All language subtitles for McMillion$.S01E02

MAN:
From 1989 to 2001,

there were almost
no legitimate winners

in the McDonald's Monopoly game.

I mean, how crazy bullshit
is that? (LAUGHS)

(CASH REGISTER DINGS)

McDonald's makes french fries
and apple pies.

They don't make marketing.

MAN 2: Simon Marketing actually
produced and came up with

the Monopoly game.

The FBI told us the game pieces
are being stolen.

MAN: And the person
who's controlling this

is this Uncle Jerry.

We had this one shot.

I wanted to burn down
the criminal enterprise.

So, we were on the wire taps

to find out the depths
of this scheme.

MAN 3: We did an analysis
of past winners' phone records.

MAN 4: All these phone calls
include Jerome Jacobson,

also known as Jerry Jacobson,

head of security
for Simon Marketing.

[bright tone]

[dramatic music]

[indistinct chatter]

- Hey, here's a man who looks

like he has something to say.

- Are we all set, Ronnie?
- Well, I bet!

Oh!
- Hey, careful.

- Looks like he's got flubber

shoes on, too, today.

[laughter]

- A wonderful anonymous donor

mailed a Mono--a Monopoly
game piece,

and right here
in the middle of it

was a little winning ticket
of $1 million.

- Whoa!
- Hey, wow!

[cheers and applause]

[dramatic music]

- Somebody won
a $1 million Monopoly game

at McDonald's,
and God bless him,

decided to send that money
to the children of St. Jude.

- Well, this is a great day.

Uh, we and McDonald's have
a game going,

which, uh, a person won
a game piece

in--in Texas and mailed it
to St. Jude's anonymously

and, uh, McDonald's worked out
a way to pay the game piece

even though it could--really
can't be transferred.

- It's just a wonderful
Christmas story

that someone would give
that way anonymously

and not want any recognition,

uh, for the children
at St. Jude.

♪ ♪

- The McDonald's Monopoly game
went back to 1987

and so we didn't know how long
the contest was fixed.

- St. Jude's was listed
as a winner which,

you know, was, uh,
certainly an anomaly.

We didn't know if this
is part of this conspiracy.

- We didn't know how
Jerry Jacobson

was involved
in this fraud scheme

or if he was Uncle Jerry.

I mean, at first you just think
it's an alias name

but at least it was
at least half of the name.

- Hey, help me,
Fred, will you?

Ooh, this is heavy.
Ooh, ooh!

- Odds of finding
the winning piece

were one
in more than 206,000,000.

Odds of someone giving it away,
Heaven only knows.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[seagulls squawking]

- My name is Marvin Braun.
I live in Miami, Florida.

Jerry Jacobson
is my stepbrother, yes.

He is my stepbrother.

- Yeah, I mean we grew up as--

I don't think
brother brothers,

but we grew up close.

We're only a week apart
in age.

His dream in life was always
becoming an FBI agent.

- There I was out
on my first assignment.

- It never worked out,

but it's funny.
It's a funny story.

If you said to me
to describe this story,

I would say,
"Don't believe it,"

but it's true.

Don't believe it.
[laughs]

Just weird.

It's just weird
how it happened.

[tense music]

He had discussed about
the game pieces one time.

I think it was 1989
and we had discussed

how, you know, he--he would
be able to possibly get

the $25,000 game piece,
and, um, you know,

if we could do something with
it and, you know, whatever.

♪ ♪

A month later
or six weeks later--

I don't remember--
he showed up with a piece.

And he says, uh, cash it in.

There was an 800 number
to, uh, call, which I did,

and they gave me instructions.
I went to the post office.

I registered it--whatever the
words are at the post office--

and everything else,
and I sent it in.

♪ ♪

I think I was the first person
to turn a ticket in.

♪ ♪

He knew I knew--I, um--
I'd keep my mouth shut.

I guess that's the right way
of saying it.

He trusted me with it,
you know?

- No.

No.

♪ ♪

- So we were looking into

Simon Marketing's
"Jerry Jacobson."

♪ ♪

Once we got
the title III surveillance

listening to phone calls,

we had him on the wire
all day, all night.

- So we had thought,

"Hey, this may be
the main guy."

So then we started focusing
more on trying

to figure out who he was.

- After really digging into

this Jerome Jacobson
background,

we discovered among
other things that, you know,

he had been a police officer
in--in Hollywood, Florida.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- To become a police officer,

you have to be
a level-headed individual.

Honesty and trustworthiness
is paramount.

Jerry Jacobson was a patrolman

and, uh, he came to me in
the parking lot one morning.

At that time I was
investigating the death

of a newborn baby.

We had no leads at all,

and Jerry told me that he had
some psychic friends

that read about the case

and that they were willing
to assist.

My reaction was I was grateful

and I did take him up
on the offer.

