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Transcript

Clairvoyant Tarot-reader Cons Timber Tycoon · PNW Haunts & Homicides

0:00
Her name is Rachel Lee.
0:05
She's a woman in her mid-30s who's about to irrevocably change the life of Ralph
0:12
Raines Jr.
0:14
This is the twisted story of not just a singular woman but nearly a whole famed amily that
0:24
participated in the fraud of a forestry tycoon.
0:39
Hi Cassie.
0:40
Hi Caitlyn.
0:41
Hi creepy people.
0:43
Hello!
0:44
I was waiting to see if you were going to do it.
0:48
Always waving at the blank computer screen in front of me.
0:51
Yeah, yeah, as one does.
0:54
Sorry, it's not even bubbles.
0:56
Slow down.
0:57
Not even bubbles.
0:58
Yeah.
0:59
If you're new to our creepy corner of the world, this is PNW Haunts and Homicides, where we
1:07
chat about true crime, paranormal, and all things witchy in the Pacific Northwest.
1:14
Ooh, witchy.
1:21
Yeah, sometimes creepy.
1:23
I love creepy witchy.
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Do hikis.
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Alright, yeah.
1:26
Bye, gotta do hiki for you.
1:27
Ooh.
1:28
So she said, speaking of witchy, we also do a tarot reading at the end of every episode
1:34
for a little deeper insight into our topic for the day.
1:37
Just to make sure you stick around.
1:39
If you're into that witchy creepy type of stuff.
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I feel like today, if you've never listened to the terror reading before, first of all,
1:49
shame on you, but it's not too late, start making things right.
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Yeah.
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Let's just say the vibe will be there.
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It'll be witchy today.
2:01
Totally.
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Bitchin.
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Witchin, bitchin, bitchin, witchin.
2:05
Witchin and bitchin.
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Do we have any announcements?
2:09
You know, it's funny, you should say that because yes, yes we do.
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Oh, it's like I knew beforehand.
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Yeah.
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I'm not even sure that this is really so much an announcement as it is just something,
2:25
just a little bit of a shout out.
2:27
Ooh.
2:28
Yeah.
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I like shout outs.
2:30
I do as well.
2:31
We were featured by blog.feedspot.com.
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Us?
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We were.
2:38
Ooh.
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Yes.
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On their list of 15 best Pacific Northwest Stories Podcasts.
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So we're number two.
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Ah.
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Yeah.
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Number two is first loser.
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And I'm just kidding.
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Just kidding.
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That's so cool.
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Yeah.
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So we're excited.
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Our good friends, what happens in the woods are also on the list.
3:04
What up?
3:05
What happens?
3:06
What up?
3:07
In the woods?
3:08
It didn't finish it.
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We'll put it in the show notes so that you guys realize that this humble brag is not only
3:18
humble, but it's real.
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Yeah.
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It is real.
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We didn't make this up ourselves.
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Yeah.
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Thank you, Feedspot.
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Yes.
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It sounds like a place I want to go eat a buffet.
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The Feedspot.
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Oh no.
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Now I'm just picturing a troll.
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Me too.
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I had, well, obviously, because we were talking about feed, but I was picturing a bunch of people
3:43
out of trough.
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Just like, yeah.
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Get in it.
3:46
Hmm.
3:47
Okay.
3:48
So I actually heard about this case probably about a week before Cassie also sent it to me.
3:57
I was getting my nails dead.
4:01
My little titsy.
4:03
And someone that I met at this one actually recommended this and actually a couple of other
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cases.
4:11
Ooh.
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Yeah.
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So when Cassie texted me one night and I happened to be working on my notes, that's so
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fucking weird.
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It's really weird.
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It's really weird.
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Yeah.
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I was like, that's so funny.
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I may or may not be working on this, but also I totally am.
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Yeah, because I was, I watch American greed a lot to go to sleep because it's just like the
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guy's voice is like kind of monotone and it's soothing.
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So I, and I heard like two key words and I was like, immediately turned it off because I
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don't want to know anything about it because I want to hear it from Caitlyn.
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I texted her immediately.
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Cover this.
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Did I even tell you like what it was about or did I say, hey, it's this thing and this
5:01
thing?
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Have you?
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I don't know what it's about, but look into it.
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Cassie said, and I quote, this just popped on an ep of American greed and I heard Oregon
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and tarot and I'm turning it off because I want you to cover it.
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You might have heard of it, but I don't think I have and I want to hear it from your glorious
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mouth hole.
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LOL, that was awkward, but I'm not taking it back.
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I'm funny.
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And there were a series of emojis.
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And do you want to know what I said in reply?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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Oh my god.
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Wait.
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Bitch.
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Yes.
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I'm already covering it.
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I haven't gotten like super into it so far.
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Like super into it.
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But I found a court doc literally today and was like, this is definitely getting covered.
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LOL, no joke.
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Two day all caps.
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No cap.
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No cap.
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And you said, yes.
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That's my reply to a lot of things.
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You said what?
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That's crazy.
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I don't watch the actual TV channels very often.
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That's so weird.
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Oh my god.
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I can't wait to hear it.
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What time?
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Can I ask what time this was real quick?
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In my town.
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I might miss here.
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I might be miss remembering.
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605 pm is the last time stamp that I can see.
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Okay.
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Because that's what it was then.
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Because I usually watch it to go to sleep.
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So I'm not actually watching it.
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I turned it on and I was like, oh, American Greed sounds good right now.
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So it was like totally random.
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Yeah.
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Interesting.
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And there was a bit more back and forth, but it's important to note that there is evidence
7:10
for forensic evidence that I received this hot tip from not just Cassie, but this last
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text that I'll read.
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My pedicure friend that I don't think I had time to tell you about last Saturday actually
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told me about it.
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I friended her on LinkedIn.
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Creep.
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What you did tell me about her.
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You were really excited.
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I said like a weird loser weirdo lol.
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And I don't take that back either.
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Right.
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The rain's family tree farm in Gaston is about an hour west from the comparative hustle
8:00
and bustle of the city of Portland.
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I know where that is.
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Yeah.
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It's an organ.
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Yeah.
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One of our keywords.
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I know someone from Gaston.
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You do.
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I do.
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Hi, Tonya.
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Is her last name, Raines?
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No, it's not.
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No, I'm just kidding.
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It's not.
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It's where the patriarch of the Raines family along with his son planted over a million trees.
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That sounds good.
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Yeah.
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We like trees.
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Yeah.
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At least by junior's own estimation.
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So it's kind of a round number.
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Is it like that thing where you like you do something for so long?
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You're like, oh, I planted like a million.
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Yeah.
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It's a rough estimate.
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It occupies land purchased in the 1950s by Ralph Jr.'s father, Ralph Sr.'s father, Waldo,
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was already established in the logging industry in Washington County dating back to 1915.
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Wow.
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Where is he?
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Huh?
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Oh, my God.
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I thought you forgot already where this story takes place.
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And I was like, you where is Waldo?
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Four facts.
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Sick.
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Okay.
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That jokes.
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Oh, boy.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And boy, did Ralph Sr. have some stories to share from back in the day?
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If you're a member of the Patreon, don't go digging through our sources on Pastebin.
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I want you to see Cassie's face when I read her a story from one transcript in particular.
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Oh.
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Patreon bonus video.
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Oh, yeah.
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Nice.
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Far from your typical tycoon, Ralph Sr. was a decorated World War II pilot and graduate
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of Oregon State University married shortly after the war was over.
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The couple would go on to have a single child, a son in whom Ralph instilled not just the
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monetary value of the land and the trees on their property, but also that of hard work
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in maintaining the beauty of the natural environment by creating a sustainable forest
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operation.
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Well, that sounds like really, really good.
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I know.
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We stand the Ralphs.
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Yes.
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Sr.
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And Jr.
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Jr.
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And Sr.
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All of them.
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All of them, I think.
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I don't know.
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I don't know.
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I don't know that we want to be making blanket statements like that.
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That seems ill advised, given the nature of what we do.
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For most of his life, that same son, Ralph Jr. worked on the family's 1200 acre.
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A tree farm in Gaston.
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That's a lot of acreage.
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Cheers.
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He too was a veteran of the Vietnam War and those that know him well would describe him
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as both intelligent and immensely kind.
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I know.
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I know.
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I know.
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It seemed that both men, Ralph Jr. and Sr. remained humble and decidedly unencumbered when
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it came to the material things in life, despite what would eventually become very impressive
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wealth.
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Ooh.
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Yeah.
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All them trees.
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All them trees.
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Though as a naive and sometimes socially awkward man, they would later reflect that Ralph Jr.'s
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disposition was in many ways very different from that of his hard-nosed father, Ralph Sr.
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Hard-nosed.
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I know.
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What is that man?
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Vocab word of the week.
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Sadly, Ralph Sr.'s wife and Ralph Jr.'s mother, because that's how that works.
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Helen died in 2001.
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Helen.
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Helen.
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Even though she passed long before the bulk of our story takes place, you know, yet girl
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did some digging and found her name because nobody fucking used it in anything.
