RedHanded - Episode 350 - War Machine

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

When Christine Mackinday and her boyfriend were interrupted in bed by her ex-fiancé – a 200-pound ex-MMA fighter who had legally changed his name to War Machine – she had every reason to fear for her life.This is the wild true story of Jonathan Koppenhaver: self-proclaimed “Alpha Male”, failed UFC fighter, wannabe pornstar and reality-show embarrassment – and his inevitable, tragic, violent revenge.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 Red Handed. Hi-ya! Which is exactly what they say in the UFC. Exactly. I've been going to body combat lessons and learning Mai Tai, and that is exactly what I'm told to say. On the 8th of August 2014,

Christine McInday was in bed with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Corey Thomas. It was late. The couple had spent the day rushing around picking up supplies for a tattoo convention, which Christine was due to appear at. Not long after midnight, the couple were woken back up when the light flicked on in Christine's bedroom. Stood in the doorway was the person Christine least wanted to see. The professional, mixed martial arts fighter and ex-boyfriend that she called John. John was 5ft11 and as a fighter he'd officially weighed in at 170lbs, which is about 77kg. But without a fight in his recent past, he had packed on a lot more bulk. So standing there in the doorway,

filled to the brim with illegally sourced testosterone, he weighed in at more like 200 pounds of pure muscle and violent aggression. Few people other than Christine called him John anymore. When they spoke about him, most people used the name that he had chosen for himself. War Machine. You don't get to pick your own nickname any more than LL Cool J does. Like, I just don't think, like, how? No, sorry, my name is War Machine. He is that guy. The person that would have the, I don't know what word it is,

the temerity to demand that of other people is exactly who he is. He actually legally changes his name. Oh, gross. To War Machine. First name War, second name Machine. You know, like they have that list in France of names that you're not allowed. Yes. War Machine should be on there.

Yeah. Adolf Hitler, War Machine. War Machine. Yeah. So, yeah. It's a terrible name, but it is his official name. So we are going to swap between War Machine and his actual name,

just at will throughout this episode, just so you know why we're doing that. So as War Machine stood in the doorway and the couple lay motionless in the bed, there was a beat of silence before the cage fighter uttered under his breath, what the fuck? Then he leapt forwards and began to pummel Corey Thomas's face. Thomas, who is best described as a California beach bro, tried his best to cover up and keep the 200-pound force of nature at bay.

But it was an impossible task. The longer the flurry of punches went on, the more and more enraged War Machine became. Before long, War Machine was also biting Thomas on the arms and face. Christine, in a state of total panic, rushed her two dogs out of the room, scared that her ex might also attack them. And then she called 911. Eventually, and unbelievably, Thomas was able to push the significantly larger war machine backwards. He staggered his feet, but he wouldn't stay there for long. War machine tackled Thomas to the ground, pulling him into a chokehold.

For a while, the pair scrambled on the floor, with Thomas briefly ripping himself free, only to be repeatedly pulled back into the choke. At this point, Corey Thomas was spent. Christine's ex-boyfriend had trained for hours every day to reach the peak of athleticism, and was now letting that power spill over into pure violence. Corey Thomas was just some dude. Thomas lay on the floor. His vision started to tunnel as War Machine began screaming at Christine. Tell him you love me. Tell him you asked me to marry you. A shaking Christine replied,

Yes, you're right. I asked you to marry me. You're right. I told you I loved you today. All this was going on as Corey Thomas was still trapped in War Machine's chokehold. Trying to work out if he stood any chance of getting out of this alive, Thomas spoke. Unbelievably, after being pummeled by the man-mountain, Thomas asked War Machine, What do you want from me? Do you want to kill me, or do you want me to walk out of here? To which War Machine began telling Thomas that he had friends in the Hells Angels and the Navy Seals who would kill him if he snitched. Thomas pleaded with War Machine. He said he wasn't a snitch and that he could just let him go.

Eventually, War Machine released the chokehold and Thomas got back to his feet. Thomas walked into Christine's bedroom, picked up his wallet, his phone and his keys, then left the flat and went home. He did not call the police. In fact, he didn't tell anyone that his £100 girlfriend was alone in the house with a £200 muscle-bound lunatic who had just kicked the shit out of him. As the door closed behind Thomas, the next thing Christine McInday saw was War Machine sprinting towards her. So yes, obviously War Machine was not born War Machine. He was born Jonathan Paul Copenhaver on the 30th of November 1981. He was the eldest of three siblings, with a younger brother and sister, Michael and Melissa.

They grew up together in Simi Valley, California, and their parents divorced when they were still young, and this did really affect the kids. But then things got worse. Both John and Michael watched their father collapse from a fatal heart attack when John was just 13 years old. John frantically tried to administer CPR, but his attempts to revive his father all failed. After this, their mother's new husband stepped in as head of the family, much to the dismay of the Coppenhaver siblings. According to John's brother Michael, their new stepdad was not a good man. He'd spend the family's money on flash cars and new houses, rather than taking care of the kids.

