The Idiot - Chapter 3

This podcast is supported by Pharma.

America leads the world in medicine development.

It matters.

We get new medicines first, nearly three years faster.

Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home.

And not relying on other countries keeps us safe.

But China is racing to overtake us.

Will we let them?

Or will we choose to stay ahead?

When America leads, America cures.

Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead.

Learn how at AmericaCures.com.

On May 1, 2023, I went to the federal courthouse in downtown San Francisco.

My cousin Allen was in trial for hiring someone to kill his ex-wife, Priscilla.

The many hard was actually an undercover FBI agent who worked out of the San Francisco office,

so the trial wasn't California.

No way was I going to miss this.

Nine months had passed since Allen was arrested 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 work highway boots and big leather hats.

Now he was dressed in a white shirt and a grey blazer.

Defense attorneys often counsel their clients on what to wear to trial.

The plain white shirt could communicate respect for the court.

The blazer was non-threatening, but 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 grey.

Well played, Allen, 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 long and gray beard to make sure he was perceived as an old man by the court.

That didn't help our great-grandfather,

but maybe Allen thought it was worth trying in an American court.

My family had learned a lot in the months since Allen was arrested.

We already knew about the time he took his son, O, from Russia,

and moved to the US without telling Priscilla.

And the time he took O from the US 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 hard thugs, arrested twice, held for two weeks,

all of it she believed orchestrated by Allen.

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 Allen did seem maybe a little less bad.

Family and friends, especially those who were talking to my aunt Liana,

Allen's mother, were convinced or hoping to be convinced that Allen had somehow been set up.

One of the men in my family told me that he'd heard that the undercover agent called Allen

himself and said, I hear you have a problem. Would you like us to take care of it for you?

As the murder for hire, we're 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 Allen had been entrapped,

but entrapment isn't much of a defense morally speaking. I mean, most people have said now.

My father, he never voiced a theory of the case, but he kept texting me when I was in San Francisco.

Telling 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 Allen

is innocent, or at least not guilty as hell. Even for Silla, when I spoke to her on the eve of

the trial, said that she felt sorry for Allen. The prosecutors had brought her to San Francisco to

testify, and yet I sensed she still didn't quite believe that Allen was capable of this.

When I say that the mind kept looking for ways to absolve Allen, I do not mean my mind.

My mind was a piece. In my mind, I had already tried and convicted Allen.

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 dads and

misplaced sympathies. From serial productions and The New York Times, I am Em Gerson, and this is

the idiot.

This podcast is supported by Farma. America leads the world in medicine development.

It matters. We get new medicines first, nearly three years faster. Five million Americans go to

work because we make medicines here at home, and not relying on other countries keeps us safe,

but China is racing to overtake us. Will we let them? Or will we choose to stay ahead? When America

leads, America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at AmericaCures.com.

Now, finding a doctor is a little less challenging. United Health Group is investing in tools

that make it easier for patients to navigate health care and pay less. These transparency tools

help patients find providers, and this is the big thing. Compare costs up front. The big picture,

more transparent pricing benefits everyone. And these tools from United Health Group can help

patients save hundreds of dollars annually. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com slash commitment.

Want to sell your car your way? Who wouldn't? That's why CarMax offers a car selling experience

designed just for you, with online and in-store options. Want to know what your car's worth quickly?

Get an online offer in under two minutes. Want to think it over? Use offer watch to keep tabs on

your car's value over time. Plus, CarMax offers flexible selling options with express drop-off

in-store or pickup at home. Selling your car is in your control with CarMax. Want to drive?

CarMax pickup not available everywhere restrictions and fee may apply. CcarMax.com for details.

A jury trial is a play put on for an audience of one dozen people. In Alan'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. Maybe that's why during

the jury selection process, people were surprisingly open in detail telling the stories of their own

divorces and custody battles. The prosecutor, Ilham Husaini, seemed angry,

but she was personally affronted by the details of the crime. Her start witness was the undercover

FBI agent, the man Alan had hired to get rid of Priscilla. Alan knew him as David,

so that his cover wouldn't be blown when David testified, members of the public,

me and a couple of local crime reporters, had to leave the courtroom and watch a video feed

from an adjoining room. The camera was trained on the witness box, but in such a way that we

couldn't see the agent's face. By which I mean, we were staring at David's crotch.

