All language subtitles for The.Tailor.of.Sin.City.S01E03.Monkey.in.the.Middle.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-Kitsune_track4_[eng]

♪

♪

[Pounding]

I opened the door.

And my heart flew to my throat.

I had five officers
staring me in the face.

I said, "Golly, guys."

I said, "I guess
my ice cream maker

was making
a little too much noise,"

and they just barged right in.

Well, that was
not a good thing for me.

I had cocaine stashed in all of
the cupboards in the kitchen.

I had stuff in the suitcases
with the lids open.

I've got my career going now.
Everything is going great.

And now I'm going to
blow it all.

♪

♪

♪

Manna: The police scouring
AJ's apartment,

and they are opening up
cupboards

that are filled
with bricks of cocaine.

Drugs all over the place.

You must have been
pretty scared at that point.

I figured, well, where's
the seed of greater advantage

going to be in this adversity?

One guy captured my attention.

Joel Barez was a detective,
presumably a very good one.

And one of his nicknames
was "Thumper."

He got the name Thumper
not from Disney.

He got the name Thumper
because he would thump people.

And then they introduced
themselves

as the Organized Crime Unit
of Las Vegas, Nevada.

I said, "Well, if you're
the Organized Crime Unit,

what do you want with me?"

And, uh, Detective Barez, uh,
informed me

that I'd been on the radar
for quite some time

because there had been
a tremendous amount of activity

in and out of my apartment.

The people coming and going
were members of organized crime.

♪

So Detective Barez
starts to interrogate me

pretty thoroughly.

Joel Barez doesn't ask
one question about the drugs.

Joel Barez seized the clothes.

AJ: I had at that time
a lot of beautiful things

I just finished making just
literally hanging from the walls

or any place I could hang it.

David: AJ had a lot of his
costumes that he had made

for Tom Jones,
Wayne Newton, Elvis Presley.

Joel Barez saw these

and he started questioning AJ
about what he did.

AJ: He asked me,
he says, "What do you do?"

I said, "I'm a costume
and a fashion designer."

If Joel Barez is
interested in the connections

with the mob and entertainment
and a tailor and the clothing,

then the cocaine
is not his issue.

They have bigger fish in mind.

At the very moment, Las Vegas
and the federal government

are trying to get the mob
out of the casino business,

so if AJ can get
the Organized Crime Unit

to the people they really want
to get, that's fine.

Manna: Basically, that's it.

He doesn't arrest him
for any of the drugs.

Just kind of
as if that didn't happen.

And him and the other detectives
walk out.

♪

Things are getting
very complicated for AJ now

because now that they found him
with drugs,

they could use that as leverage

for telling them information
about the mob.

They're going to want
something at some point.

That was the first
direct reference in my life

that I had ever talked to
anybody about organized crime.

To me, they're clientele.

I'm there to design
and make clothing.

And the Las Vegas operation
was booming.

♪

Sciutto: Working for the mob,
as AJ was in the 1970s,

opened a lot of doors for him.

They introduced him
to a lot of celebrities

who were there at the time.

There was Tom Jones.

There was Wayne Newton, Elvis.

And they even gave him money to
open shops all over the country,

including a 10,000-square-foot
space in Arizona.

♪

AJ thought at one point

that Phoenix would be
a great center of fashion.

♪

Clearly that was a, you know,

erroneous judgment
from the start.

No offense, Phoenix.

But the mob had arranged for
him to lease a huge building.

AJ: It was a spectacular studio

and a beautiful
Paul Johnson building

which was called
AJ's Storybook of Fashion.

Sciutto:
It was like an AJ fantasy world.

Manna:
Inside this retail space,

there would be areas
almost like a Disneyland.

One area would be a golf course.

Another area would be
like a tiki bar.

Sciutto:
A disco ball and dance room.

Fake ski slopes
with skiers in AJ's fashions.

Had mannequins
all over the place.

They all looked just like AJ.

All dressed, looked great.

I mean, it was really beautiful.

AJ: I didn't know what
to expect from it.

It was very, very active.

It was very successful.

Sciutto:
This is big-time for AJ.

He's got all these stores
opening all over the place,

and he's trying to balance
the cocaine business, as well.

David: I noticed when AJ came
to town, he had a lot of money.

I mean, I knew his business was
doing very well and everything,

but he had a lot of money

and he also had a lot of--
lot of drugs.

♪

Here I am opening these studios,
and all of a sudden,

at the same time,
the drug part had exploded.

