884: The Idiot

Summary

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This American Life – Episode 884: "The Idiot"

Date: March 29, 2026
Host: Ira Glass
Guest/Reporter: Masha Gessen

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Episode Overview

This episode of This American Life centers around the wild, deeply personal, and ultimately disturbing story of Masha Gessen’s family—a story so complex and compelling it grew into a five-part podcast series called The Idiot (from Serial Productions and The New York Times). Together with Ira Glass, Gessen explores what happens when an “elastic,” sprawling immigrant family from the Soviet Union faces unspeakable betrayal after years of accommodating eccentric and sometimes outrageous relatives. The episode traces a winding narrative: international abduction, a bitter custody battle, shocking criminal charges, and the kind of jaw-dropping plot twist that could only happen in real life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introducing the Family and Setting the Scene

[00:45–02:41]

• Masha describes her family as “elastic,” stretched over continents and growing to include spouses, in-laws, ex-spouses, and eventually, grandchildren.
• The family manages to accommodate questionable behaviors—until a catastrophic event snaps this elasticity.

“Over those same decades, as in any family, people made bad decisions... and the family stretched as needed. And then it snapped. Someone did something that bad, that shocking. That person was my cousin, Allen.”
—Narrator (likely Gessen), [02:04]

Notable Quotes:

• “Allen is a clown, a blowhard, a pompous ass... If someone had set out to write an unlikable international huckster character, they couldn’t have laid it on any thicker.”
  —Narrator (Gessen), [03:30]

The Abduction: Sides of the Story

[02:45–11:05]

• In the summer of 2019, Allen arrives in the U.S. with his five-year-old son (O), leaving his wife (Priscilla) and infant daughter in Russia. The rest of the family suspects Allen has abducted his child, but people are slow to act.
• Priscilla, left stranded, desperately reaches out for help. Gessen decides to become a “double agent,” helping Priscilla gather information to initiate legal action under the Hague Convention.

“How could my family just sit by? And what was going to happen to O now?”
—Narrator (Gessen), [09:58]

Memorable Moment:

• Gessen covertly acquires Allen’s address by inviting Lena and O to dinner, sending it to Priscilla:
  “Bingo. I had their address. I sent it to Priscilla.”
  —Narrator, [11:43]

Life in Limbo; a Happy Facade

[11:44–14:28]

• Allen and Lena set up a picture-perfect life for O in America: private lessons, stylish clothes, fun activities.
• Gessen feels conflicted—despite the questionable circumstances, O appears happy and well-cared-for.

“Whatever damage being separated from his mother had done, I couldn’t see it. What I could see was that he was doted on and thriving. To put it another way... Allen seemed like a great dad.”
—Narrator (Gessen), [13:50]

First Arrests and the Custody Battle

[15:07–17:15]

• Allen is arrested at the Montreal airport trying to leave for London with O and Lena—this time, clearly without Priscilla’s permission.
• Gessen’s family continues to view Allen’s actions as absurd rather than criminal.
• Eventually, through federal court proceedings, Priscilla and Allen arrive at shared custody.

“Did you have to go through all this absconding with your son twice, keeping him separated from his mother for more than two years, just to arrive at a standard 50/50 custody agreement?”
—Narrator (Gessen), [16:46]

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The Bombshell: Murder-for-Hire Arrest

[17:25–23:00]

• During a family camp-out in July 2022 at the Cape Cod house, FBI agents storm in and arrest Allen—this time, the charge isn’t abduction, but “murder for hire.”
• The target: Priscilla, Allen’s ex-wife.

“My cousin had been caught hiring someone to murder his ex-wife, the mother of his children. This was when it felt like we snapped. I was shocked at how shocked I was.”
—Narrator (Gessen), [21:09]

Quote:

“And did you have any idea who he might have hired somebody to murder?”
Family Member: “You? No... It didn’t take long. It was Priscilla.”
—[20:41]

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Priscilla’s Perspective: Horror and Heartbreak

[24:43–32:21]

• First interview with Priscilla; describes early attraction to Allen’s charisma and how odd it felt to see the close, almost childlike relationship between Allen and his mother.
• Priscilla recounts the ordeal of being stranded in Russia, legal battles, being beaten and jailed, and her struggle to be reunited with her son after nearly three years apart.

“She gets beaten up by thugs, she gets picked up on drug charges, she gets picked up again and thrown into prison for two weeks. And she thinks that Allen is behind all of this.”
—Masha Gessen, [28:56]

Quote:

“He just seemed so small and so scared. I felt helpless in a way... I just sat next to him and let him kind of come to me.”
—Priscilla on seeing her son again, [31:14]

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The Trial: Undercover Recordings

[33:54–52:55]

• The undercover sting: Allen is recorded discussing the possibility of hiring a hitman—with chilling nonchalance—and his main concern is that his children shouldn’t witness the violence.

“But incidentally, there’s a cheaper way to get rid of her.”
—Allen on tape, [44:55]

• The tapes are damning—Allen discusses alternatives (bribery vs. murder), prices, and logistics. He claims on the stand he only ever wanted Priscilla deported, not killed, blaming cultural misunderstanding of terms.

Memorable Moment:

“The time that elapses between the agent saying ‘that’s up to you’ and Allen’s agreement to proceed with the more permanent option is a fraction of a second. He doesn’t take a breath... He jumps right in with both feet.”
—Narrator (Gessen), [45:43]

• Gessen reflects on the unreality of hearing her own cousin on tape, plotting murder with casual detachment.

Quote:

“He said that with the bribery scheme, he was worried that Priscilla could fight her deportation in court and maybe even win. Murder is better than deportation.”
—Narrator, [47:07]

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The Aftermath & Gessen’s Reflections

[53:00–56:08]

• The jury quickly convicts Allen of murder-for-hire. The defense’s claim that he only wanted to deport Priscilla is dismissed by the judge, who bluntly points out deportation under these circumstances would itself be kidnapping, carrying a longer sentence.
• Allen is sentenced to the maximum of 10 years in prison.
• Masha finally speaks at length to Allen in prison, seeking understanding after 35 hours of conversations.

“He was just trying to sell me what the jury didn’t buy, which was that he was framed... But I genuinely felt compassion for him.”
—Masha Gessen, [55:17]

• Ira Glass observes the podcast has a dual mission: to uncover the truth, and to achieve a kind of consensus reality for the family fractured by the crime.

