Murder With My Husband - 70. Richard Scott Smith - The Lady Killer

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

This week on MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the true crime case of Richard Scott Smith. LIVE ONLINE SHOW TICKETS HERE! https://www.moment.co/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: https://thecinemahol...ic.com/richard-scott-smith-wives/ https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/where-is-serial-dater-richard-scott-smith-of-love-fraud-now Love Fraud Docuseries on Amazon Prime https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a33821604/love-fraud-richard-scott-smith-true-story/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/08/28/showtime-love-fraud-richard-scott-smith/3442531001/ https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a34013454/showtime-love-fraud/ http://scottthecrooksmith.weebly.com/has-this-man-victimized-you/august-20th-2020#comments Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband  ADS and Discount Links https://www.hellofresh.com/husband14 https://www.betterhelp.com/husband Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Everyone has their own idea of wealth. Our Bank of Texas Wealth Management team is here to help make yours a reality. Bank of Texas is a trademark of the OKF and a number FDIC, Equal Housing Lender. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's husband. And I'm husband. If you are watching on YouTube, we are finally back in our home studio. It feels good to be back recording where we normally record That little break was fun, but we're excited to be back It is for good to be back and like just the usual right? All right, so before we get in we did just want to say on last week's episode on Monday
Starting point is 00:00:42 We had some technical difficulties with the ads. I guess there was just some put in posts and we didn't know. So if you were bombarded with ads, we are seriously really so sorry about that. It should be fixed now. It should never happen again. We want you guys to know that our relationship with you is more important than anything else on this podcast besides maybe the victims. And so we just want to reiterate that and say sorry about that little mishap. Also before we hop into it, if you are watching on video, you're probably noticing Peyton and I wearing something.
Starting point is 00:01:15 We haven't finalized anything yet. We're super, super close. We promise, but it's just some merch samples that we have, and we thought we'd wear them to. But it should be coming soon. And I know you've been saying that forever, but you guys, we have been working on these for so long, trying to get the right quality, the right style, or we're wanting to take it a little bit more seriously
Starting point is 00:01:36 than just like some merch for you guys. We're trying to get some quality stuff out there, so that's why it's taking so long. And we've changed the designs a couple of times and blah, blah, blah. We're really excited. Yes, we are. Oh, and also real quick, we do have another Patreon exclusive episode for our higher tiers dropping this week. Actually, as you're listening to this, it should be out. So if you want to check that out, it's just murder with my husband, Patreon. And also as our merch comes out, Patreon for all tears gets exclusive first pick at the drop
Starting point is 00:02:06 And so that is also another really great benefit of Patreon and then all tears are also ad-free. Yep. Oh, yeah All tears are ad-free. There's not gonna be as many ads We promise that was a glitch, but all tears just in general are ad-free So go check our patreon out. Okay, Gary. Do you have your 10 seconds? Well, for my 10 seconds this week, first of all, thank you to... Did you see how many TV show requests I got? Seriously, I was sending them over to Garrett from the DMs. There were so many in the comments everywhere. I never have to leave my house again.
Starting point is 00:02:36 No, you have a whole list. You are set. So my 10 seconds is that I was just outside for the last 35 minutes, trying to figure out why our sprinkler valves broke. So that was fun. was just outside for the last 35 minutes trying to figure out why our sprinkler vows broke. So that was fun. Garrett was running around soaking wet and the worst part is we're in a drought. So we're panicking to try to get this water off as fast as it can. It's spring everywhere.
Starting point is 00:02:57 There was a good two minutes where I was just staring at it going. I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It's fine. He called my dad. He figured it out. I figured it out I'm supposed to do. It's fine. He called my dad. He figured it out. I figured it out. Everything's OK now.
Starting point is 00:03:07 He had to come in. He had to change his clothes. It was fine. Well, I was soaking wet. It was funny, though. I should have took a video. You should have taken a video. OK.
Starting point is 00:03:15 Anyways, into our story, our case sources today are the cinemaolic.com, oxygen.com, town and countrymag.com, USAToday.com, women's health mag, Scott the Crooksmith.webly.com, and then also our episode today is largely based off of a docuseries on Amazon Prime called LoveFraud. It was done extremely well, and basically our whole timeline is going to be based off of that, and so I did just want to give them extra credit for that. OK, so speaking of TV shows, this week's case is a combination of some of Garrett and I's favorite shows that we've watched together.
Starting point is 00:03:56 And so I'm kind of excited to see if you recognize the shows within the case as I'm telling it. And I hope, so keep that in mind. I want to see if you can point out how this case is like some TV shows that we've watched. Okay. So we began this week in the suburbs of Kansas City. Tracy was in her late 40s, had kids of her own, and was single. And according to her, dating in your 40s sucks.
