Scamfluencers - ENCORE: Shot Through the Heart

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Now that evil dentist Larry Rudlph has finally been sentenced, we return to the story of the deadly safari that unraveled a lifetime of grift. Larry seems to have it all: A devoted wife and family, a growing business, and big-game hunting hobby that lets him travel the world. But his dental practice isn’t all it seems… and an affair with his hygienist spins into a murder scheme so cold-blooded, it’ll land them both behind bars. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to scamfluencers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. Asachi, has anything about one of our stories made you rethink the things you do in your day-to-day life? I mean, I do think we should do more crime. Yes, I agree. And to be honest, our episode about Larry Rudolph has made it hard for me to go back to the dentist.

Larry is the safari and Trump-loving dentist who was found guilty of murdering his wife. And we have an update for our listeners. In August 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison. Laurie Milliron was sentenced to 17 years. She was his girlfriend who helped try and cover up the murder. And because this is scamfluencers, Larry isn't just going away for cold-blooded murder. He's simultaneously serving a 20-year term for defrauding life insurance companies to profit off his wife's death. He was ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution and $2 million in fees.

At the time of his sentencing, his lawyers said they plan on appealing. Larry's son spoke out for the first time in December to ABC News. Before the trial, he said he was sure his dad was innocent. But he now says that after seeing the evidence, he's changed his mind. He also says Larry frequently calls him from prison, but he doesn't usually pick up. Yeah, I also would not take that call. Yeah, I don't think I would either. Anyway, we'll be back with all new episodes soon.

We're starting strong with an episode that involves the iconic shoe brand Steve Madden and the Wolf of Wall Street. It's out June 3rd on Wondery Plus and June 10th wherever you get your podcasts. For now, here's our encore of Shot Through the Heart. A heads up for our listeners, this episode includes mentions of gun violence, big game hunting, and dentistry. Listen with care. Sachi, are you scared of the dentist? No, I love my dentist.

You know why I love my dentist? Because I have great teeth. It's the one part of the genetic lottery I won, and I love my dentist. We just talk about how great my teeth are. That sounds very reaffirming. I actually haven't gone to the dentist in a while, partially due to being uninsured.

And also, I realize I am a bit scared of the dentist. Do you want me to go with you? Then me and your dentist can talk about my great teeth. Yeah, absolutely. And I do know it makes me a bit of a baby because I'm a grown up. But I will say that the story I'm about to tell you actually justifies my fears a bit. And my sincerest apologies to anyone listening who's trying to get over a distrust of dentistry. a distrust of dentistry.

In early 2020, the dinner rush is in full swing at Steak 44, a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. The enormous earth-tone dining room is buzzing. It's packed with the kind of people who love a dress code and order $94 steaks paired with $400 bottles of wine. So basically, it's the kind of place we'd go to Sachi. Steak 44 sounds like a fake restaurant name, but I would go there. While the decor in this restaurant is pretty over the top, there are huge displays of expensive liquor bottles

and a wall covered in decorative meat cleavers. The bartender that night is a man named Brian Lovelace. He's black and has dimples and dreadlocks pulled back in a ponytail. One of his regulars, a man named Larry Rudolph, is sitting at the bar. Larry is a white man in his mid-60s with graying hair and a light reddish mustache.

He's also rich enough to be a regular because he's a wildly successful dentist. It's not the most exciting job, but the money this guy makes is no joke. In fact, Larry is worth around $27 million. He made $27 million off dentistry? Yeah, I know that is a lot of money and we will get into it. But Brian, the bartender, he doesn't know any of this. All he knows is that tonight,

Larry's drinking a kettle won martini with his girlfriend, Lori Milliron. Lori is petite with blonde hair and pale skin. She's in her early 60s, though she looks much younger. As Larry and Lori sip their drinks, they start arguing, loudly. People start to look over, but the music at the bar makes it hard to tell what they're saying. Sachi, have you ever experienced that thing at a restaurant or party where you have to

scream over the music just to be heard, only to have the music cut out just as you're saying something super personal or embarrassing? I mean, yes, but also as you know, I'm often saying something super personal or embarrassing? I mean yes, but also as you know I'm often saying something super personal or embarrassing and usually I am louder than the music. Well that's exactly what happens here. While Larry and Lori are in the middle of this huge argument, there's a pause between songs. The room goes totally silent. Just as Larry practically shouts, I killed my fucking wife for you. Oh my god, so relatable. Well, if you put this in a movie,

I feel like it would seem too unbelievable, but it really did happen. And for Larry, this social snafu will be the beginning of the end of his dental empire and his freedom. From Wondery, I'm Sarah Haggi, and I'm Saatchi Cole, and this is Scamfluencers. To me, this is a truly made in America scam. Larry Rudolph is flashy, obsessed with sex, rich, vindictive, and also violent.

