Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Indian Prince and Wife Strangled, Suffocated To Death in NYC By Killers Who Also Fatally Stabbed Two Men

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Indian Prince and Wife Strangled, Suffocated To Death in NYC By Killers Who Also Fatally Stabbed Two Men · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. Today we are stepping inside
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  one of New York City's most storied buildings, five twenty
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  one Park Avenue.
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  Speaker 2: An address that just screams exclusivity.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and the date is April twelfth, nineteen ninety three.
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  This is where, well, the very refined world of Transatlantic
• 0:17
  high society collided head on with something incredibly brutal street violence.
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  Speaker 2: Really, it's such a jarring contrast, isn't it, Five twenty
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  one Park. I mean, it's this pre war bastion of
• 0:28
  complete elegance, stately discrete, all about that inherited status. Right,
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  But that Monday morning, everything changed the usual sense, you know,
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  fresh flowers, maybe lemon oil polish. They were just overwhelmed
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  by something grim, something really wrong.
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  Speaker 1: The smell of blood and decay. You mentioned it. It
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  was seeping from a six room apartment on the seventh floor.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it wasn't just a crack in the facade. It
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  felt like the whole thing was stained and the.
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  Speaker 1: People inside the victims. Chittresh Kedker known as Teddy. He
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  presented herself as this Indian.
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  Speaker 2: Prince, styled self that way, very careful, and.
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  Speaker 1: His wife, Naniessha, she was the real deal right along
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  established socialite.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, they were, for all intents and purposes, New
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  York's power couple, leveraging those titles, the rumored fortunes.
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  Speaker 1: To keep their place at the top.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. So when the news broke, this city was just captivated.
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  Speaker 1: Instant You can imagine the Upper East Side buzzing, the
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  media going wild.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone assumed it had to be, you know, some complex
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  international thing, old royal feuds, shady business rivals, maybe a crime.
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  Speaker 1: Of passion, like a neighbor apparently said a fairy tale
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  gone terribly wrong.
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  Speaker 2: That quote really captured the initial reaction. But the truth, well,
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  that's what we're digging.
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  Speaker 1: Into today, right Our mission here is to look at
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  the sources you shared and really pull back that velvet curtain,
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  because this wasn't some palace intry, not even close.
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  Speaker 2: It was frankly, much more chilling the climax of a
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  four person murder.
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  Speaker 1: Spree, four people, not just the Ketekers.
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  Speaker 2: Four people driven by this really disturbing mix of contempt,
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  financial desperation, and carried out by this deadly duo who
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  came from the absolute fringes of the city.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so we're going to trace the Kenker's lives, that
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  gilded cage they lived in, look.
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  Speaker 2: At why the investigation stalled so badly at first.
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  Speaker 1: And then finally unmask these killers, who, as the sources say,
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  reduced Park Avenue royalty to well cooling husks.
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  Speaker 2: It's a grim phrase, but it captures the brutality. Let's
• 2:25
  start with the discovery itself. Yeah, because that tells you
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  a lot about how stragile their world actually was, how
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  so well the bodies had been there for days in
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  this incredibly managed secure building, nobody noticed.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. It points to a disruption, doesn't it. The
• 2:41
  routine was so meticulous. Apparently this apartment, this gilded cage,
• 2:45
  nobody checked until the staff got worried.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly they were last scene alive or known to be alive.
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  On Friday, April ninth. The maid had her regular Saturday
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  morning shift, but her calls, her knocks, nothing. And this
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  was very unlike Nanesha, who apparently ran that household like clockwork.
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  Speaker 1: So Saturday passes, Sunday passes.
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  Speaker 2: Just silence, complete silence. By Monday, April twelfth, the mate
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  had had enough. She insisted they do something.
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  Speaker 1: So the building superintendent, the doorman. They had to physically
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  force the lock. These old pre war doors are serious.
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  Speaker 2: They are heavy duty stuff. And what they found inside
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  wasn't just a crime scene. It was this shocking violation
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  of order.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't neat, it's screamed struggle.
