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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. You know what?
Thank you for listening to our podcast. Last week, I mentioned that you can now get our bonus content and ad-free content through Spotify. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. It's still through Patreon, but what you can do is if you look at our links or if you go on Spotify, there's a whole other show called Murder With My Husband Bonus or something along those lines. And again, we're going to link it below.
If you click that, you'll see all the bonus content. It all has a lock on it, which means you can't access it unless you're a Patreon or sign up through Spotify. Basically, what you can do is you can click that new show and it'll redirect you to what you need to do to unlock that content.
If you have any other questions, feel free to shoot us an email or you can just go straight to patreon.com or if you listen on Apple, we have our bonus content there as well. It's a little double tap in ad free and bonus episodes. A reminder, it's all the same content and it's all the same price. It's just kind of different ways to access it. Speaking of which, we did a bonus episode this weekend. Woo wee. Oh man, that was probably one of the... The worst cases. Most disturbing cases I've ever heard and...
I yeah, it's called the groany family and I went to bed shaking. Yeah, I didn't know it was not It was a lot. Yeah, it was super heavy. All right. Do you have your 10 seconds? I mentioned this on our bonus episode Last week this week and I was just talking about how much I want to travel I just got the travel bug. I just want to go to like london or I don't know somewhere else, but
i don't know it's just hard got a lot of work going on and that's a big trip i wish i could cook like i wish i was an amazing cook because peyton and i shamelessly we eat out quite a bit more than we should we just we're not good at making food at home that's just the bottom line and so i wish i could cook because i feel like i just get so sick of eating food like so sick of going out i just
It's all different, but it all just tastes the same at the same time. You know what I'm saying? I just want a good, just old crock pot meal. Something just nice and warm. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's something we're trying to get better at is cooking food at home. The problem is neither of us enjoy doing it. Neither of us enjoy cooking. And by the time I finish cooking, I no longer want to eat that food because I've been touching it and looking at it for too long. I know. That's how I feel. I'll cook a whole meal, and then I'll be like...
Well, I don't want to eat this anymore. Yeah, I've been staring at it for an hour. I don't know. Trying to get better at that. Shameless plug, HelloFresh. Go ahead and check them out. Yeah, that is the only time that it's like pretty decent to cook because it doesn't take an hour. Not a sponsor. Just plugging it. But you still use our code. Husband. Also, it's going to sound insane, but after watching that video I watched last night, I kind of want to do an Iron Man. No. Cody Trains? Yeah, I was watching a Cody Co. video. If you don't know who he is...
Um, he has a separate channel, which I watch, which is Cody trains. And he just ran an, he just ran an Ironman and kind of motivated me to run an Ironman. I'd completely, I die for sure. If I tried. But you could swim and bike. I could swim, bike, running would be the hard part.
I don't even think that would be that hard for you. Like, okay, the Ironman would be hard, but I mean, I feel like you're pretty good at running. Yeah. I just, that's a lot. Swimming that much, biking that much, and then running that much. Like, I can't really swim. Because I forget, I think it's, you swim 2 point something miles, then you bike 100 something miles, and then you run 26 miles. Like, that's insane. So, I'll keep everyone updated. Maybe I'll start training for an Ironman, and I'll have to start training.
Posting Cody trains video somewhere or something, but Gary trains Gary trains I don't know we'll see I just I think I'd probably pass out and die if anyone has ever run an Ironman props Let's hear it in the comments because I think it's pretty cool Yeah, brag about it and not many people have done that and your star your you're a star star. You're a big old star You shine like the top of the Chrysler building you are a star and
So come train me. Let's do an Ironman together. That's it. Let's hop into it.
Our case sources are My Stolen Son, The Nick Markowitz Story, LATimes.com, AllThat'sInteresting.com, CBS News, MyStolenSon.com, TrueCrimeWire.com, Murderpedia, True Crime Fanatic, NBCNews.com, and Wikipedia. Okay, so they say actions have consequences, right? I guess so. And for many of us, we take those consequences into consideration whenever we make big decisions. Like, how can this choice affect my life? And is the reward worth the risk?
The thing we sometimes forget to consider is the collateral damage. How can my choices and my actions affect those around me? How will they affect the people I love?
