All language subtitles for Very Scary People s06e02 Sun Gym Sadists.eng

[man speaking]

[theme music playing]

Welcome to Very Scary People.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Miami in the '90s,

it was a time and place
where glamour and money

influenced its residents.

But there was also a dark side
to this sun-drenched city.

Brutal and grotesque crimes
are being committed

by a crew of bodybuilders,

wannabes, and misfits.

Their violence
is fueled by greed,

and later became the subject
of a Hollywood comedy.

But there is nothing funny
about this crew.

This is the Sun Gym Sadists.

[man] Bodies that were found,

dismembered and stuffed
into 55-gallon drums,

that were then thrown
into South Florida canals.

These guys have
two dead bodies.

"How are we gonna
get rid of them?"

They want to get rid
of the parts of their body that can identify them.

Decapitate them.

And remove the victims'

hands and feet.

And they start prying
and axing the face

to get all of the teeth out.

And then they take
the hands and they're...

grilling them like a barbecue.

This is a human being.

Look what they did.

To do these things
that they did,

they're evil people.

[woman 1]
I was watching the news,

and all of a sudden I see

mugshots

of Danny Lugo

and Adrian Doorbal.

And I about fell over.

I couldn't believe it.

I was just...

I was just in total shock.

In the '90s,

Miami was all about...

[engine roaring]

...fast cars, and money,
and jewelry,

and good-looking people,

and models, and parties.

South Beach was
a nightclub type of

beautiful place.

It was the place to be.

Everybody

walks around in shorts

and tank tops
and bikinis and...

So fitness is

super important.

[Donnie] That wild and wealthy
South Beach lifestyle

is exactly what
25-year-old Danny Lugo

is looking for.

Danny Lugo was
a transplanted New Yorker

who came to Florida.

[Andrea] Danny was handsome.

He always took care
of how he looked.

He had charisma.

Danny was one of those people

that I could see

conning somebody
into something

very easily.

[woman 2]
But I think Danny Lugo

suffered from some
self-esteem issues,

some wanting to belong,
some feeling of inadequacy.

He grew up quite poor.

So, reportedly he had a lisp.

That's got
to be real difficult,

especially if you're
a beefy guy

and you're supposed
to be tough.

And, you know, a lisp tends to

make people make
different kinds of associations about you.

It just sounds like Lugo had

some resentments
and some desires

to belong as well,

coming from his background.

Danny had probably

a little bit atypical life

at home. It certainly wasn't
Leave It to Beaver.

There were money problems
between his parents.

His father had a temper
and his father drank,

which made it
not a perfect childhood.

[woman 3]
His dad could get abusive.

There was an incident where

he poured
a big plate of spaghetti

over his head because Danny
didn't want to eat it.

[Laura]
Being a child of an alcoholic

puts a lot of stress on a kid.

You've got to be

the achiever in the family.

You've got to make it big

so that we can
be comfortable, too.

[Gail] Danny portrayed himself

as the person that could bring
wealth to the family,

and actually got admitted

to Fordham University
in New York.

And he did very well,

except for one thing.

He didn't keep track
of his credits.

He was between four
and six credits short

of his bachelor's degree.

Well, for Danny, that just
wasn't going to stand.

He was getting that degree,

and he wanted that degree,

and he wasn't gonna take
any summer courses

and he wasn't gonna
take any fall courses.

He was graduating that June,

or he was quitting.

So he quit.

Danny was
the star of the family.

When he didn't
get that degree,

there was some level

of disappointment in him.

[Laura] That pressure can
make you work really hard.

It can also sometimes
maybe backfire

and make you

cut corners to get ahead.

[telephone ringing]

[Donnie] Fordham was a bust,

so Danny decides
to start fresh in Miami.

What he did was try to be

a businessman

and offer up loans.

He would get people
to give him

the down payment for the loan

and then he'd never
give them the loan.

And he racked up

tens of thousands
of dollars doing that.

I don't think there's
anything on this Earth

that man wouldn't do
for money.

Of course, these people
went to the police

and he was federally arrested.

He got a two-year
federal prison sentence

and he was sent to
a white-collar prison camp,

where he spent
his time working out

and probably talking to other

white-collar criminals.

[Donnie] 29-year-old Danny

is released from prison early,

having served only 15 months

of his original
two-year sentence.

[Alex] Lugo was coming off of
his federal conviction.

He was on probation

and looking for
a place to work.

Being a bodybuilder,
he approached

John Mese.

John Mese was kind of

a lifetime bodybuilder,

very involved in
bodybuilding competitions.

He had a bodybuilding business

that he was trying to grow.

So he purchased
a place called Sun Gym.

[Alex] Sun Gym seemed to be

a place where

a lot of seedy people
worked out.

[Gail]
Where in the locker room, you could freely use steroids

and not get in trouble.

[Laura]
Sun Gym definitely became

what we would think about
as criminal culture,

in that everybody there
got some hustle going on.

[Gail]
The equipment is expensive,

and John

was competing
with places like Gold's Gym,

LA Fitness.

And it started to really drain

his income.

[Alex]
Lugo sold him basically on

all these ideas
he had he thought

would make the gym grow.

Danny was born to sell.

He was born

to get people to like him.

And he really just learned

to listen to people

to know where
their weak spots were.

He had a natural talent.

[Donnie] Lugo uses that talent

to sell memberships at the gym

and to recruit
a new partner in crime.

[Sal] Adrian Doorbal
had come to

Miami, Florida

in the early '90s
from Trinidad.

[Atilla] Adrian did not really
talk about much

of his background.

[Donnie] Attila Weiland lives
outside the United States,

too terrified to return

after the events
of this story.

[Atilla] He told me that

originally he was
from Jamaica.

I knew it was a lie,

but, you know,
who am I to judge?

Maybe he was shameful

to be from Trinidad,
I don't know.

I have been to where

Doorbal grew up,

and he grew up in probably

the poorest place
I've ever been to in the world.

He had a really horrible

initial existence.

His mother was raped
by the next-door neighbor

when she birthed him
at 15 years old.

She was not able to care
for a baby at that age.

So his grandmother

raised him like a son.

He believed
until his late teens

that his mother
was his sister.

So when he started working
at a young age,

he thought his sister
was stealing his money.

