True Crime Campfire - Eye for an Eye: A Story of Murder for Hire

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Punk rock legend Patti Smith once sang, “You gotta lose control before you take control.” It’s a romantic idea—especially because so many of us spend our lives chasing an illusion of control, when really, life’s kind of a crapshoot. But you gotta find a happy medium somewhere. If you’re too loosey goosey, your life is gonna be a mess. And if you’re wound too tight, well—then the first thing that threatens that perfect order might snap some crucial thread and send you spinning into the void. This is the story of a man’s quest for a life under perfect control, and what happened when he lost it.Sources:Court paperwork: State v. Mockovak: https://casetext.com/case/state-v-mockovak-2Mockovak v. Haynes: https://casetext.com/case/mockovak-v-haynes-4Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/clearly-lasik-co-founder-gets-20-year-sentence-for-murder-for-hire-plot/Seattle Weekly: https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/clearly-lasiks-michael-mockovak-has-lost-the-right-to-practice-in-washington-last/Oxygen's "Murder for Hire," s1, episode 8Follow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least 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]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.com/Become 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. Punk rock legend Patty Smith once saying, You gotta lose control before you take control. It's a romantic idea. Especially because so many of us spend our lives. lives chasing an illusion of control when really life's kind of a crapshoot. But you got to find

a happy medium somewhere. If you're too loosey-goosey, your life is going to be a mess. And if you're wound too tight, well, then the first thing that threatens that perfect order might snap some crucial thread and send you spinning into the void. This is the story of a man's quest for a life under perfect control. And what happened when he lost it? I for an eye, a story of murder for hire. So campers, for this one, we're in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington, 2005. Clearly LASIC was the place to go for quick, low-risk eye surgery. For the people who worked there, it felt almost like a second family, and the two dads at the head of it all were Dr. Joe King and Michael Mockovac. Dr. King and Dr. Mockovac had met each other when they were both

working at a practice in California. Before long, their professional relationship turned personal when they just happened to fall in love with and marry a pair of sisters. It probably didn't seem like a big leap after that to start their own laser eye surgery practice as a team. And from pretty much the day they started the business, they started kicking ass and taking names as the biggest best game in the region. Both doctors were handsome and charismatic. Patients loved them, their employees loved them. It was a dream place to work. And like I said, the two doctors weren't just colleagues.

They were brothers-in-law, too. The story of how Dr. Joe King met his wife, was kind of funny in a rom-com sort of way. He met Heather Leonard on a dating app and invited her to a party to meet up for the first time. Heather was a little nervous, so she asked if she could bring her sister Holly along, and Joe said, sure, the more the merrier.

But as the night wore on, things took a bit of a turn. Heather and Joe weren't really clicking so much. But there was mega chemistry between Joe and Holly, and they ended up together. Womp, but if Heather was upset about it, she didn't stay that way for very long. One day, Heather went along with Holly to visit Joe at his practice, and that's where she meant Joe's colleague, Dr. Michael Mockovoc. Mok zeroed right in on her. Sparks flew, and before long, the two docs weren't just colleagues.

They were family. Michael Mockovac couldn't have been happier about it. He seemed to be a big fan of Dr. Joe King. They'd been colleagues for years, and after a while, the people around Joe had started to notice something. That wherever he went in his life, Michael Mockovoc seemed to follow right behind. It wasn't just that he married Joe's wife's sister. He and Heather bought a house next to Joe and Hollies, two weeks after they moved in. Now, you might be able to write that off as a coincidence.

Hey, you know, it was a nice house, it was up for sale. MakaVok just jumped on it. But this happened not once, not twice, but three times over the years. As Joe King's brother later put it, there were three different locations that my brother was living at, and for whatever reasons or circumstances, MakaVok is ending up going to within a mile of every single location. So I definitely thought it was a little bit odd, but I knew he wanted to be like my brother. Uh, yeah, odd is a good.

good word for it, like some single white female shit, you know. I guarantee you like Maka Vak was home writing Joe King's name in a notebook over and over again. It's like, God, why are you obsessed with me? Like you get one coincidental shenanagan like that before you start looking like you've got a closet shrine made of gum a la Helga Pataki. Whether Joe himself felt any kind of way about all this, I don't know. I wish I did. I'd be interested. to know if he ever thought his business partner slash brother-in-law was getting a little too close for comfort. But the pattern seems pretty clear to me. It's like, you know, did you ever have a friend in school that, like, copied you all the time that wanted to do the same things you did?

