Bad Sport (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

- [birds calling]
- [engine revving]
["The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey playing]
The heat is on ♪
[man] January, 1987, my son was born.
And I go to a diner to get me something
to eat before I visit him.
And they got a TV at the counter.
[newscaster] Professional race car driver,
Randy Lanier, has been indicted
on international drug smuggling charges.
And I'm looking at it and I'm thinking,
"Oh my God."
[newscaster] Federal agents today
raided Mr. Lanier's home in South Florida.
[Randy] They're raiding my home.
Right there on live TV.
[newscaster] But the whereabouts
of the 1984 IMSA champion
are currently unknown.
[Randy] It's like surreal.
Am I really seeing this?
And my life is flashing in front of me.
[commentator]
Randy Lanier leads the Grand Prix.
Heading toward the checkered flag.
One bobble and he could lose it.
Randy Lanier has got himself a problem.
- [music continues]
- [cars whooshing]
That's when I knew I was going to flee.
Heat is on ♪
[newscaster] Authorities are asking
for anyone with information that might aid
in the capture of Mr. Lanier,
now a fugitive, to come forward.
The heat is ♪
[music stops]
[theme music plays]
[tranquil guitar music playing]
[Randy] Lynchburg, Virginia.
That's where it starts.
It's a bizarre story.
My family grew tobacco.
And I remember running
through tobacco fields as a small child.
They had a tobacco house,
and it was like a mystical place for me.
And there was a radio there.
It was there one day,
and I kind of started fiddling with it,
and on the radio came a race.
[commentator] Rathmann jams
his foot down and turns a lap
at 143 miles an hour to keep the lead.
[Randy] It was the Indy 500.
[comm] Johnny Thomson
is standing on the throttle
[Randy] And I sat there enthralled.
[commentator]
In a wild bid to capture the front-runner.
[Randy] Thinking these guys are my heroes.
[commentator] Thomson is closing in!
I wanted to be race car driver so bad.
[comm] Taking the checkered flag.
[Randy] But growing up in the country
with no money,
I thought it would never happen.
Then in 1967,
my parents decided to move to Florida.
I loved it. From the get-go.
We had the ocean down here
and the surfers and the girls in bikinis.
It was really cool.
We lived in a trailer park.
I was an outsider, kind of. Country boy.
[man] He was just
a heck of a hillbilly from Virginia
and, uh, he talked funny.
He always had kind of like
a Southern drawl type accent,
but not quite Southern like Florida.
He would just say funny stuff
like, "Aw, man."
We grew up pretty wild and crazy.
At a time when sex,
drugs and rock and roll
was the theme of the day. [laughs]
[Randy] I would always run across Allan
and the hip kids
either smoking weed
or rolling joints.
And they was always trying
to get me to smoke.
You know, if you smoked pot, you're cool.
Nope. Not me, I'm not smoking that stuff.
Come on, man. Smoking a joint
makes everything better.
You know? [laughs]
Finally, I said okay.
So, I smoked a joint
and I'm thinking, "Wow!"
That was a breakthrough with me
with the hip kids.
I grew my hair out,
I started eating LSD and mushrooms,
and I went from being a country bumpkin
to now, living in
like a hippie fantasy land.
But my dad was always coming in my room
while I was smoking weed.
And he was against it, didn't like it.
So, he got me some construction work
making $1.65 an hour.
[truck whirring]
Being a young kid with a long ponytail,
some of the construction workers
came up to me and asked me if-if
I could get some marijuana.
Well, absolutely, I can get some.
Pot was everywhere back in those days.
And, I mean, you could buy a pound of pot
for like what,
a hundred bucks, and break it up.
You double your money. And so,
you know, we learned early on the value
of being able to make a buck with pot.
Now, instead of making $1.65 an hour,
I'm making hundreds of dollars a week.
I don't need a whole lots of money ♪
So, one day,
I was at a concert selling weed.
I'm standing up front near the stage.
And there was a girl right beside me.
I thought, "That's a pretty girl there.
I need to get with her."
Some kind of wonderful ♪
- Hello.
- She's some kind of wonderful ♪
Yes she is, she's a ♪
[Pam] He was cute. He had long hair.
Ponytail.
He was charming and funny,
and he always had really good marijuana.
[smacks lips]
Ooh, when my baby kisses me ♪
I kinda liked that he was a weed dealer.
It was one of the attractions.
I've always liked the bad boys.
You know?
And he was definitely a bad boy. [laughs]
[upbeat music playing]
By the time I was 17,
the marijuana business was really booming.
I was making
four or five thousand dollars a week,
so I went and bought a boat.
[Pam] He was crazy in those boats.
[laughing] He would go so fast,
I lost my bikini a few times.
Tchoo! Right off me.
[Randy]
Then one of my buddies got an idea.
He asked me if I would be willing
to go to the Bahamas
and pick up a load of grass.
And I said,
"Absolutely. I'll give it a try."
Back in the '70s,
there was no Homeland Security.
And the ports were open.
So, I ran over to the Bahamas,
picked up 750 pounds of weed,
pivot the boat around
and go back out in the ocean.
The adrenaline you get
when you're coming across the Gulf Stream
with a boat loaded with grass,
it gets you pumped.
Came back through Port Everglades,
ran up the canals to my friend's house
and unloaded the weed.
It was really easy.
[laughing]
The pay-off was quite good, too.
A little less than ten grand.
[man] America's public enemy number one,
in the United States, is drug abuse.
In order to fight and defeat this enemy,
it is necessary
to wage a new all-out offensive.
[male reporter]
Marijuana smuggling through South Florida
may be the state's
most profitable industry.
Federal and local authorities say profits
are enormous for the high-level dealers.
There are persistent reports
that there will be an even greater effort
before this year is up
to flood South Florida
with even more of the drug.
[Randy] I'd been doing quite well,
bringing in loads
from other drug smugglers.
This is the US Coast Guard.
I am coming aboard.
[Randy] But now, smuggling was risky.
I had a lot of friends get caught
coming in with loaded vessels.
So, I decided,
"Maybe I should do this on my own."
I had moved out and leased my first home.
And I figured
I would store the weed there.
[Pam] As much as I could,
I would go there.
He had a water bed, um,
we smoked a lot of weed, and
had a lot of sex back then.
We were youngins.
One evening, Pam was over.
We'd just finished making love
- and a knock comes on the door.
- [door knocking]
I go to answer the door
It's a friend of mine with another guy.
I'm gonna do a little deal.
And my gut told me
something wasn't right.
I would hide in his bedroom
when he would be doing some deals.
And I was in the bedroom,
and I heard people come in.
And as I set the bag of weed down,
one of them pulls a gun out.
My heart just starts pounding,
and I thought this is a rip-off.
They're not here to buy nothing,
I'm getting robbed.
And then they asked me
who else was in the house.
And the next thing I know,
someone came in the room with a gun
and held it to my head
and took me out to the living room,
where I saw Randy
laying belly up on the floor.
And they pull out duct tape.
They duct-tape our hands,
they duct-tape our ankles,
and they duct-tape our mouth.
Then I hear them ransack my house.
Some minutes go by,
and then I don't hear nothing.
They were gone.
So, when I finally get the tape off,
and I take Pam's tape off,
I see she's just scared shitless.
I was consumed with fear.
I'd never had a gun put to my head.
Never been tied up like that.
I thought, "Oh my God.
If this is what this is about
I don't need it."
So, I got out of the business.
I stopped doing it.
I decided I didn't want no more of it.
[ship horn honking]
If you've been wondering
what the family car of the future
will look like, this may be it.
It's Ford Motor Company's Megastar.
The Megastar is one of the hundreds
of cars on display at the auto show
which opened today
at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
[Randy]
I went to the Miami Beach Auto Show.
I had quite a bit of money stashed away.
And I thought, "I need to find a car."
He came home and he said
he wanted to start racing cars.
[inhales deeply]
And he bought this old blue Porsche.
It was like a tin can. Piece of junk.
I loved it.
It was a 1957, 356 Porsche Speedster.
[rock music playing]
Randy came out and had his suit on, said,
"All right, who wants to go for a ride?"
Well, none of the other guys wanted to go.
Me, I said, "Hey, I'll go."
And he took me for a spin
around the track.
[cars accelerating]
I'm sitting in the bucket seat,
and I'm holding on to the roll bars
for dear life.
I didn't have a seat belt or nothing.
When I got out of the car
I was shaking so bad
I couldn't hardly get the helmet off
and almost pissed my pants.
I mean, it was like it was a thrill, man.
You could see the natural high in him.
The adrenaline rush.
I thought, "Well, this is something
I want to pursue. I like this."
It ended up winning the very first
amateur race I entered in.
[cars accelerating, whooshing]
He was good. I mean,
he was a country boy from Virginia
that had no legacy of racing.
He taught himself.
Brandy was daddy's little girl.
And he wanted her everywhere.
We had her at all the races,
so it was a family thing.
But all the new gears
and the new motors
none of it's cheap.
[birds calling]
But, I knew how to make a lot of money.
I purchased a 65-foot vessel, got a crew,
and sent the boat off to be loaded up
with 15,000 pounds of grass.
[Pam] I knew what he was going to do,
but I didn't know a lot of the details.
He kept me sheltered from that
and the less I know, the better.
[Randy] I didn't want to keep the weed
at my house.
So, I needed a stash house.
But I didn't look the part of someone
who could afford high-lease rent.
So, I needed a front guy.
[upbeat jazzy music playing]
Charles had a presence
and a demeanor that stood out.
He was running a company
that was importing olive oil
and cheese from Italy,
so, he could present himself
as a legit business guy.
[Charles] Love this belt.
A gift from the House of Versace.
[Randy] He was a very polite,
charming, friendly person.
Looking good.
I call him Chuck. You call him Charles,
but I call him Chuck.
[Charles sighs]
[Allan] He was a very polished kind of guy
that knew a few different languages,
was well-traveled.
[Charles] Rolex, best in the world.
But he always kind of struck me
as somebody phony, really.
He was just always a real nice guy.
You know how some people
are just too nice?
Nobody's that fucking nice, you know?
[laughs]
[Randy] He was clean-cut, business suits,
so he fit the bill for a front guy.
The first thing that I did for him
was renting a house.
He had come to me because I had
a very straight appearance, obviously.
So, Randy needed a minimum
of five acres of land.
Not in a residential area,
kind of out in the country.
You know, horse farms.
You know, he wanted to be very low-key
and neighbors not nearby.
Where a car could come in and leave,
really without being detected.
He would pay me, instead of money
to do this favor for him,
he would give me a bag of weed.
Which, to me, was the same thing as money,
so it was good.
[suspense music playing]
[Randy] My plan was to bring the boat
about a half a mile off-shore
and use Zodiacs
as the runner back and forth.
And Zodiacs are these rubberized vessels.
Navy Seal teams use them.
Soon as the sun went down,
so around nine o'clock,
the operation began,
and we had till sunup.
[Allan] We'd load up
the bales of pot into the Zodiac,
and there was so much pot
that I had to literally lay my body
over the tops of the bales
and try to hold them all together.
The batteries are underwater,
so I'm getting the shit shocked out of me,
and I'm like lightening up.
[Charles] Once we got 'em up to the shore,
we just started grabbing the bales,
dragging them off the Zodiac
and up this dune.
We started then loading the vans.
[crickets chirping]
[Randy] I'm looking south,
and all of a sudden I see a lit cigarette.
Oh, shit. We got beach walkers.
If they see us offloading,
they're gonna call the police,
and everybody's going to jail.
So I radioed my friend down on the beach,
"Do you see them?"
And he said, "Yes, I see them."
I said, "Do not hurt anybody."
But when you have a gun in someone's hand,
you don't know how they're gonna act.
They stop right at where my friend is.
And they turn around and leave.
[tension resolves]
[engine turning over]
[Charles] I was very careful to drive
doing the speed limit,
making sure nothing went wrong,
that I got that marijuana
back to the stash house.
Pulled it in the garage,
and I started unloading it.
And started dragging the bales
back to one of the bedrooms.
And it was, I mean,
floor to ceiling of weed.
[Allan] We just pulled off
unloading seven tons of marijuana
on the coast of Melbourne, Florida,
and got away with it.
And the weed was fabulous, by the way.
It was really good.
[Allan] I was responsible
for guarding the house
to make sure that nobody would rip us off.
[dog growling]
We had dogs that were killer dogs.
I mean, they were trained killer dogs.
[Charles] We had Mad Max.
And Max was crazy.
And there was only two or three people.
Randy could go near him,
I could go near him,
but nobody else could go near him.
He wanted to kill you.
The only way I could get him
in and out of the house was
to take a piece of hot dog or something
and throw it out there.
[Randy] So, Allan was
one of the guys that I could trust
that I knew he would not steal no weed
and he would be honorable
while he was there
and protect the load.
- [producer] Did you ever help yourself?
- Oh, of course.
Shit, I'd walk over to cut open any bale
and pull out a nice bun and twist it up
right there. Hell, yeah. [laughing]
Yeah.
[Randy] The weed was gone the next day.
I made a little over a million dollars.
Not a bad payday.
[calculator]
Four, nine, point six equals.
[car accelerating]
[Randy] And I ended up winning
the South Eastern Amateur Championship,
so I started thinking about
maybe going professional.
Low and behold, the Miami Grand Prix
come into town.
- [cars revving]
- [fast-paced music playing]
[man] Dream machines, fantasy cars
have come to life this weekend
on the streets of Miami.
This is a race for IMSA GTP cars.
P for prototype.
