wavePod

Chapter 4 - The Idiot | Wave AI Podcast Notes

Chapter 4

Thu Mar 26 2026

Allen finally agrees to talk … and talk and talk, for 35 hours of interviews. M. wants to understand Allen on his own terms, to try and figure out how this scion of bohemian intellectuals ended up hiring someone to kill his ex. It’s hard for M. to believe everything Allen says, but over the course of their conversations, M. comes to feel for their cousin. And they think they understand what drove him to go so far.

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Idiot, Chapter 4

Host: M. Gessen
Production: Serial Productions & The New York Times
Date: March 26, 2026
Episode Focus: M. Gessen revisits the sentencing and backstory of their cousin, Allen, who has been convicted for hiring someone to kill his ex-wife, Priscilla. The episode explores Allen’s sentencing, delves deep into his personal history, and investigates the roots of his actions through interviews, family history, and psychological analysis.

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode centers on the aftermath of Allen’s murder-for-hire conviction and seeks to answer why Allen—a man once seen as a braggart and an “idiot,” but not a potential murderer—took such a drastic step. Through courtroom drama, interviews with Allen in prison, and family retrospection, M. Gessen attempts to unravel the familial and psychological motivations behind Allen's crime, piecing together a “theory of Allen.”

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sentencing Hearing: Allen's Fate Decided

(00:27–06:43)
- Allen receives a maximum sentence of 120 months (10 years) for hiring someone to kill Priscilla.
- The judge, Judge Curley, emphasizes the irony: Allen, raised by a loving mother, tries to deprive his own children of their mother.
- Judge meticulously lists Allen's incremental decisions in the murder plot, highlighting ample opportunities to turn back.
- The judge acknowledges numerous glowing character letters but frames Allen’s crime within patterns often seen in domestic violence cases.
- “You were a barred lawyer...by your own testimony, you thought you were going to bribe an official to have her kidnapped and removed from the United States.” — Judge Curley [04:10]
- Gessen feels both moved and detached, noting the court fixes on guilt and punishment rather than motive.

2. First Conversations with Allen after Sentencing

(08:54–17:22)
- Allen reaches out to Gessen for a post-sentencing interview, promising missing context from the trial.
- Allen shares meandering stories involving international business, brushes with Russian assets, and a failed business venture—but doesn't discuss the core crime.
- On his departure from Moscow with his son O: Allen insists it wasn't kidnapping, but Gessen challenges him on whether Priscilla knew where her son was, exposing clear tension and mistrust.
- “I can generally listen sympathetically or at least neutrally to all kinds of bullshit. It's part of the job. But you're about to hear me run right out of patience.” — Gessen [11:55]
- When asked about Priscilla desperately searching for her son, Allen downplays, evades and obfuscates.

3. Gessen and Allen’s Evolving Conversations

(14:36–28:14)
- Daily calls cover Allen’s denials of all accusations: abductions, responsibility for setbacks in Priscilla’s life, and the murder plot (claiming he simply wanted her deported).
- Allen describes prison life in a deadpan manner, drawing darkly comic comparisons to travel and “local cuisine.”
- Unexpected bonds form as Gessen and Allen discuss their shared family history, immigration, and adaptation struggles.
- “We’ve spoken more in the past week than we have in the previous 50 years.” — Allen [16:25]
- Allen recounts his tough immigrant past, feeling like a “third wheel” to his successful cousin, working his way up from bagging groceries to running a lucrative (but shady) college paper-writing business.

4. Allen’s Need to Be Needed

(28:14–34:20)
- Allen’s drive for usefulness and social status, born out of a desire to overcome humiliation and isolation.
- Allen is depicted as generous, romantic, and indispensable to friends and partners—traits vouched for in letters submitted to the court.

5. Marriage, Fatherhood, and Escalating Family Tensions

(34:20–43:04)
- The birth of O (his son) is a pivotal, traumatic event. Allen obsesses over saving and caring for his premature child.
- Regular cycles of hope and heartbreak in Allen and Priscilla’s tumultuous relationship.
- Deepening resentment grows as Allen’s solutions to marital crises fail, and Gessen begins to formulate “a theory of Allen”:
  - Allen’s history as a problem-solver, desperate for validation, but faced an unsolvable emotional problem in his marriage.

