Harness Racing Legend My Wife Put A Hit Out on When i Lost $70 Million

Then I had a marriage which she put out of contract to kill me. You had a knock on the door by the cops and they say, "Your wife number two want to kill you." She hired a hitman. She hired a hitman. [Music] None of your business, Oshi. None of your business, Michael. It's the None of Your Business podcast hosted by Michael and Oshi. Welcome back everybody to another powerful episode of the None of Your Business Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Greenfield. Here with me is our co-host, Oshi Schwarz. Thank you to our Prime Source production team for standing behind us, Steph and crew, for doing such an amazing job. And we look forward to this episode. Jerry Silva is in the house. Uh Jerry, we want to get right into it because um I've I've known you for my entire career that I've been in the healthcare industry, which is over two decades. And I know it sounds like a lot, but if you don't mind me asking, how old are you now? 91. 91 years old. You you recently celebrated a birthday, I heard. Well, June 12th. June 12th. Okay. So, Mazlev, thank you. Very nice. And um many many more years on good health. Yes. Also, I'm not in control. It is what it is. You have a good track record so far. Well, I have your track record, but I I think you do what you want to do now because they may not be here tomorrow. Many people, they feel good, they go to sleep, and they don't wake up. Yeah. Then there's another question. I'm not getting into religious items. What happens then? Uh oh. Are you thinking what happens then, Jerry? Are you thinking about that? Are you thinking about it? Uh, somewhat. Somewhat. You know why? Because I don't know the answer. Yeah. I'd like to know the answers to everything. What do you think? What do you think it is? It could be. What do you think it's likely to be? Nothing. So that's your guess. Your guess is that over. It's over, right? Darkness. Abyss. I don't even know what darkness. I just don't I think everything ends. But I may be wrong. People say there's a big light and you walk through here and if you're religious because you guys are wearing yamakas, so uh you believe something else is going to happen. Well, one second. Well, well, you're Jewish. Yes. So, you're part of this crew whether you like it or not. I understand. But I I don't know if there's anything uh that will occur upon your legal death here amongst the three of us. Do you hope that that's what happens? That nothing happens. Is that what you hope? I hope something does happen. You hope something does happen. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to be uh emptied finished. I want to be have something to do. Mhm. And if if it's if it's great, it's even better. Or if if it goes by the idea if you've been a good guy, you get good stuff. If you're a bad guy, you get bad stuff. I don't know. I have no idea. How you holding in that regard? You're you're you're pretty okay in my It is what it is. I'm not in charge. He did the best he could. Yeah. You know, he's hoping that, you know, he's going to end up in one of the good places. We're starting off this discussion talking about what's I I I have no email of anybody that died. That's true. I didn't get a note. Right. You didn't get a notice. Notice, right? I don't know. It is what it is. If you do get there and you have a way of communicating it back down here to us, just please obviously you can't because do us a solid be done before by other people. It's not going to happen. It is what it is. That's why my expression is very very simple. Do what you don't want to do now because they may not be here tomorrow. There you go. Jerry, we're jumping into the future. Uh let's take a step back. the founder of a tremendous pharmacy named ChemX, which everyone in the industry has heard of and has um you know been part of at least in the 80s and 90s. And uh you sold your company for 73 million to to Greg Wisher at Far America. $73 million. And you're still you just mentioned to me earlier off the air that you're about to go to Tennessee to embark on a new business venture. Yes. So, um, where's that money gone? All of it? I got $150,000 left. Wow. I mean, how quickly did the money go? I mean, you're not a young man. Did you enjoy a lot of it for a long period of time? I do what I want to do. I spend it because I don't I don't believe in saving money, but I have enough money to survive. I'm very happy. That's the way I am. Doesn't make any difference. My son gets a certain amount of money. My wife gets a certain amount of money. I spend a certain amount of money. We buy new horses. We spend a lot of money. It is what it is. How much have you spent on horses? I couldn't even calculate to think about how much I spent on horses. I used to own 100% then 50% then 25%. Now I own like 5 to 10% or 50 horses. And I only use one trainer, Ronberg. And that's He's your trainer. He's owned my trainer. He's a trainer. I've I've heard about trainers in the past that uh are questionable when it Not him. He's 100% honest, right? Because people can do things that uh maybe affect the horses racing. Yeah, that's that's gone. Nowadays, nobody screws around. Everything is legit. There's an honor code. What was that guy's name? Um Steph Baffford. Last name, uh Baffert. You heard of a But that's Thor breads. Thor bread. Thor bread. Explain to us the difference. Oh, they're very simple. Standard breads have a wagon. They slept. Thoroughbreds, they sit on the horse like the Kentucky Derby. Oh, I see. Okay. Entirely different. Okay. Um I'm I'm fascinated by the topic of horses. But before we uh go down this journey, I'd like to just start with your beginning journey. Yeah. Like like where are you from? Like 80 years ago. Like where let's start back like 80 years. Family from where's your dad mom from? How did they get to America? This episode is sponsored by Care Techch Group. If you have a nursing home or an assisted living facility and you need help in managing your purchasing department, you need to outsource your purchasing to a company that has years of experience understanding what it's like to manage budgets, processes, and systems. Contact a prime source expense advisor today to find out what Care Group can do for your nursing home. Just take us a little bit through that. No problem. I was born in the Bronx, New York. I went to PS50. Uh my father came from Balisto in Poland, which is now maybe Russia cuz who all knows what they're doing over there. My mother was from the United States. Uh my father came here in 1914. Uh and he married my mother. Uh and I was born in 1934 in the Bronx. And uh then my father was in the uh he was a taxi driver. Then he also went uh in the pinball machine business. But in 1940, Mayor LaGuardia declared pinball machines illegal gambling. A lot of it. In the 1940s, Mayor LaGuardia declared pinball machines right illegal gambling. Right. So what happened then? My father decided to get out of that business and moved to Coney Island, Brooklyn. And what'd he do? I bought a penny arcade in the Black Retreat Nathan's and Ste. Yeah. A penny arcade. Yeah. The arcades like ski ball or Yeah, ski ball. We had ski ball, we had games that you play. Uh then we expanded it. We had greyhound racing and we were the first ones uh in uh Coney Island that had a batting range. In other words, you could get up and hit a ball with a bat like batting cages for 10 