Grape hands, the edge of a striped teal tie, projected onto a large screen while the prosecution

played clips of surveillance audio. David testified that the investigation didn't start with Alan.

It started with a different Russian speaker, and man named Alexei Kiselyov.

Kiselyov was a sometime business partner of balance. The schemer, in and around Washington,

the sort of guy who leverages tenuous connections against imagined projects,

and very occasionally manages to make a buck. In 2019, Kiselyov caught the FBI's attention.

They suspected he was looking for someone to help launder billions of dollars.

Those billions supposedly belonged to pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians who had been facing sanctions.

The money may or may not have existed, and the case against him was eventually dropped.

But for a couple of years, David had been posing as someone who could facilitate such transactions,

and Kiselyov was talking to David.

And David was recording their conversations.

In February 2022, just a couple of weeks after Alan got out of jail after being arrested for

taking out to Canada, Russia invaded Ukraine. Kiselyov floated a new business idea in his conversations

with David. He wanted to get U.S. government funding to make bulletproof tests for Ukraine.

Where are you now? I'm a little bit from the Polish side.

We just crossed here. We're helping with some supplies and taking it over and, you know,

let's say it's a war. Yeah. We can work. No.

War bombs bulletproof tests, money laundering, but also Kiselyov pivoted to the subject of his

friend Alan. Our Alan. Alan needs help with something.

I was kind of bugging you a little bit about that issue, that actually it's a guy who works without

helping with moving stuff. He's in the U.S. He's in Boston, and he had his ex pretty much making

hell out of his life, and she's from Africa. She got views. I don't know how she took his kids,

and really, and basically, if anybody would look into rail with the reasons for her being in the

U.S., there is none. Okay. David needs this change of subject game. Let me ask you this.

In a perfect world, all right. What would be the best case scenario that your friend is looking for?

Because we have a range of options. I will get to where her music gets revolved, 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 Kisilev are quickly hatching a plan.

A bribe will be sent to this person at INS, or ICE, or wherever, who would arrange for the

deportation. The bribe would be $100,000. David testified that he came up with a price tag on

the spot, figuring that's what it would cost for some imaginary, highly placed government official

to risk their imaginary job. Okay. It's great. Thank you very much. Of course. Yeah.

The FBI now had a new angle to explore, in addition to the possible money laundry, a potential

bribery scheme. In the courtroom, David explained that the character he was playing was a money

laundry, a gangster, the kind of person that in real life he would despise and actually try to put behind

bars. But in his pretend life, David could laundry billions of dollars, facilitate a bribe,

get someone deported. He was there for all your illegal needs. And now he was there for my cousin

Alan. A couple of months after this conversation, Kisilev set up a meeting for David and Alan in Florida.

Yeah. This is UC 4735. And today is Thursday, June 2nd, 2022. It's approximately 11.55 AM.

And this is a recording with Alan Gessen, the meetings taken place at the Boca Raton Resort,

Boca Raton, Florida. David had told Alan to meet him at the Boca Raton, in Boca Raton.

You know those places that added the to the name of the actual place to indicate that it's

everything you ever imagined but so much more. This resort has 19 bars and restaurants and

four beach options, the Boca Raton. Alan drives up in a white rental car and I would

see Dan. The jury was shown surveillance photos. He meets David in the lobby, which is like an

Italian castle, Florida version. David is wearing a wire. Which is your about to hear is not great

for field recording. Yeah, Alan. Sorry. How are you? How are you? How are you doing?

They fist bump. Alan is wearing what looks like a black cashmere sweater. David is dressed in

old black, pull his shirt, shiny pointy black shoes. They're not dressed for Florida. Everyone

around them is wearing light colors, but they're dressed to perform their roles. Alan is being

international in man of mystery. David is going full nafiosa. They're macho. They're gangsters.

They are the Alan and the Dave at the Boca Raton. Yeah, how are you? Excellent. Thanks for coming

out. I appreciate it. No, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I really make my picture of it a longer period.

They take a shuttle to one of the Boca Raton's restaurants, the Marisol, where the seating is

couches in earth tones and the views beach umbrellas as far as the eye can see.

