All language subtitles for The.Invisible.Pilot.S01E02.720p.WEB.h264-OPUS_Track03

(WATER FLOWING)

GARY BETZNER: Death...

it's inevitable.

There's a hole
you're coming out of,

and there's a hole
you're gonna go in.

♪ (EERIE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

And nothing on the outside
is gonna be here forever.

The stars, the sun,
everything's gonna burn out.

Tombstone's gonna sink
in the ground.

You know, nobody's ever
gonna know you were here.

But, you know,
being dead is a--

It's a liberating experience.

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

INTERVIEWER: What are
the upsides
to being dead?

(CHUCKLES)

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I wouldn't even get up
in the morning
if I couldn't make a million.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)

GARY: Pretty soon it was
two million, and three million,

and then we got one trip a week
that was four million.

Being a crop duster,
I had a natural knack

for feeling and knowing
what my airplane could do.

I love smuggling more
than anything I've ever done.

I felt like it was a holy thing,

a service to mankind. (CHUCKLES)
That's what it always felt like.

I enjoyed all kinds
of illegal drugs.

(CHUCKLES) You know?

-(POLICE SIRENS WAILING)
-We are no longer willing
to tolerate illegal drugs

-or the sellers.
-REPORTER 1: So once again,
the drug smugglers

attempting another avenue
to try and outsmart...

REPORTER 2:
...to try to prove that
the war on drugs is working.

GARY: They had to be illegal,
because they were liberating

to the minds and hearts of man.

DAVID HASSELHOFF:
Illegal drugs are bad news.

-Don't mess with them.
-MR T: I just want to shake

some sense into you kids
that are using drugs

or thinking about using.

Just say no.

(POLICE SIREN WAILING)

GARY: I just didn't feel
that anyone had a right

to interfere with anybody's
right to self-determination.

The only way you can change
a law, a bad law...

is to break it.

♪ ("THE INVISIBLE PILOT"
THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (THEME MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

GARY: September the 18th,
1977...

I faked my suicide
by jumping off a bridge...

and they looked for my body
for about two weeks.

Sally put on such a good act.

♪ (ENIGMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

You know, making it out
to the West Coast was

a beautiful,
beautiful adventure.

And from that point on,
my life changed.

(INDISTINCT CLAMORING)

(SIGHS, LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS)

Do you know who touched
this flower? (GIGGLES)

The Lord of the Universe.
(LAUGHS)

♪ The Lord of the Universe ♪

♪ Has come to us this day... ♪

GARY: I found
the most incredible teacher,

my guru, Srin Pa Sin Rawan,

Maharaji.

He only talked about one thing
and one thing only,

and that's the experience
of knowledge of the self...

to have true peace in your life.

(CROWD CHEERING)

GARY: Back in those days,
they almost had, like, a cult.

It was almost-- (EXHALES)

Man, it was like a religion
type of something.

It was real beautiful.

I know there's something more
about what I was looking for.

I didn't know
what I was looking for.

But if I knew
what I was looking for,

then I wouldn't need to know
what I was looking for.

And that's
what Maharaji shows us.

The inner self.

"The God inside,
the heaven inside" they call it.

MAHARAJI:

GARY: I'm not even
a spiritual person.

What the fuck?

I'm a process person. (CHUCKLES)
You know what I mean?

That opened everything up
for me. I was doing enemas

with salt water,
down at the beach at night,

and fasting, and I found
a place that was full of fruit,

and so I'd go up
and I'd steal fruit at night.

Eating nothing but fruit
for months,

I went down to 135 pounds.

And just tripping on mushrooms,

and smoking weed and hanging out
and living every day.

Planted some marijuana,
had some small plants coming up.

I didn't know
what I was doing, but...

(CHUCKLES)
...I was getting started.

If it were left up to me,
I'd have been perfectly happy

just being a hippie,
smoking weed every day,

and growing a few plants.

(WATER PIPE BUBBLES)

(INHALES) Mm-hmm.

(EXHALES)

SALLY: That duality of living
our double life,

it could be uncomfortable.

-(BIRDS SQUAWKING)
-(BELL TOLLING)

But then again, it was a game.

I liked playing it. It was fun.

It's like being a secret agent.

It's like you never knew
what's around the next curve.

The Sheriff's department
would come to our house.

You know, the first week,
it was pretty regular,

and then the longer it was,
the less they would come.

They would ask me
the same question,

and I would tell them
the same answer,

to the point where they
didn't bother to come back again

because my story didn't change.
(CHUCKLES)

We just bided our time.

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

(TELEPHONE RINGING)

(TELEPHONE RECEIVER CLACKING)

GARY: In Arkansas,
outside of Carlisle,

there's a telephone booth.
And I would call my wife

on a certain day
at a certain time.

(CHUCKLES) And it was so funny,
I called that payphone collect

and she would accept
the collect call,

and the phone company
never knew.

We talked for hours
on their dime. (CHUCKLES)

And we'd make plans

to see each other,
wherever he was.

I never once told the kids
that he was still alive.

I couldn't trust them
not to tell 'em.