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  Speaker 2: You said, oh absolutely, The sources use that phrase gothic
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  nightmare inside this apartment. That was usually like, you know,
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  an Aladdin's cave of.
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  Speaker 1: Artifacts in coorcelain, faberge eggs, that kind of.
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  Speaker 2: Thing exactly, But now it's next to overturned furniture drawers,
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  yanked open, stuff, rifled through expensive Persian rugs, all bunched
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  up in a skew. It clearly showed there's been violent movement.
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  Speaker 1: And the victims themselves, how they were found tells a
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  story too.
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  Speaker 2: Titty Kidker, he was found face down in a pool
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  of unfortunately can healing blood, but even in death, he
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  was dressed at the.
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  Speaker 1: Part that emerald green velvet dinner jacket. It's such a
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  striking dese.
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  Speaker 2: In it, almost defiant. He also had this superficial gash
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  on his neck, which initially threw the police a bit.
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  And and then she was in the bedroom, sprawled near
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  the foot of their king sized, bed fully dressed, but
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  her face frozen in this look of just pure silent.
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  Speaker 1: Terror, horrifying. And you mentioned her body looked largely unmarked,
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  at least on the surface, unlike Teddy's neck.
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  Speaker 2: Wound, right, And that difference, plus the fact that tragically
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  decomposition had begun because they've been there for two maybe three.
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  Speaker 1: Days, it masked the finer details for the medical examiner.
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  Speaker 2: Initially it did made the immediate assessment tricky, but the
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  basic finding was clear. Both died from asphyxia.
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  Speaker 1: Lack of oxygen.
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  Speaker 2: For Teddy it looked like strangulation, probably was something like
• 4:50
  a belt, a ligature. For Nanesha it was suffocation, maybe
• 4:54
  a pillow, maybe even bizarrely a soft belt used differently.
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  Speaker 1: So given the ransact of apartment, robbery is the obvious
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  motive right away. But what was taken This wasn't us
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  smashing grap.
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  Speaker 2: For electronics, definitely not. The targets were specific, high value,
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  portable wealth things they could carry out easily. Kick jewelry,
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  n Nish's diamond tiara for one, Teddy's gold cuff links,
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  antique silverware, and crucially this collection of Indian rubies and
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  other artifacts. Teddy valued at well over two hundred thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so you put that together, high value items gone,
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  the specific quiet methods of killing, strangulation, suffocation, and no
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  forced entry.
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  Speaker 2: It starts to smell like a planned execution, doesn't it?
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  Not random? It suggests they knew the killers or were
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  expertly fooled into letting them.
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  Speaker 1: In into the safest space they had exactly.
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  Speaker 2: That opulence was the target, but the method felt calculated,
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  more than just a quick score.
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  Speaker 1: But behind that opulence, as you said, things were maybe
• 5:52
  not quite so solid. Let's talk about who these people
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  really were, this idea of royalty and exile.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, understanding the Kedgers themselves is key. They were masters
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  of well marketing themselves. Teddy Ketker born nineteen thirty six.
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  He did come from a minor royal line in India,
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  ked On Johnville, Maharashtra region. That's right. And he definitely
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  played up ancestral claims going back centuries to the Mogul era.
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  Speaker 1: But that's the catch, isn't it minor royalty? And after
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  India's independence in forty seven, those princely states were well abolished.
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  The titles lost their power.
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  Speaker 2: They became historical footnotes, essentially no legal standing. So the
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  question is how did Teddy manage to keep this princely
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  persona going for decades in New York.
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  Speaker 1: He must have been incredibly charismatic.
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  Speaker 2: Brilliant self promoter. He shows up in the US in
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  the nineteen sixties. He's got this economics degree from Bombay University,
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  but forget academia. He immediately starts crafting this image.
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  Speaker 1: The international man of mystery.
