The Misery Machine - His Life Mission Was to Kill Sex Offenders

Episode Date: May 30, 2022

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the case of Patrick Drum, a farm worker turned vigilante from the Pacific Northwest who preyed upon sex offenders in his local area which he located using the Washington State Sex Offender Registry.  Prada's Fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-save-prada Check out Hollie's masks here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HollsNDolls Support Our Patreon For More Unreleased Content: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Join Our Facebook Group to Request a Topic: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequim,_Washington https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilcene,_Washington https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/12/the-vigilante-of-clallam-county/281968/ https://vinelink.vineapps.com/person-detail/offender/355257 https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/homicide-suspect-drum-was-featured-by-pdn-last-labor-day/ https://abcnews.go.com/US/patrick-drum-killed-sex-offenders-life-sentence/story?id=17274171 https://pencol.edu/aboutpc https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/news/accused-double-killer-might-have-had-vendetta-for-sex-offenders-prosecutor-suggests-gallery/ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.157873444226514&type=3 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15126031/melissa-leigh-carter

Following a man hunt in the woods, Drum was taken into custody. There are those who have been sympathetic to his cause. I honestly feel that it was justified. But today in court, Drum sat listening to the toll his actions had taken on two families. I don't have no sympathy for the man when he was shot. Kill my son. There's no way to explain how horrible it is. Watch your babies say their final goodbyes to their daddy,

trying to wake him up, shaking him, crying, Daddy up, Daddy up. Patrick Drome was described by folks that knew him as a kind person who enjoyed writing poetry and helping his less tech savvy neighbors learn to write emails and use their computers. He served as a mentor to young people, having formed a boxing team and coached youth boxing while taking classes at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington. He really wanted to build a community for young people that had difficult lives, and he wanted to steer them away from the vices that could tempt them.

Patrick's childhood in Port Angeles, and briefly in Northern California, was far from ideal. His parents, both addicts, had him about one year after their two other sons were put into foster care. They ended up divorcing soon thereafter. As a kid, Patrick remembers stealing his father's toluing, which is a solvent that his mother also used while pregnant, which sparked a lifelong addiction for both parents. Ultimately, they both died due to complications from this toluene use. His mother in 1996 at age 47 and his father the following year at age 50. Patrick learned quickly that adults, particularly men, could not be trusted.

When he was young, his father would spit tobacco in his face for doing something wrong, and then once strangled him unconscious in front of his friend. According to Patrick, adults watched as he arrived on the floor, doing nothing to save him. When he was six years old, Patrick stated that he walked in on his father when he was with a teenage girl, which he was later arrested for under a statutory offense. Wanting to be a positive role model, Patrick took a special interest in two teenage boys that he'd known since they were very small and took them on fishing trips. Patrick was something of a surrogate big brother to them. And when he learned that the two had been essayed by a local man by the name of Jerry Ray,

this obviously didn't fit well with him. Patrick spent most of his youth in and out of jail for substance-related offenses, having developed the same talewine addiction as his parents since the age of 16. He later served four years for a drug-related offense at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. During his stay, he noted the impact it had on him of witnessing career criminals serving 30 years or more. Patrick was 31 upon his release in 2009 and decided to pull all of his efforts into turning his life around. After a brief stint in a homeless shelter, Patrick obtained a dishwashing job and then subsequently gained employment as a farm laborer at Nash's organic grocery. Scott Chichester, one of the managers at Nash's, described Patrick as somebody who,

always wants to do the right thing, no matter how hard it is or how long it takes, and said talking to Patrick felt like talking to somebody who was already on a path to changing their life. Scott went on to say that most applicants that come to work at Nash's end up no longer wanting to do this kind of farm work once winter comes around. But Patrick was different. He was always there, willing to help, and willing to put in the time. In an interview, Patrick talked about how grateful he was to be at Nash's, saying that he got lucky in landing that job. He highlighted how job hunting is hard for those who have been convicted of felonies. With his second chance at life, Patrick wanted to be an example for others in similar situations as

him. Nash's was grueling work, but Patrick found it gratifying. Outside of his job, Patrick spent his free time hiking. It sounded like everything was going according to plan in this stage of his life. A local newspaper, The Peninsula Daily, highlighted Patrick as an ex-felon getting back on his feet and hopes to inspire others. Unfortunately, Patrick was laid off in 2011. Despite this, he didn't give up and had some other adventurous pursuits. He tried his hand at bottling rainwater from Forks to sell the Twilight fans at the now defunct website splashofforks.com and created an uncommissioned logo for the Seattle Seahawks.

