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- [00:01]
Chris Walker
Hey, listeners, a note of caution that this episode contains mentions of suicide. Please listen with care. Previously on bloodvines.
- [00:11]
Robert Licciardi
Seven o' clock every night.
- [00:16]
Chris Walker
Just heavy breathing. On the other end of the line.
- [00:19]
Robert Licciardi
He saw this person open the door and he woke up and he said he saw somebody lean in and set something down. He was in our backyard playing with a dog. He felt a bullet go by. It hit the house. I was. At the time, I was paranoid, you know? Who do you trust?
- [00:40]
Chris Walker
In March of 1991, exactly two months after Jack's murder, two typewritten letters arrived at Stockton's main courthouse. Both were addressed to the county's assistant district attorney and might as well have been yanked from the pages of a pulpy crime novel. They were creepy, unhinged. The first letter, which was anonymous, read.
- [01:02]
Robert Licciardi
Ask Steve Lapham, federal prosecutor, what kind.
- [01:04]
Chris Walker
Of a guy Mike is.
- [01:06]
Robert Licciardi
Look at the charges and see why he was thrown out of the family. He embezzled $200,000 from the company. Go see his trial on April or May 7th. Ask him these questions and get his reaction.
- [01:18]
Chris Walker
12 exclamation points punctuated that last sentence. As for the other letter, it contained only a single typewritten line.
- [01:27]
Robert Licciardi
Michael was being thrown out. Focus on him.
- [01:30]
Chris Walker
It was signed Joan, spelled J, O, A, N, N. So Sergeants Williams and Capron naturally asked Joanna Licciardi if the letter had come from her.
- [01:40]
Robert Licciardi
Nope. And I wouldn't sign it Joan anyway.
- [01:43]
Chris Walker
But the envelope also contained a second piece of paper, a copy of the article of incorporation for Corvette Company 1. And while it was common knowledge that Jack and Robert had formed a new company to cut Michael out, only a handful of people would have had access to that document. So rather than focusing the cops attention on Michael, the letters instead turned their gaze towards another suspect, One who had that kind of access and whose name was coming up increasingly in their interviews. Jack's other son, Robert Licciardi. It hadn't escaped the detectives notice that he'd been acting suspiciously throughout their investigation, even during the time they'd been focused on the neighbor, Albert. Why couldn't Robert be bothered to come down to the station and help them identify the gun they'd recovered? And on the morning of the murder, why hadn't he tried to resuscitate his father upon finding him unconscious? Was it really because of what Robert said?
- [02:41]
Robert Licciardi
I'm just not trained in any kind of rescue thing.
- [02:44]
Chris Walker
That didn't even cross my mind. Plus, Robert said he'd left his father around midnight, which fell within the murder window. And his alibi after that was pretty flimsy. He said that he and his wife Annette had gone to sleep after he got home. But Robert could have easily crossed back over to his parents house at any time, even without waking his wife. And finally, Robert had gained sole control of the brokerage and considerable financial power now that his father was out of the picture. In the detective's eyes, all of this seemed extremely sketchy. And they didn't even know about the strange events surrounding other close members of Robert's family. Like the heavy breather who called Robert's mother in law every evening. Or the incident Norma described where Michael was shot at in his backyard. But the cops did know that they couldn't wait any longer to check him out. Because if Robert had killed his father and was now trying to frame his older brother for the murder, what else might he be willing to do? I'm Chris Walker, your guide in this series about the largest grape fraud in US History, the powerful family at the center of it, and how a stunning sequence of betrayals triggered the fall of a California dynasty and forever changed the way we make wine in America. From Foxapus Inc. This is Blood Vines. When Jack was murdered, only one person was left in control of the family business. But now that Robert ran the show, what was he up to? Was he pursuing new grape deals? Was any money coming in? It wasn't clear to the police, nor would it be, unless they got access to Robert's finances. So on the morning of March 28, 1991, Williams and Capron showed up at Robert's front door with a search warrant and a squad of officers. They also carried a conditional arrest warrant, which gave them the right to detain both Robert and Annette during the search and put the couple in jail on charges of homicide if they found incriminating evidence. So while officers scoured their home, they stuck Robert and Annette in the back of a police cruiser and secretly recorded them. I think we're in trouble, annette says, according to a transcript. Don't worry, Robert tells her. And for the most part, he seems nonplussed. You know what's silly? Robert asks at one point. All of these guys are going to be surprised when they see all the evidence I have that shows that my dad and I were working together. But then seconds later, he mumbles, I'm glad I got it out of there. It's not clear what Robert is referring to. When I asked him about the search, he just remembers feeling broadsided.
