dean karny now
For Joe Hunt, it was the opportunity to prove his trading theories on the sort of scale he had always dreamed of. Jerry Eisenberg, the young attorney who had introduced Reza to Joe and Ben, was now telling the FBI he had reason to believe that Joe Hunt was involved not only in the death of Ron Levin, but also in the kidnapping and murder of an Iranian from northern California. They actually cheered. Three days later the board of directors unanimously gave Hunt, who had turned twenty-four two weeks earlier, complete control of a company claiming $12 million in assets, naming him both president and chairman of the board. There was reported speculation that the disappearance ofHedayat Eslaminia, who was a wealthy businessmanback in his native Iran, had something to do with the Ayatollah, whom he had criticized. "He had this quality about him. Dean Karny, Hunt's best friend who had previously stuck by him when other investors started to drop out, agreed to testify in exchange for full immunityand he also said that Hunt wasbehind the death of Hedayat Eslaminia. Via walkie-talkie, Vega ordered an intercept in the hotel lobby. At his next appearance in court, Karny wore a bulletproof vest. He was bothered that Ben had stopped to wash his hands in the middle of the abduction. With just a few thousand in savings, he had earned $35,000 already, Joe said. Joe treated Dean and Ben to a movie that night and met them again the next afternoon. From a high of about thirty, BBC membership collapsed to a core of sixteen. Hunt was first portrayed by Judd Nelson in the 1987 NBC miniseries on the Billionaire Boys Club, later by Ansel Elgort in a 2018 film adaptation. Dave took the story to his father. They shared a disdain for drugs, though Joe carried his brand of puritanism several steps further, refusing alcohol, sugar, and caffeine as well, insisting he would never touch anything that might diminish his intellectual abilities. From the minute you started telling them about it, everybody wanted to believe, Mary Brown said. After Pittman boasted that he had survived eighty-seven consecutive karate tournaments without a loss, Dean introduced him to Joe. A week later, Steve Taglianetti caught a ride to Gardena with Pittman and noticed a vial of liquid on the dashboard. Two days later, on June 6, Joe asked Dean to take Brooke to the movies that night. One by one, the BBC members who had attended the June 24 meeting were being served with subpoenas. Jim and I knocked off Ron Levin, Joe announced. The BBC had deals in the works that would make a half-million dollars look like small change: Gene Brownings machine was generating international interest, and Joe was already involved in negotiations with Denver tax-shelter king William Kilpatrick, discussing a merger of Microgenesis with Kilpatricks United Financial Operations Inc. that could result in a lucrative multimillion-dollar payoff. When Weiss received a profit disbursement of $4,000 one month later, he added $30,000 to his portfolio, and passed the good news to friends. Karny had met Eslaminias twenty-four-year-old son Reza at a BBC party several weeks earlier. Ron regarded the swindle as an art form and loved to boast of his accomplishments. . Hedayat Eslaminia had enemies, Olga Vasquez advised the Belmont Police Department when she reported him missing at 5:00 A.M. on July 31. Karny and Hunt rode together to the office that morning, where Joe paraded the check all around and showed all the boys, Dean recalled. Hunt, 59 at the time, told the Associated Press. Hunt is being assisted in his effort by his family. When Huntmet man-about town Ron Levin in 1983, they clicked in an instant-frenemies sort of way. He is also responsible as the club's second-in-command. A credit check revealed that he had registered with an American Express card showing thousands of dollars in past-due charges. Character actor and Golden Globe nominee for his role as Dean Karny in the TV series Billionaire Boys Club. The True Story of the Billionaire Boys Club, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. After school, when more popular and fortunate classmates like the Mays and their buddy Steve Taglianetti drove convertibles home to Beverly Hills, Gamsky rode a bus out to the smoggy, sunburnt rim of the San Fernando Valley, within walking distance of the tiny tract house where he spent three hours at night reading the dictionary. The Billionaire Boys Club was an investing and social club organized in 1983 by Joseph Henry Hunt (born Joseph Henry Gamsky)[1] in Southern California. The trials for the murder of Hedayat Eslaminia were held in Northern California. Blanche had to go crying to his stepfather, Marvin Levin, to