This is the debut episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast with hosts Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today's episode is called "Ring of Truth" and Leslie introduces the wild story of her father who, through all the emotional trauma of growing up with him, she learns led an even more unbelievable life as an informant for the DEA, INS, and CIA.

Leslie and Meg then continue to a story of how they met, the strange parallelisms between their lives, and how they both unraveled the timeline and context of Claudio's double life.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:03 Birth of the podcast: Finding Claudio's memoir

05:53 Opening up emotions and Leslie's portrayal

07:58 Leslie meets Meg and planning the podcast

11:27 Meg becomes a partner to unravel Claudio's story

14:30 Meg's story with her own father, a criminal lawyer

20:39 Parallelisms between lives

23:26 The mystery of the engagement ring

QUOTES

04:53 "I read it pretty much day and night for a week. And I went through this incredible emotional rollercoaster then I remember my darling sweet husband. Every night, he sort of would say, okay, what did you learn? And when I closed the last page, I read the last page, I literally broke down. I was inconsolable. I just could not control my emotions."

06:47 "I would take the filter, what I remember when I was a kid, and I had these vivid memories of certain situations and certain people that the filing system in my head had to collapse and completely refiled with what he was saying. And I had to ascertain was he BS-ing on us? Is this true? Or does this make sense in the context of what I remember?"

08:41 "I thought my father had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for, in maximum-security prison, for trafficking cocaine. However, he was actually working as an informant with the DEA and the CIA. He was smuggling arms. There was fencing of jewelry. And by the way, the story about the $50,000 diamond is incorrect. And that's all. Of all the emails. I didn't even open the manuscript yet. I was like, what are you talking about?!"

21:00 "Okay, so we both have these manuscripts. You're dad's the criminal lawyer, my dad's the criminal, you decide to take this, recondition his bike, take this trip through Ireland with a journal and make a documentary film about it called 'Murphy's Law' and, which is a wonderful film, by the way. I just watched it."

23:08 "That is an incredible coincidence because you lived there from the years 2010 to 13 and he died in 13 so I was kind of there when you were there. We could've been at the liquor store standing next to each other looking at the wines, right? We shopped at the same grocery stores. Everything was exactly the same. Coffee in the same little coffee shop."

23:26 "And then I said to you, huh, where did your ex get that engagement ring he bought you? Now this is a cool [story]. This is weird. He knew nothing about jewelry and he had a friend who was an Italian woman from that area. Her husband worked in politics. And he asked her because she always had big bling jewelry. Do you know a guy? Yeah, so what do I know, I don't know anything about diamonds."

23:51 "And she was like, oh my god, I know everything. You know, her dog was named after Chanel or Louis Vuitton or whatever. So he went to this woman's guy. And this guy, I mean, that is the mystery. Did he get, did your ex actually buy your engagement ring from my dad who lived literally a block away and was still selling jewelry."

RESOURCES

https://murphyslawfilm.net/trailer/

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

This episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast called "Ghosted" with Meg Murphy Leslie Bradford-Scott starts off where it ended: the mystery of the diamond engagement ring.

But with more questions than answers, Leslie decides to track the old farm from her childhood. This farm was Claudio's one regret as he was dying and Leslie was determined to see it again.

She was not prepared for what she encountered: rumors of her father's mafia connections and multiple stories of Claudio's ghost appearing before people, including her mother who did not want anything to do with Claudio's memoir at the beginning.

HIGHLIGHTS

04:15 Claudio's success and entrepreneurship

07:22 Memories at the hobby farm

13:04 Visiting the farm: Claudio's ghost

17:59 Uncovering mafia connections

23:00 Leslie's mom's encounter from beyond

QUOTES

06:42 "And as I went through his story, he is absolutely an entrepreneur and a self-made man. He does not like working for people from the time he was very young. He fancies himself an honest man and doesn't like working for people that he might see as crooked in any way. And yet, he was up to some shady business dealings and sort of justified them through many different means, which is so interesting."

14:29 "I have a question for you. So is there any... does this house have any historical reputation from its previous owners? I heard from someone that came by in a golf cart one day that said there was a... it was a doctor's house. Everyone knows it as a doctor's. But prior to that, it was a mafia house."

15:35 "Who is the gentleman that's tall and lanky that walks around here with dark hair? A ghost, you mean? Yeah. That would be my dad. Oh my goodness. He's your dad? Really? He's quite content here. Yeah, he is tall and lanky and he had dark hair and yeah, that's right."

17:17 "We sit in the car and she turns to me and she says, 'holy shit, did you call those people and tell them to say that?' And I was like, why would you say that? First of all, what are you saying about me? You don't trust me? Second of all, where do you think I got these people's phone numbers? I didn't even have the address."

25:13 "So you told me yesterday that you have been seeing some unusual things. Yeah, yeah, peripheral vision. Yeah, I haven't seen it while I'm here. But at home? Yeah, twice. Tell us about what you have seen. Twice. The first time it really shocked me. It was on my left peripheral vision. A mass, a dark mass floating from one doorway to another. And I kind of glanced and see was I dreaming or seeing or what?"

25:48 "I'd want to make sure there was nobody there. I thought maybe somebody was in the house. But anyway, that was one instance. And then just about... Saturday was the, yeah, it was about a week ago or more that the right peripheral coming up the stairs to the TV room of a mass from the bathroom to my bedroom. Floated by. Well, it wasn't floating, sort of I could say it almost came to the floor but not touching the floor. There he is. Who? There he is! On the wood!"

RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

This episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast is called "French Connections" with Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today they take another deep dive into the story of Leslie's father, Claudio and rediscover his strong connections to France. The story even includes a connection to Charles de Gaulle.

Leslie then tells the story of her mom and the difficult life she lived before meeting Claudio. Leslie also introduces her Uncle Tony, who he was and the big mystery surrounding his untimely death.

Also, this episode features the strange story of Elena, one of Rewriting Dad's listeners. Elena reveals that, after her father's death, they unveiled him to be a white supremacist and the deep hurt that can still be felt today.

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HIGHLIGHTS

08:27 The quest for the truth: Claudio's innocence and the shame growing up

16:26 Rediscovering history: Claudio's French connection 

24:49 Moving away: Claudio lives on a farm and moves to Canada 

33:07 Elena's story: the daughter of a white supremacist 

41:24 Claudio meets his wife and her European context

48:18 Introduction to Uncle Tony's life and death

QUOTES

12:37 "Things that happened in my home didn't add up to me and it just felt really nefarious. And there was a gun in every single planter in our house. Not a lot of people do grow up like that but it's kind of maybe not normal. And there was just a lot of comings and goings of people who seemed... they were all like my uncle but we weren't Cuban and there was a lot of Cuban uncles when we were in Florida."

13:42 "After I put the book down, I thought to myself maybe my dad really wasn't in organized crime. Maybe he was innocent but he did it because of his big mouth. Because he did, he had a big mouth. Because of this personality of always having to go to the edge and getting involved with people he maybe shouldn't be involved and stirring the pot with politics."

20:30 "And he says, he went back to this hotel, that it was at the La Pérouse, a hotel he once worked at. I met a bellboy there at the age of 13. I looked real cute, I was told by my sister. I got fired though. I was the personal bellboy for Charles de Gaulle, who as we know, became president of the French Republic."

34:15 "We found a wooden box hidden in his workshop. It had a lot of Nazi memorabilia in it, photos of Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and all kinds of swastikas, including a Nazi flag. There were articles about white supremacy and needless to say it was highly upsetting."

48:29 "My entire childhood, I always wanted to know what happened to my uncle Tony because I think I was about 5 when he died. And I'm that kind of person when I have a question in my head, it'll stay with me forever unless it gets solved. That's why we're doing this. The overwhelming, prevalent story was because he was really young and he was like 32 or 30. The prevalent story about my uncle Tony was that it was the hand of God."

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RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

This episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast is called "Do I Trust Myself?" with Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today they pick up where they left off which was the topic of Uncle Tony, what his life was and more intriguingly, the big mystery surrounding his untimely death. 

Then they look back on Claudio's success in business, how he outwitted his business rivals until life takes a turn and Claudio gets arrested, prompting an abrupt move to Florida. Here, Leslie lives on her own for the first time and shares her last memories of her brother, Brad.

Also, this episode features the story of Pierre, a dashing daredevil who was later revealed to be a French spy.

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HIGHLIGHTS

02:01 Remembering Uncle Tony

06:26 Leslie's memories with her brother and an attempted abduction

16:58 Claudio's sneaky businesses: riding on famous names

26:16 Flawed memories: uprooted from Canada to Florida

42:25 Edward's story about Pierre, a French spy

50:15 Life in Florida: bullies and leaving home

55:32 Leslie's last memories of her brother, Brad 

QUOTES

09:23 "It was behind here. So what happened was, here I am, I must have been about 5 or 6 years old. And he grabs me by the arm and he says, come on, we're going. And I'm like, where are we going? And he said we're going to the hand factory. And I'm like, what's the hand factory? He's like, it's where we chop off little girls' hands."

20:54  "And everybody knew who that dealership was so they just assumed that they were opening another dealership in a different town. And everybody gave him credit. And they came in and they fixed the whole place up. And then they gave him net 30 terms which he, of course, extended a little bit longer."

 27:08 "My mom says, get in the car, we're going to Florida. And they put me in the car with my grandmother and the dog, Bichou, the toy poodle. And we leave and we go to Florida. I don't know where my brother is or my sisters are. I don't know where they are and I don't know where my dad is."

40:49 "I know there were a lot of newspaper stories and I remember seeing the newspaper stories about my dad being arrested. People showing it to me. And I remember friends not being allowed to play with me so he had to have been arrested while I was still there. But for me, before I left, maybe there were a couple of things that went on."

54:02  "And he said to me, if you don't like the way I'm running my house, then you should not be living under my roof. And if you can't play by my rules, then you should just get out."

58:47 "The doctor came in and said, he's braindead so you have to make a family decision about if you're going to pull the plug on him. And that was probably the only family we ever actually made in reality because we all decided that if he couldn't be there the way we knew him to be, that it was better to let him go."


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RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

This episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast is called "Over the Curb" with Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today Leslie recounts Brad's last moments before his death. Leslie points out how strange it was for Claudio to blame himself for Uncle Tony's death but accepted her brother Brad's death as simply God's will.

Leslie then shares the events of Brad's burial at sea and how traumatic it was for her to see her mom try to jump overboard to join him. And to make matters worse, Leslie introduces Mark, how he popped out of nowhere and was their primary suspect for the robbery of precious jewelry that happened a week or two after Brad's death.

Leslie tells us how years later, as a divorced single mom, a childhood dream came back into her life and planted roots for her future.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:40 Brad's last moments in the Mercedes 

09:30 Claudio rationalizes Brad's death

17:51 Brad's burial at sea

19:32 Mark's alleged thievery and Leslie's violent response

QUOTES

06:09 "We didn't have to be in Florida and we didn't have to have our kids there. We didn't have to if it wasn't for him. It was all his making. His election. His whatever. Everything he did, whatever he did, all comes down to him."

09:43 "Right then and there, I knew the reason why my son had died. I said to my friend solemnly, God has called Bradley for something important he wants him to do in his kingdom. There is no doubt in my mind this is what's happened. I don't know for what purpose, but I am convinced God needs him. If that's the case, I don't mind him leaving me like this without even saying goodbye."

18:47 "I wanted desperately to see him one more time before he went but he wasn't prepared, right? Because there was no open casket. There was no viewing. And that's the image I have in my head that haunts me. It was shocking. Horrifying. And then to see my mom try to jump off the boat to get him. Like, I'm coming with you! I'm coming with you! It was absolutely traumatic."

22:15 "Your fucking daughter has been chasing me around town with a gun. I had just lost her, I'm afraid she might find me again. She took a shot at me twice and put two holes in the rear fender of my car. She's gone nuts!" 

22:38 "I grabbed her purse, looked in, sure enough, the gun was there with 2 bullets spent. I didn't know what to say but she said it for me, 'dad, the police won't do anything about it. You could've been wiped out of all the jewelry that had been stolen. All I wanted was to see justice done.'"


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RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

This episode of the Rewriting Dad Podcast is called "Spilt Milk" with Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today, Leslie shares anecdotes of her life story, starting with a successful career in car dealership sales in a town far away from her dad.

She then goes on to unravel the story of meeting her next husband and how a floatplane and great cooking sealed the deal for her. And, of course, Leslie shares the complex relationship she had with her father through the different points in her adult life.

This episode touches on Claudio's infidelities to Leslie's mother, his incarceration in a maximum-security prison, and his quiet life after being behind bars. Leslie also illustrates how cancer took him in just a 3-week span.
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HIGHLIGHTS

12:51 Leslie rides a floatplane and meets her future husband

24:47 Claudio's infidelities and incarceration 

36:05 Reconciling with Claudio and his life after prison

42:03 Claudio gets cancer and his last days 

48:45 Acquiring the farm

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QUOTES

13:39 "The guy that's standing in front of me said, oh, that's your next husband. And I'm like, what? What are you on about, Adam? He says, yeah, I just don't know where that came from but that's your next husband. You're going to marry this man."

17:13 "I get there, he has a full-on roast beef on the barbecue with roasted potatoes, carrots, and a giant salad with chopped eggs in it and tomatoes and mushrooms and I'm like, this is for you? Oh, yes. You have to have a proper dinner. I am like in love with you, pal. I don't care how old you are."

21:41 "If we don't take a step back and examine ourselves, we're just going to attract the same type of person again, aren't we? Obviously, I married my dad (the first time), there's no doubt about that, but if I didn't get my head right, that would've been a pattern I could've repeated for the rest of my life. And I have broken that pattern."

41:50 "If I could describe his skill in one word, it would be leverage. He was the king of leverage. He would find out what you could leverage and then he would leverage it."

45:51 "I never thought anything of it except that he was having these great delusions because of the drugs. And then he started talking about how there was all these guns and that he dumped them off the canal behind the house that we lived at before they came to arrest him but they're still there and I should go get them."

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RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

SUMMARY

This Family Secrets Edition of the Rewriting Dad Podcast is called "Crawlspace" with Meg Murphy and Leslie Bradford-Scott. Today, an avid listener named Brooke calls in to share the story of her grandfather and his possible connection with the disappearance of two men.

Brooke tells stories of her grandfather's violent home life, his questionable behavior as a detective, and why she thinks a crawlspace in his old home could reveal the truth behind the mystery. 

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HIGHLIGHTS

01:17 Brooke's grandfather & the mystery of the two disappeared men

05:47 Uncovering clues of a violent past

10:13 Pursuing the truth behind the mystery

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QUOTES

01:53 "My grandfather was a detective in Louisville, Kentucky so he was on the police force and quite possibly the worst person you could have in a position of power."

02:45 "He remembers other detectives coming to their house one time and questioning his dad about the disappearance of 2 men. And, of course, they shooed him out of the room so he didn't get to hear everything but he remembered that."

04:17 "It was the first time that my dad stood up to him and he told him to leave. And when he did that, his dad told him that he would make him disappear just like the other two."

08:51 "I got my grandfather's personnel record from the police department. It was like 31 pages and full of crazy stuff. I found newspaper articles where he was punished for... he beat a dog to death in the middle of a street that had been hit by a car."

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RESOURCES

https://www.instagram.com/rewritingdad/

https://www.facebook.com/rewritingdad

https://www.rewritingdad.ca/

https://brookewilkerson.com/