2024-06-12 00:49:59
Twelve-year-old McKay Everett disappeared from his Texas home in September 1995. His father Carl returned from an Amway meeting to find the back door ajar and the telephone ringing. On the line, a woman with a raspy voice demanded $500,000. Over the next week, the FBI played a game of cat-and-mouse with the kidnappers, who used inside information to stay one step ahead of the investigation. Ultimately the FBI uncovered a series of crimes that started long before McKay was taken. Most shocking of all was the suspect. McKay had been betrayed by someone he trusted – a pillar of the community hiding a dark secret. But decades later, McKay’s mother, Paulette, still isn’t satisfied with the official story. She doesn’t think everyone involved has been brought to justice. Ransom: Season 1 - Position of Trust is a story of greed and betrayal and how one’s outward appearance can be dangerously deceiving.
A warning about content this show contains descriptions of violence listener discretion is advised
Let me ask you a question you have a best friend
How big would it shock you if tomorrow you woke up and somebody told you that your best friend just killed somebody
Because this can't be right. He didn't do this guy didn't do that
There was a lot of stories at the beginning
About somebody else being involved and there other people and I didn't do this and all this stuff and you want to believe that
Because you don't want to believe you've been friends with a killer
That's not something that you want
Penetrating your mind
You just don't he may have stolen money. Maybe a bad guy that way but
To kill a 12 year old boy
No, you didn't want to believe that
Then you figured out after a while. Wow. Yeah
That's what we're dealing with
If I were to put all of this stuff together, I would have I would have done something and McKay would still be alive
From KSL podcasts, I'm art Rascone. This is ransom position of trust
Episode 6 gamblers logic
this episode we're diving into who Hilton Crawford really was and
What led him to the point that he kidnapped and murdered a close family friend?
12-year-old McKay Everett the boy who called him uncle Hilti
Of course Hilton continued to insist that he didn't kill McKay
But investigators had become convinced
RL Remington wasn't real and
Even Hilton's close friends didn't buy the Remington story
Here's one of those friends Sam Petro. I thought it was a bunch of bull right away
I mean just think of the name Remington
He had to have a mental breakdown. It's what I thought at the time. I mean he had children had two boys
He's got his wife
Then there's got to be some kind of reason for what happened
We got to get to the bottom of this thing
But the deeper you got into it the deeper you knew you're dealing with something that's really bad here
Hilton Crawford had cultivated an image as a trustworthy family man
He was ex-law enforcement a little league baseball coach and a charming storyteller
But when we dug into his past we found red flags that showed he had a much darker side as well
Hilton Crawford was born in
1939 in Beaumont, Texas a small industrial town near the border of Texas and Louisiana
Hilton's classmate Paul Anderson can still remember him. Well, he was a hero in high school
I mean he was he was a jock. He let her in for sports. He did the football baseball track and
basketball
Hilton was personable as far as his classmates at South Park High School could tell he never got into fights or behaved
Unusually back in those days. We really didn't look for red flags
I mean it was pretty much what you see is what you get era
Then when this stuff popped up it bust a lot of bubbles
Hilton met his wife Connie sometime in the late 50s
Well, I remember her being two classes back, but everybody was paying attention to Hilton a black-and-white yearbook photo from
1957 shows Hilton and Connie as homecoming royalty
Six-foot-tall Hilton towers over a meek Connie. His face is gaunt and serious with a chiseled jaw
Hers looks young and innocent
But Tanny Shannon the author who interviewed Hilton in prison
Says Hilton wouldn't start dating Connie until a couple of years later
He had an interest in Connie
So he got back in touch with her and asked her out and after the first date
They were pretty much a couple from then on
early into dating Connie's father was diagnosed with cancer and
When he asked her father for her hand in marriage
Her father asked him to promise that he would take care of her
Because he had this illness and he was not expected to live
and Hilton agreed
He always felt a very deep responsibility for his family
Which probably led to his inability to admit to his failures?