I don't know that there's
anything wrong

having psychics as friends.

I thought that
was pretty wonderful.

- I met Jerry at the
Hollywood Police Department.

We both were on the same squad

and we started about
the same time,

and one day he showed up
at my front door

to inform me that my boyfriend
was cheating on me.

So that's how I met Jerry.

[laughing]

[dramatic music]

We dated off and on,

and there were some good times
and some bad times,

but, um, we got married
in Tennessee.

I think it was '81,

and Jerry became a stepfather
to my sons.

- This big long silence isn't
gonna be in there, is it?

[laughing]

[distant car passing]

One day he started to shave

and he couldn't reach
all the way up to shave.

It was difficult,

and it was getting
more difficult

every time he tried to move.

By noon,
he couldn't lift his arms...

He couldn't lift his arms,
period,

so I took him to the hospital.

[distant siren blaring]

And they ran the test
for multiple sclerosis

and Guillain-Barré
and a couple of other things

and he had the Guillain-Barré.

He says he's got MS...

[dramatic music]

But technically
it was Guillain-Barré

and I--I took leave
from my work

and spent time
at the hospital with him

'cause his mother was gonna
put him in a nursing home.

♪ ♪

I gave him 15 minutes a day
to feel sorry for himself

and after that 15 minutes,
we're gonna work,

'cause I felt like
if we kept working,

maybe we could stay ahead
of the paralysis.

So I fed him
and gave him showers

and walked him
up and down the hall

and all that stuff.

♪ ♪

After six or eight months,

he finally turned around
before it got

to his respiratory system.

It was getting there,

but it didn't quite take over.

So--and then the next day;

after the next couple of days,
it stabilized,

and then started turning around
a little bit.

♪ ♪

- There's always a question,

why somebody leaves a
law enforcement career early.

Many times there's
a good reason,

but--but there's always
a question.

It's not typical.

Um, and--and in his case,
you know,

we learned that he had,
you know--

he had a--a condi--health
condition or an accident that,

you know,
had him go out, I guess,

on a disability.

- He moved to Atlanta because
there was a doctor in Atlanta

or a hospital that dealt
with nothing but MS.

I think the MS really threw
his life completely

because I think he always

wanted to be
in law enforcement,

and having the MS
completely changed his life.

[dramatic music]

- We moved
to Atlanta together.

I got a job shortly after
we came here in security.

He started getting better...

♪ ♪

And at that point,

he wanted to go back to work.

Simon Marketing offered him
a job working security

for the Monopoly promotions.

♪ ♪

- We as the FBI could not
and logically would not

march into Simon Marketing

and start asking questions
about Jerry and that process.

You know, generally when the
FBI starts asking questions,

people, you know--
people get--

get a little spun up
and wonder, really, why.

- We were working hand in hand
with McDonald's

just trying to figure out
how much they knew

about Simon Marketing.

Surprisingly, McDonald's
didn't know much

about the process that
Simon Marketing went through

with their promotional games.

- I wasn't familiar
with Simon Marketing at all

until this investigation began.

After that meeting
with the FBI,

I realized that I needed
to learn a little bit more

about Simon Marketing
and the promotion,

so I set up a meeting
with Simon Marketing

under the guise of
trying to learn how

the security procedures
were in place.

[dramatic music]

- We were able
to enlist McDonald's

to do these inquiries
on our behalf,

but I think also
on their behalf, too.

- Yeah, yeah, no.

We--we would--we would have

not told McDonald's.

Because if we're wrong,

we've--we've sullied
somebody's reputation

for no good reason.

- I don't know how much
he was making at Simon.

His wife was working.

I don't know
if he needed the money.

- No, I think he said
he has a contact

to get them or something.

I think it was contact.
It was not him.

It was not him.

It was not him.

- He--go ahead.
I'm--

- He--he--he gave me the idea

it was not him
stealing the tickets,

that he had a contact how
to get the tickets.

I was under the impression
Jerry was the security for it.

In other words,

that another person
was taking the tickets

or whatever.
I wasn't sure.

I thought Jerry was security.

[tense music]

- When I met
with Simon Marketing,

we went through
the security procedures

and the procedures
at the printing press.

They actually had
a very thorough

and comprehensive operation
for ensuring the security

and integrity of their--
of our game pieces,

so I was very pleased
with what I saw.

♪ ♪

- McDonald's reports
that at the facility there,

it was incredibly secure
and that this idea

that--that things
are--are loose

or that they could walk
right out of there

was--was, you know,
almost impossible.

Highly un--highly,
highly unlikely.

The obvious question was
how this whole process worked.

How were--how were game
pieces printed, distributed?

- Simon Marketing had these
game pieces made

just north of Atlanta

by a secure printing business.

