Chapter 65 Section five

On July 5, 1998, when Xiantai and Kenny were arrested in New York, the police only showed them a wanted warrant from Utah.However, the lawyers of the two Kemes did not think that this not-so-small joint operation between the FBI and the New York Police Department was just for a check of more than 10,000 US dollars.Xian Tai estimated that he would not be able to get out for a while, but Kenny's only criminal record was the gang robbery in Florida a year ago.So on the first night in prison, Xiantai wrote a note to Kenny using the only paper she could find in prison—toilet roll paper.She took the note with her and waited for the opportunity to hand it to her son.

Since the phone call in the early hours of July 7 combined two cases involving one life each, the police have spent the entire day trying to extract Irene Suleman from Sintai and Kenny. whereabouts.The first encounter shows the seasoned detectives how difficult this mother and son are, and that no matter how hard they try, they won't get what they want.Xian Tai's answer to almost all questions is "I can't answer this question", or "I can't provide an answer right now".The police estimated that Erin might still be alive, but had been kidnapped somewhere.They tried every means to impress Xiantai and Kenny's compassion and help rescue the old lady, but they didn't expect these two hard-hearted guys to be indifferent at all.

The only achievement of the investigators that day was to intercept the note that Xiantai was about to hand to Kenny.In fact, this was not a big gain at the time, because the coded abbreviations and coded words on the note made the police completely clueless.It took two weeks for investigators to "decipher" that short message.For example, IS (meaning "is"), one of the simplest and commonly used English words, represents the combination of the two initial letters of Irene Silverman (Irene Silverman) between Xiantai and Kenny, that is, the abbreviation.Xiantai thought that Kenny would be released from prison soon, so she wrote a note to her son saying that the secrets about the Suleman Building must not be revealed; there was $20,000 in cash in the brown suitcase in Lincoln's car, and after taking the things away Then report to the police that the car has been stolen; beware of being followed; important documents should be kept well or handed over to a lawyer for safekeeping, etc.Sandwiched with the toilet paper was a small piece of paper with "PALAZA43280" written on it.

What Xiantai didn't expect was that the Lincoln car was already in the hands of the police.That afternoon, as soon as the court warrant was issued, Crime Scene Officer Ed Wallas began a thorough search of Lincoln.He spent a full 32 hours before and after, and his work was so meticulous that even a dead moth in the car was included in the report list.Among the important items stacked in the back seat of the car were: an empty box containing the electron gun, an invoice for purchasing the electron gun in Florida in late April, a bottle of pink narcotic or perspiration medicine, an unopened syringe, and a box of latex gloves , 15 notebooks, a computer, a pair of plastic handcuffs, a bottle of self-defense spray, a small tape recorder and some tapes, a sophisticated monitoring device, several Florida, Nevada and Utah vehicle license plates, a bottle of Liquor Liquor, a brown suitcase with over $20,000 in cash, a 9mm Gluck, some practice earplugs, a box of ammunition, some jewelry, several blank social security cards, power of attorney forms and real estate transfer forms, a monthly rent receipt for the Suleman Building signed by Irene Suleman, and several large sheets of paper to practice Irene's signature enclosed with the receipt, and a fake Irene Suleman A Power of Attorney signed by Herman, two checks to the New York City Department of Finance for the transfer fee of the Suleman Building and the advance payment of property taxes, the checks are dated July 2, 1998, and the amounts are US$1,500 and US$5,600, respectively. A contract to hire a naked maid in Las Vegas, plus a dozen wigs, including a reddish-brown one that matched Erin's hair color and hairstyle, and a red frame similar to Erin's items Glasses and nightgown nightcap.

The back compartment of the car was almost empty, except for a two-meter-long black luggage bag.Ed Wallas is 1.8 meters tall, and he can fit himself in it without any trouble.It is worth noting that the spare tire and car jack that were originally placed in the rear compartment were moved to the compartment between the driver's seat and the rear seat.Anyone who has seen the famous movie about the Mafia, Godfina, knows that this means that someone is going to stuff the trunk with a dead body. Ed Wallas also carefully brushed the dirt off the tires of the Lincoln car so that the mud identification analysis could determine where the two Kaimes had been.Police later searched for all possible sources of the soil in an attempt to locate Irene Suleman or her remains, but found nothing.