6. A Second Theory: The Power of Lena (Allen’s Mother)

(43:30–55:04, 55:34–57:32)
- Gessen explores the idea of Allen as shaped and controlled by his mother, Lena—a dominant, insistent figure with a symbiotic relationship with her son.
- “Lena wanted to control Alan’s life, including his physical surroundings, even when he lived thousands of miles away. Especially when he was living thousands of miles away.” — Gessen [48:10]
- Priscilla and others suspect Lena’s pervasive influence motivated Allen to try to “fix” the problem of Priscilla for Lena’s benefit.
- The concept of “folie à deux” (shared madness) is introduced: Lena and Allen reinforce each other’s beliefs, acting in concert.
- Allen defends his independence, but even he admits, “My mom does come through as a pretty strong and insistent personality who knows how others should live.” [57:32]
- Gessen posits that Allen’s noise—the internal, psychological cacophony—comes from trying to satisfy Priscilla, Lena, and himself, eventually pushing him to desperate acts.

7. Closure, Ongoing Denial, and Allen’s Future

(59:50–63:35)
- Allen expresses hope for his appeal and future relationship with his children, denying any intent to harm Priscilla.
- During Gessen’s own wedding, Allen’s longing for contact and connection with his kids peaks.
- Gessen reflects on Allen’s motive for participating in the interviews: a last attempt to communicate with his children and reshape his legacy.
- “At some point, I realized that the kids were the reason he decided to talk to me, to make his case to me and through me ... that he never wanted to kill their mother.” — Gessen [61:16]
- Despite moments of doubt, Gessen ultimately concludes Allen is guilty and lying—but intent as ever on reclaiming his role as father.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the paradox of Allen’s character:
“It’s so tragic that you have been such a generous and helpful person to all these other people ... But we see that sometimes with domestic violence.” — Judge Curley [04:10]
On Allen’s emotional spiral:
“She just told me one of the times she cheated on me and I started wailing, just this scream of pain ... I just couldn’t stop.” — Allen [38:25]
On the shadow cast by Lena:
“She wanted it done her way, which was the right way, and Priscilla was in the way.” — Gessen [48:10]
On Allen’s motivation:
“He’d do anything to make his mother happy. This came up in a lot of my conversations.” — Gessen [54:50]
Allen on his crime and his family:
“Once I overcome the legal obstacles ... I will be able to rebuild a relationship with [my children]. And that’s probably ... more important than any other considerations.” — Allen [60:31]
Gessen’s conclusion:
“There was no way around it. Alan was guilty and he was lying, and we were done with our conversations.” — Gessen [62:39]

Timestamps for Key Segments

[00:27–06:43] – Judge Curley’s detailed sentencing and courtroom reactions
[08:54–14:36] – First prison interview with Allen: setup and initial evasions
[14:36–17:22] – Daily calls begin, Allen’s denials, introduction to family and personal history
[18:19–28:14] – Allen’s immigration story, struggles, first entrepreneurial efforts
[29:01–34:20] – Allen’s early career, McKinsey, rise in post-Soviet Russia, romantic relationships
[34:20–43:04] – Priscilla, fatherhood, marriage breakdown, first “theory of Allen”
[43:30–55:04, 55:34–57:32] – Lena’s influence, family roles, rival theories, confrontation with Allen
[59:50–63:35] – Closure: Allen’s hopes, children, self-defense, and Gessen’s summing up

Tone & Style Reflections

The episode shifts between dark humor, steely journalistic skepticism, family empathy, and courtroom drama. Gessen’s voice is both intimate and analytical—probing Allen’s evasions, exasperated with his self-exoneration, and deeply reflective about their shared family wounds.

Conclusion

Chapter 4 of The Idiot provides a riveting, layered exploration of Allen’s crime—not merely as a tale of guilt and punishment, but as a study in family psychology, trauma, and the limits of self-understanding. As Gessen peels back the layers of Allen’s character, the episode lands on the inescapable: Allen may wish to be the misunderstood “idiot,” but the evidence and his own stories betray a more disturbing truth.

Next episode preview: What will Allen’s release mean for the family—and for Priscilla?

Loading summary...

Transcript

Alan (0:00)

Nemo, Emo and Doug. There's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual.

EM Gessen (0:08)

Even if it means sitting front row

Alan (0:10)

at a comedy show.

