(SNOWBLOWER WHIRRING)
(AIRPLANE ENGINE ROARING)
♪ ("WE'RE COMING BACK” BY COCK SPARRER PLAYING) ♪
♪ We're coming back We're coming back ♪
♪ We're coming back to you ♪
♪ We're never gonna Go away again... ♪
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.
♪ And you'll never walk Alone again... ♪
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.
TRAVELER: A G4.
♪ We're gonna run We're gonna crawl ♪
♪ Kick down every wall ♪
♪ It won't be long We're coming back to you... ♪
DAYNA MARTIN: We are here...
-Anarchapulco, ready to go! -...so, we did it!
(CHEERS) I finally made it! Oh!
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
(IN ENGLISH) Look at that.
(CHUCKLES) That's just the parking lot.
It's hotter than damn donut grease here right now.
♪ We're coming back We're coming back ♪
♪ We're coming back to you... ♪
NATHAN FREEMAN: 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!”
(LAUGHS)
-Oh, my God... -These are all anarchists.
Like every fucking seat on every plane,
Anarchapulco, all booked out.
♪ And you'll never walk Alone again ♪
-That's badass, man. -(LAUGHS)
♪ (SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-LEE ANN: Nathan! -NATHAN: Hey, Lee Ann.
-How are you? -LEE ANN: Good, how are you?
NATHAN: Insane.
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
TODD SCHRAMKE: 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.
(INAUDIBLE)
TODD: And with that, the rest of the world wanted in.
And the anarchists? They wanted more.
JEFF BERWICK: Most of our people were buying into Bitcoin
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...
(CHUCKLING) ...private jets and yachts.
Everything was sold out,
the whole place was packed with people.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
♪ (MUSIC TURNS DRAMATIC) ♪
TODD: How are you feeling right now?
(LAUGHS)
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!"
-♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪ -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MC: What's up, Anarchapulco?
(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
♪ (HEROIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
TRAILER NARRATOR 1: There was an idea...
TRAILER NARRATOR 2: ...to bring together a group of remarkable people...
TRAILER NARRATOR 3: ...to see if we could become something more.
TRAILER NARRATOR 4: In time,
the state will know what it's like to lose.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
Welcome to Anarchapulco.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING) -♪ (LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LARKEN ROSE: The state as a whole, as an institution
functions down to the detail
the way toxic narcissists function.
ROGER VER: 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, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Ethereum, take your pick, uh...
They're all wonderful at this point.
DAYNA: For me, this started with parenting.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -Anarchist-type of parenting
is what I want to share with you.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) -JEFF: And we're not going away.
You can't stop a good idea.
RADIO HOST: Jeff Berwick, the Dollar Vigilante is with us.
Hello, guys.
RADIO HOST: This is a huge event.
I mean, it, it went from large last year
to now, what? 1,700 people?
JEFF: I keep hearing the number go up.
Uh, I think it's somewhere between 14 and 1,700...
-RADIO HOST: Yeah. -...something like that.
LISA FREEMAN: 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... (PANTS)
(CHUCKLING) 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.
-♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ -If you're ready to take a step forward in your life,
I invite you to come forward, yeah?
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Come forward, stand up.
♪ (DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Shamanism and energy work is an important aspect of,
you know, the anarchy movement.
FACILITATOR: 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.
LISA: We started to get more attendees that were women.
Workshops were full. Everything was full.
-♪ (MUSIC TURNS FRANTIC) ♪ -♪ We got the conference We can scream it loud ♪
♪ Or we can sit down ♪
♪ For the silence Of the... ♪
Hey, hey, we're here at Anarchapulco
with the bitcoin.com. Hey! (CHUCKLES)
LISA: 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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Our conference had a lot more sponsorship.
ANNOUNCER: It's never been easier to reap
the rewards of cryptocurrency mining.
LISA: Like BitClub.
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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
LISA: We had a lot of big names.
We've got motherfucking Ron Paul in the house.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
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.
♪ Cash rules Everything around me ♪
♪ C.R.E.A.M., get the money Dollar dollar bill, y'all ♪
(AUDIENCE CHEERS)
♪ Straight to the moon Bitcoin all the way ♪
♪ Dollar vigilante All up in your hearsay ♪
♪ Dropping crypto knowledge ♪
♪ Making the ladies Go cray-cray... ♪
LISA: The energy was so overwhelming,
in a positive way.
