01x01 - The Fever

[bunniefuu]

This animal's got enough venom
to drop an 8,000-pound elephant.

[snake hissing]

[hissing]

[hissing continues]

I have to free a hand.

[snake hissing]

-[muttering indistinctly]
-[hissing loudly]

-I hope you got that.
-[Eric Goode] Jesus.

Yeah, I think you can
put him back.

[hissing]

Go back in your box.
We're good, okay?

-[hissing]
-Oh!

[Eric] How many people
do this, Al?

-Nobody.
-[Eric] Nobody.

[laughing]

[Eric]
Are you rolling the dice?

I'm not rolling the dice.
I know what the hell I'm doing.

[laughing]

{\an8}[line ringing]

{\an8}Hey, Tommy, this is Eric Goode.

{\an8}I'm calling 'cause I'm
in your neighborhood.

{\an8}I would love to come by,
you know,

{\an8}if you're okay with it, I--
I'd like to film a little bit.

{\an8}I know this is
very short notice.

{\an8}[Tom Crutchfield on phone]

[line ringing]

I'd like to interview you
for a film project

about the reptile world
going back half a century.

-Hi.
-I'm Eric.

-Tom Crutchfield.
-[Ken McCloud] Hi, Eric.

Come on in.

[Eric]
Tell me about reptile people.

[Joe Wasilewski]
Reptile people are
a breed of their own.

This is you.

You're my little girl,
but you're nothing but trouble.

Are you mad at him 'cause
he got you pregnant, huh?

[Mark] About the first
nine months of his life,

he slept in bed with me.

{\an8}Poor little guy, he's sleepy.

[Otter]
She is my favorite.

-And she has--
-[bird squawking loudly]

Stop! Remarkably good,
uh, disposition.

-[Tom] Pull it out.
-[crew] I'm pulling.

-I'm pulling.
-Put it there.

[Fred] Look at that, huh?

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[pig grunting]

{\an8}[water running lightly]

{\an8}Hey, Bill.
He's so happy.

{\an8}Monitor lizards are very,
very intelligent lizards,

but you don't wanna get bit.

Not ever.

The teeth could k*ll you.

If it bit you on the arm
or the leg, you could bleed out.

-But you know what?
-[chomping]

They know the difference
in your hand and food.

Now, my hand smells
like that chicken.

Watch it, watch it, watch it.
Come here, bud.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

See?

{\an8}See him get interested?

He's thinking, see?

He's seeing the world
through his tongue.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

[Tom] Well, you know,
we treat 'em well.

They're allowed to be a lizard.

{\an8}[Eric] This story, for me,
is deeply personal.

{\an8}[spitting]

{\an8}-[laughter]
-It's, uh, it's shedding.

I've been keeping reptiles
since I was six years old.

I bought reptiles
from sketchy dealers.

I was part of the problem.

But this gave me access
to a world that's hidden

-from most people.
-You got it?

[snake hissing]

{\an8}[Eric] It's an industry
created by smugglers,

international crime syndicates,
and even the big American zoos.

[reporter 1] The sting operation
lasted 18 months,

and 200 agents
began making arrests today.

[reporter 2] Wildlife smuggling
is big business,

worth around $160 billion.

[Eric] This industry has changed
the face of the natural world.

{\an8}There's an invasion
going on in Florida.

The animals have been traced
back to the exotic pet trade.

[man shouting indistinctly]

[homeowner] I just peed.
Baby, I just peed!

[sobbing] Oh, my God!

[people screaming]

[reporter]
Booming ill*gal animal trade.

Entire species
vanish every year.

[speaker] Sooner or later,
it's inevitable.

Like so many other species,
it's gonna disappear.

[door opens]

[Eric] And it largely started
with two men.

{\an8}Well, I mean, Hank Molt
always has been a lowlife.

{\an8}He has no morals of any kind.

{\an8}There is-- there is such a thing
as honor among thieves.

{\an8}-[Eric] Right.
-And he certainly
doesn't have it.

{\an8}He is a sorry excuse
for a human being.

{\an8}He didn't like me because
I was like competition to him.

I was the guy
that was just as smart as him,

if not smarter.

He'll turn anything good
into bad real quick.

He's a terrible
human being, really.

[Eric] Any reaction to that?

No, that's just Tom Crutchfield.

I could care less
what he says about me.

Means nothing to me.

[Tom]
You stop that, Roscoe.

[lizard hisses]

Stop biting. What?

[chuckles]

[Hank Molt] Tommy Crutchfield
and I have a lot of baggage.

We had many ups and downs
over the years we did business.

I think Tom is one
of the angriest

and most bitter people
I've ever met in my life.

[Tom] Roscoe.
Roscoe, hey, come here.

-Come here.
-[Eric] Careful.

Oh, sh*t, he's already
cut me big time.

-I know.
-All the way across my arm.

-[crew] Do I need a, um...
-Yeah, bring me a napkin.

Hurry, 'cause it's blood.

He pushed off on me.
He didn't mean to,

but you know,
we don't trim the claws.

[crew] Does this happen
to Tom a lot?

-Alright.
-Every day.

If I get scratched
by something, yes.

[crew] So, every day.

He's more like a dog with scales
than he is a...

He's better behaved
than most dogs.

{\an8}-Roscoe.
-[Eric] Alright, so tell me
when you're ready.

{\an8}-I'm ready.
-[Eric] So, Tommy.

{\an8}-Mm-hmm?
-Who are the bad guys
in this story?

I-- certainly, I was probably
the chief bad guy,

like Public Enemy Number One.

John Dillinger,
Bonnie and Clyde,

all, like, wrapped up in one.

I was born in the small town
of Marianna, Florida.

The Florida panhandle
was like going back in time.

People still had
horse and buggies.

We literally had no money.
I mean, I helped hunt for food.

We grew a lot of our own crops.
Everyone was poor.

But my life was changed when
I was about five years old,

because I turned over a rock,
and underneath that rock...

