Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - These Actors are Going to Jail - A Ray William Johnson Compilation

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

A Ray William Johnson Compilation of actors committing crimes ...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. If you remember the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you probably remember this tree scene. Well, the child actor playing this bush here actually ends up murdering someone.
Starting point is 00:00:40 It's crazy. Now his name is Ryan. He's nine, he's from Squamish, British Columbia, and Ryan is young, but he already knows he wants to be an actor. So one day, he auditions for a commercial, and boom, he gets the part. So he keeps going. And eventually he gets a small role in a team. movie. And soon he's in other movies and TV shows and people are like, you're going places, kid. And a few years later, when he's around 12 years old, he lands a small role in the movie
Starting point is 00:01:09 Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He's the kid who plays the Bush in the school play. And it's a small role in a big movie, but this is a huge deal for him. And so he just keeps acting, small roles here and there, and eventually a couple years later, he gets a lead role in a movie. Hi, I'm Ryan Grantham. And I'm playing the role of Redwood. And so it feels like his acting career is finally getting traction. He gets a small role on a show called Falling Skies and on another show called I-Zombie. Then he gets cast in two episodes of Supernatural. Four years after that, he's cast in an episode of Riverdale. He told the police he did it. To protect me, but it wasn't him. And that's all great for Ryan, but here's the thing about all this acting he's doing. He's working,
Starting point is 00:01:59 he's getting roles here and there, some promising stuff. But he's not landing a little. parts like he wants. Like nothing is making him this famous movie star and this really starts to weigh on Ryan. And soon enough, he's really down about it, like really down. He's battling with depression and it just sucks for him. And by the way, this is a really common thing with actors. They see making it as a big Hollywood star as the very definition of success, as opposed to just being a working actor who gets a lot of smaller roles here and there. And so they, like Ryan, when they don't make it big time, like Timothy Shalomey or whoever, they'll start to see themselves as a failure. Instead of seeing themselves as someone who is working a job doing something they really love,
Starting point is 00:02:43 which a lot of people don't have the privilege of getting to do. Like, I personally think it's cool he was in Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Falling Skies and Riverdale. Like, that's a cool little resume to me, especially at 21 years old. Like, that sounds like success to me, but I guess it doesn't to run. So, for whatever reason, Ryan doesn't tell anyone. He keeps it to himself and acts as if everything is okay. And around this time, he's going to college. And in college, he's having a really hard time there too.
Starting point is 00:03:16 And he's bummed out and he's isolating himself and he starts having a lot of really dark thoughts. And apparently to combat all this, he gets really into alcohol and zaza. Until. As things keep getting worse for Ryan, he's starts spending more and more time online, specifically on the dark web, which can be a really messed up place. And I guess he gets really into watching these like really violent videos. A lot of these videos are apparently of people being executed. Like that's what he's consuming all day. And eventually Ryan gets into such a bad mental state. He just stops going to class. And all of this is putting him in a headspace where he wants to unalive himself.
Starting point is 00:03:58 And then he starts thinking about what it might feel like to unalive someone else. Like I said, he's having a lot of really dark thoughts. And at some point in all this, he starts to come up with this plan, a plan to unalive someone. But the person he wants to take out isn't some rival classmate who works at Burger King or something. Ryan wants to unalive the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Tridio. Specifically, he plans to drive to where the Prime Minister lives, open fire on the place, and set it up blaze. Why he specifically chooses Trudeau as a target is actually unclear. Ryan doesn't seem like a very political guy, but apparently for some reason he just really hates Trudeau.
Starting point is 00:04:40 Anyway, so he thinks through this plan and yeah, he's gonna do it. And then he goes to the store and he buys himself a new rifle. Here's the thing though, when it comes to this plan, Ryan can't stop thinking about his mom, who we'll just call mom. And mom is a sweet woman who he still lives with and she has always supported his acting dreams. And Ryan, he keeps thinking that if he were to unalive the prime minister, then his name would be all over the news and his mom would know that her son is a killer, and it would destroy her. And Ryan doesn't want to destroy her. He doesn't want her to have to face that shame.
Starting point is 00:05:16 So he decides that the merciful thing to do would be to unalive her first, so that she never finds out. Now mom, she frequently plays the piano, and when she does, she's totally a absorbed in the music and the playing. And Ryan has this thing where he'll like rehearse the hit. He'll sneak up behind her while she's playing and he'll point his pew-poo at the back of her head and he'll mimic the shooting. And she's completely oblivious to what's going on. But anyway, then the big day finally comes and it's go time.
Starting point is 00:05:50 And so mom is at the piano and she's playing away and that's when Ryan grabs his rifle and he sneaks up behind her and he points it at her head and he pulls the trigger. Blam! And mom falls to the floor and she's unalived. Then for whatever reason, Ryan gets his GoPro and he turns it on and he records himself. He's like, hey I just murdered my mom and then he turns the camera to show the body. And as crazy as all this is, this is a lot for Ryan to process and he needs to chill. So he goes out and he buys some beer and some zaza and then he comes back home and he hangs out and he hangs out and and he watches Netflix for a couple of hours, while mom's body is still there lying on the floor.
Starting point is 00:06:36 And before he goes to sleep, he throws a sheet over his mom to cover her up. Now, in the morning, he's ready to carry out the second part of his plan, take out Justin Trudeau. So he packs up his car with three Pugh-Pews, a ton of ammunition, a bunch of Maltov cocktails he made, camping supplies, and a printed Google map with directions to Trudeau's house. Then he takes off, and he drives for a few hours. for about 150 miles.
Starting point is 00:07:02 And on this drive, he starts really thinking hard about what he's about to do. Like, is he really gonna drive all the way across Canada to Unalive the Prime Minister? Because I look at that map, that's a really long drive. It's about 45 hours. So, Ryan, he starts to change his mind, and he starts thinking of other options he could do.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Like, maybe I'll just go back to my college and Unalive a bunch of people there, or maybe I'll go to the Lionsgate Bridge in Vancouver and Unalive a bunch of people. there. And so for whatever reason, he suddenly decides to turn his car around and he starts driving back. Now, here's where things get even more weird. Because on this drive, I guess he thinks about it more and more. Does he really want to unalive people at his school or at the bridge in Vancouver? And I guess the answer is no. Because instead of doing that, he drives to Vancouver right to the
Starting point is 00:07:54 police station and he walks up to an officer who's sitting in a parked car and he's like, Hi, I unalived my mom. Now, it isn't clear exactly why Ryan changed his mind suddenly. Like, he seems to be mentally just all over the place. Like, he wants to unalive himself, then he suddenly has this plan to unalive Trudeau, but then he has to unalive his mom first, and then he changes his mind, decides to hit up his school and the bridge. If this plan feels scattered to you, it's because it is. Regardless, eventually, bam, police arrest him.