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Oh, yeah.
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There's just like, remember that bitch he married?
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Oh my God.
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Did they really?
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Remember that broad?
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He married.
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Oh, Helen.
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You know, the woman who fed him, clothed him, both of these men.
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Women are often undercredited.
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Is that what am I trying to say?
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Unacknowledged.
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Unacknowledged.
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I'm undercredited, that's everything.
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I legit thought I might have to subscribe to ancestry.
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Just, you know, there for a minute to find it because it turns out there's a ton of
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source material tied to what happened to Ralph.
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And when your Ralph Jr.
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It's hard to separate the stuff that's about you versus Ralph Sr.
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But I digress.
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Still the two men had each other.
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And for much of their lives, they continued on as they always had.
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Ralph Sr.
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Operated the Reigns tree farm, handling the financial affairs associated with their family
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business while Ralph Jr.
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primarily felt at home performing the physical labor working on the land.
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Lumberjacking?
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Lumberjacking it up.
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Yeah.
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A lot of plaid.
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I just love me, a lumberjack, I can't even.
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I know.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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She's going to slide off this chair.
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You're probably wondering where things started to go off course.
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Yeah, I've been wondering the whole time.
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Okay.
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Good.
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Good.
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That tracks were right on schedule.
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Okay.
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And I'm here to tell you while it pains me to do so that it was his interest, Ralph Jr.
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It's his interest in something I think that we all know and love that introduced him to
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the individual that would lead.
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Ralph Jr.
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Is Ray?
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No.
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No.
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While Ralph Jr. was seemingly about as salt of the earth as they come, he also had an interest
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in what some might classify as the paranormal or even the occult realm.
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If you're nasty, I love it.
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Yeah.
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She's nasty.
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I am.
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In 2004, at age 57, he decided to entertain his curiosity, if only briefly.
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When he visited a psychic shop while on a trip to Bend in Southern Oregon, I've ever heard
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of a, a, a bend or a psychic shop.
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Yeah.
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Uh-huh.
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Both.
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Okay.
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Spoiler alert.
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This woman.
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Kwa man.
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Kwa man.
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She is not a psychic.
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Pitch.
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I know.
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But she certainly has a solid nose for a con.
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Hmm.
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I mean, maybe that is her psychicness.
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That's her.
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That's how her third eye presents.
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No.
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Okay.
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The psychic, he shared one of his deepest desires, to settle down and perhaps have a family
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of his own, which feels like sort of a, part of that sort of a misnomer because Ralph is
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about as settled down as a person can get.
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If he settles down anymore, they're going to have to check his pulse.
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Oh.
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He's a pretty calm, super nice guy.
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So, but the family part.
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Yeah.
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No significant other or little, little kiddos.
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Nope.
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He wanted that 10 a cups card, man.
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Hmm.
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It's funny.
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You should say that.
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Oh, is it?
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Yeah.
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Pops up in American greed.
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Does it?
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No.
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I watched two seconds of it.
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I, well, I thought maybe, I thought maybe you lied.
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No.
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No.
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I, I'm pretty sure it pops up as like the card that's like in,
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like the foreground when they're talking about how he wanted a family.
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Oh, I'll germinate.
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They did their research.
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He wanted a family and then I showed, oh, I can have to watch it after this.
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You have to.
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Her name is Rachel Lee.
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She's a woman in her mid-30s who's about to irrevocably change the life of Ralph Reigns
17:08
Jr.
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This is the twisted story of not just a singular woman, but nearly a whole famed amily that
17:19
participated in the fraud of a forestry tycoon.
17:25
After meeting and quickly befriending Ralph Jr. and also his father Ralph Sr., who was already
17:32
in his mid-80s, Rachel Lee gained information about them and their assets.
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What a normal thing to do.
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This talker.
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Yeah.
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Did you also follow them on lengthen?
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Fuck off.
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Gradually, she gained their trust.
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Ralph trusted Rachel Lee implicitly, even sharing his ideal love match.
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Then in his late 80s, Ralph Sr. suffered a stroke and was unable to care for himself.
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Much less manage his various financial and business affairs.
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I feel like this is where it all goes awry.
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This is where the dominoes really start to fall.
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From there, it didn't take long for Rachel to become Ralph Sr.'s full-time caregiver.
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She's a she just infiltrated.
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Holy shit.
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Cassie, I can see it in your eyes already.
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You want to know what are her qualifications?
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They're caring for the infirm or elderly.
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I'm so glad that you asked.
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Seriously?
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Oh my god.
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You see, she told Ralph Jr. that she was alone in the world.
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Her parents had already passed, as had her husband.
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So she had, of course, shared the story of seeing him through the difficult times as he had
19:06
battled cancer.
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And that would be a sad story.
19:10
Yeah.
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If it were true.
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I was going to say.
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She had been the caregiver for her husband throughout his battle with cancer prior to his
19:20
death.
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In addition to her qualifications as a caregiver, she convinced the reinsmen that she could
19:29
help to manage their financial and business affairs.
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Oh shit.
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If anyone offers to handle your finances, no.
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Yeah.
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Just no.
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Props that's not it.
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You know, just they should have a degree.
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And what's that called?
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What's the numbers degree?
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Accounting.
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Accounting.
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You know, ideally, maybe if there is CPA, that's good.
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Also.
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There's a variety of needs.
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Not victim blaming.
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I'm saying be aware in the future if someone comes to want to handle your finances.
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You know, usually people who are qualified to handle your finances, like, like you mentioned,
20:13
there's like a degree that they hang on their wall.
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They might have a website.
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There might be some references.
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You can chat.
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You usually come to them.
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They don't come to you.
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Just like no one will sign into your DMs saying that they'll give you a tarot reading or they
20:30
have psychic advice for you.
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No.
20:33
Yeah.
20:34
Unless it's us and then in that case, no, we will never come into your DMs to offer you
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a psychic reading.
20:43
Yeah.
20:44
Yeah.
20:45
I don't know.
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You ask for a tarot reading from us.
20:47
Yeah.
20:48
Maybe we'll respond.
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But listen, we don't do that shit for free though.
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You got to be on Patreon.
20:53
Yeah.
20:54
I mean, you got it.
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Here's the thing.
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We are willing to trade you a tarot reading for a story.
21:01
Oh, God.
21:02
Oh, yeah.
21:03
Yeah.
21:04
Obviously Ralph Senior can't be responsible for any of that stuff anymore in his ill hell.
21:13
You know, he's not running numbers.
21:16
He's not filing important filings.
21:20
No.
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I hope not.
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And Ralph Junior is more of the, you know, live enough and working on the land.
21:29
Kind of a guy.
21:30
Yeah.
21:31
You know, around the same time, Rachel Lee moved into the Reigns family home in Gaston
21:38
Oregon.
21:39
Damn.
21:40
Yeah.
21:41
So that escalated quickly, right?
21:43
Yeah.
21:44
Okay.
21:45
So she's already got her claws in pretty deep.
21:48
Yep.
21:49
Yeah.
21:53
So they already had financial advisors.
22:19
Yep.
22:20
Sure did.
22:21
Okay.
22:22
For tax and accounting purposes, he had a representation.
22:24
Okay.
22:25
Yeah.
22:26
So you're having about the reaction that I feel like is appropriate.
22:29
All right.
22:30
Yeah.
22:31
Though as his health increasingly deteriorated in the period shortly after his stroke, the firm
22:39
hired to represent him communicated increasingly with Rachel as well as other members
22:49
of the Lee family.
22:52
Hmm.
22:53
Eventually, all manner of instruction regarding the estate was conducted exclusively by them.
23:01
The Lee family.
23:03
Did they get power of attorney?
23:04
Like how are they doing this?
23:06
A very good question, Cassie.
23:10
And you know what?
23:11
I'm going to answer it.
23:12
Okay.
23:13
I'm not sure if I'm about to right now or if that comes later.
23:16
Okay.
23:17
Just, you know, hold on to your butt.
23:20
Hmm.
23:21
Stuff.
23:22
That.
23:23
That.
23:24
Only a couple of years later, sometime in roughly 2006, according to court documents, Rachel
23:33
was prepared to test her newfound power.
23:37
When she convinced Ralph Jr. to purchase a home in Northwest Portland, that would later
23:43
be known as the Birken Dean home.
23:46
Who?
23:47
Yeah.
23:48
Do you want to guess how much the house cost?
23:52
$1.6 million.
23:53
Oh, actually, that's a little high.
23:56
Oh, damn it.
23:57
I was thinking of today money, maybe.
23:58
I know.
23:59
2006, though.
24:00
Okay.
24:01
A million.
24:02
Unfortunately.
24:03
Okay.
24:04
Listen, it's too late because we were playing by the prices right, rules.
24:08
Eight.
24:09
And you got to get close without going over.
24:11
Eight fifty.
24:12
For just shy of $1 million.
24:17
Rachel would eventually move the ailing Ralph Sr. from his longtime residence in Gaston
24:25
to this home as his days on this earth continue to dwindle.