{\an8}was a shiny black snake

{\an8}with an orange ring
around the head.

{\an8}It was a ringed-necked snake.

From that point on,
all I wanted to do

is work with reptiles
in some way.

What I didn't know
was how to do it exactly.

Snake-A-Torium
wasn't too far from me

on Panama City Beach, Florida.

Because they used
cottonmouths for the shows,

the manager paid


Once I became 16,

I would go snake hunting
all over the place,

and on a good night
in the dry season,

I could catch


I was one of the wealthiest
kids in high school.

[Penny Crutchfield] He became
a guide and a snake milker

at Snake-A-Torium,

{\an8}and he was just a lot of fun.

{\an8}[Tom]
Penny was the cashier,

and she was pretty
nice-looking.

We started dating and, um,

fell in love and got married.

[Tom] The wedding reception
was actually at Snake-A-Torium.

[reporter]
A pet is a domesticated animal

kept to be f*ndled
or played with.

Well, the fondling properties
of many of these

may be heatedly debated.

[Tom] Early on
in the reptile business,

there were
no really rare reptiles,

in the US, anyway.

Mostly what they sold

were inexpensive
pet store-type animals.

{\an8}But it really started
to change with Hank Molt.

And he ran a business called
Philadelphia Reptile Exchange.

[Hank] Around 1966,
I put out my first price list,

and I really worked hard to get
rare and interesting reptiles.

I mailed 30, 40 things
around to zoo dealers.

That's how I got started.

[Tom] When I first
looked at Hank Molt's list,

I couldn't believe it.

You could actually buy something

that you had never seen before,

and you'd read about
and only dreamed to have.

[insects chirring]

Getting that list in the mail
was like Christmas time.

[♪ light easygoing music
playing]

And I thought, I want to buy
and sell reptiles.

[Eric] How would you
describe Hank Molt?

Hank Molt
was like a tall weasel,

kinda shifty character.

Like, you would spot him if you
were looking for creepy people.

Early on, Tom really liked
Hank Molt

and looked up to him.

But we had no idea
what a snake he was.

[Hank] The reptile world in
those days was like a circus.

We had customers
that would come to the shop
that would buy a snake

instead of make their
child support payment.

There were guys that would come
and trade g*ns for snakes.

There were guys that would
see a picture on my price list

and get a tattoo of
the rattlesnake head on there

and show it to me the next day.

I enjoyed the spectacle of it.

I knew a lot about reptiles.

I could hold my own
with any zoo guy

anywhere in North America.

But some places
you were just a smuggler

because it was
a smuggler's den.

You had to be one
of the bad guys.

I was a bit of a paradox
in those days.

An enigma, for sure.

A man of mystery
somewhat by design,

somewhat by default.

There was always a mystery
of what-- "What's Hank about?

What-- what is his deal?"

Hank Molt led
a compartmentalized life always,

simultaneously parallel.

Like two lives at the same time.

They were all separate,
and it was just like

going from room to room for me.

I mean, I could switch
like a chameleon.

I would just transform
instantly.

Turn on one switch
and turn off the other.

As a young kid growing up,
I was obsessed with reptiles.

I never thought about
selling 'em for money.

I want-- I wanted to have them.

Once I got out of college,
I got this job

at Kraft Foods, I hated it.

[announcer] New Kraft mayonnaise
has lemon juice in it!

[Hank]
I had to wear a suit and tie.

Talking about
mayonnaise and cheese,

and who cared, you know.

{\an8}So, all I could think of
was how am I gonna
get out of this job?

Started getting a few snakes.

I built out my collection
as best I could,

but I wanted something
no one had.

I'd read magazines
and see these exotic places,

and I lusted
after these animals,

truly lusted after them.

I started writing letters
overseas

looking for reptiles.

I'd come home every night
and I'd write letters

all over the world.

I'd see a picture
in National Geographic

of an anaconda,

and I'd write letters
to these people.

[typewriter clacking]

You gotta send letters
to obscure little places

and just dig
and scratch so hard.

And you'd send 30 letters
and get two answers.

-But never give up.
-[typewriter dings]

I started to accumulate
some very significant animals

from these people.

Kraft Foods sent me
to a convention

in Chicago for a few days.

I was flying home, I sat next
to a guy who worked for IBM.

He said, "What do you do
for a living?"

And I said,
"I collect reptiles for zoos.

I go all around the world."
Which was bullshit.

But three weeks later,
I quit my job

and I bought a little pet shop
in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

So, I got rid of all the dogs,
all the cats,

all the tropical fish,
birds, everything.

Just turned it
into a reptile shop.

I put out my first price list
and sent it around to zoos.

And I put crazy prices on it.

A few days after I did it,
my phone rang off the hook.

{\an8}Until the 1960s, a lot of zoos

{\an8}didn't have reptile collections.

But around the time Hank Molt
sent that published list,

most major zoos had caught on
to the fact that reptiles

are popular with the public.

They started
exhibiting reptiles.

[Hank] There were seven
or eight new reptile houses

coming online.

A lot of budget
going into that.

And that was just like
taking candy from a baby.

[reporter]
Attendance has been tremendous,

and this is a valuable source
of revenue for the zoo.

[Dr. Patrick Burchfield]
If I'm setting up
a reptile house,

I want each exhibit
to be unique and different.

The more species
you have in collection,

the better status
your institution had.

♪ Mama, she always told me
it would happen ♪

♪ She never said
that it would happen... ♪

{\an8}Reptile houses generally

{\an8}are the most visited
buildings in zoos.

{\an8}There were certain holy grails,
animals that everyone wanted,

some impossible
to get a hold of.

[Hank] Curators knew what
would make their zoo look good.

The list just grew, grew, grew.

♪ You got to me,
brought me to my knees ♪

[Hank] And I began to search
the world for exotic reptiles.

