The 2008 saga of four SF and LA gay men who murdered a Palm Springs art dealer and sold off his possessions (while hiding his body for nine years!) is getting its close-up this week, as NBC’s ‘Dateline’ explores this yesteryear scandal.
Back in 2009, the local media here couldn't get enough of a saga dubbed at the time as the “gay grifters”, which would end up also involving a gruesome Palm Springs murder. Here’s a 2009 SF Weekly cover story that (partially) tells the tale of then-26-year-old Kaushal Niroula, known by his nicknames “the Nepalese Prince” and “Prince Little Stuff” because of his completely bogus claims that he descended from Nepalese royalty. On top of that, Niroula had a hand in the implosion of SF’s New College thanks to his fake million-dollar promises and a fraudulent visa scam, and “Prince Little Stuff” also helped fake deeds to Rincon Hill condos so he could take out bogus loans on them, plus he bilked a woman in Hawaii out of $500,000.
And we haven’t even gotten to the gruesome murder part. Niroula was one member of the five-man “gay grifters” cabal that murdered 74-year-old Palm Springs art gallery dealer Clifford Lambert by stabbing him in 2008, and the crew then hid his body (it was not found until 2017). SF Weekly wrote in 2009 that the crew conspired to “fraudulently sell Lambert's house, loot his bank and investment accounts, steal his Mercedes sports car, and truck away his collection of fine art.”
If this sounds like it would make a delicious episode of NBC’s Dateline, it will do just that this coming Friday night, according to the Bay Area Reporter. In fact, this Friday night's episode of Dateline will be a two-hour installment called "The Prince, The Whiz Kid & The Millionaire."
The trailer for the episode can be seen here, and there’s also an exclusive preview snippet.
The episode appears to be largely based on SF author Tyson Wrensch's co-written 2013 book Until Someone Gets Hurt, and Wrensch apparently features prominently in the episode.
“I couldn't be more excited that Dateline not only chose to do this story, but after five years of production roadblocks thrown at NBC News by these con men and the justice system itself, the cautionary tale can finally be told to the world,” Wrensch told the Bay Area Reporter.
The two-hour Dateline episode "The Prince, The Whiz Kid & The Millionaire" will air Friday, October 10, from 9-11 pm and locally on NBC Bay Area’s KNTV Channel 11.
Image: NBC Universal
