True Crime Campfire - Episode 40: Paranoia: The Abduction and Murder of Rick Post, Pt. 2

Episode Date: February 21, 2020

In part 1, we introduced you to missing private investigator/FBI informant/cult expert Rick Post. Rick’s family had been trying in vain for months to get the police interested in his disappearance, but they had no luck until a defense attorney called in with an anonymous tip given to her by one of her clients. The client had told her that a man matching Rick’s description had been kidnapped and murdered in Mexico. The FBI jumped into the investigation when they realized that the missing man was one of their informants, and when they started interviewing the people closest to Rick, they soon realized that the anonymous tipster was none other than Rick’s best friend and business partner, John Krueger. And in the process of investigating him, they did some digging into Rick’s girlfriend Kim Bailey, too—a self made woman running a multimillion dollar company that peddled quack medicine. And when we left you, a conversation with Kim Bailey’s best friend Lana had revealed a disturbing conspiracy between Krueger and Kim Bailey—Krueger was mad that Rick wouldn’t give him more control over their PI agency, and Kim thought Rick had been cheating on her and embezzling from her company. They were about to hatch a seriously unpleasant plan. Sources:Investigation Discovery's "Murder in Paradise," Episode "Spies, Lies, and Alibis"https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-aug-21-me-torture21-story.htmlhttps://www.devicewatch.org/reports/rife/pretrial_memo.shtmlhttps://www.casewatch.net/doj/bailey/trial_memo.pdf?_ga=2.48969062.1959969553.1582257756-2053706941.1582257756http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/4041dmca.htmlFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfireFacebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://gramha.net/profile/truecrimecampfire/19093397079Twitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail] a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie. And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. In part one, we introduced you to missing private investigators slash FBI informant slash cult expert Rick Post. Rick's family had been trying in vein for months to get the police interested in his disappearance, but they had no luck until a defense attorney called in with an anonymous tip given to her by one of her clients. The client had told her that a man matching Rick's description had been kidnapped and murdered in Mexico. The FBI jumped into the investigation when they realized that the missing man was one of their informants, and when they started interviewing the people closest to Rick, they soon realized that the anonymous tipster was none other than Rick's best friend and business partner, John Kruger. And in the

process of investigating him, they did some digging into Rick's girlfriend Kim Bailey, too, a self-made woman running a multi-million dollar company that peddled quack medicine. And when we left you, a conversation with Kim Bailey's best friend Lana had revealed a disturbing conspiracy between Kruger and Kim Bailey. Kruger was mad that Rick wouldn't give him more control over their PI agency, and Kim thought Rick had been cheating on her and embezzling from her company. They were about to hatch a seriously unpleasant plan. Join us now for Part 2 of Paranoia. The Abduction and Murder of Rick Post. Well, John Kruger had been in the PI biz long enough to have made some pretty unsavory contacts.

And in mid-August, 19. 1998, he arranged for him and Kim to meet with one of them. Enter Umberto Iribe. This was a bad dude. He was wanted by the FBI, and he had a very long history of violence, kidnapping, and murder for hire, as well as associations with the Mexican drug cartels. Yikes. John introduced him to Kim Bailey at a TGI Fridays. It was so weird that they met at a Fridays.

And it just goes to show you. You never know what goes on at TGI Fridays. You could be sitting there eating your loaded potato skins. And there can be people planning a murderer for hire two tables over. No kidding, right? Yeah, it's just something to keep in mind next time you venture. I think we should all be aware of what might be going on at TGI Fridays. Don't even get me started about Benigans, okay?

No, no kidding. It's not all about the jalapeno poppers people. There are wheels within wheels. Right. And we can only assume this was all over some half-priced margaritas and mozzarella sticks. Yeah. Where John Kruger, Kim Bailey, and Umberta Arebe sat and planned the abduction and torture of the man Kim had claimed to love. The man, Kruger, had called a friend and partner for years. Poor Rick Post. Yeah, and I just, you know, I wonder what Rick. was doing that afternoon, like while these assholes were sitting around at Fridays and

planning his abduction and torture. Like, was he hanging out with his kids? Was he getting his car washed? Was he just on the beach enjoying some sunshine? I mean, it's just, it's heartbreaking to think of little things like that, isn't it? He was being so terribly betrayed and he had no idea. He was just going about his day. Yeah. Sad. Anyway, before I start crying, the plan. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I mean, this is one of those cases that just feels very real to me and I won't get into it. But it's just it's a hard one. The plan was for Kim to get Rick down to Mexico under the guise of a surprise trip. Then Aribe and another man would abduct him. Take him to an abandoned house and torture him. And that's just what they did. Kim sweet-talked Rick

into the sudden trip to Baja and on a sunny afternoon she told him she needed to run into a pharmacy to grab some necessities. Rick waited for her in the car, top-down, sun-shining, breeze in his hair. I'm sure Rick was in a happy mood. I'm sure he had no idea what was about to happen to him. Uribe and two accomplices drove up and took him, waving fake police badges around.

Once they had him, Kim got back into Rick's car and drove it back to San Diego while Eribe and company drove Rick out to the abandoned house. They duct taped him to a chair, and Rick Post's horrible ordeal began. They hit him. They pulled his fingernails out with pliers. Oh, God. I'm sorry, campers.

I know that's awful. They interrogated him. And on day three, Kim showed up to join it. Oh, my God. Just imagine this. You're going through this horrible torture, and a few days into it, you see your girlfriend walk through the door. You're probably relieved and excited for a split second, hopeful that maybe she's come to save you. You're probably scared for her safety, too.

And then you realize she's with them. Kim later told her friend Lana, I hit him so hard, his head rolled back like a ball. Jeez, Louise. Kim told Rick, you're going to pay for what you've done to me. Rick admitted to the cheating. He'd never been good at being faithful to the women in his life. But he said he hadn't stolen a penny from Kim's company.

He maintained that, by the way, throughout the whole awful ordeal. I completely believe him. I don't think he stole a dime. No. And once Kim was there, they continued interrogating and torturing him. Kim stood in a corner with a creepy little smile on her face and gave him directions. Hit him harder. Stuff like that.

She seemed to really appreciate the fingernail pulling. My God. Yeah, this bitch is terrifying. You've got to be a stone cold psychopath to be able to torture somebody or like enjoy watching somebody be tortured. There's just no possible way you couldn't, right? Like, that's, there's no way in hell. I don't care how mad I am at somebody. Like, I would try it and then the person would be like, ow, ow, and I'd be like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. There's no way in hell. Jeez, that's scary. So, Lana told all this to the FBI, and she seemed grateful to get it off her chest. She kept saying, Kim is evil. She's evil. Yeah, Captain Obvious. We agree. The agents were dumbfounded as she unfolded all this horrific shit.

And then, at the end of the interview with the FBI, Lana said, tell Nick, I said hello. The agents looked at each other. Like, what? They were confused. The only Nick they knew was Agent Nick McKean. How the hell would this ranch hand know Agent McKean? And then they talked to him. And holy shit.

This is why this is going in our just bananas category and not our bad bitches category, by the way. It's, this is just. Yeah. Because if you thought this story couldn't get any we're going to need you to hold on to your marshmallows. because Lana, the ranch hand and confidant of Kim Bailey, is, and I'm so sorry for this pronunciation, y'all, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, a former convicted flippity flapping, Russian spy, who had served 11 years in prison for espionage that involved the seduction of an FBI agent. Pooh. Yeah, let it sink in, campers. We'll wait. Just banana pants.

I, like, I know this story and I get chills. So Lana was a trained KGB agent, and in the mid-80s, she seduced FBI agent Richard Miller into passing a secret document to the Soviet Union. Okay, so this, I'm really excited. This is a total history nerd moment for me. I'll tell you, This story while you're still gathering your lower jaws up off the floor after that plot twist. I know, right. According to a former CIA agent, second one, there's two guys in a room at the CIA. There's like a handful of these guys, I guess. A CIA agent named Jason Matthews, the Soviet Union, actually trained some of their spies to participate in sex espionage, which is exactly what it sounds like. Oh, I've heard about this.

Oh, my God. Yep, male spies were called ravens, and female spies were called swallows. The bird, you perverts. Oh, okay. Now, you might have heard of a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence recently that came out about this practice called Red Sparrow. And I can only assume it was called that because Red Swallow was already copyrighted for the inevitable porn parody. So, I'm sorry, everyone. So anyway, Svetlana and the FBI agent slash traitor slash dip shit both got caught and prosecuted.

And Svetlana did 11 years in prison. When she got out, she decided she wanted to go straight. She married an American and they both started working on Kim Bailey's ranch. And by the way, I have seen an interview with her. her husband. You can tell her husband is just head over heels in love with her. It's actually quite lovely. He speaks of her so admiringly. Anyway, so

she said, yeah, I fell in love with the ranch. I wanted to live there. And when Kim figured all this out, she started really opening up because I guess she figured, A, she's not going to judge me because, you know, she's a spy or she probably doesn't have a conscience, which obviously she did, right? And

B, even if she did, who would believe her? And this is exactly what Svetlana told the police. This is why she hadn't come forward on her own why would anyone believe her she was a spy a traitor yeah why would a woman that was happily living in the country that she once had to infiltrate want to cooperate with the authorities that'd be ridiculous yeah and i love that she you know she thought of of lana as as somebody like her you know who has no empathy no conscience and that was not true at all of lana she was like this is evil. I just can't believe this shit, y'all.