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  Speaker 2: Finance here industrialist. Yeah, he claimed huge stakes and everything petrochemicals, textiles,
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  even early tech firms, big impressive stuff.
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  Speaker 1: And the stories he told tiger hunts, boldroom battles.
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  Speaker 2: Legend dairy tales, probably mostly fabricated. The sources are pretty
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  clear a lot of his deals were more smoke than fire.
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  He was living off inherited money mostly and selling off
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  family art when things got tight.
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  Speaker 1: So that Park Avenue apartment, the pitotara they bought in
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  the early eighties, that wasn't just a home, It was
• 7:17
  a prop.
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  Speaker 2: It was absolutely essential. It was his precarious perch, as
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  one source called it. It looked solid, regal, but it
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  was the stage set he needed to keep the performance alive.
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  That address validated everything.
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  Speaker 1: And Nanestsha, She seems like she was maybe the more
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  grounded part of the equation, at least financially.
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  Speaker 2: Nanesha was the real anchor, socially and financially, a true
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  grand dam born sometime in the nineteen twenties. Her background's
• 7:44
  a bit hazy, maybe Paraguay, maybe Brazilian roots.
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  Speaker 1: But the key was her previous marriage exactly.
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  Speaker 2: She was the wealthy widow of Max Hoffman, a shoe magnate,
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  big money that gave her serious capital and established connections
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  in New York society way back in the.
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  Speaker 1: Fifties, and that status.
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  Speaker 2: With incredible grace, always perfectly put together host of these
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  elegant salons, diplomats, producers, artists. Her apartment really was this
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  Aladdin's cave of valuable stuff, meing porcelain, maybe Faberge eggs,
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  all meant to signal timeless wealth. She was a master
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  of reinvention too, but her wealth, unlike Teddy's, was tangible.
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  Speaker 1: So when they got married in nineteen eighty three, it
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  sounds like a mix of convenience and maybe some real sparks.
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  Speaker 2: Definitely seemed like both publicly they were this glamorous Transatlantic couple.
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  Privately Apparently it was a constant battle, really volatile, and a.
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  Speaker 1: Lot of that stem from Teddy's behavior. Sources mentioned a
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  wandering eye, oh.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, chasing younger women, downtown artists, uptown models. It constantly
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  drove nshit crazy. She was funding the lifestyle, and she
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  demanded loyalty, at least of the public image.
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  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the money problems. That facade was
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  expensive to maintain.
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  Speaker 2: In the early nineties, recession hit them hard. Their capitals
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  were shrinking, Whispers started circulating, unpaid bills, bounced checks, even
• 9:03
  apparently quietly pawning smaller heirlooms to keep afloat.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like this cycle of financial stress, Nanesha threatens
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  to cut him.
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  Speaker 2: Off, which sends Teddy scrambling for the next big score,
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  that one deal that would fix everything and keep the
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  lights on at Park Avenue.
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  Speaker 1: But they stayed together through all this.
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  Speaker 2: They seemed bound together by that need for status. Nanesha
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  especially reportedly feared being alone facing the void. As one
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  source put it, they needed each other for the performance.
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  Speaker 1: And that very performance, That desperation for a score, made them.
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  Speaker 2: Vulnerable tragically predictable targets in retrospect, which leads us right
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  into the investigation part three, because once the initial shock
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  wore off, the police hit a wall fast.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Detective Michael Slender and his team, they had almost
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  nothing to work with initially.
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  Speaker 2: It was incredibly frustrating for them. No solid physical evidence,
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  fingerprints were smudged, no usable DNA back then really, and
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  the big one no forced entry.
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  Speaker 1: So right away you're thinking inside job or someone they
• 10:00
  trusted exactly.
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  Speaker 2: So they spent crucial early days chasing theories about, you know,
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  Teddy's supposed Indian rivals, disgruntled investors from his Phantom deals
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  dead ends.
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  Speaker 1: The most concrete clue they had was the doorman's log
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  from that Friday, April ninth, the last time they were
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  seen alive.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Right entertaining two men described as antiques dealers, but the
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  descriptions were maddeningly vague.
