Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Dark Down East is proudly sponsored by Amica Insurance. The unexpected can happen at any moment, and Amica knows how important it is to be prepared. Whether it's auto, home, or life insurance, Amica has you covered. Their dedicated and knowledgeable representatives will work with you to make sure you have the right coverage in place to protect what matters most. You can feel confident that Amica is there for you. Visit amica.com to get started.
Ever dream of a three-row SUV where everything for every passenger feels just right? Introducing the all-new Infiniti QX80 with available features like biometric cooling, electronic air suspension, and segment-first individual audio that isolates sound.
How do you spot a scam? The unlisted phone numbers that contact you about your extended auto warranty? An email from an unknown source informing you of the large sum of money you're due?
Text messages with links from someone you don't know urging you to view the site they sent. These kinds of online scams are getting easier to spot. The tactics aren't working on us like they used to. We ignore, delete, block them as they roll in, and move on. But would you know how to spot a scam in your real life before it was too late?
For years, Jonathan Walton didn't know that the woman he called his best friend was actually a career con artist, suspected of numerous scams and fraudulent activity across the country and internationally. Once he uncovered the truth, though, Jonathan made it his mission to stop her. If you haven't heard part one of his story on Dark Down East yet, go back one episode and listen to The Conn.
Meet us back here when you're ready. I'm Kylie Lowe, and with Jonathan Walton, this is Part 2, The Convict, on Dark Down East. Jonathan Walton met the woman he knew as Mayor Smith in 2013 at a wine and cheese night he hosted at his apartment.
They were as close as brother and sister, best friends, and their relationship deepened over dinners at high-end restaurants where she footed the bill, and the kinds of conversations that come from tall pours of wine and the space to be vulnerable among people you know and trust.
Mare claimed she was an Irish heiress, due for a multi-million dollar inheritance. But she was estranged from her family, and they would apparently stop at nothing to keep Mare from the money, including setting her up for what she said was a bogus accusation of stealing from her employer. Jonathan lent Mare money to make bail, and then again to pay legal fees.
Next thing he knew, he was in the hole for close to $100,000. Mare was good for it, though. Jonathan had faith. She had that inheritance coming, after all. But Mare's story, and Jonathan's hopes of getting his money back, completely unraveled when he dug up court records that listed the actual charges against his best friend. Felony Grand Theft.
The accusations weren't bogus. She actually did steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer, and she was going to jail for it. Not as long as she would have, though. Jonathan learned his money went towards paying part of the restitution, knocking her sentence down to 30 days.
Jonathan knew he'd been scammed and he took it to police, but they weren't interested. With persistence though, Jonathan did get his case moved to an investigator, but it stalled out in 2017, so Jonathan launched his own investigation. The closer he looked at Mare and her stories, the more time he spent digging up her past, the more he realized that Mare wasn't anything she claimed to be.
and he made it his mission to expose her. It started with a blog. The blog Jonathan created detailed his experience with Mayor Smith and what he'd learned about her since uncovering her felony grand theft charges. He outlined the scam she trapped him with, the Irish heiress story, and her real name, Marianne Andal.
He hoped that if people searched for this woman, his blog would pop up, and he'd have a chance at disrupting whatever new scheme she was trying to pull, and could inform those she'd conned in the past that they were not alone.
I would go on to find 46 other victims all over the world in Florida, in Michigan, in Maine, in Tennessee, others in California. And then I get a call one day from a police detective in Northern Ireland. He'd been looking for her for 10 years. And I found all these victims would send me the photos they have of her at the time. My God, it's like five, six different women.
She dyed her hair, wore it long in one photo and had it cut short in the next. She even had plastic surgery. She had a different look for every new con, it seemed. Marianne Andel, Mayor Smith, whatever name you wanted to call her, she was a chameleon. Jonathan got to know the many faces of Mayor Smith and the assortment of schemes she'd allegedly pulled on other victims, evading any sort of consequences along the way.
He began to understand how Mayer operated. She is what's called by professionals a rescue merchant. That's what the FBI would classify someone like that as. Because she seeks out situations to rescue people, to be the solution.
And every single victim she scammed, she offered to help them. And, you know, that's how she got into my life. She offered to help get the pool back. And we loved her. And she not only scammed me, she ended up scamming a few other neighbors there that night eventually. Over the course of years...
