Small Town Murder - The Dark Prince Of Belmont County Bellaire Ohio

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

This week, in Bellaire, Ohio, a teenager finds his family absolutely butchered, in their home. Even crazier is the fact that his mother is found, with nails, next to her body, and his father's head ha...s been placed in a bowl, under some satanic drawings. What this boy doesn't know is that he was supposed to be killed, too. The murderer ends up having a list of people he was planning on murdering, but did he do it all for satanic purposes?    Along the way, we find out that we don't want to square dance, in the street, that sometimes, no matter how much you plan to kill, you just can't get it all done, and that demons can't actually physically help you murder!!   New episodes, every Wednesday & Friday nights!! Donate at patreon.com/crimeinsports or at paypal.com and use our email: crimeinsports@gmail.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions!   Follow us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/smalltownpod   Also, check out James & Jimmie's other shows, Crime In Sports & Your Stupid Opinions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!!

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and Choochoo! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today.
Starting point is 00:00:31 All aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station. We have a wild episode for you today. We had done this for our virtual live show for Halloween, so you know this is absolutely crazy. If it's crazy enough for a live show, It is absolutely crazy and a little more information we have for you and all that kind of thing. So we'll get into all that and more. First, though, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. Here we go.
Starting point is 00:00:54 Get your merchandise. Get your tickets for live shows for 2026. They are all for sale right now. You can get them. I'm going to read the cities, not the dates. But we start off in February, February 21st in Nashville. And then from there, Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix. There's also your stupid opinions Phoenix show.
Starting point is 00:01:13 So get in there and get that. Salt Lake City sold out. Don't worry about that. Denver, Buffalo, Royal Oak, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento, Terry Town, and Boston. So get your tickets right now. Can't wait to see everybody out there. We had a blast this year of the live show. So much fun. And thank you all so much for supporting these. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, man, it's amazing. So do that also. Listen to our other shows, Crime in Sports. Check that out. Your stupid opinions also, which is just hilarious right now. really good stuff so get into that oh also we just did PSA hate this movie about the Alicia Silverstone Christmas rom-com so you can check that out most of all though get get your oh it's crazy it's a wild story what's the movie uh Merry Little X-Miss it's interesting Alicia Silverstone's movie and Melissa Joan Hart is in it it's it's oh yeah oh yeah exactly
Starting point is 00:02:08 the 90s are have exploded onto Christmas for this one what was that show oh uh was she Sabrina or she the other one? Yeah. The teenage witch. Is that her? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what she did. I forget what it was called.
Starting point is 00:02:21 It doesn't. Clarissa explains it all. I don't know. I have no idea. She's somebody. She did a TV show. Definitely also. Get yourself Patreon.
Starting point is 00:02:32 You need that. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Anybody $5 a month or above, you're going to get so much stuff. First of all, and immediately upon a subscription, a huge back-eastern. a huge back catalog of bonus episodes you've never heard before. Then new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder, and you get it all, everybody. This week for crime and sports, we're going to talk about a crazy criminal Australian cricket player.
Starting point is 00:02:58 We know nothing about cricket, so that's always hilarious. And then for small town murder, it's Charles Starkweather, part two. Whose fault is it? His or his 13-year-old girlfriends? Well, they're going to be... Probably hers. Obviously, we have the opposing sides, and they're both talking, and it's really fun. funny stuff. So check that out. And also
Starting point is 00:03:15 crazy. That's patreon.com slash crime in sports. And addition to that, you also get everything we put out. All the shows we do, all ad free on Patreon as well. And you get a shout out at the end of the regular show. So it's a good deal. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. That said, I think it's time, everybody. Let's do this. Let's all clear
Starting point is 00:03:37 the lungs here. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut. up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. All right. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Yeah. We're going to Ohio this week.
Starting point is 00:03:54 Yeah? And we're going a little bit shorter than we would normally between states because we did an Ohio episode in August. So usually it would be a couple more months, but we're going to put it in here because it was the virtual live show and I want to give it to you as kind of a holiday thing. So here you go. Enjoy. This is Bel.
Starting point is 00:04:12 Bel Air, Ohio, far eastern Ohio, by the way, all the way over, oh, by the other states over there. Kentucky? Oh, boy, Kentucky and West Virginia and all those states. Philadelphia? Or Pittsburgh. Yeah, Philadelphia is right there. The state of Philadelphia. The state, oh, the lovely state of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Philadelphia.
Starting point is 00:04:35 An hour and 10 minutes to Pittsburgh, about two hours to Columbus, Ohio, the other direction, and about three hours and 10 minutes to our last Ohio episode, which was Willard, Ohio. That was the lawnmower man. That was when we had special guest Will Forte in with us. Yeah. Which, what a goddamn nice guy he is. He was worried about who ran over the arm. That was so funny.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Or who ran over the head, whichever. Oh, yeah, he was, what a great guy, though. No attitude, no idea. A sweetheart of a man. Yeah. Fit right into the crew. What a good guy. Unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:05:06 This is in Pultney County, area code 740. It is a small town, population 3,927. So not a lot of people. Median household income here also pretty low. Almost half the national average. It's about $39,972. So that's low for a household. And then median home cost here also very low, though.
Starting point is 00:05:30 So that's good. 92,100 bucks. So very low for that. Nickname of this town, Glass City. Yeah. Yeah. People just smoking glass all over the place. Lots of drug usage.
Starting point is 00:05:44 Wow, a little bit of history here. Apparently, the French trappers and explorers are the first kind of Europeans to be in this area. Here, they came in to look for shit. The founding of Bel Air was in 1836. Its name Bel Air is inspired by the Maryland town of the same name. Right. Bel Air and Bel Air. Now, they made a ton of glass here.
Starting point is 00:06:09 They had the discovery of natural gas deposits, put them on the map, and then people would flock to the area. And that's when the glass manufacturing industry was huge here. These glass factories had a lot of jobs, obviously. Sure. They had the belt. There was like 15 companies. I'd read them off, but Belmont Glass Works, Bel Air Window Glass Company, and then like 15 others with glass and company in the title. Just a glacial company.
Starting point is 00:06:35 They're making like panes of glass? Yeah. They're making glass. manufacturing glass. They also have a bottle company and then another bottle company. Sure. They're making glass. Why not?
Starting point is 00:06:46 1937, huge flood here. Ohio River floods this joint. Huge. The Bel Air Bridge, which is now abandoned and shut down, was used as a location for the silence of the lambs. When they go to that shitty looking bridge and all that, that is this bridge, basically. Was she jogging? Why would they do that?
Starting point is 00:07:06 I don't remember exactly what part it was. was, but I think you see it a few times. Reviews of this town, let's find out, because we don't know anything about it. Nothing, yeah. Here's five stars, and this is perfect because they just got here, too. So, excellent. Just moved here. Great.
Starting point is 00:07:22 Former TV news anchor in a major city. Hated my job and living in a big city. Just picked a small town on the map near my family in Pittsburgh to raise my small children. We love it so far. How much money do they make? I was going to say, if you can just be like, I don't have to work. or anything. So, eh, there.
Starting point is 00:07:40 I'll just move there. Throw a dart. I've had enough of this. What? Wow. You're lucky. You should. How old are you?
Starting point is 00:07:47 I don't know. Two young children. They have two young children. They can't be 65. They've got to be at least, you know, in their 40s at the most. So. Wow. Doing great.
Starting point is 00:07:56 They must have crushed it as an anchor in their big city. Who are you? Yeah, we've done fine, but I can't do that. I want that. Oh. Just pick a, throw a dart at a math. Let's get rich. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 00:08:08 Fuck famous. Let's just get real rich. We need some anchor work. James Petrigalal, reporting live. We can do it, I think. We got to not swear is the problem. Oh, that's the problem. Yeah, eat shit, never mind.
Starting point is 00:08:20 They send me to cover some field day in an elementary school. This is fucking boring, everybody. Boring is shit, let me tell you. Three stars, I was born and raised in Bel Air. I've raised my two children here also. Belair is a town that has lost so much. It used to be a booming business town, due to it being right on the Ohio River, but many businesses have been closed.
