RedHanded - Episode 268 - Blake Leibel: A Blueprint for Evil

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

This case takes the notion of life imitating art to a newly macabre extreme. In 2010, Blake Leibel released his graphic novel, Syndrome. Described as The Truman Show meets Se7en, the story follows a rogue neuropathologist as he attempts to find a cure for evil, using a condemned serial killer as his guinea pig. Initially met with a lukewarm response, the novel garnered international attention in 2015 after Leibel seemed to use its most violent scenes to commit what's been described as "the most brutal murder in LA's history".See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah.

I'm Saruti. And welcome to episode 70,000 of Red Hat. We're doing a mega record today because we are off on a UK and European tour. So if you have not yet got your tickets, you are in luck because you still have time. We have shows at Manchester, Dublin. We've got two shows in Dublin. I really think there are about four tickets left for the second Dublin show. I keep checking. So go and snap those up. The London Palladium, we need your help. And then we have Stockholm and

Oslo. Please go and grab your tickets. We cannot wait. We are off to Columbus tomorrow and then the second we get back, we are straight in rehearsal for a baller show. And of course, we now have lovely Sophie on board who will be doing loads of really cool video stuff for us. So it will be a feast for the eyes and the ears. Absolutely. So go check that out. RedHandedPodcast.com for your tickets. Get them now. And with all that said, welcome, one and all, to October at Red Handed. Oh, shit.

Yes. It is October at Red Handed. It is spooky season. It is our favourite month of the year. Not only because it is, of course, All Hallows' eve but it is of course both of our birthdays this month so halloween october we have a spooktacular scare fest for you planned or month absolutely and every single year it sneaks up on us every single year we forget but we are on top of it we don't help ourselves by piling on everything but i think we should expect in our field of work that oct October is going to be quite busy.

It is. And before everybody asks, I know we normally do like spooky bitch merch at this time of year. Guys, we are up to our fucking necks in it. So instead, what we're going to do is we're going to release merch,

brand new merch, all sorts of merch next month in time for Christmas presents. So stay tuned for that. Follow us on social media at Red Handed The Pod to be the first to see those reveals. So that's it. Let's get on with it. Evil acts corrupt the soul. They kill, we kill. In the end, we all become monsters. And that is not the opening of Hannah's Year 10 diary. They are some of the narrator's opening words in the 2010 graphic novel entitled Syndrome,

who, if you need reminding, is the baddie from The Incredibles. Have you not seen The Incredibles? I have seen The Incredibles. I just needed reminding. And when everyone's super, no one will be. That's quite the line. It's quite a powerful line. In this week's case, the notion of life imitating art will be taken to a new extreme. Described as the Truman Show meets Seven,

the story of Syndrome follows a rogue neuropathologist as he attempts to concoct a cure for evil in the human brain. With a whopping 171 ratings on goodreads.com, Syndrome has averaged a mediocre rating of 2.96 stars out of 5. So, mixed reviews. Some readers loved the concept, the art and the story of the graphic novel while others hated it from start to finish. I love the idea that somebody read it to the end hating it. I hated it from start to finish. I love the idea that somebody read it to the end hating it.

I hated it from start to finish. But what none of the reviewers could avoid are the chilling similarities between the scenes in the novel and the savage real-life crimes of one of its creators. On the 26th of May 2016, police forced their way into a condominium on Holloway Drive in West Hollywood. This home was just a few roads over from the mansions of stars including Dr. Dre and Leonardo DiCaprio. But among the beautifully tended gardens and Hollywood splendor,

this condo was the scene of what officers would go on to describe as the most brutal murder in LA's history. I'm not convinced I know what a condominium is. I think, and I might be wrong, that it is, oh no, that's a duplex. See, I thought duplex also. So a duplex is like a maisonette. Yes. I think a condo is like a chalet. It's a ski lodge in West west hollywood let's look it up it's a block of

flats oh a condominium condo for short is a building structure divided into several units that are each separately owned oh oh i see so so it's like a share of freehold situation maybe rather than like a block of flats where you lease it maybe it's like a share of freehold situation, maybe, rather than like a block of flats where you lease it. Maybe it's like you actually own that bit. People own flats. But they're like, it'll be like a leasehold. But I think maybe what they're saying is like... I don't think they have that system.