On July 8, the New York Police Department set up a task force of more than 50 people headed by the black sheriff and Chief Detective Joseph Reznick.The district attorney appointed a seven-member team with Connie Fernanda as lead prosecutor.The lineup of the defendant is also very impressive. At the most, Xiantai and Kenny hired 5 lawyers and 3 private detectives. When the police entered the names of Xian Tai and Kenny Kaimes into the nationwide networked crime database, 34 states in the United States appeared on the computer screen.Not counting the disappearance of Mrs. Suleman this time, more than 200 people were involved in her criminal activities, at least two of whom were missing and one died.Over the next year or so, the New York Police Department dispatched hundreds of people to this case and interviewed thousands of relevant people in more than 40 states and nearly 10 countries. The furthest of them went to Europe.The huge workload of detection and investigation is really rare.

Xiantai knows how to deal with lawyers.Their lawyers were hired and fired, fired and hired again, and the shortest one only worked for them for 48 hours.According to Kent Walker, Xiantai’s eldest son, when she was in Nevada, Xiantai “searched almost all the lawyers in Las Vegas. Many lawyers refused to cooperate with her because she was full of lies. She always She can make up all kinds of inexplicable reasons, delays or even refuses to pay lawyer fees, and forces some people to do improper things for her. Few lawyers end up talking with her. Then she opened the phone yellow page and pressed the letter Call the next lawyer in order."No wonder Xian Tai's lawyer in New York, Hosse Munitz, said to Matthew Wiseman, who recently joined the defendant's defense team: "You have to be careful, don't forget that we are dealing with the devil. They just want to use us, and Don't care about our life or death."

After all, Xiantai is new to New York, so he is not very familiar with the people and things here.On her first night in prison, she had to ask a fellow prisoner to recommend a lawyer for her.Hosse Munitz was one of the first two lawyers she hired on July 6.Xian Tai said to them as soon as they met: "The police have no reason to detain us here. This is not a criminal case at all, but a civil dispute. The Lincoln car leaked oil. If the car dealer does not solve it, of course we cannot pay the money." The other lawyer was "fired" by Xian Tai two days later, and Husse hired another civil defense lawyer, Matthew Wiseman, for her.

A few days later, when Matthew met with Xiantai and Kenny in a lawyer-client conference room in the Manhattan Criminal Court Building, the two Kaimes asked Matthew to buy a small bug for them.Kenny had seen this thumb-sized device in a spy magazine, and its effective eavesdropping distance was within a mile radius.Kenny draws a sketch of the bug from memory.Xiantai explained to Matthew Weissman that their plan was to let Matthew secretly install the bug under this table in advance, and when they met next time, they would pretend to discover it "accidentally" and then sue Authorities attempted to eavesdrop on their conversations, and the entire case was aborted (dismissed) for "denial of justice."Matthew Wiseman rightfully rejected this illegal request.

Later, when Linda and Andrew Kemes asked the Santa Barbara court to clarify the dispute over the property rights of the Santa Maria property, Xian Tai asked Matthew Wiseman to forge a commission from Ken Kemes for her. power of attorney. "You just need to print the documents, and I will take care of the rest." Xian Tai meant that she wanted to forge Ken Kaimes' signature on the documents.This kind of request was simply too much. Matthew not only withdrew from the meeting on the spot, but also refused to continue working for Xiantai and the others.One month later, Jing Xiantai repeatedly asked and promised not to do these illegal activities again, and then Matthew returned to the defense lawyer team.

