EP 5 - The Quarterback and The Con Artist

Summary

Podcast Summary: Johnathan Walton Media – EP 5: The Quarterback and The Con Artist

Release Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Jonathan Walton

---

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode continues the deeply personal and harrowing journey of former NFL quarterback Eric Kramer. It explores the complex dynamics of his family relationships, the tragedies that fueled his descent into mental health crisis, his miraculous survival from an attempted suicide, and his fragile process of recovery. The episode culminates in a chilling warning about vulnerability and exploitation, as a figure from Eric's past—the eponymous "con artist"—reemerges when Eric is at his most defenseless.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction: Grappling with Loss and Family Trauma

• Eric Kramer’s life is wracked by a trio of devastating losses: his son's fatal overdose, his mother's death, and his father's cancer diagnosis.
• The episode emphasizes how trauma compounds over time, building towards a catastrophic mental health crisis.

Notable quote (Eric Kramer, 01:01):
“And to see that happen over about a three year period, it was a lot, man. It was a lot of. In a relatively short amount of time.”

2. Eric’s Complicated Family Relationships

With His Father

• Eric’s father was controlling and lived vicariously through Eric’s sports career.

• He used Eric as a pawn during marital conflict, confiding in him about adult problems from age 12.

  Notable quote (Eric Kramer, 06:53):
  “On more than one occasion, he would lament to me about problems of theirs. I was probably 12.”

With His Mother (Eileen)

• Eileen is described as stern, emotionally distant, and not nurturing.

• Eric felt she was “icy” toward him because he reminded her of his father.

  Notable quotes:

  • (Eric Kramer, 03:48): “I shared my dad’s genes and I… reminded her of him so she could be very icy toward my dad… I felt that iciness toward me at times, sort of unmother-like.”
  • (Eric Kramer, 02:46): “I wasn’t really close with her growing up. She was the disciplinarian. But I don’t remember one real talk we had about life. Not one.”

• Eileen’s emotional reserve is attributed partially to her burdens: working full-time, finishing college, running the household virtually alone.

• She remained in an unhappy marriage largely because of her children and a suicide threat from her husband.

  Notable quote (Eric Kramer, 07:18):
  “I once told your dad that I wanted a divorce… and he told me that if I did that, he would kill himself.”

3. Divorce, Remarriage, and the Public Facade

• Eileen eventually divorces Carl and marries the family dentist (Doug), igniting a minor soap-opera twist in Eric’s life.

• Outwardly, the family appeared functional, masking deep internal strife.

  Notable quote (Patrice Cameron, 11:48):
  “Looking in, they looked like the perfect couple… But it wasn’t. That was just a facade.”

4. Eileen’s Athleticism and Its Influence

• Eileen, a former athlete and coach, supported Eric from a distance, avoiding involvement in his sports but sharing a competitive spirit.

  Notable quote (Eric Kramer, 13:04):
  “You could almost think of this as two different teams. Like, my dad drafted me first, she drafted my sister first.”

• Eileen’s own drive led her to daily racquetball before work, reflecting determination and discipline.

5. Reconciliation Through Illness

• Only after Eileen’s cancer diagnosis did Eric and his mother grow close. During her year-long fight with cancer, they repaired much of their relationship.

  Notable quote (Patrice Cameron, 14:31):
  "She had this year, I called it the golden year… she did her best to make amends with her kids... it didn’t matter anymore. It was her relationship with her kids that mattered.”

• This period leaves Eric reeling after her passing, especially so soon after his son’s death.

6. Descent into Crisis: The Suicide Attempt

• The overwhelming losses lead Eric to the brink; he researches suicide methods and attempts to end his life on August 18, 2015.

• The physical aftermath is shocking; Eric survives despite catastrophic injury, surprising even the doctors.

  Notable quotes:

  • (Eric Kramer, 16:31): “I remember researching online, what's the best way to kill yourself?”
  • (Dr. Mark Kerner, 17:40): “Most of these injuries are usually critical injuries.”