On the way, Alan summarizes his very impressive career. In 2010, I started a massive diamond

mining project in South Africa. His suit to Kongangola, maybe it's several millions of dollars,

some misadventures, and a triumph for two later. Alan gets to the story of his marriage.

But I went to Zimbabwe once to explore some opportunities there and met this incredibly beautiful

woman, which was the end of me. Mr. Zimbabwe? Yeah. Listen, I'll always say it's the pictures that I've

got you. David testified in court that the character he was playing was Chris. He seemed to have

that part down. At the restaurant, it's David's turn to talk about how impressive and real he is.

So we have a lot of obviously business in South America. I'm sure Alex has told you. So my clients

are in Cartagena. They're all, I'm going to tell you right now, they're all cartel level guys,

they're all bad asses. They are a real deal. When I talk, they don't have

fuck you money, they have fuck everyone money. You're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

I don't touch the product side. I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to,

I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to do anything with

any of that shit. But I just do the money stuff. I set up companies and we'll wander money.

And that's it. And it's been great. I've been doing it for 15, 20 years.

Having established their gangster bona fides, Alan and the undercover talk business.

There are two items on the agenda, the bulletproof vest factory, Alan wants to build,

and Priscilla. I understand, you know, through Alex that you have some problems. You know,

I get it. You know, we have a solution for you, but I guess the question is like in a perfect world,

tell me what you want. Tell me what, like, and there's a blank slate. Just tell me what you want.

Alan says he wants Priscilla to port it. He needs this for peace of mind.

It doesn't want her to quote, be able to come and harass us ever again. He then explains what he

means by harass. A few months earlier, Priscilla had the nerve to tell the police that he had kidnapped

O. But he had, in fact, been arrested for taking O across the border to Canada and spend five

weeks in jail and was now waiting trial and kidnapping charges. He tells David, let's just say

that I'm a little bit pissed off. But it's a woman who will go the length of the world to make my

life miserable. Alan says, women, am I right? Yeah, I'm telling you, man. Yeah, like I said,

you know, historically, over time, men have made the worst decisions, you know, when it comes to

women, you know, it's, I don't know what it is. They're an affid easy act, you know, they,

it's that weakness or Achilles heel. But, uh, yeah, I understand that. I wish I hadn't known you

earlier because, you know, a lot of that shit we could have cleaned up. You know, there's no doubt

about that, which is for this way. That would never have happened in my family.

Amid all this broy gangstree hot air, the vaguest outlines of a plan appear. A bribe will be paid.

Some government officials will pull some strings and Priscilla will be ordered to leave the country.

And it will cost $100,000. At first, Alan seems taken aback by the price tag.

Okay. Oh, and now, um, I'll need to get that to Alan.

Okay. A group would not handle the material side of things. Okay. Uh, because he never mentioned

to me, and he like, he didn't mention me that the man's back.

Kisilev didn't discuss the money with Alan, he explains. But he quickly recovers from the sticker

shock. The price is evidently reasonable. Okay. But what it's worth. There's no question

that it's a good investment. A good investment. Alan's done the math. Hit pay more in child

support. Oh, yeah, he would. Yeah. After everything Priscilla had gone through to get to the US

to see her son again, Alan was going to send her back to Zimbabwe. After everything

O had gone through, being separated from his mother for two and a half years, meeting her again,

watching his father get arrested, going to live with his mother in a sister he barely knew.

Alan was going to yank him away from Priscilla again, and he was going to deprive

Elle who was three of the only parent she had ever known, all for the eminently reasonable price

of $100,000. And we hadn't even gotten to the murder for a higher plot yet.

On the tape, Alan and David move on to the details of the bulletproof vest factory scheme.

This part of the conversation goes a little less smoothly. Alan headed all figured out

that get US government funding and build a factory, and he thought David was in a position to get

him that money. David, though, is much more interested in the bribe part. In court, he testified

that he went to the meeting, expecting to talk about the deportation scheme, not the factory.

But he is nimble. Hit tells Alan that he could bring in money from the Colombian drug cartels

to invest in the factory. Remember, the FBI has been trying for years to get Kislev

and now Alan on money laundering. But Alan isn't really incriminating himself.