I have to note that these are alleged crimes, but the alleged scams were diverse in nature, adapted to hook and reel in her prey by always using personal details against them. While she was scamming me, I found out, you know, she worked as a psychic in Los Angeles, too, and she was scamming her clients personally.
And I talked to a couple of them. She would trick them into doing life coaching classes and then get their personal information during life coaching and use whatever stories she heard about their lives to scam them. Now, there was a small smidge of the truth amidst the lies. Mare did live in Northern Ireland at one point.
That police detective from Northern Ireland who contacted Jonathan through his blog told him that when Mare lived in Belfast in 2008, she worked as a certified mortgage advisor. That's what her business card said, but whether or not she actually performed those services is unclear because Mare was allegedly more focused on running schemes on her clients.
She scammed half a million dollars from 26 victims in Northern Ireland and got away, disappeared into thin air. Thin air, until Jonathan started his blog, that is. To be clear, she may have lived in Northern Ireland, but there was no evidence she was actually an Irish heiress.
Those family members that would email and text Mare, harassing her in the ongoing but of course fake inheritance dispute. Even the supposed barrister in charge of the estate. Every single one of those characters was made up. Jonathan had access to Mare's Gmail account.
At one point, she gave him her password and he happened to have it saved on his computer. During his own investigation, he logged in to find numerous other Gmail and Google Voice accounts linked up. Mare created those accounts to make it appear as if family members were messaging her. All along, it was Mare in a really elaborate, multi-character catfishing attempt.
Jonathan's blog connected him to another of Mare's would-be victims. Would be, because the information Jonathan shared online stopped Mare in her tracks. She tried to trick a Newport Beach engineer. She started dating him and offered to help him with his custody arrangement with his kids because she said she was a court-appointed custody investigator and she could help.
The engineer, named Bob, was in court with his wife over custody arrangements for their children. But don't worry, Mare would see to it that the custody arrangement was in his favor. According to Bob, his relationship with Mare got serious to the point where they were going to move in together. Mare said that she was going to buy a house with her inheritance, a $12 million mansion.
They toured it together multiple times, and the kids even picked out their bedrooms. But of course, there was a holdup with her money, and so Bob said that Mare convinced him to add her name to his two Newport Beach properties, and in return, she'd add his name to the title of the new mansion when it was all settled.
Mare nearly got ink on paper when Bob's ex-wife did some digging online to find out who this Irish heiress was hanging around her kids. Jonathan's blog popped up. Bob's ex-wife printed it out and showed it to him. And then when Bob confronted Mare with the information, it was the last time he ever saw her. Mare allegedly scammed her landlord, claiming to have cancer to get out of paying rent.
Jonathan heard stories that Mare blackmailed men she met on a sugar daddy website when they tried to end their relationships with her. She pretended to be friends with Jennifer Aniston, again creating a Google Voice account and texting herself as the A-lister to make it appear like they were chatting. Jonathan even connected with Mare's daughter. They did not have a relationship as adults, but when she was just a little girl,
Mayer made her daughter part of ongoing cons. My God, it's a heart wrenching story being raised by a con artist. She used her little girl daughter to scam people. She used her as bait.
Ever dream of a three-row SUV where everything for every passenger feels just right? Introducing the all-new Infiniti QX80 with available features like biometric cooling, electronic air suspension, and segment-first individual audio that isolates sound.
All while learning the full scope of Mayor Smith's activities, Jonathan Walton was learning more about the real identity of the woman who apparently had no limits when it came to her cons. She was born in Bangor, Maine. She wasn't Irish.
She grew up in Maine and in Tennessee. She has felonies for fraud and grand theft across the country, felony charges, but no convictions. The Pine Tree State was her earliest territory. According to her family, one of the earliest scams she ran in Bangor when she was a girl, she would tell friends and family she had cancer.
and she needed money for treatment. But don't tell my mom and dad because I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I don't want anyone to know. So she was getting donations for her cancer treatments, but she didn't have cancer. She was in high school. She would sleep with college guys, many college guys, which is fine. But she would then approach them and say, listen, I'm pregnant. I need money for an abortion. She did this to a lot of guys and they had no idea.
Jonathan found Marianne's Bangor High School yearbook photo. She has short hair and is wearing chunky hoop earrings. Beneath her name is a lyric from a Little River Band song called Lady. It goes, Look around, look up there, take time to make time, make time to be there, be a part. Now, if she had kept the lyrics going for the yearbook, the next line would be,
Feel for the winter, but don't have a cold heart. Seems like that part of the song didn't quite land for Marianne. Jonathan carefully documented each new victim and story he encountered. He had increasing hope that all of the evidence and first-hand accounts would support his case against her.