Hilton and Connie married in
1962 at the time they were both junior college students and Hilton worked night shifts at the Beaumont Police Department
The Beaumont police had recently come under scrutiny after a shooting in broad daylight over territory for illegal gambling
It had come out that gangsters had been bribing the police chief
So the chief and one of his head detectives were fired
But despite the reforms the new department wasn't squeaky clean
When he went to work for the Beaumont Police Department, he was
introduced to
some things that
Probably would not be allowed today merchants giving away merchandise to
Have police officers come in and check on their businesses and so forth by giving officers free products
Store owners would make sure that they were part of the officers patrol routes and that they stayed in the good graces of the police
But Hilton's indiscretions as a police officer in Beaumont went well beyond little handouts from stores
We obtained police documents that have never previously been published
Showing clear red flags about Hilton Crawford's behavior and his pattern of line to cover up his crimes
On Friday, September 14th
1962 another patrolman noticed that the police car Hilton and his partner had been driving was missing a hubcap
When confronted Hilton's partner who was a new recruit said the car had slid as they were responding to a call
Their supervisor sent Hilton's partner back to investigate the site
I sent him out to look at the surface of the road to see if there was any foreign substance there that could have caused
A slide he returned a few minutes later and told me he wanted to tell me the truth about what happened
while on duty Hilton had wanted to take care of some personal business and
They'd left the area that they were in charge of patrolling
They left their district without permission and that's where they were when they received the call to go to the Greyhound bus depot
So they left in a big hurry to get back where they belong
And they made a fast turn onto Corley Street and the rear end slid on them and struck the curb
He states that there was a car there, but they were going entirely too fast and this is what caused the slide
Crawford asked him to tell the story to keep them both out of trouble
But the damage to the car was only one of the concerning incidents that happened that night
Hilton had also been accused of misconduct by a man. He arrested
We couldn't find the victim's accusations or his name
But Hilton Crawford signed a sworn affidavit about the incident here's the statement read by a voice actor
My name is Hilton Lewis Crawford. I'm a white male 23 years of age
about 1240 a.m. September 14th
1962 my partner and I while on routine patrol saw a 57 Ford turn sideways stuck in a ditch
And as we walked up to the car, we saw a Negro man laying in the front seat
The doors were locked and the windows were rolled up. We knocked on the windows after about five minutes
He woke up and we got him out of the car
Seeing that he was drunk. We had him stand in front of us and touch his toes and we pushed him into the ditch
We asked him to get out of the ditch and reach to get him as he was getting out of the ditch
He started to fall and we pushed him again
We yelled him to get up several times and seeing that this was not doing any good
Punched him in the ribs several times just hard enough to wake him because he had passed out
We did this because we did not want to stand in the water
After punching him and seeing that he was not coming to one of us jokingly remarked that he looked like he was dead. I
Told my partner that I would try to get him out of the ditch without us getting wet
So I fired my pistol into the ditch several feet away from him
I did this in an effort to wake him up, but it didn't work
At this point in the affidavit Hilton Crawford has already admitted to pushing a black man down into a ditch full of water
Twice the second time knocking the man out
Then Hilton says he tried hitting the unconscious man with his nightstick to rouse him, but couldn't
So he claims he fired his pistol toward the man to wake him up
We then had to get into the ditch to get him out and as we were doing this he woke up
When we got him on the street
We asked him if he had been drinking and he said he had not but we could smell alcohol on his breath and his speech
Was very impaired
We asked him to run about 10 yards and turn around quick and he did turn around as he ran back towards he fell down
He told us that he worked at the Holiday Inn and if we would bring our own girl out there
He would try to get us a room
And we placed him under arrest for being drunk and asked which wrecker he wanted to come after his car
At no time did we use force on him other than punching him with our nightsticks to wake him up
I've read the above statement and it is true and correct. So help me God
