01x06 - The Bourbon King: Part 2

[bunniefuu]

When I was growing up, I loved

and respected my mother so much,

I didn't wanna do anything

that would make her think bad of me.

My mom always told me, "Be modest."

Don't go around bragging

on yourself and all that.

Humility, you have to have that.

If you let all that other stuff

go to your head

look how that's got some people.

It's been nearly a month

and a half since Buffalo Trace distillery

reported the theft of bottles

of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle.

The sheriff's office is adding incentive,

a $10,000 reward for any information

that brings an arrest in the case.

We used that to put pressure

on the folks that were doing it.

That's a lot of bourbon.

If they try to move it, we'll find out.

One of the deputies

in the sheriff's office,

he was like,

"The media loves stuff like this."

I said, "They do?"

"So what? That ain't no big deal."

I'm a big man ♪

Have the heart of a baby ♪

The sheriff was confident

he'd solve this case,

and this here is a big reason.

A $10,000 reward is now being offered

When you make it as hot as we made it,

you get a lot of information.

It got to the point,

it was getting crazy, man.

Everybody's like, "I need this."

"Hey, he can get us this."

When you look at these movies

and they say, "I know a guy,"

I was that guy.

Just like with the steroids.

If you come in the gym

and say, "I need something,

can you help me out?"

Yep, I know somebody can help you out.

You can get anything in Mexico.

You just raise your arm up, go like that

if you couldn't speak Spanish.

They'd send it through the mail,

it'd have "dog vitamins" wrote on it.

I'm a big man ♪

But state police, city police,

everybody knew it was going on.

Steve Oliver works with the state police.

Ninety percent of law enforcement

and firemen take steroids.

But who cares, man?

You take steroids for looking good.

We had a lot of tips.

A lot of it had some credibility.

You never know

which one is gonna be the one.

I'm gonna take you to the woodshed ♪

And drop a couple of planks on you ♪

What good is carry and conceal

if I've got an unloaded g*n?

My g*n was always loaded.

I got Bella a pink .22 Crickett.

She liked sh**ting it.

Four months

and still no answers,

but authorities remain optimistic

that they will solve the case.

We had one that said,

"This was loaded on a truck,

truck took it to New Orleans."

We couldn't prove that.

The thing is, man, I was rubbing elbows

with Frankfort's elite.

Judges, lawyers, country club rich people.

I'm protected. Nothing gonna happen

to you if you're rubbing with them.

It's been one year

since a large amount

of one of the world's

finest bourbons disappeared.

Investigators are

still no closer to answers.

There was a ton of stuff that came in.

None of it panned out.

If you break your word

You'll wish you never had ♪

I'm a big man ♪

The case went cold.

But I still felt like

we were gonna solve the case.

A lot of people knew

and didn't say nothing about it,

then you're a well-loved person,

and people respect you.

Or they're scared of you.

If I was Toby,

I could definitely see

myself getting all puffed up

and saying, "Man, look at me."

"I can afford this big truck,

I can afford this and that,

I can do this and I can do that,

I've got power behind me."

It's pretty amazing

how it comes full circle.

You grow up, you're watching people

"Man, look at this dude."

Then it comes around,

and you're that dude

these other guys are looking at.

But when you're out there, you gotta watch

because there's always another set

of eyes watching you.

You can only puff your chest out so long

before somebody punches you in the face.

This is just a simple fact.

I remember being at my desk

and the phone beeped.

It said, "Want to know

where some stolen whiskey is?"

We wound up getting a break in 2015.

We got a tip on our text-a-tip phone,

and it was very specific

with the information that we got.

I immediately send detectives down there,

I said, "Go do your thing."

There's a cell phone tower

way behind their house,

there's a little access road.

We're trying to get

as close as we could to see

these barrels of bourbon

that were supposedly there.

Tried to stand on top of the SUV.

Looked from every angle,

other people's property.

Behind the house there was a shed,

and then there was something

behind the shed.

Couldn't really tell what it was.

We went down into the wooded area

and started coming up the other side.

Ron was walking in front of me,

and he stopped.

About that time, the wind shifted.

He said, "Holy sh*t, do you smell that?

If you grew up in Kentucky

you know what it smells like.

It's a sweet smell.

When it's in the barrel like that

there's no doubt in your mind.

You could smell bourbon.

It was beautiful outside.

A little windy, a little chilly,

but the sun was out.

For a March day, it was beautiful.

I felt good.

And then I got a text from Mom.

She said, "There's been

weird activity at your property."

'Cause they live next door

and can see my house.

She said, "I'm not sure what's going on,

be careful if you come home."

I didn't think about it.

We have radio towers behind my house,

I thought, "They're working on the tower,

doing something behind my house."

I finished my run, pick up the kids,

and we head to the gym.

I look at Ron,

he had this look on his face

like, "sh*t, I can't believe this."

It had, like, a neon light over it.

We looked at the barrel heads

but it had been obliterated

with either paint

or some other masking substance.

They have a stamp and it'll tell you

what kind of bourbon it is,

or who it's made by.

This one had that, but it had been

spray painted and we couldn't tell.

That's a clear indication

that they're stolen.

So, they call and said,

"Hey, we see the barrels."

Said, "Okay, let's get search warrants."

This could be it. This could be it.

I was working out in the gym,

and my phone rang.

It was a constable that grew up

with my wife and her family.

He said, "I'm at your house.

Somebody wants to talk to you."

I said, "Yeah?"

He said, "Toby, this is Pat Melton.

You need to get on home."

There's three or four

sheriff's department cars

right in front of the house.

I still didn't know what was going on.

I don't know, man,

it was just a numb feeling.

Not shock, but it was just like

It was trying to process everything.

He says, "I think

I know what this is over."

And that he's sorry

for what's about to happen.

I walked in the back door

with Isabella,

the house was destroyed, stuff everywhere.

They had taken every drawer

in my bedroom and dumped it out.

It was a nightmare.

Pat They all surrounded me.

It was What do they call it, the Germans?

A blitzkrieg. It was just on.

They were questioning Toby

for the combination to the safe.

I got a lot of g*ns. He had a bunch.

as*ault-type r*fles and weapons

and some silencers.

The steroids caught my eye.

It looked like quite a bit of steroids,

more than personal use.

Then it took a different turn.

"What are we dealing with here?"

We wound up with stolen bourbon

and a bunch of steroids.

I'm like, "Golly, you can't make this up."

The date is March the 11th,

with Gilbert "Toby" Curtsinger.

You've got the right to remain silent

Pat was like, "You have the right

to remain silent," this and that.

Then Ron Wyatt was like,

"Before you start,

we know that you got the barrels."

I said, "They're not Buffalo Trace."

He said, "We know.

They're from Wild Turkey."

"You got 'em from Sean Searcy,

and selling 'em for $3,000 apiece."

- Where do you work?

- I work at Buffalo Trace.

Were you working there

when the Pappy Van Winkle was missing?

Yes, I was working in processing,

I wasn't in shipping.

Do you have any knowledge

of what took place?

No, sir. I have no idea.

Pat sits there and he looked at me,

he said, "You got any Van Winkle here?"

I went, "No."

He said, "If you know

anything about that 2013,

and you tell me,

I can make this disappear."

I said, "You can make all this disappear?"

He said, "Disappear, just like that."

And Julie piped up

and told him to shut his mouth.

He was talking.

Then Julie looked at him

and said, "You need to shut the eff up."

"Don't say anything." And he did.

There was a look on Toby's face

that I've never seen before.

It was a face of fear.

I think, at that point,

I realized he was in trouble.

That day was a bad day.

It really hurt,

watching what I'd done to my family.

It was the destruction

of the kids' home. It was destroyed.

And they took him to jail. It was awful.

I was in a holding cell

with a little sheet and a little thin mat.

I hear all these guys talking,

"Hey, what's up?" All this.

"What they got you for?"

"I'm in for this heroin."

And I'm going,

"I cannot believe I'm sitting here."

Initial search warrant for my house

was stolen Wild Turkey barrels.

"Did you check with Wild Turkey,

do they have anything missing?"

It wouldn't matter if there was

1,000 barrels behind my house.

If there's nothing missing,

how are you charging me?

Where's the report of it missing?

The Franklin County

Sheriff's Office

says it's one of the biggest cases

they've ever worked,

involving g*ns, steroids,

and stolen barrels of bourbon.

I've never seen anybody

with five barrels of bourbon.

