Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 424 - The Puppet Master: Robert Hendy-Freegard

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

I highly doubt you have ever been conned by anyone to the degree Robert Hendy-Freegard conned his victims. This 21 year-old pub bartender, waiting to go on trial for planning to kidnap his ex-girlfriend, decided to start lying to some of his customers one day. And when they believed his lies, he lied some more. And he just kept lying. For years. And he convinced three people to drop out of university, give him all of their money, and follow him for up to a decade all around England, hiding from enemies that weren't real, and even lying to the police to protect a man who had convinced them he was a secret MI6 agent looking to expose hidden IRA members. And that's just the beginning of this surreal story. True Tales of Hallow's Eve 4. Hope to see you there! Here's the ticket link: https://www.moment.co/scaredtodeathMerch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch-related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast.Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. And you get the download link for my secret standup album, Feel the Heat.

Today, we are reminded that you don't have to be in a cult, per se, to be brainwashed. You can be brainwashed by anyone. By your parents. By a politician. Or by your local neighborhood pub bartender. Journalist Edward Hunter, the first to bring the term brainwashing into our modern vernacular, once wrote, The intent of brainwashing is to change a mind radically so that its owner becomes a

living puppet, a human robot, without the atrocity being visible from the outside. The aim is to create a mechanism in flesh and blood with new beliefs and new thought processes inserted into a captive body. What that amounts to is a search for a slave race that, unlike the slaves of olden times, can be trusted never to revolt, always to be amenable to orders like an insect to its instincts. In September of 1950, Hunter published an article in the Miami Herald titled, Brainwashing Tactics Force Chinese into Ranks of Communist Party.

He then elaborated on its findings in 1951 with the publication of his book, Brainwashing in Red China, which introduced to the American public what was a novel idea, a supposedly scientific system for dramatically changing people's minds, changing their core identities and personalities, even making them love things that they once hated. Hunter was concerned about the possibility of his fellow countrymen being brainwashed, and he was right to be.

Just two years later, Colonel Frank Schwabel was the highest-ranking military officer to meet that fate, and by February of 1953 he and other prisoners of war had falsely confessed to the US using germ warfare against the Koreans and the American public was shocked and Then they grew even more so when 5,000 of the 72 700 POWs either petitioned the US government to end the war or signed confessions of their alleged crimes the final blow came with 21 American soldiers refused repatriation and Either petition the US government to end the war or sign confessions of their alleged crimes. The final blow came with 21 American soldiers refused repatriation and did not want to return to the US when given the chance to return home.

These are men who had agreed to fight for America abroad. Men who believed in protecting all of the values of the United States and fighting against authoritarianism, sacrificing their very lives if necessary. And now they were saying the exact opposite. How? Well, they'd literally been brainwashed. For most of us whose circumstances may have varied wildly over our lives, maybe been rich and poor, had good relationships and very bad ones, our core identity and personality have likely not changed as wildly. The stuff we know about ourselves that makes us who we are, what kind of food we love, what we ideally would like to do for a job, who we have chosen to be friends with, how we like to joke around, how we like to spend our money, what we think of our families and on and on and on. Most of us probably think that nothing or no one could

change our core attributes and identities. No one could take the things that make us us and delete them and replace them with something else. Or if that were to happen it would have to happen in an incredibly extreme situation. Some kind of dystopian authoritarian series of torture sessions. The kind that Frank Schwabel and other POWs faced. But what if that wasn't the case? What if you could be theoretically brainwashed by just some random civilian, someone as innocuous-seeming as your local bartender? In early 1992, young Robert Freigard was about to turn 22 and he was lost. He didn't seem to really know what he wanted to go

in life, where he wanted to go, what he wanted to do. Things hadn't been working out for him. He was working a low-paying dead-end job He just been charged with theft and the attempted kidnapping of his ex-girlfriend And he decided to become a bartender in a quiet pub in Newport Shropshire, England called the Swan while he waited trial Students from a local agricultural college would gather at the pub to talk about the local news Including the recent bombings committed or at least claimed to have been committed, by the Irish Republican Army. In the early 1990s, the IRA had intensified their bombing campaign in England, planting 15 bombs in 1990, 36 in 1991, and 57 in 1992. It was a time of terror. Nobody knew where the IRA would strike next. And for students John Atkinson, Sarah Smith, and Maria Hendy, they

had to balance living in uncertain times with planning for their futures and graduating with their degrees from the nearby agricultural school. They also needed to blow off some steam from time to time and de-stress, and that led them to having more and more pints at the Swan. And it led them to becoming friendly with Robert Freigart. And Robert started lying to them. He was already a liar, but now he began pushing his lies further, testing out what he could get away with. What would they believe?

He started coming over to their house and regaling them with stories about the many, many careers he had had. But he hadn't had the jobs he spoke of. It was all make believe. But they seemed to just take him at his word. When he said he was almost 30 instead of 21, they believed him. He seemed so very worldly, like he always knew what he was talking about, so much confidence. The more lies they believed, the more his confidence grew,

which in turn led him to telling bigger and bigger lies. Lies they just kept believing. And then one night Rob told John Atkinson the biggest lie so far by many miles. That he was not just a bartender. No, he was an MI5 secret agent sent to track down IRA terrorist cells at Harper Adams, the agricultural school that John and his friends attended. And he needed John's help to stop the IRA, to keep them from killing more of his fellow students, to keep his friends and fellow countrymen safe Hopefully if you heard someone tell you something like that and you did want to help you'd ask for proof Did he have a government ID and in addition to that ID that he could easily fake?

Could you meet at some government office of his where you'd be introduced to other ideally more high-ranking agents his boss or bosses, where you could get a better sense of the legitimacy or the not regarding what he had told you. Or if you did not want to work as a secret agent, you'd do something along the lines, hopefully of nodding your head in agreement, saying some equivalent of, yeah, yeah, give me a night to think about that. And then you'd pay your tab, you'd leave, you'd avoid that bartender going forward while also laughing your ass off with some friends at what a delusional twat he was. But John didn't do that.

John after taking a few days to think about it, he signed on and agreed to help. And soon John would rope in his friends Sarah and Maria, and shit would get weirder and weirder as his sad trio steadily got more and more brainwashed by Robert by the day. This was the beginning of nearly three decades of Robert Freigard's descent into the madness he would create and the havoc he would wreak in the lives of not just John, Sarah, and Maria, but also in the lives of their poor families and so many other victims. And I don't want to give away any more than that. The strange how did this really happen? How did a bartender pull off scamming victims for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds for

decades and get so many to turn against their friends and families and everything they thought they cared about before they met him in this brainwashing puppet master true crime but unlike any true crime story we have covered here before edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. Well happy Monday and welcome to the Cult of the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, Suckleberry Finn. A former fraud investigator looking into claims brought against Bob's bountiful Bonsai Fruit.biz, but now vice president of that potentially very lucrative business. And you are listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod. Hail Lucifina. Praise be to good boy Bojangles. Glory be to Triple M.

Lindsay and I, important news really quick before we get into it, Lindsay and I, running for President and Vice President of the United States, you know that? We're a little late, jumping into the race, I'll admit that. We have not been invited to any of the debates, as I'm sure you already know. No one has taken our campaign seriously. No media pundits at all will even reply to our emails. But we still have shirts, hats, yard signs, and flags. You can't politic today without flags. So despite the long odds, the new world order, despite them blocking our ability to get the word out because they're so afraid of my platform, that does include making America the best it has ever been by eliminating over 100 million fellow citizens for reasons I

will get into once I am elected. Don't even worry about it right now. Show the world who you support this election year. Sign for critical thinking in crystals. Come on, meat sacks. Or if elections aren't your thing, but you love a good cult, celebrate spooky season this year with our favorite Galactic A team. Amy Carlson and her crew, oh, they are dressed to impress.

Grab a hoodie, a trick or treat bag for the ultimate power suit, snag a tee to show that love has one, and even the afterlife loves a good costume. Just be sure to check out your candy out for some colloidal silver. Never too much, always go easy on the colloidal silver. Check out the Time Stuck Halloween collection and more at badmagicproductions.com. And then just real quick, I hope all the meat sacks affected by Hurricane Helene are safe and recovering from this devastating storm. One of our researchers, you've heard her name here a lot, Olivia Lee, has been unable to work the past few days, unable to just live a normal life due to the storm, due to no electricity, no Wi-Fi.

Many listeners have written in, talked about their homes or towns or both being damaged or destroyed. I know a lot of listeners have been affected and I hope by the time you hear this the recovery is going as well as humanly possible and your life is getting back to some semblance of normal. So just thinking of you, hail Nimrod and uh yeah what a fucking shit storm. All right let's tell the story now. Alright, let's tell the story now. Not much setup needed in this episode. I'm going to share a brief intro into brainwashing, but there's not much backstory needed there as it wasn't like Freeguard got his start in any kind of Maoist re-education camp or

similar propaganda machine. He was not a trained brainwasher. From what experts can tell, Freigard's grift and pathologically lying ways entirely self-taught, which in a way makes him more terrifying. He made all this shit up on his own. He didn't, from what we understand, have a mentor or any figures he looked up to help guide him. He was like Rick. For any long-time stand-up fans of mine. A guy I made fun of on a Comedy Central special many, many years ago when I looked like a different human being. Here's a little taste of that. My favorite crazy personality? Compulsive liars. How much fun are those people?

People who, yeah, people who lie even when it's easier to tell the truth. A lot of people get annoyed by this personality because they try and catch them in their lies, which is a losing battle, because they'll endlessly invent new lies to cover up the previous lies, because reality is not an issue in their heads. The best thing you can do is act like you believe all their lies, because it builds their confidence and the lies get better. Ask leading questions to take the lies in directions you'd like them to go. These people are build your own adventure stories come to life. Well

unfortunately today's people, you can find that bit on YouTube if you want to hear the rest, there's a few minutes there. These people would not just be entertained by the lies of Robert Freigard, their lives would be ruined. Man, his lies not as outlandish as the lies of Rick and my bit there, somehow more convincing. Seemingly his only source of inspiration was himself again, the many identities he could create, the layers upon layers of confusing background info and convoluted manipulations he used to play other people off each other with, stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process process destroying countless lives

He just seemed to fucking wing it You've probably met someone like that. I've met many People who seem to always be kind of testing you with their bullshit. I refer to it as fishing, right? There's constantly casting out their bullshit bait Waiting to see who chomps down their hook and just try and reel them in always looking for a new mark They can reel in But usually even when they do hook someone they don't try to ruin their hook and just try and reel them in. Always looking for a new mark they can reel in. But usually even when they do hook someone, they don't try to ruin their lives and take everything from them.

They just want someone to think that they are really, really fucking cool. You know? No, I'm not, I'm not unemployed. I'm a, I'm a secret agent for the government, man. Oh shit. You don't even know I'm a fucking triple Navy SEAL motherfucker. You know? They just want you to think, Oh my God, you're the fucking

coolest person I've ever met. Robert Freeguard wanted so much more than that and sadly he'd get it. Originally I was going to compare Free Guard's tactics to cult leaders. I was gonna compare him to cult leaders who lead with spiritual questioning like Jim Jones, Father Yod, David Koresh, countless others we've covered and to still more cult leaders like Eugenio Parente of the National Labor Federation And there's still more cult leaders like Eugenio Parente of the National Labor Federation preying on victims' desires just to do good in the world. And there are still more cults whose leaders lean on the basic principle that people love to feel superior

than other people for their recruiting. How people in general love to feel like they have inside information on how the world works. And they're the ones who make things happen on a cosmic scale even, like Laurie and Chad Daybell. And their group of demon zombie fear and freaks. All of these comparisons would have been laid out with the intention to show that Free Guard worked not within any of the regular methods people have used to make themselves co-leaders, but on a much more basic principle to get people to do what he wanted. Fear. Just fear. Works pretty well for politicians and news pundits as well.

Something so instinctual, so basic, that people don't have to read a bunch of twisted religious doctrine, Marxist texts, cycle babble, and so on. All they have to do is be afraid for themselves and their families. To be clear, all cult leaders operate by selling some sort of fear. Robert just cut out most of the bullshit around that fear. With his approach, he kept it simple. And like most other cult leaders, Free Guard was in it mainly for two things, power and money, but he wasn't as sex focused as the typical cult leader. He did for sure sleep with numerous of his scam victims, but not all. And even with the ones where he did sleep with him, it did not seem to be his primary

motivation. Estimates vary, but some say in the years that he had John Atkinson, Sarah Smith, and Maria Hendy completely under his control, he made off with about two million pounds of their family's money. Still saying Freeguard was a cult leader actually kind of cheapens, in a way, what he did to the students who fell under his sway. After all, most cult leaders don't have to do all the legwork of psychological manipulation themselves. They lean on some basis, some foundation of pre-existing religious doctrine to rope folks in.

They attract people at a crossroads in their lives. People who are desperate, people who have big questions and few answers. People who want to be provided a neat solution to all of their problems. But not with Robert. Not with his victims. From what it looks like, they were incredibly secure in their lives before they fell into his dangerous orbit. They all knew, for lack of a better term, like, they were incredibly secure in their lives before they fell into his dangerous orbit. They all knew, for lack of a better term, exactly who they were.

They had great relationships with their families. They had very specific goals for the immediate future. They were on a path towards achieving those goals. They were not seeking any great secrets or truths about the universe or their spiritual place within it. And yet he brainwashed him anyway. And for so long. How? How the fuck did he do it?

What kind of dark wizard was this motherfucker? Is he still out there? Well, I don't want to spoil some stuff, but he's still alive. Let's return to look at the brainwashing expert Edward Hunter again for a moment. When a senator asked about Hunter's work for the Office of Strategic Services at a hearing in 1959, Hunter boasted that he was the first to discover the technique of mind attack in mainland China, the first to use the word brainwashing and writing in any language, and the first except for the Chinese to

use the word in speech in any language. But that wasn't true. Operatives had already been using the term for decades. And regardless of the term, some form of brainwashing has likely been around for many, many, many, many centuries. In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov, the Russian physiologist who once famously conditioned dogs to drool at the sound of a bell, Pavlovian conditioning, worked on government-funded projects to investigate how trauma could change animal behavior. He found out the dog's personalities would change remarkably after just one torture session, when the dogs would have all of their claws ripped out one by one with pliers,

or after the dogs had had their faces melted with a blow torch. JK, don't stop listening. I know that was horrific. That didn't happen, but Pavlov did experiment on dogs. And he did find out that even the most well-conditioned dogs would forget their training after intensely stressful experiences, such as as nearly drowning especially when those were combined

with sleep deprivation and isolation. F**ked up experiments I know but aren't you kind of glad they weren't as bad as the first ones I mentioned? Right? No claws getting ripped, no torch. See it was a good lie I told you. You're welcome for making that pill of truth in this case easier to swallow. Am I trying to brainwash you right now to thinking that I'm benevolent with these lies? Anyway Freigart would kind of run similar experiments when he kidnapped his victims. It was almost as though he had studied psychologist Robert J. Lifton's 1950 studies of former Korean War prisoners. Lifton determined that they'd undergone a multi-step process that began with attacks on the prisoners

sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in their core beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied. 1. Assaults on identity, telling soldiers, you are not a soldier, you are not a man, you are not defending freedom. 2. Guilt, attacking the subject for any quote unquote sin that they have committed, large

or small. Number three, self betrayal, getting them to denounce their family or past self. Number four, breaking point, with all of the above, getting the subject to a position in which they would basically be having a 24-7 panic attack, including sobbing, deep depression, losing their grip on reality, a psychotic break. Number five, leniency. The brainwasher offers them some kindness, some reprieve from the abuse. Number six, compulsion to confess.

The brainwasher offers the subject a chance to redeem themselves. Number seven, channeling of guilt. The brainwasher tells them that the only reason they're going through so much turmoil is that their old belief system was wrong. Number eight, releasing of guilt. Getting the subject to believe that if they get rid of their old belief system, they won't feel bad anymore. Number nine, progress and harmony. Telling the subject that they can now choose to be good.

How wonderful. And number ten, final confession and rebirth. The subject becomes the person that the brainwasher wanted them to be. Instead of making it a clear and straightforward process, however, Freeguard would cycle through these steps over and over again over a period of years, continually creating new situations for his hostages to betray themselves, continually extracting confessions of wrongs they'd done against him, continually giving them an opportunity to prove themselves and get out of the situation.

The situations Freeguard kept creating would leave behind loads of evidence for investigators when he was finally arrested. There were not only the testimonies of John Atkinson, Sarah Smith, Maria Hendy and others, but also the safe houses that Freigard rented with their money, the many bank transfers he got them to make, and the many purchases Freigard made with their money. So why when he was arrested was the case against him, not one of the open and shut variety. Why did the case against Robert Free Guard take years to put together? Partially because brainwashing isn't exactly illegal. I mean, if you don't put a gun to some adult's head and tell them to essentially get in the van. If instead you convince someone to come with you because you have manipulated them thanks to using brainwashing techniques and then they do come with you from what looks like

or what looks like to the outside world of their own volition, have you really kidnapped them? I mean, should people who work in sales be arrested for using highly manipulative tactics to get you to buy something you don't actually want, you don't need, you can't actually afford? Should so-called pickup artists be arrested for playing juvenile, pathetic, and emotionally abusive mind games with the people that they're trying to sleep with? When does immoral but ultimately legal manipulation cross over into something illegal?

It's tough. Also hard to tell what is brainwashing and what is not, because the term itself has been adapted and maybe watered down a bit over the years in popular parlance. For example, the Dutch psychoanalyst Juust Meerlo once warned that television, just TV programming in general, was a brainwashing machine, for example. The anti-communist educator J. Merrill Root claimed that high school teachers and their curriculum was brainwashing kids into being weak-willed and vulnerable to communist influence. People still worry today about their children being brainwashed, quote unquote, by some liberal agenda. If they go to college, literally just heard someone I have known for years,

voiced that concern to me, asked me, uh, if I was worried about my kids, you know, specifically Kyler right now, cause he's in school, uh, being brainwashed in college. No, I'm not. I love that they'll be exposed to new ideas and different viewpoints from my own. They'll be challenged and that's good. And they will challenge me. And that is also good. We'll have a good discourse. I'm open to change, but I'm also confident in my beliefs because I've examined them and do not cling to them blindly and therefore I'm able to intelligently defend them, which leads me to not feeling threatened by the ideas of others. Being taught, being influenced. That's very

different than being brainwashed. And when you start throwing around the term brainwashed, willy-nilly the concept can start to sound like nothing but hyperbole. Just deliberate exaggeration and it can make it seem like brainwashing itself is a dramatic exaggeration and something that is not real and in fact not dangerous. But it is real and it is dangerous. You know, it can make it seem like someone can't actually brainwash you. That a regular person simply cannot be brainwashed by another regular person. But Robert Freigar did just that. Kind of. While he actually was not a secret agent, he was also not a regular person. This is fascinating.

Let's get started. The man at the heart of our story was born on March 1st, 1971 as Robert Freigart. He would add the hendy part later in life as a particularly cruel testament to one of his female victims. His birthplace was rather humble and highly unusual. He spent the first two years of his life living and hiding and scurrying for scraps in the plastic ball pit of a Chuck E. Cheese in Baltimore, Maryland. His mom was a teenager who didn't realize she was pregnant. She went into labor at a friend's birthday party, pushed him out in the ball ball pit of a Chuck E. Cheese in Baltimore, Maryland. His mom was a teenager who didn't realize she was pregnant.

She went into labor at a friend's birthday party, pushed him out in the ball pit, abandoned him, and he just kind of figured out how to survive. It's impressive, really. And of course, that's just crazy talk. No, his humble birthplace was a small village called Warksop in Nottinghamshire, a small market village on the northern edge of Sherwood Forest, 19 miles from the comparatively larger town of Sheffield.