I don't know. Whatever. I don't care. See, I'm still more confused. Let's move on. It doesn't matter. Oh, I think it means they share a laundry room. Okay.

So like student accommodation sure it's an abode so yes most brutal murder in la's history which if you know anything about la or generally about the west coast of the us at all you will know that that is saying something so when the police attempted to enter one of the bedrooms of this condominium, they realised that it had been barricaded from the inside. A man shouted at them from within, but after some time he gave up and removed the mattress that he'd been using to block the door. Inside, officers found who they were looking for,

30-year-old Ukrainian model and former lawyer, Ayana Kaysan. She was lying on the bed with a Mickey Mouse blanket thrown over her unmoving body. The only part of her that was visible was her barely recognisable, brutalised head. Standing by the bed was her fiancé and the father of her newborn baby, fledgling Hollywood director and graphic novelist, Blake LaBelle. With a look of feigned surprise on his face, he uttered the cryptic words, Well then, I guess you'll have to find out who did it. You are not in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Blake.

Fucking hell, this guy. I mean, it's about to get so much worse, but yeah, just know from the start that he is a real fucking bag of dicks. So the average human adult has around five litres of blood in their body. But as an autopsy would later show, Ayanna's body had less than just a teaspoon left. And don't you worry, you spooky sausage. We will come back to the bone-chilling details of what took place in that condo.

But first, let's introduce you to the LeBels. Blake LeBel was born on the 8th of May 1981 to billionaires Lorne LeBel and Eleanor Chittle. Lorne was an Olympic sailboat racer who, in 1976, became the first Canadian Olympian to test positive for an illegal stimulant. So obviously, he couldn't be an Olympian anymore. So he decided to make his billions as a real estate developer instead and built tens of thousands of homes across suburban Canada. Canadian condominiums? Sure.

While he was building his Canadian condominiums, he was described as, quote, the best playboy of all playboys. By who? Himself, obviously. It's like when L. Ron Hubbard says that his nickname is flash yes just no nobody's nobody's calling you that flash no one's calling you flash l ron hubbard unless they're being ironic fuck it out but as the playboy of all playboys he does somewhat live up to his own possibly self-anointed title his private life was plagued with legal battles

allegations of drug use, soliciting sex and transmission of STDs. So inevitably, there was quite a lot of friction in his marriage. Eleanor wasn't that worried about the money, though. She herself was independently wealthy. She was an heiress to her father's plastics empire. And together, despite the drama, Eleanor and Lorne provided their two sons, Blake and Cody, with a lifestyle that most could only dream of. Those are the most American names. They only needed a third son. It was called Chad. Blake, Cody and Chad.

I know. Chad's not real, guys. Let me not confuse you. There's no Chad in the story. It's just Blake and Cody. But so American. Blake and Cody were heirs to an ungodly fortune because both of their parents were so independently bazonka loaded. But money wasn't the only thing that they would inherit. Blake's grandmother is reported to have suffered from an unspecified but severe mental illness.

And if that isn't the richest shit I've ever heard, they just lock her up in a cupboard. Nothing to see here. She's fine. They're rich enough to put her in her own condo, her own crazy condo. Unspecified, but severe mental illness. I love that it's severe enough that they're like, it's real bad. But they're like, but we can't be bothered to figure out what it is. Or it's so bad we can't tell you. Or we don't know. Yes. We're just not going to tell you. Quite a lot of people have speculated that this mysterious condition was passed on to Blake LaBelle. On top of all of that, when the boys were still quite young, their parents separated, further rocking the boat. Blake decided to live with his mother and Cody stayed with their father.

