Sneak Preview of a New Season of “The Opportunist”

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0:05If you've used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation-based techniques teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55 % off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com slash wandery spelled b-a-b-b-e-l dot com slash wandery rules and restrictions may apply welcome to a special episode of the opportunists i am one of the producers connor powell and i'm joined also by one of the other producers abby newhouse Hi.

0:57And our host, Sarah James McLaughlin. Sarah, can you confirm for us that you are not an AI-generated host? What would AI not say? Probably something factual, right? Yes, exactly. Although maybe that's what AI would have us believe. Who knows? This is the conundrum of AI, right? This is really tough. I haven't really worked with enough AI. And I mean, I don't think I'm AI. I don't feel AI. None of us feel AI, but are we? Are we? Listen, if you are listening to this episode today, it means you're a huge fan of The Opportunists. And Abby and Sarah and I want to thank you for listening to this past season.

1:43We had a bunch of really great single story episodes. And I will tease later in the show a little bit more about a season of the opportunists we have coming up. But if you've been listening, you know that there's been some changes on the opportunists. And Sarah and Abby and I wanted to sort of take this moment to introduce ourselves. Thank you guys for listening. But mostly, you know, this is a community of a lot of listeners. And so I want people to have a chance to talk and listen to us talk about the opportunists because we all love this podcast so much. I have been letting a lot of people know about this series that we're going to be doing because I'm really excited about it.

2:23We put a lot of work into it. We've done a lot of research, talked to a lot of people. And I'm just really excited that we're getting it to a different audience. This is not really an East Coast story. So I hope that a lot of people learn about this for the first time and get outraged. Yeah, we're going to tease and tell you a little bit more about the new series that's going to come out later this fall in probably about a month, month and a half. but first you know i want to talk to you sarah a little bit um you're you're in a pretty experience in the crime true crime genre uh you have hosted podcasts you have written books can you tell me a little bit about uh the book you wrote and when sort of what drew you to that story oh boy um it was probably around 2016 i think when i kind of became obsessed with the story of Merid Malarik and Karen Farrell, who were WVU freshmen in 1970.

3:22They disappeared. The cops kind of treated them like runaways until 88 days later, their bodies were found, but their heads were never found. And it is still to this day an unsolved crime. And I kind of obsessed about this case because I'd heard about it a little bit when I was younger. um my parents would share this stuff with me when I was a kid like that's just the 80s you know which is that's what you talked about and um my boyfriend at the time now my husband was going away he was going to Spain for a wedding and I had just started a new job and I didn't have PTO so I used my ADD superpowers to hyper focus on this case and dug through all these articles because I didn't think it was real.

4:08And it was very real. And there was so much to it. It was such a twisting and turning story that it just kind of stayed with me. And then it just snowballed into a podcast and then into a book. I met people for the first time and were like, hey, let's do a project about this. And it really, it wasn't something I expected to happen. I thought I would just read a couple articles and not become an expert on it. What's the name of the book again? It is the WVU co-ed murders who killed Marin and Karen. Wow. And the podcast similarly titled the, it was originally, we were only going to do like one season and it was the, it was Marin and Karen, the WVU co-ed murders.

4:53And then we were picked up by a mutual friend of me and Connors, Maddie Stout. And we had to change it to Appalachian Mysteria because we were doing other seasons. Very cool. That's fascinating though. I'm yeah, I'm going to go look that up right after this. Yeah. Hey, share it with your friends. The more the merrier. Now you said you use your ADD. Were you like obsessed with this as a story? And that's how you cranked out both a podcast and a book? Is that something that happens a lot? I wouldn't say a lot. I just kept finding new things out that I hadn't been told about it. Like there were letters that were written to the police from someone who claimed to know where the bodies were found.

5:40And I hadn't known that part of it. So I mean, it's just like, just keep every time I would look into it, I would find something more fascinating about it. And just really morbid, you know, like, just this morbid fascination. And I was like, somebody has to know this was almost 50 years ago, like people die, you don't have to keep secrets anymore. Like I just, I felt like this was completely solvable. I just needed all of the pieces and I just kept looking for all the pieces. And, um, well, I don't, I don't think it's solved, but, uh, we have definitely found some new evidence and we have people that contact us all the time who have more information.