And it's like... I did actually. Yeah. And when you tell, like, I told my mom and she was like, chill the fuck out. She wants to be like you. That's cool. But like I was so mad about it. And I feel like I feel like I was entitled to be. Okay. Michelle? It's a little weird. No, I had one in college. And it was. really weird. That was right around when single white female came out. I was like kind of sleeping with one eye open for a while there. Sure. So at the beginning of our story, we've got the two brothers-in-law running a successful laser eye surgery practice together with a close-knit crew of employees. The IT director at Clearly Lasik was a guy called Daniel Colton. Daniel was Russian

with the accent and everything. Apparently he was, as one employee told the show Murder for Hire, a hard nut to crack, meaning he was kind of taciturn and quiet, not easy to get to know, put that together with the Russian accent, and you got a guy who might come across is a little intimidating, or at least mysterious. So the staff had come up with this joke about him being in the Russian mafia, which I'm sure Daniel just found hilarious. Yeah, it reminds me when my husband's first job in the States, his co-workers started calling him Scotty. because he's from Scotland, you know, real cutting-edge humor.

Be miss up, Scotty. Hilarious. Dr. Mokovok seemed to get a special kick out of the whole mafia thing. Like he'd see Daniel and be like, hey, Russian mob is in the house. All our problems are solved. Which, no, I'd say that if you've got an in-house mob guy as your IT person, your problems are probably just getting started, but whatever. Right, it's like, be shame if something were to happen to this nice business he got here.

This server you have looks a little too comfortable. I would be terrified, but yeah, he was all excited about it. Whether because he actually bought into the mafia story or because he just liked the cut of Daniel's jib, Michael Mockovoc started seeking Daniel out at work, inviting him to play chess in his office, and after a while, over the chess board, Mokovac started to confide in Daniel. I felt like he wanted a friend at work, Daniel said later. Aw, how sweet. How wholesome.

Right? Yeah, not so much. The CEO for Clearly Lasic was a guy called Brad Clock. Clock had really hit the ground running when they hired him. He opened up new Clearly Lasic locations all across the Pacific Northwest and Canada, where Dr. King had surgical rights. The goal was to let Brad Clock focus on building the business while the two surgeons got on with the surgeon. And for a while, it went great. Dr. King's a handsome, charismatic guy,

and because he had rights to practice in both the states and Canada, he was the one in all the ads and stuff like that. Makavok stayed more in the background, which I suspect ate his lunch like nobody's biz. Yeah. Anyway, the docs did really well for a while, but then they started to realize they weren't achieving the kind of growth they'd been hoping for when they brought on Brad clock. So in 2006, they fired him. And Clark didn't take it well. He was pissed. And he filed a $750,000 wrongful termination lawsuit against clearly LASIC and against the two doctors and their wives. So the atmosphere was getting pretty tense. Dr. King and Dr. Makavok were both furious their ex-CEO. And Makavok, who wasn't the type to keep his feelings to himself, was always ran and raving about it

to his work buddy, Daniel. A few times he made comments like, hey, do you have any friends in Russia who could, you know, take care of Brad Clock for us? At first, Daniel figured he was just joking around, blowing off steam, but then one day, in the break room at Clearly Lasik, Makavok took it to a whole other level.

It was just him and Daniel in the break room, but Makovok lowered his voice anyway, so quiet that Daniel had to lean in a little to hear him. Brad Clock was getting ready for a trip to Europe, Mockovac said. Maybe this would be a good time for something to happen to him. The tone of this conversation was totally different. There was nothing joky about it. Daniel realized he's serious. He wants to murder this man. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. In so many of these hitman for hire stories, there's a hero who risks their

own safety to stand between the would-be killer and their target, and in this story, that hero is Daniel Colton. Daniel went right home and called his dad and asked for some advice. And at the end of that conversation, he called a friend of his at the FBI. And shortly thereafter, he got a call back from Agent Lawrence Carr. It probably won't surprise you too much to hear that Agent Carr wasn't convinced at first. That's so often the way it goes, like a civilian couldn't possibly be reading the situation right, you know, because, hey, can you help me find a hit man or what? It's super ambiguous, right? I know. Is there like a rap? of false reporting happening in this like hit men for hire that they don't tell us about.

Because if not, between this and adults going missing, law enforcement is starting to sound like a gaslighting boyfriend. Oh, no, babe. You heard all wrong. Don't be crazy. It really does. But the agent gave Daniel some marching orders anyway. He said, look, you can't be the one to bring up murder when you talk to him again.

