Sword and Scale - Episode 211

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

In Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the city known for making overalls, tension was mounting between two Marine veterans over the repair of a vehicle. Both were highly trained with weapons and both were trained to “shoot to kill.” On August 4th, the conflict came to a boiling head, and now one of them stumbled, wounded through a driveway full of casualties.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Sun-2. The last episode I listen to. At the end of the episode, Mike said, I know you like it, bitches, and keep listening. Well, I won't be doing that anymore. Thank you. Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence

and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I have flashbacks of what happens to me every single day. It is like slow motion, remembering the gun being lifted, the red laser coming on, and me not being able to do anything to stop the defendants. Hello and welcome to season 9, episode1 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. As we've stated many times in the past, the price for our base level of plus is going from $5 to $10 sometime this year.

But if you're at the $5 level, I will have to say this again because nobody's getting it. You will be grandfathered in for the rest of your life, or at least the rest of our life. One or the other. Anyway, the point is, you might want to sign up now because price is going up. We live in a materialistic society. We buy stuff. We collect stuff.

We hoard stuff. We pile up stuff. And then we have to rent space to put all the stuff in. Have you seen those massive temporary storage facilities that are popping up all over the country? They're in every major city. Here's a place to store all your stuff. There's TV shows about it even.

Storage Wars has been on the air for like a decade. It's a show about these hustlers bidding on the contents of abandoned storage units sight unseen It's a great show. I watch it all the time In the US people put a lot of value on their stuff Even when their stuff is crap Thing is the law doesn't value your stuff quite as much as you might. And if you decide to take the law into your own hands and go ahead and protect your stuff, you don't want anybody to come near it, you

don't want anybody to touch it, well then you might find yourself in the end without at all. John was a helpful guy. All he wanted to accomplish on August 4th, 2020 was a good deed. As a mechanic, he knew that he could help out his friend, Jim Gretner and his daughter Rebecca, by installing a new radiator in the Chevy Tahoe she needed to return to her friend. It was a pleasant day in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on Minnesota Street. The neighborhood consisted of small, middle-class homes, many of them built in a Cape Cod

or bungalow style. Rebecca's home was a typical example of these. She shared a driveway with her next door neighbor, only her driveway extended about 50 feet further, coming to a stop at her open garage. As family friend John was repairing the Tahoe, Jim and Rebecca watched and helped while they were all conversing and enjoying music. Rebecca's close neighbor, who was quarantined due to COVID exposure, just happened to see what was happening. She heard something annoying that would later become startling. succession's popping. I would say at least two or three. So the two windows that look into the dryways with my bedroom, and I've been laying in bed, so I rolled out of bed and looked a window,

a little pertinent, and the window opened. It looks the back of the house with the dark dryways. Are they separated, I guess? At that time, but it was fireworks. So I was looking for I was lighting off fireworks. I didn't knock it off. I didn't see anything. There was no motioning or anything. I just missed it. It's something that wasn't happening in my driveway.

I wasn't going to do a blind. We've all been there, right? You're just trying to take a little nap and the neighbors are barbecuing or partying or having a yard sale or getting shot a block of ministry right now is the people shot shot here. A guy just walked in my house he's bleeding. Um, um, what happened? 17th block of, 17th block of ministry in Moscow. Okay, is he in a house there?

He was, he just left, he's bleeding and he's got blood in my house. Okay. All right. So if somebody has been shot, you said there's other people here. Just come here. Just don't ask me more questions. What house are we going to be? I'm going to be in the police.

I'm going to be in the police. I'm going to be in the police. I'm going to be in the police. So the street. Okay. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down.

You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. You can go down. now which one i don't know if you are using my neighbor's there mishad you i'm got a good hang up i don't want to hang up i want you to stand up for what exactly is going on there with the shot

you don't understand there's a few people to the neighbors i don't know that i'm just gonna let's go back here john Miller's been shot it is i don't know if my neighbor he just came over here It's funny how hard it is to say, sir, police are on their way as fast as they can get there, but in the meantime I need you to tell me what's going on. Some people are just really bad communicators, or just really bad at their jobs.

Clearly the neighbor appearing from her bedroom window was not the only one to be annoyed or startled. Not only did the 911 caller complain about John getting blood all over his house, but he was also clearly frustrated by the 911 operators' constant questions. But hey, it's not every day someone comes to your door in a bloody panic. I was in my watching TV and my host and the night is came my host. That's okay. That's okay. Why are you in shock, sir? The guy in front of the office is in shock. What? What address is the person who's injured at?

Do we know? I don't know. Okay, well, the officer is in shock. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Okay. I have them on the way over there. Do you know what the suspect or anybody or anything looks like? That's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, Maybe get yourself some of that new legal CBD everybody is talking about these days. I don't know. Thanks to his heroics, though, John convinced the man to call 911 and help was on the way.

What they were unprepared for was the carnage that awaited them back at Rebecca's garage. It was about 830 last night when one resident on Minnesota Street heard three consecutive pops before hearing a man yelling for help in his driveway. Another tells us she thought the popping was just fireworks. This was the neighbor who was looking from her bedroom window. And there was another piece of information she had for the police. She saw the man do the shooting. And he was someone that they all knew. That man she saw in her neighbors backyard has now been identified as

Josh Aide authorities believe he shot three people behind this home last night. The one victim, a 59 year old man was dead at the scene. Another man identified only as a 57 year old, as well as the 33 year old woman who lived in the home were injured. They're both in stable condition at a local hospital.

Police who continued investigating the shooting today did not release a motive for the attack, but they did tell us the victims all knew the suspect. We also learned the suspect, Josh Aide, was arrested hours after the shooting near his home in Manasello. That's in Green County, south of Madison. We know Aide was turned over to Oshkosh police. He's at the Winnebago County jail awaiting formal charges. Authorities expect more information on the shooting to be released in the criminal complaint.

After the madman who was now known to beat Josh Aide, sped from the residents, two casualties lay in the confined path of destruction. Two injured and one dead. The dead man, shot in the head at Point Blank Range, was Rebecca's dad. But why did Joshua aid a marine veteran, target family man Jim Gritner, who now lay dead in his daughter's driveway.

Did he have a grudge? And what was it about Rebecca? Was she also a victim like family friend mechanic John, who was now running for his life after being shot in the face? Hey, he's shot? Okay. Hey, let's get you back here. Let's get you back here. Get back here. Get back here. Come on. Yeah, follow me. Follow me. Come here. Okay. You got, you out of here. Get back here, get back here, come on. Yep, follow me, follow me, come here. Here, you got, you got up here.

Get up here, where are you shot at? In the face. Got a gun shot to the face. Come back over by the squad. You guys, they're over there. Yeah, you shot in the face. Hey, come here, sir, sir, come here. No, over here, over here, over here.

Sound of the curb. Oh God, we need to go back here in the house. Yep, hey, just hold here, over here, it's on the curb Oh God, we just got back kids in the house, yeah Hey just hold on a second What kind of gum were you shot with? I don't know Right, what? Yeah I'm good, I'm good He's working on his car

Yep, yep The thing I know, uh The guy comes and pulls out a gun and says yes, the girl then he's got the other guy Where's he at? He just off the car He took off the body He took off in a car, what kind of car? I don't know, right car, I don't know where he goes The guy that shot him took off in a red car.

That's all I got right now. John was barely intelligible after having his teeth literally blown out of his mouth. Until an ambulance arrived, officers had walked him a couple of blocks and positioned him under tree because they weren't sure whether the scene of the crime was still active, and they weren't sure where the shooter was until John managed to tell them. Now, it was time to return to the scene and assess exactly what had happened to Rebecca and her dad, and why they were targeted by someone they knew. On August 4, 2020, a 911 call was made by a frantic and frustrated man who lived on Minnesota Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

He reported that a male who was shot in the face entered his home and was bleeding all over it. The wounded man claimed there were other victims, but then took off after asking the call 911. The assailant's identity would quickly be discovered and was determined to be military veteran Josh Aide. It was ascertained by the witness neighbors that the victims knew Josh Aide. Later, an essential puzzle piece would emerge, indicating that Josh knew the family very well through Rebecca, who was also a marine veteran. Walk with me this way, sir.

Now, since you can walk, I want to get you to an ambulance. Okay, come here. Come here. come this way. 441, have the ambulance meet me with the guy with the gunshot northbound. I'm in a sort of tour 16. You still breathing? Yeah, I'm ready.

Okay, so good. I got that. Okay, I can't really tell. I mean, you're walking and talking, which is good right now. Okay. Let's have you sit right here. Sit on the grass right here.

