67: Fraud, Embezzlement, and the Vatican & Road Rage

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If Martin Frankel had one thing, it was confidence. Confidence in his own intelligence. As a young adult, Martin wanted to get ahead in life. He figured the easiest way to do that was to get involved in a brokerage business. He studied as hard as he could. He amassed an impressive amount of book smarts. But there was one thing he didn’t have: Ethics.

Then Kristin scars Brandi for life with the story of Sara McBurnett. Sara was driving toward San Jose International Airport with her little dog Leo in the passenger’s seat when an SUV cut them off. Sara accidentally hit the SUV’s bumper. The driver of the SUV jumped out of his car and ran over to Sara. She tried to apologize, but it was no use. The man was livid. Then, he reached into her car, grabbed Leo, and flung him into oncoming traffic.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Can a little dog’s death end the road rage plague?” by Jeffrey Page, The Record
“Jailed killer of dog sues dog’s owner,” Associated Press
“Dog’s killer gets 3-year sentence,” by Ron Harris, Associated Press
“Dog’s death leads to howls of anger,” by Ray Delgado and Annie Nakao, San Francisco Examiner
“Nothing new yet in dog traffic killing,” San Jose Mercury News
“California road rage trial begins,” by Ron Harris, Associated Press
“New evidence permitted in dog’s traffic death,” Associated Press
“New evidence in animal cruelty case,” Associated Press
“Judge hands maximum sentence to dog killer,” Washington Post
“California court rejects appeal by dog killer,” CNN.com
“Dog-killing case gets stranger as trial halts,” Los Angeles Times

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Martin Frankel: Sex, Greed and $200 Million Fraud” by Rachael Bell, Crime Library
“Billion-Dollar Vanishing Act?” by CBS News Staff, CBS News
“The Martin Frankel Case” episode American Greed
“17-Year Sentence Affirmed for Investor Who Looted Insurers” by The Associated Press, The New York Times