get back even part of the money, $20,000, and Ron arranged to cover the rest of his debt by paying the Sturkeys $900 a month to work as his servants. [It] was labeled At Levins, TO DO. Below were fifteen numbered items, a crude map of mountain roads, and the words Jim Digs Pit, all composed, Zoeller would learn within the next few weeks, by a young guru who taught his disciples that internal guilt was what caused criminals to fail. In September 2018, Hunt's family and friends launched the website FreeJoeHunt.com in support of his release. He liked to be around celebrities and cultivated them assiduously. The BBC had exhausted its remaining cash reserve during the June disbursement to Financial Futures investors, and by July, Dean said, they were reduced to supporting themselves by the piecemeal sale of West Cars inventory. 166k Followers, 1,746 Following, 2,448 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Dean Kearney (@deankarnage) deankarnage. For the first time, though, the others saw signs of stress in Hunt. Following washouts at USC and Colorado, the Mays had invested in a beach-front nightclub that would be bankrupt within a year. The convictions of Dosti and Reza Eslaminia were overturned in 2000. While the young men used Rons computer to make a list of all the things that looked wrong, Blanche called the Beverly Hills police to report a missing person. The man apparently needed to write a how-to for his own crime and needed to bring it with him - he probably should have put "take evidence with you" on that list. and I felt very strongly about the group of boys we had gathered around ourselves. Due to the reputation of the organization for being composed of young, inexperienced men from moneyed families, it was jokingly referred to as the "Billionaire Boys' Club". Thewhole podcastis currently available in full to Wondery Plus subscribers, but for everyone else, you can subscribe whereveryou get your podcastsand, while the majority of the series was produced last year, a bonus episode awaits, providing current updates on the sprawling cast of all-too-real characters. Tall, good-looking, a surfer from Newport Beach, Raymond had been brought to the BBC by the Mays. Joe didnt really know any of our friends. Joe had come back from Chicago with his hair too long, wearing suits that were too small for him, Dean said, but Ben and I knew all about style and social graces, and groomed their leader for his new role. ), "No one that I have met to this day really knows the whole story. The suspect started to look at them and became visibly shaken (blank look on face, nervously going from page to page, over and over again), the detective wrote in his report. From Beverly Hills, they drove north on the San Diego Freeway, following fire roads into Soledad Canyon, to a spot where Jim had dug a pit earlier that day. Joe thought it was a shame to throw away a $12,000 watch, Dean remembered, but he wasnt going to mess around with a clue like that.. Another mystery. Joe was still predicting ultimate success when he was arrested on September 28. he had used the statements from that account in order to get credit in other brokerage houses fraudulently, and that he had actually scammed up about a million and a half dollars, Dean remembered, and he agreed to give Joe about two or three hundred thousand of it., Joe spent nearly two months chasing Ron Levins last promise to him, Dean recalled, then let it go: He said that . After Karny, the only other person with whom Joe discussed the murder was the third Shading, Ben Dosti. Zoeller, however, said he isnt surprised that Hunt hasnt lost any of his powers of persuasion after decades in prison. She told me that things were getting worse for Joe, because more and more people were coming out against him, Karny recalled. The first to break the circle was Jeff Raymond. Now, Hunt wants a chance to be released and is trying to persuade Gov. The guest staying in that room, Mr. Levin, had run up a $2,000 bill in just three days, largely by his use of the hotels limousine service. "I don't know if anything is going to come of this or not," Lt. Frank Salcido told the Los Angeles Timesof Pittman's purported confession to A Current Affair. At Hunts arraignment, the spectator benches were filled with former investors in Financial Futures, their interest piqued by the news that Joe had accounted for only $428,028 of the $1,584,730 his trading partnership officially took in. Network News already had arrangements with Merrill Lynch and PaineWebber, Levin said, but needed one other brokerage house for a segment that would be focused on an outside trading adviser, a young man named Joe Hunt. When prosecutors realized they