Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, to adoring Ohio State Buckeye fans, Arch

Schliester was once a gridiron great.

Guys wanted to be him. Girls wanted to be with him. He was captivating. He was

charming. But off the field, Schliester's been living a secret life.

I promise you, with all my heart and hope to die, that this check will never

cashed. Nobody will know that this happened.

He was a manipulator.

and he could persuade people in doing whatever art wanted.

Schliester's also a compulsive gambler who lies and steals hundreds of

of dollars to keep the bets rolling.

I've conjured up every way possible to pay gambling debts off. It makes you

creative. And when he sets his sights on a wealthy widow's millions, he's about

to destroy them both.

I'll fuck up my ass and your ass if you get it.

I've never been around somebody that thought the thoughts that he thought and

did the things that he did, ever.

It was terrifying to me.

It's a cold, lonely December in Columbus, Ohio.

And in 2010, Anita Barney is caught in a living nightmare.

I was a wreck.

It was unbelievable what I was going through. I get shivers now thinking

it. Barney has recently befriended former Ohio State quarterback Art

Schliester was once a living legend in Columbus, but now he's also an unstable

ex -con hiding some dark secrets.

I just never knew anybody in this world existed like him.

And I know he's not the only one, but it was new to me.

It's up to the point where there will be no return.

Schreester charms himself into Barney's life, but then through threats and

intimidation, he helps himself to more than $1 million.

Now he's come looking for more.

He would just call me every name in the book and scream at me.

I just didn't know where to turn or what to do.

I was afraid of him.

Terrified of him.

Schliester's desperate, and Barney has no idea what he's planning next.

And I really thought he was going to harm me, kill me, or kill us, something.

The meteoric rise and tragic freefall of Arch Schliester begins just outside the

sleepy town of Bloomingburg in central Ohio.

Schliester is born in 1960 and grows up on his family's thousand -acre farm.

raising hogs, cattle, and soybeans.

It's like a painting of the American countryside.

It's just all back roads and fields for the most part. And folks that live in

that area, they're nice.

You stop and ask for directions, they're going to help you.

Schliester may grow up a farmer, but he's a born athlete. From a young age,

clear he's got something special.

This was a kid who in grade school could throw a football 65 yards in the air.

He would score 50 points in a 7th grade basketball game like it was nothing.

Coaches had to take him out of games because it wasn't fair.

In the mid -70s, Schliester is the starting quarterback at Miami Trace High

School, and his team never loses a game when he takes the snap.

And he was the heads and shoulders above everybody else.

There was no doubt he was going to play at a Division I school where he had his

pick of schools.

And for a boy from central Ohio, there's only one school that really matters.

His talents demanded a bigger stage, and the biggest stage in Ohio is Ohio State

football.

Fans love their Buckeyes.

Fans love the idea of being part of this great tradition.

And there's no question about it.

Jack Park is a radio broadcaster, author, historian, and lifelong Buckeye

He remembers vividly the excitement and anticipation when Schliester took the

field his first game.

And it was probably the loudest standing ovations I think I've ever seen in Ohio

Stadium. It was a climax to what everybody was anticipating and was

forward to, probably since Art had committed to coming to Ohio State the

previous spring.

Schliester sets his first school record that game, but it's not one Coach Woody

Hayes or 60 ,000 screaming fans want.

He threw five interceptions.

That's still an Ohio State single -game record.

And Penn State beat Ohio State that afternoon 19 -0.

Schliester's first -year record is an unremarkable seven wins, four losses in

one time.

But his freshman year is famous for one of the great college football

controversies of all time, the 1978 Gator Bowl.

Clemson had the lead 17 -15, but the Buckeyes are moving right at the end of

game, and they have a third down and five at the Clemson 24.

With time running out, Schlichter throws an interception to Clemson nose guard

Charlie Baumann.

He was run out of bounds in front of the Ohio State bench.

In a second of frustration, Woody Hayes struck Bauman, and, of course, the rest

is history.

It's the end of Woody Hayes' storied 28 -year coaching career, but it's just the

beginning for Arch Leaster.

He starts all 48 games he plays at OSU and comes one point short of winning a

national championship his sophomore year.

And he finished his career with 7 ,547 yards, and to this day, that's the most

passing yards ever by a quarterback in Ohio State football history.

Schlichter appears twice on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's voted All

-American, and he's a Heisman Trophy candidate three years running.

