0:00

Daddy. What's up man? Are you okay

0:02

to talk here? I'm okay with it. I

0:06

chose this

0:09

because there's no cameras on this anywhere in

0:11

here. Yeah,

0:14

this is fine. But number one

0:16

is we don't

0:18

bring up all the shit. Yeah. Do

0:20

you know what he's being storied for?

0:23

Same shit. Okay. Yeah.

0:27

It's not hard. Idiots with money. Being

0:29

idiots. Being idiots with money.

0:33

Eric Maughan had it all.

0:36

A wife and kids. A mansion by

0:39

the Austin Country Club golf course. An

0:42

executive position. At Charles Maughan Toyota

0:44

you'll save thousands on every new

0:46

Toyota. With his family's car dealership.

0:48

If you shop us you'll save. We guarantee

0:50

it. Just a

0:53

typical rich kid. Here's a

0:55

guy who was born on third base and thought

0:57

he hit a triple. But

0:59

Eric also had a problem. On

1:04

a trip to Nashville Eric slept with an

1:06

escort. Two weeks later he

1:08

got a text. The sender wanted

1:10

$25,000. Or they'd

1:13

tell Eric's family what he did. You

1:16

understand when blackmail starts it doesn't end. But $25,000 today is $250,000 next week

1:18

at $750,000 a year later. But

1:24

this was Eric's world where Eric made

1:26

the rules. He didn't go

1:28

to the cops. He didn't pay the

1:30

money either. Instead he came

1:32

up with a plan to handle the

1:34

problem himself. Which is

1:36

to say he paid some other

1:39

guys to handle it. An A-Team.

1:42

Gil Paulette, Israeli Army veteran and

1:44

Charlie Sheen's former bodyguard. She was

1:47

bald. She had

1:49

gigantic muscles. She would

1:52

basically look like the Secret

1:54

Service on casual Friday.

2:00

The voicemail greeting said he couldn't answer because he

2:02

was taking over the world right now. I

2:04

shouldn't be too hard then, man. You gotta be

2:06

super creepy and start stalking him. And

2:09

Adam Carey, a former Marines Special

2:11

Forces sniper, who'd

2:13

also done time for impersonating an officer.

2:15

If you could describe Adam Carey in

2:18

one sentence, how would you describe him? I

2:21

can describe him in one word, sociopath.

2:25

The team was just supposed to figure

2:27

out who was blackmailing Eric and get

2:29

them to stop. There was still

2:31

no plan for violence at this point. But

2:34

that's not what happened. Mon

2:36

was freaking out. They needed to

2:38

do something. And that's when Galad

2:41

Paulette says, the

2:43

guys on the ground have offered

2:45

to take him out. Metro

2:49

Nashville 911. Ah,

2:51

there was just a wreck out here wearing

2:53

a work site. Yeah, there's two people in

2:56

the car. Yeah, they're both canned. Real bad

2:58

and nobody's moving. They're dead. Yeah, I think

3:00

they're dead, to be honest. After

3:07

the murders, Eric's life went back

3:09

to normal. Golf with his buddies, hunting

3:13

trips to South Texas. Well,

3:15

they thought they got away with it. What else you

3:17

gonna do? People get away with

3:19

murder all the time. Eric

3:22

even left a Google review for the

3:24

middleman who facilitated the hits. It

3:26

said, quote, they get the job done

3:28

in an expedited time. Couldn't

3:31

imagine using anyone else. He

3:34

gave five stars. It

3:38

all seemed so easy for Eric. So

3:41

when Eric thought one of the hit men was turning on

3:43

him, he figured taking him out

3:45

would be easy too. If

3:49

this thing is turning into a problem,

3:53

do you want him to take care of this? Like

3:55

what? Give me a number. Yeah.

4:01

Honestly, I think I'd rather take care of it, personally.

4:07

I'm Katie Vine. When my

4:09

producer and I started digging into this story, we

4:12

were expecting to find hubris and greed.

4:16

But along the way, we also found a

4:18

perfect storm of secrets, mistaken

4:20

identities, abusive power

4:22

dynamics, and tragic

4:24

miscommunications. Eric

4:27

Mond and the other guys involved were all

4:29

trying to chase away their demons with

4:31

fantasies and desperate schemes until

4:35

their delusions collided, leaving

4:37

two people dead. This

4:40

is The Problem with Eric, an

4:42

original podcast created by Texas Monthly

4:44

and Anna Wuerl. Coming

4:47

July 2nd.