I tell these guys you got to keep it short and sweet and good morning good evening how about the next. Happy holidays. Is kind of new we want to say Happy Hanukkah to a few people who said no no no no no no no no merry Christmas no happy Hanukkah as happy holidays. You know you're going to miss you're going to mess with Tony you're going to miss. It she couldn't throw in the wrong way it's going to come back. It's delicate dealing with the tenants surprisingly delicate. People in the building gossip about him and then he goes on secret thoughts about them to. Have been happy but today on our program we have stories of the super disease everybody come and go he knows way more about the tennis and they know about him here is a security camera for gods they don't call 24 hours a day but a figure of authority kind of an in-house servant. Be easy Chicago is This American Life. Our show today in 3 Acts 3 to very dramatic acts actually starting let's just get right to it starting with this one jacket because that is like a an epic novel with pot twists and unforeseen danger and bizarre coincidences and unlikely heroes and even more unlikely bad guys here's Jack. During New York City's great crime wave of the 1980 s. Getting an apartment was simple all you had to do was commit a crime we had heard from a friend of a friend that if we went down and gave key money and that is to say $1.00 month's rent sic going feet to this superintendent that is to say Bob that we would be able to get an apartment this is my friend cabin he and I got our apartments in the same building on 99th Street and their early eighty's by bribing the same superintendent a guy named Bob These were old beat up flats with screaming radiators and floors and exposed pipes a city engineer once inspected the building and declared that it was 6 stories of dust held up by a 100 years of paint. These were our 1st New York apartments we were there to start our lives the York was all romance and everything was outsized in our ages the buildings in the town our invasion the night life and as we quickly discovered our Super Bob all sorts of things about him were truly spectacular by for example the way he repaired our apartment Here's Chris another tenant in the building after we got burglarized. Bob put in. Safety gates for the fire escape. Which he welded so that nobody could get in but you couldn't get out in a fiery that there was no way to them if. He told us that they were in for installing its lighting revolving doors. If it needed it which we had he never explained what those were but I do remember a life like thinking to myself How can you say there's lighting revolving doors but he said it was such a totally straight face Bob the work habits were a thing of wonder. I remember one time Bob showed up with his assistant and generally talented guy named Smitty my sink was backed up and Bob started pouring this heavy black liquid from a gallon jug into the standing water Smitty started backing up and with experience as my guide I started backing up to one cup somebody yelled just one cup shot up Bob explained and he emptied the entire jug into the water there were nasty rumblings hot chemical reactions were happening somewhere in the walls I was very scared and suddenly the doors below the sink work at my cleaning stuff that blew open with an explosion and this unspeakable oily sludge poured out across the kitchen floor. Bob was so much more than just a bad handyman very early on I began to perceive Bob's talents as a fabulist you know and you know it's really painful to go down and pay the rent every month you had to give it to him which meant you had to stand there and listen to you know 101520 minutes of completely insane stories. Big running theme was important in the world in general and particularly in Brazil I definitely remember his cattle ranch stories this is a man another tenant during those early days and now married to Chris he had 7 cattle ranges for cattle ranchers he only Brazil and the 7 vineyards he had in Italy or it might have been 7 cattle ranches in Brazil and 4 vineyards in Italy if if you actually took him if after he left the room and you thought about what he said you think his he living here because he was like you know like basically a king. Of the village people would just welcome him he claimed that there was a cause in the constitution of Brazil that gave him immunity from any any prosecution whatsoever. And then fact he could he could as he put it go and kill the president of the Brazilian stage and he would still be immune from prosecution . Of course Bob. Had an explanation for how he went from being a South American cattle baron to a New York City super and had 2 heart attacks and his doctor had had had this isn't actually an actual story this doctor had prescribed that he gained a lot of weight and and moved to America so probably the 1st time in medical history that that enormous weight gain was prescribed for a heart condition. In his own way Bob united the building all of us the elderly black businessman the Puerto Rican grandmother the handsome Bombay immigrant me the Southerner negs we all had our favorite Bob stories we all did our own impersonates ins of Bob it was impossible not to try to out Bob whoever it was talking with an even more outlandish Bob story of your own we collected and traded Bob stories comparing versions analyzing his technique he was remarkably unfazed by any show of skepticism. He stopped right there was the story of power how he had once hung a bag of acid from the roof of the building to chase away the various homeless men who were in the streets often come and congregate by the by the edge of the corner of this building. Hung a bag of acid from the top that would drip down settling on him and I