Sword and Scale - Episode 174

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

Trouble in the Amato household began brewing in the summer of 2018, when Grant Amato, the youngest son, developed an addiction to one particular webcam model. Her name is Ady Sweet. Day and night, Grant was watching the live shows Ady streamed. These shows weren’t cheap, and Grant built an entire false persona to gain Ady’s attention. All of his lies were at the expense of his family’s finances and wellbeing. It all came to an end on January 24th, 2019.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I'm gonna ask your play-hug you are not part of it anyway. No, I want to believe you, Cranet But you're the last person I could play in that house. Hello and welcome to season 7 episode 174 of sword and scale. A show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. As we approach Thanksgiving and the holidays, it's a time to be around family, to be thankful for your family, to support them, to be there for them. This episode is very much about family and also Camgirls. I know that doesn't make any sense right now, but it will in just a minute.

In any case, strap in because you're about to find out a whole lot about the world of cam rooms. You may already know a lot about it, I don't know you. I don't know you man, I haven't lived your life. But for everyone else, we're going to start at the very beginning. So here, we go I'm going to be a little bit more careful. It was the summer of 2018, back in the good old days, before the infinite Zoom meetings, virtual K-12 schooling, and burgeoning alcoholism in half the adult population. Grant O'Moddo sat at his desk in his bedroom at his family's house in Chulo de Florida. He was surrounded by several computer monitors, one of them displaying an episode of a Japanese anime series, while another monitor lit up whichever video game Grant was obsessed with at the moment.

A third monitor displayed Twitch, where he sometimes streamed his gameplay, and Grant withdrew into his private world. It was one room in the house that he felt safe and secure, one room in which he could be himself and relieve stress through online gaming and streaming. which he could be himself and relieve stress through online gaming and streaming. Something more and more adolescence find solace in these days. Grant's desk sat in the corner of his bedroom. The three monitors surrounded him like a cocoon, is black and red gaming chair holding him securely in place,

riding the crook of the glass tabletop desk that held all three monitors, two keyboards, and two mouse pads. Grants Brother Cody was in his own bedroom. It was a similar setup. Several computer monitors sat on the desk in the small bedroom. Both boys had matching final fantasy posters on their walls. And Cody's bed, similar to Grants, had no headboard or real bedding. Both boys just had sheets in the throw blanket on their mattress. Cody's pillow sported a precariously perched stuffed animal, with half its body tucked under his blankets like he was sleeping in the bed waiting for him to return.

Multiple closets in the family home were stuffed full of boxed anime figurines. One of the boys' rooms had a tower about three feet wide that reached the ceiling. The tower was made up of collectibles in their boxes. Most of these figurines range and price from a hundred to five hundred dollars. These were dozens of them stuffed into hiding spots all throughout the residence. You can say that anime was a hobby. These were dozens of them, stuffed in the hiding spots all throughout the residents. You can say that anime was a hobby, an interest the Amato brothers shared. But the interest bordered on obsession for both of them.

Grant and Cody's parents were pretty well off. They purchased the plot of land at the family home sat on back in the 1980s and built the home on the property shortly after. Margaret Amato's oldest son Jason from a previous relationship was adopted by Chad Amato as a young boy and was raised in this home until he moved out to start his own family. Margaret worked from home as a client operations manager in the healthcare division of a computer software company. Shadow motto, Grant and Cody's father,

worked as a pharmacist. Margaret and Chad were both good with their money and made a solid upper middle class income together. This allowed everyone in the family to cultivate their hobbies and interests. Margaret in particular had an affinity for horses. Right next to one of the doors to the home sat a coat rack stacked to the ceiling with heavy horseback riding equipment. Almost every single day Margaret wrote her bike down to Miracle Lane Stables to visit her

horse, Lady. Margaret rescued the horse a decade prior when it routinely made its way onto her backyard looking for food. When the horse passed away, Margaret continued to ride her bike to the stables to help other horse owners groom and train their animals. Because she worked from home, she had the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Her boys were constantly entertained by video games and their shared love for anime, and they were old enough to look after themselves. With separate bedrooms and a lot of time alone, Cody and Grant had a fair bit of privacy. One day Grant, the youngest of the three brothers,

stumbled upon a particular website. It probably wasn't by accident though, if you know what I mean. Granted, discovered the wonderful world of Cam Girls, specifically MyFreeCams.com. He began to peruse around discovering what this kind of website had to offer. He found that girls each had their own home page, where he could use tokens to purchase explicit videos of that particular model. One woman caught his eye. Adi's suite is her name. Hello, my name is Adi. I'm 32 years old and from beautiful Budapest in Hungary. If you've been in my room before, you will have noticed that I am not your typical cam girl. I'm a very sensual woman, and it is this sensuality, along with my sexuality, and the

sublime beauty of a shapely, athletic, female body that I enjoy showing to you in the world. This could be through dancing, teasing, stripping, or just through a meaningful look into the lens of the webcam, in lieu of your eyes, biting my lower lip or whispering sweet nothings into your ears. As the night progresses, it may get a little, all right, very naughty too in my room. I have a pretty expressive face. Do I need to mention that left eyebrow?

So if you happen to get to know me a little bit, it will be very easy for you to read my emotions. I can also be very sarcastic and a smart ass. So use your sense of humor and don't get offended because I don't mean to be rude, unless of course I do, LOL. Anyways, I'll stop here before this turns into a novel. I'm not saying I'm perfect,

but I believe that I'm different and that I will find a way to make it worth your while spending time with me if you only let me. Thank you for your time reading this. Kisses, Addy. Her profile with a red lace background list some ground rules for her camera room. Number one, smile and have fun.

After all, this is what it's all about, isn't it? Just don't take yourself too seriously. Number two, check room topic and tip menu. If you have requests, please ask for you tip. And by the way, no gross stuff. Number 3. Please show respect. If you don't like it in my room, just move on instead of being rude. My friends are answering questions and posting emotes on my behalf so I can pay attention to you.