We have to avoid any hint of entrapment. Instead, Agent Carr said, tell him you're about to go see a friend of yours who's in the Russian mafia, exactly the kind of dude Makavok would have in mind for the job if he were actually going to try to hire a hitman. So Daniel said, fine, and the next time he and Dr. Makavok were alone together in the break room, he brought up his shady-ass friend. And nothing especially earth-chattering happened. Dr. Makovok was just like, huh, interesting.

Well, I'd like to meet this guy sometime. But about a month later, Makovac called Daniel at home. I want to talk about that thing we talked about before, he said. It was obvious what thing he meant. I'll make some calls, Daniel said. That's what the FBI guys had told him to say if MakaVok brought up the murder again. And y'all know what's coming next. Now that our boy was reaching out again, it was time to see if Daniel would be willing to wear a wire

and help the FBI nail him for this creepy shit. Now, think about how scary this would be seriously. Like, we see it all the time on true crime shows, but really think, you know this person is capable of murder if somebody gets in his way. and now the FBI is asking you, untrained, you know, civilian, if you'd be willing to help them take him down. I don't care who he are. That's scary. But Daniel didn't hesitate. He said he'd do whatever they needed him to. Now, this isn't exactly a dream situation for the FBI asking a civilian to do something like this. They worry about a lot of things. Will they screw it up? Will they get

freaked out and confess that they're wearing a wire? And they worry about the informant safety. But in this case, they felt like it was their best option. Daniel already had Michael Mockovoc's trust, bringing in an agent from outside just might not work. And then what? Mockovoc could move on to plan B, take Brad Clock out himself or find another hitman. The stakes really couldn't get much higher, so Daniel stepped up. One of the scary things about this case is that when they set up the next meeting between Daniel and Mokovac, they didn't have a live feed from the wire that Daniel was wearing. I'm not sure why. I guess that's just how that technology works. They had some undercover agents planted around to keep an eye on things, but they couldn't hear what the two guys were saying in real time, which

made it scarier for everybody, Daniel especially, I'm sure. God, yeah. So on August 11, 2009, Daniel got all wired up and went to go meet with Makavok. They can do it, Daniel said, meaning his Russian mafia connections. Oh, good, good, good, Makavok said. To Daniel's credit, he, he, He really did his research, describing the Russian mob guys as serious people who don't make mistakes. The murders usually get staged to look like street robberies, Daniel said. They'll make sure clock is good and dead. Mokovac hung on to every word he said, like a fascinated kid. How much do they want? He wanted to know. 20 grand, Daniel said. 10 at front, 10 when it's done. What do you get? Mock said. I'll get a cut, Daniel told him.

Marks seemed to approve of this. Okay, well, you need to, he said. That's nice, isn't it? Wants his buddy taken care of in this deal. Probably felt like I do when I hit the 20% tip button on those iPad payment things while the bored teenage employee stares me down. Once they had the M.O. And money talk out of the way, MakaVoc moved on to a few other particulars.

He didn't want the murder done right now, he said. He wanted to wait until after. a deposition they had scheduled in Clark's lawsuit. The deposition had been scheduled for the next Friday, but Clark's lawyers had asked to reschedule. They wanted a date months away, and Makavok took that as a promising sign. It's possible Clark's going to drop the whole thing, he said, and then we won't have to bother with all this. He didn't have anything personal against the guy, Makavok said. It's just a financial thing. Daniel played it cool, but in his head, he was thinking, how is this guy for real? How do you talk about murder?

murdering somebody with zero emotion. And then, just as Daniel thought the meeting was wrapping up, Makavok dropped a bombshell. The clock thing wasn't really that urgent, he said. As he put it, Brad's just to fly on the wall. There was someone else that was really piss him off at the moment. His partner and brother-in-law, Joe King. He's a greedy snake, Makabok said.

Joe writes me a letter about some ridiculous demand that was like, you know, huge amounts of money that he felt the practice should pay him. You know what he said? He said, you need to put more money into the practice so that we can pay me. See, we're up to 2009 here. And if you lived in the U.S. at that time, you know shit was getting real with the economy. It was bad. I remember feeling lucky that I was starting university. I didn't have to face the recession for a few more years. And clearly, LASIC wasn't immune. They lost $7 million in one year. Yikes.