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Notable Quotes — With Timestamps

• “Over those same decades, as in any family, people made bad decisions... and the family stretched as needed. And then it snapped. Someone did something that bad, that shocking. That person was my cousin, Allen.”
  — Narrator, [02:04]

• “Alan is a clown, a blowhard, a pompous ass... If someone had set out to write an unlikable international huckster character, they couldn’t have laid it on any thicker.”
  — Narrator, [03:30]

• “Did you have to go through all this absconding with your son twice, keeping him separated from his mother for more than two years, just to arrive at a standard 50/50 custody agreement?”
  — Narrator, [16:46]

• “My cousin had been caught hiring someone to murder his ex-wife, the mother of his children. This was when it felt like we snapped. I was shocked at how shocked I was.”
  — Narrator, [21:09]

• “He just seemed so small and so scared. I felt helpless in a way... I just sat next to him and let him kind of come to me.”
  — Priscilla, [31:14]

• “But incidentally, there’s a cheaper way to get rid of her.”
  — Allen (undercover recording), [44:55]

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Important Timestamps

• [00:45] – Opening of family story by Gessen
• [02:38] – Ira Glass introduces the broader podcast series
• [06:57] – Priscilla’s first desperate messages after the abduction
• [11:43] – Gessen acquires and sends Allen's address for legal action
• [14:28] – First arrest for kidnapping (not the “big thing” yet)
• [17:31] – FBI raids family camp-out, Allen arrested again
• [21:03] – Revelation: Allen charged with murder-for-hire
• [24:51] – Priscilla recounts meeting Allen, early odd moments
• [29:57] – Priscilla describes painful reunion with son
• [44:55] – Undercover tape: Allen pivots to murder-for-hire
• [53:46] – Jury convicts Allen; maximum sentence
• [54:36] – Gessen discusses conversing with Allen in prison

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Episode Tone and Narration Style

The tone is deeply personal, laced with darkly comic, deadpan humor (in classic Gessen style), and at times heartbreakingly direct. Ira Glass and Gessen maintain a frank, analytical, observant lens, even as the story reveals pain, familial frustration, and the surreal horror of discovering a would-be killer in one’s immediate family.

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Conclusion

The Idiot and this episode of This American Life are less about true crime spectacle and more about the messiness of family, the limits of loyalty, and our capacity (and failure) to truly know one another—until it’s much too late. Through Gessen’s dual role as both participant and investigator, the story is as much about her own search for clarity, truth, and some measure of peace within her shattered family.

For more, all five episodes of The Idiot podcast are available now.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

Support for this American life. And the following message come from Capella University. You know that feeling when there's a spark building inside you that you were meant for more? That's your own drive pushing you towards what's next. Capella University gets that with their flexpath learning format. You can set the pace and earn your degree without putting life on pause. You've built experience and know what you're capable of. Now this is your time to turn that momentum into more. The only real question is, what can't you do? Learn more at Capella Edu. A quick warning. There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org

[Ira Glass]

from WBEZ Chicago, it's this American Life. I'm Ira Glass and I am joined in the studio by EM Gessen. Hello.

[Masha Gessen]

Hi Eric.

[Ira Glass]

So nice to have you back here.

[Masha Gessen]

It's always lovely to be here and there.

[Ira Glass]

The story that you're about to tell today is one that you've been telling for years.

[Masha Gessen]

Yeah, first it was just, you know, there's something weird going on in my family, but also of insane ways that my family talks about these crazy events.

[Ira Glass]

And is this story a story that when you would tell it to friends and loved ones, was it a funny story?

[Masha Gessen]

I hesitate to say that it was

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

a funny story, but yes, yes, it

[Masha Gessen]

was a funny story. And I mean, maybe that's also just the only way that we can deal with things that are unbelievable. It wasn't until I started reporting it that I realized how horrible the story actually was.

[Ira Glass]

And when you started to report it, this was years ago. Originally this was gonna be a story for this American life. And then at some point it just got too big. It was like, we cannot contain this in one episode of our show. And you turned it into this podcast with Serial.

[Masha Gessen]

Yes.

[Ira Glass]

And it's now a five part series with Serial that was released this week. And you've been doing read throughs of drafts, you've been writing drafts that I've set in on. And I just wanna say I love this show and feel like this show is so different from other podcasts that I have heard in a bunch of interesting ways. Going to do today on our program is we're going to walk through enough of the story so that listeners here can hear what I'm hearing in it and then if they want, they can go and listen to the whole thing. From WBEC Chicago, it's this American Life. I'm Ira Glass. That's going to be our show today, and we're going to begin by playing the first episode of this series, which is almost like a prologue and sets the whole thing up. Is there anything else that we should

[Masha Gessen]

say before we play that? No, I think we can jump in.

[Ira Glass]

Okay, let's just jump right in with that.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

My family, if I had to give it an adjective, is elastic. 45 years ago, my parents, my little brother and I came over to this country from the Soviet Union, extending the family across continents. Over the decades, the family my father really stretched to absorb. Spouses in laws, even though they spoke a different language. Children, both biological and adopted ex spouses who chose to stick around, and eventually grandchildren. Over those same decades, as in any family, people made bad decisions, said things they hoped no one would remember, got mad at each other, held grudges, came around, and the family stretched as needed. And then it snapped. Someone did something that bad, that shocking. That person was my cousin Allen. He and his mother, my father's sister Lena, came to the US from Moscow in 1990 when Alan was 15. They stayed with my parents and brother for almost a year. By the time they arrived, I no longer lived at home, so I didn't have much of a relationship with them. Never really wanted to because I didn't like my aunt. And as Alan grew up, I realized, even from a distance that I didn't particularly like him either. Alan is a clown, a blowhard, a pompous ass. He would call himself an entrepreneur. He started his first business in college. He hired students to ghost write papers for other wealthier students. He went to law school and got fired from his first job. He later told me this was because his fine legal mind made the other lawyers insecure. Then he lived in Russia, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, working a series of increasingly shady jobs. In Africa, he was involved with diamonds and worked with an Israeli company that provided security for mining. If someone had set out to write an unlikable international huckster character, they couldn't have laid it on any thicker. Allen married a Zimbabwean woman. Word in the family was that she had been that country's beauty queen. They had two kids. Last I knew, all of them, including my aunt Lena, were living in Moscow. And then in the summer of 2019, everyone on the American side of the family got a Facebook message from Alan informing us that he had arrived in the US with his five year old son. Who I'm going to call O, Alan wrote they'd come for O to, quote, commence his studies. I repeat, O was five. His wife, he wrote, was still in Russia with their baby daughter. They had separated. Allen added ominously, things are less than amicable. She might make attempts to contact you with requests detrimental to mine and O's interests. I immediately texted my brother Keith, who was closer to Alan. So our cousin has kidnapped his son and abandoned his daughter. The answer would appear to be maybe. My brother responded, just a note. This isn't the big shocking thing I was talking about earlier, but we're still a few years away from that. I called my dad. He told me that Alan had just shown up at his house on Cape Cod without warning. His five year old son was with him, as was Lena, my dad's sister. I asked my dad if we should do something about the maybe kidnapping, like, I don't know, contact the FBI. This was the wrong thing to say to a guy who grew up in the Soviet Union. He would never call the authorities on his sister and nephew. What he did do was post a picture of oh on Facebook, perhaps a message in a bottle for oh's mom. Sure enough, my father immediately heard from her. Her name is Priscilla. Priscilla wrote to my dad describing the ordeal she was enduring. She said she had gone on a short business trip to Zimbabwe and when she returned, she discovered that Allen had left with her son. It had been about a week, and only now, from seeing my father's Facebook post, was she learning anything more. Priscilla wrote, I beg you, please to help me get my son back, or to at least speak to him. Please do not tell them I have written to you. If you are unable to help me, then just ignore my message.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