Starting point is 00:04:20 You basically have to go online, and we all know how sketchy that can be. Tracy would look at a picture of someone on the app and then show up to the date and it would be a completely different person in person. And this happened more than once. But one day Tracy was swiping through her online dating app when she came across a good-looking man. His profile picture of him in a suit. She gathered from his profile that he worked in real estate. He was the owner of his own company and was also a suit. She gathered from his profile that he worked in real estate, he was the owner of his
Starting point is 00:04:45 own company, and was also a pilot. His profile showed he was religious, and so Tracy was like, this is it, she swiped right on this 47-year-old man. He swiped back, and pretty soon he was picking Tracy up on his motorcycle. Together, Tracy and the man went on a motorcycle ride as their first date, and both of them had a good time. Tracy was having fun, such a different lifestyle than she was used to, 40 years old, riding on the back of a bike, this new relationship formed, and she was enjoying it, not to mention all of her friends and family loved her new boyfriend too. Ellen is living in Arkansas and is smitten with her new boyfriend.
Starting point is 00:05:23 She too is in her forties and feels lucky to have found such a real love this late in life. She really had found the perfect partner who spoiled her rotten. They went out to eat every night and it felt like a dream. And Ellen, I, too, have to say that I think going out to eat every single night is also a dream. Sabrina Dunlap is sitting at home in 2015
Starting point is 00:05:44 when she gets a text from her new boyfriend who she is completely in love with. He tells her he's making her dinner at home and Sabrina knows that God has finally sent her the man she's been praying for. Her boyfriend said all the right things and their relationship was moving fast but oh man how could it not. Together they went to a tattoo parlour and the love of her life tattooed her name Sabrina on his back. So Garrett, what are you gonna do that for me? You haven't noticed the big one I have on my back already? Oh yeah I did notice it. So Tracy, Ellen and Sabrina all head over hills and love with their new boyfriends and although all of them had just met these new guys they knew it
Starting point is 00:06:21 was time. Love like this only comes around once. Why put off the inevitable? They had found everything they had ever wanted. And so Tracy, Ellen, and Sabrina all get engaged to be married soon after meeting their future husbands. And lucky for Tracy, Ellen and Sabrina, all of their fiancee were going to be rich soon because they were each in a malpractice lawsuit with a doctor and we'll be getting paid out from the lawsuit soon enough. Mmm, okay. Are you confused? Yes. So Tracy and Ellen each pick out two carrot diamond rings for their rings because their fiancee are gonna be rich soon. So with the money about to roll in, Tracy's fiance wants to buy a sports car and he writes a check for one.
Starting point is 00:07:00 And Ellen's fiance wants to buy a condo on the beach in Florida, and so they do. And Sabrina's fiance wants to buy two sports cars. Who knew you could pay for a Porsche with a check? And at night, all three couples would individually pray that God will show them what to do with the money they were about to make, and how they can use all of that cash to do good in the world. Ellen's fiance wouldn't sleep at night. He would stay up and watch TV. He would also run the tub and bathe in the dark without talking. She was a little thrown off about how differently
Starting point is 00:07:31 he had been acting since their engagement. I'm so confused right now. Sabrina's fiance watched lifetime movies at night while she slept. She thought this was odd because he never did this before they were engaged. Tracy's daughter Kayla becomes worried when her mom's fiance keeps trying to move up their already quick wedding day. And she started to feel weird
Starting point is 00:07:50 about her mom's boyfriend despite the happiness they showed as a couple. So Kayla, who we appreciate and love for doing what she's about to do, decides to go through her mother's fiance's truck while he's gone. Despite the lack of evidence, she followed her gut and said better to be safe than sorry. If this new man and her mom's life had something to hide, she was going to find out. And so she does go through his truck and what she finds changes their lives as they know it. In the truck was some pill bottles with the labels ripped off and some papers labeled and addressed with different names like Scott, Rick, Richard. This is odd because Tracy's fiance
Starting point is 00:08:30 is actually named Mickey. Why did he have papers addressed to these other names? Kayla looked up the array of names on her phone, cross-searching them on Google, including Mickey. And this is when she found a blog that would envelop her and her mother into a chaos they never saw coming. The blog had a picture of her mother's fiance Mickey at the top of it. After reading it, Kayla called her mom and told her to come home. Mickey was not who he said he was.
Starting point is 00:08:56 This blog that we're talking about was created by a woman named Lisa Lenton. Lisa was wife number six of a man named Richard Scott Smith. Richard used the alias's Scott, Ricky, and Mickey, and more. Lisa created the blog to warn other women about the thief, fraud, liar, and con man that she had married. Got it. Okay, now it's making sense. And the blog says, if you are reading this, I'm sorry that you have been victimized by Richard Scott Smith, which might, I point out, just puts out major mean girl energy for those personally victimized by Regina George. How was he not, how's he not in jail?
Starting point is 00:09:34 Okay, so we're going to get there. So when Tracy and her daughter Kayla looked further into the blog, they were sick to their stomachs. The man that they had let into their lives that Tracy was living with, that she was engaged to. She thought was going to have a ton of money, which she obviously liked about. Yes. So she thought was going to have a ton of money. And so they had gone out and bought all of this stuff. He had also been married to multiple other women. And it's on this blog.
Starting point is 00:09:58 But the list didn't end with Lisa, Tracy Ellen and Sabrina, who we heard about at the beginning, who had all been engaged to Mickey or Rick or Scott, whatever you wanna call him. There was Jean, Holly, Jennifer, Sandy, Caroline, Carrie, Vanessa, Michelle, Rachel, Angela, Heather's, and more. Okay. All these women had been involved with the same man at one point or another, and all had been lied to by him.
Starting point is 00:10:25 And now all of them had found this blog and posted about their experiences on it so they wouldn't fill alone. Richard, this rich and charming gentleman who went to business school and was a professional water skier, pilot, cook, wine connoisseur, played in a van, and a karate, and a lot of finance degree, swept lonely, single, newly divorced women off their feet and after two weeks said, I love you and it, and proposed. Okay. He would move in right away.
Starting point is 00:10:53 He would let his vulnerable side out by admitting he'd never been married before, but had found the love of his life. And this only comes around once in a blue moon. The only problem was Richard Scott Mickey Smith had been married before to multiple women at the same time as we know. The blog post proved this when Lena let and asked if any wives were actually still married to him right now and multiple come forward claiming they are. So he's married to multiple of these women at the same time.
Starting point is 00:11:21 Oh, so he's never actually divorced them. Well, some of them he has, but most of them, he'll just do it at the same time. Oh, so he's never actually divorced them. Well, some of them he has, but most of him, he'll just do it at the same time. How can you do that? Like, like, legally, like, what isn't this day or what isn't the, is that not recognized? You know what I'm saying? I mean, it is recognized, but we're talking about a petty crime here. Like, you're basically just playing women, right? Okay. Uh-huh. So after going through the blog, there's 10 confirmed current marriages, five different aliases, holy crap. And all of these marriages were in different states, which is how he's got it. He's a Christian, an atheist, and a Catholic, or whatever you need him to be.
Starting point is 00:11:58 Now, I get it. Really, what's the problem with being a player like a lot, but it's not illegal to be a scumbag, right? Richard might have pissed off a lot of women, but could he be arrested for that? No, not really. But Richard Scott Smith went far beyond becoming a lady killer, no pun intended. On top of being the picture perfect man, having a lot of wives was not the sole reason for Richard scummy lifestyle. He had a lot of wives that he scammed. Richard would find women, marry them fast, and then drain their bank accounts by assets in their name and vanish. He was in it for the long con. And by the way, marrying someone and selling their money and
Starting point is 00:12:36 disappearing into thin air is somewhat illegal. Many of these women, I just listed, were anywhere between $100,000 to $750,000 in debt after Richard made them fall in love only to leave them stranded. So would they not realize what was going on? What was going on? No. Not until one day he just left and they'd go
Starting point is 00:12:56 to their bank account and it was empty. And how long was usually with one of the girls? Was it a long time? Was it a short amount of time? Under a year. Okay. So most of these women would file bankruptcy, move in with their friends and their parents. So on top of their husband, whom they were like
Starting point is 00:13:13 insanely in love with, up and leaving without reason or word, destroying them emotionally, he also ruined their life financially as well. He ripped their worlds up and left. All of these women, most of the women went to the police and filed forgery, theft, and identity theft, but usually Richard was already gone in the wind with their money. Nowhere to be found. Number disconnected, the job he had worked out wasn't real.
Starting point is 00:13:37 They just, all of a sudden discover his whole life was a scam and a lie. The only time he had been caught in the act and hadn't had the chance to run away before the woman found out what he was doing, the cops arrested him but somehow gave Richard probation and he served no gel time. He was also supposed to give Sabrina the victim her money back but you know that never happened because as soon as it was all over he just disappeared, changed his name. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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Starting point is 00:15:55 if you prefer unscented, they've got you covered too. Give your skin the protection it deserves with natives and mineral sunscreens. Go to nativedo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout to get 20% off your first order. That's native.deo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout native.deo.com slash husband and use promo code husband. Sabrina said it felt like unless he had killed her something the cops really didn't care about like him scamming her. The group of women on the blog weren't getting much help from the cops in their effort to make Richard pay for what he had done. Because he would move from state to state, the cops wouldn't waste time looking for him. It was now out of their jurisdiction. Richard had committed forgery, identity theft, theft, and violated his parole. But I guess all
Starting point is 00:16:39 of these could be seen as petty crimes. So together via the blog, the group of women victimized by Richard were brainstorming ways to catch Richard and to put it bluntly, they wanted revenge. Okay, got it. So before we keep going, I just thought of the show Impostors. Yes, that's the one I wrote down. Literally, my next note says Impostors.
