The Misery Machine - Nathaniel Bar-Jonah: The Cannibal Pedophile Police Refused to Lock Up

Episode Date: August 15, 2022

This week, Drewby and Yergy discuss the case of Nathaniel Bar Jonah, a convicted child molester, suspected cannibal, and suspected serial killer who was sentenced to 130 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of the kidnapping, aggravated assault, and sexual assault of various children. 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://allthatsinteresting.com/nathaniel-bar-jonah https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/east-valley/2008/04/14/sex-offender-s-death-leaves/52449323007/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bar-Jonah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester,_Massachusetts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouija https://worcesterdiocese.org/st-john-cemetery https://www.worcesterma.gov/parks/hope-cemetery https://web.archive.org/web/20111009231207/https://www.spj.org/images/sdxa00/2text.html https://missoulian.com/victim-of-notorious-child-molester-held-on-rape-kidnap-charges/article_a34621dc-b8f5-51b2-acd0-b483581b114d.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oeFqiaal3A&t=18s&ab_channel=JoshuaMiles https://www.doj.nh.gov/criminal/cold-case/victim-list/james-teta.htm https://vocal.media/criminal/nathaniel-bar-jonah

He was carrying a fake badge, pepper spray, and a stun gun. Nathan Bar-Jona was arrested for impersonating a police officer. After Bar-Jona's arrest, investigators searched his apartment. They found photographs, journals written in a secret code, and something even more alarming. Hey guys, it's Yergy. You guys asked, so we delivered. We have official Misery Machine T-shirts for a limited time price of just $15 with free shipping inside of the U.S. and just $10 for shipping anywhere else in the world. We're running low on sizes, so make sure you get your orders in today.

Check out the miser machine.com slash merge to place your order today. Thanks and back to the episode. Nathaniel Barjona was born David Paul Brown on February 15, 1957, in the central Massachusetts city of Worcester. At a very early age, Nathaniel showed signs that he was a peculiar child, including picking his skin until it bled and sucking the blood out in the middle of his classes. But the mere peculiarity soon took on a more. sinister air. In 1964, Nathaniel received a Ouija board as a gift for his seventh birthday.

For those unfamiliar, a Ouija board, also known as a spirit board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the number zero through nine, the words yes, no, occasionally hello and goodbye, along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood called a planchette as a movable indicator to spell out messages during a seance. Participants placed their fingers on the planchette and it has moved about the board to spell out words. Under the guise of trying his paranormal gift out, Nathaniel lured a five-year-old neighbor into his basement where he attempted to strangle her. Thankfully, the little girl was able to scream loud enough for Nathaniel's mother to hear her before things became too dire, and she was rescued,

unharmed but shaken about what had transpired. Nathaniel's mother shrugged off the incident, and the little girl's parents never alerted authorities. Sadly, the assumption that Nathaniel was just playing rough and didn't know what he was doing caused a repeat offense in 1970. Nathaniel was now 12 years old and yet again, alert a young neighbor, this time a six-year-old little boy, into a secluded area under the guise that he was going to take him sledding. But instead of a fun afternoon of sledding in the cold New England snow,

Nathaniel had other more sinister plans. The 13-year-old essay, The Little Boy, which would become a pattern of behavior throughout his youth that went on unreported and unpunished for years. Just a few years later, Nathaniel, now a teenager, attempted to lure two neighborhood boys who were riding their bikes down his street into a nearby cemetery. New England is known for its sprawling garden cemeteries full of towering obelisks and stately mausoleums. Worcester is no exception. The city boasts the likes of St. John. and Hope Cemetery, to name a few. These cemeteries are great for taking a walk and paying your respects, bird watching,

or simply enjoying the intricate stones and tombs that line the yards and hillsides. However, if you're up to no good, cemeteries can also serve as a venue for darker behaviors. And that's exactly what Nathaniel was up to. In fact, he intended to kill the two boys in that cemetery, but one of them just had a gut feeling that something wasn't right. Little did that boy know. He saved both of their lives that day. As the years went on, Nathaniel's twisted behavior began to escalate,

and in 1975 at the age of 17, he targeted 8-year-old Richard O'Connor while he was on his way to school. Dressed as a police officer, Nathaniel flashed a badge and subsequently abducted young Richard. He subsequently began to essay and strangled the boy. Luckily, a neighbor who was noisily peeking out her window noticed the commotion and contacted authorities with the description of Nathaniel's car, and the police began the search immediately. The vehicle was parked in a car park far away from any other vehicle. Police called for backup, and Nathaniel was ordered out of the car. Inside, 8-year-old Richard was unconscious and barely alive.

