Legal Online Horse Racing Betting Sites - Best Online

Okay, long story short. I've had ownership of RDR2 for some time now but the last almost-year of my console gaming life was spent playing AC: Odyssey 6 times in a row with no break in-between. It had to be 100% completion every time and, when it came out, DLC had to be included. I was allowed to use new game+. The first time, I was just playing because I am a huge AC fan and play them all. The four times after were I won a bet and got my well-earned prize; steel book AC: Valhalla (very glad I chose the PS4 with the digital PS5 version since getting a PS5 for xmas is laughing at me). The last time was trying (and failing yet again to get my husband into gaming and I thought that watching Kassandra run around ancient Greece with 292 bazillion assassin damage in the beauty that is AC: Odyssey might do it).
So, I decided I should play RDR2 first before starting Valhalla ... and it has me grumpy and aggravated a lot. So, in case anyone else is just starting this game for the first time I decided to create this thread for my venting and questions (never have I googled "how do I RDR2 PS4) than I have with RDR2 on a constant basis.
My first question is this ... well it's not really a question ... more a questiony vent. I am in chapter 2. The final (I think) big quest I have to do is "The First Shall Be Last" with Javier but I can't do it. I can't do it because I have become obsessed with something that allows me no time time or thought for anything else until it is complete. That something is the fucking white Arabian. The first minute I read about it online about a week ago, off I was on my trusty steed, Vespa, a beautiful silver, pewter, hematite, and cast iron-colored (Grillo Dun) Mustang that I broke in the wild with ease. She had a paid for extra long black mane and tail. Strangers complimented me on her all the time. I loved Vespa. I mourn her still. How did she die, you might wonder. She drowned in a river trying to help me catch a replacement for her.
I still have the original horse I got early on in the game, Ides of March. He's stabled though. So is Old Scratch, that black Shire monster I kept. I have another one I stole from some guy that is pretty cool and fast and a breed I've not seen before. She is a Blue Roan Nokota, Falchion and also stabled. I needed a new random horse to return to the snowy hell of West Lake Isabella so I broke a Gold Palomino Tennessee Walker out of sheer curiosity because of how feisty and difficult it was to tame. His name is Excalibur Risen (because I finally broke him in a lake). So, this is attempt 5 on the white Arabian. I see her, I chase her, I calm her, I pat her. I mount her and all hell breaks loose. I can't stay on the damned horse. She bucks me off and then disappears into the white hellish wasteland that the purely evil devs put her in and, in order to get her to reappear, I have to leave completely, do some random ass quest and then ride all the way back. Fast travel is not unlocked yet because I'm always broke and the gang is way too broke to pay for Dutch's fancy ass living quarters that also unlock fast travel. I can't afford anything cool so this rare white Mustang would be the one thing that I have that makes me feel special and Vespa wouldn't have died for nothing.
So, are there any tips and tricks you guys have? How to get lots of money fast would be good too. I know how to call/calm/pat/mount/maneuver the stick ... it's just not working and my obsession will not rest. Is there a way to rope the horse without having to get on her to tame her? After a year of Odyssey, I have never missed that new gen AC eagle more than when I'm trying to catch this fucking horse.

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002
3-4-2002	3-11-2002	3-18-2002	3-25-2002
4-1-2002	4-8-2002	4-15-2002	4-22-2002
4-29-2002	5-6-2002	5-13-2002	5-20-2002
5-27-2002	6-3-2002	6-10-2002	6-17-2002
6-24-2002	7-1-2002	7-8-2002	7-15-2002

• WWE hit the reset button again with a new storyline assigning general managers to each brand, and it featured the shocking debut of Eric Bischoff. The new storyline will have Bischoff as the heel GM of Raw, while Stephanie McMahon will be the babyface GM of Smackdown, while Vince McMahon will take more of a backseat role and reduce his TV presence. Of course, just 5 weeks ago, Vince panicked and blew up the existing "feuding GMs" storyline between himself and Ric Flair, so now we're re-starting it with new people I guess. It feels like a last-ditch effort to save the brand extension, which has been an utter flop since day one, with no effort to differentiate the shows and only resulting in diluting the talent and falling ratings.
  
• Bischoff and McMahon struck a secret deal about 10 days prior to his debut. Bischoff had talks with WWE last year about coming in during the original Invasion angle, except they only wanted him to do a one-off match with Vince for the PPV (which Vince would obviously have won), but Bischoff turned down that offer. But this time, they agreed to a more long-term deal. Bischoff didn't know he was going to debut on Raw until just a day or two prior, when Vince called him and told him to be there. The whole thing was kept secret and almost no one other than Vince himself knew about it. This is believed to be a unique contract, in which it's a short-term deal with the option to renew it for longer-term if the angle gets over. His only role is as a television character, it's strictly a performance contract. Bischoff is not going to be a part of management or creative.
  
• When Bischoff walked across the screen in the backstage segment, almost everyone in the company was just as shocked as the viewers at home. Bischoff's debut saw him come out and hug Vince, which Dave thinks about is the dumbest possible way to introduce him. Sure, the Invasion angle is over but WCW's corpse isn't completely cold yet. It's only been a year or so. There is probably still plenty of money to be made in Bischoff as an outsider trying to destroy Vince McMahon and the WWE. But as always, that would involve Vince allowing himself or WWE to look vulnerable against an "outsider" and his utter refusal to do that is a big part of what tanked the Invasion. But that's par for the course. Bischoff cut a promo, giving the fake "WWE version" of the Monday Night Wars history (Dave points out multiple inaccuracies that WWE still clings on today, such as claiming they stole Hulk Hogan from WWF. Of course, Hulk had been in NJPW and hadn't worked for WWF for nearly a year at the time WCW signed him. Things like that.). Dave thinks it became one of those promos full of old stuff or inside references where so much of it is about things that the average fan doesn't know or care about. Dave thinks most of this audience in 2002 isn't familiar with Alundra Blayze, they don't know Raw used to be taped instead of live, and they don't care about 83-week TV ratings streaks (Dave also notes that Bischoff said 84 on this show, which is incorrect). And once again, it became one of those promos talking about how much WWE sucks lately, which is something you don't want to keep pointing out to the fans who are still watching because you just make them feel dumb for supporting something that even the people producing it knows sucks. Shit like that is partly what drove off WCW fans. Bischoff also gloated about almost putting WWE out of business, and to the many guys in the locker room who remember that vividly, it wasn't a joke or a storyline. Those are guys who really were fighting for their job against a guy who really was trying to put them out of business. Bischoff has tremendous heat from the locker room, with a lot of people who worked for him in WCW or who resent him from the WWE side....they don't want Bischoff there.
  

WATCH: Eric Bischoff debuts in on WWE Raw - 2002

• This angle was going to take place regardless, but it's thought that the injury to Kevin Nash may have moved things up a couple of weeks because Vince once again panicked when his plans went down in flames. Nash had surgery last week. Because of the location of the tear, it's not quite as serious as the tear Triple H suffered last year. But Nash is also 10 years older. However, he has vowed to return, noting he doesn't want his career to end like that. With his age and his track record of injuries (this is his 22nd surgery, dating back to his collegiate basketball days), Dave isn't sure how much Nash will be able to offer if/when he returns next year. Also, while nobody wanted Nash to get hurt, the mood in the locker room was said to be much happier this week without him around, as the whole Nash/X-Pac/Shawn/Triple H group isn't very well liked these days (the more things change...)
  
• Speaking of X-Pac, a weird situation with him this week led to him being suspended by WWE. The day of the Raw when Nash tore his quad, X-Pac missed his flight to the show. Why? Well, he was hospitalized earlier that day in Minneapolis. Again, you ask, why? No idea. Sounds like X-Pac sure would like to know also. He called WWE saying he was in the emergency room and had no idea how he got there. He left the ER and made new travel arrangements and he got to Raw 90 minutes before the show started. And then he went out there that night and worked his match (and Dave says looked more impressive than he had in a long time). However, after the match, he still couldn't explain to WWE officials how or why he was in the hospital earlier that day and so they were naturally suspicious. As a result, X-Pac has been suspended and removed from all upcoming bookings until they get a medical report on what the deal is. Dave says X-Pac has been acting out of control for weeks now and it's been well-documented (threatening to quit if match finishes weren't changed week after week). The feeling backstage was that as long as Nash was around to go to bat for him, he was basically protected, but no longer. With Hall fired, Nash out for probably a year, X-Pac suspended, and Hogan a babyface, the feeling within the company is that the NWO angle is dead. Shawn Michaels is still expected to appear at upcoming house shows and Raws in some new role, since much of the advertising for those shows was based around him appearing, but this is probably the end of the road for the NWO. (This kinda flew under the radar, but yeah, X-Pac never wrestled another match in WWE. The match where Nash tore his quad remains to this day the last time X-Pac ever worked a match in a WWE ring. He gets released soon after this and we all know in retrospect that he was dealing with some drug issues throughout this time).
  
• Dave provides some details on Vince Russo's first (and only) creative meeting when he was briefly rehired by WWE last month. Russo apparently proposed a Raw vs. Smackdown feud that would eventually lead to reviving one of them as WCW and reigniting the WCW vs. WWE war. This time, they would have Eric Bischoff leading the WCW side, while Russo suggested Mick Foley as the leader of the WWE side. It was pretty much made clear to Russo during the meeting that if they were to do a Raw vs. Smackdown angle, it would be Stephanie in charge of the WWE side, not Foley, and sure enough, that's what is expected to happen (but without the whole WCW-revival part). Russo's idea was pretty much a combination of the 2001 Invasion angle and the 2000 WCW Bischoff/Russo angle. Dave notes that Russo wanted to essentially start from scratch again, strip everyone of their belts the way they did in 2000, and bring in Bret Hart and Goldberg to be involved as well.
  
• A big recap of UFC's debut show in England, which featured rising star Frank Mir getting beat in what should have been an upset, but word is Mir didn't take the fight seriously and barely trained. As a result, he got murked in the first round. Also, while in England, some people in Tito Ortiz's camp got into a big drunken bar brawl with fellow fighter Lee Murray. Chuck Liddell was somewhere involved too. Anyway, long story short, some people tell the story that Murray knocked Ortiz out. Ortiz denies it (to this day, this is a famous MMA story and both men tell different versions, so depending on who you believe I guess).
  
• TNA's 4th show ended with a strong angle that actually got them some national publicity. It involved Tennessee Titans players Frank Miller and Zach Piller hopping the rail and attacking Jeff Jarrett and some other wrestlers, resulting in a big brawl to end the show. So how much of it was real or shoot? Well, Russo is involved, so who knows. The official story is that Jarrett and Piller were supposed to shove each other from across the rail, but that's it. From NFL sources, Dave has actually heard the same thing. It was supposed to stop at a shoving confrontation, and then Malice would come pull Jarrett away. That was the story as Russo allegedly wrote it. But reportedly, Piller had been drinking and he ended up hopping the rail and straight up overpowered Jarrett like it was nothing and took him down. Whether this was a shoot or a work is still unknown, but it ended up getting them coverage on SportsCenter and Dave says it's possible it was a work that only a few people were in on. If it was a work, nobody else was in on it. Ron Harris, who works backstage, almost rushed to the ring to save Jarrett and Malice (who wasn't supposed to touch the football players) got involved and broke it up quickly. After the show, the players were backstage laughing and joking with Jarrett and Miller has been openly telling people it was all planned and they were told to make it look as real as possible, but it's still unknown if jumping the rail and tackling Jarrett was part of the plan or not. Several other Titans players were at ringside with them and saw it unfold, but mostly didn't get involved. So now after the publicity, TNA is trying to see if they can make a match out of this. Either way, it's starting to feel like an elaborate work that none of the rest of the roster was clued in on, which is exactly the kind of shit Russo used to do constantly in WCW that soured morale among the locker room, and for this to happen on Russo's first night in, with an angle he wrote, sure feels a little familiar.
  

WATCH: Tennessee Titans/TNA brawl

• Puerto Rico's IWA had its most successful show in company history, drawing more than 11,000 fans (without a single WWE name on the card) to see the payoff of an angle with Savio Vega fighting for control of the company. WHO SAID SAVIO AIN'T A DRAW?!
  
• On the other side of things, WWC has postponed its anniversary show from August to September in order to give themselves more time to build up big angles and storylines. Seems like something they probably should have been planning earlier? IWA has become the dominant promotion in Puerto Rico and WWC felt they didn't have the build-up necessary to do a big-money show right now. Especially after this IWA show did such big business, anything less would be an embarrassment.
  