have no idea how you hang a bag of ass now you get the acid in the bag and put that up there that's a no no small feat in itself but of course the best part is Bob was telling us the story at the very same time that you could lean out of the office where he's talking and see the 3 or 4 homeless guys. Sitting on the corner right there apparently completely unscored or bothered by dripping acid. The other story that I've always really captured just sort of like all of Bob's essence for me was when. Every kid in this building has these funny circular fluorescent bulbs very specialized you know light bulbs they're also in the hallways out in the on the 1st floor and mine after 10 years of noble service from the burnt out and I looked at it and I. Where do you buy one of those so I trotted on down to Bob's office one morning and I said Bob You know the light bulb in my kitchen is burned out and I'm just wondering Do do I buy that and replace it if so where do you buy them or do you all just replace that for me and of course he went into the total Bob chair he's like yes that's right you let me take something Mr Don't try to steal one of the late bulbs in the hallway I know what you're thinking but I've tried them and if you climb up there and you try to take the light bulb it will blow up and shoot the glass in your eyes and you will be blind for all time. That everything so I take that to mean that I have to buy the boat myself. The very opposite of Bob was Alan the landlord. Was larger than life smack in the middle of the average percentile had a family he lived in White Plains and met his wife. Doing business with Alan was a completely routine experience if it was a toilet to be fixed he'd make sure the crew got there on time and got it done even in our biggest blowout he was always reasonable or civil even though one time things got a little testy when Alan started neglecting the old Puerto Rican folks in the building. I become friendly with one grandmother who showed me her tub full of green stagnant bathwater Alan and I had some tense words and I and some others even held meetings to start a rant strike but in the end Allen gracefully withdrew and we all went back to normal business back to Bob the inscrutable endless mystery that was Bob. Fast forward in 1909 I'd been in my apartment 8 years I had a steady job and I was walking to work one morning somewhere along the way I saw the Daily News blaring the latest tabloid crime story headline Terror landlord. I looked closer and realized it was Allen My Allen the landlord but I Sky his kids I knew the story was incredible he'd been arrested for murder for hiring hitman to kill his brother in law Arthur Katz in 1980 and as story got out it quickly became clear that Bob was the one who would rather than going out. Allen was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison where he remains today. More time passed I got a new apartment in the West Village then I got married had children and later moved to another state where Alan and Bob became memories proof that I lived in New York back when crack was king and the murder rate stopped 2000 a year. In the late nineties almost a decade after I'd last seen Bob or Alan I was working on an investigative piece about money laundering and a source at the Treasure Department that suggested I call this really smart prosecutor in New York named John Moscow so I rang him up and started just reacting the way you do I asked him if he'd handled financial crime a lot and he was quick to say that he had worked homicide in New York back in the eighty's during the crime wave when crack was king and the murder rate stopped 2000 a year yeah I said I live there too I told him I was actually involved in one of those tabloid stories mine involving a landlord hired contract killers to murder brother in law and then gets ratted out by the super There was a peculiar pause on the phone then Moscow said Alan Stern West 99th Street I'm the guy who put him behind bars. Right away of course we started talking about Bob I told him the light bulb story Moscow had a good laugh and then I went on in the way residents of 99th Street can do finally get to the want to but Bob claiming that he had a special exemption from the Brazilian Constitution and could murder anyone in Brazil. Again there was that odd Moscow pause and then he said here the thing is that was kind of true I asked him. When you were in the military what were you where you assigned as the military police here's John Moscow describing Bob's testimony on the witness stand and what was your job my job was to locate interrogating execute politically unreliable persons get out of fear. Death Squad in Brazil and. He was asked. Do you kill any people a death squad but he had been a key figure in the murder of Alan's brother in law. Was crucial in securing the talents of the 2 hit men named Sammy feet and Crazy Joe. And according to the court documents Bob was in the boiler room with some of his crew when news of the hit came down they celebrated. With Martini and Rossi and things really got going when a portable radio just happened to belt out that Queen song you know the 1. 01. 