7. Medical Battle and Recovery

• Emergency surgeons, led by Dr. Mark Kerner, reconstruct much of Eric’s face and save his life.

  Notable quote (Dr. Mark Kerner, 18:19):
  “From my perspective, it's not really pressure, because what I do… You have to do when you're approaching these is one, stay calm yourself… I’m leading the charge of what we're going to do.”

• Eric must relearn everything: to walk, talk, feed himself; cognitive and memory deficits are profound.

  Notable quotes:

  • (Anna Durgan, 19:40): “Had to learn how to walk, he had to learn how to talk, he had to learn how to eat.”
  • (Anna Durgan, 23:43): “Eric can walk, he can drive a car, he can play a round of golf. He looks like a regular functioning man, but mentally he's got the brain capacity of a six year old and he cannot take care of himself.”

• Friends and family orchestrate around-the-clock care, first at home, then at specialized facilities.

8. A Childlike State

• Eric develops behaviors echoing early childhood: fixating on TV, requiring direction for basic needs, showing no self-awareness of his state.

• Lapses in memory and executive function manifest in daily routines—he could eat multiple dinners unknowingly or wear inappropriate clothing for the weather.

  Memorable moment (Anna Durgan, 24:03):
  "He didn't have his forehead. It was completely gone. The forehead that he has right now, it's Plastic… One day he takes off the helmet, looks in the mirror at himself, brushes his fingers over his head and goes, 'Huh, I wonder what happened there.' And then just put the helmet back on and went back to watching tv."

9. The Stage is Set: Vulnerability and the Return of the Con Artist

• As Eric regains outward normalcy but remains cognitively vulnerable, his friends and family worry about his susceptibility.

• Courtney Baird, an ex-girlfriend described as a manipulative “gold digger,” reemerges offering to help at his weakest moment.

  Notable quotes:

  • (Robert Espinosa, 29:30): “I never liked her for him… I can see that she was a gold digger and… was going to find another way.”
  • (Jonathan Walton, 29:47): “If you know anything about how con artists operate, then, you know, offering to help is nine times out of 10, exactly how they gain entry into your life.”

  The narrative foreshadows the coming danger—a victim whose defenses are down, and a con artist poised to strike.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Like I didn’t do anything other than be born and I’m not him.”
  Eric Kramer on his strained relationship with his mother (03:48)

• “There were times when she wanted to throw in the towel... and he talked the kids into, ‘talk to your mom.’... so he, he used the kids kind of against my sister.”
  Patrice Cameron about Eric’s father’s manipulation (06:29)

• “When she got sick… I got to see a side of her that prior to that, I didn’t see before.”
  Eric Kramer on his dying mother (14:04)

• “The old Eric was there.”
  Anna Durgan, reflecting on moments of familiarity during Eric’s childlike state (24:11)

• “We would not think that anybody would be coming in here and trying to steal from him. That would just be cruel.”
  Anna Durgan on the shock of potential exploitation (30:13)

---

Important Timestamps

• 01:01 – Eric summarizes years of loss.
• 02:46 – Eric on his mother’s emotional distance.
• 03:48 – On feeling like an outcast to his mother.
• 07:18 – Mother’s confession of suicidal ultimatum.
• 11:48 – Aunt reveals the family’s external “perfect couple” facade.
• 14:04–14:31 – Cancer brings reconciliation between mother and son.
• 16:31 – Eric’s thought process before suicide attempt.
• 17:40–18:19 – Dr. Kerner on the critical medical rescue.
• 19:40–23:43 – Friends/family describe the arduous, childlike recovery.
• 24:03 – Anna recalls Eric’s shocking appearance and memory loss.
• 29:47 – Courtney Baird, the “con artist,” reenters Eric’s life.

---

Tone & Language

The episode is emotionally raw, blending clinical reporting (from medical professionals) with deeply personal testimonies (from Eric, his friends, and family). Walton’s narration is compassionate but direct, unafraid to probe dark topics. The episode's structure toggles between the past and the present, building a mood of foreboding as Eric’s vulnerability increases.