HL Crawford
This typed document is marked up with a pen the phrase we pushed him into the ditch is
Underlined and in the margin is written
Didn't hit him in the documents. We obtained. There's a second sworn affidavit that appears to be a sanitized version of the same account
Many parts are identical, but in this version Hilton and his partner don't push the man
They were arresting into the ditch
instead he's already in the ditch when they find him and
In this version Hilton doesn't fire his gun in an attempt to wake him up
But he still readily admits to beating the man's ribs with his nightstick
Five days after these incidents on September 19th
1962
Hilton Crawford was indefinitely suspended as a police officer for excessive use of force and
For drawing his pistol in a public place when it was unnecessary to do so
Hilton had clearly abused his power as a police officer and his actions show he was unfit for that kind of
responsibility
but Hilton appealed the decision and
two weeks later a hearing was held at City Hall a
Newspaper article about the hearing says that witnesses were called over the course of three and a half hours to vouch for his character
Hilton was still well-known and beloved in the community from his high school sports days
when city commissioners made their decision they mentioned Hilton's young age the fact he was working while attending Lamar Tech and
His record of service with youth the church and the community
Ultimately Hilton Crawford suspension was reduced to just four months
Hilton's image as an upstanding member of the community. Let him get off with a slap on the wrist and
so in January of
1963 Hilton returned to the Beaumont police and he continued his work as a police officer for the next three and a half
years
And evidently the hearing and suspension didn't tarnish Hilton's record in the eyes of future employers
Because in
1966 Hilton got a new job with the local Sheriff's Department
Hilton started as a jailer, but author Tanny Shannon says he quickly rose through the ranks
He did move up within the Sheriff's Department rather rapidly
Becoming a captain's in charge of the Warren's division through his job in the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
Hilton grew in prominence within the community and
Befriended a group of local business owners who loved to golf bet on sports and go on trips together to Vegas
These businessmen were in an income bracket far above Hilton's so he often couldn't afford to go on these trips
But occasionally he'd splurge and go he was going on on
Junkets to Las Vegas where one person takes a group of people out to a casino and everything's paid for
on these junkets
Hilton only had to pay for airfare and gambling the rooms and other expenses were covered
And that makes you feel kind of special, you know, of course if you stop to think about it
You know, there's a reason they do that. The reason is because you lose a little more money than other people do but
It does make people feel special when they get treated like
Royalty or whatever and that's kind of what Crawford got involved in. He got special rooms
he described some of the presidential suites that he stayed in and
was really treated with a
whole lot of affection a whole lot of freebies and
As a former star athlete Hilton felt he was specially equipped to beat the odds at sports betting
He began gambling thinking that he's a little smarter than everybody else in the gear usually that's what
Gamblers tend to think is they know a little bit more about sports than the next guy
So they should be able to figure out the winner of this football game or that basketball game on
these trips to Vegas
Hilton met casino managers who took note of the fact that he worked for a sheriff's department near Houston at
The time a common problem for casinos was guests from out of town writing bad checks
He began making collection calls for some of the casinos when people from the local area would write hot checks
And in return they put him on their VIP list, you know, it made him feel important. It made him feel
Respected and so forth. It's kind of what his job in law enforcement did as well
He liked to feel
important and in control in
Vegas and amongst his businessman friends Hilton became known as the sheriff and
it appears Hilton enjoyed this nickname because in
1975 after nine years in the sheriff's department
Hilton quit he no longer wanted to work for the sheriff
Hilton Crawford wanted to be the sheriff
In
April
1976 at age
37 Hilton Crawford announced he was going to run for sheriff against his former boss Dick Culberson
Hilton is quoted in a newspaper saying that high levels of turnover showed the department was being mismanaged
Morale at the sheriff's department is now hit rock-bottom. I know I was here
Oddly enough our present sheriff seems content plot along with a crippled department
