To Die For - 14) Kompromat

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

"You'll notice that every time somebody is poisoned, it's usually two people or more involved. and this has a reason: The FSB does not trust its own assassins." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beckley is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

The person who did it is still out there. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He was a Boy Scout leader, a husband, a father. But he was leading a double life. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious killers, BTK, through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster BTK on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. All eight episodes of To Die For

are available now to binge absolutely free. But for ad-free listening and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Warning. The following episode contains explicit language and sexual themes. Listener discretion is advised.

Topping our Worldly today is a tale that seems straight out of a spy novel. So audacious, so horrific. It would have to be a work of fiction, but it's all too true. This is the tragic story of Alexander Litvinenko. In Russian, I have a name, Alexander Litvinenko. I am a former KGB FSB officer. My rank, lieutenant colonel. My position, deputy head of section, top secret department of FSB. Alexander Litvinenko was a former FSB officer who was fighting organized crime. He soon discovered a connection between high-ranking officers in the FSB and Russian criminal gangs. When he began investigating this FSB corruption, he was blocked by Putin. Frustrated, he soon became a whistleblower for the FSB's dirty tricks.

Their organized crime activity, their secret assassinations, even their supposed involvement in the terrorist apartment bombing that was used to justify the Second Chechen War. The former Federal Security Service agent admits he's worried about coming forward with the allegations and says he fears for the life of his wife and child. But Litvinenko says he decided to come forward because, quote, if these people are not stopped, this lawlessness will flood the country. Litvinenko eventually fled Russia for England, where he shared his secrets, worked to try and bring down Putin, and sought protection from the British government.

While there, he connected with Russian historian Yuri Falstinsky, and together they wrote the book Blowing Up Russia, Terror from Within. Falstinsky recalls the last time he saw Litvinenko from a distance. He was running to me and yelling to me, Yuri, I just got British citizenship. Now they will not be able to touch me. And so this was on 30th of October. And on the 1st of November, he was poisoned. On the 1st of November, just after he'd become a British citizen, he met two former colleagues from Russia's intelligence world in the Pine Bar at the Millennium Hotel.

Two days later, he was admitted to his local hospital, vomiting and in great pain. Here's Yuri Felshtinsky again with something I never knew about how these international poisoning missions work. This is very important. You notice probably that every time with something I never knew about how these international poisoning missions work. those people whom they sent to kill because the chance that they would defect is very high. Now, that's why you always send them in groups,

at least two people, and they have to be together all the time. They sleep in one room in the hotel, so they are really not allowed to be alone because one is controlling the other. There's one other safeguard that helped keep Litvinenko's assassins from defecting and abandoning their mission. The fact that they used radioactive polonium-210, said to be one of the most toxic substances on Earth, to do the job. A few days after Litvinenko, the FSB whistleblower,

entered the hospital for treatment, Falstensky spoke with him, and Litvinenko, the FSB whistleblower, entered the hospital for treatment. Falstinsky spoke with him, and Litvinenko was feeling optimistic. Now, I talked to him by phone several days soon after the 1st of November, and he told me that, look, I was poisoned, but I survived. And then after the first 10 days, his health deteriorated. What Felstynsky, Litvinenko's co-writer and friend, shares next, explains something that few talk about when covering these poisonings in the news. How unbelievably horrible they are.

He was telling me that, you know, this was so painful, that if I have a choice, and Litvinenko was at one point in Russia, arrested by the government and put in prison for almost a year. And he said, you know, if you give me a choice to spend another year in prison or to go through this poisoning, I would rather spend another year in prison. That's how painful this was. And on 23rd of November, he died. In the late afternoon of Thursday, 23rd of November, the police confirmed with the Health Protection Agency that a significant quantity of the radioactive isotope

polonium-210-210 had been found in Mr Litvinenko's urine. I ask Falstensky, after experiencing all this, what does he think people don't know about Russian intelligence that they need to know? What people do not really understand that we have the largest special services structure in the world with the largest budget in the world and enormous amount of people. And even now, we do not really know how many people work for the FSB. And so we resume Aliyah's story as she is unknowingly about to begin

a similar journey with her colleague Sasha. Uncover corruption in the FSB from within. An investigation that, as history clearly shows,

does not usually end well for the agents involved. And this investigation would be no exception. I have to kill you would be no exception. I didn't guess that way home I was holding my gun I got you, I tell you all I had to kill you Was it so much fun? Episode 14, Chapter 30, Gathering Evidence gathering evidence.

