490: The Dali Heist (From "True Crime Story: Smugshot")

Summary

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True Crime Obsessed – Episode 490: The Dali Heist (From "True Crime Story: Smugshot")

Release Date: March 24, 2026
Summary by: True Crime Obsessed

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Episode Overview

In this lively and irreverent episode, hosts Patrick Hines and Julia Benzavale recap the unbelievable true story of the "Dali Heist," as featured in "True Crime Story: Smugshot." Set inside New York's infamous Rikers Island prison, the heist centers on the theft of a genuine Salvador Dali painting – the surreal circumstances that put it there, the bumbling inside job by corrupt guards, and the ridiculous fallout. The hosts blend signature humor with thoughtful reflection on art, crime, prison corruption, and why art heists (almost) never go as planned.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Meeting Gina Gershon (00:00–01:14)

• The episode opens with excitement: the hosts met Gina Gershon at their new studio. Julia and Patrick briefly geek out, confirming she's as charming as they'd hoped.
• Injects the familiar, friendly tone; sets up the energy for the episode.

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The Dali Heist: Introduction (01:14–03:25)

• Julia: “NYC’s famous or infamous jail of all places. Comes word of an art heist as surreal as the art itself.” (02:00)
• The stolen painting: "Christ on the Cross" by Salvador Dali, gifted to Rikers in 1965.
• Reenactment quote: “Oh shit. I looked at my wife and said, well, I'm happy we have a baby, but I'll see you in about 18 years because I think I'm going to jail.” (02:01)

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How Did a Dali Painting End Up at Rikers? (03:25–06:49)

• The hosts marvel and laugh at the absurdity: why did Rikers even have a Dali painting?
• Julia's hot take: “I think that art should absolutely be in prisons. ... But they were taking it for granted, like we all knew there was a Dali painting at Rikers.”
• The painting was originally installed in the dining hall but was moved due to damage from frequent fights (09:42).
• Eventually put under glass in a “manned 24 hours” secure area with CCTV.

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Prison Corruption & Context (05:53–06:49)

• Patrick and Julia lament how quickly the documentary breezes by the horrific conditions at Rikers, saying its inhumanity is well documented.
• “This is kind of like, we're not gonna talk about Judy Garland's horrible childhood. We're just gonna talk about the shoes.” (Patrick, 05:53)

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The Players: Guards, Investigators, and Would-Be Criminals (06:49–12:11)

• Michael Caruso: 27-year Department of Investigation veteran focusing on prison corruption.
• George Sheehy: Guard with a "very, very dark side,” has a history of excessive violence but wasn’t fired – “everything but fired him.” (21:23)
• Quote: “He has been written up for violence... so many times that they, ‘take everything away from him.’ And I'm like, George, they did everything but fire you.” (21:23)
• Robert Whitman: FBI National Art Crime Team member; bemused by how amateurish the whole heist was.
• Art expert Elliot King: “Everything about the Rikers theft is amateurish.” (11:29)

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How The Dali Got To Rikers (12:11–18:05)

• Backstory: In 1965, Dali agreed to teach an art class at Rikers (probably as a publicity stunt), then bailed, but sent a quick, original sketch as consolation.
• The painting was placed in Gen Pop, inevitably damaged and disregarded.
• A sign declared the work was worth $1 million, “almost baiting” its theft (18:05).
• Narrator: “They basically flagged it... This is a very expensive painting that nobody is really paying much attention to.” (18:05)

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"Not the Sharpest Knives": The Plot Unfolds (20:15–27:36)

• Multiple Rikers guards are involved—led by Assistant Deputy Warden Benny and warden-level colleagues.
• The fake painting: Guards recruited George Sheehy to recreate the Dali from a partial Polaroid. Result: a poorly sized, obviously fake dupe.
• The plan's flaw: too many conspirators, all prone to panic and tattling. Everyone is wired.
• Pena, a low-level guard: rushes to confess and blame the higher-ups (22:18).

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Inside Job Shenanigans (27:36–44:46)

• The theft: During a staged nighttime fire drill (a pretext that "never happens," 42:25), painting is swapped for the dupe.
• Keystone cop comedy, with guards unable to open the protective case and failing to use a stapler to hang the fake (“Bang the stapler!” 44:16).
• They forget to clear a stray plant from behind the glass and end up tossing the evidence (latex gloves, silver stapler) into the water (44:57).

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Discovery and Downfall (41:46–47:15)

• The swap is discovered almost immediately—one correctional officer prayed at the Dali daily and noticed the fake.
• NYPD and investigators search Benny’s mother’s house (and must return after realizing evidence on tape mentions hiding the painting in the ceiling, 45:22).
• Investigators also find stolen Rikers materials (logbooks, blankets) at the home.

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The Value of Stolen Art (32:02–36:47; 54:01–58:54)

• Art crime investigator Robert: The myth of the “rich villain with a hoard of stolen art” is pure Hollywood. “[In] 30 years of investigations—never saw that happen." (32:04)
• Stolen art’s real value: “Things are valued at, like, 35 million, and then they're sold for 200 grand…proving that nobody cares about stolen art. Me most of all.” (Patrick, 33:05)
• The Mona Lisa only became famous after being stolen; “With the Rikers Dali, I would just expect it to be worth more because of the story behind it.” (Elliot King, 34:35)
• Art’s value is subjective; it can’t always be formally established, impacting criminal sentences.

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The Trial: Absurdity in the Courtroom (52:26–58:54)

• Defense’s strategy: Devalue the painting so the theft is a misdemeanor, not a felony.
• Joe Taina (Defense Lawyer): “If it's below $25,000 … it's a misdemeanor. Which is a far cry from 10 to 15 years in jail.” (52:34)
• Star appraiser pleads the Fifth on the stand when grilled by Taina, to the hosts' amusement (54:54).
• A defense expert, former Dali student, argues the painting was rapidly sketched, already deteriorated from poor materials and conditions—so not especially valuable.

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The Verdict: Nobody Cared (58:59–61:10)

• Trial transcripts are inconclusive; both sides spin the wiretap evidence in their favor.
• Jury finds “Benny” (assistant warden, alleged ringleader) Not Guilty.
• Patrick: “The jury eventually says in the paper, it was a Friday. No one really gave a shit about the art or any of this.” (60:13)

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Reflections: The Absurdities of Art, Justice, and The Heist (throughout, but esp. 60:35–61:12)

• The painting’s whereabouts remain unknown—possibly lost in a storage locker (“some lucky son of a bitch on Storage Wars,” 47:34).
• Final tones: Dali himself would likely have loved the outrageousness and absurdity of the whole situation. The painting, created as an afterthought, inspired a legacy far beyond its intended purpose.
• Patrick: “At the end of the day...this is just so Dali.”

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Notable Moments, Quotes & Timestamps

• [02:01] Voice Actor: “I looked at my wife and said...I'll see you in about 18 years, because I think I'm going to jail.”
• [04:12] Julia (on last names): “As an effeminate boy named Pat in the era of Pat on Saturday Night Live, like, I see you, Sheehy, and I feel the pain.”
• [09:18] Detective Mike: “I looked at it and I said, quote, ‘This is a shit show.’”
• [18:05] Narrator: “Flagged it as expensive...almost baits people into thinking...maybe this is an opportunity.”
• [21:23] Patrick: “He has been written up for violence...so many times that they, ‘take everything away from him.’ And I'm like, George, they did everything but fire you.”
• [24:42] Detective Mike: “He was all over the map, talking 100 miles an hour. ...We did it. We didn’t do it...I had to do it because it was a boss asked me to do it...”
• [32:04] Elliot King / Art Expert: “Theory that some rich Saudi prince...never saw it happen in 30 years of investigations.”
• [44:16] Voice Actor: “I don't know how to use the stapler.” / [44:18] "Just bang the stapler. Bang the stapler."
• [54:54] Julia: “She pleads the Fifth. Really a bad look. This is my Real Housewives. Like, I'm not a Housewives person, but the art heist shit is my housewives.”
• [60:13] Patrick: “The jury eventually says in the paper, it was a Friday. No one really gave a shit about the art or any of this.”

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Structure of the Heist: Quick Reference Timeline

| Time | Event | |---------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 1965 | Dali skips prison art class, sends consolation sketch | | Late 20th C | Painting moved to secure area after being damaged | | 2003-2005 | Plan hatched by guards amid Rikers’ ongoing dysfunction | | The Heist | Fake dupe swapped in during staged fire drill; botched | | Immediately | Painting swap is discovered by devoted, daily-prayer guard | | Investigation | Guards panic, everyone wires up, confesses, covers tracks poorly | | Aftermath | Painting believed hidden at Benny's mom's, then lost | | Trial | Defense successful—painting juried as low value, Benny acquitted |

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Podcast Tone & Community

• Hosts balance wit, pop culture references, and insightful critique about the justice system, art value, and the particular absurdity of this crime.
• Patrick and Julia regularly riff, tease, and confide hypotheticals (“If I found this in a storage locker, I’d keep it a year, then return it…” 48:08).
• Signature blend of sass, skepticism about institutional motives, and empathy for art (and even some for the criminals’ stupidity).

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For Further Listening

• Next up: “The Missing Millionairess” – a double installment on Hulu.
• Join the TCO Patreon (“over 500 full ad-free bonus episodes!”) for extra recaps, including thoughts on predators, unsolved mysteries, and reality favorites.

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For anyone who hasn't listened:
This episode is a romp through one of the most ill-conceived art heists in American crime, told with side-splitting banter and genuine curiosity about art, justice, and why people make the choices they do—even when they’re (hilariously) disastrous.

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Transcript

[Julia Benzavale]

We just spent 10 minutes talking to Gina Gershon.

[Patrick Hines]

That wasn't. That was real.

[Julia Benzavale]

That really happened. Hi. Julia Benzavale.

[Patrick Hines]

Hello. Patrick Hines. And also Gina Grishon.

[Julia Benzavale]

Just to tell you what happened real quick, we're at Borough House, the new studio that we're recording at. Gina Gershon was doing a podcast interview right before us. She came out and she was so nice.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, she said hi. We weren't going to bother her, but we were right there.

[Julia Benzavale]

She came out and said hello. We talked about Showgirls. We talked about Bound.

[Patrick Hines]

And then I.