Robert grew up primarily in a small red brick semi-detached council house with a wooden fence around a tiny front garden, not impressive but bucolic. And a council house by the way is a type of public housing in the UK that is owned and rented by a local housing authority. It's subsidized by the government. Roberta, Robert's mom described as an emotionally troubled woman who suffers or suffered from frequent balance of depression in some sources, also received other forms of government assistance throughout Robert's childhood. Robert was, or Roberta, excuse me, often out of work but did hold down a

job in the school cafeteria where Robert would one day be a student for quite some time. She'd also had one kid before Robert, a girl named Tracy. Robert's half-sister is described as being much older in some sources and for most of Robert's childhood she was a grown woman working as a nurse and living on her own. Didn't seem to have a lot of contact with her mother or half-brother. So Robert was essentially for all intent and purposes an only child. And it was clear to everyone, friends, neighbors neighbors and teachers that for Robert and Roberta their relationship was the most important thing of all to both of them. Very codependent, very dysfunctional. Robert's half-sister Tracy was again out of the

house and neither Tracy's dad nor Robert's dad seemed to be in the picture on any level. Yet another story here in the Suckfurs where a fucked up character grows up without a dad Robert and his mom's very close relationship invariably led to Robert being teased as being a mummy's boy at recess Didn't help the Robert was a scrawny child shy and asthmatic and very much teachers pet In fact it unnerve teachers how closely Robert paid attention to lessons his eyes never seemed to leave their faces The other boys would goof around hate hate each other, throw things, but never Robert. He did not seem in any way destined to be a manipulative soulless piece of human garbage when he was still a little guy. He seemed pretty sweet actually.

Didn't do well socially, but he did have one friend beginning around the age of six, a boy named Michael Ingram. Michael would later remember how Robert latched on to him almost as soon as Michael moved to town. Sometimes Michael felt like he could not go anywhere without Robert being at his side. So he was clingy. In adolescence the two drifted apart and clingy old mummy's boy Robert was once again on the bottom of the social hierarchy. Other boys nicknamed him funky because of his taste for odd fashion like wide collared shirts. They also teased him about why he didn't have a girlfriend. As he got older, but Robert always responded with an indifferent shrug

saying, you know, he didn't even want one, but he did want one. He wanted one so bad, suffered such frustration not getting one that he would often start punching himself in his balls right after ejaculating during frequent masturbation sessions, up to 30 of those a day. He would twice end up in the hospital for abusing his own genitals and in a desperate attempt to get him to take a break from his masturbatory habits. You know those cones that vets will put on a dog's head to keep it from overly licking a wound or pulling out their stitches? Well, teenage Robert had little cones placed on each of his wrists

around his hands so he couldn't jerk off or punch his balls. Just picture that for a second. It's fucking crazy but it would work right? Anyone? Did anyone at all? Believe me just for a second on that. It's so funny to me to picture a teenager having anti-masturbation cones placed around their wrists so that their hands you know like they just can't they can't really get in there for like a solid grip. Ah boy. Also you know that someone out there in the world does punch themselves in the balls after they come. I mean at least one person. But I hope no one jerks off 30 times a day. Sounds like self-torture. That sounds worse than the ball self-torture. Anyway, back to reality. Robert did struggle with girls growing up and with school. He pretty much

struggled socially and just in general. Could not have been great for his self-esteem growing up. Some sources say that the former teacher's pet dropped out of school at the age of only 14 because he didn't do well academically, but others seems like most others say it was for social reasons. Either way, Robert's classical education is done by the age of 14 and that could not have been good for his self-esteem. On paper, his life is not going well. He went on to enroll in a two-year apprenticeship at Northern Nottinghamshire College of Further Education and Carpentry, followed by a one-year course in construction crafts at West Nottinghamshire FE College in Mansfield. He was taken on as a carpenter by a construction company, traveled to fairs across Northern England in the Midlands.

And then before the age of 18, he began to help his mother financially. He began to help support his mom and was living with her while on breaks So dad not around and very unhealthy co-dependent attachment with mummy. What could go wrong? By January of 1992 Robert was a couple months shy of his 21st birthday and seemed to be on the path that many in workshop Followed not the path of glitz and glamour but honest hard work to make a modest living And now his mind finally turned to the puzzle he had never quite figured out yet. Girls who did not give birth to him. That month he went out with a new friend named Gerald to Josephine, a night club in Sheffield. And there he saw an attractive young woman named Allison Hopkins dancing with her sister.

And he fucking panicked. Did not go well. He started to masturbate while staring at her directly without blinking from across the club while also repeatedly screaming, I'm very tired of you. I'm very tired of you. Before running out of the club while sobbing hysterically after coming. No, he didn't do that. He didn't even panic actually. Allison was 26, five years older than him. Robert flirted with her. She seemed to like it. He didn't care that she was a little older. She was still way younger than mummy, so he was interested. He asked if he could see her the next day and she agreed.

And then for the next three or so months, Robert and Allison would speak on the phone at least once a week, excuse me, once a week, once a day, and they would spend whole weekends together. Romantically, he had finally, at the age of 20, made a connection with someone who would touch his dick, maybe even suck it. Victory! Professionally, however, things were not going so well. By early summer, the construction company Robert worked for went bankrupt, left him without a job. He did quickly find another job in Sheffield, but then that company followed after just three weeks,

which was very unfortunate because he desperately needed to be making money. He was around 800 pounds in debt and still trying to support his mummy. He was also still dating Allison who he tells he has big big plans. Now these are just temporary setbacks baby. He's gonna get rid of his money problems forever. Become a big deal just you watch it you wait and see. This is exactly where robbers uh robbers robbers Roberts Robbie's Rob it's exactly where Rob's life takes a turn into a dark path, one he will never step off of. And before we learn about that turn, time for today's first of two mid-show sponsor

breaks. Thanks for listening to those ads. If you don't want to hear anymore, get the entire catalog ad-free and more by signing up to be a space lizard on Patreon for five bucks a month. And now let's see how Rob turned to the dark side and becomes a con artist. Rob lies to the first girl he ever dates in order to get money from her. And then he'll just never ever stop doing that. He tells Allison he needs just you know, 1500 pounds,

equivalent to about $4500 now, for some business startup costs. And Allison lends him the money. And how does he pay her back? He steals from her. As soon as he is done blowing through that 1500 pounds there is no fucking business he's starting up. Now he starts to straight up steal from her. Take a very good, you know, no good deed goes unpunished kind of approach. He steals her debit card and withdraws 600 additional pounds from the ATM and now he's kind of learning like hey this is this is better than starting a business.

This is this is the business I should begin just taking from people. Then he pays back part of the money she lent him originally with the money he stole from her and that's a new one. Well she catches him doing that and she dumps him which is always the right call in a situation like that. Someone you start to date steals from you dump them. There literally should never be an exception to this rule. You dump them 100 out of 100 times. If you don't, no matter how many times they apologize, you've just given them a green light to take from you again. Right? What are you gonna do if you, you know, what are you gonna do if you catch them again? Just get mad? Oh well, what do they care? One afternoon the coffee shop of Debenham's department

store, Britain's favorite department store, actually was their slogan before they went bankrupt in the UK a few years ago, lost all their UK stores. Anyway, in one of their coffee shops, Alison told Robert that she thought they should take a break and spend a week or two apart. And then when that time period was up, well, she just didn't return any of his calls. And I'm strongly assuming she did this because she knew he would have gone fucking ape shit. He would have become hostile if she would have just straight up dumped him on the spot. Because he did not take the breakup well at all. At all at all. He was furious. Started to follow Alison around town, leave creepy messages on her phone like, I know where you've been. I was

watching you, but you didn't know I was there. Yeah, if she was worried before that she may have made the wrong decision dumping him, she certainly is not worried now. Still hoping to win Allison back, Robert confided in a friend named Graham and asked if Graham would just help him smooth things over. Graham agreed and headed over to Robert's house where Robert told him his very romantic, not psychotic or terrifying at all plan. They would simply, as one does, they would just force Allison's car off the road. Then when she wrecked no big whoop right

They would run down to her vehicle tie her up with the rope Before she could call the police and then Robert would just kind of knock her unconscious with a light tap from a hammer And then you know Robert would just kind of wing it. You just kind of improvised from there. That seriously was his plan Graham not being an impulsive psychopath, was deeply disturbed by this meeting. He left and immediately called the police. Good man! Also the right call to do that 100 out of 100 times. Soon afterwards there was a knock on the door of Robert and his mummy's council house and baby boy gets arrested for theft and incitement to kidnap. The officer brought

Robert down to the station where two other officers joined in interrogation. One of them was acting detective Sergeant Ivan Stallworthy. Stallworthy listened to Robert's story and was shocked that Robert freely admitted to his crimes, but did not acknowledge them as being crimes. He seemed to think it was perfectly legal to make a plan with your friend to run your ex-girlfriend's car off the road, tie her up, and beat her unconscious with a hammer. I mean they hadn't done that! They were just trying to do that! How was it illegal to try? Well it is. Sergeant Stallworthy was also amazed at how much Robert talked. There were

questions that he could have easily answered in a minute or less. Yet he would just drone on and on and on for 15-20 minutes. He loved having an audience of these guys really paying attention to what he was saying. The case against Robert would be first heard at the magistrate's court in Wuerksopp before being transferred to Nottingham Crown Court at a later date. In the meantime, Robert was released on bail with no restrictions. He was not perceived as being a flight risk or a danger to the community he could go where he pleased. And he quickly landed himself a job at a fast food place and then never showed up. Instead, he just bounced.

Turns out he kind of was a flight risk, but he will go to court later for this. Friday night in September, on one Friday night in September of 1992, Robert Freigart now walks to the workshop railway station with 85 pounds in his pocket. He takes a train to Sheffield. Then he gets another ticket to Stafford. From Stafford he gets on a bus to Newport and Shropshire where Allison worked. Uh oh. Three days later he walked into a pub in Newport called The Swan and asked the owner, John Sims, if there was any part-time jobs available. And Sims was so impressed by Robert's

natural charm he offered him a bartender position right then and there. And Robert did great. Swan's customers seemed to really take to the charming young man with the gift of gab. Many of his regulars were students at the nearby Harper Adams Agricultural College, the top agricultural college in the country. Their students eagerly studied agriculture, animal sciences, business, sustainability, engineering, land and property management, veterinary nursing, zoology and more. All of this was especially important in Shropshire which was and remains heavily agricultural.

Typically life was usually pretty quiet at Harper Adams, not exactly a big wild and crazy party school. But something that happened recently that did have a lot of people talking about Harper Adams. A year and a half before, in March of 1991, Kevin O'Donnell, who had studied at Harper Adams two years before, had been arrested following a large weapons possession and charged with a far more serious crime, being part of a February 1989 explosion that wrecked part of an army barracks in Shropshire, not far from the college.

Then on February 16, 1992, as part of the ongoing troubles between Britain and Ireland, a stolen car and taxi carrying multiple IRA attackers drove into the center of the village of Cole Island in Northern Ireland. The convoy pulled up at the town's fortified Royal Ulster Constabulary security base, fired 30 rounds of armor-piercing tracer ammunition into it at close range using a Soviet-made machine gun they had mounted on the back of the taxi and the gunner was Kevin O'Donnell. The IRA attackers then sped off without any apparent pursuit from the security forces, but then as they prepared to abandon the attack vehicles,

they were ambushed by a British Army detachment that had been lying in wait for them in the car park's perimeter. Kevin O'Donnell, 21, was shot twice and killed while dismounting the gun from the back of the taxi. Kevin O'Donnell, 21, was shot twice and killed while dismounting the gun from the back of the taxi. A seemingly mild-mannered boy who had gone to school in Shropshire, far away from the violence that primarily took place in Northern Ireland, could have done such a thing seemed unimaginable. Not only had Kevin been involved with the IRA, but before that he had cut his teeth wreaking havoc in Shropshire. What if other members of the IRA were in Shropshire now? What if they were planning something? This is what the kids are talking about. As a bartender, Rob undoubtedly picked up on this sort of chatter. And now let's meet three of the pub's regulars who are talking about this kind of stuff. Three people who will

go on to become Robert's primary victims in this crazy ass story. Sarah Smith started hanging out at the bar in October of 1992 at the beginning of her final year at Harper Adams. She didn't want to become a regular at the bar in October of 1992 at the beginning of her final year at Harper Adams. She didn't want to become a regular at the Swans. She was happiest spending her time on her dissertation, which was about radishes. Let me read you her entire dissertation. It should only take about 45 minutes. Here we go. Yeah, right. No, uh reading about radishes for about 45 minutes would be a great way to have most of you stop listening forever. The 23 year old radish aficionado spent her days

observing the differences between that excuse me observing the difference that spacing and watering could make to the young seedlings planting them in perfectly spaced rows jotting down their measurements in a notebook. She was looking forward to finishing her degree getting a job as a radish warlord or vegetable baron or farm manager or something. Somewhere in the English countryside maybe in Oxfordshire or she spent her sandwich year, the British term for a gap year. I like that. Sandwich year sounds more fun than gap year. Gap year sounds like you're not doing anything with your life, like you're deadbeat, but sandwich year? It's not like you're really focused on sandwiches. Like you're gonna learn so fucking much about sandwiches, you're

gonna be able to really wow everyone at the deli. Man, good for you. Sarah knew that she was going to work around farms in some capacity practically from birth. Her parents grew wheat and cauliflower on the Isle of Sanit in Kent, which is actually not an island, not even close to being an island, but called an Isle nonetheless because it used to be an island back when the Romans were in the UK. But then in the middle ages more and more silt flowed in from farms to the strait that separated it from the mainland. Filled it up and now it's just a peninsula. So pretty cool little piece of trivia. Sarah's family may have lived in Thanet back when it was an island. Her grandparents, great-grandparents, and who knows how many other generations

you know going back also farmed land around Thanet. Sarah's mother's family had been farming in Kent for at least 400 years. And Sarah grew up on a 600 acre farm named Netherhale that stopped just short of the North Sea. There she had a horse, Sarina, who she would ride along the sea and when she wasn't riding she was helping out on the farm, driving tractors and clomping around in her boots. Pretty cool childhood. She grew up in a safe and loving world, very sheltered. But then when she was nine her parents sent her to boarding school for most of the year and Sarah hated it. She was miserable without the freedom of the outdoors. Finally when she was 16 they let her be done with boarding school and go to St. Lawrence College in Ramsgate where her brother Guy was also a student. But she still missed the farm

and dreamt of a time when she could return. She was persuaded by a college counselor to work towards a degree in computer science, but she failed out of that and realized her one true love was farming. Radishes. Sweet. Hard. Sexy, sexy radishes. Right? You get it. God, we all get it. I mean, who doesn't want to put a round, hard, throbbing, sexy radish in their mouth and just really, oh, suck it. Actually, I'm not sure anyone wants to do that. Maybe somebody who really likes wasabi or horseradish. Harper Adams with his red brick buildings and humid greenhouses seemed like a natural return for Sarah to the slow traditional lifestyle

she'd known growing up and so that's where she went. And in what was to be her final year of school, she lived with three girls and two boys, all fellow Harpers Adams students. In a house they nicknamed Blue Door, because the place always smelled like a chili cheese dog with a regular amount of chili, normal amount of cheddar cheese, but lots and lots of extra onions. Now that doesn't make any sense at all. No, they called it Blue Door because it had a massive blue painted wooden front door. I know, I'm also disappointed

there wasn't a better backstory for that door or house. One of those boys who lived with her was John Atkinson. John's family they were farmers in Cumbria in northwest England. Their land embedded in a deep valley buffeted by the Atlantic winds and they had also long been farmers. They farmed the fields of Cumbria for over 400 years. Proud of their ability to sustain their family on land that proved too difficult for many others to manage. John spoke with a broad northern twang that Sarah found attractive and that wasn't the only thing that was attractive about him. He had a big old hawk. I'm talking big. No, like four feet long. 38 inches around. No, that's not

anybody wants. That's a weapon of vaginal or ass destruction that's a disability I don't know anything at all about his hog might be more of a little pinky toe baby piggy hog but I do know that Sarah found him witty and fun with a great sense of humor aside from John the other roommates Sarah was closest to was a girl named Maria Hendy Hendy as in Robert Hendy Freedgard now The three of these students would often take day trips together in Sarah's brown Volkswagen sports car, a Cerroco Storm, but there was a problem regarding her car. They didn't have any place to park it oftentimes. There were six cars in total

amongst those living at the blue door, but only a couple parking spots. By chance, the swan pub had a huge parking lot that always had loads of free spaces, and John said it was worth asking if they could figure something out. It would certainly be convenient. The swan was, you know, less than a two minutes walk from the blue door. John is the most outgoing member of the group, was the one to ask the owner if they could park there, and he could have never in a million years predicted how much this one question would change his life and the lives of his two friends.

To sweeten the deal, he promised that he would be a regular and bring his friends. After he asked, the owner yelled to someone in the back, Robert, what do you think of letting some students use our car park? And a slim, dark-haired barman with angular features now came around from the back and said, I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck who uses our fucking parking lot. I don't give a fuck who uses your motherfucking wanker. No, he didn't say that. He was not that aggressive. He was like, yeah, I don't see why not.

And that is how these three farming students were originally connected to the puppet master. December 3rd, 1992. Now, two more IRA bombs explode, this time at the center of Manchester. One in the heart of the city's financial district, the second-year big Anglican cathedral. 65 people are injured and thousands if not millions more are frightened. Manchester in the middle of England seems so far away from the violence in Northern Ireland, but that violence has now started to spread sporadically to all major English cities. Many people are starting to wonder where else could the IRA be? What else could they be planning? Undoubtedly a lot of people in

Shropshire were thinking about Kevin O'Donnell again. But the students who lived at the Blue Door were mostly preoccupied with other concerns, studying and passing exams that would take place at the end of the year. At the end of long days devoted to schoolwork, the three students we just met would join up at the Blue Door for mealtimes, sitting down at Brown from Micah Top dining tables. Then another person now started joining them as well, Robert Freigard. He had started dating Maria Hendy a month earlier after John introduced her to him. Sarah had also met him and she didn't like him. Didn't see what Maria saw in

him. He used energy and self-confidence but something about him just didn't quite gel with her. And on that December 1992 day Robert asked Sarah how her car was, knowing it had been broken into twice. The first time a window had been broken, second time the windshield was smashed and a stereo was stolen. Maria had other problems with her car too. It went missing. They found it 20 miles away at one point. John's car had also recently been broken into. Weird! Who was doing it? Definitely not Robert. Definitely not Robert who worked at the pub next to the parking lot where all this just kept happening. He for sure wasn't

trying to get them, you know, worked up about the IRA. John wondered aloud if it was the IRA maybe you know more of the people who had once been involved with Kevin O'Donnell. Hannah another one of their flatmates did not want to think about the IRA changed the topic asking Robert who's going by Rob now where he learned to cook. Worked as a chef in London, London Hotel for a while, Rob lied. As the CD he had just brought in, Liberty by Duran Duran, played in the background. Between studies of course. As the conversation shifted to music, Rob added that he had heard one of Duran Duran's newest unreleased tracks.

Why did he get to hear it, they wondered. Well he said because his brother, and he doesn't have a brother if you remember, was their bass player. But everyone knew that Duran Duran's bass player was named John Taylor. Duran Duran's still very popular back in 1992. When someone asked him about not having Rob's last name, Rob said, well yeah, that Taylor was just a stage name. Come on, come on, it's a fucking stage name you guys! It sounded believable. So Rob gets away with another lie. As the wine flowed, Rob asked the group how old they

thought he was, and at the end he announced that he was 29, almost 30. Now he's only 21, almost 22. Again, no one thinks anything of it. Why would someone lie about that? Cut to a few weeks and many lies later. Now Sarah returns to school after Christmas break, elated to see her friends again and one night she gets roped into helping Rob behind the bar at the Swan and you know she felt like she couldn't turn him down given the free parking situation. Then at the end of the night, Rob comes on to her. He's in a flirtatious mood.