Starting point is 00:08:42 The residents are some of the most caring people you'll ever meet. We love our high school football. Go big reds. They're all about this high school football team here. There are a few amazing family-owned restaurants to choose from. You'll never find a better hot dog than the ones that Gullah sells. What? Gullas sells hot dogs.
Starting point is 00:09:02 I don't know. This is the best? Apparently it's the- They're going to beat Nathan's. The absolute best. Yeah, it's going to beat it all. So brets all of it. Midwest does do a hot dog pretty well.
Starting point is 00:09:12 Yeah, I don't just besmirch them too hard. I'm up to try, put it that way. Two stars, Bel Air is known for its historical places and such, but the town today is very run down and can be dangerous with all of the drugs and crime. Yeah, and all the broken glass. It's just glass everywhere. What are you going to do? Things to do in this town, the Bel Air Harvest Festival.
Starting point is 00:09:36 Very exciting. We have a scarecrow contest. Sure. Huh? There we go. You show off your creativity with a whimsical and competitive scarecrow decorating contest. Wimical one. Wimzical.
Starting point is 00:09:48 We have kid-friendly activities. And then, of course, we have the bands, obviously. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah. We have a ton. Oh, there's a best-dressed pet parade as well, which is always fun. There is square dancing right in the street. Sure.
Starting point is 00:10:05 Rocktoberfest. They don't tell you what bands will be there. And then all they tell you is live music and harvest cocktails. They don't tell you what live music is happening here. You know what it is. You know what it is. Yeah. There's also a petting farm.
Starting point is 00:10:21 So there's all of that stuff. Petting Zoo, petting farms, everything. Yeah. And by the way, they're saying all the drugs and crime, the crime right here is like half of the national average. So it's pretty safe. Compared with a lot of places in this region, especially in the West Virginia and places like that. This is a very safe town. That said, let's talk about some murder.
Starting point is 00:10:42 Let's do this. I remember this story. It was wild. We're going to start in 1995. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about a married couple, Terry and Marilyn Brooks. Terry's born in 1942, Maryland in 1943.
Starting point is 00:10:56 So they're in their 50s at this point, early 50s. He, Terry, he went to school in the Mansfield area. And Maryland ended up. moving from to north central Ohio from Fremont and married this guy. Got it. So they met at school here. The couple moved away from the Ohio area after he went into a branch of the service. Uh-huh.
Starting point is 00:11:23 So, you know, they were stationed somewhere else. Then Terry Brooks, after he got out of the service, was a mail carrier for years and years. And he's in a small town, everybody knows the mailman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a few mailman. Everybody knows them. And it's, you're way. Dave Adam. Hey, Terry, how's it? Everybody knows them. And Marilyn was a pension clerk for the United States or United Mine Workers of America.
Starting point is 00:11:47 Pensions for minors. She's distributing those. So she's known as a very nice woman. Now, a neighbor who lived in the area said, but the dad, I met him years back and he was a moody guy. Moody, like to drink. From what I understand, he was really, really strict with the kids. The mailman. The mailman is strict. Terry does not take shit. You put it in the slot, then you close the box, God damn it. Now, they have a couple of sons here. They have James, who was born around 1971. They have Nathan John Brooks, who was born April 23rd, 1978.
Starting point is 00:12:28 Then another son, Ryan, is born in 1979. Oh. So they have three boys here. And two of them are very close in age, and one is seven years older than that. the younger younger two. He wants nothing to do with those boys.
Starting point is 00:12:42 Nothing to do. They are interrupting his masturbation. That's all they're doing. Interrupting him whacking it. Want for applesauce. Leave me alone. Yeah, I'm trying to beat off.
Starting point is 00:12:54 Go away. You're not getting any luncheables right now. Eat shit. So when we get to 1995, both Nathan and Ryan are going to high school together, obviously.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Go big reds. or known of that high school. And Nathan's a senior. And Nathan had played football as a freshman and sophomore and then kind of got out of sports. Wasn't really into it anymore. Ryan, on the other hand, is a junior in 1995 and still plays on the team and is very good. Oh, look at that. Really is into sports.
Starting point is 00:13:27 He's a different kind of guy. Nathan kind of pulled himself out of all that kind of organized stuff. Now, in 1995, they're in the middle of an undefeated season, the big reds here. Fantastic. Yeah. It's wild stuff. Apparently, from what people said, one person said the biggest thing that that holds people together in this town is high school football.
Starting point is 00:13:48 They said there's so much talent that comes out of here because of the NFL, and you'll see everybody whether they like each other or not at the football game side by side. So that's the town activity. A lot of them made the NFL up there? I don't know if they made the, I think a couple of guys made the NFL. But I think it's just this area, western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio is, they're crazy for football. I mean, you think about like that's where Joe Namath, Damarino, Jim Kelly, all those guys all came from that area, the Pittsburgh and West area there. So now it's a tough area essentially is pushing, yeah, the idea of slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.
Starting point is 00:14:29 You know, it's one of those things. It's the Midwestern small town version of that. you're either smoking crack rock or you got a wicked tackle shot, one of the two. That's different. Now, Nathan, here the second boy, the middle boy, he started out as an altar boy and wanted to be a priest when he grew up. That was his goal. Yeah, he was all about it. Wanted to be a priest.
Starting point is 00:14:54 Yeah, it's wild. And the Monsignor said, quote, I don't have too many young people telling me they want to be priests or ministers. So I definitely remembered when he was inquiring about it. Yeah, that's fascinating. You don't get a lot of 12-year-olds going, hey, what's up with this? No sex, weird smell in the air all the time. Good for me. Floor-length frock.
Starting point is 00:15:14 I think I could get with this. Yeah. All the fucking incense. That's, yeah, the smell all the time. It's just weird. Everyone thinking you're a pedophile, you know, it's just people making all sorts of jokes. Even your own parishioners all giggling, making jokes about it. Like, this is terrible.
Starting point is 00:15:30 Yeah. So Nathan learned a lot of Latin. Oh, which is interesting. Yeah. Another thing, though, Nathan had a babysitter, a young lady, you know, one of these teenage babysitters that you stick kids with. And she introduced him to some, because she was into like metal and like satanic type shit. But like, you know, 80s satanic shit. Like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:15:55 You draw a pentagram on your fucking, on your trapper keeper and you wear a big wall of hair. and then once you graduate you get normal and you go get a job you know scream shout at the devil for a little bit and then yeah that's all yeah you just that's it you're you're a big Metallica fan that's you know whatever so I guess as a child uh he used to do some weird shit and they don't know if this is it yeah we don't know if this is he like got these satanic ideas and then went and did this shit or if he's just kind of a weird kid and weird ideas kind of uh yeah they get others yeah Well, weird ideas kind of stick with him because he likes weird shit. Sure.
Starting point is 00:16:34 One neighbor said that, wow, I guess as a child, he used to nail fish. He'd go fishing, get a fish and nail it to trees while they were, nail the fish to a tree while it was still alive so he could watch it die on the tree for some reason. Yikes. Rather than on the ground or, you know, any other place that you'd watch a fish die. It's just a strange thing to do. I don't know. You generally don't even have to watch it. You just throw it in the ice box and walk away.
Starting point is 00:17:03 That's what I, yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's creepy to want to watch something die. It's weird. Yeah, you try not to do that. You don't want to see it. You know what I mean? Also, he just kind of got an obsession with death. He was just real intrigued by death.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Also, he had a little weird habit of butane inhaling, which I didn't even know was a thing. Yeah, I don't. I grew up with a lot of morons Who did a lot of dumb shit I remember kids inhaling Scotch Guard Free on Anything they can get their hands on
Starting point is 00:17:35 That would get them high Nobody ever said give me that butane So I don't know what the hell he was doing Yeah, all right I mean I guess I guess but who sucks on a bick I don't say yeah Or hops their zippo
Starting point is 00:17:47 That's not a thing That would be a different lighter fluid You got the butane Is it? Is that not butane? No no no In a zippo it's that liquid shit that you pour in.