Number 4. Don't discuss other models. Neither insult nor advertise them, please. Number 5. No links to other sites, please. Number 6. Think of others. Don't be gross. No one here wants to see pics of you. Number 7. Begging won't work.

I don't beg for tips, either. Number 8. No directors needed. Just let me do my thing. I know what I'm doing. Number 9. I won't perform in a porn movie or have sex with you, so please don't ask. Number 10. I appreciate your tips a lot. Each and every tip counts and helps. One token or one thousand.

11. Feel free to stay in chat. Even if you can't tip tonight, maybe you'll have some tokens to spare next time or the time after that. And finally, number 12. No groups, Skype, or privates. Watch the space this may change. In essence, these cameras are like virtual mini strip clubs.

You can choose which person you'd like to watch, enter the room, and tip them with tokens. A viewer can use tokens to purchase actions as well. This is an interview we conducted with an active profile cam model on MyFreeCams.com. She wishes to remain anonymous. So I started camming. I think it was back in 2014. Yeah, I've done very well for the first year and a half. I didn't do too well. I was kind of off and on with it a little bit. I didn't put much time. I was kind of off and on with it a little bit. I didn't put much time into it. And then once I really started committing to it, then I started actually making decent

money. Adi Sweet is very active in her room. She's consistent with her live shows jumping online almost every single night for hours on end. And that's what you have to do to make the kind of money she's bringing in. Models are ranked by the number of tokens there and compared to the rest of the models on the website. Basically, models are ranked by monthly income. I mean, I guess you could look at whoever is in the top 20 every month. So if you're getting

like number one, or if you're making like top three, top five, you're making anywhere from like a hundred thousand in a month to 200,000. My best rank was 15, and that came out to being $40,000 for 15. And then it goes up a lot as you get up to one. Number one, I mean, I know girls who have multiple houses, they have investments, and they've basically set themselves up for life.

Adi Suite is consistently in the top 20 every month, so she's no small fish. She's doing very well for herself. Adi's page has a tip menu that lists prices for requests. The tip menu is a huge part of how she makes money. The menu is divided into categories, sweet, hot, spicy, and extras. Viewers can pay, for example, 1,666 tokens for Addy to open a bottle of wine. Another 35 tokens for each sip of wine the viewer wants Addy to take. As you can imagine, the viewer wants Addy to take. As you can imagine, the viewer can purchase a number of other actions with the tokens

as well. Some include things like smoking, drinking, or singing a song. While other requests are a bit more explicit. You can see how these costs would start to add up if a viewer is engaging in the live show on a nightly basis. So for the token system, the model makes five cents per token. For every token they earn, it's always five cents per token. For the members, it kind of ranges from about ten cents to eight cents to seven-ish cents per token, depending what token package they buy. So the more tokens they buy, the less they're paying per token.

Specifically, users can purchase packages of tokens ranging from 200 tokens for 1999, 550 tokens for $49.99 or $900 tokens for $74.99. On top of her live cam shows every night, Addy sells fully produced recorded videos on her MyFreeCams profile as well. Several of Addy's videos range in price all the way up to $1300 tokens. This means that if a user regularly purchases tokens in bulk at the $74.99 price, one video could cost as much as $110. This was a whole new world for grant.

This was beyond porn. When you watch videos on regular porn websites, there was no interaction involved. It was a one-way street. But this campsite, this would allow him to literally purchase attention from a woman. At first, he knew it was manufactured attention. It wasn't genuine. The woman was obviously trying to make a living.

It's so easy for a lonely person seeking personal interaction to blow through buckets of money on a website like this. Grant didn't really have the type of personality or the looks that could attract a girl as beautiful as Addy's suite. This was the next best option. Night after night, alone in his room, Grant logged back into his account and perused the live camps. He always found himself coming back to Adi's suite, yearning to be a member of her top ranks. The ranking system is detailed in one final section of Adi's profile, a place where she recognizes top contributors.

A banner above this section reads, Adi's chivalrous order of the raised eyebrow. A lot of models have their own clubs, but in some of them will call them like their VIP club or something like that. So yeah, that's usually just something where like a member will tip a certain amount and then they'll get certain perks for that tip. To me, being Shovel Riss, a true gentleman, is one of the most important traits of a real man. I have old fashioned this way, and this is why I've decided to use a very old fashioned theme for my reward scheme, drawing on the gallant knights of the Middle Ages who wooed the fair maid to become her champion.

Of course, we're very much in the 21st century, and so the rewards for your generous support are neither my garter nor my handkerchief. Contributors on Addy's page are ranked by total token contribution, starting with pages, then squires, knights, lords, and finally, the highest tip Addy ever received, 630,000 tokens from James, who obviously had nothing better to spend his money on. That token value comes to over $52,000. The usernames of these people, Adi specifically recognizes on her profile, are curious.

Many of them clearly created their accounts just to watch Adi's sweet, or maybe they changed their usernames to get her attention. Whatever the reason, the profile is sprinkled with usernames like Adi's gym, Adi's dreamer, Adi's bee, Adi's wolf, and my personal favorite, Madi for Adi. It seems the only way to get this woman's attention is to be one of her top spenders. The Lord's category of her contributor ranking system offers special benefits, including handwritten letters, undisclosed private privileges, birthday cards, Skype dates,

I-message privileges, and other digital gifts. For someone who doesn't often get attention from women, this was a brilliant discovery. Grant saw Addy's sweet profile like a vending machine. He could pay for her to tell him how great he is. He could just shell out some tokens for a handwritten letter from this beautiful woman. Here's the problem. Grant didn't have a job. This meant he had no money.

How was he going to attract Addie's attention with empty pockets and a subpar physical appearance? He wasn't a particularly attractive guy. I mean, I'm sure you'll look it up after this episode. Guy is hideous, honestly. The biggest problem of all though is that Grant wasn't just a 17 year old kid who didn't have his life figured out yet. He wasn't a teenage boy doing normal teenage boy things.

