The Newsroom

0:28Amazon has everything for everyone on your list. Support for this show comes from Nordstrom. Cooler temps are here, so it's time to level up your wardrobe at Nordstrom. You'll find the best cold weather must-haves, including thousands of styles under$100. Shop head-to-toe cozy from faves like Ogg, All Saints, Nordstrom, Skims, The North Face, and more. Plus, free shipping, free returns, and quick order pickup make it easy. In stores or online, it's time to go shopping at Nordstrom.

1:02If you've ever read a news story about the mafia in Las Vegas, you are probably reading something Jeff Gehrman wrote. Jeff Gehrman grew up in Milwaukee and moved to Las Vegas around 1980. One of his early stories was about the death of an FBI witness testifying against organized crime members across the Midwest. In 1997, Jeff covered the murder of Herbert Blitzstein, a man who once worked for the Chicago mob in Las Vegas. Jeff and reporter Kathy Scott broke the story that mobs in Buffalo and Los Angeles had put a hit on Blitzstein to take over his racketeering business. Herbert Blitzstein's death was one of the last mob hits in Las Vegas.

1:53For a while, Jeff Gehrman also covered the federal courts in Nevada. He worked out of a closet-sized office with other reporters. For several years, you know, we spent pretty much every weekday together, you know, at work. This is David Ferrara, one of Jeff's colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the newspaper where Jeff worked. Jeff Gehrman was a reporter for over 40 years. When he was a young reporter, Jeff ran into a high-ranking Chicago mobster named Tony Spolatro at a bar. He asked a waitress if he could send Tony Spolatro a drink. The waitress came back and told him, you don't send Mr.

2:38Spolatro drinks. He buys you drinks first. Jeff was once asked if he was scared to report on the mafia. He said, no, it was something we just did. He had a reputation for not letting things drop. As a reporter, you know, the things that stand out to me are any time that I would be, say, in a courtroom during the day and I'd come back to that office, he'd be on the phone or on his computer searching for records on something, trying to get documents before they were sealed, or calling sources to talk to them about stories he was working on or what stories he had done, trying to get more about the stories he had already reported on.

3:33He was dedicated to journalism and holding public officials and people of power accountable for the things that they'd done. Around this time last year, on Labor Day weekend, Jeff Gehrman's colleague, David Ferrara, was looking at Twitter in the middle of the night. And he saw a tweet from his and Jeff's boss that read, there are no words for a loss like this. And just kind of sat there reading the story, stunned, not really knowing what to do, because it was like the middle of the night. Jeff Gehrman had been found dead. He was 69 years old. David read that Jeff had been found outside his home and had been stabbed several times.

4:27The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said they believed Jeff had been killed late Friday morning. His body wasn't discovered until the next day when a neighbor saw him and called 911. The caller told 911 that Jeff was, quote, beyond resuscitation. My first thoughts were just disbelief. And then I started to wonder who could have done it and why. Jeff Kerman had spent his life investigating corruption, fraud, and murder. Now it was up to his colleagues to try to figure out why he had died. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

5:23David Ferrara realized that he and Jeff knew a lot of people in common. He started to reach out to them. As I was calling sources, attorneys, and people Jeff knew, and people that Jeff had worked with in the past, I just kind of naturally started developing that into a story about Jeff and his life's work. And about sort of what his reporting meant to Las Vegas and what sort of impact his reporting had. and what kind of reporter he was. David wrote that Jeff's reputation helped his sources trust him. He was also protective. He promised anonymity and wouldn't even disclose that information to his editors.

6:14A defense lawyer Jeff had known for decades called him, quote, a fearless reporter. A friend said, if he thought someone was wrong or wronging the little guy, it was part of his DNA. to go after it, guns blazing. David's article on Jeff came out that Sunday. Was it odd to be, I mean, you covered crime before, and obviously that's what you do as a journalist, cover stories, cover crimes, but was it odd to be covering the story of someone you knew so well? It was not only odd to be covering somebody I knew pretty well, but it was also sort of the first time I had any experience with knowing somebody who had been murdered.

7:14I've covered dozens, hundreds probably of murder cases in my career but never knew anyone who had been killed by someone else. So that was a whole new experience and feeling in and of itself. But I think that my experience in reporting and having covered these sort of things helped me keep focus.

7:51and in a strange way, having worked with Jeff also helped me focus on what we needed to do as a newspaper. It sounds cliche, but I didn't want to let him down. I know that if this had happened to someone else at the newspaper, Jeff would have been the first one on this story, and he would have done everything he could to find out through his reporting what had happened and why and to tell the story of who Jeff was. So that's kind of where my head was at at the time. Jeff Garman had reported on a lot of dangerous situations. He was well known around Las Vegas. Once, while he was investigating a court bailiff with mob connections, the man confronted Jeff at a party and punched him in the face.