[Laura] It shapes an idea
in your head that, like,

anybody will take money
in whatever way they can,

even my own family. So,

is it so big a deal
if I do that?

Adrian Doorbal was somebody

that wanted to be loved,

that wanted to be respected.

None of which he received
from his mom.

When Adrian was 18,

he went to America.

He wanted to make a life

in the United States.

[Andrea] I knew Adrian Doorbal

from working at
a fitness center

in Miami.

My first impression of Adrian

was that he was very humble.

And he was very gentle.

He wasn't making
a lot of money.

I think Adrian was looking
for people to look up to.

And I think he needed

a mentor.

He had aspirations to become

a bodybuilder, and hopefully

make some money in that way.

[man grunting]

[Andrea] He needed people that

were going to help him succeed

in getting what he wanted.

That's how he got with Danny.

[Laura] Doorbal and Danny

bonded around
similar backgrounds

of deprivation,

shame, humiliation,

expectation that you
want something that you

don't see how you're
gonna achieve legitimately.

They kind of
balanced each other

around that kind of
common background of

lack of self-worth.

[man grunting]

[Laura] And so sometimes,
as a result of that,

people adapt to it...

by committing horrible acts.

[man grunting]

[Andrea]
Danny made Adrian feel like

he could

be successful

and have whatever he wanted.

Danny had Doorbal
come to the gym.

[man grunting]

[Gail] Doorbal started getting
bigger and bigger.

Now Doorbal's
winning contests.

Mr. America contest.

People are coming in,
they want to train with Doorbal.

[Donnie] Adrian Doorbal
brings in new clients.

But selling gym memberships
one at a time

isn't gonna cut it
for Danny Lugo.

He wants big money fast.

Money became important
to these men

partly because they
didn't have a lot,

but also the Miami context,

where you're surrounded by
the glitz and glamour

of the Miami lifestyle,

and they're seeing this
and they're wanting that.

Danny was looking
for a fraud business,

but he didn't have one.

Then Jorge Delgado

drives up to Sun Gym

because he's skinny

and he'd like to
build himself up.

So he joined Sun Gym.

And immediately,

Danny sees he's got
the Mercedes.

How does a guy like that

get that kind of car?

Now, if you've ever had
a personal trainer,

sometimes you know that

they become your confidant.

Danny got to know him.

And he got inside his head.

And he started to find out,
this guy has a business

that I want.

[Laura] He probably carried
a lot of weight of

not having money.

[man groaning]

When you are
in a city like Miami,

you're butting up
against somebody who's got all this money.

That's tough on the psyche.

-[man groaning]
-[electricity crackling]

[man screaming]

[Gail] Jorge Delgado
was a ne'er-do-well.

He was never gonna be anybody.

He's a skinny guy

that married a smart girl.

That girl

was able to

work herself up into being

Marc Schiller's assistant.

Marc Schiller was
a Colombian National Argentinian born.

He met his wife in Colombia.

He then came
to the United States

and opened up a pretty good

CPA practice himself.

He also owned
a Schlotzky's Deli.

And he was

on the side

running a Medicare
fraud business.

[man] Medicare fraud is
a very common

criminal activity.

You are billing
the federal government

for services

that were never provided.

The allure of Medicare fraud

is that you're making
millions of dollars,

and greed drives the train.

[Donnie] As a favor
to Mrs. Delgado,

Schiller hires Jorge
and mentors him.

Eventually,

taking him on
as a business partner.

But everything changes

once Jorge becomes friends
with Danny Lugo.

Jorge is enthralled
with Danny.

I mean, this is like
a new best friend.

So Danny says, "I want
to meet Marc Schiller."

'Cause Marc was worth
a lot of money.

Schiller not only represents
financially the success

that Danny wants
and the home and the yard

-and the cars and the life.
-[engine roaring]

[Laura] Schiller is making
his fraud work.

Oh, you got caught for yours.

He represents the dream
that you're looking for.

So they meet.

But Marc

has a sixth sense.

And he knows Danny's bad news.

[Alex] Delgado introduced
Lugo to Schiller.

Meets him a couple times.

Hears his voice.
Knows his lisp.

Schiller immediately got
this vibe and said,

"I don't like this guy.

There's something bad
about this guy."

And even gave Delgado
an ultimatum.

"It's me or him.

You either do business
with him

or you do business with me."

He picked wrong.

So Jorge and Danny,

they started doing
their own medical fraud.

The thing of it was that
they couldn't really break in

to the amount of money
that Marc was making.

It didn't really annoy Jorge.

Jorge was happy
with what he had.

But this annoyed Danny.

So Danny started

laying the groundwork.

In his lying way,
he told Jorge,

"I've been through your books.

And I know Marc
has stolen from you.

You were never
an equal partner.

He threw you crumbs.

You got basically nothing.

We have to get him back."

And it soured Jorge on Marc.

And it also excited him

that somebody's
sticking up for him.

Jorge had no self-esteem.

So what anybody told him
to do, he did.

And he was willing to do

anything to get back at Marc.

[Donnie]
Lugo convinces Delgado

they need to
shake down Schiller

and get the money he's owed.

But he'll need help.

And the Sun Gym is
the perfect place to find it.

First, of course,

Danny has Doorbal.

Doorbal's gonna be
a strong man.

And this is great for Doorbal.

[man grunting]

[Andrea] Danny knew that

Adrian was vulnerable

and that he could
manipulate him

to do whatever
he wanted him to do,

because he knew that Adrian

wanted to have nice things.

"And you know that guy Weekes

that you said wanted
to be the janitor?

Bring him."

[Carl speaking]

[Donnie] Because of
his involvement with the Sun Gym gang,

Carl Weekes has been
deported to Barbados

and is barred from
reentering the United States.

[Gail] Danny had a way

of talking to people

in a tone that made people go,

"Wow, that sounds great.
Of course."

He was definitely thinking,

"I can make
a lot of money here."

So Danny goes,
"We're kidnapping him."

[Alex]
They come up with several

different approaches,

each of which, I should say,
is dumber than the one before.

The first approach is

they decided to
dress up as ninjas

and hide in his yard,

because they've
been surveilling him

and they realize he comes out
every morning at 5:00 a.m.

in the dark
to get the newspaper.