likely could convict neither Hunt nor Pittman, they dismissed all charges against Hunt and Pittman in the murder of Eslaminia. The defendant not only insisted he was innocent,butthat Levinwas alive and in hiding, having run from the law to escape consequences for his own bad acts. Weiss would bring in many of Financial Futures first scores of investors, among them Hunts single largest trading partner, Woodland Hills businessman Chester Brown, who deposited $250,000. Much of Deans problem could be traced back to his parents, Joe suggested. Eighteen months later he had lost it alla fortune Joe claimed had grown to $14 million. Shortly after the move to Manning, Joe added a new dimension to the BBCs image by recruiting the groups first minority member, a man who brought an entirely new set of skills into the fold. . [25], This article is about the investing and social club run as a Ponzi scheme. He was portrayed by Taron Egerton. But Huntand Pittman,the doorman at the condominium building where Hunt lived before hewas hired toprovidesecurity forthe BBC,were arrested for Levin's murder in October 1984. Bobby Roberts disapproved vehemently of his daughters relationship with Joe Hunt, but at the Manning, Brooke went to almost any length to capture her young mans affection. Pittman recalled: Hed, put it in, but hed take it back out. Other students remembered him as an A student who read the Congressional Record at lunch. Authorities found bones in the spot Karny led them to, and the remains were identified via dental records. Within hours, Jim Pittman was in a holding cell at Manhattans Midtown North precinct, where he was printed, photographed, and booked under the name Ronald Levin. Two days later, Dean was in San Francisco talking to Oscar Breiling. Hunt and Pittman pursued the Mays into the Mojave Desert the next afternoon, hunting them without success by truck, motorcycle, and twin-engine plane. When authorities tried to increase a fellow inmates sentence by two years, citing a sentencing error, Hunt filed a petition that saw the sentence cut by two and a half years. Warned in advance that Levin was a scammer, Joe had come away from their first meeting impressed in a way that the other BBC members had never seen. In Los Angeles, he persuaded Lawrence Gamsky to become Ryan Hunt, and later, when asked under oath, Why did you change your name? Joe would answer, I wanted to have the same last name as my father. Dean and Ben were kind of wavering in our faith, Karny said, but Joe would win Dean over once and for all on a ski trip just before Christmas 1982. Joe was using any name, any innuendo that he could to convince the world the BBC had power and big money behind it, Dean said. Whatever it was, Joe was like this rock.". It may have been Levins masterpiece. His father maintained as many as three residences, Reza said, but seemed to spend most of his time at the Belmont condominium he shared with his girlfriend, Olga Vasquez. They were the sons of some of the most powerful families in California, never at a loss for money or kicks. He continued to insist there were always new contingencies, further possibilities. He had come to California early in 1983 with a fifty-two-inch chest and the idea that there would be people out west who would appreciate his special talents. .. In recent years, though, instruction in the responsibilities of Christian brotherhood had given way to an emphasis on personal success. Jack Nicholson and Warren Beaty, photgraphed in 1976. Jerry Brownfor a sentence commutation,seekingthe possibility of parole. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Brookes father not only posted his Bel Air mansion as a bond on Hunts behalf, but put him up in a private suite there. Or Ben Dosti, swarthy and athletic, whose mother, Rose, food writer at the Los Angeles Times, had taught him to appreciate the finer things: by the time he was thirteen, Ben had his own tailored tuxedo and could read a wine list or The Wall Street Journal with equal facility. Financial Futures quarterly disbursement was due in June, and he had close to 150 investors to pay off now. Mr. Eslaminia was dead, Dean told Joe and Ben. The next target would be human. [7] Pittman, granted release with time served in two murders, died of kidney failure in 1997, age 44. He started to put words in my mouth and he told me, You know, Dean, I think that your recollections on this occurrence are going to be very important some day, and it is very important that you remember exactly what was happening around the sixth. According to the governments star witness at trial, Hunt and his bodyguard forced Levin to sign a check for $1.5 million at his Peck Drive home in Beverly Hills. Having been in prison for three and a half years, unable to afford bail, Pittman was sentenced to time served and released. Ben, suddenly cautious, had brought along a can of air freshener and this spray-on Band-Aid that he thought would help avoid leaving fingerprints, Dean remembered. BBC attorneys had prepared conservatorship and power-of-attorney papers for Reza upon which Hedayat Eslaminias signature had been forged by Joe Hunt and notarized by Evan Dicker. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Finally, Joe called Jack Friedman at Clayton Brokerage, hoping to gain information that would help him trace the $13.5 million. On June 25, Jeff told Dave what he had missed: Youre not going to believe this. Near the bottom of the hill, the coyotes had left a scrap of white cloth with a label that read JOCKEY CLASSIC BRIEF, SIZE 36. He kind of made an example out of himself as he explained the way he thought things worked out in real life for exceptionally bright people, Dean remembered. [19][non-primary source needed], In 1987, NBC aired a miniseries based on the story of the Billionaire Boys Club, starring Judd Nelson as Joe Hunt, Brian McNamara as Dean Karny, and Ron Silver as Ron Levin. On her own, Brooke claimed, she won a part on the TV series Diffrent Strokes, but when her father found out, he made a single phone call, and the next day the job was no longer hers. As the plan grew more definite, each of them was assigned a list of duties. Reza Eslaminia, however, the dead man's son, was found guilty of his father's murderbuthis conviction was overturned on appeal and the case against him was dropped in 1998. Eight young men and Brooke Roberts pulled the pieces of a playpen sofa into a semicircle. Michele Hanisee, an L.A. County prosecutor and president of the countys Assn. The bodyguard and alleged triggerman in Levins killing, James Pittman, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder. Joe was taken into custody wearing an Armani business suit and a Rolex watch from Tiffanysa birthday present from Ron Levin, he said. The Billionaire Boys Club was real. He is known for being a TV Actor. In his appeal, Hunt's defense counsel argued that key facts were withheld from jurors during his original trial for Levin's murder. The BBC was going to take some bold steps and achieve greatness, and for those people who wanted to go along with the BBC to achieve these levels of greatness, they must know things and do things, Evan Dicker remembered Joe saying. EvenHollywood and Crime hostTracy Pattinwhose latest podcast takes onthe twisted '80s-era tale of money, lies, manipulation and cold-blooded murdersummed it all up at first with a simple "wow. Dean paid the real estate agent $9,000 cash for six weeks of privacy and caught a noon flight to San Francisco. Ben Dosti and Reza Eslaminia continued their unsuccessful search for Hedayat Eslaminias European assets. He wanted to film the trading process as it happened, Levin explained, and the documentary should have a dramatic feel. The detective asked Hunt, What can you tell me about this?. His response was an unsuccessful drive to impeach the speech-squad captain. . Pittman was right; somebody always talks. While Joe Gamskys name always appeared at the top of the tab board, he could not conceal his envy of the boys whose names hung near the bottom, boys like Dean Karny, a bony and bug-eyed little blond who had weighed only eighty-nine pounds when he was cut from the freshman football team, but who knew everyones nickname and seemed always to have a beautiful girl on his arm. One wanted $40,000, one wanted $100,000, one wanted $200,000. Karny alleged that they had planned to kidnap Eslaminiain Northern Californiaand bring him back to Los Angeles, where they'd torture him till he shared the location of his assets. When authorities began to investigate the murders, Dean Karny, the club's second-in-command and Hunt's best friend, turned state's evidence on both murders in return for immunity from prosecution on three different felony charges in exchange for testimony. Club members, clad in Armani suits and driving high-end BMWs, dined at Spago and partied with supermodels. They were of that belief because Hunt hadbasically said as muchin a meeting at the BBC. 1,014 talking about this. On May 20, 1993, a few months after all charges were dropped against him in the Eslaminia case, Jim Pittman admitted on the television program A Current Affair to have participated in the Levin murder, confessing that he was the one who shot Levin and bragging that he was now untouchable in court due to the restriction on double jeopardy. They were never so influenced by a young man in their life. He just