In the year 2000, John headed off to study biology at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina in Charleston. He attended classes on and off for the next two years, but left on the 27th of January 2002 without graduating. His reason for leaving, and his college grades, have never officially been disclosed, due to federal law which protects them against being released to the public. Years later, he would appear on The Joe Rogan Experience and admit that at around the same time, he beat his stepdad almost to death

over some unpaid tuition fees. We're in the same place. We don't. You know what? I was actually on a pretty good track. My dad died when I was 13, right? I gave him C, probably died, right? So I went to live with my mom, and she was a drug addict, and my stepdad's a drug addict. The losers, right? It was a mess.

And I had no rules, man. I could do anything I wanted. No rules. You know, I got in fights, but that was it. All good grades uh wrestle uh always sports i want to be a navy seal i went to the citadel for college i was a biology major now you know i was doing i did everything good you know i sucked it up i did everything right and then after my sophomore year i go to the guidance counselor's office and they're like hey

uh you owe us fifteen thousand dollars from from from year. I was like, well, how? My mom gets my dad's pension. He was a cop. They get the money every month. Turns out my mom spent all the money on drugs. They spent it on drugs and my stepdad's attorney because he did a fraud case, right? So they said, hey, well, the Navy wanted to give me a scholarship for my last two years and commission me afterwards,

but they weren't going to back pay what I already owe, the $15,000, right? So they said, either you've got to pay this or we gotta freeze your credits and i couldn't even transfer my credits so then i did i wanted to melt down psycho mode because i mean i sucked it up all that time and like didn't drink didn't do drugs trained did community service all this stuff good grades and i went home dude and i beat my stepdad almost to death. I almost killed him. I beat him bad. Like, there was blood on the ceiling. I smashed him so bad.

Oh, wow. And then I got arrested for, like, mayhem, attempt to murder, all this stuff, because I beat him so bad. But I told the cop straight up. I said, hey, man. I said, I told him the truth. My dad was an LAPD cop. I said, he died when I was 13.

I said, I freaking busted my ass, went to a military college, a Citadel. I have all As and Bs, biology major. These fuckers spent my dad's money on drugs. I said, I freaking busted my ass, went to a military college, a Citadel. I have all A's and B's, biology major. These fuckers spent my dad's money on drugs. You know what I mean? I came home and I asked him why he did it. And we got in a fight and I said I couldn't stop hitting him. That's what happened, you know. And the cop goes, eh, sounds like self-defense to me.

Saved my ass. It was shortly after leaving university that John began looking seriously into a career in the up-and-coming sport of mixed martial arts. So what is mixed martial arts? Well, I'm glad you're the expert. I know, as someone who has been to two body combat workout sessions in the past month, let me tell you. In short, mixed martial arts, or MMA, is a combat sport which has risen in popularity massively over the last four decades. The general pull is that it is widely regarded as the mainstream

combat sport with the fewest rules and regulations. Essentially, it's pure unarmed combat. The aim of the sport is to beat your opponent in one of three ways. Number one is a knockout, so knocking your opponent unconscious. Number two is a submission, so putting your opponent in a chokehold or stress position until they submit by tapping their hand on the canvas or their opponent. Number three is a decision, which only happens if the fight ends without a knockout or a submission, at which point a panel of judges decide which fighter they think performed better. When MMA first rose to prominence in the early 90s, the rules and regulations were effectively, do whatever the fuck you want. 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 the Media wherever you get your podcasts. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained 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. A quick Google of early MMA will pull up videos of headbutts, kicks to the groin and even stamping on people while they're on the ground.

However, in the years since and by the time John Coppenhaver got involved, things had levelled out a bit. The sport had solidified itself as a rough combination of boxing, kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, general wrestling and judo. There are obviously hundreds of other martial arts which continue to influence the sport, but please, please, find something better to do with your time than tell us about it.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to lie, I have watched a few ufc fights and yeah that's it's very animalistic right you're gonna you get swept up in it you are gonna be like fuck that person's like fully getting battered but there's something quite thrilling about it well we love a blood sport we do love a blood sport i also did watch the uh anthony joshua versus i can never say his name right francis nagel i think that's how it said i wasn't really paying attention to how his name was said but he was francis let's call him francis was the former ufc heavyweight champion and obviously

anthony joshua is boxing boxing champion and it was very hyped because it was basically, who's going to win? Boxing heavyweight champion or UFC heavyweight champion? Anthony Joshua destroyed him. Francis was floored three times. And I think it was like a second round knockout. And it was quite something. Yeah. Unfortunately, Anthony Joshua is a really horrible person yeah well there you go so these days most unfavorable behaviors like kicking a downed opponent in the head have been phased out in order to give the sport a more mainstream and advertiser friendly appearance just like true crime yeah Hannah and I have agreed to stop kicking each other in the head. Now, John Coppenhaver had his first professional fight in Tijuana, Mexico on the 29th of February 2004 at a competition called Total Combat 2. He won the fight in the first round with a knockout punch. He competed again just a few months later, again in Tijuana, this time winning via submission. And the winning streak continued. Between 2004 and 2006, John Copenhaver competed in

five professional fights and won four. In 2006, Copenhaver got the opportunity that all MMA fighters dream of. A chance of competing in the UFC. The UFC, or Ultimate Fighting Championship, is by far and away the most well-known MMA promotion in the world. Their first televised competition, UFC 1, in November 1993, marked most people's first exposure to mixed martial arts. Since then, the UFC has become a ubiquitous global mega-brand, to the point where the term UFC has become synonymous with MMA in general. And the reason it is so appealing to fighters and audiences is because the UFC pays the biggest wages, pulls in the biggest pay-per-view audiences, and has almost all the best fighters in the world.