Definition, anything goes.
[Charles] Those were expensive cars.
You know, we're talking tens of millions
of dollars to run these cars.
[Randy] You have
a lot of professional teams,
but there's also a lot of private teams.
A friend of mine named Marty Hinze,
he had a private race car team.
I told him I'd like to give it a try.
And, um, he said I could drive the car.
[female reporter] 150,000 people
are expected to converge
on Downtown Miami this weekend
for the Grand Prix event.
And we were really excited about that race
because that's in our backyard.
[racing cars wailing]
[reporter] The Grand Prix race organizers
are predicting that spectator excitement
will be as high then
as it was with the Super Bowl.
[man] It's a major international event.
Television coverage is gonna be worldwide.
[Randy] Because I'm a local guy here,
I'm doing radio shows, talk shows.
[Pam] This was a very important race
for his career.
He was good at what he did,
but he was an amateur,
so he had to prove himself.
[Randy] We qualified the car really good,
and I'm excited,
thinking that I could win this race.
I had a lot of friends in Miami,
so, I rented the Everglades Hotel,
the presidential suite.
Big party. Huge party.
We were snorting a lot of coke
and drinking a lot of champagne.
We go out in the morning,
practice session
[dramatic music playing]
and it's raining.
[tires squealing]
And I'm working as hard as I could work
without losing control of the car
[racing cars accelerating, wailing]
and the gear box breaks.
And it was such a let-down.
I go back into the garage area
with the car and find out that
the owner of the car
doesn't have no spare parts.
And I sat and watched
the Miami Grand Prix from my hotel suite
when I was supposed to have been
on the track.
[Pam] He was angry.
He was just building his name up,
and it didn't look good.
Did not look good at all.
And I made my mind up that day
that I'm gonna do my own race car team.
[producer] Where were you gonna get
the money to fund your own team?
[laughing]
[lively instrumental music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Randy] I had connections.
I knew that the Colombian product
was top grade, top flight weed.
And my buyers liked good weed.
Just like people like good coffee.
[laughs]
Dealing directly with the Colombians
was an opportunity
to make vast sums of money.
We hiked for about a half a day,
up into like a jungle.
And they had brought down bales
of what you call punta roja.
Fresh red bud.
It smelled good.
It was gummy and tacky.
And it was probably
some of the best weed that I've seen.
So, I said, "Yeah,
this is what I'm looking for right here."
But we got a problem.
[Ronald Reagan]
I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute the office
of President of the United States.
So, help me God.
[chief justice Burger]
May I congratulate you, sir.
[Marine Band plays "Hail to the Chief"]
[cheering and applause]
[Randy] Ronald Reagan came into office
and started putting down
orders for the US Customs
and Marine Patrol to step up their game.
[male reporter]
The Blue Lightening Strike Force
is a customs-coordinated,
multi-agency drug interdiction team.
The essence of Blue Lightening is speed.
That's what this boat,
and this task force, represent.
[Randy] Every time they'd capture
a drug smuggler,
the US Coast Guard
would paint a big marijuana leaf
on the side of their vessel.
They would come and make a big show of it.
Put all the drugs on the dock
and all the people handcuffed,
bragging about how many people
they were busting.
[President Reagan]
Here at Homestead Air Force Base,
we see visible evidence
of the federal commitment
to the war on criminal drug smuggling
in South Florida.
[Randy] Before, we was just taking
our own vessels and filling it up.
And if you got pulled over by customs,
they would find it.
It was just too exposed.
Uh, you know, to do that amount of weed,
in that way, uh,
we had to find another way to do it.
[Randy] So, I had an idea.
[ship horn honking]
One of my distributors introduced me
to a gentleman named Eugene Fisher.
Gene owned a salvage and tug operation
and had, available to us, a 300-foot barge
with a 110-foot tugboat.
The barge arrives in Colombia,
and this is similar to the barge.
It's seven-stories high, 300-feet long.
And they have on each side of the barge
what's called ballast tanks.
Compartments that they pump saltwater in
to make the boat ride equally
in the water.
So, what we figured out, if we welded
three quarter inch steel
halfway up the ballast tanks,
we would have hollow compartments
in the bottom of the barge.
That's where we stored the marijuana.
So, if we got pulled over by customs,
they'd see it was full of saltwater,
and that was it.
The first load was 110,000 pounds of weed.
When the barge arrives
into the United States, we clear customs.
[suspenseful music playing]
It'd go straight to a dock
at a abandoned gas station
that we had leased.
But before I unload it, I wanna make sure
that there's no police watching it.
So, I asked two distributors that I knew
to drive around the waterfront
with a scanner that I gave them
to listen to the chatter.
[indistinct radio chatter]
I wanted some activity at the gas station
where the barge is docked at.
So, I also had a different guy go there.
The guys that's driving around
the waterfront came back
and reported that they heard
"suspect entering compound."
It's like, "Oh, shit."
"They're on to us."
So now we're all really paranoid.
Took 30 days to find another spot.
The abandoned Brooklyn Naval Yards.
But we had to pay
some mob guy $500,000
in order to let us use the spot.
[producer]
How did that affect your profits?
Very little.
[Allan]
I found myself in the hull of a ship,
and there were stacks of bales of pot.
They were like 20, 30-feet high.
I mean, that was a shitload of pot, man.
[welder crackling]
We had a trailer set inside
the hull of the ship.
The crane would set it in there.
We would load 'em up
in the middle of the night,
and they'd pull it out.
[Charles] The only thing somebody
in the shipyard would have seen
is a crane picking up a container
and putting it on a truck.
Very normal. You see that every day.
[Randy] I already had distributors
waiting for the weed.
[Charles] My role was receiving
the money from these distributors
and then dispersing the money to Randy.
[Randy] I sold the 110,000 pounds
for $310 a pound.
My cut was right at ten million dollars.
And I thought,
"Now I can afford my race car team."
[reporter] Do you know this man?
He hasn't done
any credit card commercials,
but a year ago, Randy Lanier's car
broke down in practice
the morning of the Miami Grand Prix.
That frustration
led to a very big decision.
It gets disappointing
when you don't finish a race,
and I figured there had to be a better way
to finish some races
and maybe win some, and that idea
was putting my own team together.
[present-day Randy]
So, I formed a team for 1984,
to race in the IMSA GTP series,
and named it Blue Thunder Racing.
First, I needed a co-driver.
I went and talked to my friend,
Bill Whittington.
He's a hell of a race car driver,
very fast.
Had won Le Mans in 1979.
[crowd cheering]
Track's good.
Well, I've always liked a fast track.
You know, we can hold a flat in a bowl
and that's a big thrill.
[Randy] I asked him if he would come
as a co-driver. And he agreed.
And he suggested hiring a crew chief
from the UK
that had great racing credentials.
[Keith] Randy was very new.