♪ ♪

[country music]

♪ ♪

- My name is Jack Sisk.

I actually was working
in security at Dittler

when--for around 15 years,
actually.

- My name's Perry Pealock,

and I was
the bindery supervisor.

- Name's Doyle Grant,
and I was shipping clerk.

- My name's Gilben Peeples,
and I was the parch clerk

in the maintenance department.

- Dittler Brothers Printing

was a very secure
printing company,

and that's how we got into
the lottery business

and into scratch-off games.

- And I think that's
one of the reasons

that we got the U.S.
postage stamp job

because the federal
government said,

"Hey, this place
is really secure,"

'cause we got that
and it went real well.

- And then it grew from there.

You know,
three or four years,

and McDonald's millions
and millions of dollars

to pay to print all this stuff.

- I was the director
of security

for Dittler Brothers
between 1987 and 2000,

and I worked with Jerry when
they were running Monopoly

because Simon and Dittler
were real close.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- We had people
in Dittler Brothers 24 hours.

The Dittler Brothers facility
was very secure.

You had to go through
a guard shack

to get into the facility,

you had to sign in when

you got into the facility,

then you had to go through

another guard
to get into the room

where the state lotteries
are being produced

along with our game pieces.

- When Monopoly was running,

it would just about take

everything
in the plant running,

it would get so big.

That was our largest customer
by a long shot.

You're talking
hundreds of millions

of game pieces,
you know.

- When we did press runs
of winners,

we pretty much surrounded
the press.

They had alarm systems.

They had cameras.

The gate was opened
and it wasn't us,

alarm would go off.

- Well, we had a big vault

we had the winners in.

♪ ♪

- There were two locks.

It's almost like, you know,
back in the Cold War,

you'd have two people
in a missile silo,

and it takes two.

- Jerry was in there for Simon

to make sure that
Dittler Brothers

were doing their jobs.

Jerry would stand behind
and look over their shoulder

and get their combination.

Then he would raise holy hell

because we allowed him
to do that.

- All the game pieces
that were produced

by Dittler Brothers
were loaded on trucks.

- Security would actually
physically lock

the back of the truck.

- Once that truck left,

we normally would get
on an airplane,

fly to that city,

and meet the truck
the next morning

to unlock it,
break the seal,

verify what was loaded.

- My name's Brian Litteral.

I worked
security/quality control

for the games that McDonald's
usually ran.

We would bring
the labels out--

free drinks,
free fries--

and the two pieces
would assemble together,

the label on top of the cup.

[dramatic music]

The higher-level winners was
done by a completely different

more secure process.

I would usually get a call
saying that Jerry was gonna be

coming in with, uh,
an independent auditor.

♪ ♪

- Dittler Security
has to be there,

Simon has to be there,

the auditor has to be there,

and the customer service rep
has to be there,

and they all witnessed
the winner run.

- The auditor would unlock
the suitcase.

There was an envelope inside

with signatures across
the seal

to make sure that it was still
the same contents

as to when it was packaged,

and inside there,

there would be a certain
number of seeds.

This is what a seed
would look like,

one of which
was a high-level winner.

The rest were commons,

and then I would insert them

in various production lines.

- No one knew,

and no one was supposed
to know,

where the high-level
winner was.

♪ ♪

- So you go into
the McDonald's,

you open up the game piece,

and maybe you're a instant
$1 million winner.

- I won!
- I won!

- And so when these
game pieces got

to the Simon Marketing
redemption center,

and it goes through
the process of,

"Do we have a real winner..."

♪ ♪

They literally would be opened
by a person with gloves--

it is all being recorded--

and there would always
be an error made

in the winning game piece.

Say, on one corner there's
a little chip

out of the word.

- We also write on
the $1 million winner

a little code on there
with a--a black light pen

that you can't see.

So if you show up with a piece

that doesn't have
the code on it,

you're gonna get caught
real soon.

♪ ♪

- We were always
a little bit overboard

but, uh, you know,
we protected McDonald's,

and--and I think that's
a major reason they used us,

and, uh, of course
Jerry was in there

sort of telling them
how it needed to be built.

- Everybody liked Jerry.

I mean, everybody
in the office liked Jerry.

He wasn't real flashy.

We always had Thanksgiving.

Everybody sort of brought in
a potluck at Thanksgiving,

and Jerry always
brought in ribs,

and his ribs were delicious.

They would just fall
off the bone, you know?

So everybody looked forward
to his ribs,

but, uh, he didn't seem
to be big-headed at all.

- And he was always
very generous.

If he made ribs for himself,

he would make them
for the whole office.

Jerry was--he's
a generous fellow.

We got divorced,

and even when
he was married again

and I needed something,

he would be right there.

There's nothing stingy
about him at all.

After we got divorced,

it was like even though
he was the head

of security for Simon,

he still worked
under my guidelines

in Dittler Brothers.