Starting point is 00:17:56 The actual lighter fluid that soaks into the cotton. I swore that was just liquid butane. That's a different, different thing. But yeah, butane is in the gas form.
Starting point is 00:18:05 It'll give you a rash on your thigh if you overfill it. I do know that. Oh, that will. Oh, I had one of bad butane. You'll fuck your thigh up. Stay at a friend's house, fell asleep,
Starting point is 00:18:14 woke up with my whole entire leg, just a huge nasty rash from a buet from a zipo that opened in my pocket. Now, he would inhale one or two cans of butane per day at one point. Can's. Can.
Starting point is 00:18:29 So anything with any kind of propellant or anything like that is giving you fucking brain damage, it's not good for you. That's fascinating. Anything like that is bad for you. He likes to drink. He does drugs and, you know, when he's a teenager and a lot of kids do that. Sure. So this is kind of why he got out of football and things like that.
Starting point is 00:18:47 At school, he was, people thought of him as quiet, but polite. Bit of a loner, but he wasn't trying. trying to make a spectacle out of himself. They also noticed that he had kind of a real obsession with the occult. He really got into that. At one point, he told one of his classmates during 1995, I'm going to be famous by Saturday. Oh.
Starting point is 00:19:12 So that's pretty amazing. Really? What a timeline on it. I'm going to be famous. The end of the week, I'm going to be famous. And that could be for any reason. Yeah. He said, I'm going to cure cancer by Saturday.
Starting point is 00:19:22 I have it all locked down in my room. I've got to get back to that pretty soon. I invented a new way to Huff Bouta. It's wild. Everyone's going to know about it. So according to his brother, Ryan, the younger brother, the youngest, Nathan collected animal bones as a teenager, too. Just collected them.
Starting point is 00:19:38 That's weird, yeah. That's weird, but I know people who do weird shit like that. You know what I mean? And they make things out of them or whatever. And they're weird. And we had somebody send us like skulls made into something. Yeah, a little like fucking rogu. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:50 They seem like nice people. And it's fine. So I'm not going to judge him on. collecting animal bones, but when you put it all into perspective with all the other stuff, it starts to get weird at that point. Is there a display, a shadow box? That's what I'm wondering.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Just doing that fucking trunk. His parents were even told on multiple occasions that counseling would be a good idea for him, but never got any counseling. He is into the Satanic Bible, though. Okay. Which a lot of kids, this is a thing
Starting point is 00:20:18 though, in the mid-90s, a lot of kids would do this just to have a personality, just to have a thing. Yeah. You know, look at the West Memphis three. You know what I mean? They were just trying to freak people out. That's all they were doing.
Starting point is 00:20:30 That's the same kid that told everybody that he's seen all the faces of death. Exactly. It's that kid. Yeah, I'm super dark, man. Yeah. And that's a way to keep people away from you and to keep people from beating you up or picking on you. It's mostly the latter three. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:44 Yeah, that's what it is. It's not even just to keep people away. It's the self-preservation. I'm tired of getting wedgies. Yeah, exactly. If I'm weird and crazy, then everyone will just leave me alone. It's the same reason that some guy in prison will just smear himself in shit. That way people leave him alone.
Starting point is 00:20:59 You know what I mean? Or they're really crazy. So he also claims he takes the Satanic Bible to school, which freaks people out, obviously, the teachers and such. And he claims to always have a smell of rotting flesh about him. Oh. He can smell it all the time. Oh. Real weird.
Starting point is 00:21:20 Strange. Other people can't smell it. He smells it. He smells it. One person here and another girl at the Burger King, who described herself as a friend of Nathan's, suggested not that much of unusual shit going on. She said that she'd heard him talk of dabbling in devil worship.
Starting point is 00:21:45 And she said that he also, Nathan would fight with his mom frequently, and he also hated his younger brother Ryan. Oh, he hates Ryan? Ryan is popular. And can do everything. Ryan plays football. Ryan is very popular in school. He's the kid, you know, pulling off to himself going, leave me alone.
Starting point is 00:22:03 I'm a weird Satanist. So he hates that his brother's popular and he hates all that shit. Can't stand him. So this is from Ryan's younger brother's friend's mom, okay? She said she never heard Ryan mention a problem with, you know, the parents and Nathan or anything like that. But she sensed that Ryan spent a lot of time at her house because of tension with his brother Nathan, which makes sense here.
Starting point is 00:22:31 Apparently, Nathan was known as, I mean, a nice guy, not a crazy guy. One person said he sort of did some crazy stuff, but a lot of people do weird things when they're young. So everyone just blew this off as normal teenage behavior because most of the time, that's what it is. and people grow out of it and, you know, eventually they have two kids and their soul dies and they, you know, they drink when they get home from work and they pray for the sweet release of death. That's normal. That lawn is mowed.
Starting point is 00:23:03 But the lawn will be mowed. Another person from school heard Nathan talk about, you know, killing people and I'm going to kill a bunch of people and stuff like that. But this person said, no one really took him seriously when he said that. He said it like it was a joke. He didn't say it like he was serious. He said it like he was, you know, just blowing off steam and whatever. Another one here, oh, boy. A girl on the bus that's a few years younger than Nathan.
Starting point is 00:23:31 Oh, boy. She's on the bus. She said she never came across someone that gave her such a dark feeling. Dark feeling. She said that she knew to stay away from Nathan, quote, due to his aura. A lot of 11-year-old girl. very hip to oras. Real, they understand it.
Starting point is 00:23:52 She robs. Yeah, she said just being on the bus with him was weird. And she said, you know, not many people are in tune with that, you know, but I at 10 years old, that stood out to me. That's what I did. It's what I did. She said, you generally, you know, someone who makes your blood run cold on a daily basis. And to me, I just feel like, and maybe that's why I don't remember anything prior to that.
Starting point is 00:24:16 So his dark aura wiped her memory as a child. Just met and blacked her. Just from being on the bus. Yeah. That's a fascinating bluebird ride, love. Whoa, that is some strange shit. He said maybe he was just a regular kid before that, but when the energy shifted, when he started dabbling into it,
Starting point is 00:24:36 I just know that it was very non-natural and that it was very heavy and dark and uncomfortable. So at this time in particular, you know, she said I was in the same. seating and, you know, he was sitting in front of me and had this other kid around his age and they were older than me. She said, I was sitting behind them and I just remember them goofing off and kind of laughing. Oh, my God. Kids on a bus goofing off. Are they laughing? Oh, my God. Jesus, no, not that. I knew it was no good when he laughed. You can tell. I said, these kids are laughing on a bus. She said I was fixated on it because I was just so uncomfortable and I just wanted to get to my stop. So I'm watching the road how many turns to get to my house.
Starting point is 00:25:17 And I remember I could see my bus stop and I'm getting excited. She said, and I go to stand up and the boys sitting with him wrapped my arm and held it down on top of the seat. And as he did it almost simultaneously, Nathan scratched my arm, my forearm. I ran off the bus. Okay. And I ran off the bus kind of in shock and uncomfortable. And it wasn't until I was walking home and I looked down and I'm like, Wow, he broke the skin on my arm.
Starting point is 00:25:46 And she said, I didn't tell my parents about it. I didn't draw any attention because I didn't want to deal with it. A man scratched you. She's making a big deal. This is trauma? Also, what kind of like 14-year-olds are like, grab that 10-year-old, I want to scratch her arm? I've never even heard of that before. So I don't know if she sounds a little wacky.
Starting point is 00:26:06 I'll be honest with you. She's fun. I'll tell you that. This was from this documentary on the Scare TV network. this person seemed a little wacky just hearing from. I don't know. That's just my, but Nathan's wacky too, so it might be true. I mean, who nails a fish to a tree?