So, I just thought he was the guy
that wanted to have a bit of fun,
talk to his mates about it,
you know, might finish somewhere.
You know, "I finished tenth in this race,
and I did really well," you know?
[Randy] I told him
not to worry about any expenses.
Whatever he needed,
I was gonna see that he got it.
I made a decision
that I was gonna run a two-car team.
Two cars,
you're probably looking at $350,000.
[producer] Where did you think
the money was coming from?
[inhales deeply]
Um
I was the bank. [laughs]
I was the banker.
They made deposits,
and I made distributions.
[Allan] Randy's crew was all pretty much
us friends that we had grown up together
selling pot.
So, I would be
hanging out in the garage and
fucking make hot dogs and hamburgers
for everybody for lunch.
And then I just kind of became the cook
for the race team.
And I made a point with my guys
not to discuss anything illegal
at the race track.
[commentator]
We're getting ready for the green flags.
So, let's go to Brock and Steve
at the track.
[reporter] Thank you, Ed.
It's a very exciting day at Riverside,
as on the pole with a new track record
over a 130 miles an hour,
is an all-American built Ford Mustang GTP.
We are a private team, taking on
nearly every major car manufacturer.
- Ford, Jaguar and Porsche.
- [engines revving]
The other teams probably thought
that we was gonna be a team
to not worry about.
And on the outside of the front row
the Randy Lanier-Bill Whittington car.
Randy, uh, you got a fast car
right beside you.
You gonna try to take the lead early,
or hang back a bit?
[Randy] We're gonna just stay back,
play it by ear for about the first hour.
- [Brock] Okay, well, good luck.
- Thank you very much.
[engines revving]
[commentator] We have a start
to the Los Angeles Grand Prix.
Bobby Rahal in the Ford Mustang,
up through the S's and into the lead.
And Randy Lanier who started
in the front row is now back to fourth.
[Randy] We was competing,
not only against the factories,
but against the most highly-skilled
drivers on the planet.
[comm] And now, a new leader here,
Derek Bell, one of the very best
endurance drivers in the world.
These Porsche cars are so tough to beat
in endurance racing, Steve.
[revving]
I'm just driving as hard as I can.
[comm] And a guy who is maturing today
as a driver is Randy Lanier.
He has moved into the third spot.
[fast-paced music playing]
It was like he had a fever, man.
[comm] And here is Bobby Rahal,
in the Ford Mustang number seven,
currently running second,
but Rahal is coming into the pit.
[Keith]
The Ford Mustang comes flying in the pit.
But it's worn out. I mean, it's done.
[comm] Derek Bell now leads
and this man, Randy Lanier from Florida,
is in the second spot.
And then it's a direct fight
between us and Porsche.
[cars revving, whooshing]
[commentator] Randy Lanier brings
the second-place car into the pit area.
We concentrated on the pit stop.
To make time.
[comm]
The very aggressive Bill Whittington
just rips car runner Randy Lanier
out of the car.
He's gonna have to hurry
because the distance is opening.
[Brock] A very nice pit stop, well done.
Thank you very much.
How's the car feel to you now?
You're running very high,
second, I believe.
Well, car's running real good right now.
We might have a chance.
[engines accelerating]
[comm] Randy Lanier
is listening to Whittington on the radio.
You gotta wonder
what he's saying right now.
But look at Whittington.
He is taking no prisoners here.
[laughs]
And then the Porsche came in
to change their drivers.
[comm] You know, seldom, Brock,
are endurance races won or lost
in the pit,
but this may be the exception.
And Derek Bell
is coming out of the automobile.
This is a complete surprise.
Derek Bell
gets out of the car unannounced.
Derek looks around for Al Holbert,
who wasn't ready.
A tragic miscue.
There's been a change in the lead.
[car accelerating]
It's Bill Whittington up against
the state-of-the-art Porsche.
The fans are going wild over this.
Al Holbert gets underway, Bill Whittington
opens the gap in first place.
He's racing his balls off.
[comm] This is absolutely the best finish
I've ever had the privilege of watching.
Look at Lanier's crew.
Lanier is trying to drive that car.
Heading toward the checkered flag.
[men cheering, whistling]
[comm] Randy Lanier and his team
are going absolutely nuts.
We was just ecstatic.
[Brock]
Bill Whittington, Randy Lanier,
couldn't have made it
any closer than that.
[laughs]
Fantastic.
Randy, let me get you first.
Kinda tense at the end, huh?
Oh, so touching.
It was like waiting for a baby.
[Brock laughs]
The Porsche team threw their boards
on the ground they couldn't handle it.
[laughs]
I didn't expect him to beat them.
[Brock] And so ends
one of the most exciting
endurance races in recent history.
Boy, are they fast.
[Pam] He was not clever.
It was obvious
that something was going on.
All of a sudden, Blue Thunder showed up
and started winning races.
[comm] And the green flag comes out,
and look at Randy Lanier leap out, wow.
We were hot out the gate, man.
Are you kidding me? We were badass.
[comm] Randy Lanier, just looking for
a wide enough spot on the race track
to get around,
and he may have found it here.
We went up to Laguna Seca.
Won the race on the last lap.
[comm] Randy Lanier.
Boy, he just gets pumped up.
When he gets in that automobile,
he drives it as hard as he can.
[Randy] Two weeks after that,
we was in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And we win that race.
So, now we got three in a row.
Now we leading in points.
[comm] I think you'd be a little excited
if you were leading a world-famous series
like this in your first year.
He has to pinch himself every once
in a while to make sure it's true.
He was kicking ass.
He was killing the circuit.
[commentator] Randy Lanier,
just picking them off one by one.
[Keith] As the year progressed,
to start off, Bill was up here,
Randy was here.
Bill stayed there,
and Randy came up to him.
[commentator] Because Randy Lanier,
who's gonna relieve Bill when he
And there comes Bill. Wow!
Does he come out of that car.
Right on the deck.
And here goes Randy Lanier,
the points leader
in this IMSA Endurance Series.
Well, Randy Lanier has certainly
got all of US road racing
talking about his Blue Thunder effort.
He has progressed so fast that no one's
taking him lightly now. Not at all.
["The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey playing]
That's when he became noticed.
That's when they said, "Look at this guy."
You know, "Where did this guy come from?"
[comm] Randy, who is in the water sports
equipment business down in Florida.
[laughing]
The heat is on ♪
The heat is on ♪
[Keith] In the second half of the year,
this was one of the most humid races
in the country.
[Randy] It's summer
everybody in T-shirts.
And all weekend,
I've been seeing these guys in suits.
[mischievous music playing]
So, I tell Pam,
"I think the FBI is here watching me."
I go to my motor home,
I lay down with the AC blowin' on me.
And Pam comes in and says
there's two gentlemen with suits.
They're outside the motor home,
and they wanted to speak to me.
I go outside and introduce myself.
And one of them hands me a business card.