The 6 '3", 190 -pound star athlete even convinces his coaches to let him play

OSU basketball when he's not tossing pigskins.

He got to play basketball against Magic Johnson while he was at Ohio State, and

Magic was at Michigan State, which is pretty phenomenal.

Off the field, Schleester's rising star makes him a king on campus.

He's the golden boy. Most people loved Art.

They loved being around him. Guys wanted to be him.

Girls wanted to be with him. He was captivating. He was charming. You know,

was the big man on campus and then some.

But the constant scrutiny and adulation must be very difficult for the small

-town farm kid to easily adjust to.

So he learned at an early age how to become someone else.

I think it became a habit over the years. There was the public art and

the private art.

Schliester says he doesn't drink or do drugs, but in later interviews, he does

admit there is another way he learns to blow off steam.

Any time that I wanted to get away or any time that I felt like I needed to

relieve some of the pressure, I always went to the racetrack.

In his autobiography, Busted, Schliester says he and his high school buddies

pooled money and placed their first bet on a harness race at nearby Scioto Downs

racetrack. Ended up winning the bet.

That was probably not a good thing for Art Schliester, winning the first ever

bet you make at a racetrack and winning thousands.

I mean, that would be something that would latch on to him right from the

beginning. And I remember when I went home, I was so excited.

And I thought, boy, this is a great way to make a little extra money. And so I

went back.

Soon, Schliester is a regular at the track.

And before long, he is betting on other sports.

The stakes start small, but he's hooked, he later admits.

The draw, the excitement, even the smell of the racetrack was something I just

loved. By his college junior year, Schliester admits losing thousands of

betting on professional and college sports.

I kept looking for that high that I was getting on the football field, so I

started looking for it in gambling.

Few outside Schliester's inner circle know this darker side of him. To most,

is the all -American hero.

A glowing biography written while he's still a student is titled Straight

and Art Schliester seems to fit that description to a T.

In the fall of his junior year, Schliester visits the bedside of a local

-year -old boy who is recovering from a horrific small plane crash that killed

his father and three others.

And this was very genuine. There was no ulterior motive with this one. He just

wanted to make a little boy feel better, and that's what he did.

The young boy's recovery has been long and painful, and he suffers from

depression. And then one day, out of the blue, Art Schliester shows up,

introduces himself, meets the boy, gives him some football memorabilia, you

know, and really made a difference in the boy's life.

Schliester's actor son's recovery. In her opinion, Art Schliester saved her

son's life.

So she felt this huge emotional connection to him from that event.

The mother has no idea that the hero at her son's bedside will ruin her life 30

years later.

Up next on American Greed, when the NFL calls, it's more money, more problems.

And he went through that $350 ,000 signing bonus in a matter of months, and

things just snowballed from there.

In the spring of 1982, Art Schliester scores big when he signs with the NFL's

Baltimore Colts.

Not only was he the first quarterback taken that year, but Art, according to

scouts, had the potential and the ability to be one of the very best

quarterbacks the NFL had seen to that date.

Schliester signs a three -year contract, and he's given a $350 ,000 signing

bonus on the spot.

This sudden fortune might be the worst thing to ever happen to Art Schliester.

That $350 ,000 bonus is what led to a lot of Art's troubles. He finally had

mean to support the gambling.

And when NFL players go on strike early in the season, Schliester has too much

time and too much money on his hands.

In later interviews, Schliester admits he gambles through his entire bonus in

months, and then some.

It controlled my mind. I worked my day around how to be able to make a bet or

how to go to the track or how to find a bookmaker to bet with.

He found a restaurant outside Baltimore where he could play some action betting

-wise. It was a known establishment that bookies would hang out, and one thing

led to another, and he fell into debt rather quickly.

Schlichter isn't satisfied betting a game here or there.

He's looking for some heavier action.

Well, that would be Art's Achilles heel with something called a parlay, where if

you bet three or four games, you have to win them all at great odds to win your

bet. And he loved doing that every once while he'd hit them. But on average,

you're going to lose most of your bets.

Schlichter later admits that within a year, his gambling is out of control.

I lost almost a million dollars gambling.

First week I lost $20 ,000 and I thought, boy, this is crazy.

I got to go win that money back.

And then I doubled it up the next week and lost and doubled it up and doubled

up. And by the time I got done, I was just in such a hole that I could never

out.

But it gets even worse when local bookies come down hard, saying he owes

$150 ,000.

Bart received a number of threats.

and they were portraying themselves to be affiliated with the local mafia

It turned out that wasn't correct, but Art had no idea.

Scared they might break his throwing arm, or worse, Schliester turns to the

for help in March 1983.

Baltimore Colts quarterback Art Schliester is in protective custody

feds arrest the bookies when they come to town to meet Schliester and collect

their money.

Last Friday at the Columbus, Ohio airport, the FBI arrested three of the

bookies in a sting operation.

Schliester isn't charged with any crimes, but he is caught violating

15 of his NFL contract when he knowingly associates with gamblers or gambling

activity.

There were real concerns that he might be gambling on games involving the Colts

and that he might be potentially betting on himself or against the Colts. None

of that was ever proven.

Schlichter does make NFL history as the first player in 20 years to be suspended

for gambling.

In 1984, he's briefly reinstated, but is released by the Colts a year later when

they learn he's still gambling.

Schliester's promising pro career ends with a whimper, 13 games, three

touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.

At that time, Art was considered one of the biggest busts in NFL history.

And it was very sad, very, very sad for many people.

Schliester will continue to play football in Canada and arena leagues for

years. But the glory days fade fast.

In the late 80s, he briefly marries and soon has two daughters.

but his family constantly struggles to manage his growing gambling addiction.

His wife knew that he was gambling, that he continued to gamble more and more.

She did her very best to protect their kids.

She separated their finances.

She tried never to give him checks, never to give him a checkbook.

Schliester admits it's not enough, and no one is going to be able to save him

from himself.

It got to the point where I was losing a ton of money every day and borrowing

and draining my savings and the whole nine yards just to continue to bet.

Between 1987 and 1992, Schliester is arrested three times in Ohio for writing

more than $50 ,000 worth of bad checks.

But he's still a football celebrity, and he receives probation or suspended

sentences each time.

There are some who think that if he had been treated more harshly early on, if

he had been sent to prison, it might have been a wake -up call for him, but

never happened.

Meanwhile, he continues to bet and lose. How much? Only Arch Leaster knows for

sure. We're probably looking at millions upon millions upon millions of dollars.

He is synonymous with gambling, and in the world of gambling, he's also

synonymous with losing.

Because of this constant drain, Schliester and his family never live in

homes or drive luxury cars.

There is only one place his money seems to go.

According to art, every dime he would get, he would gamble away.

It's a vicious cycle. He gambled pretty much every penny he ever had.

And in 1994, he moves to perhaps the last place on earth he should.

Las Vegas.

You talk about throwing a thick of dynamite in the fireworks factory.

Art thought that it was okay, that he could handle it.

But it takes less than a year in the desert for everything to explode once

again. To help cover his mounting losses, Schliester steals dozens of

from his sister -in -law and others.

When the FBI raids their Las Vegas home looking for stolen money, Schliester's

wife has had enough. She takes the kids and heads home to Indiana.

His wife and kids are gone. All his money's gone.

He doesn't know what he's going to do.

Somehow that night, I think he hooks up with a buddy and they go out gambling

again. I mean, it's just hard to make up a story like that. It's going from the

top to the very, very bottom very quickly.

Next on American Greed, Arch Leaster's hoping to stay out of jail again, but

this time he's miscalculated the odds.

His life was officially destroyed during that 12 -year period.

Arch Schliester's compulsive gambling has cost him his career and his family.

But even more trouble comes in 1994 when he's caught passing $175 ,000 in bad

checks to Las Vegas casinos.

And when you do that against the casinos, the judges and prosecutors out

are going to make you pay for it. And that's what happened.

Instead of the slap on the wrist he's used to, Schliester is sentenced to two

years in prison.

While Schliester sits behind bars, prosecutors around the country

he's also written nearly $500 ,000 worth of bad checks in Indiana, Nevada, and

Ohio. He pleads guilty to felony theft, bank fraud, and forgery. With each plea,

his prison time grows and grows.

Earth's path caught up to him.

In a 12 -year period from 1994 to 2006, Art spent time

in more than 40 prisons or jails.

His wife was officially destroyed during that 12 -year period.

Schleester is released briefly in 1999.

He retreats home to the family farm in Bloomingburg, Ohio.

Despite his record, he's still a local hero.

He was the old star quarterback, so people would take him in, people would

him money.

They tried to support him, tried to build him back up.

To make ends meet, Schlichter tells people that he still has connections for

premium sports tickets at Ohio State University.