I received a long, long letter from Priscilla, but I just ignored it.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

My father can be quite literal.

[Masha Gessen]

So what did you think was going on then?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Did you think she was lying or.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

Honestly, I didn't pay much attention. I don't know. No. I understood that something was wrong with their marriage, but beyond that, no.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Like I said, my family is elastic to keep it that way. My father preferred not to know too much. And it wasn't just him. My three younger brothers, their partners, my own grown son, assorted friends of my father's. Everyone acted like, hey, sometimes men and their mothers just change continents with a five year old in tow. And here was the thing. They were fun. My father loves having family around. The whole reason he lives in a big house on Cape Cod is so that his four kids and five grandkids gather around him. But the house has seen better days and. And all the kids and some of the Grandkids have busy lives. Alan and Lena and O's arrival on the scene breathed new life into the house and the family. Lena would come up with ridiculous activities like let's Write the Guess and Family Anthem and was always taking black and white pictures that made us all look like more stylish versions of ourselves. Alan was always driving up in his Tesla with new gadgets and tales of new business ventures. I found him ridiculous, but my youngest brothers and my oldest son hung on every word. Alan would sit on the couch with these very young men and scroll through pictures of women on Tinder. They all looked like models. Alan was bald as a billiard ball and had a giant protruding belly. He claimed that he had matched with all of those women. After a while, Alan was eager to talk about why he had taken Al. He claimed that Priscilla was a bad mother. She partied all the time. She did drugs. She cheated on Alan. To me, these sounded like good reasons to get a divorce. Not to take your child from his mother. Lena had her own complaints. She said Priscilla didn't read to her child and perhaps even worse, didn't read books herself. The only book she kept in the house, Lena claimed, was the Bible. I thought, wait. This was why Lena and Alan took Priscilla's son away. There are few things that I think justify separating a kid from his parent, but Lena and Allen didn't seem to think that much justification was required. I couldn't stop thinking about what Priscilla must be going through. Without telling anyone in the family, I decided to reach out to her. I had met her only a couple of times and barely had a sense of her. I knew that she worked in fashion. I knew from Lena that Priscilla's father owned a huge farm in Zimbabwe. And I knew that she would have no reason to trust me. I wasn't sure she'd respond. I texted her that I knew only Lena and Allen's side of the story. Priscilla wrote back right away. She was stuck in Russia. Her daughter, whom I'll call Elle, had been born via surrogacy because Priscilla was unable to carry a pregnancy to term. The baby was eight months old, but Priscilla still didn't have a birth certificate for her, which meant that they couldn't leave the country. We traded short messages back and forth. Our exchange was friendly but guarded. I didn't want to overstep, and I think Priscilla tried to say only what needed to be said. It was enough for me to sense that she was in anguish, and I was horrified. How could this woman's child just be taken Away from her. How could my family just sit by? And what was going to happen to oh, now Priscilla? Priscilla told me that the Russian police would not help her. The Zimbabwean embassy said that she could file a petition under the Hague Convention, a treaty that specifically addresses situations when one parent abducts a child and takes them to another country. But Priscilla needed legal help in the us I could be useful here. I called a friend who connected Priscilla with a person in the Justice Department who specializes in these kinds of cases. Priscilla also needed Lena Allen and O's physical address in the States so she could begin the Hague process. This I could definitely help with.

[Masha Gessen]

I knew that they'd left Cape Cod

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

for New York, which is where I live. I invited my aunt, cousin and nephew over for dinner. Alan was away on business, so Lena arrived with O, who got conscripted into a human pyramid by the young people of my household. As I slid turkey steaks into the oven, I asked Lena the question all New York City parents ask all other New York City parents, where will O go to school? He was about to turn six. Lena said that she had no idea how schools even functioned in the city. Do let me explain this to you, I said and took out my phone. What is your address? Let's see what district that is.

[Masha Gessen]

Bingo.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

I had their address. I sent it to Priscilla. Some weeks later, apparently on a lark, they moved to Massachusetts. I figured out that address, too. I was a double agent now. I tracked Glenna, Allen and O through their Facebook posts, messages to the family chat, and occasional weekends at my father's house on Cape Cod. When they moved to a new house, I let Priscilla know if I had news about O. I texted Priscilla. Sometimes she just asked for reassurance that he was alright. From all the men in my family. My father, my three brothers and my son. My I hid the fact that I was in touch with Priscilla. I thought they'd see what I was doing is disloyal and might rat me out to Alan. My daughter knew it was a little bit exciting, but it also gave me an excuse for maintaining peace with my newly enlarged family. But the more I hung out with them, the more I just hung out with him. O was growing. Alan and Lena were building a life. I watched. Sometimes I caught myself thinking that it was a pretty good life. Alan, Lena and O moved into a farmhouse in Concord, Massachusetts. Lena furnished it stylishly. They seemed to spend most of their time actively raising O. They enrolled him in Jewish school, violin lessons, fencing, horseback riding, and I'm sure I'm still forgetting something. They dressed, oh, like a tiny little gentleman, complete with brogues and fedora hats. And by some sort of miracle, the result wasn't annoying. Always a delight. Curious, entertaining without being overbearing and unfailingly polite. He seemed happy. Whatever damage being separated from his mother had done, I couldn't see it. What I could see was that he was doted on and thriving. To put it another way, and it wasn't easy for me to admit that I was seeing this. Alan seemed like a great dad. Kind, attentive, devoted, and fun. Two years passed like this. Eventually, Priscilla and Elle, who was now a toddler, made it to the United States. I hadn't messaged with Priscilla in over a year, but I heard from my father that Priscilla's claim, filed under the Hague Convention, was going to be heard in federal court in Boston. The case would probably drag on for a while, but I assumed that Priscilla would now be able to see her son. And then there it was. On social media, Priscilla posted a picture of herself embracing O. I liked the picture. I figured my job was done, my time as a double agent long over. About four months later, Allen was arrested for kidnapping O. Not for the time he took O from Russia. This was new.