It was finally time. Sasha brought me sleeping pills, which are supposed to help me to put Vladimir into long sleep, deep, deep sleep. Aliyah's mission was to slip sleeping pills into the dinner of her target Vladimir, leader of one of the most dangerous gangs in the city. While he was knocked

out, she planned to photograph the documents in his office for her colleagues in the FSKN, the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. It was like a quiet evening. I cooked some dinner and I gave him the pill in the glass of water. Then we went upstairs

and I was massaging and rubbing his shoulders when he was like just laying on the side. And I was telling him some kind of like bullshit from the university about my teachers. So it was like really slow. There is a technique about hypnosis. When you want like your target to relax and fall asleep, you put your target into the trance. So I did that and Vladimir started to sleep. And I was laying, looking at the ceiling, looking at myself and thinking, how do I do it? I was waiting till about like 1 a.m.

So it will be late, late night. And very, very slowly, almost like a cat and I walked out from the room into that office room I took my camera and I took the small like flashlight and I basically photographed all these papers and I just saw like many numbers and some places and many many different names and now I open also notebook I did like all the photos over there with telephone numbers so I photographed everything and when I finished I just returned to bed and I hid my bag with a camera like underneath of the clothes which was on the armchair.

Early morning, we woke up, Vladimir felt good and he said, I had such a good sleep finally. Yeah, thanks to me. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death.

Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beckley is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right.

I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere. It's sickening. If you stab somebody how many times you have blood splatter, where's the change of clothes? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all, which is just

horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He was a Boy Scout leader, a church deacon, a husband, a father. He went to a local church. He was going to the grocery store with us. He was the guy next door. But he was leading a double life.

He was certainly a peeping Tom, looking through the windows, looking at people, fantasizing about what he could do. He then began entering the houses. He could get into their home, take something, and get out and not be caught. He felt very powerful. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Someone killed four members of a family. It just didn't happen here. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious killers, BTK, through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster BTK on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. The next morning, Aaliyah prepared to meet with her colleague Sasha

and hand over the camera, making sure to download a copy of the files for herself first. They were both new to intelligence work and given this mission by their commander to fail. But inexperience often comes with enthusiasm. And they were succeeding perhaps too well for their own safety. I was in a rush. The only one thing which I did, I took the memory card.

So I downloaded all the things in my computer. I installed it back to the camera and I passed the camera to Sasha. Back at home, Aliyah sat down at her computer to examine the photograph she'd taken of the documents in Vladimir's office. And what I've seen there blew my mind. I texted Sasha and I said, I think I found out something important, which might be a big explanation in all this mess.

And maybe it gives us the light of what just happened with this case. Let's meet at the same place tomorrow. He said, yeah, let's do it. And he didn't come. He didn't show up. And I was really worried. I didn't know exactly what to do. I called him. He didn't pick up. I texted. He didn't reply. When Aliyah saw Vladimir later that day, she tried to conceal her worries about Sasha and what may have happened to him. So Vladimir, he asked me, like, is everything okay? And I said, like, no, everything is okay. And I try not to be worried about Sasha. and that day I heard a conversation between Vladimir and his army friend

and it was a big argument and army friend was saying to Vladimir we've been losing many many drugs recently and this is not good I'm responsible in front of these people in Afghanistan, and if something goes wrong, they will cut off my head, not yours. And Vladimir said, it won't happen. I understood that the army friend wasn't really satisfied. I reached out to Sasha again the next day, and he came to that place where we usually met, and I was almost screaming at him, like, like what the hell you didn't pick up the phone

you like freaked me out I thought something happened to you and he said the reason why I couldn't contact you is because for the whole night and day I was spying on our commander and you'll be shocked what I will tell you right now. So in these documents which I photographed, there was a few times written the name of our commander. And Sasha, when he was spying on our commander, our commander had a meeting with Vladimir's friend. Then he said, like, why our commander sent us to this drug operation and we arrested people and we confiscated drugs

and yet now he's speaking with this guy. I asked Sasha if he's done any photos or anything like that so apparently he did which is good and also we had this document stating that our commander was involved so more or less I had some evidences some compromise let's say, to our commander. And I started to dig in more. And eventually, in my head, I created a plan how to save myself and Vladimir out of all this big mess.

Chapter 31. The Sting The next day, Ilya met with her friend Anna, who was part of the gang's entourage, to see if she knew anything more about what was going on. She said the man with whom she was dating, he said to her that the whole gang started to be divided. So slowly the army friend were bringing his people together to create kind of a good confrontation towards Vladimir's people. I felt sorrow because I started to realize that there is something going on behind his back and he doesn't even know. You know, like, I wanted to kind of like protect him.