I think that's quite rare. Yeah, I mean, maybe they were both like, look, we're both really rich. If we go to court, we're just going to give loads of money to the lawyers. Let's just take one each and call it quits. Maybe. Maybe. So although they were brothers and similar in age, Cody and Blake couldn't have been more different. Cody was the athlete and Blake was the awkward introvert. Lorne, a former Olympian, as we said, doted over Cody, but was always incredibly distant with Blake, something that would torment the boy for the rest of his young life. In their early 20s, both brothers moved to California in 2004 and lived off an allowance from their parents of more than $18,000 a month. Each! Cody took after his father and soon gained a reputation as a Hollywood playboy and

businessman. By 23, he'd started a record company, began developing properties, and became the world's youngest owner of an Enzo Ferrari sports car, of which only a few hundred exist. Blake, on the other hand, pursued a career in Hollywood. He was obsessed with psychology, murder, sci-fi and horror movies. And a former colleague of Blake's said that although he had big and interesting ideas, he completely lacked the ability to execute on any of them. We've all met that guy. Oh, yeah. Tell me about your Garage album again.

Can't wait. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudine Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On Theained have consumed my entire life.

I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. Eventually, Blake did get a few projects off the ground. He directed a crappy high school comedy called Bald and worked on the animated series of Mel Brooks' Spaceballs.

I would love to know what this high school comedy bald is about. Wait, I'm going to look it up. High school comedy bald. It may be this, it might not be this, but I will read it to you all the same. I think it is. Oh, it is this. It is this.

Okay. This is the plot in one sentence. To raise money for a hair transplant, a college student and his roommate start a website featuring sexy co-eds. Directed by Blake LaBelle. Writer, Blake LaBelle. Starring, Blake LaBelle. Jonathan Cherry.

And would you like to know what it's got on IMDb? Oh, I'd love to. 2.5. Oof. Those two pointers haunt you, don't they, Blake? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I would say if you're going to watch a film, it should either be a two on IMDb or like an eight. Don't waste your time

with the middle roaders. No, we do all or nothing on this show. A producer who worked with Blake on the stunning success Bald said that Blake just wanted to make people laugh, have a good time and smoke weed in his Beverly Hills mansion. But Blake's true passion was graphic novels. And it was in 2010 that Blake's most notable work, The Graphic Novel Syndrome, was published. And as we told you at the top of the show, Syndrome focuses on a neuropathologist attempting to find the cure for evil. He does this by experimenting on a condemned serial killer. He places him on a movie set that the killer thinks is real. And then the scientist recruits a Hollywood actress

to unknowingly act as serial killer Bate. And then he runs some pretty sinister tests. The cover of Syndrome features a baby doll with its head sort of cut open, sort of scalped-ish, revealing brown sinewy brain matter. Some of the standout panels in the novel include a brutal torture scene in which a body hangs upside down dripping blood, and another where a woman is decapitated lying in a pool of blood on a bed. The graphic novel was fairly successful, but it wouldn't be until years later that it would

gain the nation's attention for all the wrong reasons. In 2006, Blake LaBelle fell head over heels in love with former model Amanda Braun. Amanda had previously been in a relationship with Andrew Olchek, a hedge fund manager who ran a Ponzi scheme and was eventually murdered in prison. Amanda was an outgoing party girl who was attracted to Blake's introversion and shyness as he was the complete opposite of her swindling ex. Amanda and Blake happily dated for years and when Amanda got pregnant they decided to tie the knot in 2011. But soon after their engagement Blake received another shock to his life of breezy privilege. Blake's mother died

of brain cancer and his mental state began to crumble. According to his friends, Blake saw his mum as the only real person in his life. And after her death, he would constantly cry, explode into rages at the slightest annoyance and scream at his friends before quickly apologising. And yeah, I mean,