But they realize that

as cars are
coming down the street,

the headlights are
lighting them up

and they're just
completely exposed.

So they start running

through the yards
back to the van,

yelling on their headset,

"Abort, abort."

Like this was some kind of
SEAL Team 6 mission.

So that was a failure.

So they come up
with another plan.

[Carl speaking]

[tires screeching]

[Carl speaking]

Now they have
to have another plan, 'cause they're not giving up.

They've just got to find
the right way to kidnap him.

[Donnie] Danny Lugo's
team of misfits

hasn't laid a hand
on their target,

Marc Schiller.

So they try a new tactic.

[Gail] They get a Taser.

In those days,
the tasers were as big as

the old brick cell phones.

And they didn't have the wand.

You had to actually
touch the skin.

Let me tell you something,

that's a serious shock.

[Alex] They decide
they're just gonna pull up next to his car

at this Schlotzky's Deli
that he owns.

And when he comes up,

they're gonna tase him,

pull him into the car,

and kidnap him.

[Gail] They knew that
every day he went to the deli,

and it's open from,
like, 9:00 to 3:00.

Doorbal and Weekes lie in wait
in the parking lot.

Danny's not there.
They're there.

[Sal] Adrian and Carl Weekes

threw moving blankets on him.

They put on duct tape

all around his eyes and nose.

[Alex]
So they kidnap Schiller,

and they take him
over to this warehouse.

The warehouse
that he was brought to was owned by...

Jorge Delgado.

[Gail] Doorbal calls Danny.

[telephone ringing]

[Gail] And Doorbal says,

"The eagle has landed."

[line disconnects]

Lugo was a big kid.

He was about 6'2", 250.

But, you know,
to hear him talk,

he didn't have

a deep voice

to go with

the build that

you would think
someone like that might have.

Danny was not
embarrassed about

anything he ever did.

Except for one thing.

His lisp.

[Carl speaking]

Danny had
a very pronounced lisp.

Marc knew the lisp.

[Gail] This Colombian guy,

he sells drugs
to children near schools.

They were able
to talk themselves into the fact that

Schiller was a horrible guy.

So I think that they
just used this

to convince themselves
that he's not

somebody we should even
care about.

We want what he's got,

but we don't care
about him as a person.

[man grunting]

Lugo and the others...

wanted to get into the house

and take all his assets.

So the first thing
they need him to do

is to tell his wife,
"Get out of town.

Get yourself, the kids,

go home to Colombia."

"Don't call the police.
Don't call anybody."

[Gail] Let his wife know

maybe some of his money
wasn't clean.

So she did
exactly what he said.

So no missing persons report
was filed.

[Donnie] The gang had assumed

Schiller would be
an easy shakedown

and they'd
become rich overnight.

But after getting
his wife and kids to safety,

Schiller refuses to give
them more information.

And it catches them off guard.

[Gail] Now they got a problem.

They thought this was gonna be
like a day, a day and a half.

They don't expect a fightback.

So now they have to keep him.

"We're getting some handcuffs.
We're gonna handcuff him to the chair."

"What happens if he has
to go to the bathroom?"

"We'll give him a bucket."

[Donnie] The Sun Gym Gang

begins to torture
Marc Schiller

into revealing where he keeps
his important documents.

And guided by
Schiller's old friend

and partner, Jorge Delgado,

they break into
Schiller's empty house

a few days
after his kidnapping

and grab everything they need

to take over his finances
and his life.

So he is now kidnapped.

His wife is
out of the country.

The house is empty.

And nobody knows
what's going on.

[Gail] Nobody knew
Marc was missing.

Nobody's looking for Marc.

[revolver clicks]

And that's just how
the Sun Gym Gang wants it.

They don't expect
Marc Schiller to put up a fight.

But when he does,
they beat him into submission.

And when they eventually
get him to sign over everything he owns,

there's no telling
how far they'll go

to make sure
he never gets it back

and never tells a soul.

[Donnie] Lugo's violent gang
of jacked-up thugs

has the paperwork they need

to steal
Marc Schiller's fortune.

But they still need him
to sign it over.

[man groaning]

-[electricity crackling]
-[man groaning]

[Alex]
He's completely blindfolded.

They would put
blank checks in front of him,

they'd put his hand
on the check and say, "Sign."

And he would go...

And they would put
another paper.

Deed for his house.

[man groaning]

[Alex] Another paper.

The deed for his condo.

[man groaning]

Another paper.

[man groaning]

His car.

[Carl speaking]

They were trying to figure out
all the different things they could take,

and how they could take them.

Transfer of assets has
to be notarized,

you know, you can't just

sign a paper
and give away your house.

There has to be a notary

verifying that
this is not a fraud.

Well, John Mese was a notary.

[Donnie] John Mese,
Danny Lugo's boss

and the owner of the Sun Gym.

[Jude] At the time,

the height of security

was having a notary.

Somebody claiming
that they saw

the person sign this
and it was witnessed.

There was no

fraud department necessarily

at your bank that was
going to question a notary.

So that was
the key step for Lugo.

[Alex] John Mese is
basically being brought all these signed documents

and he's notarizing

all of the signatures
on the condo

and on the home
and all this stuff.

Depriving Schiller
of everything.

[Gail] Marc's beautiful home

now belongs to Danny.

Some corporation, of course,

that they conjured up.

[Jude] At this point in
Lugo's fraud evolution,

he seems to have
figured out certain steps

that are necessary if you're
gonna be a fraudster.

One of which being setting up
a shell corporation.

Somewhere where you can
park this wealth

that it's not gonna
call attention to it.

[man groaning]

[electricity crackling]

[Donnie] As they wait
for all the transfers

of Schiller's assets
to completely clear,

the gang now
tortures him mercilessly.

Just for fun.

[electricity crackling]

[Alex] He was being
burned with lighters.

Being pistol whipped.

Having gun barrels
shoved into his mouth.

Treated worse than probably
a prisoner of war.

[man groaning]

They had him drink

nasty water.

He urinated in his clothing.

Essentially, it's a type of
dehumanizing of Schiller.

Talking themselves into
believing that Schiller's

got what they should deserve.

[Sal] Adrian was

hitting him the most.

Being the most abusive to him.

[man groaning]

I think Doorbal especially
felt very emasculated.