This is probably not standard practice for an undercover agent. But this is what happens when you mix love and war. As much as the state would like to turn people into robots, or at least sociopaths without empathy, they're still human at the end of the day. And a human connection usually wins over a work order. When Aliyah met with Vladimir next, she tried to find a way to hint to him that his army friend, his second in command, who had saved his life during the war, might be plotting to betray him. I tried to start the conversation,

and I asked him, like, do you trust your friend? And he said, yeah, I trust him. He saved my life. I owe him for that. I understood at that moment that it would be just almost impossible to tell him anything. I thought like, you know, that I will find a way how to make it right.

So next day we met with Sasha again and he gave me some photos. Like there were like couple photos of our commander standing with this army friend and he told me i i'm worried about my life he said i know too much now and you do and he said if something happens with me promise that you will take care of this information and you will make sure that he will get what he deserves. And that moment I remembered about Cornell because I remember that dinner when I first time met my future commander and I remember them sitting and drinking vodka and just having this kind of look to each other. And something told me that all of them involved in this thing, something like, it's just like a gut feeling. But yet without evidences, it's just,

it's just a thought. Ilya told Sasha about the colonel, her abuser at the military academy, and the commander's close friend, and asked if it was possible to see if the colonel was involved with the gang at all. Sasha replied that they should just keep taking down the trafficking network and watching everyone closely. And eventually, the truth would be revealed.

He said, like, let's see, like, what would be their reaction. Once we know, we will understand who is really involved in there and who is not. They decided to raid another one of the spots on Vladimir's map. They timed the operation to take place during a celebration that the gang was planning for a member's birthday. This way, Ilya could watch everyone's responses. Then Sasha can arrest them and we will see how other people in this chain, how will they respond. So that day, we organized everything.

I remember even what I was wearing that day. That afternoon, Ilya's colleague Sasha showed up with her team at the suspected drug dealing operation and as usual sent in an informant to buy drugs with marked money. Meanwhile, Ilya was with Vladimir at the gang member's birthday celebration. So everybody was drinking for the house of

the birthday person. And suddenly the army guy stands up and he leaves. Somebody called him. I opened my bag and I texted Sasha that the army guy just left. Vladimir is here. I'm just like, I'm controlling the whole situation. I will text you. What's going on? He texted me. It's here. I'm just like, I'm controlling the whole situation. I will text you. What's going on?

He texted me. It's okay. We work on it. I will text you later. And I never heard from him since that moment. To have a murderer as gruesome as Jade Beasley doesn't happen very often down here. In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence,

but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Beckley is guilty. This case, the more I learned about it, the more I'm scratching my head. Something's not right. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Murder on Songbird Road dives into the conviction of a mother of four who remains behind bars and the investigation that put her there. I have not seen this level of corruption anywhere.

It's sickening. If you stabbed somebody that many times, you'd have blood splatter. Where's the change of clothes? She found out she was pregnant in jail. She wasn't treated like she was an innocent human being at all. Which is just horrific. Nobody has gotten justice yet. And that's what I wish people would understand.

Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He was a Boy Scout leader, a church deacon, a husband, a father. He went to a local church. He was going to the grocery store with us. He was the guy next door. But he was leading a double church. He was going to the grocery store with us. He was the guy next door. But he was leading a double life. He was certainly a peeping Tom, looking through the windows, looking at people, fantasizing about what he could do. He then began entering the houses. He could get into their home,

take something, and get out and not be caught. He felt very powerful. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Someone killed four members of a family. It just didn't happen here. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious killers, BTK, Through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster B.T.K. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. So I'm sitting there. Vladimir is like stressed he's receiving some calls

he replies but it's all kind of like yes, no, yes, no and I couldn't understand what's going on I'm just sitting but I'm going to the toilet text Sasha hey what's up

text me no answer came back again from the toilet sitting again with Vladimir everybody drinking and so on I couldn't eat or drink I was just sitting there and pretending that I'm I'm okay and I'm smiling go to the toilet text Sasha no messages back coming back again sitting stressing again and again and again and again and I had like this kind of feeling inside of me where you know something is like not good we were driving home and Vladimir was sitting with almost probably the same face because, like, we didn't really talk. I was just, like, opening my bag and trying to see the telephone, my small Motorola, if there any message from Sasha, and it wasn't. It was empty.