Each time I find a victim, I send them to the cops and the cops are like, "This doesn't have anything to do with your case." And I'm like, "What do you mean? This is another person she scammed." The investigation dragged on with LAPD for 11 months. And for all 11 of those months, Jonathan was, in his words, "a huge pain in their ass." In California and in many other states, Maine included, theft by deception over $1,000 is a felony.
So though Jonathan wasn't standing there bleeding out and he wasn't at risk of life or limb and it wasn't the sexiest or splashiest crime, his case had merit. He was confident in that. So maybe after 11 months, LAPD finally had enough evidence. Or maybe they just had enough of Jonathan. But either way. Eventually, reluctantly, begrudgingly,
The cop moved my case off his desk to the DA's office and the DA looked at all the evidence and filed charges. The arrest warrant reads, Honor between April 11, 2015 and September 8, 2016, in the County of Los Angeles, the crime of grand theft in violation of Penal Code Section 487A, a felony, was committed by Mary Ann Elizabeth Smith.
who did knowingly and designedly, by a false and fraudulent representation and pretense, obtain money, labor, and real and personal property by fraud from Jonathan Walton, specifically $76,240.93, which had a value exceeding $950. He got her. Well, almost.
She was arrested and charged and then released on her own recognizance, meaning Mare was free to go as long as she promised to appear in court when required. The trial was going to happen. Jonathan was as close as he'd ever been to justice, to hopefully getting his money back, to stopping the con artist he knew as Mare Smith. But Mare wasn't going down without a fight.
Jonathan actually found out about the restraining order before he was served, thanks to a clever marketing tactic employed by a local attorney's office.
I just got a notice in the mail about from a lawyer's ad saying, do I need help in this restraining order? And I went on the court's website and plugged in the case number and she filed this restraining order. It's all lies. Jonathan maintains that he did not and has not threatened the life of Mayor Smith. In his view, the restraining order was a defense tactic by Mayor and her public defender, and it could have been a successful one, but he hadn't been served yet.
Jonathan still had time to suss out his options. If Mare was able to serve him this restraining order, it would mean that Jonathan couldn't appear in court to testify in her trial. Sure, video testimony was an option so that he wasn't physically in the same room as her, and the jury would not be informed that Mare had a restraining order against Jonathan. But still, how would that look? The perception could change the entire case.
Jonathan hired a civil lawyer whose advice on the matter was pretty simple. If Jonathan could avoid service, if he never actually got served the restraining order, he'd be in the clear to appear in the courtroom as planned. That was the goal. She tried, and it cost her like almost $100 each time to try to serve this. She tried to serve this restraining order dozens of times over like a two-week period leading up to the trial. So I just don't answer the door.
My husband and I and my dogs are freaking out every time. Dogs barking. We just pretend not to be home. And after two weeks, it stopped. She gave up trying to serve me. So the restraining order got dismissed because it never got served. And the criminal trial started.
Ever dream of a three-row SUV where everything for every passenger feels just right? Introducing the all-new Infiniti QX80 with available features like biometric cooling, electronic air suspension, and segment-first individual audio that isolates sound.
The trial of Marianne Smith began with jury selection in January of 2019. When the judge asked the potential jurors who was happy to be there, only three out of the 35 people raised their hands.
Civic responsibilities aren't always welcomed with open arms. Mayer entered a plea of not guilty to the felony charge against her, and once the jury was selected and sworn in, the prosecution began their opening statements. District Attorney Jackie Lacey addressed the jury, quote,
What you are going to hear over the next couple of days is a case about friendship and betrayal, about what happens when your best, closest friend comes to you, says they're desperate for money, and that if you give them the money that they need, they will get access to an account with tens of millions of dollars in it. Sounds silly when you hear it off the top of your head, but that's why the other aspect of this friendship is so important.
Lacey continued to list out the timeline of events that resulted in nearly $100,000 leaving Jonathan Walton's pocket and landing into Marianne Smith's under false pretenses. Lacey closed with, quote, What you're here to decide is ultimately a question of common sense. Does someone give almost $60,000 to a person without any reasonable expectation that they're going to get that money back?
The answer, obviously, is no. Mr. Walton gave Miss Smith that money based on her fraudulent representations that she had access to a vast Irish inheritance. And based on her lies, the people at the end of this case will ask you to find her guilty of grand theft, end quote.
