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<v Speaker 1>This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>More what you hear Weekday Afternoon is on the Drive.

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<v Speaker 2>Rick Jervis is a prize winning poetry, prize winning journalists

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<v Speaker 2>with more than two decades of experience working with the

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<v Speaker 2>Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal Europe, and Chicago Tribune in

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<v Speaker 2>USA Today and many many more. He's telling the gripping

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<v Speaker 2>story of some murders that rocked the town of Laredo,

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<v Speaker 2>Texas in his new book, The Devil Behind the Bandge

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<v Speaker 2>The Horrifying twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.

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<v Speaker 2>I bet Rick, not a lot of people have heard

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<v Speaker 2>this story.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, probably not. I think it basically grabbed a lot

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<v Speaker 3>of attention early on when it first happened in twenty eighteen,

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<v Speaker 3>and it made like national news briefly, but then it

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<v Speaker 3>came and went and that was you know, that was

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<v Speaker 3>six years ago. So I think people don't really know

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<v Speaker 3>all of the ins and outs and all the detail.

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<v Speaker 3>Was this this actual story?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, there have been so many other things too that

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<v Speaker 2>deal with the border. I'm wondering if there's a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of people just kind of, oh, ever, go another story

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<v Speaker 2>about the border.

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<v Speaker 3>Oh, this is definitely a very different story about the

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<v Speaker 3>border any story. This is unlike any story that I've

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<v Speaker 3>ever covered in my twenty plus years as a journalist,

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<v Speaker 3>and it is it is by far one of the

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<v Speaker 3>one of the most surprising, craziest stories that I've done.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, let's talk about the three I'm sorry that Yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>the three women that are involved, and they are Melissa Ramirez,

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<v Speaker 2>Claudine and Luira Gusell de Hernandez and JANEA Ortiz I'm sorry,

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<v Speaker 2>four women that are involved in this particular story.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah. These these are all marginalized women. They were all

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<v Speaker 3>sex workers, all of them, all of them, all of

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<v Speaker 3>them US citizens. By the way, I wanted to make

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<v Speaker 3>that clear. These these were migrants coming over. These were

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<v Speaker 3>all women who were born in the US, but they

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<v Speaker 3>had really debilitating drug addictions and to help finance these

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<v Speaker 3>substance abuse disorders, they took to the streets and became

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<v Speaker 3>sex workers. And that's what and that's what kind of

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<v Speaker 3>made them easy prey for someone like this quorterer patrol

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<v Speaker 3>agent to meet them, pick them up, drive them off,

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<v Speaker 3>and ended up killing them.

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<v Speaker 2>About what time did this happen? Was this before things

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<v Speaker 2>really started to heat up? On the border.

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<v Speaker 3>So this happened in September of twenty eighteen, so it

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<v Speaker 3>was right around the same time that there was a

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<v Speaker 3>lot of controversy happening on the border. There were a

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<v Speaker 3>lot of migage coming over at that time. Things were

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<v Speaker 3>like really ramping up, and there were a lot of

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<v Speaker 3>controversial tactics being done also by by Border Patrol, Like

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<v Speaker 3>if you remember the zero Tolerance days and the family separations,

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<v Speaker 3>this is all happening around around that same time.

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<v Speaker 2>The Devil behind the Badge, the horrifying Twelve Days of

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<v Speaker 2>the Border Patrol, serial killer Rick Jervis is with us

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<v Speaker 2>and that is the book what brought this to your attention.

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<v Speaker 3>So in twenty eighteen, I actually covered this story for

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<v Speaker 3>USA Today, I'm based in Austin, Texas. I often cover

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<v Speaker 3>the border, and I got a phone call, like on

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<v Speaker 3>a random Saturday afternoon from one of my editors saying

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<v Speaker 3>that a Border Patrol agent had been arrested for killing

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<v Speaker 3>for women and that I needed to get down to

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<v Speaker 3>Laredo to cover it. So I did. I basically went

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<v Speaker 3>down covered his his actual arrest. I learned about the

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<v Speaker 3>story a little bit, but Lee the one thing which

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<v Speaker 3>really drove me to expand this into a bigger project

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<v Speaker 3>is meeting all of the victims' families. I really started

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<v Speaker 3>to learn about the victims, more realized that they had

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<v Speaker 3>these really incredible stories behind them, that all of them

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<v Speaker 3>were actually beloved by all their families, and that their

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<v Speaker 3>families were really trying hard to get them off the

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<v Speaker 3>streets when all this occurred.

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<v Speaker 2>For those who don't know, Laredo, Texas is right there

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<v Speaker 2>on the border. I mean you can climb up to

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<v Speaker 2>the second store of a two story house and see

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<v Speaker 2>over in New Mexico.

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<v Speaker 3>That's right. So it's right on the border, right across

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<v Speaker 3>the river from Mexico. And for a long time, both

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<v Speaker 3>of those sides interacted quite a bit, and I still

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<v Speaker 3>do obviously, So there's a lot of back and forth there.