[Ira Glass]

That incident, which I need to say is still not the big shocking thing that Rachmasha's family that's coming up. Stay with us.

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Ira Glass]

this is American Life. Let's just pick up with M. Gessen's story where we left off. Allen taking O a second time.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Alan was arrested in Montreal at the airport when he, Leana and O were waiting to board a flight to London without, apparently, Priscilla's knowledge. This time, Alan went to jail. But no, this arrest and what Alan did to get himself arrested weren't the things that shocked my family. We didn't exactly act like Alan's arrest was normal. We acted like it was absurd. I entertained my friends with stories of my serial kidnapper cousin. Lena kept the family updated with overdramatic notes on the Facebook family chat and at least one video from Canada in which Allen, wearing a striped Uniform sings her a Russian prison song. It looked like a cartoon. Allen spent a couple of weeks in Canadian detention, then another few weeks in a jail in upstate New York, and was finally released on his own recognizance to await trial in Massachusetts. O was now living with Priscilla. Alan got out of jail in February 2022. A couple of months after that, he sent out a missive on the family chat as self important as the one that began this whole story. This time he was telling us that he and Priscilla had resolved their battle, which actually turned out to be true. They would now have shared custody of both kids. Allen said he was very pleased. I thought, my God, did you have to go through all this absconding with your son twice, keeping him separated from his mother for more than two years, just to arrive at a standard 50, 50 custody agreement? This child support and shared custody is the boring end of this crazy story. I felt a little relieved and a little dumb, like maybe I'd bought too fully into other people's drama. Kidnapping charges against Allen were pending. They would later be dropped. And still Priscilla was able to reach a peace agreement with Alan after all he'd apparently put her and their son through. Well, maybe this was just the way they did things. With extreme flair.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

Then, yeah, kind of exotic part started.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Then it happened, the thing, the bomb that went off in the middle of my family.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

So the day before, Ellen called me and said that he promised his kids to take them camping.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

July 2022, under the new custody arrangement. It was Alan's weekend with the kids. He asked my dad, hey, do you mind if me, my mom and the kids camp out in your backyard on Cape Cod?

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

I said, of course. So they came. They brought some huge, huge tent. I never saw such a tent before with a lot of furniture, lights and

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

devices, solar charges, rugs, two full mattresses, a treasure trunk with treasures. I guess it was very Alan awesome. Spectacular. Ridiculous. Though later it occurred to me that this time at least there may have been a point to this. He wanted everyone to remember his camping trip to my father's backyard. Because it was summer, my father's house was full. Two of my younger brothers, one of them with his girlfriend were there. Everyone had a nice dinner together and then went to bed. Some people in the house and Alan, Lena and the kids in the tent. And then around 6 the next morning, the dog Altin started going nuts. Someone was banging on the front door.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

So I opened the door a bit because not to let Altin out. Also, I didn't put my trousers on yet. And the guy, the policeman said that we are state police. Could you step out with your phone?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

My dad is surprised, but he's not panicking. He goes to get his pants and his phone.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

But by that time, because of all this noise and commotion and Altin's barking, Alyosha woke up.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Alyosha is my cousin's Russian diminutive, Alan.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

And he came to the house to see what was going on. And police figured out that they are looking for him and not for me.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

FBI agents go around the house banging on doors and make everyone sit down on the couches in the living room. No one understands what's going on. But soon, through the picture windows that look out on the backyard, they see two male FBI agents take Alan away in handcuffs. Then a female agent escorts the kids to another car. They all drive off. State troopers follow. Lena leaves too. And did you know, once everybody left, did you have any idea what he had been arrested for?

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

Not immediately. But then I learned from Leona about that. She was totally lost. But the only thing she knew that what was in this paper they gave him?

[Masha Gessen]

What?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

What was in the paper?

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

Oh, that he is arrested for? I don't. I didn't. I don't remember. But murder for hire was there? Yes.

[Masha Gessen]

And did you have any idea who he might have hired somebody to murder.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

You? No. It didn't take long.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

It was Priscilla. Allen, it seemed, had hired someone to kill Priscilla.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

The question was if it was true or not. That's another story.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Some of us took the news in faster than others. The day after Allen's arrest, my brother Keith and I had a fight over the Justice Department press release which identified the target only as PC. I was saying that it was obviously Priscilla, whose last name begins with a C. He was saying that it was obviously not Priscilla. Lena kept telling everyone that Allen had been set up by business rivals or Russian agents or the FBI or someone. But over the course of a few days, it sank in. My cousin had been caught hiring someone to murder his ex wife, the mother of his children. This was when it felt like we snapped. I certainly snapped. I was shocked at how shocked I was. It's not that I felt bad for Alan or Lena. It's just how does something like this happen? How had it happened right here in my family, in between our silly dinners and chess games and kids birthday parties? In theory, I knew that this kind of thing can happen in any family. Anyone's first cousin could be plotting murder. Upstanding citizens are always turning out to be secret criminals. And I wouldn't even call Alan an upstanding citizen. But it's one thing to know and another thing to understand. I'm a reporter at some of the hardest times of my life. Like when I faced a dire medical diagnosis. I put on my reporter's hat and ask everyone a lot of questions. It has allowed me to wrap my mind around unthinkable things. Before, Allen was in jail awaiting trial. So my project had to begin with Priscilla, who was thankfully alive. What she told me was so much worse than what I thought I knew. That's next time from Serial Productions and the New York Times. I'm M. Gessen, and this is the Idiot.

[Ira Glass]

Okay, so that is the first episode of your new podcast, the Idiot. Does Alan know the name of the show yet?

[Masha Gessen]

You know, I mean, obviously there are some parts of that title that might be appealing to Alan. It's reference to a classic work of Russian literature, Dostoevsky's novel, the Idiot.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

And I think there's a little bit

[Masha Gessen]

of kindness in that title. I think that I'm giving him the grace of, of perceiving what he did as just an incredibly dumb thing and not only a very scary, mean and evil thing. And also he was very lucky that he was bad enough at trying to hire a killer that everyone in the end is alive and he's serving only a 10 year sentence.

[Ira Glass]

Yeah. So after that, you begin reporting and as you say at the end of episode one, you start with Priscilla. What happens?