But no matter how sloppy his crimes are, he almost always gets away with them. For decades, he's scammed everyone from his patients, insurance companies, police, and even his own wife using techniques that should not have worked. But Larry Rudolph just kept winning. This is a story about big egos, big game hunting, and a larger-than-life crime that almost went unpunished. I'm calling it Shot Through the Heart. punished. I'm calling it shot through the heart.

Before Larry becomes an enormously successful dentist, he's a kid growing up just outside of Pittsburgh. His father teaches him to shoot a gun from an early age and he falls in love with hunting. He's so good at it that by the time he's 18 in the early 70s, he's using a bow and arrow to kill deer. But he eventually pursues a pretty traditional career path. He goes to the University of Pittsburgh's dental program and one day in the school's cafeteria he meets Bianca Fenizio. She's in her early 20s and beautiful with shining red hair and she comes from a very well-off, very Catholic family. Larry graduates in 1979,

and he and Bianca get married three years later. A year after the wedding, Larry opens a dental clinic just outside of Pittsburgh with a friend from college. It's called simply the dentistry. Bianca does administrative work at the office, handling paychecks and the front office staff, and the clinic gets really popular really fast thanks to Larry's signature technique.

Sachi, have you ever heard of sedation dentistry? I'm guessing that's when the dentist puts you to sleep while they're messing with your teeth. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Larry later describes it in one of his own late night TV ads. We'll help you overcome your fears. You can have all your dental work done in one visit while you sleep. So don't put this off any longer.

You're not alone. Find out why going to the dentist has never been so easy. In my experience, dentists don't want to put you to sleep unless it's absolutely mandatory, like if you're having a tremendous amount of anxiety or if it's going to be super painful. Yeah, exactly. I mean, a lot of dentists use some kind of anesthetic to help with anxiety or pain,

but putting patients to sleep for a routine procedure is definitely not the norm. But Larry makes it his calling card and people love it. But there's a downside to being unconscious at the dentist. It makes it easy for Larry to perform expensive, unnecessary procedures and even make his patients' teeth worse. He gives them unnecessary root canals, grinds their teeth down,

and drills holes in them so they'll need more work. He even manipulates x-rays to convince his patients that they'll need additional work done. And if his co-workers ever question his tactics, Larry gets really angry. He reportedly curses, makes threats, and throws stuff. One of his colleagues later says that he was a nightmare to work with and that his employees lived in fear. He also says that, quote, money was God to Lawrence. Nothing else in his life mattered.

Still, Larry seemingly has everything he's ever wanted. He's got a successful practice, he's making serious money, and by the early 90s, he and Bianca have two kids. But when a new hire shows up at Larry's office, his perfect life will be turned upside down. In the early 2000s, Lori Milliron walks down the hall of the dentistry, her heels clicking on the floor.

She's 44, svelte, and has blonde hair that falls around her shoulders. She's just been hired as a hygienist on top of working another job as a hygienist elsewhere. The commute is about 60 miles each way, but she's a single mother with three kids and she needs the extra work. Laurie is new here, but she makes a quick impression on at least one person in the office, her boss. It's not clear how Larry and Lori's relationship begins, but things get intense really fast. Now, this is nothing new for Larry. People who know him later say that cheating on his wife is one of his favorite pastimes. A co-worker once asked why he fooled around so much, and Larry told him that it was, quote, as fun as the roller coasters over at the Kennywood theme park.

Ah, yes, I too find adultery to be as fun as the cyclone at Comey Island. Well, Larry and Laurie are catching some serious feelings, and their emails paint a picture of two deeply infatuated and maybe illiterate people. Sachi, can you read the sentence from an email Larry sends to Lori? Yeah, it says, I can't wait. I want love, affection, romance, and attention. Bebebebe.