♪ Girl, you got to me,
you got to my soul ♪

[Hank] Looking for snakes
in the jungle,

catching whatever I could find.

♪ You got to me,
you got to be mine ♪

[Hank] We carried a g*n
with us and a machete.

The g*n to sh**t someone,

the machete to cut off
our finger

if we got bit by a taipan.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

Maybe 20.

♪ Used to slip through every
girl's hands like water ♪

[Hank] I flew from Madagascar
with suitcases full

of Madagascar tree boas.

Two or three weeks
of collecting around Australia,

getting frilled dragons,
amethystine pythons,

blackheads,
two suitcases full of stuff.

And that was a big deal.

These were things
no one had ever seen before.

[♪ "You Got to Me" by
Neil Diamond continues playing]

♪ You brought me
to my knees ♪

♪ Never thought
I'd say please, girl ♪

♪ You got to me,
you got to my soul ♪

♪ You got to me,
you got control ♪

♪ You got to me, you got to me,
you got to be mine ♪

[Hank]
The zoos would pay crazy prices

and they were all very
competitive with each other,

so I was able to exploit that.

We got five baby
Philippine crocs from Hank Molt.

[Hank]
A thousand dollars each.

[Patrick]
We'd buy a lot of our animals

right off his price list.

{\an8}[Hank] Dallas zoo, I sent him
a D'Albert's Python,

{\an8}He'd say,
"Oh man, the labial pits!

The labial pits!"
He just freaked on that.

A $7,500 snake.

I remember going
to the Bronx Zoo
delivering reptiles,

and I always went to
the reptile house,
and I remember

seeing about an eight
or nine-year-old kid there.

And this kid
was gonna see things

that in my lifetime
I never dreamed I could see

and he could go see and touch.

And I thought, wow,
that-- that's a big deal.

So, I brought the first
of these snakes

in the United States.

And at that time,
zoos just snapped 'em right up.

Wildlife regulations
weren't that hard

to get around in those days.
You get 'em in an airplane,

they wouldn't even look
in your handbag

or your suitcase,
whatever you came on.

In the late '60s,
the world changed

because there was this great
green environmental movement.

A whole new culture came.

[protesters] Save our Earth!
Save our Earth!

A unique day
in American history, Earth Day.

{\an8}Suddenly,
a consciousness developed

{\an8}about the global picture
of wildlife.

[protesters shouting
indistinctly]

[John Webb] It was
the environmental movement

that resulted in the enactment

of a very, very powerful law
in 1973,

the Endangered Species Act.

All of a sudden,
what could be done

with wildlife changed
rather dramatically.

[Bruce Weissgold] Unfortunately,
when a species is protected,

{\an8}it becomes much more rare.

{\an8}All of a sudden,
it's worth a lot of money.

And that creates an incentive

and an opportunity
for traffickers.

[Hank] The laws made it
more challenging,

but it also made
the stuff more valuable.

Pretty much name your price.

[Bryan Christy] Hank Molt
was going around the world

grabbing these
very endangered animals,

{\an8}bringing them back
and selling them to zoos.

{\an8}Zoo curators were driving
smuggling around the world.

Hank Molt would be nobody
without the American zoos.

[Frank Indiviglio]
Zoos have to make money.

If you could bring in something
that was not seen before,

there might have been
a-- a kind of blind eye,

"don't ask, don't tell,"
attitude.

It creates an opportunity
for people like Hank

to profit off of them.

{\an8}[Tom] One of the animals
that we're going to have
on exhibit here

{\an8}is a king cobra,
which is the largest

{\an8}and most dangerous
poisonous snake in the world,

the bite of which, you know,
has even been known
to k*ll an elephant.

-[snake hissing]
-As I got older,

I worked for places
that had reptiles,

and I learned how to do shows.

Was wrestling alligators
and milking venomous snakes

for the public, you know.

Now, how deadly
is this king cobra?

Well, uh, you would
certainly die.

I started to sell
a few things on the side,

and it got so big, so quick.

That's how it began.

[Penny] Tommy realized
that he could make a living

selling and buying reptiles,

so he went full-time
into the reptile business.

He had a small shop

called Tom Crutchfield's
Reptile Enterprises.

[Hank]
When I was already a dealer,

Tommy was a kid collector,

he's a few years
younger than me.

He was a hot-headed
little South Florida guy,

and he just was starting
his business up.

[Tom] I met Hank Molt,
he had gotten in

some Trans-Pecos rat snakes,

which I had never seen.

A lot of adjectives
you could use for him,

uh, none of them are normal.

At the time, I had a huge
amount of respect for him.

He had an adventurous,
cool life.

He was getting
the rarest stuff on the planet.

Every single week, he went
some weird place in the world,

and he did some weird thing
with animal

or with weird people.

I wanted to do all of that,
I wanted the adventure.

The adventure called me.

[Hank]
This kid was so excited.

And Tom rose pretty fast
in the reptile business.

He was a real go-getter.

He started getting
some good stuff.

[Tom] I did business with Hank,
and I took trips

to the Caribbean
and brought stuff back,

traded animals to him
for other animals.

Even though it was ill*gal,
it was crazy, it was fun.

[Penny]
I hate to admit it, but Tom

used to send me to Haiti
to get Rhino iguanas.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

{\an8}[laughing]

{\an8}Yeah.

Well, I didn't get busted.

He would've had to come
pay my way out of jail.

Tom had a reputation

as being able to get
unobtainable things.

So, we put out a price list,

and then it really
went off the hook.

My price list started
by seeing Hank's list.

I readily admit,
and always have admitted

that I patterned
my price list after his,

but I wanted to make it better.

And, uh, I did.

Oh, he just jumped off,
that's all.

[Hank] When Tommy came up
with a price list...

I thought, "Well, so what?"

Tom would buy from me, pay me
good money for that stuff.

So, I made a lot of money
from Tom.

But we were so different,
we could never be friends.

[Eric]
Do you have friends?

I have mostly associates.