01 that. The hit was just one of numerous crimes brilliant crimes really that Bob and Allen pulled off from that little office it turns out that when it comes to crime Bob was incredibly competent he and Allen set up dummy construction companies they defrauded the state with counterfeit charges to force out one tenant they rewired the electrical outlets to high voltage lines to fry all the apartment appliances My favorite was their natural gas again they put the fake cones out on the street and actually jack hammered through the asphalt to a working gas line they bypassed the meters and in time eliminated more than $800000.00 of Alan's gas bills. On top of all this help the prosecution scenario and Bob tapped Alan's phones Bob wore a wire and in court transcripts Alan calmly weighs the relative merits of buying off some people versus having them killed and this is what really comes across when you talk to Moscow just how wrong all of this war at sizing up Bob Allen when we had 2200 homicides in New York as opposed to fewer than 500 which is what we're on for this year. You had a lot of people talking about killing people. There was a certain. Rationality and cold bloodedness about this murder that was just plain different. And I just testified under oath at trial. I watched him when he was being cross-examined. And. Ever forget. Defense counsel asked him to do torture men or women. And he said My specialty was man. And the way he said it. My blood felt bad 10 degrees colder there was just absolute. The court room. Everyone was persuaded that He meant. So headed by former Brazilian death squad officer rat out Allen. I think called tips to report the murder. Right I mean like the 1800 number where the local crime reporting that 7 tips are everywhere so he calls that and then he goes and may makes an appointment to meet with the major case squad what drove him to turn Allen in Allen and his family had discussed selling the building moving to Florida. And in the course of that. Had discussed having the president and the vice president of the tenants of station murdered. And. Figured that Allen was going to have these 2 guys were Act and blamed pup but what year was this this was 1988 I only only bring that up because. There was a there was a one point there was a strike that was going to be put together in my building and I was the tenant leader of that I mean was that the rent problem that Alan was upset about who has another in straight. So so Alan might have actually tried to get me one act. Ultimately Bob went into the police station and admitted his own role in a murder. And thought he was going to prison because his perception at the time was that Alan would cause these murders to take place. And so he protected himself by ratting out at 1st. So Bob turning state's evidence basically saved my life or the life of the tenant organizers that was Bob's story. I found. I recently on the phone and we had a nice chat he remembers me as the tall blond guy on the 1st floor he wanted to talk to me for the story but his lawyer told him not today or ever and then Bob suggested that I not bother to call back I wanted to ask him about the cattle ranches and being written into the Constitution and give those stories a fresh listen knowing what I know now and of course I wanted to know whether I was the one who was going to get whacked I wasn't the only Tenet organizer in the building at the time but I'll never get that answer now all I have is another Bob story full of details I can't confirm. But so delicious that I can't wait to go back to my old pals and tell it to them. So this is one of the lawyers talking to Bob during the trial when you began your testimony under arrest yesterday you told us about your military experience in Brazil I would like to christen and live in Queens now that I read to them the court transcripts that John Moscow told me about more than one was more than 10 more than 10 correct it's gone did you torture both men and women my specialty was men. Paul. I think a little further though why this is the testimony that you know this is an I mean it's under oath. Yet now you've taken it to a whole new level of. War . Maybe you know what it does make you go sort of go back and rethink like the whole. The pattern of exchanges you had with him. I never come in like I never said to myself There's some reality to who this guy says he is. I mean I used to get furious with him. But like to think oh I was talking to like the murdering torturer was definitely toying with us yeah now it's a different level of toys. Instead of just being some ass it's like he's a professional and. I feel like I'm sitting here Mays now that we work with sports or not we're always like a logically tortured but I mean we could have been a very horrible story you know what our current the super is looking much better but. It doesn't surprise me in a way again there's Kevin you know I mean it's a you know talking about the banality of evil you know he strikes me as one of these you know one of these I can take characters who would in certain contexts. Do completely. Awful disgusting things and then for move from them in some more peaceful pain also rounding would settle back and just be a windy and windy superintendent of of a building here and. It was kind of interesting that like after this was all over after he had testified and Alan was put away of course Alan daughters I believe then on the buildings so of course Bob lost his his free apartment and his his Super his position and it was almost like he kind of deflated. Like you know nobody had to talk to him any more so he would walk around it was almost pathetic he'd walk up you know or down the block and say hi and people would you know just kind of go by you know nod to him and go by and and then after a short time after this he just wasn't around anymore he was done. And I've no idea where he went to. Where is he anyway you find and he's an elevator inspector in New York City. Hall in trouble and. Found Allen also at his website Alan Stern dot net he's been appealing his conviction for over 15 years he makes the case that he's innocent his argument is that the entire story of Sammy phaeton Crazy Joe and the explanation of the brother in law's murder and all the rest of it is hearsay or grandiose fiction in other words Alan is saying he can top us all that he's the victim of the most outlandish