Hilton accused sheriff Culbertson of running a whisper campaign against him telling people that Hilton was
connected to the mafia in
Retaliation Hilton released a letter detailing alleged to scandals that had taken place under
Culbertson's watch the sheriff received checks in
1972 from supervisors at Texaco and used the money to buy a car
Deputies worked up a narcotics case against the drug pusher who's son of a law enforcement officer
Culbertson personally halted the investigation a man was arrested for murder and placed in the county jail
He was visited by his girlfriend who then had sexual intercourse with one of the jail officers
The sexual exploits for then used to blackmail the officer so the prisoner could roam the jail for his own sexual reasons
Culbertson denied all of these allegations an
article later that month described a town hall meeting where quote the county sheriff race
dominated the evening and
overshadowed every other county race
During the question-and-answer sessions Hilton was asked a question about his suspension from the Beaumont police
Hilton responded that he was reinstated after a hearing of the Civil Service Board and
Then added I use poor judgment then but I've come a long way since that incident. I feel I have overcome this
Hilton was asked about the financing of his campaign
He responded that in addition to donations he'd taken out three loans of his own that totaled around
$8,000
equivalent in today's dollars to over
42,000
But it appears that investment was not enough on May 1st
1976 Hilton Crawford lost the primary and the personal loans he'd taken out to finance his campaign
May have been the start of his struggles with death that would continue over the next 20 years
Or perhaps the loans were symptoms of something dark that had already taken a hold of Hilton
in the late 70s Hilton and Connie moved from Beaumont to Conroe right around the same time that the Everett's did and
Paulette and Connie started teaching next door to one another
I think she'd mentioned once he had run for sheriff prior to moving to Conroe and
That he didn't win and you know, I've always wondered since McKay, you know, what was the whole
Impetus of them moving to Conroe, you know
If that was embarrassment or what and it was in Conroe that Hilton met and befriended Sam Petro
The man you heard at the beginning of the episode
He was the last person on earth that I would have thought would have done
that deed
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In
The late 70s after his failed run for sheriff Hilton moved from Beaumont to Conroe
Where he met businessman Sam Petro. I was in the wholesale produce business in Houston and
I met Hilton through my kids
coaching Little League baseball I
coached Hilton's son Kevin at the time and
Then Hilton that kind of got together his friends coaching and that's where all of this began
Hilton was a really good parent. He cared about his kids. He cared about his wife
Every Sunday morning
He would get up early to take his wife's car to the gas station to fill it up and take it to the car wash
Wash it did the same thing for his kids. I mean
I've been married my wife and I've been married 58 years and I
I don't think we've known anybody that just gets up and does those things Hilton did him and he did him
because he cared and I do things for my wife most people do but I just thought that was
That was a little
Little beyond it's not they do this once every once in a while. He did that on a regular basis
He wanted to be loved
Hilton always had that
Desire for people to really like him. That was a big deal for him
Petro was a businessman of the sort that Hilton had befriended in Beaumont and he was the type of man that Hilton aspired to be
rich and carefree
Before long Petro and another businessman named John Powell were joining Hilton on trips to Vegas
Hilton and John and I were really good friends. We played a lot of golf together. We take trips together
We went to Vegas several times. That was just it was all all in fun
Petro viewed gambling as entertainment, but Hilton seemed to view it differently
It's gonna sound bad. John Powell and I both made a little more money than Hilton
And I mean he'd be playing blackjack at two three hundred dollars a hand and we're just saying this is insane
The guy's working for a security guard
But Hilton was confident that he could beat the odds used to tell me I know what I'm doing
I got this stuff figured out. I know what I'm doing
And then when he would go to Vegas and he would bet heavy he would tell John this guy I work with gave me
5,000 and so the guy gave me 5,000 $10,000 of other people's money and
Splitting my winnings with him
It always have stories like that
Something that would kind of make you think does he really know somebody that's giving him this money?