---

Conclusion

Episode 5 paints a vivid portrait of Eric Kramer’s resilience amid unimaginable tragedy and the residual danger when such trauma leaves a person open to new forms of victimization. With meticulous storytelling and candid firsthand accounts, the podcast ends on a cliffhanger: a vulnerable hero and a predatory antagonist, setting the stage for the conflict at the heart of "The Quarterback and The Con Artist."

---

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 for help.

Transcript

[Instacart Advertiser]

Did you see the game last night? Of course you did, because you used Instacart to do your grocery restock. Plus you got snacks for the game, all without missing a single play. And that's on multitasking. So we're not saying that Instacart is a hack for game day, but it might be the ultimate play this football season. Enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply for three orders in 14 days. Excludes restaurants.

[Jonathan Walton]

This series deals with troubling topics including suicide, trouble, drug overdosing, and dependent adult abuse. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 right now and speak with a counselor for free. Previously on the Quarterback and the Con Artist.

[Instacart Advertiser]

Eric lost Griffin to the heroin overdose. And I know that that caused Eric just unbelievable pain.

[Jonathan Walton]

And that pain is amplified by the death of his mother and his father's sudden cancer diagnosis.

[Eric Kramer]

And to see that happen over about a three year period, it was a lot, man. It was a lot of. In a relatively short amount of time.

[Jonathan Walton]

Growing up, Eric has an extremely complicated relationship with his dad.

[Patrice Cameron]

Eric's father kind of guided this whole sports thing. He kind of lived through his son to the point of just overbearing and hanging out and trying to influence the coaches.

[Jonathan Walton]

And Eric's relationship with his mother is equally fraught in an entirely different way.

[Eric Kramer]

So my mom, for me, was mostly somebody I feared.

[Jonathan Walton]

Which is odd for a son to say about his mother.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah, I think it must have felt for her like a prison sentence.

[Jonathan Walton]

Like she did something wrong and now she's here.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah, like she made one bad choice and now I'm paying for it every day.

[Jonathan Walton]

I'm Jonathan Walton, and this is the quarterback and the con artist. Episode 5 Instant Attraction.

[Eric Kramer]

So my mom, she was not the most, you know. Here, let me fluff up your pillow for you. It was just a very cold approach.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric Kramer recalling what it was like being raised by his mom, Eileen.

[Eric Kramer]

I wasn't really close with her growing up. She was the disciplinarian. But I don't remember one real talk we had about life. Not one. Surely she had learned a lot about life in the course of her years that, you know, it would have been nice to go to lunch one day with her and have her just start asking questions about my life that never happened. You know what I mean? Like, I just didn't have that kind of mom.

[Jonathan Walton]

And you had friends who had mothers and you saw how their mothers treated them. And that was a stark contrast to.

[Eric Kramer]

How your mother treated you and several kids that their moms were a bit different than mine.

[Jonathan Walton]

And you write in the book, mom had an aversion toward me. I felt that for one reason, one weird reason. I shared my dad's genes and I.

[Eric Kramer]

Reminded her of him so she could be very icy toward my dad. So my dad might reach out to hold her hand and she's not reaching back. And I felt that iciness toward me at times, sort of unmother, like. Like I didn't do anything other than be born and I'm not him.

[Anna Durgan]

She was very stern and not a very warm, fuzzy.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's childhood friend, Anna Durgan.

[Anna Durgan]

She didn't have these bouts of ups and downs or excitement in her voice. It was always monotone type of thing. I wouldn't say that she didn't like him, but I can see that there wasn't this typ. Come here, my little child. Let me give you a hug and a kiss and all that other stuff. And how was your day today? That wasn't Eileen at all.

[Jonathan Walton]

I love you. No, no, I love you.

[Anna Durgan]

No, I didn't see it. Some people would say that she was cold and that would be the impression that you could have gotten from her. But I don't think that if, you know, her upbringing. Her dad was very stern and I think she just got some of the those attributes from her dad that didn't allow her to show her true emotional vulnerabilities that she may have had.