• Bischoff's debut on Raw was a pretty big hit. How big, you ask? During Bischoff's in-ring promo after his debut, Raw added nearly 1.1 million new viewers from the previous segment. Meaning that as soon as Bischoff walked across the screen backstage, tons of wrestling fans started calling their friends telling them, "Holy shit, Eric Bischoff is on Raw, turn it on!" The bad news is that as soon as Bischoff's promo was over, a lot of them tuned right back out, leading to a huge drop-off for the rest of the show. On the flip side, this week's Smackdown, featuring the heavily-hyped return of The Rock ended up being the 7th lowest rated episode of the show in history (4th if you don't count holidays). Rock's not a draw, bet he won't even be in the business in a couple more years.
  
• Kenta Kobashi is finally back in the ring, wrestling undercard prelim tag matches for NOAH. Even though he's in tags and doing limited in-ring work, his knees are said to be already killing him and one of them totally locked up on him after one of his recent matches. But he still hasn't missed any dates.
  
• NJPW announced that Kensuke Sasaki will face Pancrase star Minoru Suzuki at the Tokyo Dome in October. This match was actually planned for the big Tokyo Dome show back in May, but negotiations fell apart because Pancrase didn't like the idea of Suzuki doing a worked pro-wrestling match. Suzuki started his career in NJPW back in 1988 and was being groomed to be a big star for the company, but he quit and joined UWF because he preferred to work shoot-style matches. In 1993, he and a few other guys all started Pancrase, which he's been doing ever since. These days, Suzuki's days of fighting for them at a top level are over and he usually only competes against nobodies or in catch wrestling (grappling and submission only, no striking). Anyway, for those curious, this didn't happen. Not sure why yet, I haven't gotten that far, but Suzuki doesn't return to NJPW until 2003.
  
• Goldberg is said to be leaning very much against going to WWE anytime soon and is instead eyeing his options of working big shows in Japan. He's contemplating an offer to make an appearance at Toryumon's show in Tokyo in September, but only an appearance. He doesn't plan to wrestle until later in the year (don't think the Toryumon appearance happens, but he does end up working a few matches in Japan here soon).
  
• Bret Hart is still hoping to make his scheduled appearance for Jacques Rougeau's upcoming indie show in Montreal. If you recall, Rougeau's big show there last year drew over 11,000 fans and he's got himself another big stadium to fill this year and Bret was expected to be the biggest draw. Whether he'll be healthy enough to make the show, following his recent stroke, remains to be seen but he's determined to try. As of this week, Hart is able to lift his left arm over his head. Just a week ago, he couldn't move it at all. His grip strength is also coming back and he's able to walk short distances. His vocal cords were also damaged but have started strengthening again and he's able to talk again (though he can't cut a wrestling promo yet, Dave says, so he might not be doing much other than coming out and waving to the crowd if he does make it). He's still having some vision problems also, but not too bad all things considered.
  
• Dave says that "no matter what you may hear," a lot of people involved in TNA behind the scenes are very unhappy about Vince Russo being brought in. He also says that a lot of people associate Russo and Ed Ferrara together, but they actually had a major falling out awhile back and hadn't been on speaking terms until now. When it became clear Russo was coming back, Ferrara reached out to Russo and the two sides made up. He goes on record saying for sure that neither Mike Tenay or Bill Behrens are happy about Russo's arrival, among others, but says everyone is being professional.
  
• Notes from TNA Weekly PPV: Crowd of about 1,500, only about half paid. Dave says it was easily the best of the 4 shows they've had so far. About 85% of it was written and booked by Jerry Jarrett and the original writing team before Russo was hired, but Russo did make some changes. Dave says some people are beginning to get tired of Don West on commentary already and he definitely brings a ton of enthusiasm (but nothing else, Dave adds) to the table. During the Ken Shamrock vs. Omori match, the crowd was distracted by one of the cage dancers near the entrance who was apparently showing her ass to the crowd. Former WCW wrestler Crowbar (real name Chris Ford) worked a tag match under the name Tempest and Dave notes that when Ford worked a try-out match for WWE awhile back, he also signed over the name Crowbar to them when he did (guessing Dave is mistaken about this. He never used the name Crowbar in TNA, but he's been using it everywhere else ever since for the last 18 years). Brian Christopher is now going by his real name, Brian Lawler, and cut a promo on Jerry Lawler about being a bad father. It got a lot of heat but now they've made fans want to see a match that they can't deliver. K-Krush faced NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler and got DQ'd. Dave says Krush was absolutely awesome here, actually carrying Sadler to a watchable match. Sadler was awful of course, but the Gayda/Stratus match from Raw was light years worse, so hey, who cares? TNA tried to bring in Hermie's more famous older brother Elliott Sadler, but that fell through because Elliott has some type of affiliation with WWE, though Dave isn't sure what (I did the research and apparently Elliott drove a Summerslam-themed car during a race around this time, so I assume that's it).
  
• More notes from TNA Weekly PPV, since this recap is huge and big, unbroken paragraphs suck: Mark and Jay Brisco worked a brief match until Malice ran in and destroyed everyone (Dave says this was a Russo addition to the show. Dave also says the Briscos will be great some day and notes that on this show, the announcers lied and said both of them are 18, when in fact, Mark Brisco is still 17 and therefore not even allowed to wrestle in many commission states). Former porn star and ECW valet Jasmine St. Claire debuted and gave Jeremy Borash a lap dance, took off her underwear, and was about to strip nude until a big angle stopped it. And yes, in case it wasn't obvious, this was another Russo addition. AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn are the tag team champions and ended up in a big brawl backstage. If you've been paying attention to the show the last 2 weeks, you would have recognized that they were doing a slow build with these two partners having friction, but Russo convinced Jarrett to hurry up and pull the trigger on the split, so here we are. Dave thinks this had no impact at all because it felt completely rushed, the story hadn't progressed far enough yet for these two to already be coming to blows. Another interview with the Dupps saying "shit" repeatedly was, yes, another Russo addition. Try not to cut yourself on all this edginess. Shamrock vs. NOAH star Takao Omori ended in a no contest because of politics. Shamrock was supposed to win clean, but then NOAH decided they didn't want Omori to do a job, so this is what we got. Dave thinks TNA should have said screw them then and just not used Omori because it's not like TNA's fanbase knows who the fuck he is anyway. Omori was said to have been spaced out all day beforehand and looked bad in the match. Crowd didn't care and they pumped in a ton of fake crowd noise for it. Jeff Jarrett ran in and took everyone out with chair shots, including "NWA rep" Harley Race, who ate a brutal unprotected chair shot to the head from Jeff and Dave thinks that's not good for anyone's brain, especially a guy pushing 60. Race was there basically to help Omori since Harley's small promotion in St. Louis has a relationship with NOAH. And finally, the 6-man X-Division #1 contenders match was excellent. Dave thinks WWE really missed the boat on Jerry Lynn and K-Krush. He admits Lynn probably couldn't have ever been a top guy in WWE or anything, but he makes everybody he wrestles look like a million bucks and guys like that are priceless to have on your roster. They also pumped a bunch of crowd noise in for this match, and at one point, the fake crowd noise loop stopped and there was a moment where it went from a loud roaring crowd to dead silence in a blink. Also, a fight in the stands distracted the crowd near the end. But great match otherwise. Show ended with the Titans players angle.
  
• In other news, The Shane Twins have been working as the masked penis wrestlers The Johnsons in TNA but the penis aspect of it has been played down to almost nothing. Upcoming plans were for the team to unmask and revert back to the Shane Twins, but when Russo came aboard, that plan got scrapped and they will remain The Johnsons for now. Because dammit, Russo will get to make penis jokes on TV or he's going to die trying.
  
• Many of the key names in TNA (Shamrock, AJ Styles, Jerry Lynn, Mike Tenay, among others) have now signed 1-year contracts. Scott Hall was rumored to have also signed a 1-year deal, but Hall is telling people it's not true and he's only committed for 4 more dates. Low-Ki is signed through the end of the year.
  
• At the recent K-1 vs. PRIDE show, there was a huge upset when PRIDE fighter Quinton Jackson knocked out Cyril Abidi, one of the top kickboxers in the world. The "plan" was for Abidi to win and then go on to a bigger money match with Don Frye, but that's what happens when you try to plan things around a shoot.
  
• And I'm sorry, I know this ain't an MMA recap, but this is too good: at the UFC press conference for the UK show this week, Dana White showed up with a bag filled with $250,000 in cash and challenged UK boxing promoter Frank Warren to put up any fighter in his stable and White would find a UFC fighter of the same weight to fight him, winner takes all the money. If you recall, Warren made some statements a few weeks back calling UFC fighters unskilled steroid freaks and claiming that his boxers could beat any of them in a real fight. So Dana showed up with a whole bag of cash, doing Dana things.
  
• Notes from Raw: Vince came out to the NWO music and said that's the last time we'll ever hear it and that the NWO is dead, so as expected, that's it for that gimmick. Tommy Dreamer is back to his old ECW gimmick and is already 1000x more over than the jobber-eating-gross-stuff gimmick WWE gave him. There was a Coach/Booker T segment backstage which is when Eric Bischoff walked through the shot, leaving everybody with their mouths hanging open, and then his promo. Another hype video for Rey Mysterio debuting on Smackdown next week. Former WCW wrestler and recent developmental guy Johnny The Bull made his Raw debut winning the hardcore title, and Dave is baffled how he got the call up because he's one of the worst guys they have in developmental and is nowhere near ready. But it's all about how he looks. Undertaker & Lesnar beat RVD & Flair in the main event and afterward, Lesnar turned on Undertaker in a good angle, though Dave doesn't have high hopes for the inevitable match.
  

WATCH: Rey Mysterio debut vignette

• Notes from Smackdown: it was a pretty bad show and for a pretty surprising reason. It was all built around Rock and he was awful. Rather than trying to sell a PPV, he came off like he was trying too hard to be a funny, "cool" guy and became a parody of himself. Dave is a huge Rock fan and thinks it was painful. He did a big in-ring promo segment with rapper Busta Rhymes that was just an elaborate plug for his new Halloween: Resurrection movie ("coming out in July?" Dave asks incredulously and, right, wtf?). Even Rock using Angle's own ankle lock against him at the end of the show looked hilariously fake and Dave has no interest in the Rock/Angle match at Vengeance after this show. Edge & Hogan defending the tag titles was a super heated match and Dave can't understand it. The live crowds are still nuclear hot for Hogan, but it's not translating at all into TV ratings or ticket sales. But man, the people who do buy tickets sure do love him. They seem to be slow-burning a Randy Orton heel turn. The Nidia segment at the buffet was great and Dave thinks they may have stumbled across a pretty great gimmick with her.

WATCH: The Rock & Busta Rhymes Smackdown segment

• The crew got a little backstage pep talk before Raw this week, mostly given by the agents (John Laurinaitis, Arn Anderson, and Fit Finlay) as well as Triple H. In particular, Triple H talked about there being too many people in the locker room who think they deserve a push ahead of the newer guys because they've been there longer. He said too many guys are sitting back waiting for someone to give them a push rather than breaking out from the pack and earning the push. He said he got over on his own when management was trying to hold him down after the MSG curtain call incident. Said too many guys are being lazy, playing cards and playing video games backstage rather than watching the matches and learning. He said just because you've had a few good matches on TV doesn't mean you know how to work or deserve a push, and also said everyone needs to work harder at house shows because attendance is down and it was guys like him who worked hard to re-build the company the last time business was down. Needless to say, for a locker room full of people who feel like they bust their asses only to get their legs cut off and hit a glass ceiling (often at the hands of the same guy giving the speech), this went over just about as well as you'd expect with the rest of the locker room. Not that anything Triple H said is wrong. Dave agrees with most of it. But considering who the messenger was, it was not well-received.
  
• Lots of backstage talk about last week's Bradshaw/Trish Stratus vs. Chris Nowinski/Jackie Gayda match, which was among the worst matches anyone has seen in years. Fit Finlay is the usual trainer and agent for the women and usually goes over their matches and spots with them, but in this case, Sgt. Slaughter put together this match. Gayda missed a few spots early in the match and seemed to panic and it all fell apart from there. Backstage, she was fully aware of how bad it was and was said to be extremely upset. There's been talk of sending her down to OVW for more training, but she'll probably still be on TV because she's fresh off winning Tough Enough.
  
• Steve Austin hasn't had any contact with anyone in WWE except for Jack Lanza, who was the agent Austin often worked with for his matches. All that's known now is Austin told Lanza he's still training hard and Lanza felt like he's getting antsy sitting at home and may be ready to return already (I think he's got bigger problems at home). But Austin and Vince still have not spoken and there's still a lot of bad feelings there.
  
• In light of recent events, Dave digs up the transcript from an old Prodigy online chat from 1996, in which Eric Bischoff was asked if he would ever work for Vince McMahon. His response: "I would rather chew off my fingers."
  