We just drove back. When we came to the city, Vladimir was like intense. And I said, you know, like, I don't feel good. I want to just like lay down. Can you drop me home? And he's like, yeah, of course. Besides, I want to check something too. So he dropped me home.

And I didn't call to the commander, obviously. And I didn't call anyone apart from one person who was in our team. I texted him. He didn't reply. I called him. He picked up the call. And I said like, hey, hey, it's me. What's going on?

And I heard his voice hey, hey, it's me. What's going on? And I heard his voice was almost like broken. His voice sounded like so far away. And I asked him, do you know where is Sasha? He said, yes. So I said, so what happened? Can you tell me he said so we sent our drug bait guy who does all this like transaction with the mark money and when we entered the house we entered the main door he said like, like, there was, like, few Afghani men.

And they started to shoot. And Sasha was the first who entered as the commander of the team. And he said he was the one who received the first bullet. And I asked him, Sasha, always wearing the bullet protection jacket? He said, yes, he does. And I said, so is he okay?

He said, no. And I said, like, where was the bulletproof jacket? And he didn't reply to me. I said, like, where was the bulletproof jacket? I was almost like screaming. And he said, he's in the morgue. I said what's going on with the commander what did he say he said like he was like really pissed off and he said that he's all going to put us to jail because they did the whole operation without his permission.

I standing there at the room and I, I just couldn't, I couldn't do anything. And I, you know, like this feeling where I, I started to hate, like the strong anger, the anger that he's just not here anymore, and the guilt. Aliyah felt that the commander or someone must have told the drug dealers to expect a raid and to expect impunity. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had their guns out and started firing immediately. And I just hated our commander so much.

I felt like he betrayed Sasha. He betrayed his own people for his own good. It was a very dark, dark day. I remember Sasha told me the last time I saw him, if something happened to me, promise me that you will get the justice and you will finish this case. And I gave him this word. And I had almost like every single evidences towards my commander.

I had photos of him and the criminal leader, this army friend of Vladimir. I had handwritten name on the papers. And I was thinking, okay, so if I will have all these documents and all this evidence, as whom do I go to prove it that my commander is criminal. And there was, like, one main commander who was the general of the whole state. The next morning on a Monday, I called to the receptionist of the general. I said to her, like,

I have some information about the case i have some evidences i need to speak with the commander and she said to me oh like you can pass me information i'll give it to him i said like no i need to meet him in person i cannot give this information to from him. She said I will speak with him. And just basically like in a few minutes she called me back. She said when can you come in? I said I can come in like in 30 minutes. She said he will be waiting for you I got dressed I put the files into USB I took the USB I took these photos which Sasha gave me

I was just thinking if I can really trust but I wanted just to understand if he knows anything or not and if he's really involved or not so I came into the main building beautiful with the big columns and I walked through the security check. I said I have an appointment with the general. They let me in. I went upstairs to the second floor. I came to the reception and there was a woman about 45 years old and she was having this strict face like all the military people do. And she said, he's waiting for you.

To Die For continues in episode 15. He told me, this is the end. This is the last moment of your life. And when he told that, he punched me from the side so hard that it just crushed my bone. To Die For is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeart Podcasts. The show is hosted and written by me, Neil Strauss, with additional writing assistance by Tristan Bankston. Executive producers are myself, Donald Albright, and Payne Lindsey.

For iHeart Podcasts, executive producers are Matt Frederick and Alex Williams. Lead producer and editor is Tristan Bankston. Additional editing by Miles Clark and Christian Brown. Supervising producer, Tracy Kaplan. Consultants include Nushin Velizadeh, Chelsea Gooden, and Jamie Albright. Artwork by Byron McCoy. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.

Mixed and mastered by Dayton Cole. Our theme song is Killer Shangri-La by Psychotic Beats, featuring Patti Amore. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, Oren Siegel, Becky Jensen, the Nord Group, Meredith Stedman, Rose Baruch, and Alex Vespested. To have a murder as gruesome as Jade Beasley's doesn't happen very often down here.

In Marion, Illinois, an 11-year-old girl brutally stabbed to death. Her father's longtime live-in girlfriend maintaining innocence, but charged with her murder. I am confident that Julie Bethely is guilty. They've never found a weapon. Never made sense. Still doesn't make sense. She found out she was pregnant in jail.

The person who did it is still out there. Listen to Murder on Songbird Road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He was a Boy Scout leader, a husband, a father, but he was leading a double life. He was a monster, hiding in plain sight. Journey inside the mind of one of history's most notorious killers, BTK, through the voices of the people who know him best. Listen to Monster BTK on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.