if we cast our minds back to blake's childhood obviously his mom and dad separate he goes and lives with his mom and his dad is always distant to him because he prefers his athletic brother cody and then he goes and lives a life in hollywood where presumably he kind of low-key feels like everybody is a little bit fake so the loss of his mother is definitely the catalyst for everything that happens in the rest of this story. I would say so. But Blake didn't attend his mum's funeral, saying that he wouldn't be able to handle it. Now, if you remember, of course, his mother was very rich independently of her marriage to Blake's father. And as will happen when rich people die, the matter of Eleanor's will and her $12 million estate were top of a lot of people's minds.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Eleanor's intentions were to leave the majority of her money and assets to Blake. But a huge sum ended up going to Blake's dad instead. Blake was convinced that his father had somehow changed her will at the last minute. Blake even contested it in court, but was unsuccessful. These feelings of betrayal made everything worse, and Blake's already precarious mental stability was shaken to the foundations once more. How the hell is her ex-husband getting his hands on a huge sum of Eleanor's money, interestingly. I mean, he just must have been in the will. And Blake's brother Cody wasn't faring much better. Some of you might have seen the Aaron Sorkin film Molly's Game.

And if you haven't, don't worry, I'm going to tell you the basics. It's the true story of a former real estate agent called Molly Bloom, who ran a notorious underground high-stakes poker empire. Molly's Games attracted A-list Hollywood celebrities, billionaires and wealthy individuals from the world of organised crime. And well before the film came out in 2017, Cody LaBelle was a regular attendee. Cody was what was known in the gambling world as a whale.

I've heard that on, like, Vegas documentaries as well. What it means is it's someone who's got more money than they have sense, and it makes them an easy target for the more skilled players. Blake grew more and more concerned about the gambling debt that Cody was racking up, not least because some of Cody's loans came from prominent figures in the Russian criminal underworld. Uh-oh. Big uh-oh. Big fucking hairy harpoon in the back of the whale uh-oh.

A hairy harpoon. I mean... The hairy harpoon sounds like a sailor's bar. It does. Let's start it. The swan and pedo, the hairy harpoon. It can be a chain. Great.

And in 2015, Blake didn't open the hairy harpoon. He heard that his brother had racked up $2.5 million in debt. So Blake's paranoia levels were at an all-time high. He was convinced that the Russian mafia would come for him, his fiancée and his baby. Which, I'm going to put it out there, not that unreasonable. No, no it's not. Are you still paranoid if you're right? The eternal question. No, it's not. Are you still paranoid, if you're right? The eternal question.

It is. Truly is. So perhaps seeing no way out, Blake decided to destroy the seemingly happy family life that he'd built for himself. He filed for divorce from Amanda, who was eight months pregnant at the time with his second child. And everyone was shocked. Blake had seemed completely in love with Amanda and especially concerned about her safety. So why would he suddenly up sticks and move on? And everyone was shocked. Blake had seemed completely in love with Amanda,

and especially concerned about her safety. So why would he suddenly up sticks and move on? Well, the truth came out just a few weeks later, when Blake moved 29-year-old Ukrainian model, Ayana Kasyan, into his apartment on Holloway Drive. Ayana had come from humble beginnings, in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, and she'd had the polar opposite of her new boyfriend's life of privilege. But Ayana had worked her way up, becoming a tax lawyer in

her 20s before making the leap into a successful modelling career in California in 2014. It's unclear exactly where she met Blake or when, but it's believed that the two of them had been seeing one another before Blake ended things with his wife, Amanda. Ayana phoned her mother in Ukraine regularly and reported back that she was living in a luxury Hollywood apartment. She gushed about her new rich boyfriend who had bought her a brand new Mercedes and taken her on incredible five-star holidays and promised to marry her and look after her forever. In the same breath, though, she did acknowledge that he was not perfect. For one thing, she didn't like his constant use of weed and magic mushrooms, but the pros still outweighed the cons.

