Podcasts: Dirty Rotten Scoundrelles

Posted on 15 July, 2020

Looking for a new podcast that will hook you from go-to-woe? Look no further than these podcasts about female scammers…

Cast your mind back to the 1988 movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and like me, you probably remember Michael Caine looking debonnaire on the French Riviera and Steve Martin needing to eat with a cork on his fork.

They were playing con men trying to scam wealthy tourists. Do you remember the ending?

*Spoiler alert*—in the movie, the scammers are double-scammed by a con woman. A dirty, rotten scoundrelle if you will. There is a predilection to think of con artists as male and that is why the plot worked so well.

Such scoundrelles are the subjects of two separate podcasts I’ve recently finished for which my unexpected comparison is not in the difference between the con women—but the varying effects on their victims…

ABC’s Unravel, Season 4: Snowball

In 2007, Greg Wards returns to New Zealand with his bride to be, American Lezlie Manukian (pictured above).

Ollie Wards, Greg’s brother, flies in from his job with triple J in Australia to be the emcee at their wedding and already senses something is not quite right.

‘Unravel’ indeed, as within months Lezlie had disappeared along with the Wards’ life savings, leaving Greg and Ollie’s parents homeless.

Years later, Ollie decides it is time to find out what happened to Lezlie, who becomes the subject of this fascinating—and very personal—seven-episode podcast for the ABC.

Aided by his Dad’s clandestine investigations, Ollie uncovers Lezlie’s intricate web of deceit.

When Ollie and Simon—another Wards brother—fly to the USA to track down Lezlie, they follow the trail of broken dreams Lezlie has left in her wake. Seeking answers to vindicate his family’s unsettling sense of gullibility, he finds plenty of evidence to show their only complicity was being decent, trusting human beings.

Listen out for when Ollie gets closer to Lezlie and calls a family meeting, wanting to know what they’d like to ask her, given the chance.

I expected, at the very least, a hint of schadenfreude would be on the agenda but alas, the kind and together Wards seemed to feel only pity.

And therein lies the power shift; to prevail whilst the scammer wilts—Lezlie has a period of living in her car—is when these psychopaths never win.

Mr and Mrs Wards, how proud you must be of your boys, and they of you.

BBC’s Fake Heiress

Meet German heiress Anna Delvey. Due to realise a trust fund of €60 million on her upcoming 26^th birthday, her benevolent wish is to start the Anna Delvey Foundation to support artists in a studio and events space she plans to fund in an iconic New York building.

This BBC podcast is by journalist Vicky Baker who investigates and narrates this story, and playwright Chloe Moss who contributes to dramatised scenes, which channel old radio plays.

Anna Delvey’s story of mind-boggling proportions is the classic ‘the cheque’s in the mail’—robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I find it difficult to have sympathy for some of Anna’s victims as in many ways their own personas are make-believe, with lifestyle embellishments seeking to reach a desired social standing. They trade off looking and behaving like something they are not—fraudulent in appearance and personality; but unlike Anna, not criminal.

Both Anna Delvey (not her real name) and Lezlie Manukian have much in common. Duplicity, psychopathy, narcissism and other Machiavellian traits just to name a few.

There are no Robin Hoods here, no anti-heroes, just plain dirty rotten scoundrelles.

And as to the aftermath of such deceit? Well, in America, the land of opportunity, some of Anna’s victims are signing book deals and Netflix series.

The Wards family from New Zealand, however, are ahead in spades.  They live in the real world, with real people, and have something priceless—dignity, unity and unwavering family love.

Feature image of Snowball via abc.net.au