[Jonathan Walton]

And he never talked about this with you growing up?

[Anna Durgan]

Not. No, no, not at all. When we were kids, we don't talk about our parents like, oh, my mom did this, my dad did this. No, I don't think that we would be that open in talking about our parents if we had any like reservations about how they were treating us. It's all kept under the rug or we were all quiet about it. We didn't talk about our upbringings as children, as adults. Big difference. Now we feel more confident. It's okay to talk about it now. And as always, don't parents try to do something different than how their parents raised them?

[Jonathan Walton]

Yeah, they absolutely do. But what young and impressionable Anna Durgan and Eric Kramer do not realize at the time when they're kids is that Eric's mom, Eileen is actually going through a lot.

[Patrice Cameron]

She was the hardest working person.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's aunt, Patrice Cameron, she was working.

[Patrice Cameron]

A full time job, going to college to get her finish up her degree, come home, take care of the house. Carl didn't do anything.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's dad.

[Patrice Cameron]

If the house needed painted, my sister got out there and painted the house. She had a lot on her shoulders keeping that family together. And there were times when she wanted to throw in the towel. And then he talked the kids into, talk to your mom. I don't want to, you know, so he, he used the kids kind of against my sister.

[Eric Kramer]

On more than one occasion, he would lament to me about problems of theirs. I was probably 12.

[Jonathan Walton]

Like he's talking about his marital problems.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah, it's a heavy thing to lay on. It is a 12 year old.

[Jonathan Walton]

But as Eric gets older, his mom also starts sharing problems she's having in the relationship too.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah, I remember her. You know, she would be the one that cut my hair. She goes, I once told your dad that I wanted a divorce. She goes, this is back when you were young. And he told me that if I did that, he would kill himself.

[Jonathan Walton]

This revelation, this suicide threat ends up making Eric's mom stay in a deeply unhappy and stressful marriage.

[Eric Kramer]

She was loyal to us kids. She would not have wanted, even though she didn't respect my dad, didn't love him at that point in life, didn't want to be the cause of his death.

[Patrice Cameron]

And eventually she was able to get her divorce. But yeah, it was painful. Eric's aunt Patrice Cameron and the kids suffered for it. And I think Eric would say that he never felt enough approval from his mother. But she was, she had to play the hard one, keeping a house and working and making sure the bills got paid because she couldn't depend on her husband. So I think she had to separate herself emotionally from her kids a little bit to keep.

[Jonathan Walton]

As a way to cope.

[Patrice Cameron]

Yes, yes. Plus being in a bad marriage, I mean, I have to give her credit. She hung in there as long as she could and raised those kids.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric is 20 years old, playing football at NC State when his mom and dad go their separate ways.

[Eric Kramer]

I remember when my mom told me that they were getting a divorce internally, I thought, wow, it's about time you were happy. Yeah, I really was. Only to have it be to the family dentist. Like, you know, that's who she ended up marrying.

[Jonathan Walton]

The family dentist.

[Eric Kramer]

Doug.

[Jonathan Walton]

Oh, I didn't know he was the family dentist. Yeah, like, so this is a guy you're going to dentist as a kid.

[Eric Kramer]

As a kid.

[Jonathan Walton]

Such a soap opera. She married the family dentist.

[Eric Kramer]

Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

But while the end of Eric's parents marriage is sad and depressing, the beginning, as you can imagine, is hopeful and exciting and filled with romance and endless Possibilities. Eileen and Carl first crossed paths in 1963 in the storied San Fernando Valley. A stone's throw from Los Angeles. Just One look by Doris Troy is blaring from radios everywhere.

[Patrice Cameron]

She was going to college. He had just gotten out of the service. He was in the Coast Guard for four years.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's aunt, Patrice Cameron.

[Patrice Cameron]

So instant attraction. They were quite taken with each other and she fell for him pretty hard. And seemingly he did her. And they only went together a few months. And then their friends talked them into eloping in Las Vegas. So my sister tried to keep it a secret from my parents. And unbeknownst to her, our local paper used to print out the marriages from Vegas. And her name and Carl's name was in the paper and.

