Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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On May 1st, 2023, I went to the federal courthouse in downtown San Francisco. My cousin Alan was on trial for hiring someone to kill his ex-wife, Priscilla. The man he hired was actually an undercover FBI agent who worked out of the San Francisco office, so the trial was in California. No way was I going to miss this. Nine months had passed since Alan was arrested in my father's backyard.
Now in the courtroom, he looked like he'd aged 20 years in that time. Allen used to be fat and shiny. His bald head shone, as did his gadgets and his cars. He used to wear cowboy boots and big leather hats. Now he was dressed in a white shirt and a gray blazer. Defense attorneys often counseled their clients on what to wear to trial. The plain white shirt could communicate respect for the court.
The blazer was non-threatening. But it was Allen's physical transformation that struck me. He was thin, something he'd never been. He was stooped. He'd let his beard grow long and gray. Well played, Alan, I thought. We both grew up with stories of our very talented, very entrepreneurial, and somewhat famous great-grandfather.
When he was arrested in Stalin's Russia, he grew a long gray beard to make sure he was perceived as an old man by the court. That didn't help our great-grandfather, but maybe Alan thought it was worth trying in an American court. My family had learned a lot in the months since Alan was arrested. We already knew about the time he took his son, O, from Russia and moved to the U.S.
without telling Priscilla. And the time he took O from the U.S.
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Chapter 2: What happens during Allen's trial in San Francisco?
and went to Canada, again without telling Priscilla. Now we also knew about all the things that had happened to Priscilla during their separation. How she was evicted, beaten by hired thugs, arrested twice, held for two weeks. All of it, she believed, orchestrated by Alan. Hiring a hitman, if that's what he did, was just the latest thing and the worst one.
The mind kept looking for a way to make what Alan did seem maybe a little less bad. Family and friends, especially those who were talking to my Aunt Lena, Alan's mother, were convinced, or hoping to be convinced, that Alan had somehow been set up. One of the men in my family told me that he'd heard that the undercover agent called Alan himself and said, "'I hear you have a problem.
Would you like us to take care of it for you?' as though a murder for hire were a wallet found on the sidewalk. If he didn't intend to steal it, maybe it wasn't a crime. I knew what he was getting at. He thought Alan had been entrapped. But entrapment isn't much of a defense, morally speaking. I mean, wouldn't most people have said no?
My father, he never voiced a theory of the case, but he kept texting me when I was in San Francisco. Tell me what's happening, he brought it. Don't make me wait for you right up. I knew that this was his way of saying, please tell me something to help me believe that Alan is innocent, or at least not guilty as hell.
Even Priscilla, when I spoke to her on the eve of the trial, said that she felt sorry for Alan. The prosecutors had brought her to San Francisco to testify. And yet, I sensed, she still didn't quite believe that Alan was capable of this. When I say that the mind kept looking for ways to absolve Alan, I do not mean my mind. My mind was at peace. In my mind, I had already tried and convicted Alan.
My motivation for attending the trial was to watch the prosecution lay out the case so I could bring it back to my family, so they'd finally set aside their misguided doubts and misplaced sympathies. From Serial Productions and The New York Times, I am M. Gessen, and this is The Idiot.
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A jury trial is a play put on for an audience of one dozen people. In Allen's trial, notably, all three of the lead roles, the judge, the prosecutor, and the public defender, were played by women. The judge was kind and unusually personable. She encouraged members of the jury to use the time during breaks to get to know one another and suggested icebreakers.
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Chapter 3: What role does family play in the perceptions of Allen's actions?
And she's from Africa. She got this, I don't know how, she took his kids. And basically, if anybody would look into really the reasons for her being in the U.S., there is none.
Okay.
Okay.
David meets this change of subject gamely.
Let me ask you this. In a perfect world, what would be the best case scenario that your friend is looking for? Because we have a range of options.
Her visa gets revoked and she gets kicked out of the country.
