Lives of Crime | 6. King of the Hippie Mafia

Summary

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The Burden: Lives of Crime | 6. King of the Hippie Mafia

Podcast: The Burden
Host: Steve Fishman, Orbit Media
Guest/Narrator: Richard Stratton
Date: March 24, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode titled "King of the Hippie Mafia," Steve Fishman presents the firsthand account of Richard Stratton—once known to authorities as a major cannabis smuggler and kingpin of a “hippie mafia.” Stratton narrates his evolution from a young, curious user to a central figure in a vast, non-violent smuggling network spanning the U.S., Canada, Lebanon, and beyond. Central to his story is his unlikely and intense friendship with Pulitzer-winning author Norman Mailer, and the moral dilemma Stratton faces when federal authorities attempt to leverage that friendship against him.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Origins of a “Hippie Mafia” Kingpin

• Stratton shares his early fascination and experimentation with cannabis, describing how his first smuggling run from Mexico at 18 netted him $1,500—a fortune for the early ‘60s.
  • “Once we got back into the States, I told him what I had done. He was freaked out, but he was happy about it. I made, like, $1,500. And that was 1963, 64. I was 18, 19 years old.” (04:43)
• The thrill of easy cash and adventure cemented his future path.

2. Relationship with Norman Mailer

• After moving to Provincetown, Stratton’s neighborly encounter with Norman Mailer develops into a friendship based on mutual fascination with outlaw culture.
  • “He was like, Richard, this is Norman Mailer. I heard a lot about you. Wonder if you want to come over and have a couple drinks.” (05:31)
• Mailer, a literary icon and government critic, is portrayed both as a confidant and semi-idol to Stratton, who credits Mailer’s essay "General Marijuana" as formative.
• Mailer’s interest was twofold: vicarious thrill and the realism Stratton brought to the archetype of the American outlaw.

3. Operating the Hippie Mafia

• Stratton outlines how the group differed from violent, gun-running syndicates: non-violent, cannabis-only operations, run with discipline and secrecy.
  • “There were no guns, no murders, only cannabis products. No cocaine, no heroin. That was what defined the so-called hippie mafia.” (13:45)
• They exploited opportunities like a mile-long airstrip in the wilds of Maine, using it for smuggling large quantities over the border.
• Smuggling became a strategic chess game:
  • “How am I gonna get tons and tons of this product, which is highly illegal, into the United States? That's like playing chess, but with your whole life and your whole body.” (10:23)

4. International Smuggling: Innovation and High-Stakes Dangers

• Stratton details the complexities and dangers of large-scale smuggling, from botched airplane landings in Maine to elaborate hashish-and-dates schemes involving the Middle East.
  • “It was just this emerald sea of green. There was hashish plants. That was the national product of Lebanon… I bought 15,000 pounds of hash.” (16:12)
• Risk, improvisation, and quick-thinking were constant demands, showcased in a sequence where Stratton and his crew must covertly reconfigure containers under DEA surveillance by welding open doors and repainting containers.
  • “Worked all night long. Friday, Saturday, Sunday… Sure enough, customs shows up Monday morning. They ended up letting the load in.” (22:35)

5. Living Under Constant Surveillance

• Stratton speaks candidly about paranoia, knowing the DEA was always close:
  • “For years, I lived in this state of paranoia. You needed to be paranoid. You can almost feel when they're following you and observing you.” (23:38)
• Despite extraordinary efforts, he’s finally arrested in a classic sting operation, betrayed by a former associate.