I was the former political reporter

at the State Journal,

and fortuitously this thing

fell into my lap.

When this guy's busted,

he has five barrels behind his house

that Wild Turkey didn't know was gone.

How could that be?

Curtsinger pleaded not guilty

at his arraignment.

He will be released from

Franklin County Jail after posting bond.

Then the big question was, is this

related to the Buffalo Trace incident?

Is this related to Pappygate?

Sheriff Melton is not ruling out

whether or not this case

could be connected to the 2013 theft

of Pappy Van Winkle.

Soon as we found out

he was an employee,

and a long-term employee,

it was clear that it was an inside job.

They wanted me to name everybody

that I knew that had ever done anything.

They wanted me to rat on everybody.

You gotta be crazy.

I know these people personally.

Parties, birthday parties,

I know their kids.

Why do I want to do that?

But when they took my phone

that's gonna k*ll me.

My phone.

Once we got the download back,

we were all kind of surprised.

It was a deluge of information.

Selling bourbon, selling steroids.

A lot of information.

"I'll take two."

"I sold those two."

"I need four more."

"How much can we make off this?"

So, we knew Toby had people helping him.

We started lining the names up.

Toby at the top, come down

and it had what we call distributors.

We had the steroids on the other side.

There was some familiar names on there.

Sheriff Melton contacted me

and said he needed to come see me,

which wasn't uncommon.

He came in and served me with a subpoena

for Officer Wells's personnel file.

And when I asked him what was going on,

that seemed like a legitimate question

from a police chief

Something to the effect of

he wasn't at liberty to divulge why.

When you have to investigate

an officer with another agency,

it's not a good position to be in.

But at the end of the day,

my motto was always do the right thing.

- It's a weird predicament to be in.

- It is.

I apologize for my involvement.

They were arranging with Toby

to put money in on steroid shipments.

Uh, Toby mostly would put in. Sean has.

- Anybody else at the police put in?

- Steve Oliver.

Between Toby's friendship

with Mike Wells, Steve Oliver,

Toby probably felt like he doesn't

have to worry about people looking at him

and what he's doing.

But that didn't protect him

from the sheriff's department.

After deliberation, Officer Wells elected

to resign with the Frankfort Police Dept.

The local news coverage was relentless

that we were hiding something.

That ruffled some political feathers.

After pissing off

the city police force,

Pat needed to leave no doubt

in the citizens of Frankfort's minds

that justice was brought.

I think he was looking at reelection

and thinking, "sh*t, I need a win here."

We knew if we could get

all the information on Toby,

we could put a stop to it all

and wrap it up.

You want to cut the head off the snake.

Through the course

of the investigation,

it became clear that

a lot of the distribution

was done by people

that played softball together.

So they were very reluctant to cooperate.

I got plenty

of phone calls saying,

"Come down here

to the sheriff's office, let's talk."

I just didn't answer.

One of those things,

"Hear no evil, see no evil."

We knew who he was, what he was doing,

we just had to find him.

Were they following you around?

To numerous places.

How hard is it to know

somebody's following you?

You see that same car at your office,

you're like, "Okay. Let's play

with these guys a little bit."

I get on the interstate,

they go to the interstate.

They followed me all the way

to eastern Kentucky.

Well, I gotta get the world

Off of my back ♪

Somehow ♪

I went, "Let's see

how long they follow us."

They followed me

all the way to Pippa one time.

To a place I promise you

they didn't want to be.

So I gotta get the world

Off of my back ♪

Thinking back, I should have been a cop.

I would have been a good cop.

I'm sure Dusty was trying

to stay one step ahead,

but little did he know

he was five steps behind.

Because the cell phones

and downloads brought it all together.

In Kentucky, we have a statute

called "Engaging in Organized Crime."

So, from top to bottom,

if all they did was distribute one barrel,

they're still responsible

for anything that happens as a result

of that criminal enterprise.

The saying we use is, "Do you want

to be a teammate or an inmate?"

When they find out

what they've done is a Class B felony,

most people pick teammate.

- What's your name?

- Mitchell R. Osborne.

- Ray Osborne?

- Yes.

Toby and a few others

are gonna be indicted

for what's called

"operating in a criminal syndicate."

The kingpin at the top

and the lowest man on the pole

get the same charge. That's ten years.

Now, let's ask one more time.