[Julia Benzavale]

If you remember a couple of years ago when we did Class Action park and we did it on the road, we played the trailer for the documentary and I was convinced that Gina Gershon was in the Lazy River.

[Patrick Hines]

Guess what? We have confirmation. It was not.

[Julia Benzavale]

It was not her. She's like, I would never go to lazy. I was like, you know what, Gina Gershon, that absolutely tries.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Julia Benzavale]

Love it, fam. Don't forget to join us over in the Patreon if you want, like 500 full ad free bonus episodes. Listen. At our Hero Bell tier, we do this thing where we make special episodes just for them, where we cover things we can't really cover in the regular feed or the Patreon feed. So we're covering that documentary, Predators. Predators. It's the documentary about that show To Catch a Predator.

[Patrick Hines]

Or is it? We have thoughts and feelings. It's a mess. But we did it for you, for the Hero Bells. So there you go.

[Julia Benzavale]

Go check it out. And also what we're going to tell

[Patrick Hines]

them about them, the Discord. We have a Discord server. It's really fun. There are lots of channels. Everyone's really nice.

[Julia Benzavale]

People are nice.

[Patrick Hines]

People are so nice in there. It's really fun. Just another, like, kind of community. If you feel like joining that.

[Julia Benzavale]

If you're a Discord, another way to say hello. Yeah, what are we talking about today, girl?

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, my God. Okay. This is. You know that show Smoke Shot that we did when we were fishing podcast. Now we're like a Dolly heist podcast. So this is Smug Shot, season two, episode two, the Dolly Heist.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

I'm sitting there with my wife and the baby and the news is on tv. I'm saying, you know, I'm happy. I'm so proud of my son. I said, friend, the baby's beautiful and all that. And all of a sudden, of course, the TV goes, welcome back from Rikers

[Julia Benzavale]

Island, New York City's famous or infamous jail of all places. Comes Word of an art heist as surreal as the art itself.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

Oh, shit. I looked at my wife and said, well, I'm happy we have a baby, but I'll see you in about 18 years because I think I'm going to jail.

[Julia Benzavale]

I love that. In the cold open, we get this guy who I've got a lot to say about later. He's like the investigator. He goes, if you want to commit a crime, and I probably shouldn't tell anybody, but if you do, you do it by yourself. Don't tell anybody you did it. Don't leave any evidence.

[Patrick Hines]

I'm like, it's reasonable.

[Julia Benzavale]

So simple.

[Patrick Hines]

It sounds reasonable.

[Julia Benzavale]

Everybody wants to tell everybody about the crimes they commit.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

They can't help it.

[Julia Benzavale]

I would be that guy. I would. I would. For one day, I wouldn't tell anybody. And I'd be like, girl, I didn't tell.

[Patrick Hines]

I'd be like, oh, my God, how are you? And you'd be like, well.

[Julia Benzavale]

Well, here's the thing. I haven't told anybody. And don't tell anybody else yet.

[Patrick Hines]

But then. But meanwhile, you've told everybody.

[Julia Benzavale]

Come to my house and see my Picasso.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, my God. Well, okay. Rikers Island, March 1, 2003. Christ on the Cross by Salvador Gully. Let me tell you, Christ on the cross is also something that said by tri state area parents 10,000 times depending on the day. Like Labor Day, weekend traffic.

[Julia Benzavale]

Christ on the cross. You know, Kathy Griffin, she like. She does her mother, right?

[Patrick Hines]

Christ on the cross, Christmas decorations. Triple that.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

If you're Carmela Soprano, the limit does not exist. Christ on the cross, Tony.

[Julia Benzavale]

And if you all are like me and you, like, the whole premise of this documentary made no sense because I was like, what? Why is there a Salvador Dali painting at Rikers?

[Patrick Hines]

Rikers, you know, and we'll learn how and why.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I've got very strong feelings on this. I think that art should absolutely be in prisons.

[Patrick Hines]

I mean. Yes.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what I mean? I love that there was a dolly painting at Rikers. Rikers. But. But they were taking it for granted. Like, we all knew there was a dolly painting at Rikers. Did not know that before today.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. So New York City, we're with George Sheehy. He's a Rikers island guard. Super problematic. We'll get there in a minute. But he. His wife gave birth to his fourth boy, Michael. He's like, michael, come here. This is my son, Michael Sheehy. And he's like, hey, guys, I'm Michael Sheehy.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm make a controversial, and I think it's awful, but I really thought as a person who grew up with the last name Heinz in the era of ketchup, growing up with the last name Sheehy could not have been easy.

[Patrick Hines]

What's she he like?

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm thinking, like, there were probably horrible, inappropriate jokes made about that.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, like transphobic idiots.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes. Fuck that. But growing up, by the way, as, like. As like a. As an effeminate boy named Pat in the era of Pat on Saturday Night Live, like, I see you, she, he, and I feel the pain.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Well, also speaking of pain, these two definitely seem like the type to introduce the cute dog in Michael's lap. Oh, they don't. So just another lesson in not judging a book by its cover, I guess, because they do not say a goddamn word about that cute dog.

[Julia Benzavale]

That's all. Sometimes I have straight dog blindness. I didn't even see it.

[Patrick Hines]

Really cute little. Maybe like a multipoo or a little she poo or something.

[Julia Benzavale]

Okay. I.

[Patrick Hines]

Cute.

[Julia Benzavale]

I typically only see dogs. I see them on your behalf.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Julia Benzavale]

Always. And when they are not introduced, it makes me mad for you.

[Patrick Hines]

You'd think these two would do it. They don't.

[Julia Benzavale]

They don't. This guy's a piece of work.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Well, Michael was born the day this deli was stolen.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And George is with his wife, and he's holding the new baby. Anderson Cooper splashes across the screen, stunned.

[Julia Benzavale]

Anderson Cooper.

[Patrick Hines]

And he's like, hey, wife of Min. Congrats on the baby. See you in 18 years. Because I'm pretty sure I'm getting locked up. Yeah, George.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I'm also like, wait, I thought you were a guard at Rikers. You. Oh, I see. We're going to learn this was an inside job.

[Patrick Hines]

I would really love to know the true statistics of how many people inside prison walls are corrupt.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

I'd love to know the actual numbers.

[Julia Benzavale]

And so now we meet Detective Mike. He's the investigator on this case.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

My name is Michael caruso. I spent 27 years with the New York City Department of Investigation. My responsibility was investigating allegations of corruption. Part of Department of Correction Personnel.

[Julia Benzavale]

This guy's whole job is to investigate corruption within the Department of Corrections personnel.

[Patrick Hines]

Must be busy, busy, busy.

[Julia Benzavale]

My Lord.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, they talk about Rikers, right? And, like, they kind of just breeze by how awful it is. Like, I don't. This is kind of like, we're not gonna talk about Judy Garland's horrible childhood. We're just gonna talk about the shoes, that's kind of where here, like, I won't be really insufferable, but, like, they kind of only focus on, like, really bad people are here. No, no, no, no. Like, right. It's hell on earth. It's, like, very well documented that, like, just completely inhumane, like, atrocities on a regular basis. Like, the city hasn't been allowed to run it anymore because they're like, oh, you fucked it up so badly. Like, now an independent person or like, like, judge has to deal it. Like, mayor Mamdani from the very beginning has been saying, like, I'm gonna fix this. We'll see.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, but, like, that's a big promise.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, it's been bad for, like, decades. So I'm just saying, like, it's. It's worse than they're making it out to be now. So this is very Judy Garland. Like, let's not talk about the truth of her child.

[Julia Benzavale]

Let's just talk about the shoes.

[Patrick Hines]

Talk about the sparkly shoes, girl.

[Julia Benzavale]

Fabletics is back. And look, we got to talk about this because this is a big deal. They just dropped denim.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, like, real structured premium denim. Not just any denim.

[Julia Benzavale]

No. And, fam, if you know Fabletics, you know them for their activewear, which I wear to the gym all the time. So, like, the denim feels like natural. Next step.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, you got those? The straight leg number.

[Julia Benzavale]

I got. I got a bunch of different ones. I got the straight leg. Those are, like, my favorite.

[Patrick Hines]

Your go to.

[Julia Benzavale]

I wear them all the time. They're super comfortable. They look really stylish. What can I tell you? Like, I wore them out to dinner the other night, and I thought I looked really good.

[Patrick Hines]

I got to tell you, there's nothing like a good pair of jeans that, you know, you can just pull out and wear, like, truly, truly done.

[Julia Benzavale]

So, fam, when I signed up as a new VIP with Fabletics, I got 29 Denim, which is kind of unheard of for this quality. And from what I understand, this is launch pricing, so I would grab it while it's still at that rate. Femme.

[Patrick Hines]

They also have three stretch levels.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Because everyone wants something a little different. So they. They've got every silhouette covered. They have skinny, straight, wide leg, baggy mini skirts that have jackets. And it doesn't matter if you love, like, the classics or trend pieces. They have everything.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, I got the straight, skinny love.

[Patrick Hines]

Always in style.

[Julia Benzavale]

Not my nickname in high school.

[Patrick Hines]

Always in style.

[Julia Benzavale]

So fans of lettuce already has incredible deals, and we've got an exclusive offer

[Patrick Hines]

just for our listeners, get $29 denim when you sign up as a VIP.

[Julia Benzavale]

Just Fabletics.com TCO take a quick style quiz and be sure to select TCO when prompted to unlock your offer.

[Patrick Hines]

That's Fabletics.com TCO take that quiz.

[Julia Benzavale]

It really helps. We learned that Rikers Island's 440 acres. At its max, it holds 13,000 prisoners.

[Patrick Hines]

It's awful. And then we get Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who we're told he's immediately interested in the status of the stolen painting, not the atrocities happening to the people inside the prison. I promise I won't do that every single time.

[Julia Benzavale]

And once again, I'm going to say it is taken for granted that we are just to know that there's a Salvador Dali painting at Rikers.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Or at least there was. Not anymore.

[Julia Benzavale]

Not anymore. They will eventually tell us how it got there. But at this point of the documentary, I'm like, does everybody know this but me?

[Patrick Hines]

Right? Yeah. I was like, okay, cool. But the painting was stolen.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

So as I got closer to the dolly, I looked and there was a sketch behind there, and it was short on every side. It didn't fill up the whole case. And then I saw the frame was painted on. There was no frame. It was just two different colors painted. And I looked at it and I said, quote, this is a shit show.