And if 20-year-old Ben Markowitz had asked himself this question back in the year 2000, we might not be sharing this case with you today. Then again, Ben probably never could have imagined that his poor decisions would lead to the kidnapping and cold-blooded murder of his 15-year-old brother, Nick. Okay. And that's the case we are talking about today.
Born in September of 1984, Nick Markowitz grew up in West Hills, California. It's a quiet, more residential area northeast of Los Angeles, just north of Malibu and Calabasas. Nick's mother, Susan, was a stay-at-home mom, and his father, Jeff, worked in aviation manufacturing. He also had two older half-siblings on his dad's side, Leah and Ben, who'd split their time between their mother and their father's house.
Now, being six years younger, Nick looked up to his older brother, Ben. But the two couldn't have been more different, at least in their early years. Nick was an avid reader who played the piano and loved doing theater. He wasn't much for sports, but loved practicing taekwondo and competed in the spelling bee.
When it was time for him to start freshman year at El Camino Real High School, not much had changed other than his interest in girls had escalated. Well that, and he started following Ben's lead on a few things, and not in a good way.
Even from an early age, Ben had trouble controlling his impulses. He sometimes acted out for attention and in ways that came across as aggressive. He found himself socializing with an older, rougher crowd and regularly got himself into trouble.
At age 11, he and a friend were caught piercing car tires around town with a screwdriver. That same year, he stole his friend's parents' car, took a few buddies for a ride, and ended up crashing it, wrecking three other cars in the process. Remember, this is at 11 years old. That's nuts. But at age 13, it got even worse when Ben one day came home with a gun.
He said he needed it for protection against some kids at school. 13 years old.
Yeah. Now, naturally, Susan, Nick's mom, who's Ben's stepmom, was terrified of having Ben in the house around Nick. So she has her biological son, Nick, and then her stepson, Ben. And she's now nervous to have Ben around her younger son, especially when a 16-year-old Ben was arrested and sent to juvenile detention for grand theft auto and assault with a deadly weapon.
But what could Susan do? This was her husband's son. He needed their help. Ben split time between his mom and his dad's house. So after serving his sentence, she and Nick really didn't have a choice but to welcome Ben back into their lives.
And Nick, well, as he reached his high school years, he wanted to spend time with his more edgy, cooler, older brother. And Ben entertained it. He began taking Nick with him to some parties. And I'm not talking about some just like innocent backyard barbecues. The parties Ben went to were at the home of one of the biggest drug dealers in the area at Jesse James Hollywood's home. And yes, according to his birth certificate, that's his real name, Jesse James Hollywood.
Wait, his last name's Hollywood. Yes. I wasn't saying Hollywood's home. Okay. I was saying Jesse James Hollywood's home. That's insane. His last name's actually Hollywood. Yes. That means his family's name is Hollywood or did he change it? No, that's his family name.
And oddly enough, it would also fit the outlaw persona he'd eventually grow into. See, Jesse James Hollywood mostly dealt high-end marijuana as well as a few other party drugs. What does that mean, high-end marijuana? You know. We got some like. The good stuff. Yeah. As you can tell, Peyton and I are drug noobs. So I don't know what high-end marijuana means. I don't either. I could assume it's. Maybe it's purple. Maybe it's. I don't know. Maybe it's got some gold flakes in it. Maybe. All right.
And apparently it was part of a larger family business because he'd learned the trade from his father, Jack Hollywood, who'd also been dealing drugs locally for years. But that was kind of a well-kept secret around town because most people knew Jack as the boys' little league coach.
And Jesse was the star athlete who looked like he had a career in the major leagues ahead of him. That was until he severely injured his back, forcing him to leave the sport. And that's when Jesse started leaning into the family business pretty hard. He'd formed his own gang of people to work under him and help him push product.
By age 19, he had enough money to buy his own three-bedroom house, two sports cars, and his girlfriend a new pair of boobies. When people asked questions about his son's sudden burst of income, Jack told people it was insurance money from one of Jesse's old injuries. Okay, but I'm confused because it sounds like everyone knows he deals drugs. One half of the people do, one half of the people don't. Everybody knows.