- [05:40]
Robert Licciardi
I was in a state of shock when you have an investigation like that. Against you.
- [05:47]
Chris Walker
Plus, the police had turned his house upside down. As Annette's mom recalls, have you ever.
- [05:53]
Robert Licciardi
Seen a house after the police get through searching? It's horrible.
- [06:00]
Chris Walker
The officers hadn't found the kind of evidence they needed to arrest Robert and Annette on charges of murder, so they let them go. But they had nabbed every financial document they could get their hands on. Bank statements, tax returns, loan agreements, even grape contracts. The detectives hoped one of those papers would contain the answers to their most pressing question. Did Robert have a financial incentive in his father's death? It would take a while to sort everything out. But the bank statements quickly made one thing. Under Robert's stewardship, the grape brokerage wasn't pulling in any money. With the grape fraud cases still creating a stir, no farm or winery wanted to be associated with the Licciardi name. Plus, there were still whispers that Jack's murder was tied to the mafia, even though the police never found any evidence for that. And neither did I. But it wasn't like Robert was out trying to strike new deals anyway. It appeared he was busy attending to the needs of a different business.
- [07:00]
Robert Licciardi
He had big ideas, big plans. He was going to open a recording studio and a production company.
- [07:09]
Chris Walker
This is David Koolhoven, a musician and studio tech who Robert hired to help him establish Fast Freddy Productions, which Robert named in honor of a late uncle on his father's side, Fred, who'd passed away in 1984. With Fast Freddy, Robert had visions of becoming a music impresario. The Quincy Jones of Stockton. And his specialty would be music videos, which were popular at the time.
- [07:35]
Robert Licciardi
I want my mtv. I want my mtv.
- [07:38]
Chris Walker
Call your cable company and say, I want my mtv. Robert opened his studio right next door to the music equipment store where Koolhoven worked, and he bought most of his gear there.
- [07:53]
Robert Licciardi
Being starving musicians, we pounced on them full on. I mean, you know, what do you want? What do you need? I mean, of course, we took advantage of the situation.
- [08:04]
Chris Walker
And Robert took the bait, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on recording equipment. But Koolhoeven noticed that his music studio was unusually empty for such a costly venture. And once the Stockton police obtained banking records for the business, they too noticed that while Robert had transferred more than a million dollars into Fast Freddy accounts, the business didn't actually earn any money. Was the studio some kind of shell company, Another way to shield family assets in case Michael lost his court cases? Did Jack know about those money transfers? Or had Robert been running his own fraud and swindling the family? According to Jack's youngest daughter, Jacquelyn. It wouldn't have been the first time that Robert took money without his father's permission. She informed detectives that before he died, her father had told her about another theft. One that involved both of her brothers, apparently back when they were still one third partners in the family business. And right around the time Michael was charged with grape fraud. They each withdrew $200,000 from company certificates of deposit in secret. Michael wanted to use the money for his legal defense. Robert's motives weren't as clear as. But they'd both miscalculated in thinking their dad wouldn't notice. Which reminded me of something Joanna told me.
- [09:22]
Robert Licciardi
It's just the way that my brothers think. They are totally different personality wise. But one thing that is about the both of them is they're in it for themselves. They didn't want to wait for the gravy train to come into the station.
- [09:37]
Chris Walker
And according to her sister Jacqueline, this betrayal was actually the breaking point for Jackson. That's when he decided to restructure the family business. And there were rumblings that he might even rewrite his will. But while Michael got cut out of the company completely, Robert survived the shakeup by convincing his father that he'd be able to pay off the debt if Jack made him a 5050 partner. Investigators realized that this was the embezzlement that the creepy courthouse letters had mentioned. And in light of this new information, which only family members would have known, they couldn't help but wonder if Robert had double crossed his dad again and Jack had found out, could that be a motive for murder? And what about Michael? If both brothers were capable of such deception, could either of them be trusted?