struck everybody who got to know him as the person you wanted to be with, who could help you achieve your goals, whether they were financial or personal. His classmates were the sons of the wealthiest and most powerful families in southern California, students who had been sent to the Harvard School as much to introduce them to the social network of the ruling class as to take advantage of the college-level curriculum. The time I spent by myself is when I really realized how wrong he was about so many things, Dean explained, and how I had just been twisted around his finger like all the other nice boys.. Richard Winton is an investigative crime writer for the Los Angeles Times and part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2011. While the boys who in a few years would become his disciples filled their space with images of themselves driving sports cars or racing speedboats, Joseph Gamskys own page was quite different. Other cast members included Frederic Lehne, John Stockwell, Barry Tubb, Raphael Sbarge, Jill Schoelen, Stan Shaw, John Dye, and James Sloyan. Karny provided the only direct testimony linking Reza Eslaminia and Arben "Ben" Dosti to the 1984 kidnap-murder of Eslaminia's. "Absolutely 100 Percent Not Guilty": 25 Bizarre Things You Forgot About the O.J. She thought he would fall head over heels, the BBC member recalled, and Joe acted like, No big deal.. On the morning of June 4, Dean came into the office early and saw Joe making notes on a yellow legal pad. Jim was spending hours at a time in Joes office. His body would never be found, but a Santa Monica jury convicted Hunt in 1987 of murdering Levin. Capital formation, Joe would say later, is always a problem, but he had solved it neatly with the help of one of the BBCs first female members, Allison Weiss. Ron was really amazed and said that Joe had found a real fish, Dean remembered. Burned the arcade when he was at the 3rd grade and framed Syndney Evans' cousin. Her story was that she despised her father, movie producer Bobby Robertscofounder of Dunhill Records and former personal manager for Richard Pryor and Ann-Margretwho was president of Lorimar Records at the time. Blanche used her own key to open the front door. Dean had just been dumped by a girl he wanted to marry and was experiencing some self-esteem problems. While the others in their party were off skiing that weekend, Joe stayed behind with Dean at the lodge. At the crosswalk in Westwood, Joe described Levins last breath leaving his body: It was a kind of gurgling gaspJoe made the sound for me, Dean remembered. Levins luggage was lined up in front of his closet, but the suitcases were all empty. Levin was a truly incredible character, Joe said, a professed graduate of Harvard College, number one in his class, with a 186 IQ, whod taken a $200,000 inheritance and run it up to $25 million, and knew everything about everyone in town. Eventually, when Hunt sought his share, it turned out that Levin, despite having shown him paperwork thatsaid he had deposited $5 million, had never invested at allpart of a bigger scheme he was running that involved other parties. At the duplex on Peck Drive, Blanche Sturkey was just arriving for work. Those who left did so, Dean said, either because their parents had a very strong pull and yanked them out, or because they got scaredscared of Joe., Joe had begun referring to the BBC as his family and to the other members as his children. They went to Levin's house, Pittman recalled, and Huntangry and seeking revenge because "Levin was the first person ever to make Joe look like a fool in front of the rest of the guys"made Levin write him a check for $1.3 million. by (now Judge) Cliff Cretan and Jeff Boyarsky. He was thirteen years old then and his name was Joseph Gamsky. Already over six feet tall, Gamsky was a comical figure, a stalk-skinny boy with a pale face, a Prince Valiant hairdo, and a trickle of beauty marks along the right corner of his mouth. He just decided to hang in there, foster whatever relationship he could, and eventually see if there was something that he could get out of Ron, Dean explained. The tibia and fibula and a pair of black slacks were nearby, with the femur, skull, and jawbone of Hedayat Eslaminia and a piece of light-colored cloth in a cluster twelve feet away. He wanted Michael Dows phone number so he could get a million dollars out of him. When Levin threw parties, his guests included Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Andy Warhol. By the end of August, Oscar Breiling had met a state narcotics agent who reported he had been using Reza Eslaminia as an informant for nearly two years. There was also a purchase made using Levin's American