You know, if you
started working at 12

and you're like,
"I've been working all my life

and I still don't have much.

And this dude over here,

he's doing great."

Like, I could see where
that would build resentment.

He started using violence

and that gave him
that sense of power.

They're punching him

like he's a punching bag
at the gym.

And when I say they...

[man panting]

[man groaning]

...I believe it was Doorbal.

He's just an evil person.

[Andrea]
I've seen steroids affect

people's personalities

a lot.

And I do believe that

he may have
started taking them.

[Gail] Steroids build up
in your system

and it makes you

more and more aggressive.

[man groaning]

[Laura] I think
Adrian probably did that to please Danny.

I think he maybe even did more

than what Danny
was asking for him...

[muffled screaming]

[Laura]
...and got carried away.

[Atilla] Adrian was
obsessed with Danny.

Anything he said

or instructed him to do,

he was such a follower

when it came to Danny.

[Laura] It could be
the first time he felt safe

to explore violence with

seemingly no consequence.

[Carl speaking]

[Donnie] Once Mese
notarizes the documents

and the bank stamps
their approval,

Lugo and Doorbal

start to cash in
on Schiller's assets,

about two weeks
into his captivity.

[Alex] They start living
on Schiller's property,

wearing his watch,

his Presidential Rolex watch,

wearing all his jewelry.

They're now driving around
in a $100,000 Mercedes.

I can definitely see Lugo
and Doorbal being

people who felt like nobodies
most of their lives.

And then all of a sudden
they feel like somebody.

[Andrea] I ran into Adrian

in the parking lot of Sun Gym.

He had

a nice watch.

He had a nice ring.

He had some nice clothing.

And he told me that he was
doing very well at Sun Gym.

I was very happy
that he had finally gotten

some of the things
that he wanted and that he was

attaining some of his goals.

Little did I know that

at that time there was
a guy tied to a pipe

in a warehouse,

signing away his fortune.

[electricity crackling]

For weeks, while Schiller
was in captivity,

he was trying desperately
to figure out who this was.

Listening, trying to get
a cue from something.

Schiller's realizing
they're asking a combination for the safe.

How do they know
about the safe?

And he realizes Delgado's
the only one who knows about

the safe other than him
and his wife.

So that makes him
come to the realization

that this friend,

who he helped
in a time of need,

is involved in his kidnapping.

They would always talk

outside the hearing distance

of Marc

in an anteroom
of this warehouse.

But Marc would listen
very carefully

and he heard the lisp.

Danny had a kind of lisp

when he spoke.

Similar to Mike Tyson.

Now he knows that Lugo

and Delgado

are heading up
this kidnapping.

[Donnie] The Sun Gym Gang has
tortured Schiller for weeks.

The time it's taken
for most of his assets

to transfer over to them.

The original plan

was to ship Marc
off to Colombia.

But then

Delgado remembers something

that changes the plan.

Jorge Delgado knew
he had a two million dollar life insurance policy

for his wife.

[Alex] So they're
having him call his lawyer to say he found

a girl that he's in love with
and he's leaving his wife.

[Donnie]
Lugo plans to have Schiller

designate a new
life insurance beneficiary.

They use the name
Lillian Torres, which was

Danny's first wife who he
still maintained contact with.

Why? 'Cause Danny knew

Lillian was gullible.

And he could tell Lillian,
"Sign this paper."

She'll sign it blindly.

[Sal] They had him

sign over

his life insurance policy.

[Gail] After they had
the life insurance signed,

after they knew where
all the accounts were,

after everything,

approximately
four weeks' time...

everybody's tired
of dealing with Marc.

So

they're gonna have
to kill him.

[Donnie] Everything
Marc Schiller once had

now belongs to
the Sun Gym Sadists.

There's only one thing left
on their to-do list.

-[electricity crackling]
-[man groaning]

[Laura] They make the leap

between the kidnap
and torture and murder

because they just have
gotten so far into it

that they saw
no other alternative.

Just get rid of him

and have him not be able
to ever tell anybody anything that had happened.

[Donnie] Lugo and Doorbal

come up with a plan
to stage Marc's suicide.

[Gail] "Well, let's make him
look like a drunk.

Cops hate drunks.

We'll make it look like
he killed himself in a DUI."

[Alex] They start giving him
alcohol to drink.

He's not a drinker,
but now he is.

And they have him
call his wife in Colombia.

And his wife puts

his eight-year-old son
on the phone.

And his eight-year-old son
says to him,

"Daddy, when are you
coming back?"

And he says, "Soon."

He knows
they're gonna kill him.

And he's talking to his son
for the last time

and telling him,
"I'll be home soon."

This was one of the most
impactful moments for me.

Because he knows
he's never gonna see his son again.

After he finishes that call...

they're feeding him alcohol
and they give him

something else to drink.

He doesn't know what it is,

but it makes his mind swim.

And he falls on the floor.

They brought
his Toyota 4Runner

to the warehouse.

They strap him in

in the passenger seat.

And they drive to
some warehouse area

near Miami
International Airport.

[Carl speaking]

[brakes screech]

[crashing]

[horn honking]

[Carl speaking]

[tires screeching]

"Run him down, run him down."

[engine revving]

And they hit him. Boom.

Then he says, "Hit him again."

And they go back
over his body.

He drives,
goes over him twice. You know, "Make sure he's dead.

Make sure he's dead."

And then they're about to
go over him again

when they see some headlights

approaching down
a side street.

And so they tear away
before the car can get

within sight.

[monitor beeping]

[Gail] Marc Schiller
woke up in the hospital.

He knows something horrible
has happened to him.

-[man groaning]
-[electricity crackling]

He remembered
all of his captivity.

But he has
no idea how he got...

from the warehouse
to the hospital.

When he woke up,
he's a human zipper.

He's cut from his chest
to his groin

and he has no spleen.

[Sal] Schiller had
a broken pelvis,

rib fractures, a broken leg.

He was a mess.

I would get stuck by a pencil

and I would die
of lead poisoning.

This guy Schiller
gets lit on fire,

-hit with a car...
-[man grunts]

...backed over,
and he's still alive.

-[monitor beeping]
-[Gail] Schiller then asks the nurse,

the nurse says,
"You were in a DUI accident."

He says, "No."

