The Billionaire Boy's Club: Winner Take All

In 1980, in Los Angels, California, a group of men in their 20's, led by a con man named Joseph Henry Gamsky, set out on a get rich quick scheme that turned deadly.

Joe Hunt was born Joseph Henry Gamsky. He was a charismatic and very ambitious guy. He was raised in a family with not a lot of money, and he went to one of the most affluent private schools in Los Angels. He was a very bright kid and a very good student. He got into Harvard School For Boys through a scholarship. He was said to be a sore loser as a debating star for the school in the 1970's. 

Joe changed his last name to Hunt because he wanted people to think he was related to the Hunt brothers, the most notorious billionaires in the country at the time. Joe spent a little time at USC and then went of to Chicago to try and make it as a commodities trader. He did poorly at his job and got suspended from trading.

He then met up with a former classmate, Dean Karny, and other affluent friends from Harvard. His friends got their parents and the friends of their parents to invest in Joe's visionary plan for a new kind of company--an organization that would combine business and pleasure, run by men who shared ideas, profits and even living quarters. 

It would be governed by something Joe called “paradox philosophy,” in which good and evil are interchangeable realities depending on the circumstances and one’s perspective, and people are classified as either “shadings” or “normies.”

The resulting company took its initials from the Bombay Bicycle Club in Chicago, a bar frequented by Joe and his friends, but its members jokingly referred to it as the Billionaire Boys Club. Over time, about 30 young men joined the group.

The business operated in the offices on 3rd Street in West Hollywood. The business was struggling and had spent hundreds of thousands of investor money without showing any returns. This is when Joe thought that maybe Ron Levin could help him.

Ron Levin was brillant. You could ask him about anything. He seemed to know everything and have unlimited wealth. He had a lot of nervous energy. He talked and worked fast. Levin was a scrupulous conman with a great sense of humor. He managed to scam camera and editing equipment from Panasonic, Thomson CSF, and even a remote news van from ENG Corporation claiming that he was producing a movie about “stringers.” He also had done time for mail fraud.

Eventually Levin decided to invest $5 million in a trading company and Joe was to be the manager of that money. He told Joe that he could invest the money however he saw fit and that Levin would split the profits with Joe. In a few months Joe made a $9 million profit or so he thought. You see, it turns out that Levin had went to the trading company and told them that he was making a film about commodities trading. Levin then told them that "Joe Hunt, he is going to trade this account that we're going to say has $5 million in it, and Joe can't know that there's really not $5 million in there." Levin told the company that if Joe knew that the money wasn't real, he wouldn't be as motivated. The company went along with Levin. 

After the fake money made that $9 million profit, Levin told Joe to stop trading because he wanted to liquidate it. Joe kept bugging Levin for his share of the profits. Then one day Joe happened to go into the trading company. One of the traders went up to him and asked, "So when did you know that the money was not real?"

When confronted by Joe about the fake money, Levin told him that he took the fake profit statement to another broker and used it as leverage to secure a $1 million line of credit, which he promised to share with Joe.

Then, on June 7th, 1984, at 6:45 a.m., Levin's friends 19 year old Dean Factor, great grandson of cosmetics icon Max Factor, along with mutual friend Michael Brodeur, went to Levin's Beverley Hills Duplex to catch a flight for a weekend of partying.When Factor and Brodeur knocked, there was no answer at the door. That is when they noticed that the burglar alarm, that Levin always had set before he went to bed, was disabled. More of Levin's friends, Mark Geller and his wife, showed up to Levin's house soon after. Factor was sitting on the steps. They called the housekeeper and at 7:15 a.m., she let everyone inside. Levin wasn't there, but all of his clothes, except for his grey jogging suit and his grey robe. The black bag he always took with him on trips was still there as well. However, his big white comforter that he always had on his bed and the one that his housekeeper had put on his bed the night before was missing and in it's place was a blanket reserved for guests. The remote to his TV was also missing. In the kitchen there was two unfinished salads.

Levin's father was frantic. Now way would Levin leave without telling him or contacting him in some way. Levin was very close to his mother as well and the two would talk to each other everyday. She hadn't heard from Levin either.

At 9 a.m., Levin's mother called the police to report him missing, but they told her she had to wait two days before he can be reported missing. 

At 11 p.m., a man checked into the Plaza Hotel in New York City under the name "Ron Levin." By the morning of June 9th, that man ran out of hotel credit and the hotel staff  tried to contact him to no avail. The hotel staff then went to the room and inside they found a metallic attache case, but no Levin. They then put a double lock was put on the room that he was staying in so he would have to come to the front desk if he wanted to get inside. By that evening, the hotel security supervisor went up the back staircase just as a unknown man was coming down carrying a Metallic attache case. The supervisor identified himself and asked the man what he was doing on the staircase. The man told him that the elevators were out of order. The supervisor then asked the man if he was staying at the hotel. The man told him yes, but that he couldn't stop because he had a limo waiting. The supervisor radioed for back up and the man was surrounded by hotel staff. The man then dropped the case and stood in a karate stance and yelled. The guy then said, "OK, i don't want any trouble." He then agreed to go with them to talk to the manager. As he was walking with the staff, the guy ran through the revolving glass door with the staff chasing him. In the process the glass door was broken. The manager was outside the hotel and asked Levin how he got the case out of the room. Levin said that he kicked the door down. 

The manager then called the police and had Levin arrested. Some time later the the hotel attorney called the manager and told him that that man wasn't Levin after all, his name was James Pittman. The New York police thought that Pittman was Levin as well.

On the morning of June 12th, lawyer Robert Ferraro was standing outside criminal court when he was approached by a tall young man claiming that his friend was incarcerated and a agent for Michael Jackson. The man then payed Ferraro to bail out Pittman. It turned out that that man was Joe Hunt and that Pittman was the BBC's bodyguard.

On June 22nd, a missing person's report was filed for Levin. The next day, Detective Les Zoeller called Levin's parents who said that they would contact Levin's lawyer to get permission for the police to search his house. Levin's lawyer said no, so nothing really happened with Levin's case for awhile. 

Not until an attorney for Tom and Dave May contacted Zoeller two months after Levin disappeared saying that they had information about his disappearance.

Tom and Dave where two of the initial investors of the BBC and their father was a department store heir. They were beginning to fear what Joe.

Zoeller and his partner when over to the attorney's office and sat down with the May brothers. They told Zoeller that they had a meeting at the Wilshire Manning in Los Angeles that was called by Joe. At the meeting Joe allegedly told the brothers that with Pitman's help "knocked off" Levin. Joe had known that Levin had a trip planned for June 7th and so he wanted to do "it" the night before. Joe said that he had went over to Levin's house at 9 p.m. on June 6th and ate a salad with him. A half an hour later or so, there was a knock on Levin's door. When Levin opened the door, Pittman was on the other side. Joe told Levin that Pittman was ok, he was his friend, so Levin let Pittman in. Pittman came in and pretended to be an enforcer for the Mafia wanting money from Joe. Joe then pointed the finger at Levin saying that he owed him money and that is why he couldn't pay. Pittman then allegedly pointed a gun at Levin and had him sign papers, including a check for $1.5 million. Then Pittman and Joe allegedly made Levin lay on his bed face down while Pittman held a gun to Levin. Joe then allegedly gave Pittman the go a head to kill Levin, so Pittman pulled the trigger and shot Levin in the head. Joe and Pittman then wrapped Levin's body in his comforter, took him out the back door and put him in the trunk of a BMW they had parked outside. They then took his body up to Soledad Canyon and shot the body up with shotgun shells in attempts to make him unidentifiable. It had allegedly had amused Joe at his recollection of the sight of Levin's brain popping out of his head and onto his chest. Joe said that they then buried him "way up on the top."

Zoeller contacted Levin's father, who this time was able to get Levin's attorney the permission to search his missing son's place. Levin's father assisted in the search, who found a handwritten, seven page "to do list." 

In the margin of one of the pages had Joe Hunt's signature.

It turns out that on June 8th, Joe deposited the the $1 million check that he and Pitman allegedly forced Levin to sign. The check bounced because there was only $40 in Levin's account.

On July 7th, BBC member, Ben Dosti brought his friend, Reza Eslaminia to a BBC party. Reza bragged to Joe about his father's $30 million fortune from being a high ranking official under the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Riza Pahlevi.

Hedayat Eslaminia had been living in exile in the San Francisco Bay area, since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when the Shah was overthrown and the Ayatollah Khomeini became the supreme leader of Iran. Mr. Eslaminia was allegedly working from the United States to overthrow Khomeini and often flew to Washington D.C.  at the expense of the state department. 

Reza hated his father and wanted money that he was allegedly hiding from him. He wanted the BBC's help to get it. Allegedly, Joe, Dosti, Dean Kearny, Reza and Jim Pittman  came up with a plan to kidnap Mr. Eslaminia and torture him into signing over his assets and then kill him.

On July 30th,1984, Joe and Dosti dressed up as UPS men and lugged a big blue trunk up to the front door of Mr. Eslaminia's condominium. When Mr. Eslaminia in, they jumped him. Joe chloroformed Mr. Eslaminia and then with Pittman's help, put him in the trunk and carried it back out to the truck that Kearny was driving. Reza was in a Mercedes across the street watching everything unfold.

As Joe, Dosti and Kearny were traveling, Mr. Eslaminia woke up and was freaking out and screaming. After a while he went quiet. This when the group realized that Mr Eslaminia was probably suffocating to death, so Kearny poked holes in the trunk with a screw driver. Mr. Eslaminia woke up and began screaming again. Kearny was afraid that people would hear the cries for help so he put tape over the air holes. By the time the group got to the Bel-Air house where they were going to torture Mr, Eslaminia, he had already been dead a while. They then drove up Soledad Canyon to dump the body.

The death of Mr. Eslaminia didn't detour Joe, and he decided to try to get a conservatorship for Reza so he could get the money that way.

A conservatorship is where guardian or a protector is appointed by a judge to manage the financial affairs and/or daily life of another due to physical or mental limitations, or old age. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Eslaminia reported him as missing. When Reza went to talk to the girlfriend, during the conversation he said, "I know my father loved you."  She replied, "Loved?" Then she asked Reza if Mr. Eslaminia was dead. This is when she became suspicious of Reza. Before she was thinking that maybe it was Khomeini that had kidnapped him. The girlfriend then told her encounter with Reza to the police who told the FBI. The FBI still thought that it was probably Khomeini behind Mr. Eslaminia's disappearance, but they started looking into Reza and the BBC to cover all their bases. Then Pittman told the BBC lawyer that, "We knocked off Eslaminia." After hearing this, the lawyer called the FBI.

Ultimately Reza was denied conservativeship, which wouldn't have mattered any way because Mr. Eslaminia's fortune didn't exist. He lost everything when he was exiled 5 years earlier.

On September 28th, 1984, Joe Hunt, Jim Pittman and Dean Kearny for conspiracy, robbery and first degree murder of Ron Levin and for conspiracy, kidnapping and murder of Mr. Eslaminia. Later, Ben Dosti and Reza Eslaminia were also arrested and charged for conspiracy, kidnapping and murder of Mr. Eslaminia. Kearny ended up striking a deal. He was given full immunity in exchange for his testimony, and entered the Witness Protection Program. One of the things that Kearny did was show the authorities where he had help dump Mr. Eslaminia's body. And in November of 1984 his skeletal remains were found and identified. Kearny also told them that when they were dumping Mr. Eslaminia's body Joe made a comment about being where he and Pittman had dumped Levin's body.

On February 3rd, 1987, Joe stood trial for Levin's murder and the members of the BBC testified against him. Joe's defense attorney claimed that there was no proof that Levin was dead, especially without a body, And that it was a "last hoax" by Levin to frame Joe for his murder. Carmen Canchola and Jesus Lopez, who testified that they saw Levin after his alleged murder, in September, 1986 at a gas station in Tucson, Arizona. Canchola and Lopez identified pictures of Levin from multiple photographic lineups as the same man they had seen at the gas station. This didn't sway the jury and Joe was found guilty of Levin's murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Pittman was also tried for Levin's murder. He couldn't make bail, so he was stuck in jail throughout his trial, which resulted in a hung jury. In October of 1987 he was retried and that ended in a hung jury again, but both Pittman was close to being acquitted both times. In 1988, before a third trial, prosecutors offered Pittman a deal, whereby he pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact and possession of a concealed weapon, and was sentenced to time served, being the 3 1/2 years he was incarcerated since his 1984 arrest.

In the trial for the murder of Hedayat Eslaminia, Joe decided to represent himself. His trial began on April 14th, 1992. He was almost acquitted, but the jury was deadlocked. The prosecution decided to dismiss the charges against Joe. He did such a great job, that the charges against Pittman were dropped also. However, Ben Dosti and Reza Eslaminia were both convicted of kidnapping and murder of Hedayat Eslaminia and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. After serving ten years, their convictions were overturned when it was discovered that the jury accidentally heard a prejudicial tape recording that had never been admitted into evidence. They could not be retried, because key witness Dean Kearny was still in the witness protection program and didn't want to reveal his new identity. Kearny is allegedly an attorney now.

On May 20th, 1993, a married and free Jim Pittman gave a television interview he bragged about what he had done to Levin. He confessed that one Joe's orders he shot Levin in the back of the head and help bury him up Soledad Cayon. He said that Joe wanted Levin dead because he had made him look foolish to the BBC. Pittman tried to help the police find Levin's body but they searched to no avail.

In 1997, Pittman died of kidney failure in Los Angeles.

#WinnerTakesAll