• Writer Brian Gewertz reportedly has some heat over Raw's declining ratings. The problem is, no matter who it is (Gewertz, Heyman, Russo, or even Stephanie), the final approval for everything you see on television comes down to Vince McMahon. He deserves the credit when it's good and the blame when it's bad, end of story. It's a common occurrence for Vince to rip up a script and tell the writers to come up with something new, so any bad segment that makes it to TV is on him, and resulting in lots of last minute changes. Some people are even blaming Gewertz for Kevin Nash's recent injury because Gewertz wrote the match into the script the day of the show, so Nash wasn't even aware he was going to be wrestling until a couple hours before they went on the air and I guess he didn't have time to properly stretch and get ready, and ended up tearing his quad 10 seconds in. Same thing with Cena's debut, that was a day-of decision, and luckily Cena was already on the road with the crew working dark matches, so he was available. But again, Dave says you can't blame Gewertz for either of those things because, once again, it's Vince who is constantly changing his mind and forcing last minute rewrites and whatnot every week. How is Gewertz or any other writer supposed to build long-term stories under those conditions? (Man, this sure feels familiar)
  
• Latest on DDP, he and wife Kimberly are planning on moving from Atlanta to Los Angeles to try their hand at acting careers. They've both saved a lot of money from their years in wrestling and can afford to take a chance on this kind of thing I guess. (DDP has done a handful of acting roles, mostly in the mid-00s, but obviously nothing of note. And Kimberly Page did a few movies, including a starring role with DDP in a movie called The Scam Artist that I can't find anywhere, and of course, her most famous role as "chick who's tit fell out" in The 40 Year Old Virgin).
  
• Randy Orton suffered a concussion in a house show match with Batista. Orton was trying to sell a clothesline by flying in the air and taking a big flat back bump, but hit his head on the mat coming down and was knocked unconscious. He should be back in a week or so though, because it's not like concussions are serious injuries or anything. EMT's helped him out of the ring and he walked to the back under his own power but he was knocked clean the fuck out for a bit there.
  
• This week's episode of WWE Confidential featured Big Show and Bradshaw playing a game of HORSE with the winner "getting a shot to sexually harass Linda Miles." So obviously they're out of ideas for this show. (Yeah JBL is on some full-blown Jerry Lawler shit with Miles here).
  

WATCH: JBL perving on Linda Miles for 5 minutes under the guise of playing basketball

• John Cena is still finishing up in OVW and working the upcoming big Six Flags show in Louisville. Despite being a big babyface on TV, he's still a heel in OVW and is playing a gimmick where his main roster success is going to his head.
  
• The New York Daily News ran a story on the "Sex, Lies & Headlocks" book that is coming out soon about Vince McMahon and noted several revelations in the book, such as Vince being paranoid about his office being bugged in 1993 prior to the steroid trial and how he wouldn't sit or talk near windows because he thought the FBI was listening in. It also talked about how Vince gave a job interview to Matt Lauer to host the WBF Bodystars show but didn't think Lauer had the right look, among other things. When asked for comment, WWE responded "No one in WWE has any interest in reading it. No one cares to." Dave says that's 2002 carny talk for, "Can you get us an advance copy?"
  

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Raw appears to turn a corner (lol no), WWE making major cutbacks and severing developmental ties, TNA also making major budget cuts, WWE Vengeance fallout, and more...

November 27th, 2018 - Online came out, people created their inbred characters and got them sprung from a prison wagon by some dude and his minions who were paid for looking tough. We were introduced to Mrs. LeClerk, got a horse and began our adventures.
November 27th, 2018 - January 10th, 2019 - Everybody started the story missions that were available and got paid. I personally remember doing all of them just to be able to afford the incredibly overpriced pump shotgun. During this time the economy was adjusted. It was December 7th if memory serves.
January 10th, 2019 - Gun Rush was released in the first downloadable update that came out for the game. People played around with it for a few hours and got bored.
February 26th, 2019 - Another new update came out. I can't remember anything from this update. Only thing I remember was the daily challenge for the Evans Repeater that hadn't even come out yet.
March 5th, 2019 - The Evans Repeater and Rare shotgun were drip-fed. People bought the Evans, killed some NPC's and players for a while then went back to the Lancaster because its better. This was the first sign of drip feeding. A sign of things to come.
March 19th, 2019 - Rockstar dropped a newswire detailing the Spring update. They talked about dynamic events, different missions for the story, defensive mode, but most importantly the fabled LeMat Revolver.
March 19th, 2019 - May 13th, 2019 - The Dark Times. People had nothing to do other than stranger missions over and over. Hunting and fishing were the best money making methods. Friends were needed to have fun. Having a good time playing solo was virtually impossible. Griefing became common place. You lost honor for defending yourself.
May 14th, 2019 - The Spring update was dropped. Players were happy and the game was much easier to enjoy while playing solo. Rockstar delivered on their promise. People had fun defending camps, getting ambushed, and begrudgingly escorting people back to Valentine when they weren't ambushed. The LeMat Revolver became arguably the best revolver. Rockstar also unexpectedly added poker and ponchos. The poker was fun for the first three hours until people started max betting all of the time. The ponchos were first accepted then rejected because they weren't the Clint Eastwood style poncho people wanted. Rockstar also teased the Summer Update in which we could be a Bounty Hunter, Trader, or Collector.
May 14th, 2019 - September 9th, 2019 - More of the dark times. Griefing again ramped up. Everybody complained that Rockstar wasn't releasing the update on Summer Break. Then September 3rd came around and we got info about the update, then being confirmed to be released on the 10th.
September 10th, 2019 - The day came. People were giddy about the ability to become Traders, Bounty Hunters, and Collectors. People leveled up, bought wagons, made the fattest of stacks from the Collector role, and sold goods. We also got the first taste of Cripps telling us about that bank job in Tennessee. Everybody was disappointed by the role outfits though. The Outlaw Pass was also released. It was like a battle pass but made by people with brains.
November 5th, 2019 - PC came out. Dunno what else to say here. :)
November 27th, 2019 - Red Dead Online's first anniversary. Rockstar also revealed the coming December update. They detailed a free version of the 'Marino Bandolier' for PC players. No one knows what this game will become but hopefully it's nothing like GTA Online.
This took a while to make so please Be rootin' Be tootin' And by god be shootin' But most of all be kind.

40. Go Down Gamblin’ - Blood Sweat and Tears

Released in 1971, Go Down Gamblin’ by Blood Sweat and Tears is a song describing a gambler who is “born a natural loser.” He never wins, no matter what game he plays, but, he doesn’t feel like a loser. As the song goes – “Cause I've been called a natural lover by that lady over there, Honey, I'm just a natural gambler but I try to do my share.”

39. Gambler - Madonna

Gambler is a song written and played by Madonna, made for the film Vision Quest. Although the song reached the top 10 in the charts of the UK, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, and Norway, Madonna performed it only once on her 1985 The Virgin Tour. It’s a catchy song, we suggest you play it as you spin the reels of some of your favourite retro online slots.

38. The House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

Our list wouldn’t be complete without the 1964 hit song - The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. Everybody knows the famous lines ”My mother, she was a tailor, sewed these new blue jeans, my father was a gamblin' man way down in New Orleans.” This single had a major success and made it to the top 10 songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the USA. Likewise, the hit was featured in the video game Guitar Hero Live.

37. The Winner Takes It All - ABBA

Whether we admit it or not, we all love at least some songs played by the very well-known Swedish pop group, ABBA. According to some sources, Bjorn Ulvaeus wrote the 1980 hit song The Winner Takes It All which was inspired by his divorce to his fellow band member, Agnetha Fältskog. The winner takes it all is a sort of a comparison to a divorce (especially the part ”I've played all my cards and that's what you've done too, nothing more to say, no more ace to play”), where one of them is the winner and the other one is left with nothing. And things are just the same when it comes to gambling, so we’ve decided to put the song on our list.

36. Shape of my Heart - Sting

We’re all aware of the fact that our gambling behaviour can be influenced by certain types of music and that's because online gambling and music go hand in hand. So, we suggest you start playing your preferred games with one of everyone’s favourite songs by Sting called The Shape of my Heart. It was released in 1993 and used for the end credits of the film Léon. In one of his interviews, Sting explained that the lyrics of the song tell the story of a card player who places bets not in order to win but to figure out something that’s been bothering him - “some kind of scientific, almost religious law.”

35. All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards - Corb Lund

“Well, I guess I really oughta be makin up songs but all I wanna do is play cards. I know it's dumb and sick and wrong but all I wanna do is play cards. Got the studio booked in Tennessee, and my record producer's callin me, the tape will roll in just three weeks and all I wanna do is play cards.” Does it sound familiar? It’s a 2005 hit by Corb Lund called All I Wanna Do Is Play Cards, once you hear it you’ll be playing it on repeat.

34. Gambling Man - The Overtones

When you’re falling in love, it’s perfectly normal to feel like you want to gamble everything just to attract that person’s attention to notice you and love you back. Well, Gambling Man is a lively 2010 song that tells a story of a guy fascinated with his love, so he places all his bets on her, as the song goes - “I played my hand, I rolled the dice, now I'm paying for my sins, I got some bad addiction.” This time, he feels that this love affair is different from any other – “Baby, it's you, yeah, yeah, that's right.” The song was released in 2010 and has been popular ever since.

33. Poker Face - Lady Gaga

Although the Poker Face song is more about the game of romance rather than the game of poker, the catchy refrain that starts with “Can't read my, no he can't read my poker face” kinda reminds us of winning at the tables, so we couldn’t skip it this time. Released in 2008, the song achieved worldwide success, topping the charts in the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and several European countries.

32. Little Queen of Spades - Robert Johnson

Moving on to the Little Queen of Spades, a song title by the American blues musician Robert Johnson who recorded the song in 1937 and first released it in 1938. The first version of this gambling-themed song has a playing time of 2:11, whereas the second one lasts 4s longer (2:15), and is considered an alternate take and first appeared on Johnson's album The Complete Recordings, in 1990.

31. Train of Consequences - Megadeth

Another great song Train of Consequences is the title created by Megadeth, released as the first single from their sixth studio album Youthanasia in 1994. The song was later included on their compilation albums and its music video was the 26th most played video on MTV. There’s this part of the song “No horse ever ran as fast as the money that you bet, I'm blowing on my cards and I play them to my chest” – which is about a person’s gambling problem, who realises something’s wrong with this lifestyle, but it still hunts him down. Could be just the thrill, but he just can’t stop playing.
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30. Gambler - Whitesnake

Released on the album Slide It In (1984) and appearing on the compilation album Gold (2006), Gambler is the song by the British hard rock band Whitesnake. These words may sound familiar - “No fame or fortune, no luck of the draw, when I dance with the Queen of Hearts, a jack of all trades, a loser in love, it's tearing my soul apart”. And in case you’ve never heard it, we think you should give it a shot, the chances are you’re going to love it!

29. Gambling Man - Woody Guthrie

Now here’s one single from 1957 - Gamblin' Man. The song was taped live at the London Palladium and published as a double A side, with Puttin' On the Style. Reaching #1 in the UK Singles Chart in the summer 1957, it was “the last UK number 1 to be released on 78 rpm format only, as 7' vinyl had become the norm by this time.” Written by Woody Guthrie and Donegan, this gambling themed song was produced by Alan Freeman and Michael Barclay.

28. Roll of the Dice - Bruce Springsteen

According to Songfacts, Roll of the Dice was the first Springsteen’s song he didn’t write by himself. In fact, E Street Band’s pianist Roy Bittan helped with the music, while Springsteen was in charge of the lyrics, starting with – “Well I've been a losin' gambler, just throwin' snake eyes, Love ain't got me downhearted. I know up around the corner lies, My fool's paradise in just another roll of the dice.” After he broke up the E Street Band in October 1989, Springsteen wrote lyrics for the Roll of the Dice (with two other songs) and liked them to the point where he began writing and recording more songs.

27. Queen of Diamonds - Tom Odell

Here’s one song about a gambling fanatic who’s trying to satisfy his own addiction but also someone else, hoping it’s going to save him. Released in 2018, Queen of Diamonds is Tom Odell’s song from the album Jubilee Road, based on the local characters that inspired this British songwriter to include the whisky-soaked gamblers who regularly visited one betting shop.

26. The Angel and the Gambler - Iron Maiden

Now, this song may divide Iron Maiden fans and it’s most probably because of its repetitive lyrics that can be a bit annoying. The release we’re talking about is The Angel and the Gambler. Truth be told, the melody in general is very catchy and, even a bit similar to The Who in some moments. As the song was released in 1998 while Blaze Bayley was its frontmen, it’s missing the well-known high-pitch vocals from Bruce Dickinson.