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  Speaker 1: One tall, kind of scruffy but polished, the other younger, kneader.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty much, and the doorman confirmed they left hours later
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  carrying nothing suspicious, just innocuous shopping bags like they bought
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  something small, clever.
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  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The official autopsy confirmation doesn't
• 10:40
  even come until May eleventh, weeks later. Why the delay
• 10:44
  who was ended.
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  Speaker 2: The decomposition Again, they knew it was asphyxia, but pinning
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  down the exact method took time. The May eleventh report
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  finally confirmed Teddy was strangled with a belt like thing.
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  The leather left a pattern, and the natshaw was suffocated,
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  likely with all based on the potechial hemorrhages. Those tiny
• 11:02
  burst of blood vessels in the eyes that confirmed blunt
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  forces phyxiation. The next slash on Teddy, yeah, definitely superficial
• 11:10
  part of the struggle. Probably grabbed a letter opener or something.
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  Speaker 1: So weeks are passing, the tabloids are having a field day.
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  Slain in silk sheets, all sorts of wild theories flying around,
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  six kgb, jealous lovers, pure chaos.
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  Speaker 2: It was actively hindering things, probably all that noise. They
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  needed something solid.
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  Speaker 1: And the break came from somewhere completely unexpected. Not forensics,
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  not an informant, but a pawn shop.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly low tech, old school police work. Records surfaced from
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  April tenth. Now remember that's the day after the murders,
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  but before the bodies were even found.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, the killers were already fencing the lute risky and sloppy.
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  Speaker 2: The fence described the guy as a derelict, jittery maybe
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  mid twenties, strong bronx accent, definitely didn't fit the Park
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  Avenue profile. And the crucial mistake he pawned some Mollerkedker
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  items but accidentally left Teddy's wallet behind, complete with his
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  business card. Boom, direct physical link from the street crime
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  to the victims.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Huge breakthrough, and there was another piece, wasn't there from
• 12:12
  someone who knew the Ketkers right.
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  Speaker 2: Rachel Kane, a twenty eight year old musician cabaret performer,
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  lived in Hell's Kitchen. She had this kind of platonic
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  mentoring relationship with Teddy. He'd lend her cash sometimes.
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  Speaker 1: And she was trying to reach them that weekend frantically.
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  Speaker 2: Her messages on their answering machine became this accidental timeline.
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  Started as casual check ins on Saturday, escalated to really
• 12:35
  desperate pleas by Sunday night.
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  Speaker 1: So when she couldn't reach them, she called the police.
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  Speaker 2: She eventually got through to Detective Slender's line on Monday morning,
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  right around the time the bodies were being discovered.
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  Speaker 1: And what did she tell them?
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  Speaker 2: She confirmed Teddy had been talking about upcoming business meetings
• 12:49
  with new contacts about antiques he'd mentioned trying to make
• 12:52
  a big score involving some rare Indian relics he needed
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  to sell.
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  Speaker 1: So she corroborated their financial desperation and the fact they
• 12:59
  were meeting unknown dealers exactly.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Her desperate voicemails became this chilling record of their last
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  hours without her even knowing it.
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  Speaker 1: So, okay, the media is still buzzing, but the real
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  clues are pointing away from high society intrigue and towards
• 13:13
  the street, the pawn shop, the bronx accent.
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  Speaker 2: Rough It shifted the whole focus, and that shift leads
• 13:19
  us to the real turning point, which bizarrely happened months
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  later and miles away in Reno, Nevada, Reno.
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  Speaker 1: How did that connect?