The lack of punctuation. Even the thoughts in this sentence are utterly unacceptable for people at their big ages. These are adults. Well, Larry takes Lori around the world on vacations, including hunting trips to places like New Zealand and Ethiopia. And he also starts giving her tons of money, like tens of thousands of dollars in cash and banking deposits. This affair and Larry's flashy lifestyle is getting really expensive,

and Larry needs more money to keep up with it. He needs to make a drastic move. A few years later, in October of 2006, Larry's on safari. He's at a remote hunting camp in Zambia near the Kaffu River. Ever since he started making serious money, his childhood hobby has morphed into a luxury pastime. Whenever he's not at work, he's flying around the world,

tracking down rare animals and killing them for fun. But on this trip, Larry's not acting like himself. He's distracted. He spends most of his time hanging out with the hunting camp staff, drinking and smoking weed. And he doesn't even seem that interested in bagging game, which is weird because this guy truly loves killing animals.

It's also causing some friction among the crew he's with. The meat from the hunts goes toward feeding the group, and Larry isn't pulling his weight. But then one night, the conversation turns to crocodiles, and Larry seems to perk up. So the guide takes him to a spot in a nearby river and shines his flashlight down into the water. Larry sees that it's teeming with crocs. The guide warns him not to go near this part on his own. It's dangerous. The next morning, Larry says he's not going hunting. He's too hung over. But a few hours later,

when the guide comes back to check on him, Larry is nowhere to be found. Some crew members say they saw him wandering away, and when the guide hears this, he starts freaking out. They're in super remote territory, far from any hospitals. Then he hears a shot ring out from downstream, right by the crocodile infested stretch of river he warned Larry about. Pretty soon, Larry walks back into camp,

holding a rifle and with his left hand bandaged up. He tells the guide that he was just fishing down by the river, and when he reached down to pull out a catch, a crocodile snapped at him. He says the croc dragged him into the water and bit off a chunk of his thumb before he kicked it off. This sounds suspicious, not because he was told specifically not to go there,

but because I feel like if a crocodile snapped at him and then dragged him into the water, he would have eaten far more of Larry than just, you know, a piece of his thumb. We would not be talking about Larry today. Yeah, the guide feels like something is not right. First of all, Larry's really calm, and though he says he was pulled into the water,

he is not very wet. Also, his pants are torn in a distressed jeans way, rather than a narrowly escaping crocodile jaws of death way. And the markings on his legs don't really look like bites. They kind of look like someone just jabbed him with a pocket knife. And when the medevac arrives, Larry won't let anyone look at his hand. Eventually, after a lot of arguing with the medevac pilot, Larry takes the bandage off.

There is a small piece of his thumb missing, but not like a crocodile bit it off. And when he gets home from his trip, Larry says he's been injured and can no longer practice dentistry. And over the next few years, he'll make a series of disability and insurance claims related to this incident netting him more than $3.5 million. You know, $3.5 million for a piece of your finger getting bitten off by the crocodile

you were told not to engage with is a pretty good payout. Yeah, that is a shit ton of money for a little chunk of your thumb missing. And the scheme is so brazen that even Larry's closest friends think he shot off the tip of his own thumb for the insurance payout. But it seems like the insurance companies don't want to travel all the way to a super remote part of Zambia to fact check Larry's claim. So they just take his word for it. And Larry cashes in. He apparently takes it as a kind of affirmation, because instead of laying low after this wild incident, he decides to take things to a whole new level.

About a year after the Crocodile Incident, Larry is standing on stage in the ballroom of a Dallas hotel. He's in front of a crowd of hunting enthusiasts in tuxedos and cowboy hats. It's 2007, and they're here for the annual conference of Safari Club International. It's like the NRA, but for serious hunters. And Larry has just won their highest award, the Weatherbee. It's known as a Nobel Prize for trophy hunters. To win the Weatherbee, you need to meet a bunch of different criteria, including killing an animal on nearly every continent.

Oh, and you also need to have, quote, ethics and integrity. But Larry's professional life is pretty rocky. He can no longer do procedures because of his crocodile injury, and his partners have started to think he's been taking money directly out of the business's accounts, which Larry denies.

But after a confrontation, they decide to force him out. Partly because of the money, but also, they're just fed up with this guy. His anger's always been intense. Like at a staff meeting, he got so worked up, he ripped an exit sign out of the ceiling. His partners even had to change the locks to keep him out. But of course, Sachi, Larry doesn't go down without a fight. In 2008, he sues his partners for defamation and breach of contract.

