Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Musician Made Friends with Indian Prince, Then Got Caught Up in His NYC Murder Investigation

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Musician Made Friends with Indian Prince, Then Got Caught Up in His NYC Murder Investigation · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep Dive. Today, we're tackling a story
• 0:03
  that feels almost cinematic. It's about two completely different slices
• 0:08
  of nineteen nineties New York City.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, two worlds that existed right next to each other,
• 0:12
  but almost never actually connected exactly.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: On one hand, you've got the raw energy of the
• 0:18
  house music underground, I think pulse and clubs, sweat, ecstatic.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Christcure energy, relentless beats.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And on the other Park Avenue, we're talking serious opulence,
• 0:29
  quiet wealth, this almost hermetically sealed.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Environment, completely different universes.
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  Speaker 1: For most people, jumping between those few impossible. But for
• 0:37
  one rising music star that collision wasn't just possible. It well,
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  it turned deadly for people she knew and nearly wrecked
• 0:45
  her own life.
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  Speaker 2: A real cautionary tale.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's really get into this central contrast. The main
• 0:49
  figure on the music side is Rachel Kane, known everywhere
• 0:52
  as scream.
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  Speaker 2: In Rachel the self proclaimed queen of house music, and
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  she really was royalty in that world, riding high in
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  the early nineties Manhattan scene.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: In her what's calling her counterpart was Chi tresh Kedker,
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  or Teddy as he liked to be.
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  Speaker 2: Called the self styled Indian prince, living this incredibly lavish
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  life of financier mixing in elite circles, very different vibe.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I strike up this friendship. It starts in a noisy
• 1:17
  midtown lounge. Seems like a classic New York story, right wealth,
• 1:20
  he patrons, He's talent, promises the world I.
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  Speaker 2: Can make you a star, basically the dream ticket for
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  an ambitious artist.
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  Speaker 1: But that dream just shattered. April twelfth, nineteen ninety three,
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  Rachel calls Teddy's apartment on Park Avenue. She's trying to
• 1:35
  follow up on like a studio session he'd promised.
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  Speaker 2: Standard stuff for her hustle.
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  Speaker 1: But Teddy doesn't answer, his wife doesn't answer, his staff,
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  nobody answers. Accept a detective, a homicide detective. Imagine that
• 1:46
  call unbelievable. The detective confirms it Teddy and his wife,
• 1:50
  Nanessha They had been murdered brutally inside that luxurious Park Avenue.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Fortress, right there at ten to ten Park Avenue.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: So Rachel King goes from club queen one.
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  Speaker 2: Minute to suddenly being right in the middle of a massive,
• 2:03
  high profile double murder investigation. That's the core of what
• 2:07
  we're diving into today and for you, the listener, our
• 2:10
  goal here is really to look past those sensational headlines
• 2:13
  from the mid nineties, you know, the Prince Slain kind
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  of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, get beneath the surface exactly.
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  Speaker 2: We want to unpack how ambition, this kind of unchecked
• 2:23
  privilege and just sheer criminal opportunism all slammed together, how
• 2:28
  it dragged a rising musician into one of the wildest
• 2:30
  investigations of that decade.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: It really shows, doesn't it, How chasing a dream, especially
• 2:36
  in a place like New York, it.
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  Speaker 2: Can lead you down some very dark paths. Danger can
• 2:40
  be lurking, like just one wrong connection away, one wrong
• 2:43
  note off the spotlight.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So that connection point, that's where we need to start,
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  right before the murder, before the police. Who was scream
• 2:50
  and Rachel in her own world.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to understand her kingdom first, the house
• 2:54
  music scene. Her roots are crucial. She started in Chicago,
• 2:57
  and Chicago is house music, plain and simple. That's where
• 3:00
  it was born with pioneers like Frankie Knuckles in those
• 3:02
  early warehouse parties.
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  Speaker 1: That raw, soulful sound exactly.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: And she brought that grit, that energy with her when
• 3:10
  she moved to New York in the late eighties early nineties.
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  She transplanted that Chicago soul into the heart of Manhattan's nightlife.
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  Speaker 1: And Manhattan then wow, the club scene was absolutely explosive.
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  We're talking legendary spots right the Limelight Sound Factory, Towylett
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  later on.