Dr. Joe was smart because he'd made sure he had surgical rights in both the U.S. and Canada, so he wasn't limited to practicing in the States. And in 2009, that was a damn good thing. Because Canada wasn't nearly as affected by the financial crisis, and the Canadian side of the business was doing much, much better than the U.S. side. So King was focusing more on the Canadian Lasic centers. I mean, of course he was. anybody would if they had that option. Mokovac could have pursued the same thing if he'd wanted to,

I assume, but he never did. So he didn't have privileges to operate in Canada, and our boy was pissed about it. He shifted his rant from Brad Clark's lawsuit to Joe's new business plan. He's talking about splitting up the business, he said. He wants all the Canadian centers, and I get the dregs. In fact, King had put all his cards on the table just days before. They'd be splitting up the business at the end of October. It was the only way Joe could think of to save the company from collapse and to keep his own family financially stable. I mean, a lot of stuff like this happened during that financial crisis. People had to make hard choices. Businesses had to shut down. It was gnarly as hell. What would even be the point

of keeping Makavok involved in the Canadian practices when he couldn't even operate in Canada? I mean, it made sense, as much as it might have sucked for the folks stuck with the U.S. side of things. It just kind of was what it was. But Makovok's take was pretty much that King was trying to force him out of the company, steal the money right out of his pocket. But, he told Daniel, there was a way around all that. See, he had a keyman life insurance policy on King for $5 million. Now, this has come up before on the show. A keyman policy is intended to rescue a business if one of its most important players ends up dead. It's not an unusual thing, but it's definitely not something you want in place if you're working with a guy like Michael Mockavoc. It's like putting a

big juicy burger in front of a hungry dog or a hungry Whitney because I get a little intense when I'm hungry. So, you know it's true. So as casually as he'd change his lunch order at Jimmy Johns, MakaVox shifted his focus. Let's put Brad on the back burner for now. Let's talk about killing Joe King instead. Now, remember, whatever might be going on between these two, this guy isn't just Mokovok's business partner. They're family. He's an uncle to Joe and Holly's kids. He's been to all the family gatherings for years. If he goes through with this, he's going to witness the awful suffering of these people who've welcomed them into their family. His wife's sister will lose her husband. Those kids will lose their dad. And despite all that, he wouldn't batten

and I talking it through with Daniel. He was just business as usual. And of course, he tried to make it seem like it wasn't just all about him because Parrish the thought, right? But all the other employees, too. You know, we have this great business, he said. A lot of us like to work together. Why is Joe trying to fuck it up? I'm sure he'd managed to convince himself that he was like the benevolent dad swooping in to protect his little work family. Daniel was just stunned. Do you want Holly killed as well? That was Joe King's wife. Daniel asked him. No, no, Mockovac said. It wasn't necessary. The life insurance policy would net him enough to to buy Holly out of the business. It would be all his.

Through the haze of absolute disbelief that must have been fogging up about 90% of his brain, Daniel said, OK, I'm with you all the way. Good, Makavak said. I'll keep you updated. And this would end up being just the first of several recorded conversations about killing Dr. Joe King. And it was rough on our guy Daniel Colton. They'd opted not to tell the King family about what was going on. a hard decision because obviously you don't want to put them in any more danger. But you never know how somebody's going to react to news like that. They might run to Makavok and confront him.

And now he's clued in that the FBI knows what he's planning and he's going to be way more careful. He might lay low for a while and then try this again. Or the confrontation could turn dangerous. So as investigators often do in these situations, they swore their informant to secrecy and kept the intended victim in the dark for now. And Daniel hated it. had to go to work every day and see this dude knowing what he's planning to do. Had to pretend to be his friend. Not great for the psyche, I'm sure. No kidding.

It wasn't a secret to the other folks at Clearly Lasik that Makavok wasn't doing great. He'd broken down in tears a couple times after surgery. His temper was flaring up sometimes to the point where he'd throw things. And apparently his marriage had fallen apart. Heather had filed for divorce. One afternoon, Sheree Funkette. Houser, the director of the U.S. practices, took some paperwork over to Mankovac, and he ended up falling into her arms and tears.

I'm getting a divorce, he told her. Poor Cherie. So awkward. Oh, my God. So awkward. Oh, and it's like your boss, like, oh, yeah. Yeah, it's just, I, my whole body is, like, cringing. I can't.

So awkward. As journalist Levi Polkenon later put it on the show, murder for hire, Michael Mockavoc is starting to lose control of his life, and he's a man that likes to be in control. He saw himself as like a leader, pillar of the community, rich guy. Like, these are the things that he felt he was entitled to in his life, and then that all started sliding away. The divorce took Mockovoc's attention away from the murder plot for a little while, but the deadline for splitting up the business was coming fast,

so in late October, Mokavoc told Daniel he wanted to meet up again, this time at the gym. Weird place to plan a murder, but okay, you can get your swole on at the same time, I guess. Yeah, exactly. As they wired him up, the FBI gave Daniel a little pep talk before the meeting. You're doing a good job, Agent Carr told him. I'm trying, Daniel said. Poor guy. Daniel was a ball of nerves, as I'm sure I would be too. What if he decides to kill me, he said to the agent?