[Jonathan Walton]

And overnight everyone finds out about this secret marriage between Eileen and Carl. And while no one is particularly thrilled about it, they all eventually get over it and move on.

[Patrice Cameron]

My sister never got a proper wedding after that.

[Jonathan Walton]

So did you like Carl for your sister?

[Patrice Cameron]

I did. He was a very nice, like I say, charming person, very good looking. So there wasn't anything not to like about him. Everything seemed fine as far as we were concerned.

[Jonathan Walton]

But as the years pass, the discord between these two disparate people grows. Eric's mom starts working all kinds of hours to support the family. And Eric's dad can't seem to hold down a job for very long, causing a lot of strife and misery all around. But the family's unhappiness isn't obvious from the outside.

[Patrice Cameron]

Looking in, they looked like the perfect couple, right? Like they got along and everything. But it wasn't. It wasn't that way at all. That was just a facade to kind of hide the fact that there was this trouble going on with their marriage.

[Jonathan Walton]

So after Eric's mom divorces his dad and marries the family dentist, and as Eric grows up and starts achieving fame and success as a celebrated NFL quarterback, have you ever seen Eric Kramer any better?

[Eric Kramer]

No, not really.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric had a great game.

[Eric Kramer]

Now quit doubting. And Bernie o'.

[Jonathan Walton]

Case.

[Eric Kramer]

Eric had a great game.

[Jonathan Walton]

He knew what he had to do. Eric's mom, Eileen, is extremely proud of her son.

[Eric Kramer]

There was a time when I felt like she wanted to show me off as though I was a new car.

[Jonathan Walton]

You see, Eric's mom was a huge sports fan too, just like his dad. And she was also an athlete in her own right. She played every sport in high school and college, and she coached. She even got her degree in physical education, though she sort of stayed out of Eric's sports endeavors when he was.

[Eric Kramer]

A kid, you could almost think of this as two different teams. Like, my dad drafted me first, she drafted my sister first.

[Jonathan Walton]

But when it came to her own.

[Eric Kramer]

Athletic pursuits, she had a certain never say die attitude.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's mom, Eileen, was hardcore.

[Patrice Cameron]

She got up at 5 o' clock every morning and she would play racquetball for a couple hours before she'd go to work.

[Eric Kramer]

You know, there was many, many mornings where my dad, he'd be, you know, he's the one that took me to school. So she'd be up and gone to play racquetball at 5 in the morning.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric remains somewhat distant from his mom for most of his life. They're friendly, they're cordial, they're just not close. Then a tragic twist of fate changes everything.

[Eric Kramer]

When I really got to know my mom was when she got sick, she had stage four uterine cancer. Once she got sick, you know, it was just her and I. And I got to see a side of her that prior to that, I didn't see before.

[Jonathan Walton]

Like a softer, more, more maternal, kinder, gentler side.

[Eric Kramer]

Very much so. Yeah. Very much so.

[Patrice Cameron]

My sister was diagnosed with cancer, and she aggressively tried to fight it. She had this year, I called it the golden year. She had one year that she survived, and she did her best to make amends with her kids. And I encouraged Eric to see his mother as much as he could. He did a lot with her, just one on one, and her daughter the same thing. And so they were able to really have some quality time with her mother in that last year. She was of the mindset at that time to appreciate everything. All of the other stuff was gone. It didn't matter anymore. It was her relationship with her kids that mattered, and she made the most of it. So I was very grateful that she was able to survive that last year and have some good times with her kids.

[Jonathan Walton]

It changed her that last year.

[Patrice Cameron]

It did change her. It took the edge off of things.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric and his mom get closer than they've ever been during the last year of her life. And when she dies, he understandably takes it really hard, especially considering his son Griffin had just died nine months earlier. And Eric's feeling of loss gets amplified a hundredfold because shortly after the death of his mom, Eric gets closer than he's ever been to his dad. Then his dad is stricken with cancer and admitted into hospice care. And Eric is suddenly swimming in this toxic mix of grief and isolation. His mom and son are gone, and now his dad is about to leave him, too. And all that loss over such a short period of time suddenly flips a switch in Eric's brain.

