Share
House of Mystery Radio on NBC
The Real Mr. Big - Jesus Ruiz-Henao & Ron Chepesiuk
Born in 1960, Jesus Ruiz Henao grew up poor, but wanted to be rich like the drug dealers he saw growing up in the cocaine-producing region of Colombia’s Valle of the Cauca. To realize his ambition, Ruiz Henao moved to London, United Kingdom, in 1985. There he and his wife settled in the quiet suburb of Hendon, where he held down mundane but respectable cleaning and bus driving jobs. At least to outward appearances …
Actually, Ruiz Henao kept a low profile while he built a wide-ranging drug distribution network that extended from Colombia to Spain and Europe and to the United Kingdom. For years, he stayed one step ahead of law enforcement, making more than a billion pounds over a ten-year period.
However, it was a risky business with law enforcement on one side and ruthless competitors on the other. By the summer of 2003, Ruiz Henao decided to get out of the drug business. But he finally made the one mistake that would get him caught. It cost him a 17-year prison sentence, with more tacked on when he tried to make one last deal from behind prison walls.
THE REAL MR. BIG, co-written by Ruiz Henao with bestselling author Ron Chepisiuk, is the story of how an ambitious Colombian immigrant set up a sophisticated drug trafficking enterprise that earned him law enforcement’s description as “the Pablo Escobar of British drug trafficking.”
From the Book:Ruiz Henao: “After reflecting a long time, I decided to get out of the business. The police were on to me. I spoke to my boss Sergio in Colombia and my friends there, telling them that I was getting out because of the heat that was on me.”
He paid off his closest associates and thanked them for working for him. He took a nice holiday in the Caribbean, and when he returned, he hoped to relax and enjoy his retirement.
“I made millions of pounds in the drug trade, but money had become less important to me. I had worked hard to make the money, but now the most important thing in my life was to spend time with my wife, son, and daughter. My pursuit of money cost me a good part of my life. Money can make you crazy and do stupid things. When I first started in the drug business, my goal was to make a million pounds, and I did. So l said to myself: ‘I am going to carry on until I make ten million pounds.’ I made that amount. At that point, I could buy a mansion, a yacht, pretty well anything, but I said to myself: ‘Why stop now?’ I then made fifty million pounds.
“At that point, I wanted to say to myself: ‘Enough.’ I had more money than I could ever possibly spend, and it was becoming a headache handling it. I could get out of the drug trade easily. I didn’t have real enemies, so I could leave the drug trade and not be an easy target for anybody.
“I had no idea that Fernando Carranza Reyes had become a police informant, but I kept noticing that I was being followed by different cars. The next day, I called my brother-in-law Mario to meet me in a park near Baker Street. As we normally did when we traveled to a meeting point, we used public transportation.
”As Mario got off at the bus stop, a female brushed him and planted a microphone in his jacket. When we met, we started to walk around the park and talk about many things, unaware that the British police were watching and listening to everything we were doing. I said to Mario: ‘Listen, Mario, at the end of the day, I don’t worry about the millions of pounds we have lost. That’s easy to recover. But the last thing I want to do is to go to prison.’ Information from that conversation became one of the strongest pieces of evidence against me in court.
More episodes
View all episodes
Karen Odden - An Artful Dodge
39:10|Victorian London comes to vivid life in this riveting heist novel about an all-female thieving gang and one young woman’s heroic plan to escape a life of crime, from the USA Today bestselling author of Down a Dark River.She’s stolen gems, purses, and hearts—but can she steal her life back from the ring of thieves that’s claimed it?London, 1879: Twenty-year-old Kit Jimeson has fingers so nimble she can nick a necklace off a lady in a crowded theater without raising alarm. Kit and her dodge partner, Mary, are the highest earners in the notorious all-women thieving ring in South London’s Elephant and Castle district.Kit, whose mother had been a thief before her, dreams of a different life, one where she’s not constantly on the lookout for constables and plainclothes detectives, and where a mistake or pure bad luck won’t land her in the hangman’s noose. She has been saving her earnings so her younger sister, a maid for a wealthy Mayfair family, might have a shot at respectability.Kit is very close to leaving the life entirely when the legendary former thief Maggie O’Connell brings her plans to a halt. Beautiful, charismatic Maggie has returned to reclaim leadership of the ring after twenty years in a brutal Australian penal colony. But Maggie desires more than mere wealth or power: She longs for revenge against those who sent her away. Kit, with her quick mind and dangerously clever hands, is Maggie’s best weapon. If Kit wants to walk away with her life, she must carry out a heist that will demand every skill she possesses.