For Rihanna, Blake was the full package. His enormous wealth and career as an aspiring producer probably didn't hurt either. He was impressive, he was well-connected, and he could help her settle in the US for good, and probably make it in Hollywood while she was at it. Just a few months after moving into Blake's apartment, Ayana got pregnant with his baby, and soon afterwards, they were engaged. But once again, Blake wasn't being entirely truthful about the situation. He already had another bit on the side, a storyboard artist called Constance Booker Fury. He'd known Constance for years. And in November of 2015, just three months into Iana's pregnancy and their engagement, Blake bought another house in West Hollywood for Constance to live in. He split up with her six weeks after he bought her this house. I wonder

what happened to it. It was standing empty. And then a month after that, in a scene straight from every philanderer's worst nightmare, Blake's ex-mistress Constance got in contact with his ex-wife, Amanda. Another big, hairy uh-oh. Yeah, a big, hairy John Tucker must die situation for Blake LaBelle. Constance and Amanda formed a bit of a weird friendship, united by their mutual hatred, not of Blake, but of Ayana. And they would send each other texts being nasty and talking about having Ayana sent back to Ukraine.

Around March 2016, Constance even hired a private investigator to follow Blake and Ayana on holiday to Hawaii. Constance reported everything back to Amanda who said and I quote I want that whore deported. Also like what is the plan here what's the point of following the two of them on holiday to Hawaii what are you gonna find? And then if he does dump Ayana what are the pair of you gonna do get be a thruple? Exactly. What happens next? Fight to the death battle royale for fucking Blake LaBelle, writer, director of the smash hit comedy, Bald.

What the fuck? They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite.

Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of the Cotton Club murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about.

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I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom, but I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace. From law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. But all of this scheming by Amanda and Constance didn't split up Blake and Ayanna. And with her due date approaching, because remember, Ayanna is pregnant with his child. They invited Ayanna's mother Olga to come to LA to help her with the baby. And Blake even set Olga up in her very own apartment near theirs. Probably the one that he bought for Constance. Well, yes, we're going to find out about how Constance felt about being kicked out of her apartment very soon. And then

on Olga's 60th birthday, the 3rd of May, Ayana gave birth to a baby girl, who she named Diana. But a matter of days after his daughter was born, Blake's already unpredictable behaviour took another bizarre turn for the worse. He began insisting that all of the curtains in the condo must stay shut, and that the air conditioning had to be kept on high in every single room, including the brand new newborn babies. No bad. Yeah, not good.

So Ayana obviously complained that the freezing air was bad for the baby's health. But when she did this, Blake would just make her go and stay at her mother's apartment. Ayana would leave for a few days, only to return and for the arguing to start all over again. For the most part, when he wasn't arguing with Ayana or turning up the aircon or slamming the curtains shut, Blake would just sit on the sofa smoking weed, hotboxing the condo all day. And Olga's mother later revealed that Blake, during this time,

would constantly pressure Ayana into having sex with him whenever he wanted, despite the fact that she was recovering from a c-section. He was also pressuring Ayana into giving him permission to sleep with other women. And as if all of this isn't bad, things were about to get even worse. Because two weeks after Diana's birth, Constance Bukafuri filed a rape allegation against Blake. She alleged that he had assaulted her a few months before and that he had given her an STD when they were still seeing one another. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Constance said that she had forgiven Blake at the time but about a month later, when he attempted to evict her from his house,

she had decided to press charges against him. The police arrested Blake and actually had to tase him when he resisted. Then things took yet another weird turn when Ayana had no choice but to contact Blake's ex-wife Amanda, the one that called her a whore and wanted her deported back to Ukraine, and ask for $100,000 bail money to get Blake out of prison. I mean, can you even just imagine? You've just given birth to a daughter with this man. Two weeks later, his ex-mistress is filing a rape allegation against him and you have to call his ex-wife to ask for money to bail him out. No, I can't imagine. Don't. Lifestyles of the rich and famous.