He actually expresses some concerns about the drug money. After an hour or so, the conversation

turns back to Priscilla. Alan says, quote, the first order of business is to get her the fuck out

of here and quote, to get Priscilla deported. Or, and this is where he suddenly,

offhandedly, turns the conversation in a different direction. This is the heart of the prosecution's

case. Let's listen carefully. Yeah. If there's a cheaper way to get rid of her, I mean, I have

listened. I have family in your area. Remember, David is supposed to be a Mafioso. That's the kind

of family he's talking about. A minute later, he will refer to friends in the North End,

historically an Italian neighborhood in Boston. He's opening for Alan, a door to the underworld.

So I don't know how to say this, but like, there is a there's a cheaper way and probably a

more permanent way to do it, but a more permanent way. In case Alan didn't understand what David

was getting out. Is that? Yeah. I mean, that's up to you. Alan would like to proceed.

The time that elapses between the agent saying, that's up to you. And Alan's agreement to proceed

with the more permanent option is a fraction of a second. He doesn't take a breath. He doesn't

pretend to consider the decision. He doesn't double check that he understood the agent correctly.

He doesn't even ask how much money he'll save by going for the cheaper option. He jumps right in

with both feet. And then it gets worse. Alan says that he had looked into this more permanent

option before that he talked to Israelis and Eastern Europeans and Italians and the lowest estimate

he got was $120,000. The prosecutors stopped the tape and repeated what Alan had said.

I researched my sources. The lowest price was 220. And then that is run through the Israelis

and Eastern Europe and Italy. She asked the undercover agent, but he had understood Alan to be saying.

The agent answered, my understanding was that Mr. Guesson had already researched the option

to kill his wife and had been in conversation or had done some research with other organized

crime syndicates. In this case, Israelis were Eastern Europe for the price of $220,000.

The agent who had worked on murder for higher cases before testified in court that it hit his

cheek. Hit scene people agreed to kill someone for his little is $200. On the tape, David

assures Alan that his friends in the North end are more dependable and affordable than those other

guys, the Israelis or the Eastern Europeans, and as that they can get the job done quickly. Alan

likes this and he clarifies more definite. The prosecutor asked,

when you heard Mr. Guesson say, and more definite, what was your understanding of that?

The agent answered, more definite is permanent, dead.

I'd seen if the agents testified in court before. Often I've been skeptical.

Their interpretations of what people say to them can be farfetched.

Their entrapment techniques are often crude and mendacious. I've seen cases where the undercover

agent talks a person into a crime that had no intention of committing. But this was different.

I couldn't imagine any alternative interpretation of the tape had just heard.

Alan wanted Priscilla killed and he wanted David to know that he wanted Priscilla killed.

He said that with the bribery's game he was worried that Priscilla could fight her

deportation on 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'll be quick, and it will be final.

But you've got to tell me you played that's the route that you want to play.

This is the only thing that gives Alan pause. He doesn't want the kids to see their mother

get him killed. No, no, no. God does the police. Yeah, no, no, no. You know, we're all family

and like this is strictly business. Okay, because it's like the devil may want to fix that,

so that's really easy. You know, I was like, wouldn't you make sure to do the quiver?

No, no, no, no, no, no. No, this would be, this would be very clean, professional job.

We assured Alan asks about the cost. I think it's probably half the cost to sell you truth.

Yeah, much easier, much easier. Okay, very happy to proceed with it.

What a productive meeting for the 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.

But you have to be sure that this is what you're okay. This is the first time.

The agent asks Alan if he is sure and Alan says, I'm sure and he adds.

I'm sure.

And this has been more like for the moment. No, no, no, no. This sounds like it's been well thought out.

Listen, yeah, I, I, I didn't want to. I'm glad we have talked about it because that's,

honestly, that's the way I would have handled it. But that's the guy you got to be comfortable.

Yeah, 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 around fucking crazy. 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 do the job. And then just like that, Alan is showing David

pictures of the kids.

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 and the ointment.

But David has a question, what is this going to do to the kids emotionally?

How do we protect the kids? Like, I guess they're too young to, they're young too,

but how do we protect the kids? Look, they're going to lose their mother, right? She's fucking young.

How do we protect the kids?

As long as they're not witness to violence, that's the word he used, violence.

No, they won't be. Yeah, they won't be. I mean, she'll be, she'll be taken out without them present.