EM Gessen (0:11)

Hey, everyone, Check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no.

Alan (0:16)

We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

EM Gessen (0:22)

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.

Alan (0:24)

Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty.

EM Gessen (0:27)

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. In April 2024, my cousin Allen was delivered to federal court in San Francisco for his sentencing hearing. It had been just under a year since a jury found him guilty of hiring someone to kill his ex wife, Priscilla. The maximum sentence for this crime is 10 years. The cast of characters, the judge, the public defender, the prosecutor, and Allen were back in the same courtroom. All of them seemed the same, except maybe Alan. He was contrite, genuinely filled with regret, or so it sounded to me. He apologized to Priscilla, who was listening on Zoom. He promised that he would never again do anything to harm her or the children. He talked about his decision to reject a plea deal and go to trial. And for a minute, he didn't sound like Allen at all. He said that the trial had made him see himself as the jury saw him. It was embarrassing to listen to those recordings. He said, your Honor, I am prepared to serve any sentence. Allen told the judge, if he got the maximum 10 years, he would be almost 60 when he was released, and it would be hard to start over. But he said he had already suffered the biggest punishment. His voice cracked. He had lost all access to his children. And he continued, the torture I suffer every day comes from my awareness of the impact I've had on my mom. He was really choking up now. I felt something welling up in my throat, too. Alan was no longer dressed like a dad returning home from work for the sentencing. He was brought in wearing yellow prison scrubs over a white thermal underwear shirt and yellow Crocs knockoffs. Allen had his back to me, so most of the time I was watching Judge Curley. She was leaning toward Allen. She was nodding to every affirmative statement he made. Her face reacted to every word, it seemed. Then it was her turn to speak. I didn't see it when you were on the stand at trial, but I can see it now, she said. You acknowledged the harm. The judge had really listened. I mean, she had really listened and observed Allen. And so she focused on the irony. That's the word she used of the story. Allen's relationship with his mother was perhaps the strongest bond of his life, and yet he had been willing to deprive his own children of their own mother. So there's that in itself, judge Corley said. And there were all those times that Allen made the decision to go ahead with the murder for hire plan, not just in that one conversation with the undercover agent. The judge said, you didn't have to meet with him the second time. You could have just not shown up. You didn't have to give him the gold coin. Then you didn't have to wire the $23,000, and you didn't have to send the target package, and you didn't have to tell him when you were going to be on vacations with the kids so they wouldn't be there. Right? So you had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, but she went forward because that was your intent. Allen's mother, Lena, had gotten dozens of people to write letters to the court on Allen's behalf. All of them attested to Allen's loving, kind, and supportive character. Some, including a letter from one of Allen's ex girlfriends, were over the top and praising him. The judge addressed those letters. Now, it's so tragic that you have been such a generous and helpful person to all these other people, she said, but we see that sometimes with domestic violence. She said those last two words staccato, like she was striking the gavel. And finally she said, Mr. Gessen, you were a lawyer. You were a barred lawyer. You took an oath to uphold the law, but by your own testimony, your own testimony, you thought that you were going to bribe some official to have her kidnapped and removed from the United States. The sentence had to reflect this, too. The thing in my throat that had been threatening to make me cry had dissolved. I was following the judge's logic, her righteous outrage. The judge sentenced Allen to the maximum 120 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Like an episode of a TV series. The hearing lasted exactly one hour, took me as a viewer through a range of emotions and deposited me more or less where I'd started. I still had no real understanding of how Alan ended up doing what he did. The court is an interest in why people do the terrible things they do. The court's job is to determine guilt and apportion punishment. But for me to tell this story, I needed a theory of the crime or a theory of Alan. I needed to imagine what had been going through Alan's head that had made it seem that having his wife Killed was a reasonable solution to his problems. For that, I needed to talk to him. I had asked Riulena, and she told me that he wouldn't talk, at least not until after the trial and the sentencing and the appeals. That last part would surely drag on for months or years. More still. When I got back to my hotel after the sentencing, I created an account in the system that facilitates correspondence with inmates and sent Alan a message asking for an interview. Next. Alan would have to agree to correspond with me, and the prison would have to approve my message. But before any of that could happen, Alan reached out to me himself. He was ready to talk. I am M. Gessen, and from Serial Productions and the New York Times, this is the idiot.