Grant, a motto, was about to turn 30. He had been fired from his job working as a nurse and spent all his time living at his parents' house either live streaming his Fortnite sessions or tuning in to Addie Sweets late night camp shows. The reality of Grant's life was not appealing, so he had to come up with something better. As Grant became more and more enamored with Atty Sweet, the prolific cam model from MyFreeCams.com, the urge to see her face on his screen was at the forefront of his mind.

He thought about her day and night. When we think of a sex or love addiction, we often think of married men visiting prostitutes or bachelors having indiscriminate, dangerous, and frequent sexual escapades with random people. This isn't always the case, though. Symptoms of a sex and love addiction come in many forms, and the disease can afflict both men and women alike. We spoke with a recovering sex addict to get an idea of what this disease is really like, directly from the mind of someone who struggled with it. We'll call him Will.

For me, really, it's like a love addiction, and really what it is, really it's like a love addiction and really what it is is it's like acceptance and you know, feeling sort of like belonging the ultimate way to feel belonging is of course with another person, you know, who's in love with you or produces that feeling of like lost or love. So particularly with online sex addiction, you know, we have in our hands and our pockets these smartphones, which are essentially the portal to the outside world where their whole reason is essentially to deliver hits of dopamine and endorphins from social media, from apps, just sending out push notifications. So for me, you know, with the advent of like online dating and everything like that, it basically makes sex and love into a game where

you're being rewarded with push notifications. Something called gamification has invaded our subconscious through the apps we use every day. We are so viscerally attached to our phones and tablets and app developers know this. They're part of the reason we're all so addicted to notifications. Gamification is the reason we feel so uneasy when we don't have our phones with an arm's reach. It's very exciting from the perspective of, not only are you getting what you've been programmed to want, which is getting push notifications from your phone, telling you, hey, you're being interacted with,

or here's like one little nugget of attention. The reason that it's so much more powerful is that the one little nugget of attention. The reason that it's so much more powerful is that the one little nugget of attention can sort of like blossom into, first of all, meeting someone person, second of all, you know, getting nude photos or exchanging nude photos, sexting. All this stuff basically like is the addiction, but really what you're experiencing is like acceptance, just being like drilled into your brain on a massive scale and almost on demand. And at a certain point, like meeting up in person almost becomes beside the point because it's literally just like reach out. It's 2 a.m. you need that

head of attention. You feel like you've had a bad day or you feel like you've had a good day and you deserve it. Every time you're phone dings, whether it's a message from someone on Tinder or a like on an Instagram post, you get a little hit of dopamine. Those little hits of dopamine are what people get addicted to. Messages what people get addicted to, messages from people on dating apps, messages telling them how great their photos are. That's what will was addicted to. Grant at first felt that dopamine hit when he tipped Atty during her live sessions. She made eye contact with the camera and said thank you to him directly. This attention from her was intoxicating.

So you like download Tinder, start sites, sites, sites, sites, sites. Oh, here's like 500 people who either want to have sex with me or don't, but who cares because they're willing to pay attention to me for this time period. So that very quickly becomes compulsive because unlike in real life where you are eliminated by who is literally in front of you or who your friends are, you're granted the patina of anonymity and also a theoretically unlimited base of people to either meet up and have sex with or often just like interact with.

The urge to interact with people constantly started to affect wills every day life. That's the difference between a healthy relationship with a device, substance or activity, and a full-blown addiction. Something becomes an addiction when it begins to negatively affect your daily life, and you just can't stop. For Grant, though he wasn't swiping through people on Tinder, he was initially shopping around on My Free Cam's to find his favorite girl, similar to how dating apps work. In his case though, he wasn't expecting a hookup. He just wanted someone's attention and gratitude, and that's what he found on Addy's sweet page. The most insane that I got, I would wake up in the middle of the night

and grab my phone and text girls on Tinder, and I knew they weren't going to respond. But sometimes they did and then I would be up from like four in the morning to six in the morning. It was literally like I didn't sleep on occasion. Things were beginning to get just as bad for Grant. These camera rooms are gamified, just like everything else we've talked about. Grant was sitting on his computer every night just so he could tune in to Addy's sweet sly streams.

He didn't want to miss out. He wanted to feel the high he got from any acknowledgement Addy made towards him. I'm never paid money on a camera, whatever, but I've watched them for sure. And the whole thing with the cams is you're literally like, even when I saw watching porn I would so occasionally look at cams because it is almost like

you're having this fake relationship or this fake interaction with this person who is your sort of like brought into this woman's intimate space and interacted with as though she's your friend. Brest assured, she is not your best friend. No matter who she is, it's a job to her. She's out to make money, and there's nothing wrong with that. But she is certainly not a real-life friend to her customers. And the sort of cycle, which I see play out, is basically, as soon as you do a big tip or do any kind of tip, customers. Tipping results in a sound effect played over the live cam show for all the viewers to

hear. During one of Addy's recent shows, someone named ad tipped 3000 tokens, which is a big deal. Addy verbally thanks everyone to tips her, and the comment section is flooded with gifts of applause. The other viewers in the chat do quite literally pat each other on the back when someone tips saying things like, Holy shit Ed, you demand!

Probably without the accent though. Each tip goes towards a goal displayed at the top of the cam window. It's like a game. So for the countdowns, it's either the model or the room helper that will set everything up. It's pretty simple. So basically you'll just set a countdown and say, I want this mini tokens for this action. And then people will tip towards that.