You know, they were kids.

It was Thanksgiving...

and my whole family went down
to Sheridan, Arkansas,

dropped the kids off.

Told them that I was going
to New Orleans to see King Tut.

First time in America.
I hauled ass from Sheridan

to New Orleans in record time...

to get to the airport,
and I flew to L.A.

Of course, all the time not
knowing if I'm being watched.

Gary picks me up at the airport,

throws a piece
of acid in my mouth. (CHUCKLES)

We get in this
Volkswagen bus of his

and start going north
on Highway 1.

And we're just thinking of names
that we're gonna have.

My favorite name
was Lucas, Lucas Noel.

So I gotta get a last name now,

I gotta find a cool last name.

SALLY: Then all of a sudden,
our headlights went straight

to Harmony, California.

♪ (DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I said, "That's perfect.
That's my name right there."

And so I name myself Harmony.
Lucas Noel Harmony.

Lucas is light,
Noel's peace, and Harmony.

Light, peace, and harmony.
(CHUCKLES)

That was my hippie name, right?

(CAR ENGINE REVVING)

Well, I only stayed with him
for that long weekend.

I had to go back to Arkansas

to be with the kids
and act normal.

And I started
preparing to leave.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

TRAVIS: One day, mom goes,
"We're moving to Kansas."

That's what she said.
"We're going to Kansas!"

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)

TRAVIS: So we all got on
a plane and flew to Kansas.

We got out of the airport,
took a taxi to a house.

There were people in this house.

I didn't know them.
We went through the house.

Went out the backyard,
and got in a taxi,

and went back to the airport.

And then we flew somewhere else
with different clothes on.

When we landed next,
they put flowers on us.

You know, when you get
off the plane. Leis. You know?

(SCOFFS) You get lei'd.

That right there was a big sign
to me, "This ain't Kansas."

♪ (DISTORTED HAWAIIAN
MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

TRAVIS: We're sitting there
on this bench, and...

this guy comes up
with a skinny-- with this beard.

Kind of Charles Manson-looking,
you know?

And he grabbed us,
and he's like... (CACKLES)

(CACKLES)

(CACKLES) And I--
Instantly, my mind goes,

"My mom just sold us
to this guy."

I looked in his eyes,
and looked at him, and I go,

"Dad!" And he goes,
"No, no, no, no.

Lucas, I'm Lucas." And I--
My whole universe changed, man.

♪ (EMOTIONAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

And I'm like, "Wow, he's alive."

Sara Lee's like, "He's alive."

"Wow! This is my-- Wow!
My dad's somebody else.

He came back from heaven."

He was so different.
You can see pictures of him.

He was not Gary, he's nothing
like he is now. I mean, nothing.

He didn't talk that way,
he was skinny, he was a hippie.

He was like something
out of Cheech and Chong,

but not that stupid.
You know what I mean?

When I found out he was alive,

that was more intense
than when he died.

I loved it!

Those were the happiest years
of my life. I don't think--

If I've ever been happy,
that was it.

SARA LEE: My dad died in 1977.

Lucas Harmony is another person
that raised me.

Same person,
but two different people,

because he acted in Hazen.
He played the part.

I remember skipping down
a mountain in Hawaii,

you know,
skipping down a lava road.

We were skipping so fast
that we were almost flying.

It's, like, one of my favorite
moments of my dad.

I was happy.

What a perfect time
to be on the run.

POLLY: After my dad's suicide,

that's when
I couldn't go anywhere

without a night light.

♪ (GLOOMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

We all thought he was dead,
and I wanted to sleep

right next to my mom.

I mean, I was six.

What I thought is,

"Well, why didn't he want
to stay around for me?"

Like, what was wrong with me?
Why did he want to kill himself?

Did I do something wrong?
Was I not pretty enough?

Was I not good enough?
Was I not smart enough?

Like, what was wrong with me?

It put a hole in my heart
of, like, "Who am I?"

Was I not worth anything?

You know, I just wanted,
like, my dad.

SALLY: When we lived in Hawaii,
the kids couldn't tell anybody,

even any of their friends,
that we were from Arkansas.

You know,
tell them we're from Texas,

'cause you couldn't hide
the Southern accent.

TRAVIS: We ate everything
off the land,

we ran around naked
all the time.

It was awesome! It was like
I literally lived in paradise.

It was the most magical thing
in the world.

♪ (TROPICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SALLY: We had been growing pot.

We had these strings hanging up,
maybe four or five of them,

with these big, long buds.

At six o'clock, one morning,
I heard the door knock,

I looked out and saw the cops.

We had a sign on our property.

It was like,
"Take off your clothes

and come in."
Because we were nudists.

They came in, and they said,
"Come down, come down."

So I just said, "Okay."

I came down those stairs,
naked as a jaybird. (CHUCKLES)

Naked as a jaybird.

Naked as a jaybird
and as proud as a princess.

(CHUCKLES) In front
of all those Hawaiian cops.

I was not gonna let them
intimidate me.

And she walked out there,
and she says,
with her hands on her hips,

"Well? Now,
what do you boys want?"

