The Anarchists (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Episode #1.3 - full transcript
All righty,
we are here in the airport,
getting ready to leave.
Right by the duty-free shop
as you can see good things
there you can get.
Lookie who I found
sitting right here.
- Hello there, Gina.
- Hello there.
All right, well, hey,
we will see around
as we continue
the adventure here
for Anarchapulco 2018.
We're taking a trip to Mexico,
I'm really excited.
I'm not so much of an anarchist.
I don't even like that word,
per se.
A G4.
We are here...
- Anarchapulco, ready to go!
- So, we did it!
I finally made it! Oh!
Look at that.
That's just the parking lot.
It's hotter than damn
donut grease here right now.
So, I'm sitting
there at the computer
and I'm trying to find a flight
for somebody,
and like there's no flights
available to Acapulco.
There's 20 flights a day.
There should be hundreds
of seats available.
And then I was like,
"Oh shit, that's us!"
- Oh, my God...
- These are all anarchists.
Like every fucking seat
on every plane,
Anarchapulco, all booked out.
That's badass, man.
- Nathan!
- Hey, Lee Ann.
- How are you?
- Good, how are you?
Insane.
I had been
following this community
for about two years
at this point,
and the sudden burst
of the crypto markets
was, by far, the most
pivotal thing to happen yet.
The next conference
was happening
just two months after
Bitcoin's 20,000-dollar peak.
And with that,
the rest of the world wanted in.
And the anarchists?
They wanted more.
Most of our people
were buying into Bit coin
at like, 30 dollars, 50 dollars,
100 dollars.
It went to 20,000 dollars
that year, so all of a sudden,
like, most people had
a lot of money.
I mean,
everyone was coming in on
private jets and yachts.
Everything was sold out,
the whole place was packed
with people.
How are you feeling right now?
Uh, we, technically,
we haven't really even started,
and I'm already exhausted.
But I'm feeling pretty good,
like, I'm excited
and it's going to be,
in the words that I've used
to describe it to the team,
"Fucking Epic!"
What's up, Anarchapulco?
There was an idea
to bring together
a group of remarkable people
to see if we could
become something more.
In time,
the state will know
what it's like to lose.
Welcome to Anarchapulco.
The state
as a whole, as an institution
functions down to the detail
the way toxic narcissists
function.
Can I see a quick show of hands,
who here paid
for their attendance here
in cryptocurrency?
Get all your friends and family
and everybody else around you
using, uh, Bit coin Cash, Dash,
Ethereum, take your pick, uh...
They're all wonderful
at this point.
For me,
this started with parenting.
Anarchist-type of parenting
is what I want to share
with you.
And we're not going away.
You can't stop a good idea.
Jeff Berwick,
the Dollar Vigilante is with us.
Hello, guys.
This is a huge event.
I mean, it, it went
from large last year
to now, what? 1,700 people?
I keep hearing the number go up.
Uh, I think it's somewhere
between 14 and 1,700...
- Yeah.
- Something like that.
Our audience became broader.
Usually, there's a lot more men,
and bachelor men,
you know, and like five women.
And they're just like...
You know, like...
It really makes women
not want to go.
And so we started workshops
for women,
so we could get them
to feel more comfortable.
I invite you
to come forward, yeah?
Come forward, stand up.
Shamanism and energy work
is an important aspect of,
you know, the anarchy movement.
The thing is that
it's super male,
it's a lot of male energy.
It definitely needs
the other aspect of it,
the heart, creativity,
and an intuition
kind of balancing it.
We started to get
more attendees that were women.
Workshops were full.
Everything was full.
Hey, hey, we're here at
Anarchapulco
Tons of energy, cameras,
you know, interviews happening
all over the place.
But, yeah, this has got...
Definitely taken on a life
of its own now,
and it's a very...
We have public data
and then we have private data.
Our conference had
a lot more sponsorship.
It's never been easier to reap
the rewards
of cryptocurrency mining.
Like Bit Club.
I've been blessed to be able
to come back,
year after year and speak
and talk
about all the cool projects
we're doing.
We had a lot of big names.
We've got motherfucking
Ron Paul in the house.
If you become aware
of these things,
then you have a moral obligation
to do something about it,
and that is to spread a message.
So, we just realized.
Wu-Tang Clan is here
to learn about crypto
and they're gonna
perform tonight.
The energy was so overwhelming,
in a positive way.
It was a paradise for anarchists
and freedom lovers.
During Anarchapulco that year,
I felt like a fish
out of water, I hated it.
"Oh, look, we're gonna
take over this hotel
as anarchists."
Like, "Look at how big we are,
look at how big we are",
look at how big we are!"
Everybody was cocky as hell.
Everybody had
extra money to burn,
so they were burning it.
We were all high
on crypto, right?
And so, everybody
was feeling like a baller,
money was moving around,
it was a big party.
They're all like,
"I'm fucking gods,"
- you know, "We're the shit!
- We're all the shit!"
Most people are
at the weird vibe beach party.
I don't wanna be immersed
in this vibe
because Anarchapulco
is just getting more of that,
like, you know,
"Let's be rock stars"
type of thing.
It was almost like
a reinforcement of like,
this is why I'm doing the Fork.
If Anarchapulco becomes
about being on vacation
with people
that call themselves anarchists,
we'll lose the whole idea
that it was born around.
John and Lily
scheduled Anarchaforko
to happen just one week
after Anarchapulco.
The conferences
weren't affiliated in any way,
so the success of the Fork
hinged entirely on their ability
to promote it themselves.
I was just so exhausted.
Socializing and getting people
excited about Anarchaforko.
We did not attend
any speakers this year,
yeah, we had too much to do,
managing our lives
and getting ready for the Fork
during the daylight hours.
Most of the time
we were getting here
just as the sun was going down
and were almost here
until the sun was coming up.
I literally disassociated
my way
through that entire conference.
And then, like, Paul was trying
to be a little mini kingpin.
Selling cocaine at Anarchapulco.
I don't know where Paul found
that source, honestly,
but he had the source
before he moved in with us.
We though he could be
stealthy enough, you know?
So, we had him selling
our edibles too.
So, like, the idea was,
he was going to get
people's contact information
and meet them places,
and like do it real
decentralized, like,
and try to not even do
the drug sales
on the property
of The Princess if he could.
But Paul couldn't do anything
with subtleness
that wasn't in his vocabulary.
He went to the venue, and like
he set up shop
in some dude's room.
He had all the party favors.
He got his hands on everything
and was distributing
to everybody to make sure
everyone had a good time.
Everybody was like, "Have you
tried Paul's cocaine yet?"
Like, I'd be talking
about the conference
and people would be like,
"Have you tried Paul's cocaine”"
Paul even posted flyers
for his services on Facebook,
using an alias account
he created under his alter ego.
"Shepard Spook."
We told him
it was a stupid idea,
but we couldn't do
anything about it.
He was so obvious,
everybody knows who he was.
He was up
for days on end, using.
He wasn't necessarily grounded
to reality.
John and Lily invited us
up to the room
where Paul was working.
But they insisted we absolutely
could not film anything.
He would set up a table,
like, with his wares
wait for people to knock
on the door
and come in
and order their drugs,
sometimes do them.
It's almost like, dude, you're not
even supposed to be staying there,
like, you don't stay there.
You're supposed to leave
with the drugs
and go somewhere off site,
like, that's Drug Dealing 101.
Lily told us repeatedly
that, although, Paul was selling
cannabis products for them,
he was selling cocaine
purely on his own.
But they all seemed
to be taking a huge risk.
Paul started getting
into straight-up
like chases and stuff
with their security team,
'cause they were trying
to get rid of him.
Because he was our roommate,
he would come up
and he'd talk to us,
so the security started
watching us too.
And it was just like
this is not okay.
Not okay at all. We were pissed.
When you run a conference
in Acapulco,
when you have a lot of Americans
showing up
to a touristy place
they're gonna want to party.
And so,
we got to know the people
that would supply
our conference.
Nathan received a phone call
from our supplier.
He said that there are gringos
in a hotel room selling cocaine,
and "We're coming in,
they're done."
Nathan said, "Can you please
not do that at the conference?"
Let me go talk to them."
Nathan told them,
you need to stop
or there's going
to be serious consequences.
They stopped,
so we didn't end up having
a shootout at the conference.
Kym and I went in that room.
So... so... you...
You... you can contest to
that they were selling drugs,
right?
We don't know. We were there, they
invited us, - You... but you knew...
But my memory was John and Lily
were just hanging out in there
and they were doing
some drugs. Um...
- As far as selling...
- Mm-hmm.
I didn't see them
actually doing anything.
Well, that's the best part.
The people in charge
don't do the stuff.
They have somebody else do it,
so then they're
never doing anything. Yeah.
Did you pay me
for the ICO thing?
Well, well, he's going on now.
But he wasn't here,
so, we had to break.
What?
- Jeff...
- Ladies and gentlemen,
- please take your seats, we're about to begin..
- Wait, hang on,
- the final extravaganza...
- where's this going?
Of Anarchapulco 2018.
Coco, Kolo, come here, Randall.
We're sits. A lot of sits.
Jedi, sits. Okay, go.
So, um
there's an article
that just came out today.
In it, he called me a, "Recluse",
watching the conference
on live stream
from his mansion in the hills,"
is what he said.
And I laughed at it first
because it sounded like crazy,
like I'm Howard Hughes
or something.
But then I thought about it,
I'm like,
"Well, that's actually
what I'm doing,
so, am I a recluse?
Is that what I am?"
I don't know.
I've actually been
a little depressed
the last couple of days.
Like, there must be a reason
I feel that way, right?
Now I have to think about that,
why do I... why do I feel so alone
when I'm surrounded
by so many people?
And I've realized, a lot of them
stem from my childhood.
I blocked out a lot
of my childhood.
I don't really remember a lot.
I had no friends, really.
I was a computer nerd,
I was always getting beat up
at school.
And my dad said maybe 30 words
to me my whole life,
and it was usually "Shut up."
I was just like, you know,
15, 16. And all of a sudden
I actually got all this anger
inside of me.
I learned how to ignore
all my emotions.
I'm going through
so many changes,
and so, this is like...
You know, I'm not drinking
at this conference, and, uh
without the alcohol,
I just don't want to be around
people and talk to people.
His closing words
for this conference
are about to come,
listen to this
as we welcome, Jeff Berwick!
Nathan learned very quickly
that Berwick wasn't somebody
he could rely on,
and he became a babysitter.
Basically, Nathan did everything
and Berwick really,
once in a while
would say, "How are things?"
So we're at the end
of Cryptopulco here
I've actually been watching
most of the speeches
all throughout Anarchapulco...
With Nathan,
you could see he really believed
in what he was doing
and he cared
about trying to organize
a thousand things at once
doing a million things that really
shouldn't have had to be his job.
Instead of going,
"That isn't my job,"
which almost
anybody else would've
because he so much believed
in the underlying goal.
I knew I could do it.
Nathan was getting exhausted.
It started to get on the family
because he's absent,
completely absent from the kids.
Ira Belle was a baby,
so I was in a different
stress-level mode for sure.
It just became more
and more clear
how much the conference
affected us, personally.
I'll see them during the day.
Axiom would run up to me.
He'd be, like, "Daddy!"
And he'd give me a hug
and I'd be like,
"Hey, sorry, I gotta go!"
I... I think at one point
we literally had this exchange.
"I'm a single mom taking care
of three kids."
- Yep.
- "I'm a single dad
taking care of 1,700 kids.”
It's my role as an activist
to... to help facilitate
this vision.
We're trying
to change the world.
Is there a limit
to the sacrifice
that you're willing to make
to fix the broken world?
Welcome
to SmartCash Smart Talk Radio.
And we have Lily and John
with Anarchaforko.
How would you like to introduce
our audience to Anarchaforko
and tell us what it's about?
Honestly, um, most people
don't understand it yet.
It's kind of a completely
different idea,
'cause everybody with a ticket
can add an event.
You know, it's not up to us,
it's up to them
to do it themselves.
That we want to give people
the opportunity
to sculpt the experience
they want out of Anarchaforko.
The whole idea of this thing
is it's supposed to be
the participants
that do most
of the actual content.
They all seemed to wait
until the last minute
to advertise
what they were doing.
So, to us organizers,
it almost seemed like
nothing was going to happen.
Whoo!
We're most excited to see
just what people put on
and what people
are interested in.
I've had so many people
come up to me today,
and I was even
a little worried myself.
They're like,
"What are we doing today?"
And I was like, "Well, maybe
I should look on the schedule."
So that way,
the more we use the system,
the more financially
we benefit from it.
There was everything from like,
workshops on aromatherapy
to like jam sessions.
It was pretty much like
all the stuff
that people were saying
that they wanted to do
at Anarchapulco,
but that Anarchapulco
was currently too big to do.
You start to reorganize stuff
from the inside,
you are making change
on the outside.
So, that's why I'm saying
how we could bring
more anarchy into the world,
- is actually by...
- Yep.
Honoring these things
on the micro level...
This was completely free
and voluntary
and self-organized.
And it was spontaneous!
That's the thing.
I loved it.
I love the idea,
I love the start to it,
it was humble.
It wasn't, you know,
this extravagant thing.
It's kind of your baby,
so you always want more
and whatnot,
but we definitely
weren't disappointed
with the numbers we got.
It was above our minimum,
to consider it a success,
so we were happy with it,
you know?
Yeah.
This is the OG Broncnutz
from the 719 West West,
still down here
and Anarchaforko,
we're with some
SmartCash developers,
which I told y'all
I was gonna bring.
SmartCash sponsored us.
SmartCash is like a fork
of Bit coin.
And they sent
representatives and everything
as part of,
you know, the package.
Well, Paul, being what he was...
"You wanna try some cocaine?
You wanna try some cocaine?
You wanna try some cocaine?"
It was literally to everybody,
including our sponsors.
After that, SmartCash
just wasn't really around.
We just thought they were flaky.
We started to, like,
plan the next one
and we contacted SmartCash,
and they're like,
"We're not interested
because of this guy,"
who said he represented
your event.” We're like,
"He had nothing to do
other than that he was there,"
and that he was staying
with us at the time.”
That was the point
where John and Lily just decided
they didn't want anything
to do with him.
They locked him out.
They didn't want him
there anyway
and they didn't give him a key
and they made sure
that the doors were locked.
And then you step in.
Yeah, well, I... I...
yeah, actually.
I didn't say,
"You can stay with me."
He just says, "I got
no place to go, brother",
they put my stuff
out in the street now.”
We picked up his stuff
and put it in a van
and moved it down to my house.
I took him in because I felt bad
and we were bro-y.
And John said, "Don't let him
move in with you."
And I'm thinking, "Don't tell me
what to do, you know",
like... like,
what are you doing?"
We were just like,
"Why are you helping him?"
And he was like,
"Somebody has to."
And we're like, "Good luck!"
It seemed that
these two divergent visions
of an anarchist conference
could potentially coexist.
But this new foundation
that the community
had built itself on
was beginning to crack.
Bit coin has fallen
from 16,000 dollars
to, currently
it's about 9,000 dollars.
Bit coin continues
its steep slide
down more than 20 percent.
How low can Bit coin go?
Today we will, of course,
be talking about
the latest drop
in the crypto markets.
Bit coin was
slowly declining in value
ever since
its peak the year before.