cents. And if the and if the guy that was writing the score down because there's no computers didn't write it down and put the dime in his pocket, that was a problem. Yeah. So I used to c analyze each uh guy. We had four four courts for them to hit the ball. Then if if this guy didn't take it as much as that guy, we had to watch what was going on. What was the biggest money maker in the penny arcade business? Do you know different machine different games? Yeah. Or Oh, what we did the money maker for the family was poker. you we had uh you got five balls for a nickel or a dime and you used to roll the balls underneath a screen and uh and if you get lit up on the thing and you got a prize if it uh was a uh a spares right girl or something like that I don't know. So your father was in the gaming business he had an arcade. Yes. And did he expand that? Was that the full-time business that he did? Was that Well, he had different We had this one in the block between Dis and Steve Chase. Mhm. Then he bought one on the boardwalk. Mhm. And my job with my father was to go around the mechanic and learn how to fix the machines because everything was mechanical and learn if they broke to learn how to fix them. Then he bought a penny arcade in Luna Park which was about 10 blocks down. And then he bought one in Manhattan on 50th or 60th Street in Broadway uh which was expensive to buy a penny arcade in Manhattan. But he was uh entrepreneurial and uh he didn't live too much longer after that. But uh my mother used to give him chopped liver every day. Chop liver clogged his heart and his heart was clogged and uh on a Friday he didn't feel good. Went to the hospital and died in 5 days. Sorry to hear that. How old was he? Uh 50s. Early 50s. He was young. How old were you at the time? Uh 17. Wow. So you were also very young. Yeah. 17. Well, I was going my brother went to pharmacy school. So I went to pharmacy school and I went to Columbia College of Pharmacy which on 68th and Broadway to become a pharmacist. Pharmacy. Uh why he went there, I don't know. But I was able to uh uh uh learn that business. And I worked at a pharmacy, Mr. color on Eastern Parkway uh during the offseason and I got my credits and uh took my state board of pharmacy and I was a registered pharmacist and uh after 6 months I got a job at Caliber Pharmacy in Ula, Long Island, $90 a week, not a lot of money, but I got paid and uh then I decided to uh look for my own pharmacy and ended up uh buying a pharmacy uh for that I own completely. and was able to grow it into nine seven or ninearmacies throughout the United States and uh went on in life. That's the way it goes. And uh I felt that uh uh I have an expression of do what you want to do now because they may be tomorrow. My father was always planning and then and then all of a sudden bingo the doctor says, you know, you got 24 more hours to live. In those days, it doesn't like I'm on a half a dozen medications with my two doctors. I see them twice a year, Dr. Rucker and Dr. Aszraati. And uh I take my medication. I do what I got to do. I think I think a lot of the idea of living is to be happy with what you have and do what you want to do now uh and not be intimidated by things that are challenges. I remember when I opened up my pharmacy many many years ago. I was maybe 22 24 and two women came into the pharmacy and they they talked in Jewish Yiddish. I'll say it in Yiddish and then I'll explain it in English. Who's a young guy? What do you know? And my answer was which is I know everything. And they jumped up and down. We finally have in English a Jewish guy that'll take care of us in the pharmacy. And I took over to Breakers Hotel, which had 200 226 people. And I serviced 17 of the 20 assisted livingings that were in Long Beach because they were all released from Staten Island or somewhere else. There's all kinds of stories of why they all came to Long Beach, but that was my first venture into pharmacy. In other words, I wasn't waiting for somebody to get sick to come in to fill a prescription. I needed uh a group of people that were going to get to see a doctor and get a script and I filled it. And then I also did something that not many people do. I delivered a night. The doctors in town, Teddy Onstein, he owned the Central Federal Bank. He went around and did a fundraiser and said, "See Jerry, you need a prescription, you call him." He answered the phone 24/7 and I did and I got a call 3:00 in the morning, went down to the pharmacy, opened the pharmacy and filled a prescription, delivered it to the customer. Wow. So, you operated this business entirely on your own? I understand you had I had a pharmacist working with me, of course, but you owned the entire company by yourself. uh maybe 75%. Did your brother who you mentioned? No, my brother was naive. You guys didn't have uh didn't do business didn't have businesses together. I'm so curious about this. You went from $19 a week to owning a pharmacy at the young age of 21. What What was that like? How much did you buy the pharmacy for? How did you get into it? What where did you get the money? Where did you get the money? The pharmacy cost $37,000. And I think my mother uh cuz my father I think had passed away loan me the money. M you ever pay her back? Probably. I don't know. Who was the customers then? What did you do to get customers? Uh I told you we uh I I decided to work with the assisted living there. Uh the problem was that I I took care of this Breakers Hotel and then the Shaw family. You can look them up. All the Shafts. You know the Shaw family? Yes. Yes. They were your first customers living industry. They own three They own three places. The Waldorf Shops Matter took care of the Palace Hotel. And look, it is what it is. You do what you want to do now to grow to grow a business. You want to be lazy, then you don't you don't grow a business. The same with horses. You get a good horse, got to pay too much money, it doesn't mean he's going to perform, and next week he's hurt, next week he's sick. And the only ones making business money in that business are the veterinarians. They charge whatever they want and the horses don't complain. Horses don't complain. So, how big did you build the business to? At its height, at the peak of your business, how much revenue were you doing in that business? Revenue, it's hard for me to really know uh what it was, but I tried to even make it bigger and it didn't work out. And uh revenue in those days was different. I don't really know uh what it was. I'm going to ask it a little bit differently. Maybe it'll help you trigger. Um, I know that in our industry, in the healthcare industry, there's a certain amount of beds that you need to have. They discuss in order to own a pharmacy. Discussions about JVS always happen in our industry. And people always throw a certain amount of beds out there. I hear a lot 3,000 beds, 5,000 beds. What What was that? We had we we grew in in in seven or nine locations to 73,000 beds. Wow. We had three in New York, uh, one or two in New Jersey, one in Pennsylvania, uh, one in, uh, uh, that I had with Avi Rother out in Ohio or Illinois, and then one in Florida because I try to grow the business there. But the main thing in that business is what you pay for the drug and what you get paid for the drug. Sure. In other words, you have to negotiate purchasing the drugs at at a at a discount price. And then of course the insurance companies don't