And Rogan doesn't shut up about it. But yeah, I mean, if you are into MMA, like, this is it. This is the holy grail of that. For John Coppenhaver, getting the chance to be a part of the UFC would have been an absolute dream come true. However, his opportunity didn't come in a traditional way. Most of the lucky few fighters that get called up to the UFC do so by assembling a really good fighting record and, more importantly, creating a buzz around their name. Coppenhaver, on the other hand, got his

chance through a reality TV show called The Ultimate Fighter, which I would watch. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's kind of like, yeah. American Ninja Warrior. Yeah. It's wonderful. Yeah. But with so many other reality shows mashed in. Yeah.

The show, naturally created by the UFC, is part Big Brother, part Fear Factor, which was, of course, presented by who? Joe Rogan. Exactly. With 16 up-and-coming MMA fighters shut up in a house together for six whole weeks. Fighters slash housemates were split into two teams and led by a famous UFC fighter who acted as their head coach. The teams competed against each other across a tournament of fights with the winner of the overall tournament given a reported six-figure contract with the UFC.

In short, they put 16 highly competitive, aggressive, combat-trained men in a house together, told them that their dream job was up for grabs, made them all fight each other, and we, like the idiots we are, watched the chaos ensue. The show itself is still running to this day, and has produced some truly shocking reality TV moments. Including one team urinating in the other team's fruit salad, and someone tricking another housemate into eating sushi filled with his own ejaculate. Bleh. Yeah. Why our men? With such highbrow entertainment being made and the chance at a big contract in the UFC on the line,

every season of The Ultimate Fighter sees thousands of hopefuls apply. In 2007, one of those hopefuls was John Coppenhaver. Now, initially, he didn't actually make the cut, falling short at the final hurdle. But in a stroke of luck, Roman Michian, one of the original 16 selected for that particular season, broke his elbow while filming the first episode and had to retire from the process. To fill his spot, upstepped first reserve, 26-year-old John Coppenhaver. Can I just ask what you think John Coppenhaver looks like?

Because he didn't look anything like I thought he would. I've been watching a lot of, obviously, Australian maths, and I was picturing in my head the guy in there who is a mixed martial arts person. Okay. Jaden. If you're watching the show, if you have watched the show, you know who I'm talking about. That's who I had in my head.

That is not what he looks like at all. I just think all UFC fighters look like Joe Rogan. Give him a Google. Yeah, that was along the lines of what I was thinking. Okay, okay. But I probably watch more UFC than you. Never. Only because I really like Ronda Rousey.

I don't know, I thought Coppenhaver sounded... I just imagined him being more like Aryan looking. Yeah, I think that's fair. It does sound like a Danish name. That's the only thing. I was imagining blonde hair, blue eyes, but he's the opposite. So let's get back to Big Brother Does Punching. In a move that will become a repeating theme throughout this episode, during the TV series, Coppenhaver immediately established himself as a loose cannon.

He spent the first weeks in the house indulging in the unlimited alcohol on offer, During the TV series, Coppenhaver immediately established himself as a loose cannon. He spent the first weeks in the house indulging in the unlimited alcohol on offer, getting into fights, and generally grinding everyone's gears by making insensitive remarks about anything he could think of, which is a well-known Big Brother tactic. Initially, he was far from popular, establishing himself as the kind of jumped-up bro

who people loved tuning in to watch have his arse kicked the moment he got in the cage. However, that all changed in episode eight. In that episode, creatively titled War Machine, Coppenhaver opened up to the cameras about his emotional instabilities and the trauma that he'd faced watching his dad die, age just 13, saying, I don't ever think about it. Ever. Again, classic reality TV tactic. Yeah. They do it on RuPaul's Drag Race all the time. They go in really fucking nasty, horrible,

and then about episode five or six, they'll be like, well, actually, I haven't spoken to my parents in 30,000 years and my left eye doesn't work. And, you know, with Coppenhaver, how much of that is calculated? How much of it is a genuine thing that he feels? It's hard to know. Definitely, at least when he's telling that story, there are tears in his eyes. It is the only moment of vulnerability that we could sort of find in his entire timeline. And he does come back to his dad dying again and again and again

like it was a real moment that set him off. But during that episode, his head coach, UFC legend Matt Serra, had several heart-to-heart chats with Coppenhaver about not letting his anger get the better of him and letting go of the chip that was on his shoulder about the whole world being against him. Coppenhaver had also been getting frustrated when he felt the coaches were giving more time and attention to the other fighters rather than to him. In a now infamous line to camera, Sarah said, quote, physically he could cause anyone a problem

but mentally he's got some issues. I don't think he's a bad guy. He's just a guy who thinks the chips are always stacked against him. All of this attention gave Koppenhaver the one thing that all professional fighters want, a buzz around his name. Like all popular sports, the UFC relies on eyes on screens and bums on seats. The simple truth is that skills might win big fights, but personalities win big contracts.