I told him
if he stole anything,

I'd kill him.
[laughs]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Exciting.
I'm not gonna lie.

It was exciting
and everything else,

and, uh, you know,
I deposited it,

and we split it.

Down the road,

he came to me and he said that

he could do bigger pieces.

I--I'd not cashed in anything
but a $25,000 ticket,

and I didn't want
any parts of them.

At that time,

I was going to New York, like,
every Tuesday morning

and coming home
every Wednesday night.

I was buying maternity clothes
in New York

for my maternity shop.

So I approached two people who

were manufacturers in New York

that I dealt with for
many, many, many years

and I approached them
if they would be interested

in possibly doing
a deal with Jerry.

- I'd rather not mention names.

- No.
There we--I'm pretty s--

well, maybe his nieces
and nephews.

[laughing]

No, I never heard anybody
refer to him as Uncle Jerry.

[dramatic music]

- For a while,

the question was,
"Well, who is Uncle Jerry?"

Oh, well there's a Jerry
Jacobson working at Simon.

That must be Uncle Jerry.

But there was always this
inference maybe that

Uncle Jerry was--was somehow
connected to organized crime--

Italian organized crime

because the Uncle connotation
gives this kind of

almost like a, you know,
Godfather-ish sort of moniker.

♪ ♪

And we found out that
there was another Jerry

involved in this
named Jerry Colombo.

- People everywhere
are winning big

playing the Monopoly game
at McDonald's.

Jerry Colombo won
a Dodge Viper,

and there are two
$1 million prizes left.

- My name is Frank Colombo.

I'm brother
of "Jerry" Gennaro Colombo.

- And I'm Heather Colombo,

and I am Frank Colombo's wife.

- I really wanted him
to keep the car.

You know, I was, you know,
a young guy.

Like, hey, a Dodge Viper?
That'd be pretty damn cool.

Can I borrow it?

Uh, but it was too small.

I mean, he was a big guy.

Um, but it was kinda funny

'cause all off--all of my
friends were calling me,

"Hey, your brother won--
won the car.

Oh, my God!"

And I'm sitting go--laughing

in the back of my head going,

"Yeah, okay, he won the car.
Sure."

You know, it was kinda--
it was just amusing

that people believed it.

It worked.

[both laughing]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- I'm Robin Colombo.

My husband is Jerry Colombo--
Gennaro Colombo.

♪ ♪

He was part of the Colombo
crime family.

♪ ♪

That commercial,
that almost cost him his life,

because he wasn't supposed
to do a commercial.

- Because he's a ham.

He was even gonna be
in a movie

with Jackie Chan,
as a matter of fact.

I said, "What?
That don't even sound right.

You, a big-ass Sicilian,
and a Chinaman,

in a western?
I said, "Oh, my God."

And it was that
"Shanghai Noon--Night,"

whatever it is.
It was that.

- Ma, come get this dog
outta here.

- The Sicilian culture,
of course, is family first

no matter what,

but when I met her,

I didn't want her
to know my last name,

'cause I wanted her to know me
and not my family.

- As a matter of fact,

for the first three
to four months,

I didn't even know his name.

He would go by a completely
different name,

and only did I see a bracelet
on his wrist one day

and I questioned him
on the name that said Frank C.

I mean,
this is entirely different

from the name that he gave me.

- Yes, uh, she--I
went by Tony Ayanatti.

[both laughing]

I kinda keep that
in the background, you know?

Not too many people know
who my family is until now.

[upbeat music]

- Five families
have run New York's

Italian-American mafia.

The names are familiar:

Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese,

Lucchese, and Colombo.

- Police in Brooklyn
pulled a man's body

out of the water
duct-taped inside a blue tarp.

Police say someone also tied
a cinder block

to the victim's ankles.

- My name is Joe Colombo.

I should be treated the same
as anybody else.

- Joe Colombo:

real estate broker,
mafia boss,

and one of the biggest con men

in the history
of organized crime.

- What was your reaction when
you learned that this shooting

had occurred at the Colombos'?

- I just heard, like, shots--
about eight shots,

and it's--I didn't think
they were shots.

I thought they were
firecrackers.

- His high profile
caused rival mob bosses

to okay his murder.

- The man some called

an underworld boss.

♪ ♪

- My brother wasn't the normal,
you know--

when you want "The Sopranos,"
you know,

and he's, uh--the guy's talking
to them, you know,

all, "Hey, forget about it,"

and all this kind of nonsense.

- Forget about it.
- Forget about it.

- Ah, forget about it.

- Forget about it.

- [screaming]
[blows landing]

- That's--that's the movies.

Now, did he do things
like that?

Absolutely, you know?

But he did it with humor.