Starting point is 00:16:59 Got it, okay. Which, if you don't know Impostors is basically the same exact story, this woman, yeah, a woman cons these men and Then three of them not Like a billion. Yeah want come together are like oh my gosh We all married the same woman she dreamed your bank account to and then they go on a search to find her Because same situation the police are kind of like hey, what are we gonna do like and so all these women are like if the police aren't gonna
Starting point is 00:17:24 Help us we have to help ourselves. And they're doing that through this blog online. Okay. So this is when, at this point in our story, a production company reaches out to the women from the blog and asks the women if they can tell their story via a docu-series. They will document everything and thus,
Starting point is 00:17:43 the docu-sercuseries love fraud was born that I was talking about. The producers for love fraud had been looking for a case to cover of a man or a woman who was leading two lives. Possibly someone who was marrying to two individuals and neither of the separate families knew it. And they wanted something that was happening now, not something that had already happened,
Starting point is 00:18:03 but they came across Lisa's small blog of scorned women who were actively searching for their shared husband together, and this is when they were like, we have to cover this story. So love fraud documents, the rest of this story, in real time, as the women start the chase to bring rich or scott down. Wow, okay.
Starting point is 00:18:22 This is crazy. So it turns into a full-on TV show. Exactly. And the doc you see, like I said, it's on Amazon Prime, you can watch it, but I'm just gonna kind of explain the rest of the story here. Keep in mind, Richard is a fugitive in most of these states,
Starting point is 00:18:35 but for really small charges, but he does have warrants out for his arrest. But none of these girls know where he is right now, or how to catch him if they do find him. They're not cops. They can't just walk up and arrest him. You know what I mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:49 So this is one the production company who really funded a lot of the rest of this story suggests, hey, we know a female bounty hunter. Let's hire her to find Richard. No way. So Richard is a fugitive and a bounty hunter could legally find him and turn him in. And so the chase for Richard is on. And this is where my second TV show comes in. Do you know what I'm thinking of? Teenage bounty hunters. Okay. Got it. Yep. So together, the bounty hunter and some of the wives head to the apartment complex in Kansas that Richard supposedly rents out his last known
Starting point is 00:19:23 girlfriend from the blog gave them this lead. Okay, the last time I saw him, this is where he said he was working. So Tracy and him had broke up at this point, but she heads down with producers and sees that his motorcycle is in the parking lot, and then also she sees that there's a Ford Raptor truck in the parking lot.
Starting point is 00:19:40 And she's like, oh, he's been talking about by one of those. And she's like, that has to be his. Because buy one of those. And she said that has to be his. Because keep in mind, he bought cars in Tracy's name. He bought cars in Sabrina's name. That's how he was having all of this. That's how I'm wondering how many cars does he have? Exactly.
Starting point is 00:19:54 And he then be cool. But this is also why it's so easy for him to live a new life. Yeah. He drives a new car. It has a different license plate. He moves on. Yep. This leads them to think, hey, he might still be in town if his cars are parked outside of
Starting point is 00:20:06 this apartment complex we think he's working at. But it was around this time as producers start digging. They discover that Richard had actually stopped paying his bills at the apartment complex. He had ended up actually selling roughly $60,000 from the apartment complex manager and then just beat it. Just left town. He's. So this lead was a dead end. $60,000 from the apartment complex manager and then just beat it just left. So this lead was a dead end. He had screwed someone else over once again, but it was a dead end.
Starting point is 00:20:30 Beyond taking Richard down, the woman also take the responsibility of trying to find and warn any other woman that he is seen with. They get a hold of women and tell them, you know, what's going on? Who they're dating, check out this blog. It has proof of everything we're talking about. They're trying to make it so that there's not as many victims as there has been in the past. Richard Scott Smith actually dropped out of high school
Starting point is 00:20:52 his junior year and friends say around that time he would date as many girls as he could without any of them finding out. It was like a game for him. So he's been doing this for a while. They say he told a lot of lies in high school and it got to the point where they felt like he didn't know the difference between a lie and the truth. He had been showing this kind of behavior for a long time.
Starting point is 00:21:12 So he's always been kind of like a crook, like a scam artist. Yes, a con man. As the investigation goes on and by investigation, I mean investigation between the scorned women, the producers of love for all and this bounty hunter, the women have no leads, no help from the police and no idea where Richard ran off to this time. Until someone spots him at a karaoke bar in Kansas in a different area called Shots with another woman named Carla.
Starting point is 00:21:38 Carla had actually left her husband and kids to pursue her life with Rick, which is Richard unaware of who she was dating. So she had literally left her husband to date this con man. Carla met Richard at karaoke and began sneaking around behind her husband's back with Richard, as things got more serious. Her husband's still didn't have a clue until one night he got a call from Carla who out of the blue said, Hey, I want a divorce. Jim, her husband was confused, but immediately felt like something was wrong. So he rushed down to his bank and discovered that
Starting point is 00:22:10 there was only $80 left in his account. Oh, no way. Carla and Richard had drained his account and left town. Oh, they both did it. Well, I think Richard convinced her to take all the money and leave. A couple days later, Jim got a message on Facebook that said, you know, hey, this guy that your wife is messing around with, he's a con man, he's con multiple people, he's going to take your money. And Jim's like, yeah, duh, he already did. I have nothing. So the bounty hunter heads down to karaoke night in hopes of fine. Okay, maybe Carla and Richard stuck around for some reason. They didn't. They stole the money they left town. As the girls are waiting for new information because Richard has left the area with Carla.
