Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Austin Powers Actor Is In Prison Now - The Joe Son story

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

Joe Son the actor best known for his role in the first Austin Powers movie, is now in prison for crimes he committed in 1990.

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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 Bumno subscribers. Terms apply. 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, and he asks her for directions. And before Shelley can really answer,

boom, the man pulls out of PewPew. 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 Shelly in the back of that van. 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 works out and he trains, and he goes to tournaments, and he actually competes. 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 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 Doubt. 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 Blood Fist Part 5. And I have no idea what these movies are, but like he's in them. 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. 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, and he plays the part of Dr. Evil's henchman random task. Oh, that really hurts. I'm going to have a lump there, you idiot. Who throws a 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, 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 O and 4. 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 roommate, because I guess he has a roommate. And Joe's 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, can't be doing that. That's frowned upon. 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. See, all those years ago, Joe Son and the other guy kidnapped Shelley 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, Shelley 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, was in front of a judge once again today. And so police question 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 sometimes. Do you see Austin Powers? Uh-huh. 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 Joe Son, 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. Because remember, there were two men that attacked Shelly that night. And so now that they have Joson 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 his mugshot. And Santiago eventually caves and he ends up confessing to the crime, which then 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.