He immediately starts
trying to get the nurse

to give him a phone,

so he can call his lawyer

so he can stop the transfers
of whatever they're taking.

But the nurse
doesn't believe it.

The nurse just says,
"You're drunk and you hit a pole,"

and just walks away.

And it's driving him crazy.

He's laying in this bed,
trying to tell somebody.

And he doesn't call the police

because he knew
the police would ask

too many questions
about his money

and he wanted his money back.

They're not going
to care so much

about getting the money back,

especially if they think
the money is dirty.

Finally, he convinces a nurse

-to give him a phone
and he calls his lawyer. -[telephone ringing]

[Alex] And he tells
his lawyer what happened.

And his lawyer says,
"I knew something was up.

It didn't sound like you."

He says, "You're
not safe in the hospital."

[Gail] His attorney says,

"They're gonna
find you in that hospital.

You better get out of there."

The Sun Gym gang doesn't know
that Marc Schiller survived.

But once they find out,

they'll be determined
to finish what they started.

But the money
they took from Schiller

won't last long.

To keep living
like Miami elite,

they'll need new victims.

And when they
find those victims,

the Sun Gym Sadists
will reach new depths

of violence,
horror and madness.

[sirens wailing]

[Donnie] The day after
they staged Marc Schiller's horrific suicide,

the Sun Gym gang assumes

they were successful
in killing him.

Then they notice a problem.

The Sun Gym gang
is looking through the paper,

doesn't see any reference
to this accident,

so they start calling
the local hospitals.

Eventually, they
worked their way

to Jackson Memorial Hospital,
which says,

"Oh, yeah, we have
a Marc Schiller in ICU."

What Lugo and his crew
was going to do,

was go to the hospital,

take Schiller out,
I mean, kill him.

[Carl speaking]

[Schiller gasps]

[cracking]

[hesitates]

[door creaks]

So they're walking the halls,
looking for ICU.

The crew is coming,
they get to the room.

No Marc Schiller.

Schiller reached out
to his sister, who lives in New York.

The sister made arrangements
with air ambulance

to transfer him
from Jackson Memorial Hospital

to a New York hospital.

[helicopter droning]

They just missed him.

[Alex] When he finally leaves
the hospital in New York,

the first thing
he does is he runs

to his wife in Colombia

because he doesn't know
who the heck he can trust.

So, barely able to walk,

he gets on a flight
and goes to Colombia.

[Donnie] Marc Schiller
reunites with his wife and children in Colombia,

finally safe from the terror
of the Sun Gym gang.

While he's in Colombia,
Schiller calls Ed Du Bois.

He was a talented
private investigator.

Ed Du Bois goes to work
tracking down what happened.

[Donnie] While Marc Schiller
works with Ed Du Bois

to try and get his assets
transferred back to him,

the gang continues
to spend his money like there's no tomorrow.

This group now
is just wealthy.

They have a great cushion
and they're going to live

the Miami vice life.

Danny, Doorbal...

They're driving around
in very fancy cars,

and hanging out
at Schiller's house.

[laughing]

They rent themselves
some fabulous apartments

in an up and coming area
called Miami Lakes.

Beautiful.

And they have all of Marc's
beautiful furnishings.

It's crazy how fast these guys

blew this money
on crazy stuff.

I think that
being able to show

that you have that wealth

showed you made it, you know,

or at least at that moment
looked like you made it.

The thing to do for these guys
is go to the strip club.

Now they're not just
going to go to any strip club.

They're going to go
to the high-end strip club.

The place
was called Solid Gold.

They feel like somebody.

They've got money,
they've got stuff,

and they've got
people around them that are like that.

[Gail] Danny and Doorbal.

They were high rollers.

So they had a private area
in the VIP spot.

And they had their pick
of the girls that they wanted.

Danny took a liking

to a Romanian woman
named Sabina.

She had been a Penthouse model
and she was exquisite.

She was the second runner up
to Miss Romania.

Doorbal took a shining
to one of the girls named Beatriz.

[Donnie] The Sun Gym gang
is busy living large,

and has forgotten
all about Marc Schiller,

but Schiller
hasn't forgotten about them.

[Alex] Ed Du Bois
has got this memo that Schiller wrote,

detailing what happened to him
and who was involved.

[Donnie] Schiller
might not know all the guys involved,

but he tells Du Bois
about the two he does know.

His old partner,
Jorge Delgado,

and Danny Lugo.

[Alex] And as Ed
is looking through the paperwork,

he notices that
the deed transfers

were notarized
by John Carl Mese

the owner of Sun Gym,

and he actually knows Mese.

So he goes over
to Mese's office, to meet with him.

He starts confronting Mese.
He goes, "John,

why is your signature here
notarizing these documents?"

So Mese then starts to back up

and come up with explanations
and says, "You know what?

Let me just set up
a meeting with Delgado

to explain
what happened here."

Ed Du Bois makes
contingency plans

of telling everybody,

"Hey, if anything
happens to me..."

[grunts]

[crackling]

[Schiller grunts]

[punches landing]

[Alex] "This is
what I'm working on,

these are the guys involved."

Knowing he's dealing
with very dangerous people.

[Alex] Ed Du Bois shows up
for this meeting.

Mese puts him
in this office to wait

because Delgado
is not there yet.

So while he's
waiting in that office,

he starts looking
in the garbage can.

You know, just curious.

And all of a sudden,
he starts pulling out

extremely
incriminating documents.

All these
incriminating statements

that showed transfer of money,

into what company
they were flushed through,

are sitting right there
in the garbage can.

We've seen oftentimes
that criminals can be smart

and then dumb
at the same time.

And they discovered
all these documents

in the trash,
with Schiller's name on it.

I mean, come on, that's dumb.

[Donnie] Du Bois
grabs the documents

and puts them
in his briefcase just in time.

Delgado shows up.

They show him the memo
that Schiller wrote

detailing what
happened to him.

He tries to come up
with some explanation,

but Du Bois is in his face.

Du Bois is going right at him.

And finally, Delgado says,

"We're not gonna
talk about this anymore.

We're going to give him
all of his $1.2 million back.

But we're gonna need
in exchange for him

to sign a contract that says
he will not go to the police

and tell them any
of these allegations

that are contained
in this memo."