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  Speaker 2: July eighteenth, nineteen ninety three, the pressure cooker finally blew
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  George Cobo, fifty six years old, a career drifter, lots
• 13:34
  of petty theft fraud on his record. He makes this
• 13:37
  strange call, not to the police, now to a reporter,
• 13:40
  Dick Sheridan, into the New York Daily News. Coobo was
• 13:43
  holed up in some fleabag motel, deeply paranoid, paranoid about
• 13:46
  what about his partner, Tony Simpson. He thought Simpson was
• 13:50
  going to kill him or rat him out. So Cobo
• 13:52
  tries to get ahead of it, control the story, implicate Simpson,
• 13:56
  but maybe save his own skin.
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  Speaker 1: And he gives shared in details only the killer would.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly critical details, the exact position of Nansha's body, Teddy's
• 14:06
  emerald green jacket, even the specific leather grain pattern on
• 14:10
  the belt used to strangle Teddy, things the police hadn't released, and.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: He tries to pin it all on Simpson.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: That was the angle. His famous quote was something like,
• 14:19
  it wasn't supposed to go down like that. Tony lost it,
• 14:21
  trying to pain himself as just a bystander.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So this introduces the duo. George Cobo, the older guy,
• 14:27
  the manipulator.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: The silver tongue manipulator. Yeah, he was the brains, the
• 14:31
  one who could convincingly impersonate an appraiser, a collector, the
• 14:35
  smooth talker who got them in the door.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And Tony Lee Simpson, much younger, just.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Twenty one from the Bronx, described as sort of wayfish,
• 14:42
  but clearly the muscle, the eager enforcer fueled by math,
• 14:46
  apparently and his deep seated resentment. Cobo fostered in.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Him a mutual disdain for the rich pigs.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: That's the phrase used. Kobo cultivated that class hatro. They
• 14:54
  met late ninety two an East Village auction house, Cobo
• 14:58
  posing as a collector, Simpson selling.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Bootlegs, and it escalated quickly into this.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Really toxic codependent relationship, crime, drugs, paranoia. Simpson became the
• 15:08
  instrument for Cobo's twisted ideas about redistributing wealth through violence.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And the truly horrifying part, the Kedgers weren't their first victims. Ye.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: No, that's what makes this so chilling. The Kedger murderers
• 15:19
  were the escalation, the graduation you might say they had,
• 15:22
  as Kobo called them, warm ups.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: We have to talk about those earlier victims. They show
• 15:27
  the pattern developing.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial Victim number one, January nineteen ninety three Douglas Wright,
• 15:32
  forty two, an antique stealer in Midtown. Same ruse, posing
• 15:36
  as buyers.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: But the method was different, cruder.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Much cruder. Simpson apparently panicked or just exploded in rage
• 15:42
  and slashed Wright's throat with a box cutter. Very messy.
• 15:46
  They got about five thousand dollars in watches, high risk,
• 15:48
  high violence.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Okay. Then victim two.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: March nineteen ninety three, Irwin Cohen fifty five, a jeweler
• 15:56
  in Chelsea. Again the lures of private sale U time.
• 16:00
  Simpson's use of the blade was apparently more targeted, but
• 16:03
  still a lot of blood. They took around fifteen thousand
• 16:06
  dollars in jewelry.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: So they're learning, refining their technique with each murder.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Horrifically, Yes, they learned that blades were too messy, too
• 16:14
  much evidence, too much cleanup, needed too much risk of
• 16:17
  noise or struggle getting out of hand.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So for the Park Avenue job, they needed something quieter, cleaner.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Strangulation and suffocation, less blood, more control. By the time
• 16:28
  they targeted the Kedgers in April, they weren't just thugs.