He talks about it being her lucky day. Gross, he's at least in my mind not that handsome. And it's just a gross thing for anybody to say. He was still dating her flatmate and one of her best friends, Maria Hendy as well. And Sarah's upset. After she turns him down, Rob starts bragging about all of his accomplishments now. He says he had a degree in psychology from Oxford University. That could get him a job anywhere.

He clearly expected his resume to entice her into fucking him behind her friend's back. Nope. Sarah goes home, doesn't say anything to her friend. It's an awkward position he's put her in. A week or so later, in late January of 1993, Rob decides to try his luck with someone else now, but not sexually this time. Now this would be a stab at something bigger. They're bringing someone further, much further into the web of lies he's now weaving. And that person is John. This is when it really gets going. John helps Rob often behind the bar, especially closing up.

And one night at the end of January, Rob tells him something confusing. He says, it'd be a mistake to believe everything you hear. And John's like, what? Rob says, your friend Gary for instance. And that hit a nerve with John. Though he was still his usual boisterous outgoing self in public, John had been going through a tough time recently. Gary McCullough was an Irish guy who had been in his tutor group and John really liked him.

But on New Year's Day, Gary had shocked John and everyone else who cared about him when he killed himself with a shotgun. The rumor was it had something to do with an ex-girlfriend. And although they had not been especially close John blamed himself. He thought he should have been, you know, looking for warning signs, should have seen them. He wondered if he could have done more to help Gary. He's a very kind soul. But now Rob is telling him something different, leading him down a confusing line of question. How many students in this college are Irish, John? Don't know? Let me tell you, he says, one in every five. That's how many. And why do you think that they're here at an agricultural college in the middle of bloody Shropshire? As he spoke, Rob

moved closer and closer to John before he dropped the bomb, so to speak. Fertilizer. John is still confused. Nitrogen fertilizer, Rob emphasized. And what's one of the main constituents of bombs, eh John? John was not really confused. Was Rob implying a bunch of Irish students who were secret IRA members had come to Harper Adams to secure supplies for bombs? Yes, he was. And Rob had the trump card related to this line of reasoning. Kevin O'Donnell. He'd been in the IRA. He'd been suspected of bombing the Turnhill Army Barracks just down the road. John was still confused. Nobody at his school looked like a member of the IRA to him. They all just looked like students. That caused Rob to sneer.

Did John think they went around wearing signs around their necks, advertising that they hated the English, that they wanted independence for Northern Ireland by any means necessary? Did you think Kevin O'Donnell was acting alone? Come on, son, wake up! Rob shook his head, said it was crazy that John had missed what was right under his nose, that some of his so-called friends were for sure working for the IRA. John was shocked trying to process all this as Rob kept cleaning up the bar. Was he saying that Gary was in the IRA?

When John asked, Rob simply shrugged, said it was time to go. He then went upstairs to the apartment above the pub, John on his heels, and gestured at the disarray. Do you think I would choose to live in a dump like this? Rob said. Do you think I would lower myself to live in such a backward, out of the way town? This is nothing like I'm used to. It's only temporary. Then Rob took something out of his pocket, what looked like an official notice of some sort from Nottingham Crown Court. He told John it was a summons for one of John's seemingly nice friends who would shoot him without thinking twice. Confusingly, however, he added that Gary was not part of the IRA. He had simply stumbled upon some IRA secrets and they'd killed him

to cover their tracks. That is how ruthless they were. They would kill one of their own countrymen, make it look like a suicide without a second thought, wake up John! John had one last question. How did Rob know all this? Rob smiled now as he revealed quote the truth. He was an undercover agent. He was James Bond essentially. And this lie, this big fucking crazy lie, is the one that will drastically change the lives of Rob, John, Sarah, and Maria forever. For the next four days, John weighed the validity of Rob's ridiculous claims. At first,

he thought it sounded crazy because it literally was. But the more John thought about it, the more it made sense to him. Why else would 30-year-old, definitely not the same age Rob, be trying to break into the college social scene? Why else would his apartment above the pub be so bare-boned and disheveled and filthy? And it was undeniable that there had been at some point a definite IRA presence at Harper Adams. At the beginning of every school year since, police officers had even warned students not to joke about acts of terrorism, not to wear a ski mask or anything else, like a ski mask because they could find themselves in a lot of trouble. also what could Rob possibly gain by telling this weird lie to John wasn't like Rob had asked him for money or anything So after four days John thought that Rob was saying the truth that he really probably was a member of Scotland Yard special branch

After four days he had some questions though before answering them Rob said that even knowing this information could be a death sentence. So if he gave John these answers, John couldn't tell anyone. John promised he wouldn't. And Rob now told him there were a minimum of three students who were from the IRA, though typically a cell would have five or six members. And he was figuring out, trying to figure out still who the others were. Then he told John something surprising. He needed John's help. He needed John to help him flush him out. Rob explained that John was perfect. He was surrounded by IRA members. Well-liked. Not at all suspicious. And now that he knew all of this, well, sorry Johnny, but you no longer have a choice. You have to cooperate now. Rob now told him to bring back a list of students

who've been acting strangely recently. And then John would be given the next step and John was on board for all of this. Oh man, holy shit what a big swing Rob took here. This could have so easily blown up in his face. John could have been like, oh Bullocks, fuck off you silly twat. He could have been done with John or you know yeah it could have been Rob, John could have been done with Rob, excuse me. You know, reported what happened to Sarah and Maria. Maria could have dumped him. They could have all stopped swinging by the swan, never been have been Rob. John could have been done with Rob. Excuse me. You know, reported what happened to Sarah and Maria Maria could have dumped him. They could have all stopped swinging by the swan never been dragged into Rob's fucking mess Maybe just maybe if he'd been embarrassed badly enough, maybe Rob would have never tried this bullshit again with someone else

But that's not what happened Next step of the plan would take place a few days later in the cold damp cellar of the pub. This is insane Rob unbuttoned his sleeves laid a leather jacket on the ground of his, took it off and laid it down, then asked John if he'd ever punched somebody. And John said no he hadn't. Well Rob said they had to work quickly. There was no time to give him, he quote, the full police training. So Rob would have to personally toughen John up. He blindfolded John, told him that he was going to punch him and John needed to not react.

Then right as John began to change his mind and pleaded to be let out of this operation, Rob punched him in the face. Another gutsy move! Taked him right in the chin, dropped him. And John didn't rip off the blindfold, fight back, and tell Rob to go fuck himself. No, he just took it. He thinks all this is legit now. Man, how fun for Rob! You laughing about this later just getting to punch this guy, you know, with nothing coming back towards him? Is he shocked that he's pulling his shit off? Or is he so crazy he kind of believes

his own bullshit? I mean, he knows he was never actually recruited by the British government to be an intelligence operative, but maybe he thinks that, you know, on his own he really can bring down some IRA members and then the government will be so impressed by this rogue James Bond sexy motherfucker that they'll hire him, probably give him a medal, probably knight him. Who knows who this crazy son of a bitch? Well Rob during his first quote unquote training session will punch John over and over as he gives him instructions, each direction punctuated by dizzying blow. Tells John that he has to report on what his friends are doing at all times, which meant he couldn't go to school anymore. Now he's got to put

college on hold. He's got to work behind the bar with Rob for a while and soon right he'll have to do some work with him in another part of the country. Oh yeah he's convincing this motherfucker to walk away from getting his degree during his final year at school. John, Sarah, Maria just a few months away from graduating at this point. Rob tells John the Scotland yard will pay him and it will all ideally be over in a few weeks when they make their arrests. First though, they needed some dramatic information that would get everyone talking to each other. They could then trace that rumor to see who was connected to who. And that rumor would be John coming out of the closet as homosexual.

Yeah, holy shit, he's ramped things up quick with John. He's gotten him to allow him to punch him And that rumor would be John coming out of the closet as homosexual. Yeah. Holy shit. He has ramped things up quick with John. He's gotten him to allow him to punch him in the face as part of his training. He's convinced him to drop out of college and now he's convinced him to tell all of his friends that he is gay when he is not. A random fucking pub bartender is doing all of this. Unreal. John is dismayed, but he tells himself that this is about more than him.

He's, this is about more than him. This is about saving lives and at the end of another training session He gets punched some more Rob tells John who one IRA member was Jim Cooper John's housemate Jim hadn't been on John's list of potential IRA members and Rob admonishes him you got to do better John is instructed now that he will need to get into a fight with Jim because quote Provocation always works well Rob will provide John with the right clothes douse him in foul-smelling aftershave to get in this fight

This is also weird and then John will head in, you know for the role of a lifetime This Rob says will create a lot of gossip that will lead directly to the IRA cell to finding out who's in it Most important thing of all John has to keep his fucking mouth shut about what he robbed her up to. Man, this is wild shit to try and get someone else to do. And John will actually do it. By early March of 1993, Sarah has noticed that something is very wrong with her friend and sort of crush, John.

They'd all moved out of the Blue Door and into residence halls for their final few months of school so they can save commuting time and focus on final exams. But John's never home. He's never here studying either. He's always at the pub. He stopped going to lectures, stopped working on his dissertation, even though as recently as a few weeks ago he'd still been the person everyone expected to get the highest grade

in class. Sarah decides to go to the pub to investigate. And the scene she finds is immediately shocking. John's behind the bar, but he doesn't look like John. His brown hair has been dyed a white blonde. He looks sickly and pale with bruises all over his face and he had been acting so crazy recently. Sarah remembered how he had recently attacked Jim Cooper who'd been one of his best friends. John had been wearing a flowery shirt and a waistcoat, a waistcoat, a reek of aftershave as though he was in a

cabaret act. And when Jim laughed, John punched him so hard in the mouth, he pushed one of Jim's teeth clean through his top lip. And then John declared that he was that he was gay. Sarah was also was so confused and a little devastated. She had always hoped they would end up together. And now at the pub, John tells her that he's fine, that he doesn't want to finish his degree and he doesn't want to talk about it with

her. Crushed, Sarah returns to her dorm. There she runs into Maria Hendy who was just getting back from Sheffield. She'd gone to court with Robert who told her, this is his girlfriend straight up, told her that he had fucking killed his former girlfriend's dog and on the way back he showed her where his ex used to live. Okay. Sarah's also now a little concerned about Maria, very concerned about Rob. Another quick life lesson, don't ever fucking date a dog killer. If you're dating someone and they tell you that they killed their ex's dog to get back at them, leave immediately. That is not a stable person. That's a fucking lunatic. Massive, massive, run and run fast and

run right now red flag and Maria just blows past it. John meanwhile steadily becoming more miserable than ever and before we learn why John is more miserable than ever time for today's second and two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thank you for listening to those sponsors hope you heard some deals you liked and now let's find out what's going on with poor John. He hates working at the pub, where he's now working 12-hour shifts. He also hates not being able to go to school and finish his degree. And he hates the outfits he considers outlandish that Rob insists he wear as part of his character, this cover of him being gay now.

But this poor bastard wants to do right by England. Wants to help Rob and his mission to save lives by rooting out IRA operatives. Rob keeps telling him it's not safe for him to go back to school. John's scared now. He wants to help Rob and his mission to save lives by rooting out IRA operatives. Rob keeps telling him it's not safe for him to go back to school. John's scared now. Rob is living rent free in his head. Rob is brainwashing the fuck out of him. John's getting twitchy just watching students come into the pub and in his mind every one of them is possibly an IRA member.

He also feels proud of the hardships he's been able to endure, the sacrifices he has made, the punches he's taken, the punches he's taken, the friendships he's had to let go of, the future career he's now put on hold. He's done so much for his country. But he's also depressed. Rob now, in an attempt to lift John's low spirits, suggests that he go get his butt fucked a whole bunch. By as many men as possible. Yeah, he'll hate it at first.

But if he just sticks with it, he'll learn to love it. And then being gay won't be just a cover anymore. It won't be a hardship. It'll be the real deal. He'll be happy. Well, John reluctantly agrees. He lets Rob get him good and drunk and then he lets Rob sell him to a local pimp who booked John with up to two dozen men a day for the following few months. John will later estimate that somewhere around 200 to 300 guys fucked him before he couldn't take it anymore. And he told Rob that he was done. That he still hated. He hated more than ever getting his butt fucked. But he wasn't done with his mission. He still wanted to save England. Just as soon as his

rectum was surgically repaired, he no longer needed to wear a clostomy bag. Now, Rob wasn't quite that good at getting John to do whatever he wanted. Close, but not quite. He did not sell John out to a pimp. He does tell John to ask Sarah out, even though, you know, he's now supposed to be gay. Well John's confused about more than just that. Why should he hang out with Sarah if that could put her at risk, you know, with the IRA? Rob assures him that, you know, she'll be fine. He still dated Maria.

She's okay. Right? Because no one knows what they're doing. So John asks her out now and Sarah's now very confused. And John has to tell her that, you know, yeah, he was gay, you know, like a little while ago, but now he's not. He just says he's confused about his sexuality and he would like to prove to himself that he's not gay by getting with Sarah. Please, Sarah, help me help myself, but just sit on my face for a little while. Let's just find out if I like it. Just give me a little taste, a little sniff. And you know what? We'll let the chips fall where they may. Okay? Just let me put the dip in. See how it feels. See how warm it is.

Sarah, for whatever reason, probably because, you know, thinking about John, still makes her a little wet, agrees to this fucking insanity. So now John's a little bit happier. Sarah's happy. But also, why isn't the mission over? It was only supposed to last for a few weeks. Well, Rob points out they still haven't found the IRA terror cell. A cell that does not of course exist. Gotta keep working, Johnny boy, for the glory of England. Then on March 15th, 1993, Rob ups the ante to keep John invested. He tells John that their mission has been compromised.

Ah, this is fucking terrifying. The IRA is onto them. I'm so sorry. Here at the pub, he said, you know, there were people, quote, watching our backs. But going outside, hanging around the neighborhood, you know, there were people quote watching our backs, but going outside hanging around the neighborhood that would quote be suicide. So they needed to leave town and worst news, Sarah and Maria, right? They're in danger. They're on the IRA hit list as well. I know I said they'd be safe and I was wrong.

Sorry about that. Oh, John is still in and so are Sarah and Maria. Now this is how he jumps from brainwashing one person to three people. Rob explains how they will all have to leave the area for at least a month. Then after Easter, a bunch of arrests should go through and they'll be able to return to normal lives. No big deal. Rob tells John that it wouldn't be safe for the girls to know that Rob is a secret agent,

so they'll have to get the girls to leave town another way. Like by telling them that John is dying of liver cancer. At the pub, John breaks the news to the girls, speaking in creepy monotone with weird phrasing like, I regret to inform you that I'm dying. He said he only had a few months left to live. To Sarah this all makes a ghastly sort of sense right that's why John's physical appearance has changed so much that's why he's been acting weird he's been carrying around the burden of dying. John asked him to go on a month long trip as a sort of last hurrah for him. And Sarah and Maria agree.

And that is fucking insane. They're a few months away from graduating. Sarah has just started dating John. It's not like they're married. They're not lifelong friends, right? Maria is just one of John's friends. You know, spend, spend some weekends with him. Miss a week of classes to go on a special trip with him

But a fucking month. What are you doing? Fuck up your degree spend all your time with him for a month. And why isn't he travel with his family? Where are his parents his grandparents his siblings? The shit is crazy Rob is pulling off some wild stuff and you get some help from the IRA and doing so five days later a huge IRA bomb Planted near a shopping mall in Warrington Chesh, kills two young boys on the day before Mother's Day and injures more than 50 people. And Rob, of course, is able to use this to his advantage. The attack is just 60 miles away. They're getting fucking close.

They're killing people for sure. About 10 days after that attack, the foursome leaves. Sarah tossed a jumbled of shoes, trousers, and tops into a bag that she called her mom, told her she was taking a road trip around the country. And after saying a quick goodbye to her friends, letting them think it's just for the Easter break, the foursome hits the road. For ten days, they travel by rail from one end of the country to another, sleeping in the cheapest bed and breakfast they can find. Sometimes they will drive around a bit in John or Maria's car and they're doing this instead of just spending a few more weeks,

really just to finish their degrees. Finally, they arrived confused and exhausted in Bournemouth, a seaside town. They spend a couple hours wandering around before Rob tells the girls he's got to reveal something important. He reveals what John is known for a few months. There is no cancer. There's an IRA terror cell at Harper Adams and Rob has been trying to root him out, to hunt him down. John reveals that he's a secret agent as well. Rob has recruited him to root him out, to hunt him down. John reveals that he's a secret agent as well. Rob has recruited him. Sorry about the lies, about the cancer. Then Rob tells him they have to lay low for a few weeks until the necessary arrests have been made. Of course, they can't tell

their families, otherwise they might be targeted as well. You'll be putting their lives at risk. Also tells the girls that they'll have to train them. They'll need to learn how to take a punch. A lot of punches actually. And he and John together now, beat the living fuck out of Sarah and Maria for a few weeks. Sarah will lose vision permanently in one eye. Maria will lose her sense of smell and walk with a limp. But they pass the test. That's all that matters for the glory of the Queen! Hail Nimrod, yay! No, that didn't happen. But it feels very possible in the story, doesn't it? The girls don't get punched, but the rest of it happened. They do show a bit more reluctance to believe in this bullshit than John did, at least Sarah does, for a bit. She doesn't buy it, she wants to see some ID.

You know, have Rob Ruvey's legit. Rob scoffs at that. Why would he have ID if he was an undercover agent? He can't risk getting kidnapped, someone finding that out? Come on, it'd be a death sentence. What are you doing? In lieu of that, he offers her information about her own family and background, as well as her finances, like the fact that she's got 20,000 pounds split between two bank accounts, which she does. Also tells her that he knows about her trust fund and that her family has land in Cliff's End

in Westwood. Also correct, she's blown away. She had never talked about any of that stuff before with any of her friends. And with John and her new boyfriend nodding along miserably, she starts to wonder if they are telling the truth. He's good. Rob's good at this. Sources do not reveal how Rob came to get that information. I'm not sure investigators ever figured out how he did it. I'm guessing he went through her things. I mean, he's been dating her former roommate for months, perhaps one night, you know, when they're all together, he sneaks into Sarah's room or, you know, looks through her password, something. Around this time, the IRA helps Rob again. On April 24th, 1993, an IRA bomb rips through the heart of London, killing one person, injuring over 40, completely wrecks a medieval church,

causes massive damage to the surrounding buildings. And then a day later at Netherhale, Sarah Smith's family home in Kent, at her family home. Her parents are now wondering where their daughter is. Peter Smith, Sarah's father, was still farming at the age of 60. He was fiercely proud of it. In his experience, there wasn't anything he hadn't been able to figure out. He was a smart, logical man above all. But he had never run into someone like Robert Fregar before, and he will not be able to understand what is now going on with his daughter as he waits for her. In the kitchen, Sarah's mother Jill is putting lunch in the oven to warm up. She's trying to hide how disappointed she is that Sarah still hasn't shown up for any of Easter break.

She and Peter had always been supportive of their kids spreading their wings so she tries to put out of her mind. All afternoon they wait watching the hours tick by as they read the Sunday papers, eat a modest dinner before finally heading to bed. And then a half past midnight they are awoken by the crunch of tires on the gravel outside. Sarah's home. Jill and Peter run downstairs excited though confused to see their daughter arrive at this hour.

Their confusion deepens when Sarah apologizes for showing up so late but won't make eye contact with him. And then she introduces Maria, John, and fucking Rob! Everyone wants to go to bed. The next morning Sarah fidgets around through breakfast unable to relax.. Then she tells her mom they had to leave that morning. Jill urges her to stay and notices that rather than telling her parents yes or no, Sarah looks to Rob. Peter's not having it. He insists his daughter stay at least one more day. By the next day, Sarah's strange mood still has not lifted. As she packs the car, the phone rings. Peter goes to answer it.