And once it's finished, then whatever that was happens. So for instance, say like, like I like to do pull dancing and yoga and stuff like that. So I'll do like tip. We'll say 3000 tokens for a topless pole dance. And then people will tip towards the countdown and once it's reached we'll do a topless pole dance. Again, going back to like the gamification thing, it's really easy to see how you get this like false sense of intimacy like combined with gamification and It can be easy to go to the point because it's not like money that you're spending. It's like quote-unquote tokens

So it's easy to see that you get to the point where you think oh, I'm actually friends with this person and this person It's actually the only like fulfilling interaction I've ever had because in every other interaction I'm having to deal with. Essentially consequences for wanting, you know, I don't know how it works for most people, but I can't just throw coins that girls get them to take their tops off, but you can't online. Here's Grant's explanation of exactly what he was doing on all those evenings on his computer. I can't model it like they did like a virtual girl from I guess you'd say. Bingo, there it is. Grant really saw this woman as his virtual girlfriend. Like, she actually gave a crap about him. Here's a video Grant sent Addy sweet begging her for one of her videos.

sent Addy sweet begging her for one of her videos. By the way, her real name is not Addy. It's Sylvie. Alright Sylvie, look at me. I'm outside going to check the mail. And I'm asking you, if you can please, pretty please send me one of your videos. I just, I love it so much when Is this guy not the world's biggest simp? Simp is a new word. According to Gen Z, it refers to someone who goes laughably above and beyond to get the attention of someone they like. Grant sets the bar high, living in a world of symptom that many of us will never breach the entrance to. Okay. How much is it for a present? Oh God, I think it was like 90 tokens a minute and it's like conversion rate for all of that is $600 for five thousand or something tokens or something like that. So, and then

it was four hours a night. So I mean, that's basically just where I would like to cost when to was, you pay real money for the tokens any years to company's digital currency. There's another way that My Free Cam's gamifies and adds an element of competition to their website. Users and models can view others' points on their profile. To become a premium member of the website, you have to spend some money, and you get a one-time allotment of 200 tokens along with commenting privileges. Oftentimes people will spend only those tokens and never purchase anymore. The MyfreCAM's point system shows exactly how many tokens have been tipped by a particular user. The higher the points,

a user boasts, the more clout they have, so to speak. After becoming a premium member, Grant Amato began entering into chat discussions during his many nights loitering in Addy's live shows. By this time in July of 2018, he had been fired from his nursing job. He was stealing a drug called Propofal, a powerful anesthetic used during surgeries and other procedures. It's actually the same drug that killed Michael Jackson. Grant was caught and arrested. It was quite traumatizing for him, actually.

Police alleged that Grant was using the drug to sedate patients when he, quote, didn't want to deal with them. I wonder what he was off doing in the meantime. The point is Grant was poor, unemployed, and super nerdy. He had failed out of anesthesiology school, attempting to follow his older brother's footsteps, which left him depressed and feeling worthless. None of these attributes were going to grab the attention of Adi Sweet. So he made up a life. He made up an entirely new persona for himself, one where he was a successful

wealthy twitch streamer who owned his own house and drove a BMW. So where did the money for the tokens come from? His family, of course. Grant was given money by his brother and often stole money from his mother and father. Even venturing as far as to steal from extended family members later on, Grant has claimed it was all consensual. The cash transactions. The instances where his father would let him use his credit card. He would allow me to spend money that he had, like with his credit card or something like that. But it's like then whenever I did, it was like a huge problem.

Did he know what I was going to? They didn't know that it was going to a camera. I was thinking that it was going towards my Twitch streaming, like, like, yeah, like advertising, like putting my name out there and that, that type of thing. Grant was lying to his family left and right. The money, of course, was not going towards his career on Twitch.

Grant was not a very good streamer. He wasn't entertaining to watch. He wasn't funny. He was kind of dull. Didn't really have personality. And it's really amazing that he had the few subscribers that he did. He was just a strange 30 year old man streaming Fortnite in a world of adolescent boys. Nice.

Yummy. Oh god, and I didn't pick up the long range. Let's pick it up. It's all that I wanted. It was the achievement. So, what you're telling me, only so many people make so much money, I think just a few in a hand, you make a bunch of money. So, that was like the ultimate goal is to get to that. I was hoping that the stars would align and then I would be like one of those people,

because I was good at the games and I, you know, I'm like a funny, pleasant person on the camera and then I have to thank. Yeah, okay, Grant. And then I have to thank. Yeah, okay, Grant. Whatever you need to tell yourself. From the beginning of July, 2018, throughout the rest of the year, Grant became more obsessed with the promise

of seeing Addy's face every single evening. But even that wasn't enough for him. He began to spend so much money on tokens, all pre-allotted to Addie's pocket, that he must have made it to a high enough ranking to earn special privileges. Though he only knew Addie for around six months, Grant had shelled out more money than most people will ever see in one time in their entire lives. You know, with all the money that had been getting spent, notice how he phrases his sentence as money getting spent, rather than money he spent. Money that wasn't his to begin with.

And I guess just to make sure everything I've been saying is kind of boiling up in him, to him it seemed like I wasn't concerned about it. So, and then as far as I was, and then plus I wasn't acting like myself with the two of you on this and you know, I kind of saw how much you think you spent on this because you kind of partied. Yeah, like $9,000 tokens and $5,000 for how many tokens? No, no, it's $600 for $5,000.

For a lot of that stuff, okay. So how much do you think you spent? Probably close to $200,000. I'm sorry. $200,000? Yeah. Do all the $200,000 you were in the wrong? I mean, yeah.

Does that make sense? Does that make sense? You know, spending that amount of money is idiotic to do that. Especially when you're not made for 200,000. $200,000 in a six month time span. It was actually closer to 210,000, but who's counting? Grant was tipping in the live shows, purchasing videos on Addy's profile, sending her lingerie and sex toys to model on cam for all the other regulars in the

group to enjoy. And seem to be communicating with Addy through Twitter, letters, face to face, private video calls, and many other platforms. It wouldn't be long before his family realized what all the money was going to. Frankly, it's surprising they didn't realize it sooner. How could someone put $200,000 into marketing for his Twitch channel and still be so completely unsuccessful? In the beginning of December 2018, Grant, his brother Cody and their friend Jericho were scheduled to fly out to Japan for a two-week vacation.

The three men had shared a love for anime and Japanese culture, and Japan had been a destination on their bucket list for a long time. these cartoons. I got to the best way to put it. So the story is in what not in the way that the show is programmed. It's not as childish as cartoons and you think like Powerpuff girls and SpongeBob Squarepants and all that. It's not like that. It's not like that. This next clip is from the video diary Grant kept while on his trip. He wanted to remember everything. The food, the people he met, the places they visited, he wanted to be able to go back and rewatch it all. I would imagine that means that we can't open that door. I don't want to get spanked.

