GLYNN WASHINGTON, HOST:
Now then, you've heard about the witness protection program. You've heard about people who've had to go underground to escape the mob, but those are all grown folk. What if you're not even old enough to know what going underground even means? SNAP JUDGMENT'S Anna Sussman has the story.
ANNA SUSSMAN, BYLINE: Galadriel (ph) grew up living with her mom in New York City. She'd play in the park and go to museums, until one day, out of nowhere, when she was nine, her mom sent her to live with her data across town. She didn't know why or for how long. She just went with a little suitcase full of 9-year-old clothes and some books. And her mom didn't call or write.
GALADRIEL BLACK: My mother had sent me away for a week or two while she had a little vacation, at least that's what I was told. A week or two passed and then another week or two with no news about my mother except that she was missing. I remember thinking it was very strange. And the fact that it was during the school year was the strangest part. I had heard various rumors about my mother. I had heard that she was running away with a criminal. I had heard that she had just left me. And I had heard that she was dead and that someone had cut her head off. So I wasn't entirely sure about her fate.
SUSSMAN: Galadriel is pretty matter-of-fact about this crazy situation because when your 9 years old and your mom goes missing, you grow up pretty fast. Weeks passed and then months, and she knew nothing but these gruesome rumors about her mom.
BLACK: It has been about six months. I'm coming home from school. And there on the street, I walked past a woman with red hair and a dog. And she called my name, and I turned around and did not know her. It took a couple of minutes to see past the red hair and the sunglasses and the unfamiliar clothes. She was my long lost mother. Surprise. I didn't know at the time. It turned out, later, that it was part of her disguise.
Apparently, picking me up was not an easy thing. It was a major orchestrated event with several aides and assistants. She had borrowed this prop dog from someone. She had several people blocking the sides of the street - the entrances to the park with borrowed cars. And she had lookouts hoping to keep police at bay. She said that we'd talk later, but that we had to go away now. So she handed off this random dog to a person I did not know. And we got into a car. We drove for about two hours out of town. And she said we were going to go someplace safe to talk and that she did have a surprise for me.
I didn't realize when I got into the car with my mother, that I was having anything more than a happy reunion. We went to a house in Pennsylvania. It was a clapboard house, not very exciting, but in that house was my surprise. And that surprise was Albert.
SUSSMAN: Albert was her mother's lover and an escaped criminal. So her mom, Susan, told her from here on out, they were going underground together. They had to sever ties with almost everyone from their previous life. Galadriel could no longer go to school. She couldn't see or talk to any of her friends or her family. She says she couldn't even call her dad to explain why she didn't come home from school that day.
BLACK: It was less a resumption of family life and more descent into life on the lam.
SUSSMAN: They traveled from New York to Pennsylvania to Florida - all over the country, living in safe houses with new identities. It was two years later, living California, when they ran into a family member, Jeff, on the street.
JEFF GREENWALD: I was walking down the streets in Santa Barbara, California, and I saw a woman who I couldn't even believe could be on the street. It was by all appearances my favorite cousin, Susan. She just vanished. She just dropped off the map, and I'd had no idea what happened to her. And here she was walking out of a jewelry store dressed to the nines. And I did what any loving cousin would do in that situation. I just run up to her screaming, Susan, it's so great to see you again. Her eyes went wide as saucers.
She essentially clamped her hand over my mouth and said Serafina (ph). Call me Serafina. She gave me a sort of warning glance, and then out of the store behind her walked this extremely good looking and well dressed man. She leaned over close. She said, give me your address and we'll come to your house later. Don't tell anybody - anybody, not your father, not your mother, not your girlfriend, no one - that you saw me here.
SUSSMAN: Jeff was working as an editor at the Santa Barbara News & Review. He loved a good story as much as the next reporter so he went home and waited for Susan and this mystery man to come to him.
GREENWALD: I knew that she'd been mixed up in some strange business, but no one would tell me exactly what that business was. I was sitting in my converted garage when a gold Cadillac convertible pulled up into the driveway and my cousin Susan and her partner got out. And they came in, sat on the bed with me and the man lit up a cigarette. My cousin looked at me and said, does the name Albert Victory mean anything to you? I knew the name. He was an infamous New York City cop killer. I'd seen his picture almost every single day.
SUSSMAN: Because Albert Victory was on the FBI's most wanted list. He was convicted of shooting and killing a police officer outside a New York City nightclub.