Starting point is 00:08:24 And I don't have a mug shot, but he's an actor, so here's his headshot. And he ultimately pleads guilty to second-degree murder and he sentenced to life in prison. So this Harry Potter actor is about to go to prison for some crimes. No, not him. Him. So the actor's name is Jamie. Jamie is a normal 11-year-old kid when this story starts, living in London, and one day, in the year 2000, his whole life changes. Because some casting scouts for Warner Brothers show up to his school.
Starting point is 00:08:57 They're looking for kids to fill some roles in an upcoming movie they're making. And that is when they notice Jamie. And they're like, you're perfect, kid! And even though he's never acted before, boom, he's cast as Vincent Krabb for the movie, Harry Potter. And here's a picture of Jamie as Krab. You might remember him. And so Jamie goes and he films the first Harry Potter movie and in 2001 it comes out and it blows up. Then he gets asked to come back and he films the same.
Starting point is 00:09:27 second movie, and it comes out in 2002, and it blows up too. And so at this point, it's like probably 2005 now, and Jamie's around 16 years old, and his whole life is different. I mean, he's suddenly in one of the biggest film franchises of old time. Like, he's making a little money. He's probably getting recognized on the street. Here's the problem with all this, though. Despite his lucky break, it feels like Jamie doesn't appreciate the opportunity in front of him. I'm just guessing because it seems he's way more interested in acting cool in front of his co-stars than doing his job as an actor. Like when he's on set, he'll often have an attitude. Sometimes he sneaks his headphones on the set and he listens to rap music when he should be
Starting point is 00:10:10 listening to the director. Sometimes he's just straight up aggressive, like he keeps getting into verbal fights with his co-stars, especially this actor, Tom Felton, Tom plays Malfoy. And according to Tom, one day, he and Jamie are getting ready to film a scene in the Great Hall, when Jamie starts to get an attitude with him. And then he starts getting aggressive and like Jamie keeps elbowing him and kicking him under the table, whispering, you're a twet, you're a twet. And Tom's probably like, wait till my father his about this. But Jamie just keeps doing this to him over and over again, until right before the cameras start rolling, and Tom has finally had enough. And so, pow, he punches Jamie right in the face. And Jamie's nose starts to bleed and it messes up the whole take and
Starting point is 00:10:56 the director and the production crew are all pissed off at both of them. Poor Tom. And that's not the only story floating around about him. But time goes on. And Jamie, he's 17 now. And he's getting older and he's probably starting to think that he's way too gangster for this Harry Potter nonsense. And rumors start to spread about him. People say he's doing a lot of partying lately. He's smoking a little Zaza. indulging in a bit of cocaine and hanging out with exotic dancers. It's even alleged that he showed up to the premiere of the fourth Harry Potter movie all high on that Coca-Cola. Now, whether that's actually true or not, it isn't confirmed.
Starting point is 00:11:36 Regardless, Jamie is getting a bad rep. And so, more time passes, and it's now 2009. And the dude is 19 now, so he's officially an adult. And the sixth Harry Potter movie is about to come out, Half-Blood Prince. And Jamie, he's in it, you know, he's crab, and you can see him there in the background of the scene. But one night, after filming had long finished, he's driving around London with a friend. And randomly, he sees a police car drive by. And for some reason, Jamie takes a picture of the police car on his phone.
Starting point is 00:12:10 And the police see him taking the picture, and they're like, well, that's suspicious. And they pull him over and they search his car. And when they search it, they find a knife under his seat along. with eight bags of Zaza. And so police, they take his phone and they're looking through it for the picture that he took of them and that is when they find pictures of large cannabis plants. Apparently Jamie has 10 cannabis plants growing in a tent in his bedroom and there were pictures of them on his phone. And so police, they go to his home and boom, they bust in and they raid the place and they search his bedroom and they find that he has a whole cannabis farm there where he's been growing
Starting point is 00:12:50 all these plans. And so, bam, he gets arrested. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him, looking a little dushy. And so eventually, Jamie has to go to court over all this. And there, he begs the judge to go easy on him, and he says that he's a troubled child star, and he's been struggling with fame, and that made him turn to drugs. And I guess the judge buys it. So, instead of prison time, he only gets community service. Now at this point, Jamie, he's putting his career at risk. I mean, you can't be in kids' movies and get busted for drugs. You'll get fired. But Jamie doesn't seem to be thinking like that. He continues to lean in to this bad boy reputation that he's building for himself, and he releases a rap video, because of course he does.
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Starting point is 00:15:00 BetMGem operates pursuant to an operating agreement with the Alberta Eye Gaming Corporation. Standard message and data rates may apply. And the lyrics for his verse include things like First-degree murder getting messy with the burning. Which, to be honest, isn't really that outlandish for a rap song, but it might be if you're in an ongoing series of family-friendly movies like Jamie is. Now, at some point, Warner Brothers hears about his drug arrest.
Starting point is 00:15:32 And you know, they probably saw his rap videos too, and they've got a multi-billion dollar film franchise writing on all this. And so, I assume it's all of that, along with, you know, the production crew being tired of his attitude on set. And that makes W.B say, yeah, we don't want this guy back to. for the next Harry Potter movie. And so the writers of the last two movies, they end up writing another character where his was supposed to be. This scene was supposed to be
Starting point is 00:15:58 Crabb's biggest scene in the entire franchise where he dies, and instead they gave it to a different character. And so, boom, it's official. Jamie is fired from Harry Potter. He's just messed up the greatest thing to ever happen to his acting career, but it's not clear if he cares about that
Starting point is 00:16:17 because it's not clear he ever wanted to be an actor. But, even so, he is about to make things much worse. Because now it's 2011. And during this time, something pretty crazy is happening in London. Apparently, police had recently shot a citizen, a black man. And people felt it was unjust. And for this and other reasons, they took to the streets, and they start getting out of control and people start rioting.
Starting point is 00:16:43 And mobs are running through the streets, throwing bottles at police and setting cars and buildings on fire. It's crazy. But soon, footage of the riot gets out on social media, and so more and more people show up to take advantage of the situation, including Jamie. Jamie decides to show up with a gang of friends and they're apparently looking for a fun time and they treat the riot like it's one big party. Like at one point, Jamie sees a mob looting a supermarket, so he runs inside and he starts raiding the pharmacy. And then at some point a rioter hands him like a bottle of champagne
Starting point is 00:17:18 and is like, cheers, mate. And so Jamie, he starts drinking this stolen bottle of champagne. Stuff like that. But during all this, one of Jamie's rioter friends hands him a Maltau cocktail. And Jamie, always wanting to be gangster, he takes the cocktail and he starts running around the streets with it and this scares the hell out of local business owners because they think he's like trying to burn down their store.
Starting point is 00:17:42 But what Jamie doesn't know is that everything he's doing is being captured by security cameras. And so later, when police are searching through the footage, looking for people who are committing crimes, they're able to identify Jamie as the person with the Maltaf cocktail. Like, hey, isn't that that kid from the Harry Potter movie? And so, bam, he gets arrested. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him in real life. And ultimately, after all that, Jamie gets sentenced to... two years in prison.