"Well, we got information
that you are growing marijuana

up here, ma'am,
on this property."

(CHUCKLES) They allowed me
to get my clothes on

before they put the handcuffs
on me. (CHUCKLES)

♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

GARY: So, they took us to town,

they booked us
and fingerprinted us.

The cop walked in, he said,
"What's this right here?"

These guys didn't just fall off
a turnip truck.

They knew about acid.

I just reached over
and picked one up, and--
(SMACKS LIPS)

Picked another one up.
(SMACKS LIPS)

Picked another one up. (LAUGHS)
I got 'em out of his hand

and put all three
in my mouth like that.

He said...

He looked at me. He knew
what I'd done, you know?

He says. "Whoa!" (LAUGHS)

I didn't know
if they were going to...

get those fingerprints
and find out who I was,
you know?

I decided, "Well,
we better leave here."

You know,
"We can't take a chance."

SALLY:
And it was just a misdemeanor,

but he was on the run.

So we had to leave
the island then.

TRAVIS: It was a real bummer
when we had to leave, for me.

I just wanted to stay there.
I mean, shit,

I wanted to grow up and learn
how to surf or something,
like you said, you know?

I was like, "Yeah!"

GARY: So I said,
"Look, you go back to Arkansas.

The kids need to go to school."

They hadn't been home in years.

"And I'm gonna go

and do whatever I got to do
to get it together

for you and the kids
to come back."

I'm broke, I don't have a penny.

But then Maharaji just called
and said, "They want you to come

to Miami
and work on his airplane."

Holy shit.
You know? I mean, really?

So, anyway, I went to work
rebuilding a 707.

I think I got paid, like,
a hundred dollars a week.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I was following Maharaji,
all over Europe, South America,

United States.

Lucas and I met
at Miami International.

He came and asked me if I knew
anybody who needed a pilot

to fly on a mission.

And I said, "Well, yeah,
I think I do." (CHUCKLES)

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)

RAVEN: I put him in touch
with a couple of friends,

and from that point,
I flew with Luke.

♪ (ROCK MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

GARY: My first trip
was associated

with these entrepreneurs
from Atlanta, Georgia.

Just kids in their twenties.

GARY: I did several other trips
after that.

(AIRPLANE ENGINES HUMMING)

That's when I decided I would do
whatever I could

to make sure
that drugs were available

to anybody who wanted it.

RAVEN: Gary flies like a dragon.
I don't recall one single time

where there weren't spins
or rolls.

(CHUCKLES)
We were all over the sky.

GARY: Being in
the smuggling business,

to me, it was a very
satisfying service.

It wasn't because of the money
I was making.

It was because of what
I was doing.

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

The DEA was everywhere.
They always have been.

-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
-(OFFICERS SHOUTING
INDISTINCTLY)

We've got a real invasion.
It's active, it's every day,

and we need to stop them.

GARY: I never really worried
about getting caught.

I guess that's typical.
Most criminals,

they don't think
they're ever gonna get caught.

Being a crop duster

was the best training
in the world for that work.

Carrying heavy loads
over unimproved air strips,

in all kinds
of weather conditions.

Plus, I did four years
in the Navy.

I knew just about everything
there was about radar,

and how to evade a radar.

I even built
a little radar detector

I could hold in my hand,
and find out where the radar

is the strongest
so you can navigate through it.

We'd be flying and you would see
DEA just looking, physically.

GARY: I always could
get right on the water.

And I know they can't see
down on the water,
like I get on the water.

And now you fucked them all up,
and they got to start all over

because you didn't go
where they expected you to go.
(CHUCKLES)

-(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)
-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)

RONALD REAGAN:
What kind of people are we

if we continue
to tolerate in our midst

an invisible, lawless empire?

REPORTER: President Reagan
is promising to open a new front

-in the on war on drugs.
-...took in its war on drugs.

...the war on drugs.

If you are gonna have a war,
you have to have opposition.

(CASH REGISTER DINGS)

-(POLICE SIREN WAILING)
-(DOGS BARKING)

I was on the other side.
That's the way I looked at it.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)

♪ (ROCK MUSIC FADES) ♪

SALLY: After living in Hawaii,
going back to Hazen,

I just was in
a totally different world.

♪ (GLOOMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I just told everybody

that I was trying
to live somewhere else,

and start
a new life there and...

Just didn't work out.
(CHUCKLES)

Hazen was not the place
I wanted to be, ever.

Then you always felt, you know,
they look at you different.

You know, it was a dual life
for a long time.

Normal life with the kids
and the school, and then

be in love with a smuggler.
It gets complicated,

and your mind
has to switch gears.

I learned to lie
at an early age.

It could be him
faking his death,

and then me being told

not to crack
or tell anyone he's alive.

I mean, 'cause think about it.
As a five-year-old,

grasping that if I told people

my dad was alive,
we were gonna get taken away

and go to prison, you know?
I was going to be taken

from my parents
and they would go to prison

if I told them somebody
he was alive.

That's some heavy shit
to lay on a little kid.

But I liked it. Like it's some
kind of espionage, you know?