GREENWALD: I said, yes, I've heard of Albert Victory. And Susan said, well, I'd like to introduce you to him. He's my husband sitting beside me. And I looked at him, and he looked at me. And we reached out to each other and shook hands. And I remember thinking in that moment, despite the fact that I was a journalist, one overriding sense that I would never betray whatever information was about to be given me.
SUSSMAN: Here's what Jeff found out - after Albert had been convicted and sentenced for murdering a cop, he insisted on his innocence and he fought his case for years. When it became clear he wasn't getting out that legally, he went another route with the help of his lover, a woman he had met while in prison who had helped him with his case - Galadriel's Mom, Susan.
GREENWALD: Albert was going to be taken out of the prison and brought into town for a dentist appointment. But he convinced the two guards that, for a certain sum, they should let him stop at a local hotel to have an afternoon soiree with his lover, my cousin Susan. He gave them some money for drinks, and the two cops went into the hotel bar. Albert and my cousin Susan walked out the back door of the hotel into a waiting getaway car and made their escape.
SUSSMAN: Now Susan and Albert sat on Jeff's bed and asked him for his help. They needed to find a place to live.
GREENWALD: It was an extremely hard question for them to ask me because to help Albert Victory would be aiding and abetting the number one most wanted fugitive in the United States at that point. And I remember, without hesitation, saying that I would do anything I could for them. It wasn't just that I loved my cousin. It was that in the course of that evening, Albert had absolutely convinced me of his innocence.
SUSSMAN: Jeff says there was something about Albert that was instantly sympathetic. That he was a poor kid who had been framed, who didn't deserve to languish in prison. It seemed to both Jeff and Susan that there was a wrong that should be righted.
BLACK: I think my mother's main focus was on her mission. Her mission to do something truly heroic to save this poorly maligned man, and to become a greater figure herself by doing it.
GREENWALD: She said to me in these exact words, many times, Jeff, I know what it is to suffer for heroic love. And that became, really, her theme.
SUSSMAN: And was there any part of that that was true for you in this, like, that was exciting about being part of something underground or that you were able to feel like a savior in the same way that she was?
GREENWALD: It was a fantastic story. And I loved it as a story. You know, to be part of it felt like a privilege.
SUSSMAN: This man, one of FBI's most wanted convicts, now had one woman harboring him in secret at great risk to her and her daughter. And over the course of less than an hour, had charmed a newspaper reporter into not only sitting on the biggest scoop of his life, but into committing a serious crime in doing so. The only person in this scenario who was not so charmed or swept up in the thrill of harboring a convict was Galadriel.
BLACK: I was told Albert was innocent of the crimes of which he had been accused. However, it was clear he was running from the law so in my child's mind, I knew he was guilty of something. Some of his actions were vulgar, which is not been surprising. He'd been in prison and I did not really enjoy some of what he did - the cursing, the table manners. They had asked me, as well, that I love them. And Albert asked this more than my mother. He would say every day, do you love me and how much? And I would say, not really, and then I'd hold up my finger up just a little bit, perhaps this much, I would say. Living this life was uncomfortable for me and I did not care for it at all.
GREENWALD: Let me ask you a question, Galadriel. Was there some part of you, back then, that securely hoped I would turn Albert in?
BLACK: It never even occurred to me that you would do that. I understand family loyalty, and you're a part of the family. There was a very deep part of me, not so secret, that hoped we would go back to a stable normal life.
SUSSMAN: So Galadriel was torn. She knew something wasn't right. It didn't feel right. But she was a kid and loyal to her mom.
BLACK: I was told by my mother from early on not to lie to anyone. But this situation and her urging had me lying to everyone that I met all the time. I got to the point where I actually developed a physical tick from the stress.
SUSSMAN: So Galadriel began to craft a stability of her own made from the lies she was forced to tell.
BLACK: I started with a new name, everywhere we went, very early. And that name was Kelly - usually, some variation of Kelly - Douglas or Fulton or Flowers or Anne - but almost always Kelly.
SUSSMAN: And Kelly would never cheat or steal or run from the law. Kelly was a proper English girl.
BLACK: I have to tell you this accent I have, I did not come by it by accident.
SUSSMAN: The accent is completely fake, or it was when she was 9.