All of this emphasis on personality meant that although Coppenhaver lost his first fight and only fight on The Ultimate Fighter and was eliminated really quickly, bizarrely didn't end up mattering. He was a fan favourite. And when the time came for the big finale of the series, a set of ten professional UFC fights on Spike TV, which was shown live on 8 December 2007,

Coppenhaver was on that list. And what's more, he was given third billing. In other words, Coppenhaver was part of the third biggest fight of the whole night. This was a massive opportunity for him, and one that he was going to take in style. His fight was against Jared Rollins, a fellow competitor on The Ultimate Fighter, and both fighters put on the performance of their careers. The fight turned into what MMA fans refer to as a war. In other words, two very evenly matched fighters, putting on a show of pure strength and determination.

Neither seemed to be able to get the upper hand, and by round three, both the fighters and the canvas were drenched in sweat and blood. Then, late in the third and final round, Coppenhaver was able to get on top of Rollins, and let loose with a last-ditch effort to knock his opponent unconscious. And unbelievably, despite both fighters being completely spent, Coppenhaver got the knockout. The fight was a huge victory for Coppenhaver. He'd shown his grit and determination on the biggest stage and in front of the UFC president himself. Coppenhaver's performance was so impressive that he even received a performance bonus for

getting the knockout of the night. In fact, things couldn't have really got any better for him, because on top of all of this, he was also offered a contract with the UFC. But alas, things did not go according to plan. MMA and the UFC are all about winning streaks. That's not to say that you have to win every single fight. There are only a handful of MMA fighters who've fought at the top level and never lost. But when a fighter first gets into the UFC, it's absolutely imperative that they win their first few fights. And if they do lose, they better hope that they put in a really solid performance first. Now with that little bit of foreshadowing out of the way, it's pretty clear where this is going. Some people have suggested that the fame and success immediately went to Copenhaver's head.

Others said that he just wasn't really good enough for the big leagues. Either way, when Copenhaver stepped into the cage for his second UFC fight, things did not go as planned. Coppenhaver was taken to the ground and submitted less than one minute into the first round. He was released from his UFC contract the next day. Immediately, Coppenhaver, who by this point had legally changed his name to War Machine, went on a drink-and-drug-fueled rampage. Within a few weeks of losing the fight he'd been charged and convicted with two counts of assault, the first for attacking a man in a

car park and the second for attacking a bouncer in a nightclub. And I think that's one of the things with this story and how UFC fits into it. Now again I don't want to make any generalizations, Copenhaver does not have the right personality subset for this. If you are somebody who can take the loss and then come back and fight again and again, fine, what's the problem? He cannot handle it. He's riding such a high. The minute it's taken away, the minute it's knocked down, he just completely derails and starts to implode. Despite his run-ins with the law, Copenhaver hadn't put his MMA career on hold. We're going to keep calling him Copenhaver because I just can't.

I can't with War Machine. We only use it for dramatic purposes. In fact, he thought he had come up with a foolproof plan. And as we're going to go on to see, foolproof was exactly what it needed to be. Coppenhaver planned on fighting in small local promotions across the country, beating what he referred to as hometown heroes. These guys were not full-time fighters.

They just watched UFC, trained at local gyms and fought in fights put on by local strip clubs. So for Coppenhaver, a full-time contracted MMA fighter, training multiple times a day, and with the experience of fighting on the biggest stage, they were very easy prey. The idea behind this was to build up a winning streak of six fights with no losses, which is the minimum needed to be considered for the UFC. The only flaw in this plan was that Coppenhaver wasn't the only

professional fighter doing the rounds of the local circuit, hoping to get a place in the UFC. After five fights in the middle of bumfuck nowhere against guys who didn't even have a Wikipedia page, Coppenhaver collided parts with David Mitchell. Yeah.

Who has a secret life as an MMA fighter. Now, David Mitchell, both of them, do have Wikipedia pages. This particular one, the MMA fighter, hadn't lost any of his previous seven fights before facing Coppenhaver. Their fight ended without a knockout or submission, but the judges eventually came to a decision in favour of Mitchell. Coppenhaver's

winning streak was over. He'd fallen short on his sixth fight and he'd have to start his campaign to get back into the UFC from scratch. And I think as well another thing with the UFC as there would be in any sort of public sport or public facing role like this. The humiliation for Coppenhaver of losing in front of crowds absolutely fuels this kind of rage against him and this chip just gets bigger and bigger and bigger on his shoulder. In what was quickly becoming a pattern, Coppenhaver immediately went straight off the rails. Within a month, he'd been in two more bar fights and was out on bail.