We need to find a bottom,
and then once we find a bottom,
we build a foundation
we go up.
That's how it works.
But still hungover
from 2017's crypto euphoria,
the movement doubled down.
I'm holding on to my damn coins,
I'm not giving up!
The fact of the matter is
that this is a completely normal
market retracement
to a wild and crazy 2017.
Scared money don't make
no money, man. Fuck it!
It's just so hard for me
to fathom Bit coin
going that low, honestly.
The time to buy
is when there's blood
in the streets.
The blood is in the streets.
So, what are you gonna do?
Despite the hope
for a long-term rebound,
the community's crypto lifeblood
was being drained
threatening
their forward momentum.
Anarchapulco put
a lot of stress on our family.
Every year, it's kind of like
when you have children,
you forget the first six months
after they're born.
- Yay!
- Yay!
So, you're like,
"Oh, you know what,
"let's have kids," and you forget
what... How much
of a struggle it can be,
um, so you keep doing it again.
- You're really hungry?
- Yeah.
- What would you like to have?
- I don't know.
- Wait, what if we put...
- I don't know how to make "I don't know."
We're actually
out of "I don't know."
Yeah, I know...
You were feeling nauseous
throughout the day.
Yeah, I'd wake up shaking,
and go to bed crying.
I'd have nightmares
where we were about
to start the conference
and I realized I'd forgotten
to buy any of the plane tickets
for the speakers.
Or like you didn't have pants,
and, you know.
Drink?
I'm having one.
He was getting exhausted.
I told him it was time
that we started
getting some help
with the conference.
And I really pushed.
I'm like, "We need to get
somebody professional"
to be sort of more
in the background
"doing the logistics."
"And you can do the big stuff,"
and, you know,
we can do the ideas
and the management,
you know, aspects,
"but, logistically,
we need to start delegating."
Jeff agreed we needed
to have more people involved
and we wanted to bring on
somebody full-time.
And I suggested
bringing on Dayna Martin.
Hi, everybody.
She had such a deep background
with Anarchapulco.
She had been to all four events
up to that year.
I'm here tonight
with Larken Rose
and Amanda Rachwitz. Hey, guys!
- Hi.
- Hey.
She knew the speakers,
she knew the audience.
I think that compassion
is an instinctual
emotion within us,
we're born with it...
And she has great creative ideas
about how to set up events
like this.
Berwick had somebody else
in mind,
her name was Jessica Kill.
She approached
Jeff Berwick and said,
I've got all this experience
producing events in Hollywood,
why don't you let me help
produce Anarchapulco next year?
And she was already embedded
in the conference
through Bit Club.
She was their main
logistical person.
She seemed
professionally competent,
definitely assertive.
Jeff and I agreed that, yes,
these are two people we'd like
to add to the team.
This is really wonderful.
I'm really excited.
So, for those of you
who don't know me,
I'm Jessica Kill,
I'm one of the producers
on the team for Anarchapulco.
I'm the community producer
of the event.
Such an honor to be here
with you on Facebook Live...
Dayna was offered,
like an assistant job
because she didn't have
as much experience
in coordinating
a conference the size
of Anarchapulco.
So many things
just came together.
Ever since Anarchapulco,
Paul was using... a lot.
I don't think he slept that whole
time, and I think that took a toll.
And I think
after what happened to Gino,
he got worse.
Gino was one of Paul's friends
in the community.
They were both military vets.
They both battled
and they both saw things
a certain way and they could
speak a certain language
and they'd understand
each other.
Paul took a liking to him
because he was another
messed-up guy.
Paul kind of had this kinship
with people who were
just a little screwy.
They both have drug problems
and they would train together,
like he would join them
for workout sessions
at the Anarchastle.
Gino was being very aggressive
and belligerent.
And in Acapulco, like,
if you get aggressive
and annoying for long enough,
eventually someone
is gonna deal with you.
Gino got into a fight
and got killed.
Do you know what happened?
I was told he picked
a fight with a few guys
and then they crushed his head.
Those who know Gino,
know how deep he cut me.
True soldier.
You understood me.
You stood with me
through my hell.
Gino's death just compounded
all the frustration and anger
that Paul was dealing
with all the time
bored off my ass, and made
friends with this old man
with society
his past experiences
with bad relationships.
It just added on top
of the mess that Paul was.
Paul, like,
he did not get over Gino.
I realized after that,
that there's a lot of bloodshed
in the city, just all over
the place, all the time.
We started following that page
where they report
all the murders and stuff,
"Lo real de Acapulco."
We also kind of realized
just how bad it was
when we went to that cemetery
at the top of the hill.
You'd find entire families
that had died on the same day
buried in the same plot.
Paul was very rapidly declining.
There were times where you'd
just see him weeping,
and there were other times
where he's just feeling violent
and he wanted to fight.
There was always just
this roller coaster with Paul.
He put his whiteboard
in my living room
and started drawing up plans,
and nonstop talking
about how he was gonna
take advantage or hurt somebody.
I had mentioned
in passing with Paul one time,
that my ex-wife had
life insurance policy
that pays out to me.
He saw that I was sad sometimes,
and he really wanted to help me,
in his own bizarre way.
He kept...
offering to
kill my ex-wife.
And I was just like, "I'd rather
be broke in a ditch, dude",
let it go.”
And then over three weeks,
he got more
and more serious, so...
I decided to... I had to leave,
for a little while
until things cooled down.
My plan to get out
of that situation
was to use my mother's birthday
as an excuse
to come back to the States.
And just get away from him.
Is that music I hear?
Oh, did I not bring my phone,
I don't need my phone, do I?
Here.
Let me have your hand.
Oh, gosh, I just realized
just how emotional I'm gonna be
by the time we get down there.
Well, because
we're gonna be in front
of all our favorite people,
and mommy and I
are gonna talk about
how much we love each other
and how happy we are
to be together.
The energy of the conference
was so overwhelming.
Nathan and I were like,
we need a fresh start.
We never really had
a fancy wedding.
I wanted to do
the big wedding later,
after we've stayed together
for a while.
Like, let's prove
that this is for real.
Thank you.
I just... I don't have
any underwear on,
- so if you see more just...
- Me too!
Okay, good!
Lisa and Nathan,
when you first joined
in marriage some 14 years ago,
you really had no idea
what life would have
in store for you.
So, in 2018,
we made the decision
that we're gonna be
with all our friends.
You know, we don't have
to fly everybody in,
they're already there
for the conference.
So why don't we have
a ceremony on the beach.
This is the circle
you have now built together.
- Friends, family... Mommy, it's okay.
- It's okay.
And an entire community
that support you,
and you, in turn, support.
This is today's ring.
We made it.
Wow!
- Love you.
- I love you too.
I love you.
Nathan,
do you reaffirm your love
and commitment for Lisa,
and care for her
in sickness and in health?
I do.
Lisa, will you continue
to support Nathan
your husband,
and continue to live
- in this happy, loving marriage?
- I do.
So, by the powers invested in me
- by no state at all...
- Whoo!
Please celebrate
this renewal of vows
with the sign of affection
that you choose.
I love you.
I love you.
I can't believe we got here...
All righty, guys,
we're gonna go ahead
and, uh, start up a Streets
of Acapulco Series 2.0.
And then, uh, we'll see
a bunch of people looking
at me all funny.
When I got back into town,
John and Lily took me in.
I've got no AT&T signal
out here.
But there's lots
of cute little restaurants
and little bars.
Yeah.
We got right back
into a daily routine
of hanging out every day,
and we just started trying
to pull ourselves together
and get the Fork ready.
Around that time...
I was going to the market.
And ahead of me, what I saw
was Paul
and Chris, Henza's ex-wife.
Paul had bounced around
the community a little bit.
And, one day he ran
across my ex-wife
and her boyfriend, ModProbe,
and they took him in.