BLACK: Well, aside from the ridiculous accent and the manners that I put on, first was that I had to create for myself a story that was comfortable and consistent and that I could live with internally. And for myself, that story was a fairly well mannered, not excitable English girl so here I am. I read a great deal. I was trying to teach myself Latin from textbooks. I used to entertain myself reading the dictionary and "Emily Post's Guide to Manners."
SUSSMAN: And even though the life Galadriel found herself in was distasteful and otherwise unlawful, she was well off.
BLACK: There was a lot of money around all the time. We traveled first class. We ate at excellent restaurants. We had all the trappings of wealth, but, personally, we had no money. Albert had it all. So I had this scheme, and it is going to sound ridiculous. But I had this scheme of collecting bicentennial quarters. I would go through his pockets, with his permission, and pull out all the bicentennial quarters and all of the $2 bills. I was so passionate about my collection that all of his criminal friends gave in and I went through their pockets to give me their $2 bills and bicentennial quarters as well.
SUSSMAN: As the months passed, Galadriel's mom was getting more and more nervous that they would get caught. So despite her great love and all she had sacrificed, Susan eventually did move away from Albert. She moved into a new house and called Jeff over one day saying she needed some help with some boxes. And when he got there, they turned on the TV.
GREENWALD: A special news bulletin came on the air, and we just all froze. America's most wanted criminal, Albert Victory, had just been arrested by his home. There was live footage from the helicopter of him being led out of the house in handcuffs.
BLACK: Albert on the screen - this little screen - head down, looking a little bit like a beaten dog and an angry dog by (unintelligible).
GREENWALD: And I remember the way they concluded the broadcast. A female accomplice is still being sought.
BLACK: And my mother turned a shade of white that was astonishing.
GREENWALD: I looked at Susan. Susan looked at me, and without her even having to say anything, we both knew exactly what had to be done. We began to repack all the boxes. And I drove Galadriel and Susan to a motel, and I left them off there.
SUSSMAN: Now Galadriel and her mom were on the run without Albert and his circle of friends.
BLACK: We went underground in a way that actually involves going to dirt. If it was bad before, it was nothing. We went to a place with no electricity and no running water, with a wood stove made out of an old ammunition box and a chimney made out of welded together coffee cans. But, actually, we did have my stash of bicentennial quarters and $2 bills. I managed to squirrel away $1,560. And it was extremely useful, and I felt very proud.
SUSSMAN: Galadriel stayed underground in hiding with her mom until she was 13 years old. Then she convinced her mom to let her move in with a cousin so she could go back to school and have the real life she always wanted. But she was a changed girl. Her alter ego, Kelly, had seeped into her real-life personality.
BLACK: Much of it is who I am now. I remember I was out of school for a long time so I wasn't around other children to learn proper social behaviors. So I created a personality that was emotionally secure and adaptable and able to deal with things with a certain amount of grace. And I hope that I have that with me still. I am well aware that my accent is ridiculous. I am aware because it's true, and my friends tell me so all the time. At this point, it is so much part of my person, again, like a scar, that have become proud of it. I'm going to wear it for the rest of my life. I, at this point, have no need to get rid of it, and I'm pleased to have it.
SUSSMAN: Albert was re-imprisoned after he was caught. Susan eventually worked out a plea deal with the cops. Never spent any time in prison for being Albert's accomplice.
BLACK: So about 20 years later after this adventure, my mother give me a call and said it was vitally important that I come to New York right away. I got a plane ticket and flew to New York on New Year's Eve. I arrived to her little house in upstate New York, and found that Albert was there. We were celebrating his release. Surprise. We had dinner together. We played Trivial Pursuit together, games of cards together. Going back to spend time with him and my mother immediately put me back into the mindset of a child.
SUSSMAN: So she called on the self-reliance she developed at a young age. And while she abided Albert and her mother, she kept a signature polite distance.
BLACK: I was, of course, happy that my mother was happy that Albert was out, and pleased that he was out because prison can't be good for anyone. But I have to say honestly, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Again, do you love me and how much do you love me? And, again, not really and about that much.
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WASHINGTON: Big thanks to Galadriel Black and Jeff Greenwald for sharing that story with SNAP. It has been far too long, Jeff Greenwald. Jeff, as you may know, is the author of many books and the liver of many adventures. We'll have a link to his world on SNAP JUDGMENT.org. When SNAP continues, we got us a taste for royal blood. And SNAP's going to shoot up a tray, for real when SNAP JUDGMENT the "Underground" episode continues. Stay tuned. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.