The little boy was covered in blood in human waste, but he survived. Despite committing what was essentially abduction, essay, and attempted homicide, Nathaniel received only a year's probation. The slap on the wrist didn't stop Nathaniel, and days before his high school graduation, he made the hour drive southwest to the nearby city of Hartford, Connecticut, where yet again, he followed his prior MO of police impersonation. This time he abducted an essay to nine-year-old girl whom he threw from his vehicle after she began to convulse and vomit all over his car during the incident. A good Samaritan witnessed what happened and rendered aid to the little girl and took down Nathaniel's license plate number and contacted authorities.

Once again, Nathaniel was caught and arrested. However, communication between jurisdictions was clearly terrible in the 1970s because news of the incident in Hartford never made its way back to Nathaniel's probation officer, and thus no violation was ever recorded. He was subsequently paroled in May of 1976, with authorities in Connecticut having no idea that this wasn't an isolated incident. When Nathaniel's probationary period was over for his prior arrest for the incident involving Richard O'Connor, he received a letter from authority. thanking him for his cooperation in the matter. The combined charges that Nathaniel Bargona had been convicted for had been enough to put other men away in prison for most of, if not their entire lives. These were extremely light sentences that were handed out for some pretty horrendous crimes,

and one would think that Nathaniel was given a second chance at life to either lay low or get himself on the straight and arrow. But not him. He felt emboldened by the fact that he basically got away with abduction, essay, and a attempted homicide multiple times. The result was that Nathaniel was reinvigorated for his hunt for kids to prey upon. On September 24, 1977, Nathaniel posed as an undercover FBI agent and convinced two boys coming out of White City Cinemas in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts to get into his car. Just as in previous incidents, Nathaniel transported the boys to a secluded area to commit his crimes. The boys were handcuffed, essayed, and tortured by means of crushing.

Nathaniel was currently in excess of 375 pounds, and he began jumping on the chest of one of the boys in attempt to break all of his ribs and damage his internal organs. His intent was to kill the boy, and in the face of such a terrifying attack, the boy managed to play dead, even with Nathaniel kicking him repeatedly and flicking cigarette ashes on him to make sure he was dead. Nathaniel threw the other boy into his trunk and drove off. The battered and bruised boy later identified. is Alan Enricytus, ran to find help.

Nathaniel soon was arrested, and thankfully, the boy that he had stashed in his trunk was still alive. This time, the judge threw the book at him. Well, sort of. Nathaniel Barjona was convicted of attempted homicide and received the maximum sentence of 18 to 20 years in prison. While in prison, Nathaniel was transferred to Bridgewater State Hospital, which is located about an hour south of Boston. This was due to the fact that during his incarceration,

he began meeting with a psychiatrist. After hearing him describe his fantasies, which revolved around killing, dissecting, and eventually eating minors, the psychiatrist recommended that he be moved into a mental facility. While hospitalized, Nathaniel changed his name from David Paul Brown to Nathaniel Benjamin Levi Barjona on March 22, 1984, citing that he wanted to know what it was like to be discriminated against and persecuted as a Jew. However, he later stated that he was Jewish and wanted his name to reflect that. Nathaniel had only been incarcerated in prison in a state hospital for less than 13 years

when Superior Court Judge Walter E. Steele ruled that the state of Massachusetts had failed to prove that Nathaniel was a dangerous threat to society. Due to this, he was released from custody in the summer of 1991 and was supposed to relocate to Great Falls, Montana to live with his mother. During this time, it was recommended that he seek outpatient psychiatric help. It should be clear that the judge did not mandate Nathaniel's psychiatric visits. It was merely a suggestion upon his discharge. And no surprise, Nathaniel did not take that advice, nor had he moved from the area,

and nor was he able to control his disgusting urges. On August 9th of 1991, just a month after being released from the Bridgewater State Hospital, Nathaniel spotted a seven-year-old boy sitting alone in a parked car outside of a post office in Oxford, Massachusetts, just a short drive from his home city of Worcester. Nathaniel had lost 100 pounds while in custody, but he was still a really big guy. He weighed in at about 275 pounds. Now, using that weight to his advantage yet again, Nathaniel entered the vehicle and managed to sit on the boy's chest. Thankfully, witnesses as well as the little boy's mother came to his rest. which caused Nathaniel to flee the scene.

In a strange turn of events, however, the responding officer actually recognized Nathaniel's description from over 15 years earlier, and he was later arrested. Now, initially he concocted a story that involved him entering the car to escape the rain, but he eventually admitted that he fully intended to kill that boy. And what was the punishment for admitted attempted homicide from a repeat offender? Probation in the state of Montana. Montana, and yet again, authorities from the different jurisdictions failed to communicate with one another. Due to this lack of communication, Nathaniel was quick to blend into the local community of Great Falls, a quaint town about two hours north of the Helena Lewis and Clark National Forest. He managed to lay low for a few years, but by winter of 1996, he was up to his old tricks again.

On February 6 of that same year, 10-year-old Zachary Ramsey, known to his family as Zach, left his apartment around 7.34 in the morning to get to school. He was last seen wearing a blue denim jacket with green sleeves, a blue football jersey with his last name imprinted on the back in gold letters, stonewash jeans, and black high-top sneakers. Like many of us that walked or rode bikes to school, we all had a usual route that we take to avoid traffic, street crossings, or people we just didn't want to see.

Zach's route went through an alleyway near the 400 block of 4th Street north. However, somewhere between where the alleyway cuts into 6th Street and comes out onto 7th, Zach disappeared, and he's never been seen or heard from since. Zach was cited a few times up until that point. A family of three who lived in an apartment in the alleyway reported seeing him that morning, and also reported seeing a cream-colored four-door sedan nearly run him over. Another witness reported seeing Zach standing in the alleyway in that he appeared to be waiting for someone.

Yet another witness who lived near the end of the alleyway reported seeing Zach at 7.45 a.m. He appeared to be in distress and an obese man was following close behind him. Another witness who was taking out their trash actually identified Nathaniel Barjona by name and noted that he was standing beside a dumpster in the same alleyway at 7.15 a.m. a mere 15 minutes prior to when Zach made his trek to school. The witness noted that he was wearing a navy blue jacket that, was akin to something a police officer might wear. The same witness also reported seeing Zach enter the alleyway later and then noted that Nathaniel was still standing beside the dumpster.

With very few leads and due to the fact that police in Montana were unaware of Nathaniel's history in Massachusetts, which was also a fact that was cited by activists campaigning to force former offenders to register, unfortunately, Zach Ramsey's case eventually went cold. Meanwhile, Nathaniel was living in a nearby apartment complex. He had been secretly luring young boys from the area into his apartment before essaying them. He even installed a pulley in the ceiling where he hung at least one of them by the neck. One mother grew suspicious when her son became withdrawn and angry after spending time with Nathaniel, but no one thought that someone in Great Falls could be actually doing such horrible things to their kids.

As such, the crimes went undiscovered for years. However, Nathaniel simply couldn't control himself yet again and was arrested in 1999 outside of a local elementary school. He was carrying a fake gun, pepper spray, and was dressed in a police uniform. At first, the charge was for simply impersonating a police officer, something Nathaniel was no stranger to doing. However, after searching his home and finding, amongst other things, many pictures of young kids cut out of magazines and a bone that was identified as a bone. belonging to an unknown young male, Montana police charged Nathaniel with kidnapping, SA, and the killing of Zach Ramsey. Prosecutors announced that they would be seeking the death penalty.

Police investigations conducted years after Zach went missing, determined that Nathaniel had access to his mother's cream-colored four-door 1978 Toyota Corolla the day the boy disappeared, and that his mother and brother were out of town for a funeral. It was also determined that Nathaniel didn't work on the day of Zach's disappearance, nor on the days immediately proceeding. While searching his apartment, detectives found a list of 22 boys' names, which included minors that Nathaniel had previously attacked, as well as Zachary Ramsey, followed by the word, died.

Police uncovered dozens of newspaper clippings that were following the Zach Ramsey case in Nathaniel's apartment. A former roommate of Nathaniel described finding clothes in his home, which appeared to match those that Zach Ramsey was wearing the day he disappeared in a, addition to a pair of bloody gloves. Another roommate as well as others close to Nathaniel stated that he would bring up Zach Ramsey just randomly in unprompted in conversation. Investigators also found notebooks with seemingly arbitrary characters that were believed to be written in a secret code that only Nathaniel knew. For the help of the FBI and after months of effort, the writings were

