Spanky DeFriese | Chapter 2

Helen interviews award-winning environmental journalist and author, Michelle Nijhuis about wildlife crime, protecting Paddlefish, and the history of the modern conservation movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s your special preview episode of the new series Elizabeth the First – about the remarkable life of Elizabeth Taylor. In our preview, Elizabeth Taylor meets Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra. And the rest is Hollywood History. Headline News says ‘I love Elizabeth the First’ and the Toronto Star says the podcast is ‘sumptuously produced’. Find out what all the buzz is about by listening to the full series right now: https://link.chtbl.com/elizabeththefirst Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Making her final visit to Warsaw, Helen learns about the aftermath of Operation Roadhouse. She discovers an uncertain, but hopeful future for this vulnerable fish and the communities who care about it.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An old friend helps Helen shed some light on the shady side of the caviar industry. Meanwhile, a visit to a lawyer in the Hampton’s causes Helen to question everything she’s been told about this case.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who was pulling the paddlefish poachers’ strings? Helen zeroes in on some of Roadhouse’s biggest suspects, but is also forced to confront a troubling question from her own past.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back in Missouri, Helen lands a meeting with a top conservation official. She gets the inside scoop on why Operation Roadhouse was launched and how it was executed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why would criminals travel halfway across the world to the Ozarks in search of fish eggs? To answer that question, we need to travel back in time to Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, to understand how caviar became such a coveted and valuable delicacy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Helen realizes that to get to the truth, she needs to start fishing where the fish are. Immersing herself in Warsaw’s ‘snagging’ culture, Helen discovers that this town has fallen prey to Paddlefish poachers before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist Helen Hollyman arrives in Warsaw, Missouri determined to solve the mystery of how a suspected international caviar poaching ring infiltrated this small midwest town to steal its most prized possession. When fish guts start appearing on the roadside, it takes a daring undercover sting — Operation Roadhouse — to catch the criminals. Could it really be true? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Warsaw, Missouri, is a small, rural town of just over 2,000 people in the American Midwest. Locally it’s known as the “quiet end of the Lake of the Ozarks.” Very few realize that it’s the paddlefish capital of the world. But when a new group arrived driving flashy, imported cars and dropping hundreds of dollars on bait and tackle, the town became the setting for an undercover federal sting operation tasked with bringing down a suspected international caviar poaching ring. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices