The Criminally Morbid Mortician w/ Harvey Guillén

In the spookiest of scam stories yet, Laci welcomes actor Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows, Companion) to dig into David Sconce, a mortician who found new and gruesome ways to cut corners in the cremation business, turning his family’s funeral home into a money machine. Stay schemin’! CW: Mention of death‑care industry misconduct. CON-gregation, catch Laci's TV Show Scam Goddess, now on Freeform and Hulu! Did you miss out on a custom-signed Scam Goddess book? Look no more, nab your copy on PODSWAG Keep the scams coming and snitch on your friends by emailing us at [email protected]. Follow on Instagram: Scam Goddess Pod: @scamgoddesspod Laci Mosley: @divalaci Harvey Guillén: @harveyguillen Research by Kathryn Doyle SOURCES https://www.eonline.com/photos/37749/the-true-story-behind-hbos-the-mortician https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2025/06/15/mortician-hbo-series-lamb-funeral-home/84121896007/ https://slate.com/culture/2025/06/the-mortician-hbo-david-sconce-documentary-tim-waters-lamb-funeral-home.html https://time.com/7290184/the-mortician-hbo-documentary-true-story/ https://www.missingatthemortuary.com/history https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-30-me-1105-story.html

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 0:43Speaker 02

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• 1:27Speaker 02

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• 2:20Laci Mosley?

  What's popping congregation? Oh, it's spooky season. Do y'all like my spooky voice? Would you climb down into a sewer with me? Hmm, yes. My name is Lacey Mosley and this is the podcast Scam Goddess, all about robbery, fraud, and those who practice it. And yes, it's a comedy show as well. Oh. Sometimes we love the scammers, sometimes we hate them. But we'll learn that along the way. Today, we have an actor, an actor, on the show. A true darling who you may have heard as Perrito in Puss in Boots, The Last Wish, or perhaps you've seen him in the sci-fi thriller Companion. But for our more comedy-loving macabre fans,

• 3:04Laci Mosley?

  you may know him as Guillermo de la Cruz from the hit show What We Do in the Shadows. And for this portrayal, he earned five Critics' Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and made history by becoming the first queer Latinx actor to be nominated in this category. I know that's right. Congregation, please welcome our first-timer to Hallelujah Night, Halloween, yes, Harvey Guillen to the show. Hi Harvey.

• 3:33Speaker 05

  Hi. Thanks for that intro. That was really nice and I love the voice.

• 3:36Laci Mosley?

  I was trying to give him a little spookiness.

• 3:38Speaker 05

  It was cool.

• 3:39Laci Mosley?

  Were you spooked?

• 3:39Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:40Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 3:40Speaker 05

  It was a sophisticated spook. I liked it. I was like, ooh. Yeah.

• 3:44Laci Mosley?

  You know what it is? It's like I had Arlstein as a kid. And so we had that like weird skeleton man who had like a little bit of skin left.

• 3:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:54Laci Mosley?

  That's what really made him scary. If he was just like a bone skeleton that you see, like, you know, in like biology, he wouldn't have been that scary.

• 4:00Speaker 05

  That thin layer of skin. And it's whoever did the illustrations, I think it was the same illustrator for all the books, did a fantastic job. Because that's how you got those in your head. Like you got the visual, like the cover of the book and you're like, I- I'm in. The power of a cover of a book. The jingles that make us.

• 4:15Laci Mosley?

  I miss jingles. Now they just be like, bodies. We said, we know you're starving.

• 4:21Laci Mosley?

  We know food prices is up. Come on over here with your bitch ass. They used to try to woo us.

• 4:28Laci Mosley?

  Commercials with black people like.

• 4:34Speaker 05

  Now it's like.

• 4:35Laci Mosley?

  Right. Now they're like, just come get this McDonald's. We know you live in a food desert.

• 4:38Speaker 05

  It's just a still. They don't even want to film a video like this.

• 4:41Laci Mosley?

  Where are you gonna eat?

• 4:44Laci Mosley?

  I know there ain't no grocery stores nearby. Y'all don't got a community garden, so where y'all gonna eat? Come get this chicken snack, right? We put a little lettuce on it. That's healthy.

• 4:52Speaker 05

  Maybe chicken.

• 4:55Laci Mosley?

  Although I will say when that documentary came out like ages ago, I had to watch it in health class. The one about McDonald's.

• 5:03Laci Mosley?

  I got a McDonald's burger that day.

• 5:08Speaker 05

  Say what you will, I want to have a bite of that.

• 5:12Laci Mosley?

  But also there are moments with McDonald's where they were like, now with real chicken.

• 5:18Speaker 05

  Now with real meat.

• 5:22Laci Mosley?

  Like, I feel like that's something you just don't tell us then because.

• 5:25Speaker 05

  At that point, we crossed the line. Just don't tell me.

• 5:29Laci Mosley?

  Taco Bell knows their audience, okay? Cause they got healthier beef and stuff. And they didn't tell nobody because they were like, they'll think it's not gonna be nasty if it's healthier. So they didn't tell people that they actually upgraded the quality of their food.

• 5:40Speaker 05

  It's kind of true. My brothers will not eat something if I tell them it's healthy, but if I trick, not trick them, scan them into thinking that this is like, that's regular taco. And they eat like, that's pretty good. I'm like, wasn't it good? Like that, that was all vegetarian.

• 5:52Speaker 05

  They get sick or like they, they get sick in their mind like that, don't do that. That's gross. And they just got like spitting it out like you.

• 5:59Speaker 05

  I was like, you were eating it a second ago. I was like, yeah, but I know it's not real meat. And I was like.

• 6:03Laci Mosley?

  They acted like the opposite. Like if you try to trick a vegetarian, be like, yeah, that was fish in there and crab.

• 6:08Speaker 05

  How do you feel? You just ate a cow.

• 6:11Laci Mosley?

  And it hurt real bad when it died. Cause I feel like now, like the younger generation, like a Gen Z, Gen Alpha, the way that they consume spooky is like, they'll be like, and then Slenderman hopped out of the shadows. And I'm gonna tell you all about it while I apply my Patrick Star Setting Spray. It's like, they're not, they don't get the full spookiness. I don't want to see you doing your makeup while you tell me about a grisly murder. Like, I want to be scared.

• 6:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:39Laci Mosley?

  And they're like, no, it's really important to put on your base and, and make sure.

• 6:43Speaker 05

  And guys, take a look at this.

• 6:44Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but you gotta put the hand up.

• 6:46Speaker 05

  Same color that the victim was found dead with. But, um, different on me. So what you want to do is, oh, so anyways, so yes, four people ended up being murdered.

• 6:52Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but like their blood was running rouge red throughout the streets. And speaking of rouge red, Rihanna has a new red lip color out.

• 6:59Speaker 05

  Thank you, Fenty.

• 7:01Laci Mosley?

  Thank you, Fenty. I'm going to be doing this today. But as I was saying, when the last lady was stabbed to death with a knife that had a similar shimmer to this eyeshadow that I'm wearing from Urban Decay.

• 7:10Speaker 05

  And you can see it, can you see it?

• 7:11Laci Mosley?

  Yes, can you see it? This is actually the Love Island combo.

• 7:15Speaker 05

  I'll, I'll put the link below.

• 7:16Laci Mosley?

  I'll put the link below, okay? Y'all get it. Um, the past, like, the link code is Olandria. The link code is Nicolandria.

• 7:23Speaker 05

  Justice for her.

• 7:28Laci Mosley?

  Oh, man. Yo, I did actually think though, uh, when that, when that season was out, like, Alandria was wearing like a full beat. And I was like, you need to get into the makeup industry because every time she kissed Nick, his face was gonna be dark skinned. He was like not agreeing to blackface. He kissed her and then, and then all of a sudden he was in blackface. So, you know, we gotta get some stay makeup. We gotta get, but we always ask on this podcast. Listen, okay? They need that Patrick Star setting spray. Patrick Star, sponsor the show.

• 7:55Speaker 05

  I just saw him last night.

• 7:56Laci Mosley?

  Okay, yes. I really do like it. It's a gag.

• 7:59Speaker 05

  I still have the wicked palettes.

• 8:01Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, they're beautiful. I got some sent to my house. I'm like Trixie stuff and like, yeah. Like the pigments, like, listen, a drag queen knows how to make it stay, okay? Because they're gonna be up there sweating like a hoe in church.

• 8:12Speaker 05

  Does not move.

• 8:13Laci Mosley?

  But it doesn't move. Face don't move, okay? Face on froze. But we always ask on this podcast, Harvey, what's your relationship with scams? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Have you ever run any that are past the statute of limitations? Have some been run on you? It could be anything.

• 8:25Speaker 05

  I mean, I don't love any that's run on me, you know? I've been tried to be scammed several times. Uh, financially, maybe those telemarketers that people call you, that it's, it's a thing, um, scammed.

• 8:35Laci Mosley?

  You were picking up those calls?

• 8:36Speaker 05

  No, eventually I was not. But you know, the first time you get a call, you're like, what? And you're vulnerable and you're like that, like.

• 8:41Laci Mosley?

  And I mean, you work in television and so sometimes there is production calling from a number that you don't know.

• 8:47Speaker 05

  All the time. I almost missed out on a role because a number called me and I was like, telemarketer. And they kept calling and calling. It's like, oh my God, leave me alone. Hey, you got the part. What?

• 8:56Laci Mosley?

  You've been like, what bitch?

• 8:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:58Laci Mosley?

  And they're like, hey, we think you're super talented and we want to employ you. Oh, huh?

• 9:03Speaker 05

  Oh, okay, okay, I'm falling for that.

• 9:06Laci Mosley?

  And I went to this audition and you say I was there?

• 9:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:09Laci Mosley?

  Oh, okay.

• 9:10Speaker 05

  Oh, I see, okay. That would explain why I didn't work for four years. Because I kept turning down the calls that kept saying yes, and I said no and.

• 9:19Laci Mosley?