[Masha Gessen]

I'd only met Priscilla a couple of times in my life. I didn't know her. I just knew she was this beautiful, poised woman who'd been through hell at this point and had come to the US to try to get custody back of her child. But I didn't know how the story had unfolded for her. So let me play an excerpt from that conversation. I started with something that had mystified me for a long time.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

So can you tell me what you saw in Alan when you first met him?

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Wow.

[Priscilla]

I think like most people that meet him, the first time you meet him, he's very charismatic.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

This was 2011 at a party in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Alan was there in business, scoping out investment opportunities for Ukrainian oligarch. He was hustling, as my son described me once he was an egg who knows how to talk to people. And did that seem appealing?

[Priscilla]

It did, I'll be honest. I was 30 when I met him. It seemed very appealing and it was like very different from anybody that I had met. So different was Interesting. He came from a very different part of the world, which I knew nothing about, which was also exciting in its own regard.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

It wasn't just exciting, it was convenient. In a way, Alan was unreadable to Priscilla the way someone from Zimbabwe might be. She could project her desires onto him, including her desire for success. Priscilla was working at a new lifestyle magazine and had launched the Bobby's Annual Fashion Week. She wanted a life that was big and fast, like Alan's. And it's true that Alan seemed to know how to make big, fast money and spend it.

[Priscilla]

It's like, oh, let's go to Joburg. I'm like, okay. You get up and you go just like at the drop of a hat. And then we would go here and there and here and there. So it was very exciting. The only strange thing that happened at the beginning of our relationship, when his mom came, right?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

One of those hiccups that happen early on in a romance and should raise a giant red flag, but somehow never do. My Aunt Leona came to visit. A few months into their relationship. She joined Allen and Priscilla on a trip to the countryside.

[Priscilla]

We went on a trip to Kariba. It's a big lake in Zimbabwe. And I think it was like, on the second day or something, we had a disagreement, like a fight, and he left our room. And I didn't know that he had done this, but he went to his mom's room and I found him later. I was walking past her room, and she had, like, these doors that opened out. So I just looked in and I saw him, like, lying on her bed, and she was, like, lying there, like, stroking his hair. I found that. Well, his head. I found that so weird. I was like, wow, this is a grown man. And, like, it seemed a little too intimate for me. Like, in my culture, I guess, maybe because we're very distant. You don't even hug. Like, you wouldn't hug your father because that's. It's a little too intimate. So for an adult to be lying on his mother's bed and for her to actually be, it just seemed very peculiar. I saw that, and I was like, okay.

[Ira Glass]

And as the series unfolds, Lena and Alan's relationship is one of the things you talk about more. Did you talk to Lena for this story?

[Masha Gessen]

I didn't. She didn't want to talk to me.

[Ira Glass]

And so. And so you're interviewing Priscilla and the stories that she's telling you. You knew kind of the basic plot points of the first time they took o. The second time they took oh, what did you learn that you hadn't known?

[Masha Gessen]

So, you know, now I realize that knowing those two plot points which were two and a half years apart is

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

a little bit like knowing the date

[Masha Gessen]

the war began and the date the war ended. And like, I didn't know about all the carnage that had happened in between. At first she was stranded in Moscow. She didn't really have any way to support herself in Moscow. She's a Zimbabwean woman who doesn't speak Russian. And that dragged on for months. And then she got back to Zimbabwe. She thought she was getting back to her regular life from which she was going to try to make it to the US to get O back. And then things just start happening to her in Zimbabwe. She gets beaten up by thugs, she gets picked up on drug charges, she gets picked up again and thrown into prison for two weeks. And she thinks that Allen is behind all of this. Alan denies that he had any involvement.

[Ira Glass]

And then eventually, like she goes through all of this and she eventually gets to the United States. Right?

[Masha Gessen]

She eventually gets to the United States. She. It doesn't mean that she's going to get custody, even visits with her son because at this point it's been two

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

and a half years.

[Masha Gessen]

But she does get to see him for the first time since he was taken from her.

[Ira Glass]

Wait, and so now he's how old?

[Masha Gessen]

So now he is like 8 years old.

[Ira Glass]

Oh my God. So from 5 to 8 she hadn't seen him.

[Masha Gessen]

And also she doesn't know what his grandmother and his father have been telling him about her.

[Ira Glass]

Yeah. Let's play an excerpt of this part of the episode. So this is Priscilla explaining about seeing her son for the first time after that two year absence.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

When did you see him for the first time?

[Priscilla]

I saw him that weekend on the Sunday for the first time.

It was.

It's so strange.

I almost can't remember how I felt. I know I didn't cry. I couldn't cry. I think I just looked at him. I just stared at him for a while.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Can you describe that meeting? I mean, you had to meet outside I think, right?

[Priscilla]

Yeah, we met at a little tea house in the town where Alan was living. Concord is called Concord Tea Cakes, actually. So he was sitting outside. I saw him sitting there and he was sitting by himself. Alan was inside the shop. When I approached him, I could actually see that he was shaking. He just seemed so small and so scared.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

What had her little boy been thinking

[Masha Gessen]

for the past two years?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Why did he think his mother wasn't with him? What had Allen told him? O knew that Priscilla had been in prison. What other stories about her had taken

[Masha Gessen]

hold in his mind?

[Priscilla]

And I kind of felt. I felt helpless in a way. You know, I just said hi. I didn't try to touch him because I could tell that he was scared. So I just said hi. And I just sat next to him and I let him kind of come to me.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Do you remember anything he said to you?

[Priscilla]

He asked me for this porridge that he used to like. Like it kind of. He had loved it since he was a baby and he called it blue porridge. He just said to me, did you bring blue porridge? I said, yeah, they make it in Zimbabwe. And I had carried it with me. He asked me to make it for him, like, immediately. And I did. Like in a little cup with warm water. I made it for him and he ate it. And, yeah, I knew that he would slowly remember me and things would get back to where they were if he could remember simple things like that. Yeah.

[Masha Gessen]

You know, that was just so heartbreaking to listen to and to imagine.

[Ira Glass]

Yeah. And then you also talked about the second time Alan and Lena take O, the one for which he was charged with kidnapping.

[Masha Gessen]

Yeah. So this is this scene at the Montreal airport where they think they're going to board a flight to London. Instead, Alan gets arrested and it had been reduced to this ridiculous story that Lena told in this over the top way. And I would quote from her wacky Facebook messages to close friends.

[Ira Glass]

Yeah.

[Masha Gessen]

And hearing this story from Priscilla's perspective, which is really O's perspective, just how absolutely terrifying it was for him. He's a little boy, that's his dad, who gets tackled by several armed uniformed men and thrown to the ground. He gets dragged off. O gets taken into foster care for two days before Priscilla can come and pick him up. And, you know, and again, she's separated from him. Like, it's this. It's the distance, it's the international border. It's just the pain of it is kind of unbearable.