[Eric Kramer]

And I think, unfortunately, that's what got me down the road I went down. I remember researching online, what's the best way to kill yourself?

[Jonathan Walton]

So now you all know exactly what led Eric Kramer to pull the trigger that day. Back on August 18, 2015. What do you remember about that moment when you put the gun under your chin? Do you remember that moment? No, I don't, because now I can see the scar. And now I didn't know that the.

[Eric Kramer]

Whole top of the head was blown.

[Jonathan Walton]

Off, but, I mean, that makes that tracks because, like, a bullet went through your head.

[Anna Durgan]

He still cannot have an MRI because he has metal fragments in his head.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's childhood friend, Anna Durgan.

[Anna Durgan]

Yeah, they weren't able to get it all out. In fact, when I spoke with his doctor, they had to sew him up on an emergency basis. They didn't think he was going to make it through the night. Like, they basically wrote him off like he's going to die.

[Jonathan Walton]

But Eric Kramer doesn't die. He survives, which is just incredible.

[Dr. Mark Kerner]

Most of these injuries are usually critical injuries.

[Jonathan Walton]

Dr. Mark Kerner is one of the emergency room surgeons working feverishly to save Eric's life. The night he's brought into the ER at Northridge Hospital, Dr. Kerner manages to stop the bleeding, and he actually rebuilds parts of Eric's face.

[Dr. Mark Kerner]

All the facial reconstructions.

[Jonathan Walton]

Me, like you reconstructed the skull?

[Dr. Mark Kerner]

Well, and the facial bones and the nose and the jaw. Yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

I can't even imagine how you do that under that kind of pressure. Like, a man's life is hanging in the balance, and you're going in there to cut and snip and rebuild. That's a lot of pressure.

[Dr. Mark Kerner]

It's interesting because from my perspective, it's not really pressure, because what I do. And so I'm so used to doing it, and I've done these things so many times. The thing you have to do when you're approaching these is one, stay calm yourself. So that everyone remember I'm the captain of the ship in the operating room. So everyone else has to follow my lead. So if I'm, you know, frenetic and not comfortable what I'm doing, nobody else is. So you got to make sure that you're under control and you're in complete control of the situation. And I'm leading the charge of what we're going to do.

[Jonathan Walton]

And Dr. Kerner does an amazing job Because Eric leaves that operating room alive and intact.

[Dr. Mark Kerner]

But what will his mental status be like going forward? Is he gonna end up with anoxic brain injury and be like a vegetable? Is he gonna be functioning? Is he gonna be. So that you can't tell, obviously, until much later, but he was moving all extremities and he was responding.

[Jonathan Walton]

So Eric Kramer is alive, but he's not well. When he wakes up in that hospital bed, the computer that is his not completely functioning. It's sort of like it got a reboot now. Everything's not loading back up the way it should. His basic life functions are there, but everything else just isn't working.

[Anna Durgan]

Had to learn how to walk, he had to learn how to talk, he had to learn how to eat.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's childhood friend, Anna Durgan, they basically.

[Anna Durgan]

Said he has to learn everything again. You have to think of him like a baby. They said this in front of him.

[Jonathan Walton]

We were.

[Anna Durgan]

It was myself, his sister Kelly, and his aunt Patrice. And we're meeting with the speech therapist, and she said it right in front of him. I thought for sure he was going to get pissed, but it just. Nothing happened. It just.

[Patrice Cameron]

Nothing.

[Anna Durgan]

It was. It didn't affect him. We were pissed at the way she said it in front of him, but now we understand why. She knew nothing was penetrating him, so that's why he didn't react. He didn't react at all.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric stays at Northridge Hospital for six.

