Harvey Adelson Knew About the Bump

Today I want to review seven wiretap phone conversations between Donna and Charlie Adelson, with a little sprinkle of Hothead Harvey in there for good measure. In my opinion, these conversations show that Harvey was acutely aware of all the information surrounding the bump and was even privy to the plot to murder Dan Markel.

Full credit to Fancy Fiction on Twitter — she sourced these FBI wiretaps. She's got a pinned post with a phenomenal playlist of wiretap conversations from pre-bump, post-bump, and Katie Magbanua's arrest. One exercise I encourage you to do: listen to the pre-bump calls and how energetic and casual they were, how comfortable — and then listen to the post-bump calls. There's a significant change. The energy is different. It's palpable how impactful the bump was on these people.

It does take some time to establish what I believe to be Harvey's involvement. It takes around four calls to really get to the juicy stuff. Give this timeline a chance to play out — we're going to put all the puzzle pieces together.

Call 1: The Bump Happens

This is the original call between Donna and Charlie after law enforcement performed the bump and handed Donna a piece of paper.

So we're in bump territory. Later in the call, Charlie asks the key question:

Donna really leans into that "fortunately." This is our first example of Donna being relieved that Harvey doesn't know about the bump. It doesn't show anything against Harvey yet — but we're going to develop this as we move through the calls. It's also the first example of Donna and Charlie playing a game I call Hide It from Harvey.

Call 2: Why They're Hiding It

This is a follow-up on the same day. First, we establish they're still talking about the bump — Charlie asks whether the person who approached Donna was Black, white, or Hispanic, and how the paperwork was handed over.

Then they get into Harvey:

So now we know why they're playing Hide It from Harvey: his emotional reactions. This is very undesirable. Donna has to live with it, but Charlie is also trying to keep the temperature lowered. He's trying to keep everybody cool.

Call 3: Charlie's Theory

In this call, Charlie and Donna use their relationship code — Charlie pretends he's giving a friend relationship advice, which is how he relays his conversations with Katie Magbanua back to his mother so they can "safely" discuss it over the phone. He'll tell Donna things like "my friend took the advice and she's going to sleep on it" — that's him updating Donna on the status of things.

Charlie reassures Donna:

Donna is really looking for reassurance. She is sweating this bump. Charlie has a theory at this point — that the bump is nothing to worry about, that it can be taken care of — and he's trying to reassure her. But Donna responds:

So we learn two things: Charlie has a theory on the bump, and Donna does not believe in it. Her intuition is likely screaming inside of her.

Call 4: Harvey Is In the Conversation

This call is a really important one because I think it proves that Charlie spoke to Harvey about the bump. I also think it shows that Charlie is talking to Harvey in the exact same way he's talking to Donna — which means the three of them are in the same thread, having the same conversation. And this is a conversation with a convicted murderer and someone who's been arrested on the exact same charges.

Later in the call, Charlie goes on one of his classic ramblings about his theory. I actually think because he repeats himself so much, this is probably very close to what he told Harvey and asked him to pass on to Donna.

The call ends with another reiteration: Dad spoke to you about what I spoke to him about. If you can follow that — Charlie tells Harvey, Harvey tells Donna, and Charlie hopes it's going to have a positive impact. I think Charlie had so many conversations where he tried to tell Donna there's nothing to worry about and it didn't work, so he tried to get his dad on his side. Hey Dad, here's my theory — see, there's nothing to worry about. Can you tell Mom? He tried to double-team her. But it didn't work.

Call 5: Harvey's Not Doing Well

In this call, Donna asks if Charlie checked the phone number she gave him the night before — the number from something law enforcement gave her, asking her to contact someone about the $5,000 payment.

Then Charlie asks about Harvey:

You can see what's happening. Charlie's got his theory and he doesn't think there's anything to worry about. He tries to convince Donna — doesn't work. So he huddles up with Dad: "Dad, hear me out, there's nothing to worry about. Go tell Mom." But now Harvey's not doing well again, so Charlie partners up with Mom and has her talk to Harvey because maybe she can get through to him.

Donna looks for reassurance through action — she wants something to be done. She says, "It sounds like this company usually fixes those things pretty quickly." That's another version of code, using "a company" instead of the relationship talk.

Charlie finishes by saying: "You guys are notorious for always getting worked up."

Someone in the comments pointed out he could have meant Wendy and Donna here. Maybe. But I take context very seriously. The whole time they're talking about the bump, then they talk about Harvey, and then he says "you guys." There's never any mention of Wendy. What reason do you have to believe he's talking about Donna and Wendy over Harvey and Donna?

Call 6: Charlie Tries Again

Charlie references talking to Harvey about his theory — and again we see the same pattern of him checking in to see if the message got through. He always references his "two ways" framework: if you don't know who the person is, it's a much bigger problem; if you know who it is, it's very easy. He repeats himself constantly, and this is one of those examples.

Call 7: Harvey Is Still Spiraling

Harvey has turned down an invitation from Charlie. Charlie asks if he's upset about everything, then asks if something else happened. In my opinion, Charlie's actually asking whether there's been an update — maybe some other event that set his dad off. This one is more debatable. I'd yield a little easier to an argument against it. But the pattern is consistent: Harvey is down in the dumps, and it's clearly connected to the same thing Charlie and Donna have been discussing across all seven calls.

What This Means for Harvey

Harvey Adelson was deeply involved in conversations about the bump with Charlie and Donna. These conversations were used in Charlie's trial, and he was found guilty of murder. Donna was just arrested on the same charges. Harvey being deeply intertwined with these two in these kinds of conversations does not look good.

I don't see anything in these wiretaps that shows Harvey was unaware of the bump or thought of it differently than Charlie and Donna. I also feel that he had such a negative reaction to the bump because he knew the consequences of anyone finding out about this plot were very dire.

The more I look into it, the more unreasonable it feels to think that he wasn't at least fully aware of the bump — and very possibly aware of much more.