[Ira Glass]

Yeah. And so then another thing that you did in your reporting is that you went to Allen's trial for attempted murder.

[Masha Gessen]

So the trial didn't happen for another, what was it, 10 months, which is pretty normal. It's in federal court in San Francisco. So I went to the trial, and by that point, I think I fully believed that Alan had taken out a hit on Priscilla. I'd sort of tried and convicted him in my mind, but I think most other members of my family, including Priscilla, were kind of waiting for Something to emerge during the trial that would make it easier to take. Something that would make it seem like not such a horrible thing, like maybe

[Ira Glass]

it wasn't true, or maybe it was true in some way that wasn't quite

[Masha Gessen]

so bad, which I can't imagine what it would be, and I'm not sure they could either, but they were sort of holding out hope that something would explain it away.

[Ira Glass]

Did you go to Allen's trial partly to convince your family of his guilt?

[I]

Partly.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Absolutely.

[Ira Glass]

I have to say that makes this podcast so different from any podcast I've ever heard that it has this second mission in addition to the mission of, like, let's find out the truth of what happened. It's so directed at your, at your family to, like, nail this down so everybody can agree on the truth.

[Masha Gessen]

Well, it's important in a family to have a common truth, especially about your relatives. But, you know, it got weirder as it went on.

[Ira Glass]

Okay, so let's just take a break, and when we come back, we'll go to the trial, which includes recordings of Alan arranging for the hit, which feel, I have to say, way less like the Sopranos and way more like Parks and Rec. All of that will be in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues. It's this American Life. I'm Eric Glass. Today's program, the Idiot. We're playing excerpts from M. Gessen's new podcast, new serial podcast called the Idiot. And Em is here with me. And so now we get to an incredible part of the story, which is the trial, because for the first time, Masha, you get to hear the details of how Alan arranged for the hit on his own wife. And you actually get to hear the undercover recordings of Alan meeting with the supposed hitman, who's actually an FBI agent. And just explain, why was this FBI man meeting with Allen in the first place.

[Masha Gessen]

So this is something that began as a money laundering investigation into this guy named Alex Kiselev, who was one of Alan's business partners. And then this business partner asks one of these agents who he thinks is a mobster, but also maybe connected to the government somehow. It's not clear what he thinks the guy is.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

So the business partner asks them to

[Masha Gessen]

help Allen out because Alan has a problem with his ex wife. And that's how we get to this meeting between Alan and the undercover who is going by the name David. And so Alan thinks that he is meeting with David to arrange to bribe a government official to get Priscilla deported.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

This is UCE 4735. And today is Thursday, June 2, 2022. It's approximately 11:55am and this is a recording with Alan Gessen. The meeting's taking place at the Boca Raton Resort in Boca Raton, Florida.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

David had told Alan to meet him at the Boca Raton in Boca Raton. You know those places that add a the to the name of the actual place to indicate that it's everything you ever imagined, but so much more. This resort has 19 bars and restaurants and four beach options. The Boca Raton. Alan drives up in a white rental car, an Audi sedan. The jury was shown surveillance photos. He meets David in the lobby, which is like an Italian castle. Florida version. David is wearing a wire, which, as you're about to hear, is not great for field recording.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Yeah, Alan, Sorry. How are you?

[J]

How are you?

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

How you doing? Good.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Fist bump. Ellen is wearing what looks like a black cashmere sweater. David is dressed in all black polo shirt, shiny pointy black shoes. They're not dressed for Florida. Everyone around them is wearing light colors, but they're dressed to perform their roles. Allen is being international man of mystery. David is going full mafioso. They're macho, they're gangsters. They are the Alan and the Dave at the Boca Raton.

[J]

Yeah.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

How are you?

[J]

Excellent.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Thanks for coming on. I appreciate it.

[J]

No, 100%, yeah. Yeah. I realized my picture is a longer period.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

They take a shuttle to one of the Boca Raton's restaurants, the Marisol, where the seating is couches in earth tones and the view is beach umbrellas as far as the eye can see. On the way, Alan summarizes his very impressive career.

[J]

In 2010, I started a massive diamond mining project in South Africa. Is sued to Congo, Angola, Namibia, millions

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

of dollars, some misadventures and a triumph or two later, Alan gets to the story of his marriage.

[J]

But I went to Zimbabwe once to explore some opportunities there and met this incredibly beautiful woman, which was the end of me.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Ms. Priscilla. Yeah. Listen, I always say it's the bitches that'll get you.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

It sounds like your problem. Yeah. David testified on court that the character he was playing was crass. He seemed to have that part down at the restaurant. It's David's turn to talk about how impressive and real he is.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

So we have a lot of obviously business in South America. I'm sure Alex has told you so. You know, my clients are in Cartagena. They're all. I'm going to tell you right now, they're all cartel level guys, are all badasses.

[J]

They're, they, they.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

They are the real deal. They. When I talk, they don't have you money. They have everyone money. Right? Like you're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. You know, I don't touch the product side. I don't want to. I don't want to have any dude, with, with the coke. I don't want to do anything with any of that. But I just do the money stuff. I set up companies and we launder money and that's it. And it's been great. I've been doing it for 15, 20 years.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Having established their gangster Bonner fights Alan and the undercover talk business, there are two items on the agenda. The bulletproof vest factory Alan wants to build and Priscilla.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Look, I understand, you know, through Alex, that you have some problems. You know, I get it, you know, we have a solution for you. But I guess the question is, like, in a perfect world, tell me what you want, tell me what you like, and there's a blank slate. Just tell me what you want.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Allen says he wants Priscilla deported. He needs this for peace of mind

[J]

and not be able to come and harass us.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Okay, all right.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

He doesn't want her to, quote, be able to come and harass us ever again. He then explains what he means by harass. A few months earlier, Priscilla had the nerve to tell the police that he had kidnapped oh, but he had in fact been arrested for taking o across the border to Canada and spent five weeks in jail and was now awaiting trial on kidnapping charges. He tells David, let's just say that I'm a little bit pissed off.

[J]

Let's just say that I'm a little bit pissed off. Yeah, yeah.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

No, I get it. Yeah.

[J]

But it's a woman who will deem. Will go the length of the world to make my life miserable, but it's

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

a woman who will go the length of the world to make my life miserable. Alan says women, am I right?