But there was a time
when I had a big posse of guys.

Every Saturday afternoon,

my reptile shop
was a meeting place.

And they would come
and buy snakes,

and I'd give 'em
skins and skulls.

Guys with spider web tattoos
on their face,

dagger teeth cut down,
skulls on their tongue.

We'd go in a bar at night,


We got in fights
with hillbillies

and beat the sh*t out of 'em.

Motorcycle guys,
martial arts guys,

military guys,
guys who could put

an absolute badass hurting
on you.

-[Eric] So, you had muscle.
-[Hank] Serious muscle.

Terry Cullen,
you ever hear of him?

-[Eric] He was a crocodile guy.
-Crocodile guy.

-I know exactly who he was.
-Loved me.

Personal bodyguard
for Neil Diamond.

Warlock motorcycle
g*ng guys would come,

and people of disrepute
amongst greater society.

And I enjoyed those people.
We were reptile guys.

And we were rogues,
and we loved roguery.

We weren't football stars
or nothing like that.

Just little guys
doing our thing.

And I was the king.

I was the guy.
And they loved me.

[Marie Palladini] When I first
got hired by Fish and Wildlife,

I had heard about Hank Molt.

{\an8}He was the godfather
of reptile smuggling,

{\an8}and he basically
taught a lot of people

{\an8}how to do things, and then
stabbed 'em in the back.

So, as part of his enterprise,
Hank Molt would recruit couriers

to bring reptiles
into the United States.

He would befriend somebody

that was interested
in reptiles,

and he would say,
"Hey, how would you
like to go to Australia?"

Or, "How would you like
to go to New Guinea?"

To have a successful smuggling
operation for reptiles,

you need to have
big-time reptile guys.

They had what we called
the minerals.

You have to have the minerals.

-[locks clicking]
-There were people who were
just perfectly suited to do this

by their nature
and their inclination

and their direction in life.

{\an8}[bed whirring]

[Hank]
Ed Celebucki was a prison guard

at a real rough prison.

He was an orphan as a kid,
got beat up all the time.

A karate instructor
took him into his home

and raised him as a karate guy.

[grunting]

Ultimate Karate Studio.

[all shouting]

On Saturday nights, he'd put
all the karate stuff away,

got out tables and chairs,
hired a DJ...

and he turned it
into a sex club.

{\an8}-[glasses clinking]
-[♪ sultry music playing]

{\an8}Couples would meet up
with each other

{\an8}and they had these little rooms
with curtains on 'em.

He'd go to Sam's Club
and get roast beef, and shrimp,

and lobsters, and drinks.

[♪ sultry music
continues playing]

[Hank] Ed Celebucki
was a world-class smuggler.

[speaker] Hyah!

And he had the intrinsic
minerals to do this job.

{\an8}Steve Levy
was a college student,

{\an8}private reptile enthusiast.

{\an8}I wrote him a letter.

Told him, "I've been into
reptiles my whole life.

Do you need any help?"

He very promptly
wrote me back.

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

That actually might be
in the possession

of the U.S. Attorney's Office
in Philadelphia.

[Hank] He begged me
if he could go on these trips

to get all these reptiles.

And he wanted to be
part of the myth that I was.

And they were like my minions,

and we would just blaze
the path wherever we went.

Hank Molt had a very
sophisticated operation

for smuggling reptiles.

[Hank] As a smuggler,
I'd have to adapt

to every situation I was in.

Each one called
for a new persona,

maybe even a costume.

I'm Captain Hank Molt,

and I specialize in transporting
wildlife all over the world.

I'm Hank Molt,
and I'm curator of reptiles

at the San Diego Zoo.

We got so good,
we believed it ourselves.

[Marie] He could meet
with a hierarchy

in these foreign countries
to be able to get the permits,

get the wildlife
that he needed for his zoo.

[Hank] In Papua New Guinea,
Ed Celebucki and I

created a nonprofit
organization

called Herpetological
Research Associates.

We had gotten permits
from the government.

Ed gave a speech
in front of Parliament.

He toured the jails,
he gave karate lessons
to the jailkeepers.

[Hank] We flew to Fiji, hung out
at a hotel for a day or two.

[Steve Levy] At some point,
I had 40 iguanas

and 50 boas.

Hank was just kinda waltzing
through it to obtain reptiles,

get them back to the US,

and put them on his list.

[Marie] He had contacts
all over the world,

people that could
help facilitate

the actual transfer
of the animals.

[Hank] I would meet dealers
in places like Bangkok,

even when the Vietnam w*r
was still going on.

[Steve]
It was my...

second time getting laid.

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Marie]
He would do surveillance

on different airports
throughout the world.

[Hank] Studied that stuff
in intimate detail

to know the soft spots.

Get off the plane
and you walk

that last hundred yards
through that tunnel.

You don't look up,
you don't look down.

[Hank]
Walk right through.

Celebucki had a suitcase
with $70,000 worth
of ringed pythons in there.

Whole trip cost six grand.

[Marie]
Hank actually trained Ed,

and then Ed realized
that Hank

wasn't quite
sharing the profits,

because once the animals
were smuggled

into the United States,

Hank would put 'em
on his price list,

Ed would get some of them,

and then Hank would get
the majority of the money.

{\an8}[Ed Celebucki speaking]

{\an8}[Eric speaking]

[Hank] Ed Celebucki branched out
from me, went on his own.

And that was it.

In 1974, I was a little low
on money at that time,

and I met this Eddie Allen guy
who was a stockbroker.

[Steve] He and Hank
struck up a conversation

while standing
in the same line at a bank.

Ed was looking to do
something adventurous,

and Hank was looking
for someone

who had a little bit of moolah.

[Hank] Pretty rich guy,
had a big house

in a suburb of Philadelphia.

He had a big basement.

[Steve]
Pillar of the community.

He played
for the Chicago Bears.

He was into hot air ballooning.

