Ever wondered how a parrot could play a key role in a murder investigation? Prepare to be spellbound as we unravel the astonishing tale of a crime committed in the bustling Green Parrot Restaurant Bar in 1940s New York City and the unlikely witness that blew the case wide open. In the midst of the chaotic scene, a green macaque parrot holds the clue to the real murderer, leading to the first and only instance of a criminal conviction based on a parrot's 'testimony'.
But that's not all! Join us further as we navigate through a sea of intriguing anecdotes and friendly banter about our buddy Dave, known for his uncanny knack for knowing neat stuff. We also encourage you to engage and interact with us across different platforms. Stay with us until the end because we have some fascinating trivia about the green macaque and its endangered status. This episode isn't just a dive into true crime, but a lively blend of history, trivia, and environmental awareness. We promise, you don't want to miss this rollercoaster ride of a story.
Ever wondered how a parrot could play a key role in a murder investigation? Prepare to be spellbound as we unravel the astonishing tale of a crime committed in the bustling Green Parrot Restaurant Bar in 1940s New York City and the unlikely witness that blew the case wide open. In the midst of the chaotic scene, a green macaque parrot holds the clue to the real murderer, leading to the first and only instance of a criminal conviction based on a parrot's 'testimony'.
But that's not all! Join us further as we navigate through a sea of intriguing anecdotes and friendly banter about our buddy Dave, known for his uncanny knack for knowing neat stuff. We also encourage you to engage and interact with us across different platforms. Stay with us until the end because we have some fascinating trivia about the green macaque and its endangered status. This episode isn't just a dive into true crime, but a lively blend of history, trivia, and environmental awareness. We promise, you don't want to miss this rollercoaster ride of a story.
Oh man, oh yeah, that is one foul mouth bird, bro. I don't know where you got that fucking thing, but if it ever says that shit again in front of me, I'm gonna cook that motherfucker. Okay, Fair enough. What the hell are you doing? Alright, anyway, the shortest intro we've ever had. This is what I got, bro.
Speaker 1:
In 1940s, new York City. Near Third Avenue and 100th Street there's an establishment known as the Green Parrot Restaurant Bar. It became a landmark in the Seedy neighborhood mostly because of the large green macaque who was the main stay behind the bar. Governor Max Geller had taught the bird things to say for years and some of the parents put it there. It was generally reserved for that of a drunken sailor.
Speaker 2:
I want to know what he said. I wish I knew all the words.
Speaker 1:
He was trying to see anything specific. But yeah, someone had a nice description that said it would make a long short and blush what? Yeah, it's a really foul mouth bird.
Speaker 2:
Well, either that or it's hitting on them. I don't understand.
Speaker 1:
That was unclear. I don't know what kind of bar.
Speaker 2:
This was Either way, it doesn't matter. But yeah, it's all in the details, man, I think they need to give us more shit to go off of here.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, many of the local blue collar workers were regular. It's a Green Parrot multiple nights a week and on the night of July 12th 1942, police were alerted that a shooting had occurred at the neighborhood bar. Though there were over 20 patients at the time of the shooting, no one claimed to have seen anything. It wasn't me, dang. And while not shocked due to the nature of the neighborhood, the police found it hard to believe that, you know, none of the 20 plus people had seen the gunman.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I agree. Hey, that area I was just looking at, I wonder if it's close to the. You know, bobby Womack is yeah, he's got a song that's like Across Haunted in Tans-Tree and he's talking about New York and it's pretty like he's talking about some rugged shit and you know, I'm just there, we are.
Speaker 1:
Anyway okay.
Speaker 2:
So this guy got killed in the middle of a bar in front of a bunch of people and they're like nah.
Speaker 1:
No witnesses until finally one came forward Robert Robert. Robert walked in the car from behind his perch.
Speaker 2:
Damn.
Speaker 1:
And the police checked the registers, you know, found it full of cash. And so they determined you know, robert, he was not the motive and wondered you know, had someone really just come in there and just shot Max Geller for no reason, right, just whatever, and with essentially no evidence to go on, the case of no leads or like a couple of years?
Speaker 2:
Dang. Yeah, this is the 40s too, so this isn't like okay, guys, no cell phones, no cameras. Okay, they didn't have cameras. This guy had a wood stick behind the bar, probably, or something that you know. I don't know what's going on there, but I'm just saying, like, this is old school detective work back in New York after the Prohibition era, so it's probably pretty rugged. You know, life's rough back in the middle of the world, or two, yeah, oh man, no shit, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So like all the young men mainly would be gone, you know, and some of the older ones too. So you're left with like drunk drug addicts and old guys for guys in the US Sounds like a fun bunch.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, but that's also. But if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have had Rosie O'Donnell in the League of her own. That's about all the. You know, all the guys were gone. You made a valid point, world War II era, so it makes sense to me why this could be cold. And anyway, go forth, man, I, I, yeah there's no CSI.