For the most part Petro ignored his suspicions
He even went into business with Crawford the two of them opened an Italian restaurant in Conroe called Izzo's
Hilton also asked Carl and Paulette if they wanted to invest in the restaurant. I love going out to eat
I love good restaurants, but I don't want to own a restaurant. And so I told Carl I said, I'm not interested
You know and Carl said well I am and Hilton needs our financials and I said, well, hold on just a minute
Hilton said he wanted documents about Carl and Paulette's finances to vet them as investors
Which Paulette didn't want to share?
Ultimately Carl and Paulette decided not to invest in the restaurant
But Carl gave him all of our financials came to find out
that has really bothered me since McKay's abduction and murder is that he knew what we had and
That really bugged me still does, you know, you don't ever release that kind of information. You just don't do that
Hilton and Petro opened Izzo's sometime around
1983 but the business was short-lived. It was there for about a year and a half or two years. I don't remember exactly
Really good restaurant. It was it was doing really well, but the money wasn't showing up as a profit
The way it should have been but the like the money that was coming in. I never knew what happened there. I really didn't
When Izzo's shuttered in 1985
Petro thought the company was just being mismanaged
four years later in
1989 Petro again went into business with Hilton after learning of a security business that was being sold. I
Called Hilton. I said him there's a security card company. I can buy and I think it's a good deal
But I don't know how to run one of them
What if I made you a partner? Would you be interested in coming to run this thing? He said oh, absolutely
And I said, you know if I bring you over can you get new accounts he said yeah
I can bring some of my customers with me and I can get some new accounts. Okay, that's good
So I bought the security guard company and
He hired a girl. He said I got a perfect girl to run the office Colleen. I said, okay, that's good. I
Trust this is my issue. I trust I trust you and I believe in you that not I trust you
So I turned over the company business to Hilton. I said, I'll come in every once in a while twice a week and
Check on you if you need anything, let me know you're running the company. I've given you a partnership
And let's see where it goes wasn't a 50-50 partnership, but it was he had a good chunk. So everything went fine
Then the company was going well
But Petro started noticing changes in Hilton
One of the things that we really noticed was he didn't have time for golf anymore, you know
And all of a sudden Hilton I can't play this week. I can't play next week. I can't do this
But we just knew something wasn't right
he always said he was so busy so busy so busy and
Hilton started telling Petro that money was tight and that he would need Petro to put more money into the company
Petro thought something wasn't adding up
Business was good and he thought the security company should be making money
So I was talking to a very good friend of mine that owned a security company
he said have you ever thought of a shock audit a
Shock audit is a way of catching embezzlement or fraud
The auditors walk in and just shut the business end of it down not the services but the financial part
Nothing's going to happen financially until we look at all the money
so we started this shock audit and
Hilton was just raising hell
Why are they doing this? I said, yeah, I can't operate when you're doing stuff like this. I
Said look Hilton. I don't want to deal with this. I've got my own business to run other companies. I
Got to get out of it
Petro wasn't sure he could trust Hilton to run the company anymore, and he didn't think it was worth the hassle
He says rather than pay to continue the shock audit. He decided to just sell the business a
Process which would require its own accounting of the finances
so if we're gonna sell the company all that information was going to come to pass anyway, and
We had a business broker come in and sold the company immediately. I
Mean the security business was good. We had a lot of customers in a lot of billable hours
Petro figured that things would end on a good note
He would get a payout
Hilton would also get a payout because he was a partner and the new owners could sort out what was going on with the company
Well, that's what I thought on the surface
Company gets in they start doing their audit and they call us and this is where the story gets interesting
They said somebody's stealing from the company. You got money bleeding
The girl running the office had gotten about 60,000 Hilton had taken out about 300,000
What they were doing was she was handling the office