He was just quietly hanging out
at ModProbe's mansion,
enjoying the pool and just
sitting back and relaxing.
I tried to warn her
that he wanted to kill her,
and that didn't go well.
Paul admitted to it.
He says, "Yeah,
but he wanted me to kill you."
And I just threw my hands up in
the air, and I said, "I give up",
I'm not talking
about this anymore,
"and hopefully,
you won't get hurt."
And then right
when that happened,
that's when Paul started
threatening us.
I came to know
John and Lily very well
during my stay here
in beautiful Acapulco.
I actually saw the true side
of these wannabe celebritarians.
I know where the next step
in the escalation
of this will go.
Trust me, children,
you do not want me taking things
in that direction, so behave.
He would threaten us,
and then he would obsess
about us all day.
Paul was crusading
for his justice
in his own mind,
from being turned away.
Paul felt like he should
always be accepted by us,
regardless of who he is,
what's he doing.
When you talk as much shit
and pull the stunts
that you have
we might have to take it
outside and fight it out.
We can wear gloves
so I don't mess up
that pretty face too much.
But John Galton,
we gonna throw down.
I started getting
weird messages from Paul.
He was ranting to me about Lily,
and there was something
that he didn't like about John.
We weren't even that close.
I couldn't even place
why he thought
I should be messaged.
It seemed to me like a lot
of his internal struggles
they weren't just about Lily
and John.
They were about his own stuff
that I never fully understood,
and I don't think
he fully understood.
I'll never forget that,
like, in the slew
of incoherent messaging I got
he said,
"Regardless of things I did,
I really cared
about those kids."
The way he was talking sounded
like something happened
that was traumatic.
So much so, he didn't seem
to be okay
with saying what it was.
But I could tell that
it was definitely connected
to stuff he did in the military,
that I think
he didn't forgive himself for.
He felt this overwhelming
moral justice belief system,
that he was the antihero,
that he was the only one
that saw things
as they really were.
He felt like he had this job
to protect people,
but didn't see how his behavior
was causing people
the need to be protected.
In my nurturing personality,
I would, you know,
check in with him
and just let him know
that someone's
thinking about him,
that someone cares about him.
I tried to, like
invoke,
like, pull the best out of him.
And like, suppress the other,
right? Like, I was trying to,
like, influence him
in a good direction.
I really advocated for him
to do labor on a, like,
a fruit farm kind of thing,
you know? And you just...
A chance to restart a new life.
You know, even in Mexico,
I researched.
I had done this research, cause
I wanted to present solutions.
But he didn't want any
of the solutions,
any of the ideas.
So, at that point,
I had been in Acapulco,
you know, over two years,
I think two and a half.
Um, and I... I was
wanting to rest and recover.
Erika left Acapulco
and moved to Belize
to restart her life away
from the turmoil
of the community.
I don't know
what the percentage would be,
but it's like blindingly White.
I stared to feel
an accumulative effect
of being so "other."
I'm the other other.
I'm like expat,
but even among the expats,
I still don't necess... You know,
I'm still aware that y'all
are having conversations
that you hold for when I leave.
I know this.
And I just thought
that there could be
more represented than...
than just drama and crypto.
There were all these variables,
like volatile things,
unpredictable things,
dangerous things,
and they're all, like,
kinda like, being juggled.
I don't really... I don't know,
I could not keep account
of whose hands threw
which balls.
I just know that there were all
of these factors,
and that...
There's... Something is... something
was gonna implode eventually.
There's a Telegram group
all about the communication
of everybody
in the production team
for the conference,
and Nathan was blocked.
He was no longer allowed
to be in this group.
And then he was cut out
of Anarchapulco's email.
Nathan and I
were really concerned
that there was some
very sketchy stuff
happening behind the scenes.
I'm here with Nathan Freeman,
in beautiful Acapulco, Mexico.
Nathan Freeman, he runs
the Anarchapulco conference
with Nathan Freeman,
the chief cat herder.
- Great to see you, man.
- Yeah.
As a person,
I've always gotten along
really well with Nathan,
and we had a lot of fun
running Anarchapulco.
He did so many things great,
especially the people
sort of stuff.
He knows, like,
the... the community very well,
he's friends with most
of the people in the community.
But with Nathan
there's always lots of problems.
'Cause Nathan didn't really know
how to run events,
he was just winging it.
Which worked fine
for a couple of years,
but it grew to such a big size.
The thing
that really set me off...
Special gratitude
from the Anarchapulco team
for your attendance
at this lovely event
here tonight.
Was the 2018
VIP dinner with Ron Paul
and everything.
Before the event, there's like
people lined up
for like half a kilometer,
and I'm like, "What's going on?"
They're like,
"There's no one there
to even take the tickets." And
I was like, "Where's Nathan?"
And someone's like,
"He's sleeping."
So, the only thing
that changes Washington
is when the prevailing attitude
of the country changes...
I actually had to take
tickets for like an hour.
And I'm like,
"So sorry about this, so sorry,
"you want chicken?" Like...
But Jessica Kill, she's like,
"I got spreadsheets."
She was really good
with times and money,
like a real pro person
who knows how to run events.
He decided that she should be
the executive producer.
He described it as a CEO role.
Which was a little weird,
'cause I was like,
"Huh, then what am I?"
That makes no sense.
The guy who's been running it
for three years,
you're gonna push out,
when he's the one
that has all the information
on how things run?
He kinda felt like it was,
like, his thing.
And it's not even,
like my thing, really,
like, I just want it
to run well.
Kill sold him on her ability
to delegate and be in control
of a conference.
It never sat well with him.
And I think he kinda felt
like I ran him
out of Anarchapulco, but
that really wasn't the case
and, I don't know,
it just got a little weird.
Just weird.
Bit coin getting
a beatdown today,
falling below 5,000
for the first time
in more than a year.
Now down 25 percent
and just to 300 bucks
in the past hour.
If you're looking
at the market right now,
you're probably freaking out.
Crypto crash!
Dawgs, look at Bit coin
all-time low,
why is the price falling so low?
Holy fucking shit!
I'm losing everything, bro!
Near the end of 2018,
cryptocurrency prices
bottomed out.
Bit coin plunged
nearly 17,000 dollars
from its peak
just one year before,
bringing the rest
of the market down with it.
It was tough,
I was working hard.
Not a whole lot of money
was coming in.
And the conference
had a problem,
which is, where do you get
the money from?
And the money is coming
from sponsors.
And who are the sponsors?
Well, they're crypto projects
that are looking for attention.
SmartCash sponsored us big
when they were over
a dollar coin
and then they were
a quarter of that.
And then it was just like,
"Well, we got no money
to sponsor you."
And you'd just hear it
on social media, like,
"I'd like to go, but, you know,
I just... I'm down 80 percent"
this year and I can't afford
the, you know,
the expense,"
and all that kind of stuff.
We were struggling.
John was borrowing money
just to pay for rent.
No money, nothing going on.
We're all getting
pretty desperate up there,
and John and Lily
were just at their wits' end
because they weren't making it,
and... it was sad.
We were done, over.
The new year.
This was the best part
about living in Acapulco.
Damn!
We were shooting fireworks
off our house.
Like big fireworks,
like professional fireworks.
So, how do you remember
feeling around that time?
So exhausted.
Fuck, I'm exhausted thinking
about it.
I don't know
what we were thinking, honestly,
like, we were just
trying to survive.
"I wish my life was simpler."
That's all I remember thinking,
was that I wished my life
was simpler.
And I was just like, "Okay..."
What now?"
What the fuck
is this year going to bring?
Uh, if somebody's listening,
please, I just...
Somebody showed up right
after we finished eating
and they shot John and Henza,
and I was in the house
and John's dead at the gate!
Henza's in the other room dying,
and I really need help.