It felt good to
not tell anybody he was alive,

and I knew it
and nobody else knew it.

It was something I had
over everyone else.

He was my secret. My power.

GARY: Most people
that become drug smugglers

make one or two trips,
make enough cash

to get in business,
and go do something else.

But I'd lost my family.
I'd lost-- Actually, I was dead.

And I didn't have responsibility
to anybody,

so it didn't bother me
to, you know, go every day.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)

Luke pushes the envelope
beyond anybody's way

of doing it
that I have ever known.

I had 20 or 30 hours
of private flying experience

when Luke and I met.

Then I really learned to fly.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMS)

RAVEN: As a co-pilot,

I had to toss
the bales out into the ocean

where our boat people would come
and swoop 'em up.

GARY: I really love weed.

'Cause the more weed
I can bring in,

the more the possibility
of enlightenment

and peace on Earth, you know?
(CHUCKLES)

That was
my spiritual contribution.

I would have continued
to be in the marijuana business,

but the DEA screwed that up.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM SMITH:
Today, I am announcing

the most successful
international marijuana
interdiction effort to date,

codenamed Operation Tiburon.

Operation Tiburon busted

practically all the weed
in Colombia.

REPORTER: Federal officials
today talked up

their latest big drug bust...

ATTORNEY GENERAL SMITH:
One of the most
important steps ever taken

against the narcotics problem.

REAGAN: The results of our
task force have been dramatic.

Drug-related arrests are up
over 40 percent.

The amount of marijuana seized
is up about 80 percent.

RUDY GIULIANI:
This program will allow us,
for the very first time

in the history of the Drug
Enforcement Administration,

to increase the number
of agents, federal agents,

who actually do drug work.

GARY: Ten ships,
and 50 airplanes and 500 people.

Everything got shut down
in Colombia.

REAGAN:
We're hurting the traffickers.

It's true that when
we close off one place,

they can move somewhere else.

But one thing is different now.

We're going to be waiting
for them.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC FADES) ♪

(BALE THUDS)

♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

RAVEN: At times,
we would fly out,

and then come back
into the islands,

and things wouldn't be
as we had "anticipated."

So we would have to land
somewhere else and deal with it.

GARY:

(AIRPLANE ENGINE SPUTTERING)

But if you're 500 miles
out there,

you're probably
not gonna survive.

(ENGINE STRUGGLING)

GARY:

You become really,
really focused in the moment.

Everything becomes real still.

I said, "Fuck it, man."
I pulled the nose up,

I full-throttled it.
(IMITATES ENGINE HUM)

Turned over like this, you know,
and I pull the power off,

and I dive for the ground.

I mean, I was coming in
just like this.

And just when I had enough
air speed, I sucked it back...

(IMITATES TIRES SCREECHING)
Right on into the runway.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

GARY:

That's when I met George.

George Morales.
He's from Bogotá.

He became, like,
the world's champion

offshore boat racer.

(SPEEDBOAT ENGINE ROARING)

REPORTER:
Two-time world champion

and Miami-New York
record holder, George Morales.

(CROWD CHEERING)

We have a 90 percent chance
that we're going back,

racing again to just lay down
another record.

GARY: He drove a Mercedes,
he wore fancy jewelry,

very expensive clothes.
He was a straight-up criminal.

I had a lot of respect for him.

He was dealing cocaine
big-time, marijuana big-time.

(CHUCKLES) And smuggling, too.
You know what I mean?

He took me over to his house,
and we hit it off pretty good.

I told him, "I lost my load here
and I'd like to get it back,
if you could help me."

Said he couldn't.
It was already gone,

nothing he could do about it.
And he asked if I, uh...

wanted to fly for him.
I said, "For sure."

That was a lot of cocaine.

Just for George himself,
probably 50 trips.

A good policy is...

learn how to become invisible.

I had five passports
in different lock boxes

-in different banks.
-(SIRENS WAILING)

If I'd get a bunch
of speeding tickets

and, you know, have a lot
of problems, I'd just

put one of them back
in the lockbox

and get a new one out,

and whoever I had
in my pocket, that's who I was.

Bernie Tomlinson
from Lonoke, Arkansas.

He was my best friend.
He got killed in a plane crash,

and his wife gave me
his birth certificate.

And then my brother-in-law,
Travis Leander Mathews,

he passed away, so I assumed
his identity and passport.

Henderson.
I think it was Jeff Henderson.

Not many people knew me
under that name.

Steven Gregory Pope,
he was a chiropractor.

(BONES CRACKING)

INTERVIEWER: How'd you become
a chiropractor?

-Practice.
-(INTERVIEWER CHUCKLES)

(NECK CRACKS)

GARY: I rather enjoyed
the cocaine smuggling.

You can make so much more money
without making that much effort.

We got paid 4,000 a kilo,

and with
that particular airplane,

I'd bring up 300 kilos,

so that's one and a quarter
million dollars.

I went to a bigger plane
that hauled 500 kilos,

and so we'd make two million
dollars on a trip. (CHUCKLES)

So I set up this trust fund.