Starting point is 00:26:23 So he might just say, I want to scratch a young girl. Who knows? Hey, everybody, just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about the best holiday gift you can get anybody. It is an aura frame. You can find them atoraframes.com. This is it, everybody. If you're looking for a gift still, you're like, oh, man, anything. I get now is going to look like I just, you know, picked it up on the way at a 7-Eleven or something.
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Starting point is 00:30:36 Now, Eric's Ryan's friend's dad said I had a lot more related. with Ryan because I coached him. I can't say a whole lot about Nathan because I really didn't develop any kind of relationship with me. He used to cut grass for me. I mean, I used to do a cemetery up for the Mount Zion Cemetery and he used to cut grass for me. So he was like a maintenance man for the cemetery and he would hire Nathan to cut grass.
Starting point is 00:31:02 He was a good kid. I mean, I never thought anything bad about him. Everybody said, though, his parents were very hard on him. some people would say that and a lot of people said that Nathan took the brunt of Terry's whatever his wrath basically it was all about Nathan now Nathan also got into weird shit which made Terry get more mad at him and it was kind of a circular thing here and also he got into weird shit because his dad was always mad at him so it's very circular here now the last week of September 1995
Starting point is 00:31:35 they have an older brother James who he said who's at this point married and all that kind of thing. Doing his own life. Ryan had spent the weekend in Martin's Ferry, Ohio, with the brother and his wife. Ryan had been visiting his brother and wife. September 30th, 1995, Ryan plays in the football game that night.
Starting point is 00:31:58 Big Reds won that day, by the way. So he was going to spend the night at his friend's house at the trailer park that's nearby. Hell yeah. So 12.30 a.m., Ryan, who's 16, is hanging out. He's at his buddy Eric Barreitz house, and they're hanging out, staying up late, you know, doing what kids do. Having a good time.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Especially if you had a football game that night, it's going to take a while to come down from that. Like, sleep. We do a comedy show. I am... Nightmare. I'm amped. I can't do anything until 4 in the morning. I can't think of resting.
Starting point is 00:32:29 You know what I mean? You're just jacked from that. So I would assume it's the same thing. So they're hanging out. About 1.30 in the morning, Ryan decides he should check in with his parents. I just let him know I'm here. and just kind of came over. So he calls his parents.
Starting point is 00:32:43 Now, on the other end, Nathan's there. He answers. And Ryan says, tell mom and dad that I'm staying with Eric tonight. Nathan says, no, you can't. I think mom and dad want you home. Oh. Which is strange. So he's like, oh, really?
Starting point is 00:32:59 And he's like, yeah, that's what I heard. That's what they said they want you home. You know how dad gets? And so Ryan was like, yeah, right, I guess I'll come home then. But he doesn't come home right away. And which is probably, and I'm just going to make a completely speculative thing here. They're teenagers. He might have had a couple of beers.
Starting point is 00:33:17 Sure. Might have smoked a joint or something, whatever it is. Who knows? And it could be anything, but I'm just saying probably wanted to chill for a minute. So he waits an hour before coming home. Yeah. You got to let this buzz wear off. That's what I'm, if it was me, that would have been my reasoning.
Starting point is 00:33:31 So I'm not saying that's Ryan, but that's me. So he doesn't go home right away. He's having fun and all that kind of shit. So Nathan, an hour goes by and he never comes home. So Nathan goes looking for him. Okay. He shows up at the trailer around two or three in the morning. So Eric's mom is sleeping.
Starting point is 00:33:51 That's the friend there. The mom's sleeping. She hears someone pounding on the door. She opens it. And there's Nathan. He looks disheveled and out of breath and panicked, she said. It's a long ride, yeah. So he asks if Ryan's there.
Starting point is 00:34:05 She tells him no and shuts the door and locks it. Fuck off. It's three o'clock in the morning. So now Eric had driven Ryan back home. They pull up to the Brooks house, to Nathan and Ryan's house. Ryan walks inside and he finds a note. Okay. First of all, he finds a note, and then he finds other things in these rooms.
Starting point is 00:34:31 The note says, this is Nathan. I murdered two people and I'm going to turn myself in. Yeah. I mean, you just said Nathan at the end, but okay. Yeah, this is Nathan. Usually a letter ends with your name. That's normal. Also, when you understand what has happened in this house,
Starting point is 00:34:50 it couldn't, this note can't be from anyone else. No? No. It's very interesting. Now, I guess, I guess Ryan went in, and then he ran out, screaming and yelling, and basically fucking took off from there. like holy shit.
Starting point is 00:35:08 Now, he calls the cops. What they find inside is a horror movie scene. Sure. And the cops are freaked out by it. These are small town cops that don't see this type of shit too often. No, nobody really sees this type of stuff too often. So they went in through the front door, turned right. Now, when Ryan went in, he turned right, and he saw his mom in the first room, and she is dead in a bed.
Starting point is 00:35:32 She has stab wounds all over. and there are nails on her nightstand, which is strange. So then they went into Nathan's room and they find a wash basin sitting there with the dad, Terry, his head is in the wash basin. Oh, no. Just his head. Just a random wash basin with a dad's head in it. Just a sitting with ashes all around the basin as well. Something was burned around the head for.
Starting point is 00:36:04 some reason. Yeah, he was, also there was a rubber, like a Halloween mask underneath the, the skull as well, the head. It was trimmed with a black wig. And so that's strange. The next room is they find the rest of Terry. That is, I guess Terry and, and Marilyn were sleeping in different rooms. And that's how this went down. On the bed by Terry is a saw, an axe and a rifle. Just to choose your own murder adventure kit.
Starting point is 00:36:42 So they see that Marilyn is still covered in blood. The soap, the comforter soaked, she's in a twin bed. There is a long knife still deeply embedded in her right side above her waist. God damn. And they also
Starting point is 00:36:58 see that she's been chopped with an axe. At the bottom of the bed is a ball peen hammer. Yeah. So it looks like eight people came in and murdered. It's a lot of weapons. A lot of weapons. She was struck in the back of the head with the hammer and stabbed at least 10 times with a kitchen knife.
Starting point is 00:37:17 Fuck. Terry was shot three times. Yeah, with a 22 caliber rifle. But his head is also taken from his body, obviously. His headless body is on a bed with his arms above his torso and blood splattered and spattered. and spattered all over the fucking room. Obviously. If you take a head off, it's going to be messy.
Starting point is 00:37:38 There's going to be some, yeah. Now, Nathan's room where the head is, there's also what the cops want to call a makeshift altar. He has all this shit on his wall in one particular spot that's all like, you know, kind of dark stuff, all what they would call Satanism and occult stuff like that. And this is the kicker, they said, because you've got to think when this is 1995,
Starting point is 00:38:02 1995 is when they convicted the West Memphis 3. So Satanic Panic is running rampant through Middle America at this point. They also said he even had a Jeffrey Dahmer biography. Oh, is that right? How did he's guilty. He did it. The biography. A true crime book, which our listeners, that's ubiquitous, you know.
Starting point is 00:38:27 Just one? Yeah. Come in my office and take a look around. I have hundreds of these books around because people send them to me all the time. And I love it. Thank you for doing that. But I have hundreds of these books all over the place. So they believed by looking at this and looking at the head in a wash basin with ashes around it and this shit on the wall and the Jeffrey Dahmer biography.
Starting point is 00:38:50 Sure. That this is all a satanic ritual. Sure seems like it, right? Clearly. Now, the officers, by the way, there's cops running out of the house to throw up in the yard so they didn't screw up the crime scene. It's not good at all. Now, Ryan obviously is fucked up from finding all this. He had to, this poor bastard.
Starting point is 00:39:10 Yeah, how can you function? Later on, he's going to change his name, even get a new social security number. New social security number. I didn't even know you could do that. But that's how much he wants to disappear and get away from all this. Now, the only person who's not here is Nathan. Yeah. There's a note, but that's it.
Starting point is 00:39:31 That's it. He wasn't the double wide. He was there. Now he's, they don't know. Just gone. Apparently, as Ryan had been coming home, was when Nathan was going to try to find him at the trailer. So they had passed each other in the night and just didn't know it. Wow.