25. Ramblin' Gamblin Man - Bob Seger

We’re moving on to a rock single from 1978 - Ramblin' Gamblin Man by Bob Seger. The author meets an old acquaintance, a professional gambler who happens to be a swagger. As such, he attracts people’s attention whenever he bets. Putting so much of his faith in the cards (rather than in people), he walks away every time, just before avoiding loss. Along the way, the narrator realises that, if you scratch beneath the surface, you’ll find he’s a very cynical man, who will never change.
Another gambling-themed song worth mentioning by Bob Seger is Still The Same.

24. Blow Up The Pokies - The Whitlams

Blow up the Pokies is the next song on our list, played by The Whitlams. It is the second single by the group from their 4th studio album, Love This City. Released in the year 2000, the song became a hit and made it to number 21 on the ARIA Singles Chart. According to several resources, the lyrics written by singer Tim Freedman were inspired by the destruction he saw in original Whitlams bassist Andy Lewis's life, due to his gambling addiction.

23. A Good Run of Bad Luck - Clint Black

Now here’s one 1994-song packed with gambling-related terms. As you listen to A Good Run of Bad Luck, recorded by American music artist Clint Black, you'll have a bit of fun as you try identifying what all these gambling terms mean. The song is a bit fast and is about falling in love by using gambling metaphors. The main character is willing to spend a lot of money to win his special lady over and, although he has had a period of bad luck, he is not giving up – “I've been to the table, and I've lost it all before, I'm willin' and able, always comin' back for more.”

22. When You’re Hot, You’re Hot - Jerry Reed

Jerry Reed won a Grammy for the song When You’re Hot, You’re Hot which was released in 1971. Most people remember it as it was a major hit, ranked as number 1 in the country charts, also making its way up the Pop Top 40. It’s an enjoyable novelty song about the ups and downs of the gambling life, about one’s winning streak caught in an illegal game of Crap.
Country star Jerry Reed also came up with a version The Uptown Poker Club in 1973.

21. Lawyers, Guns and Money - Warren Zevon

Next one up - Lawyers, Guns and Money is a song by Warren Zevon, the closing track on his album Excitable Boy, released in 1978. An edited version of this song was distributed as a single and found itself on the A Quiet Normal Life best of compilation on the CD and LP. The song goes like this - “I went home with a waitress the way I always do, how was I to know she was with the russians, too? I was gambling in Havana, I took a little risk Send lawyers, guns, and money Dad, get me out of this, hiyah!”
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20. The Lottery Song - Harry Nilsson

According to the man in the 1972 pop-rock song The Lottery Song by Harry Nilsson, there's more than one way to get to Vegas. Addressing his lover, the narrator mentions a few different options for buying a ticket and going to Sin City – “We could win the lottery we could go to Vegas,” and “We could wait till summer, we could save our money” as well as “We could make a record, sell a lot of copies, we could play Las Vegas.”

19. Casino Queen - Wilco

Now here’s one black-humoured gambling-themed song, released in 1995 and titled after a casino. Featuring a dirty electric guitar, Casino Queen was composed by an American songwriter, Jeff Tweedy, who wrote this song after playing a game in a riverboat casino accompanied by his dad. Inspired by the event, the author wrote: “Casino Queen my lord you're mean, I've been gambling like a fiend on your tables so green.”

18. Have a Lucky Day - Morphine

Another song on our list that you simply must check out starts like this: “I feel lucky, I just feel that way, I'm on a bus to Atlantic City later on today. Now I'm sitting at a blackjack table and swear to God the dealer has a tag says, "Mabel." Hit me, hit me! I smile at Mabel, soon they're bringing complimentary drinks to the table.” Check it out yourself - it’s called Have a Lucky Day by Morphine.

17. Kentucky Gambler - Merle Haggard

Written by Dolly Parton and released in 1974, Merle Haggard’s Kentucky Gambler is another song on our ultimate gambling playlist that you should pay attention to. It’s about a miner from Kentucky who leaves his family to gamble, under the bright lights of Reno. Unsurprisingly, his winning streak comes to an end, and he loses all his winnings. All broke, he decided to return back home only when he arrived, he found out his wife was involved with someone else.

16. The Jack - AC/DC

The next song on our list will give you some adrenaline boost, for sure. It goes like this - “She gave me the queen, she gave me the king, she was wheelin' and dealin', just doin' her thing, she was holdin' a pair, but I had to try…” Sounds familiar? This song from the 1975s is called The Jack and is played by AC/DC and there’s no way you can skip it.

15. Blackjack - Ray Charles

Moving on to something a bit different - a melody that blackjack lovers can listen to as they play is Ray Charles’ Blackjack. Apart from being a good quality song from 1955, it carries an important message with an emphasis on how brutal the game of blackjack can be. Some sources say that Ray Charles wrote it after beating T-Bone Walker at a blackjack game session.
Yet another Ray Charles’ famous song about gambling is called a Losing Hand.

14. Ooh Las Vegas - Gram Parson

“Ooh, Las Vegas, ain't no place for a poor boy like me”... is a song-into for Ooh Las Vegas which was written by Gram Parsons and Ric Grech. It was first released by Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris in 1974. Playing this song would be perfect for the beginning of the road trip (i.e. to Las Vegas), especially if you have the energy to sing along.

13. The Stranger - Leonard Cohen

Published in 1968 and performed by Leonard Cohen, The Stranger appears in the The Ernie Game movie about a man released from a mental asylum. More appropriately, it is the perfect opening song in the 1971 Western McCabe & Mrs Miller, in which Warren Beatty plays a gambler. As you listen to this song (without watching the movie), it makes you see fascinating images of card games, smoky dreams, and concepts of risk versus safety.

12. Desperado - Eagles

Written by Glen Frey and Don Henley, Desperado song is one of The Eagles’ greatest hits from their 1973 album of the same name. The song features a classic tune while the ballad tells the story of a lone wolf imprisoned by his loneliness. As for the lyrics, they have loads of card references mentioning the queen of diamonds, the queen of hearts, and so on.

11. Huck's Tune - Bob Dylan

The next song on our list is about the risks of poker, money, and relationships, which are precisely what the movie Lucky You is all about. Does it ring a bell? That’s right, this 2007 song is called Huck’s Tune and is performed by Bob Dylan. Each of us can all relate to lines "You push it all in, and you've no chance to win, you play 'em on down to the end." Play the song and you’ll enjoy more than 4 amazing minutes of Bob Dylan.
Likewise, Bob Dylan recorded Rambling, Gambling Willie and Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, both excellent and both inspired by gambling.
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10. Four Little Diamonds - Electric Light Orchestra

A song by the British rock band Electric Light Orchestra Four Little Diamonds was released in 1983 and found itself on the album Secret Messages. The single wasn’t so popular in the US, being only 2 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at number 86, and number 84 in the UK. This song refers to the singer’s cheating lover who tricked him out of a ring which had 'four little diamonds' on it.

9. You Can't Beat The House - Mark Knopfler

Moving on to our next choice for the day, You Can’t Beat the House. It’s the third song on the Get Lucky studio album released in 2009 by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler. The album and the songs received favorable reviews with the album reaching the top three positions on album charts in Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. The singer’s divine voice combined with beautiful music and lyrics goes like this – “You can't bear the house, you can't bear the house, tell the man somebody, you can't beat the house.”

8. Deck of Cards - Don Williams

Deck of Cards is a recitation song that tells the story of a soldier who gets caught while playing cards in church and then faces a sentence from a superior officer. The soldier defends his case, explaining he wasn't about to deal a hand of poker, but was rather confirming his faith with the cards. Performed by T. Texas Tyler, the song managed to become a major hit in the 1940s and 1950s. Also, Wink Martindale had an even bigger hit with his 1959 cover, with a successful version by Don Williams featuring Tex Ritter and Buddy Cole.

7. Gambler’s Blues - B.B. King

First recording of the song Gambler’s Blues by B.B. King was in 1966, and it was released in 1967. The song appears on the album Back in the Alley (1970). Some say gambling and blues go hand in hand, so if you (gambling fans) haven’t heard it, listen and see for yourself.

6. Tumbling Dice - Rolling Stones

One of our favourite songs on the list is Tumbling Dice, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It tells the story of a gambler who can’t remain faithful to any woman. Being released in the 1970s and featuring a blues boogie-woogie rhythm, the song was and still is one of the greatest singles of all time.
Rolling Stones also recorded Casino Boogie, and it’s from their 1972 album, Exile on Main St.

5. Luck Be A Lady - Frank Sinatra

The next song on our list is about a gambler who hopes that he will win a bet, the outcome of which will decide whether he is able to save his relationship with the girl of his dreams. You probably know what song we’re talking about; it’s called Luck be a Lady released in 1965 and performed by one of the most popular musical artists - Frank Sinatra.

4. Deal - Grateful Dead

Next one up is the song Deal. It was first performed by the Grateful Dead in 1971, as a regular part of the repertoire through their 1970's tour. Although being less common to the fans during the 1990s, the band continued to perform it. The singer opens with the message: “Since it cost a lot to win and even more to lose you and me bound to spend some time wondering what to choose,” that later kicks off with a chorus: “Don't let your deal go down...”
Loser is another song first performed by the Grateful Dead in 1971 as well, heavily played during 1971 and 1972.

3. Ace of Spades - Motörhead

Ok, the next song is loaded with some great gambling verses like "The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say, I don't share your greed, the only card I need is the Ace of Spades" will definitely set you in the right mood for hitting some winning combinations. Released in 1980, the song was inspired by slot machines that the lead singer Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmister played in London pubs.

2. Viva Las Vegas - Elvis

As soon as you start playing the second song from our playlist “Viva Las Vegas,” you’ll probably picture a huge casino and a great gaming atmosphere. Performed by the legendary Elvis Presley, the 1964-released song brings the glamour of the city, and its beat will get you in the mood for some serious gameplay. This song was written for the movie of the same name starring Elvis Presley, in which he plays a race car driver waiting tables at a hotel to pay off a debt. There’s this famous scene when he performs this song at the talent competition alongside many showgirls.

1. The Gambler - Kenny Rogers

Performed by the legendary country singer Kenny Rogers, The Gambler song is our number 1 - it's full of some betting advice that are relevant today, even though it was released more than 40 years ago, in 1978. Here’s how it goes… “If you're gonna play the game, boy you gotta learn to play it right, you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” These classic chorus lines were told from the first-person perspective inspired by a conversation the author had with an experienced poker player on a train. Written in the form of poker metaphors, Schlitz wrote the tune in honor of his late father.
Johnny Cash is also among other musicians who recorded The Gambler in 1978, on Gone Girl.

What do you think? Which one is your favourite?