want to pay you a lot of money. So you have to negotiate to get a better price uh for the uh drugs you're selling. I don't know it that was five six years ago and I got out of business. Now I'm looking to get into another business in the pharmacy world. As a matter of fact, I'm starting uh next Sunday uh to work with a company in Tennessee uh that's in compounding pharmacy, which is entirely different than the regular pharmacy that people are used to going and filling their prescriptions. Certain drugs they call compounding drugs. I don't know too much about it, but I'm not that old. I'll learn. I love that. Yeah. When when you sold the company, right? So you you went through a process of of figuring out what you're going to do with all your money, right? And you went through the Well, I had I had partners in the industry. Yeah. Uh Mark Baldinger was a partner. He had passed away, but he still owned 20%. The Cuzio family owned 20%. This one owned 10%. This one owned 5%. Whatever it was. To me, money is only paper. Do what you want to do now. And and you'll always figure out to wake a dollar legally. And I know plenty of people that make money illegally, but we don't discuss that and I don't associate with them. I do everything straight on board and go from there. So, how much of a lump sum did you walk away with in your pocket? Maybe 20 million. What was one of the first few things you did when you made that kind of money? It's a good question. Did you Did you start investing money? Did you start making Yeah, I did. I did invest some money in different things, but I don't I don't really remember what I did. All I know all I know is how much money I have now. I don't know what I had then. I did but it's gone. But you lived a good life. I'm saying at that point you can't complain. It is what it is. That's why I say do what you don't want to do now because the man tomorrow and I slept over here for an hour and a half, you know. But nowadays I have ways w tells me how to go here. Uhhuh. Doesn't tell you on the right side or the left side about to get into your building here. Pay the ass. But but you guys have I called you and you came down. Yeah. Yeah. Are you like uh frustrated with technology or have you adapted to technology? I have not adapted. I don't know a damn thing about it. I don't give a But you're using ways. Yeah, technology. Well, but there's other things that are much bigger than ways. Do you have a smartphone? It's pretty small, I think. The do I know I have a phone? It's got 3,000 names in it. That's a lot. That's That's a big amount. That's not a little. That's a lot. That's a lot. 3,000 names. Yeah, I know. But maybe 300 are dead. You mean you're speaking to them? I don't take them out or you die. I'm not following. You know what I mean? No. What are you saying that? Yeah. Yeah. Clarify. I have 3,000 names in my phone. Yeah. But if you pass away, I don't delete you from the 3,000 names. You're still there. They're still there, right? Yeah. They're there forever. I'm trying to get people investing in a new deal that I have, uh, Got Trouvian, uh, it helps people live longer and be healthier. So, uh, I'm sending emails to 30 people every couple days and some of them come back no longer available or alive. So, you have no interest in like truly retiring, hanging it up and living out the rest of your days in peace. You still want to work? You're still looking to hustle it? I work every day. Every day. Every day. Except Sunday. What time do you wake up in the morning? 7. And you What's your routine in the morning? I go to I go to the office 8:30, quarter to 9. And I stay there. I have lunch, which is just a a can of chicken uh breast I have and a banana at 12:00. And then I stay if I have more telephone calls and meetings to then I have to watch the races. So I have a schedule of races that I have to watch. I like to watch every race that I'm in. My best day was just this past Saturday. Okay. And I brought along nice what happened Saturday. Saturday I had 10 horses racing. Okay. And you own all these horses? Small parts. Small pieces of each of these horses. Each of these enterprises of these horses. Exactly. Okay. So I have a horse called Rodeo Drive deal. He raced into Pocono. The purse was 56,000 and he won. First place. That's first place. Yeah. This first place you're saying? Oh, I know what you said. Yeah, first place. He won 56,000. First place. Okay. If I if I made $500 because I own two and a half to 5% after the trainer and the driver takes out the money. Who knows, right? Okay. Okay. And I had a horse called Rick Wink at Seoto. He won his race. Wow. They had a horse called She's a Streaker. That was a nice race. Vernon DS. What was her name? She's a streaker. She's a streaker. Vernon DS. The purse was 58,000. I have no idea what I earned because all my bills go to Burke Racing and Sylvia and her daughters take care of them and I get a bill or a check every month from them. They take care of all the paperwork. Wow. And then and you you you just implicitly trust them 100%. Like you don't even check you don't do any paper trails, no audits. Take four days and check four days worth of racing to see if it's exactly honest and right on that. I found a couple of errors, but there were explanations of the errors that I found. So, it was done. So, you feel comfortable and confident that everything is accurate doing audits on them. You're saying every now and then you do mother is 87. You think she's going to screw around? Oh, she better not be. And then I had uh who else I have? Oh, dance. Then I went in Seoto, the Meadows, Vernon, and Pocado. I went in four racetracks. So, I went to the Medallands on Saturday. I had two horses racing. I I sort of had a shot and I came in third and fourth with Tom Horn. Came in fourth and Beach Babe came in third. Lost by less than a half length. Beach Babe came in third. Yeah. You don't ever come up with the names though, right? That's not your job. I used to do that years ago. Really? Yeah. What was your favorite name that you came up with? Oh, that was my first wife. Uh uh she used to imitate uh she passed away at a young age. She used to imitate Donald Duck. So my first horse was Dr. Donald. Dr. Donald. Wow. Goes back many years. She knows how to imitate Donald. I do not. I do not. Stephan Stefan. Oh, it's Stefan. That's Stephan. Stephan does. Donald bring you back good memories. Yeah. There you go. There it is. Yeah. And my first trainer was uh uh Vernon Dancer. Then I had uh I went on to uh uh to Hton family, Billy Hton with my trainer. Then unfortunately his son got killed in an accident in the Middlelands. You we could read about it in a 3:00 in the morning. He drove a car and got killed. Terrible. But uh Hen went out of the business in ' 87. Came back in 90 something with Ronnie Gerine and won the Hamiltonian with Muscle Hill. M. So, how many how many horses do you have a stake in right now? 50. 50. 