Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Real Alpha Dog - The Story of Jesse James Hollywood

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

This is the story of Nicholas Markowitz and Jesse James Hollywood, and the real true story of Jesse James Hollywood.

An all-new season of the secret lives of Mormon wives is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Mom Talk has just been blowing up. Whitney and Jen are dancing with the stars. Taylor is a bachelorette. Saying that out loud is crazy. That is huge. But all the cool opportunities could close apart. It's causing issues in everyone's marriage. My whole world is falling apart right now. It's chaos. Watch the Hulu original series, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply. So there's this guy everyone calls him Hollywood.

He's 19, and Hollywood is about to go to prison for life. So Hollywood, he's kind of a big deal in his neighborhood. In fact, he's the local Zaza dealer. But one day, he needs to collect some money from someone in his crew. This guy, Ben. Ben owes Hollywood about 1,200 bucks. And Hollywood's like, oh, I'm getting that money. So Hollywood and his crew, they drive over to Ben's house.

But Ben, he isn't home. Instead, they see Ben's younger half-brother. This kid, Nick. Nick is 15. And Nick, he's a nice kid. He isn't involved in any of this gang life or his brother's debt at all. Regardless, Hollywood really wants to teach Ben a lesson. So they see Nick walking along, and bam, they jump out of their van,

and they beat him up a little bit. And then they throw him in the back of the van and they drive away, essentially kidnapping him. A few hours later, Nick's parents notice he's gone. And they freak out and they call. the police. But by that time, Hollywood and his gang have already driven him 70 miles away, from Los Angeles all the way to Santa Barbara. Now, the gang has Nick and he's all tied up, and they don't really know what to do with him. So they give him alcohol and other substances

to chill him out. And over the next few days, in Santa Barbara, the gang takes Nick and they hopped from get together to get together, and eventually they end up at a pool party being thrown at a motel. And there's a bunch of other people there. And by this point, Nick, he doesn't even really feel kidnapped. In fact, he's having a great time. He's drinking, he's meeting people, he's hanging out with older, cooler kids. He even makes friends with this girl that's always hanging around and he gets, you know, a little crush on her. She is fine.

So for Nick, this kidnapping thing turned into something kind of fun. Until. At some point during all this, Hollywood finally comes to a realization. Oh shit, he actually kidnaps someone. That is a huge deal. What happens if he gets caught? So he panics and he goes and he meets up with a family friend who is also an attorney and he's going to get some legal advice. And this attorney straight up tells him, buddy, you're fucked. If you get caught, anyone involved in kidnapping Nick is probably going to get life in prison. So Hollywood's just like, say less. I'm going to take care of this. And so he hits up this other guy, Ryan Hoyt. And Ryan Hoyt, he also owes Hollywood some money.

And Hollywood's like, look, if you unalive this Nick kid for me, that'll clear your debt. And Ryan Hoyt's like, aye. And then Hollywood hands him a duffel bag with an automatic pew-poo in it. Meanwhile, Nick is still back with the gang, partying, thinking, ah, they're treating me well. They're probably gonna release me soon. But of course, that's not what they do. Instead, they take him up into the Santa Barbara Mountains, because they're gonna unalive him.

So they get him up there and they bound him with duct tape so he can't resist. And there's a shallow grave there that some of the guys had dug for him. And as Nick stands there, scared out of his mind, suddenly, cow! Ryan Hoyt hits him over the back of the head with a shovel. And while Nick is down, Ryan pulls out his pew-poo, and with one pull of the trigger, nine shots go off. And then Nick falls into the grave, unalived.

And then the guys bury him, and they flee the scene. Here's the thing about this grave, though. grave though. It's shallow, too shallow. And it doesn't really conceal the body very well. Plus, this spot in the mountains they chose is near a popular hiking trail. So within a few days, random pedestrians are just walking by and they spot Nick's body and they report it. A few days later, the story of Nick's body being found hits the Santa Barbara newspaper. And from there, the leads just start pouring in because a lot of people had seen Nick hanging out at those parties the gang took him to. Not to mention,

the girl who he had befriended, who he was crushing on, she hears about this, and she goes straight to the police and she tells them everything she knows. And then a few hours later, bam, police arrest Ryan Hoyt. Here's his mugshot. They also go and arrest some of the other guys. Here's a couple of their mugshots. However, unfortunately, by this time, Hollywood is nowhere to be found. He's already fled the country. First to Canada, then all the way to Brazil. So, the FBI gets involved and they look for him for years, four years actually. And eventually they find him living a completely new life in Brazil. And bam, they arrest him there.

Here's his mugshot. And ultimately, Hollywood gets life in prison without parole. Ryan Hoyt gets the death penalty, although later his sentence is commuted to life in prison. And another guy also gets life in prison and two other members of the gang. They get lighter sentences. They're actually both out now. So shout out to Alpha Dog, I guess.