He asks people to front him money to buy the tickets.

He says once he resells them, there will be huge profits for his investors.

He was a very good salesman.

People were willing to be trustful with him because of his association with Ohio

State, because he was a Ohio State football hero, and they were willing to

depart with fairly large sums of money.

Soon, at least a dozen people give him more than $500 ,000.

But Schlichter doesn't buy the tickets or share the profits.

The only thing he thought about 24 -7 was gambling.

So every time he would get any monies whatsoever, it went towards gambling.

Schlichter even steals $60 ,000 from his own father before he's arrested and

convicted of credit card fraud and sentenced to five more years.

Schlichter is finally released in 2006.

He's broke and owes nearly $500 ,000 restitution to his victims.

He moves into his mom's tiny house in Washington Courthouse, Ohio, and tries

piece his life back together.

It did appear, at least on the surface, that he was finally, finally going to

beat this and finally going to stop hurting people and finally stop taking

advantage of people. Hello, I'm Mark Shalister, and this is my mother, Myla.

Schliester starts a website to help problem gamblers like himself.

He and his mom record public service announcements to keep casinos from

to town.

Ohio casinos will destroy Ohio families. Please vote no on issue three.

Schliester also comes clean in an autobiography he co -writes with author

Snook. When pressed why he always seems to repeat the same mistakes, Schliester

has only one answer.

You just don't understand addiction, do you?

That's what he kept telling me. You just don't understand addiction.

It is seven minutes after three o 'clock. Columbus radio personality John

says that by 2009, Arch Leaster's public rehabilitation is almost complete. He

could have made a fortune in this town selling anything.

He had that kind of personality.

He would have killed it.

Absolutely killed it.

In 2009, Schliester takes a job at sports radio WTVN 610.

What do we have today? There he's paired with Corby, who's been on the airwaves

since 1978.

The big Wednesday hump day show.

Corby says Schliester was a natural on air, and fans flocked to listen to their

Wednesday show.

And he was good. He knew his stuff.

People liked him, and we got a lot of phone calls.

But off -air, Corby says that some of Schliester's quirks don't add up.

He had two phones, and his phones went off all the time. I mean, this guy got

more phone calls.

Schliester often ducks out to take these mysterious calls, telling Corby they

are other compulsive gamblers he's trying to help. He also says he's

an old business plan to make some extra cash.

Well, Art's in the office one day.

and asked me if I wanted to buy season basketball tickets for Ohio State. And

the time, they had a pretty good team.

Corby's set to buy in.

But when he tells his wife about the deal, she quickly cools his jets.

She said, seriously, you're going to buy tickets from Art Schliester?

Didn't you read the effing book?

I read the book. That's what he does.

Yes, Schlichter's back to doing what he does.

This is a tough issue.

And despite appearances, he has been all along.

You know, who knows what's going to happen in the future. He started

the minute he got out of prison in 2006.

He was gambling in Las Vegas. He was gambling in West Virginia, Indiana, the

casino boats along the Ohio River.

And to keep the action going, Arch Schliester is about to perfect the art

steal.

Next on American Greed, Schliester parlays a decades -old connection with a

plane crash survivor and a wealthy widow to run the tables on a million -dollar

ripoff.

Anita Barney, in that moment, was prey for Arch Schliester.

On a crisp Sunday morning in October 2009, church is winding down in

Westerville, Ohio.

The sermon has ended, and now a special guest speaks to the crowd.

My children went without a father for 10 years. I was incarcerated for 10 out of

12 years from 1994 to 2006.

It's Arch Leister, making the rounds to come clean on his sordid gambling past.

But I not only lost the...

my profession, but I lost my dignity.

I lost a life.

The audience sits in rapt attention, but one person is especially touched by

Schliester's story.

When I heard him in church, I really believed that he was a changed man.

I was so convinced.

Anita Barney is a wealthy widow and socialite who feels she shares a unique

connection with the convicted felon, Art Schliester.

They met briefly in 1980 when Schliester was the star quarterback at Ohio State.

Back then, he selflessly visited Barney's 10 -year -old son's bedside

recovered from severe plane crash injuries.

They didn't think he was going to live.

He had internal injuries.

His leg was almost severed, and his femur was broken in three places.

His face was all burned.

Barney still believes Schliester's generosity was the key to her son's

Basically got him out of the depression.