Speaker 1:
back then, yeah, detective John Morrissey had spent weeks canvassing the neighborhood and reaching out to former informants, but turned up nothing for his efforts. He returned to the bar After wondering how the bird could possibly have been able to be aware to report a robbery, and Morrissey spent more weeks attempting to teach the Green Parrot new words and phrases, to no avail. He did, however, recognize that long-time regular patrons were created by name by the Squawking Macaw. Oh, wow, that's fucking cool. Yeah, yeah. And so the detective tried to teach the bird his name, once again without success, and Morrissey began to theorize that perhaps the only witness to the Cold-Blooded Killing wasn't saying Robert, but rather Robert.
Speaker 2:
What? Damn. Well, I mean, it's a fucking parrot man. So Robert's pretty close to Robert, right, Like that's pretty spot on.
Speaker 1:
And so John Morrissey began to question regular as the Green Parrot Restaurant Bar if they knew of any long-time patrons by the name of Robert. And sure enough several several at the bad bar mentioned a cab driver named Robert Burns who frequented the place. The detective discovered Robert's had in fact been a regular at the bar and incidentally disappeared right around the time of the shooting Dang. So he's up and…. Burns was tracked down in Baltimore where he was working under an assumed name as a lathe operator, and he immediately confessed to being the shooter of the Green Parrots, for prior to Max Geller. Turns out, robert Burns was incredibly drunk that July evening and Geller refused to continue serving the intoxicated customer. In a drunken rage, burns shot and killed Geller and then pled the city Dang. So subsequently Robert Burns was convicted to seven to 15 years and sing-sing for second degree murder on February 10th 1944, and he is to this day the only American criminal convicted on the testimony of a parrot.
Speaker 2:
That is insane, insane dual pigeon jokes. Yeah, I mean, it's like something that could only come from the 1940s or something. You know what I'm saying. Like that's all I know. Fun fact. Fun and kind of a sad fact. I found out what parrot that was. I think you probably seen that, but it's a green macaw, obviously, right, yeah, there's only about 500 to a thousand of these left in the world. Oh, really, they're like that endangered, right? And yeah, they're from South America.
Speaker 2:
Dude they're mouth-tossed too much. I know Snarky 80s birds or 40s, but they're a very recognizable bird. When I look at them I'm like the great green macaw. It's like literally what the fuck you think of, like with a pirate and his parrot, basically yeah, yeah, really neat looking bird. Also, sometimes, like you know, it's easy to forget that some of these I imagine it was a pretty large one too, because, yeah, it just feels that way. And yeah, I don't know parrots, I would not own a parrot, but I've been around some that were kind of cool, like we had a friend, me and Donnie, friend of the show, his friend, our friend, nick, his dad had a African gray and that thing was pretty impressive. Wow, I don't know If anybody who knows birds they're going to be like oh yeah, african grace, I don't know People like when you, you know when you like parrots.
Speaker 2:
apparently you really like fucking like parrots, so it's just a thing the first time I took mushrooms.
Speaker 1:
actually there was a parrot at my buddy's house and it would laugh. When everybody laughed, it was quite bizarre. Oh my god, how did?
Speaker 1:
you handle that it was so easy to eat much of the mushrooms, oh my god. And you would just say Sam has a good boy. And then, seriously, yeah, we would laugh. And then, like you know, a half a second after we've just done laughing, sam would just go ha ha ha. He didn't like anyone, but the dad like he was actually. I mean, sam was not in fact, a good boy, but that's my favorite experience, dang, yeah, I've only been that one is way better than mine.
Speaker 2:
I just, I was going out friend of a friend had a fucking parrot, you know, that's what I know and I seen him at a pet store one time he did some shrooms. Sam is a good boy, that sounds so creepy. I would have been kind of. I mean, here's the thing, though mushrooms it's like hard to have a terrible trip, I feel personally. Yeah, you know, if you went to an EDM show, maybe, or something like, oh god Jesus.
Speaker 1:
Like in fronds and deeter. Yeah, I know, you know, I didn't.
Speaker 2:
I didn't see that layer of hell in Dante, but uh, yeah Sounds like one. Yeah, it should have been there right with the guy who's eating himself that one. So anyway, so, um, dang man, anyway, I don't know, that's pretty disturbing. Mushrooms at a fucking music festival of that nature is scary.
Speaker 1:
I it sounds like a definitely stage in the hell.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, man, I uh dude. I love that story about the, the, the parrot named Sam.