Probably not in the athletic club today, the agent said. you're safe oh okay good talk really guy yeah i'm sure i can trust this flippant maniac who's trying to hire somebody to kill his brother-in-law to make good rational decisions right now you'd never try to like throttle me in the locker room i feel all better now jesus murphy great bedside manner there FBI yeah they were not holding it together either this was this was freaking them out a little bit too. Quite a few of the agents involved in this case had actually gotten LASIC surgery from Dr. MakaVoc. The thought of this creeps shooting lasers in your eyeballs, probably not a thought that helps you sleep a night, especially because the dude was falling apart. That's what

freaks me out so much is that he was doing surgery while having an emotional fucking breakdown. Yeah, not great. And I know, whatever, doctors are people too. They're allowed to have feelings. But, like, when you're having mood swings and crying in your employee's arms, I feel like, go home. They're allowed to have feelings. Just not murder feelings. Not murder feelings and not sobbing in your employee's arms feelings, okay? No. Those are the limits.

You've got to be pretty even keeled to be a surgeon, I feel like. Lasers. Just. Lasers. That's super villain shit. Eyeballs. Yes. That's like, they're like one step removed from being Dr. Evil, okay? Yeah, exactly. Like, like maniacal, megalomaniac feelings, murder feelings, plus laser beams.

Just not, that takes my brain to bad places. So many bad places. Just missing a, missing a shark moat. Yeah, exactly. After their workout, Mokavoc and Daniels sat down at the club restaurant to get down to murder talk. Mockovac had news. You know, Joe's going to Australia in November, he said, for a week. Family vacation. They were going to rent a sleeper van and travel along the beach with the kids.

Daniel, absolute MVP that he is, jumped right on it. We've got a lot of Russians in there, too, he said. Australia is actually very easy. That's what I'm thinking, too, Mokovac said. It's so far away. It's never going to come back here, ever. Right, Daniel said. It's a big wild country.

and Joe can basically be killed as a robbery. Yes, Michael, homicide detectives in Australia have koala poop for brains and couldn't possibly look into the possibility that an American on vacation might have enemies in his home country. You're golden, bro. They'll probably just think a kangaroo did it. Which would actually be dumb because despite looking like insane deer on steroids, kangaroos don't actually kill people very often.

I was surprised to learn this, but it's true. It's only happened like twice that we know of, once in 1936, and once last year. Not counting people who die in, like, car crashes because they hit kangaroos. Like, that count is a lot higher. But actual attacks, too. Well, they still look like cast members on Jersey Shore, so I'm giving them a wide berth, regardless. They do, though.

And they've got the crazy eyes going, like the big jacked up muscles. They look like they're going for a GTL, you know, Jim Tam Laundry. Jim Tand Laundry. They're so, like, they're portrayed so adorably in, like, every media. and then I saw one in real life, and I was like, Jesus Christ, what is that? They're scary. That's a person. For real.

That's a person in a fur suit. And a big, like, gym rat steroid freak of a person, too. Like, it's ye. Walleroo's on the other hand, super cute. They're tiny, and I got to pet one one time, and it was like the best thing I'm like. All right. So, anyway, yes, avoid them in person if you can't. Our Australian listeners must just love us.

They hate us. Hi, folks. We love you. It's so cool that your water goes the opposite way down the third. thing. It's great. Anyway. We want to come busy to someday. So Mockovoc told Daniel he'd already squirled away $11,000 in cash for the hit. Is it still the same? 10 and 10? 10 and 15, Daniel said, because it's in Australia. Makes sense, right? Good thinking on your feet, Daniel.

Mokovac didn't bat an eye at the price increase. He was just going to need some more time to sock away the rest of the cash, a little bit here, a little bit there, so it didn't look suspicious. But Daniel, who I'm sure was more than ready, get this shit the hell over with as soon as humanly possible, had a ready answer for this. Oh, you don't need to worry about taking forever to take money out. The Russian mafia has a way of laundering it, so it won't look shady. You just buy a really expensive watch from them online, and instead of them sending you the actual, like, fancy pants watch, they send you a convincing knockoff instead. Then they've got their money, and it just looks like you bought a nice

piece of jewelry. Man, you got to give some major props to Daniel Colton here. Like, he clearly, like, did some research on the Russian mafia, make sure they had everything they needed to nail this asshole. Good for him. And of course, Mokovac who is, you know, like the emotional maturity of about a seven-year-old was just delighted with that little detail.