Starting point is 00:22:54 They discover an interesting lead that is posted on the blog. Richard has been spotted at a restaurant called Crab Kings in Wichita, Kansas, and is claiming to be Mickey Smith at this restaurant, and he is part owner of this restaurant with Carla. They took her husband's 401k, left town, and invested it into a seafood restaurant. He literally went from apartment owner to restaurant owner, and Jim, Carla's husband, is now heading to Wichita
Starting point is 00:23:23 to find his wife after talking with all of the women from the blog, And the Bounty Hunter. So we've now got Jim on board, trying to search for Richard. You've got a whole crew. Yes, the producers of Love Fraud also hire a private investigator at this time who works in the county of the seafood place. It doesn't seem real.
Starting point is 00:23:40 It's insane. Like this does not seem real. This is crazy. So they hire the PI to stake out the seafood restaurant and let them know if he ever sees Richard. And he eventually does after a couple of days, he spots Richard outside the restaurant. So the production company calls Crab Kings the restaurant
Starting point is 00:23:58 and they're like, hey, can we please speak to Mickey? Because that's what he's going by. And they're like, oh, Mickey actually just quit and left town yesterday. Of course he did. Mm-hmm. And this is when the production company then reaches out to Carla and is like,
Starting point is 00:24:13 hey, it seems like you've been ditched by Richard. Do you wanna do an interview on this documentary we're doing and she's like, sure. So Carla in her interview says she loved Rick as she knew him. And although fast paced when he suggested they run away and open up a seed food restaurant. She couldn't not. She was like, this is a dream. I feel like I'm 18 again and I have to do this. Okay. But soon after opening the restaurant, Carla felt like Rick was pulling away from her. And that's because he was. Richard immediately
Starting point is 00:24:42 began dating an employee at the new restaurant that they co-owned together with her husband's 401k, and he had only met her as he was her boss, and after three days of meeting her, he told her he loved her. So now he's dating Carla and an employee at the new restaurant that he's working at. Is he doing this because it's a game to him,
Starting point is 00:24:59 because it's sexual to him, like why? No, most of the relationships were not sexual oh okay because he would say he wanted to wait till marriage so he was just a con man a con man and I assume he just got a through a lot of out of doing this yeah winning right so he's dating the employee and he's like just convinced Carla to leave her husband still his money and then boom he disappears leaves the restaurant leaves Carla to run the restaurant disappears, leaves the restaurant, leaves Carlisle to run the restaurant and also leaves his restaurant girlfriend. Richard Scott Smith had emptied the restaurant bank account and loan and disappeared.
Starting point is 00:25:32 He took the loan and ran off leaving this restaurant literally. Bankrupts. Bankrupts. Yeah, with nothing. Yes, Carla had been scammed. All the employees paychecks bounced and all of this happened while the production team was in Wichita scoping and trying to figure things out. So the next clue in the manhunt comes when a woman comments on the blog telling the woman, hey back off of
Starting point is 00:25:54 Richard Scott Smith and all the women are like, hey this is a blog of scorned women like how do you get here? And if you are dating him and read about all this, why are you still dating him and why are you not joining us? So this leads them to Knoxville, Tennessee, where some more private investigators are Enlisted to help in the search for Richard. They follow her around Knoxville where she lives for 48 hours But they don't see Richard with her anywhere, but they're like, why would she be commenting this if Richard wasn't with her? And Richard had obviously found out about the blog at this point because so many girlfriends had reached back out to him and said,
Starting point is 00:26:26 I know there's this blog and I know about everything you've done. So these new PIs run background checks on Richard and they find 10 different social security numbers like attached to his name. Oh, right. 43 different documented phone numbers. And that's just documented. 58 different documented addresses for Richard
Starting point is 00:26:46 Scott Smith. The producers call the woman whose name is Lee that commented to the woman to stop the witch hunt. And they ask her for cooperation in the investigation into Richard. They're like, hey, we know you've commented this, but we're actually doing a docu-series and can you please help us? Like, can we interview you? Lee says that, you know what? Richard just wants to be left alone. He's a good guy. There's two sides to every story. And then when they officially interview her,
Starting point is 00:27:12 she says, yes, we dated a long time ago. We're not dating now, but our breakup was amicable. I don't believe the girls on the blog. I think they're just pissed off that they can't have Richard anymore. Oh my God. Richard had never done anything to her like the girls were saying,
Starting point is 00:27:26 after the interview, the PI's stay surveilin' sing Lee's home anyways. They're like, okay, well. So she's in complete denial. She's like, I don't know where Richard is. I haven't seen him. I just think this blog is completely crazy. And they're like, yeah, yeah, okay,
Starting point is 00:27:39 we're gonna keep watching it without you knowing outside your home. And not too long later, a man shows up to the home. And that man is Richard Scott Smith, whom Lee had just claimed multiple times to have no idea where he was. Lee is literally harboring a fugitive. And honestly, probably dating Richard once again, which is why she's begging the blog to stand down, like stop this investigation, everything. But the weird part about this is Lee actually does have