Somebody, please come!
we are here in the airport,
getting ready to leave.
Right by the duty-free shop
as you can see good things
there you can get.
Lookie who I found
sitting right here.
- Hello there, Gina.
- Hello there.
All right, well, hey,
we will see around
as we continue
the adventure here
for Anarchapulco 2018.
We're taking a trip to Mexico,
I'm really excited.
I'm not so much of an anarchist.
I don't even like that word,
per se.
A G4.
We are here...
- Anarchapulco, ready to go!
- So, we did it!
I finally made it! Oh!
Look at that.
That's just the parking lot.
It's hotter than damn
donut grease here right now.
So, I'm sitting
there at the computer
and I'm trying to find a flight
for somebody,
and like there's no flights
available to Acapulco.
There's 20 flights a day.
There should be hundreds
of seats available.
And then I was like,
"Oh shit, that's us!"
- Oh, my God...
- These are all anarchists.
Like every fucking seat
on every plane,
Anarchapulco, all booked out.
That's badass, man.
- Nathan!
- Hey, Lee Ann.
- How are you?
- Good, how are you?
Insane.
I had been
following this community
for about two years
at this point,
and the sudden burst
of the crypto markets
was, by far, the most
pivotal thing to happen yet.
The next conference
was happening
just two months after
Bitcoin's 20,000-dollar peak.
And with that,
the rest of the world wanted in.
And the anarchists?
They wanted more.
Most of our people
were buying into Bit coin
at like, 30 dollars, 50 dollars,
100 dollars.
It went to 20,000 dollars
that year, so all of a sudden,
like, most people had
a lot of money.
I mean,
everyone was coming in on
private jets and yachts.
Everything was sold out,
the whole place was packed
with people.
How are you feeling right now?
Uh, we, technically,
we haven't really even started,
and I'm already exhausted.
But I'm feeling pretty good,
like, I'm excited
and it's going to be,
in the words that I've used
to describe it to the team,
"Fucking Epic!"
What's up, Anarchapulco?
There was an idea
to bring together
a group of remarkable people
to see if we could
become something more.
In time,
the state will know
what it's like to lose.
Welcome to Anarchapulco.
The state
as a whole, as an institution
functions down to the detail
the way toxic narcissists
function.
Can I see a quick show of hands,
who here paid
for their attendance here
in cryptocurrency?
Get all your friends and family
and everybody else around you
using, uh, Bit coin Cash, Dash,
Ethereum, take your pick, uh...
They're all wonderful
at this point.
For me,
this started with parenting.
Anarchist-type of parenting
is what I want to share
with you.
And we're not going away.
You can't stop a good idea.
Jeff Berwick,
the Dollar Vigilante is with us.
Hello, guys.
This is a huge event.
I mean, it, it went
from large last year
to now, what? 1,700 people?
I keep hearing the number go up.
Uh, I think it's somewhere
between 14 and 1,700...
- Yeah.
- Something like that.
Our audience became broader.
Usually, there's a lot more men,
and bachelor men,
you know, and like five women.
And they're just like...
You know, like...
It really makes women
not want to go.
And so we started workshops
for women,
so we could get them
to feel more comfortable.
I invite you
to come forward, yeah?
Come forward, stand up.
Shamanism and energy work
is an important aspect of,
you know, the anarchy movement.
The thing is that
it's super male,
it's a lot of male energy.
It definitely needs
the other aspect of it,
the heart, creativity,
and an intuition
kind of balancing it.
We started to get
more attendees that were women.
Workshops were full.
Everything was full.
Hey, hey, we're here at
Anarchapulco
Tons of energy, cameras,
you know, interviews happening
all over the place.
But, yeah, this has got...
Definitely taken on a life
of its own now,
and it's a very...
We have public data
and then we have private data.
Our conference had
a lot more sponsorship.
It's never been easier to reap
the rewards
of cryptocurrency mining.
Like Bit Club.
I've been blessed to be able
to come back,
year after year and speak
and talk
about all the cool projects
we're doing.
We had a lot of big names.
We've got motherfucking
Ron Paul in the house.
If you become aware
of these things,
then you have a moral obligation
to do something about it,
and that is to spread a message.
So, we just realized.
Wu-Tang Clan is here
to learn about crypto
and they're gonna
perform tonight.
The energy was so overwhelming,
in a positive way.
It was a paradise for anarchists
and freedom lovers.
During Anarchapulco that year,
I felt like a fish
out of water, I hated it.
"Oh, look, we're gonna
take over this hotel
as anarchists."
Like, "Look at how big we are,
look at how big we are",
look at how big we are!"
Everybody was cocky as hell.
Everybody had
extra money to burn,
so they were burning it.
We were all high
on crypto, right?
And so, everybody
was feeling like a baller,
money was moving around,
it was a big party.
They're all like,
"I'm fucking gods,"
- you know, "We're the shit!
- We're all the shit!"
Most people are
at the weird vibe beach party.
I don't wanna be immersed
in this vibe
because Anarchapulco
is just getting more of that,
like, you know,
"Let's be rock stars"
type of thing.
It was almost like
a reinforcement of like,
this is why I'm doing the Fork.
If Anarchapulco becomes
about being on vacation
with people
that call themselves anarchists,
we'll lose the whole idea
that it was born around.
John and Lily
scheduled Anarchaforko
to happen just one week
after Anarchapulco.
The conferences
weren't affiliated in any way,
so the success of the Fork
hinged entirely on their ability
to promote it themselves.
I was just so exhausted.
Socializing and getting people
excited about Anarchaforko.
We did not attend
any speakers this year,
yeah, we had too much to do,
managing our lives
and getting ready for the Fork
during the daylight hours.
Most of the time
we were getting here
just as the sun was going down
and were almost here
until the sun was coming up.
I literally disassociated
my way
through that entire conference.
And then, like, Paul was trying
to be a little mini kingpin.
Selling cocaine at Anarchapulco.
I don't know where Paul found
that source, honestly,
but he had the source
before he moved in with us.
We though he could be
stealthy enough, you know?
So, we had him selling
our edibles too.
So, like, the idea was,
he was going to get
people's contact information
and meet them places,
and like do it real
decentralized, like,
and try to not even do
the drug sales
on the property
of The Princess if he could.
But Paul couldn't do anything
with subtleness
that wasn't in his vocabulary.
He went to the venue, and like
he set up shop
in some dude's room.
He had all the party favors.
He got his hands on everything
and was distributing
to everybody to make sure
everyone had a good time.
Everybody was like, "Have you
tried Paul's cocaine yet?"
Like, I'd be talking
about the conference
and people would be like,
"Have you tried Paul's cocaine”"
Paul even posted flyers
for his services on Facebook,
using an alias account
he created under his alter ego.
"Shepard Spook."
We told him
it was a stupid idea,
but we couldn't do
anything about it.
He was so obvious,
everybody knows who he was.
He was up
for days on end, using.
He wasn't necessarily grounded
to reality.
John and Lily invited us
up to the room
where Paul was working.
But they insisted we absolutely
could not film anything.
He would set up a table,
like, with his wares
wait for people to knock
on the door
and come in
and order their drugs,
sometimes do them.
It's almost like, dude, you're not
even supposed to be staying there,
like, you don't stay there.
You're supposed to leave
with the drugs
and go somewhere off site,
like, that's Drug Dealing 101.
Lily told us repeatedly
that, although, Paul was selling
cannabis products for them,
he was selling cocaine
purely on his own.
But they all seemed
to be taking a huge risk.
Paul started getting
into straight-up
like chases and stuff
with their security team,
'cause they were trying
to get rid of him.
Because he was our roommate,
he would come up
and he'd talk to us,
so the security started
watching us too.
And it was just like
this is not okay.
Not okay at all. We were pissed.