  Not no and. Not no or.

• 9:23Speaker 05

  Not no or. Uh, I don't like scams, but I have been part of scams that I unbeknownst to me, maybe I knew. When I was in, uh, elementary school, I wanted to pay for acting classes because my parents, they couldn't afford to pay for it. So I found a flyer on our street where they had those like things and, you know, light bulbs or whatever it pulls. And it says, are you teen?

• 9:45Laci Mosley?

  Like a little number.

• 9:46Speaker 05

  I called them and they said, if you're the ages between thirteen to sixteen, that was the age. But I was ten, eleven, so I wasn't old enough. So I called and I scammed them. And I was like, yeah, I'm thirteen. And they came to the house and the guy, it was, it was this crook who would literally hire kids who've been a juvie because they know they had nowhere else to go to make some money. And so I was like, yeah, I'm thirteen. And he looked at me, he's all, yeah, I guess, yeah, I believe it. And I was like, okay, thanks. It was like that. They wanted to believe me, but not so easily. Like I was like, yeah, I'm thirteen. He's like, yeah, you look it.

• 10:18Laci Mosley?

  But you know, when you're a black or you're a brown person, they automatically assume we're older than we are. Even though we age the best and we don't look that way.

• 10:26Speaker 05

  Cause we're mature beyond our years. We have to grow up really quick.

• 10:28Laci Mosley?

  They're like, that man, that grown man had a stick. And so we had to attack him.

• 10:32Speaker 05

  He was ten, sir.

• 10:33Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, and it's like, no, that wasn't a grown man, babe.

• 10:36Speaker 05

  That was a kid.

• 10:36Laci Mosley?

  And the news still does it. They'll be like, this adult was murdered. We're like, that's a baby.

• 10:40Speaker 05

  That was a baby.

• 10:41Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 10:41Speaker 05

  That is literally a baby.

• 10:42Laci Mosley?

  That baby can't go to the bar, that baby can't enlist.

• 10:45Speaker 05

  He was holding something, it was a bottle. He was holding a bottle.

• 10:47Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it was a bottle.

• 10:48Speaker 05

  He was holding a bottle.

• 10:49Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, he was, he was attacking that lady. No, that was breastfeeding. He's an infant.

• 10:53Speaker 05

  Literally an infant breastfeeding, yeah.

• 10:54Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, no, that's his mother.

• 10:56Speaker 05

  That's his mother, yeah, yeah.

• 10:57Laci Mosley?

  You're aging up the brown people too much. Okay, so you feel like you can kill them. Like, no, they're an adult.

• 11:02Speaker 05

  He needs to calm that down a little bit, yeah. A lot. So I was ten, eleven and pretending to be thirteen and I knew it was a scam the second I met this guy. But I needed to make money.

• 11:11Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 11:11Speaker 05

  So you need me, I need you.

• 11:13Laci Mosley?

  We had a desk monitor, it's like, okay, I see some red flags, but at the same time, I'm trying to get the bag.

• 11:17Speaker 05

  I'm trying to get that bag and I'm trying to pay for my acting classes and my mom was like, who is this man? I was like, he works for, I don't want to say the name for it, because it's probably still out there on that scam artist. Uh, California blank, something. And it was a.

• 11:33Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, California blank something.

• 11:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, I hope he's not in business, because what a crook. Like, he would take these kids in low-income communities and literally give you a box of chocolates that he paid a dollar for each one at the nine cent store. You sell it for five dollars, he gives you a dollar twenty-five, he keeps the rest.

• 11:47Laci Mosley?

  Okay, here's what bothers me about this. Clearly, he's having y'all do the legwork and he's not giving you a fair cut of the, the cash, right? Like, you're getting twenty percent, but you're doing a hundred percent of the legwork.

• 12:00Speaker 05

  But we're kids and we're desperate.

• 12:02Laci Mosley?

  And he's taking eighty, but also I don't think he was dreaming big enough. Why the fuck you trying to sell this for five dollars a box, like, when you got it for a dollar? And you got cute kids that are knocking on doors, like, hey, we trying to play basketball and we need jerseys.

• 12:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 12:16Laci Mosley?

  Or hey, uh.

• 12:17Speaker 05

  That was how my voice sounded, by the way.

• 12:21Speaker 05

  Back then, that is my voice.

• 12:23Laci Mosley?

  We want to work for you one day, like, cleaning your house or something. But we can't do that if you don't buy these chocolate bars, because otherwise they gonna put us in jail. So rather, like, hey, nice white person, wouldn't you want me working for you rather than being in jail?

• 12:37Speaker 05

  I had a monologue, like, Lily was like.

• 12:39Laci Mosley?

  What would you say?

• 12:39Speaker 05

  Some of my best actors, I was like, hi, I'm Harvey and I'm with California, blah, blah, blah, because I'm two boxes away from earning my, you know, about a trip to Six Flags or a camping trip or whatnot. Whatever he told us that week was the goal, which at first I believed him. And I was like, you know, we take trips, we go to Disneyland, we go to thing. We never went Disneyland, like, I worked for that man for three years. I never went anywhere with him except for McDonald's afterwards, where he would drive us to after working a long shift. So you would waste your money because you will need to come back tomorrow.

• 13:07Laci Mosley?

  He wasn't gonna pay when he took y'all to Mickey D's?

• 13:09Speaker 05

  No, he's not paying for it.

• 13:10Laci Mosley?

  Y'all have McDonald's money, here's your one twenty-five.

• 13:13Speaker 05

  You got one twenty-five, you buy a cheeseburger.

• 13:15Laci Mosley?

  Baby to you, okay? Nah, you're not gonna be able to get no fries and here's a water cup. If you're smart, you'll fill it with lemonade.

• 13:21Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:21Laci Mosley?

  But no.

• 13:22Speaker 05

  Yes, and that way, you have to understand, like, I became really good at it because also I was younger. So I was this kid who was walking, this little chubby kid with a box that could barely like hold it. And like literally this, it was heavy. It was like, it was like 25 items and they're like big boxes.

• 13:34Laci Mosley?

  I remember those boxes.

• 13:35Speaker 05

  The sewing kits also, we sold sewing kits. We sold, it didn't matter if you're diabetic or not, we had something for you. Like, it was like, we got a sewing kit, we got like a, you needed this thing, a fairy, a card holder? It was whatever the 99 cent store was selling that day on sale, he would buy a bulk of that.

• 13:52Laci Mosley?

  And I could see you cleaning up. If it's like, if it's like you come to the door with a box and it's so heavy, you got your little baby 10-year-old arm shaking like, would you like to buy? And it's like, they gotta buy from the baby with the shaking arms.

• 14:05Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 14:05Laci Mosley?

  And the baby goes, keep going.

• 14:06Speaker 05

  It was also winter sometimes and we're like, I, my whooping cough.

• 14:12Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, not the whooping. Okay, Tiny Tim, you just went around and won Tiny Tim. Oh no.

• 14:19Speaker 05

  Tuberculosis strikes again.

• 14:21Laci Mosley?

  You literally went around like Tiny Tim, I'm weak. But then they got a great story for dinner parties. They were like, there was this young boy and he was shaking, shaking.

• 14:29Speaker 05

  And I helped him.

• 14:29Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, and I helped him.

• 14:30Speaker 05

  And I helped him, savior. Yeah, literally, that's what they needed to feel like they were the savior in the story. And I was, you know, banking it in, like, I was selling so much and I became like a junior manager, which meant like he would give me the better spots, like gas stations were better. Mind you, I'm like a kid and I'm at a gas station until 11:00 PM on a weekday, like working these streets.

• 14:50Laci Mosley?

  What if y'all got abducted?

• 14:53Speaker 05

  Here's how we stopped that. This is before like.

• 14:55Laci Mosley?

  How we stopped that?

• 14:58Laci Mosley?

  This is how we stopped getting abducted?

• 15:00Speaker 05

  There was complaints, there was complaints about getting abducted and we took those complaints into consideration.

• 15:05Laci Mosley?

  We took them to HR.

• 15:05Speaker 05

  We took them to HR, which also happened to.

• 15:07Laci Mosley?

  Hey, a lot of us just don't really feel comfortable with the abduction aspect.

• 15:12Speaker 05

  I got promoted to HR, so I get the complaints, the complaint box and I read them and I'd be like, we can address this. And the fear was that, you know, this is before no one could, no one afford to have a cellphone. No, we didn't have cellphones.

• 15:23Laci Mosley?

  Okay, yeah.

• 15:24Speaker 05

  And the way that you. Got security was he gave you a piece of chalk. And when you went into a street, you put an arrow that you went into that street with your initials. If there was no arrow coming out on the other side of the street, that means you're in that street. So we know where to find you. And if for some reason you forgot to chalk out, we stay in that street looking for you for an hour.

• 15:41Laci Mosley?

  What in the hopscotch HR is this?

• 15:44Speaker 05

  He would look for you late at night. Sometimes we'd be looking for one.

• 15:47Laci Mosley?

  Y'all leave some breadcrumbs. If we don't see the breadcrumbs coming back, we know either a pigeon was hungry or you got chucked. Like, what do you mean?

• 15:57Speaker 05

  No, I'm telling you, we spent like an hour and a half looking for this kid and we're like, can we go home? We were all hungry. We were looking for one kid, but this guy was also like this responsibility. I gotta go tell these kids parents. So he finally gets the gut, pulls over to a gas and calls the home and goes, hey, just to let you know, we can't find, oh, he's here. He's there. He's like, yeah, he just took the bus and left and didn't want to do it anymore. Would have been great if he told us that because we've been looking for for an hour and a half. I got home like at midnight that night and I had a test the next morning.

• 16:23Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but he should have did the right thing and hung out at each stop with the kids. He was trying to be greedy and separate everybody.

• 16:31Speaker 05

  He would pack a van with 20 kids. And we would be sardines in this van, like we were like over the maximum capacity. Like there would be kids on each other's laps.

• 16:38Laci Mosley?

  See, if he was a smart business person, he could have hit several areas multiple times with different kids. Cause if he had kept all the kids together and been like, Harvey, you go to this one house and we gonna hide over here in the corner in the bushes. And then the next kid, okay, Shane, you go to this house, we gonna be in the bushes. And then we can hit it the same week. We just write a little map like, okay, Harvey hit this one. So now he go hit this one.

• 17:00Speaker 05

  He had a routine. Like he's like, this week we're doing a Souza, next week Montebello. Like he was like covering his tracks and then in five, six weeks, we come back to those cities again and he would switch out. You got it.

• 17:09Laci Mosley?

  Okay, so he was doing it. But in a more irresponsible way. You just can't take your eyes off of children.

• 17:15Speaker 05

  You wouldn't want to hit the same neighborhood twice in a week.

• 17:16Laci Mosley?

  Talk about draw a chalk line.

• 17:18Speaker 05

  You would, that's selling yourself short because if you hit the same neighborhood twice in a week, they're like, I just bought from this little kid with these cheeks last week. They don't want that. Let seven weeks go by, you can revisit that place again.

• 17:27Laci Mosley?

  Okay.

• 17:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, and then.

• 17:29Laci Mosley?

  I just don't like that. He's like, if you are feeling like you're gonna get abducted, like draw a little body outline.

• 17:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:35Laci Mosley?

  So that we know you got took.

• 17:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:36Laci Mosley?

  And that we can, yeah. Kidnapper, I just have to draw this real quick so they know, like, no.

• 17:42Speaker 05

  No, he was a scam artist. And the worst part was that he didn't let us take tips because he didn't get a cut of that. Because he doesn't, if you got a tip and didn't sell a box, he, that's, you know, you don't get 10% of nothing or 90% of nothing. So he was like, don't take tips. And so I was always paranoid about taking tips.

• 18:00Speaker 05

  So this lady's like, I'm diabetic, I don't, I have a 20. And I was like, oh, we don't accept.

• 18:06Speaker 05

  And I was like, wait, why don't we accept tips? And this is like me just being, follow the rules, follow the rules and play by the rules. And I was like, okay. And I took the 20. And I had this gut feeling the whole day that he was gonna find out somehow. I was like, you think I didn't see that? I was like, that's what I thought. So I, I collected tips and sometimes I would go home with way more tips than actual sales. And eventually he saw my sales like declines, like you're not selling as much. And I was like, yeah, people aren't buying. It's like, or maybe you're not trying harder. And I was like, dun, dun, dun. And I was like, he's starting to smell that like, I'm going to work and I'm not putting as much effort as selling one box. I'm putting much effort. If you don't like chocolate, I'll take a tip. I was working for tips.

• 18:40Laci Mosley?

  I mean, you're funny as hell. I feel like you're not just going to the doors doing bits. Like literally Beyonce used to do that as a kid. They would like go door to door and sing for people. So it's like, you were caroling at that point.

• 18:51Speaker 05

  And my sisters come, we were in professional carol. I came, I made them come with me door to door to Carol and be like, uh, we wish you Merry Christmas then. We're for.

• 19:00Laci Mosley?

  Okay, entertainment.

• 19:02Speaker 05

  Entertainment was always in the family. Uh, so one day he was driving, we were picking people up and we saw a guy. He was like 16, he'd been to juvie, he was wearing like, you know, this white top, like tattoos everywhere. But he knew that he needed this job because no one else, they weren't hiring him at McDonald's. They weren't hiring because of his record. Like he had a really bad record. And at that point, he needed this job, but people were tipping him. They were taking like, you know, take this 20 and, you know, all the best to you. He saw him take a tip. And he got out of the van and he walked up halfway through like the walkway where the house was. And he goes, I saw you take a tip. And he goes, I know what you're talking about. I saw you take, give it to me. He said, what? Give me the tip. He's like, I said, give it to me. And he grabbed it and like wrestled him to the floor. This is a child. He's still 16, he's underage.

• 19:43Laci Mosley?

  Over $10?

• 19:43Speaker 05

  Over $10. Like just wrestled him and I was like this, like watching in the window and that's when I knew I have to get out or that's gonna be me.

• 19:51Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, cuz that man is a pimp.

• 19:52Speaker 05

  That is a pimp. Yeah, and I'm pretty sure it was heading that way eventually. He was probably gonna start, now that you're really good at selling chocolate, you could sell something else.

• 20:00Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 20:00Speaker 05

  Scam artists, I would say, working for him was like a big scam, but it taught me something. It's like, people are out there scamming people every day and either you're the scammer or you're the one being scammed, you know? It's just like, people are desperate and they're desperate to what they need. And everyone has needs.

• 20:15Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

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• 22:19Laci Mosley?

  I just think like wrangling up a bunch of children and having them under threat and trying to keep them underpaid.

• 22:24Speaker 05

  It's very Pinocchio.

• 22:25Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, like, what are you doing, bro? Like, if you can round up this many kids and it's like kind of daycare, I mean.

• 22:33Speaker 05

  Oh, and I saw one time I got to go to where his storage facility, which was his house, his garage. This is going terrible.

• 22:41Laci Mosley?

  Storage facility, AKA where he lives.

• 22:44Speaker 05

  Where he lives.

• 22:45Laci Mosley?

  You know what, listen, I was on Conan once and I was in my car and Conan was like, Lacey, I thought you were gonna call, like, we were gonna have this video call from your office. Cause it was like at the height of COVID and I was like, this is my office. Wherever I park is my address, okay? Y'all mail it to, uh, 50th.

• 23:00Speaker 05

  Wilshire Boulevard.

• 23:01Laci Mosley?

  And Lexington. Yeah, that's where my office is currently. Okay, it was just a mobile office, you know? People have mobile homes, I have a mobile office. He had a storage facility that was also where he slept that night.

• 23:13Speaker 05

  Mansion.

• 23:13Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 23:14Speaker 05

  And I saw this man, I was like, you live here in a two-story mansion? And he's all, yep. And I was like, and you do something else like during the day? Nope. His lifestyle was paid by these kids and he lives in a gorgeous home. While I'm living like in apartment with a family of six, you know, like a one-bedroom, you know, craziness. Like the idea that I was like, we're pay, that's when I realized, I was like, we're paying for this house. I'm paying for this, I should live in this house. And he was just like, yeah, I just want to keep the boxes, it's the garage, the garage, the door's open and there's tons of chocolate. Like you would have imagined it was like drug, kilo cocaine or something.

• 23:47Laci Mosley?

  Essentially, it was for him. He had his corner boys and y'all were out here slanging that choco. You know what I mean? That pure Colombian choco.

• 23:56Speaker 05

  Colombian choco.

• 23:58Laci Mosley?

  Colombian choco, okay? Straight to your door. Very discreet, very demure.

• 24:04Speaker 05

  Very mindful. Very mindful.

• 24:06Laci Mosley?

  He was Pablo Esco Candy Bar. You know?

• 24:10Speaker 05

  Esco Chocolate Bar.

• 24:14Laci Mosley?

  They call him El Chocolate.

• 24:15Speaker 05

  El Chocolate.

• 24:16Laci Mosley?

  And you do not want to cross El Chocolate.

• 24:17Speaker 05

  No, El Chocolate.

• 24:18Laci Mosley?

  I once took a tip and El Chocolate saw and jumped out of the van and wrestled me to the ground.

• 24:22Speaker 05

  I've already heard legends of El Chocolate. It's true, though. That's when I knew that I was like, I need to bounce. I need to. Also, if I'm really good at this now, like, I could probably get a job that doesn't put me in danger late at night. And like, then, you know, ended up going to work for a swap meet as a runner off of tips. I realized tips is where the money's at.

• 24:41Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 24:41Speaker 05

  And I was like, I could just do a job that just.

• 24:44Laci Mosley?

  And you have great vibes. And you really have to have great vibes. Like, when you walked into the studio, I was like, oh, my god, Harvey has such great vibes.

• 24:50Speaker 05

  Really?

• 24:51Laci Mosley?

  Yes, I can feel it. And you really have to have great vibes to get good tips.

• 24:54Speaker 05

  That's true. I didn't think about that. I just thought you was like, do a good job and you're getting a good tip. But you're right. I've met, people who work in food service when I was, you know, a waiter and stuff, and people are not good vibes. And I was like, what are you doing here? This is not for you. And they're like, yeah. I was just like, hi, welcome to the bar. Sure, I'll get that. And I was like, what are you doing? Like, that's how you talk to customers. It's like, you're not getting a tip. And then they get mad if they don't get a tip. They're like, what did I do wrong?

• 25:18Laci Mosley?

  Exactly. Everything.

• 25:19Speaker 05

  Everything.

• 25:20Laci Mosley?

  It's, I, okay, so I was kind of like, medium vibes, because I didn't want to be working at a restaurant. But I wasn't gonna give you an attitude. I would kiki with you a little bit, but I just really was not supposed to be there.

• 25:30Speaker 05

  That goes so, that goes such a long way.

• 25:32Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. But like, I had a friend, Nick, who like, he, like, I would still get very high tips, but he would get the highest tips every quarter because he liked engaging with people. Full out. And like, my worst nightmare was if there's like a couple that's been together for a long time, and you could tell they don't really have nothing else to talk about. So then, when you walk over to the table like, hi, welcome, can I get your order? And they're like, oh, how you doing, little lady? How was your week? And then all of a sudden, we're in a conversation. I'm like, I don't want to talk to you. Just please the order. And then they come, you know, you come at the end of the meal, and like, did you enjoy everything? And they're like, oh, we hated it. And like, the plate's empty. And they're like, we hated it. And I have to act like it was the first time I've ever heard that joke.

• 26:09Speaker 05

  I gotta write that one down.

• 26:09Laci Mosley?

  Like, my soul is just leaving my eyeballs and my body. And I'm like, oh, yeah. Because it's empty.

• 26:16Speaker 05

  I saw it as an acting gig. Every table was a bit because everyone has different energy.