When I discovered this story, I just, it just kept getting weirder and weirder and weirder and weirder. And I was so excited to tell you all about it because this is the kind of thing you would think was made up. But it is real. I mean, truth really is stranger than fiction sometimes. So despite her criminal past, Lana really wanted to help. And when the feds rolled up on her that day, she thought, all right, you know what, it's fate. Screw it. I'm just going to tell them everything. And if they don't believe me, they don't believe me. So Lana, obviously, is an interesting figure. The guy who had originally prosecuted the FBI agent that she seduced was Adam Schiff, the California congressman.

And when he found out that Lana was cooperating with this FBI investigation into Kim Bailey, he wasn't surprised and he made an interesting comment. He said, Svetlana wasn't ideological. I think she's just a disconnected person who has no purpose other than her own survival. So his take on her, basically, was that she wasn't. so much raw, raw country like you might expect a spy to be. She just realized that espionage was something she was good at, which is basically the backstory of Black Widow in the Marvel universe, by the way, if we might once again play to the nerd demographic. Our people, right? Absolutely. So she's complicated, is what I'm trying to say. And it's hard to get a read on

somebody from one TV interview. And obviously she did something that, to my mind, is quite uncool. I mean, she infiltrated my country and stole state secrets and whatnot that some dipshit who was thinking with his little head, you know, instead of his big one, gave her. But to me, she somewhat redeems herself here. And I don't really know what she would get out. I mean, she'd just been living quietly for years in the country on the ranch and seemed happy. And then this just kind of dropped into her lap. She didn't seek them out. So what is she getting out of it other than just she wanted to do it?

the right thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's kind of how it seems to me. And the FBI were impressed with the amount of detail that Lana gave them, but they were reticent, of course, because of her obvious credibility issues. But in the end, they realized, you know, what choice do we have?

We've got nothing else. We've got a user. So they asked Lana if she would wear a wire. And she said, absolutely. And she's a former spy, so she's got mad skills in this regard. She has a photographic memory. She's speaks 16 languages which is astonishing to me she has a Sherlock Holmesie and I for detail and

she's very good at thinking on her feet all of which you have to be to be a good spy and as her conviction tells us she's also good at getting information out of people Lana I know you're a big true crime campfire fan if you're listening please write a book shit if you're listening please email us and be on our show right please you can help us analyze these cases. So the problem was that Kim had gone to ground after hearing that the feds were sniffing around. They did learn a couple of things in the process of looking for her, though. For one thing, they learned that Kim had several identities. She had social security cards and driver's licenses with three different names, Kim Bailey, Kim Fleming, and Kim Davis, which is just not a

thing most people do. So it's just like peeling an onion with this woman, isn't it? Just layer after layer of weirdness. You know, Kim Davis is the name of that homophobic woman that refused to perform marriages after same-sex marriages became legal. Sure. Just, I don't know what the point of that was. Just do with that information what you will. You know, I thought the same thing when I saw that.

Oh, Kim Davis, yeah. But eventually Lana was able to draw Kim out. How, you may ask? Well, she got in touch and told Kim that there was a special silent auction going on and that Lana wanted her to come with her to the sale, and Kim agreed. Women really do be shopping, right? So Lana donned the body mic and picked Kim up from the airport, and Kim was really jumpy, which, to be fair, was pretty much her normal affect at all times.

But she was obviously worried about the case. And at one point, she had Lana's husband pull the car over, possibly because she was paranoid that there was a recorder in the car, which is funny because the recorder was there, but it wasn't in the car. was on Lana. So she and Lana got out of the car, started walking around in the desert, and suddenly Kim blurted out that she was afraid the hitman had recorded her torturing and taunting Rick and that they were going to snitch to the FBI. And she was very paranoid about being recorded. It's just irony. You got to love some good old irony. And it's adorable to me how much she trusted this lady

who served over a decade in prison for espionage. It's like she's paranoid around her employees and co-workers, but the Russian spy has her absolute trust. It's just, wow, Kim, bless your heart, honey. And what Lana did next was so smart. She said, okay, I can help you figure this out. I want you to draw a diagram of the house so I can tell you where they would have hidden the bug.