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Yeah. I'm telling you, man. Yeah. Like I said, you know, historically, over time, men have made the worst decisions. You know, when it comes to women, you know, it's. I don't know what it is. They're that aphrodisiac, you know, they. It's that weakness or Achilles heel. But yeah, I understand that. I wish I had known you earlier because, you know, a lot of that we could have cleaned up. You know, there's no doubt about. Let's just put it this way, that would never have happened in my family.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Amid all this bro y gangstry hot air. The vaguest Outlines of a plan appear. A bribe will be paid, some government officials will pull some strings and Priscilla will be ordered to leave the country. And it will cost $100,000. At first, Alan seems taken aback by the price tag.

[J]

Okay, now I'll need to check because who is going to handle the material side of things? Okay? Because he never mentioned to me any, like he didn't mention me, that Kiselov

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

didn't discuss the money with Alan. He explains, but he quickly recovers from the sticker shock.

[Narrator/Announcer]

The price is eminently reasonable.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Okay.

[J]

But what it's worth, you know, so there's no question that it's right. It's a good investment.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Right?

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

A good investment. Alan's done the math. He'd pay more in child support.

[J]

I'll pay more in child support.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Oh, yeah, you would. Yeah. I can guarantee you

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

after everything Priscilla had gone through to get to the US to see her son again, Alan was going to send her back to Zimbabwe. After everything O had gone through, Being separated from his mother for two and a half years, meeting her again, watching his father get arrested, going to live with his mother and a sister he barely knew. Alan was going to yank him away from Priscilla again and he was going to deprive El, who was three of the only parents she had ever known, all for the eminently reasonable price of $100,000. And we hadn't even gotten to the murder for hire plot. On the tape, Allen and David move on to the details of the bulletproof vest factory scheme. This part of the conversation goes a little less smoothly. Alan had it all figured out. They'd get US government funding and build a factory. And he thought David was in a position to get him that money. David, though, is much more interested in the bribe part. In court, he testified that he went to the meeting expecting to talk about the deportation scheme, not the factory. But he is nimble. He tells Alan that he could bring in money from the Colombian drug cartels to invest in the factory. Remember, the FBI has been trying for years to get Kiselev and now Alan on money laundering. But Allen isn't really incriminating himself. He actually expresses some concerns about the drug money. After an hour or so, the conversation turns back to Priscilla. Allen says the first order of business is to get her the fuck out of here, end quote. To get Priscilla deported or. And this is where he suddenly, offhandedly turns the conversation in a different direction. This is the heart of the prosecution's case. Let's listen carefully.

[J]

But incidentally, there's a cheaper Way to get rid of her.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

If there's a cheaper way to get rid of her.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

I mean, I have. Listen, I have family in your area,

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

remember? David is supposed to be a Mafioso. That's the kind of family he's talking about. A minute later, he will refer to friends in the North End, historically an Italian neighborhood in Boston. He's opening for Alan a door to the underworld.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

So I don't know how to say this, but there is a cheaper way and probably a more permanent way to

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

do it, but a more permanent way in case Alan didn't understand what David was getting at.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Yeah, I mean, that's up to you.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Alan would like to proceed. The time that elapses between the agent saying that's up to you. And Allen's agreement to proceed with the more permanent option is a fraction of a second. He doesn't take a breath. He doesn't pretend to consider the decision. He doesn't double check that he understood the agent correctly. He doesn't even ask how much money he'll save by going for the cheaper option. He jumps right in with both feet. And then it gets worse. Alan says that he had looked into this more permanent option. Before that he talked to Israelis and Eastern Europeans and Italians. And the lowest estimate he got was $220,000. The prosecutor stopped the tape and repeated what Allen had said. I researched my sources. The lowest price was 220. And then that is run through the Israelis and Eastern Europe and Italy. She asked the undercover agent what he had understood Allen to be saying. The agent answered, my understanding was that Mr. Gessen had already researched the option to kill his wife and had been in conversation or had done some research with other organized crime syndicates. In this case Israelis or Eastern Europe for the price of $220,000. The agent who had worked on murder for hire cases before testified in court that it hit us cheap. He'd seen people agree to kill someone for as little as $200. On the tape, David assures Allen that his friends in the North End are more dependable and affordable than those other guys, the Israelis or the Eastern Europeans, and adds that they can get the job done quickly. Alan likes this and he clarifies.

[J]

More definite and more and more definite.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Permanent.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

The prosecutor asked, when you heard Mr. Gessen say, and more definite, what was your understanding of that? The agent answered, more definite is permanent dead. I'd seen FBI agents testify in court before. Often I've been skeptical. Their interpretations of what people say to them can be far fetched. Their Entrapment techniques are often crude and mendacious. I've seen cases where the undercover agent talks a person into a crime they had no intention of committing. But this was different. I couldn't imagine any alternative interpretation of the tape. I'd just heard Allen wanted Priscilla killed, and he wanted David to know that he wanted Priscilla killed. He said that with the bribery scheme, he was worried that Priscilla could fight her deportation in court and maybe even win. Murder is better than deportation.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

That way, of course, we could handle that. I just didn't know what your appetite for that was. But if you feel that way, and we can make that happen, it will be very clean, it'll be quick, and it would be fine, final. But you got to tell me if, like, that's the route that you want to go.

[J]

My single concern is I need to be sure that we cannot option for the kids.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

This is the only thing that gives Alan pause. He doesn't want the kids to see their mother getting killed. No, no, no.

[J]

God.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

God, please.

[J]

Yeah. No, no, no.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

You know, we're all family men. Like, this is strictly business. Okay?

[J]

Because, like. Because that was my one concern. That's what that means. You know, I want to make sure that.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

This would be. This would be very clean, professional, job reassured.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Alan asks about the cost.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

I. I think it's probably half the cost, to tell you truth.

[J]

Yeah. Much easier. Much easier. Okay.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Very happy to proceed.

[J]

Okay.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Yeah, very happy to pro. What a productive meeting for the undercover agent. He came for bribery and was leaving with murder for hire. Now he just needed Allen to confirm that he intended to go through with it so that when Alan eventually went to trial, he couldn't say that he was misunderstood. And now here we were at that trial, listening to and looking at all the times and all the ways. Allen said that, yes, he really meant it, he wanted Priscilla killed.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

But you have to be sure that this is what you're. Okay.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

This is the first time the agent asks Alan if he's sure. And Alan says, I'm sure. And he adds, I'm sure.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

And this is not, like, the reaction. This sounds like it's been well thought out. Listen. Yeah, I didn't want to. I'm glad we had talked about it, because that's. Honestly, that's the way I would have handled it. But that's. You got to be comfortable.

[J]

Okay, good.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

All right.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Alan says that this is not an emotional decision, not spur of the moment. He's comfortable with it.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Sometimes they dig their own fucking Grave, right?