This was a particularly amazing vacation for Grant. After all, it's not cheap to fly to Japan, and along with all the other expenses that arise during a vacation, it ended up being a pretty pricey trip. It was an anime that kind of inspired a swan girl. Yeah, first time that one. Yeah, first time I said, who would you rather him, our friend Jericho? Jericho. pricey trip $100 and then I think it was probably about 10 grand total for like all the days. I mean it was about it was two weeks so 10 grand per person and grant didn't have to spend a penny. How long you been out of work? I've been out of

work for six months since June. How did you pay a lot of money for the out of work? My brother. Oh, yeah. My brother, what's he doing? He's a CRNA. Sorry, the certified registered nurse. That's a test. OK, so we were both in program together. OK.

And then he was able to finish, then I'm not. So he made more than 160. That was taken. Yeah. Wow. So we had to take a big, big, big, big, big ball. I didn't say it in there. Yeah. Yeah. Some people are lucky enough to end up with siblings who truly love and care about them. Cody Amato just wanted his brother to get his life together. Cody didn't have any idea that he got the short end of the stick

in the sibling department. He got stuck with a self-centered brother who only made his life more difficult. By the end of the six month span during which Grant obsessively carried on a relationship with Adi Sweet, he had amassed not only his $100,000 in student loan debt that had been sitting there, accruing interest even before he was fired from his job, but $210,000 in debt to his parents and brother, along with $8,000 in lawyer fees, his family paid when charges were pressed against grant after he was accused of stealing and misallocating medications to patients. And now the cost of this Japan trip as well.

Cody assured Grant that the trip was a gift that he didn't have to pay him back the 10 grand. But the trip served as just another instance where someone who loved Grant shelled out a lot of cash for him just so he could have a good time. Grant didn't understand just how lucky he was. Eating less than saving? Nothing less than saving but I think I had like $300-400. But brother had helped me ever.

Yeah, brother was helping me. My dad was covering the rent that he calls it, which is just like the monthly payment to throw up the help since we all have been home. What was that? I always had to figure that out. $600 a month. Yeah.

And then, just not bad, he was it? No. And then, I mean, he was covering, like, cell phone. We were paying for him and internet. Given that grant by this point had only three to four hundred dollars to his name and no job, it's unlikely that he was even paying his own internet bill. He was almost 30 years old and everyone around him was enabling his lifestyle. They were paying for everything.

Grant's father Chad even had to mortgage the family home to keep up with expenses that accumulated after bailing Grant out time after time. When the trip to Japan finally came to an end, both Grant and Cody arriving back to Florida safely, the feeble house of cards that was Grant's life began to fall apart. By this time, his family had figured out where the money was going. It was obvious his Twitch channel was not successful. Grant still wasn't bringing in any money, but boy, was he spending it. After a particularly heated confrontation with his parents just a few days after arriving home, Grant ran off to his aunt Donna's house. His family reported him missing, worried that he was going to commit suicide.

He stayed there for a few days, sleeping all day, and talking to Addy at night. When Grant's aunt Donna noticed strange charges on her credit card bill, after just a few days of hosting him at her home, she called the grandfather Chad. Chad broke down over the phone and began sobbing, explaining that he had remorgaged his house to take care of the $150,000 worth of Grant's debts. Grant had now stolen his aunt's credit card information and was using it to purchase tokens on my free cams. Grant's father begged his sister-in-law not to press charges. He said to her on the phone, Grant's brother Cody swore to pay back any of the expenses

on Dona's account on Grants behalf. On December 22nd, Grants parents showed up in on Dona's driveway and forcibly drove Grant to a rehab clinic. Finally, enough was enough. My father chose to admit me to like a depression or addiction or something like that in Fort Lauderdale, a cornerstone. What was that? That was December 22nd. Okay. And so I think January 4th, did you agree to that?

I did, but they said that this was your own lane. Who said? My dad. Okay. Now the Fort Lauderdale? Yes. Did your mother agree to it? My mom and my brother both agreed, but my dad, who was like the iron fist, like this is what's going to happen, you know, he can.

Why did he say he needed to go? What was his reason? Because with the way that I was acting, he just... He didn't see that I was doing anything for like the positive. You know, a lot of it just came back to money. Well, no shit. It all stems from the money Grant was spending. He was literally ruining the lives of everyone who loved him.

So I guess, like, bringing it all back with why I was brought to cornerstone, it was a mix of all of those things. It's like he felt like he had to be grounded. Yeah, yeah. And so then I was there, you know, I spoke to like the therapist and psychiatrists and all that stuff. I didn't need any medications for any things. They had analyzed it as, this is the night's later event.

Even at work, you have this PTSD from the whole getting arrested, saying, I mean, the last thing on my record was, I think, it's being taken back when I was at UCF. And then, you know, just having all of that stuff going on. So there's final diagnosis that he was wondering. That I was fine, that didn't need me there. Yeah. Whether this was actually the diagnosis Grant received during his time in the rehab facility,

we don't know. Could Grant have warped the words of his doctors or convinced them that he was fined by misrepresenting the facts? Totally. This was his forte, and he got himself out early. They had signed me up, I think, to be there for 60 days, but then I was only there until January 4th. So. got himself out early. $15,000 on top of all the money Grant had already taken from his family, and he couldn't even manage to stay there the entire 60 days.

Of course, they don't let you engage in your addictive behavior at the rehab facility. And Grant felt that he had to get out so he could speak to his beloved Addy. The problem was, his father Chad had gotten to her first. I'm going to go to the next room. Please, the public's name is recorded not on speaking. Hi, I'm not sure how to do this, but I'd like to know what they're showing on the screen. Okay, let's do that. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to show you how to do this.

I'd like to know what they're showing on the screen. Okay, let's do that. Thank you. You want to see them too? Wait a minute. There is sharing. It was January 25th, 2019, just a little over two weeks after Grant was released from the rehab facility. He was supposed to have stayed there for a full 60 days.