Starting point is 00:39:45 They had no idea about that. Now, cops get radio broadcasts that Nathan is being seen all over the town everywhere. He is like, he can fly. I mean, he's at the high school. No, he's not. He's at the Dairy Queen. No, he's not. here. It's crazy. But they
Starting point is 00:40:03 finally get a credible report of his location, and that was that he was knocking on his friend's door. Right. So he did. He knocked on their door at 3 a.m. And, you know, that's what's going on. And also,
Starting point is 00:40:19 Ryan wasn't there and all of that. So they said the weird part is when he came and knocked on the door, Nathan's a, they said he just does weird shit sometimes. They said it wasn't really unusual for Nathan to do something weird like that because he's weird. It's just a strange thing.
Starting point is 00:40:36 One person said Nathan seemed like a normal kid, a little quiet, a little shy, but well-mannered and friendly. We can't believe he'd be capable of doing something like this. Can't believe it. I mean, we don't know he did do it. Maybe he left and then some stark raving, bloodthirsty madman broke in and did this. And then signed his name to it. Yeah, he's just got great luck.
Starting point is 00:40:56 He just happened to not be there. And anyway, so they said, one person said, Today there's a lot of fear in people, fear that things could get out of hand in their families, fear that problems they're dealing with could explode. This happened so close to home. This is the reverend who knows everybody. So it's just that's who they attended church there. So the cops head to Riggs Road, which is out by the trailer park and the cemetery where he cuts the grass. As they pull down the road, they see somebody walking down the middle of the road.
Starting point is 00:41:30 They're like, well, this has got to be something, right? It's Nathan, just walking down the middle of the road. Good. They stop and they draw their weapons. Fucking stop right now, asshole. He surrenders. He's unarmed. He puts his hands up.
Starting point is 00:41:47 Hey, guys. If he's got more weapons, this kid's got all of them. He left a variety of weapons at his house there. And he, not only that, they come up to him, and he says, I have another crime to report. What'd you do? And, yeah, he takes the cops to the trailer of his friend. Remember the one he knocked on and they, whatever? Okay.
Starting point is 00:42:09 At that trailer, he apparently got into the house after those people went back to bed because he brings them to the house and says, look on the wall, there's an envelope. He took a knife and stuck an envelope to the wall with a knife, like a psychopath in a movie. Think about that. And on the note, on the envelope, it says, Because for Ryan, if anyone else touches, I will kill you. There was money in the envelope. Oh.
Starting point is 00:42:40 He left him some money, which is wild. I don't know why he did that. So he starts yapping, tell him the cops. He said, I had big plans for this night. He said, I was going to kill a bunch more people. I had a list. I was going to kill a bunch more people that were a list of sacrifices to Satan. and then I would finish the night off by killing myself as an offering to Satan.
Starting point is 00:43:04 Duh. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I'll read. This is from the police report. Okay. Ryan Brooks, the brother, told them that he had returned home and found his parents murdered. At the time, at this time, while responding to the scene, dispatch received additional information that the suspect was driving a green geo-metro.
Starting point is 00:43:27 Oh, what a great car. It does get like 58 miles to the gallon, but woof. He is going to get far on that tank of gas. He can go forever. If nobody sees him. If he doesn't hit a squirrel and break it. So, which minutes later was spotted near Mount Zion Cemetery. At this time, the deputy Tom Butler and Bel Air units proceeded to that location,
Starting point is 00:43:51 first observing the vehicle in question and found the subject away from the vehicle in the roadway running toward the cruisers. He was immediately taken into custody. Sergeant Don Samples, what is this, proceeded to the residence on Margie Drive and met with emergency squad. We then drove back to the, oh, I'm sorry, we then drove back to the far bedroom, to the lane where the residence was. And inside the residence, we found two victims. Terry Brooks was in the far bedroom, his head had been decapitated, where the head was found in a bowl placed on a chair in an adjacent bedroom. Marilyn Brooks was found in another bedroom with a knife embedded in her chest area.
Starting point is 00:44:32 The bed there where the head was located, there was a rifle, bow, saw, and hatchet. On the wall there was numerous satanic pictures, letters, and drawings. In the bedroom where Marilyn Brooks was located, we located an axe under the bed, a hammer laying on the bed, and two nails beside her.
Starting point is 00:44:48 The crime scene was roped off. They gathered a large quantity of evidence, and that's how that goes. Now, Nathan had a hit, list. Who was on it? Not only a hit list, he had different hit lists. This is something he'd work on in different places.
Starting point is 00:45:06 He had a school hit list. They found one in his locker and one in his bedroom. So he was working at it on two different locations there. He's working at it. Yeah, initially, to calm the public down, the cops said their reports of any kind of hit lists are false. But later on, we find out they're not false. They're actually very true. He had a kill list that contained 16 names.
Starting point is 00:45:31 16. He was going to kill all these people. Yeah, that's a lot. That's a shit lot. How are you going to get all those? The list was said to have his brother Ryan as the first planned victim. Oh, Jesus. Poor Ryan.
Starting point is 00:45:43 Jesus, man. Poor he lost his parents. His brother wanted to kill him. He had a list of people he wanted to kill, including the local Catholic priest. Really? Who he said specifically he wanted to kill, cut up, and eat on a hot dog bun. I don't know why the first. Oh.
Starting point is 00:45:57 I don't know if a hamburger bun wouldn't be good enough for him. On a bun. Get him some nice Italian, like a hoagy roll. Sesame seed? Yeah, what kind. He's not specific on that one. Potato, we're not sure. But he had a handwritten one.
Starting point is 00:46:12 Next to Ryan's name, he had dismember decapitate written. Oh. That is wild. Imagine finding that out. Yes, that's why he was telling him to come home because he wanted him to come home so he could kill him too. Oh, my God. Kill the whole family in one. big swoop there.
Starting point is 00:46:30 Wow, that's crazy. So on the same page, he had written all these names, things crossed out. He had drawn sketches of Satan and a pentagram. He also jotted down, Satan will show you peace at the top of the page. Okay. So he's got Ryan. He's got mother and father listed second and third. Next to his mother's name, he has eviscerate crucify.
Starting point is 00:46:55 Nails. The nails are for? Yeah, that's what they're thinking. They're like, oh shit, he had a plan here. Next to his father's name, he had decapitate, which he did. He did that. He did that. So here's the rest of the list.
Starting point is 00:47:12 Amber, Lisa, Justin, Jason, Ryan, Dave, Corey, Jill, Mike, and Ashley. That's a lot of people, man. Now, the crazy part is he had little notes next to them like he did with his parents. Instructions. Next to one, he said, quote, molest some. Just a little. Some, not a lot. Let's not get crazy here.
Starting point is 00:47:36 Malest some. Others next to them, he had skin. Pull their skin off of them? Skin them, which I'd rather be molested some. That sounds better. Just a little. I'd rather have a light dittling than be skinned alive. After two of the girls on the list, he had dismember and a
Starting point is 00:47:55 like he had with his mom. Two names are crossed out and no times are listed next to the deleted entries. It's apparent that he planned to carry out these killings and that's what he did. And he had them in groups of like where you could find them together. Like Amber and Lisa are listed together as are Jason, Ryan, and Dave. And Ashley and one of the scratched out would be victims as well. He changed his mind. He wrote somebody down and he went, yeah, never mind.
Starting point is 00:48:21 They're not that bad. Did he think that he was going to be able to just go? to these places without anybody knowing? I think he did. Wow. And the fucked up part is they said the lists were different. They weren't the exact same lists. So he had like different thoughts.
Starting point is 00:48:36 The one cop who found it said they weren't the same. The other list came out and I think there was at least two that the police department and sheriff's department went through and mine was different, the one I found in the locker. He, you know, it's if you picked it up and I had gone through the locker prior to it, I don't think that I would even think of anything of it. Who thinks like that? Wow. This is also like pre-Columbine.
