clothing department teeming with shoppers the sport section to open The normally dull and characterlist apartment store is suddenly transformed into a labyrinth of potential dead ends and hazards His gaze landed on the furniture section, but as he began to stride towards it he noticed a security guard making a round, an unfortunate roadblock in his path He veered off toward the electronic section only to meet up with a group of children playfully exploring the rows of first generation gaming consoles. His watch now read seventeen forty two And ye Three minutes left. The relentless march of time seemed to have accelerated the seconds, slipping away faster than Arno could keep up with. Panic surged through him, like an electric current. The possibility of not finding a spot in time was becoming a reality and an outcome that could result in his own demise. He was running out of time. With just a minute to spare, he darted back toward the furniture section, which was now completely empty. The security guard appeared to be patrolling somewhere else. This was the opportunity Arno had been waiting for. He carefully slid the bomb between a folding cabinet and a supporting pillar, praying that nobody would come near it within the next fifteen seconds. Arno put barely twenty meters between him and the bomb when it went off, its' roar echoing throughout the department store the sound engulfing him, wasashing over him, threatening to drown him, It resonated in his skull, bouncing off his eardrums. in a disorientating symphony of noise. This seems like a terrible idea, dude. What are you up to? Arno reeled back, clutching his head as his world spun. His vision blurred, the shapes of the store and the people within it blending together in a chaotic whirl of colours. He staggered, trying to main his balance, but the disorientation was toowhelming Everything was too loud, too bright, too fast. He was a ship adrift in a storm, tossed about by the relentless waves of sensory overload. Around him, the department store descended into chaos. People screamed, their voices just indistinct noise against the ringing in his ears. They ran in every direction. their movements erratic and panic stricken, shhoppers' carts were abandoned, midled, their contents scattered across the floor The store's alarm system blared, itss piercing whales. Arno's journey to the exit N ending. once he finally managed to step back onto the street A sigh of relief ghosted his lips, merging with the cool embrace of the evening air. The ensuing pandemonum provided Ana with the perfect cover, allowing him to slip away unnoticed Yet a fragment of his selfconscious would forever remain tethered. mess he had created psyche. As the sky darkens later that day Arno found no sleep Completely immersed in the realm of intoxication, the full magnitude of his actions began to bear down on him with increasing intensity. Fear and guilt consumed him, wondering if he had caused harm or even death to innocent bystanders Though he had chosen a relatively feeble explosive to minimize such possibilities, witnessing the destructive power of his own creation had shattered his certainty. This rubbish article had tempted him to set off a bomb during the opening hours, and he had allowed himself to be provoked maybe had gone too far. Yeahet, it was crazy risky, dude. What if there were no spaces without people in them? you could have easily killed someone This like like so far in store I was kind of like, yeah, he's just kind of like he's not hurting anyone on purpose It's kind of like on his side, like you are in Catch me if you Cam and stuff or like in Dexter And I'm just like, yeah, Dude you could have really killed someone. There were children in there and stuff. With the arrival the next morning, the unfortunate truth came crashing down through the news. Two women had suffered so called blast trauma, which is a type of physical injury resulting from the forceful impact of a blast wave. The long term symptoms vary depending on the severity of the injury, but they may include permanent heill hearing loss, tinnitus, traumatic brain injuries and even irreversible cognitive difficulties. Moreover, I'm convinced that many others had to cope with the psychological consequences for a long time to come, though this was never really reported on I've been to Hanover recently and I visited. The all in question, without any concrete expectations, just pure curiosity. I believe I pinpointed the precise location of the bomb's detonation, though no commarative marker or noticeable aberration marked the area, so I just snapped a photo to satisfy my narcissistic impulses and left. What struck me as extraordinary on the way out, however, was the remarkably broad selection of Disney products O, It seemed like every character was represented among the toys in printed clothing with a notable exception of Scrooge McDug. I couldn't help but find this amusing though I'm certain it was a mere coincidence. Bom Now that the line of human victims had been crossed, you would think that Scrooge's excellent reputation would be worsened drastically. The public discourse now turned into an absurd circus and national news devolved into a daily soap where people cheered for the bad guy. In one broadcast, a camera crew asked people on the street what they thought of Scrooge. Every single person expressed their respect, sympathy, or even admiration professional. we do like a bad guy, don't we In a professional poll conducted in nineteen ninety two, sixty four percent of all respondents declared themselves to be on his side, making Scrooge more popular than Helmet Cole, the federal Chancellor Scrooge's influence perviated pop culture he's not even like. He's not even a robbing it. He's not giv it he's not giv it to to the fore. he's just keeping it for himself. Scrooge's influence permeated pop culture with several bands changing their names in his honor, and even successful ones such as Scrooge, Scrooge, even successful ones, such as Scrooge, Scrooge, Scrooge, and even Scrooge fan clubs sprouted up like mushrooms a variety of merch was available. at every other general store, and everyone wanted to join the madness. Techno tracks peppered with samples from Arno's famous Throw the Money out Now line reverberated incessantly across disco floors and radio dials. T shirts saying I am Scrooge were sold by the thousands and people across all ages and socioeconomic bubbles Would unite by wearing them This is kinda crazy though. on various talk shows, panels of omic analysts experts attempt to identify connections between the cartoons and real life events and potentially forecasting future developments. Following the police's disclosure that Scrooge had allegedly been residing in a particular hotel under an assumed identity, the establishment converted said rooom into a bizarre Scrooge themed exhibition, showcasing evidence, crime scene photos, and portraits of known suspects. Consequently the hel was fully booked on end Scrooge McDuck had morpphed into a widely cherished brand Which begs the question, What the fuck is wrong with people? It is kind of strange, isn't it? He's a bomber. he's selling off bombs. For our international viewers, it is likely hard to imagine. A failed artist with a questionable moral comppose rising to power and fav in Germany. let me elaborate O a faved artist that would be Denis. According to my analysis, there are mly two reasons for Srooge's stardon, with one of them being rather obvious. Scrooge, seen through the lens of the TV screen, was the archetype of an anti hero, the reflection of real human flaws and complexities. His unorthodox approach of non violent terrorism captivated audiences drawn to ruleak breakers and rebels, but without caing dis Scrooge was the Gandhi of piper bombs, the underdog who dared to rise against the establishment, the David fighting against the Galod And everyone joined in on a rebellion against those up there. Those up there at the police tried to stop bombings. It's important to mention, however, that this characterization is debatable at best. Scrooge is often compared to Robin Hood up to this day, but this verdict comes with a small issue. While Scrooge certainly mastered the taking from the rich part, he conveniently forgot the giving to the poor bit. He had never been concerned with political change, wealth redistribution or justice A at least not during his criminal career Also, I refuse to applaud him for avoiding fatalities as this false dichotomy completely ignores the existence of a third option you know blowing up Beyond that, however, there was a second much more important factor. In the early nineties, people loved to watch the police getting pounded really hard, and they all had a reason to do so. Again in the aftermath of the Second World War, Germany had been cleaved in two parts, a division that would endure until the winter of nineteen eighty nine barely three years prior to the Hanover explosion. We've touched on this before, but as a quick reminder, whereas the western areas have blossomed into a modern democracy, the easastern part had been ruled by the Soviet p oppresses with an ironire During those forty years, the police played a key role in maintaining the totalitarian regime. Operating under the Ministry of State Security, commonly known as the Stari, the police in the GDR were notorious for their brutal tactics and pervasive surveillance apparatus. They employed a range of oppressive measures including arbitrary arrests, imprisonment without trial, and the systematic use of torture to extract essions Dsidents, political activists, and anyone deemed a threat to the regime faced constant surveillance, harassment and intimidation, and if you were caught trying to cross the border, you were shot on the spot. Yet a really good way to like encourage hate. Police right with the f all of the Berling wall, The pololice agencies underwent rapid transformation, however to many, this change seemed to be nearly cosmetic. A handful of the authority figures were relocated, some were dismissed entirely, but the majority of the rank and file officers simply continued their service under the new banner which is weird because like I mean, you've got to have police, right? But the police in East Germany like shooting people if they cross the border and doing all that kind of like oppressive Soviet Union shit it's going to be a real change when you're like, Oh, wait, we've got to be policemen in the democracy. That's a bit weird. What do we do? Traffic control? There's no shooting of innocent people. Come on. What are we supposed to do all day? Distrust remained the overarching sentiment towards law enforcement in the former GDR regions. They were still viewed as adversaries. This political climate was clearly not without effect. Scrooge was the enemy of the police was the friend of the people. Quite a while, it was also theorized that Scrooge might be in fact a police officer himself. evenven the task force had conducted quite a bit of research on this, because the idea was rather plausible if you think about it. Scrooge's uncanny ability to stay one step ahead for years could conclusively be explained that way. To illustrate, consider these examples. In October of nineteen ninety two, the investigative team discovered that Scrooge purchased most of his electronic bomb components from a specific retailer prompting them to deploy undercover agents throughout at the stores. However, soon as this strategy was implemented, Scrooge began sourcing his supplies elsewhere. Then was the matter of the telephone booths. Following the attack in Hamburg, Srooge had started communicating his demands via public telephones instead of an elaborate radio transmitter. However, he had only used those located in the far west of Berlin. As soon as the police noticed the pattern and commenced surveillance on all West Berlin telecommunication points Scrooge started calling from the East. That's pretty suspicious, right? That's going to look like you've got some inside knowledge, for sure. There were numerous indications