Then, out of the blue, Coppenhaver gave a bit of a curveball announcement on his MySpace profile. He was going to go into porn. Another industry that's completely chill and probably not filled with massive amounts of embarrassment and pressure. Here's what he wrote. In life, I have come to learn that all I enjoy is eating, sleeping, fighting and fucking. I's what he wrote. In life, I have come to learn that all I enjoy is eating, sleeping, fighting and fucking. I'm living the dream, getting paid to fight and fuck. What more could I ask for? I just don't... He's so filled with bravado

and I just think it is such a cover for how cripplingly inadequate he feels. Yes. Having said that, his porn career did get off to a relatively good start. In November 2009, he performed a scene with the adult star Brooke Haven, and the pair got on so well that he was invited to her upcoming birthday party. Haven has said in interviews since that she was taken aback

by how polite and caring Coppenhaver was on set. She even said that he turned up several hours early to her birthday party to help blow up balloons. That's weird. You don't know her. But the nice balloon-blowing guy was pretty short-lived. Later the same night, Coppenhaver saw his date talking to a well-known porn producer who he attacked in a fit of jealous rage. The entire party turned on him and he was chased out of the venue by an angry mob. Even I know that as a porn performer, the porn producer is not the guy you want to pick a fight with. No. No.

The attack was never mentioned to the authorities and in a telling indictment of the porn industry, it did little to hold back Coppenhaver's career. Despite having shown himself to be an aggressive and violent individual at an industry event no less, Coppenhaver continued to pick up work for the next year. But in August 2010, the two bar fights he'd been charged for finally caught up with him, and he was sentenced to a year in county jail. Bizarrely, the sentence came with a two-month delay,

which gave Coppenhaver enough time to fit in one more professional fight. This fight took place in Lemoore, California, a city with a population of less than 30,000, at an event called Stars and Strikes. Coppenhaver lost against another of his so-called hometown heroes via a submission in the third round. After the event, he told a local reporter that he knew he was going to lose the fight

because he was in the worst shape of his life. When he was asked how he felt about going to prison, this is what he had to say. I'm going to go to jail for a year next week. You know, I just don't want to go to jail because it's going to be boring, you know. I can't train, I can't fight, I can't get laid, you know what I mean?

I mean, I can't even have a dish of snacks, no pizza, you know what I mean? So it's going to suck, but I mean, I'm not wearing nothing else. I don't think anyone's going to try and mess with me, I mean. Copenhaver was only supposed to spend a year in county jail, but once again, things didn't quite go to plan. Almost immediately after getting inside, he made a habit of getting into fights with other inmates, and Copenhaver spent

most of his time in solitary confinement, which is not going to do anyone's mental health any particular good. On top of that, whilst he was in jail, another bar fight he had been in came to light, and he was sentenced to a further year inside. He was released after two years almost entirely in solitary confinement on the 29th of October 2012. And after his release, Coppenhaver had clearly been affected by his time inside. Like all professional fighters, he'd always believed that he was the biggest and toughest guy around. But after prison, this became more than just an attitude. It became a total delusion. Immediately after his release, John Coppenhaver announced the

launch of his new clothing brand called Alpha Male. I was talking about this with my friends last night, that if anyone says they're an alpha male, I was talking about this with my friends last night, that if anyone says they're an alpha male, they're not. Oh, yeah. You don't say it. And you certainly don't wear a shirt that says it. No. And I saw a tweet that was like,

if a man ever shouts at you, the best thing you can do is go, Oh, big feelings, buddy. And the catalogue of clothes that he offered as a part of alpha male look like they come from a fairly uninspired Redbubble account. It's essentially entirely generic T-shirts and vests modelled by himself in full MMA gear

and his friend in military garb holding an assault rifle. All of the items say Alpha Male or I do Alpha Male shit printed on them. See, if they were ironic, that's very funny. Yes, yes. Very funny. But they're not. He is very serious.

Now, this wasn't his only new venture. As well as launching his new fashion line, Coppenhaver also decided to reinvent himself as a social media influencer. Coppenhaver posted every day to his MySpace and Twitter accounts, mostly just repurposing generic motivational quotes pasted over the top of vaguely motivational images of people running or climbing mountains. My favourite accounts are ones that put black book quotes over inspirational images. And the best one is, you can sort your life out

and find work anytime the pub closes in five hours however the bar was a lot lower back in 2012 for who could succeed in being a social media influencer and this garbage content that he was posting did actually manage to get the war machine a bit of buzz again. Now a verified ex-con, his tough guy image and persona seemed to be backed up, and slowly but surely, Kopenhauer started to gain supporters. His internet fame was boosted by his sporadic posting of video updates. These updates ranged from rambling tirades on social issues to accidentally admitting that he was taking testosterone, which is banned by the UFC. Also, to angry reactions about his inability to buy a Slurpee.

Oh my fucking god, I'm so fucking pissed off right now. Dude, I've been craving a fucking Slurpee since last night. I want a Slurpee. I want a fucking Slurpee since last night. I want a Slurpee. I want a fucking Slurpee. And I see 7-Eleven, so I go and I want to get a Slurpee. And I fill up my fucking cup, and the fucking bitch who fucking works there fucking tells me that I need to take off my fucking hoodie on my head. I was like, what? Huh?