For Art to come out and bring all these things and see him and cheer him up, he

didn't have to do that.

So I was quite impressed with that.

So Anita felt as though she was indebted to him. And hence, 30 years later, she

has the opportunity to help the man who helped her.

That's kind of where it started.

Since that fateful encounter, Anita Barney's life couldn't be more different

from Arch Lister's.

In 1982, she remarries, this time to Bob Barney, the future CEO of Columbus

-based Wendy's Company.

The Barneys host lavish parties at their mansion on the Scioto River,

entertaining a wide circle of wealthy friends.

But Anita Barney's life is in transition now.

After nearly 25 years of marriage, Bob Barney has recently passed away, and

Anita Barney is once again a widow.

And for the first time in decades, she's in charge of her own finances.

I never had to worry about money the times I was married. My husband took

of everything.

I never wrote a check. I didn't know anything about the checkbook.

No finances.

And now she's about to reconnect with someone else who's never been in control

of his money either.

I don't know if it could ever be, the amount of money that I lost could ever

actually added up to known, but it was in the millions of dollars.

When church ends, Barney waits in line to reintroduce herself to Arch Leaster

and to invite him to her son's 40th birthday party.

And I reminded him who I was. He said, well, how's Alan doing?

And I said, well, I'm having a party for him. He's doing well.

Here's my number if you'd like to come to the party.

And that was probably the worst thing that Anita Barney could have said to

Leaster. Anita Barney, in that moment, was prey for Arch Leaster.

Days later, Barney receives a call from Arch Leaster.

He called and said, well, I cannot make the party, but I'd like to get together

and get caught up on how everybody's doing.

I said, well, sure.

Schliester has clearly done his homework and discovered Anita Barney's wealthy

past. When he arrives, he brings a special bag of lunch.

And he brought Wendy's. And that's how he got his foot in the door, basically.

The two catch up over burgers and fries.

It's a friendly, low -key affair.

Until Schliester casually turns up the volume on the TV so that Barney's

housekeeper can't hear what he says next.

He's talking about everybody doing so well, but he missed his daughters and

sad it was.

He didn't have a car to get over to see them and wanted to borrow $10 ,000 to

buy a car to build a relationship with his daughters.

Barney is caught by surprise, but her trusting nature kicks in automatically.

She agrees to give him the money on the spot.

I didn't mind helping Art because I could.

Why not help him? He helped my child get out of his depression.

I couldn't say no.

I could not say no.

But Schliester never buys a car.

Instead, a week later, he's calling Barney for another, much larger loan.

He wanted to borrow $100 ,000.

That was to pay people back that he owed money for.

and that was to keep him out of prison.

Schliester's restitution settlements and gambling losses have left him more than

$500 ,000 in debt.

And without Barney, he's in big trouble.

She agrees to give him the loan, and before she knows it, Schliester has

maneuvered himself into her life.

Although they are seen together in public, Barney denies she was a lonely

captivated by a former star's charms.

I never had a sexual relationship with him.

But I could see where people would think that.

I'd think the same thing, giving him money to have a relationship. But that

truly is not the case. It was not the case.

She says she simply trusts him. And by the end of 2009, she gives Sleester more

than $200 ,000.

And he's just getting started. She felt that in order to get her initial...

$100 ,000 back, that she would continue to help him and continue to give him

money. And before she knew it, she had given Art pretty much everything that

had. Next on American Greed, Art Schliester turns to threats while Anita

Barney's world falls apart.

I was crying and praying because I didn't know how else to get out of this

to kill myself.

By 2010, Anita Barney isn't the only angle Art Schliester's working on to dig

himself out of a $500 ,000 debt.

He's still claiming he can use his celebrity status to buy and resell

tickets, particularly premium Ohio State football season tickets for a hefty

profit. Season tickets are hard to come by, and so when Art would...

believably say he could get them because as a former star quarterback there,

people tended to believe he had access to tickets.

This plan bought him a five -year prison sentence in 2001, but that history

doesn't stop several people from foolishly fronting him cash to start

tickets again.

You know, if you pay $2 ,000 for a set of Ohio State football season tickets,

you might be able to sell them for $4 ,000.

It kind of comes back to the old thing, if it sounds too good to be true, it

probably isn't true.

But Schliester often doesn't come through. And before long, he's tipped

of his investors to attract attention.

Schliester's just not able to make those payments, or you ask for particular

tickets and Schliester is not able to produce them.

