Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Furniture King Fakes His Own Death - The Jose Lantigua story

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

This is the story of Jose Lantigua and Daphne Simpson, and his faking his death by claiming he has mad cow disease.

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Now, how did he get so dead? We'll see, Jose's a millionaire. He owns a chain of discount furniture stores called Circle K Furniture, and he puts himself in all the commercials, so he's kind of a local celebrity. Stand with us at Circle K. Buy American. But then, one day, it all changes, because Jose meets this woman, Daphne. And Daphne thinks his own.

old ass is foin, so they fall in love and they get married and they seem happy. Here's the thing about Jose, though. Jose's a furniture salesman, so he's kind of a bull-hitter. He loves to tell stories about how he was in the military and how he's a super secret special ops officer and how he worked with the CIA on top secret missions. Yeah, sure you did, Jose. Regardless, Daphne loves him and she believes his stories, and everything seems to be going well for them.

Until. While Jose projects the image of being a millionaire and owning this successful furniture business, in reality, he's kind of broke. His stores haven't been profitable in a while. In fact, while he claims to be a rich man, he's actually more than $11 million in debt. And I guess, rather than admit to Daphne that he's not really a millionaire and that his businesses are failing, one day he comes up with a different kind of plan to get himself out of debt. He plans to die.

Well, not exactly die. He plans to fake his own death. So, he sits his wife Daphne down and he tells her he's dying. And he says he's dying from mad cow disease, which is a brain disease. Now, how did he get mad cow disease? Well, Jose tells Daphne that he got it while he was in the military on his super secret special ops missions where he got to work with the CIA. All right, I got to pick you up for this. So this freaking bullsh-sh-shoulders tells his wife and kids and everyone that he got mad. cow while on a special ops mission in the jungle and that part of his mission was that he had to interact with the locals in the area and that one of the things the locals did in that jungle was eat raw monkey brains so he says he ate raw monkey brains in the jungle and that this gave him mad cow disease it's just so fucking stupid the variant of mad cow that humans get is very rare and it'll kill you within like a year so of hope Jose really had it. He would have died within like 12 months of contracting it. Not 30 whatever years later after he left the military, got married, and started a chain of discount furniture stores. So anyway, he goes and tells Daphne he only has six months to a year to live. And of course, Daphne believes him and she is devastated. I mean, she can't lose her husband. I mean, they just got married not too long ago. But he tells her that there may be hope. Because his only chance of survival is that if he's leaves the US and goes to Columbia and gets some kind of experimental medical treatment. And of course, Daphne believes him. And they like go as far as to break this devastating news to their family and their friends. It's crazy. Now, in reality, he's not going to Columbia to get some experimental medical treatment. Jose's plan is to go to Columbia without Daphne,

and while he's there, he's going to pretend as if he died during surgery getting this experimental medical treatment. And there, he can get a fake death certificate and everything. And And then everyone back home will believe he's dead. And bam, he'll be out of debt. Now, unfortunately for him, all of that is not what happens. See, Jose knows a doctor in Columbia who is going to help him with this scam. But that doctor suddenly gets nervous and backs out at the last minute. So this terrible plan falls through.

And now Jose's like, ah, shh, now I've got to come up with a new plan to fake my death. And he does. He comes up with plan B. But in this plan, he's actually going to involve Daphne. So he goes to Daphne and he sits her down and he says, Hey, remember how I said I had mad cow disease? Uh, well, I don't. I had to make all that up to protect you and protect myself and protect our family from danger.

He tells her that back while he was in the military on his super secret special ops missions helping the CIA, that while he was there, he actually unalived a dangerous cartel leader on one of his missions in South America a long time ago. And that now the cartel is suddenly seeking revenge on him, which of course means now he and his family. are in danger. And he tells Daphne that he needs to fake his death in order to protect her and him and the rest of the family. And again, of course, Daphne believes him. She's actually like, what can I do to help? So now, together, they come up with a new plan to fake his death. So first,

he takes out seven life insurance policies on himself. Allegedly, they take out $9 million in life insurance policies on Jose, hoping to collect it after he dies. So they plan to not only try to erase all of his past debt by faking his death, but they're going to try to get rich in the process. So anyway, he takes all these life insurance policies out on himself. Then he flies to Venezuela, because I guess he has contacts there now, he flies there and he buys a fake debt certificate and a fake certificate of cremation. A few weeks later, Daphne meets him there, and she applies for a certificate of death abroad using the fake paperwork that Jose just got. Then she flies back to Florida. where they're from. And she tells everyone that Jose died while in Venezuela, on the operating table,

getting this experimental medical treatment for his mad cow disease. And everyone back home is devastated. They have like a memorial for him and everything. And then around that time, the life insurance money starts coming in. And Daphne collects about $870,000. Meanwhile, Jose travels from Venezuela all the way to the Bahamas. Then there he pays a local fisherman $5,000 to smuggle him from the Bahamas to Florida in a fishing boat. Then he meets up with Daphne and they drive from Florida all the way up to a cabin in the mountains in North Carolina. A cabin they had bought years before. And in that cabin, they hide out for two whole years. And Jose changes his name, he changes his whole look, he dyes his facial hair and he starts wearing a toupee.

He even applies for a North Carolina driver's license using. the stolen ID of a man named Ernest Wills. And it works, like Jose gets one. Then a few months later, he applies for a passport using that Ernest Wills driver's license he just got. But when the State Department gets his application for the passport, an employee notices something weird on it. Ernest Wills, the real Ernest Wills, already had his information in the federal database. Like the government already had a file on him, including his photo. And wouldn't you know it, the real earnest wills looks nothing like Jose. Because the real earnest wills is a black guy. And he's actually eight inches taller than Jose. So the state department flags this application as being suspicious.

And of course, the application has Daphne listed as an emergency contact and has her real contact information on it. So the FBI starts investigating her. And they piece everything together little by little and six months later, boom, they arrest Jose. Here's his mugshot. And they also arrest Daphne. Here's her mugshot. And they both get charged with insurance fraud and a bunch of other stuff. And they're both thrown in jail. Here's the crazy thing, though.

While in jail, Daphne still thinks Jose is ex-military super secret special ops who works with the CIA. And she legitimately thinks that any minute now, the U.S. government is going to step in and bail them both out. And her attorney and everyone else around her are like, no, Daphne, Jose isn't super secret special ops. He's just a liar. But whatever, she's in jail continuing to believe him. So she sits there in jail for 16 months before they finally convince her that her husband's story is bullshit. So Daphne finally takes a plea deal

and she basically gets five years probation while Jose pleads guilty and he gets 14 years. This episode is brought to you by Greenlight. You can't solve every case for your kids. But with Greenlight, they'll have the instincts and money skills to stay out of trouble. With a Greenlight debit card and money app, parents can monitor spending and teach financial responsibility. Educate your kids as they grow, from earning allowance and tracking chores to learning how to save and invest.

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