Show me where you were, where they were, where Rick was, everything, which is just a flippin' brilliant idea. So with a stick in the sand of the desert, Kim, the winner of our February Dumb Bitch Award, drew a diagram in the sand of this abandoned house where Rick Post was tortured. She showed Lana where Rick was sitting, tied to the chair, where she was standing,

directing the torture, where all the torturers were. She walked Lana through this entire awful thing from start to finish. And as she usually did, she spoke most of this in a creepy whisper. and she gave Lana some new details. For example, she said Rick had gotten out of the duct tape and run three times. And every time they chased him down and dragged him back.

Isn't that just horrible? Awful. This poor guy, he so did not deserve this. And because he was fighting so hard, the torturers started getting squirrely. And they said to Kim, look, we can't keep watching him. We can't keep running him down. To which Kim responded, well, you're just going to have to. I want to keep him here forever.

I want to throw him in a pit like silence of the lambs. I want to torture him every day for the rest of his life. I'll pay you whatever it takes. She wanted to keep this man for the rest of his life and torture him. Like silence of the lambs. Like silence of the lamb. She said that. Oh, my gosh.

I guess this is how she wanted to spend her millions she got from making woo-woo boxes. And Eribe was like, uh, yeah, we're not doing that. And eventually he said, look, he's seen all of our faces. We have to kill him. And much to her chagrin, Kim said, do what you have to do. And flounced off to go back to California. She was much put upon that they weren't willing to, like, devote the rest of their lives to torturing this poor guy. Was she going to, like, hire people in shifts?

I assume so. And God only knows what something like that would. cost. Like, she was really out to get him. Jesus. Scary. So, all told, she paid $60,000 for Rick's kidnapped, torture, and murder. Jeez, Louise. As if that wasn't enough, Kim dropped another bomb on Lana. She now wanted John Kruger dead because she's scared he's going to give her up to the feds.

She wanted to hire a hitman because I guess that worked out so well for her before and she wanted to know if Lana knew anybody so Lana was like duh sure no problem obviously and this is what you should do too if anybody ever asks you hey can you find me a hitman don't say no because then they're just going to go possibly actually find a hitman you say absolutely on it

and then you go right to the police uh huh a hundred percent absolutely and the feds who I'm sure were pleased as punch about this new development set of a meeting with the hitman, by which, of course, we mean an undercover agent. As it always, always is. Like we said in a previous episode, Camper's, there's only one, like one hitman left. His name is Jeff, and there's a waiting list as long as your arm, so don't even bother. Yeah, all the other ones are just undercover cops.

It's just Jeff and a slew of undercover cops. Yeah. And sometimes Jeff will refer you to a cop because he's too busy. So they set up a hidden camera in the hotel room, fitted their undercover agent slash hitman with a wire, and waited for Miss Kim to waltz in. Kim arrived right on time. True to form, she was whispering at everyone and initially didn't even want to talk. She wanted to type everything on a computer that she brought. You know, just in case she was being recorded.

But luckily, her computer wasn't working, so she had to speak. And because the undercover agent was wearing his body mics on his shoulders, this was perfect. And when Kim leaned in to whisper what she wanted her hitman to do for her, the mics captured it perfectly. There is audio you can listen to of this conversation. it is fucking creepy. Y'all, it is the most perfect example of a totally conscieless asshole with the mask off. Kim told the hit man, she wanted Kruger dead, but she didn't stop there. She wanted a bunch of other people dead, too.

Almost a dozen, in fact. Everyone who knew about this conspiracy, and not only them, but their children and families, too. She offered $10,000 per body. The children and spouses, two campers. She wanted to take out whole families. And when the hitman was like, um, why the kids? Kim said, they're the fruit from the same rotten tree. Jeez.

You are a rotten tree, you evil bitch. She said of John Kruger, If anything were to happen to John, I would be the first natural suspect. If there is a natural way for John to have an accident that can't be traced to anyone else, this is the way to do it. I don't know if he drinks. I know very little about his personal habits. All I know is that there are three people out to get me, and it's a survival contest, and I was strong enough to tell you that I will do whatever has to be done to survive. I deserve to live.

They don't. Holy shit. That is creepy as hell on Halloween at midnight. Yeah. The mask just came tumbling off. And right after that conversation, she gave the agent $10,000 in cash and agreed to three additional hits. Which were all associates of hers that she believed knew too much. As the great poet Gwen Stefani once said,

B-A-N-A-N-A-S So at this point they had enough for indictments for Kim, Kruger, and Mberte Arabe, and they were able to arrest Kim right in the hotel room They caught Kruger's dumbass right at the U.S. side of the Mexican border trying to take the license plates off his car. Smooth me. Like he was crouched behind his car with a fucking scrotically.