24:32
Oh, because I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted to be in his own home.
24:36
Yeah.
24:37
No.
24:38
I don't think so.
24:39
He's like, listen, I've been here.
24:40
I hang out here all the time.
24:42
Like I'm kind of over it.
24:44
I need a new view, you know?
24:45
Yeah.
24:46
It's funny.
24:47
You should say that.
24:48
Yeah.
24:49
He is going to have a different view.
24:51
But all of this was made possible by the durable power of attorney known as a D P O A that
25:02
Ralph Sr. had executed in favor of Ralph Jr. in 1997.
25:10
So it's been in place for almost a decade at this point, but his son had it.
25:15
But now they're going to use it.
25:17
Okay.
25:19
Since the Lee's controlled Ralph Jr. the power of attorney permitted them to control the assets
25:26
of Ralph Sr. via the D P O A.
25:30
Oh, shit.
25:33
At this time there was also a sense of urgency.
25:36
And it came to executing certain transactions that might have been viewed as beneficial to
25:43
the Reigns family in terms of tax planning for Ralph Sr. estate.
25:48
But just Rachel say to herself, slow your roll.
25:52
You've just manipulated someone into buying a nearly million dollar home for you and your
25:56
family to live in.
25:58
Let's call it a day on the financial front.
26:01
I don't think those people think like that.
26:04
Yeah.
26:05
And you would be correct.
26:08
While that alone would still be a pretty wild story, I'm not sure we'd be talking about
26:15
it today if that were the case.
26:19
Because of course it's going to get so much worse.
26:21
I feel so bad for them already.
26:24
I know.
26:25
Yeah.
26:26
Yep.
26:27
A whole million dollars essentially that they've been conned out of.
26:31
That's like all the trees they planted.
26:36
By 2008, the firm was consulted on quote, valuing the Raines tree farm LLC units and the potential
26:46
transfer of certain of those units from Ralph Sr. to Ralph Jr. in order to utilize Ralph
26:54
Sr.'s gift tax exclusion.
26:58
Are you going to tell us what that is?
27:03
Because I have no idea.
27:05
So this is something that people who have enough money to be worried about the tax implications
27:27
of their estate.
27:30
Something that they do to basically, "Hey, I want to give you this.
27:34
I don't want you to have to pay taxes on it though.
27:37
That's so stupid.
27:38
That's silly.
27:39
Be socialist.
27:41
You know, I just want to give you money."
27:45
Is that a thing?
27:47
Cassie, it's so a thing they've made an exclusion for it.
27:54
It's written into our tax.
27:56
How come when you win a bunch of money, then it's a gift why do you have to pay fucking
28:01
taxes on it?
28:03
That's because you're a peon and you don't have an estate.
28:07
According to the episode of American Greed covering the case, at the time, the Reigns
28:13
family's timber properties alone were valued at $11 million.
28:19
Damn!
28:20
We're talking 2008 dollars.
28:25
There was plenty of money to be made from the Raines family and Ralph's estate.
28:30
For instance, within the files kept by the firm was a record of Ralph's seniors' home
28:37
care expenses for 2007.
28:39
Oh my God, are they outrageous?
28:43
Included was a calculation or tally sheet referencing the name Rachel, presumably the
28:49
payee, or the person to whom the amount was owed.
28:53
It was a staggering sum, a total of $170,000 for home care.
29:05
Holy shit, I'm in the wrong line of business.
29:09
$170,000 for home care, all told.
29:13
And that was for 2007.
29:18
Just one year, one year.
29:21
Oh my God.
29:24
But you know what?
29:25
I know this firsthand.
29:27
Okay.
29:28
I've had elder relatives that have lived in assisted living and memory care facilities.
29:34
It's quite expensive.
29:36
So you think that's money well spent.
29:40
That's why they worked hard their whole lives.
29:41
They were humble and they saved and they did all the right things.
29:46
Right?
29:47
Right.
29:48
Theoretically.
29:50
Now she's picking up and I'm putting down.
29:54
Ralph Senior reportedly lived in a bed kept in a hallway in the massive Burkendine home.
30:04
Even Harry Potter had a closet under the stairs at least.
30:09
A hallway?
30:11
He was in the hallway.
30:13
Oh, he literally did not have a bedroom.
30:19
For $170,000 a year.
30:22
Oh, and the fact that also it's his money that bought the home that they're all living in.
30:29
Wow.
30:30
Friends and family struggle to reach either of the Raines men.
30:34
In some cases, it's believed that messages were being erased unnoticed.
30:42
I don't know who would do such a thing.
30:44
Yeah, who would do that?
30:45
I have never had my own personal messages erased by someone who lived in my own home.
30:54
The fuck?
30:55
Never happened to me.
30:59
Let's fuck up.
31:00
Plus, allegedly.
31:03
According to a neighbor and friend of the Raines family from back in the gas tin area,
31:09
Ralph Senior was often dirty.
31:12
Clearly not having been bathed recently, wearing unwashed clothes.
31:20
I'd like to think that if someone is paying nearly 15 grand a month for home care, the
31:27
basic hygiene might be one of the line items included in the luxurious package.
31:33
You would think.
31:35
However, ultimately, it seemed that the Lee family and Rachel in particular had different
31:42
priorities.
31:45
She sold the Birken Dean home to a third party and then stole the proceeds from the sale.
31:52
Sounds about right at this point.
31:56
In 2009, Ralph Jr. met Mary Marx, who purported to be an English woman in need of a green card
32:05
to avoid deportation.
32:07
Oh, how did they meet?
32:12
Funny story.
32:15
I think I'm psychic.
32:20
Or you can actually just read the literal writing on what?
32:29
Entering the room suddenly is a tall, slender, blonde woman from Great Britain.
32:36
Mary Marx.
32:37
Ellot!
32:38
Ello poppet!
32:40
Who also seems to have a paranormal gift?
32:47
What more could you want in a woman?
32:50
She told Ralph Jr. that she lived in California and worked in accounting.
32:56
Okay, another accountant.
32:58
All right.
32:59
Yeah.
33:00
Lots of number wizards over here.
33:05
She proposes to him quickly.
33:09
Something that she loves, the land, his family has cultivated and can help him manage the business.
33:16
Proposes like to get married?
33:19
She proposed.
33:20
Yep.
33:21
Okay.
33:22
Never trust a woman who proposed.
33:23
No, I'm just kidding.
33:24
I'm just kidding.
33:25
I was like, wow, she's going to have to take that back.
33:27
I don't believe in gender roles, but this is like, yeah.
33:31
The part that's suspicious is that it's all a ploy, right?
33:37
It's meant to be like, oh, this is so flattering because here's this older man and this younger
33:44
attractive foreign woman who fits the bill of everything he wants.
33:50
That never happens.
33:52
And she defies gender roles and she proposes to him.
33:56
And you know what?
33:57
It's not about the money.
33:58
She loves the land.
34:00
Yeah.
34:01
She hugs trees.
34:03
Okay.
34:04
She loves them.
34:05
Loves the fuck out of those trees.
34:07
It's offensive to me because I literally hug and love trees.
34:11
I've seen her do it.
34:13
Despite her outward appearance, Mary Marks was not a natural blonde.
34:20
But perhaps more shockingly, she was also not quite a woman.
34:25
Oh!
34:26
English or otherwise.
34:27
Okay.
34:28
This isn't going where you think it is.
34:30
You see, Mary Marks was actually Rachel's daughter, Porche.
34:36
Who was reportedly underage when she first met Ralph Jr.
34:42
Oh!
34:44
That's right.
34:45
This woman slapped an incredibly cheap looking blonde wig on her own daughter who was not
34:50
yet 18 and goaded her into a shame child-bride wedding scenario.
34:56
That's so gross.
34:58
It's pretty icky.
35:02
The most curious sources state that she was anywhere between 17 and 20, but I think in
35:08
more aspects than one, it can take some time for the truth to shake loose from a rotten family
35:13
tree.
35:15
In any case, this is a mother who literally put a wig on her daughter and goaded her into
35:24
a shame child-bride wedding scenario with Ralph who was in his 60s.
35:30
Just to sum it up.
35:32
No.
35:33
No.
35:34
No all the way around.
35:35
No.
35:36
No.
35:37
Porsche spoke with a fake English accent and wore glasses along with a wig.
35:43
Just like Harry Potter.
35:45
Harry Potter wore a wig?
35:47
What?
35:48
Glasses.
35:49
Yeah.
35:50
Glasses.
35:51
Scandal.
35:52
Scandal.
35:53
Here's perhaps the worst part.
35:59
It's all fucking terrible, but the name needed to seem legit to work how they intended within
36:07
the confines of this particular gift.
36:10
Mary Marks is a real name of an actual person.
36:16
They didn't have to look that hard for an alias to use though because Mary Marks is actually
36:23
Rachel Lee's mother.
36:25
Okay.
36:26
It's so gross.
36:27
Just keep it in the family.
36:29
Yeah.