TLDR: “Reformed” Con Man Barry Minkow used stolen funds from his church parishioners while a pastor in San Diego to fund a feature film about his redemption. Before the film was completed Minkow was sentenced twice to prison for a myriad of crimes and ordered over half a billion dollars in restitution. I saw it all unfold in real time.
Sorry for the length, but this has been a story I've wanted to tell - from my point of view - for a very long time. I'm hoping it has enough astonishing angles, characters and subplots to keep your interest. So, without further ado:
In early 2009, I was hired by Insomnia Media Group (or IMG) to transform a 250-page transcript into a feature length screenplay. IMG was gearing up to produce the life story of Barry J. Minkow. In the coming months Mark Hamill, Ving Rhames, James Caan, Talia Shire and Armand Assante would come on board to star. There were rumors in the Universal Studios based production offices that Tom Hanks was interested in Minkow’s story. And why wouldn’t he be? Minkow was a reformed con man, a rehabilitated swindler who in 1982 at just fifteen years of age started a carpet cleaning empire called “ZZZZ Best.” A few years later, he was the youngest person in United States history to ever stage a successful stock offering. Before he could legally take a sip of alcohol he was worth $100 million and his company was worth three times that. But it was all empty paper. He had perpetrated one of the largest ponzi schemes of all time. No ponzi scheme was bigger until Bernie Madoff.
So, nearly seven years later, where’s the movie? It was shot, it went through post-production, it’s “in the can,” as they say in the film business… but good luck finding a copy. And where’s Barry Minkow now? Where he should be, back in prison. After filming his movie, he has had to stand in front of a U.S. court and plead guilty – twice – for various crimes. This is the story of a man who in trying to tell the tale of his redemption, brought about it his biggest downfall.
On March 12th, 2011, Pastor Barry Minkow gave a sermon titled "End Times" at his church in Mira Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. In this sermon he mentioned that one sign of the end of days would involve "greedy preachers" and "false prophets" who would "cleverly teach destructive heresies and… bring sudden distraction of themselves." Three days later Minkow had to resign as head pastor of Community Bible Church after agreeing to a guilty plea of insider trading.
Barry's recent fall from grace and his storied past are presented in articles all over the nation. Bloomberg, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have all covered the insider trading, all have mentioned his fantastical teenage crimes. I was even used as a source in an incredibly detailed article by Roger Parloff in Fortune magazine. It’s the type of news that sells: the reformed con man slips again. The fallen angel, who already wore crooked wings, destroys the life he spent fifteen years trying to rebuild.
But there's another side to the saga of Barry Minkow, one not immediately found in the pages of the Times or the Journal, one even glossed over in the Fortune expose. It revolves around the man's fulfillment in telling his own Hollywood tale of redemption. He was the star, he was the executive producer and he was the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room making all the decisions. Minkow spent at least four million of other people’s dollars making a movie about his own life. What news outlets fail to mention is that Barry helped fund this film by stealing from his own parishioners, as well as shorting the stocks of companies he called out for fraud.
Using his organization, the for-profit ‘Fraud Discovery Institute,’ Minkow would go after large corporations he felt were involved in fraudulent behavior. He even lectured about fraud at Quantico for the FBI. You could hire his LLC to uncover wrongdoings and syphon the bad from the good businesses, using Barry’s expertise. He uncovered high profile cases, his clients received large settlements and the company itself was very profitable - after all, Barry had millions of dollars in restitution still due, even after he was released from prison for his ZZZZ Best scam.
Then came the unusually warm summer of 2009. Minkow drove around the backlots of Universal in his rented golf cart, chewing sloppily on cigars and carrying a bible-thick wad of money in his pants. He was the big dog on campus, watching over the production chronicling his life. The first half was Barry's version of the 80s scam with actor Justin Baldoni of Jane the Virgin, portraying a young Barry. It was always a battle with how much Minkow allowed Baldoni and the tale of 80s corruption on screen. That part of his life bored him already. It of course had to be told, but he would never let it be the original two-thirds length it was in the first draft of the screenplay. He wanted to spend as much time as possible on his conversion, redemption and the new fight-white-collar-crime life he now led, no matter how many wild liberties he suggested taking in the areas of creative license. He wanted to dominate as much of the film as possible, behind the cameras as well as in front of them. The second half of that Tom Hanks rumor went like this: America’s greatest everyman had loved the project and told Barry he wanted to be in it. "Great!" Minkow said. "Who do you want to be?" "Well," the two-time Oscar winner replied, "I want to be you." To which, according to gossip, Barry politely responded: "No, thank you. I'm playing myself."
Whether that happened or no, once thing was certain. It was very important to Barry that the story get told a certain right way. Not necessarily the right way, just his way. Minkow temporarily fired the director of the film when he shot the sentencing scene on a day Barry couldn't be on set and used Baldoni, as was both scripted and scheduled. "But, I don't understand, that's what happened," the director lobbied, "You can’t play a 21-year-old version of yourself." The 44-year-old Barry was incensed; "We could just say that I was sentenced a few years later. I have to be in that scene!" His argument was that people needed to see his contrition during the sentencing. By that late into the production, I had a clear idea of who Barry actually was. Robert Pine, who played the judge in that sequence had worked with me a few years prior on my first feature. He asked me, “So ,what’s the real deal with this guy?” My answer was hushed and out the side of my mouth, but that really was the question surrounding this preposterous individual: What’s the real deal with this guy?
The screenplay was all revisionist history. It didn’t start off that way, but Minkow introduced the idea of revisions for seemingly altruistic reasons. Being a Pastor and answering to a large community, Barry couldn't show the extremes of his earlier tale. The swearing and mentions of using prostitutes? Had to come out of the script. The scene where he was snorting cocaine off his chemistry book and the very next day shooting D.A.R.E campaigns… that had to come out too (I didn’t even write in the story about how during a business meeting, when he was eighteen years old, he pulled his penis out of his pants and slapped it on the desk opposite a female employee to make a point).
But later, it wasn't just the offensive items that would have displeased his congregation which were ordered removed, anything that wasn't shown with rose colored glasses had to change in tone or risk being pulled from the screenplay altogether. It became a PG watered down version of the actual brash and brazen story of the kid tycoon from Reseda. The kid who went on The Oprah Winfrey Show, who made the covers of national magazines and was heralded by media outlets as the “Whiz Kid” and the “Wonder Boy.” Back then he was everywhere and just the same, his media attention was equally ubiquitous when he was sentenced and jailed. For many con men, that was where their story would end, but not for Barry. Because then the man found Jesus.
It's very possible that his conversion was real. In one ad-libbed moment on set, Barry Minkow playing his incarcerated self, leapt from a weight lift bench and pointed a stern finger at actor Ving Rhames. "My conversion is not a con!" Maybe it wasn't, as saddened and no doubt embarrassed as Community Bible Church was in having to report their head pastor would be stepping down, they stated their appreciation for his 14-years of faithful service to the church. But after recent events, we can only imagine that it was a con and the ‘maybe’ might just be an unlikely victim of that 14-year fraud, Barry himself.
When you sit down at a restaurant to meet with the man, he'll command the table and tell very colorful stories and lace bible quotes and scripture passages into his anecdotes. He never fails to mention to the pretty waitress as she laughs at one of his jokes that she shouldn't trust him, because he's an ex con man and convicted felon. It's a self-depreciation that permeates almost every conversation and sermon. It's one of the reasons I liked him.
When first pitched the Barry Minkow story, I fell in love with it. It was a hard-edged version of Catch Me If You Can. At 16-years-old he was making more money than his parents. He would routinely fire his father in front of other employees, demanding in the spectacle that he "pull his weight" or he'd be gone. In fact, he required that his father call him Mr. Minkow. In his heyday, Barry talked seriously about making a $30 million bid for the Seattle Mariners. He once brought a foot long gold bar to show classmates in high school. One story after another was so incredible and grandiose by the time I finished my first day of research I was practically salivating. And it just kept coming… Barry's first startup was put together by swapped jewelry he had stolen from his grandmother. Later he acquired the capital for expansion from a drug dealer. In fact, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates started the public suspicion of ZZZZ Best by announcing in a news conference that it was the LAPD’s belief the entire carpet company empire was a giant drug money-laundering machine.
Another appealing aspect was the fact it was set in the 1980s, the "greed is good" era. It's a decade America can look back on now, especially during these times, to see where that greed led us. The first half of his story could so easily relate to what steered us to our recent financial problems and the later part could mirror the reparations we continue to exercise in order to mend the country. And finally, like Frank Abignale or rather Stephen Glass, what I loved about the story was not only how the house of cards was built, but how rapidly it came crashing down and what happened to the man while he was standing underneath it.
So I told the powers at IMG I would do it under one stipulation, I didn't want to meet Barry until after finishing the first draft. The reason was because I didn't want to know if he wasn't who he said he was. I didn't want that possible information to contaminate my first pass at the story. And so I avoided contact with him until after I’d written the purported truth, in case the reformed preacher angle was… well, just a bunch of bullshit. He left messages for me and sent emails, wondering why I wouldn't talk with him. A month later I met Barry for the first time during a table read at one of the producer's homes. Introducing myself, he then shook my hand and said, "Oh you're the writer? I should punch you in the face." It was a clear joke and as uncomfortable as he could be to watch sometimes with his nervous ticks, stutters and idiosyncrasies, it was easy to buy into his reform. At least for a while.
Then the rewrites began. With Barry now involved, all notions of composing a grand, operatic parable began to fade. Pieces I first grew excited about were exercised entirely. I kept telling Barry that we needed to see the real version of the bad in order to believe the reality of his change. There was no buying into the redemption if we didn’t truly witness the totality of his transgressions. I understood the rating issues, his audience in the Christian or Family Films department could be huge - but that wasn't the version I thought I was on board for. It started becoming too campy, trite and wasn't honoring the truth behind the story. That's what first caused me to doubt the final product. More than that, it's what caused me to begin to have doubts about the man.
But I remained on set every day, because days weren't being made and rewrites were needed to keep production on schedule. Yet production only further exemplified a slow-boiling delusion where rewritten scenes from his life were being put to page using selective facts, denial and sometimes complete fabrication. While rewriting the ending a few days from shooting, the idea for the climax turned so vapid and hackneyed, I was worried that my face was making sounds every time I winced. When he pitched the ending that ended up being filed, it was like listening to your inappropriate Uncle who uninvited, still got up to give a eulogy and talked about the ‘dead hooker in Vegas’ story. Barry was resting an elbow on a bouncing knee while leaning over his chair. The producer and myself were running on coffee and Starbursts. "When I show up to catch Derek Lewis in the final scam,” he said, “his body guards can steal the money he's brought for my clients and they make a run for it. Then, I'll chase them! I can chase after the money to show just how far I'll go to defend the innocent!" What had originally drawn me to the story - the full arc of the Barry Minkow character - was quickly becoming a sagging line.
However, being on set throughout production did provide me with something very valuable. The downtime in-between rewrites gave me an opportunity to do something I had never been able to do on a film set before… merely observe. I watched and I listened and as the story I had originally helped tell kept changing into something unrecognizable, another story began to take its place. This was the oneI wanted to tell even more and I was in the perfect position to do just that.
One of the biggest bombshells occurred while we were shooting an interrogation sequence on a movie set in downtown Los Angeles. In the middle of a lighting setup, Barry, wearing his orange jumpsuit costume, quietly leaned over the table to actor James Caan and whispered, "Do you know how I raised the money for this film? I clipped companies…" "Mm," Sonny Corleone replied. It's a common oversight, when actors on a set forget they're wearing microphones and that people wearing headphones are listening. Now Barry swears up and down that this exchange never happened. He told Roger Parloff of Fortune Magazine that I was a liar and that if it did happen then I should produce the tape to prove it. The director of the film did just that for me: Scene 71, Take 1… Minkow said it. What's even stranger about that conversation is that Caan had forgotten about a shared investment into a boxer he made with the young Barry back in the 80s, apparently one that had been paid to take a dive. The reason the two were involved together? Because Barry and his company ZZZZ Best had been partially backed by mob buddies of Caan who he met on his Godfather days, which brought a whole other drama to the production when those relationships came back around on the movie set and sucker punched Minkow square in the jaw.