Like, oh, yeah, money laundering. I love it. What about information about how to find him? Mokovac said. Is the airline flight enough? Get as much info as you can, Daniel said. These people are meticulous. This was no problem for Makavok. He and Joe were

scheduled for a phone call later that day. He could pump him for info on the trip then. He'd try and get the whole itinerary. So at this, the meeting broke up. Once they got the audio, the FBI agents knew this was for real. This guy was probably not going to back off. It was killing everybody to not be able to tell the King family, but they still didn't have concrete proof. What they needed was the down payment. The next meeting happened at an Italian restaurant, which I'm sure was fun for Makavoc, you know, played into his goofy mafia fantasies. The agents had told Daniel to try and get as many specifics out of the guy as possible this time. And if possible, go ahead and get the down payment, too.

And this time, Daniel had a teeny tiny little spy camera on him, too. Get his face, if you can, they told him. They didn't want Makavok to have one thin millimeter of wiggle room to say, I didn't do this. Undercover agents had positioned themselves all through the restaurant to keep an eye on things. and this time they had an audio feed. Not a super reliable one just because they were in a noisy restaurant, but they were getting some of the conversation here and there.

Nervous as always, but deep freeze cool on the surface, Daniel got down to business. The whole conversation is disturbing, of course, but there's one moment that really sends it to the stratosphere. Daniel, trying to get as much concrete proof of intent as he could, asked if Makavoc had a picture of Joe for the hitman. Get a picture of his wife, Holly, too, because she's going to be on the trip with him. You know, to make sure it's the right person, Daniel said, because they don't make mistakes. Once they find the person, the person's dead.

Oh, yeah, no problem, MakaVoc said. There was a little family portrait of joking, his wife, Holly, and their kids on the wall of one of the clearly LASIC centers, and Mokovac said he could get it the next day. He never goes there anymore, he said. He could just drive over and take the picture down off the wall. wall. That way, the killer could get a good look at the whole family. Some monster with no empathy for other human beings could get a good, long look at this father with his wife and two children, so he could be clear on who to kill. Ugh. That's so awful. They're asking how you want it to be done, Daniel said. Street robbery? Drown him in the ocean? Shoot him? Mokovac seemed to like

the drowning idea. He's going to be running on the beach in the mornings probably. And he wanted the body to be found, he said. Got to get those life insurance bucks as quick as possible, right? All right, Daniel said. Do you want any message to be sent? Such a creepy question. Do you want the hitman to say some cold-blooded shit to your victim before he kills him? Oh, Malkavoc said. I don't care. It's just business, Daniel said. That's exactly how I feel about it, Makavok said, laughing. I don't feel like, do I want to send a message? I don't really care. It literally was just a business transaction to him, like signing a tax return. That makes it worse for me. Like, if he was really, like, deep down hating this guy, it would be, it would almost be more, like, human, but it's just so

cold, ugh. No. It's literally just, it's just business. That's what, it makes me sick. He was going to rip this man away from his family. Yeah. For money. For money. Gross. Where's that, where's the, where's the, where's the, where's the, we got to point to the sign. Don't do a Fargo murder. Don't make me tap the sign campers. Was it really worth it? Following the script the FBI had given him, Daniel moved on. I want to make sure that you're okay with this. You're not going to like freak out like the next day, you know? Makavok seemed amused by this.

I am not going to freak out, he said. I don't freak out. Yeah, man. You're chilled steel. The guy who throws shit around at the office and bursts into tears after surgery is going to handle his shit like that dude from Metal Gear Solid. The conversation was chugging. along very nicely from the FBI point of view. But then, some random person in the restaurant

took a picture at their table, and Mr. Balls of Steel freaked out. What was that flash? Did you see that flash? It's probably thunder, Daniel said. No, no, somebody took a picture. It was literally like, I don't freak out. You know, click, what was that? Immediately freaked out. It's like a movie or something so funny. Mokovac was suddenly all twitchy and Daniel could see his perfect sting starting to fly right out the door. Last thing in the world he wanted was to prolong this hellish shit, so he thought on his feet. Let's get out of here, he said, let's go somewhere else. Now this was brilliant thinking, but it was also really dangerous, and the undercover agents all had a simultaneous cow watching him walk out of the restaurant. They couldn't just get up and

run after him because they'd blow the sting, so with their hearts in their throats, they watched Daniel and Makavok head toward the parking garage, where Daniel had parked his car. Thankfully, this move did seem to chill MakaVoc out. I don't like you freaking out, Daniel scolded him. That's what I'm talking about. Don't freak out. Okay, all right, Mockavok said. This whole thing shows how big of a favor of Daniel did Mockovac by doing the sting.