[reporter] Ed Allen has taught
the parachute art

to his son, Eddie Jr.

Just a gem of a guy.

[Hank] Eddie Allen
wasn't interested in reptiles.

He just wanted to travel
to places he had never been,

off the beaten path,
living in the jungle.

I could give him all that.

We have a big,
ambitious project.

Twelve countries, two months,
trip around the world.

I went with Eddie Allen
and Steve Levy.

We got more stuff
than we ever got

on all the previous trips
combined.

And we put everything together

in two or three
humongous big boxes.

[Steve] I think there were
roughly 450 animals

valued at $60,000.

I picked up the shipment
at JFK,

filled out the paperwork,

and, bada-bing, that was it.

[Hank] I thought
it was a huge success,

but unbeknownst to us
at the time,

there was
a Fish and Wildlife agent

at the New York airport,
got suspicious somehow.

He thought this was a very
unusually large shipment

of reptiles, and it was.

[Joseph O'Kane] Well, this is
simply the customs form

{\an8}on the wildlife case,

{\an8}commonly known
as the Hank Molt smuggling case.

{\an8}My then partner,
John Friedrich, and myself

{\an8}were trying to end the day
prior to the Christmas vacation

{\an8}by finding something
easy to do

{\an8}and get home
a little bit early.

I had a referral sent to me
from a friend of mine saying,

"You might wanna look
into this outfit

"called Philadelphia
Reptile Exchange.

They're importing snakes."

And I thought, "What do I care
about people importing snakes?"

-[snake hissing]
-[Hank] I'm at my reptile shop,

bom-bom-bom,
knock at the door.

There's two guys
in suits and ties.

So I'm like, "Holy sh*t,
this is not good."

[Joseph] We asked him
if he had brought anything in

from any foreign countries
lately, and he said no.

And I said, "Well, do you
have your records here

to show us
when you have imported things?"

[Hank] I said, "I'll come down
to Customs' house in a week

and I'll bring you
all my papers,"

which I had
no intention of doing.

[John Friedrich] When we left
the store, we said,

{\an8}"Wow, something's wrong
with this guy.

{\an8}He's not being truthful."

{\an8}I mean, he was slick.
He was a slickster.

[Joseph] And I said,
"John, what do you think?"

And he said,
"That son of a b*tch is lying."

[Hank] So, I called
Eddie Allen and Steve Levy,

and I said,
"These customs guys were here.

"We all gotta come to the shop
and figure out what
we're gonna do.

"We can't leave
some of this stuff here.

We have to hide,
like, Fiji iguanas
and stuff like that."

And Allen was, like, panicking.

-[car door closes]
-[engine starting]

Eddie Allen said,
"I'll take it to my house."

We load it in the back
of his car,

and he said,
"We'll talk in a day or two."

I didn't know what he had done
with the reptiles at the time.

We started doing research
on all of these characters,

and we found out
about the people

who traveled around
with Hank Molt.

Edward B. Allen
and Steven Levy.

So, then we went to Mr. Allen.

He lived in a very,
very beautiful home.

Edward Allen
was an all-around hero,

and I would have liked him
as a friend, I'm sure.

But he broke the law.

Eddie Allen,
not being a reptile guy,

they confronted him,
and he rolled over immediately.

And he said, "I made a mistake,"
and I said, "Yes, you did."

I said,
"But we're gonna get it right."

And so, he told us
where the reptiles were.

[reporter] 2,250 square miles
of near wilderness,

right smack dab in the heart

of the most densely
populated part of the country.

[Joseph] Edward Allen
drove us into the Pine Barrens.

He directed us down dirt roads
with no signs, no names.

He-- he was good at that.
He was a big game hunter.

He-- he understood the woods.

He took us along
the side of this path...

and we commenced to dig.

[♪ suspenseful music playing]

[camera clicking]

[camera clicking]

Mr. Allen
told us his part of the plot,

where they went
and what they did.

[Steve]
Ed Allen, he had a lot to lose,

{\an8}and he had had enough
of Hank Molt.

{\an8}So, he thought that
the best thing to do

would be to take
those ill*gal animals...

and be done with it.

Ed took them to the Pine Barrens
and buried them.

[John Friedrich] They buried
these animals alive.

It was a lot of animals.

It was one of the cruelest
things I've ever seen.

I-- I can't imagine
how those animals suffered.

[Joseph] When we got them
all laid out straight,

it probably was 40
or 50 yards worth of stuff

laying out there.

In fact, it's on the cover
of the Customs magazine.

[♪ somber music playing]

When I learned how rare
some of the things were,

I said,
"You just can't do this."

This was a vital resource
that these guys were pillaging.

I don't care if it
was a billion dollars

or a hundred dollars,
it's a crime.

[Hank]
I was indicted on 200 counts.

The US attorney said, "Look,

you're looking at


So, at first I was petrified
'cause I was expecting the axe

to fall at any time.

But my attorney
was pretty good.

We contested
everything they put at us.

Ultimately,
the judge sentenced me
to 90 days in jail.

Are you kidding me?
It-- it was almost like...

they got away with it.

All the felonies
against me were dropped.

I received no fine
because I had no assets.

Ed Allen was fined $10,000.

[John Friedrich]
When Molt got convicted,

that was the first time ever

anyone ever went to jail
for smuggling reptiles.

But the significant thing
about this

was that it just got
bigger and bigger as it went.

Is there a snake in the grass
in the snake business?

A report says some exotic snakes

at some of the nation's
most popular zoos

may have been smuggled
into this country.

[Joseph]
Hank Molt had connections

with quite a few zoos,

including the Philadelphia Zoo,

and the Dallas Zoo,
and the Memphis Zoo,

and the Cincinnati Zoo.

And the San Diego Zoo,
and the Houston Zoo,

and the Bronx Zoo,
and the National Zoo
in Washington.

[Joseph]
There was no doubt in my mind

that these people knew
exactly what was going on.