And that kind of brings us back to those crazy parties. So Ben Markowitz spent a lot of time at Jesse's house, primarily because he was also working under Jesse selling his product for extra cash. And it wasn't uncommon for Jesse to show off his arsenal of semi-automatic weapons at these parties that he would throw at his house. Just to remind everyone that worked for him who was really in charge.
So Ben knew who he was dealing with and so did Nick, the youngest brother. But Ben felt that Jesse was doing him a favor. Ben had burned some bridges with several other dealers in the area and was running out of options when it came to supply. So Jesse agreed to front Ben between $10,000 to $40,000 worth of weed a week. And after Ben sold it, he paid Jesse back and kept the extra cash.
And that's how Ben Markowitz became an integral part of Jesse's gang. And by proxy, Nick Markowitz started to cross over to the dark side as well. During his freshman year, Nick began skipping school and calling Ben to come pick him up so they could hang out.
This led to Nick failing one of his classes, which meant he was then slated to attend summer school. And he began using marijuana and smoking cigarettes behind his parents' back. He even ran away from home once. So he's really just sliding down this rougher path. Did you ever have to take summer school? No. Me neither. Yes, you did. Nope. 100% you did. No, I was smart. Did you really? Well, I don't know.
Come on. I'll leave it a mystery for now. I can't believe you'd even ask me that. I had to do it once. It was my freshman year of high school. Was freshman year your roughest year? Like, like, freshman or sophomore. Rebelling wise? I don't know if rebelling wise. I think I was just, I don't know. Freshman year was definitely my rebel year. I just didn't want to do homework. I just didn't want to do anything. Oh, mine was just like rebels and I was just trying to find myself. Yeah.
I was wearing eyeliner. You were Jesse James Hollywood? No. All right. Let's keep going. I was just an insecure little girl. Okay.
you know, even though he's going down this rougher patch, Nick wasn't getting himself into any significant trouble. Ben, obviously we know is a different story. Sometime in 2000, Ben was off selling pills for Hollywood when one of their clients accused Ben of selling bunk drugs. And when Ben took one for himself, he realized they were right. The pills that Jesse James Hollywood had been giving him weren't producing any effect. So,
So he went back to Jesse and told him he wasn't going to push the product anymore, which in turn meant Jesse wasn't going to be getting his money back for that batch, that bunk batch. And drug dealers don't like to hear that they aren't getting their money back. Essentially, Ben still owed him about $1,200. And when Jesse demanded it, Ben just kind of waved him off. And for a while, Jesse forgave it. The
The two still remained friends and continued partying together, perhaps under the assumption that eventually Ben would get him the money. But as the months went by, Ben saw Jesse less and less, as if he were kind of dodging him. Truth was, Ben had decided to clean up his act, get a real job working with his dad. He even got engaged to his girlfriend. Wow. Which...
I already know where this is going to go, and that sucks. Give him the $1,200, but, I mean, what do you do? What do you do? And also, we know that Nick is going to get caught in the crossfire, which sucks. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your life.
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But shortly after this, he's trying to turn his life around. Problems started to escalate. One evening, Jesse and his girlfriend went to the restaurant where Ben's fiance was working. When the bill came, they skipped out on the tab and wrote, take this off of Ben's debt on the receipt.
Of course, Ben's fiance had to pay their bill and went home and told Ben. And he was not the kind of guy to let something like this slide. The two started exchanging voicemails, each more threatening than the next. Finally, Ben went over to Jesse's house one night and broke one of his windows, which really set Jesse Hollywood off. Why would you mess with a guy with the last name Hollywood? I mean, that's just bad news. Red flag number one. Red flag.
So Jesse rallied his troops and told them enough was enough. They were going to find Ben Markowitz and he was going to pay. At the same time, the now 15-year-old Nick was testing his boundaries at home.
On the evening of August 5th, he walked into the house looking glassy-eyed with a pack of cigarettes in his pocket. Once his parents started giving him heat for it, Nick walked right back out the front door. Now, this wasn't the first time Nick had stormed out or run away for a bit. It was actually kind of becoming a habit. Usually, he just ended up at Ben's place and returned later after he had cooled off.