On account that the production was a small non-union independent film, there was a danger that when on location IATSE and the teamsters would crash the set and stage a strike in order to secure better benefits for the crew. A "representative" from Chicago was brought on board by IMG to help the situation before it could realize. That person's name was Frankie Fabrutsie (name changed to protect the writer). While sitting in a van, Frankie and one of the line producers were on their way to set. After being introduced, I asked him how long he planned on staying in town for. Fabrutsie whipped his head and stared hard: "… till da fuckin' problem's solved."
What made the mob story that much more dramatic was that Fabrutsie employed another "friend" of his to deal with the unions. Big Vinnie (name also changed to protect the writer's future children) heard about the productions issues and said he could help by establishing an inside man in the union offices who would screen incoming faxes sent by crew members, notifying the teamsters of the addresses they could show up to in order to pitch the rest of the set to unionize (this would cost the production money by upping the base scale each crew member was to receive and cost time by shutting things down until a negotiation could be reached). Before jumping on board, Big Vinnie asked what the movie was about over a telephone call from Chi-town. "It's about this whiz kid, Barry Minkow from the 80s who was a big con man." It was silent on the other end of the line for a long moment before Big Vinnie responded, "Yeah, I know Barry. Tell him Big Vinnie from Splash says hello." Splash was a restaurant in Malibu that Big Vinnie was managed back in the Ronald Reagan days. When Barry heard that he went white as a ghost. His face fell into his hands and he sat that way for a very long time.
In the film, there is a prison scene shot with Barry Minkow and Ving Rhames. During pre-production, it was without a doubt the most important thing Barry needed written and filmed a certain way, you know "his way." It's a recreation of a questionable prison football game where for Minkow, more than just bragging rights were at stake. His mentor in the slam, Jimmy 'Peanut' Long, played by Rhames and also a questionable real life character (apparently after he was released, he died in a drive by but I’ve never been able to find proof of his existence), tells him he's always taken the short cut, always been a quitter. But, by standing in the way of pain, in the form of a vicious tackle, he can finally do the right thing no matter how hard it is. So Barry heroically spots the open man, throws the game-winning touchdown and gets crushed for doing so. This painfully realized (and painfully written/acted) metaphor was, as Barry tells it, the event that changed his life forever. Cameras rolling, Minkow's character has been tackled hard, nose broken, body lying in the dirt. Rhames walks over and leans into frame, asking in his gravely timber, "Do you know why you're in here?" "Yeah," the real life actor responded, "because I wouldn't testify against anyone whose name ended in a vowel." Thankfully, producers talked Minkow into cutting the line after viewing the finished product, but it was one more moment of revisionist history.
Because Barry did testify against said men with said vowels in their names. He rolled on everyone at the end. And Big Vinnie and some of his "friends" had been to prison - for a host of reasons, but one being Barry's testimony. So you can imagine the tumbleweed standoff that happened day one on set, when Big Vinnie met Big Barry for the first time in nearly 25 years. Barry hired two gun-toting bodyguards, no joke. He cautiously walked over and gave Big Vinny a stiff handshake before they chatted intensely for close to a half hour. In the end, the two exchanged an awkward hug and the day moved on. Maybe just two tired giants, no longer such powerful men, ready to let all that sewage water wash under the bridge. There would in fact, be no horse head served on the craft service table… but the Union did show up and get the crew to strike anyway.
All production drama aside, quite possibly the most ironic and incredible twist in the development of the film was in respect to the other executive producer, Bret Saxon and his film company Insomnia Media Group. In what was supposed to be an inside joke, the villainous character played by Armand Assante who takes kid Barry under his wing and funds his operation with mob money, was named Saxon in the script. As of now, the names Saxon and Minkow are embroiled in at least one lawsuit together, while Saxon himself is dealing with four additional lawsuits involving fraudulent movie deals and has been ordered to pay $2.5 million to an investor of his most recent film outing.
Saxon's claims of wealth and claims of the size of his company’s film fund are what help him raise additional monies for his pictures. But it quickly became practice wherein he used a fraction of those monies to produce IMG movies and spent the rest in order to lead people to believe he was financially solvent, while also living a life of extravagance. He didn’t own the 14,000 square foot house he said he did in Tennessee; it actually belonged to NBA player Mike Miller. The Mercedes, Bentley and Ferarri, have all been repossessed. The American Express Black card? Was not in his name. Saxon has always had his fingers sticky from digging into the crust of many pies. He claimed to have negotiated the sale for O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It," he was also a business partner of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis. His Las Vegas field trips on private jets with beautiful companions were a far cry from the scene at his Pacific Palisades home where he lived with his wife and children. He did author one book currently available on Amazon entitled, “The Art of the Shmooze.” You can tell me how it reads.
Saxon’s stories of his success could rival even tales spun by the young Barry Minkow. He long claimed to have an Egyptian capitol partner who infused a $550 million investment from Borak Holdings. Borak did invest a few millions dollars for two of Saxon's films, which it has been purported that he then used the bulk of to buy the house in the Palisades. Borak also invested a million dollars for a film that was never made, but Saxon took all of the loan proceeds anyway. In that failed production, he’s also being sued for bilking $750,000 from a Memphis based non-profit, The Palmer House, who believed he was going to shoot a film about their orphanage. No, don't go back - you read that right. He stole from orphans. The Palmer House believes Saxon used their money to meet his own investment obligations to the Minkow film.
In fact, it's difficult to find a film Saxon has had his fingerprints on that isn't mired in a litany of lawsuits, conspiracy and unpaid bills. His first outing using IMG, "The Grand" with Woody Harrelson, Wener Herzog, David Cross, Jason Alexander and Dennis Farina, is in the middle of two lawsuits. How does this all relate to "Minkow?" Most of the defendants claim that Saxon had backed personal loans and other debt based on the information that his "Minkow" film was ready to be sold and that his proceeds would be what he used to pay back his debt. He claimed an offer of $2.5 million from Sony Pictures to distribute the film. That never happened, Sony had never even seen it. In fact, the relationship between Bret Saxon and Barry Minkow was strained from the start of pre-production. Minkow suspected that Saxon was misappropriating the funds. Saxon in return expressed concern to a business partner (who's now suing him) that somehow Barry Minkow had access to his personal and business account information. There's a scene in the movie that shows how Barry might have been able to do that, but it hadn't been shot yet and Saxon might have skipped over it in the script, because he hired a private investigator to find out how Minkow had obtained certain investocreditor banking information.
Therefore even though it was Bret Saxon who green lit the movie and put together the crew through IMG, before start of production Minkow insisted on handling all of the finances for the picture. He had that right since he had raised almost all of the money before production began (Saxon was willing to do all the fundraising if Barry had an actual actor play his older self in the movie). At the time, no one really knew how Barry had raised all of the capitol, but they did know that Barry had to continue raising money during production as the budget kept going over. People were then paid from different corporate entities, or in cash, or thru Paypal. Checks bounced, union rules were ignored and the budget ballooned over one hundred percent from its original estimate on paper. Barry had a habit of pulling out a large wad of money from his pocket and handing twenties or hundreds to someone having a problem. In one instance, he walked the set with a stack of mini-bonuses. On that day he stopped at the transportation department and delivered a $100 bonus check, apologizing for the "mess" that production was becoming. After being deposited, the check was returned by the bank.
So was Minkow telling the truth when he whispered the secret to funding his movie into James Caan’s apathetic ear? It was only a few months before he invested and became the executive producer and star of his life story that he went online posting YouTube videos against Lennar Corporation, the home building giant that accused him of extortion as well as claiming false information, which then drove down the company’s stock. Minkow claims he didn't make any money off of the $20,000 he bet against Lennar, even after the company’s worth dropped $550 million… but is that because the movie hasn't made back any money yet?
It was during this time that an aggressive and thoroughly accusation based set of articles was written about Minkow by Beth Barett in LA Weekly. I remember following along with every new Sunday published feature. She opined that on top of the insider trading offense, Barry had scammed over a million dollars from his parishioners. At the time, Barett was going off mostly suspicion and she was almost vitriolic in her attack, slamming the man I’d spent the last several months working with. It read like a TMZ article about Mel Gibson. I also never doubted her claims for a second.
The ruling in Miami in the Lennar case, is that Minkow lied, concealed material witnesses and destroyed evidence. In the plea he will only admit to insider trading. If you cross reference a 1988 CBS interview, Minkow lays slapdash on his bed in a white tank top, bobbing and weaving his head as he stares reporter Ross Becker directly in the eyes and swears up and down to his complete and total innocence. It's not very convincing, even though it seems Barry himself is utterly convinced. This time, however, the shadow of doubt reaches much too far and it's as thick as an Amish quilt. He can't escape the public's opinion and it's that court which finds the story of his failure more fascinating then the tale of his redemption. Knowing this, he may have struck the Lennar deal because he felt it was his best option. His lawyer Alvin Entin, stated, "Barry is looking forward to getting this behind him and on with the rest of his life."
The question about how much he made against Lennar Corporation and what he did with it is now a moot point. With Minkow back in prison after accepting his plea, his film and redemption tale are nothing short of obsolete. But in true Hollywood fashion, it might just need a sequel. For the more interesting story in the life of Barry Minkow, could be about the time he spent millions of dollars and hired hundreds of people in order to make a redemption tale, starring himself as himself, in a film that thru acquiring its funds ultimately led to his ruin. A second story of shame; the defrocked minister once again putting on the orange jumpsuit, this time not in front of a film camera, but behind iron bars. When the man who shot himself in both feet trying to prove he could run gets out of prison this time, will he be ready to be born again, again?
Unfortunately for Minkow, we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to find out. He was sentenced to five years in the Lennar case and ordered restitution for… wait for it, half a billion dollars. Subsquently, other charges were brought against him, charges that fell very much in line with Beth Barett’s accusations in LA Weekly. In May of 2014, Minkow was convicted yet again. He’s serving five more years (conjoined to the five he already finished for the Lennar case) for crimes including bank fraud, forgery, mail fraud, wire fraud and other tax related scams that took place over a ten year period in which he stole over one and a half million dollars from his church parishioners. These included an elderly grandmother who was conned $300,000 in loans for the movie and in another instance, a family who Barry counseled during their wife/mother’s cancer, who was asked by him to make a donation in her name after her death in the amount of $75,000 to help refugees in Darfur. The family received a fake email thank-you-note from a fake person (later proven to be Minkow) who confirmed their receipt and called it a gift that produced “applause from heaven.”
Roger Parloff, in his Fortune article calls Barry’s second sentencing “an epilogue.” Call me a dramatist, but I don’t think it’s the end of the story for Barry Minkow. As an Evangelist, Minkow believes he is saved by the grace of God (in his first five year stint, he even obtained a doctorate degree in conflict resolution from a correspondence divinity school). The fallible part of religion is always the fault of man. According to the Bible men were built to fail, so to Barry this moment can be easily explained. He swears he is no charlatan, he merely needed to be humbled yet again and he’s now ready to pick himself back up and start over. When the dust settles this time, he’ll have had ten more Superbowls to figure out what’s next (numbering the NFL championships inside are how he counted his time during the first go-round). If you ask me, it shouldn't be very surprising if when he's released from prison, he finds a new ending to his story. I know better than anyone, when it comes to Barry Minkow you can't ever get away with writing the words, FADE OUT.

