Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Evil Doctor Hires a Biker Gang To Murder His Wife - The James Kauffman story

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Jersey Shore doctor James Kauffman gets involved in a scheme with the Pagan Motorcycle Club to hire a hitman to murder his wife April Kauffman

So this guy, his name's James, and James is like the coolest old guy you've ever heard of. I mean, he's 63, he's a doctor, he's also an ex-green beret who fought in Vietnam and saved a bunch of people. So he's like a war hero? And if that isn't cool enough, he's also really into motorcycles. Yeah, he's one of those guys. But one day in 2011, it all changes, because he meets this guy, Ferdinand. And Ferdinand happens to be the head of a local chapter of the pagan motorcycle club, which is like a well-known outlaw motorcycle gang, and they're

supposedly bad news. But despite that, James and Ferdinand bond over their love of motorcycles and stuff, and at one point, one of them comes up with this crazy idea. They want to go into business together, and since James is a doctor, they decide they're going to set up a drug ring to sell painkillers, oxy cotton. Specifically, their plan is for Ferdinhand to send drug users to James's office pretending to be his patients and these fake patients will then pay James some money for the visit or their insurance will cover it then James will write them a large prescription for oxycontin and the fake patients will then go back to Ferdinand and give him his cut and so they do this little scheme and it works and it works really well and suddenly they're both making a ton of extra

money and no one suspects a thing because James is like this cool old guy and he's a respected physician and no one's going to assume he's doing this, except for one person. One person gets really suspicious of James, and that person is this nice woman, April. April's 47 and she's James's wife. Not only that, she's also a popular on-air host at the local radio station, and she's known to be very outspoken. I love being here to bring you the truth. As unvarnished, is pretty unbuttered on the biscuit it is. Now, we don't exactly know how. but at some point, April starts getting suspicious of some of the things James is up to. And she discovers that he is a big part of this motorcycle gang, Oxy Drug Ring.

And if that isn't bad enough, she also discovers that he's a big fucking liar. And that he's made up a bunch of stuff about his past. Like, he was never a green beret. He never fought in Vietnam. He never rescued a bunch of people. He lied about his service. And all his military tattoos and medals and his green beret stories, they were all made up to make him sound like a cool guy.

And so April finds all this out and she's devastated. Like, how could he lie to me about all those things? And she has had enough. And she's like, I'm done. I want out of this relationship. He is no longer foy. But James, he isn't ready to get divorced. And so they fight about it.

And I guess he isn't going to grant her the divorce, which is just going to make the whole process way more difficult than it needs to be. And April's like, if you don't grant me this divorce, I'm going to tell everyone that you lied about. being a Green Beret in Vietnam and that you're involved in a drug ring with the pagan motorcycle gang. But here's the thing. Her threatening to tell everyone is a big deal because she's a popular on-air radio host in that area. She's also very well known for having a lot of opinions and at any time she could jump on the mic and ruin James's whole reputation. And obviously James can't

have that. And he's like, if you tell anybody, I'll go nuclear on this family. But April's like, whatever, you're all talk. And while James acts all hardcore, deep down, he's super worried about her telling on him. And so he comes up with a plan to make sure she doesn't do that. He's gonna hire a hitman. And so he goes to Ferdinand and he's like, can you help me find someone to unalive my wife? And Ferdinand's like, I. And they end up hiring a hitman. And the hitman they hire is this guy, who we'll just call hitman. Now hitman is also a member of the pagan motorcycle club and he agrees to do this hit for $20,000. And so the plan is all set. And on the day, it's supposed to go down, James leaves his house for work like he normally does.

But this time, he makes sure to leave one of the doors unlocked. While April, she's still at home and she has no idea what's coming. Meanwhile, Hitman is on his way to the house, and he gets there and he gets out of his car, and he sneaks in through the unlocked door, and there he finds April, and blam, he shoots her, and blam, he shoots her again, and then he leaves. And later, a handyman shows up to the house to work. and he finds her body and he reports it to the police. And so police investigate and they don't find anything,

no fingerprints, no shell casings, no sign of forced entry, nothing stolen, so they got nothing to work with. Even James has a solid alibi. He was at work. And I guess police never really get any more leads after that because the case goes cold. Not only that, strangely, 18 months later, Hitman is messing around one day, doing a bunch of drugs,

and he accidentally overdoses. And so he's gone. Which sucks for him, but that's actually good news for James because that's one less person who can connect him back to April's murder. And so now it really looks like James pulled off the perfect hit and he's going to get away with everything. Until five years go by and the governor of New Jersey at this time, this turd, Chris Christie, Chris Christie appoints a new county prosecutor and this new county prosecutor step into his role and he's immediately like, damn, why does this county have so many unsolved murders? And so he wants to try and get those numbers down and he and his team pull some cold cases from the files that they think they can solve. One of those cases happens to be April's case. And so they dig into April's case and they start looking at James.

Because you know, when investigating these things, it's always a safe start to look into the husband or the boyfriend as a suspect. Because generally they're guilty. And so they investigate James. And right now they don't really have much to go on because remember, he had a solid alibi. But then they find out, separately from all this, separately from everything I've talked about so far, James is being investigated for some other kinds of medical fraud. I guess he was like selling compound cream medications for kickbacks and apparently a couple of other schemes. Regardless, it doesn't matter because it was illegal.

And this alleged medical fraud is enough for police to get a search warrant. And boom, the police and FBI show up to James' office. And James is there and he sees them coming outside and he goes and he does the last thing anyone would expect. He pulls out a pew-poo and he's like, stay back or I'm gonna unalive myself. And shit gets real for a minute. But eventually police do talk him down and bam, they arrest him. But not for being involved in April's murder because it hasn't been proven yet. They arrest him for a weapons violation.

And by the way, here's his mugshot. The husband of a murdered South Jersey radio host is under arrest and now facing charges following a standoff with police. Now, because of all this, police are able to get James's phone and they get into it and they see that he's connected to a guy named Ferdinhand and therefore the pagan motorcycle club. And so then James caves and he tries to save his ass by blaming everything on the pagan motorcycle gang. And so police, they go to the pagan motorcycle gang and they're like, this guy's trying to blame this murder on. you guys. And then some members of the pagan motorcycle gang come forward and they're like, no, James was giving us Oxycontin as part of a drug ring and then he came to us wanting his wife unalived. And so with this new information, kaboom, they charged James with first degree murder

and some other stuff. And also, bam, they go and arrest Ferdinhand for his involvement in all this. Here's his mugshot. Prosecutors now say Dr. James Kaufman arranged the murder of his wife and used a biker gang to carry it out. And so now James, he's in jail. and he's waiting on his trial, and unfortunately, or fortunately, while he's there, he unalives himself with a bed sheet, and he never faces trial. Ferdinand, on the other hand, he stays alive, and he gets convicted, and he's sentenced to life in prison. Jackson Hewitt has a great tax prep deal, $149 or less. Missing out is like ignoring the check engine light in your car. You regret it.

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