- [10:26]
Robert Licciardi
Get this.
- [10:27]
Chris Walker
Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes. Us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But are we investing in their future financial success? With Greenlight, you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial at greenlight.com wondery greenlight.com wondery at the same time the police were rifling through Robert's records, Michael was under pressure of his own. He was still shaken by the shooting at his house and his federal grape mislabeling trial was fast approaching. He now faced 12 criminal charges thanks to a superseding indictment. And although Lapham and his team had offered Michael reduced jail Time if he cooperated as a witness. Michael refused to plea bargain. He felt that he was being blamed for way too much of the grape mislabeling activity, when he was really just one small part of an industry wide problem. What about the wineries that turned their heads, that practically begged for grapes labeled zinfandel so that they could fulfill their quotas? According to Michael's wife, Norma, he just couldn't.
- [11:45]
Robert Licciardi
He couldn't get away, he couldn't get out of it. You know, how can you when you're kind of in the middle because you've got the winery doing it, you've got the other broker doing it.
- [11:55]
Chris Walker
As Michael saw it, everything had been done with a wink and a nod. The least he could do was set the record straight. Rather than take a deal, he'd take his chances. He'd fight his 12 charges in front of a jury of 12 peers. And maybe he'd redeem both his name and his family's. Of course, here's where we get into the realities of America's criminal justice system.
- [12:19]
Robert Licciardi
It's one of the most sacred rights guaranteed to criminal defendants in the United States Constitution. The right to trial by a jury of one's peers. But the practical reality of the criminal.
- [12:29]
Chris Walker
Legal system is that 97% of federal cases and 94% of state, state cases.
- [12:35]
Robert Licciardi
End in plea bargains.
- [12:37]
Chris Walker
And there's a reason why over 97% of federal criminal cases never go to trial. Government prosecutors wield a fearsome arsenal of tools to coerce defendants into taking plea deals. Things like mandatory minimum sentencing, charge stacking, and perhaps the most intimidating, the so called trial penalty. How sentences for defendants who lose their cases at trial or are almost always stiffer than those originally offered in plea deals. And whether this system is fair. It's not. Is a discussion for another day. Suffice it to say that you need to have enormous confidence, a Perry Mason caliber lawyer or an airtight defense to join the roughly 2% of federal cases that actually end up before a jury. And the fact that Michael went for it, pleading not guilty to all 12 criminal charges, well, that stood out. It certainly raised eyebrows among Michael's co conspirators who had all negotiated plea deals in exchange for their testimony, according to Steve Lapham.
- [13:40]
Robert Licciardi
Ultimately, others saw the writing on the wall and began cooperating too.
- [13:45]
Chris Walker
Like Joe Due, Gary Alfieri, two partners in the grape fraud. Even Nick and Frank Bavaro became witnesses for the state. Here's Frank.
- [13:55]
Robert Licciardi
And at that point we lost our position of our farming operation. And so we were working with the federal government.
- [14:06]
Chris Walker
They were expected to dish out a seemingly endless amount of dirt.
- [14:11]
Robert Licciardi
They were trying to get other players evidence against them.
- [14:16]
Chris Walker
One of the government's primary targets was the Bavaro's old pal Michael Licciardi. Michael's wife Norma remembers one instance in which Gary Alfieri came over to their house to speak to her husband. Norma was eavesdropping over the intercom and she became suspicious when Alfieri started asking.
- [14:34]
Robert Licciardi
Michael questions, questions he knew the Alfieri knew the answer.
- [14:40]
Chris Walker
Sensing an entrapment scenario, she stormed into the room to stop Michael from saying anything incriminating.
- [14:47]
Robert Licciardi
I believe he was wired just by the questions he was asking Michael. I even confronted Alferi to take his jacket off and he got offended. You know, he acted like he was offended. And so I told Michael, he's, you know, he's, he's trying to trap you. You and that van out there.
- [15:03]
Chris Walker
Sure enough, there was a van parked in front of the house. The kind you'd see filled with cigarette smoking agents wearing headphones in a campy spy movie. Gary Alfieri declined to talk to me for this podcast, so I don't know if he really was wired. Regardless, the whole episode gave Michael and Norma a bad feeling. But they wouldn't find out the full extent of the backstabbing until Michael's jury trial began in July 1991. Over 10 days in a Sacramento courtroom, the government's witnesses blamed Michael for as much as they could. Mike approached me and told me that there's a good opportunity to make some money. That's a voice actor reading an excerpt from When Gary Alfieri took the stand. Alfieri fingered Michael from the start, saying that Michael was the one who'd come up with the idea of using shell companies in order to deceive his father. Nick Bavaro backed this claim. Here are voice actors reading the transcript of what happened when one of the government's lawyers questioned him, starting with the prosecutor. You mentioned that there were some deliveries.
- [16:07]
Robert Licciardi
Under the name of George Garcia.
- [16:10]
Chris Walker
Just another fictitious name.
- [16:12]
Robert Licciardi
How did you come up with that.
- [16:14]
Chris Walker
Name or who came up with that name? We were delivering grapes to Delicado and Mike had said that there was some Tokay grapes that he needed to get out of Lodi and needed us to come up with another name and he came up with George Garcia. Later the government lawyers asked Nick, how would you know whether to stall the trucks or bring them directly into the winery? Mike would tell us with all of his co conspirators pointing the finger at him. Michael became the scapegoat for the entire operation. His case crumbled. His attorney couldn't counter the sheer weight of all that testimony. And in the end, the jury found Michael guilty on three types of conspiracy, mail fraud, and that false statement he made to officials.
- [17:01]
Robert Licciardi
Michael Acciardi told us during that meeting.
- [17:04]
Chris Walker
That he had visited V and K Vineyards. With the verdicts In, Michael faced 51 to 63 months in prison. A judge would decide the exact number at an upcoming hearing. But Michael made it clear that he was going to appeal his case all the way up to the Supreme Court if necessary. This appeal meant that he wouldn't face jail time until a higher court decided his face fate. But this loss, on top of the loss of his father, hit him with devastating force. According to Norma, the two events even began to feel linked. The more that Michael and his wife thought about the trial and how he'd been blamed at every turn, the more convinced they became that Jack's testimony could have helped Michael's case. After all, Jack was a seasoned grapebroker. He would have known exactly when what parts of the fraud his son could and couldn't have been responsible for. He could have pointed out the lies. It was a startling thought for Michael, whose last interactions with Jack had been underscored by rage and resentment. Perhaps his father had been trying to help him all along. And the timing of his murder wasn't a coincidence.
- [18:13]
Robert Licciardi
He was going to help Michael. And that was, I think, got him killed.
- [18:23]
Chris Walker
Michael and Norma began to believe that someone had murdered Jack so that Michael would take a harder fall. The same someone who had shot at Michael in his own backyard. And that someone was still a threat to Michael and his entire family. So even while preparing for his appeal, Michael decided that he couldn't hide behind his property wall anymore. He called Sergeant Capron at the Stockton PD and told him that he was ready to help the police collect evidence against the person he believed had killed his father, his brother. Michael's call came as welcome news to the detectives looking into Jack's murder. Their searches of Robert's home and recording studio hadn't yielded conclusive evidence. But Robert remained their primary suspect. Maybe with Michael working for them, they could get Robert to confess on tape. They installed a recording device on Michael's home telephone. And Michael wasted no time in putting his brother on the defense. Here's a clip from one of the cassettes Michael recorded.
- [19:26]
Robert Licciardi
This was a little punk that wrote the company for nothing. Never did a goddamn thing in your life. Fucked around with the Liquidation didn't do shit. Wasted $65,000 and now you're waiting for some money. Fucking yeah. The two crashed, not paying attention. I mean, dream on, Michael. I swear to God, cuz you spend your money. I ain't got no money to spend, idiot.
- [19:49]
Chris Walker
The audio might be a bit hard to understand since the tapes have degraded over the years. The men begin to argue about money. And then Robert asks Michael, why do.
- [19:58]
Robert Licciardi
You always flip out? I'm not flip.
- [20:00]
Chris Walker
You're flip.
- [20:01]
Robert Licciardi
You're the one screaming, I call you up. I said I called. I told you. You want to be civil with me? Apologize for shooting my father.
- [20:12]
Chris Walker
Apologize for shooting my father. Michael says. And in response, Robert insists that Jack died a different way.
- [20:20]
Robert Licciardi
I thought he had a heart attack. Yeah, you're so full of shit.
- [20:24]
Chris Walker
This caught the detectives attention because Robert said the same thing about a heart attack on multiple calls like this one.
- [20:31]
Robert Licciardi
As far as I know, he had a heart attack, that's what. But that's not true.
- [20:36]
Chris Walker
There would be many such calls over the coming months, which Michael regularly turned over to police officers. And with each call and each denial by Robert, Michael became increasingly aggressive in trying to get his brother to admit to the murder.
- [20:51]
Robert Licciardi
You trying to justify what you did now? What I did?
- [20:54]
Chris Walker
What you know.
- [20:58]
Robert Licciardi
You'Ve been telling me all the time, telling you all the time what took out dad.
- [21:02]
Chris Walker
Michael was saying, are you trying to justify what you did now that you took out dad? Meanwhile, the newspapers caught wind of the investigation into Robert, which put additional strain on both him and his marriage. According to Robert's mother in law, they didn't talk.
- [21:19]
Robert Licciardi
They'd come over here and Robert would go and lay down because he wasn't sleeping at home. I understood. My daughter looked not like a very happy woman.
- [21:31]
Chris Walker
Unhappy enough that she and Robert separated and Annette moved out. Then one night In November of 1991, about nine months after the murder, Robert called Annette's parents in distress.
- [21:43]
Robert Licciardi
And then he just the way he was talking, I got concerned. We drove over there and he wouldn't answer the door. And everything was locked up.
- [21:57]
Chris Walker
Robert appeared to be home alone, but.
- [22:00]
Robert Licciardi
Had put the rabbits out. He'd put the cats out. He loved cats.
- [22:05]
Chris Walker
Why had he placed all the pets outside? And what was that smell?
- [22:11]
Robert Licciardi
He's got gas going in that house and he's got all the windows shut. So we called 911 and the police came and the fire department.
- [22:21]
Chris Walker
Was it clear when they opened up the house that he had been running the gas?
- [22:26]
Robert Licciardi
Yes, he was suicidal.
- [22:28]
Chris Walker
That must have been really scary.
- [22:30]
Robert Licciardi
Yeah. He could have blown up the house and everything around the animals were put out on the porch. If the house went, the animals would have gone. But he thought he was protecting the animals.
- [22:44]
Chris Walker
The firemen who responded placed Robert on a 5150. That's the code for a mandatory 72 hour hold for psychiatric monitoring and diagnosis. As Robert remembers it, I was paranoid.
- [22:58]
Robert Licciardi
I suffer from bipolar disorder.
- [23:02]
Chris Walker
He did in fact, receive a bipolar diagnosis. And the psychologists who evaluated him at the time also noted in his records that he seemed both depressive and delusional. His 72 hour hold was extended to a two week stay at a mental hospital. And after his release, he began seeing a therapist. But these new assessments raised questions about Robert's antics in the past. The most significant was an incident that Joanna mentioned to me that had taken place five years prior when Robert was in the throes of addiction.
- [23:33]
Robert Licciardi
Yeah, the SWAT team being called, he got a little coked up.
- [23:38]
Chris Walker
I pulled the police report from 1986, and it shows that Stockton police officers, not SWAT, responded to a call about a domestic disturbance at Jack's house. The officers found Robert locked in his parents bathroom and screaming. Nonsense. The story they gathered from Jacqueline, who was at home with her parents at the time, was that sometime after midnight, Robert allegedly came over to the house brandishing a rifle. He demanded some kind of paperwork from his father, and according to the story in the police report, he had the rifle pointed at Jack, Mary and Jacqueline, and he was ranting and raving. Robert reportedly went back and forth to his own house multiple times before finally locking himself in his parents bathroom. When asked to confirm these details, Jack and Mary didn't refute the story, although when officers coaxed Robert out of the bathroom, they found him unarmed. So now that Robert had been placed on a mental health hold, there was concern that his earlier troubles had more dimensions to them than a mere cocaine addiction. And Robert's mood swings were becoming more evident, especially in his marriage to his second wife, Annette. After temporarily separating, the couple had gotten back together, as her mother recalls.