Then I guess you can explain it, how you explain it. But just know that, you know, like, I,

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

off with the white switch when I need to, but, you know, when I look at those kids like that,

you know, they're beautiful to me. I just want to make sure they're okay.

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 blindly 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 plan to catch.

The undercover agent has a lot to work with. This is UCE 4735, and today is Thursday, June 2nd,

2022. And this is the conclusion of a court of conversation with Alan Gesson.

Normally, after hearing someone testify for hours, especially if the testimony was colorful,

which this certainly had been, I tried to chat with the other reporters in the court room.

But this time, I didn't feel like doing that, because I didn't feel like explaining why it

came 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 Nana, Alan's mother, was there dressed as she

usually was an elegant and hip-o-block. I saw Alan's my warmly to her when he was brought into the

court room, 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 facility and the kids to keep caught for labor day weekend and not inviting her.

She accused my father of citing 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. He'd heard that she was struggling financially, but she rebuffed him.

At the end of the first day of the trial, Nana wrote a long post on Facebook about how Alan had

been framed, and even though I, a journalist, was in the court room, I wasn't doing anything to help him.

She was not wrong.

In a different case, I might have spent time wondering why Kisilev hadn't shown up for this meeting

with David, and why the undercover agent had seemed to think the meeting was organized to discuss

Priscilla, while Alan thought they'd be talking about the bulletproofest factory.

I might have focused on how manipulative the undercover agent had been,

how he kept fanning the flames of Alan's fury with his comments about women who ruined men's lives.

But Alan was just so happy to be led down this road. He seemed to care about only four things,

speed, permanence, the price, of course, and not having the children witness their mom's murder.

Three weeks after the conversation in Boca Raton, Alan and David met again,

the time at a kosher stake house in the financial district of Manhattan.

The recording of that conversation was played in court too.

They went over logistics. David advised Alan to get out of state when the operation goes down.

Later, he told him to use his credit card to establish his alibi.

They discussed the price again, $50,000, half upfront, half up on completion.

As a show of good faith, Alan gave David a gold coin. He'd been carrying it around in his wallet.

They googled its market price, $1950. The undercover agent agreed to round up,

so Alan would now need to transfer $23,000 for the job to get done in another $25,000 when it was over.

The contract was for consulting.

And once again, the undercover agent gets Alan to reconfirm that he really wants to go through

with having Priscilla kill. Again, this is a serious business, right? You open out window,

you can't close it, right? So I just want to make sure you're comfortable with it and know that

it is a permanent solution, right? Because this is final and it'll be done and you can handle

your business after that and get on with your life. Alan is good with the final solution.

A few days after this meeting, Alan and Lana brought the children to the first birthday party

for my brother's give in Brooklyn. The theme of the party was frozen. It was the first time I saw

Alan after he and Priscilla reached their custody agreement. In the first time, I didn't feel

at all conflicted about spending time with them. It was all above board now. Priscilla was on

her way to New York, too, to spend a few days in the city with ONL. I noticed that Alan and Lana

were unusually subdued during the party. The party was at a playground. Gives random sprinklers

and then ate frozen cake and the birthday child changed in and out of frozen dresses.

Alan and Nana, who brought their poodle, took turns sitting on a bench just outside the playground

with the dog, because dogs weren't allowed inside the fence. And Alan explained, while he was a

waiting trial in the kidnapping charge, he had to be on his best behavior. He also asked me and my

brother Keith, who's also a writer, for advice on selling a memoir of his weeks in jail.

It was sitting in the courtroom, listening to the wire recordings that I realized. By the time

of that birthday party, Alan had already had his second meeting with David, the undercover agent.

It had probably happened during the same trip to New York. In two weeks after that birthday

party, Alan sent David a target package. Priscilla's address, the license plate of her car,

the name and location of the man she was then seeing, with comments like, when children are with

ex-husband, subject stays at her boyfriend's house in Cambridge. When without children, subject goes out.

Over the next two weeks, texting our signal, Alan and David finalized the date of the planned

hit. They discussed the importance of a solid alibi. Alan would be out of town with the kids.

I knew where that was, at my father's house on Cape Cobb.

Then David texted this, one quick question. If there are any guests present, do you have any

problem with showing them the exit? My guy said we need to plan for extra guests at the show.