So she was handling the payroll and she would write checks to guards. It didn't exist. They were just tapes
And some of these check cashing places back then
You could go in there and cash a check and give them 10% of the funds if they don't ask for
Identification and all that stuff. So that's that's where all that came from
Petro came to learn the reason that Hilton had been too busy to play golf and
Why he'd embezzled so much money
Finally found out the reason was because he was spending too much time gambling on sports
When you're trying to make a living gambling, which is what he was trying to do
There are games that go on all day long they'll make a couple bets on games played in it
All right. I'm winning those. So now instead of betting 200 on this next game
I'm gonna bet 400 because it just wants money here or
Now I lost that game during the day now. I got to make it up at 7. So it becomes an all-day affair
It becomes obsessive
People that are addicted to this stuff and I've been through it but a couple of people none more than Hilton
But when you're addicted to that stuff
It just controls their whole life golf becomes just a nuisance
after discovering the embezzlement the people interested in acquiring the security guard company backed out of the deal and
The business went bankrupt
It put Petro in a difficult place. He'd been betrayed by his good friend
Hilton came to him with all kinds of excuses. He said I'm sorry
I did that I feel really bad that I did that but I was in a jam and
Only bad people money and if I didn't start paying them, they were gonna harm my family
And you know, he gave me all of these stories, but I didn't believe any of them. I really did
Petro decided to cut his losses and cut off his ties with Hilton. Here's the thing. I couldn't sue him
Because I loved his wife and his kids
What am I gonna do sue him and get satisfaction out of that I told Hilton I said Hilton
You can't pay me back. I
Thought you were a friend. We're through. I don't want to talk to you again. I don't want to see you adios
But I am going after Colleen. She got 60,000. I want 60,000 back
He said you can't do that. I said why not?
and said
Colleen's dad is the head of
Houston Line Empire Company's buildings
They're a big customer of mine. If you're gonna shut this down, then I have to go get another job and they're a big customer
They're important to me making a livelihood. I said I have to go after it said you can't please don't go after her
I'll pay you the 60,000. I said you can't pay me 60 cents. So no, I'm going after her
I'm really kind of knew I couldn't get 60,000 out of her
But I wanted to cause her some misery just as revenge. I could tell you, you know, it was different, but it's not
Hilton told a very different story to Tanny Shannon in some ways a
diametrically opposite story
Hilton claimed it was Petro that had embezzled from the security guard business
In fact, he said Petro had skimmed off the top of the restaurant as well
Entertaining his friends and never charging them and taking money out of the restaurant
But oh, you know, of course it might have been Crawford that was taking the money out
I don't know and though Tanny made it very clear that he was publishing Hilton's version of events
He did put Hilton's accusations about Petro in his book
Petro was angry that Tanny never tried to verify Hilton's story. A lot of things as Hilton said that book are
Just ridiculous Tanny says that Petro read the book and confronted him about it. He called me the
book was released he was
Very annoyed about some of the things I had said and I said well what I'm doing is repeating
What I was told
and interviews and so forth what he objected to is being called overbearing and overweight and
Dishonest to the point of fudging at charity golf tournaments. He says I'm not that fat
But didn't bother me at all I've had people mad at me before I'm not concerned with that
Didn't bother me what he said about me. I think he said I was overweight and annoying or something, but
You know the author of that book
Didn't verify
Anything in that book
How can you have a story about somebody that's telling the story themselves that you don't verify?
especially a murderer
After his falling out with Hilton
Petro started hearing stories about other scams that Hilton had run. One of the things I found out he did
He took some people on a vacation
Forget where it was. I want to say Hawaii and he paid for everything
And then when he came back
he called the
Credit card company that he put everything on and told him said I just noticed my credit cards been missing
And I just got this big bill. Somebody's been traveling using my name my credit card
So the credit card company just you know, they they just wipe it out, right and he did that though
found out a lot of things that
Did Hilton did that were?