36:30
The Lee's family staged a wedding ceremony for Ralph Jr. and the fictitious Mary Marks,
36:37
but the couple in truth was never married.
36:40
So it was a fake wedding.
36:43
So they like actually met.
36:45
I don't know why this whole time I'm thinking it's like online because how how how how how
36:52
I it's there's so much to unpack here.
36:56
All of it is so bizarre and really gross.
37:00
Are you going to show us the spirit Halloween wig?
37:05
You got to go to American greed for that.
37:07
I'm like, they're more worried about the the name sounding real than the wig looking real.
37:14
Uh huh.
37:15
Oh my god.
37:16
And it's not just a wig.
37:18
It's like a hat with a wig attached to it.
37:20
It's so bad.
37:22
No marriage certificate even exists because though Ralph continued wearing his ring for a
37:29
time after being told the truth by authorities, even the marriage or perhaps especially the
37:36
marriage was part of the con.
37:38
No, he just wanted it so bad.
37:43
While the marriage may have been completely fake, court documents revealed that beginning
37:48
in 2009.
37:51
Three marks began receiving a very real paycheck from the Raines tree farm LLC supposedly for
37:59
bookkeeping work.
38:01
Now there's one more thing that Ralph Jr. had always wanted from life, particularly as
38:07
he began to grow older and that was to have a family.
38:12
He's already halfway there with a beautiful English woman wife.
38:16
Yeah.
38:18
But very quickly after their wedding, Ralph is given what he thinks is truly fantastic news.
38:25
Marymarks, aka Porsche is now pregnant.
38:29
I don't I don't want to know.
38:31
You want to know.
38:32
Okay.
38:33
But of course, like every other aspect of this story, it's not quite what it seems because
38:38
this is definitely not Ralph's biological child.
38:42
They trick him into thinking he has fathered a child through in vitro fertilization.
38:49
Oh, thank God.
38:51
Yeah.
38:52
He's like, please, no.
38:53
Yeah.
38:54
No, no.
38:55
No, no.
38:56
And his patient.
38:57
Yeah.
38:58
Oh.
38:59
Apparently, though it wasn't Ralph's baby, the pregnancy had been real.
39:09
But the baby was taken by the father shortly after birth, which is probably the best thing
39:15
that could have ever happened to that kid.
39:17
Seriously, wow.
39:19
Luckily, another one of Rachel's daughters also gave birth around the same time.
39:28
Which is great.
39:30
But it's not great news because Rachel is psyched to be a grandma.
39:37
But because now she has an infant that she can borrow to use as a stand-in.
39:43
This baby is then introduced as Ralph's son, Georgio Armani.
39:49
But that's his name.
39:52
Is that his real name or is that the name she made up?
39:55
I think that's his real name.
39:58
Georgio Armani?
40:00
That's already taken.
40:02
There can only be one.
40:07
We can't dwell here, OK?
40:08
Because there's so much more.
40:12
According to additional court documents, copies of the general ledger and profit and loss
40:17
statement for the Ralph Raines senior household provided to the firm to account for 2009 showed
40:26
how rampant the financial abuse had become.
40:31
The P&L statement, so profit and loss, if you're nice, stay.
40:36
Which is my favorite phrase.
40:38
I can tell.
40:39
Yeah.
40:40
The P&L statement shows that approximately $1.2 million was deposited into an account to
40:48
be used for Ralph seniors' household expenses in 2010.
40:53
Damn, I need some household expenses like that.
40:58
Right.
40:59
Said funds were made available after the lease liquidated investments in Ralph seniors
41:05
UBS account, which UBS is a place where a lot of people have like retirement and other
41:12
investment accounts.
41:13
Oh, not where your son packages.
41:16
No, OK.
41:17
UB is the ball best.
41:20
By the end of that calendar year, only $200,000 of the $1.2 million originally deposited remained.
41:30
I know I was going to need the UBS second to.
41:35
Can you spend $1 million?
41:38
How?
41:39
It's a really good question.
41:41
Like did they actually spend on stuff or did they?
41:44
Oh, they spent it on stuff.
41:45
They didn't hide it in like off-shore accounts.
41:47
Oh, no, they spent it on stuff.
41:49
Oh my god.
41:50
Cassie, we are going to get to the stuff.
41:52
Oh my god.
41:53
OK.
41:54
I hope they bought a lot of really cool tarot decks.
41:58
That's all I'm going to say.
41:59
I don't think so.
42:02
Approximately $375,000 was used to pay taxes.
42:07
Responsible.
42:08
Oh, that's good.
42:09
OK, no tax fraud here.
42:11
Which were only incurred in large part due to the significant capital gains incurred as
42:18
the result of the lease liquidation of investments.
42:23
OK.
42:24
So they took the money out and then it was taxed.
42:26
So, cause and effect.
42:30
So it wasn't the gifted kind of money.
42:32
OK.
42:33
It was just shy of half of the total that was documented to have specifically supported
42:39
the lavish lifestyle.
42:41
The Lee family was rapidly becoming accustomed to.
42:46
Entries in the ledger included payment for things like salon visits, luxury cars, and
42:52
even a personal designer, all of which legal filings indicated were and I quote, "completely
43:01
inconsistent with the expenses of an incapacitated man needing a full-time caregiver."
43:09
Yeah, which I can say I wholeheartedly agree is correct.
43:16
Like yeah, no, duh, you think?
43:18
Yeah, he doesn't need an interior designer.
43:21
I love, not really.
43:23
Or trips to the salon.
43:25
He really needs a bath.
43:27
Oh, it's so sad.
43:33
This next part won't make you feel better then.
43:36
Then in February of 2011 Ralph Senior died at 91 years old.
43:43
But Junior's wife isn't present at the funeral.
43:47
Where is she?
43:49
Good question.
43:52
Once later Ralph Junior has his wife and his sons' names added to his parents' gravestones.
44:02
No.
44:04
Oh no.
44:09
A key element of the Lee's fraudulent scheme moving forward from this time was to tell
44:15
Ralph Junior that he had to sell the reigns tree farm in order to pay taxes.
44:22
Make many other statements made by the Lee family.
44:26
Survey says that was a lie.
44:29
That doesn't sound right at all.
44:32
No.
44:33
In addition to lying about their being outstanding taxes from the probate process, Mary
44:39
Marks fakes a second in vitro pregnancy.
44:46
Jesus woman.
44:49
Their further motivate Ralph to create more liquid cash in roughly 2011 according to American
44:57
greed.
44:59
He believed this second pregnancy would be a daughter and hoped to name her Gloria.
45:08
But months later, Mary fakes a miscarriage before flying home to England and faking her death.
45:17
This bitch is so fucked.
45:23
Faking things that real people actually go through.
45:27
Yes.
45:28
Including in vitro, which isn't fucking easy.
45:30
No.
45:32
So fake, Georgio, our money is now a fake orphan.
45:39
Where does he think the kid went?
45:44
Kid didn't go anywhere.
45:45
Like, oh, so the kid is still with him.
45:49
Georgio is okay.
45:51
The Lee's were able to keep Ralph Jr. from receiving the correct information because they
45:57
controlled all contact with the firm at this stage.
46:01
I mean, they already had for quite some time.
46:04
Yeah.
46:05
Of course.
46:06
So, it's not difficult to see how the Lee's were able to orchestrate the sale of the reigns
46:12
tree farm.
46:14
Which was contrary to Ralph Jr.'s plan to continue farming for many years in a series of sales
46:22
in 2011 and 2012 for over $12 million.
46:30
And steal the bulk of the proceeds just as had been done with the Burk and Dean home.
46:38
Record show that by mid 2011, the firm had been informed by Rachel Lee that she was in the
46:44
process of attempting to sell the pumpkin Ridge tract of the reigns tree farm.
46:51
The pumpkin Ridge tract was sold on July 27, 2011 for just over a million dollars.
47:00
The mills going around holy shit.
47:04
The Gales Creek tract was sold on September 23, 2011 for just shy of 1.5 million.
47:13
While Lee's thereafter began to drain the accounts of the proceeds of these sales.
47:18
Naturally.
47:19
Yeah.
47:20
Yeah.
47:21
As one does.
47:22
Holy shit.
47:23
I feel so bad for this guy.
47:26
And he thinks he just lost his wife.
47:28
And his baby.
47:29
Yeah.
47:30
And he's in more like deep morning, I'm sure.
47:36
When the firm was provided an inventory of estate assets, the inventory showed that the
47:43
only remaining worthy.
47:46
And this is prior to the sale of the Burk and Dean property.
47:49
Obviously.
47:50
Number one, the Burk and Dean property.
47:53
Number two, Ralph seniors interest in the Raines tree farm LLC.
48:01
Number three, approximately $115,000 from the UBS account.
48:06
Number four, cash and miscellaneous items worth around $2,000.
48:13
Along with the estate inventory, the firm was provided a copy of the February 2011
48:20
statement for Ralph seniors UBS account.
48:25
Which contained what court documents describe as a graphic depiction of the depletion of
48:32
the account.