It's the head of studies at Harper Adams, asking the Smiths if they knew where their daughter was. Well, Peter isn't worried. He just tells the administrator that Sarah's on her way back right now. But eight days later, the head of studies would call again. Sarah still wasn't back. Jill is deeply alarmed. Peter is confident there must be a reasonable explanation.

He calls Maria Hendy's parents, who they say the same thing had happened to them and that Maria had only told them that one day you'll understand and now he's a little worried. But he's trying not to panic. His daughter has always been sensible. Meanwhile John Atkinson's parents report that things had gone off the rails after Christmas when Peter called them. Sarah's friends at school reported that John had been diagnosed with cancer though his parents didn't know anything about that. Peter called Rob's former job as well and the new bartender at the Swan didn't think much of Robert Freeguard,

said he stole some money when he left. She gave Peter the number for John Simms, the previous bartender, who recommended that Peter try calling the mother of a former girlfriend of Rob's. He does, and what she could remember Rob had been obsessed with this girlfriend. Obsessed in this guy needs to be locked up kind of way. Now Peter is very worried. He's worried as hell the more he finds out about Rob. All of this info has left him feeling deeply disturbed. But he doesn't know what to do to get his daughter out of this mess. A fucking nightmare for a parent. He doesn't even know where his daughter is. Well, Sarah's now bouncing all around the UK.

parent. He doesn't even know where his daughter is. Well Sarah's now bouncing all around the UK. Every day she and Rob and John and Maria are driving hundreds of miles. Every night they're sleeping in a fleabag hotel. They're hiding from IRA operatives back in Newport Shropshire while they wait for other operatives to find and arrest them. Then in early May Rob informs her that there's been a hitch in the plan and the arrests have not been made yet. So she can't go back. She can't try and finish her degree. Knowing this will greatly upset her parents Rob tells her to call them and tell them that she got an amazing job offer. Oh how cool! But as soon as she tries to tell her father Peter he gives

her a question. What's all this about John dying? Well Sarah doesn't know how to answer that and she tries to blow past it saying she's getting hired by the commercial union, this massive insurance company. But her answer makes no sense. As she plows on with her salary, what kind of benefits she's going to get, her dad just keeps asking questions. Still finally, Sarah, continually unable to answer these questions, just panics and hangs up. A couple days later, Rob tells everyone that he set up a safe house for them near Cambridge. But, little snag, Sarah, you got to pay for it. Well, Sarah box. She wonders why the police, the so-called organizers of this mission, won't pay for it, but Rob tells her it's not a matter of that.

She'll get her money back later. She just has to be seen paying for it, you know, to keep their cover going. And so she does. They all just keep sinking deeper and deeper into this asshole's trap. She tells the landlord that there are a group of agricultural students on a sandwich here, focusing on sandwiches, trying to figure out how to market a radish melt sandwich. She tells the landlord that there are a group of agricultural students on a sandwich here, focusing on sandwiches, trying to figure out how to market a radish melt sandwich, radishes in provolone or radishes in Swiss, working down the road at Perkins Engines.

And all that's true except the sandwich details. When they then arrive at the house, the house Sarah is paying for, Rob makes Sarah wander the street for hours, writing down license plate numbers so he can check them. Then only a few hours later as Sarah's trying to go to sleep Rob bursts into the room tells that Sarah's dad has given her address to Jim Cooper the IRA member oh my god fucking Peter their lives are now in great danger and in a panic they all bolt. It's all bullshit. Meanwhile Peter keeps doing his homework. He had called the commercial union who reported back that his daughter absolutely not offered a job not working there. Then he gets a lucky break when the landlord of the house near Cambridge calls him up for

a reference and tells him his kid and her friends are working at Perkins Engines. Wanting to get some more info before he acts, Peter calls up Rob's ex-girlfriend Allison's mother who tells him how Rob had once stolen from Allison's bank account and how he had concocted a plan to kidnap her. Peter's very next call is to the police and he gets connected to the detective who had worked with Allison on Rob's case, Ivan Stallworthy. Stallworthy reported that Freegard lived in a fantasy world and liked young ladies with money, but the officer also informed him that there wasn't much Peter could do considering Rob wasn't breaking the law. Not at this time at least. He does have a trial coming up for his crimes

against Allison though. Meanwhile Sarah and the others keep bouncing around spending Sarah's money always on the go and when they make it to the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland John's parents call him on a cell phone asking about why they've been getting very concerning calls from Peter Smith. They want obviously to know what the fuck is going on. And all of this enrages Rob, who tells these poor bastards that the deeper Peter digs, the longer this operation will have to take. Why will it take longer?

Because they're because they're spending too much time driving around now. And, you know, and there's not enough time in one place for them to help find the IRA cell or hey look at that never mind don't try and make sense of anything that Rob is telling these guys none of it passes any sort of logic test and the more nonsense sandwiches this group eats the more receptive they will be to eating more nonsense sandwiches going forward and I should probably stop trying to shoehorn sandwich talk in this narrative. Rob also tells John that John needs to call his parents and call Peter Smith and that he has to tell them he has AIDS. How would that not just make them more concerned? This is really just so much nonsense.

Sarah tells Rob that she didn't think this would get her father off their backs. And Rob then tells her that because she was the most conspicuous one, she now also needs to buzz her hair down to almost nothing and bleach the remaining fuss. At the time, Sarah didn't see this for what it was. It was punishment for speaking up against Rob. Sarah will be punished a lot, and I gotta wonder if it's because she rejected Rob's sexual advances that one night at the Swan. As he and John stalked off to make the AIDS call to John's parents, lot and I gotta wonder if it's because she rejected Rob's sexual advances that one night at the Swan. As he and John stalked off to make the AIDS call to John's parents, my god, Maria now turns to Sarah and shares more bad news. She's pregnant with Rob's child. Oh, the drama deepens and the plot thickens. By the end of May 1992, Jill and Peter Smith's home office has been turned into a war room.

Peter had hung up a huge map of England, Wales, and Scotland with pins scattered across marking where Sarah had withdrawn cash or booked hotels according to the bills that still came to the farm. Peter had also uncovered that story about AIDS was bogus since John had given blood at a campus blood drive a few weeks prior, a few weeks before he left, excuse me, a call to the blood bank confirmed that and I am loving Peter good dad smart dad I just wish he also had a plan regarding how he's going to kill Rob once he gets a hold of that son of a bitch What was driving Peter and Jill really crazy was trying to figure out why Sarah and John were playing along with Rob's lies Meanwhile Robin his crew would cross the country several times again and listen to the Duran Duran single, Ordinary World, about 10,000 times.

Not kidding. Very, very into this song. Robin would play this one song on loop in the car over and over for fucking days. Great song. Maybe my favorite Duran Duran song, but over and over, hour after hour, day after day, while driving back and forth across the country. I mean, was he trying to drive him insane? Probably. Why didn't they just grab the CD and throw it out the fucking window at some point, just over and over? Uh huh, and then again.

Uh huh. Oh yeah. And again. Oh yeah. One more time. What did you say about crying? That would drive me insane. And still, Sarah, as her parents had learned, continued to pay for their crisscrossing around the country. Rob tells her that she needs to take out even more money because they had dramatically overspent since Peter blew their cover at the Cambridge House.

In Winchester, Sarah now withdraws all that is left in her savings account. Rob tells her that he is going to put the money in several different untraceable accounts so that the IRA couldn't track them down. This is so crazy. They could have gone, Sarah, Maria, John. They could have gone to the cops at any point. And shared that they were worried about the IRA tracking them down. And then Rob's house of cards would have collapsed on itself. But they don't. Sarah doesn't want to give Rob more money. She's becoming increasingly worried about ever getting paid back.

But her life is just so fucking confusing by this point. And she's so tired. Her nerves are shot from being worried about the IRA finding and killing them at any moment. She and the gang are just driving every day, listening to so, so, so much ordinary world just on fucking repeat non-stop. Oh, they're going insane. Yes! What, what today? Today? Oh, okay. They're never spending more than one night in the same place. It's just easy at this point for her to try and not make sense of all this and just do whatever Rob just tells her and the rest of them to do.

June 17th, 1993. The group are still bouncing around the country and they return to the part of the country where Rob felt most at home, northern England. He'd spotted an advertisement in the Sheffield, in advert, in the Sheffield style for a luxury flats in the city's Hillsboro district, barely half an hour from his hometown of Wurksup. The landlady showed him around the apartment, occupied the top two floors of a row house on Dorothy Road. Freeguard signs a six-month lease, hands over 840 pounds of Sarah's money in cash for two months rent. Tells the landlady that he's working for the he's working for British nuclear fuels and plan to live with his girlfriend. She had no idea that

Sarah and John will be living there as well. He tells the three captives that someone from Security Ops is living on the bottom floor but do not fucking talk to them ever. On Sarah's bedroom there's a wardrobe but no mattress and she buys a couple pillows on her credit card, but still has to sleep on the hard floor, even though she's paying for the lease. She's totally punishing her for not sleeping with him. Maria and Rob, meanwhile, stay on another floor which has heat and mattresses. And why was he finally deciding to stay in one place after so much travel? Well, so he can move to the next phase of his kidnapping.

With all of them in one place, semi-permanently, they'll have to be super careful because there's such a huge risk. So not only do they have to be with him all the time, they have to do everything he says. He tells them they should never answer the door. They should never believe anyone who identifies himself to the police. He tells Sarah to call herself Betty Smith now and brings her to work at her new job, which is a fast food joint next to a nightclub. He is really breaking down her identity further here. This is where some serious next-level brainwashing begins. Not just the confusion and fear of the road but making the students think that they are no longer themselves. In

Sarah's case he had already made her alter her appearance and he'd taken all her money so she's more pot committed and reluctant to leave. Now he forces her to use a new name and take a job she would have never worked in her normal life. John's brainwashing is similar. Rob puts him to work at the Stonehouse Pub in Sheffield's Orchard Square. Afterwards, he has to wait at an exact spot on the street for Rob to pick him up, no matter if it is raining or snowing. Sarah and John also are not allowed to eat the food in the house without asking. They're not even allowed to have a key to the house and they have to give Rob all of their wages.

Whenever Rob turns their request down for pocket money, he always says that he'd already blown their budget covering their tracks after fucking Peter, Sarah's dad, the bane of his existence, had given away the location of that safe house and really fucked things up. And when they still question why they're doing things or what's going to happen, Freeguard pulls out the last line in the Brainwashers playbook. He tells them to obey him, or it is going to get a lot worse. In August of 1993, Peter and Jill receive a letter from their daughter Sarah asking them to please just leave her alone. Being good parents, they don't. Instead, more frantic and worried than ever, they hire a private detective. God, I love these people. Not sure what Maria and John's parents are up to, but they clearly are not on the same level

as Peter and Jill when it comes to parenting. And on his own, Peter sees something in Sarah's credit card statements that really catch his attention now. Sarah has bought season tickets to a soccer club in Sheffield. That meant that A, they were living nearby, and B, since Sarah had no interest in soccer, someone else was using those tickets. Someone like Robert fucking Freigard. Peter calls up the soccer club, asks him to confirm which seats the tickets are for. Then he calls up his son Guy. Tells Guy he's got a mission for him. You gotta go get a hold of Rob. Let's fucking go! Well on Saturday, September 26, 1993, Guy Smith waits patiently outside Sheffield United, the soccer club. He's already been scouring the city for weeks, hoping to catch sight of his sister. No dice. Nobody recognizes the pictures

he has been showing them of her. But he knows, excuse me, that once the soccer match starts, Rob is gonna be wedged in beside a bunch of fans unable to escape him. And when the match starts, guy makes his move. He corners Rob. Says he wants to see his sister fucking now. Rob replies that Sarah doesn't want to see her family. And that he is the only one who cares about her. The guy is like, fuck that. He insists. And Rob agrees to take him to her after the game.

Then the pair climb into Rob's top of the line Astra. Rob delivers him to the pub where John works, saying he doesn't know where Sarah is at the moment. But John does. Well, John offers nothing. So now Rob takes Guy to a hotel on the edge of town, somebody drops him off saying he's gonna go get Sarah. A full day passes before he shows up again. Now Rob shows up, takes him in town to meet Sarah,

and Guy thinks it will be, you know, yet another distraction, but there Sarah is getting off a bus. Guy takes her aside, tells her that she is being fed a stream of lies. Peter has gotten the IRA story out of some of her college friends who have been told by Maria before she left. Sarah simply starts to cry. Says she has to go. Both she and John totally brainwashed and she leaves.

And now I wonder what would you do in a situation like this? Would you forcibly kidnap your sister? Would you tie her up, bring her home, interrogate her? I mean you might get arrested. It's a bit crazy and extreme for sure, but if it was your best shot at getting your sister out of this mess, would you do it? Would you follow her and rob to where they're living, then do something to rob, kidnap him, slash the tires on his car, show up in a ski mask, you know, with a baseball bat, beat him half to death, beat him all the way to death. I mean, very risky. You could go to prison for years, maybe for

the rest of your life, but would you be tempted to do something very extreme? I would be tempted. Not sure if I would do it. Easy to get worked up and make crazy plans. Quite another thing to pull them off. Man, I'd be tempted. I hope I'm never faced with something like that. By the end of September, Rob has a new plan now. He knows it's just a matter of time until Peter himself shows up, so he has to move his captives yet again. This time, however, he wants to split them up to deprive them of the last social connections they have. Each other. Their last daily ties to their old lives. First, however, he tells Sarah to call her parents to ask them to pay off her credit

cards so they can withdraw more money. Sarah does. And her parents, not knowing what else to do, they do pay off the cards and then Sarah promptly withdraws over a thousand pounds in cash and hands it to Rob. November of 1993 now. Robert goes to the metal hall shopping center to buy a swatch watch. Remember those? He was also there to see Simon Young, the manager of the watch department at Goldsmiths, who had become a friend of his of sorts. Robert, calling himself Robert Frittori,

returns again and again looking at these swatches. Eventually makes a strange request. Could Simon put someone up for him just for a little while? Simon, so eager to sell a swatch watch and get that commission, plus Rob offers to pay for both of their food, takes him up on the deal. How the hell is he pulling this shit off? Just working the minds of gullible people? Swatch watches were not that expensive. How much of a commission was Ryman really gonna fucking get for a swatch watch? Well, Simon is soon shocked when Sarah Smith arrives at his house because he recognizes her. Back in February when he had gone to a nightclub with Robert Frittori, who he was sometimes seen socially, after drinking just one pint this night he had passed out completely waking up in the back

of a car. He then quickly passed out again, next wakes up on the floor of a pub in Newport, Shropshire, and there Rob informs him that this was the pub he owned and introduces him to some of his regulars, John Atkinson, Maria Hendy and Sarah Smith. The fuck is happening? Why is Simon still hanging out with someone who obviously roofied him? Now Simon wonders, what has happened to Sarah? How did the happy farming student she had met before turn into this sad looking woman with no hair on her head?

Well Sarah offered him no clues herself. She was completely vacant. She now spends her days working at a bar in a hotel, giving them Maria Hendy's bank account info for her direct deposit along with Maria's ID. Yeah, she's pretending to be Maria now. Rob had instructed her to do this and then afterwards warns her that she will be prosecuted and jailed for a long time for fraud if anyone ever finds out. Even though she's doing this on behalf of the government. He's just sinking his disgusting clutches

into her deeper and deeper. The former social outcast, the former fucking mummy's boy whose life was going nowhere just a year ago. Oh man he must have felt like such a big and powerful man now. He must think he's so smart. Look at me now mummy. Look at me now. Then in December of 1993, Rob brings John to John's sister's house. It had now been more than six months since John had seen, or since Jean, excuse me, had seen her brother. John insisted that they drive across town to the city of Gastase and Slash diner, where John told her about the IRA cells at Harper Adams. Then he said he had to go and ask her, then he said he needed her to pass a word along to his parents, their parents about this.

Rob would then take John to his parents to confirm this information in January of 1994. Russell and Margaret Atkinson are deeply worried. But they can't prove that what John is saying is not true. Man, just call the fucking police. Meanwhile, January 10th, 1994, Rob Freigard walks out of Nottingham Crown Court a free man. His trial finally had happened and it went well for him. He had successfully plea bargained to charges related to his attempted kidnapping of his

ex-girlfriend Allison down to simple theft and plead guilty. He was given a 12-month probationary period and a £100 fine, which he paid with Sarah's money. That month, Simon now also begins going on missions for Rob. Oh of course, Mr. Beyond, desperate to fucking sell a swatch watch, the guy who doesn't mind being roofied from time to time, has also been roped into this bullshit. Throughout the course of their friendship, Rob had hinted to Simon that he worked for the government in some capacity, and he figured out that Simon dreamt of living the kind of high-speed, luxurious

James Bond lifestyle that he thought came with working for the British government. He was a perfect mark. When Rob offered to train him for a real-life James Bond role in Devolves, the story about the IRA, Simon excitedly agreed. He was all in. First thing Rob told him that he would need to do was pass a series of loyalty tests like running from place to place and getting back by a certain time. He would need to buy a particular can opener, that was his assignment. You got to

go buy this can opener from the store in Manchester and you got to deliver that can opener to this London pub. I both hate Rob's guts and I'm also darkly impressed. He's so fucking good at this. Somehow. I don't know how. I picture me going to confront him in this story and then a week later I'm a go I've completely changed my appearance and I'm trying to pass loyalty test to prove that I'll be a good secret agent You find out that the real reason I'm not releasing a video form of these Episodes anymore is because I'm constantly black and blue from just taking beatings from Rob to prove I'm capable of being an assistant to a secret agent

Simon gets a can opener to the desired location with time to spare and then catches an earlier bus back that he had been told to take. Like the bus he took back was not the one he was told to take back. It was an earlier bus and he thought Rob would be happy about that. Oh look how fast I was but Rob is angry. Simon you're supposed to stick to the plan. All part of the brainwashing. Keep these people off balance. Continually thinking that they need to work harder to please Rob. Also that month, Rob tells Sarah it was time to hand over her trust fund.

Fucking all of it. Making this extra sad, it was money she was supposed to share with her brother Guy. Amounting to about 76,000 pounds. To get that money, Sarah would have to go back home to get her passport and bank passbook. So Sarah asked for her parents to meet her at a pub in Sheffield and they agree. That meeting would take place March 14th 1994. Oh Rob, Robbie Robbie! He's had his hooks in Sarah for a year now and a bit longer with John and Maria. Sarah is nearly two hours late to this meeting. Unbeknownst to her parents, Rob had told her that agents were watching her every move. Sarah asked again and

again for the money finally breaking down and telling her parents that the IRA is after them. Her dad Peter told her that's a bunch of bullocks. That Robert Freigard was after her, not the IRA. Police officers had told him about Rob's previous swindles. He did talk to the police. Rob is full of shit, a con artist. She is being conned. But Sarah won't listen. Good old powerful combination of cognitive dissonance and sunk cost fallacy. To admit that her dad was right at this juncture would make her look so fucking foolish. It would mean she had blown through her savings, all of it, for nothing,

shaved her head, bounced around the country, listened to so much fucking Duran Duran for a full year, just over and over and over. ["Somehow I Have To Find A Way"] Throwing away getting her degree. all for nothing in this ordinary world. That was too hard of a truth for her to face. So she chose to double down on her belief in Rob's bullshit. If she was right, well soon the world would see her not as a fool but as a national hero. If she was wrong and her dad is right, well she's gonna waste more of her life and it's gonna get harder and harder to leave.

Sarah confused and concerned her parents Jill and Peter deeply with her refusal to listen to reason. Was she being held against her will? If she was, why wouldn't she ask them for help, you know, now that they were right there in front of her and Rob wasn't around? Like you had with Guy, Rob now spends the next several days sending the Smiths all over town. And by the end of it, they're exhausted. They leave town without ever giving over Sarah the documents. Good on them. And when Sarah calls him pleading for another meeting, they turn her down. Tough choice, but the right choice. Now Sarah is in trouble with Rob for failing to get the documents. He told her she needed to ask anyone she knew for money now to get back on target.