Speaker 1:
Hey, you know, and then I don't know if my dad was bullshitting me or it was like, but he told me about somebody, like they had a parrot, and it stayed in the basement. The basement is what I got. Down there the bird was just perched on the railing looking at the water going. Son of a bitch, son of a bitch.
Speaker 2:
Oh man, I tend to believe that's the case. If it was already a cursing parrot. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. What a thing. Yeah, they're pretty interesting. I Don't know. They live for fucking ever.
Speaker 1:
It's like if you were gonna say I thought they lived like longer. More humans, if they're lucky right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, like they're like 90, I think 90 to 100 in some years. Yes, I'm shit like that. But people like it's like if you were, if, okay, so if I was to like buy a pair right now, I would have to like pass it, be prepared to pass it down to somebody, kind of deal. You know that's how parrots are. Be like owning a tortoise, which I do kind of want to buy a fucking tortoise, or a goat Like a mini. Good, yeah, I want to pig me go to. Some Must be these mad. Some pig me. Good, they're pretty neat.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, cool yeah.
Speaker 2:
Anyway, that's so. Murder mystery, are we? We're in the true crime. I think I'll have to rebrand our podcast Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. So anyway, here's the funny thing. I was looking into the green parrot crime that we were talking about here in New York and stumbled upon this one, another green Herit murder mystery Of a different, yeah, different nature, though Kinda Okay.
Speaker 2:
So the Green Parrot Cafe. It was a private club in Salt Lake City, utah, opened seven days a week for the benefit of members and their guests. Early in the morning of May 17, 1992, a few visitors entered who did not fit the description, a force of known as the preppy bandits, so named because of their clean-cut attire and pension for coffee shops. Okay was been to seeing the city menacing and the green parrot was, as police would later charge, next on its list of this gang. That the preppy bandits, according to the allegations, some mixed. The quartet decided to knock off the cafe. But something went wrong and a cook named merit, reared in Reared in, I feel, is how it said was shot and killed during the attempted heist. Two members of the group, brothers, adam and Aaron Golly, were charged with the robbery murder, but Adam didn't stick around. He skipped ill and fled Utah before he got go to trial. So anyway, years later, this ran on America's most wanted.
Speaker 2:
In 1993, nearly a year after the robbery murder, the entire staff and many patrons of the green parrot turned to watch the episode. The show aired and on to the next case. Right, many people went on their way and some televisions were switched over to a local basketball game, but a few people hung around to watch rest of the episode. Those who watched the rest of the show started calling the police. Shortly thereafter. The second reenactment, amw, aired that evening, described the crimes allegedly Portraited by a guy named Kenneth Lofsey, a former Texas police officer. All right, this guy had a worn out for his rest for Blessing children. The patrons and staff at the green parrot recognized this guy and said hey, he's in the kitchen flipping burgers, right Cuz. So they were watching.
Speaker 2:
Basically, what ends up happening here is they were watching the episode to do with their Green parrot murder mystery, looking for this other brother. And then what came on next was an episode about this shit bag Cop who molested a kid that was working in said green parrot cafe. Well, yeah, so the bartender called and whatnot? No, it's basically here's what it said. Here's the quote after we watched the segment on the the galley boys, we turned a couple of the sets to the U game and left the other on America's most wanted.
Speaker 2:
When loves you segment came on, we joked around and said that looks like her cook in the back. After a few minutes we said wait a minute, that is him. And then the bartender called the police while management made excuses to keep off key at the cafe. His shift was kind of ending, was the thing until the authorities could arrive. He is arrested and extradited to Texas where he's convicted and served seven years in prison, though it would take another two years to dole out justice to the green parrot cafe murder, the.
Speaker 2:
The restaurant was able to serve up one America's most wanted, the most interesting fugitive nights, yeah. So, basically, like you know, they I know I kind of jumped around on that, but they were watching their episode cuz one of the brothers had skipped town from the preppy bandits and they were trying to catch this guy and so everybody in the cafe is watching the episode you know being like kind of dang, that's our shit, you know. And then they, you know, switched it to other stuff, except for like one set and then the thing that ran right after that just so happened to be about their cook in the fucking kitchen. Can you imagine?
Speaker 1:
So dang Anyway, and you only got seven years which is a shot at, but I feel the same.
Speaker 2:
But you know, laws were different than this is in uh 93. I mean, shit, dude, in the 70s they used to just let they I don't even know how much of a crime it was. It's disgusting as it sounds, but like things have gotten different, you know. So let's just be happy for that, guys. You know you can't change the past, I guess, but yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know what a weird thing though. So, oh, my god, think about this, bro, I just fucking mind-fucked myself. Boom, Um, so, just Because I barely I had found that article towards the end rate before you called, I called you.