The case ends in a settlement. And once it's all over, Larry opens up a brand new clinic called Three Rivers Dental, just 500 feet away from his old office. I admire that level of pettiness. To be so petty that you wanna run into the person you hate all the time, I'm on board. That is actually something I like.

We should do that together. Let's figure it out. Yeah. Well, he brings Lori along to the new office with him. And guess what? Three Rivers is an immediate success. Around the same time, Larry's continuing to gain recognition in the hunting scene.

He's actually elected president of Safari Club International. He becomes a figurehead for the organization and rubs shoulders with powerful supporters like George W. Bush. He's legitimately a hunting influencer. And in case you're wondering what exactly that entails, here's a YouTube video of Larry addressing his fellow club members. As your president, I continually encourage and support new members, whether they hunt turkeys and whitetails right here in western Pennsylvania or mountain game in Pakistan. We are all hunters and we need to be unified.

Larry is on top of the world making a name for himself as a hunter and a dentist. Over the next few years, he opens up three more locations of three rivers all around Pittsburgh. But he's about to get his first taste of real failure, and it will send his life spinning into some unbelievable new territory. build your credit history, and so much more. Join over one million Canadians and sign up for your free trial today. Download COHO on Google or App Store today, or k-o-h-o dot c-a for more details.

Plus, for any basketball fans out there, get a $75 e-gift card for n-b-a-store dot c-a when you sign up with the promo code COHO75. That's code K-O-H-O-75. Some stories were never meant to be heard. Beneath the visible world of parliaments, politicians and civil servants lies an invisible state filled with secret operatives playing to very different rules. From Wondery, I'm Indra Varma, and this is the Spy Who.

This month, we open the file on Noor Anayat Khan, the spy who wouldn't lie. When Germany invades France, Noor and her family are forced to flee to Britain. But Noor decides she can't just sit out the war, so she accepts one of the most dangerous spy missions of World War II, a job that will put her deep into enemy territory.

Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can binge the full season of The Spy Who Wouldn't Lie early and ad-free with Wondery+. who wouldn't lie early and ad free with Wondery+. I feel like I, like I. It's 2012 and Safari Club International is holding its annual conference at the enormous Mandalay Bay Hotel in Vegas. The place looks exactly like you'd expect,

patterned hotel carpets that hurt your eyes and oppressive casino lighting. And by this time, Larry's wife, Bianca, has reportedly started hearing rumors that Larry's having a long-term affair. She's furious, and the rumors are getting to Larry too. One night, he and Bianca are at the hotel bar with a friend, and Larry allegedly goes to look for the Safari Club member he's convinced is spreading these

rumors. Larry reportedly finds him in a hallway and threatens to kill his children and his whole family. This is classic Larry. I don't expect anything more from him. And, you know, of course, Larry denies things went down this way. Regardless, Bianca stands by her man. But the higher ups at Safari Club International aren't quite as loyal to Larry as Bianca is. They've had enough.

Between his cheating, his temper, and all the stuff he's been piling on to his expense account, he's become a real liability. So, a few months later, Larry's fellow safari club executives confront him with an audit. They take away his awards and erase his name from the record books.

Literally. If you look at the official list of more than 50 years of Weatherby award winners, it just says, no award winner for the year that Larry won. Ha ha ha ha! Imagine being so bad that some hunting club is like, we are just choosing not to acknowledge him at all for the year.

In 50 years, they've never done this. Like, he is the most despicable person these despicable people have ever encountered. Very high bar to clear. Well, Larry is determined to get revenge. He tries to sue the club for defamation and even makes recordings of other members to try and prove his innocence.

He edits some of those clips and posts them on YouTube and, Sachi, I have to tell you, this video, to me, is truly a masterpiece. It looks like something from, like, an adult swim show. This is cable access. Well, in the video, Larry denies taking funds from Safari Club International. He says he's contributed more than $200,000 to the group.

If he really needed the money, how would he have been able to make such a big donation? And then he says this about the allegations. In hunting terms, we call this a hard shot and was designed to kill me. Make no mistake, this was done with malice and design. Crafted with lies, mistruths, and slander. Sticks and stones, Larry! Come on!