You know, more like,
I guess--

I guess if you got, uh,
Marlon Brando and Joe Pesci

and put them together,

you'd probably end up
with my brother.

[both laughing]

You know?
That's pretty much it.

- That was it.

- Uh, now that
I think about this,

if you got Al Capone
and Rodney Dangerfield

and mashed them together,

you get my brother.
I think that's a good analogy.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- The first time I met Jerry,

we looked at each other,

and it was like the chemistry
between us was crazy.

Um, like you see in a cartoon,
you know,

everything like,
"Boom, boom."

I was having a long-distance
relationship

with a federal agent.

It was not that fun.

And, um,
Jerry was fun,

so I chose him.

My father was military
and strict.

Very strict.

So, yeah, that didn't
go over so well,

but I didn't care.

- [singing in
foreign language]

- I rebelled.

- [singing in
foreign language]

- We were married
in Panama City, Florida.

It wasn't as extravagant
as you would think

because I was pregnant,

so no Catholic wedding.

- [singing in
foreign language]

- My brother Jerry
had his hands

in a lot of different avenues.

He had some, uh, bookieing
things that he was doing

with bookies and what have you.

Uh, he was in charge of, uh,
security at the Taj Mahal

for a few years.

Uh, that was the old,

uh, Trump Taj Mahal.

Uh, he would gamble and, uh,

he would win a lot.

I don't know if it was--that
was rigged as well.

Possibly.
Everything's rigged in life.

- Trust nothing anymore.
- Yeah.

He was always looking at a way

to make some good easy money.

- You know we had the little
gray M&M as well.

Did you know that?

Okay, I used to smoke
a half a joint a night.

I needed to relax.

I need to put on
something funny

and just let me chill.

[laughs]

Well...

When I would wake up
in the middle of the night,

I had to have something sweet,

so I had Reese's cups
down in the kitchen, right?

So he had to let me know
there was a gray M&M

wrapped in aluminum foil
and he told me,

"Don't touch it."

- The rules say if you find

the gray imposter M&M's,

the winning bag could be worth

$1 million!

- Show me the money!

- And then, um, he says,

"You're also gonna win
a Publishers Clearing House,"

where they come
to your door and knock.

- You have won
$1 million

from Publishers
Clearing House.

- I can't believe it!

- This is the truth!

- Real people really win

the Publishers Clearing House
sweepstakes.

- They're probably gonna say,
"Oh, bullshit."

You know, all that,
but I'm just telling you

what my husband told me.

♪ ♪

Jerry wanted something big.

He kept threatening,

"You know, I can go
work for my uncles

up in New York,"
you know?

I'm like,
"Well, you know what?

I think it's time."
[laughs]

You know, you can spend
too much time with somebody

and you don't play golf
and, um,

I mean, the only golf club
he had was about this big

and that was, well...

[blow lands]

[upbeat music]

So he went up north
and he got with Uncle Dominic

who was a Godfather.

- No, they call that
out of respect.

He wasn't an actual uncle,

but he loved my husband

because my husband
was old school

full-blooded Sicilian.

He was hooking him up
with everything.

- My name's Jennifer Ethridge.

Robin Colombo's my mother.

Jerry Colombo is my stepfather.

You couldn't help not
to like him,

and especially with,
um, you know,

his "career" that he was into.

Um, it was definitely
intriguing.

At the time, you know,
he would show me

duffle bags of money
and whip it out.

"Oh, here you go.
Go buy you something nice."

You know?

And then I'd say

when I was about
15, 16 years old,

that's when Jerry got into
the Monopoly thing,

and then that definitely,
you know--

it was--that was a big deal.

He had promised me, um,
a $1 million ticket

whenever I turned 18,

because nobody could have
the same last name.

Sin--since my last name
was Ethridge,

um, you know,
I was gonna be able to--

to win a $1 million ticket,
and I was like,

"Oh, heck yeah.
Absolutely."

[chuckles]

- Uh, with the Monopoly
situation, um,

Uncle Dominic worked
for family members

in the New York division

and, um, a mutual friend
of his

kind of said,
"Hey, I got this guy

that's doing this and this.
You might be interested,"

and so forth and so on,

and, uh, that was Jerome

from Simon Marketing.

Uh, he was getting
the tickets.

[tense music]

- I don't know.
It could have been.

- I think Jerome possibly
started it on his own

in the beginning,

and then people got wind
of what he was doing

and then they said, "Hey,
let's see if we can use this

as an avenue to expand it,"

and I believe that was brought
to my brother's attention.

Say, "Hey, there's this guy,
he's doing this,

and let's see if we can
expand the, uh, horizon."

♪ ♪

- But then Jerry--
my Jerry--

received a phone call
that Uncle Dominic died.

- I--you know, you don't
really talk about that.

So anyway, my Jerry
and Jerry Jacobson

became partners on
the Monopoly thing.