Mayer was represented by a public defender. His opening statement set up the defense strategy, which appeared to be denial of key aspects of the case. Quote, You will also hear that there became a time where Ms. Smith needed money and she talked to Mr. Walton about it. At no time did Ms. Smith tell Mr. Walton that she was going to get money from an inheritance in order to pay him back.
He continued, You will hear testimony that he began to destroy her business. He began to destroy her livelihood. He began to use the internet to contact everyone and anyone who knew her. And it's all a smear campaign. And I'm confident when you hear all the evidence in this case, you're going to find Ms. Smith not guilty." Jonathan Walton himself was among the witnesses who took the stand.
He was emotional under questioning by both the prosecution and cross-examination by the defense. I've read the trial transcripts, and there are a few occasions where the court has to remind Jonathan to slow down, take a deep breath, and remember to answer only the questions asked, and not expand upon other information.
The defense angled their questioning of Jonathan and other witnesses to represent him, the alleged victim, as someone out to tell a good story for television. And he starts weaving this tale that I'm a TV producer, which is true. I'm a TV producer and I'm making everything up for a documentary. Well, that's not true. But if you're a juror, you're like, well, he is a TV producer and people are desperate and
Yeah, yeah. So I was, because all you need is one juror to say, reasonable doubt. That's a hell of a, that's a hell of a cliff. Like, what's reasonable doubt? Any kind of doubt that's reasonable to a person. And people are different. So I would have had reasonable doubt. I would have been like, well, Jonathan's a TV producer and, you know, reality television, that is sensational. And they lie a lot. I don't believe it's reality. And they're right. It's not. So,
Yeah, I was terrified, terrified that a jury wouldn't see through the lies. By January 8, 2019, the prosecution and the defense rested their cases.
In his closing statements, Mary Ann's public defender told the jury in part, quote,
I'm convinced, when you go through everything, you'll find Ms. Smith not guilty." The prosecution had the last word, saying in their closing statements in part, quote, "...ladies and gentlemen, you have the evidence you need. It's just up to you to review it, discuss it, and reach a just verdict. The question isn't whether or not this was a loan."
The question is whether this loan would have been made without years of lies about the defendant's financial resources. Clearly, it would not have been. And she needs to be held accountable for her actions." And then the jury was left to deliberate. They deliberated for three hours and they came back with a conviction. They convicted her.
On January 9th, 2019, Mary Ann Smith was convicted of grand theft by inducement and sentenced to five years in prison for scamming Jonathan Walton, and she was ordered to pay restitution. This sentence was the harshest penalty available to the judge for the charges at hand. Mary Ann Smith would serve her time at Century Regional Detention Center in Los Angeles. You'd think that'd be the end of it.
a felony conviction for grand theft by inducement, a prison sentence, and verifiable proof that Marianne Smith, or whatever name she chose to give, was a con artist, a scammer with a reputation that preceded her, impacting her ability to pull these maneuvers on anyone else. That's what you'd think, or at least hope. But Jonathan Walton has reason to believe that Marianne Smith is back at it, but not in California.
In 2020, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expedited the release of certain nonviolent offenders in an effort to reduce crowding and maximize space for necessary quarantine. COVID-19 was running rampant through the prison system. Mary Ann Smith was one of those nonviolent offenders released early. She served two years of her five-year sentence. In December 2020,
She walked free from prison. Where does she go as soon as she gets out? As far the F away from California as she can get and still be in the contiguous United States. She goes to Maine. But not back to Bangor, where she was born and attended high school. She moved to Madawaska. Jonathan is surprised by this move, given the terms of Mary Ann Smith's release. She is on parole. She's not allowed to go to Maine. She's not allowed to leave the state of California for three years.
To his knowledge, no one is keeping tabs on Mare. In the fall of 2021, Jonathan appeared on the TV show Dr. Phil to tell his story. As part of that appearance, the show sent a reporter to Madawaska, Maine in hopes of tracking down Mary Ann Smith. She didn't answer the door when the reporter knocked, but the reporter did speak with other neighbors.
And the reporter was holding up a picture, "Is this her?" And they're like, "Yeah, but she doesn't look like that anymore." So she changed her look again. She's super thin, she's got long black hair. She looks like a different woman again. I don't know what she did. Something with her eyebrows or a different color. Ever the shapeshifter, Mare Smith has apparently changed her appearance again. Jonathan told me that she assumed two new names as well: Mary Ann Clark and Elizabeth Smith. Elizabeth is her middle name.