6. The Dilemma: “Give Us Mailer”

• U.S. prosecutors demand Stratton testify against Mailer, threatening him with 25-30 years in prison and implicating even his wife.
  • “You give us Mailer, and you can walk on this. You own this property with him. He's implicated by the fact that you paid him in cash.” (27:29)
• Mailer himself tells Stratton not to become a martyr:
  • “Richard, don't be stupid. If you could get yourself out of this by giving them me, go ahead. I'll forgive you.” (28:39)
• Ultimately, Stratton refuses:
  • “They arrested my wife in Canada… I could rat Mailer out. But of course, I think he was genuinely surprised that I held up. The exact words he used: I was a stand up guy.” (29:47)

7. Judicial Consequences & Aftermath

• Judge Constance Baker Motley, while personally sympathetic on drug laws, sentences Stratton to 25 years for refusing to cooperate:
  • “She enhanced the sentence due to my refusal to cooperate with the government.” (30:11)
• After eight years, Stratton is released. In prison, he writes Smack Goddess and later the memoir Smuggler's: A True Story of the Hippie Mafia, whose back cover is praised by Norman Mailer.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Cannabis and Outlaw Culture:
  "This product that was being used by millions and millions of young Americans was illegal. So you felt like what you were doing wasn't really criminal, it was just illegal." – Richard Stratton (14:18)
• The Smuggler's Chessboard:
  "That's like playing chess, but with your whole life and your whole body." – Richard Stratton (10:23)
• Norman Mailer’s Loyalty:
  "He was genuinely concerned… What he said was, 'Richard, don't be stupid. If you could get yourself out of this by giving them me, go ahead. I'll forgive you.'" – Richard Stratton (28:39)
• On Being a 'Stand Up Guy':
  "Of course, I think he (Mailer) was genuinely surprised that I held up... I was a stand up guy. Richard's a stand up guy." – Richard Stratton (29:47)
• On Legal Irony:
  “Can a judge really enhance his sentence for not cooperating? That’s not a crime.” – Steve Fishman (30:31)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Stratton’s Early Smuggling – 02:56
• Meeting Norman Mailer – 05:19
• Describing the Hippie Mafia’s Ethos – 13:44
• The Maine Airstrip and Smuggling Legend – 10:23–12:30
• Hashish in the Middle East & The Dates Scheme – 15:47–17:52
• DEA Surveillance and Paranoia – 23:16–24:40
• Sting Operation and Arrest – 24:41–26:42
• The “Give Us Mailer” Dilemma – 27:29–29:55
• Sentencing & Reflections from Prison – 30:06–31:40

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Episode Flow and Tone

This episode maintains a reflective, world-weary, and occasionally defiant tone, driven mainly by Stratton’s own voice and vivid storytelling. There’s a blend of nostalgia for the countercultural idealism of the ‘60s and ‘70s and the cold realities of justice, betrayal, and loyalty.

The podcast offers unique insight into the mindset of a nonviolent "outlaw" and the blurred lines between criminality and civil disobedience during the war on drugs. The complex relationship with Mailer—a literary figure both idolized and endangered by Stratton’s world—adds layers of emotional resonance and cultural commentary.

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For more on Richard Stratton’s adventures and legacy, read his memoir Smuggler's: A True Story of the Hippie Mafia and the cult novel Smack Goddess.

Transcript

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[Richard Stratton]

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[Jordan Sillers]

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

[Witness or Narrator in Blood Trails]

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a pool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

[Jordan Sillers]

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Steve Fishman]

to listen all at once ad free. Subscribe to True Crime Clubhouse on Apple Podcasts. Welcome to Lives of Crime. True Crime from True Criminals. I'm Steve Fishman from Orbit. In this episode, we feature Richard Stratton. The government called him a drug kingpin. Richard preferred to be called King of the Hippie Mafia, a band of countercultural cannabis lovers turned criminals. In this episode, there's another person you need to know. That's Norman Mailer, literary heavyweight of a generation, a writer who liked to think of himself as an outlaw. He was a vociferous critic of the government, a proselytizer for the joys of marijuana. The government hated Mailer. But Stratton? He loved Mailer. And Mailer loved him back. In the end, one would do for the other what no person should ever be asked to do. We call this episode King of the Hippie Mafia.

[Richard Stratton]

Okay, so my name is Richard Stratton.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

In a former lifetime, I was a cannabis smuggler.

[Richard Stratton]

I thrived on the excitement and the action. I thought like, oh my God, where is this day going to end? Will I be in prison?

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

Or will I make a million dollars?