I thought if I died
that this trust fund

would be there for my kids.

I started working for Lucas
about 1981.

INTERVIEWER: You don't
really know him as Gary.

ED BERRY: No,
I don't know him as Gary.

I met him as Lucas Harmony.

All of us were smoking dope.
And he would say to me, "Ed,

you're one of
the few guys I know

that can get stoned
and still get something done."

He goes,
"Ed, I want to hire you."

I did everything.

I kept his refrigerators full,
paid all the bills,

washed his cars,
I did the yard work.

Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday, I made him

four quarts of carrot juice
and two quarts of apple juice.

They'd hire maids,
but they liked

how I vacuumed the carpets.

I was basically
an estate manager for him,

but I knew what was going on.

And, uh...
it was rather interesting.

(BIRDS CALLING)

ED: Lucas bought a house
in Coconut Grove.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ED: It wasn't anything fancy,

it was just kind of
a regular house.

But because so much money
was being made by Lucas

and so much cocaine
was going through,

he wanted
some secret hiding places.

There would be money in there,
there could be cocaine in there.

In the living room, I found
20,000 dollars in 20s.

He probably
never would've noticed

he lost 20,000 dollars.

GARY: We'd count money until
our hands were just filthy.

You know?
Ch-ch-ch-ch. (CHUCKLES)

Just filthy, from the money.

(INHALES)

GARY: I tell you what.

I think money is harder
to hold on to

than most people realize.

A lot of people make money.
It's easy to make money.

But it's hard to hold on to.

-(CROWD LAUGHING)
-(SNIFFING)

He had a lot of sex,
and I-- in my opinion,

I think Lucas had a lot
of sex because, you know,

once you cum,
it puts you in a euphoric state.

I was sitting there one time
at 2:00 in the morning,

and this guy comes down.

The only thing he was wearing
was a bandana

with a big feather
sticking out of the bandana.

And he says,
"I'm from the dog star, Sirius."

(CHUCKLES)

He goes, "Oh, by the way,
Lucas wants to talk to you."

So I go up to the second floor,
where there were some bedrooms.

And this guy's wife
is riding Lucas

and they're having anal sex,
and Lucas goes,

"I need you to go
to the store and get this."

And the woman
that was riding him

turns around and goes,
"Hi, I'm Susan."

A couple of years later,

she ended up being
my mother-in-law. (LAUGHS)

RAVEN: When the shift came,

and they were gonna start
carrying powder,

I said, "Nope.
I've seen this movie,

and I'm not in it." (LAUGHS)

When you start dealing
with that kind of money,

you add six zeros
to everything

that we were involved with
carrying the herb.

People act different.

They carry guns,
and they do stupid, stupid shit.

GARY: Raven Walker
is a special type of person,

and I love him dearly.

He went with me
in places that...

no one else would ever go.

It was a sad day
when Raven quit,

but I respected his decision.

He knew what was at stake.

Most everyone that was involved
with carrying cocaine

either wound up dead
or in prison.

GARY: I only did
two trips myself,

and then I hired a copilot.

Richard Heely.

Richard was a heavyset guy,
weighed about 300 pounds.

It was a small airplane.
And he'd get in that airplane,

and he'd fill up
the whole front seat. (LAUGHS)

And he could never pull
the yoke back very far

'cause his belly way out here,

he'd have to scoot
the seat way back.

But he was a good pilot,
really was.

CRAIG HODGES: Gary became
an international drug smuggler,

and he had made
millions and millions
and millions of dollars.

But his daughter Polly
and his ex-wife

thought he was dead
the whole time.

POLLY: My mom was a widow.
My dad was dead.

She was a single mom.
She would pick me up from school

and we'd go to Wendy's
like two or three days a week.

Ordered our single cheeseburger,
just mustard,

'cause that's what
I always get at Wendy's.

And these guys
were sitting next to us,

they were dressed, like,
in suits at Wendy's.

They struck up a conversation
'cause I was coughing.

"Oh, how long has
your daughter been sick?"

"Oh, is your daughter okay?"

And they just kept
asking questions.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

And I was like,
"I'm gonna be okay."

I just thought it was
some, like, nice people

worried about this poor sick kid
at Wendy's, you know?

Back then, I was like, "Well,
they look different," you know?

(SLURPING)

Well, now I know
they looked Colombian.

(COMMENTATOR SPEAKING SPANISH
OVER LOUDSPEAKER)

GARY: I met Pablo Escobar
down in Colombia.

He used to be the one who'd
be there in the helicopter

while I was loading my plane.

We liked each other right away,

and we struck up
a friendly bond.

(IN SPANISH)

-Muchas gracias.
-(CROWD APPLAUDS)

GARY: He's a legend,
and rightly so.

I would hope that his praises,
not only as a smuggler,

but as a human being,

would be sung, you know?

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

GARY: I even bought an airplane
one time for him.

One day he just looked at me,
and he says...

he knew where I was from,
my children,

that I committed suicide.

INTERVIEWER:

GARY: No, I didn't tell him
anything, I mean...

apparently he had hired
somebody up here

to investigate who I was.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-GARY: It's like insurance.