Like, this was, of course, Daniel's a hero. He wasn't doing Mockovac any fucking favors. But this dude had a mini meltdown because somebody took a family photo for their nana's birthday. He is more weird science than Godfather. Any old day. He asked Daniel if he'd drive him to his car down the street. Daniel said, sure, sure, but his heart lurched at the thought because he knew Makavok kept a gun in the glove box.

And he knew that now that they left the restaurant, he was on his own. Possibly because he was maybe a little bit suspicious now after the flash incident at the restaurant, Mockabok started to him and haw a little bit about the murder. I do go back and forth, he said, but the only sure way is this. He has it coming. He really does. All he had to do was move to Canada, he said, be a good surgeon. Everything would be fine. Yeah, it's his fault asshole. And then he said something that chilled Daniel to the core. He'd actually thought about just following Joe to the parking garage after work and killing him himself. Don't do that, Daniel said. Oh, no, no, Mockovac said this is the right way.

And then finally, the talk turned to payment. Mokovac had $13,000 in cash. He was planning to get two more in the next couple of days, and they could run the little fancy watch subterfuge to cover the rest. It was looking like they almost had everything they needed for an arrest. As Daniel pulled up to MakaVok's car, the doctor turned to him. I have to ask you, he said, What made you confident that you could say all this to me and I wouldn't wig out?

Daniel was taken aback. This wasn't one of the questions the agents had prepared him to answer, so again, he thought fast. You and I, we've been talking for a long time, he said, doing his best impression of a Russian mob guy in a movie. We play chess together. Trust me, when I play chess with somebody, I know the way this person thinks,

and it's just like mine. Mokovoc, of course, ate this shit up. Yeah, he said. Later, Daniel Chuck. a little bit about this moment. I had to make up that in Russia, that means a lot. If we play chess, that's a big thing. I just made that up on the fly. It's so believable, though. Like, it does totally sound like a movie. Mockvac's like, yeah, man, chess. We're chess brothers. Mokovac was living out all his gangster movie dreams here. Eastern Europe, baby, he said. I swear to God,

such a douchebag. Daniel told him he should ask his dad to teach him the language he grew up with sometime. I'd love to, Mockovac said. I only know how to say very bad things. Then he said something in Slovak. Fuck everyone and your family for the last 300 generations he translated and Daniel laughed. Maybe that should be the message, Daniel said. Mokovac laughed his ass off. That's the message. Hilarious. God, this guy's a prick. So as Daniel dropped him off at his car, they made plans to meet up the next night at Daniel's friend's soccer game to exchange the down payment. As Daniel drove away, the stress of what had just happened hit him, and you can hear him go like, shit on their audio. It's very endearing. I really like Daniel.

Now, as you've probably noticed before in these hitman sting stories, investigators always like to give suspects a chance to back out of the hit before they move in for an arrest. One last, get out of jail free card. So before the soccer game, they had Daniel give him a call. And it was clear right out of the gate that Makavok was raring to go. I'm so glad we went out last night, he said, you know why? It gave me some time to contemplate, like, you know, 24 hours to think about it. Of course, the FBI agents listening were like, oh shit, he's going to back out. But no, it's absolutely the right thing to do, Makavok said.

I mean, it just is. Damn, bro. So now it was time for the money drop. And once again, Daniel put on his wire and his little job. James Bond-style spy cam, and it couldn't have gone better. Daniel even managed to aim the camera right at Makovok's smug little face. Dude, handed over the money, the picture, and the flight itinerary. The kings were scheduled to fly out that night. And Makavok wanted to ask about a technicality, too. What happens if they don't get him? He said, I don't lose the 15 grand. No, no, Daniel assured

him, you'll get it back. MakaVoc seemed totally pleased with himself as he walked away that night, laughing with Daniel about how he was probably going to be the first person ever to charge part of a murder on a credit card. He wasn't so cheerful the next morning when the feds put the habeas grabbis on him at the gym. Poor Daniel, with the help of an FBI agent, had to explain the whole bizarre story to the staff at Clearly LASIC, and it hit them like a semi-truck. They really were like a family, and Sheree Funkhouser took it so hard she slid down the wall and burst into tears. Bless her heart. Joe's brother worked there too, and it felt like a bomb had gone off in his head. He just couldn't believe it. This man was family. And finally, and probably with a huge sigh of

