Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Dealer Secrets Revealed: Power, Women & Redemption
Wed, 15 Jan 2025
John shares his crime story and what changed it all. Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What led to John's empire in the drug world?
My empire is growing. Right. I got a good name because I always pay. I never owe. You need to get this money. Right. Because I don't mind getting 15 grand taken. I can't have 50, 60 grand taken. In the drug world, when you got girls, you got a flock. So we're going to the casino five nights a week. I'm picking up a girl or two or three.
And I would tell the girls, if your friend comes, we're going to have sex. You ain't got an interview like this, bro. You ain't got no interview like this because you're going to get the dirty. When you're a user and you get busted, you ain't got your head right yet. Right. And you stumble and you make mistakes. I didn't make those mistakes.
They take me to the room, set me down, and there's a recorder right there. They're kind of cocky too, right? They... Listen to this. Guys, you're probably going to testify against me anyway. So I might as well just tell on myself.
You're preaching to the choir.
I'm with you. I hear you. I'm going to provide. That's what I'm going to do. And I didn't get to spend as much time with my kids. I missed a lot. When Angel was born, it changed, bro. I'm not taking no women out. I'm not getting involved with nothing. Till I get my son, I'm getting involved with nothing.
Hey, this is Matt Cox and I'm here with John Rodriguez. We're going to be hearing his crime story and also about his son. I appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Thank you.
It's good to be here.
So let's, you know, we've, we've, we talked a little bit about, we've talked about the story and can you, let's just start, you know, start at the beginning. Like where were you born, your family, parents, brothers, sisters?
Okay, sure. I don't have any brothers or sisters. I'm an only child. I was born in Castro Valley, California. My mom and dad were married for five years, got a divorce. And then me and my mom eventually moved to L.A., and my dad stayed in Hayward, Castro Valley area. So at that time, I got to see my dad in the summer. I was probably second grade. Yeah, second grade.
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Chapter 2: How did John's family background influence his life choices?
Do that now. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Come on, do that right now. Your kid, Johnny, is in elementary school, and he goes home, and he tells his mom, hey, the principal used a wooden stick, and he spanked me for misbehaving. What happens now? What happens now?
Now you go home and get spent too. Using forgeries and bogus identities, Matthew B. Cox, one of the most ingenious con men in history, built America's biggest banks out of millions. Despite numerous encounters with bank security, state and federal authorities, Cox narrowly, and quite luckily, avoided capture for years. Eventually, he topped the U.S.
Secret Service's Most Wanted list and led the U.S. Marshals, FBI, and Secret Service on a three-year chase, while jet-setting around the world with his attractive female accomplices. Cox has been declared one of the most prolific mortgage fraud con artists of all time by CNBC's American Greed.
Bloomberg Businessweek called him the mortgage industry's worst nightmare, while Dateline NBC described Cox as a gifted forger and silver-tongued liar. Playboy magazine proclaimed his scam was real estate fraud, and he was the best. Shark in the Housing Pool is Cox's exhilarating first-person account of his stranger-than-fiction story. Available now on Amazon and Audible.
Yeah, I was thinking my sister would scream at my dad and say, I'm going to call. Both my sisters and my brother were adopted. And then my mom went in for a hysterectomy and they found out she was pregnant with me.
I think I heard that in one of the podcasts.
But my sister, my one sister, she was a problem. She used to scream and she'd say, I'm going to go find my real parents. And my dad would say, Your real parents gave you up. Your real parents already decided they don't want you. I mean, just like, you wouldn't say that to a kid now. Like, that's brutal. Or she'd say, you only adopted me so you'd have a slave.
And he would say, and she'd go, I'm going to call social services. And he'd go, call them.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did John face growing up?
But they knew the words. Like I would tell them, don't bring your friend. Right. Or I'd say, hey, bring that girl. I want to get with her. And then they'd come or not come, whatever. So we all get taken care of, you know, and it's just the way it was. It's just the way it was, man.
It's just people helping people.
Yeah, they needed something. I needed something. We all had fun, right? It was fun. I'm not gonna lie.
Symbiotic relationship, right? Like everybody's getting something.
It's kind of like the 70s, bro. Like a free world. It's a free world, but you gotta have the dope. Right. And the girls need the dope. So they're coming.
Yeah.
Okay? And I'm not a bad looking guy. So it's not like they gotta get with some dude. Because I've seen it where you're like, you know. Yeah. I've seen some tour bag dudes, but they got girls. They got girls, because if you got the bag, you got the girls. And I'm going to tell you something, too, about the girls. All the girls, they're not 10s, but they're not 3s either. They're all 6s and 7s, bro.