Speaker 2:
So that was like kind of why it was a little bit messy when I was reading it, but I just thought it was so interesting that I wanted to add in with this thing. And, um, when I read this article, think about it. They were watching America's Most Wanted and then they ended up solving another case because of the show that was running about their cafe. Well, we were doing an episode on the Green Parrot Bar and Grill murder in New York and I just so happened to find this one and it's very similar, you know, Just like I don't know.
Speaker 2:
Fate. It's a weird. On the other side of the country, yeah, on the West Coast, yeah, well, not the coast.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, it's all like duh, I'm always thinking fucking West Coast, my bad West Coast mindset. Yeah, yes, I feel you. Yeah, man, um, hey bro, this was really fucking cool. This is kind of a shorter episode. I don't think anybody's gonna totally complain about that. If you guys have a problem with shorter episodes, I don't know Whatever, go cry around somewhere else, but nah, uh, the thing of the matter is is uh, I just thought it was interesting and we did this. What did? Where did you? You just randomly seen this and it was kind of like hey bro, let's go ahead and do this interesting Green Parrot murder thing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I just caught a little bit of it. I'm not even sure what TV show, but then I just didn't. You know, I had to dig a little bit to find anything about it. It kept trying to send me to there's one in Key West. I guess that still operates, and I was. Yeah, I think I had to type in like 1940s Green Parrot, new York City, and then I found some articles, journalism.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but it was something I think was done wild in on TV. It was interesting. I only got a little bit. I mean I always want to. You know, I'm just gonna take stuff from TV. It's like I got inspired to look up stuff you know stuff on my own.
Speaker 2:
No, that's cool, man. I did find a Green Parrot Lounge in New York City, but I think it's in Manhattan and it looks pretty fancy. I think they're not talking about this the same one. But you know, I just wanted to see if like what I was going to go for, bro, to be honest, I was going to try and find some menu items or something, but I'm assuming we're hamburgers invented yet in the 40s, I don't know. Pretty close, right, yeah, I think so. Yeah, so they probably had a hamburger, I don't know Whatever.
Speaker 2:
But I guess another thing here too, guys, is that we do have a support the show link. It's in the show notes, and or you can go to pitlocksupplycom, which you know we have cool I tell stories shirts, I've been told they're great, the highest of quality, very superb, and you know it's a pitlocks supply gear, whatnot. Now, also, if you sign up for the show I thought about this before we're doing this episode and because you know we're just starting, we need like to get it rolling and shit we do have some subscribers, believe it or not, guys, you know, I bet you didn't know that we do because people like it. So eventually they're going to get some cool free shit.
Speaker 2:
But the goal here is, owen, I have like this like thing where I like to buy things wholesale right and yeah, yeah, and I like to find it for like the highest quality stuff for like cheap prices and then make a whole thing of it right. So that's kind of my plan with it. I don't know what I'm going to come up with. Obviously there'll be like our merch and stuff or or whatever. But I'm serious, like, if I find some like cool random shit that feels like it's show related, you know, our subscribers might end up with some really neat things. So that's the goal. But yeah, man.
Speaker 1:
I hope.
Speaker 2:
I hope nobody gets a, gets get shot today. I didn't know what else to say. Like we don't usually do, like true cry man, it's a whole, whole different thing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I just thought it was Interesting story, which is what we're going for right, totally, and you know, it's like I don't know, you know, I guess it's 1940s, it's it's early America. I, you know, like I don't really, I think like around, you know, after fuck, after the Civil War, it to me is like when our true, true, like who we are as a country began to evolve. You know, good, for good and bad, but yep, for, for good or for better or for worse. My friend Owen here at I tell stories. Yeah, oh, in another thing it made me pretty happy. Yeah, I actually want to give a shout out to one of our new listeners, a friend of Owens who's actually somebody's worked with for quite a while. Dave Just recently started listening to this show. And Dave, bro, that made me pretty excited. Man, it's cool, right, hell, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very exciting.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Dave should be on from that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I know I yeah, this guy's Dave's pretty cool. He knows a lot of neat stuff, so he's not a. He's not a slouch, my friends. Yeah, we definitely Dave on. Yeah, I don't think if you were to describe Dave Even if he didn't have like tactical machine guns all around him or whatever he's got going on as a slouch. No, no, he's pretty good. Yeah, he's pretty cool guy, anyway. So that, all being said, I feel like good job. My friend Word, you as well. Yeah, so I guess we're out here, out there in podcast land. Yeah, please check us out. I want, if you're, you're on Spotify or whatever Instagram, all that fun shit. Go comment on our crap, talk shit, if you want. I don't care, we'll interact with you. So hope everybody has a good day out there.