This is a post chronicling me vs my big brother Brandon in a pick 'em pool against the spread in the NFL. I watch too much football, and he watches 1 game a year, and its for the buffet at our Super Bowl party. He is actually making it a point to watch zero games this season to make this post even more authentic.
I gained some ground last week. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully come January I will come out on top. But he does seem to be an unstoppable force of luck and wit.
On another note, if anyone has any ideas as to where I can post this blog other than here that would get more eyes on it, let me know. I'd like to get this out there so I can justify writing more.
For those wanting to go back and read the previous weeks, you can find them here: Week 1||Week 2||Week 3||Week4||Week 5||Week 6||Week 7||Week 8||Week 9
YTD Brandon 67-57 Gary 63-61
Saints -2.5@ Bills
Brandon - Saints - He said that his friend online gave him advice for this game and that the Saints would win because I'm a piece of shit.
Gary - Saints - The Saints look better and better every week. Drew Brees isn't aging. They are very quickly becoming a clear cut favourite for the NFC South.
Packers +4.5@ Bears
Brandon - Packers - I think part of why he is taking them is his undying love for his beloved Green Bay Packers. He's sitting there trying to think of a reason but I think we all know why. His allegiance is too strong. Or he's too football ignorant to make an informed decision. It's really a toss up. He just keeps saying, "because it's the Packers." I'm just going to accept that as an answer.
Gary - Bears - Green Bay is one of those strange teams where the QB is the catalyst to bring a last place team to a first place team. That's what the Packers are without him. The worst team in the NFC North.
Browns +11.5@ Lions
Brandon - Lions - Lions and Browns, OH MY! His words. He said he's taking them due to the fact that our CFL home team is the BC Lions. Sound Logic.
Gary - Browns - They can't be that bad, can they? CAN THEY?
Bengals +5@ Titans
Brandon - Titans - He painted a beautiful word picture about the Titans of Greek Mythology destroying a flock of Bengal tigers. Pride of Tigers? Pack of Tigers? I'm going with flock. Sounds deadlier. Anywho, he brought up all the elemental Titans from Disneys Hercules movie and said that no amount of Tigers would stand a chance against such a formidable foe.
Gary - Titans - If you read last weeks post, I look stupid. I said they weren't very good. In fact, Tennessee might actually be ok. On the flip side, the Bengals are awful. So my decision was easy.
Steelers -10@ Colts
Brandon - Steelers - If he knows anything about animal husbandry, which he doesn't, he knows how instrumental steel is in making horseshoes as well as the spurs used to train horses and making that connection between man and horse. He's forcing me to point out that you know that he doesn't mean any sort of sexual connection between man and horse.
Gary - Steelers - Not only are the Colts really bad at football, but they are impossibly boring to watch. For that reason, this spread doesn't scare me.
Jets -2.5@ Buccaneers
Brandon - Jets - Evidently, pirates have a notorious bad time with jet streams. He figured this out at a young age, in the bath tub, with toy pirates and strong water movement in said tub. It's going to make things very difficult for the Buccaneers.
Gary - Jets - The Bucs aren't that good with Jameis Winston. And now due to his injury we are getting a Ryan Fitzpatrick vs Josh McGown football game in 2017. Thanks Obama.
Vikings -1.5@ Redskins
Brandon - Redskins - Both parties were the first settlers of north america. The Vikings left early because They didn't see much point in staying, went back to Europe and played soccer. The Redskins however stayed resilient and thrived off the land till the English showed up and taught them how to play American football.
Gary - Vikings - The Vikings are notoriously bad ATS after a bye week. But that trend has to end eventually. Plus Washington's O'line is obliterated right now.
Chargers +4@ Jaguars
Brandon - Chargers - As we all know Jaguars are a tree dwelling creature. And as we all know trees are great conductors of lightning. So he's going with Boltman
Gary - Jaguars - This whole put my money on Blake Bortles thing seems to be working. They sat Fournette last week for an arbitrary reason last week and they covered. I don't see the Chargers that big of a threat.
Texans +12@ Rams
Brandon - Texans - He's making me picture a screaming goat being shot by a Texan. I'm slightly disturbed. For those of you not sure what a screaming goat is, click here. And for those of you wanting to watch a screming goat mashed up with a Taylor Swift song, click here
Gary - Rams - Man, Jeff Fischer must be the worst coach of all time if he couldn't score with this team. Their offence is among the best in the NFL and it gets better every week. Plus, you know, no Watson.
Cowboys +3@ Falcons
Brandon - Cowboys - You see, Cowboys have guns. And birds are not immune to bullets. It's really a one sided fight when you think about it.
Gary - Cowboys - This one I have some doubts in. I'm basically going on instinct.
Giants Pick@ 49ers
Brandon - 49ers - In most video games, Giants have a high drop rate of gold. So rather than panning for gold like a bunch of bitches, the 49ers will be Giant hunting to increase their intake of gold.
Gary - Giants - I'm actually rooting for the 49ers here, if only to see Ben McAdoo squirm on the sidelines. But because he is essentially coaching for his job, I see the Giants squeaking one out.
Patriots -7.5@ Broncos
Brandon - Broncos - He's taking Denver here to spite all of our insufferable Patriot fan friends. He's sick of their bull shit.
Gary - Patriots - Brock Osweiller Vs Tom Brady II. Except this time it won't be as heroic for Brock. Brady will be out for blood. I would probably take the Pats if they were favoured by 17
Dolphins +9@ Panthers
Brandon - Panthers - We all know how much cats love tuna. And apparently the tuna and the dolphin are close in the fish family. Also, Brandon want me to ask why it's called tuna fish, when it's not called salmon fish or halibut fish.
Gary - Panthers - Carolina is impressing me. Also, they keep winning me money in my money line parlays. So that's also a plus, but it could be feel too strong about a team that really isn't that good. Regardless, I like them this week.
I'm really enjoying writing this, whether anyone is reading it or not. I would like to keep doing it and writing other pieces as well so if any of you have feedback, positive or negative let me know. If you so choose you can follow me on the twitter machine @TheGaryKozchuck. I'm also trying to figure out a way to put this in podcast form so if any of you would like something like that, then let me know so I can work more vigilantly on it. Thanks, and happy betting.