that suggested privileged inside knowledge, a topic which incited widespread media speculation. These bad optics intensified the public relations nightmare, exacerbating the already rampant distrust. in reality Arno never had any access to classified information. He was simply a person of far sightedness and intelligence, peppered with a healthy dash of luck. And then there was the dog poop incident. Don't try and even get me started on the dog poop incident but oh boy, here we go. In the aftermath of the Hanover explosion, which injured two people, Arno put forward a new demand for money. His chosen method of exchange was reminiscent of the successful strategy from nineteen eighty eight where police would yeat the money from a moving train. This time, however, Arno added a tactical ist the use of a bridge as the drop point. Oh my gos. That's exactly what I said. The simplicity and elegance of this plan lay in Arno's positioning beneath the bridge while the train passed overhead. This setup would make it extremely challenging for the officers to halt the vehicle and descend to his location, affording Arno ample time to gather the dropped cash and make his escape on a bike There was no need for intricate gadgetry or complex preparations, the location itself provided the place advantage. However, this the third consecutive handover attempt, revolving around a moving train. His over relliance on this methodology had made it predictable The task force had been graced with plenty of time to consider all imaginable train related scenarios and concoct an effective countermeasure. As Arno's call came through and the details of the train connection were shared, Delucky had to stifle a triumphant cheer. They had a corresponding plan for this specific track section in the draw. In no time, they all sprang into action, stationing covert law offices at every critical juncture A an hour after the police had taken position, he was entirely oblivious to the fact that the vicinity was teeming with policemen. It sounds like he's about to get arrested. The bridge spanned across a bustling intersection at the heart of Berlin, so the throng of people muddling about was an ordinary sight. Yet Arnu appeared to be an anomaly amidst the crowd. His demeanor was conspicuously normal He also seemed to be in a state of passive anticipation, unlike the others who were eagerly caught in the city's heartbeat. Michael Jan, a seasoned member of the Berlin SEK team, bas the German Sot equivalent o, took note of this peculiar man and began to close the gap, inching towards him with calculated caution. But when Arno's face fell upon the approaching undercover officer, a creeping sensation tinkled up his spine. The telltale scent of the lore seemed to emanate from the man's very movements, their eyes locked, if only for an infinitesimal instant, before Arno like a startled hare, leapt onto his bicycle, feet thrashing against the pedals. Officer Jaran lunged, his fingers barely grazing Arno's jacket, but Lady Lark and accruel to us to fate had another plan met a slick blare of wet leaves send him sprawl onto the hard pavement. O no Once again manage to escape without money but also without a trace. But bad news, this guy the SEK guy, he's just full on seeing your face. and they're going have a proper sketch of you now. The buildild, a German tabloid giant, was the first to splash the story across the pages, but not without adding their own bit of creative license. In their version, the innocent pile of leaves had been replaced with a heap of steaming dog poop kidd Reading The Bild is like playing two truths and a lie, but with three lies. Imagine toilet paper that screamens vaguely racist misinformation at you. Sounds very similar to the Daily Mail. This' basically the business model, allegedly in my opinion. Nonetheless, they're embellished retelling, in quotes of events was echoed uncritically across the whole media landscape, sparking a bunch of pathetically unfunny puns as newspaper headlines Those only work in German, of course, but here's an English one that I came up with. Scrooge McDuck case is still a poo Dunnut. I can't believe I'm getting played for this. please like and subscribe Good It's so bad, it's good DZleki, along with the rest of the police force, was profoundly infuriated. Even if their work had not been above valid criticism, they did not deserve to be dragged through the mud like this. D doest like calling for his resignation because he can't close a case, justust feels super harsh. Dellcky had worked tirelessly to the point of jeopardizing his own health, only to find himself the subject of ridicule and derision nonetheless. Also the dog poop incident had completely eclipse the significant breakthrough. Michael Yarn's exceptional awareness had led them to a highly accurate sketch of the elusive criminal, a fact which was now buried Besieged by frustration, TZelecki resolved to limit his interactions with the press to absolute minimum. However, there was one individual with whom he maintained regular communication As mentioned earlier, Arno had become less and less riskver, stoppted him for public phone booths instead of double relayed radioons misses. He would communicate with two people, Klaus Springborne, who was a police officer pretending to be an employee of Carat and occasionally with Dlecky himself representing the police. The phone conversations between them bore an uncanny resemblance to friendly bander akin to old buddies plotting their weakness escapates. This does sound like u catch me g can, doesn't it? Be they would phone each other and stuff. This informal star wasn't without its strategicotives though. Dilllecki hoped that by engaging sccrooge in casual conversation, he might inadvertently reveal crucial information about his identity. While this outcome never materialized, the phone calls did lose their professionalism over time becoming increasingly relaxed with each iteration. I mean Isn't that Deleki doing his job He's doing these phone calls. so Um Arno thinks he's his mate and We catch him and even if he is becoming friendly with him, he's still doing his job. Again, this was mainly tactics exactly, but I'd like to imagine that it transcended this to some extent. In fact, I suspect both Arno and Inspector Deucki genuinely enjoyed talking to each other, and there are examples to illustrate this. For instance, on one occasion, in early nineteen ninety three, De Lucky tried to convince Scrooge to postpone a handover by a couple of days because the SEK team required more time for R SwWatT's not ready for you. Can you wait a couple of days? Of course, he did not disclose the true reason for his request. Inead he informed Scrooge that he could not make the original date because a family member was getting married. Oh o, that makes more sense. After a moment of silence, Scrooge retorted in a mockingly crestfallen tone That's it. For a second, I thought you were about to invite me. They had a good laugh, and then Scrooge agreed to reschedule. Oh Godd. And then later on he's like, how' is the wedding? like So what wed? Oh ye, itah, great. yeah, it's great. nothing to do with SWT teams. Nothing. it's great.'s a beautiful wedding. It was Kate During this phase of our story, there was a total of twenty failed money handover attempts, each one more absurd than the next. In April of nineteen ninety three, for example, Scrooge told the police to place the money in a so called grit box located near a parking lot. Grit box is it's in quotes here, but I think I know what it is. It's like that thing that contains salted gravel that you put on the the roads when it get snowy That's the thing we have in the UK is that American thing? If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a griit box, let me explain in countries where winter weather can make roads and walways treacherous. Local authorities often install these boxes at crucial points filled with a combination of sand and salt, they provide a way to spread grit on icy surfaces to enhance traffic and prevent traffic accidents. Yes, definitely. In this case, however, the git was rigged with a secret. Arno had sawred a hole in its bottom and strategically placed it over a manhole. His plan was to remain hidden in the sewer, enabling him to connect the money without having to approach the box from kind of gen But things didn't go as plannans, but apparently not genius enough. When the police officers, unaware of Arno's lurking below, deposited the money into the box, one of them questioned whether the concealed tracking device nestled among the counterfit bills was activated. They still in't the counterfeit bills. Hearing this conversation through the bottom of the box, Arno swiftly bolted across the sewer system, emerging from a different manhole cover for his escape A few hours later, a flock of journists ambushed Inspector Dleki, who was still busy scouring the parking lot for evidence. The only response he would offer to the media was his unofficial catchphrase Other handover attempts involved a remote control lorry, booby traps connected to fireworks and miniature submarine, as well as a mountain guerlla trained in archery. Surely not And even though I completely made that last one, yes, thank you. I think you get the overall idea. It was a never ending heist movie with a steadily growing fan base. But they did it twenty times and he didn't get his money. Where's he getting all the money to do this elaborate ship from? I thought he was running out. Yet despite Arno's brilliance and creativity, each of these plys have led to nothing but another draw followed by a subsequent phone call in which both teams paid respect to the other and wished good luck for their next match upp, so to speak Times D The banality of evil They might have noticed the subtle shift inonality over the last few pages, I have indeed. It's become more Fly What started as a gloomy noir thriller gradually transformed into a lighthearted crime comedy starring Adam Sandler and Nicholas Cage. I'd watch the shit out of that. Perhaps you also sensed that at some point the focus shifted from the money to the thrill of the game. After all, there have been twenty failed attempts, so why even bother to continue? Either overhaul the strategy or stop entirely? There is a certain element of insanity in unsuccessfully trying the same thing again and again, unless of course you are participating purely for the heck of it. Perhaps Arnu had become an adrenaline addict or maybe the intellectual tug of war had outstripped the allure of any . Maybe the true treasure was the enemies While there is certainly truth in these observations, the overarching situation was anything but fun and games. The dark underbelly persisted. Yeahet, it's a lot of police time and effort and expense being wasted on this. By late nineteen ninety three, Arno was officially broke. His family relied on social benefits which which strained his marriage to the point of regular fights Supping a son without a stable income proved challenging, as the ruling coalition of Conservative and free market parties hated the poor and went out of their way to put needy families through every hardship that the Constitution allowed I didn't know Germany went't had that in the nineties I imagine Germany I don't know much about Germany's political situation, but I imagine it's a fairly robust Welfare state Today, wouldn't it be it's Germany? It's got lots of money. They spread it around So' they Let me know, Germans in the comments. Do you have a robust welfare state? I'd say the UK's welfare state is quite robust. It reminds me of that Mitcheller Webbsketch. You guys seen that show, it's amazing. There's this one where the politicians having a discussion with some conservative politician or. he's meant to be conservative. is like, listen everybody, I just want to suggest, have you considered Just killing the poor 's so funny. With his back against the wall, Arno blew up two more card stpped locations after closing hours, one in Berlin and one in Bilerfeld, which does in fact exist, I