• 26:21Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 05

  So I would go to the people. They're, ooh, they're about to break up. So I'm gonna make it lighter, but not too over the top to like, I'm annoying them to be like, "Hey, guys, welcome." And it's like, "How's it going?" "Oh, well, sure, I'll get that for you." They also want their quiet time. You read people's energy, and they're about to break up. Give them a second, bring the check after.

• 26:37Laci Mosley?

  Ooh, they used to call me a mercenary. If I had a couple that was about to break up, I would actually do the opposite and run their tab up. I'm like, "Somebody knows this their last meal." Okay, somebody has to know.

• 26:47Speaker 05

  You wanna push for that dessert? Under the drink, you wanna the drink.

• 26:50Laci Mosley?

  Y'all give me Yamazaki vibes.

• 26:52Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 26:52Laci Mosley?

  You know, like, at least fourteen, you know? Don't mind the price, cuz I can just tell.

• 26:58Speaker 05

  It's money.

• 26:59Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 27:00Speaker 05

  Wow, you live today. Yeah, it's fine. But it's true, every, every table was a, I felt like it was like a little scene. And for this, tonight's performance, for this table, they're breaking up. You're a little more like, fun, but light, but not like too much. For this one, they just had a really terrible day. Cheer them up, they wanna have a good day. So cheer them up. And it worked every time because everybody goes to these sessions to get food and nourishment or whatnot, or to get away. And either you're just doing your best, because they're living their life, you're doing the best you can, and they're doing the best they can. So all I want is that tip. So like, I wanna make you sure that you left happy, whatever that capacity means to you. If you were happy by my service, you're happy that I made you laugh, but you leave happy. That's all I care about.

• 27:36Laci Mosley?

  Exactly, and that's why you had the riz. That's why you were making money when you were out here being scammed.

• 27:41Speaker 05

  Being part of a scam without knowing it was a scam.

• 27:43Laci Mosley?

  Not even knowing, and then like, you did it legit, and you made even more money. I love that, that's such a great story. You know what I mean? And wherever, you know, Esco Chocolate Bar is, you know, I hope he's doing well.

• 27:55Speaker 05

  Cutting those.

• 27:56Laci Mosley?

  I don't know, you was beating up kids, so we can't hope that you're doing that well.

• 27:59Speaker 05

  I don't know, I wish you the day you deserve.

• 28:02Laci Mosley?

  Ooh.

• 28:03Speaker 05

  I wish you the day you deserve.

• 28:04Laci Mosley?

  And whatever that means.

• 28:05Speaker 05

  Whatever that, that's the best.

• 28:06Laci Mosley?

  I wish you to get exactly what you deserve.

• 28:08Speaker 05

  And whenever, someone taught me that, and it just stayed with me because it's true. People are like, "Oh, I wish them well." I was like, "No, don't wish them well, wish them the day they deserve." Because you know if you've done good or bad. And so if you say, "No, don't, don't tell me that," it's like, "Why? Is there something you wanna confess?"

• 28:21Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 28:21Speaker 05

  Like, "I wish you the day you deserve." "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

• 28:24Laci Mosley?

  Why you feel bad about that?

• 28:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, why you feel bad? What have you done? Or if you go like, "Thank you, that's thank you." You know you've done good, cuz you have no, you know, qualms about it.

• 28:33Laci Mosley?

  So you're like, "I should get everything I deserve."

• 28:35Speaker 05

  But if someone goes, "No, no, no, not the day I deserve." There's right now.

• 28:39Laci Mosley?

  Then we know. That's a good little scam. You're just like, "I wish you the day you deserve." And they're like, "Why would you put that evil on me?"

• 28:46Speaker 05

  It works.

• 28:48Laci Mosley?

  Oh, man. Well, now it's time to get into the spooky part of the show. Even though I think like, um, El Chocolate is kinda scary.

• 28:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's, no, it's ticking off, it's coming.

• 29:00Laci Mosley?

  He took like a fun confection and now I feel like if you saw that same chocolate bar, you'd be like, ah.

• 29:04Speaker 05

  Yeah, it triggers me. Yeah. I do see people, sometimes there's kids with boxes of gases, like, no. And I'll go up there, like, you don't have to do this. You can be out the streets.

• 29:13Laci Mosley?

  Not you pulling a full drink like you do at the strip club, like, you don't have to do this. I'll put you in a song, okay? You work on, at the Hooters on Peach Street, I'll put you in a song. You ain't never gotta sell a Hoot, uh, Oot Oot a holler again. You were like, no, y'all put the chocolate bars down. You were like that Michael Jackson meme when they're like, and they don't really care about us and they hold the gun up to Michael Jackson. He like puts it down with his finger like, no, you don't have to sell this chocolate no more.

• 29:39Speaker 05

  No. Peach Street, I was just on Peach Street this weekend in Atlanta.

• 29:43Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yes. Well, yes. No, no, I'm like, what would you do if your son was not home? Crying all alone on the neighborhood floor.

• 29:52Laci Mosley?

  Chocolate.

• 29:56Laci Mosley?

  Cause he's hungry and the only way to feed him is just sell some chocolate for a little bit of money. Like, no.

• 30:03Speaker 05

  Oh, my God.

• 30:04Laci Mosley?

  No. So, we have our Halloween spooky episode and we definitely wanted to do this because you are very familiar with the spookiness.

• 30:12Speaker 05

  Familiar, yeah.

• 30:13Laci Mosley?

  Yes, we'll be doing the shadows. And so, we wanted to give you a fun little historic, ooh, dink. Ooh, y'all feel that shiver?

• 30:20Speaker 05

  I'm cold.

• 30:21Laci Mosley?

  That shiver up your spine? Yes, yes. It's not anemia, it's fear.

• 30:27Speaker 05

  Hmm, could be both.

• 30:32Laci Mosley?

  Okay, it's not anxiety, it's me making you shiver.

• 30:35Speaker 05

  Also a thing it could be.

• 30:37Laci Mosley?

  It could be both.

• 30:42Laci Mosley?

  So in the early 1980s, a mortician, David Sconce, found new and gruesome ways to cut corners in the cremation business, turning his family's funeral home into a money machine.

• 30:58Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I just feel like funerals are one of those things where funerals are for the living. And I don't want anyone running a funeral home like it's something in Silicon Valley. I don't want you thinking about like the numbers.

• 31:10Speaker 05

  The quick turnaround buck.

• 31:11Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I hope there's not a chart that's like, look, deaths are up this year, which means we need to be on the ground, okay? If we see an ambulance come in with a black, with the whole black body bag, that is an opportunity for us and we need to get after it. Like, I don't want that to be, like, it's supposed to be a nice emotional thing for people to say goodbye. But he was like, no, I see some ROI, we could get on these.

• 31:34Speaker 05

  Well, you know, I grew up in St. Gabriel down the street from this place in Pasadena. It's like, I grew up down the street from there. Yeah, this mortuary and crematorium was down the street from where I grew up.

• 31:47Laci Mosley?

  Funeral home?

• 31:48Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:48Laci Mosley?

  You're familiar?

• 31:49Speaker 05

  But the Lamb Funeral Home had been around since like the 1920s.

• 31:52Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, because it's a family business.

• 31:53Speaker 05

  It's a family business.

• 31:54Laci Mosley?

  David Sconce is the one that took over and started optimizing.

• 31:57Speaker 05

  Into the business, right? Did he marry the daughter or who's the son?

• 32:00Laci Mosley?

  Uh, let's see, I think you might be right about that. So before, so the family business, just to get a little sense of the business. The Lambs. The Lambs. Not to be confused with Mariah Carey's Stand Base. Also, let's look at him real quick. This is David Sconce.

• 32:13Speaker 05

  That looks like a killer, yep.

• 32:14Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, he looks like, you know when people hold on to their hairline? And it's like the hair does look luscious on the parts where it's not bald. And you can see he's putting some product in it. But it's also like, we can see that you bald babes, like just go ahead and lean in. Like, you don't have to, like, what is this, the Mr. Burns cut? Like, you went in and like, you were like, what?

• 32:38Laci Mosley?

  You went into the barber shop and was like, give me the Smithers special.

• 32:41Speaker 05

  This new show just came out this year called The Simpsons. I really love it.

• 32:46Laci Mosley?

  It's so good. It's so like, I'm like, where does they do it?

• 32:49Speaker 05

  I don't think it's gonna last long, but please give me this.

• 32:51Laci Mosley?

  Just one season.

• 32:51Speaker 05

  Just one season. I give it one, two seasons for sure.

• 32:54Laci Mosley?

  So he he looks mischievous in this photo, so I'm getting it.

• 32:58Speaker 05

  Smithers?

• 32:59Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 32:59Speaker 05

  Smithers?

• 33:01Laci Mosley?

  So the family business. Before their license was revoked in nineteen eighty-nine, Lamb Funeral Home had been one of LA's most well-known and trusted places to help lay a loved one to rest. So we're looking at the Lamb Funeral Home. I love that it like it has-

• 33:16Speaker 05

  Spanish style.

• 33:17Laci Mosley?

  Spanish style, that's what I was about to say. Like it blends into the neighborhood. It's not giving us the air. It's giving like this is a, you know-

• 33:24Speaker 05

  There's a coffee shop right across the street from there and I literally drive by there once a week. Yeah, and it's kind of terrifying the things that happen there that like, you know, now have led to this. But most people who lived there either forgot about it because if you live in SGV, the San Gabriel Valley, you either knew about it or you didn't. And I was too young to when it- I was so young.

• 33:44Laci Mosley?

  Such a baby.

• 33:45Speaker 07

  I was just eating my smalax.

• 33:47Speaker 05

  Ouchies, chocolate. Um, I I just remember not hearing about this until later. And because, you know, after a while, people hear like stories, especially like San Gabriel, like about haunted places and whatnot. But I grew up in that area and I'd heard about it, but not to the detail that I've come to know in the last like couple of months.

• 34:04Laci Mosley?