He thinks that's going
to be a legal document, by the way.

You never give up
your right to go to the cops.

It's not legal.

[Alex] But, you know,
these guys are not smashing the atom.

So, Du Bois says,

"Okay, sure."

Because he wants to get
the money back.

[Donnie] Ed Du Bois presents
the bogus contract to Schiller.

Marc's like,
"That's not a good document. I don't like that document."

[Donnie] And Schiller
refuses to sign.

[Alex] Schiller
and Ed Du Bois decide

Lugo is never gonna
give us the money back.

He's just stringing us along
and stringing us along.

[Gail] So he tells
his private investigator,

"Go to the police."

This private investigator,
he was very well connected

in the community,
very well-respected guy.

-Calls a cop that he knows.
-[telephone ringing]

[Gail] And this is how
the conversation goes.

[voice over phone] I have
a client who's a Colombian.

"He got kidnapped
for four weeks..."

[voice over phone] "And he
signed over all of his stuff."

"Where is he?" "In Colombia."

[voice over phone] "Is he
going to come and talk to us?"

Schiller's terrified
about coming to Miami.

He knows if they see him,
they're going to kill him.

And he doesn't know
are the cops involved in this, you know.

So he doesn't know
if it's like a connection

between Lugo and the cops.

But he agrees to come
for a very short visit.

He flies in.

They go over to the Metro-Dade
police's headquarters.

And they don't believe him.

They think he's just
a cocaine trafficker

trying to get them to take out
his competition for him.

But I can understand why.

Here's a guy who claims
all this happened to him...

-[grunts]
-[electricity crackling]

-[punches landing]
-[electricity crackling]

[fire crackling]

And what does he do
when he escapes?

He flees the country.

And then he
doesn't call the police

for a month or more.

So they think this guy
is full of garbage.

[Donnie] Schiller hightails it
back to Colombia.

Frustrated, defeated,

and no closer to getting
any of his money back.

But these guys
don't have the money.

They've been living high
on the hog

since they kidnapped him.

They're driving his cars,

wearing his
presidential Rolex,

dropping $2,000 to $3,000
at a time of Schiller's money.

So they don't even have
1.2 million to give.

And that's
when they have to start

looking for the next victim.

I think the quickness
with which this gang

tried to target another person

was, yeah, indicative
of a mindset of like,

"Well, this wasn't as bad
as we thought it would be.

It worked, right."

But maybe they think
in their minds

that we've got
this plan down now, and they're jonesing.

They've been dating all these
strippers from Solid Gold.

And Doorbal is sitting with
his new girlfriend, Beatriz,

who's a dancer at Solid Gold,

looking through a photo album.

He sees this
beautiful yellow Lamborghini.

At the time, a quarter-
of-a-million-dollar car,

and he goes,
"Wow. Who owns that?"

She says, "Oh, that's my
ex-boyfriend Frank Griga.

He made a lot of money
in 976 numbers."

Those porn phone lines
that used to exist.

Frank Griga
was a Hungarian immigrant.

He was a classic
American immigrant story.

He came over with
like 10 bucks in his pocket.

And within a few years

he had built a multi-
million dollar business.

[Gail] He had met a girl
named Krisztina Furton.

Krisztina had come over
from Hungary also,

so they had a bond,
a common bond.

She's a beautiful girl.

They were a beautiful couple.

Krisztina was like
a beautiful soul

and mother-like person
who was always there for you.

Frank, he was
nice and friendly,

paid attention
to others, listened,

said his piece,
if he had something to say.

Take away
the financial background,

he was just a regular guy.

And so Doorbal says,
"Danny and I would like to meet him."

Money they bled from
Marc Schiller is running out,

and now Frank Griga
looks like the next target

for Danny Lugo and his crew.

But this time,
the Sun Gym gang's extortion scheme will end

with one of the most bizarre
and gruesome

crime scenes
in Florida history.

[Donnie] Adrian Doorbal asked
his girlfriend, Beatriz,

to get him access
to Frank Griga's inner circle.

Beatriz reaches out to her
my ex-husband.

Attila was his name.

He was friends with Frank.

Frank Griga made his money
in the phone sex business,

so they decided
they would pitch

an international
calling business to him.

[Attila speaking]

Lugo and Doorbal
get all suited up.

They go over
to Frank Griga's house

to pitch him
this business idea.

[Attila speaking]

[Donnie] Using the cover
of a business transaction,

Lugo and Doorbal start
setting up their real plan.

But this time
with a smaller crew.

Lugo decides that only he,
Doorbal, Delgado,

and Sun Gym owner John Mese
will be in on the score.

So the plan, of course,

was to pretty much
repeat the Schiller operation.

[person screams]

They were going
to hold Frank Griga,

get everything he owned,
and then...

[gunshot]

They buy duct tape,

they buy horse tranquilizer
to sedate them.

They buy everything.

They don't buy masks

because there's
no reason for them to hide their identity.

Because they're going
to make sure that they don't survive.

Lugo and Doorbal
show up at Frank's house.

Frank and Krisztina
are both there.

They're going to take them
out for dinner to talk about the deal.

They were going to go
to dinner at Shula's.

Realize Shula's Steakhouse
is actually closed that night.

So they say, "Listen, let's go
for a drink or something

at Doorbal's apartment."

[Alex] Their plan is...

Doorbal is going
to tell Frank,

"Let me show you the setup
that we're envisioning

on the
telecommunications front."

Take him into the bedroom

and incapacitate him.

While Lugo
is in the living room with Krisztina.

So Lugo tells her

he's gonna show her
this new sound system.

[loud thumping music playing]

The woofers
are pounding and...

[music volume increases]

Even with that,

you couldn't hide...

[objects shattering]

...the struggle
and fight sounds

that were coming
from the bedroom.

And then Doorbal picks up
something heavy and solid.

[thuds]

Cracks Frank Griga
on the head.

And in attempting to...

...And in attempting
to restrain Griga

Doorbal went too far
and that crack to the head

basically killed him.

[Levine] Frank is not supposed
to get dead in the apartment.

We're supposed to drive him
to the warehouse alive,

torturing him, so that
he gives us everything

so we can get into the house,

to get his computer,
to get into his accounts.

And they didn't expect Doorbal
to be so strong

and so violent
that he killed him.