Starting point is 00:18:14 You remember the Austin Powers movies? Well, one of the actors is now in prison for life. And it all starts with this 19-year-old woman. And we don't know her name, so we'll just call her Shelley. And one night, it's Christmas Eve in 1990, and Shelley is driving home from a night out. And once she arrives, she gets out of her car and then a strange man approaches her,
Starting point is 00:18:38 and he asks her for directions. And before Shelley can really answer, Boom, the man pulls out of Pughpoo. And then another man comes out of the shadows, and pow, they grab her, and both of them start beating her up. And then, bam, they knock her unconscious. And then they pick her up, and they throw her into the back of a van they're driving that's parked nearby, and the van speeds away. And for the next few hours, the men do horrible things to Shelley in the back of that van.
Starting point is 00:19:04 And I won't get into details, but it's a lot of essay and torture. And when they're done, they kick her out of the van, and they flee, disappearing into the night. And Shelley reports them to the police and they get some composite sketches of the men, but that's all they can do. I mean, the men got away and poor Shelley is left feeling absolutely hopeless. And four years go by, and the men still haven't been identified or caught. Now, one of those guys, his name is Joe Son, and Joe Son's 20 years old and he's clearly a violent guy. So around this time, he starts a career in MMA. Like he worked out and he trains and he goes to tournaments and he actually competes.
Starting point is 00:19:45 Hi, my name is Joe Son. I'm from Huntington Beach, California. The Lord said, not by my might or my strength, but with my spirit. And interestingly enough, his whole gimmick is that he's this big Christian martial artist. You guys will see the spirit of the Lord of Jesus Christ tonight. And he's like very theatrical about it, like he walks out to the ring, carrying a big ass cross on his back. Like, it's very over the top. Anyway, I actually have some footage of a professional fight that he competed in and you can see him right here he's obviously the guy in red getting tossed around and after about two minutes and 45 seconds the other guy gets him down chokes him out and you can see him right here tapping out but i guess jesus isn't with him that night because
Starting point is 00:20:27 he loses that fight but anyway around this time i guess he decides that he really likes the spotlight because that is when he gets into acting like he goes out and he works hard and he auditions and he eventually lands a small role in an episode of a TV show called Reasonable Doubts. Pretty cool. And right after that, he lands a role in a B movie starring Dolph Lundren. He's a driver, not a killer. I'm different. Then he lands a role in another movie called Shoot Fighters starring William Zabka. Then he gets a role in Bloodfist Part 5. And I have no idea what these movies are, but like he's in And for whatever reason, I don't know if it's just a coincidence, but in every single movie he's cast in, he's the villain.
Starting point is 00:21:11 Maybe it's just like the way he looks. Maybe it's because he's a bad guy in real life. I don't know. But whatever, the acting thing seems to be working out for him. Because after that, he gets another role. And then another role and then another one. But then one day, he gets a really big break. He auditions for a new big budget comedy, a movie starring Mike Myers called Austin Powers.
Starting point is 00:21:33 And he plays the part of Dr. Evil's henchman Random Task. Oh, that really hurt. I'm going to have a lump there, you idiot. Who throws his shoe? Honestly. And it's not a lead role, but this is a huge deal for him. But all that spotlight and exposure for an actor, you would think that things would take off for him,
Starting point is 00:21:54 but for some reason, they really don't. Like maybe he quit, maybe he just didn't get cast in anything else. I don't know. But he actually has no more film or TV credits after that. Regardless, he's still not ready to give up the spotlight because a few years later, he returns to MMA fighting. And he gets back in the ring and he loses. And then he loses again and then he loses again. And ultimately, he ends his professional MMA career with a record of 0 and 4.
Starting point is 00:22:22 Whomp, and then about six years go by. And apparently Joe still has some of that fighter left in him. Because one night, and we don't know what the details are, but he gets into it with his room. roommate, because I guess he has a roommate. And Joe Son ends up getting so mad at the roommate that he walks up to the roommate's car and then boom, boom, he straight up kicks the car door in. Of course, he can't be doing that. That's frowned upon.
Starting point is 00:22:46 And he gets reported to the police and so bam, they arrest him. Here's the thing though. Joe Son ends up taking a plea deal and he spends a few months in jail for felony vandalism. But whatever, he'll serve his time and he'll get out and he'll go back to his normal life. Like, you know, no big deal. Until. So Joe Son took a plea deal, right? And as part of his plea deal, the state requires him to submit a DNA sample, which Joe Son has never done before. And so police, they take his DNA sample and it's routine that they run the sample through their database. So they run their sample through the database and holy shit, it comes back as a match to a really old cold case from Christmas Eve 1990.
Starting point is 00:23:30 See, all those years ago, Joe Son and the other guy kidnapped Shelly and they did horrible things to her in the back of that van, but they didn't unalive her. They let her go. And so, of course, Shelly reported it to the police and they came up with some composite sketches, but they're also able to collect some DNA samples, which was a fairly new technology at that time. And police added those DNA samples to their database, but at the time, they had no one to match the DNA to. And so those samples sat in their database for almost 20 years until there's suddenly a match for Joe Son. And so, bam, police arrest him. Here's his mugshot. An incarcerated actor who's probably best known for his role in the movie Austin Powers
Starting point is 00:24:16 was in front of a judge once again today. And so police questioned him and Joe Sun, he denies doing anything wrong, but he's certainly happy to tell them all about his acting. And you said that you were an actor. What do you do acting? I do comedy. Play bad guys sometime. Do you see Austin Powers? Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:24:33 I played a little role in part one. Okay. You can find me in Wikipedia, believe it or not. And he actually legitimately does have a Wikipedia page, by the way. Anyway, so police have Josan, but he isn't admitting to anything. He doesn't care what DNA evidence they have. He ain't talking. And so police are like, all right, we'll just find your accomplice.
Starting point is 00:24:52 Because remember, there were two men that attacked Shelley that night. And so now that they have Joe Son in custody, they start looking at his social circle, his old friends, his friends of friends, and they end up finding a guy who looks somewhat like an older version of the composite drawing they got from back in the day. And that guy is this guy, Santiago. And so they bring Santiago in and they question him and he doesn't admit to anything either. But then they get a DNA sample from him too. And of course, his DNA matches the DNA they collected from the crime scene back in 1990. And so, boom, they arrest him. Here's a his mugshot. And Santiago eventually caves and he ends up confessing to the crime, which then
Starting point is 00:25:35 really screws Joe Son over because it implicates him as well. Regardless, Joe Son is found guilty and he's sentenced to prison time and while he's in prison, he ends up unaliving his cellmate. And so they sentence him to more time. So now he's serving 34 years to life while Santiago gets 17 years in prison. And after having waited almost 20 years to find these guys, Shelley finally gets the justice she deserves. Good for her. So this relatively unknown actor is rich now. He just took in over 690 million dollars and he did it basically by just using his charming personality. So how did he get so rich? Now the guy's name is Zach and Zach's an aspiring actor and he really wants to
Starting point is 00:26:24 be famous. But unfortunately for him he's not but he will be. But for now he's just a guy who runs a juice bar in Chicago. But then one day he writes a billionaire asking him to invest in his juice bar. That billionaire is Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks. So Zach writes Howard asking him to invest thinking, I don't know, it's worth a shot. But then, surprisingly, Howard Schultz writes him back. And he says that he's really impressed with the business plan that Zach pitched him, but that he doesn't want to invest in the juice bar. However, he does want to invest in Zach. He wants him to come work for him at his venture capital firm in Los Angeles. So then Zach goes to his girlfriend, this woman, Mallory, and he shows her this email from Howard.