  So you didn't get like a chill down your back? I know I could say spine, but I like back butter. You didn't get a chill down your back when you walked past?

• 34:11Speaker 05

  No, I mean, you do get that-

• 34:13Laci Mosley?

  You start doing the Harlem Shake.

• 34:15Speaker 05

  You start shaking uncontrollably. Smithers?

• 34:20Laci Mosley?

  So it was run by a prominent old Pasadena family and had been established in the nineteen twenties, helping Pasadena and Altadena neighbors mark the passing of their loved ones with respect and dignity. Or at least it appeared that way. Right? So Charles F. Lamb founded the funeral home. Then his son Lawrence Lamb took over from the nineteen fifties to the nineteen eighties. When the business passed on to Lawrence's daughter, Loriann-

• 34:46Speaker 05

  There we go.

• 34:47Laci Mosley?

  And her husband, former football coach Jerry Sconce, their son- David Sconce, so they're the, the son of Loriann and who she married. David Sconce really wanted to be a football player and wanted to be like his dad, who was Jerry. One fateful day, David stepped on, into a gopher hole and suffered a career-ending in, injury. Which led to him joining the funeral home business instead. So he's like, I can't play football, so.

• 35:13Speaker 05

  Wait, how does one step into a gopher hole? Like, it's like your whole foot goes in there?

• 35:17Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, cuz like you can't.

• 35:18Speaker 05

  Your toe goes in, how big is a gopher?

• 35:20Laci Mosley?

  Like, the gophers be making holes. And then like, you may be running on a field or something, right? I was like, you're like, is this, uh, uh. It's gotta be big enough for like a young man's foot.

• 35:30Speaker 05

  Foot to go in.

• 35:31Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, and even, even if it's like the top of your foot, like if you break your ankle or something crazy. Yeah, if you break it something crazy, then it's, it's a wrap.

• 35:37Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:37Laci Mosley?

  So he was like, okay, I was trying to play, you know, football, but now I'm gonna be playing funeral home, you know?

• 35:43Speaker 05

  You look happy in that last photo we saw of him. Now he looks happy there.

• 35:46Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but he was like, okay, I'm getting in the family business. And so, twenty thousand future victims suffered at his hands.

• 35:55Speaker 05

  Hmm.

• 35:55Laci Mosley?

  Uh huh. So David Sconce, who's, who we've been talking about. And now we know his parents were Loriann and Jerry Sconce. And that he wanted to be a football player like a daddy and then the gopher hole snatched him up.

• 36:07Speaker 05

  Strikes again?

• 36:08Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, the gopher hole was like Lake Lanier and just snatched him up underneath. And then he couldn't, he couldn't do football no more. So now he's like, got twenty thousand victims at the funeral home. So David Sconce got his mortuary science certification from Cypress College at his parents' suggestion. Yeah, you can't just join the funeral biz. This is not like that one television show where you just be like, I'm a part of it. Like, I think you do have to get some education.

• 36:30Speaker 05

  How to embody, like, or.

• 36:32Laci Mosley?

  Embalm or like, yeah.

• 36:34Speaker 05

  Embalm and embody, body, body, already?

• 36:36Laci Mosley?

  Yes, oh no. So David's parents kept running the actual funeral home. And during embalmings, viewings, and burials, right? While David got to run the cremation business, which happened off-site at the old Pasadena crematorium facility in Mountain View Cemetery. So, the parents were still like, we'll do the embalmings, we're gonna do the viewings and the burials, cuz we know what we're doing. And then you come in and you, you, you do the crematorium off-site. And I will say like funeral homes do tend to be a family business. A lot of the funerals I've dealt with were a family business. And I've said it on this podcast, one time like a 10 year old in a suit like opened my grandpa's casket for the viewing and then he was like, we would walk up like hysterical crying. He's like, I'm so sorry for your loss.

• 37:20Laci Mosley?

  And I was like, this is a baby in a suit. He was like, you running around selling your chocolate lives.

• 37:26Speaker 05

  Wasn't that the storyline for My Girl, the movie? Dan Aykroyd plays a dad who works for the funeral. Jamie Lee Curtis is the mom and she has to bury her best friend, Macaulay Culkin, when he gets stung by bees.

• 37:37Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yeah. And she was like, he needs his glasses. What is it gonna save? What is his glasses? That is one of the most depressing fucking scenes, just like sobbing. I was like, I'm too young for this.

• 37:48Speaker 05

  And the reason he went back to get her mood ring was for her because he loved her and crushing her and got stung by killer bees. Well, no, she was allergic to bees. That's the story.

• 37:56Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, he was allergic to bees and then had the baby didn't have no EpiPen or nothing.

• 37:59Speaker 05

  But she grew up in the funeral parlor because her dad owned the shop. So I was like, oh, my God, that is the story. They, that's depressing.

• 38:06Laci Mosley?

  I know, but also very sweet. She was like, no, he gotta go in looking like how he be looking. Like, but it was like, nobody, right? Nobody expected that movie to take that turn. Honestly abusive.

• 38:17Speaker 05

  Honestly, it's a warning, trigger warning. If you hate bees, if you hate dying, like all of it.

• 38:23Laci Mosley?

  Or if you love Macaulay Culkin because he was definitely that child.

• 38:25Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, he was everywhere.

• 38:26Laci Mosley?

  Yes, so please be serious. So cremation was getting popular as a cheaper alternative to burial at the time. But David wanted to up their output. So in 1982, now how you gonna up an output that's dependent on people being dead? Like, I don't think you can run the numbers up like.

• 38:43Speaker 05

  This just in.

• 38:45Laci Mosley?

  We all need to be watching the 11 o'clock news, okay? And then we send them a fruit basket and our funeral stuff, okay? I feel like they're like at candlelight vigils for like missing people and they like they got their candle, but they're like, hey, if this doesn't go the way that we want, this is my card.

• 39:00Speaker 05

  Here's a coupon.

• 39:01Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we give you a coupon. If there's a missing person, you get 15% off. We also can bury empty caskets.

• 39:07Speaker 05

  If they're missing for more than 40 days, you give 25% off.

• 39:09Laci Mosley?

  Exactly. If they come back and they're not alive, you know, the makeup will be free. So like, what is wrong with y'all?

• 39:18Speaker 05

  Bargaining.

• 39:20Laci Mosley?

  So um, he's, so David wanted to up the output. So he started offering cremation services out to other funeral homes using the Mountain View, like um, cemetery facility.

• 39:30Speaker 05

  Nearby, down the street, not that far, yeah.

• 39:32Laci Mosley?

  So he's like, I already got the plug here. So if y'all need them, y'all need them cooked, like let me cook. And so.

• 39:46Laci Mosley?

  I need to get off the internet.

• 39:50Speaker 05

  Oh my god. Okay, ready?

• 39:53Laci Mosley?

  Forgive me, Glorilla.

• 39:57Speaker 05

  If you all need alternative ways of saying goodbye to your loved ones.

• 40:00Laci Mosley?

  That's crazy.

• 40:04Laci Mosley?

  That's what I meant. That's what I meant. Oh no.

• 40:08Speaker 05

  I'm here as an interpreter for my client.

• 40:12Laci Mosley?

  Thank you so much. This is my counsel because y'all are gonna get me.

• 40:16Speaker 05

  Objection, Your Honor.

• 40:18Laci Mosley?

  I showed up with a lawyer today, okay?

• 40:22Speaker 05

  Sidebar.

• 40:25Laci Mosley?

  We can say what?

• 40:25Speaker 05

  Sidebar.

• 40:27Laci Mosley?

  Okay, okay, and don't end.

• 40:28Speaker 05

  My client wishes to refrain from saying if you all need them to cook them.

• 40:33Laci Mosley?

  You said shut the hell up. You said shut the hell up. I just shut the hell up.

• 40:36Speaker 05

  We're rewarding that to alternative ways of saying to loved ones goodbye.

• 40:39Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's what we meant. Um, remember it different.

• 40:42Speaker 05

  Remember it different.

• 40:43Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 40:46Speaker 06

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• 41:14Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 41:40Speaker 00

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 41:46Speaker 00

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• 42:12Speaker 03

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• 42:44Laci Mosley?

  So he started offering the cremation services to other funeral homes, right? David was a sole owner and operator. He used his Dodge van with the seats taken out to pick up the bodies from mortuaries as far away as Santa Barbara and San Diego. Then he drove them back to Pasadena to cremate them. Now, I know y'all working at a funeral home and y'all been doing this since 1920. Y'all got a hearse?

• 43:07Speaker 05

  Bunch of cuts. We got to be resourceful. Also Dodge, a resourceful, reliable car. Dodge. Sponsored in part by Dodge. If you're watching us, you're probably watching us from a Dodge.

• 43:18Laci Mosley?

  That's a new feature about Dodge that I didn't know. Pick up your bodies with Dodge. Like, what?

• 43:23Speaker 05

  Pick up your bodies.

• 43:24Laci Mosley?

  They're like, our AC system works real well. Like, we got it in the front and the back.

• 43:29Speaker 05

  You can't tell they're alive or not.

• 43:31Laci Mosley?

  Like, what? So he undercut everyone on price to drive up the business, charging $55 per body, hundreds less than other mortuaries. Yeah, $55 to be cremated, like, he really...

• 43:43Speaker 05

  You can't get those deals now.

• 43:43Laci Mosley?

  He was like the Uber of cremation, you know?

• 43:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, call me up, yeah. Wow, $55? That's really good, even for $19.89. That's really good.

• 43:52Laci Mosley?

  Right, that's really good. So his overhead was the cardboard boxes bodies for... Carried in, which cost five dollars and the diesel fuel for the crematorium, which was less than that. He returned the ashes to clients or scattered them at sea.

• 44:06Speaker 05

  I don't think he scattered them.

• 44:07Laci Mosley?

  I don't think he did either.

• 44:07Speaker 05

  That was extra gas. That was a drive he's not making.

• 44:10Laci Mosley?