I look at the card
and it says Michael Kranefuss.
Special Vehicle Operations
for Ford Motor Company.
They tell me
that they've been watching us all year.
They like the progress
that we've been making with the team.
And they'd like to have
a meeting with me in Detroit.
[producer] This was an opportunity
to go legit and leave the drug smuggling
and everything that goes with it
behind you?
Yes.
I talked to Pam about it,
but my mind was already made up.
I passed on the deal.
I wanted to keep Blue Thunder together.
[Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" playing]
That's what friends do.
[Pam] Randy's very loyal to his friends.
Almost too much.
[Charles] When I got married
I asked Randy to be my best man.
- [officiant] I, Charles.
- I, Charles.
- Take you, Margaret.
- Take you, Margaret.
- To be my wife.
- To be my wife.
[Allan] Chuck was Randy's right-hand man.
He was kind of part of their family.
[Pam] Charles did everything
and anything for Randy.
He loved him.
They were brothers.
I wanna congratulate Chuck and Margaret.
Two of the best
and most sincere couple that I know.
[crowd cheering, whooping]
[Charles] I felt like I was going
through the motions for other people.
You know?
Uh, I didn't have the courage to come out.
You know? Uh, you know?
Because it just wasn't done then.
You just didn't do that. I mean, you know.
Don't go changing ♪
To try to please me ♪
[Charles] And I also had to look
at the business side of this.
I'm pragmatic.
What would Randy think?
What would all these guys think
that I'm working with? [laughs]
[dance music playing]
And it afforded me a great lifestyle.
We had the lifestyle of drug smugglers,
I guess.
We weren't no angels.
We had fun back in those days.
[Randy]
Lot of Las Vegas, lot of Monte Carlo.
Pounds of caviar and cocaine.
I will say I experimented
with just about everything out there.
Quaaludes to LSD to mescaline.
[upbeat music playing]
It was a lifestyle
beyond my wildest dreams.
I enjoyed the life in the fast lane
with him.
[comm] Here they come side by side
down the straightaway, wow.
[laughs] A classic matchup.
I mean, competitors
was the Porsche factory.
[Keith] As the year went on,
they were humiliated
that we were taking them on
and beating them.
They couldn't handle it.
This is the racing service manager
in the US for Porsche.
Peter, essentially, what are we
looking at here?
You're looking at our latest,
newest race version in US.
[Keith] They kept throwing
more money and people at it.
[Peter] Six cylinder.
So, they were developing the car
like crazy to try and beat us.
[reporter]
Porsche's 45-foot tractor-trailer rig
is jam-packed with suspension components.
Gears for the transmission,
spare turbo parts, and manifolds.
Actually, there's a million dollars' worth
of Porsche parts in this one trailer.
And here is the most expensive part.
It's the computer brain that monitors
all of the functions of the car.
Eleven thousand bucks.
[comm] And look at this, Steve.
Derek Bell, and he is now
going after Bill Whittington.
Look at this. Drives him on the inside,
and it's Derek Bell and Porsche.
And we'd hear, "Oh, Porsche
has a new engine for the next race."
"Oh, it's got an extra hundred horsepower.
Oh, God, what do we do now?"
[comm] And you know that Randy
is feeling the pressure. Look at that.
He's off the racetrack.
As the checkered flag
is displayed for Derek Bell.
[Randy] Towards the end of the '84 season,
we're very close in points.
[Keith] Randy was pissed off.
He's like, "Keith!"
[mumbling rapidly]
"Okay, Randy, slow down,
slow down, slow down."
"All we need is some money, Randy."
[laughing]
That's when I would come in
on a private jet with a briefcase.
So, I go into the next to last race
of the year.
If I won this particular race,
it would give me enough points
to clinch the championship.
But I needed to win it.
[Pam] I got paranoid about that race.
He was bringing too much attention
to himself
with no real legal income.
Um, I just knew it couldn't last forever.
[comm]
Here we find a fleet of angry Porsches
going after the Chevrolet-powered march
of Bill Whittington and Randy Lanier,
the series' points leaders.
Can they catch them today, Brock?
We'll see.
[Randy] I wanted to be
in the best position
in order to win the race.
So, I fielded both cars.
That is Dale Whittington,
Bill's younger brother,
in the other Blue Thunder
March Chevrolet.
If one car broke, it would give me
the opportunity to race in the other car.
[comm] The green flag is up
for Bill Whittington
and the rest of the large endurance field.
[cars accelerating]
Porsche came with their A-game.
And I obviously did stuff to make our cars
as quick as possible.
Lightweight body work,
small amount of fuel.
[comm]
The harder you screw down the bootstrap,
the more fuel you're going to use.
In a race of this distance,
pit stops could be the difference.
[Randy] In the middle of the race,
something broke
on the car that Bill drove.
[comm] There is a problem, Brock,
for Randy Lanier.
And he didn't finish the race.
[comm] Oh, boy. Lanier's lost
one of the old teammates out there.
That beautiful streamlined Porsche
still in the lead.
Uh-oh, here's trouble.
That's the second Blue Thunder March Chevy
that's had some mechanical problem.
[Randy] My second car come into the pits.
My heart rate must have went
from 60 or 70 to 120.
[tense music playing]
I decided to take over.
[car wailing past]
[commentator]
Randy Lanier was trying to get it started.
Look at this! He may be
back in the race after all, Steve.
[engine revving]
And started trying to climb my way
up to the front of the pack.
[comm] The normally perfect Porsche
has got problems.
[Randy]
The Porsche's car ended up breaking.
And towards the last ten laps of the race,
I found myself in second position.
Then I'm leading the race.
[engine wailing]
For the last lap, I'm obviously thinking,
"Have we got enough fuel?"
[accelerating]
[commentator]
Now heading down into the final turn.
I was like You know, holding my heart.
- [crowd whooping]
- [engine revving]
[Randy] This is my first full year
and I win the championship.
[indistinct clamoring]
It's unheard of.
[shouts indistinctly]
[crowd cheering, whooping]
[man] Come on, shake that harder!
[crowd cheering, whooping]
[Allan] One of the drivers, Derek Bell,
I think, made the comment that
nobody knows
where these Blue Thunder guys came from,
but they're the only team on the circuit
where every pit crew guy wears a Rolex.
[laughs]
[Pam] I thought
you know, he's gotten away with it.
I started purchasing things.
Apartments in New York City.
Apartments here on the beach.
A jet just to have.
[Pam] Lavish, lavish things.
Ferraris, Porsches, Mercedes.
I kind of went along with him.
I lived in a mansion.
I was living the dream.
For my daughter's sixth birthday,
we had Circus World in Orlando
- bring in an elephant.
- [elephant trumpets]
He got her a Volkswagen.
[Randy]
Brandy, you got your own little car, huh?
[revving]
[Randy] Go slow!
[Allan] He had the money.
And he flaunted it.