I mean, you buy insurance
to cover your ass, right?

So he knew my family,

and he very definitely knew
about Sally and Claudia.

If he didn't know
everything about you,

there was no way
you were gonna know him.

-POLLY: A week after Wendy's...
-(KNOCKING AT DOOR)

...the Colombians showed up
at our house.

One time somebody came
and knocked on our door

and wanted to take a picture
of me and Polly.

POLLY:
My mom was standing, like,

looking at these guys,
like, "Who are you?"

Right after that is when
she started sleeping with a gun

under her pillow.

GARY: I know that Pablo
checked on my family

because they took pictures

and brought the photographs
back to me.

I got the message.

It was necessary for him to know

what I had in the world
that I valued.

I was totally okay with that

because there was no way
I was ever gonna cross him.

(REPORTERS CLAMORING IN SPANISH)

(BIRDS TWITTERING)

I wanted to move over here
to Florida.

My dad had a house
in Coconut Grove here,

a really nice house.

A lot of weird stuff
happened there.

One summer, we spent
the whole summer with him

in Florida.

He lived like,
as I remember, as Scarface.

You walk in, it's white carpet,
you walk downstairs,

it's this huge room
with a couch, all white.

All white. TV screens so you
could see who was outside.

And my dad
hands me carrot juice.

Said, "Don't spill it."
(LAUGHS)

He was happy as fuck,

but he was high as hell,
you know?

SALLY: Gary met this chick,
and he was all in for,

"It's gonna be a threesome,
and we're gonna be in love,

and it's gonna be
a wonderful life."

Being in love with Gary,

I said, "Okay,
I'll go along with this."

I thought the whole family
was gonna be together,

but he was with this queen bee.

And they got the master suite,

and the kids and I
got the lower, small bedrooms.

(LAUGHING) I'm going,
"You son of a gun."

(LAUGHS) "Thank you so much."

He was such a-- oh, my God,
so full of himself then.

From then, on it was...

I-- I-- He left.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

SALLY:
He's just pissing away money,

flying all over.

GARY: I was in New York
at Tiffany's.

I bought a gold Rolex,
cost like 12,000.

One time, we went to Paris.

We took like
a quarter million over with us.

We had to spend it
before we came back.

Hundred thousand dollars' worth
of Bulgari.

I played a card game
with Graham Nash

from Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Thirty million will buy
a lot of friends.

(CHUCKLES)
You know what I mean?

He just left me right there,
took off on an adventure,

met all these people,
and I'm home with two kids.

TRAVIS: I worried about him,
man, you know?

Because Lucas...

um...

he was real coked up a lot,
you know?

I guess I was a little
disappointed with Lucas.

But Lucas was also--
Lucas deteriorated,

and I think he kinda died
in Florida.

GARY: Well, a few months
after I met George,

George called me
and I went over to the hangar.

Richard, my copilot, was there.

There was this guy standing
at the hangar.

And he called me by my name,
my real name.

No one knew my real name,
I never, never used that.

He said, "Hey,
Gary Betzner, huh?"

It was scary as hell.

He knew information
about my whole life

that I never given anybody.

Where I came from, what I did,
and what kind of citizen I was.

Somehow they must've gotten
my prints and run it.

He said I was looking at being
in prison for a long time.

When that happened,
I confronted him right there.

I confronted him right there
in front of Richard.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa,"
you know?

What the fuck?

I mean, they showed me
credentials. (CHUCKLES)

CIA.

And he said, "You're gonna work
for us from now on."

I couldn't very well walk off
and say,

"Hey, fuck you,"
you know what I mean?

Because they already had me.
George knew him,

so that's how I got involved
in it, I guess.

It was a no-win deal
that you had to make.

And that's when I went to George
and I was kind of scared.

And he said, "Oh, no, no, no.
Everything will be okay."

I said, "Okay, what is it?"

He gave me a long package,
a round package

with a map in it.

He gave us orders to go
to Boca Chica Naval Air Station

in the Keys.

"Someone will meet you there,

and then they'll tell you what
you're supposed to do."

You don't go landing
on military bases

without authorization.

-I was pretty impressed by that.
-(INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT
ON LOUDSPEAKER)

GARY: Richard and I went there,
and I met the guy.

Loaded the plane
with a couple of boxes

and stacked them up front,

put the cargo nets on them
and everything.

Most pilots never even gave it
a second thought, you know?

But I always
checked my load. (CHUCKLES)

I had five ship mines

and probably
a hundred grenade launchers.

We took off,
and on the way down there,

I took the map out,
I looked at it.

It was a harbor in Nicaragua.

REPORTER: The fighting
in Nicaragua,

is it counter-revolution,
civil war?

The current fighting
in Nicaragua,

who's doing it,
and who's supporting it?

REAGAN: Soviet military hardware

has made its way
to Central America.

Our security is based on being
prepared to meet all threats.

GARY: US military trucks came
and unloaded everything.

Richard and I
just stayed out of the way.

They wanted us
to come to the hotel.