That's it. Okay. We do have a connection with somebody within – I don't know the specific agency. I don't know if it's INS or if it's the Immigration Customs Enforcement. I know we do have contacts. We've used these people in the past.
David doesn't seem to know the intricacies of the U.S. immigration system. The INS was disbanded more than 20 years ago. But no matter. He and Kiselyov are quickly hatching a plan. A bribe will be sent to this person at INS or ICE or wherever who had arranged for the deportation. The bribe would be $100,000.
David testified that he came up with the price tag on the spot, figuring that's what it would cost for some imaginary highly-placed government official to risk their imaginary job.
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Chapter 4: How does the courtroom dynamics influence the trial's outcome?
I've seen cases where the undercover agent talks a person into a crime they had no intention of committing. But this was different. I couldn't imagine any alternative interpretation of the tape I'd just heard. Alan wanted Priscilla killed, and he wanted David to know that he wanted Priscilla killed.
He said that with the bribery scheme, he was worried that Priscilla could fight her deportation in court and maybe even win. Murder is better than deportation that way.
Of course, we can handle that. I just didn't know what your appetite for that was. But if you feel that way and we can make that happen, it will be very clean, it will be quick, and it will be final. This is the only thing that gives Alan pause.
He doesn't want the kids to see their mother getting killed.
No, no, no. God, God, please. Yeah, no, no, no. You know, we're all family men. Like, this is strictly business. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, this would be a very clean, professional job.
Reassured, Alan asks about the cost.
I think it's probably half the cost, to tell you the truth. Yeah. Much easier. Much easier. Okay. We're very happy to proceed with it.
Okay. Very happy to proceed with it. What a productive meeting for their undercover agent. He came for bribery and was leaving with murder for hire. Now he just needed Alan to confirm that he intended to go through with it, so that when Alan eventually went to trial, he couldn't say that he was misunderstood.
And now here we were, at that trial, listening to and looking at all the times and all the ways Alan said that yes, he really meant it. He wanted Priscilla killed.
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Chapter 5: How does the FBI's star witness impact the case?
Oh, no, no, no. This sounds like it's been well thought out. Listen, yeah, I didn't want to. I'm glad we talked about it because, honestly, that's the way I would have handled it. But you've got to be comfortable. Okay, good. All right.
Alan says that this is not an emotional decision, not spur of the moment. He's comfortable with it.
Sometimes they dig their own fucking grave. Right, yeah.
Don't fuck with me. There's a bit more back and forth. David will need pictures of Priscilla, location, everything for the people who'll do the job. And then, just like that, Alan is showing David pictures of the kids.
This is my son. Ah, what's his name?
His name is Paul.
And then...
Beautiful kids.
Beautiful poodle. Beautiful life. The only problem is Priscilla. Surely, after seeing these photos, David would see what a great father Alan was. Surely, he would feel even better about helping Alan get rid of the fly in the ointment. But David has a question. What is this going to do to the kids emotionally?
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Chapter 6: What evidence reveals Allen's intentions towards Priscilla?
Violence.
No, they're not. They won't be. Yeah, they won't be. I mean, she'll be taken out without them present. And I guess you can explain it how you explain it. But just know that, you know, now that I'm seeing pictures of that, I just want to make sure that they're okay. I got a heart, too, you know? Like, I fucking, you know, don't get me wrong. I'll put the light switch when I need to.
But, you know, when I look at those kids like that, you know, they're beautiful to me. And I just want to make sure they're okay, you know?
The undercover agent is methodical. He keeps coming closer to saying she will be killed, and he keeps pushing Alan to consider the hypothetical stakes. The children will lose their mother forever. Alan blithely keeps incriminating himself. As long as the kids wouldn't see the murder happen, he didn't have other concerns. They wrap up their meeting. Alan has a plane to catch.
The undercover agent has a lot to work with.