But the minute we went after
the National Zoo

in Washington, DC,
all hell broke loose.

[reporter] One of the zoos
alleged to be involved
in the probe

is Washington's National Zoo,

a part of the Smithsonian
Institution.

[John Friedrich]
They told us, "Do you realize

"how many congressmen

"are on the boards
of these zoos?

And you think we're gonna
prosecute 'em?"

Yeah, yeah, I did.

How stupid of me, I'm sorry.

They couldn't
just charge one zoo,

they had to charge 'em all
or nothing.

But that would have been meaning
charging the National Zoo,

which is part of
the federal government.

Not one charge was brought
against any zoo in this case.

[faint squawking]

[g*nf*re]

[birds squawking]

I'm Dave Hall, special agent

with the US Fish
and Wildlife Service.

There's a serious problem with
the ill*gal k*ll on waterfowl.

[bird honking]

[Bruce]
In the early and mid '70s,

the Fish and Wildlife agents,
by and large,

were not taken very seriously.

The typical agent
was referred to

in a derogatory way
as a "duck cop."

I am gonna issue you a citation
for not having your duck stamps.

You gotta have those.

[Bruce] They were the warden
who arrested you

if you shot eight ducks

when you were only allowed
to sh**t two.

When Hank Molt
was charged with a crime,

the agency had been going
through a transition

from the "duck cop"
to criminal investigator.

[agent]
Put your hands on your head!

-Who?
-You!

All of a sudden,
the Fish and Wildlife Service

is no longer going out to check
people's hunting licenses.

They're also looking
at wildlife smugglers.

[g*nshots]

[Marie] We set up our own
prosecution division.

Good morning.

Because prior to that,
the US attorney

would look at me and say,
"Why do we care about snakes?"

Wildlife crimes have not been
considered wrong by society.

How do we create a deterrent?

We first must
apprehend violators

who are having the greatest
impact on the resource.

[agent] You're under arrest
for violation of federal
wildlife laws.

[suspect] Aw, man,
look at this [bleep], huh?

[John Webb] Hank Molt opened
up everybody's eyes

about what necessary changes
had to be made.

But the concern everybody had
is that maybe somebody else

would follow
in that person's footsteps.

[Bryan] The zoos aren't done
wanting the things

that Hank was bringing in.

And they start using
Tommy Crutchfield.

[light splashing]

[Tom] Zoo curators
all over this country

all did business with Hank Molt

until he was arrested,

and then they turned on him.

[children chattering]

[Tom] I had met
the curator of reptiles

{\an8}at the San Diego Zoo,
Tom Schultz.

{\an8}Zoos paid a lot of money
for the right reptiles,

{\an8}and if Tom needed anything,
I was happy to get it.

These zoos would pay hundreds
of thousands of dollars a year

for the right animals.

They didn't really care
how you got 'em.

In some cases, asking me
to acquire a certain animal

that would require getting it
in an ill*gal fashion.

There was this huge demand.

I mean, in terms of reptiles,
I couldn't get enough.

And I needed to find someone
willing to bend the rules
and take risks.

I visited a facility
that deals in reptile skins

in Southeast Asia.

The company was called
Exotic Skins and Alives.

And the guy who owned
the company

was a man
by the name of Anson Wong.

{\an8}Anson Wong is a reptile dealer
from Malaysia.

He's well-known
for trafficking in wildlife.

[Hank] And his original business
was reptile skins and hides

for shoes, leather goods,
bags, and all that.

And Anson had a far-flung
reptile criminal enterprise.

[Tom]
He took us to a restaurant

that when we walked into,
everybody shut up.

It was like when the gunfighter
walks into the saloon

and the music stops
and everybody gets quiet.

Everybody stopped
and looked at us.

Anson Wong would try to get you
whatever you really desired

if you asked him to do it,

and he had the ba*ls
to export it.

And he would simply mislabel it
or mix it with something else.

[people chattering indistinctly]

[Hank]
Tom and Anson Wong were doing

big business together,
big, big business.

They were each other's
main trading partner.

At that point, I was getting
the rarest stuff on the planet,

and certainly, the most
sought-after reptiles

in the world
came through my shop.

My business
became so big overnight.

It became like
the California Gold Rush.

[♪ rock music playing]

I sold ill*gal animals
to every zoo in this country.

[announcer]
The Bronx Zoo...

[Tom] The New York Geological
Society was a customer.

Fort Worth Zoo,
Gladys Porter Zoo, LA Zoo.

Good gracious alive, Michigan,
the big zoo in Detroit.

But whether they knew
they were ill*gal,

I can't say that for sure.

We began to do several million
dollars a year in sales.

[Penny] We would trade
reptiles for Rolexes.

[Tom] We had a his and hers,
charcoal gray Mercedes.

[Penny] We had everything,

but he always wanted more.

[Tom] I was a go-to man
for almost anything.

Supplied cobras
for Indiana Jones.

Why did it have to be snakes?

[Tom] The alligators
on the Johnny Carson show.

[audience laughing]

I sold some tortoises
to Michael Jackson.

♪ Whoo! ♪

[Vanessa Crutchfield]
My dad always had the biggest

and the best of the reptiles.

{\an8}When I went to the zoos,
I was always like,

{\an8}"We have that at home."

[fan]
He imported everything I loved.

-This dude--
-Well, not legally.

I don't care.

[clearing throat]

[Hank] Tom Crutchfield
became the big name

in the reptile industry.

He was kicked up
a couple notches by this stuff.

My world's gone,
what am I gonna do?

So, every three or four months,
I'd drive down to Crutchfield's

and I'd bring him this stuff.

Green tree monitors,
lace monitors, womas.

He'd give me $25,000 in cash,

and he would sell it
for $100,000 a few days later.

I mean, just it was crazy.

[Tom] After he got convicted,
he no longer had access

to sell the rare animals
like he did before.

But I did, and so he would sell
a lot of those animals

cut-rate to me
so that I would sell them.