Ultimately, these pursuits failed. In the early aughts, Patrick met and became friends with a woman by the name of Leslie Blanton while they were spending time in rehab together. However, they did know each other prior from the Port Angeles drug scene. Leslie had a husband named Gary Blanton Jr. And the two had a pretty gross pass together. Leslie and Gary forced a girl into a car,

kept her in an apartment against her will, and hit her in the head with their hands in a frying pan. Both were charged with kidnapping and did time for it. After the release, the couple welcomed Gary Blanton the third into the world in 2009, and Skyler Blanton in 2010. Despite Gary having a criminal history laced with violent offenses,

Leslie described him as a dedicated father, bringing her meals when she was pregnant, and reading to her stomach so the babies would get to know his voice. She even claimed that as a husband, he helped her reform her life. However, Gary had an even darker past that predated his relationship with Leslie.

When he was 17 years old, he was arrested for the SA of a seven, 17-year-old girl who was both deaf and mute. Gary advised Leslie about this offense early on in their relationship, but sugar-coded what actually occurred. He claimed that they were caught engaging in a consensual affair in public. Additionally, Gary's mother claimed that he was set up by the girl. As the two were both minors, details of this case were sealed.

Eventually, Patrick caught word of this, and it did not sit well with him, and he began to distance himself from the couple. Later that year, Leslie and Gary's youngest, Skyler, suffered a spiral fracture in his arm. The type of break that doctors would say required a relatively great force unless he had a bone disease, which he did not. Furthermore, doctors also discovered another two-week-old fracture on Skyler's thigh bone consistent with someone roughly grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to kneel. Due to the nature of these injuries, detectives were contacted V8.

email. Soon, Gary was arrested for suspected CA and later released on bail on the condition that he would stay away from his kids. Gary moved in with a woman named Mandy Smith, who soon asked him to leave for disrespecting her and her home. On one occasion where Patrick was visiting Gary and Mandy, an altercation took place, which resulted in Patrick punching Gary. Once the two men calmed down, Patrick did something quite unexpected. He asked Gary if he'd like to stay with him. He'd like to stay with him in a cottage he rented and squim for a while. Gary happily accepted, and soon he moved in, bringing his dog with him. As roommates, Patrick and Gary seemed to be getting along great, like old friends, joking around and having fun while they made dinner together. Gary was still in

regular contact with Leslie and all seemed cool for the two men. Patrick even had a new red Chevy and Paula that he was driving around. However, this was all a carefully calculated ruse, a Master plan that Patrick had been planning in secret for years. He'd stolen a gun, rented the new Chevy Impala as a getaway vehicle, and began gathering the names and addresses of convicted offenders in the area. Offering Gary a place to stay rent-free wasn't a goodwill gesture. It was bait, and Gary took it. It was the only way to get him into an isolated area to execute him.

On June 2nd, 2012, Patrick scrambled to get food and camping supplies together, whilst Gary sat at his computer in a pair of gray flannel pajama bottoms playing World of Warcraft with his dog laying next to his feet. While Gary was immersed in questing, Patrick slipped out the door and cut the power. Gary often chatted with other players via services such as TeamSpeak and Ventrillo, and Patrick didn't want anyone to hear what was about to happen next. wielding a 9mm pistol, Patrick busted open the door and started firing into the dark. After running to his car to reload and grab a flashlight, he found a bullet-riddled Gary on the floor, still alive and on the phone with 911. Gary managed to tell the operator, help 911, I'm being shot, before Patrick shot him in the head and then kept on shooting afterwards.