And, Sachi, in the end, the video doesn't make a difference. Actually, it makes things worse. Larry's status in the hunting world has been ripped away. But if there's one thing we know about Larry, it's that he's never taken a loss lying down, and he's not about to start now. Three years after Larry was kicked out of Safari Club International, he's focused on his dental offices.

He recently hired a new office manager named Anna Grimley. She's a spunky, middle-aged woman with dark hair that's streaked with chunky blonde highlights. And since she's new in town, Lori decides to make her feel welcome. One night, she goes over to Anna's place with a bottle of wine to help her assemble a dresser. As the drinks start flowing, so does the office gossip. There's plenty to talk about. At this point, Three Rivers Dental is basically an empire.

It has locations all around Pittsburgh, and Larry rules over them with an iron fist. And his notorious temper is only getting worse. He sends furious emails, screams at employees, punches walls, and throws things all the time. And he's getting reckless. Employees will later tell Rolling Stone that he drinks Jameson out of a Styrofoam cup before and during work.

I do that. I don't see why that's newsworthy at all. Yeah, you absolutely do. But as the night goes on, Anna later tells Rolling Stone, Lori confides in her about her nearly decade long affair with Larry. Lori says that at one point,

they plan to take all the money from the business and leave town. But that didn't happen. So according to Anna, Lori says she gave Larry an ultimatum. You have one year to get rid of your wife. Lori and Larry's relationship cools off for a while, but they just can't quit each other. Soon enough, Larry's inviting her to stay at his new home in Arizona while Bianca's away. And as the relationship intensifies, Lori's ultimatum is back on too.

She won't settle for second fiddle. And if Larry wants to keep her happy, he's going to have to make a big move. In the spring of 2016, almost one year later, Larry and Bianca have recently moved into their new mega-mansion in Arizona. But just a few weeks after moving in, Bianca says she finds another woman's hair clip in their bed. She knows she needs to find out the truth, so she asks Larry's personal assistant to

meet her at the mall. And when they meet up, Bianca is distraught. She chokes back tears as she asks whether Larry is cheating on her, and his assistant says yes. Bianca breaks down. She's caught Larry in lies before, but this is the first time she's ever been able to see the truth. Bianca admits that she's fed up, but as a devout Catholic, it doesn't seem like she's even considering divorce. She's also afraid that if they split up, she'll be left with nothing. She claims Larry has a habit of forging her signature and that he signed her name to a legal document that would block her from getting money if they divorce. She feels trapped. So,

right there in the mall, she and Larry's personal assistant role play a conversation where Bianca finally confronts Larry. She's gonna tell him to dump Lori and fire her, and if he won't, their marriage will be over for good. But the thing is, Bianca knows her husband. This guy will never admit he's guilty unless he's backed into a corner. So she goes home and breaks into Larry's email account. She finds a bunch of exchanges with Lori

and prints them out. And when she finally confronts Larry, he does something he's probably not supposed to do, into Larry's email account. She finds a bunch of exchanges with Lori and prints them out. And when she finally confronts Larry, he does something he's probably not used to doing. He apologizes. He promises Bianca that if she stays, he'll do whatever she wants. Bianca believes that forgiveness is a requirement

in any long-term relationship. She and Larry are gonna start over with a clean slate. But for Larry, the pressure is mounting from both of the women in his life. He's promised Bianca he'll be a more devoted husband, but he's also promised Lori that he'll get rid of Bianca. And he can only keep one of those promises. promises.

In October 2016, a few months after Larry and Bianca patched things up, they decide to go to a remote hunting camp on the Cofu River in Zambia, the same camp where Larry had his crocodile incident a decade earlier. At the end of the trip, their

hunting guide asks them if they want to stay a few extra days. But Bianca says they have to get to New York for her nephew's wedding. The next morning around 5 a.m. the guides are in the dining hall when a gunshot rings out from Larry's hunting lodge. A guide and a scout rush over to investigate. When they arrive, they see Bianca's body on the floor, covered in blood from a gunshot wound in her chest. Larry's leaning over, and he seems upset. At first, he says that Bianca killed herself. But when they ask questions, Larry immediately changes his story, saying the gun must have gone off while she was trying to pack. He also says that he was in the shower when it happened,

which is weird, because Larry is fully dressed and completely dry. It sounds like this is another story of Larry's that completely doesn't add up and has like an element of violence to it, but his version of it just sounds like bullshit. Nothing about it actually makes sense. And when the police arrive, they don't exactly treat it like a crime scene.