There are four or five people in her life now who believe her, who know, who've seen dozens of news stories about her being a convicted felon con artist for scamming me, but she has convinced them that I'm making everything up just to get her, that I've coordinated, like I'm this powerful Spengali pulling all these strings, getting all these people to lie to get her. To what end? I don't know. But they believe it. They support her.
right now in Madawaska, Maine. Jonathan Walton has tried to contact Mary Ann Smith for his podcast, Queen of the Con. She refuses his interviews each time and turns down every news and media request. I tried to find any contact information for Mare to offer her an opportunity to speak for herself on Dark Down East, but my attempts were unsuccessful.
Mayor, Marianne, if you hear this, you can contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com. I want to explain to people because a lot of people tell me, how did you get scammed? You're so stupid. How did you not see that coming? And it's like, I never, I mean, I knew scams were real, right? I knew scams.
People call you on the phone to try to trick you out of money, trick you into giving personal information, or people email you to try to get you to click a link. And I've seen those emails from the Nigerian prince offering a reward to help claim his inheritance. Like, I know those scams exist, but obviously I never fell for any of those scams because those are obvious to me. Never in a million years did I believe...
Con artists, like living, breathing people who infiltrate your life as your friend, as your boyfriend, your girlfriend, as a new coworker, as someone who works in the mayor's office. I never thought people like that existed. Jonathan, do you have any advice for spotting a con artist in your circle now that you've become an expert in this space?
Looking back, one of the red flags of getting conned is drama, drama, drama. You know, if you meet someone and every bad thing seems to be happening to them at once and you feel for them and want to help them, that is a technique a lot of con artists use. If you meet someone and they're just...
Too kind, too quick. You meet someone and they want to wine you and dine you. They want to shower you with gifts. They want to do everything to help you for no other reason than their being just a good person. That's a red flag. A con artist's job is to become a good friend or a good lover or a good co-worker. They want to get into your life quick and they want you to like them.
And that's what Mayer did to you. I got scammed out of almost $100,000 by a professional con artist who infiltrated my life for four years as my best friend. I thought I knew this woman. I'm a married gay guy, so it wasn't like a sexual relationship. She was like a sister to me, and she robbed me blind.
Jonathan has become the go-to guy for those who have been scammed. He coaches victims through the process of getting their story heard and their cases investigated. He says he's happy to wear that hat.
My life, you know, I became a different person because of what happened to me. I rose up, you know, I'm studying to get my private investigator's license. I'm helping dozens of other convicts. This changed the trajectory of my life in a positive way. It lit a fire and I just wanted justice in my case. I didn't know I'd be helping all these other victims. I mean, it gives me a sense of purpose I've never had before. So I'm grateful she scammed me because I like who it turned me into.
But she is evil through and through, and while she won't kill physically, she doesn't care if she devastates. There are only six or seven different types of Khans out there. That's it. All Khan artists are using the same exact playbook, the same techniques.
Just the names and places change, so they look different. But I've heard from so many people after listening to the podcast and hearing the stories, they're like, it helped me recognize this is happening in my life. Someone is doing this to me, but I'm going to cut ties now. I'm not going to go that far. I'm not going to get sucked in. And that makes me feel good.
Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. Sources cited in this episode, along with additional sources referenced, are linked at darkdowneast.com so you can do some digging of your own. Thank you to Jonathan Walton for sharing your story with us on Dark Down East. Additional sources, court records, photos, and more are available on his website, jonathanwalton.com. I'll link it in the show notes for you.
For even more about Mayor Smith, listen to Season 1 of Jonathan's podcast, Queen of the Con, wherever you get your shows. And tune in to Season 2 of Queen of the Con for an entirely new story he's uncovered about another female con artist. If you have a personal connection to a Maine or New England case that you would like me to cover on this podcast, send me an email at hello at darkdowneast.com.
Once again, thank you for supporting this show and tuning in each week. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East. Ever dream of a three-row SUV where everything for every passenger feels just right? Introducing the all-new Infiniti QX80, with available features like biometric cooling, electronic air suspension, and segment-first individual audio that isolates sound.
Right to the driver's seat. Discover every just right feature in the all new QX80 at infinityusa.com. 2025 QX80 is not yet available for purchase. Expected availability summer 2024. Individual audio cannot buffer all interior sounds. The owner's manual for details.