Gary's dog was unharmed, and before leaving with a backpack containing a thumb-drive, camouflage clothes, a map, and other vicarious. various survival supplies, Patrick placed a letter titled Declarations and a lollipop with a scorpion inside next to Gary's body. Part of the note read, quote, when I was younger, I was at a pet shop. I saw these three scorpions in an aquarium. One was a pregnant female and two were males. As I approached, the female tucked into a protective ball. The two males got in front of her in a full battle-ready posture, tails up, claws out and open. Being young and curious, I played a game and used my hands to circle the aquarium in different directions.

Each male picked a hand and moved with it, never leaving her side and staying between the hand and her. This spirit always impressed me, end quote. Armed with his list of 60 names that he had carefully selected from the Washington State Offender Registry, Patrick set out on his mission. He picked on the most egregious offenders, not those who were on the list for peeing in public. The men in question lived along the peninsula at the base of the Olympic Mountains in towns such as forks, squim, and quiltsin. However, Patrick had someone very specific in mind to check off his list, and that man was Jerry Ray. Jerry Ray had done four years in prison for the essay of the two boys that Patrick used to take fishing. The boys were seven and four years old at the time,

and Jerry had told police that he was drunk and couldn't resist the urge before he picked both of them up and carried them to another room while they were fighting him. He had struggled with addiction and alcoholism throughout his life and underwent offender therapy and rehab while in prison. Jerry was now 57, divorced, disabled due to a back injury, and living with and caring for his elderly father, Paul. He had taken care of his mother until she died of Alzheimer's and enjoyed his time with his three Pekingese dogs,

a black Persian cat, and a gray and white parakeet named Tweedy. Patrick had actually been planning to kill Jerry for a number of years now, in fact. He had actually planned to stab him on New Year's Eve, but his 2005 arrest for burglary foiled those plans. He was actually pretty nervous about approaching Jerry's home, as he was ex-military, and Patrick was worried that he might have weapons of his own. It was early morning, the sun wasn't even up yet, and Patrick worked up his nerve and knocked on Jerry's door,

hoping that he'd answer so that he could quickly shoot him in escape. However, no one answered. Leaving the rental car in the driveway, Patrick went for a walk to collect his thoughts. Afterwards, he returned to the Ray home and busted in the front door, causing a chaotic mix of barking and screeching from the animals in the house. Patrick charged down the hallway and shot a confused Jerry Ray, who was roused due to all of the commotion, first in the stomach, then in the back after Jerry attempted to retreat into his bedroom,

and finally shot him once more while Jerry Rory. Ray was dying on the floor. During all of this, Jerry's father, Paul, remained asleep in a nearby room. He briefly awoke and heard some commotion, but thought it was the dogs being rowdy and ultimately went back to sleep. Before leaving the Ray home, Patrick left a note and a scorpion lollipop in their mailbox. Patrick ditched the red Chevy Impala in the woods and fled on foot, ultimately hitching a ride with a trucker headed toward Blue Mountain Road. But this wasn't simply some joyride or escape. Patrick had other plans, and his next target lived in Quilcine just off a cleared trail under a strip of power lines that would take him to the town. However, the elder

Ray had awoken to find his son's dead body and contacted the police, who deployed a number of checkpoints in response, one of which was on Blue Mountain Road. When Patrick saw the patrol ahead, he told the trucker to pull over and bolted into the forest. It was the same trucker. that tipped off police once he reached the checkpoint. Soon, about 65 police and border patrol officers were deployed for the manhunt. Patrick tried to stay hidden, but he was spotted by police after they were tipped off about his whereabouts. The initial plan was to flush Patrick out of the woods by boxing him in and giving him two choices, fully into the mountains where there were no roads to travel by and where he couldn't hurt anyone,

or fall into their grasp. Well, Patrick never made it that far. A half an hour later, a Border Patrol agent spotted him near a driveway and a small group of police officers chased him and tackled him. As police led Patrick towards the squad cars on Blue Mountain Road, Patrick turned to them and commended them on a job well done, as he didn't think they'd catch him so quickly. Although Patrick initially asked to represent himself in court, he ultimately decided to plead guilty and forego a trial. as he said he came to the realization that it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars for him to defend himself in court through a trial. The prosecutor in charge of Patrick's case considered trying him for the death penalty, but ultimately changed her mind. When later asked why, she said there were two main factors.