In court, the undercover agent explained what that meant. I was asking Mr. Guesson,

if there was anybody with his ex-wife at the time we were going to conduct the killing,

would he have any problem with us killing that person as well?

Alan responded, I am absolutely ambivalent to the medalities and circumstances as long as we

achieve project objectives. Additional unexpected expenses are part of doing business.

This message would be quoted over and over again during the trial, so I'm going to repeat it too.

I am absolutely ambivalent to the medalities and circumstances as long as we achieve project

objectives. Additional unexpected expenses are part of doing business.

By ambivalent, Alan seems to have meant indifferent. By unexpected expenses,

him and dead people. By doing business, him and having Priscilla murdered.

In between arranging the details of Priscilla's murder, Alan sent David pictures of the kids

pecation with him. After he signed off on killing extra people as necessary, Alan texted one

sailing today, always studying yachting. David responded priceless, what more can I say?

Alan, that is a father you appreciate another father who cares. David, 100%, your kids and your

grandchildren will appreciate you and honor you in the way you deserve. Alan, thank you my brother,

our cause is just. The prosecutor asked, and your response from you to that?

I couldn't say any more, the agent said, I was just stunned.

I wish I could see the agent's face rather than his crotch. Will he really stunned? Maybe.

He did seem to have a reaction whenever Alan talked about his kids. A reaction that didn't seem

to be tied to the needs of the investigation. I mean, even I was kind of stunned, but mostly I was mad.

My father texted 10 minutes before the court ended for the day, asking for a recap.

I summed up the undercover agent's testimony. My father texted back, thank you.

I felt like I could hear that thank you. It was the kind of thank you you say when you lose hope.

I couldn't give my father anything to make him feel better. No excuse or explanation or even

the slightest bit of understanding for Alan's actions, because how can you understand someone who says

or causes just about killing his children's mother? I mean, what was there to understand?

A few more people took the stand. The police detective from Conqueror to

who investigated Alan's kidnapping case, Priscilla. The jury heard more crazy and horrible things about

Alan. Not that they needed to hear anymore after the day of listening to the undercover recordings.

It's crazy to think that anyone could try to defend themselves in the face of, well,

in the face of themselves, incriminating themselves on tape, over and over and over again.

But Alan, they Alan, was going to try. That's after the break.

This podcast is supported by Better Medicare Alliance. More than 35 million seniors rely on Medicare

Advantage for coordinated care, lower costs, and benefits traditional Medicare doesn't offer.

Right now, federal payment decisions are being made that will directly affect what seniors pay

and the coverage they receive. Flat funding isn't neutral. When rates don't keep pace with rising costs,

seniors pay the price, with higher out-of-pocket costs, fewer benefits, and plan closures,

especially in rural communities. Seniors need stability. Learn more at supportmedicareadvantage.com.

If you, your parent, or spouse served in the military, you could join our family.

Our members saved an average of $70 a month on auto insurance when they switched.

Tap the banner or visit usa.com slash join today to check your eligibility. Restrictions apply.

The sun is out, the birds are chirping, and the open road is calling.

Bring on the spring at the Honda Spring Event and take that road trip you've been dreaming of.

Now is the time to check out the Honda Civic and HRV from Hunt, the 2025

Kelley Blue Books KVB.com Best Value Brand.

Many criminal defendants don't testify their own trials. The jury has already heard the prosecution's

case and they're thinking there's at least a good chance that the defendant is lying.

Most people, even when they're telling the truth, struggle to sound consistent, convincing,

and sympathetic, and it's hard to keep your wits about you under cross-examination.

So most defense attorneys advise most of their clients to leave the talking to the professionals.

The public defender, Candice Mitchell, had decades of experience in public service.

Mitchell was also a black woman like Priscilla, lucky Alan to have her addressing the jury on his

behalf. But this was Alan, the guy who was fired from his one and only law firm job for,

basically, acting like he knew better than everyone else. The guy who wrote a two-page email to a

police detective trying to convince him that taking O to Canada in violation of a court order

was a Nokia's behavior. The guy who had never been in a room he didn't expect to win over.

Of course, Alan took the stand and stayed on it for a day and a half.