[Richard Stratton]

One day I'm gonna get arrested, and then I'm gonna write about it.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I remember clearly the time that this guy pulled a joint out of his pocket, and we were all like, oh, no, man, we can't smoke that. No. Because it was the age of reefer madness. We were told, you know, you smoke one joint, and the next thing you know, you'll be shooting heroin. We said, sure. We lit it up and we smoked it, and it was incredible. We didn't go raise hell after that. We were all sitting around, like, listening to the Beatles and just minds completely blown in ways that we never expected. I had a roommate who had this pickup truck. It was a beautiful old truck. And we went down to Mexico, and my roommate was off in a whorehouse somewhere or something. Up to no good. Mexican girls. But I wasn't really interested in that. I was more interested in seeing if I could find some pot. So I asked this kid, and he goes, oh, yeah, sure, I can get you kilos of pot. So I bought two kilos. I went back to his truck and removed the door panels and put it in the door. Didn't even tell him, put the door panel back, because I figured if I told him, he'd be so nervous driving back across the border that he'd give it away. Once we got back into the States, I told him what I had done. He was freaked out, but he was happy about it. I brought the pot back to Boston, and some friends of mine sold it, and I made, like, $1,500. And that was 1963, 64. I was 18, 19 years old. So $1,500 in cash in those days was a lot of money.

[Richard Stratton]

And I thought, man, this beat's going to work any day of the week. So that began it.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I was accepted at the Fine Arts Work center in Provincetown, and I actually moved in right across the street from Norman Mailer.

[Richard Stratton]

I had read pretty much everything that Mailer had written up to that point. So I was thrilled when a couple of days later, my wife answered the phone, and she put her hand over the mouthpiece and says, it's Norman Mailer. He wants to talk to you. He was like, richard, this is Norman Mailer. I heard a lot about you. Wonder if you want to come over and have a couple drinks. So I said, yeah, sure. Went across the street.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

And as soon as he knew what my avocation was, he was like, you know, you got any good weed for me? We had polished off a whole bottle of cutty Sark end up walking out

[Richard Stratton]

of there at like three or four o' clock in the morning, both of us, shit face. And that was the beginning of an amazing friendship. I mean, he was just a brilliant, brilliant writer, period. He invariably made the New York Times bestseller list. He was definitely considered a renegade. He was a critic of the government left and right, unabashed on how messed up he felt American life was and particularly American politics. He was an outspoken user of marijuana.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

He had written a famous essay about the opening of the mind on marijuana called general marijuana.

[Richard Stratton]

He talks about the hipster. He talks about somebody who lives through excitement. I was like, oh, okay, I get it, I get it. This guy's talking about me. Here's a kid from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who, born into a, you know, upper middle class family and just turns it all, just fuck all that and goes and becomes a drug smuggler.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I mean, when he met me, he

[Richard Stratton]

was like, oh, this is the guy that I've been writing about. He wanted details. Who's this guy? How does he fit in? Where are you going? What are you doing? I would be careful not to tell him anything that I thought could implicate him in any way. And then he comes to me and says, you know, I bought this land up in Maine. He a little surprised when I came to them with $20,000 in cash and bought the place out right from him. It was coming right from, you know, my pop business. I get up there and move into this property. This guy who worked for me, he came to the house and he was like, you'll never guess what I found. Lo and behold, less than a mile away is this airstrip 60 miles from the Canadian border. It was almost like it was beholden or planned. It was a beautiful, amazing wide. It was not like anything you would ever expect to find in the wilds of Maine. We're just flabbergasted. We paced it off and it was a mile long. Oh, now we know why we're here. We're here to smuggle as much wheat as we can into Canada and as much hashish out of Canada into the US as possible.

[Superhuman Podcast Narrator]

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[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

[Superhuman Podcast Narrator]

Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jordan Sillers]

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

[Witness or Narrator in Blood Trails]

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed. Then there was a full of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

[Jordan Sillers]

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Deeply Well Podcast Narrator]

The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.

[Debbie Brown]

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[Deeply Well Podcast Guest or Co-host]

The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected, we're becoming more individualized. But we actually need people in connection.