You know, get the amount of money set by his secret agent colleagues in London. This makes no sense why the government would do this to somebody. Well, now the story has become that if she just gets enough money, all of this will be over and she can resume her old life. Or she could just, you know, fucking walk away, but she doesn't believe that because she's been brainwashed. It's a crazy story that makes no sense at all, but again, she, the others, believe this stuff because they are brainwashed. Meanwhile, Robert now looks to another source for money. Old Johnny Boy. In June of 1994, John, completely brainwashed as well, returns to Cumbria,

convinces his dad to give him a loan for a fictitious plumbing and heating business. Fucking Rob! Not content to just ruin the finances of his direct victims, he wants to ruin their family's financial futures as well. John explains to his dad that the business would just be a front, that they really needed money because Peter Smith's interference was making it impossible for them to lie low. Start over with their new secret agent identities, come on. If Peter saw that they were just simply starting businesses and getting on with their lives, John said maybe he would finally back off. Stop being such a paternal protective logical dick. Just go away. According to John, the money would go straight

into a police account and his parents would get it back with interest. And with that, Russell gives his son 9,500 pounds. God damn it. Rob getting these poor people to believe he is a very important secret agent for the British government, but that the government will not actually directly fund his very important mission is killing me. Just over a month later Russell sends over even more money 7 000 pounds going to a northern rock account and more than 13 000 more into an account at the national and provincial bank and of course it all goes straight to Rob. Right John's parents have given Rob roughly 30 000 pounds now finally. Finally, by October, Russell grows suspicious. He had never been introduced to someone in a position of authority as John had promised he would be.

Instead, he'd only gotten a handwritten letter from someone named Nigel Carter Baines, who listed his address simply as Kensington, London. No street number. The letter said in part, if you can bear with us, you all know now, you all know you have done the right thing, and in the long run you can bear with us, you all know now, you all know you have done the right thing. And in the long run, you will not regret it at all. I would also like to take this chance to say a big thank you for all your help, patience, time and understanding for it I know has not been easy.

Well, this is all very polite. But the letter didn't seem very official. And the accent wasn't quite correct, which is weird. But no, the letter wasn't even grammatically correct. Still Russell sends more money when John tells her that Sarah's parents had cut her off amounting to almost 58,000 pounds now is what Russell sends and what is Robert doing with all this money? Oh he's buying fucking cars. Oh fuck yeah. His childhood love of funky fashion has turned into a love of full of expensive lotions, aftershaves, and colognes but mostly cars. He started

visiting his showroom at Deepcar in Sheffield, purchasing an Astra and catching the attention of the company's secretary, Elizabeth Bartholomew. Her boss said Robert worked for MI5, and that it was vital she didn't disgust the car she bought from them with anyone outside the company. He is a secret. He's fucking James Bond. She was even more intrigued when he paid with cash. Around this time, he bought several vehicles. A blue Astra for 15,000 pounds, a white Vauxhall Calibra for 27,000, a sleek four-door BMW M3, and a shade of blue that had to be special ordered for 50,000 pounds. That motherfucker.

By December of 1995, Russell Actinson has now paid over 325,000 pounds to his son who then has given all of this money to Rob, of course. And that equates to roughly a million US dollars today. Russell's dealing with their son and only gotten more confused as time went on. At one point, Russell and Margaret were told that the police wanted to give them a car as a token of good faith, which is so weird. Right? So the government won't fund this mission but what? They'll just give people cars for like giving them a lot of money? The couple protested that they didn't want a car. They wanted

their fucking money back. And then they're told they can't meet anybody until they accept the vehicle. They finally relent. And then there's another catch. Well the car is gonna be gift, but the family has to be seen paying for the car first. The accidents finally agree. They pay for the car and then they don't get reimbursed. My God. Meanwhile, Russell just keeps trying to follow up on John's promise to meet somebody in charge, but every time he goes to the designated meeting place, nobody shows up because there is nobody. They travel to Rotherham, Aberdeen. They wait in hotel rooms for hours. John's parents always getting the

message that the boss had just gotten called away for something urgent. Gosh dang it. Meanwhile, Rob has installed Sarah in the town of Moore, a suburb to the southwest of Sheffield, in a stone cottage. Put her there a few months back. Rob said he would come by from time to time when he wasn't busy with other assignments and that he had arranged a job for her at a few months back. Rob said he would come by from time to time when he wasn't busy with other assignments and Then he had arranged a job for her at a horse stable But then he never shows up to take her to that job and Sarah has no details about this job So Sarah just twiddles her thumbs and waits for him to arrive

At the end of 1996 now after Christmas Robert will buy another BMW a 328i SE in green for £41,000. He has had John and Sarah and Maria bouncing all around the UK now pretending to be helping him stop the IRA for over three and a half years. Buying this new car puts him again in the path of the car lot secretary Elizabeth Bartholomew, who is 24 years old and getting a divorce. Rob is only 25, but he's pretending to be 33 or 34 now. When Rob calls the dealer and asks to be picked up from the Chesterfield railway station,

Elizabeth eagerly agrees to come get him. Then once at the station, Rob asks to drive and soon Elizabeth notices they're heading in the opposite direction in Sheffield, what's going on? Well, Rob now informs her that he's taking her away for the weekend and she just goes with it. Oh what a romantic, that smooth James Bond motherfucker. What if this whole time he's doing all this to prepare for a movie role? Like he actually is trying to get the next James Bond role and he's a method actor and he's taking a role of playing a

morally possibly shady secret agent very seriously. At a hotel in Waterford, super secret agent, agent double-O dick fucking Rob, so secret not even MI5 knows he's working for them, orders two pint glasses full of only alcohol and explains to Elizabeth he wants to play a game. Drink the contents of the glass before the single ice cube inside melts and then catch the ice cube in your mouth. Liz eagerly drowns, downs the first one. Then Rob pushes the second one towards her. She drinks it and quickly blacks out. Yes, he's drugged her. When she wakes up she's being dragged across the floor, the carpet chafing her skin. She's dragged into their hotel room and then promptly she blacks out again. When she wakes up for real later, Freeguard now informs her he has shot videos of the two of them having sex and taking photos of her naked and that if she does not do exactly what he says he will release them to her family including

her soon-to-be ex. Well what a rapey pile of shit. How many other women was he playing this game with who just never came forward? By September of 1996, now John's family has handed over just shy of half a million pounds to Rob. And despite these contributions throughout the previous two years, John had not been allowed to go out anywhere without Rob's permission. He's mostly been laying low at his parents farm, except when he is sent by Rob to meet someone in authority, which involves John spending weeks sitting in hotel rooms, walking around town, waiting for his phone to ring, never meeting shit.

At this point John still doesn't doubt though, that Rob is part of a vast spy network. When nobody shows up, he just consistently assumes, well, he's being tested again. So many tests! Oh boy! Tests on tests on tests! I didn't know there'd be so many tests, but that's okay. That's cool. I still want to be a secret agent. On early September, he spends a week at the Crickelwood Creek Lodge or wait I don't know why I added creek there you know the Crickelwood Creek Lodge near near Crickelwood Creek in North London. Now he spends a week at the Crickelwood Lodge Hotel in North London preparing to deliver 9000 pounds to Rob so the police quote could keep their internal records straight. Following month Rob trades in one of his cars for M3 coupe for 48,000 pounds,

something he was just doing now every month or so. So far he'd lost over 150,000 pounds on repeated trade-ins, but who gives a shit? It's not his money. In December, Rob once again requests a meeting with John at a hotel room. But John now tells him his family, his family's done. They're not going to give him another cent. Rob's furious. He berates John saying that John's family will face enormous tax bills if they don't do this.

And then he tells him that Peter Smith is trying to have him arrested for holding his daughter hostage. John hadn't seen Sarah, his girlfriend, in two years at this point. He had no idea what to do now. John would next see Robert a few months later in March of 1997 at a hotel near Brentwood, Essex. This time, Rob demands that he take off all his clothes to make sure John is not bugged. More humiliation. Then John delivers a simple message. There's no more money.

Once again, Rob tears into him, saying it is unbelievable that John is willing to fucking risk the safety of his family for a couple thousand pounds. My god, man. John says he doesn't care if the IRA kills him anymore. He doesn't care what happens. He said he's so fucking sick of all the games and moving around and his parents being so mad at him for taking so much of their money. He just wants to be dead. Rob would push him too hard. He'd hit rock bottom. By the following month John is slowly coming around to the very painful realization that he has been duped. He couldn't stop thinking about how he'd been at his family farm for quite a while now.

If the IRA really wanted to find him and kill him, it would have been pretty easy, but nobody ever came. One morning in April, John confessed to something to his family. He had never met anyone other than Rob from MI5. He had told him about these superiors he'd met previously. Well, his family now stares at him in shock and horror. They'd assumed that there had been more people involved than just Rob Fre MI5. He had told him about these superiors he had met previously. Well, his family now stared at him in shock and horror. They'd assumed that there had been more people involved than just Rob Freegard. That's why they gave him the money. The Actonsons are furious, but they concede that John wanted no part in this, that he had been as duped as they were, and they forgave him. His father, Russell, however, forgave

him with a condition, that they go to the police immediately. Russell also wanted to contact Maria and Sarah, but nobody had any idea where they were. John assumed Sarah had gone back to her family and finished her degree but had she? No. Sarah was still simply floaty. She lived in a series of houses under assumed names like Maria Hendy and Liz before winding up at a house at Manor Top, another part of Sheffield, in March of 1998. It had now been five years since she had left school.

Five fucking years of this insanity nonstop. And for the last couple of years she'd been working at the Shiny Chef Pub on Manchester Road. Rob would visit her occasionally telling her it was all supposed to be over now, but because she kept screwing things up, oh it I was taking longer god dang it. Come on Sarah. Still he said there was a bank account for her to start a new life. All she had to do to access it was to reimburse his department for the so called target amount in the police account. So Sarah even though this makes

no sense works as hard as she can to earn more money hoping she can buy her way to freedom after already having given Rob everything she could access, all her savings, hundreds of thousands of pounds. How humiliating. By this time, Robin moved on from his obsession with cars to an obsession with pedigree dogs now. Oh, his most recent purchase? Penny and Dee Dee! Oh, he got my fucking dogs! Penny Pooper and Ginger Bell! No, he didn't. No, his most recent purchase, a purebred chocolate Labrador named Fudge. Sarah thought she was getting closer than ever

at this time to meeting her target, by the way. But then in March of 1998, Rob informs her that since Fudge had eaten the fucking couch, it's gonna be 17 more years. No, he informs her that since her parents still hadn't handed over all the money in her name, well nothing could proceed as planned. Sorry Sarah, this is your parents fault. So Sarah now breaks a four-year silence between her and her parents to ask her mom for

more money still and after six phone calls they relent and they give her all the money left in her trust fund. To meet with her parents to get it, Rob gave her a Welsh Springer Spaniel puppy named Tizer to give them as a present. Hey guys, sorry about taking hundreds of thousands of pounds. Here's Tizer. The meeting between her and her parents will finally take place in September of 1998 in exchange for all the money Sarah's allowed to spend a full day with her mom. Oh, how nice. But then by the time they'd arranged to meet, Rob changes that to just an hour because he's a heartless son of a bitch. Sarah and her mom meet in a garden in Danbury and Sarah presents her mom with a puppy and her mom breaks its fucking neck. No, we don't know what happened to the puppy.

Then Sarah began to tell her mom the lies that Robert had come up with for her. That she had a new boyfriend, that she ran a restaurant with her boyfriend's sister who owned it. She owns a car, nice car, and is about to buy a house. What do you know? Things are going great. And you know, all these nice things happen. That's what she needs the money for. She needs the money, the inheritance, the trust fund, the full 70,000 pounds. When Jill reports this to Peter, he doesn't believe any of it, but Jill insists at this time the money will be a bridge to bring them back together. Four weeks later, the Smiths hand over the money. Actually, Jill had already given her more than 23,000

pounds since they resumed communication so she just gives her the rest now. Three days later, October 26, Sarah begins to withdraw this money in cash but even though she gives it all to Rob he still tells her that her parents are holding back. They have more money Sarah, wake up and she cannot begin to leave until she gets the remaining amount to meet her target. But he won't say exactly what the target amount is. I want this guy to suffer a violent death. Maybe to have a fucking small, I don't know, what's it, like a small dog. Stomp his nuts until it kills him.

And like, I'm talking like a chihuahua. So it takes, you know, I don't know, six months for the dog to stomp him enough time. I don't know. Anyway, October 29th, bad idea about the dog. October 29th, Rob uses some of Sarah's money to buy himself a Volkswagen Golf GTI for just over 24,000 pounds now. So many cars. March of 1999, Sarah writes a letter to her parents saying that she wants to buy some or wants her stock shares given to her now. These were some investments her parents once made for her. Her mom Jill persuades the trustees of the fund to hand over everything now and Sarah will sell these stocks for almost 50,000 pounds. Since March of 1998 Sarah's now given Rob at

least 160,000 pounds. I think I got excited earlier and said that she already given 100,000s. No, not her. All together he's been given so much. But he still tells her that she hasn't met her target yet though. Her mom agrees to release an additional payment now, bringing the amount she'd given to Sarah to give to Rob in the last year to around 190,000 pounds. Meanwhile, the money paid from the big supermarket chains has fallen to less than the cost of growing produce, which her family relies on, meaning that for farmers in Kent, like Peter and Jill, Sarah's parents, they have to do everything they can to ward off bankruptcy. They sell 800 acres and let off 35 full-time staff members, some of whom had been working

at the farm their entire working lives. And with Sarah continuing to call them for more money, they decide to cut contact off with their daughter again. This devastates Sarah. I'm sure it devastates her parents as well. She is now positive her parents will never speak to her again, meaning she has no family to turn to. She also has no IDs. Rob held those. No place to stay in her name. No food. No prospects. Six years out of college and her life is not even a life. In December of 1999, Rob now puts her to work at the Royal Berkshire

Country House Hotel near Ascot, where her colleagues know her as Maria Hendy. And where is the real Maria Hendy by the way? Sarah's old friend and flatmate. The lady that was pregnant with Rob's child several years back. Well we will reconnect with her soon. This Maria Hendy, this Sarah Heth Maria Hendy, Sarah Smith, why did I say Heth? Had a room in the staff quarters of the hotel. Rob has a spare key and will often sleep there when he's working nights. Telling her he is working undercover at a car showroom in West London. Well, of course, he's not working undercover, but he is working at this car showroom looking for more marks.

And you'll find one in May of 2000. Her name is Renata Kister, a Polish-born woman who is five months pregnant, whose partner has just broken up with her. She had come to the showroom to find a more reliable car for her when the baby is born and takes notice of the young salesman. Freegard had recently changed his name, though just by a little he introduces himself to her as Robert Hendy Freegard. And after three months, he invites her to his house at the Royal Berkshire Staff Quarters. Wait till she has the baby. Also reveals that he's not a car salesman. No, he's a he's an agent on a top secret mission. But at the hotel staff room Renata notices a pair of women's shoes. Well Rob tells her yeah another secret agent, a woman is working there too, you know they share the room. A couple months later Rob moves into Renata's London apartment even though she had given birth to a baby girl, needs

all the money she can get. She still lends him hundreds of pounds that he says he needs for his children, even though he's a big shot. And in April of 2001, he also persuades her to buy an 18,000 pound car, a black 1.8 Golf GTI that he will drive. October of 2001, Sarah's still working in the hotel, gets a call from someone she hasn't seen in years. Maria Hendy. The real Maria! Finally. Where the hell she been? Well for most of the past years, she has been working in a lab

dedicated to sandwich innovation. Yeah, which pisses Sarah off because that was fucking Sarah's dream job, and she's finally close! Very close! Very close to a tuna melt. You can still eat even after leaving it outside, not even inside a container just laying on the sidewalk with the hot sun beating down on it for several months. It's called a tuninator. And it's delicious as it is indestructible. No, for real now.

For the past two years. She's only seen Rob occasionally. Her baby daddy. She is still living as a virtual prisoner at the house on Dorothy Road, the first one Rob had rented in Sheffield. Rob told her the phones were bugged, she was not allowed outside without his permission, she lived off some money he's deposited into her account, not knowing that money came from her friend Sarah's wages. And she was raising Rob's children by herself. Children, plural. This sketchy fuck. Shortly after the birth of their first child in 1993, Rob hit her for the first time. Since then, he'd hit her more times, especially when she tried to get out of signing car financing papers.

Always the fucking cars with this asshole. When she got pregnant again, she felt like she had no choice but to have the baby. After she found a paper in his rucksack from another woman with love C written on it, she confronted him and he grabbed grabbed her hair hit her in the face while they were in the car together her head collided with the gear stick knocked one of her teeth out then rob said he was going to kill her so we kind of like you know hit her and then kind of grabbed her face and slammed me into the gear shift uh now he stopped giving her money and he stopped paying rent to the house where he was keeping a prisoner where he's keeping her kids' prisoner as well. A week later she's facing eviction from the Dorothy Road house, which was when she called Sarah, but Sarah did not have any money to give her for rent.

Now Sarah didn't know that she was already paying Maria's rent with her wages. Without money or options, Maria now moves in with Rob's mom, Roberta Freigard, in November of 2001, and over the following years Rob's domestic abuse will escalate. One day, Maria tried to dial the police before he ripped the phone out of her hand, then took their children, marched them out to his car. She managed to grab the phone and dial the police again. When the police showed up, Robert and the girls were gone. Luckily, the police would manage to pick them up soon while Maria was in the hospital for

reasons not disclosed in sources. And then three days later Maria and her daughters will go to live with her parents and she will be reunited with her family in the West Country. Now finally after eight years of torment while she is still stuck raising his two children she's no longer at least being hidden from her family, no longer being beaten by Rob and is back home with somebody not manipulating her. Not sure exactly how long it will take her to realize her whole life with Rob was a lie. Man, can you imagine what that would do to your ability to trust others? While John and Maria are at least with their folks now, Sarah's still being bounced all the

fuck around England by Rob. 2001, Robert moves Sarah again from the hotel to a house in West London, tells her that it was another test, eight years of tests. Did you know there would be this many tests? He needed to see if she could stand living on her own to help uncover the IRA, of course, because that's how you find an IRA sleeper cell. By proving to the British government that you can live on your own as a grown ass woman in West London, her new mission is to stay, is to never say a single word to the home's

owner. And who's that owner? Renata kissed her. Yes, the Polish-born woman who Rob met when she was five months pregnant. Another one of his marks. Rob had told Renata that the woman coming to live with her had been raped by her husband, a powerful businessman. She was from Venezuela and she did not speak a word of English. Renata soon became suspicious about Sarah and invited her friend Vincent, a lawyer who worked on Colombian drug cases over because he was fluent Spanish. And the two of them confronted Sarah. Vincent speaking to her in rapid-fire Spanish that of course she doesn't understand a word of. Now Renata and Vincent think that Sarah is a drug mule for a South American cartel. And when they threaten to call the police she literally runs off. Poor Sarah. We'll check it with her again soon. Right now let's

meet someone else. A new victim. January of 2002 London lawyer Caroline Cowper was only a matter of days away from marrying her fiance Robert Hendy Freeguard. They've been dating for a year. In August he proposed with an expensive diamond ring he bought with another lady's money. For the holidays, he had taken her to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Things were going great, but she was starting to have some doubts. Because see, they had planned to set up this car leasing business together, though Caroline had only seen one of the cars Robert promised to provide, and she put up almost all the money for the business, even though he bragged he had a portfolio of shares worth around six or seven hundred thousand pounds

from his career as a secret agent with the government. Now Caroline wants proof that Robert is trustworthy so she calls a car salesman in Sheffield who tells her what she does not want to hear that Robert is a serial liar that he'd already failed to pick up two cars he'd ordered. Caroline asks Rob for another person to contact. He gives her the name of the mother of his first girlfriend, Allison. Crazy he did that. After phoning her, Caroline cancels the wedding and calls the police. Hail Nimrod. There you go, Caroline. That is how you're supposed to react. The police, however, tell her that this is a civil matter not a criminal one.

Damn it. But Caroline is undeterred. Who else had he done this to? She wondered. Who else had he swindled and where were they now? In February of 2002, Peter and Jill Smith now returned from a holiday in Tobago to find a note from their eldest son. Allison's mother phoned about a lady in London who made contact. And then, although they hadn't heard from Sarah for two years, within two hours, Sarah is now calling to ask them for £20,000. Sarah has been on the run under Rob's guidance now for a month shy of nine years.

She tells him a story about how a man in the Polish mafia has stolen her car and she needs to pay the note on it. And this is too much for Peter. He's like, Polish mafia, what her car and she needs to pay the note on it. And this is too much for Peter. He's like, Polish mafia? What are you talking about? He turns her down another time before Freeguard himself calls, now yelling at Peter to stop interfering with his life. The fucking balls in this piece of shit. Peter now calls Allison's mother who hands over the number for Caroline Cowper.

They figure out that Peter had bought a car or maybe several and was now trying to get Caroline, Sarah and who knows how many others to pay for it. One of those others was Renata. She'd already paid close to 60 thousand pounds for cars he had talked her into buying for him and the car payments were crippling. Not knowing what else to do she went to Free Guard's job at Norman Continental, the showroom, where they told her that he'd been fired a while back for gratuitously hitting on female customers, looking for more marks. The owner said that maybe Caroline Cowper could help.

She'd also come to the dealership looking for her money. Since the police had turned her down, Caroline had been conducting her own investigations. I love Caroline. Caroline and Peter, my two favorite characters in this tale. Now, working with Renata, the two keep searching for the truth about Robert Freigart. In August of 2002, Freigart decides he needs yet another lackey.

So he calls up an old one, Elizabeth Bartholomew, who had changed her name to Elizabeth Richardson. This is the lady that Rob drugged and then filmed having sex with. The woman he had taken nude photos of while she was unconscious. The woman he told that if she didn't do exactly what he said he would release those photos to her family including her soon-to-be ex. Elizabeth had not heard from him in a long time when he called her and said he wanted to give the relationship a try again and she agrees to date him. Unreal. And within weeks she is helping him with a deep undercover mission to infiltrate a gang in Glasgow and she had been traveling with him ever since in exchange for his promise to sort out her

mortgage and her debts. He even hinted they might get married. And Elizabeth, who is currently working as a janitor, very excited. This poor woman. Now he humiliates her. Again. He gets her to dress up as a Pakistani woman, complete with dark foundation, basically black face, heavy eyeliner, and gets her to sneak into a bank to withdraw money in the amount of nearly

14,000 pounds from one of Caroline Cowper's accounts and putting it in one of Robert's accounts. When Caroline finds out, she immediately goes to the police in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, reporting her story of theft to Detective Constable Mark Simpson. Simpson picked up the phone, calls free guard. On the other end of the line, a friendly voice says this is all a big misunderstanding. He'd come down to the station tomorrow to sort it all out. But instead he runs. He heads west, back to the Royal Berkshire Hotel. This was where Rob had put Sarah up after she had run away from Renata's house. Sarah had been there for five

months when Rob showed up. He told her someone was messing with his operation and she had one hour to completely erase any evidence of herself from the area. And she does just that and they get in the car. It was almost like the very first time they took off together, driving and driving for days with no clear end in sight. They would finally end up in London and over the next couple of weeks he would leave Sarah to sleep in various cul-de-sacs. This happens nine and a half years after Sarah first left with Rob. God, what a terrible decade for her, her brother, and her parents. By August 22nd 2002, Detective Mark Simpson getting pretty annoyed. Freaguard had avoided

speaking to him for over a week and now Simpson put out a notice that Freaguard was wanted on the police computer system. Simpson was starting to take this case more seriously. Former Rob Freaguard fiance Caroline Cowper loved how she will not give up tracking Rob down. Had been in touch with Sarah's father Peter Smith, who had been in touch with former brainwashing victim and Sarah's one-time classmate and boyfriend John Atkinson. And now Simpson had a letter from John that described how they'd all fallen for Freeguard's ruse when they were college students. How they'd been subjected to sleep deprivation, hunger, and systematic humiliation until they were totally and thoroughly brainwashed.

The detective was starting to understand the full extent of Free Guard's crimes, a spree that had now lasted 10 years. Meanwhile Free Guard, still bouncing around. He'd headed up the M6 to Birmingham with Sarah dropping her off at a B&B in Shirley. But when Rob wasn't back when he said he would be, and with her unpaid bill mounting at the B&B, Sarah has to literally sleep outside now. Yep, now she's homeless. She has no money, no ID, no place to stay. Her family's not talking to her. After two days living out the streets, she knows she needs a plan. She still has a phone, has been trying to get in touch with Rob over and

over again. He finally picks up once, but only to yell at her for calling him too much, then hangs up. A few days later Rob shows back up, puts her in another hotel, pays the bill, but then disappears for days again. Sarah's kicked out of her room, now goes to sleep under a fucking bridge. He just will not stop fucking her over. He's still hoping to squeeze a bit more money out of her parents. Still enjoying, I imagine, punishing the woman who did not want to sleep with him that one night at the Swan, a decade earlier Finally after several days of this bullshit Rob calls tells Sarah to come to a parking lot That's a few miles away when she manages to get there on foot. He informs her that good news

He's left a car for her. She can sleep in for the next couple of weeks She is so broken down from sleeping outside under a bridge and shit. She agrees But she doesn't get to use the car all the time. Oh no he takes the car during the day even though he has a million cars. And then he'll bring her back to lock her inside at night to sleep. He just loves to torture people. She spends her days wandering around Teddington being homeless and half fucking crazed drinking from public bathroom sinks begging for food. But you know she's still helping the UK government root out the IRA terrorists. The UK government! Mysterious ways.

They work in the most mysterious ways. After almost a week of that, Rob lets her inside his so-called safe house so he can take a shower. But as she's showering, he then accosts her in the bathroom, takes scissors to her hair because he said she needed to look like the owner of the car she was staying in. One Kimberly Adams. More humiliation. He told her that Kimberly Adams was another agent, but of

course she wasn't. She was another victim. An American psychologist now who had been living in London for the past year working for the Reading Borough Council as an educational psychologist. And when she had bought a car to cut down on her commute time, she had said yes to dinner with who she thought was a charismatic and attractive salesman. She had been seeing him regularly since then and he would propose to her in October while on a trip to southern Spain. They planned to get married as soon as possible in a small church in Wales. After they were married, he said, they would have new identities.

He would be Harry Sinclair, and she would be Monica. And why would they need these identities? Well, because he's still a secret agent! He's James Bond. He and Kimberly were renting a small cottage at Sunning Hill near Ascot in Berkshire. Just a couple miles away from the Royal Berkshire Hotel and on Kimberly's dime of course. God, so much moving around. So many people. How does he keep all those shit straight? Couple months later, he flushes Kimberly's antidepressants down the toilet. Moves in with their mom. Or moves in with his mom. Sorry, not hers. And, uh, he tells Kimberly this is because, I'm sorry, he moves Kimberly in with his mom.

This is just so ridiculous. And he tells Kimberly that he's doing this because she wasn't committed enough to him because she had kissed a guy after they met, but before they even started dating. And even though she is a licensed psychologist, she stays and tolerates this bullshit. And it of course gets worse. He tells her that if she doesn't behave he will kill the man she kissed and make Kimberly literally cut his balls off. There's a lot of talk about killing. On another occasion he said he had taken a hit contract out on her and her son who lived in the US. Then he called it off. Other times he said that Kimberly would have to

kill her son herself or bury him alive if she didn't do this or that. And still she stays. Around the same time he shows Renata kissed her the same cottage, tells her it's for her. It was a sort of sorry for taking all your money present. And she decided to give their relationship another try. He's in so many relationships. So he's seen what? Renata, Kimberly, Elizabeth, and some other women that don't have as big of roles to play in this story. It's fucking insane. The deal with he and Renata was that they would split the bills now and he would give

her a car to drive. He also told her she should try to start a new business under an English sounding name, Kimberly Adams. God, so many women in the strange web right now and so weird how he keeps switching their names around so they can use each other to commit financial crimes against one another unknowingly. Renata and Kimberly now doing great compared to Sarah and Elizabeth. They've been forced to live in squalid conditions constantly on the

move and now they're starving. Oh and Sarah still living in that car in November of 2002, at night at least but occasionally Rob will take her to the cottage make her clean it and then lock her in the bathroom while he leaves and One day when Renata will try to show a friend her cottage. She discovers that Rob has changed the locks She had no idea that Sarah's being held captive inside She'd been locked in the bathroom with only occasional visits from Rob to give her food for three weeks when Renata swings by. While Sarah is near starvation, Rob appears, tells her he now wants her to be his girlfriend and he's willing to have sex with her.

And she agrees. She is too weak to understand what's going on to even stop him. Now at long last, after torturing her for a decade, Rob is literally fucking Sarah after fucking over her life. He's fucking so many people. Meanwhile, police are still trying to get in touch with everyone that is connected to Rob Hendy, uh, free guard. But in late November, Detective Mark Simpson gets into a bad car accident, has to suspend his investigation. And so Rob is free to continue with his bullshit. He tortures Kimberly Adams-Symore, accusing her of disloyalty.

Tells her he had designed a special padlock box to put her in. He was going to rub her legs with lard, put her legs in the box, and fill the rest of the box with hungry rats that will literally eat her alive. So you know, things are going pretty well for those two. And still she stays. By January of 2003, Sarah is still at the house that Rob had rented under the name of Kimberly Adams. She was now allowed out of the bathroom, although he told her never to answer the door, and to stay

inside at all times. But then one day someone let themselves in. A man named Simon Proctor, the owner of the house. He asked, who the hell are you? She replied she's a friend of Kimberly Adams, as Rob had instructed her to say, but Simon says he hasn't been able to get in touch with Kimberly for months. He says he's going to the police now to report Kimberly is a missing person and he wants Sarah to be a witness. And this freaks her out and she just runs off again. She runs to a meeting point that Rob had prearranged in case anything would ever go wrong.

Heathrow Airport Terminal 4. She walks 10 miles in the snow to get there and doesn't look bat shit crazy at all when she arrives. And now she stays there, wet, cold, and hungry for days at the airport waiting for him. He finally picks her up February 3rd, 2003, tells her that all of what has happened at the cottage was of course another test. Excuse me. Make sure, you know, that you're ready for, you know, your next assignments and all that shit. And now he drives her to Gatwick Airport and dumps her off. No money, no idea what's gonna happen next. Sarah doesn't know that he's at Gatwick Airport for a different reason. To pick up the real Kimberly's father who is coming from a

coming on a flight from Minneapolis. John Adams had become suspicious of the man his daughter was supposed to marry and wanted to come over and check things out. He wanted to see Kimberly. But first Rob took him on an endless tour of London. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London. Finally, he takes John to a workshop where he stares in surprise at the woman who met them. She was his daughter Kimberly, but she gained a lot of weight and looked like she had not slept in months. Free Guard now took the father-daughter duo on a tour of Wales and Scotland. John continued to look for an opportunity to talk to his daughter alone, but there was never one to his surprise.

Also Freaguard tells John that their plan was to become lighthouse keepers off the coast of Scotland. But that was actually just a cover for monitoring Russian submarines in the area as their secret agent jobs required them to do. But first, Kim needed to pass a very important and very expensive exam and that exam was gonna cost $35,000, okay? And John buys this bullshit and hands over $35,000. Fuck me in the face. How?

It wasn't till February 19th 2003 the detective Mark Simpson was finally healed up from the car accident got back to work. He's recharged. He has renewed determination to bring Robert Hendy Freeguard to justice. On that gray February day, he's following a lead from a car parked outside of Robert's mother's address that was registered to the cottage that belonged to Simon Proctor, not far away from the Royal Berkshire Hotel. From Simon, Simpson learned that Kimberly Adams, who Simon said was dating Freeguard, was missing. He also told the detective about the odd young woman who had been staying here and ran off. Simpson had a hunch it might be Sarah.

And when he showed a photo to Simon of Sarah, Simon agreed, yep, that's the girl I met. Next day, he got Sarah's mother to list her as a missing person. That way they would have access to Sarah's medical records, dental scans, other vital info that could help identify and find her. And where the hell was Sarah? Well, Sarah was now living in the sewers underneath London. For another test, Rob had forced her to strip naked, put on some kind of plastic troll mask, carry a lit wooden torch down into the underground sewer tunnels beneath London. He told her to think of herself as quote a turd troll and that she was to survive by any means necessary For a month down there taking no money. No clean water. No food with her. She would have to forage for everything

That was what a real secret agent was willing and able to do for God and country And then when Rob finally picked her up after not one but seven months She looked remarkably similar to Gollum from Lord of the Rings. My precious. Gives me my precious. No, it wasn't quite that bad. Sarah Smith had somehow been living inside the Gatwick Airport, where Robert had dropped her off for three weeks. Not sure. Just sleeping in little hiding places, I guess. Eating food out of the trash, maybe. He really did kind of turn her into a troll. On the 21st, Rob reappears to bring her to a hotel where she can clean herself up. He then informs her that she will need to change her hair yet again and start

working as a housekeeper in London before he could bring her to Europe on a Soviet passport. After that speech, he simply took her back to Renata's apartment. Yes, Renata, to whom he'd already previously introduced Sarah to as a silent Venezuelan woman. Now he introduces her as someone else. Is he just seeing how far he can push things at this point, just for his own amusement, what he can get away with? Renata immediately recognizes her, the cropped haircut with red streaks, doesn't fool her. This time Sarah introduces herself as Carrie Rogers and Robert is now off in the wind again. He clearly had some sense that the police were closing in on him because around this time he

started spending time in other countries on the pretext of taking Kimberly on vacation. The two of them go to Belgium, France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, all over the place, all on these girls' dimes. They rarely spend more than one night in the same place. Psychologists later believe, or will later come to believe, that he was looking for the next place to go and that he planned on taking as long as held most trusted and most obedient hostage Sarah with him. Throughout March, Sarah is like her, he's like fucking henchmen now, so sad.

Throughout March, he would have Sarah pick up suitcases of cash from places around England and exchange those for euros. And where's that money coming from? Well, at least some of its coming from John Adams Kimberly's dad by April of 2003 he had given free guard close to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and How does he keep? How does he keep fucking grifting people with the dumbest lies? It's maddening. I Want someone to beat him to death the world's tiniest bat so it takes forever. Yeah that's actually that that's better. I like that. I like tiny

bat better than Chihuahua stomping him. Every couple of weeks, Free Guard has been calling to tell him that Kimberly has failed that expensive exam yet again. John's confused. Kimberly has, you know, had always been a straight-A student. Didn't make sense, but you know, okay. Different country, different rules. I guess just keep paying. Eventually though he decides to do something about it. He tells his story to the chief of staff of Senator Chuck Grassley's officer in Sioux City, Iowa. Office, not officer. Senator Chuck Grassley's office. And just 30 minutes later, Steve Harder and Bob Burney arrived from the FBI Sioux City headquarters. Immediately from John's description, they deduced that Kim was Free Guard's

hostage and that she had been brainwashed. The agents mounted wiretaps on John's and Kim's mother Anne's phones and they get in touch with Detective Mark Simpson giving him former victim John Atkinson's phone number. But when they called John thought it was a test. Freigard had warned him about those and he ignored it. He's suspicious of Rob but he also thinks maybe he is telling the truth about the secret agent's bullshit. Now Mark decides it's time for more help. He contacts senior Crown prosecution lawyer Andrew West and his colleague Michael Hick, a lawyer who specializes in fraud. He tells him the story and at first these men think that Mark is pulling a

prank on them because the story is so over the top and ridiculous. But then when they understand it's the truth, they agree to work with him once their other cases have wrapped up in May. In the meantime, Mark and fellow detective Sergeant Bob Brandon go to Netherhale to see what they can find there. There, Jill and Peter tell the detectives the entire story, everything they knew anyway about their daughter and her friends. They had no idea that Sarah was living in London currently with Renata, still pretending to be Carrie. But Renata was getting more suspicious about everything, luckily. One day, as Renata, her daughter, and Carrie were walking in the park, Renata snapped a picture of her. And that picture will come in handy

very soon. On May 10, 2003, Robert Freigart checks into the Hotel Buffalo in Chambery, France, a beautiful little city in the heart of the Alps. He tells the staff there that he was a doctor spending three months with his wife Kimberly traveling around Europe. And this time he signs his own name for registration. Following day, Mother's Day, Kimberly calls her mom Anne. Neither she nor Free Guard had any idea that the call was being tapped by the FBI. Per the FBI's instructions, Anne casually introduces the idea of herself going to London. Kimberly

agrees to meet her mom at Heathrow, two weeks, where her mom will give her $10,000. On May 20th, 2003, Mark Simpson, Bob Brandon, and the two lawyers, Andrew West and Michael Hick, well, they all meet up. The detectives now had statements about how Rob had brainwashed them from victims and lied to get their money from initial victim John Atkinson, his father Russell Atkinson, victim ex-wife and mother of two of Rob's children Maria Hendy, and victim and former fiance Caroline Cowper. They wanted to arrest Rob right away but they still hadn't found Sarah and Kimberly and they feared if they acted too quickly they might never find the young women. So they decided to set him up in a sting operation. Kimberly's mom will fly to London to hand over $10,000 luring

free guard into the trap, but they didn't know where to go with the investigation after that. What charges could they bring against him? How many counts? What he was doing was so blatantly immoral. It was disgusting, evil even. But was it technically illegal to be such a lying, manipulative, shady piece of shit? They felt they could definitely charge him with theft and obtaining money by deception, but false imprisonment would be tricky. Since John and Maria and everyone else he had essentially kidnapped, they were adults who could have technically left at any time. But they would try and charge him with kidnapping by fraud or deception.

But even that would be hard to prove. They would need loads and loads of evidence, phone bills, bank statements, bank books, of course the victim's testimonies. On May 23, 2003, officers from Scotland Yard escort Anne Hodgins to Heathrow London's airport, making it look like she had just stepped off the plane. In reality, she had been in London for a day getting briefed on how this would all go down. Meanwhile, Freeguard was driving up the ramp of the airport terminal, wearing a pair of she had been in London for a day getting briefed on how this would all go down. Meanwhile, Freeguard was driving up the ramp of the airport terminal wearing a pair of designer shoes that cost 375 pounds along with a pair of expensive leather riding gloves, a dark leather

jacket, such a douche! Everything he had, literally all of it, gained by manipulation and deception. He met Anne with a big smile, directed her to the parking lot where he said Kimberly was waiting. The detectives had instructed Anne to go, but now Anne was having second thoughts. She was worried about getting in the car with this dirt bag. Can't blame her. What if he peeled off before the police arrested him? He could take her anywhere. So in the parking lot, Anne now nervously waits for the sting operation agents, fakes being cold, so she can take her time digging a sweater out of her suitcase. Oh gosh dang, where did I put it? And at the very last moment with a squeal of tires

cars converge on them from all sides. Mark Simpson jumps out of the car tells Free Guard he is under arrest. Finally! Hail Nimrod! Free Guard's interrogation will begin May 24th 2003. Freeart tries to charm the officers and agents and lawyers interrogating him asking if he can call them by the first names but they're not having it. He wasn't going to dupe them. They knew he was a pathologically lying snake. That was why they'd arrested him. After a couple of questions Freigart gets angry, starts to pout, starts responding no comment to every question. He wasn't used to people rejecting his

bullshit. What the officers wanted from him the most in this moment was to know where Sarah was. They'd found Renata's Polish passport and free guard suitcase and a phone number and a key from the Buffalo Hotel in France. In that hotel room, local authorities would uncover two car plates and three cell phones as well as a briefcase full of documents. Guys letters to Sarah Smith, you know, guys her brother, guys birth certificate, not sure how he got that. Sarah's license and passport. There were also applications for car loans under Elizabeth Bartholomew slash Richardson's name. Next it was time to talk to Renata which would take place at

the Hammersmith in Fulham police station. At first Renata thought this was just another test but then she remembered one scene Sergeant Bob Brandon at a bar where he'd been nice, a polite customer. Such a man didn't seem to likely have it out for her to be some IRA member who wanted to kill her. The dam finally breaks for her. And Renata tells him everything including that there was a woman named Carrie staying with her. She showed them the photograph. Mark Simpson felt a surge of excitement. It was Sarah Smith.