When the progress of the case changed from civil to criminal, Xian Tai worried that Matthew did not have enough experience to handle criminal cases, so on July 14 he invited a third lawyer, Maier Shaqi.One year later, on July 22, 1999, with the joining of Michael Hardy and Eric Soft, the defense team of Xian Tai and Kenny expanded to five people. On July 9, police recorded the testimony of two notaries, Don Oakie and Nolly Sweeney. In the early morning of July 10, Joseph Reznick called all the members of the special case team and seven prosecutors into the conference room. The evidence collected from the Lincoln car and room 1B of the Suleman Building occupied half of the room here.All physical evidence needs to be reviewed one by one. The most time-consuming is the dozen or so notebooks written by Xiantai. The investigators often have to read it twice, three times, or even more times to realize the meaning inside.The more than 1,000 people mentioned in the notes were later checked by the police one by one, or contacted by phone, or sent special personnel to interview.Some of them more than once. Listed together with Erin Suleman's name in the notebook are the names, telephone numbers, addresses, brief real estate and bank information, and even social security numbers of more than 20 elderly wealthy women living alone.Xiantai wrote under Erin's entry: "Irene's background?" "Social Security Number?" "Electronic Gun" and other words.What surprised the investigators the most was that the notebook contained the direct-dial number of the US President's landline "Air Force One" and the home phone number of then Secretary of Defense and later Secretary of State Colin Power. After the court issued a special search warrant that allowed them to decrypt the computer and mobile phone, the task force printed two feet thick data from Xiantai and Kenny's computer, including several names, phone numbers, Addresses, etc., as well as the various versions of the alibi they made up for themselves in advance.There are also male gay pornographic videos stored on the computer. Two cell phone experts from AT&T told police that Xiantai had three calls between 11:00 a.m. and 11:28 a.m. on July 5, all near the Suleman Building, not like her. Speaking to Stanley Paterson on the phone at the time, on Garden State Avenue in New Jersey. In Los Angeles, the police were ordered to search the storage warehouse rented by Xiantai, where they found more than 20 notebooks.In New York, the search for Irene Suleman is underway on a larger scale.Police searched three New York airports and nearby areas, all hospitals, morgues and funeral homes across the city, home storage warehouses on the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state border, along Garden State Avenue and Parishage Avenue, George Washington Bridge and Tower Bridge.The FBI helped scan several swamps in northern New Jersey with infrared monitors.The police also asked various garbage companies about the final location where the garbage was transported, and then sent police dogs to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York states. As the days passed, the chances of finding Mrs. Suleman - living or dead - dwindled.Unless the police can obtain strong enough physical evidence, it will be difficult to prosecute Xiantai, mother and son for murder.At this time, the Los Angeles Police Department, which was progressing relatively smoothly, was impatient, claiming that they had dead bodies, witnesses—Shaw Little, evidence at the scene—Kenny's footprints on the jaguar car, etc. Two criminals, even the death penalty is no problem.However, the New York side was still unwilling to let it go, so that the Los Angeles Police Department's repeated attempts to request the extradition of the criminal failed to materialize. It can be said that the opportunity for the breakthrough of the case was provided by Xiantai himself. The police finally realized that the "PALAZA" written on the small piece of paper intercepted by the task force along with the toilet paper on July 7 was the "PLAZA" spelled by Xian Tai, that is, Plaza Hotel.But the number 43280 made the investigators quite troublesome. When Xiantai met her lawyer for the first time after her arrest, Hosse Munitz reminded her not to discuss anything related to the case on the prison phone, which is monitored by the authorities.But Xiantai, who has always gone her own way, ignored this warning. She used the phone number from the prison to tell her private detective Larry Frost, asking him to fetch the "July 5th Deposited in Plaza University" for her. hotel bag".When they met at the agreed time, Xian Tai insisted, despite repeated questions from the lawyers: "There is really nothing in the bag, just some personal items and two ghost face masks." "She was smart," Hosse said afterwards. "She knew that if the word 'pistol' was mentioned, we wouldn't take it for her." Later, Xiantai was so stupid that he called again and asked Larry when he planned to pick up the bag. On July 23, after Larry Frost got the black bag from the Plaza Hotel, he returned to the office and opened it to check it one by one.In addition to the grimace that Xiantai mentioned, there is also a travel cosmetic case, a bottle of vodka, two notebooks, a miniature tape recorder, a pair of plastic handcuffs, and several legal documents, including the Sule that the police have been looking for. The original copy of the deed of assignment of Man Building, with Xiantai's forged signature of Irene Suleman and the notarized seal of Nolly Sweeney on it.At the bottom of the bag, wrapped in a white silk handkerchief, was the .22 Janine pistol that killed Dawe Katzdin.Larry quickly dialed Hosse Munitz's cell phone. Several lawyers were at the Vollini restaurant near the criminal court.Before Larry could tell about the transfer contract and the