• 16:31
  They were practice killers who had evolved their methods. The
• 16:34
  Kedger murders were meant to be their masterpiece.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to that final fatal encounter, Part five,
• 16:40
  the Cadger execution. The lore was perfectly tailored to Teddy's desperation.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Teddy, ever, the deal maker, desperate for cash, advertises these
• 16:48
  rare Mogul artifacts online, probably his last valuable assets. Cobo
• 16:52
  sees it, recognizes the vulnerability.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And moves in, posing as Frank Mueller, the German relic hunter.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Flashes some forged credentials. Teddy, probably seeing dollar signs, just
• 17:02
  welcomes them right In Menesha plays the gracious hostess serving
• 17:06
  tea in her fancy Limosa's.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Cups, completely unaware they're serving their own executioners.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: The shift was apparently incredibly fast. They're haggling over some
• 17:14
  jade idol, small talk turns tents, and then Simpson just attacks,
• 17:18
  no warning. Lunges at Teddy, whips the belt around.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: His neck, and Teddy fought back. Kogo mentioned that fought.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Like a tiger. Coobo said, clawing, cursing in Hindi. That
• 17:29
  superficial neck slash we talked about that came from Teddy
• 17:32
  desperately grabbing a letter open her. It wasn't the killing blow,
• 17:35
  it was defense.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: While Simpson is dealing with Teddy, what happens to Nanessha?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: She screams naturally, but Simpson immediately turns on her, smothers
• 17:44
  or screams and her life with a heavy brocade pillow
• 17:47
  from the sofa. Her arms flailed but against his strength,
• 17:50
  focused on suffocation. It was quick and.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Quiet, minimal noise, minimal blood, the refined method they'd.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Practiced exactly in maybe ten minutes. It was over the
• 18:00
  Park Avenue Royalty. The titles, the glamour, all extinguished. They became,
• 18:05
  as Cobo chillingly put it, cooling husks.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Then it was just business, grab a loop, get out.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: They quickly bagged everything portable, over one hundred thousand dollars
• 18:15
  worth of jewels, the artifacts, the cash, slipped out with
• 18:18
  those innocuous shopping bags and vanished back into the city.
• 18:22
  Started fencing the items bit by bit.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Which ironically led to that pawn shop slip up with.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: The wallet, the crucial mistake. That plus Cobo's paranoia about Simpson,
• 18:33
  eventually brought the whole thing crashing down, leading to the
• 18:36
  arrests in Reno.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: And when the police finally caught up with them, Simpson.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Was all defiance, still high. Probably you got nothing pigs,
• 18:42
  classic denial.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But Cobo folded immediately instantly.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: The manipulator became the victim. Tony's the animal. I just watched, yeah,
• 18:49
  trying to save himself. But their confessions even tangled in
• 18:52
  lies and blame provided the links fibers, blood spatter, the
• 18:55
  pond items. It all connected, the dots across all four murders.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: The toxic partner should dissolved right there in the interrogation room.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Replaced by pure self preservation. The dark magic was gone, and.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: That led straight to the courts. The legal saga begins
• 19:10
  Raker's Island indictments.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Four counts each yeah second degree murder robbery. This became
• 19:16
  a huge case in New York through ninety four to
• 19:18
  ninety five. Assistant DA Rachel Najari led the prosecution. Her
• 19:23
  challenge was cutting through the Park Avenue glitz and showing
• 19:26
  the raw, calculated savagery underneath.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Cobo's trial kicked off first October ninety four. Sounds like
• 19:32
  it was quite the.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Spectacle was media circus. Najari used everything, graphic crime scene photos,
• 19:38
  forensic animations showing the suffocation, even looping the murder weapon,
• 19:41
  the belt around a mannequin's neck right there in.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Court intense and Cobo testified he did.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Tried to play the part of the terrified older man,
• 19:49
  claimed he just froze while Simpson went wild, spoke in
• 19:52
  this rough, gravelly voice.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: But the prosecution had ammunition against him.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: They destroyed him. His long history of cons came out,
• 19:59
  and the ca evidence those letters he'd written a Simpson
• 20:02
  from jail, affectionate but also incriminating.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: My dark angel will bleed them dry letter.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: That was the one it blew up. His defense showed premeditation,
• 20:11
  partnership intent, no way, he was just an observer.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: So the jury saw right through it.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Convicted him on all counts. December ninety four, the judge
• 20:19
  gave him one hundred years to life, basically saying you
• 20:22
  traded humanity for trinkets, powerful stuff.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Then came Simpson's trial a few months later. He maintained the.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: Defiance, total spectacle of youthful nihilism. His lawyer tried the
• 20:34
  abused boy toy defense, Cobo made me do it, manipulated me.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: But the physical evidence against Simpson was.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Strong, overwhelming. DNA from the first victim, Douglas Wright under
• 20:44
  his fingernails, blood from the second victim, Orwin Cohen on
• 20:47
  his sneakers and fibers in the Kecker's apartment, the carpet
• 20:51
  Teddy's velvet jacket found packed away in his bag. He
• 20:54
  couldn't escape the forensics and Rachel.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Kine testified at his trial too, the musician friend of Teddy's.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, and her test testimony was incredibly powerful. She put
• 21:02
  a human face back on the victims, called Teddy a
• 21:04
  father figure. She told the jury these monsters stole more
• 21:08
  than jewels, They stole trust. It really resonated.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So despite the defense's attempts, Simpson was convicted, too.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Convicted November ninety five, sentenced to life without parole. The
• 21:19
  evidence trail was just too strong, too connected across all
• 21:21
  four murders.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: They weren't getting out what happened afterwards to the apartment.