[Hank]
He would have the customers,
and he had the glory.

He made a lot of money,
but he spent all the money.

He had a brand-new house,
and within a month it was trash.

Uneaten food,

and he rented movies,
never took 'em back.

Ate candy bars
and read muscle magazines

and the National Enquirer.

[grunting]

Look at that,
and he'd throw that away.

[grunting]
Eating like that.

One day, I stopped
using the word

Philadelphia Reptile Exchange,

and came up with the name
Herpetofauna International.

It said, "Raise high again
your expectations," you know,

and I had a snake coming out of
a termite mound in Australia.

Within a short time,
Tommy came up

with Herpetofauna Incorporated.

And I said, okay.

That's the day
I made a conscious decision.

Game's over.
New-- new guy on the street.

Certain animals
are very patient...

and they will wait for
their prey for a long time...

and then strike quickly.

I'm an eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth guy.

Two eyes and three teeth...

no matter if it takes
ten years.

[turn signal clicking]

[Dwayne Cunningham]
When you're driving a car

and you have to make a U-turn,
and people go,

"Hey, what are you,
some kind of clown?"

And I can just smile.

[Tom] I met Dwayne Cunningham,
who was a circus clown.

He had bought
some iguanas from me.

I needed a manager,

and I asked him,
was he interested?

{\an8}Absolutely.

{\an8}[chuckles] I definitely
would like to do that.

So, I headed down
to go to work for Tommy,

and I became overall manager.

When I got there,
Anson Wong was providing him

with exclusive animals.

At that time,
the rarest of the rare

{\an8}had become
the Fiji Island iguana.

{\an8}Fiji Island iguana
is reptile magic.

[Dwayne] Absolutely incredible,
beautiful animal.

Beautiful, beautiful.

[Hank] Lime green and pale blue
crossbands on the males.

It's got lemon highlights
on its lips.

It's got this beautiful eye.

It's got these long,
sharp nails.

They're magnificent creatures.

[Dwayne] You can't have 'em
in the United States,

so if they did come
in the United States,

they were like getting
the Mona Lisa.

They were like the thing I love
the most of all the reptiles,

which I love the most
of all the animals,

so it was a huge deal.

[Penny] We received 'em
from Anson Wong,

and Tom was so excited.

It was like a kid
opening a Christmas box.

Shredded paper
and all the packing

was going everywhere.

He set 'em up immediately

and fed 'em and watered 'em
and sprayed 'em,

and took care of them.

He was ecstatic.

[Dwayne] Tommy's business
was divided into two sides.

We had the retail side in which
anybody could walk in the door,

and then we had
the breeder side of the shop

where the ill*gal animals
were kept.

Well, I have to tell you
that my dad

didn't hide them shits at all.

He didn't hide those iguanas,
not one lick.

He sat them right in
the f*cking breeding section

and gave people tours
and was like,

"Hey, look at
the Fiji Island iguanas I got."

Mom was like, "Shut up, shut up,
shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Discretion is not
in Tom's vocabulary.

[Dwayne] Boom.
So-and-so is gonna go back

and tell so-and-so.

"You know, I was down
at Crutchfield's,

and I saw Fiji Island iguanas."

"What?
Fiji Island iguanas?

They're like one of the rarest
lizards in the world."

[whispering] "I know.
I saw them there. Magnificent."

-[phone ringing]
-So now, the word gets out.

And you have the animal cops.

Their job is to hunt
the whispers.

[Bruce] Fiji Island iguanas
kinda set off signal flares.

There was no known
legal population of them

in the commercial reptile trade.

Either this came out of a zoo,
or it came out of a suitcase.

[Tom] It was like
the forbidden fruit.

You can look at it,
but you can't f*cking eat it.

You can't sell it,
because if you do,

it's gonna come back to you.

And I can't turn 'em in either

because I'm gonna
be fined civilly.

So then,
you're either keeping it

and trying to pass it by
as legal,

or k*ll it.

I couldn't bring myself
to k*ll 'em.

I just couldn't.

I just couldn't.

Tommy is wondering
what to do with these animals.

How can you laundry 'em?

Where are there
other Fiji Island iguanas?

[bird squawking loudly]

[people chattering]

[zookeeper]
The Fiji Island iguana
is an endangered species,

and we're very fortunate
here at the zoo

that we actually have bred them
and raised up

a couple of their young.

[Dwayne] There was only
one place in the country

that had Fiji Island iguanas

and who had already
successfully bred 'em,

San Diego Zoo.

[Tom] I called
the curator of reptiles

at the San Diego Zoo,
Tom Schultz,

and he goes, "Well, what are
you gonna do with these?"

And I said, "What about
if I send 'em to you?"

[Penny] Tom thought
that he would be able

to incorporate 'em
into the breeding program.

And who would know?

[Tom] They had them
for probably six months,

and some of the other employees
asked questions

about where they came from,
and Tom Schultz became afraid.

So, he sent them back to me.

And I'm like,
"What the f*ck now?"

They sent
the Fiji Island iguanas back,

and then I had them hid out
on the crocodile farm.

They were in big outdoor cages
that predators couldn't get in,

so they could get sun
and all of that,

but they were hard to find.

Fish and Wildlife guys had grown
to dislike Tommy so much,

they were working like
payless overtime

to follow him, to just get him.

{\an8}[Tom] Then Fish and Wildlife
Service agent, Vance Eaddy.

Hello? Alright, good.

[Tom]
The only redeeming quality--

well, there is
no redeeming quality.

f*ck Vance Eaddy.

-[Eric] Is he still alive?
-I don't know

if he is or not, but f*ck him.

He was sneaking
on our property.

I caught him going under
the fence in the neighbor's yard

and running one time.

They were trying to get
the Fiji Island iguanas.

They didn't have evidence.

[Dwayne] We were cooking dinner
one night,

and I noticed across the canal,

there are people,
and they have cameras.