♪ ♪

- Working any case
is like big puzzle.

You--you start with
a little piece,

and you've gotta try to vet
whether that is legitimate,

whether it has any merit to it.

- Here we go,
here we go.

The undercover portion

with Michael Hoover

went, you know--

went beyond expectations.

We had, you know,
Michael Hoover

calling AJ Glomb.

- We suspected Glomb
was a recruiter,

and he probably didn't
just recruit Hoover.

- Is there a connection
to Uncle Jerry?

- And so we started
looking into him,

and then expanded
into other phone lines

- We had coverage
on many lines,

including Jerry Jacobson,
AJ Glomb,

and a number of the winners.

- The spider web of all, like--

we didn't know
how big this was.

We--we had this Uncle Jer--
it was--

everything was very general,
nebulous.

So inside the--the wire room,

people sitting there,
getting ready to listen,

and nothing happens, right?

You put
all this effort into it,

and nothing happens.

You're spending your weekend
doing that.

- Unfortunately, in these
conversations on the wire,

the winners mostly
had innocuous conversations

that have nothing
to do with the crime,

so we start coming up with,
"All right,

"how do we get past winners
to recount how they

allegedly won these pieces?"

- I said, "Look,
we can do this.

"Why don't we bring
all these past winners

to Vegas?"
I just said Vegas.

It's all I said.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

I don't know
why I picked Vegas.

Probably 'cause
of the fun mere thing,

which is the immediate, "No!"
You know?

But I said,
"Hey, just hear me out.

"Let's do a reunion
of all these past winners.

Let's bring all these people
together to tell us,"

'cause we didn't know
their stories.

Tell us how they won these,

and what they did with it,
that kind of thing,

'cause, you know,
McDonald's has big pockets.

They get some all-expenses
paid trip to Vegas,

balloons falling
and the confetti,

and they love that shit.

You know, the questions were,

"Mathews,
where are you gonna do this?"

Embassy Suites.

Take the whole floor,

rope everything off, right?

Just in case stupid shows up
and you have them all line up

in these rooms

and just arrest them all

at the same time, right?

Great thing.

[mimics buzzer sound]
No.

No way in hell.

- [laughs]

No, Doug.
Not gonna do that.

[laughs]

How much is that gonna cost us?
[laughs]

We--you know, we did have some
budgets to deal with, you know?

So--

- I can't remember what it was.

It was like,
"Get him out of here."

You know,
whatever it was.

"I can't believe
you said that."

- Doug is one of the
hardest-working agents

I've ever met in my life.

Very creative, you know?
He'll do anything.

He'll try anything,
and he can talk forever.

He is relentless.

[chuckles]

- This idea of
"hosting" a reunion

of past winners in Las Vegas,
you know,

seemed so outlandish up front,

and then we realized,
"Well, wait a minute.

"If you're not gonna
follow through with it,

you can promise--"
[laughs]

"You can promise some
pretty elaborate things."

Everybody likes to go to Vegas,

so in preparation
for that wonderful conference

that we were gonna have
all expense paid,

we could contact
these winners,

go out and film them to
capture their so-called story,

and then the carrot was you
get this trip to--to Vegas.

- Rick was freaked out
about it,

but I wasn't.

Remember, I'm the guy
that's just, you know,

"You know this is gonna work,"

'cause I know it is, right?

It's all a shamrock, baby.
Shamrock.

[dramatic music]

- I was the direct contact
with the winners,

so I could legitimize
all of the information.

It was all recorded and,
you know,

it was 17 years ago,

so it was a big tape recorder
that I carried around

in a black McDonald's
briefcase.

I even carried it
to my friend's wedding

in Jackson Hole because,
you know,

I had to be able to tape
the calls whenever they came.

It's like
I had to flip the tapes

I'd be like,

"Can I put you on hold
for a second?"

You know, and then
I'd flip the tapes

and then put them back on.

[tense music]

- Amy would call them up
and say, "Hey, look,

"we're putting together
this media release

"of previous winners,
how they won it,

"what they did with it,

"some of their story that

"it hasn't been really told.

You know, we'll come to you
or you can come to us."

Wherever we were gonna do it,

whatever hotel that you want.

Nobody said no to that.

Most everybody was like,

"Tell me when we're going
to Vegas."

- Obviously we were not
gonna do a reunion,

um, but to the winners,

we told them, uh,

"We're planning this
big reunion,"

and we started
to get them actually

excited to be
going to Las Vegas.

- That was kind of fundamental
that was a bit of a ruse.

We, you know--we didn't make
reservations in Las Vegas.

I think the pitch was,
you know,

"We're gonna put your story
up on the big screen

"and, you know,
over a dinner,

"and everybody's gonna clap.

Are you interested

in the reunion of winners?"