story ever told. Jack he now lives in New Haven in a house where he has his own super He's also the co-host of the Peabody award winning podcast uncivil if you haven't heard it seriously give it a try He's currently developing a new podcast it's been many years since we 1st reported this story 2014 Alan Stern was released from prison as far as we can tell is no longer an elevator inspector for the city of New York John Moscow is now practicing criminal law in Manhattan. Coming up super gets. That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues support comes from the Vincent Heart Institute with more than 30 cardiology and cardiovascular surgery clinics throughout the state and more than 50 specialists to diagnose and treat heart disease Vincit Heart Institute celebrates heart month with its new heart health profiler users can learn their heart age risk for cardiovascular disease and receive a report to share with their doctor learn more about the St Vincent Heart Institute at ca. Vincit dot com slash more heart. This is Jonathan Luna with the loonies wine and liquor sponsor of k u a r block here Berman and Burgundy is just around the corner preserve your tickets at events. This year one of bourbon tasting courtesy of the loonies features each from the pantry and music from the right to block collective. Radio lovers at Block pier Berman and burgundy on Saturday January 11th Get your tickets today at the Vince. Program which is the theme bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme today show the super We arrived at Act 2 of our show back to Super Duper we now move from a story about an East Coast super to a story about a West Coast super. Burka. Josh lives in a Spanish court your building in Los Angeles a city which even apartment buildings act like they're on t.v. Is a little bit like no rows place a lot of kind of communal activity and sort of presiding above it is the super is not really a super like you would have in maybe a larger building or a large or city it's he's alleges that it is a way. I guess I like a dense urban city is what I'm going to say. But he doesn't have like a tool belt and show up and fix things but Hill sort of call the guy who does that and he takes the rent and. He is kind of a solitary guy or for the most part he sees sort of place to spend a lot of time reading and stuff so he just hangs out of there in the building Josh and the rest of the tenants in the building like their super who work all day have hung out with him and at the time of the story Dave was going through chemotherapy for leukemia and occasionally he called different residents to ask for help with things and one Christmas he contacted Josh he calls and he says you know this really weird thing happened and I came over to his apartment he had and. This orchid that was sitting on the table next to him and he said well I had this I had this visitor and. It was a very strange visit and he started to tell me that. A couple months ago in between in between chemotherapy treatments and so he was out somewhere and he was in his land cruiser I think and he was at this gas station and he sees this woman posing in a big black escalator and she's on the opposite side of the pumps as him she was an older woman but he said very elegant and attractive in the elegant older woman way and she had fancy clothes and like furs and I think she he mentioned that she had asked drills. And so. She was in his black escalates to be you know classy or something or well off and so they're standing there at the pumps and they start chatting she initiates conversation of them and they're getting on very well and then told me that she said something about him being bald which was from the chemotherapy and she said are you bald from the chemotherapy or are you just bald because you think it's sexy something like that and. He he was not offended by that he thought it was it was kind of like this romantic rep are 10 or something and and then she gives them a card and the card was sort of like an old style card to visit that just had her name it wasn't a business card that had a company or information on it it was just sort of like a calling card that you used to you know leave at the door of you know count bronze keys the State star buy something and so he remembered thinking that that was kind of a classy touch. With a very mysterious and so then he gave her his information and they parted ways until Christmas commenced after their 1st meeting at the gas station when the mysterious lady called out of the blue she'd asked how Dave was and he told her about his recent health problems and infection from the chemotherapy had turned serious and it's been a couple of weeks in hospital and in your comma that's terrible the latest that is there anything I can do can I come by and visit they said yes and so she arrived that morning dressed in the same elegant manner as at the gas station bearing the orchid which Dave now had in a stable and they sat and chatted somehow the topic of fate came up and that was the point when she said I know this is kind of a weird time but you know I actually have something I want to share with you and you know he says what's that and she says that she was abroad with this. Group of investors who had developed this really interesting investment opportunity and you know she said I know that this is a weird time but I have this is very exciting so I feel like I should just let you in on this investment opportunity right now. And he was you know as a little surprised you know but he said Ok All right so you know what. And and she said Well I've gotten involved with this very canny group of investors and it seems that they have located this snow man that can bench press 400 pounds. Yeah. So. I said so then I am asking. Well