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  Speaker 2: Cultural Hubs, Cathedrals of Sound. Really it was intense, vibrant, NonStop, and.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: She wasn't just in the scene. She was a defining
• 3:34
  part of it. Screaming Rachel the name says it all.
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  That voice was incredible.
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  Speaker 2: It really was a powerhouse. She consciously blended that like
• 3:43
  gospel diva belt, that raw emotion with the driving, relentless
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  four on the floor beat of house music.
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  Speaker 1: Can you break down that sound a bit more?
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  Speaker 2: The architecture, as you said, Sure, So the foundation is
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  that hypnotic forty four rhythm thump thump, thump, thump, but
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  she layered the sophisticated, powerful vocals on top. She wasn't
• 4:01
  just singing along. She was commanding the.
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  Speaker 1: Track and collaborating with big names too.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, people like Marshall Jefferson, a house music legend,
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  Grandmaster Melmel from the hip hop world. She was bridging genres,
• 4:13
  fusing disco, hip hop, electronic energy.
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  Speaker 1: Making your own unique sound totally.
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  Speaker 2: She wasn't just a singer, she was an architect of
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  the sound itself. That's why Billboard called her the Queen
• 4:23
  of house music. It wasn't just hype. It reflected her influence.
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  Speaker 1: But like you often see with artists, the reality behind
• 4:30
  the stage persona, it's less glamorous, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely, the sources paint a picture of a constant hustle.
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  She might command huge crowds, fill massive clubs, but off
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  stage it was a grind.
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  Speaker 1: Sporadic payments, right yeah, gigs sometimes paid in cash, sometimes
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  just promises.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, and the competition was fierce. You had to be
• 4:51
  constantly visible, constantly networking. Staying relevant was exhausting.
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  Speaker 1: Work, so supplementing income was part of the deal.
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  Speaker 2: Odd jobs for sure, But the real currency is, especially
• 5:00
  in that scene, wasn't always dollars. It was connections. Who
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  you knew, who saw.
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  Speaker 1: You being seen with the right promoters, the DJs.
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  Speaker 2: And crucially the high rollers, the people with money who
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  might promise to cut through the noise and actually invest
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  in your career, elevate you.
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  Speaker 1: And that hunger for connection for the next level. That
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  creates a vulnerability, doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: It absolutely a willingness to maybe accept invitations or favors
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  that looking back carried huge risks. You're chansing the break.
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  So you take the.
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  Speaker 1: Meeting, which brings us right back to Teddy Kedger early
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  nineteen ninety.
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  Speaker 2: Three, The Fateful meeting.
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  Speaker 1: She's just finished a set midtown lounge place is probably smoky, loud,
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  full of energy, and then this guy approaches her.
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  Speaker 2: Teddy, impeccably dressed, older, definitely has an air about him, exotic, charming,
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  and he.
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  Speaker 1: Gets her with the line that, smooth accented English, your
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  voice is magic.
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  Speaker 2: I can make you a star, not just local gigs. Right,
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  he's implying global reach, big time stuff.
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  Speaker 1: It must have been intoxicating the promise of finally breaking through.
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  So she accepts his invitation, comes to his place on
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  Park Avenue for what he.
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  Speaker 2: Calls a private showcase, an audition basically for this potential
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  big shot investor.
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  Speaker 1: She sees opportunity, career advancement. She doesn't see the catastrophe
• 6:13
  waiting just around the corner.
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  Speaker 2: No idea all.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about Teddy ket Ker himself. This prince
• 6:19
  he seems like a master of self creation.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: He really was. The whole persona was built on performance, wealth, lineage.
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  It was carefully crafted. Now, to be clear, he did
• 6:29
  have a royal background. Chittrash Rauketker from a place called
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  ked On Johnville in India, a princely state, yes, but
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  crucially a minor one, one of hundreds that existed before
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  India's independence in nineteen forty seven. After independence, those states
• 6:44
  were dissolved, the power, the land, the real wealth. It
• 6:48
  evaporated for families like his.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So his exile wasn't exactly political persecution, not really.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: It was more about economics. He needed to go somewhere
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  he could leverage the only asset he had left, the
• 6:59
  title Prince Teddy, and New York was the perfect stage
• 7:02
  for that performance.
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  Speaker 1: And the performance needed funding, which brings us to Nansha.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: His wife. Nanessha. Yes, she was the financial bedrock, significantly
• 7:10
  older than him, about fifteen years in her early seventies.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: At the time, and she came from serious money.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Old Brazilian money. Her family were some polo coffee barons,
• 7:20
  generations of wealth.
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  Speaker 1: And she provided not just the money but the address.
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  That incredible co op ten ten Park Avenue between sixtieth
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  and sixty first Prime real.
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  Speaker 2: Estate, absolutely prime, a six room co op in one
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  of the most exclusive buildings in the city. That address
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  alone screamed status, and.
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  Speaker 1: The apartment itself the descriptions sound incredible. Oh.
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  Speaker 2: It was a curated stage set designed to impress Manhattan's elite.
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  Think priceless European tapestries hanging near ancient jade sculptures, Renaissance
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  paintings alongside Indian silk cushions on like French Louis the
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  fourt thieth furniture.
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  Speaker 1: A real mix of worlds globalized luxuries exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It projected the image of timeless wealth, immense stability.
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  Speaker 1: A palace, but behind the gilded doors, trouble was brewing,
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  deep trouble.
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  Speaker 2: The stability was pure facade. Teddy's appetites were pretty well
• 8:12
  known in certain circles.
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  Speaker 1: Sereal philandering affairs constantly, and worse, from Nanesia's perspective, he
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  was burning through her inherited fortune at an alarming rate.
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  Speaker 2: On two main things, according to sources, lavishing incredibly expensive
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  gifts on younger women. He was pursuing okay and pouring
• 8:28
  money into a string of disastrous business ventures, like an
• 8:32
  import export firm that just tanked leading cash.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: So money was running out.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: It seems so, and that financial stress fueled huge domestic tension.
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  Neighbors talked about hearing terrible arguments, shouting matches coming from
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  the apartment.
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  Speaker 1: The nation must have been furious, yes.
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  Speaker 2: And jealous, intensely jealous, constantly confronting him about the affairs,
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  the spending. He'd deny it all, apparently, but the police
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  investigation later turned up hard evidence like what pawn tickets
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  for Nanesha's personal jewelry and bank statements showing those once
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  huge accounts were dwindling fast. The veneer was cracking.
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  Speaker 1: And Teddy's pursuit of Rachel it fits right into this pattern,
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  doesn't it perfectly?
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't just about attraction. Maybe it was about maintaining
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  that illusion of being the powerful patron, the starmaker, even
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  if he had to dip into his wife's shrinking funds
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  to keep the performance going. He needed that validation.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, but what about Rachel's side of this? How did
• 9:27
  she see the relationship?
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  Speaker 2: She consistently described it as platonic, a deepening friendship, yes,
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  but strictly professional in its goals, she insisted. She rebuffed
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  his romantic overtures.
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  Speaker 1: She saw him as a mentor, an investor exactly.
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  Speaker 2: A means to an end, maybe a necessary connection to
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  advance her career in that tough industry. But then there
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  are the gifts.
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  Speaker 1: Right, studio time, introductions. Yeah, okay, that fits the investor model.
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  But a diamond necklace.
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  Speaker 2: That's the tricky part, isn't it. If it's purely professional,
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  why ex except something so personal, so valuable, especially from
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  an older married man known for his affairs, funded by
• 10:06
  a notoriously jealous wife.
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  Speaker 1: Did she ever explain that.
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  Speaker 2: She framed it as basically the cost of doing business
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  in that high stakes world. You accept the gestures to
• 10:16
  keep the door open. She needed the access he represented,
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  and maybe he needed the validation of being seen with
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  a rising star like her.
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  Speaker 1: A symbiotic relationship almost but fraught with danger.
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  Speaker 2: Hugely fraught. She felt that sense of destiny, she said,
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  like this was her big break. She did meet Nanesha
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  described her as frail but elegant and definitely aware of
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  Teddy's habits.
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  Speaker 1: And the club scene must have been buzzing about it.
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  The Queen of House and the.
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  Speaker 2: Prince oh for sure. That gossip definitely wouldn't have helped
• 10:45
  the situation. Back at the Park Avenue apartment, more fuel
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  on an already raging fire.
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  Speaker 1: A fire that ultimately consumed them both. Sometime between Friday,
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  April ninth and Monday, April twelfth, nineteen ninety three.
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  Speaker 2: That's when the illusion finally shattered. The discovery on that
• 11:01
  Monday morning. It was immediate, shocking, and initially very confusing
• 11:06
  for the police.
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  Speaker 1: It started with the smell. Right around ten am. The
• 11:10
  doorman building management, they noticed this awful odor on the
• 11:13
  tenth floor.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, decomposition, a smell you don't forget. Maintenance had to
• 11:17
  breach the door and they found well the source the bodies.
• 11:21
  They'd clearly been dead for days, pointing to the crime
• 11:24
  happening over the weekend.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Let's focus on the crime scene itself, because the way
• 11:27
  it looked initially suggested one thing, but the reality was different.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly so, teddy Ketker found face down living room, pool
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  of dried blood and crucially, this thin red line on
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  his neck a knife.
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  Speaker 1: Wound, but not the fatal wound.
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  Speaker 2: No, that was key. It was superficial meant something else.
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  The room around him was chaos drawers, ripped open paintings,
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  crooked Christian slash rugs.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Pulled back like someone was desperately searching for something specific.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Valuables, a targeted search exactly, not random vandalism in Inestia.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Where was she found.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Separately in the master bedroom, on her back in bed
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  and visually almost no marks on her no obvious trauma
• 12:10
  like Teddy.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Had, But forensics told a different story.
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  Speaker 2: Immediately the signs pointed to asphyxiation. The medical examiner found
• 12:16
  peteculal hemorrhaging, those tiny burst blood vessels in the eyes
• 12:20
  and eyelids.
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  Speaker 1: Classic sign of suffocation or strangulation.
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  Speaker 2: Textbook sign oxygen cut off violently, and there's also a
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  faint ligature mark around her neck, almost hidden by her
• 12:28
  nightgown collar. Someone had strangled her.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: So high profile Victims Park Avenue address, the police response
• 12:35
  must have been.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Massive, instantaneous. Commissioner Raymond Kelly was on the scene very quickly.
• 12:40
  The pressure was immense and the initial scene it presented
• 12:46
  conflicting signals. No forced entry, Teddy with a non fatal
• 12:50
  knife wound. Nanesha asphyxiated. The history of arguments, it fueled speculation.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Especially in the papers like The New York Times.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, the media jumped on it, fed by police sources.
• 13:02
  Two main theories emerged early on.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: One being robbery because of the Rand sacrum.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, robbery gone wrong was definitely on the table, but
• 13:09
  the other theory initially seemed almost more compelling to.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Some, the murder suicide angle exactly.
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  Speaker 2: The narrative was Nanesha finally snaps, confronts Teddy over the
• 13:19
  cheating the money, maybe stabs him superficially in a struggle.
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  Then overcome with a spare, she takes her own life,
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  perhaps suffocation, maybe an overdose.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It sounds dark, but given the known tensions.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: It was tragically plausible. The lack of a clear fatal
• 13:32
  wound on Teddy made it seem possible. That theory dominated
• 13:35
  the early coverage.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: And right into this mess Walks scream in rachel or rather,
• 13:41
  she calls into it.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: That phone call April twelfth, that's the pivot point for her.
• 13:46
  She's just calling to check on.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Studio time, routine call, and suddenly.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: She's talking to Detective Mark Milner homicide. Her world just
• 13:54
  flips upside down in that single conversation.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: From potential collaborator to person of interest instantly.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: That one call made her a crucial witness and very
• 14:03
  quickly a potential suspect. Her career momentum just hits a
• 14:07
  brick wall.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: So she goes from clubland euphoria to.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: The cold reality of the first precinct, summoned for questioning.
• 14:14
  It must have been terrifying.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: She gets there around midnight, probably still has traces of
• 14:18
  stage makeup on, and walks into this completely alien environment
• 14:23
  fluorescent lights, cinderblock walls.
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  Speaker 2: And detectives Milner and Elena Vasquez waiting for her, ready
• 14:28
  to drill down.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Six hours of intense questioning followed.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: What were they focused on?
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Modeve and axis? That was it? They needed to know
• 14:35
  the real nature of her relationship with Teddy? Platonic romantic?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Financial? And how did she get into that high security apartment?
• 14:41
  Did she have a key? Was she let in exactly?
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: They pressed her heart on her three visits. She maintained
• 14:48
  Nanesha was always there. They need to verify that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: She described it later as feeling like a bad movie. Right,
• 14:53
  the pressure, the implicit threat.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the psychological weight must have been immense. Detective Asquez
• 14:59
  in particular really hammered the money angle, asking.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: If Teddy was funding her. What if the money stopped?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: But was the arrangement? Did you argue with Nanesha about it?
• 15:07
  They were building a scenario. Jealous younger woman, maybe cut
• 15:11
  off financially, lashes out.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And Teddy's neck wound. They saw that as fitting a confrontation.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Potentially a crime of passion, a lover's quarrel gone wrong.
• 15:22
  Given the club scene gossip, they had already heard Rachel
• 15:25
  fit a certain profile they were exploring.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: But she cooperated. Didn't lawyer up immediately?
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: No, she cooperated, fully handed everything over, her deep book
• 15:33
  showing her movements, her phone records, and.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: The diamond necklace that must look bad.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Huge red flag for them? Was it payment a bribe,
• 15:41
  proof of an affair? It went from being a symbol
• 15:43
  of her potential future to exhibit a in a murder case.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So what cleared her? How did she get out of there?
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Pure verifiable facts? Her alibi was rock solid. She had
• 15:53
  a weekend gig.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: At Twilo and people could vouch for her.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, the club owner, bouncers, even fans remembered her set.
• 16:01
  It checked out completely. Plus, she agreed to a polygraph
• 16:04
  test and passed passed it by dawn they had to
• 16:07
  accept she wasn't their killer. The alibi held, the polygraph held.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: So they let her go, but not without a warning.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: That chilling line from Milner, You're free to go, miss Kane,
• 16:18
  but stay in town, a clear message you're cleared for now,
• 16:21
  but you're still part of the story.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: The psychological toll must have been huge, that whiplash from
• 16:27
  fame to interrogation.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: She talked about that vulnerability, the stark contrast, and the
• 16:32
  guilt that maybe somehow her being in their lives, her ambition,
• 16:37
  maybe it indirectly triggered the violence, a heavy burden to carry.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: While Rachel was dealing with that aftermath, the police were
• 16:43
  shifting their focus, weren't they away from the domestic theory.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Yes, the forensic evidence was starting to point more strongly
• 16:49
  towards robbery homicide. The staging was clever, but the underlying
• 16:53
  facts were about theft.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And the big break didn't come from inside the apartment,
• 16:57
  did it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: No, it came from the street, from a midtown palmbroker
• 16:59
  doing his due diligence. That's where the case cracked open.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: What did he find?
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: He flagged a wallet that someone had sold to a fence,
• 17:08
  and inside that wallet. Teddy Kedger's business card sold just
• 17:12
  days after the murders.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's the thread they needed exactly.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: That simple card pulled the investigation away from the Park
• 17:20
  Avenue social scene and straight into the city's criminal underworld,
• 17:24
  and it led them to two career criminals. George Cobo,
• 17:28
  fifty six years old, an ex con history of burglary,
• 17:31
  and his much younger partner Tony Lee Simpson just twenty one, volatile,
• 17:36
  apparently heavily addicted to cocaine.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Not exactly criminal masterminds planning a high society heights now more.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Like opportunistic predators. They looked for easy targets, and tragically,
• 17:47
  Teddy Kedger, despite the Park Avenue address, had become an
• 17:50
  easy target in some ways.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: How did they even get in?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: They exploited Teddy's carelessness and Nanesha's attempt to sell some assets.
• 17:57
  Nanesha had discreetly advertised some jade figure for sale through
• 18:00
  an art broker Okay. Cobo and Simpson posed as potential buyers,
• 18:05
  and Teddy well, he apparently had a habit of buzzing
• 18:09
  people up if he vaguely recognized them or vouched for them.
• 18:13
  Security wasn't as tight as you'd think. Once you got
• 18:15
  his okay, they talked their way in on April ninth, and.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Once inside things turned violent.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Fast, brutally fast. The reconstruction suggests Simpson likely high went
• 18:26
  for Teddy first put him in a choke hold, then
• 18:28
  inflicted that shallow neck.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Slice as intimidation to make him.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Talk, exactly terrorize him into revealing where valuables were hidden
• 18:36
  the safe jewelry boxes whatever.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And Cobo dealt with Nanesha.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, while Simpson controlled Teddy, Kobo went to silence Nanesha,
• 18:43
  smothered her with a pillow until she stopped struggling. Then
• 18:46
  the ransacking began in earnest.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Slashing cushions, pulling drawers, looking for that hidden stash.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Right, not random destruction, but a frantic search. They got
• 18:54
  away with about fifty thousand dollars worth of stuff, jewels,
• 18:57
  small art pieces, cash, and.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Then they finished the job to cover their tracks.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, after the robbery, they made sure both victims were dead,
• 19:07
  strangled Nanesha to confirm, and strangled Teddy too. Then they
• 19:11
  staged the scene.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Making it look like that domestic dispute murder suicide.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Precisely leave the living room messy, to suggest a struggle
• 19:20
  over Teddy's things, keep Nanesha relatively undisturbed in the bedroom,
• 19:24
  provide a ready made story for the police.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: It sounds calculated in a way, but then they got.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Sloppy, incredibly sloppy. The cover up attempt was immediately undermined
• 19:35
  by basic mistakes likes the gloves dumped blood specked gloves
• 19:38
  in a public dumpster right near Park Avenue, a gift
• 19:41
  for forensic investigators even back then, DNA evidence waiting to.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Be found, and the stolen goods even worse.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: They pawned a jade elephant, one of Nanessha's pieces, but
• 19:50
  they didn't remove or obscure the unique serial number etched
• 19:54
  onto it.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Traceable, trackable, small mistakes with huge consequences.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, those details quickly pointed police away from Teddy's love
• 20:01
  life and directly towards a robbery committed by amateurs, not professionals.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: And the killer's trail didn't end there, did it. They
• 20:07
  got even more violent.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Shockingly so, just two months later, June fifteenth, Cobo and
• 20:13
  Simpson turned on the very people who helped them fence
• 20:16
  the stolen.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Goods, their own accomplices, their fences.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Eric Ce Price and Milton A. Johnson. They met
• 20:23
  up in a stash house in the Bronx, apparently argued
• 20:26
  over how the loop from the Kedger job was split,
• 20:28
  and Cobo and Simpson murdered them brutally. The scene was
• 20:33
  described as horrific. Bodies found in a bathtub, throats cut
• 20:37
  ear to.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Ear, Jesus an escalation.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: The massive escalation. It told police they weren't just dealing
• 20:42
  with burglars. They were dealing with extremely violent, unpredictable killers,
• 20:47
  greeds spiraling into utter depravity.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: So how do they finally get caught?
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: It came down to fear. An ex girlfriend of Simpson's,
• 20:54
  she knew about the murders, saw the escalating violence and
• 20:57
  got terrified she might.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Be next, so she became a tipster.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: A confidential informant. Yeah. Oh, She told the NYPD where
• 21:03
  Cobo and Simpson had fled Reno.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Nevada, fighting out across the country.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Trying to lay low at a cheap motel, the Vagabond Inn.
• 21:10
  The NYPD coordinated with local police, and on July twenty three,
• 21:14
  nineteen ninety three, they moved in.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: The arrest must have been dramatic.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Sounds like it, reports said Simpson was trying to flush
• 21:20
  evidence down the toilet as police burst in. Cobo was
• 21:24
  apparently just eating a burger. A rather ignominious end to
• 21:27
  their spree, and.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: The prince slaying case, the one that terrified wealthy New Yorkers.
• 21:32
  It was finally solved.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Solved, and the suspects were not disgruntled lovers or shattery
• 21:37
  business rivals, but two desperate, greedy, and ultimately careless criminals.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: So they're extradited back to New York facing multiple murder.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Charges, four counts of second degree murder each the Bronx
• 21:49
  murders plus the Kedker murders. The prosecution one of them
• 21:52
  put away forever.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: In the trial, big media event.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Huge Manhattan criminal court, Simpson was defiant, apparently show outing
• 22:00
  his innocence, trying to disrupt things. Cobo, the older, more
• 22:03
  experienced criminal, he cut a deal, played it smart from
• 22:06
  his perspective, cooperated with the prosecution, testified against Simpson, hoping
• 22:10
  for a lighter sentence.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: What was the key evidence that convicted them?
