The podcast “The Real Griselda” discusses what is fact and what is fiction on the Netflix show

How does real-life Colombian cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco compare to her portrayal on Netflix's popular show Griselda, set in South Florida?

If you ask Miami filmmaker Billy Corben, the answer is complex enough to fit into a seven-episode podcast.

“The Real Griselda,” which premiered on audio platforms and YouTube on Monday, is co-hosted by Corben and Blanco’s youngest and last surviving son, Michael Corleone Blanco, and is set to become a TV show starring Sofia Vergara. It is advertised as a rebuttal.

That's because the truth about Griselda Blanco, the rise and fall of the notorious “godmother” of more than 200 murders in the male-dominated drug trade, doesn't need any extra dramatization and is spectacular on its own, Corben said. He told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. .

“'Griselda' is a gonzo Cocaine Cowboys fan fiction,” says Corben. “Griselda doesn't even come close to describing how compelling, violent, and complex her life was, much less her family.”

“At The Real Griselda, we’re not just talking about the show,” he says. “We're talking about what actually happened.”

During South Florida's chaotic Cocaine Cowboys era, there was arguably no more high-profile figure than Corben and Raconteur, the film studio he co-founded with Alfred Spellman and David Sipkin, who produced 4 He has produced a book documentary (one for Netflix) and a play (at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach). ).

To pull it off, the filmmakers used newspaper clippings and images of high-profile traffickers such as John Roberts, Mickey Monday, and Jorge “Livi” Ayala, as well as prison and prison records for case investigators and journalists. I relied on candid internal interviews. Starting with the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys,” their gritty, frenetic films unraveled his late 1970s and early 1980s cocaine smuggling boom. A hidden home in Fort Lauderdale. and a fierce gunfight in Kendal. (In a New York Times feature in January, Vergara, who plays a criminal billionaire in the Netflix treatment, cited “Cocaine Cowboys” as the reason for adapting Griselda.)

At the center of it all stood Blanco, whose brazen ruthlessness plunged South Florida into years of drug violence. Police branded Blanco the Colombian cartel's “La Madrina,” but she was also given the nickname “Black Widow” for the murders of her husband and lover. Eventually, an assassin shot her dead outside her butcher shop in Medellin, Colombia, in 2012.

Her youngest son, Michael Corleone Blanco, was also involved in Blanco's business. Yes, he's named after the character in “The Godfather” who witnessed his mother's bloody street revenge spree.

“Billy and I are Griselda Blanco experts,” he says. “I fill in the gaps in the case and talk about gems that have never been talked about before. There are so many shocking things.”

In creating his podcast, “The Real Griselda,” Corben said he aimed to correct what Netflix did wrong and right in each episode when it came to swings.

“We thought there was a great story to tell about this multigenerational crime family that Netflix wasn't telling,” says Corben.

So what is fact and fiction in Netflix's Griselda, according to Corben and Michael Blanco? Below are six scenes in which the two discuss in the limited series.

Scene: Griselda Blanco becomes Miami's first drug dealer, selling cocaine directly to wealthy white people.

Fact or fiction? Corben insists it's fiction. By the late 1970s, when Blanco immigrated from Colombia, cocaine was prevalent in discotheques throughout Miami. (Miami also has a swing symbol) Number 2 After living in New York City in the early 1970s, he traveled to the United States. ) “She might as well have discovered electricity,'' Corben quips. “Come on. She's 1978. Half the disco culture in America and Europe was fueled by cocaine and quaaludes, but Griselda looked around and realized that rich white people liked cocaine.” Did you notice?”

Scene: Arriving in Miami, Blanco struggles to sell a single bottle of cocaine.

Fact or fiction? Corben says it's fiction. By the time she arrived in South Florida, Griselda was already a fugitive in two countries and one of the biggest names in the drug industry. It's funny that she has such a hard time selling bricks of cocaine since it's 1978. She could have been sold at the Miami airport because she was in such demand. ”

Scene: Blanco is depicted as having two husbands, Alberto Bravo and Dario Sepulveda, both of whom she murders.