I'm afraid it'll be on. If it comes back, we're done. Nope, nope, he's fine. Sit down, sit down. Sit down. I'm going to wait back there. I'm moving. Yeah, there's two other victims that were shot and it sounds like they're... Just let them know. Let them know if they're more severe than him. They're going to be more severe. I'm worried about that. We're going to be more severe at times right? I'm worried about that. This diminutive man with an 80s haircut and slurred speech was more concerned about the others rather than about getting safely to an ambulance. It was all police could do to keep him focused on himself and his injuries.

But Jim had a right to be concerned. The scene he ran from just doesn't happen every day in Wisconsin. 4-41, what's the status of the other two there? Are they more or worse than the guy I have? Wait, one ambulance here. One is the head injury, but she didn't practice the word. OK, so OK, take him.

We got one with the head injury and the other one's okay, so the responding officer was obviously sparing John from the truth about Jim's status. So he changed the subject and asked John what he actually witnessed before fleeing the scene. So you were changing a radiator, so you were working on whose car. You were working on Becky's car. For you under the car, in the car, I just got done. And I got fired. And I was probably going to get the hell out of my way. I worked it out and you passed it.

You okay? He went to our car and he pulled out the gun and shot her. I'm going to do it in a favor. We are clear. And then he turned around and shot me. Okay, so you get done, you get finished, changing the radio, you radiator, you turn around, and what do you hear, Steve?

They know each other. I hear her out. Last thing I know. And he was down now and turned around, caught me. Okay. At the scene, 59-year-old Jim was found lying face down next to the car that was sitting in the driveway. His head rested in a pool of blood

next to a toolbox, surrounded by pavement adorned with spots of oil and grease. The suspect weapon yielded 380 caliber shell casings at the scene, and Josh Aide was known to have a 380 handgun. One minute, the three were enjoying the sun, enjoying each other's company and some music. After all, Rebecca's parents had only recently moved from Nevada back to their home state of Wisconsin, where they met, fell in love, and had four children together. Jim was retiring, and they wanted, and had four children together.

Jim was retiring, and they wanted to be near their children in Wisconsin again. The next minute, Jim was killed. Life is so fleeting, and the father of four would never get his chance to enjoy his retirement or his grandchildren. Um, we found him here, the red toolbox was right up against his face like he fell into it and kind of it was right up against his body. So no balls when we got there. And then I looked in the front and you could see something right in his forehead clearly

peer to be a gunshot wound. Other officers had already turned their attention to Rebecca, who was cowering inside the garage, hunkered down and covering her ears. Roo Camp, get her out of here so we can get her some life-saving measures. After being shot in the ear, the bullet lodging in the soft tissue at the back of her skull, Rebecca was nauseated and her head was buzzing. Typical symptoms of a severe head injury. She doesn't know what happened to her, okay?

Rebecca, do you know where he would go or where he lived? I don't know, where he lived. Where does he live? He lived in Manacello, do you know all the address at all? He's your best to get a full statement as much as she can do. Yeah, I mean, she's given us the most information so far. I'm trying to get her name and everything, but all I know is her sex boyfriend.

He showed up at the house, and at some point, and he just started shooting everybody. And they were all in that back garage, and I'm assuming they were working on a car, and he shows up, and that's all I know at this point. I don't know too much more just because she's like, kind of all over the place right now. Initially, Rebecca was in no condition to articulate the sequence of events that day,

let alone the possible motive. John, the mechanic, was ready and willing to tell everything he could, despite the gunshot wound to his mouth. A more detailed account of just how John knew Rebecca and her family, as well as the exact events of that day would later become crucial. John explained that his girlfriend knew Jim Gritner, and she felt they would easily become friends because of their commonalities. It was the very morning of the shooting when he actually met the Gritners and Rebecca,

though, the day he he actually met the Gritner's and Rebecca though. The day he volunteered to replace the radiator. John recalled that his girlfriend took him to the home of Jim and Julie Gritner about two hours from Oshkosh where Rebecca lived. Very good, because she was a recovering alcoholic as I am. And we just find we talk and talk and talk. We need to stop a minute here and point out a very revealing detail. John noted that both he and Jim Grittner were recovering alcoholics. That's very different from an active alcoholic, and strongly suggests that neither was drinking that day. It also hints at the traditional 12-step program in which members use the term recovering.