They don't take any fingerprints or check for gunshot residue or keep any of Larry and Bianca's clothes. When they're done looking around, they give Larry's gun back to him. Bianca's death is as suspicious as it is tragic. But what Larry's about to do in the days and months following his wife's death is truly shocking, even for him. Less than 12 hours after Bianca is found dead,

police conclude that her death was an accident. Authorities want to do an autopsy, but when Larry hears this, he tries to bribe a funeral home to cremate Bianca's body before it can be properly examined. It doesn't work, and eventually a couple of US officials do take pictures of her body, but Larry is furious and screams that they're invading his privacy. Just three days after her death, Larry finds a funeral home in Zambia willing to cremate

Bianca's body. And get this, after all this happens, Larry sends an email to Bianca's brother, pretending she's still alive. We actually got our hands on the letter, and Sachi, would you mind reading what it says? Oh, it would be my pleasure. It says,

Ralph, we have had to extend our African trip. Regrettably, we will miss the wedding and the trip with all. And then he ends the email by writing, sorry for the last minute notice. Email is spotty here. Enjoy the wedding. Regards to all, Larry.

Yeah, that's why there was a last minute notice. It's because the damn internet in Zambia. And Larry also gets in touch with Lori saying that there's been an accident. Then two days after he gets back to the U.S., he emails a lawyer. He needs help dealing with Bianca's life insurance, because it turns out Larry has taken out nine different policies on her life, and he updated the policies earlier this year. Meanwhile, Larry's adult children still do not know that their mother has died.

They actually don't find out about it until almost a full week after her death. Their son, who's in his mid-20s, actually calls the U.S. Embassy in Zambia, frantic, asking whether it's true. Oh, well that's evil. It's already evil to kill your wife. Obviously, this is like a new layer to let everybody panic. And actually, some of Bianca's friends and family don't find out about her death until her funeral. Some who attended say the whole thing is brief and badly organized.

Bianca, who was so Catholic she wouldn't divorce her cheating husband, doesn't even get a proper mass. Larry cashes in all nine of Bianca's life insurance policies, collecting around $5 million from her death. Oh, and the jewelry Bianca was wearing when she died, Zambian authorities gave that back to Larry, but according to court documents, he lies to his insurance company and claims it was lost.

He gets a little more than $15,000 for it. The man can literally not help himself. And we don't know what Lori's thinking at this point, but she doesn't seem too rattled by any of this. In December, just two months after Bianca's funeral, she moves into the Arizona mega mansion Larry bought for his recently deceased wife. But it seems like Larry's less comfortable continuing

to live in the house he renovated with Bianca So the next summer he puts down 3.5 million dollars to build a new home just a few miles away And in the meantime he and Laurie move into a condo He splurges on a Bentley and Aston Martin and a vacation home in Cabo Several non suspicious things to buy for yourself after your wife mysteriously dies on vacation. Yeah, he's not even pretending to grieve. But behind the scenes, Larry's getting paranoid. He tells his employees at Three Rivers Dental not to accept any cards or flowers for Bianca.

If a patient mentions her name, they're supposed to change a subject. And though at this point, Larry pretty much lives in Arizona full-time, he finds ways to micromanage three rivers from afar. He has security cameras installed all over the offices, including in the break rooms. And employees start to notice that Larry's been eavesdropping on their conversations. Like when one female employee quietly asks another for a tampon, they get a call from Larry asking what they're whispering about. And when a receptionist makes a joke about Trump, Larry goes off on a rant about left-wing idiots.

Eventually, Larry brings in a waiver for everyone to sign that says they don't have any right to privacy in the office, even in the women's bathrooms. The same receptionist who joked about Trump actually gets fired because she won't sign it. I feel like we should remind ourselves that this kind of dictator-like atmosphere is happening at a dentist's office. I can't think of anything essential that happens in a dentist's office, including actual dentistry, very little of it is, you know, emergency.