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<v Speaker 3>People coming over into Laredo to work every day, folks

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<v Speaker 3>going back. It's a really interesting place, excellent.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm not ben, but I've read a lot about how

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<v Speaker 2>interesting it is. Now. Where the girls doing most of

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<v Speaker 2>their work on the other side of the border, or

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<v Speaker 2>were they doing it on the United States side?

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<v Speaker 3>Now they were all on the US side of the

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<v Speaker 3>actual border. There's this one street in central Laredo called

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<v Speaker 3>San Bernardo Avenue Andando is like their sort of red

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<v Speaker 3>light district, and that's where a lot of this activity occurs.

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<v Speaker 3>And so this is where where they would apply their trade.

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<v Speaker 3>This is where they would get a lot of their

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<v Speaker 3>their drugs. Most of them were was was black tar heroin,

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<v Speaker 3>which which a lot of them were strongly addicted to,

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<v Speaker 3>and so a lot of this occurred there. And on

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<v Speaker 3>David Ortiz, this Poto patrol agent would would would just

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<v Speaker 3>cruise down this avenue, pick them up, drive them off

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<v Speaker 3>and to meet his crimes.

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<v Speaker 2>Was he in a regular was he a regular john

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<v Speaker 2>to these women? I mean did they know him?

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<v Speaker 3>So two of them he actually did know well, so

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<v Speaker 3>he knew his first victim, elis A Lamides, and there

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<v Speaker 3>was a would be fifth victim, which is how they

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<v Speaker 3>caught him, called Ericapana, And he actually pulled the gun

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<v Speaker 3>on Ericapana and looked and looked about to shoot her also,

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<v Speaker 3>but she managed to basically escape his clutches, kick out

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<v Speaker 3>of his truck and run off alert police, and that's

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<v Speaker 3>how they finally got him. And he actually did have

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<v Speaker 3>a sort of repeat relationship with eric Opania.

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<v Speaker 2>And Rick Jervis is with this Pulletry Prize winning journalist

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<v Speaker 2>and author the book is the Devil behind the Badge

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<v Speaker 2>of the horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol serial Killer.

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<v Speaker 2>Would he then take them across the border? Was there

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<v Speaker 2>any was there any desire to try to make this

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<v Speaker 2>look like it was happening only in Mexico or was

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<v Speaker 2>it all only in the United States?

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<v Speaker 3>It was all only like in the US. He would

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<v Speaker 3>he would pick them up and drive them off to

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<v Speaker 3>like rural areas in h Webb County, in different areas,

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<v Speaker 3>and so there was never any tension to go across

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<v Speaker 3>the border. In fact, Ladedo is is actually a pretty

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<v Speaker 3>dangerous place right now. Laredo, It's so Laredo, Texas is

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<v Speaker 3>actually pretty safe. It's like extremely safe, actually, But once

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<v Speaker 3>you crossed the border into like Meldedo, there are there

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<v Speaker 3>are cartel operatives working there, and so people tend to

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<v Speaker 3>stay away from from that side of the border.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what my next question was, Was he involved with

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<v Speaker 2>one of these at all or he was strictly working

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<v Speaker 2>on his own.

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<v Speaker 3>As far as I can tell, he was not involved

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<v Speaker 3>with any with any cartel activity. There was nothing in

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<v Speaker 3>the in the sort of investigative files, pointing to that

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<v Speaker 3>there's nothing that I found during my research talking to

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<v Speaker 3>people who actually knew him growing up and then and

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<v Speaker 3>then later, there was nothing at all, like there was

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<v Speaker 3>no real connection at all to any cartel activities that

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<v Speaker 3>I could find.

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<v Speaker 2>Many municipalities have red light districts and prostitution areas, and

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<v Speaker 2>it's not that it's legal, but it's just that the

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<v Speaker 2>authorities look the other way or have so many other

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<v Speaker 2>more important things to deal with. Is Laredo like that,

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<v Speaker 2>and it's sort of like.

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<v Speaker 3>That, you know, somebody other avenue has been active for

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<v Speaker 3>decades really, and I kind of detail in my book

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<v Speaker 3>how it has this sort of history of like being

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<v Speaker 3>where some of the prostitutes used to hang out, even

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<v Speaker 3>getting back to like the nineteenth century, so it has

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<v Speaker 3>this history of kind of being the sort of red

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<v Speaker 3>light district. Loreda does what it can, but you know,

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<v Speaker 3>it's it's kind of like whack them all, like you'll

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<v Speaker 3>you'll pick up sex workers, you'll put them in jail,

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<v Speaker 3>you'll you'll try to get them off the streets, and

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<v Speaker 3>then a couple of days later they're they're back at it,

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<v Speaker 3>and it's just really challenging for them to do much

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<v Speaker 3>about it.

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<v Speaker 2>And the rest of the story is being told in

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<v Speaker 2>The Devil Behind the Badge, The horrifying twelve days of

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<v Speaker 2>Border Patrol serial killer written by Rick Jervis. I look

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<v Speaker 2>forward to reading it and thank you for joining us today.

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<v Speaker 3>Thank you appreciate it.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee

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<v Speaker 1>Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live

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<v Speaker 1>weekday afternoons from five to seven and Iheartsmedia Presentation