Genius on Hold Page #9

that were taking advantage

of Walter

and they were selling

the service,

but they weren't furnishing

the call system.

He just was not really,

and I hate to be blunt,

not a very good

businessman.

Father and son cannot

reconcile their differences.

It will be many years

before they meet again.

It was never really

the same between us

ever at that point.

I would, he, I think my dad

was tolerable

of my decisions

but I think he was

heartbroken and, and...

disappointed how

my life was going.

Thiel has two great kids.

Uh, my niece and my

nephew and uh,

we were there

for birthday party

and Thiely had a beautiful

home in Emerald Hills

and there was just a group

of us, my mother, my aunt,

her sister,

the two kids, and uh, my

brother's former wife

and um,

we were sitting in the kitchen

having birthday cake

and...

my brother came in the

kitchen door

and I almost fell off the...

chair.

He came in with,

uh, two or three of his uh,

dinner time gang.

And he had a big sack

like a bad Santa Claus.

He had a big sack on his

back filled with goodies

that didn't belong to him

and he had some

black stuff on his face

so they wouldn't shine

in the dark.

That was, that was reality

walking in that door

as a bad Santa Clause

with a sack on his back.

I mean, that just stopped

the party right there.

Thiel and his jewel heist crew

rob as many as eight homes

per night.

They hit different states

at different times of the year.

It is a seasonal business.

Well anyway, he

was involved in some major,

um, major uh, uh, burglaries

and major robberies.

On, on his own he started

his own, own little crew up,

you know, and uh, uh, was

also a, there wasn't control

but he also had participated

with some major

organized crime individuals

in the selling

the jewelry

or whatever they, that they

were involved in.

He did something one time

that really hurt me and...

I had an answer, uh, I had

a knock at the door one day,

late, late as I remember it,

and uh...

he said would you keep

some stuff for me?

Just for a little while?

And I said what stuff?

He said, just, just some

things

and, and things are kinda

hot right now.

And um...

I said okay...

what, what are we doing?

He said, I wanna put it

up in your attic.

And I said, okay.

And...I couldn't refuse him.

But when he left I cried

because it was the first time

I ever felt unloved.

I felt like he wasn't

thinking

that he was putting me

in jeopardy

because I could have gotten

in trouble

if the police were following

him

and I willingly accepted

stolen goods

and put them up in a safe

place for him.

An organized crime task

force is set up specifically

to get Thiel Shaw and crew.

We were more motivated

when, when they started

hitting the homes that they

were, they were living in,

in the area.

Uh, you know, when they

went to Miami

or, we wold pass on the

intelligence to other,

you know, other intelligence

agencies.

But it was really ticking

the, uh, the, uh, bosses off

when, when these guys

were hitting local houses,

right in their own

neighborhood.

That's when we said that's

it, you know,

we've had enough and uh,

we've uh, we've I had a

group of 44 guys under me.

44 guys in a city our size.

We had tactical everything

was under me.

After a 15 year crime spree,

Thiel is caught by Broward

county detectives.

He will spend 11 years

in a series of state prisons.

Florida state prison,

Lawtey correctional

institution

and Sumter.

Walter was indeed probably

the greatest jewel thief

that ever lived.

I will still maintain

that I never

committed that burglary.

Thats right.

Actually, he was an official

suspect

in more than 100 burglaries

when these pictures were

taken

and suspected on the side in

thousands of others.

Walter is hated by many

law enforcement officials

throughout uh,

this tri-county area.

8 years later, he finishes

his sentence

at Lawtey correctional

institution.

As he exits he prison,

his father is entering the

same one

for a probation violation.

Walter Shaw's wife of 44

years, Betty Lou,

has just died.

In his depressed state,

he stops reporting to his

probation officer.

Walter Shaw is compelled

to serve the balance

of his prison sentence.

Thiel loses touch with his

father completely.

A lifetime.

Probably...

20 years, 25 years.

Somewhere around there.

We'd run into each other

through the years

by accident, strictly.

Like for instance, he, he, he

got violated on probation

and when he got out

after my mother died, uh,

he had prostate cancer.

I didn't know it.

And the doctor just

happened to be my doctor

and she calls me from

Beaches hospital and says,

uh, I just, I just operated

on

a man

that has prostate cancer

and he's got your name.

And I said,

is he an older man?

She says, yeah,

he's slightly older.

And I says, really?

I says and what, what'd

you do to him?

She said I had to

castrate him

to try to stop the

progression

of his cancer and...

I said, well I'll come down,

where's it at?

And I drive to Beaches

hospital and it was my dad.

And uh, he had just gotten

out of jail, you know.

And I said, well what are you

doing here?

And he says, well...

then he got choked up

and he said I, you know,

they had to castrate me

and he was a little weak and

groggy from the operation

and I said, well I'll come

back tomorrow and see you

and I came back and he was

gone already.

He'd gone back to Reno.

With his wife Diana,

Thiel finds his father

living in a bus station

broke, starving, and

shattered by life.

He was the early stages of,

he'd, he told me at the party,

he said, I have 18 months

left to live.

And I didn't want us

to die this way.

On June 13th, 1980,

a jury in Chicago awards

MCI 1.8 billion dollars

in damages to be paid

by AT&T.

For nearly 80 years,

Bell telephone

vigorously blocked or

eliminated competitors

from the communications

industry.

Is that how you feel?

You feel like it was a war?

Yeah.

There's no doubt about it.

Why do you say that?

We were the good guys

and they weren't.

Um, they wanted to stop us

from making a living,

feeding our families,

bringing good things to

people that helped them

that they didn't want

to do themselves.

What did they want to do?

They wanted to make

money

and they wanted to control

the telephone system.

The AT&T system,

uh, had...

uh, fought it in the 70s.

They created, uh, a bill,

known as the Bell bill

in the mid 70s it was, would

have re-legitimated

monopoly

and reasserted monopoly

and they were

just hooted down.

I mean, it was clear by that

time it was AT& versus the rest of the

economy

and uh, despite the support

of the defense department,

um, they were indeed

broken up.

Which is really still quite a

remarkable achievement

of uh, the Reagan, uh,

anti-trust department,

that they actually did that.

Uh, but it was an explosion.

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