[Patrick Hines]

And then someone painted a shitty replica. But, like, painted a frame. Like, not a real frame, just, like, painted a frame. How long? Like, what is the end game here, guys?

[Julia Benzavale]

When we get to the point where they replace the real dolly with the fake dolly, it is. It should be a musical number. It is so ridiculous.

[Patrick Hines]

And obviously it's gotta be someone pretty high up because, like, this is in the warden's office or whatever.

[Julia Benzavale]

Well, so the way that it works like this, where the painting was, was in an area. It started out by, like, painted it. And he wanted it by, like, the lunchroom. But then there was so much violence and there was. It was getting damaged because of, like, fights breaking out that they had to move it to somewhere else. But that area where it was, they say, is manned 24 hours a day. And there's, like, it's also under a CCTV camera. So, like, this would be a very hard thing to steal. And at no point, I was like, oh, some inmate stole this? No. But when we get there, it was not an inmate.

[Patrick Hines]

No. So Robert Whitman is an investigator. He works for the FBI's National Art Crime Team.

[Julia Benzavale]

Now, I was saying we've met guys like this before. This sounds Like a fudgeing dream job for you.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And can I say, I don't care. You.

[Julia Benzavale]

You don't care.

[Patrick Hines]

And I get proven right later on.

[Julia Benzavale]

For sure. For sure. But, like, for me, the idea of, like, getting on the phone with the guys who took the.

[Patrick Hines]

No.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like you from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum do this one day, Wouldn't that be amazing?

[Patrick Hines]

I think you would love it. Every time I find my purpose, maybe. But every time I see a guy like this, I'm like, oh, like, one day.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know. Because it's like. It's why I know podcasting is the right job for me because I will do it 20 hours a day to make it good, because I love it that much.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

I would do that about the art heists. I would be this guy on the phone at 5 in the morning every day. But I wanted to say, when we meet this guy, he's walking down a stoop of a townhome in Chelsea, and I'm like, it was the most beautiful fall. There are pumpkins on the side step as he's walking. He's, like, wearing a light jacket. Fam. We're in the middle of our second blizzard into in a week.

[Patrick Hines]

We just had, like, the blizzard of February 2026, and, like, two weeks ago,

[Julia Benzavale]

we got dumped on it. So, like, watching this, man, I could smell the pumpkin spice from there. You know what I mean? It was a beautiful. It was a very beautifully shot moment.

[Patrick Hines]

He is the Walter Sopcich of the story from Lebowski because he's like, everything

[Elliot King / Art Expert]

about the Rikers theft is amateurish. In that case, it's really kind of ironic because the fact that it's a prison, I mean, people can't get in from the outside and steal things. I mean, why would there be a dolly painting in Rikers to begin with?

[Patrick Hines]

These guys are a bunch of fucking amateurs. Like, these guys are idiots. They don't know any. Like, this is. And he's basically will eventually say, everyone who steals art is an idiot.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes. And we'll get to why everyone who steals art is an idiot in a second. But now we got to learn about Salvador Dali.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

But we're going to learn about it by watching this old game show called what is My Line?

[Patrick Hines]

Well, what. I think it's just, what's my line?

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, you're right.

[Patrick Hines]

Isn't it like.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

What is my line, sir?

[Julia Benzavale]

What is my line?

[Patrick Hines]

Isn't it very. It's very like, to tell the truth, which we just talked about that Frank Abagnale was on.

[Julia Benzavale]

Can we talk about the mustache?

[Patrick Hines]

Look.

[Julia Benzavale]

Okay, okay. If we don't, we can or not?

[Patrick Hines]

No. Yeah, we can. In high school, my one and only oil painting I ever did was.

[Julia Benzavale]

You did an oil painting?

[Patrick Hines]

Salvador Dali. It was the rose. Have you ever seen the rose? No. It's beautiful. It's like this.

[Julia Benzavale]

You still have it?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, it's at my parents house.

[Julia Benzavale]

I want it.

[Patrick Hines]

It's not very good. I was 17 years old.

[Julia Benzavale]

I was like, oh my God, that's amazing.

[Patrick Hines]

But for art history, like that was the thing that we had to do at the end of the year or whatever and had to do one. So we had like easels and it was really cool, but it was like oil on canvas. And I like. But that was the one piece of art, like one of the pieces of art that I was really drawn to. And it also felt jokes on me. I got on my face like the quote, easiest because it was just this beautiful blue background and this big rose. I fucked it up so bad. But I still have it. My parents have it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Amazing.

[Patrick Hines]

It's not very good, but I want to see it.

[Julia Benzavale]

But like, we meet this guy, Elliot King, he's an art history professor specializing in Dalli's work for about 20 years now. And he said, like, basically Dali's idea is that art is for everyone who's willing to pay for it. Like Salvador Dali, I kind of love this guy because he was like pretty good at art, but people really loved it. So he would kind of mass produce it just to like make money, which I'm. I kind of get it.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, In February of 1965, all of the big artists at the time were in New York City.

[Narrator / Documentary Voice]

Everybody was headed to New York. Lots of galleries, lots of energy, lots of museum exhibitions. Warhol had his first solo exhibition. There's Jackson Pollock, rock. Basically any kind of art you wanted to find, you could find it in New York in the 1960s. Dali is very famous.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

Will you welcome, please, Salvador Dali.

[Narrator / Documentary Voice]

He's sort of a crazy genius artist who's doing bizarre things.

[Patrick Hines]

Dali is super famous and he's a character and he's leaning into this. So he's on like the variety shows. He's on Dick Cavett. And we're told that he's arguably like the most commercial of the artists.

[Julia Benzavale]

We get a story of him, like sitting in a hotel room in Paris signing, like signing prints of his work for $5 a pop. And he could do a thousand an hour. I was like, damn, Dolly.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

I went to eBay just to see, like, you can get signed dolly prints for, like, 2500 bucks.

[Patrick Hines]

How do you know they're real?

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what I mean? Oh, it was also, there's a website called First Dibs, and all of that is authenticated, and you get like, a. But. But I think the point is there's so many of them.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

And, like, I would never spend that, but, like, I wouldn't even care.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know, like, give me, like, the fake signed. You know, I love that shit.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, the faker the better.

[Julia Benzavale]

I would rather have the rip. Like the. Give me this fake dolly from Rikers. Yeah, I want that.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, that's. That's different because that's, like, a story.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, we're told he's silly, and he doesn't take himself too seriously. And I'm like, yeah, silly is one thing, but then he'd go to dinner with, like, 17 people and sign the tablecloth instead of paying.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm so into it.

[Patrick Hines]

And I'm like, that's kind of. That's kind of a dick move.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, you got to tip the weight. As long as, like, the service staff is being taken care of. I want that sign. If I'm the restaurant owner, sign that fudgeing table.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. But also pay.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a guy, an artist named Peter Max. Have you heard of him? He's was pretty famous in our time. He was, like, a pop artist. He was most famous for doing, like, pop art paintings of the Statue of Liberty.

[Patrick Hines]

I probably, like, would have seen his work, but if you just told me that name randomly, I'd be like, okay.

[Julia Benzavale]

He used to come into a restaurant that I worked at, and he would sign napkins, like, for. He had this favorite waitress, and he would, like, draw her and then sign it. Instantly worth, like, 10 grand.

[Patrick Hines]

And he'd also pay, and he would always pay.

[Julia Benzavale]

He was. He was very, very, very nice. But he knew it was like a Dali thing where he knew that, like, signing his napkin would, like, really be a valuable commodity, you know, that I do it for people.

[Patrick Hines]

I very much appreciate when people understand, like, it's a big deal to these people that I'm here. And then they do it in the cool way instead of being, like, a stupid diva about it.

[Julia Benzavale]

My other favorite story from that restaurant was one time, Sherri Renee Scott came in, and my friend Mike and I loved her so much, and she walked towards us, and we went like this. Oh, my God. And she bowed. Sheri Renee Scott, bow. Thank you. And she bowed at these Two gays clapping at her.

[Patrick Hines]

She is perfect.

[Julia Benzavale]

She's perfect.

[Patrick Hines]

I love her so much.

[Julia Benzavale]

Family. If you don't know who Shari Renee Scott is, please look her up. She's the most under. She's the most unsung Broadway hero Everson

[Patrick Hines]

Aida and what's her name? In the last five years?

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, Kathy. In the last five years. And, yeah, she is.

[Patrick Hines]

With Norbert. Leo Butts.

[Julia Benzavale]

Hello.

[Patrick Hines]

We don't have time.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know. We don't have time. I know.

[Patrick Hines]

So, like, his entourage was big and diverse. He had, like, hippies and also rich socialites and performers. And he was just sort of, like, kind of just thriving. And, like, I think he knew how finite this all was. And he's like, I'm gonna have fun while I can. And everyone was hating him for it, basically, is what we're told.

[Julia Benzavale]

And. But he was very, very, very famous. And so in February 65, we learned

[Narrator / Documentary Voice]

that he has agreed to teach an art class at Rikers Island Prison. Now, this is really, in many ways bizarre that he's decided to do this. And I have to think that it's really a press opportunity.

[Julia Benzavale]

He did anything that brought attention to himself. He was kind of a horror. There's no reason he would have done this other than for the publicity.

[Patrick Hines]

I agree. Like, he.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, I agree with you.

[Patrick Hines]

We know now, obviously, that, like, it's very, very important to have art programs in prison.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

But back then, unfortunately, it was treated by everybody as, like, a joke and a publicity stunt and something that Salvador Dali could bail on. But, like, we know now it's super important. And I was sort of disappointed that the people sitting here today didn't acknowledge that.

[Julia Benzavale]

I totally agree with you. Here's what I think happened. Well, I think Dolly agreed to this in a drunken stupor, probably because he wakes up on the morning he's supposed to go, and he's like, no, I suddenly have such a fever. I was like, this bitch woke up that morning was like. I said, I do what today, and did does not go. But instead of going, he whips up a painting. This guy, Professor Elliott, says it probably took him two minutes to, like, make this painting signs. It says, like, put this by the dining hall. Love, Dolly. So sorry I can't be there today, but I do have a fever I must take to the bed.

[Patrick Hines]

And so that's how this painting ended up at Rikers. And it is one of a kind. It's not mass produced. It was like a consolation prize.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Like we were saying earlier, it ends up Being in gen pop because it's at the dining hall, that does not bode well for the painting. Fights are breaking out. People are disrespecting it. They're probably not getting it. And like, people are treated so terribly in. I don't know, whatever. So it's like getting dirty and the painting is moved downstairs and put in this glass frame.

[Narrator / Documentary Voice]

And then they put a sign onto it that says that the painting is worth a million dollars. But they basically flagged it as saying, this is a very expensive painting that nobody is really paying much attention to. Which almost baits people in a lot of ways into thinking, well, maybe if nobody cares, maybe this is an opportunity.

[Patrick Hines]

They put a fucking letter next to it saying that it's worth a million dollars.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, that is the. That is ridiculous. Like, you don't see that in museums. You know what I mean? Like, why would they do that?

[Patrick Hines]

And also like, says who?

[Julia Benzavale]

Right, Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

Who said. Who's saying that?

[Julia Benzavale]

Probably Dolly himself. Here is my painting. That million dollars.

[Patrick Hines]

But, like, we'll get into it later. So annoying.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, I know. Don't annoy her today, fam.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, please.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know, whatever.

[Patrick Hines]

It's my job. I'm here to annoy

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

And we got this amazing mid century gold couch from there that I. It was my favorite thing that we had in the office.

[Patrick Hines]

They have like farmhouse, contemporary, eclectic, which I love.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, also kids spaces. We got stuff for Daisy's room, which she loves, and it, like, has lasted us. What is she, 12?

[Patrick Hines]

Just about. Yeah. Long time. Long time. It's. So what I love is it's so easy to find what you need. Like the search. You can really search, like, based on the inches, like the size of the color, the length, whatever.

[Julia Benzavale]

Any style, budget too, which is like majorly helpful.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And you can filter through, like, reviews or like all of their, like, visual aids are really good. As you know, I'm a visual person.

[Julia Benzavale]

They also have installation and assembly services available for a truly seamless experience, which of course I use because what, am I going to build it myself? I don't think so.

[Patrick Hines]

Absolutely not on my watch.

[Julia Benzavale]

Not if we want to sit on it.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

Especially mine.

[Patrick Hines]

So back with George Sheehy. This guard who, like, his kid was born today. Yeah, he's also an artist. He's like, yeah, I'm an artist, and I used to work at Rikers Island. And I'm like, okay, we see him

[Julia Benzavale]

trying to, like, hand draw the dolly today. Yeah, it's not going great, George.

[Patrick Hines]

This is when George starts talking. And I don't. I'm like, see that thing, that red light? We're recording. We're all going to hear what you say. He basically is like, I'm super nice, but not really, because I have a very, very dark side. And that was encouraged and taught at Rikers, which we know is true.

[Julia Benzavale]

It made me worry about his kids. I'm like, four kids, you say, are they all terrified?

[Patrick Hines]

And where's your wife?

[Julia Benzavale]

I know. So George, husband, we don't know.

[Patrick Hines]

He said his wife gave birth to the kids.

[Julia Benzavale]

Well, maybe he's come out later in life.

[Patrick Hines]

Who knows? So he tells us, almost proud.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

I had a number of uses of force. They call it altercations. I had a kind of a high number. You get suspended first, put in the street, no pay, 30 days in the street, nothing. Then you come back after that, but you come back modified, like light duty. But I'm not allowed to have inmate contact. I'm not allowed to wear a uniform. My gun, my bad's gone. So basically, you're useless.

[Patrick Hines]

He has been written up for, like, violence against these inmates so many times that they, quote, take everything away from him. And I'm like, george, they did everything but fire you.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Still had that job and that pension or whatever.

[Julia Benzavale]

My note upon second watching was like, this guy must have been really bad.

[Patrick Hines]

Really bad, because.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I don't know anything about Rikers, but I'm thinking if you're a guard at Rikers that has so many violence against prisoners violations against you that they literally take your uniform, take your gun, put you out in the transportation division where the gas is, but they won't even let you pump the gas to sit there, that is really fucked.

[Patrick Hines]

When we say everything but fired him, Everything but fired him.

[Julia Benzavale]

Only didn't fire him, because they absolutely couldn't for some, like, union reason or something. But I was like, it really hit me, like, this guy must have been the worst of the worst.

[Patrick Hines]

He sounds like a nightmare.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And, but he's like, here, like, oh, I'm kind of an artist sometimes. Like, don't be fooled by the folksiness.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Didn't even introduce the dog. Please.

[Julia Benzavale]

No.

[Patrick Hines]

So this is kind of. I'm like, did I miss something? Because suddenly we're learning about Timothy Pina, some guy who wants to confess. And I'm like, who is.

[Julia Benzavale]

So this guy Pena, he's like a low level guard at Rikers and he like. I think all of these idiots who tried to pull this off realized pretty fast they weren't going to get away with it. And they were all trying to out tattletale each other.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

We were out there interviewing a number of individuals and all of a sudden we received information and wanted to come in, confess and cooperate. It was an office subpoena and it was indications. It was higher ups that planned it.

[Julia Benzavale]

I have information. This all came from the higher ups. Like, bring me in, don't throw me in prison, and I'll tell you everything.

[Patrick Hines]

Now we have to take a hard right, turn off a cliff with Joe Taina, this defense lawyer.

[Julia Benzavale]

I tried to look this guy up. I don't really get what he did.

[Patrick Hines]

Okay. Sean Hannity has called him one of the greatest attorneys of all time. So put that in your cap. Notable clients include the piece of shit who killed Natalee Holloway.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh.

[Patrick Hines]

Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels and E. Jean Carroll cases that I knew. Quick reminder that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the Eugene Carroll case and the Stormy Daniels case. That was the time that he was found guilty of all 34 felony counts.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Making him the first convicted felon to serve as president.

[Julia Benzavale]

Now, you want to talk about folks.

[Patrick Hines]

And I'll never forgive any of you for it.

[Julia Benzavale]

No. But like this, this lawyer guy wants to be folksy. He wants, he, he definitely wants the Osh shucks at it.

[Patrick Hines]

But also like, but he's like hip and cool. He's like, wants to play a tough guy, but like, I only defend. And it's like, you did a shitty job.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Because he's found guilty. Trump was found like the Stormy Daniel Carol thing. Like what? Like, oh, God, I know. So. And he's like, I almost did the case for free. Don't worry, everyone. He didn't. Don't worry.

[Julia Benzavale]

No. So Detective Mike tells us that this guy Pina comes in. He seems remorseful. This Pina guy tells them about another officer named Sokol. That's the guy's last name. Now, when we meet the actor who plays the Sokal guy in the episode. He does the absolute worst Boston accent

[Patrick Hines]

you have have ever laying it on. Super.

[Julia Benzavale]

It is horrendous.

[Patrick Hines]

But this Officer Greg Sokol guy is literally crying on the floor in the corner of the interrogation because he gets.

[Julia Benzavale]

Pina wears a wire on Sokol. They bring Sokol in. Detective Mike goes in to interview him. He walks into the room. He's like, where's the guy? He's on the floor next to the water cooler, crying.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

I asked him what happened and he was all over the map, talking 100 miles an hour. You know, we did it. We didn't do it. I had to do it because it was A boss asked me to do it and am I going to jail? What's going on? And you know, it took a lot to calm him down. And at that time then we convinced him to cooperate and to go speak to the other two individuals involved.

[Patrick Hines]

He goes, he's talking 100 miles an hour. I have no idea what this guy's saying. Like he eventually gives up these other two bozos. Yeah, Mitchell and Benny. Benny, who's an assistant deputy warden. So pretty high up, I guess.

[Julia Benzavale]

And that must be the thing when you're so cool. Like you. I would imagine these lower level guards probably felt like they had. If your boss at Rikers comes to you and says, we're going to steal this Dali, and if you say no, I'm going to pin the whole thing on you or get your ass fired, like, you know what I mean? This is pretty ill conceived from the start.

[Patrick Hines]

I think working at Rikers at all is a pretty ill conceived.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Situation. I just think it's such a. It's been so notoriously awful for so long. I just don't understand. It's not like any of these guys were like, I don't know what happened. It was great when I got here and all of this just came up around me. I think George in particular is like, oh, I can beat the shit out of people here. I'm in.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

That's how it feels. They're all wearing wires on each other, these four guys.

[Julia Benzavale]

This is my favorite thing because like the two guys at the top are Benny and Mitchell. And like Benny, like you said, he's the assistant deputy warden. Mitch. Mitch is sort of on his level. And then you've got Skull and Pena who are like the low level guys. They are all. Everyone is wearing a wire except for Benny.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

They. They asked me to take my clothes off and they checked me for a wire.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

They stripped him down, though, to make sure he didn't have any recorder on him, which he did. It was in his jacket. He put his jacket off to the side.

[Julia Benzavale]

Everyone is wearing a wire except for Benny.

[Patrick Hines]

And everyone's swearing on their mothers that they didn't do this. Mother, daughters, that they won't rat. Mothers, daughters, kids, whatever. And they're no rat.

[Julia Benzavale]

They're taking meetings down in the basement of record. Like they knew the second they got the painting out the building that this was a bad idea.

[Patrick Hines]

And this is when Greg. We learned that Greg Sokol is from Massachusetts. And we only know this because of this horror. Like the voiceover actors. It on real thick. I entered the locker room.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. At one point, we're going to hear him say, I threw the stapler in the water.

[Patrick Hines]

The main topic of conversation was the painting.

[Julia Benzavale]

This. This poor actor. Like this poor actor doing the reenactment of this guy is really like. He spent a lot of time with the dialogue coach. He thought he was nailing it. I'm proud of him. I see him.

[Patrick Hines]

I don't. Is it bad? I just think it's like very exaggerated. But you're telling me it's. It's just not accurate.

[Julia Benzavale]

It's just like, like, if you want to see the. I mean, obviously like smoke shot.

[Patrick Hines]

By the way, just a reminder. I know that fun here today.

[Julia Benzavale]

The best Boston you will ever see are like the Dunkin Donuts commercials with like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Rachel draft. Because they're really from there. So when you listen to those and then you hear the actors do. When it's done well, it's a thing of beauty.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Julia Benzavale]

But when it's done bad, it's like just so badly done.