It was a paradise for anarchists and freedom lovers.
LILY FORESTER: During Anarchapulco that year,
I felt like a fish out of water, I hated it.
♪ You too Yellen I see what you're sellin'... ♪
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LILY: "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.
(CROWD CHEERING)
LILY: 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.
LILY: They're all like, "I'm fucking gods,"
-you know, "We're the shit! We're all the shit!" -♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
(DANCE MUSIC THUMPING)
(PENSIVE MUSIC RESUMES)
Most people are at the weird vibe beach party.
LILY:
-(CHUCKLES) -LILY:
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.
JOHN GALTON: If Anarchapulco becomes
about being on vacation with people
that call themselves anarchists,
we'll lose the whole idea that it was born around.
TODD: 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.
JOHN: 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.
-♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ -(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)
LILY: I literally disassociated
my way through that entire conference.
And then, like, Paul was trying to be a little mini kingpin.
♪ (UNNERVING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LILY: 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.
(DISTORTED CHEERING)
JASON HENZA: 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.
(CHEERING CONTINUES)
LILY: 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”"
TODD: Paul even posted flyers for his services on Facebook,
using an alias account he created under his alter ego
"Shepard Spook.”
LILY: 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.
HENZA: He was up for days on end, using.
He wasn't necessarily grounded to reality.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
TODD: John and Lily invited us up to the room
where Paul was working.
But they insisted we absolutely could not film anything.
-♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
(FAINT INDISTINCT CHATTER)
LILY: He would set up a table, like, with his wares...
(KNOCKING AT DOOR)
...wait for people to knock on the door
and come in and order their drugs,
sometimes do them.
(SNIFFING)
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 offsite, like, that's Drug Dealing 101.
TODD: 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.
LILY: 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.
(DISTORTED RAPPING)
LISA: 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... -♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
...so we didn't end up having a shootout at the conference.
TODD: Kym and I went in that room.
So-- so-- you-- you-- you can contest to
that they were selling drugs, right?
-TODD: 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... -LISA: Mm-hmm.
...I didn't see them actually doing anything.
(BREATHES DEEPLY) 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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
NATHAN: 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... -HOST: 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. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JEFF: Coco, Kolo, come here, Randall.
We're sits. A lot of sits.
(DOG WHIMPERS)
JEFF: Jedi, sits. Okay, go.
(DOGS BARKING)
(BIRDS CHIRPING)
So, um...
there's an article that just came out today.
In it, he called me a, "Recluse,
watching the conference on livestream
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.
CONFERENCE HOST: His closing words for this conference
are about to come, listen to this
as we welcome, Jeff Berwick!
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING)
JEFF:
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS, CHEERS)
JEFF:
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS, CHEERS)
LISA: 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...
LARKEN: 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.
-(AMANDA ROSE CHUCKLES) -Instead of going, "That isn't my job,”
which almost anybody else would've...
because he so much believed in the underlying goal.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS) -JEFF: I knew I could do it.
LISA: 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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
LISA: It just became more and more clear
how much the conference affected us, personally.
NATHAN: 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... -(IRA BELLE FREEMAN FUZZING)
...to-- to help facilitate this vision.
NATHAN: 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?
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
PODCAST HOST: Welcome to SmartCash SmartTalk Radio.
♪ (DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
PODCAST HOST: 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?
LILY: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
♪ (ELECTRONIC BEAT PLAYING) ♪
♪ (SYNTHESIZER PLAYING) ♪
♪ (CALM SYNTH MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN: 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...
-(CHUCKLES) -...to advertise
what they were doing. So, to us organizers,
it almost seemed like nothing was going to happen.
♪ (MUSIC SWELLS, FADES) ♪
ONLOOKER: Whoo!
♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JOHN: We're most excited to see just what people put on
and what people are interested in.
-I've had so many people... -(CHUCKLES)
...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."
(TUNING FORK CHIMES)
PRESENTER: So that way, the more we use the system,
the more financially we benefit from it.
LILY: 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.
ERIKA HARRIS: 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.
HENZA: I loved it. I love the idea,
I love the start to it, it was humble.
It wasn't, you know, this extravagant thing.
JOHN: 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. -♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
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. -(BOTH CHUCKLE)
LILY: SmartCash sponsored us.
SmartCash is like a fork of Bitcoin.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LILY: And they sent representatives and everything
as part of, you know, the package.
LILY: 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.”
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JOHN:
(FIREWORK BLASTING)
HENZA: 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.
TODD: 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?"
LILY: We were just like, "Why are you helping him?"
And he was like, "Somebody has to."
And we're like, "Good luck!"
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
TODD: 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.
PODCAST HOST: Bitcoin has fallen from 16,000 dollars
to, currently it's about 9,000 dollars
NEWSCASTER: Bitcoin continues its steep slide
down more than 20 percent.
How low can Bitcoin go?
Today we will, of course, be talking about
the latest drop in the crypto markets.
TODD: Bitcoin 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...
(SMACKS LIPS) ...we go up. That's how it works.
TODD: 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 Bitcoin
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?
TODD: Despite the hope for a long-term rebound,
the community's crypto lifeblood was being drained...
threatening their forward momentum.
NATHAN: Anarchapulco put a lot of stress on our family.
LISA: Every year, it's kind of like
when you have children, you forget the first six months
after they're born.
-LISA: (CHUCKLES) Yay! -CHILD: 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.”
LISA: We're actually out of "I don't know.”
Yeah, I know...
LISA: You were feeling nauseous throughout the day.
NATHAN: 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. -(LAUGHS)
Drink?
I'm having one.
♪ (DREAMY MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LISA: 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." -(LAUGHS)
LISA: "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."
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
Jeff agreed we needed to have more people involved
and we wanted to bring on somebody full-time.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)
NATHAN: And I suggested bringing on Dayna Martin.
Hi, everybody.
NATHAN: 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.
NATHAN: She knew the speakers, she knew the audience.
I think that compassion is an instinctual...
emotion within us, we're born with it...
NATHAN: 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.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NATHAN: 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 BitClub.
She was their main logistical person.
NATHAN: 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...
LISA: Dayna was offered, like an assistant job
because she didn't have as much experience
in coordinating a conference the size
-of Anarchapulco. -(DAYNA SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
LISA: So many things just came together.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
♪ (VIOLIN AND DRUMS PLAYING) ♪
HENZA: Ever since Anarchapulco, Paul was using... a lot.
I don't think he slept that whole time, and I think that took a toll.
♪ (UNNERVING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HENZA: 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.
JUAN GALT: 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.
TODD: Do you know what happened?
HENZA: I was told he picked a fight with a few guys
and then they crushed his head.
-(WATER RIPPLING) -(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)
VOICE AS PAUL PROPERT: Those who know Gino,
know how deep he cut me. True soldier.
-(MOUSE CLICKING) -(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
VOICE AS PAUL PROPERT: 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...
HENZA: ...with society...
his past experiences with bad relationships.
It just added on top of the mess that Paul was.
LILY: 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
LILY: 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.
(MOUSE CLICKING)
HENZA: 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 rollercoaster 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.
(PAPER RUSTLING)
HENZA: 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... (BREATHES DEEPLY) ...offering to...
kill my ex-wife.
And I was just like, "I'd rather be broke in a ditch, dude,
let it go.”
(PAUL COUGHS)
(METAL CLANGS)
HENZA: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Is that music I hear?
Oh, did I not bring my phone, I don't need my phone, do I?
♪ (SERENE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NATHAN: 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.
AXIOM:
NATHAN: 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.
LISA: 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.
LISA: Thank you.
I just-- I don't have any underwear on,
-so if you see more just... -GUEST: Me too!
LISA: Okay, good! (LAUGHS)
MINISTER: 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.
LISA: 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.
(SCATTERED LAUGHTER)
MINISTER: This is the circle you have now built together.
-Friends, family... -AXIOM: Mommy, it's okay. It's okay.
...and an entire community that support you,
and you, in turn, support.
This is today's ring.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
We made it.
Wow!
-Love you. -I love you too.
(VOICE BREAKING)
(CHUCKLES, SOBS SOFTLY)
I love you.
♪ (CALM MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
MINISTER: Nathan, do you reaffirm your love
-and commitment for Lisa... -(IRA BELLE WHINING)
...and care for her in sickness and in health?
I do.
Lisa, will you continue
-to support Nathan... -(CHUCKLES)
...your husband, and continue to live
-in this happy, loving marriage? -I do.
MINISTER: So, by the powers invested in me
-by no state at all... -Whoo!
(CROWD APPLAUDING, CHEERING)
...please celebrate this renewal of vows
with the sign of affection that you choose.
I love you.
(CROWD APPLAUDING, CHEERING)
LISA: I love you. (CHUCKLES)
NATHAN: I can't believe we got here...
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
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.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING IN DISTANCE) ♪
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HENZA: 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.
HENZA: 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.
LILY: Around that time...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...I was going to the market.
-And ahead of me, what I saw... -♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
...was Paul
and Chris, Henza's ex-wife.
-(MOUSE CLICKING) -♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
HENZA: Paul had bounced around the community a little bit.
-(DOGS BARKING) -(PAUL IMITATING BARKS)
(SHOUTS)
HENZA: 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."
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
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.
-♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
VOICE AS PAUL: 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.
HENZA: 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.
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
VOICE AS PAUL: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(CELL PHONE CHIMES)
AMANDA: I started getting weird messages from Paul.
♪ (BROODING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
AMANDA: He was ranting to me about Lily,
and there was something that he didn't like about John.
(CELL PHONE CHIMES)
AMANDA: We weren't even that close.
I couldn't even place
why he thought I should be messaged.
LARKEN: 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...
(CELL PHONE CHIMES)
...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.
LISA: 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.
(KEYPAD CLACKING)
LISA: 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.
JUAN: 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.
ERIKA: 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.
(BREATHES DEEPLY) Um, and I... I was...
wanting to rest and recover.
TODD: Erika left Acapulco and moved to Belize
to restart her life away from the turmoil
of the community.
ERIKA: 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.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
LISA: There's a Telegram group
all about the communication of everybody
in the production team for the conference...
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
...and Nathan was blocked.
He was no longer allowed to be in this group.
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
LISA: 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...
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
...with Nathan Freeman, the chief cat herder.
-NATHAN: Great to see you, man. -JEFF: 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.
(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
JEFF: '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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JEFF: 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.
(LOUD CHATTER)
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.” (CHUCKLES)
-(LOUD CHATTER) -So, the only thing
that changes Washington is when the prevailing attitude
of the country changes...
JEFF: 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.
NATHAN: 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?
JEFF: 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.
LISA: Kill sold him on her ability
to delegate and be in control of a conference.
JEFF: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
NEWSCASTER 1: Bitcoin getting a beatdown today,
falling below 5,000 for the first time
-in more than a year. -♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
NEWSCASTER 2: ...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 INVESTOR: Crypto crash!
Dawgs, look at Bitcoin all-time low,
why is the price falling so low?
Holy fucking shit!
I'm losing everything, bro!
TODD: Near the end of 2018,
cryptocurrency prices bottomed out.
Bitcoin 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.
LILY: 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."
JEFF: 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.
HENZA: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
-(FIREWORK BLASTING) -(CRICKETS CHIRPING)
(FIREWORK WHISTLING)
(FIREWORK BURSTS)
-♪ (PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
LILY: ...we were done, over.
LILY: The new year.
This was the best part about living in Acapulco.
-ONLOOKER: Damn! -(DOGS BARKING)
LILY: We were shooting fireworks off our house.
Like big fireworks, like professional fireworks.
TODD: So, how do you remember feeling around that time?
(BREATHES DEEPLY) So exhausted.
Fuck, I'm exhausted thinking about it. (CHUCKLES)
(FIREWORKS BURSTING)
LILY: I don't know what we were thinking, honestly,
like, we were just trying to survive.
(SIGHS)
"I wish my life was simpler." (CHUCKLES)
That's all I remember thinking,
was that I wished my life was simpler.
And I was just like, "Okay...
what now?" (CHUCKLING)
What the fuck is this year going to bring?
♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
♪ (MUSIC SWELLS, FADES) ♪
(KEYBOARD CLACKING)
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!
(BREATHES HEAVILY, WHIMPERS)
♪ (MENACING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