This time, it only took 20 minutes for Nick to come home. But instead of having a conversation with his parents that evening, they vowed to talk to him in the morning after they all had slept on it. Little did Susan know, she'd lost her one and only chance. Oh my gosh. Sometime between 9.30 and 11 a.m. on August 6th, the following morning, Nick woke up and decided he still wasn't ready to have that conversation with his parents.
He knew his mom was cooking him breakfast in the kitchen and was willing to make peace over the matter, but he decided he still needed some time. He got dressed, slipped out of the house unnoticed, and wandered down Ingamore Street. A little after 12 p.m., Nick's uncle and cousin were driving through the neighborhood when they spotted Nick walking along the side of the road. They asked him if he wanted a ride home. Apparently, he'd already ventured out a pretty good distance. But Nick declined the offer. He just wanted to keep walking to clear his head.
What he didn't realize was at the same time, Jesse James Hollywood and his gang were cruising around that exact neighborhood looking for Ben Markowitz, his older brother. They were ready to go to his house, break his windows, and finally get Jesse's revenge. And that's when they spotted Ben's little brother, Nick, walking alongside the road all by himself, clearing his head, vulnerable.
It was around 1 p.m. when Hollywood's van screeched to a halt, cutting Nick off in his tracks. One of Jesse's guys, a 21-year-old named Jesse Ruge, hopped out and confronted Nick. He told him not to run. They just wanted to know where Ben was. When Nick told him he had no idea, Ruge and another one of Hollywood's guys began punching Nick, hoping to beat the answer out of him. This is in broad daylight, by the way. Also a minor.
And so there were a few witnesses who spotted the assault happening in real time. One of them was Pauline Ann Mahoney, who was headed home from church with her kids that Sunday morning. Pauline said she could see the teenager getting assaulted and noticed that he was then tossed into a van. She followed the vehicle until she could get a good look at the license plate, and when she got home, she dialed 911. Another young woman also saw the attack and called police with the same story.
Only it would take LAPD another month to find out who that van belonged to and who had been assaulted that day. All right, that's some bull crap. How does it take a month when you have the license plate? Right. And everyone knows Jesse in that area. How does that happen? Well, for now, this meant Nick was a sitting duck. And inside the van with no police on the way, the bloody and beaten 15-year-old was faced with the last person he'd hoped to see.
His older brother's friend, well, now frenemy, 20-year-old Jesse James Hollywood, the local drug dealer. Jesse screamed at Nick to tell him where Ben was, but Nick kept admitting he had no idea. They went through Nick's pockets and took his wallet, his pager. Remember, this is the year 2000. They also took his marijuana and a small bag of Valium. Within a few minutes, they were rolling a joint and passing it around the van, as well as each taking some of Nick's Valium.
Jesse kept telling Nick not to tell anyone about the kidnapping. If he did or if he tried to run, Jesse promised to break his teeth. Ruge, who was manning the will, kept turning around back to Jesse, asking him what the plan was. I mean, they've now taken this kid and beaten him. It was clear none of them had thought this out, that the plan was never to kidnap Nick in the first place. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Still, they had plans to drive about two hours to Santa Barbara that day for a party, and they figured they weren't going to let a little kidnapping get in the way of their fun. So they stopped, picked up one more friend, and began heading north on the 101 freeway with Nick in tow. The party was at the home of one of Jesse Ruge's friends, since Ruge's family also lived in the area. It was a small gathering, enough for most people to notice when Nick was carted in and taken immediately to a back bedroom.
Inside, they tied Nick's hands and feet with duct tape. They taped a sock over his eyes and stuffed another one in his mouth. Then they left Nick alone in there while they went to have a few beers. A few of the people at the party spotted a glimpse of Nick through a crack in the door. Like he's tied up and... Dude, help him. Right. One woman accidentally stumbled into the room to put on some makeup and could tell something was seriously wrong about the situation. She said,
However, Jesse James Hollywood assured them it wasn't a problem, that they should all just keep quiet about it and leave him alone. Then he flashed them the gun he had tucked in his belt. Since these were Ruggie's friends, he had the most explaining to do. He told them they were just keeping a close eye on Nick, that his brother owed them some money, and they were holding him for ransom. They just needed a couple hours to track Ben down, and then they'd be out of their hair.