48:34
From a value of over $7 million in 2006 down to $115,000 at the time of Ralph senior's death.
48:49
The firm reportedly did nothing to express concern about the massive depletion in assets
48:56
or inquire how it was possible for a very wealthy man, such as Ralph senior, to die without
49:03
significant additional cash, investment accounts, and other property, and to have dissipated the
49:11
liquid assets that should have been available to pay estate taxes.
49:17
Wow.
49:18
Yeah, I feel like this firm handles a lot of people's finances, right?
49:23
Like, they should know what's normal and what's not normal.
49:26
There's a lot of red flags.
49:28
Yeah.
49:29
A lot.
49:31
Instead, the firm simply proceeded to pair the tax.
49:38
They just prepared the tax return as if this was business as usual and continued to communicate
49:45
with Rachel Lee.
49:46
Like, do they--are they allowed to say anything, you know?
49:52
Oh, absolutely.
49:54
They're financial advisors.
49:57
They say the tax preparers.
49:58
I mean, this is--that is literally their job.
50:02
Wow.
50:04
All of the aforementioned is completely at odds with the fact that the same firm had been
50:09
consulted for a number of years regarding the Reigns family's intent to maximize the
50:16
natural resource credit for the estate.
50:20
And they even revisited this issue in connection with the preparation of the estate tax returns.
50:27
The firm was fully aware that the sale of the tree farm parcels was at odds with the Raines
50:33
family's long-time plan to maximize the natural resource credit.
50:39
And in fact, the sales had the effect of decreasing the credit to which the estate was entitled.
50:46
So we're going against long-standing plans.
50:50
We're talking about plans intended for a--for generational wealth, generational assets that
51:00
aren't necessarily strictly speaking cold-hard cash, but unreal.
51:07
Wow.
51:09
Further, in connection with analyzing issues related to estate taxes, the firm was aware of Ralph
51:16
Jr.'s plan to continue tree farming for many years, given the recently in sales and those
51:22
that would be transacted within just months, surely this should have been of concern.
51:28
Yeah.
51:29
He was only in his 60s, right?
51:32
Like he--any worked physically his whole life, so I'm sure he had in shape.
51:37
He could still do that for a product.
51:39
Right.
51:40
Even if he's not physically doing it?
51:43
Yeah.
51:44
And the firm could still be maintained by others.
51:47
Because it wasn't just him.
51:48
I'm just--yeah.
51:49
He's just out there shopping down trees.
51:50
No, that's right.
51:51
I probably had a ton of employees.
51:52
Out there lumberjacken, solar, holy shit, and all those people affected.
51:57
Oh my god.
51:59
In January 2012, the wholesale theft continued as the lease orchestrated the sale of a portion
52:06
of the cherry grove tract of the tree farm for just over a million dollars.
52:12
And therefore began to drain the accounts of these funds as well.
52:16
They're just finding all the little places to take.
52:21
Yeah.
52:22
Well, every little crumb, million dollar crumbs.
52:25
Mm-hmm.
52:26
Yeah, million dollar crumbs.
52:28
Just two months later, in March of 2012, the firm received a copy of the general ledger
52:34
for the Raines Senior Household 4 2011.
52:39
Despite the fact that Ralph Senior had died in February, the ledger shows that the excessive
52:45
spending of his assets continued regardless of his having passed.
52:52
Of the approximately 16 pages of entries of expenditures for Ralph Senior's household,
53:01
roughly 14 of the pages show expenditures incurred purportedly by his household after his
53:08
death.
53:09
Is his ghost needing shit?
53:13
Like, how do you explain that?
53:15
Like as a ghost, I would get my nails did.
53:19
Yeah.
53:20
These were for things that I can guarantee you were not the expenses of a 91 year old man
53:27
or his grieving family.
53:29
In July 2012, Ralph Junior turned 65.
53:35
So in July of 2012, the lease orchestrated the sale of substantially all of the remaining
53:41
tree farm for just shy of nine million dollars.
53:46
And therefore began draining the accounts of proceeds of that sale as well.
53:53
The following month, the firm was aware of all of the tree farm sales and as a result,
53:59
repaired additional estate tax returns showing additional taxes owed as a result of the sales
54:07
because they didn't maximize the natural resource credits so then they owed money.
54:14
So when they did the thing that flew in the face of the estate's long term plan for the
54:22
farm and they sold parcels, it didn't work out.
54:28
In or around August of 2012 is when Rachel Lee actually orchestrated the sale of the Burk
54:35
and Dean home.
54:36
I know we've talked about this quite a bit at this point.
54:39
Rachel Lee signed the transaction documents purportedly as the "interny" in fact, that's
54:46
that whole power of attorney thing.
54:49
I wasn't going to leave this in, but it grabbed my attention.
54:58
The firm received a copy of an escrow instruction letter and they had to attach a voided check.
55:06
And that check was for the account where they were supposed to be depositing the money
55:13
from that sale.
55:14
So it's a voided check.
55:16
It was a Hello Kitty check.
55:19
No way.
55:21
Really?
55:23
This bitch ruined everything.
55:28
Even Hello Kitty.
55:29
Wow.
55:30
I should have brought my little Hello Kitty keychain.
55:35
I didn't know.
55:37
I didn't remember.
55:42
I was just at my storage the other day and I saw it and I almost grabbed it.
55:46
It's my Hello Kitty man.
55:48
I was like, I don't need that right now.
55:50
I did.
55:51
I'm it.
55:54
Wow.
55:55
That's crazy.
55:56
Also, I don't want checks, but now I kind of do.
56:00
Yeah.
56:01
Yeah.
56:02
Now that you know that you can have Hello Kitty checks, she's like, I need a checkbook.
56:09
Adulting, right?
56:10
Yeah.
56:11
In November of 2012, the firm was informed that the estate was being audited.
56:17
Good.
56:18
It needed it, obviously.
56:22
Yeah.
56:23
I mean, yeah.
56:24
Well, too late.
56:26
So this was well prior to their preparation of the 2012 tax returns for the estate, which
56:32
showed nearly $700,000 owed in taxes in connection with income from the sales of the
56:40
Raines tree farm.
56:43
Despite the fact that the lease were in the process of stealing the purported proceeds
56:48
from the sales, because that's kind of their thing.
56:51
Yeah.
56:52
Yeah.
56:53
In December of 2013, Rachel emailed the firm inquiring about the amount of inheritance
57:00
taxes still owed.
57:02
The firm emailed Rachel indicating that the amount still remaining to be paid was approximately
57:08
$350,000.
57:12
At which point, this bitch had the audacity to ask, oh, wow.
57:18
Did you find out if we can give them the rest of the tree farm to pay off?
57:23
Huh?
57:24
Let me explain.
57:25
In doing so, Rachel Lee was suggesting the possibility of transferring the small remaining
57:35
parcel of the Reigns tree farm on which Ralph Jr.'s modest home was located to pay the taxes.
57:46
No.
57:47
It's all he has left and it's where he lives.
57:52
And she's just like, can you take that?
57:55
Just take that.
57:56
Come on.
57:57
To pay off my fraud.
57:58
Thank you.
57:59
Thank you.
58:00
Here's my hello.
58:01
The firm responded to her email on the same day to say, most likely the IRS will review
58:10
Jr.'s personal assets.
58:12
And if there are adequate liquid assets to satisfy the obligation, they will not accept
58:19
non-liquid assets.
58:21
So as long as there was any cash remaining that could be collected, that's their preference.
58:28
Apparently, they don't want to just take a tree farm and then have to sell it.
58:33
That makes no fucking sense.
58:35
I mean, I know I think when they're desperate, they take all the assets.
58:40
Oh, yeah.
58:41
If that's all he has, they would take it.
58:43
But he still has enough money that they would try to go after that first.
58:49
They would try to go after other types of assets before that.
58:55
There's absolutely zero indication that the firm raised questions with Rachel Lee,
59:02
let alone Ralph Jr. as to why they would need to sell the small remaining portion of the
59:08
tree farm.
59:09
Remember, this is where his whole ass tiny house is located currently in order to pay $350,000
59:19
in inheritance taxes.
59:21
And he had just sold nearly the entire family tree farm for over $12 million in cash.
59:31
Yeah, does she not just have that change in her car?
59:37
Nor did they question what happened to the UBS account that had contained as much as
59:41
7 million in liquid assets.
59:45
Portland Police Detective Liz Crothers.
59:48
Oooo Crothers!
59:53
Listen, between her and another guy and the IRS, they're like, no, this shall not stand
1:00:03
good.
1:00:05
She noticed the expensive vehicles frequently parked at the Canby psychic property.
1:00:14
From which Rachel continued to run her quote, legitimate business.
1:00:22
But quickly, it becomes clear that something is up.
1:00:26
Because that's a few too many fancy cars.
1:00:31
Marlene Olson, investigator with the Oregon Department of Justice, that had also conveniently
1:00:39
worked in logging and also knows the rain's family personally.
1:00:46
Wow.
1:00:47
Oh, she steps in.