They're taking pictures
of our yard.

[Tom] Vance Eaddy's encouraging
the Florida Wildlife Commission

to issue me frivolous tickets
just to put pressure on me.

It was a vindictive
sort of a thing.

My mom was pissed.

She told him,
"Get rid of those iguanas."

[Tom] I realized
what a liability it is
having 'em there.

So, Tommy contacted Hank Molt.

[Hank]
Tom's world was coming apart.

By then, Tom was desperado.

Saw Tom's blood pressure,

his veins popping
out of his head,

soaking wet sweat,
freaking out.

But he was still hoping
to keep these lizards.

They were his pride and joy.

He knew I had extensive
experience with iguanas.

Knew about 'em as much
as anybody in North America.

So, Tom asked me
to take the iguanas.

And Hank said that
he would take care of 'em

until things got better.

[Tom] It was one of those times,
like with a-- you know,

that I didn't know
what else to do.

[Hank] Thinking, "Okay, here's
a way I can really pop Tom.

I can really kick his a*s."

I drove back to Philadelphia
with the iguanas.

There was a lot of gossip
back and forth.

"Who did it?
Where are they?"

The fact is, the iguanas died.

So, I put it
in a jar of alcohol.

Just preserved it.
[clearing throat and snorting]

And I kept 'em in the back
of my Ford station wagon

where you could store
spare tire tools.

And I just put that away
for a rainy day.

[Penny]
Hank froze 'em.

He k*lled the animals,
which is horrendous.

[Tom] Hank never really told me
about k*lling the animals.

I found that out
from other people.

Hank was always good
about telling stories

that made himself look better.

[Hank]
I had 'em for months.

One time when Tom
was riding in my car with me,

we were drinking a beer,
and he's six feet away

from the dead iguanas,
in the front seat of my car.

That's how mendacious I was.

[Steve]
Hank's main concern...

in this world, is Hank.

He's not beyond doing...

outrageously cruel
or thoughtless things.

What can I say?

He's entitled to thinking
anything he wants about me.

A few months later,
Fish and Wildlife calls me

and says,
"We know you took the iguanas,

{\an8}and we're gonna charge you
on this case with Crutchfield."

It seemed just so obvious

Tommy was trying to set me up
to take the fall.

I said,
"That ain't gonna happen."

-[phone ringing]
-And I called

Fish and Wildlife guy,
Vance Eaddy.

I said, "Here's the deal.
I'm coming down.

"Let's have a cup of iced tea,
and I want you to listen

to a little--
little story I got here."

I gave Vance Eaddy
the dead iguanas,

handed over to him
the evidence, and I got that.

He's like,
"Are you sh1tting me?"

[Bruce]
Tommy Crutchfield was indicted

along with Anson Wong

for smuggling Fiji Island
iguanas to the U.S.

We, of course,
wanted Anson Wong

to come over to the U.S.
where he could be arrested,

but we got Tom Crutchfield.

The feds came down,
and Tom got arrested.

[Hank] I agreed to just take
a civil penalty or something.

No fine or nothing on it.
Nothing to it.

[Eric] But you were integral
to helping the US prosecutor

-get Crutchfield in the States.
-Absolutely.

I was 100% on board
on cooperating with the feds

in taking him down,
putting him in jail, absolutely.

[Tom] At that point, trial went
considerably over $100,000.

f*ck it, I'll plead guilty.
So, I pled guilty

and got five months in jail
and two years probation.

[Eric]
How did you handle it?

It was like vacation
kinda thing, it was a...

-[Eric]
Prison was like vacation?
-Fed-- yeah, the federal prison

was not much, really,
the-- the prison camp.

You could get away
with damn near anything,

and I f*cking thrived
once I had my attitude right.

You want one more piece?
Here, buddy.

Here.

As much as I'd like to slap
the piss out of Hank Molt,

what I would really like to do

is to never, ever have
to talk to him or see him again

for the rest of my life.

[rooster crowing]

When I was in prison, Hank Molt
would send these letters.

It's the craziest sh*t
I've ever seen,

and all it did
is just creep me out.

[paper rustling]

[Hank]
So, I sent this thing out.

People with no eyeballs
and quotes from Jonathan Swift.

"You're the most odious vermin
that nature ever suffered

to crawl upon the surface
of the Earth."

Just really weird stuff.
I garnered and saved,

photocopied,
like I did my price list.

All that kinda stuff,
I put all that together.

We all had our days

when we were a shining light
for a brief point.

Like Shakespeare says, you have
a brief dance on the stage,

and then you're no more.

Tom had his glory days,

and everybody was just out
for themselves.

Anybody that won't
admit it is a liar. I admit it.

Darwin said, it's not
the strongest organism

that survives,
but it's the organism

that has the best ability
to adapt.

Not those exact words,
but that's what he said.

[Hank] We're the founders
of a multi-billion-dollar

reptile industry
that just kept evolving.

[reporter]
One of the most unlikely

but lucrative smuggling
operations

ever to confound
the federal government.

There are ripple effects
to this day from what
these guys have done.

[reporter] Turns out there's
a multi-million-dollar
black market

involving hundreds of thousands
of animals a year.

He hid the iguanas
inside his prosthetic leg.

[reporter 2] The black market
trade is now so lucrative

that crime syndicates
are involved.

It became pretty clear
Fish and Wildlife Service

needed to play catch-up.

[reporter 3]
International smuggling raid.

[reporter 4] The ringleader,
a Malaysian named Anson Wong...

It's being called
the largest operation
of its kind ever conducted.

[reporter 5]
The raid is on a pet store

violating federal wildlife law.

[reporter 6] You could find
animals from around the world.

You could also buy
lots of imported cocaine.

[Larry Loveless]
There's a dark side to this

that we all need
to be careful of here.

And I'm just saying this
for us in this room.

Um, don't f*ck around with this.

[♪ upbeat dramatic music
playing]