To be sure, this was a very different Alan than I'd seen before. This was then Alan,

old Alan, stooped Alan, with the long beard. The Alan I knew was the biggest presence at any

family gathering and were not exactly a group of wallflowers. This Alan spoke so softly that even

with amplification, everyone's trained to hear him. Within a couple of minutes of taking the

stand, Alan was crying. He was recalling the first months of O's life. O was born in Zimbabwe

at 26 weeks. No one knew if he could survive. O spent 78 days in the NICU. Alan asked for tissues.

And a few seconds later, led by his defense attorney, he was talking about money,

about paying off the security guards at the hospital in Harari to bring in equipment,

and, as he claimed, quote, rebuild the whole neonatal unit. He said that he installed oxygen tanks

and humidifiers and changed the lighting to make it more diffused and covered the incubators

and installed speakers in the incubators to place Chopin and WC.

The defense seemed to be trying to show that Alan was a devoted father but also, more important,

that he was used to solving his problems by bribing people.

So, this was Alan's defense, that he bribed his way through life and that all he ever wanted

was to bribe someone to get Priscilla to port it, but not to have her killed.

Only he didn't think it would cost so much money.

Quote, well, my first thought was that I didn't have $100,000. In fact, he had no money at all.

He was in debt. But he couldn't say this to David because he had to project success.

Instead, after talking about the bulletproof vest factory and after coffee, Alan asked David

about a cheaper way to get rid of her. What do you think that would be his defense attorney asked?

Quote, I think it's the immigration customs enforcement who actually take people and physically

remove them from the United States. Meaning, he thought that instead of bribing some highly

placed official to deport Priscilla through the immigration court system, Alan would be

bribing ice officers to remove her from the country physically. This was long before just this

sort of thing. Mast ice officers physically grabbing people, shoving them into unmarked vans

and having them transported to third countries was in the news all the time.

Rather, Alan testified, he got the idea for movies.

What about throwing the words definite and permanent around?

Here, Alan offered a whole linguistic analysis. It was David who used the word permanent.

Alan had said definite. And he said, Quote, for me, the word definite means something that is

certain to happen that is more likely to happen. Now, David's response to it is permanent,

which is very different from definite. Permanent is something that's irreversible. Unquote.

As for his concerns about not exposing children to violence, he meant just the grab and drag

Priscilla out of the room kind of violence, not the killing kind.

Alan claimed that he didn't write some of the signal messages that had been entered into

evidence. But yes, he did write that I am absolutely in Bavila and one.

He explained that the tone of my response is kind of, I'm in holiday with kids,

why are you bothering me? And he explained what the exchange supposedly meant.

There may be other illegal immigrants present when the raid happens. And they will be exited,

meaning removed from the country, like maybe that grab Priscilla's sister who was also in the US.

Or this 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.

Ilha Hussaini, the prosecutor, seemed really angry now. Outrage that Alan, a lawyer,

would do everything he appeared to have done. Kidnapped O,

Kidnapped O again, and then arranged 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 Hutzpah 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 Miss Hussaini. On cross-examination she had these kinds of

exchanges without. Question, once she was deported yesterday, you said you planned to co-parent

with her internationally. Answer, correct. And that made sense to you? At the time, yes.

You both lived in Boston and you won her deported to Zimbabwe so you can both co-parent internationally.

Um, yes, the two of you living in Boston is that closer in terms of geography or the United States

in Zimbabwe. Definitely in Boston is closer than Boston in Zimbabwe. Nonetheless,

your goal was not to separate Priscilla from the children, was it? When she was done with him,

Ilham Hussaini hadn't just destroyed Alan's defense. She 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 an hint of ridicule,

if the directors 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 budgie baby

with a full head of curls. And the person I identified most with at the trial was the prosecutor.

This two had never happened to me. I'd never thought you'd go, girl, when watching an assistant

US attorney pound away at a defendant who 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 of 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 paused 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 by another phone, and which contained incorrect agents 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. None of us had any doubt anymore.

When she said guilty, I literally, I just burst into tears. I didn't expect that, but I felt

it was like a huge sense of relief. I had been checking in with Priscilla throughout the trial.

At the beginning, she was reserved, focused on her own testimony.