1:00:51
Okay.
1:00:52
So Marlene Olson and Liz Crothers attended the same seminar in January 2014 on elder fraud
1:01:02
along with Steve Floyd, who is a detective with Canby PD.
1:01:09
Wow.
1:01:10
Thank God for that.
1:01:11
Wait, what was it?
1:01:12
The seminar.
1:01:13
Yeah.
1:01:14
Oh, my gosh.
1:01:15
When Marlene went to visit the Raines family tree farm and saw the clear cutting for herself,
1:01:21
she knew something was seriously wrong.
1:01:24
Steve Floyd subpoenaed financial records while the IRS criminal investigation division
1:01:31
also began to take a look at the books.
1:01:34
Shortly after, the Canby detectives visit Ralph Jr.'s home in March of 2014, and then the
1:01:43
Canby psychic property is also searched.
1:01:48
Seasures of Rachel Lee's assets begin.
1:01:52
They discover Rolexes, a blank signed check, and the fucking blonde hat wig.
1:02:04
You know, with all this money, the fucking blonde hat wig used to dop this poor man.
1:02:12
Oh, my God.
1:02:13
I think I'm splurred a little on something a little nicer.
1:02:17
Nope.
1:02:18
And they still had it too.
1:02:20
That's, oh, God.
1:02:22
Thank you for the next old person.
1:02:24
They're going to prod.
1:02:25
Who knows what they were cooking up?
1:02:28
Jesus.
1:02:29
In April of 2014, the IRS provided the firm its recommendations resulting from the audit
1:02:37
confirmed that certain penalties would be assessed and indicated that approximately $250,000
1:02:45
was still owed to the IRS.
1:02:48
By the time he's confronted with the latest evidence in May, Ralph's, he's mad.
1:02:57
He's mad.
1:02:58
Good.
1:02:59
And defending Rachel.
1:03:01
Oh, shit.
1:03:02
It mattered the wrong people.
1:03:04
No, Ralphie.
1:03:06
I know.
1:03:07
Ralphie, June.
1:03:10
He's not ready to come out the other side yet.
1:03:12
Well, I mean, and if you admit that all of that happened to you, that's like, oh, my God,
1:03:20
such a mental fuck.
1:03:21
Mm-hmm.
1:03:22
Because you're like a strong man.
1:03:25
Mm-hmm.
1:03:26
He doesn't realize yet.
1:03:31
Rachel Lee directed him to write letters defending her actions.
1:03:37
And he did.
1:03:38
He wrote several.
1:03:40
An American greed shared the text included.
1:03:45
In the one that they finally decided was good enough to send.
1:03:49
A short while later, Ralph is back in bend with Portia and Rachel, the place where he first
1:03:56
met Rachel.
1:03:59
At the time of this trip toward the desert, though he was completely unaware, Ralph was
1:04:04
down to just $200,000 left to his name.
1:04:09
Thankfully, the authorities were all too aware of the devious financial deeds of the Lee family
1:04:16
and moved to arrest the two women.
1:04:19
They were arrested at the shop in Bend, likely in just the nick of time, as authorities
1:04:27
believe that the purpose of this trip was finally getting rid of Ralph Jr. for good.
1:04:35
No.
1:04:36
They were going to kill him allegedly, allegedly, and leave him in the desert allegedly.
1:04:44
What the fuck?
1:04:45
Wow.
1:04:46
I mean, I'm not surprised, but still just like hearing you say it.
1:04:52
It's awful.
1:04:54
He wrote letters defending you.
1:04:56
He did.
1:04:57
Like...
1:04:59
The criminal indictment against the Lee's was filed approximately one month after the report
1:05:04
was put forth by the IRS on May 8, 2014.
1:05:10
It's then that the Lee's were arrested in Bend, Oregon.
1:05:14
According to court documents, at the time of their arrest, the Lee's had been keeping
1:05:19
Ralph Jr. in a converted garage behind their bend psychic shop.
1:05:27
Keeping him there?
1:05:28
That might've just got really high pitch.
1:05:32
That's the appropriate response.
1:05:38
Ralph Jr. was weak and confused when the authorities located him on the property.
1:05:45
As a result of his inability to manage his own affairs, in June of 2014, the Washington
1:05:52
County Court entered a stipulated, limited judgment appointing conservator for an adult,
1:06:01
or an indefinite period of time, which that judgment appointed a conservator for Ralph
1:06:09
Jr.
1:06:11
They brit need him, but oh my god.
1:06:14
But he really needed it.
1:06:18
This is the opposite of what happened to Britney.
1:06:21
This is someone who very deeply needed this assistance.
1:06:27
Yeah, by someone not them.
1:06:32
There are certain aspects of this case that this could have just been like four whole-ass
1:06:38
episodes.
1:06:40
There's a name I'm about to drop that you're going to go, "Huh?
1:06:45
This is Rachel Lee's boyfriend husband, sometimes depending on who she was talking to brother.
1:06:55
Isn't her brother?
1:06:58
Blancy.
1:07:00
Blancy.
1:07:01
Blancy.
1:07:02
Blancy.
1:07:03
That's the first name.
1:07:04
Just one name.
1:07:05
Just like Cher and Madonna.
1:07:07
Blancy.
1:07:08
Blancy.
1:07:09
Yeah, Blancy had also worked for the Reigns family.
1:07:12
There's a number of instances where he comes up in the various ways that he helped perpetrate
1:07:19
this broad.
1:07:23
He did some bad stuff for sure.
1:07:25
We are not in disagreement about that.
1:07:28
I just didn't think he was that interesting of a character overall.
1:07:32
My brother has been blancy.
1:07:34
That's interesting to me.
1:07:36
I know.
1:07:37
I know.
1:07:38
Is he a real person?
1:07:39
Yes.
1:07:40
Okay.
1:07:41
To think that he was the least interesting character as the brother husband.
1:07:49
Wow.
1:07:50
Okay.
1:07:51
Okay.
1:07:52
Okay.
1:07:53
Blancy pled guilty and helped the feds track the siphoned funds.
1:07:59
So he was a...
1:08:02
So we still have to talk about him.
1:08:05
Yeah.
1:08:06
Yeah.
1:08:07
Snitch Blancy.
1:08:08
Snitch Blancy.
1:08:09
For the charges of money laundering as well as other tax-related charges, he receives
1:08:15
a sentence of, "Kassie, do you want to guess?
1:08:19
Do you want to guess?
1:08:20
Do you want to guess how long he got?"
1:08:22
I'm not good at this.
1:08:24
I don't know.
1:08:25
10 years.
1:08:26
It was probably like 10 months.
1:08:29
Oh, sweet girl.
1:08:30
I know.
1:08:31
I'm literally not good at this.
1:08:32
Terrific.
1:08:33
No, I know.
1:08:34
I'm never good at this either, but this is...
1:08:38
It's somewhere between those two numbers.
1:08:40
I'm like, he either got way too little or way too much and took the fall.
1:08:46
He receives a sentence of two years.
1:08:50
I was totally going to say too.
1:08:52
Really?
1:08:53
Yeah.
1:08:54
Rachel pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and failure
1:09:01
to pay income taxes.
1:09:05
And she gets eight years and four months, which seems like kind of a lot of time seeing
1:09:14
as she didn't actually kill anyone.
1:09:17
But I can't help.
1:09:19
There's a little bit of a sticking point for me because it's also noticeably less time
1:09:28
than the duration of her financial long con.
1:09:32
Yeah.
1:09:33
And she ruined two people's lives, like completely ruined them.
1:09:37
She ruined a lot of lives.
1:09:39
Probably more, but like...
1:09:41
Yeah.
1:09:42
But two people distinctly stick out.
1:09:46
Does she not get like elder abuse charges?
1:09:49
Because was there any proof?
1:09:52
I mean, technically, I don't think there was any evidence of physical elder abuse.
1:10:00
It's all elder abuse in...
1:10:02
Like, neglect.
1:10:03
Right.
1:10:04
Yeah, yeah.
1:10:05
Well, and strictly in like a financial aspect, really.
1:10:09
Yeah.
1:10:10
Portia pleads guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
1:10:15
She would receive two years and nine months in prison.
1:10:19
She should get another year for a bad wig.
1:10:23
Yeah.
1:10:24
Listen.
1:10:25
That's a crime.
1:10:26
It was a crime.
1:10:27
That is true crime.
1:10:29
I can't see if I told you that even though there's still some sad stuff left, that this story
1:10:37
kind of has a silver lining, would you believe me?
1:10:41
I hope that you would never lie to me.
1:10:44
Okay.
1:10:45
I'm putting a lot of faith and trust in you.
1:10:48
Ralph has struggled to come to grips with the fact that the woman he knew as Mary Marks
1:10:53
was really Portia.
1:10:54
He thought she died.
1:10:58
That's so fucked.
1:11:01
And she in fact only saw him as a mark.
1:11:04
Get it?
1:11:05
Mary Marks?
1:11:06
No.
1:11:07
No?
1:11:08
I get it.