Nick would eventually be returned home safely. This is what he told everyone at the party. And every few minutes, one of Jesse's guys would go back to the room Nick was in to tell him the exact same thing. He didn't need to worry. Everything was going to be worked out as soon as they found Ben, his brother.
And shockingly, Nick didn't seem too alarmed by the situation. He remained calm and composed. He trusted that these guys weren't going to do him any real harm. The worst was over. In fact, by the end of the night, they not only untied Nick and freed him from the room, they'd invited him to come smoke some pot and play video games with them on the couch. Eventually, Jesse and two of their guys headed back to Los Angeles for the night. But before he left, Jesse told Ruge he was in charge of watching over Nick that night.
Unsure of where else to go, Ruge decided to take Nick with him back to his parents' house, which is just a few miles away from the party. So now this Jesse Ruge is told by Jesse Hollywood, hey, you're in charge of holding our victim, essentially, our kidnapping victim, and putting him somewhere. So he takes him to his parents' house. There's got to be, I guess it's still the same day. I wonder what the parents are thinking. Right? Like he just left and ran away. Probably that's what they're thinking again. Yeah.
When they get there, the 20 year old Ruggie told his father that Nick was just a friend, a much younger friend, mind you, spending the night. And frankly, his father didn't think anything of it. But back in West Hills, Susan was of course starting to worry that her son, that she thought had just run away. Now something greater might've happened. She's kind of becoming a nervous wreck. Not only had her son been missing since breakfast, she tried paging him dozens of times and he never called her back.
Even when things were bad between them, Nick never went this long without telling her where he was. She figured the only place Nick could be was Ben's house. Only Ben wasn't returning her calls either. It wasn't until the following morning, Monday, August 7th, that Ben finally showed up at the family home. He said he'd been away doing work in Arizona and that's why he hadn't gotten their messages. But he also said he didn't have Nick. He hadn't heard from him at all.
And that's when the panic set in for Nick's parents. Their first instinct was to ask Ben, is there anyone who is angry with you? Anyone you owe money to? And it was in that moment that Ben realized this was the work of Jesse James Hollywood. Oh, could you imagine? That's...
So scary. That's gut wrenching. Ben began calling Jesse and other people within his circle to ask about Nick. One of them said, yeah, they heard Nick was at a party with Jesse and some of his guys up in Santa Barbara. So Ben figured maybe they just took him on a joy ride. They just wanted to party with Nick, cozy up to him a bit to scare Ben and piss him off.
No one realized that the whole situation was a lot more dire. Nick certainly wasn't with Hollywood and his guys by choice. That same day, Jesse was back in Los Angeles, already worried he'd taken things too far. He went to meet with his lawyer and told him some of him and his friends had gotten into trouble. They'd beaten up and kidnapped someone's kid brother to put pressure on a debt.
Jesse explained to his lawyer that the kid wasn't tied up somewhere being tortured, though. He was off partying, smoking weed and playing video games. It shouldn't get his friends in much trouble, right? His lawyer didn't give Jesse the answer he wanted. He said kidnapping was kidnapping and it's an easy eight years in prison. Which is so funny because I feel like we always see the opposite. Right.
His lawyer advised them to bring the kid home, call the police. If they turned themselves in, the sentencing would be a lot softer. But Jesse heard the opposite. He heard, you're in trouble and you better clean up your mess. And to Jesse, that meant there was only one option left. No freaking way, dude. He didn't want to do prison time, so he decided they had to get rid of Nick Markowitz.
But over at Ruggie's parents' home in Santa Barbara, you'd have little idea anything was wrong. Ruggie's father and stepmother certainly didn't. They just thought Nick was a temporary house guest. Probably because Ruggie and Nick spent their morning lounging on the couch, watching TV and playing video games. Yeah.
Later that afternoon, Ruge even invited a few other friends over to join the party. Among them was 17-year-old Natasha Adams, 16-year-old Kelly Carpenter, and 17-year-old Graham Presley. Ruge also told them that Nick was just a friend of his that was visiting from L.A., and for the first few hours, they didn't really question it.
Nick spent most of the time socializing with them, talking about everything from girls to video games. He didn't even realize what kind of trouble he was in. But then Rookie began bossing Nick around in a way that seemed kind of alarming. He asked Nick to go inside and vacuum the house, which was kind of a strange request of a guest. Yeah.