Police would finally pick her up June 11, 2003, intercepting her to cleaning job in Chaswick in West London. Knowing that if Sarah knew the police were coming, she would run away. Renata makes it sound like she had locked herself out and was coming to Sarah's cleaning job to get Sarah's set of keys. Sarah then opened the door to see not just Renata, but two police officers who informed her that Robert Hendy Freeguard was not a secret agent and never worked for the government. Renata told Sarah she had been conned as well.

Sarah, this poor woman, who now became almost catatonic trying to process how thoroughly she had been fucked over, was led back to the police station in a daze. She had no idea what to think. The idea that Rob had conned her so totally for so long was almost too difficult to live with. All the money, all the time, all the dreams she'd thrown away, all the psychological abuse, the long periods of homelessness, the destruction of the relationships with her family, with every friend she'd ever had. It had all been for nothing. She's still worried that this might be all another test though.

That Rob maybe was telling the truth. All these officers were now lying. Sarah asked to talk to Maria Hendy who told her go ahead give your story to the police. Rob's a liar. These police they're not they're not bullshitting you. Rob was a dirty dirty bastard and now Sarah talks. At the same time Jill and Peter are informed that their daughter has been located. Guy goes to pick his sister Sarah up, drives her back to his home in southwest London. Finally, after so many years, after so much bullshit, Sarah's back with her family. And she no longer thinks she's working for a secret agent. That was a huge win. But prosecuting Robert Freigard was just the beginning.

And now it would be up to Andrew West who had prosecuted some 20 high-profile murder cases and even a Microsoft counterfeit ring to take Rob down. But even he had never dealt with anything quite like this before. He'd have just six weeks to prepare indictments, witness list statements, and exhibits for the kidnappings of Sarah Smith, John Atkinson, and Maria Hendy. And that would be difficult. What if Free Guard claimed that he really was working for someone else? That he was duped by another con man in a position of power above him? What if he claimed that he really did think he was a secret agent because someone above him told him that they were a secret agent and they pretended to recruit him?

Thankfully, Free Guard's defense, written in his case statement, was much less rational. He said the whole case against him was a conspiracy created by Peter Smith and that all the women were just bitter ex-lovers. Yeah that's not gonna play buddy. In the end, Free Guard was simply too cocky, too vain, too insecure and arrogant to ever say he had ever been duped by anyone else. Then there was another lucky break for the prosecution. In September 2003, Detective Mark Simpson located Elizabeth Bartholomew slash Richardson. She even waited for five and a half months for Freeguard to contact her, assuming he was on assignment. A kidnapping charge for her was added to Freeguard's

indictment. Now the counts eventually totaled 24. Four counts of kidnapping, 11 counts of theft, eight counts of deception, and one count of making a threat to kill. Freeguard unsurprisingly denied all of the charges against him. His trial will begin in January of 2004 but after just two weeks, Freeguard's lawyers said that they were professionally embarrassed to be representing him and they quit. Rob stop! You're not gonna be able to commence a court. This is all but a big misunderstanding. That you are a real-life James Bond.

And that you need to be released immediately with all the charges dropped so you can stop the IRA from killing the Queen. No, Rob. I'm not gonna switch outfits with you the next time he visits. And go to jail in your place so you can sort things out, right, with the fucking MI5 contacts. No, Rob. I'm not going to quit being a lawyer. Pretend I'm gay and go commit some crimes, hoping to get arrested so we can work on your case together in your cell while you keep my family safe from IRA members.

I'm done. Rob's trial is scheduled for April. And then the defense team is delayed again due to issues with the jury this time around and the case is put on hold until June. Then he burns through two more sets of lawyers who also refuse to work with him because he's such a miserable arrogant prick. A four set of lawyers for Free Guard says in June that they won't be

able to present their case until October. And the and finally the trial is underway for Reels. Sarah would testify November 22nd 2004. She was terrified to see Free Guard. She was terrified she would fall under his spell all over again in the courtroom. And I feel terrible for her. Out of everyone, right, he put her through the most bullshit. Nevertheless Sarah and her brother Guy makes their way to Black Friars Crown Court and Sarah does hold it together. But she will not have to wait nearly six months before the verdict until June 23rd 2005. Well at that date the jury

finds him guilty of 18 counts of theft and deception and two counts of kidnapping in the cases of both Sarah and John. Then on September 6 2005 he is given a life sentence. Hail Nimrod and his victims oh they be rejoicing. When passing a sentence Judge Deva Pillay told Freeguard you have you are an opinionated confidence trickster who has shown not a shred of remorse or compassion. There are substantial grounds for believing you will remain a substantial danger to the public and to other women in particular. He began his prison sentence at Wandsworth before

being moved to Long Larton a maximum security prison in Worcestershire. Sarah was left to pick up the pieces of her life now. Reassembling all her official documentation like IDs and passports from scratch, which was difficult as you usually need one piece of ID to get another. She had to work references or she had no work references, excuse me, no steady source of income to get an apartment, no degree, not even a utility bill to open a bank account with, and her ability to trust others had been destroyed.

But she did get to connect with John and Renata and Kim, weaving the stories of their lives together so for the first time, they could really start to understand what had happened to them. The hardest part to deal with was that Freeguard had no end game in mind. Just endless theft and deception. Just would string them along until they finally said fuck yourself and would just leave or you know Or died or whatever He was gonna keep you know string him along until he just got bored with them or got caught

Did not care at all about what he was doing to them Sarah good on her would eventually become a photographer and publish a memoir and She would meet back up with her parents who did forgive her completely John went back to school became a teacher and then moved to the Czech Republic where hopefully he's living a nice life. Maria, still raising Rob's kids, don't know a ton about her, not of any information I could find that I trust online. Former therapist Kimberly Adams works as a college professor in Minnesota at least as of two years ago teaching psychology classes. Not sure what former personal

assistant and sales administrator at a Vauxhall dealership in Sheffield, Elizabeth Bartholomew, was up to these days. In 2005 this poor woman said, I find the fact that I used to be a PA very hard to believe but I could carry out that role because there's no way I could do it now. He has totally ruined me, broken me. My confidence is nil. I still have nightmares. I keep seeing his face every time I fall asleep. Also not sure what Renata Kister is up to today. And there are still, again, other victims he fucked over for a few months here, a few months there that I didn't even mention.

Because this episode already has a bunch of characters. I've cluttered it up too much. But you will meet another victim. Because Rob is not done. Another family, really, of victims. Another victim because Rob is not done another family really of victims There are these things called appeals and sometimes they work out unfortunately for the worst people in April of 2007 just 18 months after beginning his life since free guards case goes to the Court of Appeals The Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips ruled of the kidnapping convictions were not valid Because the victims were not physically deprived of their liberty. It was not enough for the victims to be psychologically trapped, he said, and as a result of this ruling Rob's life

sentence is now null and void. He still has the remainder of his nine-year jail term for fraud and theft convictions, but he's gonna be eligible for parole just two years for those crimes and in two years he'll get paroled. Free Guard is once again a free man as of a May 2009 that motherfucker and he immediately disappears and gets right back at it. Let's now meet Sandra Clifton his next victim. Sandra grew up in Wokingham in Berkshire the only child of two devoted parents. Sandra and her husband Mark met when they were just teens they got married at 20 had their

first child Sophie shortly thereafter, and then their son Jake a couple years later. Sandra worked at a hotel in the housekeeping department, and as the years wore on, the two drifted apart, wound up getting a divorce. But it wasn't acrimonious. Both knew that they'd gotten married so young, and it wasn't surprising that their lives took them in different directions. They had a good co-parenting relationship, Mark, Sophie and Jake all earnestly hoped that their mom, Sandra, Sophie and Jake's mom,

would meet someone and have her happily ever after life. In 2011 with both of her kids being more independent in their late teens, Sandra decided to start online dating, describing herself as family-focused, relaxed, and hoping to meet a secret agent who will take me under his wing and upend my life for the name of saving English citizens from the threat of Irish terrorism while destroying everything I care about. Maybe not that last one. Her first few dates did not pan out, but then in November of 2011 she started chatting up with a man named David.

David told her that he worked behind the scenes in media, and he sold space ad space to large advertising companies. Soon he gave Sandra a brand new blue Audi. She'd never had a blue new car before, much less a high-end one in a custom color. David also wanted to take the children and Sandra on vacation to Spain. The beginning of the trip was normal, checked into hotels, went on sightseeing trips,

but after a couple days he started spending all day every day driving around in the car. Only David is driving and guess what song he makes everyone listen to the entire time he drove. No, not that one. Uh, actually he made them listen to this one. No, not that one. Actually, he made them listen to this one. Oh, Robbie's back, baby. Double agent dildo. Oh, back on the case. When they drove through passport control, and he really was listening to that song fucking constantly still. He's such a psycho. When they drove through passport control and were getting their papers checked, Sophie thought David was acting strange like he didn't want her or you know the kids or I'm sorry she is the kid like he didn't want

her to see his passport. Her brother Jake asked about his last name and David wouldn't tell him that's weird. Soon after David is staying over constantly he just never leaving. He's often hinting at how much money he has, telling Sandra all the things he can buy her, but that doesn't make sense to Jake. If he has so much money, how come he's never going to work? Why does he need a place to stay? Seemed like he was unemployed. Wasn't only the kids who thought something was up either. Mark's relationship with Sandra was changing too. She'd always been a very involved co-parent, but now she was not answering text messages or calls.

Sandra wasn't going out and seeing her friends either. And soon it seemed like David didn't care for Jake or Sophie. He's rude to them. Dismissive. Seems jealous of the attention their mom gives him. Then one day Sandra accuses her son Jake of stealing a bracelet David had given her and screams at him. She had never done anything like that ever before. Another time David took a pair of shoes that Jake had worn through claiming he would fix them. When Jake got his shoes back they had a massive lump of metal on the heel. David said it was so Jake would learn to walk properly. Then Sandra insisted her son Jake wear those shoes to school where he click clacks through the hallways drawing the attention of his peers who make fun of him. Then when he gets home from school

the first day he wears them, Jake's locked out. Finally gets in when his mom comes home, but then it happens again, and then it happens again, and again, and again. Happens with his mom and David, or even home. They just won't let him in. Finally confused, not knowing what else to do, Jake moves in with his dad. By 2013, Sophie, though she has still lived with her mom, but Sandra is all but completely checked out at this point, so now the only parent she has is David, and David, of course, is poisonous as fuck. Over the next few months, David tells Sophie terrible things about her dad, convincing

her never to speak to Mark, should never see him. He turns her against her father, who had done nothing. It got so bad, Sophie no longer recognized Mark Clifton as the name of her dad. Only a scary figure, who she was now convinced had badly hurt her family. Her father Mark meanwhile keeps trying to contact her but every time Sophie gets a letter she puts it in an envelope marked lies and slander from Mr. Mark Clifton. Sends it back. And Mark's devastated. This would be terrible. He has no idea what's going on.

Only the David must be behind it all. He googles the name Sandra had given him, David Hendy, but can't find anything which seems incredibly suspicious. Meanwhile, David finds Sophie a job working as a hairdresser. Her days became completely monotonous. She got up, David took her to work, she waited for him to pick her up, she would go home and go to sleep. Is he not just brainwashing her but grooming her as well to be his next direct victim? She's 19 now David mandates that she pay 300 pounds of rent every month to her mom and he takes that money directly from Sophie Of course doesn't give it to her mom

Soon he finds out that Sophie has a savings account with 10,000 pounds in it and David convinces Sophie go to the bank and liquidate it Give all the money to him and then now that he has all of her, one night after work he just doesn't come to pick her up. She ends up sleeping on the floor of the salon. But that would end up being a good thing. Because that was the night she realized David was not treating her like a human being and she moved out. After a year she got back in contact with her dad Mark and her brother Jake after not speaking to them for two and a half years. Then in January of 2014, Sandra and David leave the house and never return.

Mark headed over to investigate, found a huge industrial padlock on the door of the master bedroom. Newspaper completely covered the front windows. Mail, bills, and court summons mainly were piled around the house. Sandra hadn't paid the light bill, her credit cards, her mortgage, and more for months and months. The loan for a 35,000 pound Audi that was gifted to her was

registered in her name. That hadn't been paid off. Seeing all this, Mark had a burst of inspiration and googled David Hendy Conman. And a website came up describing Robert Freeguard. And there were pictures of him and it was obviously David. Mark immediately called the police but initially they did not pursue it. He tried again and again. Finally he got them to register his ex-wife as a missing person. In 2015, police then located Sandra Clifton

and arranged to meet with her. Sophie and Jake felt relieved. At least Sandra was alive. The police informed Sandra that her partner was actually Robert Freigard, a convicted con man. And they offered to take her into a protective custody, but she refuses. She tells him she knew about his past, and she had forgiven Robert David.

And now there was nothing the police could do. Sophie, Jake, and Mark are baffled. How could their mom know that info and stay with him? How could she expose a person like that to her children? When Sandra's beloved parents then die over the next several years, she misses their funerals. Occasionally Sandra will call her kids, but all of her dialogue feels heavily scripted and she never lets her children, never lets them know where she is. Over the years, Sophie and Jake will get messages from friends asking about Sandra. One friend said Sandra asked her for money, but the friend turned her down offering instead to come pick her up. And then around 2019, Sandra cuts off ties with her children completely

Then in 2020 markets detectives attract Sandra's cell phone from her past calls with her children. It's tracked to somewhere in France, but they don't know where Meanwhile mark will find new photographs of free guard online most often of him at various dog shows buying and selling dogs Markets in touch with one of the people at the dog shows, the woman who had a breeding business. She told him that Freigard had contacted her as David Clifton, offering to help improve her business. The woman agreed to go into business with him, but she was never allowed to be in contact with the people she was buying dogs from. The woman would pay him for vet bills and dogs, sending him thousands of dollars via Sandra Clifton's bank account, but not really getting anything in return. And once the woman got suspicious she was being conned, free guard told her that Sandra

worked very high up in the police and if the woman went to them, oh, there would be retaliation. Someone needs to murder this motherfucker. January of 2022, the three part docu-series, The Puppet Master, Hunting the Ultimate Con Man airs on Netflix. The series ends with Robert and Sandra living in France somewhere and refusing to contact anyone. How maddening for Sophie and her brother Jake. Well, eight months later, August 22, 2022, Jake gets a phone call from his mom.

Hadn't seen her in nearly 10 years by this point. Sandra tells Jake she loves him and that she is terrified of Robert. She has finally, after over a decade, just like with Sarah Smith before her, woken up to the fact that this guy has ruined her fucking life. Jake agrees to come immediately, but only if Sandra explicitly requests his help and agrees to come home with him. Sandra initially resists. She is scared of what Rob will do, but then four hours into this phone call, she finally asked him to come and collect her. Jake, my god, this fired up my allergies when I first

came across this, now literally drives non-stop through the night more than 560 miles to try and save his mother. Unsure the whole time of whether or not she will go through with it. He arrives in a small French town of Vidier, there we go. Around five in the morning and hugs his mom for the first time since he was 16. He's now 25. And then Jake enters the house and is shocked. It's a mess. It's chaotic. There are dogs. So many dogs. 26 dogs. All beagles living in crates in the main room. Their barking is deafening. The smell is so rancid it burns his throat. There's no heat, no lighting, no plumbing, only a bucket for a toilet.

No proper food. It's madness. And then his phone rings. How's France Jake? It's 51 year old Robert Freeguard. He tells Jake that if he took his mom away Freeguard will track him down and they will regret it. Is that a threat Jake asks? You'll see says Freeguard. Sure was. Jake knew that Freeguard was now on his way. Big question was, would his mom, Sandra,

still go back with him? On August 25th, as Freeguard is closing in on VDA, Sandra tells Jake that she will not leave until the dogs are safely cared for. Luckily, government officials respond quickly, load the dogs into trucks, and take them away. All the while, Freeguard is constantly calling her calling her working on her trying to shake her resolve The puppet master does not like anyone fucking with one of his puppets

For added security against this con artist piece of shit when Jake spread the word about him as did the authorities a group of local Volunteers assemble and patrol all night long outside the Sanders house. I love it Most of them already familiar with Rob thanks to the Netflix docu-series. Finally at three in the afternoon Rob arrives. Five police officers position themselves around the car, inform Free Guard that he will have to accompany them to the local police station immediately. Rob panics and hits the gas. As he flees he runs over two police officers. One of them, very seriously, one of them he bounces off of

his hood. The guy smacked his head against the windshield, flew over the top sustaining several fractures to his face. A female officer also seriously injured. Free guard then swings his car towards Jake who barely manages to jump out of the way. Veins pumping with adrenaline. Jake chases after Rob's car on foot but in vain. He has gotten away again. But also he has now committed some major crimes that he can't just slip out of later. He ran over two police officers in front of a bunch of eyewitnesses. Also Jake has helped save his mom. Sandra Clifton now accompanies her son back to England beginning a long road to recovery. Rob's shadow looms over that

recovery in its initial days. Free Guard remained at large, wanted for the attempted murder of a police officer. Fortunately, Rob wouldn't be gone in the wind very long this time. Probably only got to hear his favorite song, I don't know, just a few hundred more times, I'm guessing. ["Coming Home"] Why that song? On September 22nd, 2022, Free Guard is now arrested on attempted murder charges in Belgium. Yeah, he made it all the way to Belgium, which actually is not that far where it was in France. But anyway, he'd been on the run for eight days after just two weeks, excuse me, and just two weeks later on September 15th, Brussels Council Court authorizes Free Guard's extradition to France. Fuck yeah. Four days later,

Free Guard appeals the extradition, but his appeal fails this time, and he's handed over to French authorities on October 17th. He appears before judges in Limoges, October 20th, where he is indicted for the attempted murder of one of the two officers, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, and he is sent to be held in a pretrial detention center at the Limoges Remand Center. This trial still has yet to take place, but the good news is that in France, they consider your previous convictions, even if they happen in another country. So he will not be able to have any of that thrown out of evidence and the court will see that his behavior with Sandra Clifton was part of a pattern, an evil destructive soulless

pattern. In January 2023, Martine Laporte, mayor of the village of Vidier, where Sandra was living in Squalor, warns that Free Guard could have even more women hidden across Europe. Hopefully if so they get found and hopefully he's charged with more crimes. Currently I'm not sure how well Sandra Clifton is patching things up with her children and her life in general. Robert Hendy Free Guard is now 53 years old. Hopefully he gets that full 30 year sense. Even taking into account his time served he would not be free again until around the age of 80. Even taking into account his time served, he would not be free again until around the age of 80. And hopefully by then, the puppet master will finally be all out of string. And now real quick before I wrap up, time for a sponsor we've had a few times recently

But always at the very end of the episode and apparently they're not happy about that placements They wanted a better placement this week. So you know just just here we go Hey, hey remember me. Yes, Bob again It's Bob Bob from Bob's Battle Bonsai Fruit.biz The fuck is it gonna take to move some tiny ass Bonsai fruit trees? Why can't you just give a little fruit a chance, huh? Are you that insecure about your fruit? What, you think people can judge you for eating an orange the size of a large grape? How would you...how would you buy a bunch of my little olive trees? You could have your own little olive grove!