That Friday morning, Cody Amato didn't show up for his job as a nurse anesthesist at a hospital. He never missed a day of work without calling and he was never late. Several welfare check phone calls came into 911 dispatch from concerned co-workers. Okay, what was the reason for the wellbeing check? We worked together in heating shop for work today. I know they can get us over there in this zone, so we should voice mail and she's not like that at all. She's never just not show up or not if they're not called. So no one that can't be a last night so we're all kind of worried.

All right and I know you said that it's not like him to do this is there any other reason for concerns like health conditions or anything like that? Not for him like I know his mother was at home when I know his mother has been sick that was really my main concern but I'm more than a people But I know that's why I felt like I really need to make those calls, as well as whether those suffer from depression. And I know it's been sad recently. But I'm not assuming the worst, but this is just very out of character.

Okay. And the brother doesn't you live at that location as well? Yes, in similar parents. Would you like me to have the deputy give you a call live at that location as well? Yes, in similar parents. Would you like me to have the deputy give you a call back at that number? Yes, I do agree. This caller was a co-worker of Cody, and the two had just begun dating, that wasn't public knowledge. After several hours had passed with no word from the deputy who was supposed to have called her back, this co-worker called again to follow up on the phone. Okay, so just on understanding,

do you call to have a well-being check done on someone? You haven't heard that from anyone, but your friend heard back from someone? Yes, we both call, we didn't realize that we were both called, so she heard that a little bit ago, but I did not.

So what did she tell you to do for a bag? She heard that they were 12 fun towels, and there was no answer to do or anything that is cart was gone. Do we see anything? And they said they don't have shurily out of the blue though. Okay, yeah, we still have officer up there. Looks like they haven't made contact with anyone else if yet, but I haven't given you a phone call back. We'll be with you outcome.

Okay, I just, I have to turn that something has come across my phone. I know that the other struggle with depression and I believe the asylumisation as well, they mentioned it to me. Okay, yes, ma'am. We still have Dr. Pfeil there, so let's go for a run. Do I give you a pack of back? When police conduct welfare checks, they knock on the door, wait for a response, knock again, and attempt to enter the premises if they receive no answer. Over at the Amato residence police arrived on

scene and immediately noticed that something wasn't right. Even before they knocked on the door, this audio comes from body camera footage by one of the two responding officers. There is a large cabinet of some kind in front of the door and we open it up we're going to have to move a cabinet to get in. But like, is that the fabricated in there? No, no, no. The door swings this way, the cabinet is, this, in whatever room that's in,

it's just sitting, we're just gonna have to push it aside to go in. The blinds were drawn, preventing visibility into the house from any windows. The front door had glass in the center and two windows on either side. All of these windows seemed to be covered with brown paper bags. I had a feeling that we were young. He probably killed the roller. That's one thought that I had something one bad last night. Hopefully not. Hopefully he's a clear that these officers had a bad feeling about the situation.

Their assumptions were surprisingly astute. They walked back to their vehicles and geared up to do a walk through of the house. Then began walking back towards the beautiful multiple story of motto home Last time the Cody was heard from was nine Something last night when his buddy texted him Yeah, nine something and Cody said seeing him morning Same and Cody said, see you in a morning. Same. We need to get some people blocking all this shit off

so that the news media doesn't come here now. They put the tape now. A welfare check that ends with the hanging of crime scene tape is never the outcome anyone hopes for. Right inside the door that links the home to the garage, the body of Cody Amato sat, curled into a fetal position, still wearing his shoes and green scrubs from the night before, a handgun was found near his body. A few steps further into the home brought officers upon Chad Amato, lying face up on his kitchen floor.

The kitchen scene acted as a clear picture of what had happened the night before. A package of chicken was still sitting on the counter, presumably set out to thaw for the previous night's dinner. A large pool of blood on one side of the counter was joined with another very large lake of blood coming from Chad's body. The first pool had been where he was initially shot.

He was unpacking his lunchbox from work. The lunchbox was left on the floor half open with his own blood smeared over the plastic fork he had used to eat his lunch that day. Chad, shot multiple times in the head, tried to crawl away from behind the counter, leaving smears and droplets of blood along his path. He only made it about ten feet or so before expiring next to the refrigerator. His eyes opened and staring straight ahead. He had a gun holstered in his belt. Finally, the home office was Margaret. Framed photos of her three sons sat on a high shelf facing her desk, looking right at her slumped body. She had been the first to die. While working at her computer the afternoon

of January 24th, just after taking a conference call at 4pm, Margaret's son Grant walked into the room and shot her in the back of the head. The bullet exited through her right cheek. The last recorded activity on her computer was at 4.44pm. Grant then waited for his father to arrive home. He shot him once behind the right ear as he was standing unpacking his lunch, and again after Chad fell onto the ground and tried to crawl away. Grant then holstered a gun on the wrong side of Chad's body and an attempt to help support the story he was trying to paint with this crime scene. He would make it seem like a murder suicide. He planned to make it look

like Cody and Chad had gotten into a physical altercation, resulting in Cody shooting his father. This was at about 5.30 pm. Grant waited yet again. He waited in the family home that he grew up in. The only home he ever knew, with his parents dead bodies, just feet from him. He knew his brother Cody wouldn't be off work until 9 p.m. Cody left work at 9.15 and was recorded going through the toll plaza on his way home at 9.36 p.m.

Right as he entered his home, Grant shot him under the eye. The bullet exited through the back of his head. Grant then placed the handgun we mentioned before right next to his brother's dead body. Around midnight, Grant tried to wipe data off the cell phones. He spent his time not physically cleaning up the mess he made, but trying to erase the digital footprints. He was unsuccessful. Two weeks prior to the discovery of the three dead bodies in the Amato home, just after Grant arrived back from his short and incomplete stint at the rehab facility in South Florida, he was met with a stern Chad Amato. Armed

with a list of rules for his son, Grant went upstairs to find that his computer had a new passcode on it. He was no longer able to access it for any reason, and he desperately needed to speak with Addy. told her because he had like hacked my computer something like that and then he found everything I like you, brother except he's more of that like hacking level like able to do all that stuff So he has found you know just the stuff that was related to her and then You like erase my own computer you put a password on and so it's like even when I came back until Thursday Like I was able to go out of my own computer to look at anything. I think he's treating you like a small child.