Express card on the day after the murder was thought to have taken place, of underwear from the Brooks Brothers store in Los Angeles, where Levin was known to shop. 2016)", https://freejoehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/habeas_petition_denial_10-5-18.pdf, https://freejoehunt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LEGAL-ODYSSEY_-Commutation-Application-JAN-2018.pdf, "Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton to Star in 'Billionaire Boys Club', "Ansel Elgort, Taron Egerton Starring in 'Billionaire Boys Club' Movie (EXCLUSIVE)", "Kevin Spacey Joining 'Baby Driver' & 'Billionaire Boys Club', "Kevin Spacey film takes in just $126 as it flops at US box office", "Kevin Spacey's new film 'Billionaire Boys Club' opens to incredibly low $126 following sexual misconduct allegations", "Judd Nelson Returns for 'Billionaire Boys Club' Remake (EXCLUSIVE)", "Timothy Olyphant Hosts a 'Billionaire Boys Club' Crime Podcast: Listen", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Billionaire_Boys_Club&oldid=1128837397, This page was last edited on 22 December 2022, at 06:36. If I did a wholesale capitulation, then I would be a perfect candidate for parole, Hunt said. The Mays and Jeff Raymond returned to Los Angeles in early September, after more than a month in hiding at Mammoth Lake. For as far back as Los Angeles could claim tradition, the Harvard School had been its bastion. Joe said that there were going to be some very sensitive things discussed at this meeting, Dean remembered, which would bring some of the members there to a higher level of information. Hunt "almost seemed like everybody's savior," a former investor in the BBC, Brad Buckley, said ina 2002 episode of TruTV'sDominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice. Hunt's direct appeal was denied on July 12, 1996. But the man died on the drive down, Karny said, so they dumped his body in Soledad Canyon,which is in a remote area of L.A. County. Hunt handled the pressure from without by closing the ranks from within, drawing the committed nearer, pushing recalcitrants to the periphery. "They cannot charge me for the murder of Ron Levin because they dropped it," Pittman said. He explained that on the floor when you make a lot of money, others lose, Dean remembered. Descriptions of the murder scenes are largely reconstructed from police reports and from trial testimony of Dean Karny, currently with the California Witness Protection Program. The two of them wrapped the body in the comforter before carrying it outside, where the most difficult part of the evening was loading the stiffening corpse into the trunk of Joes car. One trunk was filled with their equipment, including the handcuffs Dean had picked up at the International Love Boutique. [16], In October 2018, the Los Angeles Superior Court denied an additional habeas corpus petition. A guy like that might be good for the BBC, Hunt said, and hired Pittman as a martial-arts instructor. Hunt flew to New York the next afternoon, to get Jim out of jail. When Joe arrived back in Los Angeles on the evening of June 16, Dean and Ben had to tell him it appeared as if Ron Levin had taken him for one last ride, because the World Trade Bank was unable to cash the Swiss check. That inmate was released last month. Three weeks, he was told. Reality was circumstantial, Joe explained, and through a reorientation of perspective you could always see things in the way that best suited your needs. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. Before O.J. Even Dean and Ben contributed, putting in their combined savings of $12,000, and by the time Joe set up shop in Chicago, he had a trading fund in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Levin agreed to split the profits with the BBC, meaning Hunt's cronies (most of whom had family money, which thickens the mystery of why they were so drawn to Hunt) were also looking forward to a payday. Handsome and charismatic with a boyish charm, Hunt led the Billionaire Boys Club, a social and investment fraternity. Parking beside a fire hydrant one afternoon, Joe remarked that it was cheaper to pay a ticket than to waste his valuable time looking for a legal space. It became difficult, though, to describe exactly what that good reason had been, especially after they started killing people. Vegas units escorted the gentleman through a crowd of gawking guests, but when they reached the center of the lobby, the gentleman broke loose and bolted toward the Fifty-ninth Street exit. Jim Pittman was a black bodyguard who carried 210 pounds on a five-foot-eight-inch frame, with muscles that shifted like a nest of pythons under his starched white shirts.