8:55Later, at the hospital, the police officer investigating the assault turned out to be someone Jeff had also reported on. In 2003, Jeff reported on an FBI raid on a strip club called Jaguars. The FBI was looking for evidence that the club owner had bribed four Clark County commissioners to delay permits for rival clubs. According to the federal indictment, they found that he wanted commissioners to vote against a proposed no-touch rule for strip clubs, and that he helped pay for election campaigns, offered to buy cars, and even paid for one commissioner's child to attend Olympic skiing school. The investigation was later dubbed Operation G-String.

9:43Some of Jeff's colleagues wondered if his murder was related to his mob reporting. And because it was a stabbing, it seemed like something that had to be personal, that if it was just some sort of random thing, it might have been shot. And so, you know, I guess the next obvious step was, could it have been somebody that he had been reporting on that was angry with him. But Glenn Cook, Jeff's boss at the Review-Journal, told the Washington Post that that wouldn't make sense. He said, if someone were to put a hit on Jeff over a story he did, would you really stab someone to death in broad daylight on a Friday?

10:36Initially, police said they thought Jeff's murder was an isolated incident, and they didn't see any immediate connections to Jeff's work. They said there was no threat to the public and then they started saying, well, they think it might have been a burglar who was casing the neighborhood and just happened upon him. That didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. David was also talking with his boss, Glenn Cook, about sending the papers crime reporters to cover the investigation of their colleague's death. and get the police side and go to Jeff's neighborhood, try to talk to neighbors to see if anyone had seen anything.

11:17Two of the Review Journal's crime reporters, Sabrina Schnur and Glenn Pewitt, started interviewing Jeff's neighbors. It was Glenn Pewitt's last week with the Review Journal. He was leaving to start a new job. He remembers that he and Jeff both covered the Ted Binion murder, and that Jeff had something new on the story every day. When he headed out to Jeff's neighborhood, he says he thought, I'm doing this for Jeff. A few hours later, the police announced they had a photo of someone they believed to be a suspect. And it was a man walking on a sidewalk wearing a straw hat, big round straw hat that had been kind of pulled down and you could not see the person's face.

12:12And they were wearing this blaze orange, not a vest, like a construction vest, but an actual shirt with these reflective strips on it, dark jeans, gloves, which very unusual for early September in Las Vegas when the temperature's still in the hundreds. Gray gym shoes and carrying this dark satchel bag sort of thing. Walking next to a dark sedan on a sidewalk, parked next to a sidewalk. Did anything stick out to you about the photo right away?

13:01Yes, one of the first things that stuck out to me was the height of the suspect. That even in this kind of big straw hat, the suspect was about the same height as the car, which looked like a sedan. So he couldn't have been that tall. I noticed he had this seemingly narrow stance, narrow gait. David started getting texts from other reporters who were friends of his and Jeff's. They'd all seen the photo and were trying to figure out if they recognized the man. Jeff's editor, Rhonda Prast, had put together a list of people Jeff had reported on over the years. And there was one name that kept coming up.

13:54We'll be right back.

14:05Support for Criminal comes from Quince. Quince delivers everyday essentials for cooler weather that feel luxurious, look timeless, and make holiday dressing and gift-giving feel effortless. I've decided that I'll be getting the same gift for a lot of people this year. And that's a 100 % Yakwole turtleneck sweater from Quince. If you know me, get ready for your Yakwole sweater. If you need other gift ideas, go look at their Josie European leather braided belt. It's kind of a fun 90s throwback braided belt for a good price. And my last suggestion is a real favorite around here. And that is the Quince Mongolian Cashmere Gloves.

14:43One of our producers swears by these. They're very soft and look good year after year. Step into the holiday season with layers made to feel good, look polished and last from Quince. Perfect for gifting or keeping for yourself. Go to quince.com slash criminal for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's quince.com slash criminal to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash criminal.

15:18Support for Criminal comes from Bombas. Putting on a new pair of socks is a great feeling, especially if they're Bombas socks. made to fit comfortably while giving your feet the support they need for any activity. Bombas has everything from warm merino wool, cashmere blend socks, to everyday compression socks, to perfectly cushioned running socks. And they offer more than socks too. You can find a new pair of plush slippers or soft quality t-shirts. I've tried Bombas myself, and they've become one of my go-to gifts for friends and families. Their half-calf socks fit just right and never slip down.

15:53I wear them all the time. And another thing that sets Bombas apart is their mission. For every pair of Bombas you purchase, they donate one to someone facing homelessness. So anytime you get something cozy, someone else can too. Head over to bombas.com slash criminal and use code criminal for 20 % off your first purchase. That's b-o-m-b-a-s dot com slash criminal, code criminal at checkout.

16:20In the United States, it's rare for a journalist to be killed. The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that since 1992, fewer than 20 reporters have been killed in the country. Last year, an estimated 41 journalists worldwide were killed in retaliation for their work. One of the deadliest attacks on reporters in the U.S. happened in 2018, when a man attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom in Maryland, killing five reporters. He had tried to sue the Gazette for defamation for reporting on his criminal harassment case. In 2007, a reporter named Chauncey Bailey was shot and killed in Oakland, California for his reporting on a local bakery chain's ties to fraud and murder.

17:12In the days after his death, a group of three dozen local journalists created the Chauncey Bailey Project to finish his reporting and investigate his death. They eventually found that the bakery owner had put a hit out on him. Jeff Gehrman's colleagues continued to think that whoever killed him was doing this out of retaliation. And after they saw the photo, they focused on one name. In May of 2022, Jeff had published a story about the Clark County Public Administrator, Robert Tellis. Employees at the office told Jeff that Robert Tellis had created a hostile environment, verbally abusing longtime employees and showing favoritism to others he had personally hired.

18:05One longtime staffer took a medical leave to deal with migraines from the stress. In Jeff's piece, he wrote, Some staffers interviewed by the Review Journal cried while sharing details of their troubled work environment. The employees showed Jeff a video they had made secretly of Robert Tellis having a meeting in the backseat of an employee's car. Robert Tellis said that there was nothing inappropriate about his relationship with this employee. Jeff wrote two more articles about Robert Tellis. Shortly after, Robert Tellis wrote on Twitter, Looking forward to lying smear piece number four by Jeff Gehrman.

18:51Robert Tellis was also running for re-election that summer. On his campaign website, he had a section called Addressing the False Claims Against Me. He said he had looked into suing the Review Journal for Jeff's reporting. On June 14th, Robert Tellis lost his primary. He was no longer a candidate for public administrator. A few days later, he wrote on his campaign website that he thought Jeff Gehrman was still trying to drag him through the mud. I could see in that post he made on his campaign website that he was really frustrated and he didn't know what to do and that he didn't know how to stop these stories from coming out.

19:39because it wasn't like Jeff was going after TELUS or anything. That was just how Jeff did his job. If there was something more on a story that he was covering, he was going to do everything he could to find out what it was, and he was never going to let up until he got it. And even after that, he might not let up. David and Review Journal editor Kerry Gere started looking at Robert Tellis' social media accounts, comparing photos he had posted of himself to the police photos of the suspect. The way he stood in some of the photos on social media and the narrow gait of this suspect, to me, just looked very similar.

20:31He looked like he was a little bit shorter. and the things he had tweeted, the things he had written, a lot of this stuff started to start making sense.

20:47It just kind of went back and forth on my computer looking at these photos and then looking at photos that we had taken of TELUS for stories that we had done about him and comparing the height, the size, looked pretty similar. And that day, I actually went out to Jeff's neighborhood and there was a bunch of construction going on, road construction going on around Jeff's neighborhood and started to put these pieces together. And as a reporter, I just covered a lot of court. I just started thinking sort of like a detective or like a prosecutor who might try and put this story together to a jury or to a judge about what was going on.

21:47David thought that whoever had killed Jeff had likely driven around Jeff's neighborhood and noticed the construction. And so this would have been a Friday before a holiday, and he could have seen the construction and thought he wanted to blend in. And so he puts this big sun hat on, puts this construction-looking type shirt on, and he can just walk around the neighborhood and make it look like he was somebody who was a worker just out there either knocking off for lunch or leaving for the day early because it was a holiday weekend. And no one would really suspect anything. And he could be home within, you know, 15, 20 minutes or so pretty easily.

22:41And the neighborhood where Jeff lived seemed like it was pretty quiet. There wasn't a lot of people out and about. So it seemed like you could get in and out pretty easily without anybody really noticing anything or much. The next day, the Las Vegas police held a news conference. They announced they'd found a video of the suspect. We sent reporters, photographers, videographer to the news conference to cover it, obviously because this was our number one priority from the start. And we had a bunch of people in the newsroom. And all day long, this is all you're thinking about, all you're talking about, all you're texting with people you know about.