They use drugs, bro. They're skinny, man. Right. Right? They ain't got no obese people, you know, very few that are using. So they're all 25, 22, 28.
110 pounds.
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Chapter 4: How did John's relationships impact his criminal activities?
They all know.
They know it's drug money or they know it's fraud money.
They know it's something. No, he knew it was drug money because he told me because I don't even want to mention his name. He's dead now. Anyhow, he told me if they never caught me with anything, I would never go to jail.
What an idiot. That's just dumb.
That's what he told me.
Yeah.
So now in my mind, I'm like, I'm cool because I don't never have anything at my house. And this is what I'm thinking when I finally get busted, which we'll get into later. But this is what I'm thinking when I got busted. They got shit on me, man. But the feds, they don't have to have it on you, bro.
There doesn't have to... Nobody really... I've seen cases where nobody got caught with anything. But they start rolling over on each other. What are you going to do? I'm going to go to jail and three guys are going to fucking testify against me. And I wasn't caught with anything. They weren't caught with anything. But they're all going to roll over on me. And there's no drugs in evidence anywhere.
Maybe a small amount somewhere. And they're charging you with fucking 10 kilos. And you're like... There's no drugs. I wasn't caught. They weren't caught. Because they add the shit up.
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Chapter 5: What was the turning point in John's life?
No. so i go hide under a bush like four doors down i'm under a bush and i'm just there and i'm there and i'm seeing cop cars bro circling around but they ain't seeing me and again in my mind i'm like hey they're gonna leave because there's nothing there and then about an hour and a half i'm guessing approximately an hour and a half later One of the feds comes up.
He goes, if you move, I'll blow your effing head off. Right. That's what he says. And I don't move. And then I get out slowly and then he cuffs me. We go around to the house.
You're still in your underwear.
I'm still in my underwear. And they set me on one of the chairs. There's like 10 of them there. And the two twins are there. And I don't even really know what they said yet. Because now I'm trying to get my bearings. Because I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Because you ain't found. I know you haven't found anything. Except maybe a pipe from one of the girls. I don't know.
But they didn't find anything. And I'm getting arrested or whatever. And I got this badass Harley sitting in my garage, bro. Custom. Badass. And they put me in the...
ford explorer i think it was put me in the explorer and we're in san bernardino and we're going to riverside which is half an hour drive now this is why not using drugs i think helps you help me is the cop wants to chop it up with me in the car but i know this dude's recording i know right he says hey man that's a nice harley I don't even say a word. I don't even comment. I don't bat an eye.
I don't do anything. And he's asking me a few other questions because I guess he tried to start with the Harley, but I ain't even talking to this dude. I ain't said a word. And he goes, oh, you're not going to say nothing, huh? And even when he said, oh, you're not going to say nothing, I didn't say nothing. I'm not saying shit. So they get me to this federal building and take me up the elevator.
I'm still, I got a t-shirt on now, but I'm in my underwear still. Right. Right. They take me up to some office or whatever, holding cell, but it wasn't prison, something like that. It wasn't even a cell, I don't think. It was like a room.
Is it wrong that I want to know? Are these boxer briefs?
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Chapter 6: How did John's arrest unfold?
So I'm a year in. I finally get his phone number. I get a phone number to Grandma. And I'm like, I'm going to get to talk to my son, see what's going on. I call Grandma, Grandma Kathy. I say, hey, where's Angel? It's like 9 o'clock at night, after count, 8.30. Because I probably called. How did I get the phone number? I got a thing from my ex-wife.
So after dinner, whatever I called, she gave it to me. I called grandma. Grandma says, call tomorrow. He's in bed. I said, okay. I said, I'll call tomorrow. Same time. I called him tomorrow. I never hear from her again for all the years I spent in there. I never heard from her again. Never heard about angel again. Never heard anything.
In retrospect, because I didn't know the whole game, in retrospect, I think if I would have told my lawyer, and especially at sentencing, listen, I'm a criminal. I need help. I know you're going to sentence me, and I know I'm going to do some time, but I need to see my son. I don't know where my son is. I have no contact. I hear he's sick. I think the feds would have found him. I think that...
I think your lawyer would make some phone calls, I think.
Yeah, but I didn't think of that, you know, because I just didn't think of it, you know. I have time to do. So that's about a year in. I talked to Cain. Cain tells me, you got to tell him what happened. You got to snitch, I guess, right? Right. But in my case, I didn't know anyone. They could ask me a thousand questions. I don't know. Where does he live? I don't know. Where does he get?
I don't know. I don't even know his name.
Right.
They have all the recall.
This is the phone number I call. The guy meets me with some what the fuck.
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