EM Gessen (31:46)

relationship, really, Alan, this is what you took from your bohemian upbringing and your intellectual family? It was hard for me to believe, but yes. It seems that Alan took his macho chivalry act very seriously and that it worked. Women love being doted on by Alan. I interviewed Allen's first serious girlfriend and she told me that she still thought of Allen as one of the best people she had ever met. He made her feel taken care of. Alan's second serious girlfriend wrote a letter to the court. She wrote, the way I felt with him, I can wish every woman to experience this. Allen supported her when she lost her dog. He was there for the family when her cousin died in a car accident. And he arranged for the best healthcare when her grandmother and then her grandfather became ill. It is only thanks to Alexei that my grandparents were alive for many years after. And he was romantic. How did I feel with him as a woman? The ex girlfriend wrote in her letter to Judge Corley. It's fun to imagine Judge Corley reading this one. I felt like a goddess. He gave me gifts ranging from the best face cream to my dream car. Just as a surprise, he made sure I drank more water and went to the gym. He taught me English and faith in myself. Alexi showed me the world and its possibilities. And it wasn't just the women. Other letters to the court mentioned how generous Allen was and how empathetic. When one of O's music teachers suffered a stroke, Alan brought him groceries and also figured out how to help the man out of some tax filing predicament. Alan funded a struggling students film project. When he found out that a woman's husband was beating her, he extracted her and her kids and put them up. He helped build a custom designed pool for an injured elephant. This was a side of Allen I'd never really seen. Almost more surprising was that Alan had never bragged about any of this. He portrayed himself to the family as an international man of necessary. A smooth operator at the edges of the legal universe. But secretly he was a universal benefactor. He volunteered to solve everyone's problems and people paid him back with love. Alan was 36 when he was in Zimbabwe in business and met Priscilla for the first time. His gift giving, big living ways worked on her too. They were together from the moment they met. A year into their relationship, Priscilla became pregnant. But at just six months, Priscilla went into labor. Rushed to the hospital, she had an emergency C section.

EM Gessen (40:28)

He called me back after he had collected himself. He said okay, maybe Priscilla did love him in her own way, but it wasn't enough. He never felt cared for or supported. Alan had never met a problem he couldn't solve or couldn't at least try to solve. He offered ingenious creative solutions. Once he told me when Priscilla was going to leave him for someone else, he suggested that she go spend a week with the man and decide if she really wants to make a life with him. She didn't leave him that time. Another time, when they reunited after one of their separations and it turned out that Priscilla was pregnant, Alan proposed to stay together through the birth of the child and possibly raise the kid as his own. That pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and when she miscarried again and felt desperate, Allen offered the most inventive solution of move to Russia and have a baby by surrogacy. There was only one problem with all these solutions. They didn't solve anything. At the end of the day, Priscilla and Alan's relationship was Priscilla and Alan's relationship and all the non solution solutions only added fuel to their fights. By the summer of 2019, Allen was separated from Priscilla, but he was condemned to co parenting o with Priscilla forever. So here is a theory of Alan, a traumatized kid, a guy who has known loneliness and humiliation and has made up for it by making himself useful. A guy who earned people's love by helping them by solving problems. But he couldn't solve his Priscilla problem, couldn't make his wife love him, couldn't bear that she didn't love him, and couldn't figure out a way to be with the son he adored without also constantly being reminded that he had failed to earn her love. So he took the child and ran. And when Priscilla caught up with him, he ran again. And when she caught up with him again, he decided to have her killed. This is a perfectly workable theory and it's true as far as it goes. But there's always more to his story story. And because Alan is my cousin, I know what the more is. It kept coming up in my interviews too, with family members and friends of the family and of course Priscilla. So I don't think I can end the story here. After the break, my second theory of Alan.

EM Gessen (48:10)

You've probably heard the cliche beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lena hasn't. She knows that. She sees right. And I think for the most part, Allen agrees. Plus, you can always put the furniture back when she's gone. And I guess the bushes that she had gardeners cut down would grow back. No big deal, right? It was a very big deal to Priscilla. It was clear to her that the issue wasn't beauty, it was control. Lena wanted to control Alan's life, including his physical surroundings, even when he lived thousands of miles away. Especially when he was living thousands of miles away. Teaching manners to your 20 something year old's girlfriend is funny. Overbearing Jewish mother stuff. Having furniture removed from your married son's house is highly unusual and I would venture, not funny. After O was born, it seemed to Priscilla that Lena wanted to control O too. His schooling, the books he read, the language he spoke, the clothes he wore. She wanted it done her way, which was the right way. And Priscilla was in the way in the end. This is what Priscilla thinks it all boils down to. I think I am the single bad thing that probably existed that stopped them from doing what they wanted to do, which was primarily. His mother wanted to raise my kids the way that she wanted. She wanted to teach them. She wanted to do everything. And I stood in her way. And if I wasn't there anymore, she would be free to do what she wanted, which would also give him the freedom that he needed to just function. Yeah. And I think he felt like he couldn't function at all as long as I was around, because she was constantly nagging him about it, and she lived with him. So it was like a 247 problem. You know how it is when you're, like, with a partner who keeps drilling it into your head that they hate this, they hate this, or whatever. You start trying to figure out how to fix it, and no, anything becomes an option. So I think what motivated him actually to go ahead with this plan was to appease his mother. Granted, Priscilla is basing this on her own highly specific experience of Lana, but Priscilla is not alone in this view. My father concurs. He thinks that when Alan took the hit out on Priscilla, it was a solution to a persistent problem. What do you think the problem that he was trying to solve was to make my sister happy. So she would have all the time, and she will not hear from Priscilla ever. And what makes you think that that's the root cause? I know Lena's and Alyosha's relationship, and I know that Alyosha would do anything to make her happy. And if that was the way to do it, okay, so let's go that way. He'd do anything to make his mother happy. This came up in a lot of my conversations. It showed up in the letter Allen's first serious girlfriend wrote to the judge. She wrote that Allen's main purpose was to make sure his mother, Lena, was well and comfortable. His world began with her, unquote, and it seems, ended with her. This young woman ultimately accepted that there was no place for her in this closed world. To be clear, Lena was never charged with any crime. She was barely even mentioned during Allen's trial. And I don't have a reason to think that Lena knew about the plot to kill Priscilla before Alan was arrested. But my own conversations with Lena supported my second theory of Allen. It was Lena who first mentioned to me the idea of needing to do something about Priscilla. This was several years before Alan and Lena first took O. At the time of this conversation, O was a toddler. Allen and Priscilla were separated, and Lena and I were at a family gathering in Moscow, helping carry food from the kitchen to the dining room. Lena paused, holding a platter, and said, I want to ask your advice on something. How do I get Priscilla out of O's life? It was clearly an invitation to gather my thoughts on the matter and give Lena advice later, an invitation that assumed I would want to help. You don't, I said, meaning you don't get Priscilla out of O's life, I said. She's his mother. We continued carrying food. She didn't raise her question again, and I didn't think about it again until 2019, when the family got that Facebook message from Allen announcing that he and Nana had taken Ode to the United States. Then that scene in the Moscow kitchen flashed in my mind. What struck me the most wasn't the question itself. It was the guilelessness with which it was asked, the certainty that, as Alan would later text the undercover agent, our cause is just. There's a concept in psychiatry, polloda, which means madness for two in French. It's when two people share a delusion, reinforce disbelief in each other, and act accordingly. The belief Nana and Alan shared was that Priscilla was a bad mother and it was their right, their duty even, to get her out of O's life. Though again, there's no indication that Nana wanted Priscilla dead. After Allen was arrested the first time in Canada, Lena wrote to the family chat about what a terrible parent Priscilla was, as though that justified taking O from her. And less than a month before Allen was arrested on murder for hire charges, Lena and Allen met up with an acquaintance and talked at length about wanting Priscilla gone. Not about killing her, just about deporting her. The friend said that Lena and Alan were finishing each other's sentences, talking about how after Priscilla had gotten Allen arrested in Canada, this is how they sat. The gloves were really off. Their cause was just. I needed to ask Alan about his mother's role in the series of events that ultimately landed him in federal prison. I needed to tell him that Priscilla suspects that his need to please Leana played a big role, and I needed to get his reaction, but I wasn't sure how to broach the subject. I thought I might leave it to our last conversation, but to my surprise, Alan brought it up himself. We were talking about the two times he took O away from Priscilla to a different country.