what do you mean like a kind of us know. That certain exactly what the proper follow up question. And so that's what it felt like the abominable snowman is a no no no she said it's a normal snowman I call it the carrot nose. At. Everything it's just this no man can bench press 400 pounds. And so then i'm But so I'm saying Well Ok but what. Was the invest. The running ahead I mean I don't. Know see what happened is the investors got all worked out there they were going to put together a riot a show. With the snowman as the lead actor and then they're going to take the snowman show on tour and so the investment opportunity is like the geographic territorial rights to the show host so like it when the show goes to different states you know you get to reap the rewards you know if you've bought into the to the rights to the show so like so the woman said that she had already she got in on the ground floor you know with this thing and so she got California and like Nevada like the West so he said that the United States was all snapped so but now Indonesia is wide open. For the ride during the weight lifting stuff and yeah so the price for Indonesia's territorial rights to the to the show to the snowman show were not cheap it was like $30000.00 or something Ok so what I don't understand that was like if you actually discovered a snowman that had somehow become animated. It seems like the last sort of thing that you would do is then like just for writing. I know well right I was what I was asking my civil list away hold on and saying Isn't there going to be there will be a lot more Porton things happening then I publish the for variety show. The whole world is going to change like science will have to readjust everything it's known you know like the various theologians of the role going to deal with like the new stuff like animated snowman world right I don't have to really sort of a lot of things out just even a basic question of like what. Did the snowman roll himself up in the balls and find a carrot nose like. How did the investors finest known and that's the other thing that I was curious though is whether journal in the woods and they just. Lifting logs in a high 5 each other and said. You know like they're in a like in a caravan of black Suburbans with their cigars like we did it the weird thing was even though Dave found the story of the things them and just as preposterous as Josh did he seem somehow persuaded by this mysterious woman he said it was hard to explain but he felt like he'd known or his entire life and he looked at life differently now anyway you know he said something about how after you know when you get cancer or something like that a serious illness you just start to revaluate things you know you might have seemed risky before hand isn't now and so he said you know I kind of just felt like. You know maybe there was a reason to take a risk like maybe there's a reason I'm at the moment the Shell station and maybe this is kind of a risk to take. And then that's basically when he said So you know I wrote a check for $30000.00 mike. What do you think. I was alarmed and I was worried that it was a con and you know obviously. You don't but I kind of actually was a little bit convinced by his whole theory you know like maybe maybe it's not so bad you know thinking and then sort of his money and right you know if that's how he's going to you know sort of embrace the life after cancer and you know I just read so I kind of felt like I had to accept that over the next year Josh told the weightlifting snowman story to everybody he could he loved it as audiences seem to love it too at one point he decided with their consent to write it up for a magazine humor section the final step in publishing it was to have it fact checked and so the magazine called Dave he called me and said so the magazines fact checkers called and I told them what I what I'm about to tell you which is that I actually made the whole story up. And. There's no lady with Picard card to visit or drills or for the snowman did you ask him why he just thought that it would be a story that would amuse me and he was absolutely correct and I guess he had no idea how successfully the story was going to appeal to me and so I mean I kind of bought it you know I mean I the idea of like you lived to be you know in your middle ages and you kind of never took any risks and then things get tolay the perspective refocuses. In such a way that weight lifting snowman me it makes as much sense as anything else I can like it you kind of like that that he created a world in which it made sense to spend 30000 dollars in a wedding and yeah yeah yeah. In a weird sense you were the kind yeah there was I mean there was it was like a double reverse reveal like at the end of some movie where like I would have been writing some check for like a $1000000.00 at the end. Because somehow I got sucked into the whole thing. You wanted it so bad I think part of what I love about it and maybe you do too as just sort of the image that like there of the snowman like this like stick armed curtain is no man actually just likes lying on a. Bench in the middle of the Siberian Wood Well also bench pressing in particular is like you requires a bench so I still don't understand like you know if they let's say they found a snowman in the woods then did he have his own bench was made out of snow I just. You know he wasn't doing squats. Bloomberg talking with Josh Bearman these days outfront podcasting company gimlet media the home of reply all and heavyweight in the nod and many other shows Josh has been a regular contributor to our show and these days he's producer of the new Apple t.v. Series Little America which comes out next month can Hunter it was the Super who made up that story