relief, the FBI let Joe and Holly King in on the plot. I can't even imagine what that day was like for those two and their families, just a living nightmare. And you can see it on their faces and interviews they gave with the local news at the time. Like, you can tell Holly's been crying for hours. Joe's face is all drawn and pale. It must have been horrific for them. The betrayal and the fear. I mean, for Holly especially. This is her sister's husband. Can you even imagine? I cannot, no. I want to be clear, too. Mokovok's now ex-wife Heather knew nothing about this stuff until after the arrest, and it shocked her to her core. She absolutely was not involved in it. And and I'm sure it hurt her terribly.

And it must have been super fun to watch Mockovoc post a $3 million bail a week or so later and walk right out of the courthouse. Joe and Holly were terrified he was going to try to finish what he'd started. The clearly LASIC staff were so jumpy that they actually called the cops on a lady in the parking lot because she drove the same kind of car as Mokovac, and they thought he was coming back to kill everybody. SWAT team showed up in everything, and this poor woman was like, what? What did I do? They were all like all surrounding your car and like pointing guns at it and stuff. And it's just like a real estate agent.

Like what? I was just going to show a house. Poor thing. But I mean, I don't blame him for being worked up because, geez. So as Mokovac waited for trial during which time the state of Washington revoked his medical license, Joe and Holly King tried to keep on the move, living in one hotel after another, scared to death. They had to live like that until January of 2011, like two years later. like two years later when Mockovok's trial finally started.

He had, of course, hired rock star defense attorneys, and they did their best for him, trying to make it look like entrapment or if they didn't buy that, like maybe just kind of a joke. He was just scared of the Russian mafia. He wanted to back out, but he was afraid Daniel Colton would break his kneecaps or whatever. But also he was just kidding. But the prosecution had those recordings, and yeah, he was convicted of solicitation to commit murder in the first degree. The only charge he was acquitted of was trying to have Brad Clock killed, which I guess kind of makes sense given that he dropped that one and moved on to Joe.

Everybody was hugely relieved, and they felt even better when a few months later, a judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison. But, you know, for the people who once loved and trusted this guy, the story really wasn't over. This kind of betrayal just rocks you to your roots. As Daniel later said on Murder for Hire, I don't know what kind of person he's going to be. Will he want to murder more people when he gets out? or will he actually learn his lesson?

I don't know. As for Dr. King and his wife and children, they moved to Canada after MakaVox trial, and who can blame him? They still worry about what might happen. Inmates have been known to successfully hire Hitman from prison, although the plots often get stopped before they really get started

because prison snitchin is a cottage industry. I mean, look what happened to Perry March last week. But I can understand why they're worried, and they worry even more about what'll happen when it gets out. For what it's worth, I've had a couple decades worth of true crime obsession and everything I've seen of Michael Mockavoc tells me he's not the type to try to hurt the Kings again. He was too jumpy about it the first time, too kind of hot and cold at first about whether to go through with it. I would actually be shocked if he tried it again. But it's easy

for us to speculate when it's not our butts on the line. I mean, I'm sure if I were the Kings, I'd have trouble sleeping too. I keep thinking about Holly and Heather, how these two sisters have managed to deal with this. I can't even imagine. I mean, it's heartbreaking because on the show that I watched you see pictures of them together with their arms around each other and smiling and they're both just these beautiful women and I don't know you know I hope this brought them closer together rather than pulled them apart but honestly either scenario would be totally understandable under the circumstances so I just hope they're both doing okay and their kids too and obviously Joe and I want to end on an odd little note okay we need to talk about this

because when I was picking out the case for this week I realized that I know of not one, but two separate cases where one eye surgeon either tried or succeed in and having another one killed. And I can think of like several others where eye doctors killed their wives. Okay? Like, what's up? Eye docs, y'all good? Or like, does it just get real stressful watching people try and read those little letters up on the wall? Or did y'all, like, I'll lose a contact up the brain? Or what's going on? I'm only asking because I'm worried about you. Right? And also because I need to go in for an eye test. So anyway, just saying, y'all take care of yourselves. Okay? Maybe consider switching to decaf. So that was a wild one, right, campers? You know, we'll have another one for you next week. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Sir Houghton, not sure if I said that right, Nicole.

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