When you run a conference
in Acapulco,
when you have a lot of Americans
showing up
to a touristy place
they're gonna want to party.
And so,
we got to know the people
that would supply
our conference.
Nathan received a phone call
from our supplier.
He said that there are gringos
in a hotel room selling cocaine,
and "We're coming in,
they're done."
Nathan said, "Can you please
not do that at the conference?"
Let me go talk to them."
Nathan told them,
you need to stop
or there's going
to be serious consequences.
They stopped,
so we didn't end up having
a shootout at the conference.
Kym and I went in that room.
So... so... you...
You... you can contest to
that they were selling drugs,
right?
We don't know. We were there, they
invited us, - You... but you knew...
But my memory was John and Lily
were just hanging out in there
and they were doing
some drugs. Um...
- As far as selling...
- Mm-hmm.
I didn't see them
actually doing anything.
Well, that's the best part.
The people in charge
don't do the stuff.
They have somebody else do it,
so then they're
never doing anything. Yeah.
Did you pay me
for the ICO thing?
Well, well, he's going on now.
But he wasn't here,
so, we had to break.
What?
- Jeff...
- Ladies and gentlemen,
- please take your seats, we're about to begin..
- Wait, hang on,
- the final extravaganza...
- where's this going?
Of Anarchapulco 2018.
Coco, Kolo, come here, Randall.
We're sits. A lot of sits.
Jedi, sits. Okay, go.
So, um
there's an article
that just came out today.
In it, he called me a, "Recluse",
watching the conference
on live stream
from his mansion in the hills,"
is what he said.
And I laughed at it first
because it sounded like crazy,
like I'm Howard Hughes
or something.
But then I thought about it,
I'm like,
"Well, that's actually
what I'm doing,
so, am I a recluse?
Is that what I am?"
I don't know.
I've actually been
a little depressed
the last couple of days.
Like, there must be a reason
I feel that way, right?
Now I have to think about that,
why do I... why do I feel so alone
when I'm surrounded
by so many people?
And I've realized, a lot of them
stem from my childhood.
I blocked out a lot
of my childhood.
I don't really remember a lot.
I had no friends, really.
I was a computer nerd,
I was always getting beat up
at school.
And my dad said maybe 30 words
to me my whole life,
and it was usually "Shut up."
I was just like, you know,
15, 16. And all of a sudden
I actually got all this anger
inside of me.
I learned how to ignore
all my emotions.
I'm going through
so many changes,
and so, this is like...
You know, I'm not drinking
at this conference, and, uh
without the alcohol,
I just don't want to be around
people and talk to people.
His closing words
for this conference
are about to come,
listen to this
as we welcome, Jeff Berwick!
Nathan learned very quickly
that Berwick wasn't somebody
he could rely on,
and he became a babysitter.
Basically, Nathan did everything
and Berwick really,
once in a while
would say, "How are things?"
So we're at the end
of Cryptopulco here
I've actually been watching
most of the speeches
all throughout Anarchapulco...
With Nathan,
you could see he really believed
in what he was doing
and he cared
about trying to organize
a thousand things at once
doing a million things that really
shouldn't have had to be his job.
Instead of going,
"That isn't my job,"
which almost
anybody else would've
because he so much believed
in the underlying goal.
I knew I could do it.
Nathan was getting exhausted.
It started to get on the family
because he's absent,
completely absent from the kids.
Ira Belle was a baby,
so I was in a different
stress-level mode for sure.
It just became more
and more clear
how much the conference
affected us, personally.
I'll see them during the day.
Axiom would run up to me.
He'd be, like, "Daddy!"
And he'd give me a hug
and I'd be like,
"Hey, sorry, I gotta go!"
I... I think at one point
we literally had this exchange.
"I'm a single mom taking care
of three kids."
- Yep.
- "I'm a single dad
taking care of 1,700 kids.”
It's my role as an activist
to... to help facilitate
this vision.
We're trying
to change the world.
Is there a limit
to the sacrifice
that you're willing to make
to fix the broken world?
Welcome
to SmartCash Smart Talk Radio.
And we have Lily and John
with Anarchaforko.
How would you like to introduce
our audience to Anarchaforko
and tell us what it's about?
Honestly, um, most people
don't understand it yet.
It's kind of a completely
different idea,
'cause everybody with a ticket
can add an event.
You know, it's not up to us,
it's up to them
to do it themselves.
That we want to give people
the opportunity
to sculpt the experience
they want out of Anarchaforko.
The whole idea of this thing
is it's supposed to be
the participants
that do most
of the actual content.
They all seemed to wait
until the last minute
to advertise
what they were doing.
So, to us organizers,
it almost seemed like
nothing was going to happen.
Whoo!
We're most excited to see
just what people put on
and what people
are interested in.
I've had so many people
come up to me today,
and I was even
a little worried myself.
They're like,
"What are we doing today?"
And I was like, "Well, maybe
I should look on the schedule."
So that way,
the more we use the system,
the more financially
we benefit from it.
There was everything from like,
workshops on aromatherapy
to like jam sessions.
It was pretty much like
all the stuff
that people were saying
that they wanted to do
at Anarchapulco,
but that Anarchapulco
was currently too big to do.
You start to reorganize stuff
from the inside,
you are making change
on the outside.
So, that's why I'm saying
how we could bring
more anarchy into the world,
- is actually by...
- Yep.
Honoring these things
on the micro level...
This was completely free
and voluntary
and self-organized.
And it was spontaneous!
That's the thing.
I loved it.
I love the idea,
I love the start to it,
it was humble.
It wasn't, you know,
this extravagant thing.
It's kind of your baby,
so you always want more
and whatnot,
but we definitely
weren't disappointed
with the numbers we got.
It was above our minimum,
to consider it a success,
so we were happy with it,
you know?
Yeah.
This is the OG Broncnutz
from the 719 West West,
still down here
and Anarchaforko,
we're with some
SmartCash developers,
which I told y'all
I was gonna bring.
SmartCash sponsored us.
SmartCash is like a fork
of Bit coin.
And they sent
representatives and everything
as part of,
you know, the package.
Well, Paul, being what he was...
"You wanna try some cocaine?
You wanna try some cocaine?
You wanna try some cocaine?"
It was literally to everybody,
including our sponsors.
After that, SmartCash
just wasn't really around.
We just thought they were flaky.
We started to, like,
plan the next one
and we contacted SmartCash,
and they're like,
"We're not interested
because of this guy,"
who said he represented
your event.” We're like,
"He had nothing to do
other than that he was there,"
and that he was staying
with us at the time.”
That was the point
where John and Lily just decided
they didn't want anything
to do with him.
They locked him out.
They didn't want him
there anyway
and they didn't give him a key
and they made sure
that the doors were locked.
And then you step in.
Yeah, well, I... I...
yeah, actually.
I didn't say,
"You can stay with me."
He just says, "I got
no place to go, brother",
they put my stuff
out in the street now.”
We picked up his stuff
and put it in a van
and moved it down to my house.
I took him in because I felt bad
and we were bro-y.
And John said, "Don't let him
move in with you."
And I'm thinking, "Don't tell me
what to do, you know",
like... like,
what are you doing?"
We were just like,
"Why are you helping him?"
And he was like,
"Somebody has to."
And we're like, "Good luck!"
It seemed that
these two divergent visions
of an anarchist conference
could potentially coexist.
But this new foundation
that the community
had built itself on
was beginning to crack.
Bit coin has fallen
from 16,000 dollars
to, currently
it's about 9,000 dollars.
Bit coin continues
its steep slide
down more than 20 percent.
How low can Bit coin go?
Today we will, of course,
be talking about
the latest drop
in the crypto markets.
Bit coin was
slowly declining in value
ever since
its peak the year before.
We need to find a bottom,
and then once we find a bottom,
we build a foundation
we go up.