Right. And right before, I mean, spending that amount of time on my own back in childish, I can kind of get it. Really? He only kind of understood his father's response to the hell that Grant had put them all through the prior year. So he was on Thursday. He had apparently found out that I was speaking to her again.

And when I came back on the fourth, my mom picked me up from the corner someplace, and then me and my mom and my dad at California Pizza Griller Kitchen and watered lakes. And he had this lift from back on a piece of paper of all the rules. This is what's going to happen. This is why I'm acting the way that I'm going to act. I'm not going to be dead anymore. I'm going to be chatting." This list of rules, if read with no context, looks to be a parenting tool used to wrangle

some troubled teen. But it was for grant, 29-year-old grant, living at home, tormenting his parents and brother. It was a final step in the Amato's intervention attempt. They were letting him know that they'd no longer be enabling his destructive behavior. This list, or contract of sorts, reads, 1. Choose your living arrangement before leaving facility Chad Amato listed some options for a son. One of them included the privilege of continuing to live at home. He also included pros and cons for each option. The pros of living at home obviously being the money grant would save, and the family

around him to keep him company and monitor his mental health. Other options included moving into an apartment, staying in a hotel, and finally joining the military, specifically the Air Force. He then mentioned the possible issues Grant may have with Enlisman, his low weight, previous arrests for medical misconduct, and what Chad refers to as patriotic believability, all stood as potential hurdles. 2. Family will not cover or pay any current remaining or future debt.

Crime outcomes, arrests, court summons, or accrued costs. The margins of this hand-written document include more scrollings in different penning. It's clear that Chad and his wife Margaret came up with a list with the intention of going through it with Grant in person. The top of the parties Chad, Grant, Margaret, Absentee, vote Cody. Below that, a key showed that highlighted words represented the choices Grant chose during the discussion. The third item of the list was the biggest and most shocking for Grant.

This is Grant's eldest brother, Jason, who eventually found this detailed document of expectations inside his father's notebook. that Grant had been saying born a hundred percent true and that he wasn't allowed to communicate with her anymore based off of those lies. Grant's family told Addy everything. They told her that he wasn't a successful Twitch streamer, he was in fact unemployed. They told her that he didn't drive a BMW or own a house, and that he'd been stealing all the money he was spending on tokens, videos, and private conversations with her. They informed him that he would no longer be permitted to speak with Addy ever again. To help enforce

this rule, the Amatoes imposed a series of other rules Grant would have to live by if he chose to continue to stay in the family home. Some rules are no post midnight internet use, no more all-nighters online, limited TV, install a new AT&T modem for logging, wireless and hard traffic use, says that he terminated his current phone and set him up with a new phone that I guess didn't have data or the ability to go on the internet. Some responsibilities were he had to get a job, he had some debts that he had to take care of, no savings, he owed the family some money, oh the family and apology, it's very detailed.

Though Chad Amato made it clear he expected an apology from Grant, the document stated that the family didn't truly expect this to occur due to, quote, lack of real feelings. The final words at the bottom of the document state. No further family monetary support. This is critical, as Grant through his past transgressions has relied on the knowledge the family would not report him and would cover him. Family relationship abuse beyond tolerance. This is a promise.

You better heed the warning. It's real. You will be arrested, sit in jail with no bail, public defender, no paid attorney, serve any prison term and parole, reside in homeless centers, etc. You will not ever be allowed back into the family living arrangement. You chose a stranger, physically non-existent, over family. And one of the situations was, if you speak to this woman again, you're out of house, I'm kicking you out, you can back up your ship,

and then you're off my property. And then because of the way that he used to be, he had told me that basically if that happens, that if I ever stepped back onto his property that he would kill me, it wasn't really my intention to continue talking to this woman, but it just kind of happened. And then because there was like that emotional connection I guess you could say between her and me, I like, it's like a relationship. I didn't want to just stop cold turkey on it.

So he apparently found out. Grant had been using his mother's phone to contact Addie through Twitter direct messages. He just wasn't taking his family's threats seriously. Chad Amato was convicted in the decisions he made on that handwritten piece of paper. There would be no more time for third, fourth, and fifth chances. Grant was to be out of the house as soon as possible. I paid for it with my debit card. Yeah, I think there was going to $400 or $300, something dollars still up on it. Grant didn't have to worry about money anymore.

He had killed his entire family by the time he got to the double tree, and he was expecting a life insurance payout. After that, he really would be rich. But did he really think he'd ever get away with it? And right off into the sunset with a pocket full of blood money and a cam girl in tow? And then I was just there the whole night,

talked to Kooie, talked to Mom, talked to him. No, I couldn't have talked to anybody because I didn't have, but you had the phone in the room. Oh yeah, I didn't have the phone in the room. Well, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. His whole family was already dead. But, are you like the phone room? room. I'd never been on my own. The longest period I'd ever been away from anybody is two weeks when we were open to pan. The interview of Grant Amato you've been listening to throughout this episode took place in an

interrogation room. For hours, Grant didn't ask about his family. He didn't even ask why the police had brought him in for questioning. We've come and talked to you. We've a peer voluntarily with us to talk to us. Why do you think we're having this conversation? I honestly don't know that I'm pretty freaked out at this point because, you know, it's, I mean, I know like how the situation was when I left. And, you know, I thought that it was weird to be in what that I hadn't gotten any communication whatsoever.

As a child we're told the truth always is the best thing to do, correct? Correct, your agreement? Yes. And accidents happen and things and the heat of the moment things happen that we wish hadn't happened. Tell me what you think because I can tell why I've done this for a long, long time, and I read people the way they act and the way they talk to me and the way they answer questions. There's something you want to tell us.