pistol, the detectives from the task force had already blocked his door. "Hossey, I've got some police here, and they're going to take the black bag," Larry said into the microphone. "Did they have a subpoena?" the lawyer asked. "No." This is not a problem.Detectives immediately called the prosecution team. Twenty minutes later, a court worker delivered the subpoena to the Vollini restaurant. Xiantai often said to Kenny: "The average person only uses 5% of their brains, but we use 75%, so few people in this world can beat us." Clever and wrong, the fight is too big. The two notebooks in the black bag are the last two of Xiantai’s notebooks, dated from May to July 1998, and the last one recorded on July 3.It recorded many things related to Irene Suleman, but unfortunately, it still didn't provide any clues that might find Irene. From these two notebooks, the investigators finally found out that the third person who appeared in Room 1B of the Suleman Building was Hesher Antonio Alphari, who was found by Xian Tai and Kenny after Shaw Lito escaped in mid-May instead of his.Shaw Little told the Los Angeles police that he was afraid that Xiantai and Kenny would harm him because he knew too much, especially about the murder of Dawei Kazidin. According to the phone number of Hersher's father's house recorded in the notebook, investigators came to a RV area populated by Cuban immigrants near Belgra, Florida.Hersher's father said he hadn't seen his son for a long time, but he would contact police if he heard from Hersher. A few months later, the old man took his son to the local police station.Hesher said that he escaped on June 18 because Xiantai's mother and son used him as a slave and didn't pay him.In Room 1B of the Suleman Building, Hershey's station is at the door.They asked him to monitor the movement of the corridor from the cat's eye, and record in detail who entered and exited the Suleman building when, which employee did what and when, especially the whereabouts of Mrs. Suleman.On the fourth day after Kenny moved into room 1B, Hesher left Xiantai and Kenny while they were out on errands. Hershey took the police to the swamp where Kenny thought "throwing the body would be a good idea", but Irene Suleman's body was still not found. It is conceivable that due to the relatively small number of manpower, the five lawyers and three private detectives on the defense side are busier than the police and the prosecution.What troubled them most was that due to Xiantai's mouth full of lies, their investigation results were often quite different from expectations, and some even became evidence for the prosecution.Not to mention that Xiantai often fabricates some non-existent stories and provides some witnesses that do not exist at all, which not only wastes their energy, but also makes them lose precious time.The lawyer-detective team of eight agreed that Xiantai's brain had gone wrong, and she seemed to be living in hallucinations and imaginations.Not only did she make up a lie, but after repeating it several times, she became convinced of the lie she made up.Lawyers suggested that she admit to the court that she suffers from a brain disorder or mental disorder in exchange for the judge's permission to set a bail, or to deal with the mentally ill lightly, but Xian Tai angrily and flatly refused, claiming that it was against her. Insulting, like a drunk who doesn't admit to being drunk.For example, when talking about Erin Suleman, Xiantai said: "We didn't kill her. We knew her and were friends. But this old lady is crazy. Her so-called apartment building is actually a brothel, and those workers They were all whores, and the tenants were all whores. The night before she disappeared, there was a crazy party in the building with whores and whores. Some of them must have killed her." Adding: "One of Erin's friends Asked me to take over this brothel because he didn't think Irene was good enough. You know, I was in this business, in my 20s in Los Angeles, and life forced me." When asked about the "friend of Irene" , Xiantai said: "He is a member of the underworld. He only gave me instructions by public phone and never showed his face." The main mission of the three private detectives, Larry Frost, Leth Levine and Sissy McNair, was to find the people who saw Xiantai and Kenny on July 5th, so as to provide information on the situation in Erin. During the period of Suleman's disappearance, the evidence of the two Kaimes' alibi.Xian Tai made a long list and asked the detectives to go to hotels, restaurants and bars in Manhattan to check them one by one.Detectives believe that people should not be identified by police warrants or photos in newspapers, otherwise they may confuse people and make wrong judgments.Therefore, in order to arouse people's memory, sometimes the female detective Sissy dresses up like Xian Tai, and acts together with Larry who is dressed like Kenny.Sometimes Sissy pretended that her aunt had dinner here on Sunday, July 5th, and later she found something missing and asked her to come back to look for it, and asked if anyone had seen a 60-year-old dressed like this that day woman and a young man in his 20s. Sissy McNair has been working on the case for more than two years, and every time she meets Xiantai, she will get a new list.Xixi later described this experience as: "Xiantai made me walk into dead ends again and again. Finding witnesses for her is like finding a needle in a haystack. The key is that there is no needle in the sea at all." For example, Xiantai said that in a hotel restaurant, a Russian waitress received them at lunch on July 5th. "She must remember us," Xian Tai insisted, "because we praised her hair style to make her happy, and then gave her an extra tip." As a result, the restaurant manager said that they didn't have Miss Russia at all in July, and he Even took