If you have a loved one in that program, then you know that for most people, the program works. In this 12-step process, members take on a sponsor who guides them through the levels from level one, admitting their parless over their addiction to level 12, carrying the message to alcoholics and practicing the principles in all affairs. Other steps encourage the person in recovery to make a list of everything they've done wrong and whom they've harmed, followed by actually reaching out to those people to make amends. People who are active in the program are very often found doing good deeds for others. And so it was, with John, on that traumatic day.

Interestingly, one of the 12-step slogans is, live and let live. An idea that Josh Aide had not heard of. Before making the almost two-hour drive to Oshkosh, John was conversing with his newly-made friends, the grutters at their home, and discovered that their daughter was in need of auto repair. He was happy to respond. John indicated that he didn't even know where they were heading when he got another car with Jim and drove off to help Rebecca. Until they actually entered the town of Oshkosh, he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. He also paid little attention to the phone call he

received from an angry Josh just before they left. Once Jim and John arrived at Rebecca's place in the late afternoon, they quickly arranged the things needed to repair the Tahoe. or waiting for a renegade there, three here. And she's brought two, so we hit her out, so the right one was, and I started selling the drugs and started hanging out there every year, and putting in another year, but at the end, and cleaning all the tools that I'm with it, and throwing the entry and all that, and I still had to do a lot of the chance mission yet,

and all that. And I asked him what time it was. He said it was, he said it was 22, so I told him to come back for hours, and I started cleaning all the tools, doing all the other things, and I started cleaning all the tools, cleaning everything up, and I was seeing the bad news on the passing side, really well, and I was at the front, and I was seeing her eye balls right up, I turned around, and Josh was standing there, and I said to him, I said, are you Josh? He said, yeah. I said, I'm talking about a lot of dust, sir.

And I turned that around. And I heard the effects of you, Josh. I heard pop, pop. I turned. And there was a red thing staring at me. And I just went down my bed, and got shot in the face. If you didn't already figure it out, the red thing John was talking about was the laser beam leaving Josh's gun and focusing on John's face.

And he did get away. With his quick reaction and ducking down and fleeing, John was able to get help, but help didn't come easily. Remember the man who let John in at the cost of cleaning up the blood in his home? He didn't want to let John in. on a let's on it. And what did you say, and who did you talk to when you came inside? Okay, that was what you did. Right, oh my, so you can't even close your call. It's a time to get out of my stuff shop. I've tried to get out of his call. And I'm on the one call, the one who is calling him,

and the service is calling somebody who's all he kept on me to get out of his house. You know, I said, I'm not even until you call help, get help. And I, when he finally did a call and then I went down by a store and I see a red truck that was towed on the end of Revis driveway.

I'm not in the driveway, but I'm in the end there. I see me at the leave and I went back to the scene to tell them I got help on the way, and the game was gone. Not very neighborly for Wisconsin. The mystery of this horrible and tragic day lay with the Tahoe. You see, the Tahoe was owned by both Rebecca and Joshua Aide. They had known each other for 14 years through the military where they met, and they had dated for five years off and on, as well as living together for much of that time. Joshua, or Josh, didn't want anyone else touching the Tahoe, especially a man he didn't know.

Josh argued that it didn't even need a radiator. Well, what did he care? I mean, Rebecca was the one driving it, right? The problem for Josh was that he knew this was the last day of his relationship with Rebecca, because she had made it clear earlier that day, and the day before that, that she had been wanting out of this relationship for some time. But kept getting lured back in by Josh's promises.

According to Rebecca, he was scary to live with. In order to get rid of one of the last possessions linking them together, Rebecca had made arrangements to return the Tahoe, but then changed the date when she determined the radiator had a crack in it. She and her family were setting out to return some of Josh's other belongings, too. Josh even offered to come and get things, but Rebecca felt that was a trap. When Josh found out someone else was going to be working on his vehicle, he volunteered to drive to Oshkosh,

another two-hour drive to repair it himself. Rebecca said no, repeatedly. She answered his text with a no, and she took his phone calls telling him not to come. Well, she didn't answer all the calls. There were more than 30 calls that day, within an hour and a half. But you know how they say it takes two.