• 21:25
  The legacy well five twenty one Park Avenue moved on quickly. Yeah,
• 21:29
  the apartment was sold to some hedge fund guy who
• 21:31
  reportedly gutted it completely wiped the slate clean architecturally speaking,
• 21:36
  and exorcism almost But.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: The stolen items, Nanessha's jewels, they had a.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Different fate, a really poignant one. Actually. Yeah, most of
• 21:45
  the valuables were eventually recovered. They went to auction at
• 21:48
  Soda Beast fetched millions, and that money went into a foundation.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: What kind of foundation?
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: It funded scholarships for aspiring musicians, nice like Rachel Kane.
• 21:57
  Incredible irony, right, The proceed to the crime ended up
• 21:59
  sporting artists like the one whose testimony helped convict.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: The killers, Wow and King herself.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: She built a cabaret career partly on her connection to
• 22:07
  the story. She even wrote and performed this elegy for
• 22:10
  Teddy called Shadows on Park Avenue get their memory alive
• 22:13
  in a way.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: The case itself certainly left to mark true crime books, documentaries,
• 22:18
  Royal Bloodshed.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: It became a touchstone for that kind of story. But
• 22:23
  the deeper legacy, I think is that societal scar that
• 22:27
  question about Manhattan's.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: Two souls, the glamour and the grit colliding.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Exactly what happens when that artificial world of titles and
• 22:34
  maybe shaky finances meets Ross Street envy, that nihilistic rage.
• 22:40
  The ked Ker murders are this stark warning. Cobo and
• 22:44
  Simpson weren't criminal masterminds in the traditional sense. They were
• 22:49
  ordinary in.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: A way, just twifted by greed.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: And hate, the banality of evil right there on Park Avenue,
• 22:54
  proving that yeah, predation knows no post code, it can
• 22:56
  happen anywhere.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: So this deep dive really peeled back the layers darted
• 23:00
  with what looked like a high society mystery and found
• 23:02
  it was.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: The brutal end of a calculated killing spree that started
• 23:06
  months earlier on the city's fringes, driven by resentment and
• 23:10
  a desire to lash out at symbols of wealth.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: It really dismantles that whole facade, which leaves us with
• 23:15
  that chilling quote from Simpson writing from prison.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah we were kings for night. Now just ghost gives
• 23:22
  you chills.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It really does. Think about that how quickly status, wealth,
• 23:27
  that whole performance can just dissolve when faced with that
• 23:30
  kind of raw, empty violence. What does it say about
• 23:33
  the secrets hidden beneath the surface of a city like
• 23:36
  New York, And maybe how vulnerable we all are if
• 23:39
  our lives are built purely on keeping up appearances.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: A lot to think about there. The cost of that
• 23:44
  facade
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Definitely something for you to consider until our next deep dive.