[Debbie Brown]

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[Richard Stratton]

Smuggling becomes this whole, almost like a military operation. How am I gonna get tons and tons of this product, which is highly illegal, into the United States? That's like playing chess, but with your

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

whole life and your whole body.

[Richard Stratton]

It was all absorbing. It just takes over your life. This crazy guy came to me and said, listen, I have this plane, it's a DC6, four engines, big, huge airplane loaded up with marijuana from Colombia. So I'm expecting this plan. I get my crew down there at 7, 7:30. We're sitting there and we're waiting and we're waiting and we're waiting. I talked to the guy the night before. He goes, we're leaving it like three o' clock in the morning. We'll be there by eight at the latest. Have no real communication with these guys. And we're sitting there waiting. We were beginning to think that wasn't going to happen. And just as we were ready to leave, one guy who worked for me for years was like, I hear something, man, I hear something. And we heard this thing which was so much noise. And it's in this little valley in rural Maine. He ran outside and he goes, it's coming, can see it coming in, you know, it's a huge Plane, the guy actually overshot the end of the strip. The plane landed and the wheels dug in and turf was flying. Rocks were flying all over the place. It was a dirt strip, a gravel base, but in the spring it could be soft. Unfortunately, it was a little too soft. I thought for sure the plane was going to go off and end up in the river. The wheels broke, the landing gear broke, the front gear broke, and the plane was sliding along on its nose and spinning around. The wings hit these trees that were by the side of the airfield and like, almost like cut them down. And there the plane was. My crew turned and ran. They were running for the woods and I'm like, wait, wait, where are you going, man? We got to get this thing unloaded. The pilot, who was this big heavyset guy from Canada, I'm like, what are you doing, man? He, he looks at me and he goes, I got a plane to catch. Get me to the airport, get me out of here. And my crew, they were ready to bolt. And I'm like, unload this fucking plane. Let's get this shit out of here. We managed to get, gosh, several, several tons of pot. We got the pot to market, but we could not get the airplane out of there. We had to leave it there. You know, when you get a. Bring in a big load like that, it's very exciting. There's nothing like walking into a hotel room and having a guy give you a suitcase with a million dollars in it. Okay, that's good. Then I would go off and party for like three weeks. Mailer was fascinated by it. I mean, he was really interested and he loved me to tell the tales of what we were up to. He was meeting people that ordinarily he never would have come in contact with

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

people who were dealing pot. I had a group that was based in New England, also in Texas, were non violent. There were no guns, no murders, only dealt in cannabis products. No cocaine, no heroin. So that was what defined the so called hippie mafia. If you looked at these people, they didn't look like hippies because, you know, that was the easy way to get busted. So we were all kind of clean cut, dressed well, but making a lot of money smuggling cannabis. It just seemed so crazy.

[Richard Stratton]

This product that was being used by millions and millions of young Americans was illegal. So you felt like what you were doing wasn't really criminal, it was just illegal. This is their war on drugs, not mine. We felt like we were doing the

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

right thing in a way, fulfilling some

[Richard Stratton]

kind of civic duty, I guess, in a Way or to keep America high. Norman loved that. We were standing out on this balcony in Brooklyn Heights was a writing studio overlooked in the river. New York Harbor. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. You can see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, all the lights of Manhattan. You see Lower Manhattan. Norman used to say, I keep the enemy in view. Right there, standing next to Norman, looking out at this view, and you can see the docks. And I said, right down there is where we brought a load in.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I had a friend who was connected to importation of different kinds of legal goods. They came to me and they said, look, there's a war going on in between Iran and Iraq, and we can't get dates at this particular time. These little dates that they used to chop up and put in cake mixes and. And stuff like that. He said, if you could go over there and get dates and bring them back to the United States, we could smuggle the hash in with the dates.

