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In the 25 years I have been writing about true crime, I have never encountered a story more confusing and complicated than the Billionaire Boys Club (BBC) saga. It spans numerous principals, convoluted crimes and lengthy trials. It is the Rubik’s Cube of my writing career.
I will focus solely here on some of the activities based in our county, but some of the tale has been left out by necessity.
A main aspect of the crimes occurred on July 30, 1984, at the Belmont residence of Hedayat Eslaminia at 400 Davey Glen Road. Eslaminia, a former key player in the inner circle of the Shah of Iran, was kidnapped by members of the BBC who hoped to get a lot of money from him. His estranged son Reza was a significant component in the kidnapping. The older man was locked in a steamer trunk and driven to Southern California. Unfortunately, as there were no air holes in the trunk, he died during the journey and, not knowing what to do with the unexpected corpse, his body was dumped in Soledad Canyon in Los Angeles County.
After that, law enforcement went down a variety of paths which eventually resulted in the arrest of Reza and his partner Ben Dosti, and they were both put on trial in 1987 in the San Mateo County courthouse in Redwood City.
As it happens, a good friend of mine was a member of the jury. Her initial impression was: “So many lawyers! I never saw so many in one room together.”
Reza, who had only known the BBC members for a matter of weeks before the kidnapping, stated he was forced to participate in the crime and that, as journalist Sue Horton explained in a book about the case, he had a “troubled, even pathetic past.”
The defense fought hard to lessen the severity of the crime, but the jury (after a very lengthy deliberation) found Ben guilty on all counts and Reza guilty on all counts except intent to kill his father in advance of the crime.
My friend said: “It was very hard to hear two distinctly divergent stories. It was also heartbreaking to see the father of one of the defendants break down regarding testimony against his son. I have to believe no parent ever wants to think a child is capable of being led down such a wrong path.”
The judge sentenced both defendants to life without the possibility of parole.
It didn’t end there. The San Mateo County Times would report that “those convictions were overturned on technical grounds 10 years later.”
The intrigue of the crimes and the key players has never waned. The crimes led to, among others, a widely-viewed 1987 TV miniseries and a 2018 movie (which bombed).
The trials cost millions and will forever be remembered, as the Daily Journal put it, “…(as) the most expensive and complicated (trial) in the history of San Mateo County.”
