Wed. @ 11PM: Local Gypsies Exposed Local Man Victimized By Gypsy Gypsy Culture Explained SD’s Most Powerful Gypsy Family Types of Gypsy Scams

I first ran into Michael Marks 18 years ago outside the San Diego Court House.  He was sprinting away from me with his son John in tow.   I had been in court covering the trial of a fortune teller who had ripped off a Southbay woman, a very young and naive young lady.  I ran after Michael and John for awhile but they got away.  I wanted to ask them some questions about their business.

This was my entry into what would be a continuing education. I would learn in reporting on gypsy crimes that Michael Marks is San Diego’s King of the Gypsies.  The male head of a family enterprise which has done very well.  When I first began looking at the family years ago, their combined worth was about thirty million dollars.  I have no idea how much the family is worth now. 

I do suspect they are “connected” to the political establishment but have never been able to prove anything.  You will have to read between the lines on this suspicion.

I was told the family moved her originally from Kansas City after World War II and set up their operations.  In time, they built parlors all across the region.   If you check city business licensing in San Diego City, it shows five Mark family parlors but there are more.   They even are the “approved” fortune tellers for the Del Mar Fair every year.  I would bet they have culled victims out of the Fair on a regular basis.

Not all areas of the United States have one family controlling things.  Cities like Los Angeles have different families controlling different sections of the city.  But the Mark’s hold on San Diego’s psychic parlor business is absolute.  No outsiders in the gypsy psychic business come into the region for any length of time.  That’s not to say freelancers don’t come through, make a score, and then move on quickly.  This happens all the time. But year in and year out, the Mark’s family are the main players and control much of the business.

Part of my schooling came from SDPD and LAPD detectives whose job was doing fraud cases, including gypsy crimes.  These fraud chasers either hated the hassles involved in doing gypsy crimes or were fascinated by the culture.  I fall on the side of the latter.  They told me I better know how the scams work, how the gypsies pull of the theft of thousands of dollars from victims and why they rarely get busted.   I do remember one lesson in particular because every detective told me the same thing: never give a gypsy your business card.  It’s the first thing they ask for when they meet you face to face.  The reason is gypsies have made double talk a higher form of art.  I think I am immune to it but I do, in an odd way, admire their ability to blow a tremendous amount of smoke at anyone who gets onto their game.  That’s part of lesson one.   With your name and your business card, they can really get an investigation side-tracked by calling around the city using your name and title.  You end up wondering why some bartender is mad at you when you never were in his place.   Another part of the lesson is to beware of the misinformation campaigns.   You start working a gypsy fraud and suddenly it seems like every gypsy in the country knows what you are up to and wants to rat out the locals.  It happens every time.  Sometimes the information is good or at least part of it is and sometimes it’s meant to mislead you in the wrong direction.  Sounds a little bit like the CIA at work doesn’t it?  I wonder if Langley ever thought about hiring some gypsies to do intel?

I’ve learned it is a cultural thing for the family.   The women are taught at a young age to be good “money makers” I met a young gypsy lady years ago who tutored me in the ways of their life.  She never finished high school; she resented being forced to learn the trade from adult females.  A bright lady, she wanted to break out of the bonds that women have placed on them in this male dominated culture.  She was a good person and I have lost contact with her over the years.  I hope she sees this blog and we can reconnect.

Today, in our earlier newscasts, you will meet a victim of the freelance gypsy teams that come through our region.  For whatever reason, freelancers seem to work the Southbay alot.  Favorite target?  Young Catholic women. But not always, like in this story.

Then at 11pm, you can see the Mark’s family “2008″ at work.  This story gave me to see  Michael Marks aka Big Mike again.  Our local King of the Gypsies working out of his long time location on Highland Avenue in National City.   He wasn’t happy to see Juliette Vara, our reporter, Christian Cazares the photographer and myself.  In fact he was waving his arms and carrying on for awhile. But eventually it all settled down and we had an interesting conversation.   We went to Big Mike because of a young lady we are trying to help.  Her name is Paige and she is out five thousand dollars, her entire inheritance from her father who she dearly loved.  Like most gypsy scams, they preyed on her misfortune and the pain of losing her dad.   The money maker who worked Paige over is called April.   We think she also goes by the nickname Peebles.  We found through data base we use that there is an April Marks connected to Big Mike’s parlor.  Of course, when we asked Big Mike about April, he denied knowing someone named April.  This is to be expected.  April actually pulled the scam while working out of the family parlor at interstate 805 and El Cajon Blvd.  This is run by Big Mike’s son John but he has no interest in paying Paige back.  We hoped we could appeal to Big Mike to convince John or April to to give back Paige’s money.  We had one thing to leverage him with.  We have up close video of Big Mike and his moneymaker from our surprise visit.

We were willing to keep his parlor and his mug out of our story in exchange for his help in getting all of Paige’s money back from either John or April.  It was a fair deal.   Some might say we were doing a  form of video blackmail but it was more about the reality of dealing with the Marks family.  They hate publicity and I don’t like the vulnerable being ripped off.  Especially a young lady whose only crime was loving her father.  

I can’t tell you how it all evolved because of promises made to different people but the bottom-line is Big Mike is going to be on 10News tonight at 11pm.   And we may be back again because since the promos for the story have begun running, other people who have recent dealings with the Mark family are calling the I Team.

We shall see.