Starting point is 00:27:08 And they're all excited and just like that, boom. They move to Los Angeles so he can take this new job waiting for him at this venture capital firm. Here's the messed up thing, though. There is no new job waiting for him at this venture capital firm. Zach never got a job offer from billionaire Howard Schultz because Howard Schultz never wrote. him back. Zach made all of that up. He fake the email and everything. And he tells this big lie so that he can convince Mallory to drop everything and move to Los Angeles with him. Because remember, deep down, he's an aspiring actor who really wants to be famous. Why he doesn't just tell his girlfriend that? I don't know. So anyway, pow, they're now in L.A. And Zach has got to keep
Starting point is 00:27:51 this lie going. So several times a week he'll leave his apartment for hours at a time. And he tells Mallory, oh, I'm off to work, I've got an important meeting, but he's really going over to this acting school to secretly take acting classes. And he's going on auditions and he's putting himself on tape. But as it turns out, landing a role is hard for him, mostly because his acting sucks. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, joined thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of
Starting point is 00:28:37 cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. I am completely and utterly in love with you. Now despite that, Zach does have a couple of things going for him, like he's charming and he's driven, and at some point, over dinner, he meets these two. Julio and Diego. And Julio and Diego are brothers, and they're also indie filmmakers. Like, they mostly make short films. And they really hit it off with Zach, and they become friends. And Zach, he eventually tells them the same lie he told Mallory.
Starting point is 00:29:07 Hey, I got this connection to billionaire Howard Schultz, and I can get him to invest in your movies. So the three of them start a production company, and they end up buying the rights to low-budget English-language movies and distributing them in Latin American countries. And this is a legit business model. But they need capital to get it going. So, Zach hits up an old college buddy of his who works in investing.
Starting point is 00:29:28 A buddy will call Day Trader Jake. And so Zach convinces Day Trader Jake to invest $37,000 into his new movie distribution business, promising him, hey, Howard Schultz invested in my company, and you'll make a quick return. He even shows him fake licensing agreements from Sony once he just typed up in Microsoft Word. So Day Trader Jake agrees to invest $37,000. And within a few months, Zach actually does. pay him back with interest. So then day trader Jake tells his other investor friends. Hey invest in Zach's movie company. He'll pay you back quick with interest. So then all of those
Starting point is 00:30:02 friends start investing, partly based on the lie that Howard Schultz is involved, and partly based on the fact that Zach forged even more fake licensing agreements from Netflix and HBO. Ones that he again just typed up on Microsoft Word. Now in order to pay all these new investors back, Zach turns his business into a straight up Ponzi scheme. He starts taking money from the new investors and using it to pay back the old investors. But here's the thing though, this works really well for him because for now, all of these investors are getting paid back with interest. And so then more people hear about what he's doing and they invest in the company. And then even more people hear about it and then
Starting point is 00:30:43 they start investing. And it starts with like tens of thousands of dollars and soon people are investing millions of dollars at a time into his movie distribution company. because they all appear to be making a return. Now, at this point in the story, Zach is barely distributing movies at all, because the real money's in the Ponzi scheme he's doing. And of course, he's paying himself during all of this too. Millions of dollars.
Starting point is 00:31:06 Meanwhile, his girlfriend Mallory has no idea he's scamming. She's thinking, wow, his movie business is doing really well. I'm so grateful for Howard Schultz. And so Mallory marries him, thinking he's this incredible businessman. And suddenly they're both living this, this baller-ass lifestyle. Driving a new Mercedes, driving a new Audi, constantly hitting up Las Vegas casinos and spending tens of thousands of dollars at a time. They go and buy a $5.7 million house. Like look at this. It's got a pool with a hot tub, a gym, a wine seller, a theater, and
Starting point is 00:31:41 look at this fucking closet. Look at it! And not only that, with all this newfound money, Zach is finally able to finance movie projects that he can act in. Because remember, his goal is still to be an actor and to be famous. So then, bam, he gets some acting roles, in some small movies. One of them is actually this Joker fan film, which they produced and put on YouTube, where Zach actually plays the Joker. Sorry, I couldn't quite catch that. And yeah, he's still not that great of an actor,
Starting point is 00:32:11 but at least his Ponzi scheme is going well. Until! At this point, Zach's been running this scam for over five years, and he's managing the money of over 200, And he's taken over $690 million worth of investments. Some of it he's paid back. But here's where it all starts to fall apart. Every Ponzi scheme is destined to fail.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Because at some point you run out of new investors to pay back the old investors. And so suddenly, Kaboom! One day Zach isn't able to deliver on a round of payments. So his old investors are like, Yo, Zach, where's my money at? And so then Zach does what he does best. He turns on his charm,
Starting point is 00:32:52 and he starts bull's shi-hitting them all kinds of excuses. Oh, HBO is reorganizing or, oh, Netflix is in the middle of an audit, so the streaming services are late paying me. So to buy some time, he types up these fake emails that are supposed to be from execs at HBO and Netflix. And these emails have HBO and Netflix apologizing for the late payments, and that they'll get the payments out soon. And he shows these fake emails to the investors,
Starting point is 00:33:19 and they believe him, and it satisfies everyone for a while. while. Then another year goes by and Zach still hasn't paid his investors back. And at this point all the investors are fed up and they're tired of the excuses. And some of them they go and they file a lawsuit against Zach and his company. So then the lawyers involved have to subpoena Netflix for their financial records because Zach told them that this was all Netflix's fault. And they're like, hey, Zach says you owe him money and therefore he can't pay us. And Netflix is like, uh, we have no record of ever doing business with this Zach guy or his company. And so the lawyers write back and they're like, uh, what about all these licensing agreements you signed?
Starting point is 00:33:57 And then they send Netflix the fake licensing agreements that Zach had given them that he typed up in Microsoft Word, along with all of the fake emails that Zach had fabricated. And Netflix looks at it and they're like, uh, these are fraudulent and this is a huge deal. And that is when everyone involved starts to piece all of this together and they come to the conclusion that Zach is running a Ponzi scheme. And of course, everyone is pissed off and they're disgusted, and they want to take Zach down. But no one is more pissed off and disgusted than his old college buddy, day trader Jake, because Jake was the very first investor.