  It's giving you said you scattered them at sea, but maybe.

• 44:12Speaker 05

  I say the wind scattered them in your backyard.

• 44:14Laci Mosley?

  He was like, garbage island is at sea. So if I put it in a trash can, eventually it'll make it to the sea. So I didn't really lie.

• 44:22Speaker 05

  If I just put them somewhere else and.

• 44:25Laci Mosley?

  Right. It was like the toilet water is technically the sea. So what, what do you mean?

• 44:29Speaker 05

  Terrible to even think of that.

• 44:30Laci Mosley?

  We're like, no, I don't think it is, sir. I don't think it is.

• 44:31Speaker 05

  No, I don't think so, sir.

• 44:33Laci Mosley?

  As his operations got bigger, David hired former football players he knew from his time as a player as van drivers for two hundred fifty dollars a day. So he was like, you ain't make it to the NFL?

• 44:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:42Laci Mosley?

  Well, you were still lifting two fifty. So boy, do I have a job for you.

• 44:47Speaker 05

  This is second best.

• 44:48Laci Mosley?

  It's like you worked out this much. Like you can lift these bodies.

• 44:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 44:51Laci Mosley?

  Do you have a Dodge?

• 44:53Speaker 05

  Question number one.

• 44:53Laci Mosley?

  Dodge sponsors the show.

• 44:55Speaker 05

  Dodge, Dodge, for your family vacations and for your family vacations.

• 45:00Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 45:02Laci Mosley?

  So he paid his right hand man, former gang member Johnny Polerana.

• 45:06Speaker 05

  Now that's a gang member.

• 45:07Laci Mosley?

  That's a gang member's name. It's like, oh no, it's Johnny Polerama.

• 45:09Speaker 05

  Watch out.

• 45:10Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it's very like scarfacian. So he paid Johnny Polerana six thousand dollars a month to help him load the bodies into the oven chambers where they were burned. Johnny was smoking rock cocaine at the time.

• 45:24Speaker 05

  It was the eighties, sir.

• 45:25Laci Mosley?

  Um, and so this is a photo of him.

• 45:28Speaker 05

  Johnny.

• 45:28Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, Johnny is.

• 45:29Speaker 05

  Johnny.

• 45:30Laci Mosley?

  You know what's funny? Like he's got on this kind of palm tree button up like he's trying to give like, you know, warm weather, easy breezy.

• 45:37Speaker 05

  Sitting on a staircase.

• 45:39Laci Mosley?

  But then he's doing crack.

• 45:41Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 45:41Laci Mosley?

  Isn't rock cocaine crack?

• 45:44Speaker 05

  Johnny, don't do crack. Johnny, don't do crack.

• 45:47Laci Mosley?

  Johnny, don't do crack. No, I hope he wasn't lighting up the little pipe with the, with the fire from the furnace and stuff. Now I'm like, what was going on, Johnny?

• 45:55Speaker 05

  It does look like he's lived a life though. Like in those eyes, you're like, he knows stuff. He's not telling the stuff. I could tell right now. He's only telling us as much as we need to know.

• 46:03Laci Mosley?

  Exactly. And you know, they say people have like crackheads during some. So he was in there like lifting bodies, right? So he was very strong. Um, you know, Johnny, I'm not really against you right now. Cause it seems like you were just doing what like you were told. This is still people's like wonderful gift and last wish. You get a nice urn, you can keep it in your house.

• 46:21Speaker 05

  I could be wrong, but I think Johnny was the reason that this all fell apart. Because he was smoking crack and he burned the crematorium.

• 46:28Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, I don't know if your right hand man should be smoking crack a lot. It just feels like a bad business idea to me.

• 46:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, you're hiring your buddies, that's fine, that's one thing.

• 46:39Laci Mosley?

  Friends, but I feel like he could have had a lower ranking position. Like, I just feel like right hand man shouldn't be reserved for anybody who's like actively on crack. If you're not on crack anymore, that's a different story. If you're in recovery, like, and honestly, that's a shout out to anybody who's in recovery. Like, learn what you've been through. Like, but if he's actively still doing it, then not a good business.

• 46:59Speaker 05

  Yeah, and I think, and I could be wrong, but I think I remember hearing about it all went down because of him. I mean, if he never would have been smoking crack.

• 47:07Laci Mosley?

  See, Harvey got the chisme. Harvey is from the neighborhood and he's walked past the, the, the grannies on their porch just like.

• 47:19Speaker 05

  El Johnny.

• 47:21Speaker 05

  El Johnny.

• 47:21Laci Mosley?

  El Johnny?

• 47:22Speaker 05

  El Johnny?

• 47:23Laci Mosley?

  Okay, deje fumar la crack.

• 47:26Speaker 05

  Say crack again.

• 47:27Laci Mosley?

  La crack.

• 47:28Speaker 05

  Crack.

• 47:28Laci Mosley?

  Fumar la crack. Mira, estás haciendo ahora. Yeah, yeah, the, the chisme was hot.

• 47:34Speaker 05

  The chisme was hot, yeah, it's piping.

• 47:36Laci Mosley?

  Yes.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 47:37Laci Mosley?

  So cutting cremation corners. The Pasadena Crematorium facility at Mountain View Cemetery had two chambers. And under previous managers, it would only have done a max of four cremations in a day. Because it takes several hours to heat it up to the point of incinerating. And several more hours to cool down to the point that you can open the chamber again. So in 1981, before David took over, there were 190 cremations at the facility. In 1982, that number went up to 1,500. Then 3,500 in 1983 and 4,300 in 1984. So when they were doing it ethically and only doing four cremations a day, they were doing 190, right?

• 48:19Laci Mosley?

  By the time, two years' time, they had upped it to 4,300.

• 48:24Speaker 05

  That's a big jump.

• 48:26Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, that's a huge leap.

• 48:27Speaker 05

  If those were stocks, you just hit the jackpot.

• 48:30Laci Mosley?

  Right, you just hit the jackpot. So, he started by putting two or three bodies into a chamber at a time, and then upped it to fifteen at a time.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  I, yes, I heard about that. I heard that that's not physically possible naturally. You would have to be breaking limbs.

• 48:46Laci Mosley?

  And that's what, I'm so sorry for the gore, but like, you really are spot on, Harvey. To make them fit, David and Johnny would have to break collarbones sometimes, or legs or arms, and force them in. And he used to, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna, I don't know, I'm not gonna say this part, but like, it's so gross. Like, there's also a docu on HBO if you want all the nitty gritty, gory, gross, but I'm not gonna do that. We're a Good Times Podcast.

• 49:11Speaker 05

  The families of these victims that like, they, they trust you to say goodbye to their loved ones, and you're stuffing them in like you're, you know?

• 49:18Laci Mosley?

  And now it kinda makes more sense to me that his right hand to do this part needed to be on crack.

• 49:24Speaker 05

  Right. See, now it makes sense.

• 49:26Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, yeah, cuz like, no person who's in their like, right mind would be like, yeah, sure. Like, obviously, we know David is not a sane human being. And so Johnny could have just been like, the crack made him like, this is a good idea, when maybe it wouldn't be if he wasn't.

• 49:41Speaker 05

  But the weird part is that like, I mean, obviously, we know who's at the top of all this.

• 49:45Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, it's David.

• 49:46Speaker 05

  But it got, it got to the point where he was so selfish that it wasn't enough that they were cramming so many bodies in one day into the crematorium, they started taking gold teeth out of their mouths. They started taking their rings, their, like, it's like one thing.

• 49:57Laci Mosley?

  Like, you're grave robbing these people?

• 49:59Speaker 05

  You're already robbing the family of the dignity to say goodbye to their loved ones.

• 50:02Laci Mosley?

  Yeah.

• 50:03Speaker 05

  And now you're gonna rob their teeth? There, there's a bowl of gold teeth that he collected from all the skulls that he like, pulled those teeth from.

• 50:10Laci Mosley?

  And why, and then it's like, if you're gonna, and I'm sure we get to it in here, but we can talk about it a little bit now. Like, if you're gonna have like, steel gold teeth, why are you not melting it down and like, selling it?

• 50:19Speaker 05

  Yeah, why are you keeping it?

• 50:21Laci Mosley?

  Of people's, like, you're weird, bro.

• 50:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's weird. That's weird.

• 50:25Laci Mosley?

  So David and Johnny competed to see who could load the most bodies in a chamber at one time. This is not a fun game. Eventually, one of their burn sessions would yield nine fifty gallon trash cans full of ash.

• 50:39Speaker 05

  That's a lot.

• 50:39Laci Mosley?

  Co-mingling their ashes is illegal. But David argued you could never get all the ashes from one body out of there before you put in the next one. So mixing ashes together wasn't a big deal. And I mean, it's like, I'm not gonna know, I'm not gonna be able to open an urn and be like, this is not grandma.

• 50:55Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 50:55Laci Mosley?

  Like, no one's gonna know.

• 50:57Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 50:58Laci Mosley?

  So.

• 50:58Speaker 05

  And he leaned into that. He was, you know, I think it's on an interview where he was like, people are so sensitive. They're gone, they're no longer here. It's like, it doesn't matter, they were souls that were here and loved ones want to respect their memory and their legacy. And for you to say, it doesn't matter, bones are bones, ashes are ashes. And it's like.

• 51:14Laci Mosley?

  You don't get to decide that.

• 51:15Speaker 05

  Decide that. You don't get to decide that.

• 51:17Laci Mosley?

  And so like you were talking about just a second ago, Harvey, looting. Even with the incredible cremation output that David had achieved, he was still like leaving money on the table, literally, until he started like dismembering people to get jewelry. And I know, I'm like, like you just said before, like, what's enough?

• 51:34Speaker 05

  Enough. I mean, he started with like, he brought in like a hundred and forty six thousand dollars, right, the math is mathing? And the first year, and then by the, what is it, the second, third year, he was bringing in like millions of dollars.

• 51:45Laci Mosley?