[Patrick Hines]

Sorry, voiceover actor.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know,

[Patrick Hines]

girl.

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

Because here's the deal about gut health, but it's not dialed in. Other supplements and training habits don't work as well.

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

That's live. Momentous.com promo code TCO. We all got to be looking at our fiber. We have to be.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. We all learned a little something about fiber today.

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

I love them so much. They are, get this inspired by NASA technology and silver infused temperature regulating fabric. And that is the thing that keeps the temperature all good.

[Julia Benzavale]

I mean, it is my favorite part of the bed. Also, they stay clean longer thanks to their antibacterial silver technology. So Miracle made sheets stay cleaner and fresher up to three times longer than regular sheets.

[Patrick Hines]

And that's also good for your skin, everybody.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes. Also, summer is coming and everybody stinks,

[Patrick Hines]

you know, because all that bacteria can clog your pores, cause breakouts. We're not into that.

[Julia Benzavale]

They're also all like fancy, right? So they're luxury comfort without the luxury price.

[Patrick Hines]

I get in there and I'm like kicking my feet. I'm like, oh my God, let's go.

[Julia Benzavale]

It's like literally, like, it's like a hotel bed when you get.

[Patrick Hines]

It really is like a hotel bed. I love it so much. Feel very fancy and not hot.

[Julia Benzavale]

No, exactly. It's the perfect temperature.

[Patrick Hines]

There you go.

[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Julia Benzavale]

episode and for like that great night's sleep.

[Patrick Hines]

And I mean, honestly, honestly. So all four of them are suspended Indefinitely and without pay. We didn't even talk about worse than what George has gotten.

[Julia Benzavale]

Totally. The two higher ups take Sokol down into the basement to, like, talk to him.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

They. They asked me to take my clothes off, and they checked me for a while.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

They stripped him down, though, to make sure he didn't have any recorder on him, which he did. It was in his jacket. He put his jacket off to the side.

[Julia Benzavale]

But they are convinced he's wearing a wire, so they make him strip.

[Patrick Hines]

And he does.

[Julia Benzavale]

When I said, I was like, why aren't they making them get naked all the time? Like, every. I would assume that everybody is always wearing wire. They make this guy get naked.

[Patrick Hines]

But they didn't check his pockets. But they didn't, because the wire was in his jacket pocket and he just hung it up. These are in the locker.

[Julia Benzavale]

Who, like, ripped a dolly off the wall and then, like, threw, like. Like a painting by Daisy Tipton Hines with a stapler in its place. Like, these are not the sharpest knives in the draw.

[Patrick Hines]

Not, I mean, gaggle of idiots on. On the criminal side and the police side here.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

So two gaggles. So every. They think. The cops think the painting is at Benny's mother's house.

[Julia Benzavale]

Okay, well, I just wanted to take them. I wanted to pour one out for the actress who played Benny's mom because, like, she opens the door and, like, you could just see she gets one house dress. She goes, hi. And she gets one line. But, like, she's, like, doing the confused look. Very. And I could just hear the director being like. But more confused.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, bewildered.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what? If you could try bewildered, that'd be great.

[Patrick Hines]

Nice house dress.

[Julia Benzavale]

Nice house dress.

[Patrick Hines]

So NYPD gets a search warrant. They pound on the door. They search the house. The painting wasn't in there.

[Julia Benzavale]

And, like, we get the reenactment of, like, we think it is there. And Benny's upstairs running it from room to room, like, trying to hide it under mattresses, but it's too big. Like, these people are so dumb.

[Patrick Hines]

This is when Robert from the FBI is back, and I feel very seen because he says what we've heard a million times. It's not the. It's the selling. He says people don't buy stolen art because it's not worth anything.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And he says, like, there is a

[Elliot King / Art Expert]

theory out in the world that some rich Saudi prince or some villain is sitting around his cave staring at paintings that are all stolen, that he bought cheaply. I never saw it happen in 30 years of investigations. Never Saw that happen.

[Patrick Hines]

That's all in the movies. That's all bullshit. He goes, I've been doing this for 30 years. I've never once seen it happen.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I wanted to say because as a person who, like, loves heist things, I want the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum paintings back. But until then, I like. I like thinking that, like, somebody's. It's over somebody's fireplace, admiring them. Because he explains, this whole thing comes from this, like, 1962 James Bond movie. Dr. No. And like, the producer, there was, like, some famous Goya painting that had gone missing around that time, and the producer heard about it, and so we had a replica of that painting made and then put it in a scene in the movie and has James Bond. I was like, oh, I wondered where that went. And that was the legend. That was where we get the legend that, like, some rich Saudi prince has, like, all these famous stolen artwork somewhere.

[Patrick Hines]

Robert, like, no. And he's. He says that things are valued at, like, 35 million, and then they're sold for 200 grand. And I'm like, proving that nobody cares about stolen art. Me most of all.

[Julia Benzavale]

I. But I love. I know, I know. It's just so fascinating.

[Patrick Hines]

But he. He says something interesting. He's like, well, except the one exception is maybe the Mona Lisa, because it's famous, because it was stolen. And I'm like, that's kind of a false equivalency. But I see what you're saying.

[Julia Benzavale]

And people don't know that about the Mona Lisa. It was stolen in, like, 1926 or something, and it only became famous after that. It, like.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, it was very different. It's very different than, like, if you

[Julia Benzavale]

think about, you know what I just thought, like, George Washington, like, probably didn't know about the Mona Lisa. Like, George Washington definitely didn't know about the dinosaurs. You know what I mean? But, like, he probably didn't know about the Mona Lisa. Isn't that weird? Like, the Mona Lisa existed in his time, but he probably never heard of it.

[Patrick Hines]

Yep.

[Julia Benzavale]

That's weird.

[Patrick Hines]

How would he.

[Julia Benzavale]

I don't. It's like one of those, like, TikTok things that, like, you know, this time, like, we're closer to Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the dinosaurs. I know that shit makes me crazy. We don't have time today. We just really don't have time today. We met Gina Gershon, like, one hour ago.

[Patrick Hines]

I can't believe it. That was real, right?

[Julia Benzavale]

It was absolutely wild.

[Patrick Hines]

She was so nice.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

The point is, he's saying that These guys sold it for money, but there is no money to be had. So it doesn't matter that it says a million dollars. These guys think they're splitting a million dollars four ways. No, no, no, no, no. That's not happening.

[Julia Benzavale]

But also, Professor Elliott makes the point.

[Elliot King / Art Expert]

The most famous painting in the world is the Mona Lisa. And the truth about that is it was stolen in 1911 from the Louvre. And because of the publicity, it became the most famous painting in the world.

[Narrator / Documentary Voice]

And I think with the Rikers Island Dali, I would just expect it to be worth more because of the story behind it. It would be certainly worth more than it had been had they not gotten stolen.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like the Mona Lisa. This Dali painting would probably be worth more now because of this art heist, the story. Yeah. So now. Now the dali is worth more than it was because it got stolen.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So Benny is the most cooperative and also the ringleader, we think. And, you know, the cops are like, he's nice. Never got nasty, never asked for a lawyer.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm sorry, you don't get points for that.

[Patrick Hines]

Swell guy all around.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So we're told. And Benny's like, look, funny thing about me, I'm totally innocent. It was all three of them. I had nothing to do with any of it. It's definitely not my mother's house and me.

[Julia Benzavale]

Definitely not on my mother's house or the storage unit that I told the other three guys I was gonna put it in. I didn't put it there. And I also was not involved in this in any way.

[Patrick Hines]

It's not me. On the wire. What wire? What mob? I have no idea.

[Julia Benzavale]

But it's also, like, Detective Mike. He can't help but like the guy. You know what I mean? Like, Detective. Detective Mike likes the guy.

[Patrick Hines]

They, like, see themselves in each other. Truly, some weird way.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah. And, like, what is. I just can't get it out of my head. Like, what a stupid idea. You're the assistant warden. Like, you're doing pretty well. If this is the line of work you want to go into. You're going to steal the dolly painting and think you're. You're going to rip the CCTV tape out of the warden's office. You're the only person who's got a key. Yeah, like how you think this wasn't going to get back to you?

[Patrick Hines]

They say that the salary at the time was like 50 grand a year. So they did want to make more money, which is, like, there are better ways. It's just.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

You Guys are idiots.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So it's not really gonna work.

[Julia Benzavale]

Well, attorney Joe tells us that Benny

[Joe Taina / Defense Lawyer]

was advised by his previous lawyers to plead guilty to take, you know, X amount of years in upstate prison, and he refused. He said, I'm not pleading guilty and I'm going to trial.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm not pleading guilty and I'm going to trial.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

And attorney Joe is like, all right, I guess if we're doing this, let's do this. And the thing is, we get a little bit of this when we get there. I think what Benny and attorney Joe are counting on, it's going to be a jury of. Of Ben peers in the Bronx. These people don't give a fuck about fancy art. These people probably love the idea of sticking it to the man. Like, Benny works with criminals all day long. You know, I think that, like, it's not as much of a miscalculation as I think we might think it would be.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Stick it to the man. Neosis, which is what they had the. The thing that Jack Black says in the movie where he's like, yeah, they're all sick. They have stick it to them on Neosis.

[Julia Benzavale]

Never heard of it. You're lucky, because.

[Patrick Hines]

Anyway, so George, the problematic guard, tells us. He explains how he is involved in this.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Because he's kind of dropped it in.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And so now we get the story. So one of the guards approached him with a plan. Look, we're gonna steal this Dali painting. We're gonna replace it with a dupe. You're gonna draw it because you're the artist.

[Julia Benzavale]

And this is where we learned that he's, like, made paintings for other, like, other guards that I love between, like, breaking arms and, like, bloody noses. He's, like, painting on the side side.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. And he. They're like, no one will know. This is a perfect crime.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah. And I'm like, there's no way we can get caught. Like, we are going to get away with this.

[Patrick Hines]

And the fact that we keep adding more people to this is definitely meaning that we're going to get away with it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Super trustworthy.

[Patrick Hines]

Let's keep telling everyone about it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Very smart people. We know exactly what we're doing here.

[Patrick Hines]

George is like, I am super down one issue. However, I can't go anywhere or do anything because I've been so violent so often. So, yeah, I'm just, like, trapped in the van down by the river. Chris Farley. And so he. They're like, no problem. We have that cover what we're gonna do.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

He gave me a Little Polaroid. It was like on an angle shot. And I said, all right, I'll do what I can do once it's fairly big, a certain size, like, you know, almost the size of the big one. But I said, I don't know how big that is. And I said, basically this big.

[Julia Benzavale]

I said, all right, but we'll guess

[Patrick Hines]

what the scale is, because we don't actually know the size. We didn't measure it. And you'll just base it off this Polaroid, and then you'll draw it perfectly good.

[Julia Benzavale]

We see the Polaroid. The Polaroid doesn't even get the full painting in the Polaroid. Like, the thing about this Dali painting is there, it's was done very quickly, but there is nuance to it. And here's my theory. If they had done a better job with this painting, I think they would have gotten away with it. You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

The. The dupe.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah. If the dupe were better, I think they would have gotten away for it. Maybe we've got one serial prayer that we'd be up against. We're going to meet him in a few minutes. But he might have noticed. But I do think if they had done a better. Because I don't think anyone's looking at this painting. If it was close enough, probably nobody would have even noticed.

[Patrick Hines]

And George is desperate to be back where the action is. He's like, I got to. So he's like, I will do this. I will Dr. This again. They don't even know the size of the painting that George needs to do, but he's like, I'll do all of this, but you got a promise to get me in there. Because I. I mean, they're not even

[Julia Benzavale]

letting this guy pump the gas.

[Patrick Hines]

I haven't beaten the shit out of an inmate in, like, six months.

[Julia Benzavale]

It's been a while, and I'm itching. I totally.

[Patrick Hines]

So I will do this insane thing that doesn't make any sense if you just put in a good word. Not even get me my shitty job back.

[Julia Benzavale]

No. Yeah. Please. Like, let me just beat one guy up.

[Patrick Hines]

I love in the bottom of the barrel.

[Julia Benzavale]

We're in George's house, they bring out a print of the actual do painting.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

He's like, I don't think much of it. I don't care for it. Why is this mine? No, this is actually from the original. I don't know.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

Are you saying you're a better painter than Telly?

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

You're a funny guy. No, I'm a different painter. I don't I don't do work like this.

[Julia Benzavale]

Not really my cup of tea. Like, the producer's like, are you saying you're a better artist than Dolly? He's like, just different.

[Patrick Hines]

He's like, huh, you're funny. You're funny. Now. I googled and that's when it really, like, hits me. Oh, of course they can't Google this because this was a one of a kind.

[Julia Benzavale]

Right Thing.

[Patrick Hines]

As a consolation prize. But I googled and there is another Dali painting called Christ of St. John of the Cross from 1951. Totally different vibe.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, my. Oh, really?

[Patrick Hines]

It's just very detailed. It's very. It's like an oil painting. It's not like a sketch, you know,

[Julia Benzavale]

I can't get over the Christ on a cross. Like, that's pretty funny.

[Patrick Hines]

And then that he called this one, like, that's in 1965. Just like Christ on a cross. Like, whatever. And this one from 1951 that he clearly spent much more time on. Christ of St. John of the Cross.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm like, once again, he woke up with a hangover that morning.

[Patrick Hines]

It was like, you like it?

[Julia Benzavale]

I said I would do what? No, he was like in his bathrobe. No box.

[Patrick Hines]

That's 100%. What?

[Julia Benzavale]

One hand, cigarette dangling out of his mouth. Went right back.

[Patrick Hines]

Slept off the exact. Right, that's exactly right. So, George, the problematic guard, does it. Of course, missed a lot of details because it was a faded Polaroid that didn't have any real details.

[Julia Benzavale]

And the major thing, I mean, probably there's a million major things, but like, like the size, like the actual Dolly is like six by six.

[Patrick Hines]

Guessed the size.

[Julia Benzavale]

He makes like a two by five. Like the, like the size of it is so. It's so different.

[Patrick Hines]

And I would, you know, this would make more sense if someone like, urgently needed to pay medical bills or something. Like the urgency, you know, if there was a real reason, like, oh, my God, this horrible thing happened to my kid and I needed money and I was.

[Julia Benzavale]

Someone needed treatment.

[Patrick Hines]

100%. There's like, there's $1 million right there. And oh, my God, I wasn't thinking because I was so desperate.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

The complete and utter lack of plan. Like, one guy had an idea in that minute and then it all happened the next minute.

[Julia Benzavale]

I truly believe if they had made a better replica, they would have gotten away with it.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, the fake is clapped almost immediately because it's like much, much smaller from the original.

[Julia Benzavale]

Right. Because this is where we. We learn there's a correctional officer who goes to pray at the painting every day. It's his sacred praying corner. He prays at the painting and he's like, you know, dear Lord, thank you for whatever. Forgive us now for all our. And he looks up and sees the painting.

[Patrick Hines]

He's like, that's not the painting.

[Julia Benzavale]

He's like, not on my watch. Not my fucking prey painting. Y Like, there's. And like, the major difference is that the original one had a frame. The original one was much bigger. And this guy realizes, like, it's his prey painting and it's not the same thing. And he like.

[Patrick Hines]

And they didn't know that. Someone is looking at it intensely every single day.

[Julia Benzavale]

But my other thing was, like, how many days went by? Like, did they get away with it for, like, a couple of days? They probably did.

[Patrick Hines]

Maybe they did, you know? So he.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

We learn they were going to call it fire drill in the middle of night, which is strange. And they told the officers that downtown is coming to monitor it. So we have to do this right. Downtown never monitors a fire drill. So with that, they got all the officers away from the front gate area, and this way the area would be left alone. Nobody would be there.

[Patrick Hines]

And they're like, hey, everyone, all the top brass is coming. You better like, be on your ass. And we are told that has never happened and would never happen. It's a ridiculous lie. It doesn't make any sense.

[Julia Benzavale]

How do you do a fire drill in a prison? Like, don't you have to let everybody out of their cells for that?

[Patrick Hines]

I think, much like, a lot of people are involved. I'm sure it's very planned. I'm sure there' you know, I'm sure, like, the. The guards probably have drills about the drill, I guess, you know, a lot could go wrong there. So this just doesn't.

[Julia Benzavale]

And it's a thing that should be. We got to figure out how to get people out in an emergency. I'm glad they're practicing it, but it's

[Patrick Hines]

just shocked that Rikers would even care, you know?

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So they get everyone away from the painting, allegedly. And that's when they make the switch. And it is a God damn mess.

[Julia Benzavale]

They're fighting where we honestly need, like, derpy music under this. Yes. Because, like, one guy is supposed to be opening the thing, but that guy

[Patrick Hines]

can't get it open.

[Julia Benzavale]

So they give the key to the other guy. He, like, rips the thing open. But my favorite part of this whole thing is they get this, like, priceless work of art out of the thing. It Gets stuck on a nail, first of all.

[Patrick Hines]

And also, they want to take the full frame, too. They want to take all of it, instead of idiots just taking the art.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know. I was afraid they were going to do what they did at the gardener heist and, like, take a knife and cut it out. Like, it breaks my fucking heart to think about that. But. But then when they go to put the new, like, the fake dolly in

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

it, and then he instructed Officer Pena

[Julia Benzavale]

to staple that piece, Piece of canvas,

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

which was the duplicate, up into the case, I can remember hearing him say,

[Julia Benzavale]

I don't know how to use the stapler.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

And Nuzo was just yelling at him,

[Julia Benzavale]

like, just bang the stapler. Bang the stapler.

[Patrick Hines]

They are using a stapler. They want a stapler.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm sorry. It's a stapler.

[Patrick Hines]

Stapler.

[Julia Benzavale]

They're using a stapler.

[Patrick Hines]

They can't work the stapler. These are people who literally cannot work the stapler. And then they're screaming at each other.

[Julia Benzavale]

They can't figure out the stapler.

[Patrick Hines]

And by the time they get everything done, they turn around and there's a leaf from a potty plant on the table or whatever in front of it behind the glass that wasn't there before

[Julia Benzavale]

the plant into the. Into the case.

[Patrick Hines]

Now they have to do it all again.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Gaggle of idiots get the stapler. So they all leave. They throw the latex gloves they were wearing down a storm drain. They throw the silver stapler into the water. Stapler.

[Julia Benzavale]

Sorry, that's not what happened.

[Patrick Hines]

Silver stapler.

[Julia Benzavale]

They threw the stapler into the water.

[Patrick Hines]

Into the water near Staten Island.

[Julia Benzavale]

And they literally have the guy, like, the actor on the stand saying, and then we threw the stapler into the water. Like, it is unbelievable.

[Patrick Hines]

Now, speaking of a gaggle of idiots. In their investigation, the cops realized that they have to go back to Benny's mother's house because they. They searched it once, and it wasn't there. But in listening to the audio tapes again, they realized that one of the guys literally told them where it was in the house.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, was that. I missed that.

[Patrick Hines]

They realized one of the guys were like, oh, yeah, it's up there in the ceiling. And they're like, oh, I guess we should go back.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Gaggles and gaggles of idiots.

[Julia Benzavale]

I love, too, that Mike goes back, Detective Mike goes back and he's like, I'm just going to sit with the mom in the kitchen and have some tea.

[Patrick Hines]

He was like, she was really nice.

[Julia Benzavale]

The actress gets a second day on set.

[Patrick Hines]

Great job.

[Julia Benzavale]

Hope she. She had some crafty. She is there. She's like. And I love that she's like. She has no lines in this scene. It's all like, voiceover or whatever. So she's stirring the tea and, like, fake talking, which I was very into for her.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, she did great. She did a great job.

[Julia Benzavale]

I want her.

[Patrick Hines]

While they're looking for the painting.

[Detective Mike / Investigator]

And I went up there and it was stolen materials from Rikers island in one of the rooms. Logbooks, gun lockers, pictures, inmate blankets, stuff like that. And, you know, I said, what's all this stuff? He goes, oh, they told me I could take it.

[Patrick Hines]

He's like, what? I was told I could have it.