50. So, every day there's something going on. Uh, normally five out of six, you know, not every day. Are you going to bequeath these ownership stakes in these horses to someone else or to your wife and she'll sell them all and then she'll sell them. So, that's your insurance policy, so to speak. Whatever. Now, I also have an insurance. My son has an insurance policy, life insurance that he has and so does my wife and which I pay for. It is When you say son, do you have one son? One son. And is that son in the business? Was he in the pharmacy business? Uh, yes, he was. He was in the pharmacy business. Well, now now he's busy with plays on Broadway. Plays on Broadway. Yeah. Is a producer. Yeah. That's cool. So he runs to New York and watches plays and invests in plays and does that. Great. He invests in plays. Yeah. There's a business, I guess, in investing in plays. Well, it is what it is. Yeah. I don't I don't give a about plays. Where does he live? Uh he just moved, as a matter of fact, about 15 minutes away from me. Beautiful. Should be closer to Manassid. It's closer to Manhattan. But uh everybody has to do what they want to do. And I feel that uh if I do what I want to do, schleing out here was no Makaya. Uh which means no. Did you drive here by yourself? Why? You want to drive for me? No, no, no. I'm just asking. Of course. So, you're just coming and going. You're flying places. You're working. I spent a lot of time in California when I was in the uh movie business, too, and ran theies at the same time. Cuz I I've been running the pharmacy forever. What does that mean in the movie business? Explain that. What is that? The movie business uh is a business that I started with a guy named Hiltig uh and we did a movie called Sleepaway Camp 328,000 90minute fulllength color really upstate New York. I could I could Google this movie and it's out there. 12 million at the box office in in the 60s. Wow. 12 million in revenue in the 60s, right? It's called Sleepaway Camp. Yeah. So any any activist that we know? I made nothing. Why'd you make nothing? Because I wasn't smart enough to know how to write a contract. And neither was Hiltig smart enough to know how to write a contract. Who made the money? The producer. The producer made all the money. I didn't make any money. But I told I talked to Hilstig. I said, "You know what? I want to have the rights to sequels." Okay. So I got the rights to all the sequels. So, I sold a sequel to Sleep Boy Camp 2 and three to AFCO Embassy. Used to be a big firm now and not I think they're broken up or whatever. And uh was able to get I think $450,000 in those days to make Sleepware came two and three for the rights to make the sequel and you sold the rights and they didn't do well. They didn't even So, they made the movie and it didn't do well, right? It is what it is. Do what you want to do now because there may not be a tomorrow. So, racing is on your mind 247, right? That's Oh, yes. That's I watch every race. Top of mind for you, so to speak. Well, yeah. Like, uh, as I say, today I have three horses racing, but I get a a thing on a phone and I can watch the race on Twinspire. So, you watch it live. You stream it. You stream the video of all the different races. You always that you're in that you're involved in in Florida. There's the Gulfream park that I love going to just to watch. Not on it. It's still a fun Okay. race to watch with the family and, you know, putting bets there. But um o offtrack betting. Is that something that you've been in? I don't bet. You don't bet. You just invest. My first wife used to bet with Morty Finder. He was a big owner in harness racing. He owned a big farm upstate New York. But I don't bet. You never You never gambled in your I'm not a gambler. You're not You're not a gambler. I don't go to Vegas. I don't care. So what are your what are your vices if I may asked? I don't think we should talk about that. Uh smoke. You ever smoked in your life? I don't smoke. Never smoked? No. Drink. Do you have a drink? I I like a drink. I like a Peter Noah. But you never really been a drinker like an you know. No, right now my goal is to maintain my weight at a certain weight. So right now I weigh 168 and I used to be 222 and then my partner Mikeio said to me, "You know, Jerry, you're fat." I said, "What do you mean I'm fat?" He says, "You're fat." I went on a diet and went down to 165, 168 and I stayed there every day. That's all. All it took. That's all it took is someone saying you're fat. I mean, people have said that to me in the past. Michael, you're fat. Thank you. Let's see what happens. I'll give you three months. It's up to you. You want to stay fat? Yeah. No, I get it. Of course. Of course. You want to I have a picture in my office. If you want to come to my office, I have a lot of pictures in my office of races I had of uh partners I had. I'll give you for instance on the Long Beach chemist softball team was somebody who you all know Billy Crystal. Oh wow. He was shortstop. Did you know Billy Crystal? Of course. You knew him well? Well, well enough to have his picture on my wall that says, "Best of luck to you, Jerry." When's the last time you spoke to Billy Crystal? I didn't Maybe a year ago. Not a year ago. Maybe 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Yeah. Because I'm not involved in that industry anymore. Billy's 83. I'm 91. It is what it is. Do you have his cell number? Yeah. Jeremy, what you want? You got to help. You got to give us a cell number on our podcast. We would love to have Billy Crystal on our podcast. Probably California. I don't know. But you could call him technically if you want. Maybe he'll answer. I don't know if he he may call you back. Yeah, you could text him. Yeah. Not right now. Not right now. We'll do it soon. We'll do it soon. I'm curious though. Besides Billy Crystal, I mean, you know, well, if you come to my office, you can see his picture on the wall with me as the coach for the Long Beach Gem softball team. Wow. Nice. Cuz my wife number one, who passed away, was the teacher of that class. Oh. Oh, nice. And we gave I bought the shirts and we had a team softball team. Terrible, terrible sport. till you hit a ball out of the infield, you know. Oh, come on. I love softball. Yeah, that's what Any other famous celebrities that you were you're holding out on us that you have mingled with in your lifetime? Yeah. You know what I remember though? I remember going to the Polar Grounds to watch the New York Giants uh baseball team play. Oh wow. You That's a long time ago. Yeah. Polar Grounds had Willie Mays as a uh center fielder was like 400 feet out there. I used to go there watch those games. Celebrities. I had all the celebrities from the movie business. I used to come in the elevator with them. Used to go up and down, stay at the hotels in California. Had a screen fair writer write screenplays for me. That's another way to give me money to screenplay writers to write because it's very hard to get the money to get the movie produced, you know, out there. But now it's entirely different. So that's why I say do what you want to do now. Do what you want to do. Can I ask you a question? Anything you want. You've been around a long time. You've seen so many different things. You had so many experiences. I'm sure you had a lot of ups and downs in your lifetime. What is one of the things that you notice today in our society, in our era that is so much better than it was when you were younger or you were growing up? Like what's one of the major advancements that we've made as as you know, a civilization that's really impressive that you're saying, you know what, this really enhanced uh people. this really gave them a better quality of life and you wish it was around much earlier. What's one of those things? I think that the uh medical field has advanced tremendously uh to save people's lives that would have died earlier like my father died. Uh I don't know what else they can do and