6:18There's always something interesting in my inbox. Wow. That is one of those like true crime patterns that you hear of all the time like what was that one there was like a murderer who would put like bows on his victim oh the boston strangler yes and then this one it feels like very specific that there's no heads and only bodies you know what i mean like they were completely dressed no heads like it just felt really weird this wasn't a sexual crime this was it was like someone threw away dolls like broken dolls it just really are with me yeah they were so young grand scheme of things no we we had our share of odd stories um for this you know for this summer and this fall of our opportunist single story episodes um i think sarah you were telling me one of the and this is probably one of the oddest one of the favorite stories that you had this year that we did was about um arian teresa day and heder ali what was it about that story that you sort of found so interesting and so odd?

7:24Well, one of the reasons that I liked it was that, number one, nobody died. I kind of like when we have those stories where it's not this horrible tragedy for somebody. But also, it just felt like Wolf of Wall Street. You're watching, well, when you watch that movie, you think like, this sounds so made up. But if someone wrote this down as a premise for a book, it would feel really two-dimensional, but it's real. And I felt like that when I was reading the script for Teherzadeh and Ali. I'm like, how did they get away with this? They passed themselves off as Homeland Security. You shouldn't be able to do that.

8:05Of all the things that you can get away with, that's not supposed to be one of them. Well, I think the thing that's so crazy is like, they were just two seemingly regular people who sort of fell into this crime. And even to this day, it's like we still don't fully understand. I'm not sure they fully understand how they went from just being two entrepreneur wannabe big timers into essentially scamming, working and lying to federal agents. Right. Like they saw this little opportunity to build themselves up as big time players in D.C., which is a security national law enforcement, stuff like that.

8:43And they went from being just these sort of small time con men to puffing their chest and acting like they were like big time law enforcement special agents and stuff like they saw that opportunity and they went for it. And yet I don't think we really understand why they did that. Do any of you know anyone that's kind of like that? That's that compulsive liar. And then you find out later that I mean, like because they're sloppy, like they make these big, grand. I did this or whatever. But like you can kind of see through it. And I don't know. I think that's kind of why that stuck with me, because I've known people that will just lie through their teeth to impress you.

9:20Yeah. And I mean, these guys made it to the top tier like they were so good at it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it reminds me of like the classic like catch me if you can story. Right. It just, I don't know, it's really odd to just like see these seemingly regular people just kind of see this light opening and just like barge through it, you know, to make their make themselves known. And to what end? I don't think they even know, like Connor said. Well, and Abby, you told me that like your favorite story from this past season was Casa Ruby, which is another one of somebody who I think I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt.

9:57I think she was trying to help the trans queer community in DC. She started out trying to do that. And then the money started rolling in and it was just like, I can't control what I'm doing. I mean, what was it about that story that you love so much? I think that's, yeah, I liked it because it was kind of a twist on, on our opportunist stories, right. Where it's like, this is a person where like, yeah, I don't think you listen to this and think like they had this evil plan all along or anything like that. Like, I think it really was just like all these opportunities were presented and this person just didn't really know what to do with them.

10:31Like what was allowed? What how could they could stretch these limits and like just kind of see what happens? And I think in the midst of all that, they just kind of lost the plot. Like, what am I actually doing? What am I trying to do here? They got famous. They got, you know, lots of people really loved and trusted this person. And then, yeah, after that, it's like, who am I? What is my purpose with this organization in the first place? Yeah. And the responsibility of all of that. But having all of this cash that you've never had before. I mean, when you grow up that poor, yeah, I mean, you're going to be reckless without even trying.

11:09Like, you don't know any better. You don't know about budgeting. You're just like, for the first time in my life, I can go to the grocery store and I don't have to, like, count the things I put in my cart. It's kind of like that. And then just went off the rails. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think that actually is a trend with more low income. If you're given a lot of money, you just kind of don't know what to do with it. You just kind of spend it. This is just what happened with this person, just like it could happen to anybody, except for they had a massive organization that was really well-known and well-respected in the community.

11:42Yeah. I mean, the other story that is similar that we did on Opportunist is about the two gambling nuns, right? Sister Margaret and Sister Lana in Torrance, California, where you have these two people who are dedicated to education. They've taken vows of poverty. They're Catholic nuns. And yet they really like gambling. And they over a long period of time and probably much longer than the police have ever acknowledged or the certainly the Catholic churches acknowledge. They had access to medium sized amounts of money. You know, it wasn't millions of dollars, but it was tens, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

12:19And over a period of time, they they they're embezzling money to feed a gambling habit. And it's again, it's one of those things. They started out on what you would think is the right path. They want to help people. They're teaching kids strict Catholic education. And yet. They sort of lost the plot, as you said, Abby. And it's like that Catholic school becomes a front. Right, right. I think, and that's like, that's the thing. If you're under the guise of this like really helpful organization, you know, it's kind of easier to get away with that stuff. And not often do people take advantage of that.

12:55But when they do, it's going to be found out. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just wondering about the people who haven't been found out. Right. I know. There's probably so much out there. Someone is better at it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they were so flashy with it, too. I think one of the things that really stuck out, we talked to one of the parents in the Gambling Nuns episode, and they were talking about betting on the Super Bowl. And then they were driving in a nice Volvo, and they were always going to Reno and to Las Vegas to stay with some uncle is sort of what everyone thought. But they weren't afraid to talk about sports betting with the fathers at the school.

13:32And they weren't afraid to say, OK, it's Friday. We're heading to Vegas. Like in some ways they were hiding in plain sight. And, and again, that's kind of the same with like Taharzeh and Hader Ali. Like they're hiding in plain sight. Like there's this trail of scams and crookedness and, and then they're buying weapons and they're hanging out with police officers and secret service agents, people who should have been able to read them, but like we're totally duped by these guys. And it's because on a certain level, like both Taharizeh and Ali and the two nuns, like they're unassuming at a certain level because of where they've come from, right?

14:13Yeah, and also I think just like that's kind of the, like, I don't know, ethos of an opportunist, right? Is that they don't really have a plan. And so of course there's just gonna be like, I'm just gonna talk about it. I'm just gonna say it out loud. I'm gonna be here and do this and people are gonna see it and that's because I don't know how to cover this up or like why I should cover it up. And then, I don't know, that's when it starts spiraling. That's the fake it till you make it. yeah or break it i guess and definitely break it is the nun one your favorite connor um it is to some extent just because i have this vision i can see the movie plot of the starting with these like two nuns ripping off the habit you know jumping onto the plane and they're like you know sequent gowns and are not gowns but like sequin tops and like going to vegas and they're you know it's just sort of like f this all like we're going to have a great time so like i never considered what they were wearing during this oh my god so i grew up in catholic school and like i always the nuns always had habits and and you know you know sort of the big frumpy clothes and i just picture these nuns like throwing the habits into the wind like a movie scene you know putting on like a halter top of course they i'm sure they didn't but like hitting vegas as hard as everyone else hits vegas so yeah that is one of my favorite stories and the other one I love personally and it's because of my own connection I was based in Afghanistan as a journalist for four years is the story about Joshua Mass and I think it's really heartbreaking it's an awful story but again you talk about somebody who had a goal it was pretty clear as we talk about in this in the episode that Joshua Mass this U.S.

15:50Marine evangelical Christian who's based in Afghanistan finds out about this young Jane Doe girl whose parents have been killed in an airstrike in rural Afghanistan, and he wants to help her. And with his wife, they want to adopt this baby. And through a whole series of different events, they find a way to basically take control and custody of this child. And, you know, it speaks to me as somebody who lived in Afghanistan, who has also followed it, but also is it was such an opportunist story because they didn't have a plan that they were going to act on. They had a plan and an idea and a goal.

16:29And with the fall of Afghanistan, it gave them that opportunity to essentially take custody of the child. And that really reminded me of it's not what you know, but who you know, they had the right network. They had the right people to help them get what they wanted. It was almost like a conspiracy, but not really. It's just like everything fell in the right place for them. Yeah. And like, you know, the optics of it, like look like they're saving somebody, they're taking somebody out of a bad situation, you know, like, however, they kind of spin it. It's like, you know, that I think that's part of it, just kind of creating this narrative that you can sit with as the person doing it.

17:08But also that, you know, the media and people around you will accept to a certain extent. Yeah, and I this is a story that sticks with me because I just think about that poor child. And she lost her parents in an airstrike or, you know, in a sort of a military raid. And then she's reunited with some family members in Afghanistan. And then she leaves her home country because of the fall of Afghanistan. She's now with a new family. She's being brought up in that sort of white evangelical Christian family. And yet at some point she's going to be able to go online and find out that there's this whole more backstory to her story.

17:46Her culture has been stolen from her. Right. And that like this is an ongoing story. This isn't a one off like Taharizh and Ali are in prison. They're doing their time. You know, even somebody like Sam Haskell from early on in the season where, you know, he's accused of killing his wife and his father in law and mother in law. You know, son of a famous Hollywood agent. He's in prison right now. He's going through the legal system, whereas this child, Jane Doe, like it's going through the legal system, but it's not anywhere near resolved. And so that story definitely still sticks with me. You know, the Sam Haskell thing was the only one that I knew of before it came up with The Opportunist.

18:35And I was like, oh, wait, this was that really like I don't want to read this, but I have to read this story. yeah lots of gruesome details in that one oh man yeah like it was it was straight out of a horror movie and not like a good horror movie like there there were there were no twists and turns in this one this was someone with some serious problems this one almost felt like a fargo story to me have you watched fargo oh yeah just like this kind of guy just like i don't even know like you know how in Fargo they just come off so like like I don't want to say the word like like silly they're just kind of like these weird accidents but but also on purpose and like purpose how do you how would you explain that like when he hits it with the hammer you know like a purposeful accident they want it to be an accident again opportunist like yeah it's a it it fits into that opportunist sort of title because it doesn't seem like you, this is very morbid, but like if you were plotting out how to kill somebody, it doesn't seem like that's how you would do it.

19:43Like that's not how you might come about doing it. In some ways, like you can tell Sam Haskell didn't truly plan out the murder or didn't think it through. Or if he did, he sort of didn't spend much time thinking about it. Involving other people like here, come take this trash away from me. Like that's this serial killer one-on-one. you don't do that right and that's i guess that's like the fargo vibes to it is this like messy cover-up that's just like obviously people are going to see this and like wonder what's going on you know the halloween decoration excuse only goes so far oh my gosh yeah yeah okay so uh we've teased a little bit about the next season that's coming up for the opportunists um when we come back, we will dive into what we're looking at just in a couple of weeks.

20:34So we'll be right back after this break with Sarah and Abby. The following products are intended for adults. Consult with a physician before use if you are pregnant, nursing, or have any known or suspected allergies or medical conditions or are taking any medication. FDA has not evaluated these products for safety or efficacy. Sometimes you want the ritual of a drink without the heaviness that comes with alcohol. Breeze offers an adult sparkling tonic made for moments like that, crisp, flavorful, and built for socializing or winding down. Each can is infused with adaptogens, mushrooms, and botanicals so you can pick what fits the moment without sacrificing taste or quality.

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21:57And I think this next series that we're going to launch later in October is really going to be a part of that sort of opportunist theme. And Abby, I want you to start with it because you're the one who found the story about Tim Ballard. And if you can tell me a little bit about why this was on your radar and what drew you to this story about Tim Ballard, I really want to dive into this. Sure. So I grew up in Utah. I actually grew up Mormon, but I left the church. And somewhere in the late 2010s, Tim Ballard's organization, Operation Underground Railroad, was becoming pretty big in the Utah community because he was saying he was this anti-sex trafficker person.

22:45He was going on these raids to like save children. He had built up this brand that a lot of people, especially in that community, really identified with and really wanted to help with. I saw like friends volunteering, friends posting about it all the time on social media. And just kind of thought of it as, yeah, another organization where they're trying their best to help people. and then as the years go on all this news starts coming out about how I think it first started with Meg Conley's article in Vice where she talked about being on a sting operation and just how chaotic and unplanned and unclear what was actually going on you know I think there's a part where she's just like laying on the floor like watching as these men like run around with guns and she's just like what am I doing here and I remember reading that and you know of course red flags all around.