That's how it works.
But still hungover
from 2017's crypto euphoria,
the movement doubled down.
I'm holding on to my damn coins,
I'm not giving up!
The fact of the matter is
that this is a completely normal
market retracement
to a wild and crazy 2017.
Scared money don't make
no money, man. Fuck it!
It's just so hard for me
to fathom Bit coin
going that low, honestly.
The time to buy
is when there's blood
in the streets.
The blood is in the streets.
So, what are you gonna do?
Despite the hope
for a long-term rebound,
the community's crypto lifeblood
was being drained
threatening
their forward momentum.
Anarchapulco put
a lot of stress on our family.
Every year, it's kind of like
when you have children,
you forget the first six months
after they're born.
- Yay!
- Yay!
So, you're like,
"Oh, you know what,
"let's have kids," and you forget
what... How much
of a struggle it can be,
um, so you keep doing it again.
- You're really hungry?
- Yeah.
- What would you like to have?
- I don't know.
- Wait, what if we put...
- I don't know how to make "I don't know."
We're actually
out of "I don't know."
Yeah, I know...
You were feeling nauseous
throughout the day.
Yeah, I'd wake up shaking,
and go to bed crying.
I'd have nightmares
where we were about
to start the conference
and I realized I'd forgotten
to buy any of the plane tickets
for the speakers.
Or like you didn't have pants,
and, you know.
Drink?
I'm having one.
He was getting exhausted.
I told him it was time
that we started
getting some help
with the conference.
And I really pushed.
I'm like, "We need to get
somebody professional"
to be sort of more
in the background
"doing the logistics."
"And you can do the big stuff,"
and, you know,
we can do the ideas
and the management,
you know, aspects,
"but, logistically,
we need to start delegating."
Jeff agreed we needed
to have more people involved
and we wanted to bring on
somebody full-time.
And I suggested
bringing on Dayna Martin.
Hi, everybody.
She had such a deep background
with Anarchapulco.
She had been to all four events
up to that year.
I'm here tonight
with Larken Rose
and Amanda Rachwitz. Hey, guys!
- Hi.
- Hey.
She knew the speakers,
she knew the audience.
I think that compassion
is an instinctual
emotion within us,
we're born with it...
And she has great creative ideas
about how to set up events
like this.
Berwick had somebody else
in mind,
her name was Jessica Kill.
She approached
Jeff Berwick and said,
I've got all this experience
producing events in Hollywood,
why don't you let me help
produce Anarchapulco next year?
And she was already embedded
in the conference
through Bit Club.
She was their main
logistical person.
She seemed
professionally competent,
definitely assertive.
Jeff and I agreed that, yes,
these are two people we'd like
to add to the team.
This is really wonderful.
I'm really excited.
So, for those of you
who don't know me,
I'm Jessica Kill,
I'm one of the producers
on the team for Anarchapulco.
I'm the community producer
of the event.
Such an honor to be here
with you on Facebook Live...
Dayna was offered,
like an assistant job
because she didn't have
as much experience
in coordinating
a conference the size
of Anarchapulco.
So many things
just came together.
Ever since Anarchapulco,
Paul was using... a lot.
I don't think he slept that whole
time, and I think that took a toll.
And I think
after what happened to Gino,
he got worse.
Gino was one of Paul's friends
in the community.
They were both military vets.
They both battled
and they both saw things
a certain way and they could
speak a certain language
and they'd understand
each other.
Paul took a liking to him
because he was another
messed-up guy.
Paul kind of had this kinship
with people who were
just a little screwy.
They both have drug problems
and they would train together,
like he would join them
for workout sessions
at the Anarchastle.
Gino was being very aggressive
and belligerent.
And in Acapulco, like,
if you get aggressive
and annoying for long enough,
eventually someone
is gonna deal with you.
Gino got into a fight
and got killed.
Do you know what happened?
I was told he picked
a fight with a few guys
and then they crushed his head.
Those who know Gino,
know how deep he cut me.
True soldier.
You understood me.
You stood with me
through my hell.
Gino's death just compounded
all the frustration and anger
that Paul was dealing
with all the time
bored off my ass, and made
friends with this old man
with society
his past experiences
with bad relationships.
It just added on top
of the mess that Paul was.
Paul, like,
he did not get over Gino.
I realized after that,
that there's a lot of bloodshed
in the city, just all over
the place, all the time.
We started following that page
where they report
all the murders and stuff,
"Lo real de Acapulco."
We also kind of realized
just how bad it was
when we went to that cemetery
at the top of the hill.
You'd find entire families
that had died on the same day
buried in the same plot.
Paul was very rapidly declining.
There were times where you'd
just see him weeping,
and there were other times
where he's just feeling violent
and he wanted to fight.
There was always just
this roller coaster with Paul.
He put his whiteboard
in my living room
and started drawing up plans,
and nonstop talking
about how he was gonna
take advantage or hurt somebody.
I had mentioned
in passing with Paul one time,
that my ex-wife had
life insurance policy
that pays out to me.
He saw that I was sad sometimes,
and he really wanted to help me,
in his own bizarre way.
He kept...
offering to
kill my ex-wife.
And I was just like, "I'd rather
be broke in a ditch, dude",
let it go.”
And then over three weeks,
he got more
and more serious, so...
I decided to... I had to leave,
for a little while
until things cooled down.
My plan to get out
of that situation
was to use my mother's birthday
as an excuse
to come back to the States.
And just get away from him.
Is that music I hear?
Oh, did I not bring my phone,
I don't need my phone, do I?
Here.
Let me have your hand.
Oh, gosh, I just realized
just how emotional I'm gonna be
by the time we get down there.
Well, because
we're gonna be in front
of all our favorite people,
and mommy and I
are gonna talk about
how much we love each other
and how happy we are
to be together.
The energy of the conference
was so overwhelming.
Nathan and I were like,
we need a fresh start.
We never really had
a fancy wedding.
I wanted to do
the big wedding later,
after we've stayed together
for a while.
Like, let's prove
that this is for real.
Thank you.
I just... I don't have
any underwear on,
- so if you see more just...
- Me too!
Okay, good!
Lisa and Nathan,
when you first joined
in marriage some 14 years ago,
you really had no idea
what life would have
in store for you.
So, in 2018,
we made the decision
that we're gonna be
with all our friends.
You know, we don't have
to fly everybody in,
they're already there
for the conference.
So why don't we have
a ceremony on the beach.
This is the circle
you have now built together.
- Friends, family... Mommy, it's okay.
- It's okay.
And an entire community
that support you,
and you, in turn, support.
This is today's ring.
We made it.
Wow!
- Love you.
- I love you too.
I love you.
Nathan,
do you reaffirm your love
and commitment for Lisa,
and care for her
in sickness and in health?
I do.
Lisa, will you continue
to support Nathan
your husband,
and continue to live
- in this happy, loving marriage?
- I do.
So, by the powers invested in me
- by no state at all...
- Whoo!
Please celebrate
this renewal of vows
with the sign of affection
that you choose.
I love you.
I love you.
I can't believe we got here...
All righty, guys,
we're gonna go ahead
and, uh, start up a Streets
of Acapulco Series 2.0.
And then, uh, we'll see
a bunch of people looking
at me all funny.
When I got back into town,
John and Lily took me in.
I've got no AT&T signal
out here.
But there's lots
of cute little restaurants
and little bars.
Yeah.
We got right back
into a daily routine
of hanging out every day,
and we just started trying
to pull ourselves together
and get the Fork ready.
Around that time...
I was going to the market.
And ahead of me, what I saw
was Paul
and Chris, Henza's ex-wife.
Paul had bounced around
the community a little bit.
And, one day he ran
across my ex-wife
and her boyfriend, ModProbe,
and they took him in.