And the fucking bitch tells me that I have to fucking take off my hoodie or she's not going to fucking serve me a fucking Slurpee. Are you fucking serious? Oh, my God, I'm so, I'm fucking freaked the fuck out. And then the fucking other asshole that works there says he's going to call the cops. I want to, I'm so, I wanna, I wanna smash the fucking motherfucker. 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. 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 Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Now these videos continued from Coppenhover for the next six months until on Sunday the 14th of April 2013 he posted a quote that would prove to be a turning point in his life. If love doesn't feel like 80s reggae, then I don't want it. And he posted this because the war machine was in love. Does 80s reggae have a feeling? Pass. I don't know.

What does that feel like? Bob Marley's not 80s, is it? Before this, before. No, he died in 81 so it's it's post marley reggae is what he's talking about so i want my love to feel like a genre post its peak great man i don't know maybe there's something really deep and philosophical there. If there is, I can't find it. Nor can he. Corpenhaver had met adult entertainment starlet Christine McInday a month before on a shoot for Hustler magazine.

McInday, known professionally as Christy Mac, was just 22 years old when the two of them met on set and still on the rise as a porn star. Much like being a professional fighter, making it in the adult entertainment industry was all about creating buzz. We've all seen Hot Girls Wanted. All three.

I wish I hadn't. No, that's too late. Mac's main calling card was her image as a heavily tattooed alternative rock chick who was nasty on screen. Another parallel with the fight business is that Mac had to maintain a huge presence in the industry to stay relevant. Between 2012 and 2013, she filmed 68 separate porn scenes, including...

Facial Fest, Mr Anal, Tits to Die For, Tattooed Analuts, baby got boobs, 10, baby got boobs, 14, my sister's hot friend, 35, hall pass arse, big wet butts, 9, porn stars like it big, 16, big wet tits, 12, planting seeds, 3, big tits at school, bra buster, 4, slutty and sluttier, 19, oil overload, 10, two chicks same time, 14, dirty masseur, What does that stand for? Fat-ass white girls. Oh, right. Okay, got it. Wow. Despite her on-screen

persona, Christine McInday was actually pretty reserved and had kept her distance from Coppenhaver when they first met. She was suspicious as Coppenhaver had insisted on her specifically appearing in the Hustler shoot, and she'd been nervous of meeting him. The pair had

sex as part of the shoot, but at first, McInday maintained a professional attitude towards her co-star. That said, they had clearly made quite a connection during the performance, because they began dating around two weeks later. From the outside, Christy Mack and War Machine made the perfect celebrity couple. Both of their industries were seen as outside of the mainstream, and they seemed to complement each other's careers. As their celebrity grew, so did their opportunities. Less than two months after announcing their relationship,

Coppenhaver was signed to Bellator, which is the UFC's biggest competitor in MMA. Coppenhaver had only fought once since getting trounced at Stars and Strikes. But he won his Bellator debut in front of thousands of fans in a packed-out stadium, with hundreds of thousands more watching from around the world. As he was paraded around the stadium,

the camera cut to his adoring girlfriend, Christy Mack, watching from the sidelines. As a result of his return to the MMA big time, Coppenhaver and McInday started to be offered lucrative contracts with fashion brands and fitness companies, as well as being in talks for a reality TV show on Bravo.

However, if we've learned anything from Coppenhaver's story, it's that what goes up must come down. Behind the scenes, things weren't all sunshine and rainbows. Within a few months of the start of their relationship, Coppenhaver had started to become violent towards Christine. It started as the occasional slap when Coppenhaver became frustrated. But over time, things got worse and worse. Soon, he began choking Christine unconscious in fits of rage. He had started to become increasingly frustrated with Christine working in the porn industry and would become aggressive if she ever came back from a day on set

and refused to have sex with him. Before long, he began forcing himself on her, and raping her, if he didn't get his way. Over time, the true nature of their relationship began to leak out, as people saw Coppenhaver being aggressive towards Christine at public events. However, because they both worked in industries that hardly have the greatest reputation for the welfare of their employees, nobody really did that much about it. In fact, the only people who really took any kind of action

were astonishingly the users of 4chan, and as you can imagine, their solution was hardly ideal. On the 17th of July 2013, users on the anonymous forum began spamming Coppenhaver's Twitter account, with tweets calling him homophobic slurs, and also calling Christine a whore. They also told him that he had killed his father by failing to resuscitate him as a child. And then a user leaked Coppenhaver's home address, and they began sending pizzas to his house with the note, Happy Father's Day. With this as the only negative response to Coppenhaver's abusive behaviour, Christine was very much in it alone,

and their relationship continued to get more violent by the day. Even more shockingly, Christine actually lived in a flat she shared with her mum, Erin, while all this was going on. But Coppenhaver kept her isolated and threw out his favourite threat all the time, that if she ever told her mum, his friends in the Navy SEALs and Hell's Angels would come for her family. The real low point came in October 2013, when Coppenhaver lost his third appearance for Bellator. This was an absolutely crushing blow for Coppenhaver's career, as yet again he'd been submitted in the first round in a humiliating fashion. For the £170 supposed war machine, the act of being dominated

in front of thousands of people and then being submitted via a rear naked choke, one of the most embarrassing submissions in the sport, was absolutely soul-destroying. For Coppenhaver, a man who was hardly the poster child of mental stability, it was never going to end well. He'd set out to fight and fuck. And now not only was his girlfriend refusing to sleep with him because she'd spent all day having sex with other men at work, now he was also getting beaten up in front of thousands.