not kosher, but
Hilton's big thing was he wanted to be
More than he was he'd lie about his golf scores, which doesn't sound like a lot
but the game of golf is a very
Self-policing sport when you put that kind of stuff together with the rest of it. She wanted to make people believe
that he was more successful than he was and
He couldn't get that way unless he worked at it. He didn't want to work at it
He wanted to do it through gambling. He always wanted to hit that big jackpot. He wanted to win
He didn't need that to impress people people genuinely like him. He could have been himself and
things would have gone on a
Couple of years after they're falling out Hilton reached back out to Petro asking to meet up
Petro saw Hilton as a flawed but fundamentally good person who had just gotten too deep into a gambling addiction
Petro hoped Hilton had gotten his problem under control and was doing better
So he and their mutual friend John Powell decided to check up on Hilton. So you have been call us
He said meet me this we had a new racetrack
So John and I went to the racetrack. He said I want you to meet somebody
He brings this guy and then he introduces it to us
And he was a horse trainer
Petro realized that Hilton had fallen in with others whose whole lives
Revolved around gambling. There was something about the guy that John and I just both looked at each other. It's
whoa
So we talked to him
Casually for a little while and he left and Hilton said hey, how'd you like?
John and I both said
Hilton don't ever bring somebody like that around us
He said what's wrong with you? What's up?
Smells that I have it. There's something not right about this
At first it almost sounded like Sam was describing RL Remington
But this was Billy Allen the man who owned the storage site in Lumberton where Hilton hit his gun
Allen helped Hilton buy a racehorse and
Introduced him to the horse racing world to bookmakers and a whole lot of other people that that he shouldn't have been in touch with
That's how he ran up such huge debts
That non horses betting on football games betting on baseball
Basketball, I mean if two birds on a wire he'd bet on which one would fly off faster
And he didn't have that kind of money
By the time he kidnapped McKay he had
300,000 in debt to spread out over 40 banks and credit card companies and
That's just what was officially recorded
There was also the money he allegedly owed Petro money
He had borrowed from family and friends and likely debts to loan sharks as well
He kept getting deeper and deeper and deeper in debt and we knew it
That day at the racetrack Petro realized Hilton hadn't gotten better I told Hilton
I don't want you calling me. I don't want you talking to me
I don't want you saying a damn thing to me until you get your act together. Don't bother me and John told him the same thing
Well, it was three months after that conversation
That's when he kidnapped
McKay
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After Hilton's arrest Petro tried to help Connie and Hilton's sons navigate the situation
I felt sorry for his family my thinking was
This is not normal
Something has gone wrong
His brain, you know, he snapped
Because you know, he'll do some things. Yeah, you know, they'll screw you out of money, but I never thought he'd kill anybody
I never thought would be anything near that. I
Do believe he was very deep in debt to bookmakers to some really bad people
That he was so deep in debt. He felt like the only way he had out was to do something the fairness. Well
He took it too far he kidnapped a kid he murdered the child
You know, my heart still bleeds for the Everett family
The dad passed away, but the Paulette still lives and breathes that
that horror every day
And I felt sorry for Connie and I felt sorry for Chris and kept
Petro thinks that Hilton kept his illegal activities secret from Connie
Hilton hid every bad aspect of his life from Connie and he hid it very well
He would tell Connie something like we have a client pass. Oh, I have to go see I'll be there for a couple of days and
Go to Vegas
He did that a lot of occasions
Petro regrets all of the red flags about Hilton's gambling. He ignored Ernie and their friendship
You know when I look back on Hilton, I was as dumb as a rock. I saw him over camera
I saw him gambling money didn't have yes
He's telling me that okay
this money came from somebody else and I'm gonna
We're gonna split I'm in if I had a serious thought about it at the time rather than just saying that's just Hilton talking
I would have reacted. I would have done something. I would have had serious conversations
I would have taken him to the psychiatrist that to find out why are you doing the things that you're doing?
You know
I would have confronted him with all this stuff going wrong
Stealing 300,000 from the security company the deal in in Hawaii with the credit card
If I would have put all of this stuff together, I would have I would have done something
And McKay would still be alive
Petro says in retrospect, he feels like he was watching a drunk pull out their keys to drive home
He was drunk with gambling
You know, there wasn't alcohol. He didn't drink but you know, your mind can fall apart in a lot of ways
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