I don't like all the money that this world is spending on uh that is not trying to keep people alive longer. Sometimes you see a woman, she's 97, then 110. But notice one thing. You don't see a man. Women live longer than men. Why? I don't know. But that's the way they're born or that's the way they are. I'm sure they have some research on that. Is that right? Is that accurate? So, women on average live longer than men? Steph is going to need to look it up. How How much longer do women live than men? I'm pretty sure I read something about this a while ago. Probably say 5 to 10 years. Yeah. 5 to 10 years longer. You think it's possible cuz men choose to die a little earlier. I don't think you have a choice. Yeah, that was that was a bad joke. I know. It didn't go it didn't go over well. That's why I say do what you want to do. I don't know. I have no idea. Say what you want to say. I say what I want to say. Hey, well, you mentioned though you're you're on a few med uh meds that are keeping you going, of course, right? And you said something earlier that you wanted to invest in that helps you live a longer life than you believe. So I have two or three investments that give give longer life go and you believe in it. Uh no but the people that have invested in it and are scientists and say you can live longer and be healthier I want to do something with. So I'm getting a couple of people invested in that. I say I don't know. Okay. You know but Michael it's not just that Jerry is you know he's in his older age you know and he's vibrant he's sharp. He's you know I do forget things though. Yeah. But down a piece. We all forget this. If you came to my office, you'll see 60 or 70 pieces of paper with things to remember. Okay? Like telephone numbers, names, what they're involved with. I'm involved with Patrick Hanigan. Okay? Who's Patrick Hanigan? He's a guy that I met. And what we're doing is taking care of wounds on people that don't heal, but we're able to heal that wound with the medication that we have. Mhm. So, I'm in the wound wound care business and we took care of three patients uh at the him Solomon Nursing Home in Brooklyn because I know the owners of all the homes and now trying to get more business, but the government is watching everything you're doing and they don't say it's legal and you got to be careful and uh and they should watch themselves. Yeah, exactly. You know what they say about the government? You know why they don't like people stealing? because they're the biggest thieves and they don't like competition. Yeah, they don't like competition. It is what it is. Stay out of our business. Jerry, what are what are some regrets that you have in your life? Some things that you look back and you say, I missed that one. I missed that one. I wish I could take that back. It's certainly not about money. Anything. Anything that you have as a regret that people listening can potentially learn from. That's a tough question. Regrets. I never really thought of it. You know, I can say things off the top of my head that I wish the movies the business was more successful. I got out of it in the late 80s. Uh I I wish I I had a better last five years of harness racing. Have not been good. Uh and I think this year will be better. Uh I don't know. I don't I don't really like to look at negatives. Well, let's look at the other way. What are some of the things you're super proud of? What are some of the things that you've accomplished in your life that you feel like, wow, you know, this was very noteworthy and this is a real notch under my belt? The the fact that I'm able uh to survive and be active and work with people uh today, I think is a is a very big positive. I think that I'm able to uh help people in certain areas that they need my advice. Like I said before, I got 3,000 names in my phone. I answer every phone call. Uh the other thing I do that most people don't do, I answer every phone call and probably a half a dozen are fundraisers looking to raise money for me for businesses. And uh as I say, or they want to loan me 200,000 and they'll charge me 260, pay it off in three years. And I don't get involved with that. I'll figure it out. That's how I got this job with Pro Compounding in Tennessee. So, I'm going to spend one week in Tennessee and three weeks I don't know where, but I'm going down there Sunday uh to uh know what I'm uh my job potential is going to be uh in that area. Don't know how how have you taken care of your health if you look back see my doctors and I take my medicine because I have two doctors. One's a heart doctor, one's a regular doctor, Dr. Rucker and Dr. is ready and they tell me what to take and I take them twice a day. I take and I take I definitely hear that. I I I hear the idea of giving credibility to your doctors, but I'm saying in general in your life before doctors or even while the doctors were you going to the gym a lot? Was there something that you you stayed away from alcohol? Give us some of those things that you know you've done. Let's break Let's break it down for a second. Physically, have you done things like sports or walking or exercise? Very little. Mentally, have you done things like meditate or zen? No. Yoga? Emotionally, have you ever seen therapists or spoken to Okay. Spiritually, have you ever connected spiritually? No. Okay. Interesting. How have you the desire for any of those to reach any goals in those areas that I just asked? My go my goal is to stay healthy and live longer that I could do what I'm doing now. That's why I get to my office 8:30 in the morning. Uh I'm very happy that my office is 10 minutes away from my uh house where I live. I love my house. Uh I have a lot of my trophies there, a lot of my pictures there on the walls. I can't even put them up enough of all the races we won. Wow. And it's just you and your wife in the house. And now we have a dog. My main dog just just died. Mikey. Oh. And so we got another dog called Mona, but she's not she's no Mikey. She sleeps all the time. And we just got a six months ago. But my wife was um uh this is this is my fourth wife. Really? Yeah. Our first wife passed away at a very young age. She was diabetic from the age of 10. They had no way of treating diabetes in those days with insulin the way they have today. Then I had a cookie marriage which uh I don't think anybody that doesn't know me knows about uh because she put out a contract to kill me. Excuse me. And none of you here have ever had a contract to be killed. So, what do you do when do you get a knock on the door by the cops? And they say, "Jerry," I said, "Yeah, well, come inside where I talk to you." We just got a guy and he says, "Your wife number two wants to kill you." So, I says, "What the do I do?" Buy a bulletproof vest. I wore one for a year. And finally, we got rid of her and she stopped annoying me and I had that in my lifetime. So, that's that was difficult year. Jeez, you just dropped the bomb on us like that. Honestly, every day, but I wore blue for a vest and took it off. What was her motivation? Why did she Sorry. How old are you at this point, if you don't mind? Uh, probably 10, maybe 30. So, you're in your 30s, you're in your second wife, right? And you get a knock on the door that the woman that you married how long ago? No, the same. That's that wife. She the woman you're married to now. Yeah. No, but how long have you been married to her when you heard this? Maybe a year or two. Maybe