[Julia Benzavale]

I was told. So Mike gets on the phone, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Calls like, the lady at Rikers and was like, did you tell Benny he could have this stuff? They were like, absolutely not. I love that. Mike. Today, two cameras. Like, what does anybody want one of these fucking rolled up Rikers island blankets?

[Patrick Hines]

Also, this gets Benny fired. George all but fired. Everything to keep him on the payroll.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're absolutely.

[Patrick Hines]

Benny steals a couple blankets, he's out. It is also weird. Like, logbooks, photos, like, what this is, like, weird, obsessive or some kind of odd behavior. Why do you have all of this?

[Julia Benzavale]

It's true.

[Patrick Hines]

It's scary to me that, like, a warden at Rikers would, like, have, like, are these like fucking souvenirs or trophies? I don't know what is going on here.

[Julia Benzavale]

Micah once again looks at the camera's like, I kind of like the guy. I don't know what to. I kind of really like the guy.

[Patrick Hines]

I don't.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Detective, whatever your name is.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

So all four of these guys are indicted. The Tim, Greg, Mitch, Benny dude, which

[Julia Benzavale]

I was like, wait a second. I thought, what about, like, the two low level guys that, like, were the first to come to you and be like, if I. Everything I know. Can I not go to prison, please? Nope, you're all indicted. All indicted. The same.

[Patrick Hines]

And so the big question is, like, where the hell is this original painting?

[Julia Benzavale]

Right?

[Patrick Hines]

Like, what did Benny destroy it? Like, was it in the mother ceiling? And now it's in a storage unit somewhere? But as Robert from the FBI and me.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Say, who cares?

[Julia Benzavale]

Well, I mean, I care. You know, the whole thing is that, like.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, I mean, here's what I was thinking. We'll get probably to this at the end.

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

End.

[Julia Benzavale]

But, like, they were told that it was originally put in a storage locker and that maybe never made its way to Benny's mom's house. And I was like, some lucky son of a bitch on Storage Wars. I literally. I'm like, am I going to just go buy storage? Yeah. We're like, for 100 bucks, you, like, buy the contents of a storage locker. Can you imagine? You're the guy that, like, buys the dolly storage locker.

[Patrick Hines]

I wonder if the person would even get what it is, because the story about it, that he did this, that it's a one of a kind.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Consolation prize. Or not. It was a one of a kind thing that he made and was sent for a spec reason. Like, that story is very interesting.

[Julia Benzavale]

Let me say this, and you tell me if you think this is okay. What if I was the guy and I got the storage lock? Oh, my God. I'm getting chills.

[Patrick Hines]

You're on Storage Wars.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm on Storage Wars. I get the locker, but, like, nobody sees the contents. No, but, like, I'm in there and I find the dolly.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

I would keep it in my personal possession for one year. Oh, I'm getting, like, the chills thinking about it.

[Patrick Hines]

Okay.

[Julia Benzavale]

I would hang it in my home. I would have. I. I wouldn't tell anybody. I would just be like, oh, it's a. It's a piece of art. Until the. The one year was up, and then I would return it to the prison, and then I would tell everybody what the. And I would get pictures of people near it, but not tell them.

[Patrick Hines]

Why Would you want money for it?

[Julia Benzavale]

No, no, no, no, no. Not a penny. I wouldn't want a penny.

[Patrick Hines]

I feel like Dali would be like, find us keepers. Like, hang in your house and tell everybody.

[Julia Benzavale]

I got to tell you. And this is why I would be good at that FBI job, because FBI. Robert, who's like the investigator, he's like, it doesn't belong to us. It belongs to everybody. Oh, that's. And I believe that. Like, I will tell you, I did a catering gig when I was very young in New York. One of the first things I ever did, I was a cater bartender for Salvador Dali. But I woman had in her dining room these two huge prints of Keith Haring paintings. And I was like, wow, those are like. Those prints are amazing. No, baby, those are originals. They were originals given to her by Keith Haring.

[Patrick Hines]

Holy.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I remember thinking, those belong to everybody. You know what I mean? Like, I. And I get it. They were a gift from him to her or whatever. But if I found this dolly I would keep it for one year. I would keep it for. For one year, not tell anybody what it was. Hang it in my living room. If people ask questions, I don't know what I would say.

[Patrick Hines]

Would you like, make up some story?

[Julia Benzavale]

Probably because I don't want to. I don't.

[Patrick Hines]

You'd have to have an easy answer.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes, because I don't want to get robbed in the middle of the night.

[Patrick Hines]

Because, like. And then would you hide the. The signature? Because he signed it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, I would, like, wrote.

[Patrick Hines]

He like, wrote a note, like. Like, hey, Riker, sorry I couldn't make it. Like, it was a very, very personal thing.

[Julia Benzavale]

You know what I would do? I'd put it in our bedroom. Because when we have people over our parties, nobody goes in there, you know, And I. I would take a select few trusted people into the bedroom and show them.

[Patrick Hines]

But I can see it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Of course. You'd be my first phone call. Unless you don't want to be complicit.

[Patrick Hines]

I'll be complicit.

[Julia Benzavale]

And that's.

[Patrick Hines]

I'll be complicit.

[Julia Benzavale]

And then after one year, we return it. I don't want a dime. Here you go. You can have it back.

[Patrick Hines]

You didn't do anything. It came to you.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

Dolly wanted me to have you in some way. It was in a store. You won Storage wars or whatever.

[Julia Benzavale]

I'm going to go buy every storage locker in Queens. Anything that comes out.

[Patrick Hines]

Auction still on?

[Julia Benzavale]

I don't know.

[Patrick Hines]

Do people get so upset when it was like, empty?

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah. Or like it's 99% of the time. It's just people's crowd.

[Patrick Hines]

I was going to say how often is it that it's some kind of like, amazing thing that every now and then would want or use or care about?

[Julia Benzavale]

Because it's more trouble than it's worth ultimately. Because it's just garbage, you know?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. Anyway, that's a fun little fantasy.

[Julia Benzavale]

I know. Now I really want that girl. Dose is back. Can we talk about the liver for just a second?

[Patrick Hines]

I would love that.

[Julia Benzavale]

You gotta take care of the liver, fam. It's a very important part of your body.

[Patrick Hines]

So that's why Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement.

[Julia Benzavale]

And hear me out. Because it's not another capsule or a powder. Dose is a liquid supplement.

[Patrick Hines]

It.

[Julia Benzavale]

It's taken in a daily 2 ounce shot and it tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice. I actually love it.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And so Dose cleanses the liver of unwanted stressors that's slowing down your liver we don't need that. We need our liver to be ready to go.

[Julia Benzavale]

It promotes daily liver function. So the liver can do its job. And it's got zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories.

[Patrick Hines]

And in case you're wondering, the liver's job, it's your body's filter.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So it's processing everything you consume and it performs over 500 daily functions. We need this girl up and running.

[Julia Benzavale]

I mean, am I the only person that like immediately in my mind goes to my bourbon? I needed to clean out the bourbon.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, among like 499 other things.

[Julia Benzavale]

Okay, but that one the most important.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

And look, if you drink it daily, you're going to reduce sluggishness. You're going to get rid of those midday crashes which used to be my kryptonite, support your metabolism and even aid your daily digestion.

[Patrick Hines]

That's right. So if you're ready to solve the mystery of why you've been feeling off, check out dose daily.co tco or enter tco to get 35% off your first subscription.

[Julia Benzavale]

You nailed that girl. Your body does so much for you. Let's do it. Something for it.

[Patrick Hines]

That's D O S E D a I l y.co tco for 35% off your first month subscription.

[Julia Benzavale]

You're amazing. Good work.

[Patrick Hines]

Who works harder, me or the liver? The liver. So Joe the asshole lawyer is like, Betty's always been innocent. He's super nice.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Everybody turned on him. He's a victim.

[Julia Benzavale]

The whole thing that Joe the attorney is saying is that it's a two pronged. Because remember, Benny's going on trial now. For them, it's a two pronged case.

[Joe Taina / Defense Lawyer]

The first battleground was he didn't do it. You can't rely on these witnesses as a fallback. We had to devalue the painting. There was a high level felony if the painting was. If the sketch was worth over a million, if it's below 25,000, for example, it's a misdemeanor. Which is a far cry from 10 to 15, 15 years in jail, you

[Julia Benzavale]

know, if the painting is valued at less than 25 grand, it's a misdemeanor. It's like basically no jail time.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. And so like without the painting, he's saying you can't really determine the value of it.

[Julia Benzavale]

And that's a fair, you know, like,

[Patrick Hines]

which could go either way though.

[Julia Benzavale]

100. Right. Like an original Salvador Dali like that

[Patrick Hines]

written with a note to rikers on it.

[Julia Benzavale]

100%.

[Patrick Hines]

So Dr. Ellen Ewald. Is here. She's an art appraiser.

[Julia Benzavale]

She's also kind of trash.

[Patrick Hines]

But Joe says this, like, shitty thing where he's like, she shows up to the Bronx in her $5,000 Chanel suit. Joe, I Googled you. I see the suit.

[Julia Benzavale]

Ye.

[Patrick Hines]

I see the watches. I've seen your shitty, guilty clients. Like, don't go there.

[Julia Benzavale]

I agree. But she showed up with security. But. But to him. To him, that worked in his favor because Joe is the one to be like, these people on the jury are people from the Bronx. They are normal, common sense, everyday people. This woman who's on the opposing side shows up in a Chanel suit and four security guards, like, she's too good for the Bronx. That totally works.

[Patrick Hines]

I understand, like, the optics of it, but, like, how much was that Rolex job?

[Julia Benzavale]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Who paid you? How much blood money is that Rolex worth?

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally get that. Like, everybody sucks.

[Patrick Hines]

And so. But he explains that, like, she is a hired gun, which many experts are, as we've learned. Like, when we have, like, the dueling experts. And then it's like, it's a wash, right? So she says, according to him, whatever needs to be said. And he apparently found a couple of cases in his research on her where, like, sometimes a painting will be worth one thing, and then suddenly, once, like, the insurance kicks in, it's worth three times more than what she originally said

[Julia Benzavale]

because she's valuing this dolly at $250,000. That's really bad for Benny. That's like. That's like 15 years in jail. And he's. His argument to the jury is that, like, she's full of shit because she valued this one painting at $25,000, and when the insurance company hired her, she valued it at, like, a million dollars.

[Patrick Hines]

And he calls her on this, on the stands.

[Joe Taina / Defense Lawyer]

Yeah, I don't want to answer that question. I said, your honor. Yes, you have to answer that question. I take the Fifth Amendment. Okay, that was great.

[Julia Benzavale]

She pleads the Fifth.

[Patrick Hines]

Really a bad.

[Julia Benzavale]

Look, look, this is my Real Housewives. Like, I'm not a Housewives person, but the art heist shit is my housewives.

[Patrick Hines]

This is your. Let's talk about the husband. This is your.

[Julia Benzavale]

This seats timeline. You know what I mean? Because it's like, it's a world that is so far removed from me. Like, we're going to, like, in her Chanel suits, with her bodyguards, value. Like, I just love it so much.

[Patrick Hines]

So we meet Alex Rosenberg, who's a witness for the defense yeah, he actually knew. He's a Dolly expert, but he knew him personally. He was a former student. So he brings the value down a lot for the defense to like 20 grand.

[Julia Benzavale]

Because he's saying, like the thing about this, it was like a piece of shit. It was like Dolly grabbed whatever piece of paper he had near him. It was not acid proof paper. It'll deteriorate, deteriorate over time. And I was like, that's a pretty strong argument.

[Patrick Hines]

And it was also in Gen pop for a while, getting damaged. So it wasn't even properly kept. Like, who to say that that glass was actually doing anything? Like, we don't know. And he's making, he's making good points, saying that even in this time from 1965 to now, it is deteriorated significantly just based on where it has been all this time.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, yeah. And then like the next part of this thing is boring. So we'll go through this fast.

[Patrick Hines]

I just want to say something about the appraising of it.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, please. I could talk about that all day.

[Patrick Hines]

This is what frustrates. Because art is subjective.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Like it's really only worth what someone is willing to pay for it 100%. So someone might think today that it's actually worth like $10 million because of the story that's attached to it. Like that's what happened with the Mona Lisa.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yes. And that happens all the time.

[Patrick Hines]

All of this back and forth. As a, as a juror, if I'm putting myself, it doesn't matter to me.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah, right. Because we're normal people. Like, this is not our world in any way.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. But. But it's also like, I don't. Well, is it the point that it was stolen at all? Like, yeah, I think it's worth a million. You think it's worth 10 million? You think it's worth a dollar? Yeah, like that kind of. You can't prove that.

[Julia Benzavale]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

You can't prove what it's really worth.

[Julia Benzavale]

The only way you can is like through comps. I guess. Like you can say like other things like this, that Dolly did sold for this amount of money or whatever.

[Patrick Hines]

But the point, the like, beautiful thing about art is that it's so subjective and something can speak to me and you can be like, that means nothing to me. And vice versa.

[Julia Benzavale]

It makes me think about when I worked in the restaurant industry and like the win list. So I worked at like fancy steakhouses. Right. And so there are like the famous name brand bottles of wine like K. It's all markup.

[Patrick Hines]

It's all a markup.

[Julia Benzavale]

I never knew that much about wine, but my friend Steven really does, and he works the wine list all the time, and he's always so impressed when people come in and they order the bottle of wine that Steven knows is, like, the best bottle on the menu, but it's like, half it based on, like, if. You know, like, the vineyards and the years and the climate and the. Whatever.

[Patrick Hines]

That's an educated purchase, like, saying. Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

Like, that's the thing about artists that, like, I mean, everybody loves Dali, everybody loves Warhol, everybody loves Pollock. Everybody loves Rembrandt, you know? But then it's like the smaller artists that are making things of value that no one's ever heard of, that, like, aren't expensive, that you just have a taste for. And that's where. Like, that's the beauty in art for me. Absolutely.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, I have art in my home that some people would hate or not. Or I got for $5 or I got for more than that or whatever. But, like, that's why it's hard for me. It's like we're. Wait, we're. To me, it feels like we're wasting. In this moment because it kind of is all about what you're willing, what you. What it's worth to you.

[Julia Benzavale]

And the only reason we're even talking about it is because the value of the thing is gonna determine the sentence that he's gonna get.

[Patrick Hines]

You know what I mean? As a lawyer, I guess a great way to do that. And, like, that's a tangible thing in this world in some way. But for me, I'm like. But that's the cool thing about art, though.

[Julia Benzavale]

And that's kind of what makes this case interesting, is that the crime was the stealing of the painting. But the punishment will be determined by how much the painting is worth. Isn't that interesting?

[Patrick Hines]

It is interesting. Cause then it's like, well, you can. Yeah. Dep. Depend. I guess if it's not art, it would be like, well, I only stole.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

That cup. As opposed to that. This piece of equipment that's worth much more, you know?

[Julia Benzavale]

Exactly. Yeah. That. I hadn't really thought about that to this degree. But, like, I guess, like, as an attorney, that's Joe's job. Like, how can I get him the lightest sentence possible to make it tangible. Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Like something that's not tangible.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So now we had to pick apart these wire transcripts. Like, what did they know? When did they know it? Blah, blah, blah.

[Julia Benzavale]

We're not gonna do it. Basically, there There were two different transcripts, one from the prosecution and one from the defense. The prosecution says on the tape that was recorded on all the wires everybody was wearing.

[Joe Taina / Defense Lawyer]

Quality of the recording was sketchy at best. What the prosecution thought they had on that recording was Benny saying, don't worry. They'll never see the dolly again. Don't worry. As long as we all stick together, we'll be okay. My interpretation was slightly different. I had him say in court, what I thought I heard was, I have no idea what happened to that dolly.

[Julia Benzavale]

There were two different transcripts, one from the prosecution and one from the defense. The prosecution says on the tape that was recorded on all the wires everybody was wearing, Benny admits to knowing where the painting is.

[Patrick Hines]

And that's why Joe is focusing on the. On the price, because he kind of can't deny that his client did this,

[Julia Benzavale]

except that he does, because Joe, the attorney's like, well, in my hearing of the tape, he's just saying, I don't know where it is. And he basically tricks one of the witnesses on the stand to agreeing to his version version of the transcript, which says that Benny said, I don't know where the painting is.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

That throws the whole thing into chaos.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, guess what. The jury comes back, bada bing, bada boom. Benny is found not guilty because it's

[Julia Benzavale]

Friday, and they all want to go home, and they don't give a fuck.

[Patrick Hines]

He literally runs out of there. The lawyer was like, what? Not even a thank you? And he wants to run before the jury changes their mind. And the jury eventually says in the paper, it was a Friday. No one really gave a shit about the art or any of this. Like, nobody cared.

[Julia Benzavale]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And they just want to be done.

[Julia Benzavale]

And they're just like. They're all, like, members of the community from the Bronx, like Benny, their people, they don't give a shit about this

[Patrick Hines]

crazy story, and they just don't care.

[Julia Benzavale]

They don't care.

[Patrick Hines]

And at the end of the day, we're just told, like, Salvador Dali would probably love this. Like, the drama, intrigue, the stupidity, even, like, the absurdity of it. Like, the fact that we're talking about this in 2026, that, like, so Dali. No question that he didn't even care about the painting. He bailed on the class as a consolation prize. And here we are, all these years later, making episodes about it, and we

[Julia Benzavale]

don't know where the painting is. The painting's just been, like, lost to history at this point.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Julia Benzavale]

And I'm gonna find it in a storage locker. And hang at my house for a year.

[Patrick Hines]

That would be. Or no, you won't. And no one will ever.

[Julia Benzavale]

No one will ever know. Although I will want my picture taken for the paper when I return it after a year.

[Patrick Hines]

Fair enough. Which will never happen.

[Julia Benzavale]

Which will never happen. Oh, my God, girl. We did the Dali heist from Smug Shot. I gotta hand it to them. Like, their cinematography is pretty. Like, they really put care in the way they shoot the episode.

[Patrick Hines]

Very cinematic. Maybe it's because it was on, like the Sundance channel or something. Maybe they're really going back to their film roots. But no, it is very. It doesn't feel very cheesy. Even though the stories can be kind of totally cheesy. Yeah, fam.

[Julia Benzavale]

Join the Patreon. You get over 500 full ad free bonus episodes. We also have ad free versions of these episodes on the hero bell tier. We are. We are giving you our hot take on what's it called? Predators, which is all about that TV show. What's it called?

[Patrick Hines]

To Catch a Predator.

[Julia Benzavale]

Thank you so much.

[Patrick Hines]

But we had, like, issues with the documentary.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, we had major issues with. We had a lot to say about it.

[Patrick Hines]

We were angry.

[Julia Benzavale]

That's where we also covered episodes of Mob Wives. Yeah, we do Unsolved Mysteries there sometimes. You can find a link in the show notes if you want to join us there. What are we doing next?

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

Girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Okay. It's called the Missing Millionaires. It's on Hulu for some reason. It's split up into two 45 minute episodes. This is a 90 minute doc, easy. Oh, it was weird. I was like, we could have just kept going. I don't know why they did this, but it's the missing Millionairess.

[Julia Benzavale]

Are you saying Millionairess?

[Patrick Hines]

Millionairess is what? Oh, she's got a whole story. Mad Men way is. This is a. This is a pretty. It's a pretty crazy case.

[Julia Benzavale]

Would Gina Gershon play her in the movie?

[Patrick Hines]

Gina Gershon would never.

[Julia Benzavale]

She would also never get deserved.

[Patrick Hines]

Gina Gershon.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, my God. We met that today.

[Patrick Hines]

That's crazy.

[Julia Benzavale]

Oh, my God. All right, fam. We love you.

[Patrick Hines]

We love you.

[Julia Benzavale]

Bye.

[Patrick Hines]

Dover Heights mother Melissa Caddick went for an early morning run, but she never came home. Officers are searching footage in a bid to find missing millionaire Melissa K. Her

[Voice Actor / Reenactment Actor]

teenage son and her husband have left

[Joe Taina / Defense Lawyer]

behind arguably the most high profile missing

[Julia Benzavale]

person case we've seen in a very long time. This foot has turned up on a remote beach in a shoe.

[Patrick Hines]

It is confirmed the DNA match. I want you to draw me trace your name on my.

[Julia Benzavale]

The history of what happened to Melissa Caddick is intensifying.

[Patrick Hines]

You don't know my head.