Original subtitles

♪

♪

♪

I knew-- I knew about the plane crash.

Yeah, I heard it a little different,

but I knew about the plane crashing.

♪

Well, AJ actually wasn't in the plane.

No. AJ was in Wichita.

He came back home to Kansas.

He called me to meet him. He'd rented a motel.

And when I got there I could tell

he was just nervous as could be.

And I asked him, I said, "Man, what's wrong?

You know, you're not-- you don't act yourself."

He said, "I'd just like for you to hang out with me

for a while if you would."

And he made a couple of phone calls,

and a little bit later he told me,

he said, "It's okay now."

He says, "The plane's crashed."

And then he explained that Barry crashed that plane.

[Airplane engine buzzing]

[Crash]

He may have just told me he wasn't on it.

I don't know.

AJ's sounds better.

It's a more fun story, so let's go with that.

♪

Manna: At first I thought

that story is just too wild and crazy.

But there's the record.

Every plane is tracked, and there is a, you know,

FAA record of this particular plane

with that particular number they found crashed.

They found blood on the console.

They found no person.

And they assumed it was stolen and negligently wrecked.

It sounds crazy,

but the owner got the insurance money,

and AJ and Barry walk away scot-free

even after the plane was crashed.

They got a new plane.

So he actually was still doing the smuggling runs with Barry.

AJ: Had really been working at a very rapid pace.

And the business of the drugs was now overwhelming.

♪

To me it was exciting.

I think that AJ was addicted to the risks and thrills

of the cocaine business.

And the money.

David: I had no idea at the time,

but he had taken coffee cans of cash

and buried them underneath my parents' house.

Roseann: I didn't have any clue where he got the money,

but he was giving me child support at that time.

So I still saw him.

He's the father of my son, you know?

But he drastically changed in his persona.

Russo: He got paranoid.

And, well, he was using too much of it.

That's how I looked at it.

I said, "There's something going on with this guy."

Manna: He was doing, you know,

a quarter to a half a gram of coke a day.

AJ's life was starting to spin out of control.

♪

David: The drugs were just-- were taking over.

Somewhere along this downward spiral that he was in,

he married Candace, a flight attendant,

and I'm pretty sure he just did that in order

to traffic cocaine.

It was very short-lived.

Cocaine was the main relationship in his life

and to be honest, I don't think he had time

for anything other than cocaine in his life.

So he really had blinders on.

He wasn't seeing how these things

were affecting his business, his friends, family, et cetera,

but it really was.

It was now taking its toll on his life.

When my dad died, AJ came in my house at night

and the uncle went up to my brother and he said,

"You should have been here much sooner."

Well, that was a bad thing to do because AJ was real high.

He was real high on cocaine.

And I tried to get in the middle of it a little bit.

Next thing I know, I turned around

and AJ coldcocked me and knocked me down.

Never, never forget it.

AJ and I had a falling out after that.

He'd turned into a completely changed person.

He neglected his fashion business so much

that he had to shut down all of his stores,

including his flagship location,

AJ's Storybook Fashions.

But there were still a lot of time left on his lease.

Who held the lease was the mob.

Sciutto: I think at that period in his life,

AJ wasn't thinking about fear or consequences.

He was just doing what was put in front of him.

Russo: I didn't know what AJ did at that time,

who he owed what to.

But if you owe money and you're not taking care of business,

they want their money.

♪

♪

Manna: In the early '80s,

AJ got sidetracked from the fashion industry.

Roseann: I witnessed the change in his passions, absolutely.

But I never knew that, um,

the cocaine was his income source.

Manna: The mob didn't know either.

He says that he was able to walk away

and there was no repercussions, which somewhat surprised him.

[Chuckles] He thought they would be insisting on

fulfilling the contract.

Green: AJ is not the sole proprietor.

Now, should he be thinking,

"Somebody's gonna take the fall for it,

and it might be me?"

He probably should be thinking that.

But this is also a period

where the mob is under a lot more pressure,

so they're not acting the way they normally did.

It was a crazy time.

[Sirens wailing]

Then it was infiltrated with the FBI.

And the pressure was on.

They had FBI as car dealers,

FBI females as cocktail waitresses.

Manna: Even despite all of the drugs that he was doing,

AJ was very aware that Vegas was changing.

[Sirens wailing]

[Camera shutter clicking]

The FBI was coming down pretty hard on the mob.

And AJ was far more afraid of the FBI

than he was of the mob.

Russo: I remember him coming to me.

He told me he was leaving.

I wished him luck. It was the last time I saw him.

Sciutto: AJ was starting to realize

that everything was getting very dangerous,

but he was also starting to realize

that this cocaine business was really affecting people.

Crack was so rampant in the United States at that point.

Reporter: If the war against drugs has a winner,

today it is crack.