I don't know why in my head it was like, like sands through an hourglass. What's that series? Days of Our Lives. Fuck it all. I'm tired, guys. What is it? Like sands through an hourglass. These are the days of our lives. I don't know because I've never seen it. You're missing out. What was the name of that? It was like a medical drama.

Was it called St Elsewhere where the end episode of the and it ran for like years and years and years and years and then the final episode was like psych we've been inside a snow globe the whole time oh my god I haven't seen that one but I think it's quite old but I think it has gone down in history as the worst series ending of all time I see worse than lost I think it is worse down in history as the worst series ending of all time. I see. Worse than Lost. I think it is worse than Lost. I mean, yeah, at least they weren't trapped in a fucking snow globe. But no, Days of Our Lives was just like rich and famous people,

American soap opera, and it was like, oh my God, it was her evil twin. Yeah, Joe Evenbranz is in it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's my only reference point. Blake didn't seem particularly grateful that Ayana had secured his bail via his ex-wife. And we know that because on the 23rd of May, when Olga and Ayana were out shopping for a stroller, Blake started to send Ayana a torrent of hateful text messages. So Ayana told her mum that she needed to go and speak to her ridiculous fiancé in their condo and that she would call her later.

But that call never came. Olga phoned Ayana more than ten times, but heard nothing in response. Sensing that something was deeply wrong, Olga phoned the police and asked them to check on Ayana. But the LAPD just knocked on the door and left when nobody answered, which I don't think classifies as a welfare check. So Olga took matters into her own hands. She went to Blake's apartment and screamed from across the street. Later, she testified that Blake came to the window, shut the curtains and then disappeared.

And then on the 26th of May, after her daughter had been missing for three whole days, Olga filed a missing persons report. This time, the police didn't fuck around. They kicked in the front door of the condo and began clearing each room one by one. Which brings us back to the scene that we opened with. When the officers finally managed to enter the barricaded master bedroom, they found Blake LaBelle standing next to Ayana.

She was lying on the bed, mostly covered by a Mickey Mouse blanket. Poking out of the top was her head. Or what remained of it. In the words of LA County Coroner Dr. James Ribe, her entire scalp was traumatically absent. Ayanna's skull had been stripped down to the surface of the bone, and the only skin still present on her scalp was small flecks on the back of her neck. Portions of the right side of her face had been torn off,

including her ear and part of the face on the right side, all the way down to her jawline. She had a series of bruises and abrasions all over her face, including one that turned out to be a human bite mark. Dr. Rieb also reported that Ayanna had survived for approximately eight hours after the unthinkable violence inflicted on her scalp, head and collarbone. That was fucking rough. I don't feel okay after reading that. No one knows for certain what happened,

but we do know that Ayanna Kassian lived through eight hours of agonising torture at the hands of the man she loved. Police uncovered a razor blade at the scene that had clumps of Ayanna's hair stuck to it. It's believed that that razor is what Blake used to scalp her alive. The coroner concluded that Ayanna had died

of head trauma and exsanguination and that fancy word means a severe loss of blood. In this particular case her body was essentially empty. Blake LaBelle for all of his millions was arrested and charged with murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture. Mayhem, we have come across this before but I do think it was years ago. Mayhem is the criminal act of disabling, disfiguring or cutting off or making useless a critical part of someone's body. Whilst awaiting trial, Blake was placed in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in L.A., the nation's largest mental health facility. His ex-wife Amanda visited him and Constance tried to, but was arrested for violating the terms of a restraining order that Amanda, her one-time... Scheming BFF.

Yes, had taken out temporarily against her. Amanda said that she did that because Constance admitted to making up the rape allegation. She said that it was an allegation she'd been planning on making from the second that Blake had ended things with her. Amanda also alleged that Constance had started stalking her children to and from school. Blake LaBelle's trial started two years later, in June 2018. His family refused to contribute any money towards his defence, and he was represented by a public defender.