Yes, I think it's easy to lose sight of the big picture here. And even though all of Larry's paranoia might seem like overkill, the police ruled Bianca's death an accident and he's already got the insurance money. But he's right to be nervous because the FBI investigation into Bianca's death isn't exactly open and shut. A friend of Bianca's contacted the FBI South African office after her death, telling them she suspected foul play. And then, in the spring of 2017, an FBI agent calls Larry to ask if he can come in and answer

a few questions. And Larry just goes, why would I want to do that? He somehow manages to keep the authorities off his back for a while, and he probably knows it's going to be difficult to investigate Bianca's death. She died in a super remote location, and not a lot of evidence was collected from the scene. But the feds continued to work the case,

and Larry the Hunter is about to become Larry the case. And it's starting to look like Larry might actually be in the clear until, that is, Larry decides to blurt out something extremely incriminating in a quiet restaurant. Do you remember what happened, Sachi? If my memory serves me correct, he yelled out that he killed his wife. Ding ding ding. Yes, exactly that. So Brian Lovelace, the bartender at Steak 44 that night, mentions it to one of his colleagues. And then she decides to get in touch with the FBI. Brian later tells Rolling Stone he initially doesn't want to get involved, but he agrees to testify about what he heard.

Around the same time, more people are coming forward with allegations against Larry. Some of his former coworkers, a friend of Bianca's, and the ex-wife of one of his hunting guides all say they found Bianca's death suspicious. Plus, the FBI has been running ballistics tests using the same shotgun model that killed Bianca, and the more tests they do, the more impossible Larry's story seems. Larry and Lori should probably try to lay low,

but of course, they go out and do the exact opposite. In November of 2021, they attend a fundraiser for the Arizona Republican Party, and Larry tells everyone that he's thinking of running for Congress. And weeks later, just before Christmas, Larry and Lori board a plane to Cabo. But something is up. Lori notices a few extra passengers getting on at the last minute. And after they land, Mexican immigration officials arrest Larry.

He's taken back to the U.S. and eventually charged with premeditated murder and defrauding life insurance companies. A few days later, Lori testifies before a federal grand jury and lies her ass off. It's now come to light that Larry's deposited almost $240,000 in Lori's personal bank account

over the course of their relationship. But Lori claims she has no idea why Larry gave her so much money, and she denies ever giving Larry an ultimatum to leave Bianca. She gets arrested too and charged with obstruction of justice and lying under oath. For years, Larry and Lori have done whatever the hell they wanted. No consequences. But now, faced with a federal trial, they finally have to answer for their crimes. Larry and Lori have a joint trial, and they both plead not guilty. In July 2022, Larry takes the stand.

He claims he and Bianca were in an open marriage, and that was in the bathroom when she died taking a huge shit. When asked about where the murder weapon ended up, Larry says under oath that he's not a gun guy and that he paid a quote Hispanic gentleman to get rid of it. And then he has the audacity to read his eulogy for Bianca to the jury. He fights back tears when Bianca's brother and cousin get up and leave the courtroom. After Larry's testimony, Lori and her legal team seems super confident. She even invites a Rolling Stone reporter

back to her apartment where she drinks wine and makes dick jokes with her daughters, her lawyer, and her trial prep coach. Here's what I'll tell you. As a reporter, if somebody who is on trial for murder invited me over to get loaded and talk about dicks on the record, I would send my editor a text that just said, Jackpot.

There's no greater career high. I honestly don't know what I'd do in that situation. Like a part of me would want to be like, do you know how dumb this is? But then also it's like dig your own grave, you know? Yeah, I mean, I'd remind her she was still on the record, but I wouldn't remind her twice. Well, days later, the jury finds Larry guilty of murder

and Lori guilty of accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of justice and perjury. Larry was also found guilty of accessory after the fact to murder, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Larry was also found guilty of mail fraud after cashing in $4.8 million in life insurance payments after Bianca's death. Larry's in custody, and at the time of this recording, he's facing a maximum of life in prison. Lori faces up to 35 years in prison

and has to wear an ankle monitor until her sentencing hearing, which is expected later this year. She and Larry are both planning to appeal, and Lori is steadfastly maintaining her innocence. But for Larry, the situation seems to be sinking in. Dateline NBC recently intercepted one of Lori's phone calls to Larry in prison, and he told her to find a new boyfriend. When she told him to never give up, he said, it's not about giving up, it's about facing reality. He told her he thinks he's going to die in prison,