TLDR: “Reformed” Con Man Barry Minkow used stolen funds from his church parishioners while a pastor in San Diego to fund a feature film about his redemption. Before the film was completed Minkow was sentenced twice to prison for a myriad of crimes and ordered over half a billion dollars in restitution. I saw it all unfold in real time.
Sorry for the length, but this has been a story I've wanted to tell - from my point of view - for a very long time. I'm hoping it has enough astonishing angles, characters and subplots to keep your interest. So, without further ado:
In early 2009, I was hired by Insomnia Media Group (or IMG) to transform a 250-page transcript into a feature length screenplay. IMG was gearing up to produce the life story of Barry J. Minkow. In the coming months Mark Hamill, Ving Rhames, James Caan, Talia Shire and Armand Assante would come on board to star. There were rumors in the Universal Studios based production offices that Tom Hanks was interested in Minkow’s story. And why wouldn’t he be? Minkow was a reformed con man, a rehabilitated swindler who in 1982 at just fifteen years of age started a carpet cleaning empire called “ZZZZ Best.” A few years later, he was the youngest person in United States history to ever stage a successful stock offering. Before he could legally take a sip of alcohol he was worth $100 million and his company was worth three times that. But it was all empty paper. He had perpetrated one of the largest ponzi schemes of all time. No ponzi scheme was bigger until Bernie Madoff.
So, nearly seven years later, where’s the movie? It was shot, it went through post-production, it’s “in the can,” as they say in the film business… but good luck finding a copy. And where’s Barry Minkow now? Where he should be, back in prison. After filming his movie, he has had to stand in front of a U.S. court and plead guilty – twice – for various crimes. This is the story of a man who in trying to tell the tale of his redemption, brought about it his biggest downfall.
On March 12th, 2011, Pastor Barry Minkow gave a sermon titled "End Times" at his church in Mira Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. In this sermon he mentioned that one sign of the end of days would involve "greedy preachers" and "false prophets" who would "cleverly teach destructive heresies and… bring sudden distraction of themselves." Three days later Minkow had to resign as head pastor of Community Bible Church after agreeing to a guilty plea of insider trading.
Barry's recent fall from grace and his storied past are presented in articles all over the nation. Bloomberg, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have all covered the insider trading, all have mentioned his fantastical teenage crimes. I was even used as a source in an incredibly detailed article by Roger Parloff in Fortune magazine. It’s the type of news that sells: the reformed con man slips again. The fallen angel, who already wore crooked wings, destroys the life he spent fifteen years trying to rebuild.
But there's another side to the saga of Barry Minkow, one not immediately found in the pages of the Times or the Journal, one even glossed over in the Fortune expose. It revolves around the man's fulfillment in telling his own Hollywood tale of redemption. He was the star, he was the executive producer and he was the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room making all the decisions. Minkow spent at least four million of other people’s dollars making a movie about his own life. What news outlets fail to mention is that Barry helped fund this film by stealing from his own parishioners, as well as shorting the stocks of companies he called out for fraud.
Using his organization, the for-profit ‘Fraud Discovery Institute,’ Minkow would go after large corporations he felt were involved in fraudulent behavior. He even lectured about fraud at Quantico for the FBI. You could hire his LLC to uncover wrongdoings and syphon the bad from the good businesses, using Barry’s expertise. He uncovered high profile cases, his clients received large settlements and the company itself was very profitable - after all, Barry had millions of dollars in restitution still due, even after he was released from prison for his ZZZZ Best scam.
Then came the unusually warm summer of 2009. Minkow drove around the backlots of Universal in his rented golf cart, chewing sloppily on cigars and carrying a bible-thick wad of money in his pants. He was the big dog on campus, watching over the production chronicling his life. The first half was Barry's version of the 80s scam with actor Justin Baldoni of Jane the Virgin, portraying a young Barry. It was always a battle with how much Minkow allowed Baldoni and the tale of 80s corruption on screen. That part of his life bored him already. It of course had to be told, but he would never let it be the original two-thirds length it was in the first draft of the screenplay. He wanted to spend as much time as possible on his conversion, redemption and the new fight-white-collar-crime life he now led, no matter how many wild liberties he suggested taking in the areas of creative license. He wanted to dominate as much of the film as possible, behind the cameras as well as in front of them. The second half of that Tom Hanks rumor went like this: America’s greatest everyman had loved the project and told Barry he wanted to be in it. "Great!" Minkow said. "Who do you want to be?" "Well," the two-time Oscar winner replied, "I want to be you." To which, according to gossip, Barry politely responded: "No, thank you. I'm playing myself."
Whether that happened or no, once thing was certain. It was very important to Barry that the story get told a certain right way. Not necessarily the right way, just his way. Minkow temporarily fired the director of the film when he shot the sentencing scene on a day Barry couldn't be on set and used Baldoni, as was both scripted and scheduled. "But, I don't understand, that's what happened," the director lobbied, "You can’t play a 21-year-old version of yourself." The 44-year-old Barry was incensed; "We could just say that I was sentenced a few years later. I have to be in that scene!" His argument was that people needed to see his contrition during the sentencing. By that late into the production, I had a clear idea of who Barry actually was. Robert Pine, who played the judge in that sequence had worked with me a few years prior on my first feature. He asked me, “So ,what’s the real deal with this guy?” My answer was hushed and out the side of my mouth, but that really was the question surrounding this preposterous individual: What’s the real deal with this guy?
The screenplay was all revisionist history. It didn’t start off that way, but Minkow introduced the idea of revisions for seemingly altruistic reasons. Being a Pastor and answering to a large community, Barry couldn't show the extremes of his earlier tale. The swearing and mentions of using prostitutes? Had to come out of the script. The scene where he was snorting cocaine off his chemistry book and the very next day shooting D.A.R.E campaigns… that had to come out too (I didn’t even write in the story about how during a business meeting, when he was eighteen years old, he pulled his penis out of his pants and slapped it on the desk opposite a female employee to make a point).
But later, it wasn't just the offensive items that would have displeased his congregation which were ordered removed, anything that wasn't shown with rose colored glasses had to change in tone or risk being pulled from the screenplay altogether. It became a PG watered down version of the actual brash and brazen story of the kid tycoon from Reseda. The kid who went on The Oprah Winfrey Show, who made the covers of national magazines and was heralded by media outlets as the “Whiz Kid” and the “Wonder Boy.” Back then he was everywhere and just the same, his media attention was equally ubiquitous when he was sentenced and jailed. For many con men, that was where their story would end, but not for Barry. Because then the man found Jesus.
It's very possible that his conversion was real. In one ad-libbed moment on set, Barry Minkow playing his incarcerated self, leapt from a weight lift bench and pointed a stern finger at actor Ving Rhames. "My conversion is not a con!" Maybe it wasn't, as saddened and no doubt embarrassed as Community Bible Church was in having to report their head pastor would be stepping down, they stated their appreciation for his 14-years of faithful service to the church. But after recent events, we can only imagine that it was a con and the ‘maybe’ might just be an unlikely victim of that 14-year fraud, Barry himself.
When you sit down at a restaurant to meet with the man, he'll command the table and tell very colorful stories and lace bible quotes and scripture passages into his anecdotes. He never fails to mention to the pretty waitress as she laughs at one of his jokes that she shouldn't trust him, because he's an ex con man and convicted felon. It's a self-depreciation that permeates almost every conversation and sermon. It's one of the reasons I liked him.
When first pitched the Barry Minkow story, I fell in love with it. It was a hard-edged version of Catch Me If You Can. At 16-years-old he was making more money than his parents. He would routinely fire his father in front of other employees, demanding in the spectacle that he "pull his weight" or he'd be gone. In fact, he required that his father call him Mr. Minkow. In his heyday, Barry talked seriously about making a $30 million bid for the Seattle Mariners. He once brought a foot long gold bar to show classmates in high school. One story after another was so incredible and grandiose by the time I finished my first day of research I was practically salivating. And it just kept coming… Barry's first startup was put together by swapped jewelry he had stolen from his grandmother. Later he acquired the capital for expansion from a drug dealer. In fact, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates started the public suspicion of ZZZZ Best by announcing in a news conference that it was the LAPD’s belief the entire carpet company empire was a giant drug money-laundering machine.
Another appealing aspect was the fact it was set in the 1980s, the "greed is good" era. It's a decade America can look back on now, especially during these times, to see where that greed led us. The first half of his story could so easily relate to what steered us to our recent financial problems and the later part could mirror the reparations we continue to exercise in order to mend the country. And finally, like Frank Abignale or rather Stephen Glass, what I loved about the story was not only how the house of cards was built, but how rapidly it came crashing down and what happened to the man while he was standing underneath it.
So I told the powers at IMG I would do it under one stipulation, I didn't want to meet Barry until after finishing the first draft. The reason was because I didn't want to know if he wasn't who he said he was. I didn't want that possible information to contaminate my first pass at the story. And so I avoided contact with him until after I’d written the purported truth, in case the reformed preacher angle was… well, just a bunch of bullshit. He left messages for me and sent emails, wondering why I wouldn't talk with him. A month later I met Barry for the first time during a table read at one of the producer's homes. Introducing myself, he then shook my hand and said, "Oh you're the writer? I should punch you in the face." It was a clear joke and as uncomfortable as he could be to watch sometimes with his nervous ticks, stutters and idiosyncrasies, it was easy to buy into his reform. At least for a while.
Then the rewrites began. With Barry now involved, all notions of composing a grand, operatic parable began to fade. Pieces I first grew excited about were exercised entirely. I kept telling Barry that we needed to see the real version of the bad in order to believe the reality of his change. There was no buying into the redemption if we didn’t truly witness the totality of his transgressions. I understood the rating issues, his audience in the Christian or Family Films department could be huge - but that wasn't the version I thought I was on board for. It started becoming too campy, trite and wasn't honoring the truth behind the story. That's what first caused me to doubt the final product. More than that, it's what caused me to begin to have doubts about the man.
But I remained on set every day, because days weren't being made and rewrites were needed to keep production on schedule. Yet production only further exemplified a slow-boiling delusion where rewritten scenes from his life were being put to page using selective facts, denial and sometimes complete fabrication. While rewriting the ending a few days from shooting, the idea for the climax turned so vapid and hackneyed, I was worried that my face was making sounds every time I winced. When he pitched the ending that ended up being filed, it was like listening to your inappropriate Uncle who uninvited, still got up to give a eulogy and talked about the ‘dead hooker in Vegas’ story. Barry was resting an elbow on a bouncing knee while leaning over his chair. The producer and myself were running on coffee and Starbursts. "When I show up to catch Derek Lewis in the final scam,” he said, “his body guards can steal the money he's brought for my clients and they make a run for it. Then, I'll chase them! I can chase after the money to show just how far I'll go to defend the innocent!" What had originally drawn me to the story - the full arc of the Barry Minkow character - was quickly becoming a sagging line.
However, being on set throughout production did provide me with something very valuable. The downtime in-between rewrites gave me an opportunity to do something I had never been able to do on a film set before… merely observe. I watched and I listened and as the story I had originally helped tell kept changing into something unrecognizable, another story began to take its place. This was the oneI wanted to tell even more and I was in the perfect position to do just that.
One of the biggest bombshells occurred while we were shooting an interrogation sequence on a movie set in downtown Los Angeles. In the middle of a lighting setup, Barry, wearing his orange jumpsuit costume, quietly leaned over the table to actor James Caan and whispered, "Do you know how I raised the money for this film? I clipped companies…" "Mm," Sonny Corleone replied. It's a common oversight, when actors on a set forget they're wearing microphones and that people wearing headphones are listening. Now Barry swears up and down that this exchange never happened. He told Roger Parloff of Fortune Magazine that I was a liar and that if it did happen then I should produce the tape to prove it. The director of the film did just that for me: Scene 71, Take 1… Minkow said it. What's even stranger about that conversation is that Caan had forgotten about a shared investment into a boxer he made with the young Barry back in the 80s, apparently one that had been paid to take a dive. The reason the two were involved together? Because Barry and his company ZZZZ Best had been partially backed by mob buddies of Caan who he met on his Godfather days, which brought a whole other drama to the production when those relationships came back around on the movie set and sucker punched Minkow square in the jaw.
On account that the production was a small non-union independent film, there was a danger that when on location IATSE and the teamsters would crash the set and stage a strike in order to secure better benefits for the crew. A "representative" from Chicago was brought on board by IMG to help the situation before it could realize. That person's name was Frankie Fabrutsie (name changed to protect the writer). While sitting in a van, Frankie and one of the line producers were on their way to set. After being introduced, I asked him how long he planned on staying in town for. Fabrutsie whipped his head and stared hard: "… till da fuckin' problem's solved."
What made the mob story that much more dramatic was that Fabrutsie employed another "friend" of his to deal with the unions. Big Vinnie (name also changed to protect the writer's future children) heard about the productions issues and said he could help by establishing an inside man in the union offices who would screen incoming faxes sent by crew members, notifying the teamsters of the addresses they could show up to in order to pitch the rest of the set to unionize (this would cost the production money by upping the base scale each crew member was to receive and cost time by shutting things down until a negotiation could be reached). Before jumping on board, Big Vinnie asked what the movie was about over a telephone call from Chi-town. "It's about this whiz kid, Barry Minkow from the 80s who was a big con man." It was silent on the other end of the line for a long moment before Big Vinnie responded, "Yeah, I know Barry. Tell him Big Vinnie from Splash says hello." Splash was a restaurant in Malibu that Big Vinnie was managed back in the Ronald Reagan days. When Barry heard that he went white as a ghost. His face fell into his hands and he sat that way for a very long time.
In the film, there is a prison scene shot with Barry Minkow and Ving Rhames. During pre-production, it was without a doubt the most important thing Barry needed written and filmed a certain way, you know "his way." It's a recreation of a questionable prison football game where for Minkow, more than just bragging rights were at stake. His mentor in the slam, Jimmy 'Peanut' Long, played by Rhames and also a questionable real life character (apparently after he was released, he died in a drive by but I’ve never been able to find proof of his existence), tells him he's always taken the short cut, always been a quitter. But, by standing in the way of pain, in the form of a vicious tackle, he can finally do the right thing no matter how hard it is. So Barry heroically spots the open man, throws the game-winning touchdown and gets crushed for doing so. This painfully realized (and painfully written/acted) metaphor was, as Barry tells it, the event that changed his life forever. Cameras rolling, Minkow's character has been tackled hard, nose broken, body lying in the dirt. Rhames walks over and leans into frame, asking in his gravely timber, "Do you know why you're in here?" "Yeah," the real life actor responded, "because I wouldn't testify against anyone whose name ended in a vowel." Thankfully, producers talked Minkow into cutting the line after viewing the finished product, but it was one more moment of revisionist history.
Because Barry did testify against said men with said vowels in their names. He rolled on everyone at the end. And Big Vinnie and some of his "friends" had been to prison - for a host of reasons, but one being Barry's testimony. So you can imagine the tumbleweed standoff that happened day one on set, when Big Vinnie met Big Barry for the first time in nearly 25 years. Barry hired two gun-toting bodyguards, no joke. He cautiously walked over and gave Big Vinny a stiff handshake before they chatted intensely for close to a half hour. In the end, the two exchanged an awkward hug and the day moved on. Maybe just two tired giants, no longer such powerful men, ready to let all that sewage water wash under the bridge. There would in fact, be no horse head served on the craft service table… but the Union did show up and get the crew to strike anyway.
All production drama aside, quite possibly the most ironic and incredible twist in the development of the film was in respect to the other executive producer, Bret Saxon and his film company Insomnia Media Group. In what was supposed to be an inside joke, the villainous character played by Armand Assante who takes kid Barry under his wing and funds his operation with mob money, was named Saxon in the script. As of now, the names Saxon and Minkow are embroiled in at least one lawsuit together, while Saxon himself is dealing with four additional lawsuits involving fraudulent movie deals and has been ordered to pay $2.5 million to an investor of his most recent film outing.
Saxon's claims of wealth and claims of the size of his company’s film fund are what help him raise additional monies for his pictures. But it quickly became practice wherein he used a fraction of those monies to produce IMG movies and spent the rest in order to lead people to believe he was financially solvent, while also living a life of extravagance. He didn’t own the 14,000 square foot house he said he did in Tennessee; it actually belonged to NBA player Mike Miller. The Mercedes, Bentley and Ferarri, have all been repossessed. The American Express Black card? Was not in his name. Saxon has always had his fingers sticky from digging into the crust of many pies. He claimed to have negotiated the sale for O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It," he was also a business partner of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis. His Las Vegas field trips on private jets with beautiful companions were a far cry from the scene at his Pacific Palisades home where he lived with his wife and children. He did author one book currently available on Amazon entitled, “The Art of the Shmooze.” You can tell me how it reads.
Saxon’s stories of his success could rival even tales spun by the young Barry Minkow. He long claimed to have an Egyptian capitol partner who infused a $550 million investment from Borak Holdings. Borak did invest a few millions dollars for two of Saxon's films, which it has been purported that he then used the bulk of to buy the house in the Palisades. Borak also invested a million dollars for a film that was never made, but Saxon took all of the loan proceeds anyway. In that failed production, he’s also being sued for bilking $750,000 from a Memphis based non-profit, The Palmer House, who believed he was going to shoot a film about their orphanage. No, don't go back - you read that right. He stole from orphans. The Palmer House believes Saxon used their money to meet his own investment obligations to the Minkow film.
In fact, it's difficult to find a film Saxon has had his fingerprints on that isn't mired in a litany of lawsuits, conspiracy and unpaid bills. His first outing using IMG, "The Grand" with Woody Harrelson, Wener Herzog, David Cross, Jason Alexander and Dennis Farina, is in the middle of two lawsuits. How does this all relate to "Minkow?" Most of the defendants claim that Saxon had backed personal loans and other debt based on the information that his "Minkow" film was ready to be sold and that his proceeds would be what he used to pay back his debt. He claimed an offer of $2.5 million from Sony Pictures to distribute the film. That never happened, Sony had never even seen it. In fact, the relationship between Bret Saxon and Barry Minkow was strained from the start of pre-production. Minkow suspected that Saxon was misappropriating the funds. Saxon in return expressed concern to a business partner (who's now suing him) that somehow Barry Minkow had access to his personal and business account information. There's a scene in the movie that shows how Barry might have been able to do that, but it hadn't been shot yet and Saxon might have skipped over it in the script, because he hired a private investigator to find out how Minkow had obtained certain investocreditor banking information.
Therefore even though it was Bret Saxon who green lit the movie and put together the crew through IMG, before start of production Minkow insisted on handling all of the finances for the picture. He had that right since he had raised almost all of the money before production began (Saxon was willing to do all the fundraising if Barry had an actual actor play his older self in the movie). At the time, no one really knew how Barry had raised all of the capitol, but they did know that Barry had to continue raising money during production as the budget kept going over. People were then paid from different corporate entities, or in cash, or thru Paypal. Checks bounced, union rules were ignored and the budget ballooned over one hundred percent from its original estimate on paper. Barry had a habit of pulling out a large wad of money from his pocket and handing twenties or hundreds to someone having a problem. In one instance, he walked the set with a stack of mini-bonuses. On that day he stopped at the transportation department and delivered a $100 bonus check, apologizing for the "mess" that production was becoming. After being deposited, the check was returned by the bank.
So was Minkow telling the truth when he whispered the secret to funding his movie into James Caan’s apathetic ear? It was only a few months before he invested and became the executive producer and star of his life story that he went online posting YouTube videos against Lennar Corporation, the home building giant that accused him of extortion as well as claiming false information, which then drove down the company’s stock. Minkow claims he didn't make any money off of the $20,000 he bet against Lennar, even after the company’s worth dropped $550 million… but is that because the movie hasn't made back any money yet?
It was during this time that an aggressive and thoroughly accusation based set of articles was written about Minkow by Beth Barett in LA Weekly. I remember following along with every new Sunday published feature. She opined that on top of the insider trading offense, Barry had scammed over a million dollars from his parishioners. At the time, Barett was going off mostly suspicion and she was almost vitriolic in her attack, slamming the man I’d spent the last several months working with. It read like a TMZ article about Mel Gibson. I also never doubted her claims for a second.
The ruling in Miami in the Lennar case, is that Minkow lied, concealed material witnesses and destroyed evidence. In the plea he will only admit to insider trading. If you cross reference a 1988 CBS interview, Minkow lays slapdash on his bed in a white tank top, bobbing and weaving his head as he stares reporter Ross Becker directly in the eyes and swears up and down to his complete and total innocence. It's not very convincing, even though it seems Barry himself is utterly convinced. This time, however, the shadow of doubt reaches much too far and it's as thick as an Amish quilt. He can't escape the public's opinion and it's that court which finds the story of his failure more fascinating then the tale of his redemption. Knowing this, he may have struck the Lennar deal because he felt it was his best option. His lawyer Alvin Entin, stated, "Barry is looking forward to getting this behind him and on with the rest of his life."
The question about how much he made against Lennar Corporation and what he did with it is now a moot point. With Minkow back in prison after accepting his plea, his film and redemption tale are nothing short of obsolete. But in true Hollywood fashion, it might just need a sequel. For the more interesting story in the life of Barry Minkow, could be about the time he spent millions of dollars and hired hundreds of people in order to make a redemption tale, starring himself as himself, in a film that thru acquiring its funds ultimately led to his ruin. A second story of shame; the defrocked minister once again putting on the orange jumpsuit, this time not in front of a film camera, but behind iron bars. When the man who shot himself in both feet trying to prove he could run gets out of prison this time, will he be ready to be born again, again?
Unfortunately for Minkow, we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to find out. He was sentenced to five years in the Lennar case and ordered restitution for… wait for it, half a billion dollars. Subsquently, other charges were brought against him, charges that fell very much in line with Beth Barett’s accusations in LA Weekly. In May of 2014, Minkow was convicted yet again. He’s serving five more years (conjoined to the five he already finished for the Lennar case) for crimes including bank fraud, forgery, mail fraud, wire fraud and other tax related scams that took place over a ten year period in which he stole over one and a half million dollars from his church parishioners. These included an elderly grandmother who was conned $300,000 in loans for the movie and in another instance, a family who Barry counseled during their wife/mother’s cancer, who was asked by him to make a donation in her name after her death in the amount of $75,000 to help refugees in Darfur. The family received a fake email thank-you-note from a fake person (later proven to be Minkow) who confirmed their receipt and called it a gift that produced “applause from heaven.”
Roger Parloff, in his Fortune article calls Barry’s second sentencing “an epilogue.” Call me a dramatist, but I don’t think it’s the end of the story for Barry Minkow. As an Evangelist, Minkow believes he is saved by the grace of God (in his first five year stint, he even obtained a doctorate degree in conflict resolution from a correspondence divinity school). The fallible part of religion is always the fault of man. According to the Bible men were built to fail, so to Barry this moment can be easily explained. He swears he is no charlatan, he merely needed to be humbled yet again and he’s now ready to pick himself back up and start over. When the dust settles this time, he’ll have had ten more Superbowls to figure out what’s next (numbering the NFL championships inside are how he counted his time during the first go-round). If you ask me, it shouldn't be very surprising if when he's released from prison, he finds a new ending to his story. I know better than anyone, when it comes to Barry Minkow you can't ever get away with writing the words, FADE OUT.