This is UC 4735, and today is Thursday, June 2nd, 2022, and this is the conclusion of the recorded conversation with Alan Gessen.
Normally, after hearing someone testify for hours, especially if the testimony was colorful, which this certainly had been, I try to chat with the other reporters in the courtroom. But this time, I didn't feel like doing that. Because I didn't feel like explaining why I'd come all the way from New York to cover this case. I didn't feel like telling anyone that the defendant was my first cousin.
The one person in the audience that I really wanted to talk to about all of this wouldn't talk to me. My Aunt Leila, Alan's mother, was there dressed as she usually was in elegant and hip all black. I saw Alan smile warmly at her when he was brought into the courtroom. But she generally sat out of my line of sight. It had been almost a year since she'd spoken to me or my father.
Soon after Alan was arrested, she became furious with my father for inviting Priscilla and the kids to Cape Cod for Labor Day weekend and not inviting her. She accused my father of siding with the FBI, which she thought had framed Alan. In a huff, she left the family Facebook chat. Weeks and months later, my father tried to reach out to her to offer help.
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Chapter 7: How does the undercover agent manipulate the situation?
There may be other illegal immigrants present when the raid happens, and they will be exited, meaning removed from the country. Like maybe they'd grab Priscilla's sister, who was also in the U.S., or the Zimbabwean family she was staying with.
So yes, he didn't want Priscilla killed, only stuffed in the trunk of a car, possibly with other people who happened to be around, and driven out of the country. And once Priscilla was eventually back in Zimbabwe, they would, quote, co-parent internationally. Ilhan Hosseini, the prosecutor, seemed really angry now. Outraged that Alan, a lawyer, would do everything he appeared to have done.
Kidnap O, kidnap O again, and then arrange to have Priscilla killed while claiming that he wanted her only, well, kidnapped. I was right there with her. I couldn't believe Alan's chutzpah in taking the stand, in expecting anyone to take his defense seriously. I mean, I literally couldn't believe most of what he said. Neither could Ms. Hosseini.
On cross-examination, she had these kinds of exchanges with Alan. Question. Answer. Correct. And that made sense to you? At the time, yes. Um, yes. The two of you living in Boston, is that closer in terms of geography or the United States and Zimbabwe? Definitely in Boston is closer than Boston and Zimbabwe. Nonetheless, your goal was not to separate Priscilla from the children, was it?
When she was done with him, Ilham Hosseini hadn't just destroyed Alan's defense. She had thoroughly humiliated him. This made me happy. What the hell was wrong with me? I think I can honestly say that I had never before enjoyed seeing someone humiliated in public. If a movie or a play contains even a hint of ridicule, if the director is mean to their characters, I find it unbearable to watch.
And here I was, rejoicing in the ritual shaming of my cousin, a person I can still see as a naked pudgy baby with a full head of curls. And the person I identified most with at the trial was the prosecutor. This too had never happened to me. I'd never thought, you go girl, when watching an assistant U.S. attorney pound away at a defendant whom she wants to get locked up.
I have covered dozens of trials in this country and elsewhere. I spent a couple of years immersed in American terrorism trials, where most of the evidence came from FBI agents. I'd seen defendants who had done monstrous things, like set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, and stupid things, like dispose of the evidence. And I'd never before wanted anyone, anyone, to get the maximum sentence.
I had never before disregarded defense arguments so completely. And I'd never before trusted the testimony of an undercover agent so fully. If I pause to think about it, I'd have to note that there was something very odd about some of those signal messages, which were shown not as screenshots, but as pictures of a phone taken with another phone, and which contained incorrect ages for both kids.
But even though I have known the FBI to manufacture evidence, I had no patience for the public defender's focus on these strange messages. And also, no empathy. The jury deliberated for just a few hours. There couldn't have been much of a disagreement. Guilty, I texted my father. Understood, he responded. Nine minutes later, he added, as you might have guessed, I am not surprised.
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