Fact or fiction? Admittedly, there is one caveat. Blanco actually has three husbands, and her first husband Carlos Trujillo was left out of her Netflix series. Based on interviews with cartel members, Corben said Trujillo was not murdered and that she “actually died of hepatitis in New York.” Blanco's second husband, Bravo, “was a marriage of convenience related to her legal status in the United States,” he says. “The show's idea that this started out as a passionate love affair is not true.” Bravo was shot dead by Blanco in Colombia. Blanco was not charged with the murder of her third husband, her hitman Dario Sepulveda (Michael Blanco's father), but her former colleagues say she ordered the killing. There is.

scene: Blanco orders the Dadeland Mall shootout in retaliation for his German business partner, Panesso, who betrayed him and joined forces with Miami drug lord Rafa Salazar.

Fact or fiction? That's half true. The daytime submachine gun attack at Dadeland Mall in Kendall was very real and shocked South Florida in 1979. Although Panesso and his bodyguard were killed, Panesso was “just one of the targets,” Corben said. “It was related to a number of completely different things. The raid was the first gunfight in the drug war, according to the series, but Blanco had previously been involved in public shootings on the Florida Turnpike and elsewhere. He is said to have ordered war.”

Scene: Blanco ends up on Florida's death row until a phone sex scandal taints his murder case.

Fact or fiction? truth. Prosecutors' murder case against Blanco involved Jorge “Livi” Ayala, a former colleague of Blanco's and a prominent witness in the case, having sexually explicit phone conversations with secretaries in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Until now, it was considered almost certain. The scandal damaged Ayala's credibility, and Blanco avoided his death penalty.

Scene: Blanco first meets his future drug buddies while living in Miami.

Fact or fiction? Corben says it's fiction. “Griselda” pretends to arrive in South Florida with nothing, but her godmother is already a prominent cocaine dealer and has ties to the Medellin cartel, which leads her to the magical city. It helped me gain a foothold. “She grew up in Colombia with Rafa Salazar and Papo Mejia. She knew them. And she not only met[her bodyguard]Chucho Castro in Miami. ” says Corben.

“Witness of many disturbances”

Michael Corleone Blanco said in a phone interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel. he wanted to be on the podcast Not only to clear up rumors about his mother, but also to protect the intellectual property of his family, in which he has a financial stake.

Michael Blanco, 45, who was indicted on cocaine trafficking charges in 2012 and appeared on the VH1 reality series “Cartel Crew” for three seasons from 2019 to 2021, said, “Podcasts are not about data and timelines. It's being dug even deeper.”

On January 17, he sued Vergara and Netflix in Miami-Dade County Court, seeking more than $50,000 in damages to block the release of Griselda. In his interview, he refused to answer pointed questions about his position on the Netflix show, citing ongoing litigation.

Instead, he is encouraging people to buy his recently published memoir, “My Mother, the Godmother, and the True Story of Michael Corleone Blanco, Griselda Blanco's Son.''

But his opinions are less filtered on the podcast “The Real Griselda.” In his debut episode, he said he liked how the series depicted the bond between his mother and her four children. “That's probably what I liked about[Griselda]; some of it was far from accurate,” he says.

For those who may think they are too young to remember his family's past, Corben says, “I don't think he was ever bullish—-'' about what he was told by his mother and the killer. is talked about in detail. The people who were there. Could they lie to him? It's possible. However, he was a witness to many mayhem. ”

In the second part of our podcast series, Michael Blanco shares a vivid memory from when he was 5 years old. His father, Sepulveda, had also fled to Colombia, where police stopped the two of them in a car.

As Mr. Sepulveda ran, they opened fire as his son watched.

“[Michael Blanco]started crying and walked out of the studio. This man lost 22 members of his family to drug dealing,” Corben recalls. “He said his father's murder didn't happen the way it did in the series because he was there.”

“Our world, the world of the Blanco family, is so complex and legendary that it deserves respect,” Michael Blanco added. “I think this story deserves to be shown a little more.”

New episodes of “The Real Griselda” are scheduled for Friday, February 9th, with remaining episodes available on all podcast platforms and on YouTube.com/@rakonturmiami on February 12th, February 14th, and February 16th. Published at /videos. .