And of course they are.

Well, locking them into

a story on camera

takes a B minus case
and makes it, you know,

an A, A plus case.

[distant cars passing]

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪

- My name is Doug Astralaga,

I'm an FBI agent,

and I was the lighting guy

for the Shamrock production

in the McDonald's case.

Oh, so this is the little--

yeah, I remember this.

[laughs]

♪ ♪

- Doug Astralaga was
a relatively young agent.

Uh, you know,
real--real enthusiastic,

uh, charismatic guy.

- When I came out of Quantico,

I wanted to do
something exciting.

- Originally I had stuck him
with the admin agent

on this title III,

which is, uh,
of all the jobs,

probably the most thankless.

I mean, it--it really is a--
a brutal job,

but there's a reward process
that happens,

so in Doug's case,

we let him
work on the undercover

with--with Doug Mathews
as the--

the "lighting guy."

- I had no idea
what I was doing.

I was just using
this light meter

and pressing something
on this going,

"It's great."

This is--I still have no idea
how to use one of these.

[laughs]

Excellent, but I do believe

we need more lighting
over here.

♪ ♪

Really, the point was
to engage them

in conversations.

That had to reconcile with what

they had originally stated
for McDonald's

to win the prize.

- We recorded these
interviews with them

so the FBI could then
match the timeline

match the facts.

What they originally
told McDonald's,

what they're telling us
on camera,

what the FBI
sort of already knew.

- So that once we had
the evidence showing that

you know you didn't
win this legitimately,

you've lied to the FBI,

and here's the evidence
to prove it,

they would be more willing
to cooperate.

- Yes.

- The FBI was merely--when--
when the FBI took a film crew

to a winner,

that winner had already
contacted Simon Marketing,

hence McDonald's,

claiming to have been a winner.

They're already saying,
"I did this,

and this is how I obtained
this game piece."

An individual could never claim
that's entrapment

because they did it before
the law enforcement

was involved.

Entrapment is to have
law enforcement

put the idea into
the person's head

and to get them to do something

they otherwise
wouldn't have done.

We weren't saying,

"Say this, say this,
and say that."

We were saying,
"How?

What?

Where?

Who?"

Those are just opportunities

for him to fill in the blanks

and tell us
what he wants to tell us.

- Remember just keep
looking at me.

- Okay.

- And if you mess up
or you feel like

you wanna say it again,

we can start all over again.
- Okay.

And I'll try to limit
my hand gestures.

Sometimes it gets in there so
I'll make sure I don't do that.

Um, okay, why don't we go back
to that day that you won

in New Hampshire
and can you just sort of

describe the day for us?

What you were doing in the
morning and at work and then--

- It was a, uh--a summer day.

Uh, no, wait, uh,
I wasn't working.

It was Sunday,
as a matter of fact.

Uh...

And there wasn't a whole lot
of work to do,

so, uh, you know,

just browsing through
the Sunday paper

as I am want to do.

- He was fumbling through it
trying to figure out

how he won that
particular piece.

In reality,

a life experience like that

is drilled into your
memory forever and ever.

Nobody wins $1 million
on a regular basis.

- Uh, I found the insert

and I found the, uh,

little tear-off tab

and I got cold,
very cold.

- He was sweating so bad.

Like, I know at some point, um,
Amy even said to me,

"Every time you ask him
a question,

it's like I gotta get
the towel to dot his head."

It was pouring out...

- Uh--

- Because he was lying
about everything.

- Well, suffice it to say,

I just--I just got cold
all over.

- No, I, uh, first I wasn't--
I wasn't so sure about it.

I went to a lawyer.

- [laughs]
- I did.

I want--you know,
you need to protect yourself

and, uh--

- No, I don't.
Uh--

- No, it was, um--
oh...

Over in, uh--
oh...

- You could zoom in,
'cause we did,

zoom in on his forehead

and you could just see
the sweat.

[tense music]

- Yes.
- Okay.

- Yeah, um--

- I'm leaky.
- [giggles]

- You know,
and I'd say stuff like,

"Hey, so nobody, like,
called you up and said,

"'Hey, we need you to be
a winner,' or whatever?"

And he'd go, "God, no!
I'd never do that!"

And it just--just pours.
The sweat would pour.

I went to a lawyer,

uh, and he advised me to pr--

at all cost,
protect my identity.

- It just seemed odd to me that
many of the people I talked to

did not want to come forward

and they seemed
to have knowledge

about what their
legal rights were

about, uh,
being anonymous or not.

- Buddy Fisher was the father
of Robin Colombo,

uh, who was married
to Jerry Colombo.

[dramatic music]

- I'll never forget it.

I was upstairs
in my bedroom,

and my father called me

and there wasn't
many words exchanged.

He just said,
"I want the big one,"

so I knew what it meant.