finally decoded and what they found was something straight out of a horror story. In the notebooks, Nathaniel described torturing and eating kids and even included some of his alleged favorite recipes, which included Little Boy Pot Pie and French Fried Kid. Now, this discovery made numerous people in his neighborhood very nervous. As after Zach Ramsey went missing, Nathaniel began to hold cookouts in which he was reported to serve burgers, spaghetti, chili, meat pies, casseroles, and other similar dishes to guests. At many of these cookouts, a number of neighbors told Nathaniel that the meat had a peculiar, almost gamey taste to it, to which he responded that he had gone hunting and used venison

in his dishes, and noted that he personally hunted, killed, butchered, and wrapped the meat of the deer. However, Nathaniel did not own a rifle or a hunting license, and it's been alleged that he's never even been hunting in his entire life. Even though Nathaniel was known to be a voracious eater who weighed in excess of 300 pounds, bank records indicated that he had not made any significant grocery store purchases for nearly a month after Zach Ramsey had disappeared, fueling the speculation of cannibalism. Additionally, Hair was found inside of a meat grinder in Nathaniel's apartment and it tested positive for human DNA. However, it was not a match for Zach, nor was the human bone that was also recovered.

When detectives sprayed Nathaniel's garage with phosphorus chemicals while investigating his involvement in the Zach, Ramsey disappearance. The word Tida appeared, which led authorities to believe that Nathaniel may have been responsible for the abduction of James Tita, a Massachusetts boy who was kidnapped on August 23rd in 1973. His body was discovered on August 25, 1973 in Ringe, New Hampshire. An autopsy confirmed that he had been essayed and strangled to death. Nathaniel would have been 16 years old at the time of the killing, and the manner of death certainly matched his M.O. Additionally, Ringe, New Hampshire is a mere one-hour drive north from Nathaniel's home city of Worcester, so it's certainly possible that he could indeed be the person responsible for James Tita's death. Nathaniel was tried for the abduction and

essay of the three boys and convicted of kidnapping, essay, amongst other charges. Now, Zach Ramsey's mother was swayed by Nathaniel's defense team to testify for them that she believed her son was still alive. And because of this, this led jurors to not convict Nathaniel for Zach's death, though they were convinced that he was an extreme deviant and a dangerous predator. During Nathaniel's trial, 36-year-old Mary Patron recognized him as the man who had abducted and essayed her by dressing as a police officer in 1974. However, the statute of limitations had expired, and Nathaniel could not be charged with a crime. Investigators also suspected Nathaniel in the disappearance of seven-year-old Janice pocket 10 months earlier. Nathaniel was sentenced to 130 years in prison. He maintained his innocence

up until his death on the morning of April 13th, 2008, when he was found unresponsive in his prison cell. Due to his age and lifelong obesity, Nathaniel had been in poor health. His post-mortem examination found significant levels of LDL in his arteries and a myocardial infarction, which was determined to be his cause of death. Despite the objections of Zach Ramsey's mother, a judge declared the 10-year-old boy legally dead in 2011. To this date, no one actually knows if Nathaniel Barjona killed anyone, let alone serve their bodies up to neighbors at cookouts. However, he's thought to be responsible for the disappearances of people in Massachusetts,

Montana, and even Wyoming. On the morning of October 13, 1997, 14-year-old Amanda Gallion left her home at approximately 7.15 in the morning and made her commute to school by bike. disappearing along the way. Amanda was often mistaken for a boy in her Gillette Wyoming neighborhood. Her bike was subsequently found on the side of the road off I-90, but Amanda was never seen again. Nathaniel arrived in Gillette on the night of October 12, 1997, where he stayed in a small motel in the outskirts of town and was back in his Montana residence the following night. Police initially believed that Amanda had run away with her 19-year-old boyfriend, Patrick Garing,

who disappeared six days later. Patrick has also never been seen. again. What we can state, however, is that Nathaniel was a repeat offender, a predator that prayed on minors and didn't deserve all of the chances he was given. And we say this all the time. If you see something, say something. And usually when we say this, most of you think this applies to bystanders who had a choice of intervening when they witnessed a stranger being harmed. Well, I will say there were many instances where good Samaritans acted quickly to save some of these from Nathaniel, the people who failed to say something when they saw red flags were Nathaniel's own parents. And while it can be unimaginable for some parents to admit that their son or daughter

has intentions of harming someone, you still have a duty as a parent to get them help before it goes too far. Had his mother taken seriously the Ouija board incident where Nathaniel strangled that little girl back in in 1964, I think it's safe to assume that none of this would have happened. And who knows how many kids would have been spared the evil hand of Nathaniel Barjona. And in the case of Zach Ramsey would still be alive today.