A cocaine derivative that was nonexistent a year ago

is now the most addictive drug sold on US streets.

I never considered myself like a drug dealer.

[Chuckling] And I don't know for what reason.

David: When AJ started messing around with cocaine

it was in the early '70s.

At that time it was just more or less a party drug.

I mean, even the doctors says it wasn't addictive

and it just, you know, wouldn't hurt you.

Manna: AJ thought he was just having fun.

And he thought 'cause he wasn't on the streets,

he wasn't making those sales,

that he didn't have to take responsibility.

But he was realizing, "Wait a minute.

It's because I brought that in,

eventually this is what happened."

♪

AJ: Finally, it's registering in my head.

What I'm doing is I'm still doing it.

I'm, you know, wholesaling it.

Manna: He's seeing every night on the news,

the crack epidemic hitting.

The epidemic in adolescence I think is just starting.

Families are torn apart.

Look at all the kids that are dying,

and look at all the athletes that are dying.

Man: Stay awake.

[Siren wailing]

I'm starting to be able to see what drugs are doing

to people and to a lot of my friends.

And that didn't make me feel good about being involved in it

in any which way, shape, or form.

Manna: It's finally registering that he was part of that evil,

and that hit him hard.

AJ decided to retire.

He knew he had to get out, but let's face it,

it's hard to get out of the drug business because, you know,

you know too much and you have too many connections,

and people don't want that information to get out.

Manna: Of course, not that easy.

But as with everything,

AJ figured out how to get this done

by parceling out parts of his operations

to various individuals.

And he did it over time, piece by piece.

Little piece of the business here,

little piece of the business there

to avoid the consequences from Escobar.

He was done doing everything.

And I think he realized it's family time.

He needs to know his kids, says, "I got to settle down."

Manna: I think he was really trying to move on.

But AJ is still AJ.

So now I was going to take a little time off

just to have fun.

And my friend, he's a boat captain,

he's got this huge yacht, and he says,

"Let's take a cruise, go over to Belize.

And let's stock the boat up everything that you like."

Well, that really sounded good to me.

That was-- That was, uh...

I thought, yeah, this was quite a way

to close this-- to close this part of my life out.

AJ called and said that he was going on a fishing trip

and that he would like to take Damon.

But I thought at this time it probably wouldn't be best.

I'm not going to take any chance

on something happening to Damon.

Later on I realized I made the right decision.

That turned out to be quite a vacation.

♪

Manna: AJ finally decided to retire from the drug business.

So he decided to do one final blowout,

and they would take this yacht down to Belize.

♪

♪

AJ: Well, here I am on a huge, beautiful yacht.

I mean, incredible.

♪

We had champagne, caviar,

every delicacy you can imagine.

There's big silver bowls just full of cocaine.

AJ: Of course, needless to say, there were beautiful women.

Manna: And one of those women is a girlfriend

of one of the other guys there.

The girlfriend is hitting on AJ.

And AJ goes, "Well, you know, your boyfriend's,

like, right here."

And so I guess she felt, you know,

somewhat offended by it.

AJ: All of a sudden I could see the captain

coming out of the galley.

[Gun cocks]

And he had a .357 pistol.

And he just kind of started shaking

and going through all of this crazy talk

about taking his girl.

And I said, "What are you talking about?"

[Gunshot]

And all of a sudden this guy shoots him.

He shoots him twice.

[Gunshot]

Once in the foot, once in the stomach.

I was losing blood fast.

Manna: Nobody knows what to do.

So he tells them to get a ball of cocaine.

AJ: Took two huge rocks of cocaine with my hands

And just literally buried them in my stomach.

And then I took another one and put it

where the bullet had traveled up my leg.

We talk about this, whether--

Did he know that was gonna work or not?

And he said, "I'm not sure." It was just sort of...

He just assumed that,

it has numbing effect, that would help,

and just shoved a big ball in there to stop the blood.

And amazingly, that's exactly what it did.

Then I take a knife and I rip myself open,

and I was able to reach in with my fingers,

and I pulled the slug out.

And that's the last thing I remember.

I passed out.

He told me that story about the guy that shot him,

which was-- I really wasn't sure I believed that story.

Carroll: He said he just grabbed a handful of that coke

and just shoved it into his stomach.

And I wondered about that, if that was true.

But he's got scars to prove it.

But I know he was shot. I saw the scars.

I saw both-- one in his stomach, one in his leg.

You could-- It's obvious it's a bullet wound.

Rogers: He showed me that bullet wound, it's like...

I wasn't grossed out.

It's like, "Really?" He says, "Yeah."

He says, "I was in a lot of pain."

Manna: Two or three days after he was shot,

he wakes up in Fort Lauderdale.

Once he was-- felt well enough,

he saw a doctor,

and the doctor was even stunned.

AJ said cocaine saved his life,

and there aren't many people who can say that.

He was very lucky.

He said it many, many times.

Particularly after all those years...

...and all the danger and all of the adventures.

♪

[Gunshot]

It was amazing I was alive.

Rogers: He said, "I was a lucky man.

I didn't want to push my luck any longer."

AJ: There had been too many close calls

and it was time to move on.

AJ: Somehow I survived.

And that's when I discontinued the ridiculous craziness

that I was doing.

♪

I found myself living a very successful straight life.

♪

I moved to Dallas, Texas,

with a pretty girl I had been dating,

and we ended up marrying.

I really don't know how him and her

got along so well together, because they were--

they were like a couple cookies in the same--

out of the same cookie cutter, you know?

[Chuckles]

They were strong, strong people.

I got back on good terms with my family.

I think that he realized

all the drugs had changed him so much, and he apologized.

Roseann: He wanted to reconcile, and we became friends.

It added to my life to have him in my life.

I had completely quit cocaine.

Manna: He said that when he gave up coke,

he did it cold turkey, and said, "I just stopped."

A guy named Mike Saalwaechter

became my best friend.

And his wife, Willa.

We were very, very good friends.

He told me about going down to Colombia.

But I'm pretty sure at that time he was pretty clean.

If he would have been doing a lot of coke all the time,

we wouldn't have, I guess, taken him in as a family friend.

But he told us about Pablo Escobar

and, you know, being in with the mob and everything.

But it really didn't bother me then, I guess,

'cause I knew he wasn't-- he wasn't with them now.

In our lead story, Barry Seal, an airline pilot

turned drug smuggler and soldier of fortune,

has been assassinated here...

In the early 1980s.

Barry Seal was recruited as an informant.

He was an informant for DEA.

And it wasn't any time at all before a Colombian hit squad

executed Barry Seal.

I felt very relieved that all that was in the past.

AJ: The little wife and myself,

we're having a dinner at a place called Alfredo's.

Beautiful Italian gourmet room.

And we got into a disagreement.

It was a horrible spectacle.

And I just got up and I left.

I went to another female friend.

I went to her house because I was really upset.

And while I was there,

the little wife went to that vault.

She stole every [bleep] thing that I had in it.

The safe was empty.

She probably did rob him because, you know,

things were getting dicey then.

You know, they were...

Well, she felt she had a right to it.

She cleaned him out of I mean, it could have been,

you know, $6 million or more.

Because she was my wife,

I had her on the signature card to the safe.

Big mistake on my part.

You never give a woman the combination of your safe.

♪

♪ And I'm feeling it

♪ And I'm holding it

♪ Ohhhh, I'm holding it

♪ Bah bah dah dah bah dah bah dah ♪

[Gun cocks]

[Gun cocks]

Now, the way he tells the story was,

he's telling one of the guys

the story about how Elvis gave him the ring and all this.

And AJ says, "Well, hey, take it.

You know, just don't kill me."

And one of the guys goes,

"You're too entertaining to kill."

These robberies were a big blow to AJ

because he always liked the money, the jewelry, the cars,

and now he didn't have any of that.

Manna: What was AJ without the money?

You know, the jewelry, the Elvis connection,

all of that?

♪

♪

Rogers: I really appreciate you coming all the way here

to see my collection.

And I know you're a collector yourself and everything.

It's like here I have 1956 pins of Elvis.

Yep, so these are the EPE flasher buttons from '56,

the "Love Me Tender," and then the standard one.

These are original.

Rogers: I'm a big Elvis collector.

So when I met Argus, when I first talked to him

and he told me all the things he did with Elvis,

I just, like, I was amazed

how he's telling me the stories,

because he did things that I dream about.

That's Argus right there.

AJ right there.

About 2005, in November,

I met Argus on eBay.

Eight months into our conversations,

Argus flew up here.

You can't get a better friend because he was a caring person.

And these are the scarves Argus made.

He told me these scarves he made,

Elvis gave them to Loretta Young.

Oh, Loretta Young?

Yep. These were hers.

AJ used to talk to me a lot about Loretta Young.

She was the third runner-up for the Miss Hot Pants contest.

Anyway, she ran AJ's shop in Las Vegas.

And he said that he also introduced her to Elvis.

He told me about Loretta Young,

and he said that she was

a secret girlfriend of Elvis Presley.

So that's how I got five more scarves.

Between $500 and I'd say $750 I paid for them,

but I'm doing something to help a person.

She had cancer.

And to me they were priceless

because of the person that made them.

This letter says, "Thank you for your support and kindness

to Loretta during her battle with cancer."

Then it says, "I confirm this authentication of the scarf,

as I designed and made the scarf.

With kindly regards, Argus Pratt."

Said, "Well, Dan, I really appreciate this."