Starting point is 00:34:34 And he feels bad because he's the one who got all of those other investors involved. So he has to go and contact all of those other investors and shamefully tell them he may have accidentally involved all of them in a con. And by sheer coincidence, I'm sure, it's right around that time that old Zach hits him up. And he sends him an email and he asks him for even more money. But at this point, Day Trader Jake has had enough. And he contacts the FBI. And so then, boom, the FBI raids Zach's house.
Starting point is 00:35:07 And they arrest Zach and I don't have a mugshot, but he's an actor, so I do have a headshot. So here's his headshot. And allegedly, the same day he got arrested, his wife Mallory, files for divorce. Good for her. Meanwhile, Zach takes a plea deal and he gets sentenced to 20 years in prison for this Ponzi scheme. Plus, he has to pay back $230 million in restitution to all the people he defrauded. But on the bright side, I guess he is sort of famous now. Remember when Aunt Becky from Full House went to prison?
Starting point is 00:35:40 Well, it all starts with this guy, Rick. And Rick is 51 during this time, living in Los Angeles, and bro is pretty successful. He runs a college counseling business where he helps high school students with their college applications and tries to get them into a good university. But apparently the dude's success just isn't enough, because he wants to be rich. And one day in 2011, one of his best students keeps failing his practice SAT tests, no matter how much he studies. And so that is when Rick gets an idea that's going to change his life forever.
Starting point is 00:36:17 Why not just help the student cheat his way into college? What could possibly go wrong? And so Rick goes and he pays one of the people who chaperones the test, and this chaperone secretly corrects the student's answers. And so this dumb-ass student ends up getting a perfect score, and they ultimately get into the college they want. And so now Rick knows he's hit the jackpot, his idea worked, he is on to something big, and so he decides to do it again for another student.
Starting point is 00:36:47 And then again, and then again. And he just keeps helping high school students out using the same idea, cheating in various ways to help them get into the university they want. And he charges a lot of money for this service, hundreds of thousands of dollars. And over time, Rick and his college counseling business become the go-to place for this scam. And like, wealthy parents will come to him and they'll be like, can you help my kid cheat his way into a top university? And Rick will be like,
Starting point is 00:37:16 I, that'll be 500 grand. Oh, and he doesn't just help the kids cheat on their SAT exams. Sometimes he straight up bribes people at the school. Like he's bribing school admins, he's bribing coaches, he's bribing anyone who can get his client's kid into that university. And let me tell you, business is booming for Rick. He is slowly becoming rich just like he wanted. And after a few years of doing this, he builds up a clientele of super wealthy people.
Starting point is 00:37:46 And at some point, he starts working with this woman, Lori Lachlan, aka Aunt Becky. And she's obviously the actress who played Aunt Becky on Full House in the 80s and 90s, and then again in the more recent reboot. And Rick also starts working with her husband, this guy, Massimo. And Masimo's a famous fashion designer. You've probably seen his clothing line in Target. So all that is to say, Aunt Becky and Massimo are super rich. And they have two teenage daughters and they want these girls to go to a top university real bad.
Starting point is 00:38:20 Specifically, they want to get them into USC. And at some point, they hit up Rick and they request his cheating college admission services. And Rick is like, sure, I can get your daughters into USC. And he charges them a half a million dollars for this service. And Rick is like real smooth about this service. Like he funnels the money through a fake charity he set up and everything. and he makes it all look real legit. But anyway, Aunt Becky and Massimo hire Rick for his services.
Starting point is 00:38:48 But here's the interesting thing, though. One of their teenage daughters is actually an influencer. Her name's Olivia. And Olivia is really popular online. Almost 2 million followers on YouTube, 1.3 million followers on Instagram, 700,000 followers on TikTok. And she normally does just like a lot of beauty and fashion stuff and vlog,
Starting point is 00:39:07 stuff like that. And she even has her own color palette with Sephora, the makeup brand. So she's doing really well for herself as an influencer, especially considering she's like 18 years old during this time. And from what I can tell, Olivia's not really all that interested in going to college, and she talks about this pretty openly in her vlogs. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer.
Starting point is 00:39:33 That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, joined thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. I do want the experience of like game days, partying. I don't really care about school, as you guys all know. And yeah, it makes sense that she doesn't care. I mean, she's already successful. Like, why would she want to interfere with that? But, despite, Despite that, according to Olivia, her parents still really want her to go.
Starting point is 00:40:16 And so, in order to get her into USC, Rick has to convince the university that she is an athlete who rose crew. Like, you know, in the little boat out on the water, like stroke, stroke. Because I guess some schools give preference to athletes. Now, obviously, Olivia's never rode crew. She doesn't care about crew. She barely cares about college. In fact, neither of Aunt Becky's daughters have ever rode crew. But doesn't matter. They just need to pretend they do. And so Aunt Becky and Massimo stage photos of their daughters rowing crew, which you can see them here on the machines. And I mean,
Starting point is 00:40:53 it just looks ridiculous. And then I guess they attach these photos to their college application like, ah look at us, we're rowing crew. But whatever, because this works. Both Olivia and her sister get into USC. Now, Aunt Becky isn't the only actor Rick works with. Felicity Huffman from Desperate Housewives also uses his services to get her kid into college. And she pays him like 15 grand and he sets it up so that Felicity's daughter can cheat on her SAT exam. And that works too. So Felicity starts setting up the same deal for her second kid.
Starting point is 00:41:29 In fact, all of this is working really well for Rick. I mean, business is good and he's making a ton of money. In fact, he's getting so much business that he hires a dude in Texas to help students cheat on their SAT exams there. Like he's franchising out. Like he's going nationwide. And so by 2018, 750 wealthy families have given Rick
Starting point is 00:41:52 around $25 million in bribes to get their dumbass kids into a top university. And Rick himself has made around $15 million from all this. Say what you want about Rick, but dude is set up for life. Until
Starting point is 00:42:11 Until it all goes wrong Because it's now 2018 And the FBI just happens to be investigating some shady executive It's in a totally unrelated securities fraud case And so the FBI starts interrogating this shady executive And he mentions that a soccer coach at Yale Offered his daughter a spot on the soccer team In exchange for a bribe of $450,000.