23:39And then later, everything starts blowing up. All these women come out against Tim Ballard for sexual assault claims. And the church, the Mormon church is saying, we don't affiliate with him anymore, even though they had previously condoned what he was doing. So anyway, I've just kept up with the news over the years and was starting to realize how his story is just so layered with this kind of American ideals, Mormon ideals, this religion stuff, you know, all the things that he's been taught about who he is and what he can offer and how that ultimately became his demise. And so I thought it would be a really fascinating thing to dive deeper into.

24:24When you first brought me the story, I was immediately intrigued because Tim Ballard on the surface is built up as a hero. Here's a guy who wants to rescue children. here is a guy who is sort of in the news he's had a movie made about him called the sound of freedom um he is associating with president trump he's associated with glenn beck and all these sort of other um i don't know not just right wing but like conservative evangelical mormon catholic leaders and stuff like that and this is all in the time of q anon and sex trafficking and things like that So it was immediately an interesting story to me.

25:01But I have to admit, like when I first looked at it, I was a little hesitant. I'm like, this is a lot to try to tackle. This is a guy who has a huge platform and a lot of big backers. But when I said to Sarah, I said, what do you think about this? I have some reservations about how we might approach this. Your immediate reaction was, Sarah? I was like, oh, we got to do this. I wasn't really sure what your reservations were like if it was just like the enormity of the story or if you know we're broaching some things that are very triggering to listeners but I just felt like well this is a really good opportunity to give someone a voice because it's a voice is only powerful if it has a platform because otherwise you're just screaming into the abyss.

25:51And I think that like when you read something in the news, it's sort of like that iceberg, like you get that 10 % that you can see, but that 90 % of everything else that's really going on, which is after what happens to you, like the horribleness of other people that doesn't even have anything to do with your incident, like all of that piles up. And I mean, I'm a huge fan of sharing the human condition because that's how we learn. That's how we do better. and I was like, I really want to hear these women's stories. You watch a video of him, you watch how he talks. I'm like, oh yeah, no, we got to do this.

26:28We got to do this. That was a great idea, Abby. That was, it's fantastic. I have been hyper-focused on this recently. No, thank you. And I think, yeah, I think that's true with so many of our other kind of single story episodes. We don't really get the opportunity to interview the victims and actually talk to them about what happened because often they're not around anymore for obvious reasons and in this case we get to kind of have a victim-focused narrative which i think is so important um to get guys like this yeah it's the the women we've spoken to the women that are sort of on the record and or going on the record now they all tell a similar story of sort of wanting to help kids buying into this myth and this narrative that, you know, O-U-R is out there saving kids and rescuing kids and Tim Ballard is the hero and that these undercover stings are making a huge difference, not only in the world, but, you know, in these really impoverished communities and Latin American places like that.

27:32And they buy into it and they're drawn to that story. And yet there's a whole set of really problematic ways that OUR operates, that Tim Ballard operates. And there's not much training. There's not much resources. There's a lot of chest thumping in only the way that sort of American men who can grab guns and body armor because it's really accessible in America. um you know they sort of all of the trappings of um tough guy you know rescue hero worship but none of the professionalism that you would expect an organization and with people who say that they're doing this type of thing yeah you know that's that's the perfect perfect description is this machismo and cosplay but there's nothing to back it up they're not even doing this in the United States because they wouldn't get away with it.

28:27They have to go somewhere else to play these games. And that's only part of the story. We're not even talking about the horrible things that he's doing, why these women are coming forward. That's like a whole other segment of this story. Right. Right. And I think because they don't have anything to back them up, really, because they're not doing anything correctly, they pull in things like religion and stuff to get these women and other volunteers to get on their side. The spiritual manipulation, yeah. Yes, if you invoke God, who can really say no to you? Well, yeah, and then there's this whole level of stochastic terrorism where, oh, well, if you're against us, you're a pedophile.

29:11That's the hot thing to say anymore. And that's the worst thing that could happen to your reputation is people actually believe that about you. And so if you oppose them, you're a pedophile. or you need to be with them. Like there is no in between. Do you love children or do you love children? Yeah, totally. And as we've seen, like he has like ruined reputations of women who have like told him what you're doing is not correct. And so, yeah, using that type of thing, like where he'll say, yeah, she just wasn't down for the cause. She just doesn't love children enough. Like all of that manipulation.