1:11:09
I get it.
1:11:10
My heart hurts.
1:11:14
On the day of her sentencing, she agreed to meet with Ralph and greeted him in the Mary Marks
1:11:20
get up, complete with the British accent before taking off her disguise.
1:11:28
She did not.
1:11:30
The prosecution actually arranged this.
1:11:34
They did this for his benefit.
1:11:37
Did they tell him that she was alive actually first or did he just see a ghost?
1:11:42
He did, it's, I mean, he knew that Mary Marks was having a trial, right?
1:11:49
Because he's there.
1:11:50
Okay.
1:11:52
There's a lot of cognitive dissonance and very hurt feelings involved in this.
1:12:00
But this helped him to come to terms with the overwhelming deception according to some
1:12:08
of the people that have remained closest to him throughout his emotional ordeal.
1:12:16
He literally, until she took off the wig, he just could not fathom that Mary Marks wasn't
1:12:22
real and that anything that he was being told was true.
1:12:27
It's just so fucking sad.
1:12:30
Oh my God.
1:12:32
Ralph doesn't typically speak about this period of his life.
1:12:36
Some of his money and other assets have been returned to him after being recovered by authorities
1:12:42
through seizures.
1:12:44
Ralph currently lives in a relatively modest A-Frame style home on the remaining family
1:12:49
property where the evidence of the clear cutting is in plain view.
1:12:56
A stark reminder of his painful past.
1:13:00
To some, it might be surprising to hear how optimistic Ralph has remained.
1:13:06
Even light of all that he is endured, but when he appeared on American greed, his parting
1:13:12
words took the crew at the end of the episode were.
1:13:16
Ten years ago, this whole area in here had trees.
1:13:20
This size appeared as he gestured to a large stand of old growth trees.
1:13:28
It's something I helped plant.
1:13:29
I helped build and now it's gone.
1:13:33
I realized we've had a disaster here, but it will grow back and heal.
1:13:40
Oh.
1:13:43
It will.
1:13:44
Ten years from now, you won't recognize this spot.
1:13:48
Come back in ten years.
1:13:50
I know I was like crying at the end of the episode.
1:13:55
Can you imagine?
1:13:59
No, this whole thing is just crazy.
1:14:04
They just brainwashed him.
1:14:07
I just feel like if it had just been about the financial fraud, I know it's easy to say
1:14:12
that you don't care about the money when you have the money.
1:14:17
I don't know that.
1:14:18
I assume.
1:14:19
Yeah.
1:14:20
But it's the wholesale fraud that they perpetrated in the deepest and most hurtful and personal
1:14:32
ways in his life that it's just, it's fucking heart-wrenching.
1:14:39
It really is.
1:14:42
It's so sick.
1:14:44
Yeah, like as much as we made fun of this bitch's fake wig and all this stuff, but I can really
1:14:52
see how you know the soft spots and the nerves that you can poke and manipulate and to someone
1:14:59
who then can't see any of that anymore.
1:15:06
And this is super heartbreaking as well.
1:15:09
He obviously hasn't been able to maintain a relationship with Georgiel.
1:15:17
Oh, God.
1:15:18
And he said that's the one thing that he wishes is that he's like, I know maybe it's not right.
1:15:25
You know, maybe that it shouldn't be that way.
1:15:28
He's back with his family, like his real mom now.
1:15:33
But he really desperately wishes that he could have a relationship with Georgiel because
1:15:38
he thought he was his father.
1:15:40
He loved him.
1:15:41
He, you know, was helping to raise him for all intents and purposes.
1:15:46
Yeah.
1:15:47
How old was Georgiel in the soul?
1:15:50
Oh, gosh.
1:15:51
By the end of it, he might have been close to like kindergarten age.
1:15:56
Because that's gonna fuck with him too.
1:15:58
He's like, where was this father figure I had for so long?
1:16:03
Mm-hmm.
1:16:04
Just like the...
1:16:05
The damage.
1:16:06
The tendrils of damage.
1:16:07
I was literally just gonna say that tentacles, it just...
1:16:11
There's so much trauma.
1:16:13
That's why I say it's like, there's not any murder technically, but it feels so much worse
1:16:24
in a way.
1:16:27
And obviously murder is bad.
1:16:29
Murder is bad.
1:16:30
We are not saying murder.
1:16:32
We are saying that like this just feels like on another level.
1:16:37
It's torture.
1:16:38
It's like torture.
1:16:39
It's like psychological warfare and torture.
1:16:44
And it would be awful to do it to anyone, but the fact that they didn't pick somebody who
1:16:48
was a young man and could move on in his life and do things differently moving forward.
1:16:57
This is someone who's already like retirement age.
1:17:01
Yeah.
1:17:03
Like he's entering what should be the golden years of his life and they have just...
1:17:08
They've absolutely annihilated what he thought was his life.
1:17:13
That's crazy.
1:17:14
I fucking hate it.
1:17:17
I hope he has the same outlook on his life that he does with the land.
1:17:21
I think very much so.
1:17:23
You are in your elder years, but that's not to say that you can't have a fulfilling life
1:17:29
for the rest of it.
1:17:31
You can still find meaning in what he does on this earth.
1:17:37
And obviously a lot of what his family has done has been trying to be of service to their
1:17:46
local community and just generally being good humans.
1:17:51
I don't know.
1:17:52
I mean, what else do you do?
1:17:55
You can't do anything, but just...
1:17:58
Yeah.
1:17:59
You can't help and live with that little spot of sunshine.
1:18:03
And you know what?
1:18:04
You know what you do?
1:18:06
You do some tarot, but you know what you don't do?
1:18:09
You don't fake the tarot reading.
1:18:12
You don't just like make shit up.
1:18:14
You don't manipulate people.
1:18:15
Yeah.
1:18:17
You don't fake multiple pregnancies.
1:18:20
That is so gross.
1:18:21
And your death.
1:18:22
That is so gross.
1:18:24
All of that is just gross.
1:18:26
Should we do some tarot?
1:18:28
Yeah, let's do some real-ass tarot, but isn't going to hurt anybody.
1:18:34
Except our own feelings, maybe.
1:18:37
Yeah, maybe sometimes, but yeah.
1:18:39
What are you going to do?
1:18:40
It's always the truth.
1:18:43
And that's better than lies.
1:18:44
And that's a quote from me.
1:18:47
Oh my God.
1:18:49
That was the most basic quote I ever heard.
1:18:53
You're like, "Better than lies."
1:18:54
I'm a genius.
1:18:57
But that on my tombstone.
1:18:59
Oh my God.
1:19:01
[SIRENS]
1:19:04
As indie podcasters, we love to show our support of other awesome shows.
1:19:09
So stay tuned for the promo we've got to share with you this week.
1:19:12
Let's show them some love.
1:19:14
You can find their info in our show notes.
1:19:18
Hey, it's Katie.
1:19:19
And Izzy.
1:19:20
We are the host of Horror Cats and Witch Hats.
1:19:22
A podcast where we take a deep dive into the movie's creative to Haunt,
1:19:26
Horify, and Be Witch.
1:19:28
Every other week, we cover a movie recommended by our listeners.
1:19:31
My favorite episodes have included talking about the true crime that inspired the film,
1:19:35
Haunted History, and of course, any cat that survives till the end.
1:19:39
So follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Horror_Cats_WitchHats
1:19:44
and make sure to send us your movie recommendations.
1:19:47
But more importantly, send us your cat pictures and videos.
1:19:51
You can find us on Spotify, Apple Music, and Google podcasts.
1:19:54
Or pretty much wherever you listen to fine podcasts.
1:19:57
Wow!
1:19:58
You guys, we're back!
1:20:02
And don't worry, we did get more wine.
1:20:05
Well, of course.
1:20:06
Oh my gosh!
1:20:10
It's so cute!
1:20:11
Look at all the minis!
1:20:13
I know!
1:20:15
Yeah, this will definitely be when we have to get some good pictures.
1:20:18
Oh yeah.
1:20:18
You cannot see.
1:20:20
Oh, point.
1:20:20
I'll point some stuff out while she's shuffling.
1:20:22
A racket.
1:20:24
Tiny tarot card.
1:20:27
They're teeny weeny.
1:20:29
They're Caitlyn's size.
1:20:30
We found a Caitlyn's size deck.
1:20:33
She shuffled these perfectly earlier.
1:20:35
Didn't drop a one.
1:20:39
I dropped a literally every single one of them.
1:20:41
She grabbed a mole and they all just fell out of her hands.
1:20:43
And I was like, is this the first time you've ever felt like a giant?
1:20:47
Yeah, basically.
1:20:49
OK.
1:20:52
Oh, what a word.
1:20:55
King of Swords was an effort.
1:20:57
It was, yes.
1:20:58
King of Swords.
1:21:00
It's not a flamingo.
1:21:02
It's not a flamingo, but it looks like one.
1:21:04
I think it's a heron.
1:21:06
I'm just like, it's not a flamingo.
1:21:09
She's like, that's all the things I know.