Joshua had his own version of what happened, of course. And he told it close confidant about it that night. I had gone to bed, he called me, so it was at that time. His real comments to me was, I killed him all, and I thought he was giving me a bad time because it was late and he knew I would do better. And I guess I kind of laughed at him. He said, basically what had happened, and he said, they kept attacking he said they kept attacking me. They kept attacking me.

Why did they attack me? And I kept talking to him, got your ass, I don't know where he was at, where he was going. Instead of he was headed back to his place, I came up into my truck and headed out from the question to his friend. They attacked me. Why would they do that? Three people shot at very close range by one assailant, Josh Aide. Now 39-year-old Josh Aide was insisting on a very different version of the incident that day. First, a little bit more about him. Despite being retired from the Marine Corps Reserve, Josh's physical frame was less than formidable. At six feet tall, he weighed only 168 pounds,

making him actually kind of scrawny. His facial appearance was rather nerdy, and his dark hair no longer covered all of his head. In other words, he was balding. As an enlisted soldier, Josh had been on active duty for four years before being in the reserves, and he was deployed to Iraq twice and to Afghanistan once. Just before his retirement, he was in reconnaissance and secret operations. Later, Josh was also employed as a senior mechanical designer for GE Healthcare

of Madison, Wisconsin for 14 years. In 2010, he met Rebecca in the service where both he and Rebecca were senior staff. In 2015, they began dating. At first, they happily shared their interests of gun collecting and shooting, spending whole days at his place target shooting, soon the relationship deteriorated and Josh blamed this on Rebecca. It was mid-2018, around a time when she started taking medications for a secondary uncontrollable move of the swings, to go from hot to cold cold to hot. At the time Josh was living on a small farm in Monticello, Wisconsin, just about two

hours south of Vashkosh. He also inherited some money in a house when his father died in 2019. He said that Rebecca was pressuring him to sell the house and move with her to Nevada, where her parents resided at the time. Josh was not on board. By March of 2020, the relationship ended, but some of Josh's property was still at Rebecca's house, including the Tahoe that was in both of their names. This was the Tahoe at the center of it all.

The one that Josh says he dumped money into to make sure it was running smoothly when Rebecca borrowed it. One that Josh says he dumped money into to make sure it was running smoothly when Rebecca borrowed it. But after they separated, they both agreed it would be put in Josh's name only and return to him along with his other stuff. Before returning it, however, Rebecca would claim in July of 2020 just one month before the shooting that it needed a new radiator. After Rebecca produced a list of other minor things that needed to be repaired in the

Tahoe, Josh easily gave her the money to do so. But a cracked radiator, as Rebecca claimed, was not on the list. Josh felt very strongly that it was not necessary. According to Josh, Rebecca relied on him for financial support at times. And because Josh was estranged from his family, she would inherit more than a half million dollars of life insurance money should something happen to Josh.

This money was payable no matter what the cause of death would be, including suicide or even homicide. But back to the Tahoe, Josh finally agreed that if the Tahoe needed a radiator, he would go and do the repairs himself. He had the knowledge and means to do it. He even offered to come and get the Tahoe along with his personal belongings. She shot down, and he offers Josh Josh made. Interesting choice of words. She wanted this mechanic that she knew to do it. I never knew there was a family friend that was a mechanic or one. And all the other repairs that I paid for on her suburbanurban and the tunnel were taken to the

cert button can't create their notch. She had mentioned John and sent me his phone number on my request. He answered the phone and I asked basically who was and then I asked if he had any certifications. He'd say, no, I don't need any fucking certifications that have been done in this ship for 30 years. And then I diced glass in, if he was going to cry to warranty, he told me no, if it breaks down on his way home, is your cousin there? At which point I told him, then don't go work on the vehicle. His way home is your house, their parent.

At which point I told him that don't go work on the vehicle. I didn't want to get stuck in another situation where I believe in the messages I actually told her that I didn't want it on the half-ass. Someone without a certification, someone without a clinical guarantee taken at 140 miles. I'm just not comfortable with that when it's coming back into my ownership and the test report came down on the way and

then I'm stuck with a vehicle on the side of the road. They're not going to get it back to my house. But Rebecca was moving ahead with her plan to have the vehicle fixed at her house, in her driveway by her family friend John. Josh finally acquiesced and made a second offer. Um, basically she was saying that they were starting to work on the radio. And I had asked if she needed anything. I was trying to describe to her that there is a issue called a broke guard or a undercarriage guard, the seal plate underneath there. And with the nature of the age of the vehicle, the enderman and the snow, I was saying that those bolts are probably going to snap off.