He'd always stay with me,
and we'd start drinking

or partying, having a good time,

and then he'd pull out
a little coke.

I had unlimited supply
of cocaine

and some of the highest quality
that had ever been seen.

And the connections that I had
in Las Vegas were all over me.

♪

Here the mob is financing
his clothing business.

Yet he's doing all this cocaine
business with the Colombians.

Barry Seal and AJ,

they were flying a lot of
cocaine in and out of Colombia.

When AJ used to
take off on these trips

and he'd be gone maybe
three, four weeks,

and I always worried about him.

I knew what kind of a business
he was in at the time,

and I didn't know whether--
to be honest with you,

I didn't know whether
I'd see him again,

because the business he's in

is a real dangerous type
business.

As a younger brother,
he protected me, pretty much,

from the--
from the drug business.

But I knew something
was going on.

I know my mother
worried herself sick.

She didn't know he was
in the cocaine business

at the time, though.

She only knew he
was doing some drugs, I think.

Manna: As things progressed,
more and more was coming in.

It was tons.

I mean, he had a plane.

He could fill up the plane
with quite a lot.

That causes a problem
in terms of quantity.

♪

And so he got another house
in Venice, California.

David: In the '70s, I went to
visit AJ there in California.

He flew me out
to spend a few days with him,

and he had me stay out
in his guesthouse.

[Rustling]

2:00 or 3:00 in the morning,
I'm waking up.

I'm hearing things
moving in and out.

I told AJ, I said,

"There's all kinds of stuff
going on out back."

[Rustling]

He just said, "Ah, don't
pay any attention to it.

It wasn't nothing."

Little did I know that
he was moving a lot of cocaine

at that time, and they
were actually bringing it in,

and they were putting it up in
his ceiling in the main house.

Manna: How did that happen?

♪

He hid cocaine in the attic,
in the walls.

That became rather exciting.

Now, in AJ's case,
he's moving cocaine around,

but he's also on cocaine.

And drugs do things to people.

You begin to think that if
things are going well for you,

you're invincible.

♪

♪

Manna: A few weeks after
his first visit,

Detective Joel Barez
knocks on the door again.

[Knock on door]

I mean, what did you talk about?

♪

Argus told me the story.
Joel Barez told me this, too.

So this is not like Argus
making up a story,

'cause I talked to Joel Barez.

Yep. Yep.

I called him up.
We started talking.

And this is before
he passed away.

I mean, he told the story
not word to word.

But, you know, everybody's
got a way of telling the story,

but it all said the same thing.

He was sweet,
but you can tell in his voice,

"Don't piss me off."

And the funny part is, when
they got done doing this deal,

that's how they came friends.

There was a rapport that was
made at that moment, I felt,

uh, with Detective Barez.

It went from kind of a fear

to where it was more
of a pleasant situation.

Manna: And what AJ realizes,
and it's all unspoken,

is that they knew there was
a quid pro quo.

"You take care of my people.

We'll take care of you."

AJ: So I got a little bit
of sleep.

I got up and went over
to the city attorney's office,

measured him, picked out
some beautiful fabrics.

♪

Immediately struck up
a beautiful friendship

with another political figure.

He's looking
in the small mirror,

standing sideways,
going into every pose.

And he said, "Jesus Christ,

I look better
than the headliners."

And so from there,
it was so obvious

that this was going to really be
an important thing for me.

AJ fit in with everybody.

No matter who you introduced
him to, they liked him.

The mob, local police,
politicians--

He had everybody.

One person started
referring me to another.

It went from the city attorney
to several judges

to people that were associated
in the Nevada Gaming Commission

to one federal judge.

Now I am designing
and making wardrobe

for some of
the top political people

that are running the state
of Nevada.

He was a people person.

And he was a master
at selling himself.

So when he started telling me
about the politicians

and the police department
and the judges,

hey, I believed
every bit of it.

Russo: And a lot of them
he didn't even charge

'cause he wanted them
to be his friends.

He wanted them to be obligated
to him and him to them.

That's exactly what he said,
"You take care of people,

they take care of you."

♪

Many of these people became
very good friends of mine.

I presume the police force
in Las Vegas

at that period of time,
you know, had its feet in--

in the criminal element.

And I'm sure Joel Barez took
advantage of what he could.

But that was very much part
of Vegas and part of AJ,

where there's this good part
and there's this bad part,

and then there's this part
in the middle.

Perhaps that's why
they-- they were friends.

They both understood that.

Sciutto: So AJ was keeping
things balanced.

But a question that
will always be in my mind is,

how did AJ remain so neutral?