[Anna Durgan]

Weeks, and then we transferred him over to UCLA Brain Rehabilitation center because they have an extensive, really good brain rehabilitation, and that's what he needs. And I remember one time waiting in the waiting room. All I'm doing is researching, researching all the different levels of brain trauma, this and that, so forth, doing YouTube or people who've had traumatic brain injuries, who've had their frontal lobe damage. Everything I could do to. To. To educate myself and educate the family and give them hope. I would send them video. Look, this person had this kind of injury, and look at them. They're functioning today and so forth. So. Because it was very gloomy.

[Robert Espinosa]

Well, it was a little scary in the beginning.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's close friend Robert Espinosa, you know.

[Robert Espinosa]

Going to see him, it was fresh after it happened. And he was, you know, on like a machine, basically. And he had a big concave in his head. And as he started to come out a little more and was able to. I'd wheel him outside in a wheelchair. I'd turn on some music, and we would just chill and talk, but he was not so responsive. But I knew that the songs he'd like when I played him, he'd, you know, bob his head a little bit. As he started improving, we'd try to take turns and have people go visit him just, you know, so he would at least see people. He would remember, even though sometimes he wouldn't remember it after. Like if I was going, I would tell Anna so she would know she didn't have to go that day. And I would do dinner with him, but sometimes we would overlap and he would forget I already took him to dinner. And then he would go to dinner with Anna. And so his, his memory wasn't all there, but if I brought him food, there was times he ate two dinners because he just wasn't aware that didn't remember eating. And somebody else would come in and he also didn't experience hunger. And so if he went out and ate, he would just eat to eat. And then later somebody else would come by and, hey, I brought you a hamburger.

[Jonathan Walton]

Oh, cool.

[Robert Espinosa]

And you would just eat again.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eventually, Eric is well enough to leave the brain rehab facility he's in and he goes home. But he needs a lot of help. So Anna Durgan steps up to the plate.

[Anna Durgan]

I lived at his house with him and I would take him in every morning to go get treatment. He was always being cared for 24 7. Someone was always supervising him.

[Jonathan Walton]

And after a few months, Eric enters a recovery facility in Las Vegas, fully equipped to meet all his needs.

[Anna Durgan]

We moved him to Vegas because I couldn't keep this up. You know, I had a full time job and I was making it work. We said, okay, let's move you to Vegas with his sister Kelly, because she works at night so she could be with him during the day when she's at work. Her boys, teenage boys, can be with him at night because they need a 24 hour supervision. So I would go out and visit after I dropped him off driving and dropped him off. I'd go every other weekend at this point.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric can walk, he can drive a car, he can play a round of golf. He looks like a regular functioning man, but mentally he's got the brain capacity of a six year old and he cannot take care of himself.

[Anna Durgan]

Eric's demeanor throughout his recovery was childlike. He would sit in front of a TV for seven to eight hours without ever getting up to go use the restroom without eating. It was like the TV was hypnotizing him. He didn't have his forehead. It was completely gone. There was no forehead. The forehead that he has right now, it's Plastic, a very hard plastic. He would have to wear this helmet. One day he takes off the helmet, looks in the mirror at himself, brushes his fingers over his head and goes, huh, I wonder what happened there. And then just put the helmet back on and went back to watching tv. Nothing like a child wouldn't know to say. It was devastating, by the way, seeing any person without a forehead, like, shocking. It was like, oh, my God. You still wonder, how can this person even be alive and walking and talking and. And the old Eric was there.

[Jonathan Walton]

Eric's forehead eventually gets replaced with a plastic prosthetic underneath the skin that looks really real. And all his wounds heal. And on the outside, he starts looking like himself again. But on the inside, he's still not there. Mentally, he just doesn't have the ability to understand things and react to things well.

[Anna Durgan]

We were always scared to say anything to him. We didn't know when he was recovering what we could and could not say. Like, he didn't even know. He attempted to take his own life. He wasn't aware why he was going to the doctors for a year and a half.

