Inexplicable Crimetown Review: A heist, mobster movie echoes and salty language in EP4

From now on, I’m going to be discussing the contents of Crimetown episodes, and specifically, spoiling the episodes. So, if you still aren’t following along, I’d recommend catching up on the past episodes. They’re usually in 30 minute chunks, and I highly recommend them!

The fourth episode of Crimetown is probably the first where we get full-on malice for the entire half-hour, as the focus is on the details of a heist at a mob stash house – a fur coat company – and the ensuing fallout, with mobsters turning on one another. The episode borrows heavily from Tim White’s The Last Good Heist, which is available on Amazon, of course.

The alleged heist by eight thieves and mobsters robbed the Mafia and Patriarca of $3 million (official estimates) or $40 million (mob estimates). The episode ends with the whopper that Patriarca arranged the robbery himself – to humble unruly bosses under him, and also because the Patriarca Family deposits in that vault were taken out the day before.

Listening to this episode, it was impossible for my mind to resist making two connections to mobster movies. First, Robert Dussault – one of the thieves – loves Vegas. He immediately burns through the money, via gambling and a high class hooker. I couldn’t help but think of Robert De Niro in Goodfellas, when he cajoles his fellow mobsters for spending too much after the Lufthansa heist. “What the fuck is the matter with you?” The other movie connection – Casino, which is probably my favorite mobster movie, because it’s a single, self-contained film with no real winners or glorification at the end.

While the previous Crimetown episodes had some salty language, this one doubles down with the jailhouse tapes of Joe Danese, another of the robbery crew members. He’s the star of the episode, with statements like, “I told Chucky Flynn from the start, if he rats, I’m not going to jail over this fucking motherfucker. I’m not going to jail over this fucking piece of shit, I said.”

The Shakespearean drama in the episode is between Dussault, Flynn and Danese. Dussault spent all of his money and was notorious for having a big mouth, so a hit was put out on him. Flynn, one of his friends, was assigned the hit, with Danese overseeing him. But ultimately, Flynn can’t go through for it… Only for Dussault to spill the beans, confessing to the heist, when FBI agents lie to him and tell him Flynn got capped for protecting him.

If the show has a “star,” it’s Jerry Tillinghast, the D&D playing mobster first introduced in the second episode. He pops up again in the fourth episode, as he’s implicated in witness statements and court testimony as participating in the heist. He denies it then, and even though he’s admitted to a slew of other crimes on the pod, he still denies it today. It gives him a weird air of credibility though.

One other thing to post – Full transcripts of Crimetown episodes are now on their website! Awesome! So, if like me, you have trouble spelling some of these names or getting those exact quotes, you can find transcripts here.

I’ve written about podcasts here and there, and this entry from 2014, after Serial finished, is still mostly valid. And hey, I host a podcast! If you like pre-2000s video games, check out Your Parents Basement.

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