Then she finally got angry, that Alan valued her life, or I guess her death, so little,

that he'd haggled, wanting to get rid of her on the cheap. Her sense of relief now came from

having other people see what she'd been through, but also what she hadn't wanted to see,

what she tried to push away by feeling sorry for Alan. The verdict said Alan is rotten,

objectively rotten. It was no longer her private war with Alan. It was now the United States

versus Alan Gusson. I could hear the relief in Priscilla's voice, and I thought I could hear

something else too. Priscilla had done so much waiting for documents, visas, core decisions,

then for this trial. And now finally, Alan would be locked away and Priscilla could start living her life.

I think that the one thing that I lost throughout this experience was the feeling as though my life

was valuable. So the amount of care and attention that's been given to investigating this, to

protecting me kind of made me start feeling like I was a person. I didn't have to deserve to be

alive, and that is something that is I am forever grateful for.

This is going to be the first story in my career, where they have to be I or the good guys.

Yeah.

What sentence do you want for him now? The maximum, really like the maximum.

Me too, Priscilla. Me too. The maximum sentence possible was 10 years.

And assuming he gets 10 years or thereabouts, have you given any thought to what happens when

he comes out of prison? I'm hoping they find something else. He should just remain where he is.

Priscilla was hoping that Alan would serve his time somewhere far away from her and the kids,

because she was afraid he'd get someone, maybe someone he met in prison, to come after her.

I couldn't understand why. She had felt haunted by Alan for almost four years now.

She hadn't felt safe walking or driving or even being in her own apartment.

The one time she let her guard down when she thought they'd reach an agreement, he hired someone

to kill her. If I were Priscilla, I'm sure I would want Alan to be locked up forever.

If I were Priscilla, that would feel like justice.

But I'm not Priscilla. I should be able to see the bigger picture.

And in this bigger picture, things had shifted. It was Alan who was alone now, fighting for his life.

Yes, I thought that his soft voice and his tears might be an act, and his long beard and stoop

posture at least in part of costume. But I also knew that he had been in jail for almost a year,

that he had lost his adored son and his nifty life full of gadgets and tinder matches,

his businesses, his ambitions, and would surely lose his law license.

I knew that the American prison system is inhumane, that it doesn't help people become better,

and that in the end it offers victims almost nothing too. I wasn't even in victim in this case.

And yet, I wanted vengeance.

Was it time to admit that I was a hypocrite who opposed carceral justice only when it was about

strangers? Not when it was about my own family?

As a journalist, I tried to exercise what's called strategic empathy.

To understand why people do what they do, even if what they do is ultimately unjustifiable.

And maybe I had to admit now that this approach was always more about being strategic

than about feeling empathy. But when it came to my cousin, Alan, I couldn't even find my

way to strategic empathy. I couldn't have imagined what he was thinking, much less what he was feeling

when he did all the horrible things he did. But then that changed.

I came to know, or at least think I know, what was going through Alan's head.

I even came to feel a kind of affinity for him. I mean, it got to the point where on the

morning after my own wedding, I picked out some photos of Owen L to send to Alan in prison,

so he would see how beautiful they looked.

All it took to get there was 35 hours of phone conversations with Alan.

Some of the strangest interviews I've ever conducted.

That's next time on The Idiot.

The Idiot was reported and written by me, Amgesson, and produced by Daniel Kimet,

with André Barzemke and Lika Kramer of Liberliba Studios. Our editors, Julie Snyder,

additional editing by Ira Glass and Sarah K. Nicky. Research and fact checking by Ben

Falon and Marisa Robertson Texter, original score by Alison Layton Brown, additional

music from Dan Powell and Marion LaZana. The show was mixed by Phoebe Wang with additional

mixing by Catherine Anderson, additional production by Fia Bennett. At serial productions,

André Chubu is our supervising producer. Mack Miller is our associate producer.

Video production by Sean Devaney, our direction from Kelly Dunne, art by John Purne,

credits music by Bob Dylan. At The New York Times, our standards editor is Susan Wesley,

legal review by Alamine Sumar, Dana Green, Jackson Bush, and Tim Tai. Our senior operations manager

is Elizabeth Davis Moore, and Sam Dolnick is deputy managing editor of The New York Times.

To find out about our upcoming shows and more about this show, sign up for the newsletter

at nytimes.com slash serial newsletter. Special thanks to André Sainting and Tobin Love.

The edit is a production of serial productions and The New York Times.

Music