Liz Lazarus - Dawn Before Darkness
25:15|A psychological thriller inspired by real events revealing the treachery of a ruthless stalker, the alarming failure of the legal system and the unthinkable battle a daughter must face to protect her family.___________________________________________________________________________________________Dawn Smith, a vet tech living in rural South Carolina, catches her boyfriend in a series of lies and abruptly ends the relationship. Rather than accepting the break-up, he begins to stalk and harass her, forcing Dawn to seek a restraining order. Undeterred, he launches a deeply personal attack—suing for guardianship and conservatorship of Dawn’s infirm mother. In court, he manipulates the truth using evidence that he planted while the couple were still dating. And just when Dawn thinks things can’t get any worse, she is faced with an impossible choice: rekindle the relationship or lose her mother forever.Readers also enjoyed Liz's other books with these themes:Free of Malice (self-protection, racial tension)Plea for Justice (self/body-image, literacy)Shades of Silence (grief, sex trafficking)Complimentary excerpts at: www.lizlazarus.com
Kent McGowen - Reasonable Doubts
59:27|Texas Deputy Kent McGowen shot and killed Susan White after she pulled a gun on him. It seemed like an open-and-shut case of an officer acting in self-defense. But before his first court date, the Houston region was inundated with rumor, innuendo and speculation about the case. Many believed those fabrications and half-truths to be fact. And an unsubstantiated-but-persistent story of how McGowen allegedly set up White as a murder victim because they had a relationship, or that she refused to have one, sealed his fate. McGowen was found guilty, Twice. He's already done his years in prison, but his case is worth examining for all the ways criminal courts can be manipulated by media, fast-talking lawyers and dubious witnesses.
Christopher Golden - Carry Me To My Grave
25:34|From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden comes a high concept horror novel about a man trying to protect his dead mother's body from the evil that is hunting them.Maggie Wise will take your eyes.When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside.But they’re not as alone as they think they are. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm, her youngest child―when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine.From the moment she takes her last breath, before her remains are even loaded aboard the baggage car of the Imperial Limited, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past. God help anyone who stands in their way
Chris McAuley - Ink, Blood, and Imagination
36:44|Chris is a writer of prose novels, magazine short stories, video and tabletop games and audio dramas. Together with Bram Stoker’s Great-Grand nephew Dacre Stoker, he has created the StokerVerse franchise. He has written the sequel to Dracula which will be released by Scar comics later this year. He has also created a science fiction universe with Babylon 5 actress Claudia Christian. This is coming to fruition in a series of games, novels and comic books. In addition to this he has worked on Doctor Who, Star Wars and most recently the Terminator franchise. Chris has been given the Reggie Bannister award for excellence in Horror writing and is nominated for a similar award in science fiction. He has greatly enjoyed the experience of working with Jeff and Dan, this is his first foray into the world of Lovecraftian poetry
Terrance Niedziela Jr. - Tales of Aras
23:16|Sometimes God leads us through fire before revealing the lightning within.Dr. Michael Jenkins thought his greatest battles were behind him. After surviving a terrorist attack that changed his life forever, he returns home determined to heal and reconnect with family. Instead, he is pulled into the mysterious realm of Aras, a world unlike anything he has ever known.There, danger lurks in the shadows, powerful forces stir, and the line between courage and fear grows thinner with every step. As Michael struggles to survive in this unfamiliar land, he begins to understand that his scars may hold purpose, his trials may carry meaning, and his faith may be the key to something far greater than he imagined.Tales of Aras: Becoming Fire & Lightning is the first installment in an exciting, clean speculative fiction series designed to entertain, build rich and memorable worlds, and introduce unforgettable characters who remind readers that God is always at work, even in the most unexpected places.Adventure awaits. Purpose calls. Faith endures.
Royce Wilson - Riley Scott Novels
42:18|Royce Wilson uses his vast law enforcement forensics experience like a master, weaving images from actual scenes into his novels, giving them a rich feeling of authenticity. After more than 40 years in law enforcement forensics with the sheriff's office in Tampa, Florida, Wilson writes detective mysteries and thrillers with plots that are compelling and entertainingly realistic, and characters we can all relate to and empathize with. You will either love them or hate them.The dialogue is authentic, as are the detectives' work, forensics, and crime scene investigations, and the plots. And, oh yeah, the twists will keep you guessing to the end.
Sandy Malone - Gem of the Golden Isles (5 book series)
17:17|When a young Caribbean wedding planner loses her home and job in Hurricane Maria, she tries to start over where she grew up on Jekyll Island, the gem of Georgia's Golden Isles. While she's trying to making her wedding planning company work, she falls in love with a state trooper who may have been "the one that got away." But her return to Jekyll unknowingly kicks a hornet's nest and there are people who don't want her to stay and be a success. It will take more than good event planning skills to overcome the evil that's headed her way.
J.M. Shaw - Callum Walker Novels
25:56|Expanding epic fantasy world and escalating stakes.In a realm where magic, monsters, and betrayal shape the fate of nations, one man must confront the forces gathering against him.Callum Walker survived the trials that would have destroyed most warriors—but survival was only the beginning. As ancient powers awaken and rival factions close in, the fragile balance holding the world together begins to fracture.A dark queen rises. Powerful forces gather. Armies move in the shadows.Callum and his allies must navigate dangerous alliances, primeval forces, and the growing realization that the war for the future of their world has already begun.But some battles cannot be won with steel alone.And the greatest threat may come from powers no one fully understands.The Convergence continues the Callum Walker saga with high-stakes adventure, sweeping fantasy worldbuilding, and a hero forced to face the cost of destiny.