  And it's like, when is enough gonna be enough? And that's how you know he's just a scammer. You know, like, he would get watches, bracelets, and he had a clothes hanger full of rings at the crematorium. One day after work, his wife found him sitting on the floor in the garage with a styrofoam cup with AU written on it. And if you took your science classes, you know what AU stands for. He was cracking teeth with a hammer to get out the gold fillings and then sweeping the teeth away. He called it poppin' chops.

• 52:14Speaker 05

  Oh, no. You titled it?

• 52:18Laci Mosley?

  He's like, you know, after I do this, I gotta pop them chops. Like, no, that doesn't make it more friendly.

• 52:23Speaker 05

  Wait, imagine being his wife, coming home, saying, honey, I'm, what's that? Is that?

• 52:28Laci Mosley?

  They're like, mommy, where's dad? Like, why doesn't he have to eat dinner? And like, your father is poppin' chops right now, okay?

• 52:35Speaker 05

  Poppin' chops and he doesn't like to be disturbed.

• 52:36Laci Mosley?

  He doesn't like to be disturbed, okay?

• 52:38Speaker 05

  Now let's all smile and have a wonderful dinner.

• 52:39Laci Mosley?

  Right. If you still wanna go on that ski trip to Aspen, you have to let your father work.

• 52:43Speaker 05

  Poppin'.

• 52:44Laci Mosley?

  Poppin' chops. So he made twenty thousand dollars a month from gold fillings alone, according to his guys. As for feeling remorse, even nearly forty years later, with plenty of time to reflect on it, he says dead people are just rotten meat. So he had no reservations about it. He was afraid of getting caught, but not too afraid. He flew to Vegas once a month to gamble and drove a Corvette with the license plate. I B R N. The letter four. U. So if you haven't put that together yet, his license plate was I burn for you.

• 53:18Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 53:21Speaker 05

  Class act. This guy, he's a catch.

• 53:24Laci Mosley?

  Like, I feel like I haven't seen like, maybe the only stunt queen mortician I know is like Phaedra Parks. But I feel like everyone else isn't like, I bury your dead. Well, yes.

• 53:34Speaker 05

  But she wants to do it the respectful way, but make money doing it, but respectfully.

• 53:38Laci Mosley?

  I don't think she would ever do something like this.

• 53:39Speaker 05

  No, I can't see that.

• 53:40Laci Mosley?

  But I'm saying like, that's the only famous person I know who like, you know, owns a, you know, funeral home.

• 53:47Speaker 05

  Funeral home.

• 53:48Laci Mosley?

  And clearly has been doing it very well for many, many years and not doing any weird shit like this. But other than that, I feel like the morticians just kind of keep it low key. So it's like, why would you put that as your vanity plate? Like, that's so weird.

• 53:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, and also now going back and saying, I don't think you do with that. You literally have all these like, things like your license plate, your tag, your boasting. You gave your teeth popping activities a name.

• 54:08Laci Mosley?

  You gave it a little kitschy name? That's so weird.

• 54:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 54:12Laci Mosley?

  So getting caught. Tim Waters of the Alpha Society in Burbank was also a low cost cremation provider. But Tim couldn't compete with Dave's prices, like David's prices. And so I think Tim started to realize like, if he's doing this correctly, there's no way he could be this efficient. Like, some is up. And so we have a picture of Tim. And this is Tim. Tim definitely does give me like.

• 54:38Speaker 05

  I'm here for business.

• 54:38Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, but no, he also gives me like, the eyes like, that are very empathetic. Like, his whole face says, I'm sorry for your loss right now. And he has, I'm resting, he has resting, I'm sorry for your loss face.

• 54:48Speaker 05

  I want Tim to greet me when I'm having a hard time.

• 54:50Laci Mosley?

  And he's, you know what he's gonna do? He's gonna grab your hand for a handshake and then he's gonna put his other hand on top of that hand. He's like, I'm so sorry for your loss.

• 54:58Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 54:59Laci Mosley?

  And he tried to give you a little warmth, but not too much. You're not gonna be smiling.

• 55:01Speaker 05

  No.

• 55:02Laci Mosley?

  You know, but he'll give you a little just closed mouth smile, like, we're gonna get through this together.

• 55:06Speaker 05

  Together, yeah.

• 55:07Laci Mosley?

  I'm Tim.

• 55:08Speaker 05

  I hope, okay, and then what happened? But to Tim.

• 55:11Laci Mosley?

  So then, Tim is like, I can't compete with this. And the only way that David's business made sense to Tim was at an illegally high volume. He was like, there's no way in hell you can do this many creations. It has to be illegal.

• 55:24Speaker 05

  So he called him out?

• 55:24Laci Mosley?

  Yep. So in 1985, Tim started paying attention to David's operation and spreading his suspicions around the funeral service community in L.A. So even more cheesemakers. Yes, me, Tim. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 55:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 55:37Laci Mosley?

  I'm so sorry for you having to take this phone call at dinner.

• 55:39Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 55:40Laci Mosley?

  See my smiles through the phone? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta tell you about some shady stuff.

• 55:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 55:44Laci Mosley?

  So Tim was about to publish an expose article in Mortuary Management Magazine. Y'all got a maga- Y'all got a magazine?

• 55:51Speaker 05

  Which I subscribe to, and they've asked me to leave.

• 55:56Speaker 05

  May 19- Oh, I got it.

• 55:57Laci Mosley?

  This is just May 1965. Mortuary Management was popping. They're like, learn all the latest and homegoing, okay? Yes.

• 56:06Speaker 05

  Do you want your loved one to have an updo or down?

• 56:09Laci Mosley?

  Right. The latest embalming tricks.

• 56:12Speaker 05

  Fashion.

• 56:13Laci Mosley?

  Yes. Funeral makeup for you and yours.

• 56:16Speaker 05

  Just because they're dead doesn't mean they have to look bad.

• 56:17Laci Mosley?

  Right. Okay. So Tim was about to publish this expose article in Mortuary Management Magazine about David's crimes when David hired his football player drivers to go rough him up, along with the publisher of the magazine. They say, we gotta beat everybody's ass. The publisher, you.

• 56:36Speaker 05

  He's gonna be talking.

• 56:37Laci Mosley?

  Yes. So David made his hired thugs Big Men Unlimited business cards. And they beat the shit out of Tom and the publisher. And now you gonna leave like a, a, a card on me like, clean yourself up.

• 56:54Laci Mosley?

  And also, Big Men Unlimited is crazy. So it's like, you can take us out, but we are unlimited in big men who will whoop your ass.

• 57:00Speaker 05

  Yeah. Sounds like a dating site, too.

• 57:03Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yes, it does. Not unlimited.

• 57:05Speaker 05

  If you like big boys.

• 57:06Laci Mosley?

  If you like big boys, we are unlimited.

• 57:08Speaker 05

  Big Men Unlimited.

• 57:10Laci Mosley?

  We got one for you.

• 57:11Speaker 05

  You like them big?

• 57:14Laci Mosley?

  The men are infinite.

• 57:16Speaker 05

  Unlimited. Big Men Unlimited. Yeah. Big Men Unlimited. Come in this fall.

• 57:25Laci Mosley?

  Bears galore.

• 57:27Speaker 05

  Will you be the next Big Men Unlimited?

• 57:30Laci Mosley?

  Oh, so that's a funny card to just throw at people. I love it. So Tim went out to eat with David two months later, possibly to make amends. Should we go to dinner and be like, hey, I did? Like, David's like, hey, my guy, I'm sorry. I had to send Big Unmen Unlimited to whoop your ass.

• 57:48Speaker 05

  Come have dinner with me.

• 57:49Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, come have dinner with me.

• 57:50Speaker 05

  Let's talk about it now.

• 57:50Laci Mosley?

  Let's bury the hatchet.

• 57:51Speaker 05

  Let's bury the hatchet.

• 57:52Laci Mosley?

  Let's burn it.

• 57:52Speaker 05

  The hatchet.

• 57:54Laci Mosley?

  No, no, not you.

• 57:54Speaker 05

  Not you, the hatchet.

• 57:55Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, yeah. So they went out, right? This is two months later, possibly to make amends. And later that evening, Tim died under mysterious circumstances. Our sweet-faced Tim.

• 58:08Speaker 05

  Tim.

• 58:09Laci Mosley?

  And like...

• 58:10Speaker 05

  And he's young. He's pretty young. He's younger than our, you know, suspect.

• 58:15Laci Mosley?

  And I'm also like...

• 58:18Laci Mosley?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 58:18Speaker 05

  Why do you keep doing that?

• 58:20Laci Mosley?

  These are jumpscare images of David. My goodness, it's giving snake. It's giving snake so bad. Like, you gotta warn us. Y'all just popped up on the screen, we're like, ah!

• 58:31Speaker 05

  It's that movie, it's a clip from Scary Movie. I'm about to have a heart attack. This shit's scary.

• 58:39Laci Mosley?

  I mean, you already sent the big men after Tim. Did you have to send him to the big house in the sky?

• 58:43Speaker 05

  The big house in the sky. Tim doesn't deserve that. Look at Tim.

• 58:48Laci Mosley?

  So the cause of death at the time was ruled a heart attack. But Tim had only been 24 years old. Mm-hmm. And many suspected David of poisoning him. Because of course you're like, let's go to dinner. And then, you know, maybe Tim gets up to wash his hands, as he does, as one does when...

• 59:03Speaker 05

  Or I have a vision of like, oh, sorry, spilled wine on your lap. Oh, that's okay, I'm just gonna wash it off. Yeah, you go wash it off.

• 59:14Speaker 05

  Hey, I'm back!

• 59:17Laci Mosley?

  Oh, oh, you still got a little bit left.

• 59:22Speaker 05

  Oh, I forgot my keys.

• 59:25Speaker 05

  I'll be back, I'll be back.

• 59:26Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you need those, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

• 59:28Speaker 05

  How we doing up here, folks? Anything else you can get you?

• 59:30Laci Mosley?

  Oh!

