All language subtitles for The.Tailor.of.Sin.City.S01E04.Crash.Landing.on.Purpose.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-Kitsune_track4_[eng]

♪

♪

♪

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.

♪

♪

♪

♪