Like, did the mob know
he was talking to the cops?

Did the Colombians
know about the mob?

'Cause they didn't
want to be involved with them.

How did he manage
to juggle all of this?

♪

At this point,
AJ is walking a tightrope.

He needs to keep the Colombians
away from the mob,

away from law enforcement.

And he's at the center
of all three of those.

It was a very active, busy time.

And then here comes my Colombian
friends into Las Vegas

and customs,
or however they're getting in.

It's their business, but...

And they wanted to have
a good time.

David:
They want to see what all AJ
had talked about and everything.

So they started coming
into Las Vegas

and they was bringing
all their drugs with them.

Sciutto: They think AJ
is this huge celebrity,

kind of like Pablo Escobar
in Colombia,

and that they can just come
to Vegas and take over the town.

So they do.

And one night they end up
at the Flamingo hotel.

They're having
a huge cocaine party.

AJ: Somehow,
Tony Spilotro had got word

that the Colombians had
all of these kilos of cocaine.

So Tony Spilotro
and his gang members,

they were going to knock off
a Colombian guy,

get the cocaine
to sell it themselves.

They were going to
most likely kill him.

♪

Manna: And so when
Spilotro was going

to rip off the Colombian guy,

AJ knew this was very bad news
'cause the worlds would collide.

AJ: I heard about Tony Spilotro.

So I called the city attorney,

because he had become
a client of mine.

Sciutto: Because AJ was friends
with all these politicians,

they had his back.

AJ: And I said
to the city attorney

that I needed some assistance
with a bad situation.

He says, "AJ,
what would you like?"

So I thought for a second.

I said, "Would it be possible,
perhaps, maybe,

to pick this fellow up
and then take him to the airport

and then whatever he's got,
package his stuff up,

bring it over to my place."

♪

Sciutto: So Tony Spilotro
is on his way over there

to shoot the Colombian
and take the drugs,

and AJ, in the nick of time,
gets the cops to intervene.

[Siren wailing]

AJ: The police pull up, sirens
on and the lights, everything,

and they thwart the attempt
of Tony Spilotro

to knock off the Colombian.

♪

Manna:
It was fortunate that Spilotro

didn't understand
what had just happened.

If he had gotten ahold
of the Colombian,

it would have been brutal,
and more than likely,

he would have gotten
information out of this guy

that would have implicated AJ,
implicated law enforcement.

It would have
blown everything up.

♪

[Doorbell rings]

And it wasn't much longer,
I hear my doorbell ring.

There was a police officer
there with a bag,

and he says, "This is to
be delivered to you, Mr. Pratt."

And I opened the bag,

and it was what was left
of all of the cocaine.

David: The police delivering
his cocaine back.

[Laughs]

"Yeah, thank you, sir."
[Laughs]

AJ was friends with the mob,
the Colombians,

the cops, the politicians.

He's untouchable, man.
There's nobody can get to him.

He's got the good,
the bad, and the ugly.

♪

AJ was on top of the world.

But then the most unexpected
thing happened.

AJ fell in love again.

Her full name was Roseanna
Theresa Maria Claudianus.

She's a beautiful--
beautiful Greek girl.

Roseann and myself
just absolutely clicked.

Roseann:
I grew up in Montana,

and I wanted to be
a flight attendant,

and Las Vegas was
where the airline was based.

But then I ended up
loving Las Vegas.

I met AJ at a party.

He was so handsome
and so gregarious,

and it seemed like as soon
as we were introduced,

the attraction was so strong.

She worked in the evenings
at the Bacchanal Room.

♪

She was selected out
of the entire United States

to be one of the
what were called wine goddesses.

Roseann: A wine goddess
wore a very pretty,

like, Grecian costume.

And then we'd lift the bottle
up high and pour the wine.

So it was theatrical.

Our relationship had gone
into-- become very deep.

Ro was somebody
I could confide in.

When AJ lost his wife Linda
back in 1968,

it really damaged him,

and it was hard for him
to have any sort of real,

meaningful relationship after
that until he met Roseanna.

Roseann: We-- We had a very
good intimate relationship

where he really did
open up with me.

I was just, like, gaga over him.

AJ: We went ahead
and made arrangements

to spend the rest
of our life together.

So we were married.

Caesars Palace, they put on

the most beautiful
wedding reception.

And it was-- it was--
it was spectacular.

♪

It was quite an unusual
gathering of people.

One side is a district attorney,

the city attorney,
several judges.