I said, "Nah, we'll just stay
out here with the airplane,
give it some gas." (LAUGHS)

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMMING)

GARY: We didn't say a word
to anybody, we just took off.

The next morning,
we had breakfast at Denny's.

I parked my car out there
and left the keys in the car,

that's what they told me to do.

We finished breakfast
and went out there.

Richard and I,
we had 300,000 in the trunk.

About a year later,
George was having trouble.

And he asked me
if I would... help him out.

I always loved
and trusted George.

In that business,
it means everything.

He said, "I need you to take
this down to Costa Rica.

I don't have anybody else
I trust."

I said, "No problem, George,"
you know.

"You always paid me
what you owed me

and never beat me
out of a nickel."

The airplane was loaded
over in Fort Lauderdale,

sitting right out on the tarmac.

And I looked back, and I had
2,000 pounds of guns and shit
on it, right?

I told Richard, I said,
"Oh my God,
look what we're doing."

We were both
real concerned about it.

About what's really going on.

You have to go down
a pretty good ways

to pass Nicaragua

to come across
Costa Rican territory.

And God, it's beautiful there,
it looks like the Alps.

I mean, really,
really beautiful place.

This place was down
in the valley,

and it's flat land
all the way to the sea.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE RUMBLING)

I come, slide in there, land it,

went down the other lane,
pulled off the runway.

Just park it,
no motors running or anything.

I just walked up to him,
put my hand out,

and he put his hand out.
I shook his hand.

That's the first time I met him.

John Hull.

-John Hull.
-John Hull.

John Hull was a patriotic
American, anti-communist,

and was doing anything he could
to help out the effort

to keep the communists
from coming all up to America.

There is a good deal
of confusion tonight

about Soviet ships in Nicaragua
and what they may be carrying.

REAGAN: For 20 years,
the Soviet Union

has been accumulating
enormous military might.

The duty to protect
and strengthen the peace

to make America strong again.

GARY: When I was with John Hull,

I said, "You need help
unloading these?"

He said, "No,
I'll take care of it."
Unload the guns and stuff.

You know, like M16s
and grenade launchers,

all kinds of military equipment.

MODERATOR: The last few months,
it has seemed more and more

that your policies
in Central America

were beginning to work.

Yet just at this moment,
we are confronted

with the extraordinary story
of a CIA guerrilla manual

for the anti-Sandinista Contras,
whom we are backing,

which advocates assassinations
of Sandinistas.

Is this not, in effect, our own
state-supported terrorism?

No, and I'm glad
you asked that question,

because I know
it's on many people's minds.

We're not in the habit
of assigning guilt

before there has been
proper evidence produced

and proof of that guilt.

Another truck came up
and put the cocaine
in duffel bags on the plane.

Secured the load and took off.

I had a transponder code
I turned on,

coming back
into the United States.

INTERVIEWER:

GARY: I landed
at Opa Locka Airport in Miami.

In broad daylight, I taxied up
to Aviation Activities

with 500 kilos of cocaine.

Wasn't my cocaine.

Wasn't George's cocaine.
(CHUCKLES)

I saw the people
standing around

when I pulled up the plane,
you know, the agents, cops.

Never looked at me
or said a word,

they just kinda
turned their back.

When I got out of the airplane,
I took 20 kilos with me

and put it in my Honda
and drove off.

(CHUCKLES)

SALLY: After the summer
when we went to Florida,

it...

just never was the same
after that.

He lived a life
that he wanted to.

A Fast and Furious of the '80s.

And I had had enough.

I left him. I just...
I'm going, "I can't do this."

I was in love,
he was the love of my life,

still is the love of my life,
I just can't live with him.

(LAUGHS)

He's too crazy, even for me.
You know, after a person--

He's got about
seven personalities.

Two or three who are fantastic,
and the rest of 'em is like

you really don't want
to spend much time with.

He'd be walking
that way, talking,

and you can tell
before he turns around

that he's switched.

Finally, I just surrendered.

That was our... (SIGHS) ...fate.

INTERVIEWER:

No, I believe in eventuality.

Dad taught me this.
Eventuality is when

eventually,
something's gonna happen.

If you take the same route
to work every day,

you're more than likely to get
hit by a bolt of lightning

or something.
Eventuality happens.

When life looks
like easy street,

there's danger at your door.

(CAR ENGINE RUMBLING)

GARY: Richard and I,
we were down in Santa Marta,

in Colombia, to pick up a load.

Colombian Cartel
from Santa Marta.

He got his cocaine from Pablo,
and Pablo fronted to him.

We were waiting
for the load to arrive,

to load the plane.

And he had an atrium, you know,
full of tropical flowers,

his wife did.

Richard was, you know,
in the garden with her and...

And I guess
employees said that...

Richard was flirting
with his wife.

Being a big badass leader...

(GUN COCKING)

(GUNSHOT)

GARY: Pulled his .45 out
and shot him in the heart.

He was standing right beside me.

(SNIFFLES, CLICKS TONGUE)
Turned the gun on me, too.

