‘Queen of the Con’ -Gastheer writes book about how you can spot scam artists
A dozen years ago, Johnathan Walton loved his life in Los Angeles and worked as a reality TV producer. He was behind such unwritten series such as ‘Shark Tank’, ‘American Ninja Warrior’, ‘American Chopper’ and Disney+ Docuseries ‘It is the life of a dog with Bill Farmer.’
“Oh, my God. I had a great bang,” Walton recalls, “and then I became connected. And then I started to chase justice.”
In 2013, Walton worked on the most controversial series of his career, ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’, when he met a friendship with a neighbor in his apartment complex in the center of Los Angeles. She happened to be a serial scammer.
Four years later, Walton from almost $ 100,000 was scammed by now controlled fraudster Mair Smyth. After he realized the list, Walton started a crusade to ensure that Smyth was confronted with legal consequences for her actions. His research discovered dozens of other alleged victims. And all this activity has encouraged him to use its reality TV skills to become the host and producer of the Podcast “Queen of the Con”, which debuted on the Podcast network of IHeartMedia in 2021.
Season 1 told Walton’s story about the fall of the victim of Smyth and his fight to pay law enforcement officers to pay attention to his case. The podcast and his efforts on social media to warn others about Smyth brought him to the attention of other victims of scam. Many of them contacted him for help and advice. Those stories and efforts of Walton to use his experience to guide other victims through the Doolhof of the police and public prosecutors have been the basis of five extra seasons of “Queen of the Con.”
In the wide field of podcasts with real crime, stories about extensive scam and long disadvantages are a growing subset. “Queen of the Con” is one of the best of the breed, largely because of Walton’s first hand, his passion to warn others – and his openness about how Smyth wore her way to his heart and bank account.
The work of Walton also led to the publication of his first book this week, “Anatomy of a con artist: the 14 red flags to spot scammers, grifters and thieves”, from the rodal books of Penguin Random House. The book combines the story of Walton with other anecdotes to create an easy -to -read guide to identify the common personality and behavioral characteristics that signal artists on the scam. They include people who are ‘too nice, too fast’ to increase the favor of strangers; Those who share too many intimate details too quickly to cause trust; And those who arrange people with exploits on distant places (in Walton’s case, Smyth screamed like an Irish heir).
In the end, Smyth was sentenced and sentenced to five years in prison. Walton is still striving for efforts to have Smyth delivered from the US to Noord -Ireland, where it is accused of running an extensive scheme with regard to mortgage fraud.
Walton’s overwhelming message in the book is that everyone can be admitted by a scammer who is experienced in finding the vulnerabilities of a person and exploiting. Walton repeatedly tells the readers that serial scam operators are not ‘too smart, they will no longer feel you’. In the case of Walton, he offered himself to provide Smyth loans when she was confronted with money problems after she claimed that she was broke because cruel rich family members in Ireland tried to steal her share in the family garden.
“Anatomy of a con” investigates the gray area in criminal law when it comes to scam and fraud claims. The police often tell the victims that they do not have a legal story if they have transferred voluntarily money or other resources.
The obstacles that Walton was confronted for only strengthened his determination. And the experience of Walton as a TV producer was invaluable when he slowly encouraged local authorities to take action.
“I had to produce my business for the LAPD,” says Walton. He realized that he had to tell a compelling story to the overworked investigators. His early career worked as an on-Air local TV news reporter in San Antonio and Houston was also useful.
“I knew how to structure episodes and pitch stories. So all these skills that came together in front of the podcast were the same skills that came together to condemn my scammer. Really, I had to produce this because when I went to the police, there was no interest.”
Walton’s stubborn insistence that Smyth is confronted with charges is unusual. Many victims of scam ashamed and ashamed to publicly admit that they have been admitted. Walton refused to shrink. He mentions his anger in losing hard-earned money, as well as the emotional openness he won after he came as gay at the age of 30. And he had a burning desire to warn others about Smyth as he discovered her long track of earlier victims. “Queen of the Con” includes an interview with Smyth’s daughter, Chelsea, who testified during her trial in the case of Walton that her mother was a pathological liar.
“It was only because I was furious and wanted her to pay and people wanted to warn people about her,” says Walton. “Most victims don’t talk about what happened. They don’t go to the police. And even many victims who call me for help, says the majority of them things like:” If I go to the police, do I have to use my real name? “
Adjusting working in reality TV to organizing a research podcast was not that difficult for Walton. He loves the freedom offered by AudioTerTainment.
“I knew the story better than anyone else. I knew how to weave and start here and end up, and lead people to the end and make the interesting stories,” says Walton about producing, writing and hosting season 1 of “Queen of the Con.” He was pleasantly surprised by the production process when he went to work on episodes with Iheart and producer Aliza Rosen from Ayr Media.
“The notes were so minimal. It was shocking because I am used to entering a cut in a network, and they are:” Okay, put the end at the start, put the start at the end and work the middle and then interview someone else. ” It’s like just blowing it up, “says Walton.” That was so satisfying. As a maker you write something and they leave it alone. It’s great. “
The book format also gives him an important outlet valve to spread his gospel about how they can be informed in advance and what to do if a crime is suspected.
“In a book you have so much real estate to explain everything, and it is written down. If people have questions, they can go back and read it again,” says Walton. In the last two chapters of the book: “I give people what they should do when they are connected. The police are going to turn you away. This is how you push back. This is how you build your case. Pitching a criminal case to the police is a show for a network. A Sunday when there is nobody ‘at the police station, says.
Walton has recently been branched to other research work, including His new podcast series ‘Cocaine Air’, That bowed in June. It tells the story of a man who was flown in Florida to Cocaine shipments in Cocaine shipments to Florida in the 1980s in the 1980s.
Walton’s professional segment in podcasting came partly out of necessity during the dark early days of the pandemic. It changed his life at a time when he also found personal happiness with his husband.
“Everyone now calls me a content library,” Walton jokes. ‘So many of my old friends call me:’ Hey, how did you get into podcasting? “I wish I had a plan.
After all the time he has studied the shocking exploits of serial scammers, Walton says that he believes that such situations often amount to people who have a psychopathic need to manipulate others – to scale.
“What a Psychopath Con artist Joy brings is the creation of worlds that do not exist and photographing a film that only they know, and everyone as actor Cast, and just watching with Glee while we all do what they want, say the lines they wrote,” says Walton. ‘This makes me angry to admit you, but it is the truth. [Smyth] Never asked me for money. I offered because she had made this world brilliant where I offered. That was her plan. She wrote that part for me to offer. It’s brilliant. “