[Jonathan Walton]

But it's important to point out here that if you don't know Eric Kramer around this time, like, if you just see him in public, he appears totally normal. But if you watch him for a while, the way he interacts with people, the way he carries himself, you. You'd be able to tell that something is off.

[Robert Espinosa]

He couldn't really stay focused on one thing.

[Jonathan Walton]

Robert Espinosa.

[Robert Espinosa]

Like, if I went over there and we would be watching tv, he watches games completely through, and a commercial would come on, he'd change it, and then you start watching a TV program and forget about the game. So he was, like, constantly changing the tv. That would be something like a kid. He still spoke like a man. He responded. He would ignore you like a kid sometimes, but he was. There was times where he would just not acknowledge you were speaking.

[Jonathan Walton]

There were also times Eric wouldn't acknowledge his own basic needs.

[Anna Durgan]

And we decided to go play basketball.

[Jonathan Walton]

Anna Durgin.

[Anna Durgan]

It's already getting hot in Vegas. It's like 90 something. He's wearing a sweatshirt, shirt. We're all wearing tank tops. He's sweating. And we're like, okay, why isn't he taking off his sweatshirt? He's literally drenched. Red, everything. Hey, Eric, why don't you take off your sweatshirt? No, it's okay. But Eric, it's really hot. You're sweating. You're red. Oh, okay. And then he took it off. It was like his brain wasn't communicating with the rest of his body. And just like with eating, his brain wasn't telling him that he was hungry. So unless you forced him to eat with everybody or eat and put food in front of him, he wouldn't eat. He was stuck. He was stuck to the TV and stuck to the phone. So I literally had to go in there very much like a child and break the hypnotic state that he was in and bring him to eat in the kitchen.

[Jonathan Walton]

Command of even the most basic executive functions of his own body elude him again and again and again.

[Anna Durgan]

We were at a barbecue. It was a residential house where he was being supervised and getting his treatment for the brain rehabilitation. We're all sitting, talking, having stories, whatever. We're sitting there for a while and very much like a child when you start shaking your leg, right, like you have to go to the bathroom. And I noticed it, and I see, you know, quietly go over and whisper in his ear, do you have to use the restroom? And he said, yes. I go, it's okay, get up and you can go. And he dashed and went right up. Now, it's hard to see that from a grown man, but I'm trying to get people to understand that was his mental state, very much like a child.

[Jonathan Walton]

And at that point, is it fair to say that whatever you told him to do, he just did it?

[Anna Durgan]

For the most part, yeah.

[Jonathan Walton]

And around this time when Eric is most vulnerable, a woman from his past suddenly appears. Her name is Courtney Baird. She's an attractive blonde in her early 40s who actually dates Eric a couple years earlier. But by all accounts, it was a toxic and unhealthy relationship. And when Eric finally breaks up with her, his friends and family are thrilled.

[Robert Espinosa]

I never liked her for him, Robert Espinosa. I can see that she was a gold digger and she was just wanted a prestigious life and she didn't want to work for it, so she was going to find another way. I could just see that she's that type of woman.

[Jonathan Walton]

But when Courtney finds out Eric is now living in Las Vegas and is suffering from diminished mental capacity, she immediately offers to help. And if you know anything about how con artists operate, then, you know, offering to help is nine times out of 10, exactly how they gain entry into your life.

[Anna Durgan]

We would not think that anybody would be coming in here and trying to steal from him. That would just be cruel.

[Jonathan Walton]

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, or call or text 9, 8, 8 right now and speak with a counselor for free. If you're enjoying the Quarterback and the Con Artist, click that share button right now and text it to your friends and family. And if you can, leave us a five star review. The Quarterback and the Con Artist is produced, written and hosted by me, Jonathan Walton for Jonathan Walton Media Executive producers Eric Kramer and Anna Durgan Audio engineering by Justin Longer Beam editing and sound design by Hansdale She, Legal Counsel provided by Ken Sterling from Sterling Media Law. We've got a lot of incredible stories in the works at Jonathan Walton Media, so make sure you subscribe and keep an ear out.

[Libsyn Ads Narrator]

Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.