Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Dirty Cop Finally Gets Exposed - The Joe Gliniewicz story

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

This is the story of Joe Gliniewicz aka GI Joe, the police officer who was caught stealing money from the youth explorer program

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And GI Joe is a police officer. And one day he's patrolling around this abandoned factory when he spots three suspicious-looking people, two white guys and a black guy. And he goes to check them out, and he starts following them, and suddenly, bang, he gets shot in the chest. He's unalived.

So then a huge manhunt begins. and helicopters and the FBI and the US Marshal Service, over 400 law enforcement are all looking for these three mysterious guys who shot G.I. Joe. And this small town is devastated. I mean, G.I. Joe was really well loved. He had a good reputation in the community. But most importantly, he was the leader of this youth program, a program that encourages young adults to eventually go into law enforcement, the Explorer Post program. And he loved this program. I mean, it was everything,

to him and the youth, they all loved him too. Truly did care about his community. He was always involved with community events, village events, etc. So if the community loved him so much, who were these three random guys who suddenly decided to unalive GI Joe? All right, before we answer that, let's talk about Joe for a minute, because he's an interesting guy. Now, after he dies, they release his personal records.

And let's just say, there's a whole other story. side of him that the community didn't know about. For example, he's kind of a drunk. Like one day he gets so drunk that he passes out in his truck on the shoulder of the highway. And another officer finds him and G.I. Joe is so drunk that the officer can't even wake him up. So then a detective from his town has to take him home

and they have to have his truck towed. And the next morning, G.I. Joe, he can't remember any of this. So he calls and reports his truck as stolen. And the detective who dropped him off at home has to be like, you know, you were drunk, bro, so we had to tow your truck. So anyway, G.I. Joe is that kind of guy. And as the years go by, G.I. Joe's behavior, it only gets crazier. Like, he's showing up to work late, or he just doesn't even show up at all.

He gets suspended a number of times, and, like, eventually his boss has to demote him from commander down to sergeant, because I guess he got mad one day and threatened to shoot a dispatcher. Also, a woman who works under his command in the police department, she files a lawsuit against him for sexual misconduct. Then, a few years after that, someone submits an anonymous letter to the mayor of the town on behalf of some of the members of the police department. Basically, these unnamed police department employees, they all accuse GI Joe of all kinds of stuff. Sexual harassment, being constantly thrown out of places for being too drunk, taking his family on vacation in the police. squad car, pressuring his subordinates to hook up with him, groping women's boobs at the company Christmas party? This dude is a menace. But despite all that, G.I. Joe still doesn't get fired,

and he continues his life still working as a police officer, still working as the head of the Explorer Post program. Now, he's been an officer for several decades now. But then, at some point, G.I. Joe, he's put in all these years of work into the force. And he's put in all these years of hard work for the youths. And I guess he starts feeling entitled. And he feels he isn't getting a fair return. And to be honest, I don't really know what motivates him to do this next thing he's about to do. But one day, he starts stealing money from the Explorer Post program.

I guess there's like a bank account for the program and he treats that bank account like it's his own personal bank account and he just like spends money from it on random shit like he'll buy himself like Starbucks which is not that big of a deal but he also pays for his gym membership his travel expenses his mortgage his kids college he even pays for adult websites with this money what the hell kind of person uses funds from the youth program to subscribe to corn sites come on GI Joe. But anyway, he embezzles all this money from the youth program for almost seven years. And like his wife and his adult son are apparently all involved in this scam too, because they're getting some of the money. But no one outside this seems to notice that this crime is even going on.

Until. One day, this new administrator starts working for the town. Her name's Anne. And Anne, she's overseeing the budgets and the funds. And unlike G.I. Joe, she's really. good at her job and not corrupt. And she starts doing an audit of the Explorer program. And eventually, Ann starts asking G.I. Joe to provide accounting and inventory for this program. I mean, she wants to see where all that money is going. And of course, G.I. Joe f***ing panics. I mean, he doesn't know what to do. I mean, if she finds out he's been stealing from the youth program, his life, his reputation, and his career, they're all ruined. So he starts kicking around all kinds of ideas about how to fix this. I mean, he considers setting Anne up and arresting her for a

DUI. He considers planting drugs on her, like maybe that will get her fired. He even contacts a member of a local motorcycle gang, and he tries to get him to unalive her. But I guess that idea falls through. And then, finally, G.I. Joe comes up with what he feels is a solid plan. A plan to make sure all this goes away and that his reputation stays intact. A plan to make sure no one will find out about his embezzlement or any other crimes, and most importantly, a plan that will make sure that his family won't be accused of being involved in any of the crimes he's done. And then one morning, he puts this plan into motion. He wakes up and he heads out toward the Explorer Post, where he's supposed to be finishing an equipment inventory for Anne. But instead of stopping there,

he just keeps driving, and he drives all the way to this abandoned cement factory. Once he's there, he radios to dispatch, and he tells them he sees three suspicious men there, two white guys and a black guy, and that they're looking pretty shady. Here's the thing, though, G.I. Joe doesn't see anyone there. He's making it all up. And then he tells the dispatch that the suspects have run away toward the swamp, and that he's going to follow them, and that they need to send backup. And so dispatch listens and they send some officers out his way. Then, G.I. Joe, he takes his pew-pue, and he points it at his chest, and he fires.

But the bullet is stopped by his bulletproof vest. Then he tries again. This time, he makes sure to move his bulletproof vest out of the way. And bang, he succeeds. He unalives himself. And other officers have arrived on the scene. And they investigate, and of course, they think these three mysterious men, two white guys and a black guy, that they unalived him and got away. Because that's what G.I. Joe wanted them to think. He, like, staged the area to make it look like there was a struggle in everything.

But after a thorough two-month investigation, police finally figure out that there were no mysterious men. G.I. Joe made it all up. This extensive investigation has concluded with an overwhelming amount of evidence. that Glinovitz's death was a carefully staged suicide. So, I guess his plan didn't work, and now everyone knows that maybe he wasn't as good of a guy as everyone in the community once thought. And here's what he looked like in real life.