[J]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Don't fuck with me. There's a bit more back and forth. David will need pictures of Priscilla, location, everything for the people who'll do the job. And then, just like that, Alan is showing David pictures of the kids.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

This is my son.

[J]

Ah.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

What's his name?

[J]

His name is Paul.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

This is my daughter.

[J]

Beautiful.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Gorgeous.

[J]

We're just getting to know each other.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Yeah.

[Ira Glass]

Gorgeous

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

Prince August, then.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Beautiful kids. Beautiful poodle. Beautiful life. The only problem is Priscilla. Surely after seeing these photos, David would see what a great father Allen was. Surely he would feel even better about helping Allen get rid of the fly and the ointment. But David has a question. What is this going to do to the kids emotionally?

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

How do we protect the kids?

[J]

Like,

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

I guess they're too young, too. They're young, too, but how do we protect the kids? Look, they're gonna lose their mother, right? She's fucking gone. How do we protect the camp?

[J]

As long as they're not witness to violence.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

As long as they're not witness to violence. That's the word he used, violence.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

No, they're not. They won't be.

[J]

Yeah, they won't be.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

I mean, she'll be. She'll be taken out without them present. Then I guess you can explain it how you explain it. But just know that, you know, like, I, I now that I'm seeing pictures of that, I just want to make sure that they're okay. I got a heart too, you know, Like I fucking, you know. Don't get me wrong, I'll flip the light switch when I need to. But, you know, when I look at those kids like that, you know, they're beautiful to me. I just want to make sure they're okay.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

The undercover agent is methodical. He keeps coming closer to saying she will be killed. And he keeps pushing Alan to consider the hypothetical stakes. The children will lose their mother forever. Alan blithely keeps incriminating himself. As long as the kids wouldn't see the murder happen, he didn't have other concerns. They wrap up their meeting. Alan has a plane to catch. The undercover agent has a lot to work with.

[Undercover FBI Agent (David)]

This is UC 4735. And today is Thursday, June 2, 2022. And this is the conclusion of a recorded conversation with Alan Gessen.

[Ira Glass]

So that all sounds very damning and very conclusive.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Yeah.

[Masha Gessen]

And then a few other people testified against Allen, including Priscilla. And then Allen took the stand, which is also very unusual for a criminal trial. Usually people don't testify in their own defense. And he Tried to convince the jury that he had only wanted Priscilla deported and that he did not want her killed. And so he went through, with his attorney all those exchanges on tape and on text, trying to argue that all of them were just vocabulary misunderstandings and

[Ira Glass]

that they were just misunderstanding each other somehow.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

They were just talking at cross purposes.

[Ira Glass]

And so how does it go over with the jury?

[Masha Gessen]

The jury doesn't buy it. The jury convicted him pretty fast of murder for hire. And then almost a whole year later, he was finally sentenced to. And at the sentencing hearing, his lawyer again tried to say that he was only trying to get Priscilla deported, at which point the judge said, you know, that crime that you're describing is actually called kidnapping, and it's punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

So maybe just stop.

[Masha Gessen]

And then she sentenced him to the maximum, which is 10 years in prison.

[Ira Glass]

And there's this whole other chapter to the story, because once he was incarcerated, you started talking to Allen. You finally talked to Allen, which I feel like when we started on the story, like, we didn't even know if that would ever happen. We assumed he probably would never talk to you.

[Masha Gessen]

Yeah. I can't even describe how excited I was when I got an email from him saying that he was happy to talk.

[Ira Glass]

And it was interesting, because once you started talking, I mean, I remember this so vividly, you were genuinely surprised where the conversations went and how they nudged your own ideas about Allen and who he is.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

So at first, it didn't.

[Masha Gessen]

At first, he was just trying to sell me what the jury didn't buy, which was that he was framed. He was only trying to get Priscilla deported. But then I think we both proved

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

to be very stubborn. And I was like, okay, well, you

[Masha Gessen]

know, maybe his job is to try to bullshit me, and my job is to try to cut through the bullshit. And 35 hours of conversations later, I genuinely felt compassion for him.

[Ira Glass]

And then you ran by Alan and you add for the audience to your

[Masha Gessen]

own theory of the case, which is not Alan's theory and not exactly the undercover agent David's theory either.

[Ira Glass]

And we will leave it at that. If people want to hear what that theory is, then they need to listen to the show. The show, again, is called the Idiot. It's from Serial Productions in the New York Times, and you can get it wherever you get your podcasts. Masha, thank you so much for doing those.

[Narrator/Storyteller (possibly Masha Gessen or another family member)]

Thank you. Iron.

[Ira Glass]

I'll just say before we go, to all of you who are listening, you may remember how Cereal British basically invented and launched the true crime podcast genre back in 2014 with its first season and the story of Adnan Syed, which was kind of a global phenomenon. 20 million people downloaded every episode. This new show, the Idiot, takes serial back to their true crime roots, but with this very personal story from M. Gessen added to it, which adds so much. All the episodes are out right now.

[I]

I got nothing in my head Got a floor coming A feature at the bottom of a cheek? I got a half a pair of shoes and no time to lose? I'm wondering when I'm gonna rise up? So shine your light on me and my nose? Cause we need some security? You get a little bad luck and it grows and it grows.

[Ira Glass]

The Idiot was produced by Daniel Giedmet with Fia Bennett and Android Boyz Ank and Lica Kremer of Libo Libo Studios. The series was edited by Julie Snyder. Research and fact checked by Ben Phalen and Marisa Robertson. Texter scorings by Alison Layton Brown with additional music from Dan Powell and Marion Lozano. Phoebe Wang and Katherine Anderson mix the show. The people who helped put together this episode of our program today include Cassie Halley, Seth Lind, Tobin Lowe, Stone Nelson and Alyssa Shipp. Our managing editor, Saurab Durrahman. Our senior editor, D. David Kestenbaum. Our executive editor, Emmanuel Barry. Our website, this AmericanLife.org you can stream our archive of over 850 episodes for absolutely free. Have you visited again? This AmericanLife.org this American Life is delivered to public radio stations by prx, the Public Radio Exchange. Thanks as always to our program's co founder, Mr. Tory Malatea. You know, he's telling me this week about this time long ago, his dad took him to see the circus in Queens in New York. As they left the venue, he overheard another kid, this kid with a puff of blonde hair, just amazed.

[Family Member (possibly a brother or cousin)]

They brought some huge, huge tent. I never saw such a tent.

[Ira Glass]

I'm Eric Glass. Back next week with more stories of this American Life.

[I]

J.