Following the loss, he became intensely more possessive over Christine and started to insist that she stopped shooting porn scenes. Soon afterwards, he attacked Christine when he found out that she had been made a pair of gold fangs by a famous male designer to promote on social media. In another incident, Coppenhaver beat her so violently in his car that he told her he was going to have to take her to the desert and kill her. He eventually calmed down and took Christine home to her mum's flat. Erin McInday absolutely loathed Coppenhaver. She wasn't blind to what was going on,

and she regularly told her daughter to break up with him. And in January 2014, Erin's prayers were answered when Christine announced that she'd called things off with Coppenhaver. That said, the breakup seems to have been pretty messy. Christine even admitted that she had been sleeping with Coppenhaver occasionally, even when she'd started her new relationship with Corey Thomas. And her relationship with surfer bro Corey Thomas brings us back to where we started this episode, on the 8th of August 2014. As we said earlier, Coppenhaver arrived at Christine's flat in the early hours of the

morning and set himself upon Thomas. After some crashing around and shouting, Coppenhaver agreed to let Thomas go if he promised not to snitch. Then he turned his attention to Christine. The image of a £200 MMA monster sprinting towards her was the last thing Christine remembered before she woke up naked in the shower. She noticed blood in her mouth and then heard the sound of her ex-boyfriend screaming at her through the shower door while he went through her phone.

Christine slowly tried to get up and managed to get onto all fours. The moment Coppenhaver saw Christine moving, he kicked her so hard in the stomach that she hit the ground again and began to convulse. Coppenhaver then spent the next two hours attacking and sexually assaulting Christine as she fell in and out of consciousness. At one point during the attack, Christine regained consciousness at the sight of Coppenhaver licking his hand

and rubbing it against her crotch while saying, this is my pussy and I'm going to take it back. Coppenhaver then attempted to rape Christine but was unable to get an erection which of course sent him to another level of rage. The next time Christine came back around Coppenhaver had gone downstairs and returned with a kitchen knife. He then spent the next hour pressing the knife into Christine's hands and ears before going into her bedroom and cutting up her wigs.

But Christine so violently with the kitchen knife that the handle actually broke off. Coppenhaver then told her, I've gone too far. You can't be seen like this. Everyone is going to know. I'm going to have to kill you.

With that, he went back downstairs to find another knife. And in a moment of unbelievable strength, Christine managed to drag herself to her feet and stumbled out onto her first floor balcony. Seeing no other option to escape Christine threw herself from the balcony into the garden below. Despite the fall unbelievably again Christine found the strength to get back to her feet and started to drag herself completely naked up the road. This gruesome sight was spotted by one of her neighbours looking out of the window,

who ran outside, pulled the battered woman into his apartment and called 911. Police and paramedics arrived shortly afterwards and Christine was rushed to hospital. She had three fractured ribs, 12 missing teeth, 18 broken bones in her face and a severely ruptured liver. As the paramedics tried desperately to stabilise Christine's condition, a group of heavily armed police officers raided her apartment,

prepared to kill the violent maniac waiting inside. But the so-called war machine was gone. A few hours later, Erin McInday received a text from Coppenhaver which read, Are you awake? The guy Christine was in bed with came at me. Erin called her daughter's former lover and listened briefly as he said the three of them had got into a physical fight and that he had had to beat Christine.

Coppenhaver then tried making his excuses, claiming that it wasn't his fault. But Erin McInday hung up the phone. He's so delusional. He obviously only makes this call to try and get ahead of the story. He knows that Christine got out of the house. He knows that she's in hospital by this point.

And he knows that everyone in the industry, both industries, is going to find out. And he seriously thinks that he can call her mum and convince her that he had no choice but to do it. It so speaks to his delusion. Erin rushed to her daughter's flat on the other side of Las Vegas and was greeted by a sight from a film. Christine's flat was surrounded by police cars and tape

and as Erin rushed inside, she found the entire place had been utterly trashed. And naturally, Erin assumed that Christine was dead. However, after screaming for someone to give her some kind of explanation, a police officer told her that Christine was clinging to life at Sunrise Hospital, Las Vegas. Erin rushed to the hospital and found her daughter, but she later said that the woman she found lying in that hospital bed had been attacked so brutally that she, Erin, couldn't recognize her own daughter. As Christine slowly recovered in hospital, Coppenhaver spent the next week on the run, mostly staying in hotels and tweeting about how

misunderstood he was. Unfortunately for Coppenhaver, the buzz around his name that he'd spent the last 10 years trying to create came back to bite him in the arse. The hashtag war machine trended in Brazil, the UK and the US, and his mugshot from a previous arrest made the most tweeted image that week. Within seven days of the attack, he was spotted in a Simi Valley hotel by a member of the public and immediately arrested. Coppenhaver was charged with 31 separate charges, including rape, kidnapping and attempted murder. He pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Coppenhaver spent the next two years in county jail awaiting trial, while Christine underwent serious facial reconstructive surgery. During this time, Coppenhaver attempted to take his own life, and then spent the next two years sending letters to his friends on the outside, which they uploaded to his Twitter. The letters ranged from deep remorse and acceptance, saying that he was embarrassed to have ever blamed his actions on anyone but himself, but then also veered into suggesting that while he had attacked Christine, he'd never sexually assaulted her, and that these accusations came out of her desire for revenge.

When the trial finally came around in March 2017, it was a sombre affair that was watched around the world and stood as a testament to Christine McInday's strength. Christine, who looked markedly different as a result of the surgery on her face, spent the entire trial wearing the various wigs Coppenhaver had always hated. She talked about how, as someone who had prided herself on her independence, she'd felt embarrassed and ashamed to have become a victim of abuse, which became one of the many reasons she'd never reached out. Which happens to so many people.

Christine detailed how she'd felt truly in love with Coppenhaver during their relationship, despite his abusive nature, and that the days after the abusive episodes would be the best of their relationship, and Coppenhaver was at his most kind and caring. Classic. Yeah, no abusive relationship is abusive all the time or nobody would stay. Another star of the trial was Erin McInday, Christine's mum, who took the stand partway through. Erin, who has a Sigourney Weaver-esque steely energy,

spent most of her time in the stand dealing with her utter disgust for Coppenhaver. She was one of the only witnesses who refused to refer to him by his legal name, War Machine, and instead insisted on calling him John. Fine, I feel fine about that. When asked to describe Coppenhaver to the court, she pointed him out instantly before looking him in the eye and telling the court that he'd lost around 50 pounds of his muscle and was looking a bit less broad in the shoulders. No doubt this would have pissed Coppenhaver off, but it was to show the jury, however big and terrifying this man in front of them looked right now, he had been even bigger when he'd attacked her daughter.

But the highlight came when Erin McInday was asked by the prosecution if, given the incidents that she'd seen in her daughter's relationship with Coppenhaver before the attack, she regretted not going to the police. And Erin looked at Coppenhaver in the eye and said, given the incidents I saw, I really wish I would have shot you.

That's my retrospective. I wish I would have shot you. The trial ended on the 20th of March 2017 and John Coppenhaver was found guilty on 29 charges including kidnapping and sexual assault with a weapon. The jury deadlocked on the last two counts of attempted murder. Coppenhaver was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 36 years. If that ever happens he'll be 71 years old by the time he's released. Christine went back to performing as Christy Mack in 2017, for the first time since her

relationship with Coppenhaver. As of 2024, Christine now runs an incredibly successful OnlyFans page and merch store, which she promotes to her 3.9 million followers on Instagram. She's also appeared on podcasts talking about domestic violence and has even run an exclusive merch line with the site Pornhub with all proceeds going to a domestic abuse charity. Which, like, great. I mean, she's a remarkable person for getting to where she's gotten after the horrific abuse. And yes, if you do go and see

her she does look incredibly different um and having the confidence and the bravery to come through that and going back into the industry and yeah the merch i actually wanted to see if i could buy us some of that merch but the campaign has come to an end oh it's a shame and while i think she's amazing fuck you pornhub like as if they're doing a thing for domestic abuse like the horrible shit they've got on there not talking about the porn i mean like there is so much revenge porn that is uploaded onto there that they're just like sure yeah whatever and underage shit which they're also just like, sorry, what? Yeah, no, exactly. But yeah, it's just that this story is the culmination of two industries that can take their toll on people. And Coppenhaver, there's no excuses for what he did.

Obviously not. He is not a sane person by any stretch of the imagination. And this is what happened. There you go. It's a horrible, horrible story. But Christine is quite a woman. She's wonderful. Yeah. Good for her. And's a horrible, horrible story. But Christine is quite the woman. Oh, she's wonderful. Yeah.

Good for her. And that's it, guys. That's the story of John Coppenhaver. Not War Machine. Certainly not War Machine. No. And good. At least he is where he belongs.

And I don't think even when he's 71 they'll be letting him out. Oh, I don't think so either. So there you go. That's it. And I do think it comes back down to, like we said, the hype he built around his own name coming back to punch him in the face or put him in that weird chokehold, whatever. Naked butt face, reverse cowgirl is what I thought.

Exactly. It was. So there you go. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you will learn something about UFC. Yeah. Because, you know, those are our top takeaways from my body combat lessons. But yeah, that's it, guys.

We'll be back next week with a different story. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light 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. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. 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. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today, I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution.

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, law and crime, this is The Rise and Fall of Diddy Listen to The Rise and Fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus