The Wedding Scammer

Don Quixote quest for answers which I think was unfortunate for the host and fellow victims. The real shame is everyone having any sympathy for the fraudsters. I guess that’s the magic of the con, find the naive, nice targets knowing there’s little chance of getting bit. Not bad for your first foray into journalistic investigation and podcast.

interesting story, but in the final interviews w/ the subject of this podcast the interviewer gave him too much room to lie. Justin Sayles (our lovely host) brought up the Robert Durst interview as inspiration, but his line of questioning was more like wide open field for Carl Bucho to hit balls in any direction he chooses, rather than a circling drain sucking him into admitting the truth. he presents a fact, Carl denies. he gives a name, Carl shifts blame. over and over and over. instead of getting into his head, making him feel comfortable, or setting him up to talk about NY or CA & what led him to the wedding business, he let Carl tell his story the way that Carl has rehearsed it, clearly edited & shined up so he can cope & move on from all the mistakes he’s made. I also wish the host would’ve examined the town in Texas & the wedding business community where Amy, Leah, & Lance/Carl + Brandon/Barrett live & work. tell me if Amy & Leah still run in the same circles as Carl, if they ever cross paths, if he’s out of sight and out of mind, or one degree of separation away. listening to the last episode, I feel like I’m that one that was led on a wild goose chase. I don’t feel closure, & I'm not sure how any of Carl’s victims will either when their best shot of getting him on the hook was fumbled so badly that now I’m wishing the best for Carl. so… good luck Carl Bucho. you’ve done it again.

The story was entertaining but the end was frustrating. Missed a lot of opportunities to press on his pathological lying - google drive? Paying newserati employees? Not sure why he didn’t ask in his last convos - don’t you know how this looks? You keep telling me your going to send me docs, pay the employees? All the excuses - there is benefit of the doubt and there is weak interviewing.

My ONLY issue is this series could have been edited down to five episodes. But that’s just me. Otherwise this is great reporting and storytelling. Incidentally, my antenna suspects the WS himself is responsible for a lot of the one star reviews.