Starting point is 00:49:00 So like if you found a thing, you'd be like this jerk off with his list of people. Fuck you. That's what people would think. They wouldn't even think. Nowadays, we take that shit seriously. Fuck you. Back that, nobody took that shit seriously. Nobody did.
Starting point is 00:49:13 So they sit him down to have an interrogation with him. He's obviously an interesting guy. There's nothing. Oh, this would be so fun. Oh, yeah. And he told the cops right away. Oh, yeah. I was going to kill my brother.
Starting point is 00:49:23 Absolutely. He said, but it went awry because my brother wouldn't come home. He said that he has, quote, been in hell since I was little. That's what he said. And he said that he felt hate and anger prior to the killings, but was happy after it was done. Now he's happy. Yeah. He also said that he drank some beer, then killed his parents, then took a walk to decide if he should kill more people.
Starting point is 00:49:50 I'm glad he took the walk, to be honest. That's good. He said, quote, I started drinking. That's good to take a walk and clear your head. Good for your heart. A walk is always going to fix things. Yeah. He said, I started drinking some beer.
Starting point is 00:50:03 Then I went into my mom's room and I murdered her. And then I murdered my dad. Yeah. He said, then I took a walk to think. I said, what were you thinking about? And he said, I was deciding if I should kill more people. He said, it wasn't unusual for me to have the urge to kill people. He said, it's always there since I was little.
Starting point is 00:50:19 It's always been there. He said, I've tried everything. And this is amazing. This is his range of everything. I've tried everything. Drugs, church. I'm numb. Neither of those could do it.
Starting point is 00:50:32 I tried drugs. I tried church. Fuck it. Never mind. Polar opposites and neither worked. Did you try cross stitching? No, you didn't, did you? Did you try cross fit?
Starting point is 00:50:43 Anything. Drugs and church. He's like, well, I'm out of ideas. That's it. That's all I got. He said, I'm not. numb. Then right before it happens, there's pain, anger, and then afterwards, love and happiness. I thought it was Satan, but it's lies.
Starting point is 00:51:00 Oh. He said, yes, he severed his father's head with a saw. No problem. He said also the rifle is what he shot him with, and the long-handled knife he stabbed his mom with, and a long-handled axe as he chopped her with. So the sheriff says, you talk to Satan? Yeah. And he says, yeah. A little bit. We're pals. I mean, you know, it's not every day.
Starting point is 00:51:24 I mean, we're not like, you know, tight like that. You know, holidays. He doesn't obsess. I don't obsess. We're playing it real casual right now. But yeah, we talk. I see he's doing something. I'm like, hey, good for you.
Starting point is 00:51:35 You know what I mean? He sees I'm doing something. He hits me back. You know, it's one of those. You know, like you have with comedians. It's one of those kind of things. They said, does he talk back to you? Which is a great question.
Starting point is 00:51:45 Yeah. And Nathan says, quote, Yeah, just like you talk to the Lord, sometimes he answers back. Oh, boy. No, shouldn't. If any entity, no matter what you want to call it, the devil, God, if you hear any of them talking back to you, you're fucking crazy. There's an issue. There's an issue there.
Starting point is 00:52:05 You can believe in anything you want, but nobody's talking back to you. There is no voice. So Ryan, he said about Ryan, he said, quote, I drove around looking for him. I didn't want him to see what I did. I wanted him to be with mom and dad. So he didn't want Ryan to find the mess. He just wanted to kill. I just wanted to send him there.
Starting point is 00:52:24 Yeah. He then told the sheriff, quote, people don't understand. No. No, we really don't. Yeah, it's been 30 years. I still don't understand. No. Then this is from the sheriff.
Starting point is 00:52:37 The sheriff said, quote, he said he tried to talk to people. He's a very intelligent young man and very well read. Yeah, he knows Latin for Christ's sake. Right. He said, there's a fine line between madness and genius. Oh, yeah. I think he's got a little bit of both here. Wow, that is, that's crazy.
Starting point is 00:52:54 Now, the lady who, this is the mother of the boy of Eric, yeah, the boy who Ryan was at his house here. Yeah. She said, I've lived here my entire life and I can't think of anything as bad as this. I'm not saying we've never had any crime, but we've never had anything this gruesome. Yeah. Pretty gruesome, yeah. And then she said, holy shit. That's when she realized, too, that he came over to kill his brother at my house.
Starting point is 00:53:22 At your house. And maybe us, too. You know what I mean? You don't know. Now, remember the girl at the Burger King? Yeah. Burger King girl says, quote, he was normal. I don't think that.
Starting point is 00:53:34 I think normal is a stretch, too. Didn't you say you had an aura? No, no, that's the bus girl, not the Burger King girl, different girl. He was normal. He acts way different on the bus than he does down at the Burger King. You can't act up down at the Burger King. He'll kick you right out. she said he was normal.
Starting point is 00:53:48 I still can't believe he did this. I knew he had fights with his parents, but so did everybody. So did I. Everybody does. Yeah, I guess so. Wow, that's a lot. Now, they offer counseling to the whole high school and all that kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:54:05 The high school football coach said, because we all want to know what the high school football coach, that's who can really put everything into perspective for us. He said, every town once in a while, I guess, has something bizarre happen, but nothing like this. This is about as bizarre as it gets. You bet.
Starting point is 00:54:21 Thank you for that extra information there. Yeah. Now, a few days later, the house is on fire. The murder house. Yeah? At 1.30 a.m. fire officials are called in,
Starting point is 00:54:34 and apparently the front porch is on fire. Oh. And they suspect it's a prank. Oh. Somebody set the murder house on fire. Prank, or they don't want this? fucking house here. Exactly. One of the two. So anyway, they were called out and they put the fire out. It didn't burn
Starting point is 00:54:53 the whole, it just burned the front porch up a little bit. So they had a funeral, obviously, and they talk about, try to avoid the subject of the sun and everything like that. Now, in jail, he's acting a little strange here. One of the workers, this is the sheriff James Zuzak, said, quote, he would speak English and he would speak fluent Latin, then go back to English. That was really weird to me that he would do that. I didn't know if he was making sense, but that's something that he, but that's something he worshiped Satan, of course.
Starting point is 00:55:28 I wasn't at the crime scene, thank goodness, but I feel bad for the guys that were, feel bad for his brother who had to find his parents like that. Yeah, it's real weird for some small town like Eastern Ohio kid to just be speaking fluent Latin in jail. That's not normal, I don't think. they don't get that a lot probably. That'll keep people to fuck away from you, though, if you know Latin. Yeah, it's really weird. Yeah, they're like, what's going on?
Starting point is 00:55:53 You can make that shit sound real, real scary, just by speaking it. You know what I mean? Especially if you're fluent. I would say. One of the deputies said, and when I first encountered Nathan Brooks, he was numb. He did not speak many words, and that was odd to me for a boy that age. He responded to my questions, but he didn't initiate much. What I remember was that he was a young,
Starting point is 00:56:14 boy who was very distant. He was polite and compliant, but oddly quiet. Another deputy said he was always nice to me, but because I knew exactly what he did to his parents, I wouldn't turn my back on him ever. I didn't get too close. We talked, but I don't remember having any major conversations with him. And that was okay, really, because we were told not to discuss the case with him because it could put the investigation in jeopardy, obviously. So they said that they talked to him, and he was just be a real normal kid. And then they said it was like when he reminded, he was reminded of what he did.
Starting point is 00:56:51 It would upset him to the extent that he would just go silent. It wasn't like he was put on suicide watch, but it concerned us as well because it was frightening to see him that way. Another one said when I first met him, he was just very dark and distant. I had never seen someone with dark eyes like Nathan had. He was numb. So a lot of people said that.
Starting point is 00:57:10 And he read books, watched TV. He was never classified as a problem inmate or anything like that. You know, nothing there. One lady who worked at the jail said he would ask about my garden. He said his mother had a nice garden and that he would help her at times. So normal shit. Another one said, he said to us what he thought we wanted to hear. I think he wanted us to think he was a nice guy.
Starting point is 00:57:38 Hey, everybody just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you how to see better with 1-800 contacts. It's either 1-800 contacts.com or get the 1-800 contacts app today because tell you what, that last pair of contacts panic at some real stuff. You don't want to deal with that. Or maybe being completely out and stuck wearing those glasses that you had in a drawer that you haven't worn in years and you don't like them anymore and they don't match anything and you feel weird in them. You don't want that. You want your contacts.
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Starting point is 01:04:38 That's b-o-x-e-c-c-a-t-t-com slash small-town murder. He was like the kid next door most of the time. He was a friendly kid, but he was there for a reason. Uh-huh. I would say. So everybody's kind of like, everybody in the jail kind of wants to get a gander at him. See what he's like.
Starting point is 01:04:57 He's a little zoo animal, yeah. So that's everybody's talking to him like that. one person said, I can still picture myself standing back by that cell and Nathan having that smile on his face. He was real respectful to us. I never felt threatened by him, but I was careful never to put myself in the wrong position. There were two parents dead and we knew he was hunting down his younger brother before he was arrested. So yes, something was very wrong. But then we learned about his hit list and the names of others he wanted to kill.
Starting point is 01:05:25 I wasn't scared of him, but he was a very empty young man who had those empty eyes and that blank stare. So yes, it was very eerie to me. So they also talk about how was he going to crucify his mom? Probably, right? He's got a hammer and he's got nails and he wrote Crucify. And he followed through on his other directive, which was decapitate. Right. What's the deal with the crucify?
Starting point is 01:05:51 They're wondering. Now they're also going, hey, this satanic angle. We got to talk about that. Now, there's a guy named Ralph Saracé, who's a, In my opinion, a complete dipshit. Just an absolute fucking clown show, this guy. He's a dummy. He's a retired NYPD guy and a, quote, general demonic expert.
Starting point is 01:06:14 Oh, nice. Yeah. So this fucking dummy says, quote, I think, wow. He wanted to crucify his mother, but he would have needed the help of Satan to do it. Oh, yeah. So he was busy? This is the thing. Satan will show up and help you move according to this Ralph Sorachi guy.
Starting point is 01:06:33 Like he'll show up if you got like some extra boxes. Pizza and beer, I'm in. Yeah, you rented a, like a tree, you haul trailer to tow behind your car. He's going to help you out just for some pizza money. He said, quote, I think demons are smart enough to know that these little penny nails won't hold up a body. Duh, the demons know that. The demons know construction. That's the other thing they're really good at.
Starting point is 01:06:56 So he showed up and said, no, no, no. Those aren't going to do. holler at me when you have the right hardware. Yeah, I got to go, I got a whole, I got to go like take care of, I got to burn down of school in South America. Like I got 200 nuns to kill. I'm going to go do that. They have all the equipment.
Starting point is 01:07:10 So holler at me when you have yours, because this is going to take a, you got a Rown Depot. There's a guy down there with gasoline in a match right now. He's ready to go. So I'm going to go hit him up. I'm sitting around waiting, yeah. You got these fucking nails wasting my time. Take a trip to Lowe's and get back to me. Have a good one.
Starting point is 01:07:26 What are we hanging? What are we hanging pictures? We're going to hang your mom. You need much bigger than this. You need better nails than this, jackass. You got a stud finder? Get one of those, too. So this guy says there's three stages of the demonic, is what he gets into.
Starting point is 01:07:40 Three. He says, so first is the infestations where they, you know, they have permission to infest and haunt a location and activate and manifest in a manner that they wish. Number two is the oppression, which is the psychological breakdown of the individual where they will start to amplify. and are capable of doing so in any sort of negative emotion that a human being can have and to the point where they can end up harming, you know, yourself or others. He said that's where the influence comes in. He said if possession fully comes over, then there's no bounds to what they're capable of doing because ultimately, typically, which is rare when possession happens,
Starting point is 01:08:21 is that inadvertently maybe or vocally, he just said a million words that don't go together and don't mean anything. He's just stalling. They give themselves up to this thing because they just allow it to take themselves over and is trying to get them pushed to the edge and ultimately until they just give up and say, you know, just take me.
Starting point is 01:08:42 Here's the guy that saw The Conjuring. This man had a badge and a gun. Stop it. That's a cop? He's a retired NYPD officer. Oh, my God. This guy could take you to jail. He's insane. In my opinion.
Starting point is 01:08:56 he said, because I truly believe evil did have its hands around Nathan's neck. They were right cheering him on until he did what he did. I'm sure they wished he committed and completed that list. Thankfully, he wasn't able to complete that and there was some sort of blockage before he could finish his worst. A blockage. A blockage, yeah. Satan couldn't make it.
Starting point is 01:09:17 The roads were closed, you know, because I'm sure no one had any idea that he was capable of doing that. That's what a lot of people say is that they don't think he was capable. of doing something like that. But that just shows you the power of demonic influence. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's nicknamed all over the newspapers already. Devil in Bel Air, Dark Prince of Belmont County.
Starting point is 01:09:41 Yeah, dark prince. One newspaper article just at the headline is Master of Death. Master? Master of death. He got his parents, man. Now, a classmate of his sums it up more. Sainly, let's just say, I was going to say cogent, but let's just say sanely and less fucking lunatics wise. He says he sort of did some crazy stuff, but a lot of people do weird things when they're young.
Starting point is 01:10:08 You know, I think he said things because he wanted somebody to stop him. That's all more, yeah. So now, will there be a Halloween this year? Because this happens. Will there? No. This freaks everybody out. You got the guy that did it.
Starting point is 01:10:24 Nope. They literally said, At this point, and this is a crazy quote, this is from a, I think a reverend. This is a reverend. We've got teenagers sleeping with their parents, adults who won't go out after dark, and parents who never leave their children, meaning they're all freaked out. Even though he's caught, they all think that Satan has taken over the town and is going to possess other people and there's going to be murders over it. If you go out dressed as evil-con-eval, you're going to be possessed.
Starting point is 01:10:53 Obviously, yeah. You go out with a Darth Vader-Boss. The key man, it's over. Yeah. Forget it. You're fucked, man. You're in deep shit. You're going to be a mighty morphin power ranger.
Starting point is 01:11:05 There's consequences for that. You're going to do it. Teenage mutant ninja turtles kill their parents every time. We all know that. So one of them said, quote, I suppose you can argue that it was a pagan ritual, but the way Americans celebrate Halloween has nothing to do with good and evil. Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:11:21 Anyway, they don't have Halloween. Bel Air asks families not to trick or treat this year. canceled. The year Halloween was canceled. Oh my God. Canceled. They said almost immediately the town's officials canceled trick-or-treating because of the rumors about satanic worshiping, and no one knew what else could be involved with Nathan Brooks. Everyone was worried these devil worshippers would do something to the kids.
Starting point is 01:11:45 No one knew for sure. No one knew that that satanic stuff was taking place around here. It was scary. Everyone was hearing rumors of a list. he's one idiot teenager and he's in jail. It's so fucking crazy. And the only people hurt were his parents. That's it. One person said his father, Terry, was my mailman at the time, and he and I would sometimes talk because he said he was concerned about his kids and how they were doing in school.
Starting point is 01:12:13 I got the impression that he put a lot of pressure on those boys with their grades where they were concerned, but I have no idea if that was one of the reasons why Nathan did what he did. And another friend said she was shocked because she never mentioned anything about Nathan being weird and that he didn't try to recruit her. They would sit together in the library and talk about school and other classmates, but she says he never mentioned wanting to kill anybody or, you know, Satan or anything. Now, pre-trial, they want his statements to be thrown out, obviously. Really? Where he said I talk to the devil and he talks back and that kind of shit. But the judge rules, those can be used. He was read as Miranda rights, even at 17.
Starting point is 01:12:51 So he's going to be tried as an adult And he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity Oh, which seems reasonable. You know, the prosecutor says that two psychologists will testify that he was legally sane and knew the wrongfulness of his conduct. The defense attorney says that he's insane, period. That's it. We can't argue with what he did, but that's it.