Ruggie also told the three teenagers that Nick wasn't allowed to use the phone if he asked to. Eventually, the party moved from Ruggie's house over to Natasha's, and Nick, unable to leave Ruggie's sight, of course, went with them.
When they got to Natasha's house, she pulled Nick aside. She noticed that he had cuts all over his hands, probably from putting up a bit of a fight the day before. So she cleans his wounds and asks him, what in the world is going on? Like, who are you and what's happening?
And Nick, without anyone else in earshot, actually confessed to her. He tells her pretty much the full story, that the day before he'd been kidnapped and thrown into Hollywood's van and shuttled up to Santa Barbara while they tracked down his brother to settle a debt. Then she asked Nick a question that we're all probably thinking, which is, why don't you just leave?
Rudy didn't seem to be keeping that close of a watch over him. And it would be easy enough for him to just say he's got to use the bathroom and just slip out of the house. But Nick's response was interesting. He said he didn't want to make any more trouble for Ben. He figured if he ran, it could make the situation a lot worse for his brother. So he just stuck around.
That night, Ruge and Nick went back to Ruge's house again while he waited for his next instructions from Hollywood. But Natasha couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go sideways. Sure, the situation seemed casual enough and Nick didn't appear to be in any real distress, but she'd heard stories about Jesse James Hollywood, about how dangerous this guy could become.
So she went to her mother, who was an attorney, and asked her for advice. Of course, her mom tells her she needs to go to the police and report this, but her mom isn't taking Hollywood's reputation into account.
Natasha feels certain if she rats Hollywood out, he might come after her next. So instead, she slept on it and decided the situation would probably just blow over and resolve itself. But she couldn't have been more wrong because that day things only got worse. So after speaking with his lawyer, Hollywood had contacted Ruggie with an offer. He promised to pay him $2,000 in exchange for him killing Nick.
- What? - Yes, so he calls his gang member friend and is like, "Just kill him and I'll pay you two grand." - What the fuck? - But Jesse Ruge refuses. He tells Hollywood, "You're overreacting. There's gotta be another way." But that didn't change Hollywood's plans. Instead, he called another guy in his crew, one that had always been an errand boy for him, and also, like Ben, owed him some money. His name was Ryan Hoyt. Hollywood told the 21-year-old Ryan that if he did his dirty work, he would erase all of his debts. It'd be a clean slate.
Ryan was more than happy to comply and met up with Hollywood that Tuesday. Hollywood handed him a blue duffel bag with a semi-automatic pistol inside, plus an extra $400 to complete the job. How can you kill someone for, like, I don't know. It's just weird. Like, I just, his debt was probably like five grand or something. So, hey, I'd go kill someone and...
I'll erase your $5,000 of debt. Like what? Well, I mean, these guys are obviously a lot more, more dangerous than they initially let on because now they're going to kill someone. Yeah. For no reason. From there, Ryan made his way North to Santa Barbara. And while Ruggie had refused to take the hit out on Nick himself, he knew Ryan was coming and eventually he'd be roped into the plot regardless.
Meanwhile, Ruggie continued entertaining the group of teenagers over where the party had moved to a hotel. Knowing that a plan was in motion, he made sure to ply Nick with rum and coke, marijuana, and Valium as the night went on. After Nick and the group went for a night swim in the hotel pool, one of the girls asked him again, why don't you just head for the hills? Why don't you just leave?
He said he'd taken Taekwondo. He could defend himself. Plus, he felt confident he'd be going home in another day or two. So why complicate the situation? He's like, if anyone tries to hurt me, I know Taekwondo and I'm pretty sure I'm going to go home soon. Oh, man. Around 11 p.m. that night, things got complicated all on their own. That's when Ruggie announced that everyone had to clear out of the hotel room. Someone was coming by to take Nick home.
nick and the girls hugged and even exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch how was he not scared out of his mind a short while later nick dozed off as he waited for his ride then there was a knock on the door ryan hoyt came inside with the blue duffel bag rookie took one glance at it and knew it contained some of hollywood's weapons this was gonna be it all right
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They woke a very intoxicated Nick up from his sleep and began duct taping his legs and hands. But then realizing they'd have an impossible time getting him across the parking lot and into the car, they decided to remove the tape, figuring Nick was too drunk to try and run away on his own anyways. After piling into the car, Ryan and Ruggie drove 30 minutes to a hiking trail in the Los Padres National Forest to an area known as the Lizard's Mouth. This is insane. They're literally just...