about the Snowman and who had a real talent for telling outrageous and ridiculous stories there's no easy way to say this He died a few years ago. 3 release me that's release me. We change the names of the people in the story to protect the tenants involved sometimes somebody tells you your future and you do not want to believe it you can't believe it was 21 he became the super of this apartment building that is dead and he had big 100 unit voting in what was once a rough neighborhood and is that gave him this warning father son super super about the tenants they will make a good person bad like you know maybe you go into like the land learning business and you're you have good intentions and you're a good person but people you know the lies they tell you the tricks they fire on you the damage they do to your property and you will eventually lose that innocence and become a meaner person. Wow You know I. Hope it never happens to me. To be a different kind of super than his dad anyway his dad been a plumber. Happier than fixing the plumbing in the washing machine in the building . Old world ways of doing things for somebody causing trouble selling drugs or make it count on doors and get in their face if they had to go neighborhood was slowly improving but he 1st bought the boarding people didn't care what the least said or didn't say he had to deal with a lot of things man the man. Was just out of college his dad scrimping sacrificed to put him through Catholic schools all the way from elementary up there was an undergraduate degree. Parents split up his mom always been a devout Catholic community day. And all that stuff the Jesuits taught Dennis in school but being a good person he took it to heart you know one of the things like going to like the Jesuit university is like you know they want you to be a man and woman for others. You know not that everything I did I tried to you know live up to that high standard because I know I could but you know there was stuff in the back. Which brings us to our story that 1st Super job went great people like . Christmas cards and families in the building but there was this one couple they live in the building from us 20 years back when his dad 1st bought the place. There are long term tenants they are good tenants they're nice people you know in the beginning that was it wasn't too much bad you could say about him and you dad like yeah my dad lied to me he lived below them actually so he liked them literally lived right below my freshman year high school I lived with my father at that so I live alone too for a year and so I saw them and they knew who I was you know I mean even before that for high school you know we were little kids would be run around play in the courtyard hang from the trees but yeah I mean you know they were they were regular fixture. But everything that this couple changed when their daughter time the woman quite a job to go to school they threw all their savings into that. But she had trouble with the classes could make the grade and they just kept going downhill from there she started drinking they got behind their man. You know she dropped off a check to me and you know you know a day later 2 days later she'd call me and say did you deposit a check and I was like No we have deposit all could you tear up that check and let me give you another check you know like forget about that check and so then you know a turn of that check and see breakdown not going to check. And. You know I think they got to like maybe like $4000.00 in the whole a while so they were they were behind like $4000.00 in like like 6 months 6 months yeah behalf Wow. You know I was like I was like you know dad we got a ticket you know I got to get rid of them and you know my dad was very reluctant to do it and he was like work with work out working with him you know now why he knew that her husband had a good job and he knew that you know that they had money coming in and you know that you could get money out of them basically I didn't realize that as it becomes a test of you the problem wasn't them because they got the money the problem is you yeah yeah so it's like you know how good. Are you. That Dennis wanted to do right by his dad when he came to this couple Yasir membered is just teachers you know I thought to myself I'm like you know it wasn't my job you know it's easy people through this or get them through but I know that if I was in that situation if I was down on my luck that I would want somebody to cut me that break or come a that slack so he sat down and he created a payment plan for them every $100.00 every paycheck. It was incredibly hard to make them stick to it they had excuses they couldn't do it so he sat them down again and they made an agreement and this time they put it in writing and then after a month upon month of struggle it took over a year they finally paid it all back you know then things were Ok for a while but. Slowly but surely. Started falling back into their own ways and basically what I think it was was all. Like the alcohol basically. I remember vividly like that she would come down to the laundry room the one who was just outside the office and she would go to the vending machine and buy a can of part after capital after can't now as thought it was so weird i was like why is she buying like 8 cans of Sprite or coke when we are right next door to Walgreens and she can just go buy a 12 pack and I think what it was was she was you know just you know can coax to make drinks with other nerve I just remember that being so weird. Again it's watched I'm worried I'm worried about. Anybody new dentist that time will tell you it was all I talked about. With his friends in this is what would be on his mind what should he do was he being a sucker what was going on with this couple is the kind of worrying that you might expect from a family member something of course he was just the super The property manager. I think that worse one point other tenant found the wife passed out in the hallway of the building. She was dead covered in vomit ran to her side and I was like you know oh my God you know what's wrong or what have you know and you know she says she can't talk to me can't put a sense together see just learn our words and so I was like you know what do you know I'm like to take you to the hospital or call aerials you know like what I do and you know Anyway she was Neagle and so like she was too drunk to basically open our door so I got her into bed and you know she's in bed and she's laying on her back and like you know like I've heard stories like this is how Jimi Hendrix died or something like that you know and I'm like see you know what if she pukes again it's going to choke our pew you know finally get a hold of her husband he's like her I'll take care of take care of it but you know he's at work and who knows when he's going to get home to take care and like you know Dolly off of trying to work and so like I want to govern sector a couple times and she's leaving you know she's breathing and I go back down and I can't get any work done has us like you know like cattle if this lady dies you know like you know they're going to forgive myself you know I just remember being like a really terrifying experience. It's so weird because part of it is like have this business relationship with these people because they're in their in their building like you they're in in their house like you own their house here you know. Person I. Definitely can't avoid it so it's. You know you've live side by side with them you know. Becomes more of a neighbor to neighbor relationship. They were sleeping on the ranch they plead with them and it was always something they'd pay other bills Christmas or Thanksgiving coming up after extensions and he was so inside their lives that at one point he said Sure they could pay a little later if he could see their tax forms to see what it is that they actually are on. And they showed him $50000.00 a year which totally got under his skin I was like you know what why can't they pay me and I started basically putting pen to paper and wrote in some numbers and I say the lady I'm like look come down to the office bring your bills. Do a budget and I'll show you that you can afford to be here. After we literally. Picked every little nit picky thing there could be money that they could expand you know spend money like kitty litter. You know laundry transportation to and from work for her husband we had like $3000.00 left over and I was like look you can afford this apartment instead of that help did they end up paying the rent on time for the few months after that. It didn't help Wow that's quite a loss yeah they're. Getting really frustrated and I was losing my patience I was getting really really mad you know she started running out of excuses and she like well you know my husband borrowed money from people at work and you know he's got to pay them back and you know that made me really mad I was like I was like look you know what he has been taking advantage of me even play me like a fiddle and that's it I'm not taking a back seat anymore you guys get caught up you start paying on time I'm a kick out and so I was in July August sort of like look I don't care if it's Christmas I don't care if it's Thanksgiving I don't care I'm going to kick you out . It is going to be a really naive question. If you have 100 unit building like in reality how important is it that you get the rent on one unit. Well I guess in the grand scheme of things it's not going to make your break you. You know I mean that's the deal you know if you can't afford it then I told him Look if you can afford it move to a smaller apartment I'll give you a small. But I didn't want to move did not want to move. By the time that it was during a budget of this couple he'd been at it on and off for 6 years with them and his feelings were vacillate all over the place but his dad the very man who told him how running a building hardens you his dad never wavered in support of the couple my dad I would have battles like you know we should kick him out we should kick him out you know in my diary like no I want to kick him out you know be like look there is fair way ahead or a kick him out just get really evil you know and you know when we talk and he you know reminisce about the stories and you know one of the stories he tells me is. That you know he went to the wake for the child that passed away and he said to think of us like the sister of the lady's husband he's like you know he's there the baby crying all night on just crying and crying and crying. And. John and sisters like well you're not going to have to hear the baby crying anymore she turned around and walked away from. So she took a couple of Iran My dad didn't mean it like that kid was keeping me awake all night thank God you know I can sleep you know he's had kids of his own and so you know he might know what it's you know what it's like to. See your kid in pain. That for him was very I think just an emotional bond where it was like. You know these fevers dispenser too much so I could I can't kick him. In the end he decided to sit down one more time and a heart to heart talk with. Don he knew that they were good people that had a problem and you know help. He would wait for the money they owed if the woman would just get help go to rehab you know if you do this will retain your farm and you tell me what colors you want when you come back from rehab that was done for you like she wanted her kitchen painted like yellow or like that and so she went to rehab and I have like a letter from her from August. Ok I want to read I read right area. Well I mean curse read in writing you from. You have no idea how touched I was by or talk you're carrying generosity the group here is very nice as is the facility I'm imagining what our apartment will look like Upon my return I'm so excited I feel part of your family you are in my prayers which reminds me get your ass to church and make your My happy. I mean you got this letter to feel good yeah I felt really good I was like Oh that's great you know she's in there she's getting help but then you know I don't know why I was a day or 2 or 3 later I'm walking down the court yard and who do I see it coming towards me but her. And like this was supposed to be like a 2 week or a month long stay like you know I can't believe I was. And so there that was. That was you know the beginning of the end. Shortly after that is when to file the core papers furnish and. It was just it was devastating it was like. You have to stand in front of the judge looking at this person who you know you know I ran up and down the court yard and maybe they threw the ball to me when I was like 8 years old you know and now I'm sitting here for the judge telling. Your honor you know please remove these people forcibly from the building you know like that's what it comes down to I have to do what I have to do to win this case you know I was mad I wanted them out and if I could change you definitely definitely change me now you know I don't like to get personally involved at times like it's just too hard you know one time these 2 guys move into of our own power. And God has a great one you can't have a beer with us you know like you know I guess I'm sorry or maybe some other time but really but. I know it's islands of area go out for a beer with. I would just make an excuse or avoid at all costs because. You know. You can't be there for. What I try and there now is. I try to never have to have to kick somebody in the way I do by screening screening screening that's the thing I find interesting about this I never thought about that as like it has anything to do with your feelings it goes beyond like the business stuff that you checking out other credentials and all that sort of stuff you're saying is actually like it's too emotional Yeah it really is I mean for example I do remember like somebody coming you know applying for apartment and they're like look my credits all messed up you know I'm going through a divorce and you know I don't know if you know my wife messed up my credit you know and I was like I don't care you know maybe that's the truth maybe I guess I would have been a fine Tenet you know maybe he would have paid his rent on time but. I just can't take that chance anymore. As we teach them about that. I don't know maybe they would be disappointed or and do you care. If they're mad about it I would say well. The next person to run to that apartment father and to try to treat them justly unfairly unethically. We're going to be. His true following the ship. To blow the stake in the. Foot bone is produced today by Alex Blumberg myself I website This American Life dot org This Merican life is to the public radio stations by. The Public Radio Exchange support for This American Life comes from Indeed with it skills but for employers who want to see a deeper sense of the person behind the resume and more at Indeed dot com slash hire thanks as always for programs co-founder Mr. Who is this message for any of This American Life employee who's listening to the radio right now don't try to steal. I know what you're thinking that I've tracked down America back next week with more stories of This American Life. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Jack Speer of the House Judiciary Committee has released its report detailing the charges against President Trump head of a house floor impeachment vote N.P.R.'s Claudio wish Ellice reports the 658 page document outlines evidence uncovered in the probe the report delves into underlying evidence for the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress the panel said the report provides evidentiary and legal basis for charging the president with 2 articles of impeachment under high crimes and misdemeanors The report also notes that bribery occurs when the president solicit something of personal value through the power of the office taken together the panel said it found the president placed his personal and political interests above u.s. National security the report goes on to say the president should be impeached and removed from office the full House could vote on the articles on Wednesday clotted he said listen p.r. News Washington Michigan Representative Alyssa Slotkin says when the House votes on whether to impeach President Trump she will be voting in the infirmity of the freshman Democrat who represents a swing seat announcing her decision today via op ed in The Detroit Free Press in a town hall meeting in suburban Detroit Slotkin a former national security official says Trump used the power of the presidency for his own advantage when it comes to an article of impeachment on abuse of power for me it started with the fact that the president and then and in addition his lawyer said openly that they reached out to a foreigner and asked for an investigation of a political rivals Luckins district backdrop in 2016 but she was elected over Republican incumbent last year the trauma of a school shooting can have a long lasting impact on the mental health of the local youth That's according to a new study which finds the use of antidepressants by young people in affected communities went up in the 2 years following a fatal shooting there were 44 school shootings across the United States between John.