[Richard Stratton]

So I said, well, let me try it.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

So I went to Lebanon, and the guy who was my connection there, he and I went to Iraq together and bought like, I can't remember how many millions of pounds of dates that we had shipped from Iraq overland to Beirut. When you drove from Beirut to the

[Richard Stratton]

Baka in the Bekaa Valley, you went

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

up over the Shouf Mountains, and as you came down into the Bekaa, you look around, it looked like you were coming into Iowa. All these big green fields, but it wasn't corn. It was all hashish for as far as the eye could see. It was just this emerald sea of green. There was hashish plants. That was the national product of Lebanon was hashish at that point. And all these guys who owned the land up there were like these big families. There was no law. There were no DEA agents at all in Lebanon at that time. I bought £15,000 of hash.

[Richard Stratton]

You know those big sea land containers, the orange thing, containers. They're huge. They have these big doors in the back, and you can walk in them.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

And we would put the hashish in, put the dates on top to hide it. Had very specific instructions on how things had to look to get through customs. Put a layer of dates down at the bottom of the box, then put the metal box with the hashish in it, which was sealed very tight because the odor is a big issue. And then put another layer of dates on top so that if customs opens a box, they're going to find dates. There were seven containers. Four of them had nothing but dates, and three of them had dates and hash. So my Idea was to try to get customs to come and open up and inspect a container or two that had nothing but dates.

[Richard Stratton]

So I was staying at the Chelsea Hotel and my partner comes to me that morning and goes, we can't pick up the. We can't go get these containers. I go, what do you mean we can't go? He says, customs has flagged them, they've sealed them. They want to accompany them from the docks to the warehouse and be there when we open them. We can't do it. We can't go near this shit. We gotta just leave it. I said, look, if you don't go pick it up, they're gonna know that we were involved. I said to my partner, go there at the end of the day when everybody's wanting to go home and pick up this container, this container and this container, these are just containers that got dates in them. Pick those containers up late in the afternoon and bring them back to the warehouse and hopefully the customs guys will come and inspect them and they'll be satisfied. He goes, yeah, good idea. We'll do that.

[Superhuman Podcast Narrator]

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the Games and with the athletes for a full year.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

[Superhuman Podcast Narrator]

Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jordan Sillers]

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

[Witness or Narrator in Blood Trails]

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bed and there was a pool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

[Jordan Sillers]

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Deeply Well Podcast Narrator]

The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior. And that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.

[Debbie Brown]

This mental health awareness month, tune into the podcast Deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self discovery and returning to yourself. We explain explore higher consciousness, emotional well being and the practices that help you find clarity, peace and self mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming.

[Deeply Well Podcast Guest or Co-host]

The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected, we're becoming more individualized. But we actually need people and connection.

[Debbie Brown]

If you've Been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is is for you. To hear more, listen to Deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Richard Stratton]

I went to the warehouse and walked in there. I could smell the hash. It was just overwhelming. So I was worried.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I opened up one of the boxes and it was just a box full of hash in the box, no dates.

[Richard Stratton]

I'm like, what haven't you guys?

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

But you know, this is so typical. They never do what you tell them to do. And they're always like, yeah, yeah, okay, Mr. Richard, don't worry, we'll take care of it. It'll be exactly as you want it. But no, it's not exactly as you

[Richard Stratton]

want it when you're thinking, well, you're going to get arrested. DEA knows there's something in this thing. These agents opened up some of the boxes and looked through and they opened up boxes that just had dates in them. And they said, okay, we'll be back and do a secondary inspection.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

They were supposed to come back on Monday to finish inspecting the load.

[Richard Stratton]

Because we were like, man, what the fuck? We went in there that night. The containers were not only locked, but they sealed them. DEA sealed them. They put a special seal on them. We figured, we're going to get busted, it's inevitable. Fortunately, one of the guys that we were working with was a welder and cut the metal hinges on the back of these big, huge containers. And then we brought a tow truck in there and hooked the cable and lifted the doors up, took them off, got all the dates out, get all

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

the hash out, put all the dates back in, put the doors back on, welded them back in place because problem was finding paint.