He was just quietly hanging out
at ModProbe's mansion,
enjoying the pool and just
sitting back and relaxing.
I tried to warn her
that he wanted to kill her,
and that didn't go well.
Paul admitted to it.
He says, "Yeah,
but he wanted me to kill you."
And I just threw my hands up in
the air, and I said, "I give up",
I'm not talking
about this anymore,
"and hopefully,
you won't get hurt."
And then right
when that happened,
that's when Paul started
threatening us.
I came to know
John and Lily very well
during my stay here
in beautiful Acapulco.
I actually saw the true side
of these wannabe celebritarians.
I know where the next step
in the escalation
of this will go.
Trust me, children,
you do not want me taking things
in that direction, so behave.
He would threaten us,
and then he would obsess
about us all day.
Paul was crusading
for his justice
in his own mind,
from being turned away.
Paul felt like he should
always be accepted by us,
regardless of who he is,
what's he doing.
When you talk as much shit
and pull the stunts
that you have
we might have to take it
outside and fight it out.
We can wear gloves
so I don't mess up
that pretty face too much.
But John Galton,
we gonna throw down.
I started getting
weird messages from Paul.
He was ranting to me about Lily,
and there was something
that he didn't like about John.
We weren't even that close.
I couldn't even place
why he thought
I should be messaged.
It seemed to me like a lot
of his internal struggles
they weren't just about Lily
and John.
They were about his own stuff
that I never fully understood,
and I don't think
he fully understood.
I'll never forget that,
like, in the slew
of incoherent messaging I got
he said,
"Regardless of things I did,
I really cared
about those kids."
The way he was talking sounded
like something happened
that was traumatic.
So much so, he didn't seem
to be okay
with saying what it was.
But I could tell that
it was definitely connected
to stuff he did in the military,
that I think
he didn't forgive himself for.
He felt this overwhelming
moral justice belief system,
that he was the antihero,
that he was the only one
that saw things
as they really were.
He felt like he had this job
to protect people,
but didn't see how his behavior
was causing people
the need to be protected.
In my nurturing personality,
I would, you know,
check in with him
and just let him know
that someone's
thinking about him,
that someone cares about him.
I tried to, like
invoke,
like, pull the best out of him.
And like, suppress the other,
right? Like, I was trying to,
like, influence him
in a good direction.
I really advocated for him
to do labor on a, like,
a fruit farm kind of thing,
you know? And you just...
A chance to restart a new life.
You know, even in Mexico,
I researched.
I had done this research, cause
I wanted to present solutions.
But he didn't want any
of the solutions,
any of the ideas.
So, at that point,
I had been in Acapulco,
you know, over two years,
I think two and a half.
Um, and I... I was
wanting to rest and recover.
Erika left Acapulco
and moved to Belize
to restart her life away
from the turmoil
of the community.
I don't know
what the percentage would be,
but it's like blindingly White.
I stared to feel
an accumulative effect
of being so "other."
I'm the other other.
I'm like expat,
but even among the expats,
I still don't necess... You know,
I'm still aware that y'all
are having conversations
that you hold for when I leave.
I know this.
And I just thought
that there could be
more represented than...
than just drama and crypto.
There were all these variables,
like volatile things,
unpredictable things,
dangerous things,
and they're all, like,
kinda like, being juggled.
I don't really... I don't know,
I could not keep account
of whose hands threw
which balls.
I just know that there were all
of these factors,
and that...
There's... Something is... something
was gonna implode eventually.
There's a Telegram group
all about the communication
of everybody
in the production team
for the conference,
and Nathan was blocked.
He was no longer allowed
to be in this group.
And then he was cut out
of Anarchapulco's email.
Nathan and I
were really concerned
that there was some
very sketchy stuff
happening behind the scenes.
I'm here with Nathan Freeman,
in beautiful Acapulco, Mexico.
Nathan Freeman, he runs
the Anarchapulco conference
with Nathan Freeman,
the chief cat herder.
- Great to see you, man.
- Yeah.
As a person,
I've always gotten along
really well with Nathan,
and we had a lot of fun
running Anarchapulco.
He did so many things great,
especially the people
sort of stuff.
He knows, like,
the... the community very well,
he's friends with most
of the people in the community.
But with Nathan
there's always lots of problems.
'Cause Nathan didn't really know
how to run events,
he was just winging it.
Which worked fine
for a couple of years,
but it grew to such a big size.
The thing
that really set me off...
Special gratitude
from the Anarchapulco team
for your attendance
at this lovely event
here tonight.
Was the 2018
VIP dinner with Ron Paul
and everything.
Before the event, there's like
people lined up
for like half a kilometer,
and I'm like, "What's going on?"
They're like,
"There's no one there
to even take the tickets." And
I was like, "Where's Nathan?"
And someone's like,
"He's sleeping."
So, the only thing
that changes Washington
is when the prevailing attitude
of the country changes...
I actually had to take
tickets for like an hour.
And I'm like,
"So sorry about this, so sorry,
"you want chicken?" Like...
But Jessica Kill, she's like,
"I got spreadsheets."
She was really good
with times and money,
like a real pro person
who knows how to run events.
He decided that she should be
the executive producer.
He described it as a CEO role.
Which was a little weird,
'cause I was like,
"Huh, then what am I?"
That makes no sense.
The guy who's been running it
for three years,
you're gonna push out,
when he's the one
that has all the information
on how things run?
He kinda felt like it was,
like, his thing.
And it's not even,
like my thing, really,
like, I just want it
to run well.
Kill sold him on her ability
to delegate and be in control
of a conference.
It never sat well with him.
And I think he kinda felt
like I ran him
out of Anarchapulco, but
that really wasn't the case
and, I don't know,
it just got a little weird.
Just weird.
Bit coin getting
a beatdown today,
falling below 5,000
for the first time
in more than a year.
Now down 25 percent
and just to 300 bucks
in the past hour.
If you're looking
at the market right now,
you're probably freaking out.
Crypto crash!
Dawgs, look at Bit coin
all-time low,
why is the price falling so low?
Holy fucking shit!
I'm losing everything, bro!
Near the end of 2018,
cryptocurrency prices
bottomed out.
Bit coin plunged
nearly 17,000 dollars
from its peak
just one year before,
bringing the rest
of the market down with it.
It was tough,
I was working hard.
Not a whole lot of money
was coming in.
And the conference
had a problem,
which is, where do you get
the money from?
And the money is coming
from sponsors.
And who are the sponsors?
Well, they're crypto projects
that are looking for attention.
SmartCash sponsored us big
when they were over
a dollar coin
and then they were
a quarter of that.
And then it was just like,
"Well, we got no money
to sponsor you."
And you'd just hear it
on social media, like,
"I'd like to go, but, you know,
I just... I'm down 80 percent"
this year and I can't afford
the, you know,
the expense,"
and all that kind of stuff.
We were struggling.
John was borrowing money
just to pay for rent.
No money, nothing going on.
We're all getting
pretty desperate up there,
and John and Lily
were just at their wits' end
because they weren't making it,
and... it was sad.
We were done, over.
The new year.
This was the best part
about living in Acapulco.
Damn!
We were shooting fireworks
off our house.
Like big fireworks,
like professional fireworks.
So, how do you remember
feeling around that time?
So exhausted.
Fuck, I'm exhausted thinking
about it.
I don't know
what we were thinking, honestly,
like, we were just
trying to survive.
"I wish my life was simpler."
That's all I remember thinking,
was that I wished my life
was simpler.
And I was just like, "Okay..."
What now?"
What the fuck
is this year going to bring?
Uh, if somebody's listening,
please, I just...
Somebody showed up right
after we finished eating
and they shot John and Henza,
and I was in the house
and John's dead at the gate!
Henza's in the other room dying,
and I really need help.
Somebody, please come!