For one, he had unusual support both in the county and with many strangers online. The second factor was that she doubted she could convince 12 jurors to give Patrick. a death sentence. These types of offenders that Patrick targeted are not the easiest to empathize with, even if they've been killed in cold blood. The other factor was Patrick's history of drug addiction, tallywing in particular, which can cause paranoid psychosis, hallucinations, and damage to the brain. Although he claimed he was clean and only had a single beer on the night of the killings, his blood work showed that Patrick had toluene in his system, which meant that he was using within a couple weeks of the crime.

Additionally, Patrick was harboring another secret that he divulged during a phone interview. When he was 10 or 11 years old, he too was preyed upon by a man in his 30s who got him drunk in the woods and violated him. Too drunk and unable to walk, Patrick attempted to crawl home until a good Samaritan spotted him and drove him the rest of the way. Other contributing factors also led Patrick on his unusual quest to hunt down and kill offenders, including the homside of a Port Angeles girl named Melissa Carter, whose decomposing body was found near a popular trail

the day after Christmas in 2004. Police believed that she was essayed and strangled to death. Patrick also met a man in prison in 2005 while doing time for burglary named Michael Anthony Mullen. Michael actually had killed two offenders after posing as a concerned citizen there to warn them about a vigilante hunting down predators. The two hatched a plan for Patrick.

to sneak poison into the prison so that Michael could continue killing these offenders in secret while on the inside. However, Michael passed away before their plans came to fruition. His death only empowered Patrick regarding his decision to carry on Michael's work once he was released. It was never my intent to hurt the families involved. That's like collateral damage that I feel bad about. And if anybody is bothering folks, the families of my victims, I would ask if they not do that. As far as the men themselves, actions speak louder than mortals. Patrick Drum was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He's currently being held within the Washington Department of Corrections in Tumwater, Washington. He's expressed being an unhappy person in prison and only receives about a letter a week, and it's rarely from a fan, unlike Gary Ridgeway, who gets piles of mail. A week after Patrick was sentenced, he stabbed a 19-year-old inmate with a plastic utensil. that he sharpened into a shiv. Patrick did so because he knew this inmate was an offender, but the man survived the attack. After he did a stint inside solitary confinement,

Patrick was released back into the general population, but months later he was at it again. This time, he took a shiv he made out of a toothbrush and a razor blade and tried to kill another offender while in the prison's gymnasium. Prison guards were able to intervene before the inmate was seriously hurt. Patrick claimed this man had, said essayed a friend of his from Port Angeles. Due to these two attacks, Patrick was placed in permanent solitary confinement where he remains

to this day. Anytime he leaves his cell, his legs and arms are shackled. He works out and reads a lot and has been collecting information about alternative offender sentencing that allows offenders to be released faster if they undergo treatment. It's Patrick's hope that he can find someone to advocate against this from the outside. When interviewed by the Atlantic, Patrick was open about his past and how it affected his decision to make the choices that have led to his current fate. When asked if his father, provided he was still alive, would have made his hit list. Patrick admitted it was complicated.

While his relationship with his father was not a good one, he felt uncomfortable with the idea of patricide. He was quick to say that if another man committed the same exact acts as his father, then that man would be able to be. definitely have made it onto the list. So then, what if someone else like Patrick had killed his father for the same reasons? Without hesitation, Patrick stated, quote, I think he did things that deserved, that merited death. I think he deserved that. I think somebody should have, end quote.

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