[Richard Stratton]

This orange colored paint, it would match. The containers run all over town looking to try to find paint.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

We worked all night long. Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, we managed to get it done. Sure enough, customs shows up Monday morning, they go out and they look at them, they go, oh, yeah, well, you know, we decided it's not a problem, go ahead and cut the. Cut the seals and empty the containers. They ended up letting the load in.

[Richard Stratton]

We did all that work for nothing.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

When the hash came in, it had these seals on the sacks and they knew. DEA knew when it, when it hit the street, oh, this is Stratton again.

[Richard Stratton]

There was no question that I was being followed. At first I didn't notice it, but then I noticed these guys were following me. I was at the table with Norman. We had a place called Nicolas. And I saw these guys come in and sit at the bar. And I was like, these motherfuckers, man. I was always in a hyper paranoid state.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

The DEA had me on their list of.

[Richard Stratton]

For years, I lived in this state of paranoia. You needed to be paranoid. You can feel it. You can almost feel when they're following you and they're observing you and surveilling you. When I'd get that feeling, I would split and go into hiding for a while. So I was living in Hawaii, in Maui, and I got a message from a Lebanese guy that they needed to see me, and they needed to see me right away. Somebody who had access to a huge amount of hashish that they had stolen from me was ready to pay. Though I was suspicious of this. I was so angry with that guy who had stolen this load from us that I thought, if I have any opportunity to get in a room with that guy, I'm going to strangle him. So I went from Maui to Los Angeles. The arrangements were made for me to meet with him in a hotel at the airport. Well, I was so paranoid that I got there, like, two hours before the meeting. And I stationed myself up on the balcony level where I could see the whole lobby and watch anybody coming in and going out. I saw this guy come in and sit down by himself. I looked around, and I didn't see anybody that looked to me like agents hanging out. Cool. Must know he's not being followed, and says, it's. It's all right. So I walk downstairs, and I walk up to meet him, and I'm about to shake his hand. I see these guys come running from, like, four different directions. The DEA comes. They come pointing guns at me and screaming and yelling, get down on the floor. Get down to your face. You're under arrest. So I was like, okay, that's it. I've been set up, and this guy set me up. That was it. I knew that this guy existed. This guy that I kept hearing about. Gustav Fassler was his name. He'd been after me for years, but I'd never come face to face with him. He came in in a wrinkled old raincoat. He looked dirty and besheviled. He behaved like that guy Columbo. He was not your typical DEA agent at all. We get in the car. I sat in the front seat, sat in the front seat. He was this funny Brooklyn Jew, very smart guy. And he goes, we're not gonna have a problem here, are we, Richard? We're not gonna have a problem. You're not gonna do anything crazy, are you? And he goes, I. I understand, you know, you're not gonna talk about anything, and I'm not gonna ask you any questions. But then he goes, do you remember that time over in Beirut when they shut down the airport? You couldn't get out of the country. You had to take the boat. I'm like, how the. Does this guy know about all this shit? He told me about a flight that

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

we had been on.

[Richard Stratton]

It was a Air France flight, and we had an emergency landing. He said, yeah, I was on that plane with you. He knew way too much. And I'm thinking, holy shit, this flight. How long has this guy been trapped, trailing me? Do you remember that time with those dates, you know, you got this property with. Oh, that's the place you own with Mailer, right? That writer?

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

I'm thinking, I'm. When they had me here in New York, they brought me up in front of the. In the U.S. attorney's office.

[Richard Stratton]

It's made very clear to me this is not just about me. You give us Mailer, and you can walk on this. You own this property with him. He's implicated by the fact that you paid him in cash. So, you know, give. Give us Mailer, and you make a deal. We'll make a deal. He was implicated. There was no question. Mailer knew that the money that I paid him came from my marijuana business. And that would have made him. You know, conspiracy is such an easy thing to. To accuse someone of, and the hard thing to defend against, because if you take money from someone that, you know, has that. That money comes from illegal sources. You're a conspirator. You're a co. Conspirator. I was in a holding cell in the courthouse. Norman came to visit me, probably even more than my own mother. He would come on a special media visit, and they would take me to a private room to visit and read bullshit for an hour or two. He was genuinely concerned with how I was doing. What he said was, richard, don't be stupid. If you could get yourself out of this by giving them me, go ahead. I'll forgive you. It's not, you know, he needs. Made it clear that he didn't want me to become a martyr to save him.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

In a way, maybe he even liked

[Richard Stratton]

the idea of being indicted in this case. Maybe he was testing me. He had to think, could it go either way? I thought to myself, shit, they could give me 30 years here. Are you a rat? Are you Going to give up your best friends or are you going to go do the time? They put a lot of pressure on me. Tremendous amount of pressure. Arrested my wife in Canada. Fuckers. You know, cooperate and we'll let your wife go. I could rat mail her out. But of course, I think he was genuinely surprised that I held up the exact words he used. I was a stand up guy. Richard's a stand up guy.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

And then I went before Judge Constance Baker Motley. I gave her this big rap about pot and how it was practically legal. And she was like, yeah, well, I agree. I don't think marijuana is so bad.

[Richard Stratton]

But you refused to cooperate with the government.

[Narrator or Associate of Richard Stratton]

She enhanced the sentence due to my refusal to cooperate with the government. And she gave me 25 years.

[Steve Fishman]

Stratton wondered, can a judge really enhance his sentence for not cooperating? That's not a crime. And so, after eight years, Stratton was released. In prison, he'd penned the novel he'd always planned to write, Smack Goddess, which became a cult classic based on his adventures in the drug trade. Guess whose praise adorns the back cover? That's right. Norman Mailer wrote, stratton's book is quote realized with the depth one expects from a serious novel. You can read Stratton's account of his days as an outlaw in his memoir, Smuggler's A True Story of the Hippie Mafia. The creator and host of Lives of Crime is Steve Fishman. Executive producers Steve Fishman and Kevin Wardes. Senior producers Simon Rentner and Emil Klein. Producer and engineer, Austin Smith. Story editor Dan Bobkoff. Our sound designer is Bianca Salinas. Assistant producer, Eric Axelrod. Special thanks to the inimitable Fisher Stevens, the glamorous Rhea Julian and our agents at wme, Evan Krasic, Marissa Hurwitz, Ben Davis. Lives of Crime is a production of Orbit Media in association with signal company number 1 1. Follow us at Orbit Media FM, on Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube.

[Person Selling Car]

I sold my car in Carvana last night.

[Richard Stratton]

Well, that's cool.

[Person Selling Car]

No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.

[Richard Stratton]

So what's the problem?

[Person Selling Car]

That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch.

[Richard Stratton]

Maybe there's no catch.

[Person Selling Car]

That's exactly what a catch would want me to think.

[Debbie Brown]

Wow.

[Richard Stratton]

You need to relax.

[Person Selling Car]

I need to knock on wood. Do we have. What is this? Table wood?

[Richard Stratton]

I think it's laminate.

[Person Selling Car]

Okay.

[Jordan Sillers]

Yeah, that's good.

[Steve Fishman]

That's close.

[Richard Stratton]

Enough car selling without a catch. Sell your car today on Car Pick Up.

[Jordan Sillers]

These may Apply Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence.

[Witness or Narrator in Blood Trails]

I seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag and there was a pool of blood. Somebody somewhere knows something.

[Jordan Sillers]

I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 is out now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chelsea Handler]

This season on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler. We have some fantastic guests like Emilia Clarke.

[Richard Stratton]

When, like young people come up to me and they want to be an actor or whatever, my first thing is always, can you think of anything else that you can do?

[Chelsea Handler]

Rather be disappointed in.

[Richard Stratton]

Do that. David Oyelowo I love this podcast.

[Steve Fishman]

Whether it's therapy or relationships or religion

[Richard Stratton]

or sex or addiction or you just

[Steve Fishman]

go straight for the guts.

[Chelsea Handler]

Dennis Leary, Gaten Matarazzo from Stranger Things, Sana Mongeau, Camilla Marrone, Carrie, Kenny Silver and more. Listen to these episodes of Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.