• 59:31Speaker 05

  No?

• 59:32Laci Mosley?

  No, we're good.

• 59:32Speaker 05

  Okay. Because that's poison, right?

• 59:34Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no, no.

• 59:35Speaker 05

  No, no, okay.

• 59:36Laci Mosley?

  I'm drinking it.

• 59:36Speaker 05

  All right, I'll be back.

• 59:37Laci Mosley?

  Not poison.

• 59:41Laci Mosley?

  Sir, why would you do this?

• 59:44Speaker 05

  It takes a lot of strategy. And also, if you work in this field, I think you have access to chemicals, things that... Could come across under autopsy or anything as that's normal. Sometimes that happens.

• 59:56Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 59:57Speaker 05

  You know what makes the tests go through.

• 1:00:00Laci Mosley?

  Exactly, cuz they have to deal with people like if it's like a homicide or something.

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  They know the formula.

• 1:00:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, you know what is not gonna raise flags and it'll just look like a heart attack. And so.

• 1:00:11Speaker 05

  I would have never gone to that dinner. I don't know how great the chicken parm is.

• 1:00:15Laci Mosley?

  He just had you beat up by goons, Tim. I don't think there's a reconciliation. I think he was like, I need to finish the job.

• 1:00:20Speaker 05

  But that goes to show that Tim sounds like a really nice guy that was gonna give someone like, you know what, I'm gonna give you a second chance and put my hand up.

• 1:00:25Laci Mosley?

  Mary and Hatchett is crazy after you get jumped by Big Man Unlimited.

• 1:00:28Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:00:29Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no.

• 1:00:30Speaker 05

  No.

• 1:00:31Laci Mosley?

  And so by 1986, David's business was firing on all cylinders and Johnny was getting high a lot to cope. So, and I thought he might be coping, I did. So one day Johnny got high and left. Oh, my gosh.

• 1:00:45Speaker 05

  Stop doing that.

• 1:00:47Laci Mosley?

  So one day Johnny got high and left while the crematory was on and the whole building burned down. David no longer had a facility for cremations, but he kept picking up bodies from all over the state.

• 1:00:58Speaker 05

  But you got nowhere to burn them.

• 1:00:59Laci Mosley?

  No, he said, that ain't no problem. We got big lighters.

• 1:01:01Speaker 05

  I got a big van.

• 1:01:03Laci Mosley?

  Like, I got a grill. Okay, like, no, we got, no, we got it. Don't even worry about that, sweetheart.

• 1:01:10Speaker 05

  Sweetheart, don't you worry about that, sweetheart. I don't care, this.

• 1:01:14Laci Mosley?

  So he said, one crematory, I'm gonna stop no show. Like, I thought, I think it does. I think it does stop the show. I think we need to stop now. So, Oscar Ceramics. In January 1987, San Bernardino Air Quality Authority started getting complaints about a business called Oscar Ceramics in Hesperia. It was a large, unmasked warehouse in the middle of the desert owned by a man named David Sconce.

• 1:01:38Speaker 05

  Coincidence?

• 1:01:39Laci Mosley?

  One neighbor, right, just a coinkydink. One neighbor had served in the military unit that liberated Auschwitz and reported the smell of burning human flesh, which he recognized and he reported that to the authorities. He was like, he knew what it was.

• 1:01:52Speaker 05

  I lived in Hesperia and there's nothing out there that's, you know, you go out there so no one finds you.

• 1:01:57Laci Mosley?

  Right.

• 1:01:58Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:01:58Laci Mosley?

  And that's also so triggering to like be free in the. You have a familiar smell. We've sent us so deeply connected to memory.

• 1:02:05Speaker 05

  The trigger?

• 1:02:05Laci Mosley?

  Yeah. And so David had built a warehouse sized oven facility and was burning 200 bodies at a time. That is insanity. So Loriann, Jeri and David were all later put on trial for dismembering people and selling their parts without family consent. It turns out that harvesting gold teeth and organs from cadavers without permission of next of kin was actually a part of the family business. So now they're also stealing people's organs.

• 1:02:35Speaker 05

  That's crazy.

• 1:02:36Laci Mosley?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:02:37Speaker 05

  When does, when is it enough?

• 1:02:39Laci Mosley?

  Right. It's not enough for y'all. In 1989, Scott pled guilty, he pled guilty to 21 criminal counts, including mutilating dead bodies, holding mass cremations and hiring hitmen, which were, he was like, no, they're just big men unlimited.

• 1:02:52Speaker 05

  Big men unlimited.

• 1:02:53Laci Mosley?

  They're just big.

• 1:02:54Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:02:54Laci Mosley?

  And they'll give you unlimited ass whoopings, but they're not hitmen.

• 1:02:57Speaker 05

  Unlimited.

• 1:02:58Laci Mosley?

  Right. Big men unlimited.

• 1:03:00Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:03:01Laci Mosley?

  Okay. But so he was, he ended up being sentenced to five years in prison and then was sent back in 2013 for violating his lifetime probation by having a firearm. He was released on parole in 2023. Look, sir, we need you to be serious.

• 1:03:16Speaker 05

  Be so serious right now.

• 1:03:18Laci Mosley?

  Be so serious for one moment. His mom and papa were found guilty of unlawfully authorizing the removal of organs from bodies before cremation, as well as three counts of forging customer signatures on organ donor and cremation authorization forms. They both served three years and eight months in prison. Like, how are you just gonna decide my family member is gonna be cremated because you want them to? And then what? I buy a casket and then you just like fill it with rocks? And you're like, it's closed, casket, it's closed.

• 1:03:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:03:47Laci Mosley?

  Lock it.

• 1:03:47Speaker 05

  Or you do the viewing and then go, we'll take care of it. It might give a couple of, dump out rocks in, then go to the.

• 1:03:54Laci Mosley?

  Oh, yes. That might be it. They're like, oh, we actually gotta get another cart. Like, this wheel is faulty. Why do I need to take the casket? Don't worry about that shit.

• 1:04:02Speaker 05

  Let go of it.

• 1:04:03Laci Mosley?

  Look, go with the casket. The pallbearers are like wrestling with him. Go with the casket. We will be right back.

• 1:04:09Speaker 05

  All right, here you go. It's heavier than before. That happens sometimes.

• 1:04:12Laci Mosley?

  David, get the rocks! That's for different, we need those for...

• 1:04:17Speaker 05

  We need for the...

• 1:04:17Laci Mosley?

  You know how people throw like pigeons, doves in the air? We throw rocks in the air.

• 1:04:21Speaker 05

  In their memory.

• 1:04:22Laci Mosley?

  In their memory and it's like harder to throw and it's more beautiful. Don't worry about it.

• 1:04:26Speaker 05

  Look out, cuz they come right back.

• 1:04:27Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we don't wanna work the birds like that, but yeah, so it's just a part of the rock.

• 1:04:31Speaker 05

  We care about the living and...

• 1:04:33Laci Mosley?

  Yeah, we want you to be solid as the rock that you are returning to in the earth. You feel us, right? Okay, anyways, yeah. David got them rocks!

• 1:04:42Speaker 05

  Oh my god!

• 1:04:46Laci Mosley?

  Oh, these people are bad.

• 1:04:48Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:04:49Laci Mosley?

  This is scary to know that these people were doing this type of thing. And that they also weren't ever satisfied. They just kept making it worse and worse and worse.

• 1:04:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, you could've gone away with it actually and like, people would've not known, but then you're like, no, you know what? I'll get those teeth. You know what? I'll get those organs. You know what? I'll get the body.

• 1:05:05Laci Mosley?

  Even if you could do like fifteen people a day, whereas most people can only do four, and you could undercut the market that way, but you're doing two hundred?

• 1:05:12Speaker 05

  Come on.

• 1:05:13Laci Mosley?

  Come on. Yeah, you're a bad man. Your whole family is bad. Like, this is boo. But thank you for walking with me, Harvey, through this very spooky story. We always ask at the end of our show, where would you like to be found? Any social medias, anything that people can watch, obviously?

• 1:05:28Speaker 05

  Well, not that at Funeral Home, that's for sure.

• 1:05:30Laci Mosley?

  No, no, no, no. We don't want you to sound here.

• 1:05:33Speaker 05

  You can find me on Instagram and on Twitter at Harvey Keen. Yeah, and you know, you never know, might be doing a little spooky podcast show myself soon, so...

• 1:05:44Laci Mosley?

  Yes, we love to hear it. Yes, coming through your walls.

• 1:05:49Speaker 05

  Big man, unlimited.

• 1:05:52Laci Mosley?

  No!

• 1:05:53Speaker 05

  Unlimited.

• 1:05:54Laci Mosley?

  The unlimited part is just the scary. It's like, okay?

• 1:05:57Speaker 05

  Cuz you don't know what you're getting. You're like, is this sexual or is this like, oh, you'll find out?

• 1:06:03Laci Mosley?

  Just know, it goes on.

• 1:06:07Laci Mosley?

  I almost choked trying to do that again. As always, guys, if you want to see the photos and the business cards from Big Man Unlimited, you'll find all of that at Scam Goddess Pod on Instagram. You can chat with me on Scam Goddess Pod on Twitter. If you want to look at my shenanigans, D I V A L A C I D, Lacy on all platforms. If you want to watch Scam Goddess, the television show, all episodes are streaming now on Hulu. If you want to watch the first season of Going Dutch, all episodes are also streaming now on Hulu. And you can pick up my book wherever you like your audiobooks or your physical copies right now. And congregation, I want you to get out there and I want you to stay unlimited.

• 1:06:51Laci Mosley?

  Scam Goddess stars and is hosted by me, Laci Mosley, AKA Scam Goddess. Our producer is Jessica Sisneros and our audio engineer is Rich Garcia. Research for the show is conducted by Kate Doyle. Stay scheming.

• 1:07:07Speaker 01

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 1:07:20Speaker 02

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• 1:08:03Speaker 02

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• 1:08:37Laci Mosley?

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