Screwtrapher. Smooth, my dude. Right there, like, in front of God and everybody and the border agents and everything. Just give me a second. I'm just such an idiot. God. I hate him so bad.

As for Arribe, that was a dramatic one. They shut down an entire freeway. They had helicopters and a massive car chase. And finally, they chased him down and got him only to realize they'd gotten the wrong Arribay. It was his god dang brother.

Oof. And unfortunately, while they were staging a Hollywood car chase with his brother, Umberte Arribay made it across the border to Mexico and immediately started fighting extradition. So they had Kim Bailey, but even with those creepy recordings, it was still a circumstantial case. They didn't have a body, and they didn't have a body. and they didn't have her confessing to seeing the body or being there for the murder. The last she heard of it, the hitman were going to kill him, but she didn't see it. Now, for John Kruger, I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the fact that Kruger was the one that started this whole shit show himself.

It's another example of a sucker playing themselves. Big time. This case wasn't going anywhere. until this dumb ass stuck his nose in. They weren't even looking for Rick. And then he had his attorney call in that tip and started the ball rolling. Rolling right at him like that big boulder in Indiana Jones.

So the question, of course, is why the hell did he do that? Well, like his buddy Kim, John Kruger is a paranoid weirdo, and he had convinced himself that his other co-conspirators were machinating in the background against him. and now he was doing the same thing. He wanted to make a deal, coward. So he told

the investigators basically what they already knew, that he had wanted full control of intelsaurus, and he felt like he wasn't being paid enough, and he knew Kim was paranoid, and he got her good and mad, and it worked, like a charm. This, they already knew, as I said, but Kruger did

tell them a couple of things that they didn't know. First, he was actually there for part of Rick's ordeal. So, just like Kim, he'd made sure he had a front row seat to watch his friend get tortured, which is just astonishing. This guy is the worst. And John was the one that made Rick record the answering machine messages. So apparently the first take wasn't satisfying enough for John, so he had to make Rick do it again,

so he'd sound more natural or whatever. And he recorded the messages on a tape recorder and then went back to San Diego and comforted Rick's family with them, which of course didn't work as they knew immediately something was wrong but he tried and in case you haven't noticed this man is a subhuman piece of shit so yeah we hate you you fucking asshole then john told the investigators that after five days of torture five days of torture they took rick out into the desert and shot him which is just one of the awfulest most lonely ways to die that i can imagine and i hate it so much and i also hate with the fire of a thousand, thousand sons that Kruger got a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against

Kim Bailey. All he got for this absolute nightmare was 12 years. And he's out now, which sucks. Hard. Now, despite all the evidence against her, Kim was still in survival mode and she wanted to go down fighting. Anybody surprised? I'm not. So she pled not guilty. It did not work. she was convicted circumstantial evidence and all and sentenced to life plus 100 years for kidnapping torture and murder yes ma'am and in a rather satisfying example of karma catching up with you she got cancer in prison and refused conventional treatment in favor of one of her black boxes so apparently she believed in the woo-woo boxes and i know you're all going to be shocked to know that it didn't work and kim died in prison in 2008. Aw. Singled here, right? It took nine years for Umberto Eribe to get extradited. He initially pled not guilty, but strangely enough after Rick's youngest son Ian got up and testified, Eribe changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. Now, I'm not sure if it was because he was actually like moved by Ian's testimony or if he just realized he was boned because the jury was going to want

to throw him down and run over him with a zamboni, you know? My guess is it was the last because I have a really hard time imagining this guy has a robust conscience. So, Iribe got the maximum sentence of 25 years and is still in prison. And unfortunately, Rick's body has never been found. One FBI agent had heard that he was killed, quote, Mexican style, meaning that he was shot in the head and dismembered and distributed around the desert. Another rumor said that he was buried on the beach in Baja, which I think is highly unlikely because it's really hard to keep a body buried in sand, and I don't think they would

dump him in a tourist area anyway. His family have said that not knowing where Rick's body is doesn't really torture them, though. They understand that he's not in his body anymore, and they'd rather move on and just remember him as a wonderful dad, which it sounds like he very

much was, and I hope they've managed to find some peace. It sounds like they had a really beautiful close family, and I just hate all of this for them so much. So that's the story, and I swear we did not make any of it up. It is not an April Fool's joke, it is a real story that actually happened in the world.

How it hasn't been made into a movie or a book I can't imagine, but at least we can bring you the story on our show. And you know we'll have another one for you next week, campers. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe. Until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And we want to send a shout out to our newest patrons. Thank you so much to Cheryl, Liz, and Rosa. Yay!

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