and Sachi, he might be right. Well, Sachi, that is definitely one of the more cursed stories we've covered on this show. And I would like to know, has your opinion of dentistry and dentists changed at all? No, my opinion on men named Larry is forever changed, but I still love my dentist. She would never murder her spouse and then say that she was taking a big old dump. Okay, Sachi, I know Larry is a murderer, but I do think that there's something about this whole story

where there was really zero motivation for him to be this level of scammer and this level of kind of evil. Like, there's no origin story, for him to be this level of scammer and this level of kind of evil. Like, there's no origin story, there's no, like, trauma associated with his life as to why he became terrible. Like, it just seems like he's maybe the most purely evil scammer we've covered. Yeah, I mean, I think with scam influencers, we always try to find a reason for someone to make the bad choices that they make.

Because more often than not, it comes from, you know, being born into poverty, being afraid. Yeah, it's not like excuses, but you're like, I see how someone could get to that point. There are usually clear motivations, and though we might disagree with them, we can at least identify what they are. And with this story, the motivations are just that, like, Larry is an asshole, and Larry wanted what Larry wanted, and so he got it in whatever way he could, and he found someone who would engage with him in his most basest desires. I am interested in discussing his influence only because this guy was an influencer in his own right.

Maybe not to a regular person, but I'm wondering how you feel like this played into his scam, like kind of getting to the top of the hunting world. You know what I mean? I feel like Larry didn't get a lot of pushback for a lot of his life, and that's why he felt it was so easy to walk over people. I mean, you don't make a request at your office that the women in the office

won't even have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bathroom if you don't think that you're going to get away with it. And so I think he was used to wielding a lot of influence over lots of people, and they would just do what he wanted. And I really think he would have run for Congress, and I think we would have probably heard— He would have won. I do believe he had the power to do that Yeah, we would be talking about President Larry right now. Had he not done all those murders I will say I always feel a little unsafe with men who want to prove

Their virility by murdering a lion. There are other ways to be a man. I think even outside of the morality of hunting, it is just like kind of pathetic to imagine like a bunch of men with like very advanced rifles acting out this like, you know, primal instinct of what I'm guessing was like cavemen running after things and hitting them. Yeah. And it's just like, that's not very tough. You know what I mean? Like you're going on these guides,

these people have to watch you. Like if you really want to show you're a man as a hunter, go out with nothing. Run after these lions and kill them with your bare hands. And then maybe I'll respect you a little. Yeah. It's really a game of aim. I think if you want to hunt big game,

you should have to do it naked and afraid. A hundred percent. Yeah. Best slash survey. This is Shot Through the Heart. I'm Sarah Haggie. And I'm Saatchi Cole. If you have a tip for us on a story that you think we should cover, please email us at scanfluencers at Wondry.com.

We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were True Crime Safari, Did This Trump-Loving Dentist Murder His Wife?, and Worse Than the OJ Glove, The Dentist, The Love Triangle, and The Trial of the Safari Murder Mystery by Matt Sullivan and Rolling Stone, and ABC News' 2020 episode, The Last Hunt. Emma Healy wrote this episode. Additional writing by us, Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagge. Our senior producer is Jen Swan. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Lexi Peery. Our story editor and producer is Sarah Eni. Our story editors are Eric Thurm and Allison Weintraub. Sound design is Sarah Eni. Our Story Editors are Eric Thurm and Allison Weinshop.

Sound Design is by Sam Ada. Fact Checking by Gabrielle Jolet. Additional audio assistance provided by Adrian Tapia. Our Music Supervisor is Scott Velazquez for Freesan Sync. Our Managing Producer is Matt Gant and our Senior Managing Producer is Tanja Thigpen. Our Coordinating Producer is Desi Blaylock. Kate Young and Olivia Richard are our series producers. Our Senior Story Editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Our Senior Producer is Ginny Bloom. Our Executive Producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, Jenny Lauer Beckman, and Marshall Louie for Wondering.

Peyton, it's happening. We're finally being recognized for being very online. It's about damn time. I mean, it's hard work being this opinionated. And correct. You're such a Leo. All the time. So if you're looking for a home for your worst opinions, if you're a hater first and a lover of pop culture second, then join me Hunter Harris and me Peyton Dix, the host of Wondry's newest podcast, Let Me Say This. As beacons of truth and connoisseurs of mess, we are scouring the

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