Starting point is 00:42:40 And the FBI hears this and they're like like, yeah, well, that's illegal. And so then the FBI goes and busts this Yale soccer coach. And the coach tells the feds about his connection to Rick and this college admission scheme he's got going on. And so the feds get this Yale soccer coach to wear a wire and meet up with Rick and record him talking about this scheme. And once the FBI has Rick admitting to fraud on tape, bam, they bust him. But they're like, you're going to help us take down Aunt Becky, Masimo, Felicity Huffman and all your other rich friends who are bribing people to get their stupid ass kids into college and so Rick with the help of the FBI He starts calling up his clients one by one and getting them to talk about their role in this scheme
Starting point is 00:43:24 While the feds record him and so now they have all the evidence they need and so bam they arrest Aunt Becky Actually I don't think they arrested any of them like that I actually think they contacted Aunt Becky and she went and turned herself in because, you know, super wealthy people just, they just play by a different set of rules. But anyway, Rick ends up flipping on 53 different people. He flipped on over 30 parents and a bunch of coaches and school admin. Bro is like the 6-9 of the college admissions world. And so, yeah, they all get in trouble. Aunt Becky gets two months in prison and she gets kicked off a Hallmark Channel project she was working on,
Starting point is 00:44:04 and she gets kicked off the final season of the Full House reboot. While Massimo gets five months in prison, Felicity Huffman gets 14 days in prison, while Rick, the mastermind of the whole thing, the guy who flipped on everyone, he gets three and a half years in prison. While Aunt Becky's daughters, they didn't get charged with anything or sentenced because, you know, they're teenagers, and it could be argued that their parents pushed them into all this. But they both left USC shortly after this scandal broke, and Olivia lost some sponsorships and some brand deals,
Starting point is 00:44:37 including the one with Sephora. You remember when that actor on Drake and Josh committed murder? No, not this actor. Actually, this actor. Now, the guy's name is Johnny, and Johnny is 28 when all this starts, and he's living in Los Angeles, and Johnny, he's been acting for a long time.
Starting point is 00:44:56 You've probably seen him in stuff. Like I said, he was in an episode of Drake and Josh, he was on Malcolm in the middle, he was in an episode of Criminal Minds, he was on the OC, but he's probably best to, known for playing half sack on the show Sons of Anarchy. And in my opinion, he's really good in that role.
Starting point is 00:45:14 So yeah, you get it. He's been acting for a long time with a lot of success. But one night, in 2011, all that is thrown into jeopardy. Because Johnny is out riding his motorcycle on the highway, but in a remote desert area, when suddenly, skr-kir-k he loses control and kaboom he crashes. And poor Johnny, he gets taken to the hospital, and he has a major head,
Starting point is 00:45:37 injury. Luckily, he doesn't seem to have a concussion. So eventually they clear him to leave and he leaves the hospital. But here's the thing. From that point on, Johnny's dad starts noticing that Johnny is acting kind of weird. Like he's acting erratic and unpredictable. He also becomes super sensitive to light for some reason. And his friends have also been noticing that he's acting weird. Like sometimes he randomly starts speaking in a British accent and he doesn't realize he's doing it? So dad gets worried and he schedules him to get an MRI. But Johnny doesn't want to get an MRI. He swears nothing is wrong with him.
Starting point is 00:46:17 So because he's not listening to the people around him, things keep getting worse. Like one day in 2012, he's visiting his parents' condo and he decides to go for a walk outside. And while he's walking, he thinks he hears cries of destruction. coming from inside a neighboring condo. Now, we don't know if he actually heard someone crying out, or if he was just hearing things in his head. Either way, he breaks into the unit to check it out. But no one is there.
Starting point is 00:46:47 Then, instead of leaving, Johnny just stays. And eventually, two men show up, because, you know, they live there. And they're like, what the fuck, bro, you need to leave. But Johnny's like, nah, and pow, pow, he hits the both of them with a broken bottle and a, fight breaks out. And after they punch him in the head 17 times, they eventually are able to pin him down and call the police. And so, bam, Johnny gets arrested. Here's a mugshot. And while
Starting point is 00:47:16 he's in jail for this incident, he starts acting even crazier. Like he's smashing his own head against a concrete wall. He tries to jump off a second story part of the jail. And I guess he also tries to unalive himself. So they transfer him to a psychiatric hospital. Later, he gets out of that hospital and unfortunately, things don't get better. He tries to
Starting point is 00:47:40 unalive himself again. He also tamperes with his parent's circuit breaker because the lights, I guess they're bothering him, because remember, he's now sensitive to lights, and he doesn't stop there. Around a month later, Johnny walks up to some random guy
Starting point is 00:47:56 outside a yogurt shop and And ka-paho, he sucker punches the dude, without even being provoked, like for no reason. And so, bam, he gets arrested again. And I guess he gets out after that, because a few days later, he walks into the ocean fully clothed, and he has to be hospitalized for hypothermia. Then he tries to break into some random woman's apartment in Santa Monica, and so bam, he gets arrested yet again. Here's another mug shot.
Starting point is 00:48:25 And so, you can see the dude is having a full. on meltdown. Like he needs help. In fact, he pretty much has to step away from acting because of all the legal trouble he keeps getting into. Now, eventually he gets a jail sentence over one of his past incidents. So he has to go and serve out this sentence in the county jail. However, he's not there long before he gets transferred to a mental health facility again where he can get, you know, proper treatment. And at the facility, the doctors finally diagnose him and they prescribe him medications for bipolar disorder and psychosis. But unfortunately, he refuses to take those medications. Like when they give them to him, he just hides them in his cheeks and then he will spit them out later.
Starting point is 00:49:10 So ultimately, he doesn't get better. And several months go by. And he's now back in court again defending himself because I guess he decided he doesn't need a lawyer and he's just going to defend himself in court. and so he gets sentenced to another 144 days in county jail because he had already served some of his time. So he goes to jail, but it turns out that the county jail is actually overcrowded, and Johnny only ends up serving about 44 days total before they let him out. And that's crazy that they let him out, but to be fair, after he's out,
Starting point is 00:49:46 it seems like Johnny finally wants to make a change. Like he finally realizes that he needs to work on turning to. around for himself, or he's just going to keep going back to jail over and over again. But instead of getting mental health treatment and going on some kind of medication like I would hope someone in his position would do, he decides to jump back into his career and back into being creative. So he goes to his dad and he asks him to arrange a stay with this woman, Catherine. And Catherine, she is a nice older woman who's known around Hollywood for running what's called the Writers Villa, which is sort of a bed and breakfast where artists and writers will
Starting point is 00:50:26 rent a room and they'll live there with other artists and they can all, you know, be creative. So Johnny goes to live there. And I guess he's lived there before and Catherine is actually happy to have him back. And Johnny, he's glad to be back there. I mean, this is going to be good for him and his recovery. And maybe now this will be the end of his turbulent behavior and he can finally start getting his life back together. Until Until it all falls apart Remember how Johnny feels like he's sensitive to lights
Starting point is 00:51:00 And he has this habit of tampering with the circuit breakers Well one night I guess he feels like the lights at the writer's villa are just too much for him And allegedly he takes the liberty of messing with the circuit breaker and cutting off the lights for the whole villa And according to Catherine's friends she finds out it was him and she gets all pissed off and she allegedly lets him know that that wasn't cool. And so now Johnny's all pissed off too. The next day, I guess he suddenly just snaps. And he goes to Catherine's room and he confronts her.
Starting point is 00:51:36 And at some point during that confrontation, pow, he starts punching her. Then he grabs her and he starts strangling her. And this, unfortunately, kills her. And if that isn't bad enough, then he goes and he unalives her poor cat. Oh, and he's still not done. Then he goes outside and he picks a fight with a house painter
Starting point is 00:51:58 who's doing some work on a neighbor's deck. And I guess Johnny starts arguing with that guy and then he starts beating him. Then a neighbor tries to step in and Johnny starts beating that neighbor. But that neighbor, even though he's in his 70s, he ain't no punk. He fights back and he punches Johnny and he somehow ends up hitting him with a chair.
Starting point is 00:52:18 And while Johnny stunned, that neighbor and the painter both run away and into his house, where they shut the door behind them. And pretty quickly, Johnny is there trying to force his way through that door, but he can't get through. Meanwhile, one of them calls the police while Johnny tries to flee and get away. And he runs and he jumps a couple of fences and he ends up back at the Riders Villa. And from there, he climbs up to the upper patio or roof part. And here it isn't actually clear what happened. He either jumped off the roof or he fell.
Starting point is 00:52:54 Either way, he landed on the ground and he hit his head and he died instantly. Do you remember that show Smallville? Well, this Smallville actress got involved in a cult. And she apparently tried to pull Emma Watson into it as well. Now, the woman's name is Allison. She's 18 during this time. she's an actress and she's been on the Hollywood grind for over a decade. She was in Camp Nowhere. She was in Honey We Shrunk Ourselves.
Starting point is 00:53:24 She was in Seventh Heaven. But one day in 2001, her whole life changes because she gets cast in this new show called Smallville about a young Superman and Allison plays his sidekick. And this role is great for her and she's really good in it. But despite this success, she can't help but feel like there's something missing in her life, and that feeling is about to get her in a lot of trouble. Now, Allison has a friend, this woman, Kristen, and Kristen is also an actor on Smallville,
Starting point is 00:53:57 and Kristen apparently understands that Allison is feeling lost and she wants to help her out. So one day, in 2006, she invites her to a meeting with a self-help group, which is part of a larger organization called Nexium. And so Allison is like, self-help, all right. and she decides to give it a shot. And so Allison goes to this group, and this group ends up being straight up a cult. But Allison, she's naive. She doesn't know that.
Starting point is 00:54:27 And so she meets a bunch of people there, including a few women who low-key want to recruit her into this cult real bad. And they want to recruit her because she's on TV. She's moderately famous. And having famous members always makes cults look more legit. And so they tell her they can help her out. and that joining them will solve all her problems and will advance her acting career and all this nonsense. One of them even flies Allison on a private jet to go and meet the founder of this self-help group.
Starting point is 00:54:58 The founder is this guy. Keith. And Keith, he's a weird dude, but he's extremely smart. Or, at least he claims he is. He claims he's some kind of genius. And he takes himself very seriously. He and the other members call him Vanguard and shit. But we're not gonna call him that because that's actually stupid.
Starting point is 00:55:19 Anyway, so Allison's like, all right, maybe this guy can help me. And so she decides to join Keith and Nexium. And from here, she gets sucked in to the world of this cult. And they give her a sense of community, and they promise to fix whatever's bothering her and help her acting career. And honestly, she feels pretty good about these people and about this place. And over the next few years, she gets more and more dedicated to next. and to Keith. And Keith, he starts making extreme demands from her and the other members.
Starting point is 00:55:50 Like he'll tell them to lick up a puddle of mud or run headfirst into a tree. And I guess the members will just like do it. Like, okay, here we go. He also teaches them bullshit like how women should be monogamous, but men are supposed to be polygamous, which just ends up being a sleazy way for him to get laid with multiple partners. Regardless, all of this conditioning works on Allison and she gets more and more isolated from the outside world and she starts losing friends outside the cult and pretty quickly her whole world revolves around Keith. In fact, it's rumored that she and Keith start smashing and while that seems very likely in my opinion that isn't actually confirmed. Now, by this point, it's 2011 and Smallville has rapped like the show's done and Allison isn't really acting much anymore.
Starting point is 00:56:42 all her time is completely invested in this cult. Like she's out here making recruitment videos for them. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.
Starting point is 00:57:19 Then that expanded out and out and out into the rest of my life, and now I have the most beautiful friendships. And eventually, around 2015 or so, Keith lets Allison in on this big secret project he's doing called DOS, aka the vow. And this is where the group members will have, and I'm not making it. this up, master slave relationships. Specifically, I think they mostly mean sex slave, which is pretty much just a scheme that Keith comes up with so that he can surround himself with submissive women to smash with. So anyway, in this master slave scenario, Keith himself is a master, but he also puts Allison in a master role so that she can go out and recruit slaves. And Allison, she really wants to please keep, so she puts a lot of effort into her role. And she recruits as many women into
Starting point is 00:58:14 this cult slave program as she can. And she'll generally lure the women in by telling them that they're joining a female mentorship program or like a women's movement. And once the women are in and they become full-fledged members and they're all brainwashed, that is when they get blackmailed. Like the cult will make them hand over what they call collateral, which is basically embarrassing or incriminating stuff about them like nudes. And they threaten to release this collateral everywhere if these members disobey or reveal anything to the public about the cult. And once they get the collateral, Allison and the cult will force them to basically become
Starting point is 00:58:54 sex slaves, where they have to smash with their master. And a master is a cult member with many slaves. Most masters have like five or six slaves. One master claimed that they have 20, two slaves that they're smashing with. And if that isn't bad enough, they then force the slaves to get a symbol branded on their pelvices. The symbol is actually a mash-up of Keith's and Allison's initials. And so who sits at the top of this weird master slave pyramid? Of course, the self-proclaimed genius himself, Keith. Keith has declared that he is allowed to smash with any of the slaves, and apparently if they refuse, then their collateral
Starting point is 00:59:37 will be made public. And allegedly, Keith himself has more than 50 slaves in this pyramid. And not only that, it seems like Allison even tries to recruit Emma Watson, Hermione herself, into this cult by tweeting at her. I'm a fellow actress like yourself, and involved in an amazing women's movement, I think you dig, I'd love to chat, and a month later, she tries again. I participate in a unique women's movement I'd love to tell you about, and then three weeks later, she tries a third time. I don't think Emma Watson ever wrote her back. Hermione ain't trying to be a no-sex cult. But anyway, with all of the power Keith and the Masters hold over each of these slave members, it seems like he and Allison and the others can keep this weird-ass sex pyramid scheme going
Starting point is 01:00:28 like forever. Until. Okay, at some point, some of the members and former members, I guess they have a moment where they're all like, you know, this is kind of weird, right? And so one of them or all of them
Starting point is 01:00:44 get in contact with the New York Times and they expose everything, the abuse, the branding, the master slave relationships, all of it. And then, in 2017, kaboom, the New York Times publishes the story and it goes public.
Starting point is 01:01:01 And people read it and they're like, oh snap, the girl from Smallville is in a sex cop. And that gets the attention of the FBI. And so the FBI starts investigating. And Keith, I guess he gets word that the FBI is looking into him and he leaves town and he moves from New York all the way down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. But unfortunately for him, the feds are pretty good at what they do. And they're also pretty good at finding people. So in 2018, they find him in Mexico.