double checked. Oh, that's the town. It wasoutcoding the unknown whereere on this show Or was it on this show where it was like, It's this town that people in Germany they have this running joke that it doesn't exist. But instead of giving the police another easy going call, Arnna pnds a letter, a very sinnis one Apparently, you still think I'm one willing to kill people, he wrote. You are leaving me with no other choice but to prove you wrong. If you use fake money, one more time I will do it And thus the narrative arc. comes full circle in two ways. Just like in nineteen ninety eight it was the Maall's magnet management that offered to pay the one point four million German marks that Arnnao requested enough money to purchase either two point two five million square meters of bubble wrapper or approximately thirty six giraffes on the Back market. So the price of giraffe a draffe so expensive, seems like a lot. Also reminiscent of nineteen ninety eight, Arno reverted to his most basic approach, instructing the police to simply throw the money from a train, his least intricate, yet most effective method so far At this point, the entire German law enforcement found themselves at war with Scrooge McDuck. Everyone was involved in the case in some capacity. The higher ups continued sifting through the seemingly endless list of suspects while frontline staff nationwide were told to prepare There was one crucial difference from the previous situation. As the calendar of nineteen ninety three approached its final chapter, the onset of Christmas season pulsated with relentless momentum. The malls had turned into entirely different universes awash with a flickering light, silver garland and decorative tinsel that hung from the tall ceilings like icicles. The press of people was dizzy and human rivers flowed with casual urgency, carrying shopping bags heavy with treasures. Children trotted alongside their parents' faces alight with the magic of the season ing at coat sleeves to point at mesmerizing window displays. and amidst the picturesque scene of festive merriment lurked the ominous presence of an unidentified bomber who now posed a very credible threat of death the emerging cris so deeply affecting public safety that it commanded the immediate involvement of the political realm. By early December, the Berlin Senator for Internal Affairs, recognizing the gravity of the situation, called Delecki into his office. The directive was clear and non negotiable. Implement the non confrontational fulfillment strrategy. As you may have guessed, a sophisticated euphemism for simply giving up. In this volatile period, bristling with unpredictability, the governing officials opted to not gamble with the stakes so high. Therefore they set aside any elaborate schemes or underhand tactics, no sares, no surveillance devices, not a single hidden agenda They were finally prepared to placate Arno with a straightforward payment. no strings attached. In a small office within the labyrinth of Berlin City Hall, Arno had been declared the winner then A couple of weeks later, something extraordinary occurred. I mean, he's sort of the winner. It doesn't end, because what's to stop him from doing it again? And then surely the police investigation will pick up because he's not just gone quietly away with one point four million. Surely at some point, he'll be back when he spent the one point four. The streets buzzed around Andreas Bloom There's nofemy name changed upon request, okay, a seasoned member of the spepecial Operations Unit. He was maneuvering an unmarked, high performance vehicle down a vibrant boulevard close to the heart of the city Despite the surrounding bustle, Bloom's mind was engrossed in an imminent operation. He was tasked with preparations for the handover of a sizeable one point four million marks. The high stakes event required meticulous planning and left no room for error, hence the intense focus of his thoughts. Throughout the last several weeks, there had been several attempts to hand over the cash to the extortionists, yet it was Scroge who had either failed to show up or asked to change the day location or method last minute, as if it had suddenly lacked the self confidence to find him before. As he neared a busy intersection, the traffic light flicked to red. Almost mechanically, Bloom shifted the car into neutral and gently pressed the brake pedal Slowed came to a halt, offering him brief moment of solitude amidst his high octane life. During this moment, his gaze inadvertently drifted to the vehicle front of him It was a nondescriptive white car that blended seamlessly into the urban landscape, but something about it caught his eye a small window at the rear granted a glimpse into the vehicle's trunk. Peering through the semi transparent glass, Bloom discerned the shape of a bicycle, an ordinary every day item at first glance, yet its distinct detail were eerily familiar. The rusted metal frame, the mismatched wheel spokes, and the seat covered in worn out duct tape leather. It wasn't just any bicycle, it was a distinctive one that had come across before in the line of duty. Was it the exact same bicycle Scrooge had used on the day of the dog poop incident? It perfectly matched his colleague's description, a rush of adrenaline surged through Bloom's ves as he grabbed his radio device and relayed the no plate to Uric Tiller's office, who served as head of operations. Tiller immediately dropped everything and had the license place checked. As it turns out, the vehicle in question was a rental car, currently held by a man Arno Martin Franz unk In a subsequent documentary, Inspector Tiller would reflect on the unforgettable nature particular day quot, The car had been leased precisely on the day scheduled for a money handle. And after the transfer had failed, the rental contract was extended until the follow up handover attempt. Things like these do not happen by chance. The news spread like wildfire, searing its way through the tight knit network of local and national police agencies. They quickly discovered a plethora of other strange coincidences that linked Arno to the crimes, albeit only via circumstantial evidence. The crucial elements eluded them still, irrefutable proof, a proverbial smoking gun that would incontrovertibly reveal Arno to behind the crimes that had shaken the nation At this point, if they arrest him and bring him in and then search for all this stuff, won't they find like the bomb making staff and the evidence of the money and they can follow that figure it out and get to They've got this what's it called? Circstantial evidence and now they're looking for proof But I feel like the circumstantial evidence is enough to arrest him and then get that proof, although maybe they're going be clereverr than that and like catch him in the act or something In the weeks that followed, a select team of surveillance experts was dispatched with a singular task to shadow Arno's every move. They watched with hawk likeke precision as Arno went about his daily routines, each one seeming to be just as mundane as the last. Arno would drop his son off at the local kindergarten, his fatherly affection, bellying the monstrous accusations levelled against him. He would be seen shopping at the neighborhood supermarket, his grocery cart filled with the most ordinary of household items select of fresh fruits and vegetables. His interactions with his neighbours were fleeting, yet polite, a quick nod, a brief exchange of pleasantries, nothing that would indicate his potential for malevolence. In fact, his behaviour was so impeccably ordinary, his face so remarkably unremarkable, that it began to sow seeds of doubt within the ranks of the observation unit. this unassuming average Joe reallyally be a criminal mastermind. without equal, a puppeteer pulling at the strings of chaos and destruction. that dichotomy. was startling, and the quest for the truth unending. They had followed Aro for weeks without obtaining any concrete evidence. And then on the twenty second of april nineteen ninety four day of the grand finale arrived. Surely you are expecting a dramatic climax with Dechianano having a sword duel over the mouth of a volcano or something like that. Honviously it's been so cinematic so far, it wouldn't surprise me How does catch me to Cannon? How does he eventually get him He finds him in the French get him right? He he gets him out of a French prison or something like that, isn't that right? I've watched that movie again, it's been a while I've seen it many times it's so good. In the beginning of this episode, I stated that the case of Scrooge McDuck resembles an over the top Netflix series, but unfortunately, this includes the way things end disappointingly without a second season despite popular demand. Yeah, Netflix makes some cracking shows I recently was watching is it the diplomat about the American ambassador You get sent to London with her husband and all of this stuff. Amazing. It felt like it was like Clearly inspired by Sawkins' writing And was I enjoyed it a great deal, especially the early episodes. But then you see some other Netfixration Not to name names, but there are some really bad Netflix shows. At roughly five PM, Arno Funke entered a phone booth, called the police, introduced himself as Scrooge, and relayed some instructions regarding the still outstanding payment of one point four million marks. After he hung up, the harsh screech of tires echoed from every direction. As policemen swarmed out of unmarked vehicles, their pistols strained on him like magnetic needles drawn to no Arno nodded as if to say, Well done, and with a mildild smile on his face, after a short pause for dramatic effect, he loud and clearly declared, I am Ion she said I am Scrooed. You know, there is this old expression which states never meet your heroes, implying that getting to know a public figure would likely be a letdown, and sure enough, there is a common fallacy governing many fandoms and parasocial relationships, confusing the cultivated persona for the person behind it. This also applies to Simon, for instance, you may think of him as a chill and humble dude. but once you get to know offs screen you might realize he' You might come to realise that the running gag about his basement prison is in fact not a joke and we actually need help. The that you're saying it' not a joke makes it sound like it's naturally a joke that the police are going to come to my house. Wh? Yet to every rule. There are exceptions, and one of those was Aro Funke. When the true face of Scrooge was revealed to the public, people fell in love with him all over again as he not only confirmed their expectations He exceeded them There is a particularly surreal moment of television history that demonstrates my point very well. The scene unfolds within the austere confines of a Berlin detention centre, a place you would expect to be thick with tension and trepidation. Ao is seen comfortably surrounded by a group of policemen as if he was esteemed member of their ranks. He doesn't appear to be a captive, but rather an old friend sharing laughs with the officers, but not in a big headed way His smile relaxed, the absurdity of the situation underscored by a glint of boyish mischief in his eyes. Suddenly a journalist materializes into the frame, thrusting a microphone under Arno's nose and quips. Not exactly a great d day for you, is it? Arno shockles a bit, casting a knowing glance at the officers as if they were all in on some grand joke and sheepishly replies, Ohh, well, you know, it tad's stressful, truth be told Then nonchalantly sauns off with the officers disappearing around the corner. and the punchline to this whole charade. This bizarre theatre unfolded only half an hour after Arno's initial arrest. He had been put in handguffs, he had been chauffered to the detention centre, and then he found himself before a camera immediately while sharing laughs with the very people who had just arrested him after a four year long manhunt I think the big thing is he never hurt anyone. And that's like that's a big thing Oh it hurt people didn't, there was that bomb that went off and they got the bomb shock or whatever it was called, but he never killed anybody. That's what I was say. Inspector Delecki, however was not present. When heard about Scrooge's arrest, he escaped the hustle and bustle because his service was no longer required, as he put it. Instead of seeking the next best camera team in order to finally report on his success, he simply got into his car and drove into the sunset like an old fashioned movie cowboy because he knew what would happen next. The world exploded. This would be the moment in the movie, like he catches his guy, it's all done, and then the cameras are waiting for him and instead he just gets into his car, and there's like a long shot of him just driving, staring off into the distance justust driving And then it fades to black. And then there's know at the end of every bason orree story movie, there's pictures of the real people and there's like text saying what happened next. That's where it would end, I reckon. Look Netflix, I could direct that I couldn't know nothing about direction. The media but that would be a good ending. The media pounced on the arrest, with an intensity matching the moon landing. words cannot describe the metaphorical earthquake that shook the nation. A depressing day for anarchists, one newews anchor stated, but also for many good citizens. The hero Scrooge McDuck has been both arrested and demystified. Another channel felt moved to the point of poetry and commented on it like this Dear Zeygeist, you had such a beautiful symbol. Scrooge was a cult figure of all round displeasure with the authorities. We as a society have constructed him, and we have created him. in our own edge On the surface, a random extortionist had been caught that day this extortionist represented more than just a series of crimes, he indeed served as a reflection of his time, the essence of a nation in desperate search of an identity. Ao was a symbol for many things, but first and foremost, he embodied the overcoming of the inner German division. By blowing up highiron departments doors he spoke from the soul of those who detested Western capitalism, and by humiliating the police, he deeply touched those had steal unresolved scars from the starsy tyranny. Imagine a lens that concentrated all the pent up emotions from forty years of sorrow and yearning for unity. Though Anu had never cared much for politics, he became that lens. People did not see a criminal on their screens. they watched a piece of themselves, a Berlin newspaper captured the sentiment very well by printing a headline both hyperbolic and adequate Scrooge McDark has been arrested. for our sins. According to some YouTube comments on my previous episodes, people seem to assume that I'm rather old. Although I do consider myself ready for retirement, the hard evidence on my birth certificate suggests that I've barely turned thirty I also asse I don't know why Dennis. I also assumed for some reason you were older than me. And I'm six years older than you. Okay? This is important because I don't know why I assumed you were older. You just seem smart Like for some reason all smart people have to be older than me. but it does feel that way sometimes, doesn't it? This is important because I've no first hand experience with the political climate I tried to convey. I've never directly been affected by German division. Thus, the deep emotional tremors these evokes provoke to many are a matter of attempted empathy for me, not personal recollections. besides, I perceive overly nationalistic mindsets as cartography based esotericism Therefore, I amm not connected to Germany through strong patriotic feelings. Being randomly born within these borders is not a personal achievement, not a part of my identity. As a result, I mean ye I guess I feel similar Its like you're just bn you bn't Part of identity through it is that it's the language that I speak, it's the culture that I was raised in. So in that way it's part of my identity. I don't particularly it's not a large part of my identity, but it's definitely like being British is a part of who I am. Spice. I don't take any pride in it, that would be different. As a result, I really struggled to understand how some people had full blown mental breakdowns upon Scroochge's downfall, collapsing in front of their TV's as if the world was ending. Th again I suffered my last mental crisis after learning that Chester Bennington, who had always meant more to me than I could ever rationally explain had died from depression. So I guess people felt roughly the same about Arno's arrest I don't know Chester Bennington There's no explanation. No like Is this guy so famous that I should know who he is And oh my Godd, he's the first guy to come up under Chester Chester Benningon has a chess Oh, I'm on the check page. Let me say, here's the English one. wasas an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Lincoln Park. Oh, I've heard of Lincoln Park I didn't know he died Oh! Rest in peace In the days that followed, journalists meticulously dissected every facet of Arno's existence. They sought out interviews with former colleagues, broadcasted exterior shots of his suburban residence, and ushered a parade of so called criminal profilers onto their news sets all the while stoking the fires of sensationalism the pitch. Demonstrations of peaceful protest arose at the gates of Plot Zenzi prrison, with citizens insisting on Ano's immediate release, yet, despite these fervvent pleas, Arno was not exonerated Why not in the conventional sense. You see, the subsequent trial sharply contrasted with the nature of the crimes. It was remarkably uneventful. evvidence was scrutinised, witnesses testified, and legal arrangements volleied back and forth. It's important to note the stark cultural divergence between Central Europe and the United States regarding judicial proceedings as they're typically not designed for public amusement among civilized nations American courts are world like televised. It's like broadcasting the news, people follow along. There's a big show. peopleople dance in front of a jury great. I'm watching that show. I can't remember the name of. Is it calledur Is it called Jury Duty with u The guy from James Marsden, the actor James Marsden, who I mostly know from a sppike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but he's done loads of other shit, and he's in this show. where There's a jury And he's the only there's there's Everyone's an actor except for this one dude, and I think he thinks he's part of a documentary But really he's just being set up in this show. It's quite amusing 's quite amusing. This is great because this way I can summarise the trial within a paragraph rather than sprawling across numerous chapters. but to inject a dash of suspense son, feel free to take a brief pause and try and predict the verdict It will be revealed in the next sentence. He's got to be guilty right? I'm guessing guilty and then a very, very light sentence my is my feeling right now He can't be not guilty. He's admitted to it. Or he's like saying, yeah, he's pleading guilty and he gets a light sentence sure he has to serve someone sureurely there's some L Okay. At the trial, Anna was handed a sentence of seven years and nine months for aggravated predatory extortion. Okay. That seems Reasonable Surrisinglyient isn't No, I'd say that's fair. He didn't kill anybody, he intentionally didn't kill anybody. He tried to extort some people for money I would say that Fairly fair If not on the higher end of things This guy didn't hurt anybody. I'm all for like for people who murder people, like the people we cover on this show, I'm all for throwing them in prison and throw away the key to be honest, sometimes But this seems fair. I mean, I'm probably fine with the punishment for the bombing stuff, but I would expect one hundred and fifty additional life sentences for infringing on the copyright of a Disney character. Irrespective of the circumstances, there exists an unequivocal boundary past which the severity of a crime simply cannot be tolerated. I'm looking at the cover of whoops I'm looking at the cover of the book and knowing how litigious Disney is. prised to get away with this. Like I know it's obviously a photograph of like a Disney tooy, but Dney to be like, that's our image Disney's crazy with it This episode is brought to you by Starbucks. That is fire. Whoa, that's good. This might be the drink of the summer. Okay, I like this one too. I'm not worth it, okay? Try it for yourself. Starbucks refreshers concentrates are coming home. Find them in the coffee aisle and make it yours. Oh it's all in German. I'm like, who took the photograph of the coverred? It' all bloody German But all jkes ass signed, the public prosecutor was indeed not satisfied with the ruling, so he successfully appealed for a harsh punishment. A year later, the Berlin Regional Court concurred and extended Arno's incarceration to nine years, albeit with the possibility of earlier release after just six. During the trial, Arno's identity as Scrooge was never in question. everyveryone knew he did it, and nobody contested that. The crux of the matter lay in his culpability. Multiple expert evaluations concluded early in the proceedings that Arno wasn't mentally stable during his criminal He was battling severe depression and was later discovered he had suffered brain damage due to the exposure to toxic lack of paint. Both factors could potentially lessen the severity of his punishment if the degree to which they should was at the heart of the debate. Judge Scholz ultimately determined Arno to bear diminished criminal culpability. He quoted several psychological evaluations in his ruling according to which only possessed partial control over his actions due to his neurobiological challenges. However, the judge was also quick to emphasize that his conclusion was in no way trivilising the seriousness of Arnao's actions. Yet when someone is accused of crime they committed out of compulsion, you cannot hold them entirely accountable for that, can you? In all honesty, this line of reasoning me stumped while I certainly agree to the general idea of diminished culpability, I cannot bring myself to believe that this applies to Arno's case in any way. I can I think I can. I believe he's responsible for his actions. I believe there's Sab amount of diminishment because he originally got into these crimes because he was depressed and he was like, I literally have nothing else to lose. I'm just going to see if I can feel something by being a criminal. That to me is that speaks of something unusual and I think there is diminishment there. As for the later ones, I'm not so sure that applies, so I'd giveiven some diminished probability on the first probably reduce the diminish culpability later? As mentioned before, I've discussed this case with a local psychotherapist who is super eager to lend her expertise, though she asked me to keep her identity private. I'm not sure if Simon is fully aware of this, but he's quite the house on Naymere in Germany. Is that true? Is that true? That's nice I always I mean, I know Germany, you see like obviously M contonts and English. so you look at things. America is by far the largest audience, Hello Americans. There's so many of you. And then it's UK, Canada Austalia, New Zaland South Africa did I say Australia? like the big English speaking countries And then Germany maybe Germany's above Southfrica,'s lots of Germans. But like big English speaking countries and then Germany's always up there, which is nice, but it's a small percentage. But that's nice to know. Sometimes I feel like everyone follows at least one or two of his channels, thus being associated with him opens quite a lot of doors Brilliant. I honestly did not know that or expect that That's nice. This has been my experience in past episodes as well. With one notable exception, people were not only willing to help, they've been positively thrilled at the prospect. This is especially true when pronouncing your own name a little bit unclearly, so people assume they're going to be in a video written by Danny. Anyway, she askks me to once again make double extra super sure that she is not diagnosing anyone, as this would obviously require a comprehensive assessment on her part. She has never met our So everything below this line is to be considered speculation. She provided me with general knowledge, projecting it onto A know is your task if you should want it. With that out of the way, there are a couple of things to say. First of all, depression is not usually correlated with criminal activities. Depressive disorders may come with a wide range of complex symptoms, but in most cases it entails a debilitating and all encompassing lack of motivation to do even the most basic things such as eating working or simply getting Arno, in my personal opinion, was likely the most motivated person imaginable. The sheer amount of long term planning, researching and self optimizing is essentially the opposite of the archetypal depressed person. This of course does not imply that Arno was not very seriously depressed, he certainly was. Any mental condition can manifest in a vast variety of ways so a highly motivated depressed person is entirely within possibilities, But to say that the depression directly contributed to his criminal career does seem like a bit of a stretch to me. I this is a psychiatry a psychologist, psyiatrist. It doesn't matter. an expert saying this. Obviously, I'm wrong. did seem like it kind of kicked it off. He was so depressed, he was like, I've got nothing else to live for so I might as well give Kime a cit. like That does seem to be the instigating event is his depression There are mental disorders that can act as a catalyst for criminal activity, such as antisocial personality disorder or narcissism. However, none of these have ever been suspected in Aano's case, at least not to my knowledge, and even if they had, one must keep in mind that such statistical correlations only emerge within enormously huge sample sizes and must never be applied to individuals without conducting individual evaluations Regarding the brain damage caused by the spray paint, it is safe to assume that this altered his decision making abilities. There are numerous case studies showing severe changes in temperament with people afflicected by similar poisons over long periods of time. Interestingly, those victims also tend to show substantial decline in intellectual ability, yet Arnu managed to become the jigsaw of money transfer mechanisms while outwitting several thousand police officers for years. As a matter of fact, Arnu had been subjected to an IQ test during the trial with the result of one hundred forty five which is very high. Their placeaces him in the top zero point one five percent of the general population. One could only wonder what Scoryi would have achieved if the brain damage had never occurred. As a reminder, just to make extra triple Ultra meega sure, we're still only speculating here. but in my personal opinion, I'm still not entirely convinced somebody who could build bombs and multilayer trap devices should also be able to conclude that it is exactically wrong so And as a matter of fact, Arno did know he was doing wrong. He told us in his autobiography remember, taking his own words seriously, he was permanently plagued by guilty conscience and ethical qualms. By presenting himself in a sensible, self conscious light, he somehow refuted his own legal defense strategy. Then again, isn't Arno the epitome of innerradictions in Yes, indeed. I'm just humb ide you with a keyboard. yet I do feel like Arno was very aware of everything he did and his actions felt very controlled. In a way, this must be considered a noble trait. I cannot recall any other true crime story with this amount of consideration on the culprit's part. Yeah, self ownership is fairly rare in in these stories, it's always someone else's fault. But at the same time it is challenging for me to reconcile this image with the depiction of an unhinged maniac so bereft of control over his actions that one could absolve him of personal accountability For me, these ideas simply do not harmonize, and I agree I just don't think it's a black and white question of yes or no I think it's gray and I think too some degree In my opinion Again, I'm not even a I'm not even a psychologist tried to analyze him like without seeing him I'm just a dude with a microphone I think To some degree, this affected him. Like his brain was all poisoned from paint and he was very clearly mega depressed. so I think yes to some degree, but also I'd say like thirty percent is where I'd say it's very specific. That's my vibe. During his imprisonment, Arno received psychotherapy and a number of other treatments to address his neurological damage, resulting in a remarkable improvement in his overall wellbeing. The persistent state of disorientation and dizziness gradually dissipated completely prompting Arno to later express profound gratitude for the medical care he received while incarcerated. In the retrospectives Arno tended to downplay his time in jail, often referring to it as Not that bad. Despite the threat of boredom his ever present nemesis. In a twist of dramatic irony, his childhood experiences with confinement in barren rooms had somewhat equpped him with coping strategies for his incarceration. He once again found solace in his drawing peranamental, escape from his monotonous life in prison He would keep his hands busy by working for a satirical magazine called Ulenpiegel, where he contributed both caricatures and cartoon sketches. This engagement would extend even beyond his time behind bars. As a second method, that's nice. he's got a light of job A creative job while in prison, like not a prison job like folding laundry, but an actual outside job. Does he get paid for this? Be then they will build up a nice little sum of money for when he gets out, right? As a second method to subduing the ticking cllock, Arnu had even opted to attend the prison church service as an unusual choice for a non believer, though better than nothing, I suppose, a consistent stream of fan mail in volumes verging on the unimaginable furnished further distraction from the dreary walls. However, with each passing week, the pile of fresh letters dwindled. Arnost in prison barely exceeded the absolute minimum duration. After just six years and four months he was granted early release for good conduct. On the thirteenth of august Honor regain his freedom From handcuffs, I realized like I was a bit earlier on I was kind of like, Ohh got seven years Phils fair and stuff. But then now I'm thinking about that. It's like he built bombs. He was a terrorist, basically which are Now I feel like, yeah, terrorists have to go to prison for a So I'm feeling this is more and more lenient towards leaning towards lenient slash fair Fom mancuffs. Sand shhakes Upon his release in the summer of two thousand, Arno found himself in a world transformed, arguably for the better. Political tensions had abated, and faith in law enforcement was largely restored. Arno, once a beacon of dissidents, was no longer needed in that role, and as fate would have it, he was no longer available for the job anyway. He stepped onto the stage of freedom as a reformed man, a reborn phoenix on a quest to find peace and quiet beyond Scrooge McDuck. Also he claimed But was this actually the case? I'd say a big potential yes because He went to prison and he got psychotherapy and treatment for his I assume for the paint stuff, but also for his depression, so entirely possible that he is now a different or not a different person, but like a non depressed less paint poisoned individual. You see, accusations of calculated fame seeking have frequently been hurled at Arno. It is certainly not far fetched to arrive at this conclusion, though it must be said that Arno consistently and somewhat convincingly refuted these allegations time and again. I don't know if I was in this dude' position. I'd be like I'm going to write an autobography and I'm going to go on a speaking tour. Hell yeah, payy Let's make some money, like legitimately about my crimes. But that's fine. You could talk about you ser you've served your time. Just make sure in those speeches that you don't reveal crimes that you didn't reveal before. o? His original plunge into criminality was obviously not driven by the allure of fame. I think we can all agree on that. Whether he grew fond of his anonymous notoriety through out his subsequent career remains largely a matter of speculation, but I don't think so. Up to the point of his arrest, Arno never engaged with his cult following. He never released a public statement, he never addressed his fan base in any way whatsoever. He did, however, try really hard to keep his star burning after his prison time. There, he's an ex con. Like his career prospects are not going to be brilliant now So Fair enough, Fair enough. An astonishing array of interviews stand as testament to this supplemented by an even more extensive parade of appearances in various entertainment programs. For example, Arno Abott navigated the Australian wilderness of Ima a celebrity. out of him No he did it. A brain dead reality show where minor celebrities face a jungle themed bootcamp, challenged both physically and in their ability to withstand the dumbest dialogues imaginable Yes, yeah, I think I saw the first season of that when I was a kid. It's bad. He also competed in the culinary arena of The Perfect Dinner, celebrity Edition, buying against other familiar faces to prove his prowess in both cooking and hosting. Mind you these g when it comes to his lo. Letet it be known that I undertook the masochistic task of sifting through all of these appearances, a multid day marathon of misery that left me emotionally drained hollow and dead inside. Yeah, reality TV has an ability, doesn't it? His ability to do that. Also, I've mentioned the overabundance of interviews, but the funny thing is a lot of them were entirely unrelated to his crimes. One that particularly surprised me was about personal finance I think Onna was the last person you should ask about financial responsibility. Yet there he was. feeatured on a major podcast sponsored by Sparkass, a major German bank. I know Sparkass. in Germany, I'm always like that's Fparkass. It's spellt BA SP A R K AS E Sark It is arguably the second most pointless semi business related podcast on YouTube, but one line that had me especially stumped was this Arno, according to his own statement, does not carry around a passport, because when making large purchases via credit card, he can identify himself by Googling his name on his phone and showing the results toever ask for his papers. Wait, why would when you pay by credit card would anyone ask for your ID Is that German thing Is that German thing? I feel like that hass happened to me, and it might have been in Germany? And I was like, what? L What do you mean okay, I guess I'll just take out my passport and show it to you. This claim not only stries me as extremely pretentious, but it's also presumably bogus. Yeah, look, as a person who could do that, I would never do that It's super pretentious and weird. And peopleople will be like, it's just stop causing me a hassle. just show me your ID card because obviously there is a policy that I have to see your ID card, not Google you because that's how the rules work. It's like if Bill Murray came in. There's no me like Bill. I know it's you. I can see it's you, but I still need to see your ID bill because that's the rules Bill. Everyone, not named John Smith, will find their face on Google, yet there is good reason why nobody will accept this as a legal document. Can you tellpart Simon and the VSource guy from images alone Yes, I look completely different to the V source guy Wh name is Michael Delving deeper into the vast expanse of Arno's media footprint, a glaring contradiction emerges. The Arno seen in most contexts is a self effacing figure, modest, self spoken, and prone to underplayers' importance with a tense posture that makes him appear smaller than he was. He often gives the impression as th those dragged out of the camera against his will, but in stark contrast, Arno did pop up in the public eye Well, I think that's part of the thing, isn't it?ike if you are hesitant or appearing hesitantance, then it's more exciting. Even if you're actually not hesitant at all, and you're giving an interview about personal finance when you stole money. He was involved with political campaigns by endorsing left wing parties and designing their election posters even though he had claimed to be a non political person before. In two thousand seven, even at his own stage show consisting of satirical stories, caricatures and film spots, he then appeared on a British game show called The Heist, where he took the role of an in game extortionist The Ano Funke cinematic Universe is almost as large as your mth. Since roughly twenty ten, however, the frequency of his gigs has steeply thinned out. Even though he continued to work for Ulenspiegel, he vanished more and more from the limelight and withdrew. . This shouldn' be too much of a surprise given that Drno had entered his seventies and, so, like a wizened sage, retreated into the quiet embrace of his own legend In the first draft of this episode, this line marked the point at which I slowly transitioned to the final wrap up. An unexpected insight dawned on me You may have noticed that this episode, well, a recounting true fact, is partially not written in the style of a report, but rather like a novel. It was indeed. I've said this many times reading this, I'm like this feels like I'm reading a nice book eating, you know I tinkkered with this concept in previous scripts and the positive response spurred me on to continue the experiment. But it opens Pandora's box of challenges as you see crime novels often hinge on the intimacy of their characters, painting the storyline with such vibrant details that the audience feels part of the unfolding drama. They offer a voyeuristic journey into the minds of the protagonists, immersing readers This is a feat easily accomplished when the characters of products of fiction as the author. you can simply assign them an interior cosmos at will. However, when venturing into the realm of true crime, this liberty is unavailable So how did I navigate this conundrum? Although this is probably obvious to everybody, let me still spell out a reminder. The nature of this genre demands a degree of artistic interpretation. Any thoughts, emotions and internal experiences ascribed to the individuals involved are not direct quotes unless indicated as such, they are conjectures derived from an in depth study of available interviews, reports biographies and other later material on This' a There's another unnamed person who covers another YouTube channel It's not similar to this one Occasionally we'll do a story that is similar or like covers the same person. I got an email from someone like Hi I really enjoyed your podcast, but it'd be if you could have gone into some of the other details as covered on this channel And I'm like, you know that channel's sem fictionalized, right They're taking the bones of a story and they're adding a ton of stuff on top of it which isn't necessarily fact and not presented as fact That's the vibe of the channel And I just realized, I'm like, what? And then I realize, oh, this person thinks thats it's all not embellished. that it's all like just deeper research And I'm like, that's not what that is. I report on facts. There's no embellishment And they just thought that this unnameds other channel is all facts when it's No stories whichich was like weird, like sort of insulting, but also weird. Most evolved parties have repeatedly presented their feelings towards the case throughout the years, allowing me to heuristically incorporate their inner landscape into this script. But on top of that, as teased in the introduction, I reached out to the elusive mastermite himself and asked for a personal interview as a method to further refine my model of his character. I did not really expect him to reply, let alone agree to my proposal, but after some reluctance on his part and some persistence on mine, he ultimately accepted the invitation. A conversation took place toward the end In preparation for the big day, I'd spent some time revisiting his past interviews only to notice a recurring pattern among them By asking mostly dull and unapologetically biased questions, they portrayed Arno in a thoroughly positive light. In most cases this seemed to be intentional, with the journalists even introducing themselves as I committed to a different approach. I'd not uncritically facilitate Arnao's self portrayal, but instead, I intended a probe challenge to respectfully ask the heartitten questions. Yeah, that's an absolutely solid Better interview technique It's not a puff piece, just go in neutral. Not good, not bad. tellell me a story. I like that. It's important to mention, however, that parts of our exchange have already been incorporated throughout the previous chapters. For brevity' sake I'll elegantly sidestep the repetitive elements, though it will make the interview appear shorter than it really was. The initial segment of the conversation delved into the peculiar affinity between him and the German populace. When I broached the subject of the immense and arguably misdirected sympathy Scrooge McDuck had been receiving, his retort was contemplative and even tempered, albeit somewhat anticipated. He unequivocally confirmed that it had never been his objective to incite such a whirlwind of public attention Although he had fseen a certain amount of media exposure, he found himself unprepared for the variety that was enthusiastically rallying behind him. Arno further emphasized that having a fan base did not influence his decision making in any way. The positive feedback did not push him to continue, he explained, and there is a convincing argument to back this up. As the buzz amplified, so did the resources committed to the investigation ently turning every new admirer into a catalyst a potential capture. After all, the key to his eventual downfall was the casual recognition of his bicycle. One could imagine a parallel reality where Scrooge's case commanded less attention, resulting in a smaller scaled investigation that occupied fewer officers' minds night and day. In this unise it's entirely possible that such an elillusive detail could have been overlooked I then asked Arno for his theories as to why people loved Scrooge quite so much. Echoing my own hypothesis, Arno concurred that people's fondness for his wrongdoings was primarily an expression of latent distrust towards law enforcement. But Arno also acknowledged the entertaine nature of his crimes as he too, was thoroughly entertained by the discussions and theories that emerged on screen His choice of his alias, for instance, held no deep meaning. As he had drafted his ransom note demanding the Uncle Scrooge greets his nephews newspaper at, his gaze merely chanced upon his son's school bag featuring the character. Bilely had a passing familiarity with Scrooge McDuck' greedy traits, he had been anything but a Disney fictionado. cononsequently any complex connections drawn between his illicit activities and the animated duck purely coincidental, yet irresistibly fascinating to him. Despite the passing of time, many still tie you closely with your infamous history How does this perception impact you His reply came instantly But in the form of a question Well, isn't it a good thing to be like peopleeople like Scrooge I and Scrooge. This statement perplexed me, as it directly contradicted several previous interviews. With unshakable certainty, Anna would consistently emphasize the difference between his former criminal avatar and his true self. P possibly recognizing his Freudian slip in my puzzled reaction he quickly transitioned to a different topic He proceeded to elaborate on the countless sentimental letters he had amassed over the years. Up to this day, requests for autographs would pop up among his correspondents, a testament to his long lasting popularity. Occasionally, he'd even receive heartfelt notes from police officers praising him with phrases like you were genuinely one of the good ones. Alongside these affirmations, expressions of gratitude had found their way to him credited to the valuable tactical lessons the law enforcement agencies had gleaned his case. Now if you're raising eyebrow right now Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of that. You're not alone. I initially did not believe this either, yet when I indulged in some fact checking afterwards, I concluded that his bragging was likely rooted in truth. Although the press offffice of the German Federal pololice did confirm that their tactics are subject to continuous revision and optimisation That seems like the most generic government reply ever A what's there the gllobar response we cannot confirm nor deny. They chose not to comment on any specifics regarding the case in question, so I did some digging myself sifting through police manuals and training officer study material. Is that's not public? that's cool An endeavor as thrilling as it sounds. Mbe it's not so cool.ound it's boring. I will spare you the dails. However, claim that Arno had influenced the way things are being handled nowadays is not completely untrue, leaving a realistic possibility that people did send in thank you cards. Then again, it is worth noting that current strategic guidelines are heavily shaped by more recent factors such as advances in forensic technology and legal As far as I can tell, Scrooge McDuck is not a part of the twenty twenty His encounter with hateful remarks, or lack thereof was another topic of discussion. Not even once was his sixinct response. So you never randomly run into someone scolding you for your crimes? I asked. I think I've told the story before.'ve like people send me emails all the time being like, I didn't like this or on Twitter. I don't like your take on this factor boy. And it's like, okay, cool. It's only ever happened to me once in real life. like I must have told this story. It's super uncomfortable Let's just did a pub and having a drink. Its time guy comes up to me and starts having to go at me about something. and I'm like, bro, this is not appropriate. And he leaves Only once though. onlynly once. Everyone's usually super nice. Venturing deeper into the delicate territory. I askedrno if he's ever worried about inspiring potitra copycats, given the cult like fan base that surrounded him He replied, after some consideration, I was busy with my own issues, so I never thought about that during the time. Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight, I probably should have This interview will reach an audience of roughly one hundred fifty thousand people, I explained. There is a chance that someone watching will feel inspired by your achievements. Is there a message that you'd like to share for someone who could potentially misconstrue your career? hundred fifty thousand. A little bit. while, we have to all the podcast. The podcast adds a bunch to that And I hope this is a long one. I think over the long term, this will get It's super hard to predict, especially becauseuse there's no horrible murder in this episode 's horrible murder one's dead to do better. Yes, he said Don't do it. I got away with it for years, but you will not. With all the forensic tools available nowadays, you have no chance of succeeding. I waited for a moment, giving him the opportunity to add the moralistic addendum I was expecting, but instead he followed it up with this. You should especially not try this in other global regions. He then referred to the dog poop incident to the day the officer had grabbed his jacket andano had barely managed to slip away. If this happened in another country, they would have shot me in the back It's not worth the risk Frankly, this pragmatic response did not sit well with me as it marked a tonal shift in our conversation, desespite offering him a golden opportunity to show remorse. He had chosen to lament the personal risks that come with aggravated extortion. While Aro may have misunderstood my query, it felt more like an accidental revelation of his true priorities. Again, it is entirely possible that I completely misinterpreted the situation, but I was struck by a sudden suspicion that further intensified the upcoming questions, let me expl Arno has consistently portrayed a profound consideration for ethics. We've witnessed this multiple times throughout the last forty seven pages. We've been here a while, haven't we? But what if beneath the surface? His moral commitments did not really hold that much weight after all. On countless previous occasions, Arno had elaborated on his decision to spare the innocent, even though this strategy deprived him of leverage. If he had killed random bystanders every now and then, the task force may have been more inclined to give him real money rather than paper scraps. This train of thought is plausible and in consequence, his is onemiration for his moral integrity. Everyone was convinced that Arno had willingly accepted personal disadvantages to uphold his honorable principles. There's also the thing of if you kill someone, they are You know, that's murder. That's terrorism where someone dies, right? That's a different crime. That's going to get a different response from the police I feel, I guess it was back in the day, but like Pones are gonna be tapped. like may we' doing that anyway I feel like there would be more attention to it, surely. But hear me out. Remember five minutes ago when I mentioned his concerns about having huge publicity as this increased the investigation's efforts? Now imagine what would have happened with the scale of the investigation if Anrnna had decided to become a mass murderer. You see what I'm getting at? Though morality certainly has played a huge role in this decision, it may have also been about risk management more. In the nineties, the maximum punishment for lowing up places was surprisingly lenient as long as it did not entail any human victims. Also, Arno walking enncyclopedia Funke, was likely aware of this fun fact, so again Cbus or calculated risk mitigation, we'll come back to this in a second. And again, I don't think it's one or the other. It's not black and white. It's like, hey, look, I don't have to kill people. That's a win. I don't think And that's a win, sure. And then also less crry, less it's less of a ess it's a less crime. I think that's also a win. I think it can be both at the same time disiscussing A Ono's post prison life was an intriguing odyssey as well. His process of realigning with society or finding his role in the new millennium played no part in our exchange, because Ano preferred toain vibrant pictures of his adventures in television, revelling amidst the glz and glam of countless appearances. He w a tale of glamour fame, obviously attempting to impress me I've seen of his performances. however, the childlike joy he had derived from these televised escapades was palpable both in his passionate recounts, and upon reflection, in the warm glow his ons screen smile has had elicited. In the grand tapestry of Arno's life, one marked by a consistent struggle to coax joy from the recesses of his brain, these TV appearances emerged as unlikely springs of happiness Sometimes joy blooms in the most unforeseen corners, and if Iro's happy place was the stage of low budget television shows, then who am I to judge? in all honesty, Well good for him That's fine if that's what he's into Go Then again, without providing even a slither opportunity to interject, Arno transitioned to another grandilinquent story about a certain Hollywood producer who once sought him out with a staggeringly lucrative offer. This blockbuster magnate had allegedly proposed to transform Arno's kaidoscopic life into a silver screen epic, a large screen production for the international market. Arno claimed that it entertained the idea for a time, even skillfully even skillfully negotiated the licensing fee skywards, but after some consideration he ultimately declined the offer, citing only a single and somewhat surprising reason He didn't like the style of American movies This would be a crackin American mayabbe. To say odly, I had some doubts about the racity of this. Arno, a man who had orchestrated the destruction of over half a dozen shopping malls for financial gain, now claimed to have dismissed a veritable fortune out of some newfound aristic conviction. This begged for further scrutiny, yet I neither managed to confirm his story, nor was I able to refute it. I guess we will don't I think it's entirely possible that someone was interested in this story and even offered him money whether he refused or he fell apart like this Producers are like the flakiest individuals that I've ever come across in the entertainment industry. like They'll be like, we'll do this. We'll do that and then they'll be like, we're not doing that. we're not doing this orr just like ghost you So I don't believe I do believe that someone came to him with this and it probably just Fllow Partle or maybe you really don't want to it. I got no reason to doubt him. That's fine. But here's the kicker Arno would indeed give the thumbs up to a mini series chronicling his life's escapades, but under under the production of Bavaria Film stududios a German company. While I quibble over the artistic merits of US blockbusters, but I dare say it is a universally acknowledged truth, German cinema is talking horrible I I don't know. I realize I don't think I've seen any German movies And I have seen like movies from other countries. So I don't know good j movies. Arno's supposed dedication to filmic excellence could not really have been a significant factor if he turned down Hollywood, but at the same time greenlit Bavaria film studios for a much smaller payout at that. Although I remain open to this being proven incorrect, this consistency nudges my suspicion that there never was a Hollywood I then mentioned a couple of other famous German crimes, curious to hear his thoughts on cases of his own. Unfortunately he didn't display much interest in the broader world of true crime, thus I quickly shelved the topic. However, the question of paramount importance was still lurking in the shadows, unbeknownst even to me. Why is that question? You see, I was under the false pretence that we had nearly checked off all of the essential subjects from our list, leaving no room for any surprise game changer Boy Was I wrong? Everything we talked about converged on a question seemingly so trivial and unassuming, yet it would become the most important one If you had the chance to ask Ro one final question What would be a worthy conclusion? topic. I aimed to end on a positive note, so I offered Arno one final complecteive chance to emphasize his remorse. Thus I landed on the closing query, taking into account all that has transpired, Do you believe becoming Scrooge McDuck was ultimately worth it? This inquiry made Arno giggle, and then he said There are questions better left unanswered I mean, how could it not be worth it? He was on before his criminal escapades, he was on the verge of suicide, he was suered depressed, and then he did something that he found interesting. He hurt a few people,. costed a huge amount, I'm sure in police time and money Then and he went to prison for a while. But it seems in prison, he got the treatment that he needed for his depression and the toxic brain stuff at the paint staff And then It seems to me he's in a much better place now thanks to all of this than he was before it all happened So I think the answer has to be yes and he seems to rather like his Celebrity. So Yeah Yeah. TikTok iss all a mock. Hold on a second. That's it. No, notot a single death. For heaven's sake, Dennis, you subjected us to a variable saga about explosions for three eternal hours. I think I can't remember I've stopped the camera multiple times so I don't have an accurate clock of how long this episode is. I think it's more than three hours Right? I'm looking at the time where actually three minutes into this section I had a little break. many little breaks And not one single soul found themselves scattered to the four winds This is quite the funny story, actually, see, I originally proposed a script covering a different non violent incident, a spectacle of fraud and manipulation that stripped a French noble family of their wealth and fortune. However, Simon instructed me to zero in on our typical cash crrime murder formula instead Yeah, I did because it's like those are the ones I know people will watch. So I supplied him with a medley of other suggestions harvested from the comment section of earlier episodes. Without a moment's hesation, Simon confidently selected the only other item from the list which explicitly stated it would not fit the time honoud formula either. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable. I don't know. Look, you know earlier I said you have that like that gut feeling when you've got experience doing something. My experience is YouTube, like finding topics that work on YouTube and I stand by the fact that this is Just looking at the title of this one and the pict from Dennis, this is much more interesting than the French noble family and their manipulated fraud and Well, I'm like Even that I couldn't remember. I can remember what Dennis had just told me about it In my mind, that's like, it's not interesting Maybe it is but it's not interesting enough to click Whereas this one, I was just like that is. And maybe I'll be proven wrong. Maybe this won't get a lot of vs but I got the feeling this is a good one However, people have swelled speculations that Arno, had been left to his own devices for a little longer, could eventually arrived at the path A entering the highly speculative territory again, one could probably imagine a Scrooge McDuck beyond that final boundary. You surely recall the ominous correspondence penned by Arno dispatched a few weeks prior to his capture. Some of you may argue that Arno, who had earned himself a reputation for acting on his threats should be taken at face value when he announced an act of blood I don't think so for a plethora of reasons. Firstly, presumed innocent until proving guilty. We cannot condemn someone for deeds he may or may not have committed in a fictional situation that we made up. Yet beyond that obvious rationale, my intuition veers towards a positive image of Arno after all. Look, the Arno Fqu of today is in fact the opposite of danger. Though I laid out some inconsistencies that the authenticity of his remorse into question, I can vow, without a doubt in my mind that he had left prison as a reformed person, someone I would trust with my children if I had any. While I acknowledge the subjectivity of this impression, he strikes me as someone who has finally achieved inner tranquility after a desperate quest that led him through one dark place after another. H aura radiates a sense of calmness and equilibrium reminiscent of a Buddhist monk serenely enveloped in the bliss of Nirvana, with a subtle smile that conveys deep and inaccessible enlightenment. In less poetic words, he's just a dude making ar nowadays, in fact, he has lived an innocent life far longer than I have. But even in previous times, when queried about the risks his actions posed, Arno's responses were nothing short of compassion genuine He vehemently rejected the idea of disregarding the paramount value of human life and the mere thought of playing fast and loose with anyone's well being filled him with a visible revulsion on multiple occasions. Either he was telling the truth or he is the best actor T have ever lived hours of his reality TV appearances, I can confidently assert that he was not the latter. There are many I guess reality TV is a bit of acting, isn't it it's always bit fake. There are so many perspectives to look at this. Some may viewo as a troubled eaggo maniac eviding murder merely to diminish his own punitive consequences never truly caring for anyone but himself. Others might see him as a desperate soul battling depression, resorting to heavy artillery against his inner demons, yet remaining steadfast to his core principles, some might paint Arno as an unsung genius his brilliance wasted due to a less than fortunate start in life. Alternatively, one might see him as a showman, craving the limelight, or as an individual finding joy in public attention after years of loneliness. Seeking the glow of fame is not inherently suspicious of anything. I feel Seim would agree with this. S would agree with this. Owise it's like What Simon's gamame What's he trying to do? It spread misinformation? No Just I like making things and getting paid to make things is nice. I think with this, as I've said many times, I don't think it's one of these things, I think it's several of these things together. It's not black and white, it's not yes, no. it's this and this and this and that, little bit of each. I started this episode with a bold statement. Crime has a lot of faces, yet upon closer inspection, most of them look terrifyingly human. Arnao is a prime example of this. Though he did horrible things that I could never endorse, I do feel a sense of understanding and empathy. Though you're free to disagree I wrote this episode a negative two out of ten on the Pedro Lopo scale of evil. Again, blowing up buildings is not acceptable, even those that are devoid of human life. There is undeniable moral guilt in property, damage, extortion and threatening to kill people if your demands are not met, even if you never planned on following through with it. Baro, in my personal opinion, doesn't fit the scum that we would usually cover not in the slightest. He has earned his spot on this channel, not by being a bloodthirsty monster, but due to the glimpse behind the veil of human nature that his story offered. I entirely agree and I' not met the dude I like the fact that this episode hasn't been filled with blood and horror. It's a nice break for me, even though I've almost spent the entire day. recording this episode with breaks and lunch, and the other task. I've recorded nothing else today. This has been my entire project. In twenty eleven, more than a decade after his release, Arno had arranged his final meeting with Michael Delecki by the railway tracks. But instead of money, they would exchange anecdotes from their intertwined past as well as a consolatory handshake. Delecky, who had retired in two thousand eight due to partial hearing loss, was evidently willing to forgive Arno by separating the crimes of Scrooge McDuck From the person that now stood in front of him, I see both wisdom and beauty in this attitude, and I think this image serves opposing shots Dismembered appendices Solving crimes is hard Here at the Casual Cness, we have a long standing tradition of shitting all over the police, and it is admittedly an entertaining habit. Yeah, I mean when they do bad jobs, but in this one, I felt th where are you going to resign? I was on the police's side with this one. This guy was competent and good at not getting caught and the police ended up catching him and did a pretty good job overall, I would say. In all fairness, there are countless valid reasons for doing so, ranging from poor judgment calls and specific investigations to broader systemic flaws debates aroundround police misconduct have been forefront in numerous societies in recent years and rightfully so. As an individual of Middle Etern descent, I carry my share of skecepticism, courtesy of the all too frequent random police checks that I've encountered. And as a regular participant in protests against right wing extremism, environmental degradation, and pseudo scientific ideologies, good for you I've also had my fair share of less peaceful interactions with law enforcement Although I live by donon't take the player hate the game philosophy, rest assured that I have no personal inclination to paint an unmerited, rosy picture of the police. With that being said, let me highlight that Inspector Delecki is in fact a genius easily on par with Arno. I feel that this you misspelled genius on purpose, Dennis. I feel like this episode might have led you to Wait, do I not know how to spell genenius? Look up. No, I know how to spell genenius. That's gota be a joke, right? I genuinely believe that Dennis is better English than I do. I feel like this episode might have led you to another verdict on his skill as an investigator. as an investigator, a misperception I need to rectify. You see, the German clearance rate for violent crimes barely exceeds fifty seven percent, which seems surprisingly low, but still ranks rather high in international comparison. Dlecki significantly surpassed this benchmark, yet even the greatest investigators will have their failures Every once in a while, it's statistically inevitable. His investigation into Duanno's case might not have led to the desired outcome, with Arno's capture resulting mostly from luck rather than strategic sleeping. Thus stating that Delecki lost the duel against Arno is probably correct. However, this does not mean that he was incompetent in any way and he certainly did not deserve the media sh humiliated him for years. Consider Sherlock Holmes, the archype of a perfect investigator, and even he couldn't fully crank the case in nine out of his original fifty six short stories. Really? Sherlock Holmes had unsolved ones. C was it really fifty six? I feel like I've read quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories There are fifty six of them. This episode contained not one, but two prodigious minds. Personally, I do not think Deleck ever truly blundered. He was consistently just one step behind a marginally smarter opponent who never gave him any opportunity to gain the upper hand. It's like playing chess against Magnus Carlon, but he goes first and is free to change the rules of his discretion. You're playing Magnus Carslon, and you're going gonna to get destroyed anyway. There is no shame in losing such a game. Inspector Delecki has made his mark on many high profile investigations solving cases with even worse odds thanks to his brilliance. There's a good chance I will retell some of them in the future. Business daddy allows it Yeah, I hope so. Let's see how this giant episode does and we'll go from there, shall we, Dennis? Explosions are fun and barely illegal. Look I'm certainly not a lawyer so please don't take this as legal advice, but while leafing through the reports on Arno's trial. I couldn't up a chuckle at Germany's oddly lenient regulations on explosions Actually let me quote the law directly. Any person who causes an explosion other than by releasing nuclear energy, namely by means of explosives and thereby endangers the life or limb of another person or property of significant value to others, shall be liable to a custodial sentence of not less than one year Well, this is not less than one year. so it could be Very, very long If I'm reading this right, you could technically have a blast, haa, as long as no one gets hurt and no significant property value is harmed. Oh okay, But then it doesn't specify for that situation. And even if they are, one year of incarceration could be all it takes to square things off. in case you're curious about the nuclear part where we've got there covered too again a direct quote. Any person who causes an explosion by releasing nuclear energy and thereby negligently endangers the life or lb of another person or property of significant value should be liable to a custodial sentence from one to ten years We wanted do yourself a nuclear bomb. Ten years maximum So and you gets you a year two. That's just insane unless they hold you accountable for the thousands of other laws you're violating in the process, which is probably how it would work now that I think about it. Exactly. They' going be LA also murdered like fifty thousand people. so Gabble's com be down on that one The Scrooge case is considered among Germany's best known crime stories, and the available sources are correspondingly extensive. Yet it is a massive misconception to think that more sources automatically means more clarity. Now oftentimes it can mean just more bluriness and more false facts. Each new source offered slight discrepancies to the previous ones concerning both minute details and substantial elements broid drilled, the less certain I the game about several aspects while sling Take for instance, Arno's autobography. On page fifty, Arno confidently claims that he did not have to worry about police helicopters in nineteen eighty eight because they weren't at the time. Yet in a televised documentary, he recounted the distinct drone of helicopters blades hovering overhead. The same documentary also proposed that Inspector Delecki was called onto the Hamburg bombing case only after receiving Arno's letter, a point that directly contradicts several reputable newspaper articles asserting his immediate involvement. Adding to the confusion, the Lcky claimed in another interview that Anna had bagged a million marks in nineteen eighty eight to a figure that in fact was only half our size. The list could go on for another hour. I managed to reconcile some discrepancies, but only because I detected them. It is possible, if not likely that other inconsistencies have slipped through unnoticed. If you have any insider knowledge, beyond the contents of this video, feel free to let me know In highlighting correlations and additional information, as we have occasionally done so on previous episodes, in examining these accounts, we must also recognise that each participant has their personal stake in the story. Arno naturally is inclined to depict himself in a positive moral light, especially because each of his words were subject to a major court case back in the day. This is why I tried to rely on his biography as rarely as possible. Similarly, the police version of eents strives to issue any hint of their alleged ance, which is also fair to some degree. Truth is a subjective concept by nature, and as I've mentioned before, even eyeewitnesses are significantly less reliable than expect comes up often. Please also note that I did not record the interview with Har in any way as agreed upon. Therefore I wrote it down from memory about forty five minutes after our exchange had ended. someome nuances might have been lost in the process. Lastly, I have trimmed this story drastically all caps underlines by skimming over or completely omitting several events. This was necessary to keep the episode below the fifty hour threshold Remember, there were more than twenty attempted money handovers in total, and I presented only five of them directly. The pace of events may therefore appear skewed or stretched at some points Leaving out the miniature submarine side quest or the one with a remote controlled lorry was a hard decision to make, but I feel like this video was way too long already It's nearly five o'clock and I started this this morning. I also left out some important characters for the same reasons, such as Inspector Martin Teter, who had played quite a big part in the investigation, as well as the myriad of so called profilers who have successfully muddied the waters throughout the years. Simon asked for a maximum of ten thousand words L week is three hundred and fifty percent. was this three thirty five thousand words long? That's half a book. I read off a book today aloud Oh my Godd and that's finally the end of today's episode. I enjoyed the sh out of it, Dennis. I hope everyone here right at the end of as well. Thank you for being here. If you're listening to this as a podcast, please leave us a review. These episodes take Dennis in an extraordinary amount of time and Jenn who edits them in extraordinary amounts of time, and me a medium length amount of time. And u Thanks for being here. I'll see you next time