How to Lead a Life of Crime (34 page)
According to Jose Garcia, one of the arresting officers, “Hector” was a well-known and beloved character in Miami’s law-enforcement community. Famously charming and humorous, the boy was also believed to be highly intelligent. He could have easily avoided arrest, but he attracted cops’ attention by handing out large sums of money—mostly to teenage runaways who were at risk of falling prey to the city’s pimps.
Trying to free the young man from the sex trade, police arrested “Hector” three times. After his first arrest, he ran away from a foster family. The second arrest was followed by an escape from a juvenile detention facility. Following “Hector’s” third arrest, the authorities contacted the Mandel Academy.
“Max”
Alan Davis
Aka Hunter Stone
Born: 1996
One of the “Wolves” who escaped from the Mandel Academy with an alumni file, Alan Davis was recently living in New York City under the name Hunter Stone.
Alan is the child of a Boston surgeon and a former model. His parents learned that their son was free when they saw his picture on the cover of a New York tabloid. The news apparently came as a shock. Their son was imprisoned in 2010 for aggravated assault. They—and two of Alan’s siblings—had been the boy’s victims. Mrs. Davis had nearly died after the incident.
When I spoke with the Davises, they were clearly afraid for their lives. The NYPD had informed them that they could not arrest the young man since they had no evidence that he was the same boy who had disappeared from a juvenile detention facility in May of 2012.
The rest of the Davis family went underground for several months, only to return to Boston when “Hunter Stone” was arrested for assaulting a traffic cop.
“Aubrey”
Catelynn Cabe
Born: 1995
Died: 2012 (confirmed)
Catelynn grew up in Chickamauga, Georgia. The events that led to her arrest (and later enrollment at the Mandel Academy) are as reported by Jonathan Brennan. She and her nineteen-year-old boyfriend built a meth lab in the basement of her family’s home. It exploded, killing Catelynn’s parents and boyfriend.
After the incident, she entered the Serenity Center, an elite (and expensive) drug rehabilitation facility near Atlanta. An “anonymous benefactor” footed the bill. Two weeks after Catelynn was admitted to the center, her aunt (and sole living relative) Brittany Cogdill attempted to visit the girl. Ms. Cogdill was informed that her niece had committed suicide.
Catelynn’s body was one of the two dozen discovered in the morgue beneath the Mandel Academy. Her fingerprints were matched with those on her arrest record, and her aunt later identified the body. Ms. Cogdill has filed suit against the Mandel Academy’s Board of Directors.
“Caleb”
Born: 1994–1995
Died: 2012 (confirmed)
Almost impossible to identify conclusively. He would have been seventeen at the time of his death in July 2012. He claimed to have been at the academy for seven semesters (roughly two years and three months). Therefore, he would have been between the ages of fourteen and fifteen when he entered the school. His corpse was found in the Mandel morgue, but his fingerprints were not on file with any law enforcement agencies. Given the physical description of “Caleb,” and assuming he was in fact a true psychopath, there are two promising possibilities:
Carson Hinde: Born in 1994 to a wealthy California family. After several tragic incidents involving family pets, the boy was admitted to a privately run mental institution at the age of eight. The institution’s administrators will neither confirm nor deny that Carson is still a patient. Carson’s mother is now deceased. His father, when contacted, refused to discuss the boy’s whereabouts.
Edward (Eddie) Dean: Born 1995. Raised by a grandmother in rural Alabama. Appeared in New Orleans in 2009 and enrolled in the city’s most prestigious prep school. Edward befriended several of the wealthiest students, earned their trust, and then robbed their homes. It’s estimated he stole close to $200K worth of jewelry and art. Edward vanished without a trace. His grandmother claims to have had no contact with him in the last three years.
“Violet”
Tabitha Berry
Born: 1997
Tabitha and her three younger siblings were orphaned when their parents died in a car accident in 2010. They were taken in by their mother’s cousin, who neglected the younger children, abused the older ones, and embezzled money from the children’s trust funds.
Increasingly worried about her siblings’ safety, Tabitha decided to act. One night, she spiked her guardian’s dinner drink with two crushed sleeping pills. She wasn’t aware that the woman had already consumed a cocktail of drugs. The guardian lost consciousness, and Tabitha loaded her brothers and sister into the woman’s car. They were halfway across the country when they were pulled over by the police. Tabitha was arrested for driving without a license. At the police station, she learned that her guardian had died. She was then charged with murder.
Tabitha now lives in a building owned by Jonathan Brennan and attends a Manhattan high school for the academically gifted. After her arrest, her brothers and sister had been sent to live with three different foster families. They recently have been reunited.