And then over here
is the same people

that the Organized Crime Unit

had been wanting
to interrogate me about.

♪

Roseann:
It really was beautiful,

but it happened so quickly.

To be honest with you,

I got that deep feeling
inside of me

that I was making a mistake,
that I shouldn't do this.

But it's too late now.

Having such a good time with all
of my dear friends in Las Vegas.

Roseann: After we got married,
we moved in together.

There was so much love
between us.

It really wasn't work.

It was just so fun
for both of us.

Joel and AJ, I know,
had a very good relationship.

However, he wasn't one
to come by where we lived.

They'd meet someplace.

He seemed to be well-respected
with whatever he was doing.

And I thought he was, like,

a good law enforcement person,
you know?

But there were a lot of things
that I didn't know about.

AJ: After our friendship

had really been
strongly established,

Joel Barez would keep his ears
and eyes open around the city.

Abe Schwartz was a scoundrel.

He-- He was involved
in real-estate scams in Vegas,

you know, building motels
and things like that.

And, of course,
AJ made his suits,

like he made for everyone else.

AJ did say to Joel, "Why?"

And I guess Abe Schwartz
had crossed a lot of people,

and some of them
were just not people to cross.

Working at Caesars,

I mean, I heard about things
like that happening,

'cause at that time,
Las Vegas was a mob city.

The mob ran the town.

Manna:
So he got the money from Abe.

Next day, he sees
a television news report.

Abe Schwartz is missing.

♪

Sciutto: AJ had gotten his money
in the nick of time,

and it was
quite literally paying off

for him to have relationships
with cops like Joel Barez.

AJ had a lot of people
in his pocket,

but not everyone.

AJ: After about two weeks,
I was contacted by the FBI,

as I guess I was the last person
that was around this--

this particular man
when he was living.

And, uh, I had delivered
the wardrobe to him.

So the FBI was on me.

So they went over to him
and said, "What's up?"

And AJ said,
"I have absolutely no idea."

As far as I know,
AJ was never a suspect,

but now he was on
the FBI's radar,

and that is someplace
he did not want to be.

♪

If AJ felt the FBI was to be
feared more than the drug people

or the mob people
or the police involved,

that may reflect that he felt
he was in good shape

with those groups.

But the FBI not only
could put him away,

but if they get him,

do the mobsters think
AJ is going to sing

and it's time to dispose of him?

The next day or two, they found
Schwartz in a shallow grave

dressed head to toe
in AJ Pratt's fashions.

AJ: The gentleman was wearing
some of the new garments

that I had just delivered
to him.

He had a sports jacket
with slacks.

My labels are all on everything
he had on, including his shoes.

I'd even made him some shoes

with AJ's Original Fashions.

And so that was the beginning
of many bodies

that were going to
be discovered.

♪

Mike: The cops
started finding

these shallow graves
in the desert,

and lo and behold,
every one of them

was wearing
AJ's fashions.

Manna: Every time they would
find one of these people

buried out in the desert in a
shallow grave wearing his suit,

they'd come back to him
and ask him,

"You must know something,
don't you?"

Well, that put a lot
of pressure on AJ.

And this went on
for-- for months.

David: I think this was starting
to mess with his mind

a little bit,
to-- to worry him.

Roseann: I heard about things
like that happening,

but the whole time
that I was with AJ,

he did not talk to me about
the FBI coming to talk with him.

I mean, there's so much
that he kept from me.

♪

♪

People are being discovered
dead in shallow graves

in the desert around Las Vegas.

FBI has no idea if there's
any connection between them,

except for one thing--

They're all buried
with custom-made,

very nice,
hand-tailored clothing by AJ.

♪

And say, "You make the clothes
for these people.

Do you know them?

How are they connected?"

Well, of course
he knew a lot more about them,

but he would say, "I don't know
anything about them.

I just make their clothes."

Green: When the mob puts you in
a shallow grave in the desert,

those kinds of things
are messages to others.

"We did it to him.
We'll do it to you."

♪

And AJ told me
that he had to kind of lay low

there for a while and just
kind of let things cool down.

But the FBI
didn't let go that easy.

He said, "I couldn't believe it.
They're following me around."

He said, "But the FBI
kept trying, kept trying,

kept trying," and finally, he
said, they kind of backed off.

♪

He knew who they were, but he
was not going to tell the FBI.

He was loyal to the mobsters,

and he also knew what
would happen if-- if he wasn't.

And he made sure he kept very
strictly to-- to that code.

And what happened
to your marriage with the Ro?

How-- W-Why did she
drive you crazy?