- He did get one
of the $1 million tickets

and he had never broken a law
in his entire life.

One stipulation
that my grandfather made,

um, he says, "Okay, If I--
if I get this ticket,

I do not--I'm--I'm not doing
a commercial."

[phone rings]

But I remember we would be

getting phone calls,

and they would talk
to my grandfather

and say, "Hey, we're trying
to get all of the, um--

the Monopoly winners together
for some kind of reunion,"

or something like that.

I wanna say it was Vegas,

so he did make that trip.

- Now, had your wife or anyone
in your whole family

ever won anything
like that before?

- No, no.
- Never?

- Nothing.
- So this was big.

- It--huge.

- So you're the luckiest one
in your family, huh?

- Yes, yes.
- [laughs]

- So has any of your kids
or grandkids played Monopoly

or tried to win
or anything like that?

- Yes, yes,
and we still do.

- Oh, good.
- And we still do, yes.

- Have any of them won
any cars or--

- No.
- [chuckles]

- I think I won a cheeseburger.

- [laughs]

- You s--he did do one?

I did not know that.

Oh.
Okay, yeah.

I di--I did not know that.

Hmm.
Okay.

Wow.
[laughs]

Is that around?

[laughs]

[upbeat music]

- You know,
the greed was crazy here,

which is great for us.
[laughs]

[jazz music]

♪ ♪

- One night Jerry and I

were out with our wives
to dinner

and we went
to the men's room together.

That sounds horrible but we
went to the men's room together

and Jerry gave me
a $1 million ticket.

- This is for you.

And I told him,
"I don't wanna be involved.

I really don't."

I--I had not cashed in anything

but a $25,000 ticket.

I told him I didn't need
the $1 million.

I told him I was out of it.

I said, "Jerry, you know what?

"I don't know what you did
with these guys,

"how much you made,
or anything else.

"There's a time
and there's a place.

Stop," and everything else.

He said, "Well, just do
something with the ticket."

[distant classical
music playing]

So I took the ticket and I
flushed it down the toilet.

[toilet flushes]

- Didn't--nothing.
Zero.

- I didn't, either.
How's that?

Yeah, how's that?
I didn't either.

No.

I knew I was doing
the right thing.

And Jerry had told me
it was over and that was it.

[distant classical
music playing]

I'm telling you,

the night I flushed that ticket
down the toilet,

I thought it was over.

I thought it was over.

I swear to you
on everything holy,

I thought it was over.

[dramatic music]

- If I even suspected
he was taking tickets,

I would have told on him
in a heartbeat,

and he knew it.

And I think that's why
I didn't know it.

I--I bet that's why
I didn't get a ticket.

[laughing]

♪ ♪

After Jerry got sick with this
Guillain-Barré syndrome,

there was something different
in him.

Even though he was
well on the road to mending,

he could have repercussions
later on

being crippled or bedridden
or dead.

♪ ♪

So he had nothing to lose
at that point.

♪ ♪

- My husband, Jerry,

we got a lot of
my family members involved,

and that isn't all.

My family members that won,

that was just a little piece
of the pie.

[door creaking]

[crickets chirping]

You had Al Capone
with the prohibition.

♪ ♪

You had Mike Franzese
with the gas,

and then now you have this--
the Monopoly.

That's really the highest
three moneymakers

of the mob so far.

♪ ♪

My husband picked the winners.

He had tickets.
He flew everywhere.

I think Uncle Jerry may have
even got a little jealous.

- "Uncle Jerry"
is Jerome Jacobson.

And Jerry is my husband,
Jerry Colombo.

Jacobson became Uncle Jerry

because that's
an Italian thing.

My husband gave him that
out of respect.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- If your general opinion
of mankind

is running kind of low
this holiday season,

here's a story that might
make you feel much,

much better about
the human race.

♪ ♪

- St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital

in Memphis has received
a very unusual gift.

[car engine revving]

♪ ♪

- Yeah, that's--that's
Uncle Jerry.

♪ ♪

- Hospital officials
are calling this

a gift from an angel

in the true spirit
of the season.

♪ ♪

- This is a happy day.
Whoo-hoo!

♪ ♪

- If you're out there
and you hear me,

we love you.

[energetic music]

♪ ♪

[bright tone]

My brother took this little,
small operation
and made it huge.

Literally, it was a monopoly
of scams.

(CASH REGISTER DINGS)

The winners,
they would just lie, lie, lie.

We can push, and you never know
when you're gonna hit a wall.

There was things
that nobody knew.

And I just kept it all
to myself.

I thought, "I'm never
gonna get out of this."

I was about to panic.

I had no other option but to
take this process through.

The money got too big.

FRANK COLOMBO:
With that comes a price.

(GUN CLICKS)

(CASH REGISTER DINGS)