Simon Hodenfield
An alumnus of the Mandel Academy as well as an instructor (“Mr. Martin”). He is currently under investigation by the NYPD and FBI. Both organizations are trying to determine what role he may have played in the murder of the Mandel students discovered in the academy’s basement morgue.
I have been unable link Hodenfield to the (presumed) blackmail of Congressman Glenn Sheehan. However, several employees of the Browning School have been willing to go on the record to accuse Hodenfield of extortion. Three people say they were contacted by Hodenfield, who threatened to release sensitive information about their private lives if his son Nathaniel was ever expelled from the Browning School. (Nathaniel is, by all accounts, a shameless bully and pathological cheater.)
Fortunately the Browning School was able to expel Nathaniel after his father was accused of propositioning several of his son’s classmates online. With nothing to trouble their consciences, the school’s employees are willing to testify publicly against Hodenfield.
Arthur Klein
A psychopharmacologist previously employed by Moorland Laboratories, makers of Exceletrex. Klein was the first scientist to come forward with his concerns about the drug’s potential for causing long-term neurologic damage. He says he decided to blow the whistle on his employers shortly after the death of his six-year-old son, Peter. (Yes,
Peter
.)
Exceletrex
Developed by Moorland Laboratories to treat a range of conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Exceletrex was intended to be marketed as an alternative to Adderall and Ritalin. It is said to improve mental focus, inhibit impulsive behavior, and promote docility. Initial laboratory tests were encouraging. However, animal subjects (both rats and nonhuman primates) eventually began displaying signs of premature senility. Those findings were removed from all official documents.
According to Arthur Klein, Exceletrex was initially touted as a treatment for psychopathy. However, key figures at Moorland Laboratories became convinced that the drug was not well suited for persons with the disorder. While Exceletrex might help combat a psychopath’s impulsive behavior, it would not make him/her less violent. In fact, by improving mental focus, Exceletrex could exacerbate obsessive tendencies.
This might have sounded ideal to Lucian Mandel. He had no interest in curing psychopathy. But by focusing his “predators” on a single goal (graduating from the Mandel Academy), they would have been far easier to control.
“Ms. Smith”
Cassandra Keene, former anchor on the Fox Business Network. Won the Miss New York pageant in 1998. Second runner up in the Miss America pageant. Resigned from her position at Fox in 2011 when rumors began to circulate that she had assaulted an intern. No charges were ever pressed.
“Austin”
Born: 1994
Real name: Jared Holt
Currently on Rikers Island awaiting trial on three counts of aggravated assault.
Below is a transcript of an interview with him.
Q: According to your police file, your name is Jared Holt.
A: If that’s what it says, I suppose it must be right. [Big, wide smile. No sign of anxiety.]
Q: They were able to identify you using your fingerprints. You must have a juvenile record, but it appears to be sealed. How many times have you been arrested?
A: Is there a reason you need to know? Who are you again, anyway?
Q: I’m a reporter. I work for the New York Times.
A: The cops claim I beat up some bar bouncers. That the sort of thing that makes the news here in New York? Where I come from, that’s just a regular Saturday night.
Q: And where is it you come from?
A: [Big smile.]
Q: Judging by your accent, I’d say East Texas.
A: [Big smile.]
Q: There was a Jared Holt in Beaumont who killed a kid on his football team.
A: That was just a prank that got out of hand.
Q: You thought forcing a fifteen-year-old to drink a half-gallon bottle of grain alcohol wouldn’t do him any damage?
A: [Big smile.]
Q: You seem to have disappeared right after you got arrested. Where have you been for the past two years?
A: Around.
Q: I have it on good authority that you were a student at the Mandel Academy. Is it true?
A: Who’s your good authority?
Q: I’m afraid I can’t reveal my sources.
A: Then I’m afraid I can’t answer your question. In fact, I think I’m through answering any questions.
Beatrice Mandel
Born: 1942
Died: 2007
Beatrice Mandel became headmistress of the Mandel Academy in 1975, following the death of her father, Frederick. The school thrived under Beatrice’s management, and she was respected by the alumni and the academy’s board of directors. Former students recall her “fairness.”
Those who knew Beatrice socially often describe her as cold and robotic. She was highly intelligent and physically attractive (tall, blond, athletic), yet she seemed to be missing a soul. According to a neighbor who lived in the same Fifth Avenue apartment building as the headmistress, Beatrice “wasn’t quite human.” The man recalled an incident in which Beatrice demanded that another neighbor’s new puppy be euthanized after it urinated in the building’s elevator.
Beatrice’s daughter, Marjorie, is said to have been her mother’s clone. Neither of the women appeared to possess much interest in the opposite sex (or any sex at all). And although the family was wealthy, they lived quite simply. The Fifth Avenue apartment they occupied was still in the Mandel family at the time of Lucian Mandel’s death. Investigators say that the furnishings and appliances all dated to the early 1970s. Beatrice hadn’t purchased anything new since she had inherited the apartment from her father.
“Average Gamblers”
A lady senator.
A CEO.
Two big-shots from Goldman-Sachs.
A businesswoman who’d flown in from China.
And some dude with a scraggly beard and camouflage pants.
Henry Brennan
Real name: Patrick O’Conner
Born: 1966
Died: 2012
Former CEO of the Westman Group. Attended the Mandel Academy 1982–1985. Graduated from Yale in 1989. Married Elizabeth Chapman in 1993. The couple had two sons: Jonathan and Jude. Married Eva Nelson in 2011. Their son Franklin was born in June 2012. Henry Brennan died in July after being hit by a fire engine arriving on the scene of the Mandel Academy fire.
“Julian”
Real name: James (Jimmy) Matsujiro
Born: 1995
Fourth generation Hawaiian, he comes from a family of Japanese ancestry. Currently in the Tombs, awaiting trial on drug charges. His father, Thomas Matsujiro, has made repeated attempts to contact his son since he learned of the boy’s imprisonment, but James refuses to speak to anyone but his lawyers. Mr. Matsujiro says his son became involved with a Honolulu street gang in 2008. He stopped attending school in 2009 and was arrested for drug possession later that year. In early 2010, James was questioned in connection with a fatal drive-by shooting in the Kalihi neighborhood in Honolulu. He disappeared shortly after that, and his parents assumed he had been murdered by members of a rival gang.
“Leila”
From:
[email protected]
Date:
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 12:11PM
Subject: Your Questions
My name is Selam. That’s all I can tell you. I grew up in the Midwest. My parents came from Yemen. I have four older sisters. They were all married before they turned 18. My father chose their husbands. I didn’t want to spend my life as a slave to the men in my family. When I was thirteen, I ran away from home. I had taught myself how to hack using the computers at school. I was never allowed to have one at home. When I left, I needed a way to support myself. I broke into a classmate’s home and stole his computer. I used it to empty my father’s bank account. I was on my way to Los Angeles when I was stopped by a police officer who thought I looked too young to be traveling alone. My family didn’t want me back. My father pressed charges. Lucian Mandel had me released into his custody.
The MANDEL
ACADEMY
Course Catalog
Early Winter/Spring 2012
The Fundamentals of Business
The ideal course to kick start any business-related career. Polish your math skills. Study basic economic theory. Master the use of key terms and industry jargon. Acquire all the skills necessary for creative accounting, embezzlement, and most forms of fraud.
Assassination Techniques
An advanced course for Enforcement majors (at least three semesters required). Learn to recognize and defeat measures commonly used to protect prominent persons—from traditional forms of defense (bodyguards and body doubles) to the latest high-tech tools (personal armor and information technology).
Human Psychology
No matter what your major, an understanding of
Homo sapiens
will be the basis of a successful career. This course will teach you how to trace human behavior—from sexual promiscuity to mate selection—back to its evolutionary roots. You’ll discover how the human brain was wired to address threats to the species’ survival—and learn why concepts like altruism have been rejected by modern science.
The Art of Persuasion: Influence Peddling, Coercion, and Extortion
The art of persuasion demands information. Learn how to dig for dirt on rivals or enemies—and how to use sensitive information for your benefit. An essential course for all Mandel students, the class offers instruction on basic electronic surveillance, informant recruitment, trashcan espionage, and more.
Hand to Hand Combat
Required for Enforcement majors and recommended for all students, this class will help you acquire the skills and training necessary to engage in short-range combat. This course borrows techniques from boxing, wrestling, Krav Maga, ninjutsu, and a variety of other disciplines. You will learn the basics of unarmed combat, knife-fighting, and the use of improvised weapons.
International Politics
Wherever war rages, there are fortunes to be made. In this class, Mandel’s Politics and Business majors will learn how to work hand-in-hand to profit from the sale of weapons, medicines, and black-market goods in war-torn areas around the globe. Politics majors will focus on promoting conflicts and awarding lucrative war contracts to Mandel-associated companies. Business majors will identify new opportunities and explore novel tactics—from the sale of fissionable material to the use of child soldiers.
Wealth Management
Once you’ve made your fortune, you’ll need to protect it. This useful course will teach you how to avoid sharing your hard-earned wealth with the United States government. Hide your money in places the IRS can’t look. Make use of tax loopholes designed to help the wealthiest citizens. Or renounce your US citizenship altogether and choose a new homeland where the rich stay rich and the poor keep quiet.
Partnering with Corrupt Regimes
Sometimes the best partners are those with whom no one is allowed to work. The United States government has forbidden American companies to trade with countries it has labeled State Sponsors of Terrorism. Doing business with Iran, North Korea, and Burma may be tricky, but it’s far from impossible. And the profits can be astronomical. This semester, two of the Mandel Academy’s most illustrious graduates will be visiting this course as guest lecturers. For an entire week, these famous billionaire brothers will share their experiences making money in Iran.
Basic Electronics : From Credit Card Skimmers to Key Stroke Loggers
A required course for all Technology majors, this class will ensure that you’re up-to-date on the basics. Learn how to craft simple devices that can skim credit and debit card information. Construct hardware-based loggers that will record every keystroke (and password) made on a target computer. The fundamentals of surveillance are also covered, including instruction on assembling eavesdropping equipment, covert listening devices, and roving bugs.
Crime Scene Cleaning and Bio-Waste Removal
A required course for Enforcement majors. When business gets messy, Mandel alumni need cleaners. This class will teach you how to scrub a scene of bodily fluids, remove trace evidence such as fingerprints and hair samples, and dispose of human remains. Only students with the strongest stomachs should enroll.
Human Trafficking in the Internet Age
The international trade in human beings is a booming industry, and the Internet has made it safer and more lucrative than ever before. Learn how to set up shop online using Deep Web resources—or riskier classifieds sites. Recruit employees, procure goods, and attract potential customers. An excellent course for Technology and Leisure Studies majors.
Mining the Masses: Big Profits from Little People
Many students leave the academy with their eyes peeled for a single big score. But those with a little patience find it can be just as rewarding. Some of the largest fortunes in America were built a few cents at a time. Figure out how to take a quarter from every person in America, and you’ll end up with a $75 million fortune. This course will show you how.
Introduction to Industrial Espionage
The most successful companies keep a very close eye on the competition. This course will teach future business leaders all the tricks of the trade—from planting moles inside rival organizations to executing successful “bag-ops.” You’ll learn how to steal trade secrets, bribe key executives, and penetrate computer networks. Top students will be allowed to take part in off-site assignments.
Waste Management: Polluting for Profit
The world’s companies produce over 400 metric tons of hazardous wastes every year. Environmentally safe disposal of these materials can be costly. Fortunately, there are many cheaper alternatives. This course will teach you how, when, and where to dump everything from radioactive substances to used batteries.
Hidden Treasures: Finding and Controlling the World’s Natural Resources
Many of the Earth’s natural resources are on the brink of depletion, and most are ripe for hoarding. When the world realizes that the planet’s supply of water, oil, and minerals is dwindling, the demand will quickly skyrocket. Companies or individuals who have seized control of these profitable resources will soon become the most powerful on Earth.
Brazilian Jujitsu
Required for Enforcement majors under six feet in height. One of the deadliest martial arts, Brazilian Jujitsu takes size and strength out of the equation. With a knowledge of BJJ techniques, a small fighters can easily immobilize, injure, or kill a much larger opponent. A favorite of law enforcement and security professionals, BJJ is essential for those who may need to confront them.
Let Them Eat Cake: Exploiting America’s Obesity Epidemic
The ultimate consumers, Americans will buy and eat almost anything. As the country’s waistband continues to grow, so does the opportunity for profit. Discover out how Mandel alumni have invested in the artificial flavor industry, chemical sweetener manufacturing, and health care insurance—and learn how to live large off the fat of the land.
The Ultimate Insiders: Mandel Alumni and the SEC
Once upon a time, the Securities and Exchange Commission watched over the US stock and bond markets, ensuring that trade was fair and laws were not violated. For the past three decades, Mandel alumni have been infiltrating this venerable institution. Now, the SEC works for us, and this course will teach you how to use your academy connections to their best advantage.
Secrets and Sabotage
You’ve discovered your mark’s deepest, darkest secret. (Or perhaps you’ve invented one for him.) Now what do you do with it? This course, required for all Human Resources majors, teaches students how to conduct successful smear campaigns and character assassinations.
Clandestine Chemistry
The most successful narcos control every step of the drug trade—from production to distribution. That’s why a crash course in “secret” chemistry is essential for all Leisure Studies students. Learn how to build a cocaine processing facility in the South American jungle—or rolling meth lab in Appalachia. Find out how to purchase precursor chemicals without tipping off the DEA. And know how to cover your tracks if you have to leave your lab behind.