- [24:51]
Robert Licciardi
And they were back together for quite a while because she still loved him like crazy. But then one day she got it in the mail that the final paper she was divorced. They had never, according to her, filed for divorce. They had filed for a legal separation.
- [25:10]
Chris Walker
Apparently, Robert had tricked Annette into signing a divorce agreement, an agreement he wrote himself, in which he gave Annette no money. Robert knew some legal language. After all, he liked to tell people that he'd gone to law school, even though he'd flunked out in the first year. He also used his limited knowledge of the law to sue his brother in civil court, accusing Michael of improperly using assets from the family brokerage to fund his legal defense. And in the grape cases, this meant that Michael was now being tried in three separate cases, including his federal appeal. In his upcoming state trial, Michael felt under attack from all sides. He knew that if he could just get Robert to confess to murder, Robert's civil suit wouldn't matter and he'd have one less thing to worry about. So far, his recorded phone calls hadn't produced a confession. But what if he could catch Robert off guard in a place where he felt safe? So he asked Robert to meet him at the family ranch near Ripon to discuss their differences. Robert agreed. And what happened at that ranch has been debated ever since. I should note that Robert denies this story, and I only heard the details from Norma. But as she tells it, they went.
- [26:22]
Robert Licciardi
To met at the ranch, and Robert had bought this gun.
- [26:26]
Chris Walker
Michael looked at the gun uneasily. He should have expected that Robert would have a weapon on him. But Robert handed the gun over to Michael and suggested they do some target shooting while they talked, just like they used to when they were boys. With the gun in his hands, Michael relaxed. He lined up his shot slowly put pressure on the trigger and.
- [26:46]
Robert Licciardi
And it backfired.
- [26:48]
Chris Walker
And more than backfired, the gun practically exploded in Michael's hands.
- [26:52]
Robert Licciardi
But luckily, it only kind of grazed his cheek a little bit.
- [26:57]
Chris Walker
Wow. The bullet actually came backwards and grazed him.
- [27:01]
Robert Licciardi
Yeah, yeah.
- [27:02]
Chris Walker
So he nearly got shot.
- [27:04]
Robert Licciardi
Yeah, yeah.
- [27:06]
Chris Walker
Wide eyed and shaken, Michael's hand went to his cheek. It was a minor wound that didn't need medical attention. So he turned his attention to the gun. That's when he noticed the barrel.
- [27:18]
Robert Licciardi
And it was packed.
- [27:19]
Chris Walker
Somehow the barrel had been blocked. Michael wheeled on his brother, who stammered and claimed to have nothing to do with the gun jamming. But Michael didn't buy it. As he got in his car and sped away from the ranch, he vowed to never go near his brother alone again. Not without witnesses. Because the episode had underscored something fundamental for Michael. By gavel or grave, one of them would take the fall. On the next episode of Bloodvines, A crackerjack agent with a background in white collar crime joins the murder investigation.
- [27:54]
Robert Licciardi
I can remember just box after box of records and following the money. It was large amounts, and we're talking checks. 500,000, 700,000 and various amounts.
- [28:07]
Chris Walker
But his discoveries only amplified the fear and uncertainty within the licciardi claim.
- [28:12]
Robert Licciardi
Robert had called me. He was talking to me about, you know, things that can happen, do I know where your kids are at? And that's when I you told told him, you know, Robert, you touch my kids, I will kill you.
- [28:24]
Chris Walker
And when brother faces brother, who will come out on top? That's coming up on episode six of Blood Vines. Bloodvines is a production of Foxapus, Inc. Our executive producers are Laura Krantz and Scott Carney. Story editing is done by Alicia Lincoln and Laura Krantz. Blood Vines is scored and mixed by Louis Weeks. I'm your host and creator, Chris Walker. This podcast was made possible in part by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. If you're enjoying Blood Vines, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. And please share it with your friends. It really helps more people find out about our show.