This ain't a guy that's worried
about a low profile. [laughing]
[Pam] Randy came from poverty,
and now he had everything.
But it wasn't enough.
[Randy]
After winning the IMSA Championship,
I figured I've done everything there.
So, now, I wanted to win the Indy 500.
[man] Gentlemen, start your engines.
[Randy] That was my dream.
Oh, the Indy 500
is probably every driver's dream.
[Charles] That's when you are
in the big leagues, you know?
Racing the Indy cars in the Indy circuit
is, like, the highest level
you could get in car racing.
That is the top of the top.
You don't get any higher than that.
[comm] Let's watch as he goes
into turn one, which's right ahead of him.
He's doing about
220 miles an hour right now.
You gotta have nuts this big, okay?
[laughing]
To do that. You see some
of the accidents and everything
You're putting your life
on the line, buddy.
But those are expensive cars. [laughs]
The cars, the crew, you know?
I'm thinking okay,
let's bring in bigger loads.
I went and bought four cars,
ten motors, tractor and trailers.
Oh, I thought it was great.
I mean, you know, more weed, more money.
Business expanded,
and that's a good thing. [chuckles]
[newscaster] In recent years,
US authorities have begun
to stem the tide of large
marijuana shipments from South America.
Latest example's on Miami Beach,
where the luxury Doral hotel
now doubles
as a government radar station.
[reporter] Seized in less than a year,
more than 100 tons of marijuana.
[Reagan] We intend to do what is necessary
to end the drug menace
and cripple organized crime.
[reporter]
The bill, signed by President Reagan,
delivers harsher sentences
for drug-related convictions.
[Pam] I was scared.
Reagan had just made
the "life without parole" law.
I knew that if Randy was caught
he was gonna die in prison.
He was coming out in a pine box.
[commentator]
Let's see if some of them We are green.
And Sullivan still drops in
behind Mario Andretti. It's Sullivan
[Randy]
When I first started Indy car racing
I didn't fare too well.
[comm] Look, another car has slowed down.
Could it be out of gas?
That's Randy Lanier in the Lola.
[Keith] Indy car was a different deal.
Randy just wasn't comfortable
turning into corners at 220,
225 miles an hour.
[comm] Slowest qualifier,
defending IMSA GT Champ, Randy Lanier.
[Keith] And then, as time went on,
I had got more and more aware
that we were being watched.
And I said to Randy,
"People are watching us."
[producer]
What did these people look like?
Uh, how would you typically say
an FBI guy looks like?
[Randy]
I started noticing cars following me.
Just leaving my house,
and I would pick up a tail.
[Pam] At one time
he thought our house was bugged,
that our phones were tapped.
He started to get very paranoid.
[Keith]
These people were constantly watching us.
I'm running the damn thing,
so I might be number one
on their hit list.
So, I said to Randy,
"This ain't working. I mean, I'm done."
[Randy] Keith was a brilliant crew chief.
When I lost him,
the team kind of fell apart.
[comm]
The 57 car has got a technical problem.
Randy Lanier out of Florida
wasn't really running up
near the front of the race at any time.
[Randy]
So, I went and got more experience.
[Pam] He would go out of town racing,
and wouldn't be around.
It was difficult on Brandy and I.
[comm] Finally, in row number 14,
Randy Lanier in 57
I felt lonely at times,
and I sought out drugs, I guess, to
ease my pain, ease my loneliness.
[Randy] I come home one evening,
and Pam and some of her friends
was, um, partying.
And as soon as I open the door,
I could smell a different smell
in the house.
Somebody was smoking cocaine.
And he said if I didn't get help
that he was gonna take Brandy from me.
And, um
she went to rehab the next day.
[Pam] I stayed
in that treatment center for 30 days.
I got clean.
And that's when I started
seeing things clearer.
And then after I got out
of that treatment center,
a month later,
I got pregnant with our son.
I approached Randy with
you're gonna be caught.
You can't keep doing what you're doing
and getting away with it.
Please, get out
for our children's sake.
And that's when he said to me, "I can't."
"It's like shooting heroine in my veins,
I am addicted."
He was addicted to racing cars.
And he had to continue smuggling drugs
to support his racing habit.
[Randy]
I already had another load planned.
A bigger load than the last load.
Over 50-million dollars of merchandise.
Probably the largest load of grass
ever brought into the United States.
And it was ten days
from coming ashore in Louisiana.
And my gate bell rings.
It's a fellow I know from Louisiana.
He's come to tell me some bad news.
His brother had gotten arrested,
and he's cooperating.
His brother knew a lot about the operation
because he's from Louisiana.
He might know
exactly where this barge is coming into.
I'm thinking, "Holy shit.
What am I gonna do now?"
I call my partners, I tell them
we've got some major problems.
We can't bring the load into Louisiana.
They know the load is coming.
But there's no way we cannot do this.
The Colombians are expecting
this load to come in.
I don't want a dozen Colombians
showing up at my house with guns.
We've got to find a backup spot.
I thought, wait a minute.
The FBI, the DEA,
they would never know that we know.
So, by them not knowing that we know,
we can take the barge,
put in on the Pacific Coast
they'll be looking for it in Louisiana.
So, we found a spot in San Francisco.
The barge has got to go
back through the Panama Canal
to the Pacific Ocean, and all the way up
to Northern California.
It's gonna take about six months.
If we get up out of this,
then damn sure, I'm done with it.
This was definitely my last load.
[commentator]
The 1986 running of the Indianapolis 500.
Well, here we are again.
I'm Jim McKay reporting live.
This is the fastest field in the history
of Indianapolis and a fascinating one
as far as the dramatis personae
are concerned.
[Randy]
Even though I had a lot on my plate
somehow, I managed to qualify
for the Indy 500.
My main objective
was to win Rookie of the Year.
It's huge!
[crowd cheering]
More than 400,000 people.
It's the largest single-day sporting event
in the world.
[comm] And now the heart begins
to race just a little more.
That crowd will clear off
of the front straight.
Thirty-three men will be left alone
to do their business.
[fast-paced music playing]
As much as I was scared for the exposure
I wanted to be there for my husband.
[commentator]
We are ready now for the national anthem
to be sung here by television actor,
and a co-owner of one of the cars,
David Hasselhoff.
O say can you see ♪
By the dawn's early light ♪
What so proudly we hailed ♪
At the twilight's last gleaming ♪
[Allan] I snuck up with my friend
to the scoring tower up there, and
puffed one real quick up there just
to be able to say we did it, you know.
[laughs]
And the home of the brave ♪
[crowd cheering, applauding]
[comm] And so the sound of the engines
dominates the scene now,
but the real story is inside the car.
Inside the helmet.
The small fear that gnaws
at the most courageous spirit.
[Randy] You're strapped in,
they've checked your seat belts,
and you can feel the butterflies.
[commentator] And there we go,
as you see the 33 cars
moving off on the front straight
to begin one pace lap.
[Randy] And as we come in to turn one,
it's like a tunnel.
The atmosphere is electric.
You cannot help but feel it.
[comm] Row five: Randy Lanier,
Pancho Carter and Jacques Villeneuve.
And the green flag drops.
Every driver's on the throttle.
[commentator]
The Indianapolis 500 explodes,
25,000 horsepower going into turn one.
[engine accelerating]
[Randy] Traveling 200-plus miles an hour,
you're covering a football field
per second.
So, you gotta really focus far ahead.
[comm] At this point, Randy Lanier
is the highest-placed rookie.
[Randy] There comes a point
that you're so in-tune
with what you're doing,
you actually feel
like you are one with the car.
In that moment, all my troubles
that are going on in my life
they disappear.
It's an elation that's beyond anything
that I've experienced. It's just fabulous.
[comm] On the right, now the left,
Duane Sweeney holds the checkered flag
for the 1986 Indianapolis 500 Champion,
Bobby Rahal.
Easily one of the greatest 500s
we've ever seen.
[Randy] I finished tenth.
Broke Michael Andretti's three-year record
for "Fastest Rookie of the Year."
I mean, for him to become
the Rookie of the Year at the Indy 500,
that's huge.
[Pam] It was like a dream come true.
For him, for me.
He's a famous race car driver.
He just drove in the Indianapolis 500.
He's a country boy from Virginia.
He's come a long way.
I tell you, I choke up now
thinking of it, you know.
Because of the brotherhood that we share,
you know.
The friendship that we shared, you know.
Um
And, of course, in the back of my mind,
though, we we had this problem.
[birds calling]
[Randy]
This last load, things wasn't going right.
The FBI knew about it.
And for three months, they stopped
every barge and tug boat in Louisiana
looking for this major load
they knew that was coming in,
but I had diverted it to San Francisco.
When it got there, we bring the barge in
and clear customs.
But now we've got a problem
that one of the ballasts has failed
and water has gotten into the compartment.
So, we're not gonna get all
the 165,000 pounds of weed off the vessel.
[producer] You know that
there was rumors about two men dying.
There was rumors.
I-I didn't see no bodies.
But I didn't go in the vessel either.
[producer] Are you able to tell me
what the rumors were
concerning these two men?
[laughing]
Oh, boy.
[producer] Is this not something
you want to talk about?
If I don't see it, it's nothing that I can
really put fact on.
You see what I'm saying? I
I mean,
I can sit here and talk about rumors,
but that's uh, for what?
I have to be honest with you,
I have no first-hand knowledge
on what actually happened there.
I was not there in
in the area, the vicinity that happened.
And I have no first-hand knowledge,
and I'd rather not talk about that.
[thunder rumbling]
[Charles] What I understand was,
because the barge
had been on the water for so long,
one of the seals in one
of the compartments started to leak.
And it got the marijuana wet.
And marijuana will decompose,
and in decomposition stage,
one of the things that marijuana gives off
is methane gas.
So, when the welders went ahead
and used the torch to open that chamber,
there was an explosion.
And two people died
in the offloading of that barge.
It's news to me.
No, I don't know nothing about it.
I just know that
what Gene Fisher told me,
he was gonna scuttle the boat
with 22,000 pounds on board.
[producer] Right. So, Gene didn't tell you
that there were these two men that died?
As I told you, I haven't
I never seen it. I wasn't on it.
I can only tell you
what I personally know.
What I What I saw.
And I did not see no bodies.
[comm]
We're ready for the green once again
as the course is cleared
in the first turn.
Here is a tremendous fight
between the rookie here,
Randy Lanier and AJ Foyt,
as they are fighting
for seventh place now.
Lanier is just out of
- [loud thump]
- [comm] A crash! A crash!
It's Randy Lanier against the wall.
Really smashed it.
Oh, that's more than heavy damage.
That car is beat up on every end.
Really a bad wreck.
The yellow flag is out.
Randy Lanier is still in the car.
The rescue crews are there,
and that car is totally destroyed.
And two of the cart observers
have been hit by debris.
[Randy]
I hit the wall at 214 miles an hour.
Compound fracture.
[comm] They pull Randy Lanier
out of his race car
as the storm clouds roll in.
For some reason, I wasn't surprised
because that's the way my life
was going right now.
When shit happens,
sometimes it happens bad.
[somber strings music playing]
[Randy] I come home one day,
Pam tells me that the FBI
had been there all day
asking about me.
Everything is-is coming unglued.
What should I do?
Should I just turn myself in
and try to face the fact?
But then, what good would that do,
getting a life sentence
and being in prison?
I could do more helpful things
for my family if I was a fugitive.
[sirens wailing in the distance]
[Pam] He moved out
towards the end of my pregnancy
and got an apartment in Miami.
He told me if we got divorced
he would sign me over the mansion,
and that nobody could take it from me.
[Randy] Meanwhile, I took some precautions
and I buried some money, $3,000,000.
And I had my dad bury it
at his property in Virginia.
The plan really was to disappear.
So, he needed to assume another identity,
which I was very good at doing.
Randy had got
these fake birth certificates.
I attempted then
to get a fake driver's license.
So, dressed like I am right now,
I went in and I said,
"I've had a robbery at my house,
I've lost all my identification,
the only thing I have
is a copy of my birth certificate."
"Is that enough to get me
a Florida driver's license?"
And, she looked at it she goes, "Yeah."
So, I'm thinking
Perfect. Piece of cake.
I sat in the chairs waiting for my name
to be called for the license
[line trilling]
and then I see a Broward sheriff.
And at this point,
I just broke out into a sweat.
And he says, "I don't think this is real."
And, uh, so they arrest me.
But in the car that I drove that day,
I had a briefcase.
And in that briefcase,
was the abbreviated notes
of the money that I had collected
up to that point.
The initials of the customers
that I got money from
and initials of the people that I
dispersed the money to, which was Randy.
Very condemning.
Very condemning.
I was put in the basement
of a county jail.
[door bangs]
My heart sank,
because I realized
that I was in real serious trouble.
Because I was not in Oz anymore.
[Randy] So, when my son was born,
he was born into chaos.
["The Heat Is On" by Glenn Frey playing]
The heat is on ♪
[Randy] Pam had had
some complications with his birth,
and she had to remain in the hospital.
And I go to a diner to get me
something to eat before I visit him.
[newscaster]
Professional race car driver Randy Lanier
has been indicted
on international drug smuggling charges.
That's when I knew I was going to flee.
Mr. Lanier's wife has just given birth
to the couple's second child,
and is currently recovering
in the hospital.
[Pam] When Randy became a fugitive,
the FBI and the DEA
questioned me several different times.
They wanted to know where Randy was.
They wanted to know
if he had contacted me.
I did not tell them where he was
or where I even thought he was.
I lost the house, I sold it.
As I walked out,
the IRS walked in and took the proceeds.
But before Randy left,
he hid money for me and the kids
to live on for the rest of our lives.
[Randy] My dad was never involved
in my operations, at all.
And when I asked him to bury some money,
I didn't think about the effect
it could have on him and my mother.
And because my dad loved me
[sighs]
he ended up going to prison.
[sniffles]
[Pam] I told them where it was.
They told me that I was facing
five years in prison
for obstruction of justice
and money laundering.
So, I told them
everything I could possibly tell them.
I felt I did what was right
for me and my kids.
We made amends before he died.
He had a heart attack,
and he called me on his dying bed,
and he said he understood why I did it.
And he forgave me.
[sighs]
- [birds calling]
- [waves crashing]
[Randy] I had a house with a boat
on an island called Antigua.
One day, I'm anchored up on a beach.
I'm standing there getting ready
to dive into the water
and a little plane went by.
I thought,
"No, I don't like the feeling of this."
I got a dinghy
on the front of the bow of the boat.
I start up the dinghy, and I leave.
I go towards the dock.
The plane lands on a grassy runway.
As we get into the port,
I see Jeeps coming with dust everywhere.
And now I know.
Oh, no, they're here for me.
And I take off running.
And they're hauling ass,
coming right down this dirt road
that I'm running on.
[sirens wailing in distance]
They said, "Halt! Or we'll shoot!"
I raise my hand up.
"You got the wrong guy!"
They knew who they had.
It was over.
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
I get indicted
for being the principal administrator
for continual criminal enterprise
that grossed $10,000,000 within 12 months.
Incurred a natural death sentence.
[Pam] I begged him to cooperate.
He wouldn't.
I said,
"Randy, you're not gonna beat this."
Ours was strictly a conspiracy case.
Had they busted us with one seed,
then they could say,
"Hey, they caught us in the act,
they caught us
with our hand in the cookie jar."
Hell no they didn't catch us
with our hand in the cookie jar.
I was only looking at ten years maximum.
I was willing to do that.
I had no problem with that.
'Cause in ten years under the old law
I would have done six,
and I was fine with that.
I was mentally
and physically ready to do that.
But when they put the 848 on me,
continuing criminal enterprise,
and now you're looking
at ten years to life.
And up there, those crazy bastards,
they were handing out life sentences.
Now, I had a wife who just had a son.
Uh
I had to rethink my position.
I never looked at Chuck in any way like,
"Well, if the shit comes down
is he gonna be a stand-up guy?" Hell no.
I knew he would probably be the first
in there singing like a canary.
Charles Podesta
was one of the first witnesses.
It was one of the hardest things
I ever had to do.
And when I got in that courtroom,
and I had to look at Randy,
I'm telling you, I
It was horrible.
It was absolutely horrible.
He looked a little reluctant,
but he pointed me out.
I knew when they called him
and he started testifying,
I was convicted.
He knew too much,
and he was ready to tell it all.
I'm a dad now, you know?
I have another life that I have to
that I'm responsible for.
We all had young sons and daughters.
You didn't think that all of us wanted
to fucking see our kids grow up, too?
What makes you any special?
Al, what you were faced with
and what I was faced with,
is two different scenarios.
And I did what I had to do for my family.
Your family's more important than mine,
so you'll fucking throw my ass
under the bus and send me down the creek,
but, hey, long as you're there
to be there for your family,
then your decision is okay.
Well, you know what? Fuck you.
You made the decision,
you live with the guilt.
It's a tough swallow.
I never thought
that we would stab each other in the back.
[laughter, indistinct chatter]
I thought we were a brotherhood,
that we were,
you know,
godparents to each other's kids and stuff.
[sniffs]
[distressed muttering]
[Randy] Allan was one of the few people
that was involved with the operations
that didn't testify.
He stood up and took it on the chin.
I was facing a 45-year sentence,
I received a 15-year sentence,
and I ended up serving five years.
I was sentenced to 12, I'd already
served two years in county jail,
uh, and I did about seven years.
[Randy] It's a plant.
It's a plant.
And to incarcerate someone for life
for a frigging plant?
Where's the justice in that?
My life changed forever and ever
after that.
[camera shutter clicks]
My son did not know his father
except for in a prison visiting room.
And I had a six-year-old
that was daddy's little girl,
when, all of a sudden,
he was taken out of her life.
It's heartbreaking.
It tore us apart.
I started a job at a treatment center
as a counselor.
I started my life over
with two kids as a single mom.
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[camera shutter clicks]
[Obama] Over the last few decades,
we've locked up more and more
non-violent drug offenders
than ever before
for longer than ever before.
In far too many cases, the punishment
simply does not fit the crime.
It does not make sense
for a non-violent drug offender
to be getting 30 years,
in some cases life in prison.
[fast-paced music playing]
Randy's release from prison
is a true miracle.
He got a presidential pardon.
So, this is my humble art room.
This is a prison painting here
of a stud horse trying to get the female,
and I sent it to my wife.
Kind of was sending a message,
"Hey, I'm still kind of looking for you."
[laughs]
Last April, he got down on his knees
and asked me to marry him.
And I am thinking about it. [laughs]
Life's simple.
We live paycheck to paycheck
and cut coupons and
we cook dinner at home.
He drives me crazy sometimes,
but I love him.
I'm looking forward
to, uh, living my life out with her.
Pretty awesome.
[Pam] So, how long's it been
since you've seen him?
[Randy] He testified in '88.
- [Pam] Man!
- Thirty-one years ago.
- [Randy] Hey!
- [Charles] Hello!
Come here.
God. How's it going, bro?
That's a hug waiting 30 years.
- Yeah, 31. No.
- You ain't grown none.
[Charles laughs]
You honor our home.
And I thank you so much for that.
- It's fucking amazing to fucking see you.
- I know.
I know that this journey that we're on
is a short-lived journey.
For real.
Decades can go by.
And it took me years to understand
that for me to have
freedom within a confinement of a prison,
I had to have forgiveness.
I remember some of the meals
we used to go to
Yeah. I remember when we used to
take over the restaurant
in Fort Lauderdale
- and had big parties upstairs.
- Which one? The French restaurant?
- The French restaurant, yeah.
- Well, after we did a load, huh?
[both laugh]
- The party was on.
- The party was on.
[Randy] But I've come to understand that
they're not the ones who put me in prison.
I put myself in it through my actions.
[Charles] Thank you, darling.
- You are He's a keeper.
- [Randy laughs]
Anybody that puts up with me
is a keeper, you know what I mean?
[laughs]
He's gonna kill me later, okay?
I just want you to know.
[Randy] I wanna tell you something else.
If you live
with forgiveness and gratitude,
your life will open up in so many ways.
Greed
is a bad thing.
And it can lead you
to make some bad decisions.
And I was a greedy fuck.
[jaunty rock music playing]