And I said to him, "Whatever I can do for you, let me know."

And Argus kept telling me,

"I don't how much longer she's gonna be here."

March of 2006 I think it was, he told me she had passed away.

Yeah. It's kind of close.

So I'm really confused here too,

because why would you say one thing

then someone says, no, she's over there.

I never knew she had a daughter.

I am stunned that-- I never heard that.

You're the first person that said

anything like that about her.

Kuroski: I hate to be the one to tell you this,

but these are the ones that concern me,

and I'll tell you why.

We do have some known invoices

from the Presley estate for scarves.

I've never seen any invoices from AJ Pratt.

I've never seen anything tied to him.

These scarves were sold as souvenirs

during the Las Vegas Hilton engagements.

They were sold in '74, possibly in '75.

And then they should be exhibiting

that Elvis wore it, either some perspiration stains,

maybe some makeup stains.

But as you can tell, these all look pristine.

And I've never even seen Elvis wearing one of these.

♪

My personal opinion--

AJ possibly took his experience from being in Vegas,

being around the mob and clothing them

and some of the entertainers,

and may have built up experience in order to make money.

That's just an assumption.

But everything in my gut

and everything I know about scarves,

which is extensive, tells me that these are a fraud, okay?

I trusted him. I don't know right now.

♪

AJ was like a brother to me until the day he passed away.

If he was still alive, I would ask him, is this part true?

Or is this something he fabricated?

When someone gets that close to you,

you expect to believe in them.

But you can't believe everything you hear.

I know how to pass a polygraph test.

You can't get me.

You can't get me on a polygraph test.

I know how to get it.

[Chuckles]

♪

Manna: As far as what we put in black and white,

I told him has to be as close to the truth

as we can possibly get.

But in most cases there was only one witness.

Mike: His stories, they were like things

that you saw in the movies.

[Gun cocks]

David: His stories were so far out, I mean,

but they were so believable.

Hahn: I think he made up the story about the crash

to give him some more pizzazz.

Yeah, that's what I think.

No.

Somebody exaggerated a little there.

[Chuckles]

Sciutto: You have to remember, AJ was a kid from rural Arkansas

who was made fun of for making suits.

♪

Then he gets to Vegas,

he's rubbing elbows with all these celebrities.

♪

He meets the mob and the Colombians.

These were his glory days.

But later on, AJ was living a much simpler life.

So you can understand

why AJ would embellish some of his stories

because he had lost everything,

and maybe he wanted the credit and the respect.

In the end, AJ was definitely in control of his own narrative,

much like making his clothes.

Every stitch, every look,

he was the person doing it.

People have called AJ, you know, a con man, a hustler.

Thinking about it,

I think he manipulated people and events

to his advantage.

He was a master manipulator,

to the point that he would have you believe

that every single word was the truth.

Manna: I mean, AJ had another side,

and there were things that were, you know, not good.

Rogers: I'm probably not the only one who has got, uh,

taken advantage of.

I think he was hurting for money.

He needed money. And he exaggerated on stuff.

And he found somebody on eBay that was a sap.

But I still love Argus.

I think I wanted to believe in him.

Sciutto: If someone came to me

and told me that all of AJ's stories were false,

I would probably still want to believe the stories

because he created this persona that was larger than life

and so attractive to people that I kind of loved it.

I felt like I was on a wild ride at all times.

Russo: I didn't know it was anything else

other than me and a tailor.

I'm glad I didn't know it.

I'd rather know AJ the way I knew him.

Very likable guy.

Mike: I told Willa one time, I said, you know,

"I'm really not sure that he's sincere,

but I don't care."

Roseann: He could be so much fun and so entertaining.

I think that all the good,

the good side of him was very powerful.

I mean, people just loved him.

I did. I loved him a lot.

Yep.

AJ died the 28th of December of '16.

Cancer behind his eyes had moved into his brain,

and it just, uh, it was too late.

♪

Carroll: I think about the years that we were married,

the years that we shared together.

Uh, good and bad. Mostly good.

Uh, and I miss those.

I miss those days.

♪

[Typing]

Manna: He was a great storyteller.

He could talk.

That's okay.

He could be colorful.

He could be the coolest guy on the planet

and make you go,

"Wow, I want to be this guy's friend

because this is extraordinary."

His story, it's one hell of a great story.

And I think it's, uh, it's mostly true.

Sciutto: Was all of this true or not?

I don't think anybody knows the answer.

Man, I tell you, he could tell a story.

Yes, of course,

if I'm honest about it being a good story,

I wish that there wouldn't have been that time in his life

that was so dangerous.

But, actually, we have to give him credit that he did all that.

I mean, do you think he really did do all that?

♪

What we've just shared are some of the highlights

in the life of the Tailor.

♪

♪

♪

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