Krisztina starts screaming.

What are they gonna do
with her?

Well, they're ready.

Because somehow,

somewhere,

they got something
called Rompun.

It's what you give to a horse
or a cow to tranquilize them

when you're in a large
animal veterinarian.

[inaudible]

Now, that is an extremely
painful drug when it goes in.

It's like fire.

So they shoot her
with one vial of that.

Now they have
his hysterical girlfriend

who they've just drugged
with horse tranquilizer.

She's very doped up.

And what are they going
to do now?

[Ferrer] So they take
Frank's body

and they put it
in the bathtub.

His blood
is going down the drain

and they are huddling up
and trying to figure out

what do we do now.

How are we gonna get assets?

[Levine] So Lugo and Doorbal
are in Doorbal's apartment.

They have one dead body
and a moaning woman.

Eventually they call Delgado
and they tell him we've got a problem.

So Lugo tells Delgado
what the plan is.

They're gonna take Krisztina,
they're gonna get the house codes

because Frank's house
has a digital keypad rather than a keylock.

Then they're gonna go in
and take everything they can from the house.

They're trying to get
the codes out of her

and they inject her
with more horse tranquilizer.

Because every time
she wakes up,

the only thing she remembers
is seeing Frank getting murdered.

So she wants to see him.

[narrator] Danny Lugo races
to Griga's house

and tries the codes
Krisztina gave him.

It doesn't work.

So Lugo dials up Doorbal
on the phone

and says, get new codes,
these don't work.

So Doorbal walks over
to Krisztina

and comes back to the phone
and says, the bitch is cold.

[Finley] Doorbal's response
that the bitch is cold,

it seems to have no empathy.

Doorbal had seemingly
shifted personalities

to this really violent,

cold killer with no remorse.

There was something
dormant in him

that he never had the chance
to kind of practice before

and this gave him an outlet
and he realized, okay, no big deal to me.

[Ferrer] And now they have
two dead bodies.

No money.

[narrator] Lugo and Doorbal
have a new problem on their hands.

What to do with Frank
and Krisztina's bodies?

[Garafalo] They put him
in a truck.

And drove them to a warehouse,

Danny's warehouse, in Hialeah.

[Ferrer] They buy tarps,
they buy hatchets,

they buy chainsaw, gloves.

They bring it back
to the warehouse.

Danny's a little bit away
in, like, an office area

and he says to Doorbal...

"You know, have at it."

[chainsaw whirring]

Doorbal began dismembering
the bodies.

Doorbal just keeps on
keeping on with the violent activities.

[chainsaw whirring]

It's charging him up
power-wise,

feeling like he's the brawn
in the operation.

Doorbal is trying
to remove their heads with his chainsaw.

But it keeps getting stuck
in Krisztina's hair.

So finally they give up
and they just take a hatchet.

And they decapitate.

And remove
the victims' hands and feet.

They wanna get rid
of the parts of their body they can identify.

I was the trial judge
who tried the case.

This is the most grisly...

portion of the case
that I remember.

They start prying and axing
the face

to get all of the teeth out.

And then they take the hands
and they're...

grilling them like a barbecue,

to try to burn off
the fingerprints.

[Garafalo] Lugo had
a 55-gallon drum

and was trying
to burn bones...

right out in front
of the warehouse.

When he's doing
these hyper-violent acts,

it's a taking out of revenge
in a sense.

You represent
that which has wronged me

and that which is what
I still want or long for.

[Ferrer] They decide
that they're gonna dump

the bodies
in different places.

They'll put their torsos
with no heads, hands or feet

into barrels and dump 'em
in a drainage ditch.

And they're gonna take
the hands and feet and heads

and put 'em in paint buckets

and throw those in the middle
of the Everglades.

She knew that
Frank and Krisztina

had been planning
to go on a trip.

And she knew that
they would never let the dog

just stay at the house
and be alone and uncared for.

[Weiland speaking]

[Krisztina screaming]

It's very difficult
to... to figure out

what gets in somebody's psyche
at that point,

other than
if they just really had convinced themselves

that they were nothing
to them.

They didn't seem to be
too concerned

that they were gonna
get caught for this.

So I guess maybe Doorbal
just says to himself,

well, okay, no big deal to me.

[chainsaw whirring]

[Weiland speaking]

[narrator] Attila
has a bad feeling

something terrible
has happened to Frank and Krisztina.

He reports their disappearance
to Miami police

and tells them
that Adrian and Danny

are the last people
his friends were seen with.

[Kurtzogilvie] A state
trooper came across

an abandoned
yellow Lamborghini

out in the middle
of the Everglades, out in the swamp.

Back at Miami-Dade police,

they're investigating this.

And Lieutenant Harper
hears the names

Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal.

And it rang a bell.

He remembered
those names popping up

in that bizarre
kidnapping torture case

with Marc Schiller
that they had looked into months earlier.

[narrator] Lieutenant Harper
calls Ed Du Bois,

Marc Schiller's
private investigator.

[Kurtzogilvie] He says,
"What can you tell me about these two guys,

Danny and Adrian?"

Du Bois hands over

all the paperwork
that he had uncovered

in his investigation
of the Schiller theft.

They started to move,

to go scoop Doorbal
and Lugo up.

[Ferrer] I signed a warrant.

The next day, they're back
for another warrant.

And every time
I'm signing a warrant,

I'm thinking, this case
just gets crazier and crazier.

[police shouting indistinctly]

Over 75 officers,

including a SWAT team,

went to get Adrian Doorbal,

John Mese and Jorge Delgado.

They had search warrants
for their cars,

their apartments,
their warehouses,

the Sun Gym,
all the businesses

they were involved in,
everything.

The only person
they didn't arrest that day was...

Danny Lugo.

Word had gotten out that,
you know, we were looking for Danny.

So Danny,
the girlfriend, Sabina,

his mother and father,

had gone to the Bahamas.

[Garafalo] We made a contact

with a task force,

FBI agents in the Bahamas,

where Danny was at a hotel.

Hey!

[Ferrer] They get
international cooperation.

They flyover.

They grab Lugo
at a hotel there,

bring him back.

[narrator] Police interrogate
Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal

about Frank Griga
and Krisztina Furton

and the kidnapping
of Marc Schiller.

Danny blamed everything
on Adrian.

"Adrian Doorbal bashed Frank
in the head."

"Adrian was the one
that injected Krisztina."

Doorbal never said that
he injected Krisztina

with the Rompun.

The only information
that he would provide is that,

well, yeah,
Frank and Krisztina

came to our house that night,

but we're only there
for about an hour.

And if anything bad
happened to them,

I have no knowledge
about that.

And then Doorbal denied having
any involvement in the Schiller abduction.

He said that Danny and Jorge
were the ones that abducted him.

[narrator] Lugo knows
that it's all over.

So he turns on his crew
to save himself.

[Ferrer] So sometimes
the prosecutors have to do a deal with the devil.

Lugo knows he's looking
at the death penalty.

So he decides,

if they waive
the death penalty,

or tell the jury
at least that I cooperated,

I will tell them
where the bodies are.

So the state says,
okay, we'll do that.

But the bodies
are hardly a body anymore.

They've been dismembered.

He takes them to the torsos.

[Garafalo] I still remember,
though, when they opened up the barrels...

and then he took
the torsos out...

it was very, very sad
to see something like that.

You know, you're looking
and saying, geez, this is a human being.

Look what they did.

No legs, no heads,
no arms, nothing.

Just to do these things
that they did,

they're...
they're evil people.

[Ferrer] Lugo,
in his genius mind, he's thinking,

great, they're going
to have bodies they can't identify.

And they're not going
to be able to make a case,

but at least the jury
has to be told that I cooperated.

[Garafalo] There
was an anonymous call

that the heads were disposed
of along Alligator Alley.

We went out there
and there were buckets.

There was two buckets
with heads, you know, skulls, and hands.

Then there was a bucket
with a hatchet in it,

and a knife was recovered.

This was absolutely
one of the most gruesome cases that I had seen.

This was just really
a gruesome scene.

[reporter]
The victims' bodies, found, dismembered and stuffed

into 55-gallon drums
that were then thrown into South Florida canals.

The bodies of Frank Griga
and Krisztina Furton:

a wealthy Hungarian couple.

I saw on the news
when they had found them.

That image stays with me,
you know, watching the news.

Firstly, you have answers.

Secondly, it's not
the good answers.

So everything just adds
to the tragedy.

It's not a car crash.

It's a murder.

Not just a murder,
it's a gruesome murder.

Straight up evil.

[Franklin] I was watching
the news

and all of a sudden
I see mugshots

of Adrian Doorbal
and Danny Lugo.

And I about fell over.

I couldn't believe it.

I was just--
I was just in total shock.

And it's made me very sad

because that was not
the Adrian that I knew.

[Weiland] I mean,
Lugo had the vibe he gave out.

I could imagine him

as someone
who does something like this.

But Adrian,
I couldn't place him in a situation like this.

Was I wrong?

Very wrong. Very, very wrong.

[narrator] The trials
of Danny Lugo,

Adrian Doorbal
and John Mese begin.

Jorge Delgado and Carl Weekes

had already pled guilty

and agreed to cooperate
with the prosecution.

This trial was the only trial

that caused me
to stop watching the news

for a while.

It's like I reached
a threshold

where I was full
of people suffering.

It is the most
complicated case I ever handled.

It is the most disturbing.

Chop, chop, chop!

I was afraid one of the jurors
was gonna throw up

when looking
at the crime scene photos.

I mean, so concerned
about that

that I told my bailiff
to put a garbage can near her

because I really thought,
you know, she might get sick.

It was the longest
criminal prosecution in Miami's history.

It was the most
expensive criminal prosecution in Miami's history.

The indictment itself
is something like 46 counts.

It took me an hour

just to read the indictment
to the jury.

There were about
over a thousand exhibits

introduced into evidence.

There were about
a hundred witnesses

called to testify
on the stand.

Schiller comes back
from Columbia to testify.

[Schiller speaking]

[Ferrer] His testimony
is powerful.

It's emotional.
It's impactful.

Everything he goes through,

we had jurors
that were tearing up.

And then, on his way out
of the courthouse,

Marc Schiller was surrounded
by federal agents and arrested

for Medicare fraud.

He was convicted and sentenced
to 46 months in prison.

[narrator] After just over
two months of testimony

and mountains
of gruesome evidence,

the jury reaches
their verdicts.

I listened to those verdicts
with my heart in my throat.

[judge] Daniel Lugo is guilty.

Noel Doorbal is guilty.

John Carl Mese is guilty.

[Ferrer] I sentenced
Danny Lugo and Adrian Doorbal to death.

And I sentenced John Carl Mese

to 56 years in prison.

When I sentenced them
to death,

I remember Lugo teared up.

Doorbal, like, smirked
and turned around

to a friend of his
in the audience and made a face.

And I thought... [sighs]

This guy
has absolutely no limit.

[narrator] Doorbal and Lugo
are sentenced to death

despite Lugo's cooperation

in locating Frank
and Krisztina's remains.

Jorge Delgado and Carl Weekes
each get ten years.

[Levine] This case changed me
for the rest of my life.

There is not a day
that goes by

that I don't think about it.

I have regrets
introducing them.

From the moment it happened,

I thought to myself,
oh, my God,

they died thinking
that Attila did this to us.

Now, that's a thought
that stayed with me.

This experience
made me very aware

of what people could do
to get what they want.

It made me not trust people
as much.

Because if Adrian could do it,
anybody could do it.

Money, I think,
to them represented

all the things
they just didn't have

and they felt ashamed
of not having.

[groaning]

They felt inadequate
and needed something

to make them feel adequate.

They also aspired
to have the American Dream...

in whatever way
they could get it.

There are a lot of people
who are greedy out there,

but there's something
that divides the people

who are willing
to kill for money

from the people
who will clean out your checking account.

I don't know
what that distinction is, but these people had it.

Danny Lugo's death sentence
was commuted to life in prison.

Adrian Doorbal
still sits on death row.

One way or another,
they'll both die behind bars.

These desperate men
murdered and butchered two innocent people

and nearly killed a third
out of pure greed.

They wanted
the South Beach lifestyle.

The money,
the cars, the women.

And they were willing
to commit the most depraved and violent acts to get it.

Two brutal monsters,
thankfully, walked away for good.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

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