The court and the jury, made up of eight men and four women, were shown the horrendous crime scene images of what had happened to Ayanna and they were also read the details of the hours of torture that she had endured. The prosecution also made sure to hammer home the idea that Blake had used his own graphic novel syndrome as a blueprint for the horrific killing. The position Ayanna was lying in, the gory details of the torture and murder, the scalping and meticulously drained blood, it all seemed to come straight off the pages of Blake's graphic novel.

The jury also heard that police found chunks of Ayanna's flesh strewn around the condo, and they were told about 11 bin bags full of bloody sheets and clothes in the basement. Possibly most disturbing of all, they were given the chilling detail that Blake had ordered several takeaways while he was torturing his fiancée. He had instructed the delivery man to leave the food outside the front door, and the police also found $4,000 in cash and a passport indicating that Blake was preparing to flee the country. Blake LeBel was found guilty of first-degree murder, torture and mayhem. He was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison

without the possibility of parole. He's currently seeing out that sentence at the California Correctional Institution. Olga was granted sole custody of Ayanna's baby Diana and Blake's family were ordered to pay Olga $41.6 million in damages. So why did he do it? Don't know, but the prosecution think they have an idea. They argue that he was fuelled by jealousy and rage. It's been reported that Blake had been jealous of how much attention Ayana was giving their newborn baby, and felt like she was neglecting

his needs. It's not unheard of or uncommon even, but come on. A study conducted in the year 2000 indicated that 67% of new parents experience a decline in relationship satisfaction, often because one partner is left vying for the attention of a spouse, resulting in jealousy aimed at the child. And it's an issue that is more likely when one of the people in the relationship has an anxious attachment style and or narcissistic tendencies i mean i think i guess you could argue that he probably did have elements of those things going on with his childhood etc and the way that

he behaved but there's obviously something much much worse oh yeah i mean this mystery severe thing that granny had like the fact of like the curtains being drawn him wanting to like pump the room full of cold air con the paranoia that he seemed to have about the russian mafia rightly or wrongly there's something much more going on than just your run of the mill garden variety jealousy oh absolutely and i'm kind of just a bit like, like, if it really is that common for people to be so jealous of a newborn baby, like, that's just serves as more proof that he's completely an anomaly. Loads of people feel that way to varying extents. Hardly any of them kill their wife. And also, I think what makes him even more anomalous is that this isn't a sort of fit

of rage act of passion situation. It's proven by his graphic novel that he published years before that his designs to kill and the method he wanted to do it in had been with him for years. So yeah, that is the horrifying case of Ayanna Kassian and Blake LeBell. This is a story that we've had on the radar for quite a while. I think if you do go and look, Google the front cover of Syndrome, and then you think about the description that we gave you of what was done to Ayanna, there is something so spine-chilling about all of it. And remember that they are years apart

and when they happen and the fact that he was in that room with her for hours after she was likely dying and dead so yeah that's that guys first of your horrendous october month here at red handed and we will of course be ending this month with our classic Halloween story swap, so that's to look forward to. In the meantime, be sure to head on over to patreon.com slash redhanded, where this month for our bonus Patreon episode, Hannah and I are going to be reacting to a variety of the best slash worst slash scariest horror movie moments ever, as voted for by you. So if you want to be a part of that, if you want to watch that in full, head on over to patreon.com slash redhanded, where you can become a prized patron.

And also be sure to go get your tickets. I know we are on tour by the time you're listening to this, but there are still tour dates available. There are probably still tickets available. So again, head on over to redhandedpodcast.com to get your tickets now, and we'll see you on the road. Bye! podcast.com to get your tickets now and we'll see you on the road bye i'm jake warren and in our first season of finding i set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago,

I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance but it instantly moved me and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding and this time if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app,

Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster.

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