Starting point is 00:28:09 another like real boyfriend. And so producers aren't sure if she's hiding Richard from him or how this whole thing is actually working, how Richard's back in her life, but she still is acting like she has another boyfriend, is she really just being friends with Richard, they don't know. Okay, you guys, we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story about how Garrett and I were both paying separately for peacock and then we used rocket money and
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Starting point is 00:29:44 Take retail delivery by 531-23. Jeep is a registered trademark. The PIs begin following Richard now that they found him again. Okay, so this is like a big thing in this case, right? Like these PIs have found Richard. So they need to secure his patterns before involving authorities though to make sure he gets arrested. So instead of just like calling cops immediately and being like,
Starting point is 00:30:03 oh, there's a fugitive, can you come arrest him? They're gonna like secure his patterns, so they make sure it's like a solid place, and they have all the evidence they need before turning him over to investigators. Okay. They follow Richard around, and they end up following him to a boat,
Starting point is 00:30:18 and RV sells and repair center where it appears he's working now. Like, he's moved to this new town, and this is the job he's got. After work, they follow him to a boat dock on a lake where it appears he's spending some time on this like random houseboat. But as they're watching him and old man drives up and ends up being Oscar Lee's dad.
Starting point is 00:30:39 So this woman who like is like all these other women need to stand down. Her dad meets Richard out at the lake at this houseboat. And after they like put together this weird connection, the PI's discover that the car Richard is currently driving belongs to Oscar Lee's dad. So almost like, like is he in on it? Like some's going on.
Starting point is 00:31:00 Something weird is going on. And also the houseboat he's been visiting is Lee's dad's as well. Okay. So they're like what the heck is going on. And also the houseboat he's been visiting is Lee's dad's as well. So they're like, what the heck is going on here? It's a family affair with Lee and her dad now in Richard. And Lee has another boyfriend or something. It's obvious that Richard is either trying to work something on Lee and her dad or both
Starting point is 00:31:20 or they're involved. The producers and PIs want to figure out what. So the producers reach out to Lee's real boyfriend to inform him, hey, we're doing a documentary on someone named Richard Scott Smith and we know that Lee, your girlfriend, knows him and do you know of him? Have you met him? Like, what's your affiliation with him? The boyfriend, his name is Darryl, says, yes, I do know him and I can't believe you've called. Lee had just randomly broke up with him that day and he's convinced Richard has something
Starting point is 00:31:50 to do with it. So she did just break up with her boyfriend when producers call. Apparently Lee and her dad picked Richard up from the bus stop a while back and gave him a place to stay after he ditched Carla and the seafood restaurant in Wichita. Oh my God. So they were harboring a fugitive this whole time. Yeah. They continue to follow him around and the next day Richard buys a burner phone and goes
Starting point is 00:32:14 car shopping and then goes to an open house and then ends his night at a bar. And these PIs are like, what is this guy's life? And at this bar, he meets up with another girl. So he has another girlfriend. And as PIs have been following him for the last couple weeks, they have a total of three different girlfriends that Richard is out with, buying cars with, shopping for homes with. He's getting their money, getting their account, holding the same con. And I'm pretty sure at the same time dating Lee. Because why did she break up with her boyfriend?
Starting point is 00:32:47 I can't believe he just can keep buying new cars and all the stuff just over and over again. It's insane. So the girls, the producers and the bounty hunter all meet again at this point. Keep in mind, this has almost been a year long hunt. Like we're telling this story fast, but there were months where they just sat with no leads just checking the blog every day. They discuss the new details and decide, you know what, it's time. It's time to take down Richard Scott Smith. There is a warrant out in this exact county. They have plenty of evidence and they know where he frequents now. And he has no idea. So they had found him and it's time to do
Starting point is 00:33:25 what they started all of this roughly a year earlier. The next day, producers, MPI's follow Richard to a super eight motel, where he is with yet another girl, making her fall in love with him so that he can still run it. Is he a good-looking guy? No. I was gonna ask this at the beginning,
Starting point is 00:33:43 but I mean, I've obviously everyone has their, what obviously everyone has their what's good looking and what's not like I mean looks are relative, right? But the thing about it is is he is smart. He's praying on women who are here more for personality and the type of person you are. And as long as he's seeing what they want. Well, I'm a pilot. Oh, awesome. A doctor, awesome. A lawyer. I just, I love you. You're everything to me. She was so, he was so just like telling them anything they wanted to hear. And like I said, most of them were in their 40s, newly divorced, single, had kids. So they were in like a vulnerable situation to begin with. Got it. So they follow him to the super situation to begin with. Got it. So they follow him to the super eight motel and as they're sitting there the next morning
Starting point is 00:34:28 they decide, okay, let's call the police now and get them here to arrest him at this like super eight motel. There's nowhere really for him to go. So they call the cops and as they're waiting for the cops to get there like they're on the phone with the cops saying, okay, yes, he's here. He's in this room. We've been watching him. He's here.