And I just looked over there
and put my hand out

and like pushed the gun
out of the way

and I said, "Hey, man,
what the fuck?

What'd you do that for?"

I got PTSD from that.

I'll tell you that.

You know, I said,
"He's a friend of mine."

I said, "Give him a good burial,
Christian burial.

Take care of everything.
Promise me you'll do that.

And this is the end of it.
I'm gone."

So I stepped over him
and worked my way around

and got in the plane took off.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE HUMMING)

GARY: I cried all the way home.
I couldn't contain myself.

You know, I...

I-- I felt responsible
in some ways.

And it was a big blow.

You know? Everybody thinks
Richard drowned in a crash.

And his family, his son,
his daughter or whatever,

and his wife,
they never knew the truth.

Seeing somebody get killed,
that was probably...

the most devastating...

of anything that ever happened
to me in my life, you know?

That's when I decided to quit.

Reorient and reevaluate.

That's what I've learned
to do in my life,

is just keep going forward.

I had 300 kilos of cocaine
in the back of my plane.

And if that cocaine had just
belonged to this drug dealer,

I would have kept his shit.

But it belonged to Pablo.

I said, "Now I've gotta go
do this job."

This last thing.

I landed in Lake City.

Been out for two days,
no sleep.

My people were there
to offload the coke.

I put the coke in the car,

and I couldn't
get it all in there,

and so they left
to go to the hotel.

And I saw down the highway,
they got pulled over.

(POLICE SIREN WAILING)

GARY: DEA.

Cops jumped out
and had machine guns

and stuff went everywhere.

So I went across the road.

I went by this clothesline,
so I got me a shirt.

I found a pickup truck
that had the keys in it.

And I drove off.

Went down to the hotel
and got a room.

Hadn't been in there, like,
20 minutes or so,

-and I heard something outside.
-(CAR PULLING UP)

-(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)
-(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

GARY:
Then this voice came over...

and called out my name.

Three or four different names,
and then he said my real name.

I thought I could get out
of anything,

because at this time
my ego was so big,

and I was a fugitive,
and I had five different IDs.

I had outwitted the cops
on every level

and flown under their noses
and made millions of dollars.

And I had everything going.

But it's impossible to do
what I did and get away with it

because the eventuality factor
is so intense.

SARA LEE: I remember going
into the grocery store,

and I looked over
at the newspaper stand.

And it said...

It said, um,
"Gary Betzner found in Miami."

Right there, you know?

And I looked at my mom
and was like, "Mom!"

I was in Hazen,

but I saw it happening

in my psychic abilities
or whatever.

He-- We are so connected

with our communication,
our souls.

I felt the terror,
I felt the, "Oh my God,

this isn't happening."

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

REPORTER: It's a story
of international drug smuggling
and gun running.

Forty-five-year-old Gary Betzner

is now in prison
in Miami, Florida.

TRAVIS: I was telling
all of them my dad was dead.

But then one day
he was on the news.

I was like, "Oh, he's alive,
he's alive!" (LAUGHS)

You know,
literally I was good at it.

I never cracked.

His dad was on television.

INTERVIEWER: Doing what?

Getting arrested.
But very much alive.

REPORTER: The one thing
that everyone remembers

about Gary Betzner
is the night he disappeared.

Reports from September of 1977

say he committed suicide.
That report was treated

with some skepticism
at the time,

but was considered true
for some ten years.

TRUDY JOHNSON: That was
all the talk at the coffee shop
and everywhere.

And it was hard to believe
that it was somebody you knew.

BURKE SIMS:

MIKE GRADY: People very quickly
lost respect for her.

SALLY: Get over there
and let me take
a picture of you.

SARA LEE: Oh, just mockery.

I got pulled over once
by the police department.

And, um... they were like...

one of them said,
"Why don't you call your dad?"
and started laughing.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

GARY: Feeling of vulnerability
really gets intense

when they put
the handcuffs on you.

There's no getting away.
It's over with.

(INDISTINCT VOICES ECHOING)

GARY: I felt despondent.

I felt helpless, I felt trapped.

But then I started
putting things together.

REPORTER 1:
In Nicaragua tonight,

the Sandinista government
is claiming the ports there
are under siege.

REPORTER 2:
Growing tension this morning

between Nicaragua
and the United States

over charges
that the CIA-backed rebels

are mining Nicaraguan harbors.

I was the one that carried
the ship mines down

that they put
in the harbor in Nicaragua.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

(GUNSHOTS)

GARY:
I took the guns to Costa Rica.

-(GUNSHOTS)
-(EXPLOSION)

Put the cocaine on,
and I came back.

And the military's
running everything.

REAGAN: We have a gentleman
down in Nicaragua

who is on contract to the CIA

advising,
supposedly on military tactics,
the Contras.

Mr. President,
you're implying then

that the CIA in Nicaragua
is directing the Contras there.

I'm afraid I misspoke
when I said

a CIA head in Nicaragua.

There's not someone there
directing all of this.

GARY: I had no idea...

how big this was
or how high it went.

However, I did know...

that I was privy
to quite a bit of information.

I was worth something. (LAUGHS)

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