a year. So, a year into the marriage, you get a knock on the door that your second current wife has a contract out on you. Yeah. For the purpose of life insurance or No, the purpose of And the way to her for her to confront that is by killing me. Killing. So, she hired a hitman. She had a hitman. So, they obviously stopped that hitman, right? Well, the hitman got arrested for something else and he said, "I I have something to tell you that'll get me off." So he gave this evidence and they came to me to tell me about the hitman. Did you get rid of your wife immediately or you didn't say anything? What I did is I moved out of the house, my son. I left her in the house and she couldn't pay the the heating bills. So she finally left after the bill went after it got freezing in the house because there was no heat. That's how I got rid of her. Damn, Jerry. I'm sorry that I'm laughing, but this is crazy. A lot of happens now. But now I know why you keep repeating, you know, do what you got to do today cuz you never know if there will be a tomorrow. You know, you hear these stories on TV like you read the news. Like you hear stories like this, but hearing it firsthand, it's pretty wild. But you're in your 30s at your height of your business in your pharmacy world. You're traveling. You're going to events. Did you tell anybody that this was happening? I mean, you're wearing a bulletproof vest. Well, if they asked me, I had a bulletproof vest on. Can people tell? No, you wore it on I don't remember. I don't pay attention. That's old news. Yeah. I'm up to what's going on now. Yeah, cuz that's all old stories. Yeah. So, wife number three. Wife number three. How did she come about? She came about when wife number two I got rid of five. Oh, she was introduced. Uh, that's wife number four. I don't know. Forget about my number three. She was there for a long time. I don't know. Okay. Uh, and then finally I met uh Teresa. I asked number four and uh we were introduced by a guy named from the pharmacy business and she's a registered nurse. Nice. And uh we've been married for 17 years. Beautiful. Beautiful. She was 50 when I met her. So now she's 67 and I'm 91. Throughout your um your lifespan, you've had how many kids? One. One kid. And uh from your first marriage. Stephen came from first marriage. First marriage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's 58. Wow. It is what it is. But, uh, you know, we one of the reasons why we do this, just so you understand, Jerry, and having these conversations is as much as you're looking forward to the next, uh, day or or or living your day today to its fullest. We're trying to learn right from your experiences, which is why we're coming up with these ideas of questions. And, you know, we're not trying to poke at you. We're just trying to figure out like okay what did he do throughout his life that we can learn from whether it's negative or positive. So that's where the questions are coming from and like we know you sold your business and you ended up with a lot of money but with that money came decisions of do I spend it on horses? Do I invest in other businesses? So we're trying to learn from that process. Take me through that era if you don't mind. You're getting a $20 million check. You're you know you're living your life. you're, you know, you're done with the bul bulletproof vest and, you know, you're at your height and people are probably calling you for investments and ideas and business strategies all day long. True. What can you tell us looking back at that part of your life that we should learn from when we make money and when we do well in our lives? What what do we need to look out for? Trust the person that's giving you advice explicitly. Everybody once they see you have money goes after you to invest in deals. I still get deals every day uh to invest in and I don't put money in to these deals because I don't have the cash. So what I do is I show it to somebody else and get a finders fee like I I I got uh like a pharmacy for sale or a nursing home for sale. So I get a fee for putting two people together. And I it's it's nice to do but it's also aggravating because it doesn't always happen. I mean, there's a lot of products out there or facilities for sale and they want too much money and they don't want to pay it. Like I the nursing home for sale in Queens, but the owner wants uh uh it's worth probably 28 million and he's asking 35 million. How much is that a bed? Too much. Too much for 100 beds around. We're talking about that's 280,000. 280,000 over 250. Okay. He's asking almost a half a million a bed. He's asking almost $300,000 a bed, which is a different world than what it is. But the world has changed the way uh uh it is now looking at these things. And there's different investment groups that are coming. Uh I don't know. I um I meet with guys uh all week long and I I try to help out people that want to be helped out. And uh I think I've been successful with trying to to treat people with a wound that hasn't healed at uh at a facility and give them a better life uh through this wound treatment that I have. Uh I don't know. Then I come here to see you guys. I love that. I I actually like that you said that, Jerry, a minute ago of um seeking advice from people and listening to them. So what take us back? Yeah. What was one of those situations like for you when you had to listen to someone and you didn't or you did and give us an example that we can learn from that because I I I like what you're saying. You know, I'm trying to think uh I I I think that you have to associate with people that you can trust that are not taking advantage of you because once they feel you you got a few dollars even though I spend all my money because I don't feel that uh I never have enough. Uh, there's always something coming up. Like I just went over with my girl Michelle who's in my office. Okay. What does she do? I used to have two girls in my office, Debbie and Michelle. Debbie decided to retire and moved to Florida with her husband. Okay. Uh, I had cut down her hours from five days to four days to three days because I didn't have the cash to pay her. I don't mean cash cash. I'm talking about salary. So where is So where's Debbie now? She's at uh Trump's thing up in uh Florida someplace. Uh as I said to you, since you know we sat down over here, uh I I I think and I do what I want. I normally go to bed early. I go to bed 9:30, 10. Usually get up uh like an hour or two later, 12:30, 1:30. I I have a a small bite. I get up at 7:00 and I'm on the road, which is 10 minutes away from the house, to the office at 8:30, quarter 9. And then I got names that I have to talk to people uh to try to get them to uh either work with me or I work with them. Okay. Not sure. Do deals. Do deals. Networking. Networking. Yeah. That seems to be your specialty over the years that Yeah. Look, it is. It's not what you know, it's who you know. And I got 3,000 names in the phone over here. And some of them their emails are wrong. Some passed away. Unfortunately, many are retired. But now I'm just made a list this morning of 50 names to go after to invest in this new deal I have with uh uh the hell is this deal? This truvian deal. Oh, this is with uh uh speaker Steven Spiegel out in California. But you never know. Wow. And you're ambitious. What's that? You're ambitious. I like it. I always have been. I opened up my pharmacy uh one year after graduating