Starting point is 01:13:16 He even said that he was mentally ill. He said he made elaborate plans to sacrifice 30 people to save him. He was obsessed at this point with the killing. He was out of control. He didn't know how and he couldn't stop. Yeah. So that's your strategy is he wanted to kill even more people. Isn't that weird?
Starting point is 01:13:33 Right. Crazy, right? So there's three experts brought into the proceedings and they're split on the point of whether or not he was insane at the time of the murders. Okay. The prosecution shrinks here. They tell the judge that Nathan is a, quote, very, very dangerous person. and referred to him as a psychopath. Another psychologist said that he may have a personality disorder, but not a severe mental disorder.
Starting point is 01:14:00 She said he talked about hiding the gun so his father wouldn't find it. He probably knew it was wrong to have a gun. The defense psychologist, though, said that a man charged with these slayings, I mean, they'll look crazy to me. He also said that he was constantly plagued by these desires to kill. He said that Nathan told him as a child, he said, he said, he said that Nathan told him as a child, used to nail fish to trees and watch them die. As he grew older, he was obsessed with death. And also, he's got brain damage by inhaling one to two cans of butane per day.
Starting point is 01:14:31 Right. Yeah. He said person. I believe that much. That sounds right. I definitely buy that. He said personality tests, two extensive interviews. We did everything.
Starting point is 01:14:40 And they all indicate that he is paranoid and schizophrenic. Uh-huh. So the verdict, they're basically have to decide crazy or not crazy. That's your choices, huh? And he's a young kid. And he's 17, 18 at the time of the trial. But a jury of six men and six women, by the way. Deliberations take under three hours to complete.
Starting point is 01:15:03 Wow. Seems like you'd take more than that. But they find him guilty of two charges of aggravated murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Wow, they said, we know it wasn't an easy task, but whatever it's worth, the court agrees with your verdict. That's what the judge said. Now sentencing came around and judge says, you young satanic man, may fuck off 43 years maximum, he gets, which is the maximum of what he gets sentenced to here, or what the crime was. One guy here, one of the cops said he asked me what prison was going to be like or something along those lines. What's it going to be like when I get there or something like that?
Starting point is 01:15:47 I don't know. Maybe that's when it all became real for him. I don't know. Now, everybody paid attention. One person in the town said that it was in the trial was every single day and every single newspaper article. Everyone wanted to, because they didn't know, they just heard rumors of this list. And at trial is when the list finally came out. So that's when everything went crazy because they said everyone wanted to know if they were on the list because of all the rumors about it. We wanted to know about this satanic worshiping, too, because before the murders, no one thought it was possible around here. Yeah. You know, small town murder. They said, no one was surprised with the results of the trial, obviously.
Starting point is 01:16:28 A councilwoman said there had to be a lot of anger and frustration inside that boy. I would think to do what Nathan did the way he did it, something had to be seriously wrong in that house. In one way, I feel sorry for him because he'll never again see the light of day, and all he has to do in prison is think about what he did, and he did. do that forever. Something had to happen. That's my theory anyway, and I think most people in Bel Air would agree with me, but it still haunts Bel Air. I can tell you that. So someone also said about the satanic angle, someone from town said, when the crime occurred, I think the town wanted someone to pin it on. They wanted justice. They wanted some kind of accountability. So instead of looking into the ethereal and spiritual, they wanted straight justice. And so from part of that,
Starting point is 01:17:12 they missed a lot of investigating. They said, this is crazy. I think this is a Ralph Sorache guy. He said, if he was building rapport with these different deities, demons, whatever, you want to call it, did they take charge of him because that stuff is real. It truly does happen. And if they did take him over, then that's a form of attachment. He was already doing during the three stages of oppression. He had the depression.
Starting point is 01:17:36 What's next? Possession. Obviously. Yeah, according to one idiot. I feel like he could have had very much been possessed. And the reason why my, the reason why is my dad was a deer hunter. And with him being a deer hunter,
Starting point is 01:17:50 I watched two or three men skin a deer and decapitate it. Nathan decapitated his dad. That's not a one-man job. He's saying that demons helped him do this. He couldn't have done it by himself. No. We've heard a hundred stories of someone taking a head off on their own. No problem.
Starting point is 01:18:08 Oh, yeah. No problem. The one we just did yesterday. The guy did it with a piece of a hacksaw with a rag wrapped around the back of it. Yes. You could do it. That's fucking crazy. So they said they look at us, meaning the demons, they look at us as absolute animals,
Starting point is 01:18:23 and that's how Nathan saw his mother that night. Wow. So he goes on to more satanic shit. They said, I don't even know. This is ridiculous, man. Imagine the kind of publicity that would be around this case if Ed and Lorraine Warren had their hands on this. case. Forget about it. They also said this is amazing. One thing also, one of the reasons I think this
Starting point is 01:18:48 case wasn't looked at for demonic possession is because of the O.J. Simpson trial. He said this trial would have been way bigger if O.J. wouldn't have happened at this time. Everyone was too concentrated on OJ. OJ. Baird on page 12. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Man. They go to another, the people who made this documentary went to the town for the Bel Air House, which is a haunted. house in town, but they ended up saying while they were there, they heard a voice
Starting point is 01:19:14 say, eviscerate, and that's why they started looking into this case. So that's, yeah. The town then gets really nuts about Satan. They have seminars to explore Satanism. Everyone is terrified of Satan at this point. It's fucking insane. A minister said
Starting point is 01:19:32 it's called Satanism in the Ohio Valley, and he said, it's been dismissed around us for years, but it's real. He said, the frightening thing is it's not a bunch of kids running around in robes. They're doctors, lawyers, priests, and child care workers. They're humans like me and you. He said, Satan will dress up real pretty on Sunday mornings, walk down the aisle, take my hand, and say, can I become a part of your church? That's what Satan does. Just is real pretty on Sunday.
Starting point is 01:20:01 That's right. As of July 2025, he was prisoner, Nathan was prisoner A337726 at the London correctional institution in London, Ohio. So there he stays. Yeah, everybody is blown away by this. One cop that went with him all the time said, I take him to any kind of doctor's visit, psychological visits, court. I always rode in the back of the cop car with him without a weapon.
Starting point is 01:20:28 He was the type of person that looked normal. He acted normal, looked normal, but there was just something. You could tell he worshiped Satan. You could tell. You could see it. He's beating. Satan.
Starting point is 01:20:38 any eyes. Wow. You feel it. You can taste it. Shit. Yep. So his parole, he has a parole hearing that has just been delayed till November, but then I don't think it happened again.
Starting point is 01:20:52 So he might get parole, but I don't think so. So they said that after 1995, when they resumed trick-or-treating, by the way, parents all went with their kids again. It was turned into that. You're going to save him? Yeah. He killed his parents, for Christ's sake. You're not safe.
Starting point is 01:21:08 Not safe at all. There's a bunch of people that talk about him later on. One person said the night that happened, he actually hit on our front porch under the table when police went by. He also dug up a few graves in the cemetery by our house that night. I don't know if he had time to do that. No one who lived through that time or knew them is offended by the story. Don't be ashamed for somebody said that you shouldn't talk about these people.
Starting point is 01:21:35 And I like this one, this comment. quote, Nathan was an ass jack. Not a jackass, an ass jack. So there you go, everybody. That is Bel-A-L-A. He's an ass jack. Bel Air, Ohio, everybody, and some crazy small-town Satan shit. So there you go.
Starting point is 01:21:52 Very quickly. Shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets to live shows. Nashville, Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Buffalo, Royal Oak, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, is Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento. Terrytown, Boston, all for sale right now. Get them there. Patreon.com slash crime and sports.
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Starting point is 01:22:23 There's 13-year-old girlfriend. So there's that. Check that out. Patreon.com slash crime in sports. Also, you get all of everything at free with that. Follow on social media at Smalltown Murder on Instagram, Smalltown Pod on Facebook. Keep coming back and seeing us. week. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye.

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