out the salary list to testify.When the detectives told Xian Tai the news, she said without hesitation: "The police have messed up. They won't let her meet with you." Another example is a Mexican lady named Luisa in a coffee shop. "She receives us every time we go. We ordered coffee and apple pie on July 5th. She must remember, and she knows us." Yes, yes With someone like Lu Yisha, she also remembered Xiantai and Kenny. "But we never open on Sundays, never!" the coffee shop manager testified for Luisa. After struggling like this for a year, no witness could be found to testify about the whereabouts of Xiantai and Kenny on July 5, 1998.Leth Levine said that until now he did not believe that everything Xian Tai said was a lie. In December 1999, a few days before the preliminary hearing, a bartender who claimed to be from the Palace Hotel suddenly came to the door and said that he had seen Xiantai and Kenny on the afternoon of July 5th of the previous year.Lawyers videotaped him on the spot, but it was never brought to court because the man's testimony was too flawed.He provided some very detailed details of events that occurred 18 months ago, which inevitably cast doubt on his extraordinary memory.What is even more suspicious is that just before this witness showed up, a young woman went to the lawyers' office and handed them a note written by Xiantai, asking them to pay the visitor $200.When the lawyers questioned Xiantai about this matter, she rambled and confused, and finally failed to give a convincing explanation.Xiantai's lawyers were even unwilling to let the prosecution know about it, because if that "witness" appeared in court, he would definitely show his feet during the cross-examination and make the defendant self-defeating. Xiantai and Kenny also wrote down a long list of phone numbers and addresses of "acquaintances and friends", saying that they could also testify for Xiantai on certain issues.But when the lawyers and detectives dialed the number, many people immediately hung up the phone when they heard it was about Xiantai. Xian Tai is a very difficult woman, she always hopes that everyone around her will circle around her.She could call the lawyer more than a dozen times a day, each time for tens of minutes or even hours, which aroused the dissatisfaction of other prisoners in the prison. The prison had to prohibit her from using the phone for several days as a punishment.She also never distinguishes between day and night, and if she loses sleep one night during holiday weekends, her lawyers deserve it.Later, the lawyers had to threaten to resign and make a new contract with her for three chapters. Xian Tai is also a subjective and assertive person who pretends to be smart but has no self-knowledge. Her usual style is to make others listen to her, and her defense team is no exception.She often rejected the lawyers' various suggestions, and even Kenny stood on her opposite side several times.But as long as it is something Xiantai is sure about, no one can change her. Generally speaking, in a lawsuit, the client only needs to make a decision on the following issues: 1. whether to admit "guilty"; Whether to testify in court, and independently accept cross-examination by the prosecution without the help of a lawyer.Other strategic issues and defense techniques, etc. should be left to the lawyer. As the date of the trial draws closer, and the defendant has not yet collected enough evidence, Xiantai, regardless of the repeated dissuasion of the lawyers, must tell her "story" to the press.The reason is that if she doesn't speak out, people will only know what the police say.Lawyers have heard too many "stories" of Xiantai, know what she will say, and know what the final result will be.Later, the two parties finally reached an agreement. If Xiantai must "appear" to the public, her lawyer or detective must be present in every interview, so as to prevent Xiantai from talking too much nonsense, or answer some reporters' questions with ignorance. Because of the problem of traps, he was caught by the prosecution. For example, in an interview on the CBS TV talk show "60 Minutes", when the host asked why Xiantai had several different birthdays, the present detective Leth Levin immediately answered for Xiantai: "Some Just because someone has more than one social security number doesn't mean he's a criminal." The host then said to the two Kemes, "It seems you two are in serious trouble." Kenny replied, "Actually, we I don’t want to do this either.” The host immediately asked: “How did you get to this point?” The lawyers immediately instructed Xiantai and Kenny not to answer this question.At the end of the interview, the host said to Kenny: "I saw your grades in college, and all other subjects were almost B and C, but you got an A in drama performance." A lawyer hurriedly shouted: " Stop, stop, you can't ask such a question." The British international TV network company paid them 7,000 US dollars after an exclusive interview with Xiantai and her son.Xiantai asked the show producer to use the money to buy some clothes for her and Kenny.She paid special attention to asking the store to replace all the "16" labels on her clothes with "12" after ordering the clothes.Later, Xiantai and Kenny wore these clothes on the "60 Minutes" program and appeared in court. Xian Tai is very tired of the photos taken by the police after her arrest, and she hopes to take another photo before the trial.The prison authorities sent someone to do her hair, and specially invited the photographer to the library on the 12th floor according to her request "don't look like a prison".The photographer brought cosmetics, combs, glasses, scarves, gloves and some small props and decorations.Before leaving, Xiantai's old illness relapsed and tried to steal cosmetics and scarves, but was discovered by the prison.