Columbia College of Pharmacy. Yeah. Bold. Uh and those days you couldn't take care of uh the assisted livingings because there was always money under the ta under the table uh to the Bergman affair. Then he ran away to Israel and then it became legal and then I could open up uh my pharmacy to cater to people in assisted living. And then finally I I I went to nursing homes which was much more difficult to take care of a patient in a nursing home than to than assisted living. It is what it is. But uh as I say I appreciate you asking me to come down here. Yeah. Give you some ideas of what I did but I'm I I pick up every phone call. Probably six every day are people that want to loan me money. I don't want money from them because they're asking too much interest for the money. right now I'm okay. Am I great? No. But it is what it is. So, what are you going to do with that money? I mean, if someone if someone was to give you, you know, the money the money that you need today on something you talking about spending, what are you spending money on? That's what I'm asking. What are some of your hobbies right now? If somebody was to write you a check tomorrow for that million dollars, where's that money going? Where's that going? First of all, no one's giving me a check for a million dollars. But uh uh you going to invest in another horse? No, I think my horse racing I I I don't want to pay top dollar to buy in to a do race horse. I think I'm happy with the 50 I have and and the uh the two and a half to five. As a matter of fact, I just needed money and I was I spoke to uh Mark Weaver and Joe Couturi, Joe Joey Corey, and uh they gave me 106,000. That's how I have money by buying a certain percentage of some of the horses. I kept the horse, but they own a percentage of my percentage, right? I might be interested in that, by the way. I'm curious how that would work because it it seems like a a interesting and fun It's okay. Do you need to get that? Hello. I'm doing an interview now. Do me a favor. Call me in the office tomorrow if you can 9 10 o'clock and we can talk about it. Bye-bye. What was that? A Jewish guy that wants me to sell a product of his. I have no idea what the hell he's talking about, but I tell him to say, "Well, you're going to pick up his call tomorrow, aren't you?" I pick up every call. You pick up every call. Yeah. Yeah. By the way, Michael, that's a very big lesson. I know. That is a very big lesson that's going that's just going you know underrated here is the importance of you never know what you're missing if you don't always pick up a call you never know what you could potentially I'm very selective I don't pick up every call okay and most people are like that I think today well you know on that note Jerry what's something that you notice with today's generation the younger people that irks you something that you feel like has gone down in quality since back in the day like what is something that we should, you know, double check and revisit if we're doing things correctly. What would that one thing be? I I think that uh the world today is entirely different. Uh and and the people that have been educated, everybody lives on their phone and everybody has all kinds of information going back and forth. I really don't know an answer to that question of what people should do or shouldn't do. I don't know. I do what I want to do. I know one thing. I Oh, I got one thing that's very good. Mhm. I have ways. So, you're appreciative of the younger generation for giving you ways, but that's about it. The one thing we got right, everything else we suck. I want to I want to before we wrap up, I want to go back to the horses for a second because I'm I'm curious about this. So, you have stake in 50 different horses and let's say right now is an opportunity where you need money and I can invest in your piece of investment. Explain to me how it would work. What is the minimum amount I would need to invest in this world of yours? My world you can't in I'm not asking to invest in you want to buy horses in the world of horses. You want to buy horses, go to a sale, buy a horse. Well, no. I I Yeah, but you said this is a dying business. Isn't that what you said? It's a dying business. But people spend $500,000 on a yielding because he's bred well or 800,000. I mean, they buy them in partnerships. Let's say four guys at 25% each for 500,000. I mean, these horses go for north of a half a million dollars. That's that's the average the average. Rely. Rarely. Yeah. Most of them the average horse that Ronnie Burke buys is between 90 and 100,000. Okay. Now, if I get some money, which I don't have right now, I tell them I rejoin the partnership. Right now I got pieces of 50 horses and uh as I say three are racing today, 10 raced on on Saturday. Uh I I enjoy being in the winner circle with my horse. There you go. And I have in my office pictures of where I won races and I'm very happy. So right now, for example, you said around $100,000 to buy a horse to buy into a horse, right? And you could do it with partners, right? You can do it with as many partners as you want. Yeah. So, do people sometimes look for other partners to come in? The industry is a dying industry. Yeah. I was at the Medallands on Saturday. Okay. There maybe 2,000 3,000 people there. Yeah. Hamiltonian day, which is the beginning of August, they've been there'll be 12 to 15,000. When I went to the races in the 60s, 50,000 went to Roosevelt Raceway. Yeah. 50,000. Which state is the biggest in horse racing? Uh now, uh Ohio. Uh then New York and then Pennsylvania. Then Kentucky. Wow. Florida died. No more racing. Harness racing in Florida. And Canada does well. They just had big races up in uh Toronto. Really? What other countries participates with horse racing? Europe. Europe. It's big in Europe. England. Is it bigger over there than it is here? Much bigger. Much bigger. Australia very big. I spent a lot of time on Australia when we were racing. Oh. And did well in Australia racing. So this is a worldwide sport. Yes. But it is Well, essentially buying into a horse is like gambling, right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's so out of your control. Anything could go wrong at any given time. Exactly. Especially if you buy a yielding. In other words, the horse is born, let's say, in April, May, June, and then you buy him a year from now, in September or October, November, a year later. Then you start to train them, and if he's if you're lucky, he'll start to qualify in June, July. So, it's a year and a half of bills and bills and bills. And then half the horses that you bought don't even make it to the races as a two. It's a crapshoot. A crapshoot. Then as a three, 75% will make it or get rid of them. Who the hell needs that? He doesn't want to race. And then they something called gilding. They gild all the ma the males to make them faster. What's that? What's gilded? Cut off their balls. Interesting. Why does that make that faster? Do I know who's the greatest horse of all time? Muscle Hill. Muscle Hill. What was his notoriety? Why was he the greatest? I owned him. Um, that's your personal preference, right? No, that's not fair. I'm asking. But it changes. It changes every year. Can't say. It's definitely year. The most expensive horse. Let's look it up. There's no Hall of Fame for like, you know, some of the greatest horses that like accomplish the greatest feats in racing. Gununner. You heard of that horse? Yeah, that's a thoroughbred. Oh, thoroughbred. So that's a $3 million horse. Thorbred. I'm not involved in Thorbred. So how did you pick this side of racing versus thoroughbred? Like what's uh That's a good question. Someone told me about it in 1960 and I got involved. Oh, what's his name? He used to write for the New York Post. He was my customer at Long Beach. His name was Leonard Code. He lived 149 Westchester. Okay. He dealt by me. He said, "Jerry, you got nothing to do. come to the racetrack, come to Roosevelt. He lured you in. He lured me in. This was uh and he was my customer and I got involved and I own horses. Did well, lost, had five horses, had good trainer, Vernon dancer, and here's what it is. What was the best year you ever had moneywise with any of your Muscle Hill? Muscle Hill. What did you make that year? What did you make that year? I don't about approximately. I have no idea. I couldn't even guess. over a million dollars. I I don't know. I don't keep track. I used to have an account. That was his job because if one horse makes there could be 10 horses do, right? You don't know, right? And like I just s took a look on Saturday. I had 10 horses racing. I got I'm getting checks in nine horses. Nine. Five of them won. One was second, two were third, one was fourth, one was fifth, one was nice. So when Sylvia Burke takes care of the bills, I will have a profit on those for that race, for that one day out of the 30 days in the bill. It is what it is. Wow. That's why I say do what you want to do. Enjoy yourself. Like coming out here was a pleasure. Thank you. I sent myself back to New York. Thanks for coming out here. You know, we generally ask the question of what would your message be, but I'm pretty sure we're clear on what your message is to the world. And uh live every day like it's your last day and do whatever you want to do. Exactly. Do what you want to do. Did I sum it up right? 100%. Because what I said to you before, do what you want to do now because may end tomorrow. When my father sat down on Friday and he had chopped liver, which my mother gave him every day, every day, this is so many years ago. And he had pains in his chest and he went to Coney Island Hospital and then those days they couldn't figure out what to do. He was dead in five days. So, and he was probably 50 years old. But his way of handling life and teaching me what I know now and what I do now uh is something that uh I'm lucky to have. So I appreciate you asking me to come down here. Do you have any questions for us before we let you go? We give the our guests an opportunity to ask us questions. Do you have any questions for us? Uh no. I think uh you're doing a good job. You're bringing out thoughts of people. Uh, as I say, I'm not uh the easiest person to talk to, but I certainly appreciate you having me down. No, I think you did a great job. Thank you. Yeah, I got to slip myself back to Long Island. Well, the good thing is this legacy that you're going to leave over on our podcast is going to live forever. Yep. And people are going to listen to it and uh enjoy it. That's if they know how to do it. Yeah. Learning about your experience, what it's like to make money, what it's like to spend money. Yeah. Uh you know, the priorities in life. Um, you know, we I tried getting into the emotional side of it and the spiritual side. I see there's a tremendous barrier here with that discussion. So, I'm not going to even try. Uh, but I do want to tell you that, you know, looking at someone that's older, you know, we're trying to always learn from our elders. And, uh, I may be different than a lot of older people because a lot of the older people I know are are they only look to retire. I want to retire. What are you going to do? Well, I go with my wife shopping. Wonderful. That's a great retirement. Uh what what else do you do? Uh I watch television. Wonderful. What else do you do? I read books. I know. What else do you do? I don't know. I'm retired. I think that's the most ridiculous thing in the world to retire. Why? Because you reach a certain age. uh you know I think that the scientists that are trying to keep us alive today with the medications they're giving goes to the pharmacy world I know uh people that are taking 10 medicines five medicines no medicines we don't know what it is to be that then you got the the stupid war you know going over there now when I saw that plane that dropped those bombs I never saw a plane that even look like that yeah but he was smart enough Trump to send planes the another way towards Guam to make whoever is looking think that we're a diversion. Diversion. Exactly. So, he knew how to do that. Uh I was never in the army. Uh which I thought I should have been because I graduated Abraham Lincoln High School in three and a half years instead of four because I took some courses to get out. Then they said, "Oh, you can listen to the ROC." I don't know if they have that anymore. Reserve Officer Training Corp. Okay, sounds interesting. How old was I? 17. Something like that. He said, ' But you have to read the chart. I says, "Which chart?" "The one over here." He said, "Okay." He says, "Walk up to the chart till you read it." So after I bumped into the chart, they said, "Get the out of here because you can't see." You walked into the chart without my glasses. But now I got all kinds of problems. So maybe that's a regret. You should have put on your glasses. Yeah. Well, no, you couldn't. You had to take them off uh to get in the reserve office training corp. You couldn't have glasses. Do you remember when Pearl Harbor, you know, when the attack happened? What was the environment like in the country in New York? What was the feeling there? They were going into war like you're getting involved in the big war like what what was the feeling then? I I understood uh three things about the war. Pearl Harbor was the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor because we weren't uh prepared when I went to school at a very at that age. So I was in 4142 and I was 34 44. So I was 8 years old. Used to come with a a thing to sit on in the hallway because they thought the Japs would would be or the Germans would be bombing the school. Then they had a submarine that came to Long Island that sent six guys over in Long Island to uh to attack Germans uh to attack people that lived in Long Island. You look it up. They landed in Amagancet, Long Island. Uh so that was scary. Imagine scary times living here in the United States. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Scary times here in the United States. Yeah. It's happening all over again. Do you have a feeling ever in the past decade or so that that can come back? that feeling. Uh well, you know, with Trump is the president and he's got a big mouth and what he wants to do. I take a look at the world and I see all these countries and I see how little Israel is compared to all these other countries. If you look at the space they have, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, this and that. And then you got the other side, China, Russia. We're safer now than we ever been before. that every country in the world is afraid of us, especially with Trump with his big mouth. Jerry, thank you so much for joining us. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. Thank you again to the Prem production team. That's a wrap. Thank you, Jerry, so much pleasure for coming. I appreciate