And if I need to pick up any bolts, let me know where the radiator hose is. That's it. Also needed to be replaced in association with it because I did not know their age. And if the radiator is being replaced most likely to hose as well, we should prevent them from bursting from overpressure or just deterioration. Rebecca responded that she didn't need anything, but had given him John's phone number earlier,

so he didn't think it'd be a problem if he just showed up to give him a hand. But he was met with a setup, and he just happened to be licensed for conceal and carry, and he just happened to always have his gun with him. Josh claimed he arrived in Oshkosh at Rebecca's place at 8.20 pm. He denied making any stops along the way or having anything to drink. angle back into the driveway also. I pull into the driveway in parts, nose to nose with her vehicle, but stood back enough that it wouldn't block the side door entrance to her house. Got on my vehicle and I walked around the back of it and then see the pup to the driveway on the passenger side of my vehicle.

And then when I got around sea-pillar midsection of her jeep, her stepdad was there and he showed me backwards. This was very different from what Rebecca was saying about her stepdad Jim Grittner. I took two steps back and then basically, I just stepped around him to expose my back towards where Rebecca was. And then I just started walking backwards.

He pushed me a couple more times and I just started walking backwards. He pushed me a couple more times and I just kept walking backwards to what I would presume would be a state area where she was. I wasn't necessarily resistant of it and a clue I was going on. Rebecca's driveway that night? The mechanic John, as well as Rebecca's stepdad were both in drug and alcohol recovery. Had they relapsed? something for Dad struck me in my left side with his face. Josh recounted being struck in the side several times, causing him to be unsteady, but then Jim stepped up the intensity. He hopped back and hit me in the left me behind in my head. That started to feel kind of dizzy.

You see the stars. I thought that I was going to lose consciousness. If I take another, if you lose consciousness, you're pulled out of the ground, you don't want to happen to you. Clearly, Josh felt threatened and helpless. How many times would he be punched? What was Rebecca doing? And why wasn't she helping him?

I had seen them when I called out to Becky. They made visual contact with me. They knew what was going on. So I was positioned more to the right for being shifted to the right. At that point, I pulled mine and concealed carry weapon out of my left hand pocket. And Jim was rearing back to hand again. I, I, I, it wasn't necessarily and then I was literally trying to avoid hand but killed basically not to the ground. I didn't even have time to, I guess, what you define as as a reflected position would be to bring it out into a full extent. I didn't even have time to get it out to a full extent. After I shot, I saw a shuttered flinch of a potential impact. My back was exposed to the garage. At that point, I immediately spun around as I had no

clue what was going on behind me. At that point, I was so shy I am. Upon staying around, the mechanic John was in a Tomahawk fashion with an object that both is headed as if he intended to get me from the back up. Because he was also making an attempt to introduce very loud at Harmer, to somebody basically, I don't know if he was the attempt to attack me while my back was acting or not. Rebecca was the last one standing. John had run for help. Next, Josh sees Rebecca still in the garage.

I can see that Rebecca has a weapon raised to me. That weapon, he says, was a small black pistol. One of several guns she kept around the house, including a 380 Smith and Wesson pistol and several other firearms, some of which Josh had purchased for her. I saw the shadow pistol raised towards me and I shot again. I did not know it was the situation of life or death at that point. Rebecca fell to the ground, laying on her left hand side with pistol landing underneath the table.

Josh had just shot and potentially killed the woman he loved and was trying to reunite with, all seemingly over a radiator. At that point, I was confused as to what was going on, why they had a band attacking me. I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know if he went back into the house. He was gone, come on after me. He was about, can you go up the back? I didn't know if anybody was gonna go out of there

and fire down upon me in my position. So I've been getting seen. I've been seen back out through the same route that I've entered in. I didn't know anyone was in the driveway. So I turned around the corner. I got my vehicle alive. As far as Josh was concerned, this was an all-out ambush. He thought he was coming to the house

of his girlfriend to help out. Although he admitted he didn't want John or anyone else working on the Tahoe. He kept saying he was confused. Why would they attack him? One, two, three, just like that. They were all poised to harm him. One with his fists repeatedly pummeling against Josh, one with a heavy instrument from the garage, and finally the one he loved, with a gun. What on earth could this former marine do to protect himself, other than rely on his instincts and shoot to kill. When I hear a came out here, I think I've got a lot of tension, and I can't destroy my tongue. I thought I had a big, long body in my face to get a team of gannies. John would never be the same, forever losing his sense of taste after being shot by Josh Aide.

Even though Josh maintained that the mechanic was coming directly at him with an object in his hands, the facts would surface a little differently, of course. Since John was shot in the side of the face, he was clearly turning away. Rebecca's version of what happened was also very different from the killers. We were just wrapping up that project. We were just in talking, getting ready to start putting tools away. And the next thing I knew, I had looked to my right and it was trash. I first came up and I just looked at him and he said, hey,

boo, what you doing? So as we were starting the close, you know, we were wrapping up the radiator swap. I was standing next to John. We were looking over the radiator, so if the radiator's in front of me, and I'm looking at the hood, John looked standing to my right. So I went around the town hall to put that away, John had started going to the right because that's where one of the other toolboxes was, I started putting away his tools. And when I put the second down and I stood up and I turned around, there was a laser pointed in the middle of my forehead.

And I said, what the fuck, Josh? He tried to fire when that laser was on the middle of my forehead. And he missed and I was able to move just enough. I fell in and the next thing I knew, I was on my side. I had woken up and I had seen a health police officer nice to my desk for a focus and my eyes shifted to the right and that's where I saw my dad laying.

I remember saying help. I remember my dad was it moving, but I had also just spoken out for a come-to when I was vomiting and my hair was ringing really, really, really bad. I remember feeling it because it felt like I did just something, it didn't feel good. So I remember testing that and then seeing the blood, and I just started screaming hell. Unfortunately, Rebecca's father would not be able to give his version of what happened.

Jim, who had gotten his life together and was in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, was set to retire and Wisconsin. The move from Nevada was so recent that Rebecca's almost ex-boyfriend Josh didn't know they had moved back. He was unaware that Rebecca's dad was at her house that day to repair a Tahoe that Rebecca would soon be returning to Josh.

The main mechanic on the job that day was her dad's new friend, John, who was told by a boyfriend, Josh, not to work on the Tahoe. Knowing it was going to happen without his consent, Josh set out from Monticello to Oshkosh on a mission. He maintained that Rebecca assumed he was coming, but both Rebecca and John declared they told him not to come. Rebecca even told him if you come, the police will be called. But he came anyway. Remember that 911 call? The call that was prompted by none other than mechanic John after he managed to flee? Well Josh fled too, but he didn't call 911.

Instead, he made a stop for some beer and called his longtime friend. Then drove back home on other two hours. During this call, Josh claimed he was attacked and kept asking, why would they do that? Another phrase he repeated was, I fucked up. Okay. All right. He said to me, she, her father, verbally attacked him. Okay. Maybe even physically, I don't know. Okay. He's a 21 year Marine for first sergeant. Okay. And he's been in a little too many tours. Okay. Okay. I've never heard him this confused and I've known Josh. Okay. I'm 10 years. Okay. He's still confused. He lost and got lost in the Edison.

He must have been thrown off course when he stopped for beer. Note that his friend implies Josh may have PTSD or repercussions from too many tours. That puts a whole new spin on why Josh may have thought he was ambushed. Or maybe Josh was drinking before he showed up at Rebecca's. Rebecca described him as a functional alcoholic, and she would know since her father was in recovery from addiction. Well, Josh was talking about it. It was like he didn't know, see positive events other than the fact that he had shot them.

He thought at least two of them were dead. That was Josh's longtime friend discussing the conversation he had with Josh just after the murders. He finally convinced Josh to head home and said he would stay there with him until police arrived. When the friend arrived at Josh's residence, the property was swarming with cops who had already surveilled the scene. When they peered inside the windows of his house, they discovered it was loaded with firearms. Hey, so he is definitely coming back to the house and he's still armed.

We just had a friend of his pull-up that's been on the phone with him. And he's told this guy everything that he did and that he's coming back here. It sounds like he's got some PTSD issues from his Marine Corps. 21 years in the Marines, he's real confused and he was lost and Madison. So that was part of the problem. The other part of the problem was that Josh was shit-faced. No wonder he got lost in the very town he worked in. Police had no idea how things would go down when Josh finally returned in the wee hours of the morning.

All they knew was that they were as prepared as they could be. Blockades were set up to keep him from gaining access to his house, and many officers were wearing SWAT gear. Stop the vehicle, Sheriff's Office. Josh, turn off the vehicle. Turn off the vehicle. Josh, turn off the vehicle. Josh, turn off the vehicle. Turn off the vehicle. We want to help you, Josh. We don't want to hurt you.

Just come out with your hands over your head. All right, just step out with your hands over your head. Josh, we got to see your hands. Put your hands up. It was now quite obvious that Josh was, in fact, drunk. Staggering from the red Toyota, he managed to drive home after trying to execute three innocent people. His breath reaked of alcohol and he could barely walk a All right, clear the car boys girls. All right, just stay here All right, so you were up in Ash gosh and they requested that we try to locate you okay

We're gonna get everything figured out all right Do you have any injuries Josh? Okay Are we good here just a minute? Tell them one detained all of 10 to Okay, what is this about? Are we good here just a minute? Tell them one detained all of 10 to I need two to sling rifles and the other two to help me get him up on his feet Well, we just want to make sure you don't fall down okay Josh was slurring his speech and yeah he seemed confused. I don't know what this is about.

Who's going to come talk to me? This was a very different Josh than the one you heard earlier. On this night police did not find a placid and composed Josh articulating the details of his case. They found a scrawny man with a childlike demeanor. up there. I don't understand what I did. It's their investigation we're just assisting them. Alright, step out of the car for me. So what did I do? That is you will have to talk with them about that because I do not know the details. Yeah, I don't know the details either. I drove home. Alright, that's what I'm trying to take you up to them. Alright, we don't know what's going on either.

Alright, I can. All right. So can you just step out of the vehicle for me? Yeah, I can step out of the vehicle for you tonight. And I can be just flying. You just want me to get out first for me, all right? Yeah, I can be compliant. All right.

I really appreciate it, all right? I mean, I'm not trying to be a dickhead here. All right. Like, what is going on? Yeah. I would really like find out what's going on is that you went on a killing spree and you are now going to jail. And by the way, PTSD is real. It certainly is real.

Even though the term does get thrown around a lot by people who claim they get it from words they read online. Words of violence after all guys, but PTSD is not what caused this tragedy. No evidence was found indicating that anyone had threatened Josh that day. And all of Rebecca's guns were accounted for. She did not have any weapon when Josh pointed the laser of his gun directly at her forehead. After Josh's incarceration, he practically told on himself. He wasn't confused after all. This is what he said to his longtime friend. If you didn't understand him above the noise in the background, his words were, like I said, you're going to have to make the story sound good like you saw the whole thing. Here, Josh was referencing a conversation with his friend the night of the killings that

one got away. He chuckles a little and says, that doesn't sound good. Do you know what does sound good? Josh was sentenced to life in prison prison without the possibility of parole, plus another 80 years for shooting his ex-girlfriend, fatally shooting her father, and shooting his friend John the mechanic, the hero, with no teeth. Joshua Aide clearly valued his stuff, shooting three people over a shitty-used ta-ho with a broken radiator. He clearly valued his possessions more than the law would recognize.

Unfortunately, one of those possessions in his mind was his ex-girlfriend Rebecca. But people are not possessions. People are not your stuff. You can't treat them as such. So now, Josh finds himself in a small cell about the size of a storage stuff at all. No Tahoe, no girlfriend, no life, no future. Except in this case, no TV shows will be made, no TV personalities will be bidding for the contents of your storage Josh, because there's nothing in it other than useless trash All right, that's gonna do it for this episode of sword and scale. We hope you've enjoyed it Thank you so much for being here if you can please try please try to join Plus. Sword and Scale.com slash plus is where you get it. And you can also get the iOS and Android apps to listen. It's a fantastic service. So check it out. And make sure you check your radiators regularly for wear and tear. Stay safe. Nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke,ke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nekke, nek I'm Mike and everyone at Port Scales been a huge fan for years and years here.

I'm from FUNFUNWIDEHOME and it's nice to hear someone who's got their head on right in a world full of craziness here at R2022. I think they're still just as crazy as they were two years ago. Thank you for everything you do. Thank you for being strong and not getting to do it. What people think. We love it. Keep it up. Take mine. 1. Draw the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line of the line the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of the line of ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ‿ʻ ʻ‿ʻ � you