He didn't have those connections, and he wasn't able to get any kind of great

tickets. There was no real investment program going on. He wasn't doing that

all. As complaints grow, Schliester finds himself under pressure from a new

source, the U .S. Attorney's Office.

There, intelligence specialist Bob Merklin discovers that Schliester has

socialite Anita Varney into giving him nearly $200 ,000.

Merklin and another agent meet with Barney to warn her there is a problem.

And I just, you know, they say your stomach can flip. I swear mine did. It

that way. I thought, oh, dear, this is really bad.

Barney's May 2010 meeting with the feds is brief.

Merklin tries to warn her he suspects Schlichter is stealing from her.

She was adamant that, yes, she had given funds to Art, but did it willingly.

She was not being victimized, wasn't worried about anything, wasn't in fear

anything. When the agents depart, Merklin suspects they will meet again.

She, in the back of her mind or in her heart, knew that she was in trouble

financially, but perhaps just wasn't willing to admit it at that point.

2010 passes as a blur for Anita Barney. She says Schleester continues to beg and

harass her for more money.

Gone is the charismatic former football star.

He's been replaced by a man Barney hardly recognizes.

He just became a very vicious, violent man after that with threats. I didn't

know what he was going to do. And to hear him screaming, I was afraid of him,

terrified of him.

Barney estimates that between November 2009 and February 2011, she loans Arch

Leaster an average of $6 ,200 per day.

Before 2010 is over, she's given him more than $1 million.

And I thought I still had money in the bank, and then I didn't. It happened so

fast.

So fast.

As Barney's money dries up, Schliester approaches her with new demands.

Art knew that she was friends with many affluent and rich people.

Anita says that Art suggested to her that she solicit these friends.

For money.

Barney says Schlichter forces her to turn against her friends by threatening

children, including the son he once befriended.

He had friends that would do whatever he wanted to do.

And we know where your children live, and this is what we will do to them.

And that's when I was like his puppet then.

I don't know what else to say.

Barney says Schliester demands she call her friends and sell them tickets to

Ohio State games or even the upcoming Super Bowl in February.

There are those who think that at this moment, Anita Barney became an

with Arch Schliester and that she too was a criminal. And there are those that

think that Anita Barney was almost being held hostage by Arch Schliester.

Within weeks, 23 of Barney's friends give her more than $65 ,000 to buy these

exclusive tickets.

But they're not always happy with what they receive.

They all got their tickets, but they were never in the same seat.

Sometimes they were two together, sometimes not.

And I was driving around the city, sometimes at midnight, dropping those

off so that they could get their tickets.

There's a reason for the mad scramble.

Those tickets aren't coming from the great connection Schliester's been

he has.

He would get the tickets from ticket brokers, and in most cases they charge

probably three, four times over the face value of the ticket. So he was paying a

considerable markup for those tickets.

Losing more money than ever, Schliester also demands Barney ask her friends for

personal loans.

She says Schliester carefully scripted what she was supposed to say.

I needed money to invest right now. I can't get my money until so many days.

Would you loan it to me? And that was the main story he used to have me tell

people.

Barney collects more than $400 ,000 from her friends and gives it straight to

Art Schliester.

I'd get checks, and then I'd go cash it, and he'd wait in the parking lot and

take the money and go.

Schlichter's put himself in a cycle that's spinning out of control.

In order to keep the scheme going, he had to pay off, at least in part, people

who had given him money earlier, and he was doing that with money that he took

in later in the scheme.

But not everyone gets paid back as promised, and those who don't quickly

Anita Barney.

At the end of 2010, my friends, yes, they were threatening to turn me in, to

call the police, and they yell at me.

I was so embarrassed and so humiliated.

I just, I didn't want to live.

Broke and severely depressed, Anita says she even considers suicide. But when

she tells Schliester how she feels, he offers an ominous suggestion of his own.

And he says, do not kill yourself because they'll accuse me of murder.

And I'm crying and still upset.

And he says, we'll just do a double suicide together.

Days later, Schliester unexpectedly pushes his way into her home.

Convinced he's come to carry out his deadly threats, Barney waits in terror.

I really thought this was going to be it. I did not move.

I just sat perfectly still. I just waited him out.

But after 30 minutes of tense near silence, he abruptly leaves.

I lock the door, but I get shaking now thinking about that moment right now. I

have chills and thinking about it.

Badly shaken and at the end of a rope, Anita Barney finally decides to break

free of Arch Leaster.

Why am I allowing somebody like this to do this to me?

This has got to be stopped. He's got to be stopped.

She digs out the business card. Intelligence specialist Bob Merklin left

back in Maine and for the first time in months feels a sense of peace.

I went to bed.

I slept very well.

After that, I wasn't afraid anymore.

Up next.

Okay, I want you to listen to me now, okay?

Arch Leaster knows how to talk himself out of trouble, but now it's his own

words that bring him down.

You have to call him, damn it. Just a minute.

It's up to the point where there will be no return.

Anita Barney's decision to turn the tables on compulsive gambler Arch

is like emerging from a fog, but her choice will cost her as well.

She has helped Schliester steal more than $400 ,000 from many of her former

friends.

We told her from the beginning, if there were people that you stole from,

there'll be a day of reckoning for you, but for the time being, we are willing

to have you cooperate with us, and she did.

Detective Scott Davis gives her an audio recorder to begin taping Schliester's

endless phone calls.

Just a small little tape recorder, and I put an earbud in my ear, and whenever

the phone would ring, I'd turn it on and hit record.

Hello?

Okay, I want you to listen to me now, okay?

Okay. She recorded hundreds, if not thousands, of calls.

Art was calling her 20 to 30 times minimum per day.

And if you listen to those phone conversations, he becomes very abusive

threatening.

I'm going to get in trouble for bounce checks. Gone

is the facade of a former All -American.

Fury and desperation are all that remain.

We will make it today.

If you don't write me this check now, I'll fuck up my ass and your ass will be

dead. Oh, God.

Get in your car right now.

Schlichter's willing to do anything to get more money, and he expects the same

from Anita.

You may have to borrow this money.

You may have to second for it. And you want me to do what?

And you may have to second for it.

Schliester's last Hail Mary is a promise to deliver tickets to Super Bowl XLV in

Arlington, Texas.

But when Schliester fails to deliver, he knows he's facing some furious fans.

On February 7th, he agrees to come clean with authorities.

He knew the jig was up, and he came in and disclosed all of his own activities.

Did I gamble part of it? Probably.

Did I use someone for tickets? Probably.

Did I use someone to pay somebody back?

Probably.

All three of those could be true.

Schlichter admits he's been ripping countless people off. All to feed his

insatiable gambling addiction.

How much do you think you've won?

I've won $3 million a game in my lifetime, and I've lost $6 or $7

You win a little bit, you lose a lot. You win a little bit, you lose a lot.

Schlichter also admits stealing more than $1 million from Anita Barney.

But now he says he doesn't want her to suffer any more pain.

I want to tell you something about Anita Barney.

I love Anita Barney. She did more to help me than any person in the whole

could ever do, times 10.

I hope you don't charge her with anything.

On September 15, 2011, Arch Leister pleads guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud,

filing a false tax return.

He's sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

But the exact amount of money he's stolen will never be known.

There's a lot of people that were involved that wouldn't come forward, so

don't know exactly how much. We do know it was in the millions.

For her role in helping Arch Leaster, Anita Barney is charged with theft and

sentenced to three years probation.

I'm glad it happened because I wanted to be punished for what I did. I felt so

bad about lying to my friends and hurting them.

that I was fine with it.

I deserved it.

To pay her $400 ,000 restitution, Barney must auction all her personal items and

her home will soon be taken by the bank.

All because, Anita says, she tried to help a man she thought she owed for his

kind gesture long ago.

I was just trying to be a nice guy and help somebody.

It wasn't like, oh, I'm going to get in with him to do all this conniving and

stealing. It wasn't that at all.

I just wanted to help him.

Today, Arch Leister sits in a federal prison in South Carolina.

The former Gridiron Great's health is failing, and his brain is battered from

years of abuse on the football field.

His health is not real good. He does have Parkinson's disease and dementia.

And has the tremors that comes with Parkinson's. You know, the doctors are

convinced his brain is full of CTE from probably 17 or more concussions they

diagnosed him with going back to junior high school.

Armchair quarterbacks can debate whether sickness or greed ruined Arch Leaster.

But one thing is certain.

His own demons destroyed him.

And unfortunately, he took a lot of people with him when he went down.

On the next American Greed.

A hero cop lives a double life.

His plan worked perfect.

The evidence, the controversy.

American Greed, next.

CNBC, get yours.

Mind your business.

Seriously, go start one.