You could grow up a bunch of tiny bottles with olive oil, you hot-hearted father-daddy fuckers! It'd be so cool to have those tiny olive trees! Everyone would think you're the coolest person they'd ever met! But no! You'd rather be lazy, I guess, than buy regular-ass fruit from a regular regular ass grocery store like any other sucker. What the fuck? Wish I could find you right now beat your ass with a tiny branch From a bonsai oak or maple or maybe a peach tree right now If Bob's a edible bonsai fruit.biz you can order tiny peach trees you fucking pussy if you're man enough

We still are out of the kilo of coconuts because my stupid dogs trampled up Go to Bob's bonsaiai front up biz right now! Move your big ass and buy some of my- Oh shit! I'm about to lose my orchard. My orchard, I mean my 900 square foot apartment I share with four beagles somewhere around, I don't know, 1200 bonsai trees. I WANNA HAVE RELATED SAVE OF MONEY FOR MATCHES TO MOVE MY FUCKING FRUIT, COME ON!

IT'S NOT FUCKING ME OVER! I WANNA STAY FINE AND MY ROUND GONS IS STILL PRETTY SOON! I saved my money from Matthew's tiny fruit, my fucking fruit, come on! Stop fucking me over! I'm not so far from my round gauze, it's too early to stop pretty soon. I'm desperate. My shit... My shit hasn't been solid in years. All I'm eating are these little tiny fruits. Just pay me.

Give me $500. Give me $500. Give me $500. Give me $500. Give me $500. Give me $500 for a dozen. 15 or somewhere around 15. No, no, pine tides, succulent nectarines. You fucking ding dong. Bob's, badaful, badaful, fruit.bits.

Bob's, badaful, badaful, fruit.bits. Bob's, badaful, badaful, fruit.bits. I'm not just going twangy, I'm going god damn it. I'm making Thai fruit treats. You can suck my Thai fruit. I'm not just going to twang, god damn it. I'm making Thai fruit drinks. You can suck my Thai fruit. I'm so tired. Wow. Man, Bob is spiraling.

I'm worried about him. He's melting down. Tough times, tough times in the tiny fruit game. God dang, I hope that helps, I really do. If it doesn't, I don't think he's gonna be around much longer. I'm afraid he's gonna to stroke out pretty soon. I was talking about Rob. Robert Handy Free Guard, even though Free Guard is as far as we know, not a murderer.

He feels more sadistic in some ways than some of the murderers we've covered. Definitely takes a certain type of scumbag, you know, to kill an innocent person. But it also takes a scumbag to make someone live in a mental and physical hellscape for years and years and years. Bleeding them dry, making them eventually just want to kill themselves. Thank God Robert never started a cult. He may have missed his true nefarious calling and fell short of his potential when it came to how many lives he could ruin. Also in a way Robert is even more gross than a cult leader. With a lot of cult leaders they seem to believe their bullshit. I don't think Rob actually ever believed he was a secret agent.

You know, I don't think so. Also with cults, sometimes there's a tendency to write off the toll that being a cult member takes emotionally, financially, because you know, you know, wasn't that person looking for something? Didn't they seek it out? Weren't they going in search of answers, putting their trust in someone just because that person provided some answer they liked? Certainly it's never someone's fault if they're being taken advantage of, but you know, to put it another way, it's easier to have empathy for someone,

let's say born into a cult, than it is for the person who at least somewhat willingly put themselves in that situation. And perhaps when we hear about cults, when we hear about people being led away from their identities, from the people they were at their core,

we reassure ourselves that, you know, such a thing wouldn't happen to us because we're not seeking that out. We know better than to go looking for those answers that way. We know better than to put our trust in someone who calls themselves a guru or a prophet or whatever. But Sarah Smith, John Atkinson, Maria Hendy, countless others, they weren't looking for answers. They weren't looking for shit. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and meet the wrong person. You know, their good trust and I want to help people nature was taken advantage of

to an almost unheard of degree by a wildly manipulative and clearly charismatic pile of shit. And the same was true for countless others who found themselves saying yes to Robert Freigart again and again. Undoubtedly many of these people were afraid of the sunk costs once they lent him money and the idea was it was gone forever, right? That idea was just too hard to bear. Some of them would end up in his orbit for years, a full decade in both Sarah Smith's

and Sandra Clifton's cases, doubling down again and again and again, employing so much cognitive dissonance because it was just so painful to accept what he had done to them. Even though they were massively, massively unlucky to come across Free Guard when they did, we can take away a valuable lesson from this story. Do not chase after sunk costs. It is okay to cut your losses. Smart people get fooled every day. It doesn't make you stupid. You think you've been scammed? Taken advantage of? Well then get the fuck out now. Don't wait. Scammers and con men are gonna do everything they can to keep their hook

sunken to you. Stop and ask yourself some questions. Is this person guilt tripping me? Why? If this was a good person they care about it, they wouldn't have to do that. Do I actually owe them anything? Does their story add up? Ask questions to people who know you or you know who know them but aren't as emotionally connected to the situation. What do those people think? What do the people a bit outside of the situation think? Do they think that you're being taken advantage of? Get as much feedback as you can. What's the consensus? If the majority of your friends, family, co-workers, etc. come to a similar negative conclusion about someone in your life, that should mean something. That should mean a lot. That should have weight. Ask yourself, are all these people

wrong about this person or am I wrong about this person? Listen to your gut and trust it. And if you're into a scam really deeply, remember that it's just never too late to walk away. There's so much in life besides money. Family, love, doing good in your community. They may have taken your money, but that doesn't mean they've taken all of you. Your ability to be a good person and still contribute to the world and the people around you in positive, meaningful ways going forward does still exist. And also, if you truly think you can get away with it, or like if you only have a few weeks to live or something,

maybe kill that motherfucker. Right, so you can never scam anyone again. But know that if you do that and you try and blame it on me for inspiring you, I'm just kidding around. I'm just kidding. I say things. I say crazy things.

I play crazy music. Hey, what am I doing? But I'm not kidding. But officially I am! I'm just joking around. But I'm not joking around. I'm not fucking joking around. Time for the takeaways. Time Shuck, top five takeaways.

Number one, Robert Hendy Freigart, born Robert Freigart. March 1, 1971, was a serial Freeguard, born Robert Freeguard, March 1st, 1971, was a serial con man, master manipulator, an all-around piece of shit he still is, he's just locked up, who managed to make off with somewhere in the ballpark of just two million, or of two million pounds from numerous victims and their families. Over and over for almost three decades, he presented himself as someone he was not. Typically a secret agent, getting his victims to take on new identities as they helped him. Getting them to go by each other's identities. Having everyone think that

they were getting something in return. Something akin to a Ponzi scheme. A car, a cottage that someone else was actually paying for. And the list goes on and on. Number two, brainwashing is very real. Though it's hard to prove legally in court, we can say that almost none of the people really wanted anything to do with Robert Henny Freigart after a certain point But by then he'd broken down their defenses and identities and inserted himself as a sort of savior figure in their minds Someone who could keep them safe protect them help them start a good life if they just held on They just had to be patient to hit that target and do her more tests give him more money For nobody was this more true than Sarah Smith and John Atkinson man

The two of them would do so much for Rob that had been unthinkable to the well-adjusted young people They once were first fear controlled them fear of the IRA before Rob slowly replaced their identities by changing their appearances Having them cut off their families and giving them new identities Number three free guard was let out of prison in May of 2007 and was right up to his old trick skin. His most recent and hopefully last victim was Sandra Clifton, a seemingly well-adjusted mother of two who would go on to abandon her kids after Free Guard drove them apart and made Sandra live by herself in a dilapidated cottage in France breeding pedigree dogs. Fortunately, she has been reunited with her family. Number four, Freegard was apprehended on September 2nd, 2022. He had eventually committed

a crime that was obviously illegal attempted murder of a police officer. He is still waiting for his trial to begin. Number five, new info on brainwashing. Remember the Korean war vets talked about at the beginning of the episode? Not only did they inspire the popularization of the concept of brainwashing, they also inspired the Manchurian candidate, a 1959 political thriller by Richard Condon, a Dick Con masterpiece. The book details a conspiracy where a US soldier, Raymond Shaw, is captured during the Korean War and brainwashed by Chinese and Soviet agents. His brainwashing is later activated by communists and it leads Shah to assassinate a US presidential candidate so that his running mate, Senator Islan, will win with overwhelming support.

Islan had been put in place by his power broker wife, also Shah's mother, to install a Chinese communist dictatorship if elected. The book was turned into a film directed by John Frankenheimer and stars Frank Sinatra as Bennett Marco, Shaw's platoon mate who discovers a conspiracy. United Artists, the studio behind the film, was wary about making a movie with such a controversial subject, but President Kennedy, who was a friend of Sinatra, appealed to the studio to have the movie made. The original movie did not even break even at the box office, but the term Manchurian candidate soon spread into the public consciousness and began to be used to accuse a politician of being brainwashed by an outside foreign agent. Henry Kissinger was called

a Manchurian candidate in 1975 and in 1977 Sirhan Sirhan launched an appeal of his guilty verdict in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Sirhan's lawyer claimed that Sirhan washan launched an appeal of his guilty verdict in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Sirhan's lawyer claimed that Sirhan was hypnotized, could not remember killing Kennedy. This was characterized as the Manchurian candidate theory. Sirhan Sirhan, still in prison at the age of 80, still claims he was hypnotized. He was just denied parole once again last year. last year. Time Suck Top 5 Takeaways The puppet master Robert Handy Freeguard has been sucked. Glad that low rent James Bond wannabe is behind bars.

Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help in making Time Suck. Starting with Queen of Bad Magic Lindsay Cummins doing so much so I have time for all this content. Thanks also to Logan Keith helping to publish this episode, designing merch for the store at BadMagicProductions.com. Thank you to Sophie Evans doing the research on this one and thanks to the all-seeing eyes moderating the culturally curious private Facebook page, the Mod Squad for making sure discord keeps running smooth

and everyone over on the Time Suck and Bad Magic subreddits. And now the updates. Got some wonderful little updates this last week. First up, badass mama Wolf. Wolf of a sack Vanessa, gonna redact her last name since what she shared was very personal, writes in with the subject line of just what I needed to hear after listening to the Snowtown murder suck. Dan, you beautiful bastard, I am listening to episode 422 on a tough morning and he started talking about how lucky so many of us have been not to be born into just pure hell and that anyone who was and is even functioning or has children they treat well is doing just great.

Not your exact wording, but you get it. Come on. I was unfortunately born into absolute hell that continued until I was 15 and I was finally able to live on my own. Before that, I faced physical, sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of my stepfather, my sister's boyfriends or some friends when I lived with her. And when I finally got on my own own I ended up in an abusive relationship. I've been in therapy most of my adult life to deal with these things and let me say when I look at my babies I just weep because I could never let someone hurt them like I have been hurt. Your kind words this morning hit me right when I needed them. I've been in a

bad headspace just being so hard on myself for letting my past make me so scared or sad and just beating myself up. You brought me up this morning and I appreciate that. Love you guys. The whole team is great. Hope this podcast lasts forever. Well Vanessa, first off, yeah just so sorry that that ever happened to you. You know, I know this, I hope this goes out with saying but you know it's not your fault. We just, none of us get to choose what situation we are born into. Some people, the people of the, well you just make it happen in life. You know, like you just kind of discount that kind of stuff and if you're whining

and having trouble that's just that's on you. Well they probably lack empathy because they probably were not born into a situation like that. Second, like I said in this episode, yeah you're a fucking champion. You've broken the cycle of abuse which could not have been easy and that does make you a hero to champion. You've broken the cycle of abuse, which could not have been easy. And that does make you a hero to me. You know, I mean, I hope you do other things. I hope you get what you want, but just functioning like you are is a huge accomplishment.

Feel good, mama. Sounds like you're kicking ass, doing the most important job in the world, parenting. And now for a similar message. And these thoughts also apply to you, Vanessa, that I'll share after this message. We got a lot of these actually this past week. And this one comes in from another fucking champion Adam, again redacting Adam's last name, who wrote him with the subject line of

just thank you. I felt compelled to email and say thank you for what you said in the last podcast about people functioning after abuse. Bit of backstory. Birth parents raped me, neglected me, kept me in a kennel, ultimately trying to kill me before the state stepped in. It happened in my first two years of life, but the damage done is permanent. I've always wanted to die, as long as I can remember. And thanks to your suck about mental illness, I finally got the help I needed after 32 long years without any help. Most of the time I feel overwhelmed and like an absolute failure as I grade myself extremely strictly.

Thank you for saying that you're proud. I've never been told that before and thank you for opening my eyes to realize I need to grade myself on a curve just as you do. Infinite love and oceans of gratitude, Adam. Yes. Yes, Adam. Yes. We are all broken to some degree. Every one of us. If you live life long, you know, if you live life, what else do you live? If you live, you think I'd be able to talk better after all this talking. If you live long enough, life will fuck you in some way or another, right?

People you love will die. You'll be hurt in some way by someone, many someones, you'll hurt others in some way as well. So please Adam, don't think that you're broken and any like, you know that like you know others aren't and you are we all are. And what happened to you again? Not your fault. Your life still has just as much value as it would if that would have never happened. You deserve just as much love as you would if that would have never happened. Just as much as the rest of us. I'm proud of you for sending this message. You didn't have to do that. I hope you start taking it easier on yourself. Love yourself. Be proud of yourself. You know, we're all marching towards death. All of us. We're all building castles made of sand. No one will

remember in all likelihood any of us a thousand years from now. And even if they do, we won't be around to know it. So I say that to tell you to enjoy the fucking ride. You only get one for sure. And it's gonna end whether you laughed and smiled or cried and scream your way through it. It's a laugh. It's a smile. It's to love yourself. Thank you Adam. And for my next update my plan to murder longtime sucker Lisa Will's almost worked. She wrote in to let me know it's the subject line of Alexander Hamilton. And for my next update, my plan to murder long time sucker Lisa Will has almost worked. She wrote in to let me know it's a subject line of Alexander Hamilton. Hey, you gorgeous, big fat, hairy dangling meat sack.

I've been a little time sucker and STD listener slash fan forever. I always wanted to write in, but because each episode makes me, uh, because each episode makes me comment out loud to myself, whether in agreement or calling you a complete cock, calling you a complete cockwample, but then life gets in the way so it's a big thing for me to feel strongly enough to put fingers to keyboard. No, I get it. We're all busy. You know, almost all of us. Imagine if you will. I am a stepladder. What am I doing? Imagine if you will. I'm a stepladder. That is not what they wrote. They wrote, imagine if you will, I am up a stepladder. Very different mental picture. But I have a seriously dodgy knee

due to a complete dislocation about 10 years ago, resulted in my lower leg pointing 45 degrees outwards, which I tell everyone I did whilst skiing on a black run, but it was actually due to tripping on some decking. So suffice to say the balance ain't the best. I'm cutting in along the ceiling, the most tedious and time-consuming painting for my extrovert self, but you are keeping me sane with Al Hamm distracting me enough

to continue with the tediousness of my life at this point. I'm listening attentively because I never watched the ultra-popular musical. I don't like musicals. So engrossing and fascinating. But then you shout, enough with the flute! Enough with the fucking flute! So very fucking unexpected that I just started howling laughing. I start to wobble on the ladder and can only prevent the gaining momentum from throwing me on the floor by putting my hand to the freshly painted wall to set in myself and hence getting toasted almond colored paint all over my hand, smearing the aforementioned wall while simultaneously throwing the paintbrush getting crap all over the floor you complete

fucker. Following that each time you played the flute in the background I got off the ladder. In preparation to prevent further Jackson Pollock impressions. Thankfully you spared me. On a separate note, while I am a fuzzy sock fan your nightmare fuel is just on another level. Freaking fantastic and dark. Dan you make every week just that bit better.

So all I can say is don't ever stop. 3 out of 5 stars wouldn't change a thing. Best wishes to you Lindsay and your bonnie and your bonnie brood Lisa. Well Lisa I'm kind of glad my plan to kill you failed because that was a very sweet message. Yeah thank you so much and you really you painted uh wait hold on Because you're painting in that kind of place. Okay, I'll stop. But no, thank you. Sorry about the mess, but not really,

because I'm glad I made you laugh. And one more from the land of snakes, the Outback and rock spiders. Ozzie Sucker and other things obviously. Ozzie Sucker, Mike McLean writes in with the subject line of from down under To the great master time sucker and crew I am so glad you covered the fucked up case known as the body in the barrels and the bodies in the barrels I emailed months ago suggesting it and I'm hoping it was my message. Hell. Yeah, it was I don't know

I think it was My message they had you look into it even it wasn't let's pretend it was so I can stroke me Okay, it definitely was. One of the craziest true crime events to go down, you forgot to mention the movie named Snowtown that is based on it. I know, there's just so many peripheral details. The movie's actually done quite well. It's chilling and disturbing, just like the real cases.

Now I'm from Sydney originally, but now living in the beautiful Queensland. Not sure what the media outlet is smoking to name Adelaide the most beautiful city in the world. Sure it has some nice buildings and architecture, but other than that it's a shithole. Sorry not sorry South Australians. Not all of them there are backwards in Brady Hill Billy trash types, but a lot of them are. This story gives the rest of us Aussies a very pedo disgusting look. Like in every place there are some desolate areas and the people living in those areas struggle. True. Anyways I just wanted to write in thank you for covering it as I knew you would knock it out of the park. Anyone listening would

think this is fictional crime told by someone fucked up like yourself Dan. This just proves you're a top-tier storyteller whether fiction or non-fiction. Oh thank you. Your podcast has brought me great entertainment over the years. Perfect for my job when I'm on long road trips. Man, I bet if you have to drive for work, if you have to work across the country, the continent, you're doing some long road trips in Australia. By far my favorite.

Look forward to it every Tuesday when new episodes drop. Remember, Australia is in the future. So we get it on Tuesday rather than Monday. Keep up the great work, legends. Mike from Australia, P.S. my brother, also named Dan, lives in Los Angeles, has a mate who actually had a run-in with the Night Stalker, Tuesday rather than Monday. Keep up the great work legends. Mike from Australia, PS, my brother also named Dan, lives in Los Angeles, has a mate who actually had a run-in with the Nightstalker, Rich Ramirez, years ago.

During that whole ordeal, it is bone chilling to hear. Would love to share it with you. If you're interested, let me know. Well, hello and happy Tuesday, Mike. Yes, right in with your Richard Nightstalker story. I'd love to hear about it. And thanks for letting us know that we've got some Aussies listening.

No one wrote in from Adelaide though, as I recorded it, which is weird. I don't know if they have computers there. Just a bunch of salty rock spy. Rock spied us! Yes, again, I would love to hear that NightSocker story. Thanks for the messages, everybody. Been getting more lately, so I appreciate it. Getting more sent to Bojangles at TimeSuckPodcast.com.

Enjoy the rest of your week. Thanks TimeSuckPodcast.com. Enjoy the rest of your week. Thanks, Time Suckers. I needed that. We all did. Well, thank you for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast. Scared to Death and Time Suck each week. Short Sucks and Nightmare Fuel on the Time Suck and Scared to Death podcast feed some weeks. Please do not pretend to be a secret agent and move a variety of men and women, but most who women all around whatever country live in, while draining them of all their money and separating them from their families and brainwashing and humiliating them for over two decades in total this week. Tell people the truth about who you are.

You're someone who loves to keep on sucking. Over and over. Days on end. As you're driven from place to place by a fake secret agent. As they take all your money. Oh boy. I'll never hear this song again without thinking of Robert Hendy Freedgard. A crime he will never be punished for, ruined in a perfectly good Duran Duran song. For thousands and thousands, if not millions of people.