Starting point is 01:01:33 And with the help of the Mexican feds, bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. The suspected head of an alleged cult that reportedly branded female members now faces charges in the United States after he was arrested and extradited from Mexico. And shortly after that, in New York, bam, they arrest Allison too. Here's her mugshot. And they also arrest some of the other cult members, the ones who rank high. And Allison takes a plea deal and she gets sentenced to three years in prison.
Starting point is 01:02:02 While Keith, he gets charged with a bunch of stuff, including sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor. Because I guess one of the girls in the cult was underage. And he gets sentenced to 120 years in prison. Wow. Did you know that one of the actors in the movie The Exorcist actually went on to be a real-life serial killer? Now the actor is this guy, his name's Paul. And Paul's about 31 when all this starts and he's living in New York City. And one day in 1972, something pretty big happens in his life.
Starting point is 01:02:38 See, he works at a hospital as a radiology technician. And a filmmaker shows up to the place because the filmmaker is doing research for a movie he's making. A movie that will eventually be called The Exorcist. So this filmmaker watches Paul and the rest of the medical school. team work and he likes what he sees and he decides that he wants to cast them as extras in the movie and so Paul and the team he works with eventually end up filming a scene for the exorcist movie and he ends up in the final cut and here you can see him he's up there in the corner and here you can see him he's
Starting point is 01:03:14 way back there and yeah he's not in the movie for very long but he's in it so the next year in 1973 the movie comes out and it's a huge hit and it's a huge hit and becomes one of the most iconic horror movies of all time. And Paul's scene is actually considered one of the most disturbing. So it looks like things are going pretty well for him. I mean, he's got a good steady job, he was part of a hit movie. However, deep down, Paul has a problem. He's gay in the 70s. So finding romance hasn't exactly been easy for him. He recently got out of a nine year relationship and he's been dating, but ultimately he's lonely. Not to mention, he also has an alcohol problem.
Starting point is 01:03:57 Like, this man likes to drink a lot. Mostly vodka. Sometimes he'll drink more than a quart of it a day. And over time, his drinking problem continues to get worse. Some days, he'll do shots of vodka before he even gets dressed. And so eventually, the drinking starts affecting his work at the hospital, because Paul ultimately gets fired from his job. So now he doesn't know what he's going to do.
Starting point is 01:04:23 And he starts taking odd jobs. to pay the bills like he takes jobs cleaning apartments and installing light fixtures and at one point he works as a cashier at an adult movie theater. And on top of that, he's still really lonely. So at night he'll often go out to the clubs, mostly gay leather bars, and there he'll meet random guys and he'll smash with him. And I'm sure that's a good time and all, but what he really wants is a serious connection with someone.
Starting point is 01:04:51 Like he wants to be in a relationship again. this cycle of constant drinking and hooking up, it goes on for years, until it's 1977. And one night, he's out at the gay leather bar, I guess, and he meets this guy, Addison. And Addison, he's a nice dude, he works as a journalist and a film critic for Variety magazine. But most importantly, Addison thinks Paul is foin, and Paul thinks he's foin right back. And so they start chatting and they hit it off. And pretty quickly, they both discover that they have something in common.
Starting point is 01:05:27 They like partying. So they decide to party a bit. They do a bunch of drinking and they share a bunch of drugs. So now Paul is all high and inebriated and maybe it's the drugs talking. But he starts to feel like maybe this Addison guy is relationship material. I mean, it all seems perfect. And soon it's 3 a.m. And Paul and Addison are still having a great time and flirting and whatnot.
Starting point is 01:05:51 And so they decide. to move to another club. Another gay leather bar called, and I'm not making this up, the Mineshaft. Anyway, at the Mineshaft, they keep drinking and doing lots of drugs. And around 5 a.m., I guess Addison is like,
Starting point is 01:06:08 you want to come back to my place? And Paul's like, all right. And they take a taxi back to Addison's apartment. And there, they drink more and they do more drugs, and they ultimately smash. And Paul, he's having a great time. He thinks Addison is awesome and Addison seems to be into him as well.
Starting point is 01:06:27 So maybe after all this, Addison will want something more. But then, at some point during all this, Paul starts to get the feeling that maybe Addison is not looking for something long term. That maybe he's just looking for a quick hookup. And this starts to piss Paul off. He can tell that Addison is just going to be another disappointment in the dating world. And this rejection is too much. much for him right now. And after all the drinking and the drugs he's been doing, something inside
Starting point is 01:06:58 Paul just snaps. And he goes into Addison's kitchen and he grabs a heavy frying pan and suddenly he hits Addison on the head and this knocks him out. Then he goes back into the kitchen and he grabs a knife and boom he stabs him. And this unfortunately kills him. After that, for some reason, Paul decides to rob him. He takes Addison's credit card and some cash he had and his passport. He even takes some of his clothes. Then he leaves the apartment. Now eventually, people notice that Addison has been missing.
Starting point is 01:07:36 And so they contact the police. And now police are involved. And some officers show up to his apartment and there they find him. So police investigate Addison's murder. But they assumed that this was all just a robbery gone wrong. And so at this point, Paul has completely gotten away with it. He's not a suspect, police don't know that he was connected to Addison at all. Because remember, they had just met earlier that night.
Starting point is 01:08:03 But then this guy enters the story, Arthur. And Arthur is a friend of Addison's and he's also a journalist and he's also gay. And so he writes an article for the Village Voice called There's Nothing Gay About Murder. And in that article, he criticizes New York police, for basically not caring when gay men get murdered and not doing a thorough enough job investigating and that there's no possible way that Addison's murder was a robbery gone wrong. Once that article gets published, Paul just happens to come across it and he reads it. And I guess he starts feeling guilty and shortly after he gets all drunk, because he's always drunk,
Starting point is 01:08:45 and he gets Arthur's phone number and he calls him up. And he basically says, you were right and you're right. article. And he also says, and by the way, I'm the one who killed Addison. And then he tells Arthur all about his night with Addison and that he hit him with the frying pan and that then he stabbed him. And he starts mentioning details that no one in the public could have known, including that he stole Addison's credit card afterwards. So Arthur knows he's telling the truth. But Paul doesn't tell Arthur his name. So Arthur doesn't know exactly who called him and confessed. Regardless, Arthur goes and he reports all of this to the police.
Starting point is 01:09:25 And so police station themselves inside Arthur's apartment because they're hoping that the alleged killer, Paul, calls back at some point. Well, eventually the phone rings. And it's not Paul. It's actually a different guy calling. Apparently, this random guy had also read Arthur's article and was like, I know who the killer is. because he happens to know Paul.
Starting point is 01:09:51 And earlier that same day, Paul had gotten drunk and called him and just like randomly confessed for some reason. And so police go and they find Paul and bam, they arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot, but here's a picture of him on the set of The Exorcist. And so ultimately, Paul goes to trial and he's found guilty and he gets sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. But then, while he's locked up, he allegedly, informally, brags to people around him that he was also responsible for murdering other gay men during that period in New York City. And that police were never able to tie the murders back to him. So, Paul may have been an actual serial killer and murdered a bunch of people and was never convicted for those murders.

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