I think AJ thought
he was going to have

this great world with her
and a real family life.

And she's a beautiful woman.

Everything that he thought
he was dreaming of.

But at the end of the day,
that wasn't who he was.

After Roseann and AJ married,

they had a son named Damon,
and she wanted to settle down.

But I think AJ was spending
so much time working

and probably doing a lot
of cocaine, too,

that it caused a wedge
in their marriage.

AJ was just not the same man.

AJ became very paranoid
and very on edge.

I didn't know then,

but later I found out
it had to do with drugs.

♪

But it was just clear that AJ's
lifestyle that he really wanted

was completely opposite
to my ethics.

Yes, I loved having the glamour

and I always did have
a good time,

but I wanted a real home life.

But AJ was vulnerable
to being tempted

by what was more exciting
or whatever than,

you know, a normal home life.

And honestly, even
when we had a good relationship,

it was crowded with a lot
of other women.

Women would just
throw themselves at him,

and I would be with him
at the time.

And AJ couldn't say no.

And I just said, "No more."

I think he had regrets
about that,

but I think at that point
he was addicted

to the fast times he was living.

♪

The more time went on,
things were not good,

and they weren't getting better.

When I would want
to leave him,

he would get very upset.

I was also a little bit fearful
about leaving him, too,

because he could be violent,

you know, if he was upset.

I had to wait
till he went out of town.

I didn't-- couldn't tell him
that I was going to leave.

So I left him.

My heart, it was
completely shattered.

♪

Carroll: Eventually,
Roseann bought a house

in Lake Mary, Florida,

and she raised Damon there.

But Damon never wanted anything
to do with AJ.

When AJ got divorced
from Roseanna,

he was-- he was kind of
spiraling out of control.

One of the original members
of the Medellín Cartel

was a guy named Carlos Lehder.

He was flying loads of cocaine
out of Colombia

to the United States,

and he came up with an idea

to create a transshipment
point called Norman's Cay.

And that's-- that's an island
in the Bahama island chains.

He went in
and he just took over.

He intimidated the people
on there

so that they would sell their
properties to him and move away.

He extended the airstrip
3,300 feet.

Basically, what he's doing
is creating a point

where you can now
fly cocaine from Colombia

to Norman's Cay
on one tank of gas.

Then you would parse those
out into smaller shipments

either through go-fast boats
or smaller aircraft

that could make it on up
to the United States

on one tank of gas.

This was pretty ingenious.

♪

I think the downfall of
Norman's Cay and Carlos Lehder

was Carlos let
the product become his enemy,

because he started using it,

and things
really started getting wild.

It was like an island
of debauchery.

There were, like, Jeeps
driving up with machine guns

and naked girls
and cocaine everywhere.

That becomes,
at a certain point, too crazy.

Murphy:
Carlos Lehder would be blitzed.

He'd been smoking weed,
snorting coke, drinking alcohol.

He was bringing
too much undue attention

to their illegal activities.

Manna: Norman's Cay
was getting dangerous.

And AJ and Barry Seal
both knew

that this is-- this is stupid.

♪

So AJ and Barry Seal
were doing a drug run,

and AJ is in, like,
a haze of cocaine,

literally and figuratively.

But he somehow managed
to be focused on the business.

♪

Manna: And AJ knew,
this is getting risky.

A plane could be used
only a certain number of times

before the FAA,
and therefore the DEA,

would become suspicious
of what it was doing.

And so they needed to do a run,

get rid of the plane
with a clean slate,

and give the owner
of the plane his money back.

So they had to come up
with something pretty clever.

And they did.

[Telephone rings]

♪

David: When they got word
the owner of the plane

had turned the plane in
as stolen,

Barry Seal had a--
had a crazy idea.

He says, "Well, I know a guy

right close to the coast
in Florida,

and we'll just fly low
into the fields

and we'll crash this plane.

We'll have a 50/50 chance
of making it."

Manna:
And AJ's going, "Okay, sure."

And Barry goes, "Well,
but you're coming with me."

And AJ goes, "No, I'm not."

And Barry goes,
"Oh, yes, you are,

or else we're not doing this."

So he was, you know,
forced to do it.

He was scared out of his--
out of his mind.

But Barry, uh,
was an amazing pilot.

AJ was born to make clothes,

and Barry was born
to fly a plane.

♪

♪

Murphy: I can't imagine
purposefully

crashing an aircraft
with me on it.

I don't know. I guess
I'm just not made that way.

But, um, wow,
what a risk to take.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