Whither Rita’s roots? New podcast focuses on Crundwell before her epic embezzlement

DIXON – It’s a tale all too familiar to Dixon residents – or is it?

A new eight-episode true crime podcast that becomes available Sunday aims at least in part to tell the story of Rita Crundwell’s epic embezzlement from a slightly different perspective.

Season three of The Binge podcast, “Crooked City: Dixon IL” – available via subscription – is all about Crundwell’s massive theft of almost $54 million over 20 years from her hometown. It still is the largest municipal theft in U.S. history.

The podcast, produced and narrated by Alexa Burke, and produced by Truth Media and Sony Music Entertainment, makes much of the contrast between the city’s ties to hometown hero Ronald Reagan, and the values he is said to have embodied, and the champion quarter horse queen’s callous hoodwinking of the people who knew and trusted her.

Crundwell’s monumental theft and betrayal of that trust left many Dixon residents angry and uncomfortable, annoyed by a now-national reputation as small-town rubes, constantly bathed in a spotlight that seems never to dim.

The podcast, however, in which Burke interviews Crundwell friends, family members, horsey pals and others, takes a more sympathetic look at the town of 15,000, City Manager Danny Langloss said Friday. He was among several Dixon officials interviewed, including former Mayor Jim Dixon.

“I’ve listened to the first three episodes,” Langloss said. “It’s pretty well done. It takes a deep dive into Dixon and Dixon’s history. They talked to several people and really brought to life who [Crundwell] was” before she came to work for the city as a high school student. She became comptroller at age 30.

“They talked to people who grew up with Rita, who went to grade school with Rita, who went to high school with Rita ... there’s a lot of back story,” he said.

“They just fell in love with Dixon, with our people, and how welcoming Dixon was. I feel like they’ve painted Dixon in a really positive light. I’m going to definitely listen to all the episodes.”

“I’m not excited about the title,” Langloss said, but “they wanted to take a really objective look at it. I was fairly convinced there was no agenda other than telling the story, and at this point it just seems really well done.”

[ Life after Rita: Dixon officials reflect on city transformation 10 years after Crundwell arrest ]

The Crundwell saga began a dozen years ago now, when the mayor, the late Jim Burke, went to the FBI in October 2011 with concerns about phony city bank accounts and money gone missing.

Everyone thought it culminated on Feb. 14, 2013, when Crundwell was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison for her malfeasance, which provided her with a lavish lifestyle that included 300 horses, a $2 million tour bus, jewels, furs, multiple homes and other trappings of the enormously wealthy.

At the same time, Dixon did without, struggling to pay for crumbling infrastructure and other projects.

[ Rita’s out: Crundwell released from federal prison ]

In the end, Crundwell served less than half her sentence, doing 8½ years in Pekin Correctional Center. Dixon was made almost financially whole by a settlement with the company that gave its books a clean bill of health year after year, and by proceeds from the sale of Crundwell’s ill-gotten gains.

[ Crundwell recovery fund: How Dixon spent the money and what’s left ]

Since her early release Aug. 4, 2021, the 70-year-old reportedly is back in rural Dixon under federal house arrest. The Bureau of Prisons does not release or confirm an offender’s whereabouts, citing privacy issues.

The BOP does say that No. 44540-424 has about five years left on her sentence: She will be discharged Oct. 20, 2028, three months before she turns 76.

Crundwell cited a variety of health issues in her petition for early release, granted under the terms of the Cares Act, which went into effect March 26, 2020. The act expanded the BOP’s home-confinement program as a means to keep COVID-19 from raging through federal lockups.

It allows for the early release of nonviolent prisoners who meet certain criteria, such as their age, health, the nature of their crime and whether they are likely to reoffend.

Congress also directed the overcrowded BOP to use home confinement as much as is practical, especially for low-risk inmates, which BOP officials interpreted to mean inmates with a lower risk of reoffending.

Theoretically, Crundwell still could be returned to federal prison, but it doesn’t seem likely.

Of the 13,204 individuals placed on home confinement under the CARES Act, only 531 were back in custody as of Aug. 26, the BOP said Friday.