I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your body language, and just your way act. I'm just worried about what is all transpiring from this. I think at this point right now, to be honest with you, Grant, you know what it is. Grant was apprehended at the hotel he was holed up in. The deputies cleared an entire floor to prepare for the arrest. Grant didn't ask any questions. He surrendered immediately, offering to let police search his hotel room and belongings. He didn't even ask why he was being taken to the police station for questioning, and yet here he was, sitting in an interrogation room still claiming that he had no idea why he

was there. Grant continued to deny everything, despite being presented with direct evidence that his family could not have gotten into a shootout with each other. than one I have said. Did you leave the house with your brother Cody looking like that? Or did you leave the house with your father looking like that? Or your mother? Is that how you left your family? No.

Nobody else went into that house. Who left your family like this? If you were the one that's been depressed, you were the one that owes money, you were the one that got into a confrontation with your father. Who did this to your family? Deputies called grants only surviving brother Jason Amato into the station after grant requested to speak with them.

This was their last ditch effort at getting a confession out of Grant. I don't know. I want to believe you, Grant, but you're the last person I could put in that house. And I know what happened over the last six months. I can understand the troubles that you've gone through. But it's hard for me to think that you would break this point. Grant continued to evade his brother's accusations. It got to the point where Grant was no longer even denying the things Jason was accusing him of, he just sat silently. I'll be making those decisions, because until I'm given verifiable information that you did not do it, I don't think you have the right to make that decision. You already made the decision on whether or not they can live or not. That's not your job.

I remember it. I do love you, though. Just remember that. Just remember that. I do love you, though. Just remember that. I do love you, though. Just remember that. with all the forensic evidence clearly pointing to Grant as the I'm afraid for you brother, because I can't pray for mom, dad, and Cody anymore. With all the forensic evidence clearly pointing to Grant as the perpetrator, he was swiftly charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He of course pled not guilty. All the evidence presented against him at trial made him out to be a sociopath, a sentiment

echoed in the sprawlings of his dead parents. You can please stand, Mr. Amato. In the circuit court of the 18th Judicial Circuit in a four-semino county, Florida, state of Florida versus Grand Amato, case number 1933CFA, verdict count 1, Margaret Amato. We the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree permittated murder. Verted count 2, Chad Amato. We the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree

permittated murder. Verted count 3, Cody Amato. We the jury find the defendant guilty of first degree permittated murder. The judge in the case sentenced Grant a motto to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The worst part of this whole thing for Grant was not the loss of his family, not the fact that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, But that the facade was lifted. The ruse he planned to keep up for God knows how long was foiled. Atty Sweet and all the men in the chat room that he came to know and love now knew that he had been lying the whole time about everything.

Here's an excerpt from the apology letter Grant sent to the users he had the closest relationship with. Hey guys, I'm thinking of writing to each of you individually, but felt like it might be easier to reach everyone if I just did one message to the main group of guys that I got to know over the months. The purpose of this letter is an apology to you guys, Jim, Josh, Sven, Frank, and Wolf. Each of you, I forged a different form of friendship, or at the very least, I felt that we were good acquaintances. I lied to her and you guys from the beginning about myself.

I'm not a professional gamer, did not own my own house, and did not drive a BMW. The major one here was the gamer. I know that I at least told all you guys that I was that, and while I did attempt to get into Twitch gaming, it never took off, like I had said. I have no excuses as to why I felt the need to do this from the beginning. I can only pleads to pitty, and I felt intimidated from the onset of the room environment, and felt like I had to be something far more unique than I was. Lastly, I will mention that I am 29. I have never lived alone. I have either lived with my parents or primarily with my brother in the big house we grew up in.

Everyone I ask for your forgiveness regarding my stupidity. Despite the many things I had tried to currently emphasize to her, I care for her deeply, and I wish for an actual second chance with her in the room. After I initially lied, everything between me and Sylvie grew so fast. We became so close that I was in the stereotypical rock and a hard place. I hate myself for what I did. I hate the thought of never getting to be with her again. After everything that I gave and everything that I tried to do with her, I just can't comprehend

being without her. This letter was written in early January 2019 right after Grant was released from the rehab facility. We can only assume how much pain Grant is in now, knowing that he will never see or speak to Adi Sweet, aka Sylvie, ever again. His so-called friends in the chatroom undoubtedly watched Grant's trial, or the truth about who he actually was, finally came out. He is a cold-blooded, sex worker obsessed, sociopathic, freak killer. He took it upon himself to cut down anyone standing between himself and a cam girl, thinking

it would bring them closer together. In reality, Grant has successfully isolated himself from anyone who ever cared about him in real life. Now instead of his cushy gaming chair and many computer monitors providing him comfort, he will be forced to find solace in the cold metal bunk in his cell, and the concrete walls around him, with no internet access. That does it for this episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you for joining us. Hey, if you hate commercials, what you love Sword and Scale, consider joining PLUS. You'll get early commercial free access to every episode. They come out about a week early on PLUS.

And every episode comes in a stunning 320 kilobyte high bandwidth feed. You can also use our apps available on Apple devices and Android to listen in high quality. It really is stunning the difference in quality. If you appreciate the show for its production value, then you're gonna love that high bandwidth feed. Not only that, but you get over 70 episodes of Plus. A program we created just for Plus members. Okay, it's basically exactly the same show,

but you can't get it on the free feed. That's over 70 episodes, over 70 hours available starting at just $5 a month. We also have higher tiers between $10 and $100 that allow you to get all kinds of perks throughout the year that we send out. Things like stickers, mugs, t-shirts, water bottles, hot sauce, all kinds of stuff. So consider supporting your favorite podcast today and join Plus. Head on over to swordenscale.com slash plus for all the details and you can cancel anytime,

right from your account. You don't have to email or call anybody. It's very easy to do and it's a very easy way to support your favorite show. Oh, and one more thing I almost forgot. Next year we will be reaching our 200th episode. So we have to make some room on the free feed for all that new content. We will be removing season 1 from the free feed and it will only be available on plus. So those first 32 episodes are gone.

If you want to hold on to them, I'd suggest you start downloading them right about now or just join plus at any time. So until next time, happy Thanksgiving if you're in the States. We'll see you right back here again next time. Now go buy some tokens and stay safe. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

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