1:21:11
Those are from the Pacific Northwest.
1:21:13
[LAUGHTER]
1:21:16
OK.
1:21:17
King of Swords are keywords.
1:21:19
Are judgment, intelligence, mental power, and communication.
1:21:26
In some decks, the King of Swords
1:21:28
sits on a throne wearing royal robes and a crown,
1:21:33
brandishing a mighty battle sword.
1:21:36
They were both veterans.
1:21:38
Oh, yeah.
1:21:40
Other decks show him in military armor.
1:21:44
In a reading, he may represent an actual person, in which case,
1:21:48
he's usually a mature man known for his intelligence,
1:21:52
communication skills, fairness, and objectivity.
1:21:56
Wow.
1:21:56
That-- yeah.
1:21:58
That's creepy.
1:21:59
That's like one of the things I wanted to, like, kind of--
1:22:03
I don't-- like, drill in, but not really,
1:22:06
that he wasn't like a dumb person.
1:22:08
No, not at all.
1:22:10
The upright King represents intellectual pursuits,
1:22:14
communication, spiritual knowledge, which was, like,
1:22:19
Ralph's other passion aside from having a family,
1:22:23
and study.
1:22:25
You may be mastering a mental task or using your communications
1:22:29
skills successfully.
1:22:31
This is going to make you absolutely
1:22:33
short your pantaloon.
1:22:35
I thought you were reading still, and I was like, wait, oh,
1:22:38
what?
1:22:39
Yeah, that's in the book.
1:22:41
Sometimes this card indicates a decision, judgment, or legal
1:22:46
matter.
1:22:47
Yes.
1:22:49
I think you could say, if the King signifies an actual person,
1:22:54
he may seem stern, analytical, or aloof.
1:22:57
Perhaps he's a lawyer or judge, a professor,
1:23:00
military leader, scientist, or religious leader.
1:23:04
This is so Ralph's senior.
1:23:07
In a reading about money, the King upright
1:23:09
recommends taking charge of a financial matter.
1:23:12
Oh my god, it hurts.
1:23:16
Do your homework.
1:23:17
Don't let your emotions influence a decision
1:23:20
involving money or investments.
1:23:23
We needed to do his tarot reading.
1:23:26
It hurts.
1:23:27
This card may also mean profiting from an intellectual endeavor.
1:23:32
If the reading is about your job, it
1:23:34
may indicate you work in a field that
1:23:36
requires keen intelligence, good communication,
1:23:41
or analytical ability.
1:23:44
The King advises you to show leadership regarding decisions
1:23:47
or judgments, clarity, and objectivity are important.
1:23:52
Because you think of him as we talked about he worked very
1:23:57
physically.
1:23:58
He did.
1:23:59
Yeah.
1:23:59
But then also to run it after his dad passed,
1:24:03
he ran the whole thing, right?
1:24:05
Well, not from the standpoint of the administrative
1:24:13
or bookkeeping, obviously, you know what he was doing that.
1:24:15
But I mean, yeah.
1:24:18
Cassie, you're going to shorten your pants a second time.
1:24:23
Double short.
1:24:24
Double short.
1:24:25
In a reading about love, the King symbolizes
1:24:28
a relationship based on shared interests and ideas
1:24:33
rather than passion.
1:24:36
Yep.
1:24:36
Like a sexless marriage where they might
1:24:39
have been fake shared ideas.
1:24:41
Yeah.
1:24:42
You and your partner resist expressing deep emotions,
1:24:46
preferring a friendly partnership, which
1:24:49
is literally the name of the game here.
1:24:51
Yeah.
1:24:52
Perhaps you fear losing independence
1:24:55
if you open your heart.
1:24:57
I don't think he was the one that was afraid.
1:24:59
There's an extra excerpt.
1:25:01
I think the highest purpose of ritual or magic work
1:25:05
is to seek our gods to commune with the cosmic mirror
1:25:10
and the spirits of nature in order to learn more of the divinity
1:25:14
within ourselves and reach ever more
1:25:17
toward personal growth and its highest expression.
1:25:21
Nature.
1:25:22
That's what like real-- what does it say?
1:25:25
What's the beginning again?
1:25:26
Sorry.
1:25:27
The highest purpose is to seek our gods.
1:25:30
Commune with the cosmic mirror.
1:25:32
This is just-- it's Ralph Jr. all over the place.
1:25:36
And it's like what a tarot reader should be doing.
1:25:39
Not selfishly doing whatever the fuck you want to do.
1:25:45
Right.
1:25:46
In the nature.
1:25:47
Oh my gosh.
1:25:49
All those trees.
1:25:51
Trees of feelings.
1:25:53
I kind of want to read this.
1:25:54
OK.
1:25:55
I don't know why.
1:25:56
Let's see.
1:25:57
She wants to know what the bird is, people.
1:25:59
Oh, the bird's a great blue heron.
1:26:02
The king always felt most himself in the water.
1:26:06
True his subjects gasped in awe when he took to the air.
1:26:12
His wide wings outstretched in the gleaming sunlight.
1:26:16
And he did enjoy the bird's eye view, so to speak.
1:26:20
But it would surprise them to learn
1:26:22
that it was here in the water where he felt most at home.
1:26:26
I feel like the water is like the trees.
1:26:30
No.
1:26:30
It is.
1:26:31
It is because of trees.
1:26:33
There's literally a quote that I swear it was in my notes,
1:26:38
but it doesn't seem like it made the final cut.
1:26:40
I don't know how.
1:26:41
But he was described as being more at home with trees than people.
1:26:47
Yeah.
1:26:48
And like this whole time I've been like saying in my mind,
1:26:51
like a sea of trees, a sea of trees, and this is like water.
1:26:54
OK.
1:26:55
There's more.
1:26:56
He stood perfectly still until the fish forgot him.
1:27:00
Seeing him as just a part of the landscape.
1:27:03
He enjoyed watching them flit about his tall ankles,
1:27:08
like tiny thoughts darting in and out.
1:27:11
Yeah, that's his thoughts.
1:27:12
Like tiny thoughts darting in and out
1:27:14
of a rapidly processing mind, which I was talking about that earlier.
1:27:20
Oh, boy.
1:27:21
When he saw one of particular interest,
1:27:25
he might observe it for a while.
1:27:27
Oh, now this is kind of like reminding me of her.
1:27:30
Oh, like blending in and like observing and then--
1:27:35
I hate that.
1:27:37
--the light on its scales, the exact motion of its fin and tail.
1:27:42
Its patterns and coloration.
1:27:44
So it's like studying and like thinks this one fish is interesting.
1:27:50
And if it suited him, he would take it,
1:27:53
breaking the stillness with an instantaneous strike downward,
1:27:57
spearing it on a bill as sharp as any honed edge.
1:28:02
He never misses.
1:28:05
OK, so first I was thinking this was him,
1:28:08
like it was describing him, but now it's like totally her.
1:28:11
I mean, there's parts of it that resonate for Ralph Jr.
1:28:15
but there's definitely parts of it that are very pointed.
1:28:18
And it's Rachel and other members of the Lee family.
1:28:24
Wow.
1:28:26
That's crazy.
1:28:28
That's a little tastier cold reading that's going to happen.
1:28:32
Not great.
1:28:34
Should we do this thing?
1:28:36
Sure.
1:28:36
Should we-- I feel like I want to cheer us.
1:28:38
All right.
1:28:40
Cheers, darling.
1:28:41
To Ralph Jr.
1:28:44
I'll drink to that.
1:28:46
You're going to have amazing life.
1:28:48
You're going to have amazing life.
1:28:50
Why use many words?
1:28:52
I keep doing that.
1:28:55
Ralph, you're going to have an amazing life with that outlook.
1:28:58
That's how you get a good life is having this great outlook
1:29:03
on it, even though shitty things happen.
1:29:05
It's what you make it.
1:29:06
You just have to.
1:29:09
That or you're just fucking depressed.
1:29:12
And that's never fun.
1:29:13
No, not at all.
1:29:16
Oh, or have a creepy ass day.
1:29:21
See you next Tuesday.
1:29:23
You can't hurt me.
1:29:24
I mean, just whenever we show up again,
1:29:27
and always every Tuesday, but maybe other times too.
1:29:31
There will never be a scam here, never ever.
1:29:34
That's why we do it on camera.
1:29:36
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
1:29:37
Be anticipation.
1:29:44
The anticipation, not to me if it purely.
1:29:49
Oh, God.
1:29:50
What do you call it when something is so funny that you're
1:29:54
worried you might be?
1:29:58
Hallerapy?
1:29:59
Hallerapy?
1:30:00
Yeah.
1:30:01
Maybe we'll workshop that one.
1:30:02
Workshop that one.
1:30:03
OK.
1:30:04
Not that quick on my brain.
1:30:05
Yeah.
1:30:06
OK.
1:30:10
All right.
1:30:10
Yeah.
1:30:10
Yeah.
1:30:11
Well, don't think with my toes.
1:30:14
Ello, poppet! www.pnwhauntsandhomicides.com