If you lie to me again,

I'm walking out,

what happens to you, happens to you.

'Cause it's hotter than frig

in this office right now.

And I'm starving, and I'm fat.

I like to eat.

Did you know anything about Eagle Rare?

- Yes, sir, I did.

- All right!

There you go.

That's what I need to know.

We're not here to hammer you,

I promise you.

I helped him get Eagle Rare out of there.

I loaded it up for him, and he took off.

We asked people to come forward

and help us with the investigation,

and if you did that,

then we basically offered 'em immunity.

I heard that he was

going to try to rat everybody out,

and try to make himself look good.

But that's bullshit.

Toby Curtsinger had a whole slew

of people that he dealt with.

You see that there's this bond of people,

whether it's through softball,

steroids, bourbon,

and there seems to be this level

of trust and loyalty with each other,

until people start getting busted.

It ain't about diming

anybody out or nothing like that.

You have immunity.

I don't wanna be

diming my buddy out, period.

Me and Toby were good friends.

He put you in this situation.

I know that.

Tell me more

about the barrel exchange.

How did that come about?

Did Toby call? Tell me how that happened.

Once everybody started to fall,

people started coming out of the woodwork.

"I've talked to my attorney,

I'd like to come

and turn in these nine bottles

that I have."

Did you buy them

by the bottle or the case?

No, but he had some cases.

Was he wearing

a Buffalo Trace uniform?

Yes. I thought it was legit.

From 20-year Pappy Van Winkle

to 12-year to 15-year

Dusty Adkins

brought it to my house.

He said he knew a guy

that worked in the distillery.

One day, I finally answered.

I said, "Come here.

I'm in Scott County, come and get me."

They couldn't do it.

They didn't have jurisdiction.

In the parking lot, you look over

and see the Franklin County line.

Just 'cause I talk funny

doesn't mean I'm ignorant.

We could've arrested him right there.

This isn't Dukes of Hazzard,

this isn't, "We'll chase 'em to the bridge

and if we don't catch 'em before then,

we won't be able

to charge 'em with anything."

That's not how it works in the real world.

When it become real is when I saw

a list of all the text messages

on Toby's cell phone.

All these things sitting in front of you,

how do you deny it? You can't deny it.

'Cause it's right here from me to him.

Dusty Adkins, just like the others,

they admitted to

facilitating the sale of the barrels.

They turned every one

of my friends against me.

You know, Ronnie Lee, Dusty

All those guys, man.

I played ball with them for years.

I miss those guys.

I love 'em.

We were just told there was

gonna be a press conference

from Pat Melton.

We knew, off the record, that it involved

some of the stolen bourbon

from allegedly Buffalo Trace.

That's all we knew at that point.

I said, "I wanna go. I'll go to that."

I'm thinking there might be

the local television crews.

There were over 20 reporters,

camera crews, from all over the world.

I had said it was an inside job.

And obviously that's what happened.

Call it the case of the missing cases.

A heist dubbed Pappygate.

Officials say they've arrested

the man responsible.

Cops claim this man,

Gilbert "Toby" Curtsinger,

was the ringleader.

It wasn't just statewide.

Some anonymous tips

It wasn't regional.

Black market bourbon.

It wasn't national.

A big crack in the case

It wasn't northern hemisphere.

It was worldwide.

The case has gotten attention

as far away as Pakistan.

Think about that.

This is the tip of the iceberg.

They hammered him constantly.

Four times a day.

A hundred ninety-five bottles

walked out the door? Didn't happen.

- Six o'clock, twelve o'clock

- There's tentacles

- Million dollar question.

- Justice will be served.

Eleven o'clock

We indicted him

for engaging in organized crime.

It's whiskey, for God's sake.

It's pretty gutsy to say,

"We're gonna solve this case."

But we did. We got him.

By God, don't ever doubt my team.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

You did it. Pappy has been solved.

- We brought Pappy home.

- Brought Pappy home.

Curtsinger and his alleged accomplices

have been indicted

on several charges including

engaging in organized crime.

Their lawyers did not respond

to calls from CBS this morning

I didn't know what to think. I just was

expecting the worst of the worst.

And basically it was.

I got indicted

for everything he was,

they got me on every charge.

That he masterminded this,

and that I was a part of the plot

to steal bourbon, steroids, and g*ns.

I remember being at the attorney's office

with him the first time,

and the more he was saying

that he was doing,

from paying a guard

to get through the gates,

it seemed like there was so much involved.

I didn't say a lot, for a while.

I didn't want to fight,

there was too much going on.

It's not that he cheated,

but it was a sense of lying to me, or

It was a letdown. Huge.

I'm happy to pronounce to you

That's not

the kind of man I married.

Mr. and Mrs.

Gilbert Thomas Curtsinger.

We were on the news every day.

I had to sit for a while and think,

"Dang, am I that bad of a person?"

He just sat down on the couch,

he had his face in his hands like that,

and he was crying.

It was awful

'cause I'd never seen Dad like that.

"Ringleader caught"

"Is my dad

a mobster or something?"

He'd come in the room and I'd get so mad.

I just didn't want to be around him.

Then it was, "Do you rip

the kids away from him?"

Kade had a girl that he liked.

Her dad googled us, found out

who it was, told his daughter,

"I don't want you seeing him

'cause of his dad."

How am I supposed to feel on that?

He should not have to pay for what I done.

He got on his knees and said he was sorry,

he'd be better off if he k*lled himself.

You think, "If I could

take myself out of the equation,

they'd leave my family alone

and everybody'd go back to whatever."

My response to him was, "You did this,

you're not gonna take the easy out

and commit suicide

and leave me with two kids."

"If I'm willing to walk this with you,

you'll walk it, too."

All right. You ready

to be sentenced, Mr. Curtsinger?

Yes, sir.

You have anything to state

before the court pronounces sentence?

No, sir.

Okay. 15CR101, theft by unlawful taking,

two counts of receiving stolen property

Possession of a controlled substance,

second degree, first offense,

I sentence you to five years

on each count, to run consecutively.

You are sentenced to 15 years

in the state penitentiary,

you may be taken

into custody at this time.

It's very sad

that it had to go to that level.

A man makes a mistake, you don't have

Not everything's a hanging offense.

I haven't said that he's a bad guy.

I think he made some poor decisions,

I think he got greedy.

It is a bourbon heist

in Kentucky

that comes tonight with a cost,

jail time for the so-called mastermind.

Today he learned his fate,

15 years behind bars

for his role in the case

known as Pappygate.

They led the public to believe

he had taken that 2013.

That's all you heard, was the 2013.

When they knew all along

that that wasn't true.

Do you remember any other

significant conversations

- in your investigation?

- Greg Anglin.

Tell me your involvement

with Toby Curtsinger.

My involvement with him?

I have no involvement on bourbon barrels,

nothing like that,

of any kind, degree, shape, or form.

Just like with everybody else

that cooperated,

we offered him,

"If you come in and talk to us,

tell us the truth,

we won't prosecute you."

After we talk today, any kind of deal

or anything we talked about,

not being prosecuted,

if you lie, that's out the door.

With Toby Curtsinger? No, sir.

Now, did you steal anything?

Yes, sir. This is way before.

What'd you take?

Oh, probably a case of 20-year, I'd say.

One case?

Maybe two. No more than two.

- Of Pappy?

- Yes, sir.

This is where you need to be

the most honest you've ever been.

- Before you say anything

- This is five years ago.

Right, exactly.

If there was 35 cases or there was six,

I need you to give me a number.

And you gotta stick with it.

- I need

- Maybe eight or ten, honestly. Total.

- You're talking about 12-bottle cases?

- Yes, sir.

- I'm talking about ten cases

- So, 120 bottles.

When he said that it was like a gut punch.

He admits that he probably took

about 17 cases of Pappy Van Winkle

during this time at Buffalo Trace.

It's the danger

of offering immunity.

Every now and then,

you have something like this

where the guy says,

"By the way, I did this."

I have immunity ♪

I'm stronger each day ♪

My weakness is fading ♪

Ever since you went away ♪

Told me you would always love me ♪

Now I know that it was just a lie ♪

I was drinking water

When I could be drinking wine ♪

He said that he had been in

and had stolen the original case,

that he had stole several bottles

of the Pappy then, it was him.

It wasn't Toby Curtsinger

that was stealing Pappy Van Winkle

at the very timeframe

of this 2013 Pappygate heist.

We would love to say, "Here it is,

Toby was the ringleader,

let's put him in a box."

It's convenient, it's clean,

but it's not true.

There were several upsets

in today's primary,

we're following the results

in central and eastern Kentucky.

I think Pat did everything

in his ability to solve the case

to secure his reelection.

Five hundred times he was

on the news trying to promote his name.

He was the one wanting to get it done.

Any time you come in

and you're the new guy

and you upset the apple cart,

you'll have people that don't like that.

I should have handled

a couple things differently

as far as coming forward pretty strong.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't

a smart thing to do.

But we had a job to do,

we did it, we did it very well.

And solved a case

people thought would never be solved.

Pat's eagerness to promote himself

and the county sheriff's office

probably rubbed a lot

of people the wrong way.

In a small town,

sometimes if you try to be a boy scout,

that just bugs the sh*t out of people.

And Franklin County Sheriff

Pat Melton lost by 3,300 votes

to Chris Quire,

a captain with Frankfort Police.

He flew too close to the sun,

and in the end it didn't matter

that Pat tried to impress the public

and that Toby tried

to impress his friends.

They both went down.

The ringleader in a bourbon heist

in central Kentucky

will leave prison this weekend.

A Franklin County judge granted

shock probation today.

Now after serving 30 days,

he will soon be free.

Defense attorney argued Curtsinger

was a good candidate for shock probation

as a first time felony offender

with a family, a job,

and ties to the community.

If you're a nonviolent offender,

if you don't have

an extensive criminal case,

and you, basically,

are not a risk to society,

you could be a candidate

for shock probation.

People go, "You got lucky!"

I say, "Really?"

I say, "I always had a plan."

Work, build up a 401k,

retirement, I had everything set,

that just got smashed.

I gotta live with what I put my kids

through, my mom and dad through.

Everybody that I know.

If you show love,

then you need to rejoice.

It says love bears all things.

A husband and wife

go through a lot of difficulty

to bear all things, don't they?

My wedding rings,

I took them off five years ago.

I don't think I said it,

they just came off my hand

and I've never put 'em back on.

There may be a day they go back on.

Not now.

A lie is

hard to deal with, isn't it?

But when the sin is removed,

can we put love in the place of it?

By doing what I was doing,

I was jeopardizing

my marriage, both of my kids.

When you take a couple

that's been together for years and years,

and they still love each other,

that's a miracle.

When all the smoke clears

of friends, and friends of friends,

and ball teams, and coworkers,

what's left standing? Family.

Man, I don't know if Y'all deserve

all that? Look at all those gifts.

I tell him every single time

he tells us sorry,

it's not something

you should say sorry for.

People make mistakes,

but me and Bella still love you.

Well, let's see, show everybody

what you got. Look.

He'll say, "I guarantee

you would sell me out for a new dad."

It's just stuff like that,

it breaks my heart to hear him say that.

'Cause, like, he's my world.

Like, he's my world.

- What in the world?

- We thought you would like 'em.

- Will you wear 'em?

- Sure, I'll wear 'em.

They fit him.

It's supposed to be really good

stuff, if you read the reviews.

I feel like we have

more healing to do.

I feel like that we're going

to be better in years to come.

I think we're gonna be okay.

Everybody's heard about it.

Especially anybody

who lives in Kentucky.

He's done the distillery

a favor, in a way.

Just the folklore around it,

that boosted the price up immensely.

After the heist and everything,

the prices have skyrocketed.

You're looking at $5,000 a bottle.

I don't know how easy it is to find,

but I know if you wanted to, you could.

- A snitch is what got him caught, though.

- Yep. The text message.

Who was it that gave that tip?

I don't think I'm supposed to say that.

Toby stole a lot of Pappy,

but maybe unfairly, he's lumped

into what Greg Anglin did.

There's a bunch of people

that stole Pappy Van Winkle.

Including Toby Curtsinger.

I have no idea. I don't, I really don't.

Well over a million dollars.

And that's just what we know about.

Who knows? It could be close

to double that, close to triple that.

What we done, man?

I mean, what was it?

It's like stealing a piece of bubble gum

from the supermarket.

Think about it. If you worked

at Buffalo Trace right now,

and you had an opportunity

to stick two 20-year-old Van Winkles

down your pants, walk out

with nobody seeing you,

are you gonna do it

if you don't get caught?