Starting point is 00:34:44 Richard randomly walks out of his hotel room and gets in his car. So they're on the phone, like holy crap, holy crap, he's leaving. He's leaving. Like randomly, he's leaving and the cops are like, well, we're still not there yet. And they're like, but you have to get here. Like, he's going to get away. Yeah. And he'll run. Like, this is what he does. And they're like, well, we're coming, we're trying. So before the police can get there, he leaves, he pulls out. And so you have to keep in mind, there's three different cars right now falling him.
Starting point is 00:35:11 Some of his ex-wives have come to Wichita to do this. And they're in a car. Producers of Love, Fraud are in a car. The bounty hunter is in a car, and the PIs are in a car. So there's like three separate cars of people with walkie talkies trying to take down Richard Scott Smith and it's all just regular people
Starting point is 00:35:30 besides the PIs, it's all just regular people who want to get this man caught. And also they've now involved with the police. So the police get on route while the team of three cars, the team of all those people we just talked about begins following Richard through town. So he has three cars following him through town right now. And they're all on walkie talkies.
Starting point is 00:35:50 Oh, he's getting in the fourth lane on highway OB prepared. He might be exiting. Okay, everybody, Richard, exited. We're now following him. Yeah. And they're announcing as everything's going on. And the cops, they're also on the phone with the cops saying, oh, this is where he is. We're now following him this way.
Starting point is 00:36:03 So the police get on route as the producers MPIs are following him. They figure out that he's most likely headed to the mall. And while pulling into the mall parking lot, three unmarked police cars pull up with them. So now it's not just the three. It's also three more cars. So picture this, Richard is in the lead in Lee's dad's car
Starting point is 00:36:23 after staying the night with another girl at a super eight Three unmarked police cars pulling behind him and producers PIs and X wives are all in different cars behind that so we now have this like train Yeah, just trying to follow him the team pulls off and they watch from a couple parking rows away as the three police cars pulls off and they watch from a couple parking rows away as the three police cars box-richared Scott Smith into the parking lot in the mall and this footage is epic like all the wives. Oh yeah, because the producers are there love rod is filming it. So all the wives are freaking out. The bounty hunter is like, oh, this is going down right now. The cops
Starting point is 00:37:02 get out. They draw their guns, they're like lights are going and Richard just steps out and they arrest him for his outstanding warrant. Okay. So this whole scene to me just feels like someone who didn't think he could get caught, it just feels like justice in one moment for so many women.
Starting point is 00:37:17 Women who had been hurt from the minimal to the extreme from cheating, to beating, to stealing, and then to leaving, literally this online blog of strong women led to the arrest of a man, the police didn't seem to be able to get by themselves. This is nuts, this is insane. It's insane. So 24 hours after the arrest, Oscars boat, the house boat that Richard
Starting point is 00:37:39 had been going to see, it sinks. Like it just randomly sinks. What? And so as they're investigating it, they discovered that it had just been a slow leak. Someone had just put a slow leak into the boat and purposely sunk it. Which was him. Yes. So producers are like, Hey, he was trying to sink your boat.
Starting point is 00:37:56 So Lee tells producers that she believes that Richard tried to sink her dad's boat so that he could then buy it from him cheaper, this poor old man, buy it from him cheaper, take it to his place of work that fixes boats and then turn around and sell it for more. So it was all just a long con in the lake. All a con, yep. So many of the women came to Richard's court hearing and testified. They testified about the physical and mental abuse because I did forget to say he would,
Starting point is 00:38:24 he had been arrested for physical violence before for domestic violence. They testified about the lying, they testified about the fraud, and the fact that he was married to three, four, five women at the same time, only to take what they had and leave. They were like, this guy is not a good guy. He was sentenced to prison for 180 days and required to pay back anyone who chose to sue him like to go through with these charges. But he wouldn't have the money, right?
Starting point is 00:38:51 No. Mm-hmm. And because most of his money was a lie, right? Yeah. Like it was just a steal. It was fake. Or stole it from you. Yes. And also, it was then turned around and spent on cars or on this.
Starting point is 00:39:03 And you have to keep in mind that a lot of these women aren't gonna go through with the process of a lawsuit to try to get their money back. That's a lot for work. If he's not gonna even have it to pay, you know what I mean? Con men really do get such small sentences. Like it's only 180 days. That's so easy.
Starting point is 00:39:19 Despite the fact that he's con so many people, this level of con man, we're not talking like people who screw over big companies. We're talking about people who just screw over other individuals. Rarely, what they are doing is completely illegal once they are married, which is why the married con is so popular because our names are now combined.
Starting point is 00:39:37 What's mine is yours. So I think the assets in run, it's hard to prove. The charges become so much smaller. And the sentence is much less severe, which is why these guys do this type of con. They know how to legally screw people over or do it with minimal punishment, right? So Richard obviously needs longer than 180 days in prison. But that was the extent that they could get him for. Richard sat down for an interview from prison with the producers from LoveFraud once all was said and done. So once he's arrested, he gets sent us everything. LoveFraud
Starting point is 00:40:12 comes and goes, hey, so yeah, we were making a docu-series. We're actually the reason you're here now. Like, the cops probably would have never got you without all of us coming together and doing this. And can we interview you? He's like, sure. Socrap the whole interview and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it because it's just it's annoying He says any relationship he started he was looking for forever and he was looking for that fairy tale. Oh my gosh He cries through the whole thing. He plays the victim. I've had such a hard life. These women. They're just bitter It's just awful. Give me a break. Okay. He says the girls he dated were so poor.
Starting point is 00:40:48 So why would a con man want, like, he's like, they were not even worth a con. He says he hasn't committed any crimes. He's been wrongly accused. And just like this, what the last con we saw, a gaslighting is such a bad thing with these criminals. He's like, no, they're like, no, we have you on video doing this. And he's like, no, I're like, no, we have you on video doing this.
Starting point is 00:41:05 And he's like, no, I'm the victim here. Tear, tear, tear. So producers ask him how many times he's been married and he says, I think only five. And they're like, okay, well, what about this girl and what about this girl and what about this girl and what about this girl. And he's like, oh, yeah, her too.
Starting point is 00:41:22 Oh, I forgot about her. Oh, yeah, too. They confront him with all of his other marriages. And he goes, yes, I know them. They say, hey, well, that's 10 women that we can legally prove you've been married to. And who knows how many more? Yeah. And he goes, oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:34 So he's just like, he's not even there. He also says he's been married to multiple people at the same time. He's like, oh yeah, yeah, I was married to multiple people. But I swear was an accident. I didn't know. I thought my divorces were final. They're like, no, you didn't even file for divorce. Oh, but I, they're like, you just stole and left and that one. You didn't even like finalize the divorce. I feel like he's just going to keep doing this when he gets out of prison.
Starting point is 00:41:57 Yes. So six months later in April of 2020, Richard Scott Smith was released from prison. Yes. And love fraud producers were like, well, let's start watching him again. And they immediately confirmed that he has found new girlfriends like three to four new girlfriends. They have footage of him with new girls. You would think because of social media?
Starting point is 00:42:20 He wouldn't be able to. He wouldn't be able to. So he said that he was like, I'm the victim here. This is gonna ruin my life. I'm never gonna be able to date He wouldn't be able to. So he said that he was like, I'm the victim here. This is going to ruin my life. I'm never going to be able to date again. No, he got out. There's women dating him. And I don't, maybe they don't know,
Starting point is 00:42:32 but it's so like I got on the blog is still up. It still exists. No way. I'll leave it linked in art. So you can go check it out. There's so many comments on it now with people who've watched the documentary and are just like consoling the women.
Starting point is 00:42:45 Like some were so sorry this happened to you. He deserved more time in jail. He's out doing it again. It's just crazy that this is what happens when you do this type of con. He hit scammed jewelry stores, employers, friends. He had used his little sister telling girls it was his daughter after their mom dies,
Starting point is 00:43:05 so they would feel bad for him. He put his uncle in a home after convincing him to make him power of attorney, leave his house to him, and then sold all of the assets and left. He was physically abusive to multiple women. He came and went into many people's lives like it was nothing causing trouble everywhere he went. And so this story is for the victims of Richard Scott Smith. That's crazy. And the fact that he's still probably doing it to this day. To this day.
Starting point is 00:43:32 Yes, he is. So the blog can still like, they'll still do updates of where he's at and trying to help these women. Like, hey, go watch this documentary. Yeah, because what can you do about it? Yeah, it is absolutely insane. It's crazy, it's like legal, but illegal. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:43:47 Yes, because it's like if he marries them, but a lot of it is illegal. Like him just up and taking the restaurant loan and the 401k and leaving that restaurant to be bankrupt, completely illegal. That's fraud, yeah. So it's just, it's crazy. And I don't, like some of it's kind of like,
Starting point is 00:44:02 how is he not getting more time? But I guess that's what Conman do, right? Like that's why they're Conman. So it's crazy. But yeah, that was the story of the Conman, Richard Scott Smith. It was definitely different than what you were expecting. For the last week.
Starting point is 00:44:16 Oh yeah. You know what I'm saying? We are just so happy to have you guys listening. We are so happy to have you here. Thank you for being patient with us as we dive into this podcasting world and thank you for loving us and for supporting us. We wouldn't be here without you guys and I love it. And I hate it.
Starting point is 00:44:34 Goodbye. you

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