23:31Word about the new video spread quickly. And we were sort of gathered around different computers watching the news conference on live stream. And they showed a screenshot of this maroon Yukon Denali. And within 20 minutes, a former reporter for the paper sent me a screenshot from Facebook that showed, from TELUS' Facebook page, that showed his wife and kids standing next to the same vehicle. all that day I'd been telling people that I thought that could be this guy and a lot of people in the newsroom maybe a little bit more level headed than me thought we need to keep all the everything all the possibilities we can't just focus on one thing but when we saw that image of the vehicle and his wife and kids standing next to the vehicle.

24:49And I think a lot of people were just kind of shocked that it was right there, out there in the open. They typed Robert Tellis' address into Google Maps. On Street View, they could see a photo that had been taken just a few months earlier. The same car was in the driveway. As soon as we saw the Google Street View image, I sent it to one source and called him right away. And I said, did you get the text I just sent you? And he said, no. I said, I sent you a photo. And he said, hang on, let me check. And he kind of could tell that he looks down and he just says, holy shit.

25:42We'll be right back.

25:52Fox Creative. This is Advertiser Content, brought to you by Nature Sunshine New Marine Glow Collagen. Blue light is everywhere. We wake up, we look at our phones, we're watching TV. We don't realize how much blue light in itself can affect our skin. My name is Dr. Brianna Olamiju. I am a dermatologist based in New York City. We know that blue light causes free radical breakdown, and free radicals create oxidative stress on the cells. And so when the cells are stressed out, the collagen is breaking down more easily. And that's when the aging process can be accelerated prematurely. Screens in blue light aren't going anywhere.

26:39That's why Nature's Sunshine New Marine Glow combines the age-defying properties of marine collagen with skin-supporting vitamins and antioxidants and powerful blue light-busting lutein. What we know about lutein is that it is a natural blue light filter. Lutein and antioxidants are like a power couple. Combined, they can prevent premature aging and collagen breakdown. Experience more radiant skin and proven eye protection with Nature Sunshine New Marine Glow, the only collagen product clinically proven to support eye and skin health and defend against blue light. Try Nature Sunshine New Marine Glow now at naturesunshine.com.

27:23Right now is the AI gold rush. And that means everybody who builds an app, a platform, a piece of software, a gizmo that somebody, anything, everybody is trying to put AI everywhere. And for two weeks in a series on the Vergecast, we are talking through what that looks like. We're talking to developers about what they're building and how they're building it. and whether AI actually does make sense everywhere, or is just going to ruin everything in the process. That's the AI miniseries on The Vergecast, wherever you get podcasts. This series is presented by MongoDB.

28:00After the Review Journal reporters matched the maroon Denali with Robert Tellis' car, they shared what they'd found with the police. Reporters Caitlin Newberg and Brett Clarkson and photographer Ben Hager went to Robert Tellis' home. When they got there, they parked down the street. Brett Clarkson called David and said they could see Robert Tellis in the driveway, washing a maroon Yukon Denali. This is 5.30, 6 o 'clock on a Tuesday afternoon. In early September in Las Vegas, it was one of the hottest days of the year, one of the hottest times of the year. And he had a bottle of Windex, and he was spraying down the windshield of one of his vehicles with the windshield wipers up, which makes no sense.

28:52And the reporter is telling me that he's standing here, he's looking around, he looks like maybe he's nervous or something. And we just told him, you know, don't get too close. Just keep your distance. Keep an eye on it. our photographer and reporters kind of stayed back and just observed. Ben Hager, the photographer, noticed several unmarked police vehicles parked on the street. And then reporter Caitlin Newberg got a phone call from her editor. The police wanted them to pull back. They moved to a new spot further away and stayed until midnight. They came back at 6 the next morning. Brett Clarkson called David.

29:37He called me and said, the cops are here. They're setting up the police tape around the house. And that's when we started getting working on a story about the fact that police were serving a search warrant on the home of this elected official who Jeff had just reported on. When the Review Journal published their story about the police searching Robert Tellis' home as part of their murder investigation, more and more reporters from other outlets started to show up at the house. For a few hours, the police took Robert Tellis for questioning. Then, that afternoon, he was escorted back home. Maybe an hour or two passes by again, and reporters are still outside the home, waiting for something to happen.

30:33In the Review Journal newsroom, reporters were listening in on a police scanner. The police had put up tape to keep the media back from the house. But one of the newspaper photographers, Kevin Cannon, asked one of Robert Tellis' neighbors if he could watch from their yard, letting him get closer than anyone else. He said it was like being in a foxhole. He said he could hear everything, but kept his head down because he didn't want the police to see him. And an officer arrived at the house, knocked on the door. No one answered. We had reporters who were listening to police scanners and kind of listening to this sort of exchange happening over the police radio waves.