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: It was a combination. The forensic evidence was damning DNA
• 22:18
  on those blofs found near the scene, the autopsy results
• 22:21
  confirming asphyxiation for both kedgers, debunking the initial superficial wound
• 22:26
  focus on Teddy and the pondickets irrefutable link them directly
• 22:30
  to Nanessha's stolen property right after the murders, a clear
• 22:34
  financial trail.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And Rachel Caine. She had to testify briefly.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, her role wasn't about the crime mechanics, but about
• 22:42
  humanizing the victims. She talked about her friendship with Teddy,
• 22:45
  clarifying it was platonic. She mentioned his optimism, didn't she
• 22:49
  that he believed in dreams.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it kind of highlighted the tragedy. Maybe his belief
• 22:54
  in making things happen, his recklessness and dealing with people.
• 22:57
  It ultimately led him to open the door to the.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: Wrong kind a fatal misjudgment. So the verdict Swift November
• 23:04
  nineteen ninety three, guilty on all counts.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: For both of them, and the sentences.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Kobo, because he cooperated, got twenty five years to life. Simpson,
• 23:11
  seen as the primary aggressor, especially with the Bronx murders too,
• 23:14
  got life without parole, so they vanished into the prison system.
• 23:18
  Justice served in that sense.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: But for the families, especially Nanesha's, the ordeal wasn't quite over,
• 23:24
  was it?
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: No, there was a bitter coda. Nasha's heirs contested the will.
• 23:29
  They argued Teddy's reckless spending and constant affairs had essentially
• 23:33
  drained the estate. What was left was tangled up in
• 23:36
  legal battles for years.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: A messy end to a supposedly glamorous life, very messy.
• 23:41
  What about Rachel? What was the long term impact on her?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: The immediate aftermath was tough. Being linked to such a
• 23:46
  high profile murder, even as just a witness, it cast
• 23:50
  a shadow. Gigs dried up for a while. The stigma
• 23:54
  was real, but she didn't disappear. No, she channeled it.
• 23:57
  That resilience is impressive. She poured that experience, that vulnerability
• 24:00
  into her music. Tracks like Give Me My Freedom, Murder,
• 24:03
  and Clubland came out of that period.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Using art to process trauma exactly.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: And she rebuilt her career, cemented her legacy. Today, she's
• 24:11
  seen as a true elder Statesman or stateswoman of house music,
• 24:15
  runs her own label, produces other artists.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And advocates for mental health Yeah.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Using her own experience. She talks about the importance of boundaries,
• 24:23
  especially for artists navigating fame and ambition. She learned that
• 24:27
  lesson the hardest way possible.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: She said something about fame being like a high wire.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, something like one slip and you're suddenly not in
• 24:34
  the spotlight, you're in the investigation. Pretty powerful summary.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: So looking back at the whole case, what's the big takeaway?
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: It's such a New York story, isn't it about how
• 24:44
  easily facades can crumble. Teddy's fabricated world of princely status
• 24:49
  couldn't protect him from basic brutal greed. His own recklessness
• 24:54
  invited it in.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: And how friendships formed in that pursuit of ambition under
• 24:58
  the bright lights, they.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: Can have unintended devastating consequences. Rachel got pulled into a
• 25:03
  nightmare just by chasing her dream and connecting with someone
• 25:06
  who seemed powerful.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: This deep dive really showed that line, didn't it, between
• 25:10
  fame and suspicion, high life and low.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Crime, razor thin? And how easily it can be crossed
• 25:16
  through simple mistakes, a dropped glove, a serial number, buzzing
• 25:20
  up the wrong person at the door, Small things that
• 25:23
  unravel everything.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So as we wrap this up, maybe a final thought
• 25:27
  for everyone listening reflecting on this story, the ambition the connections,
• 25:32
  the tragic end. It makes you think, doesn't it in
• 25:35
  our own lives when we're chasing something, pushing for connections,
• 25:38
  trying to get ahead, what's the real cost of getting
• 25:41
  close to power or even just the illusion of power? Yeah?
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Can you really chase the spotlight without being aware of
• 25:47
  the shadows just outside it? The risks that come with proximity,
• 25:51
  with wanting more? What price are we.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Willing to pay something to? Definitely chew on.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Indeed, thanks for diving deep with us on this one.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time.