Yeah, they're just going to they're bringing him out in the middle of nowhere just to kill him. Nick, who likely thought they were headed to another party, walked a few steps ahead of the other guys as they ascended the trail. By this point, it's probably early dawn on August 9th because they pass a few other hikers on the trail and none of them seem very alarmed by the sight of the three men.
Eventually, well, the two men and one boy. Eventually, they deviate off the path, bringing Nick to a giant shallow grave that had already been dug for him. Ryan instructed Nick to sit down and tossed Ruggie some duct tape. Holy moly, dude. Ruggie secured his legs and arms as he promised Nick he wasn't going to hurt him. Nick says something like, it's okay, I trust you. It wasn't until Ruggie placed a strip of duct tape over Nick's mouth and nose that panic really started to set in for Nick.
Now, not only can he not breathe, he's now wondering what these guys are going to do to him next. Like he thought he was going home or just to another party. Poor kid, man. And when Ryan dragged him closer to the grave, Nick realized he'd been wrong this entire time. He was about to die, which was probably some of his final thoughts.
Because next, they hit Nick in the head with a shovel and tossed him into the shallow grave. Then Ryan pulled the trigger on that semi-automatic, launching nine bullets into Nick's head and torso. As the echo of the gunfire subsided, Ryan dusted his prints off the gun, threw it into the grave with Nick's body, and instructed Ruggie to shovel dirt on top. Then they left Nick there, assuming he'd never be discovered.
Only three days later, a woman named Darla Gatsik and her two friends were hiking the trail along Lizard's Mouth. Suddenly, they came to a point where they heard an extremely loud buzzing. It sounded like a hive of bees. So they deviated off the trail slightly to find the source of the sound, only to discover they weren't bees. They were flies. Oh my gosh. And the terrible smell of death was lingering just beneath them.
At first, they figured it was just a dead animal. But as they kicked around the dirt to check, they spotted a pair of blue jeans and a t-shirt. A few hours later, five men in black suits came knocking on Susan Markowitz's door. They said they'd found her missing son, but not in the condition that she'd hoped. That is horrible. It's horrible because of everything from the mom didn't even want him to get involved in any of this, and then...
Ben owed money to people like the itch. What a mess. Right. What a mess. They told her Nick had been shot execution style up in Santa Barbara. Only one name sprung to mind. Jesse James Hollywood.
When Natasha Adams saw the news that day, she was thinking the exact same thing. Remember, this is the girl who had talked to her mom about this whole thing. Regretting not having gone to the police sooner, Natasha knew she had to speak up. She gave the police the names of the men she expected were involved, including Jesse Ruge.
By August 17th, police had arrested him as well as Ryan Hoyt for Nick's murder. But Jesse James Hollywood would prove much more difficult to pin down. So they got the actual murders, but it's going to be hard to get the leader.
Almost the second Nick's death was announced, Jesse dodged town. He emptied his bank accounts, put a payment down on a brand new Lincoln Town car, and made his final collections from the people that still owed him money. Then he fled to Colorado and on to Canada. But from there, Jesse's trail went cold for nearly four years. Oh, boy, Canada. Interesting.
Meanwhile, back in California, Jesse's underlings were facing trial. In November 2001, Ryan Hoyt was charged with first-degree murder and placed on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California. The following year, Jesse Ruge was convicted of aggravated kidnapping for ransom or extortion, but successfully dodged a murder charge. He served 11 years behind bars. And got out?
Still, yes, Nick's family wouldn't rest until they found the man who'd ordered the hit on their son. They wanted to find Jesse James Hollywood. And in 2003, a unique opportunity presented itself. The one that would do just that.
That year, a filmmaker named Nick Cassavetes got in touch with the Mnarkowitz family. His daughters had gone to the same school as Nick, and he wanted to make a movie about their son's death. And this might now ring a bell for you if it already hasn't. Alpha Dog. It would go on to star Justin Timberlake, Emily Hirsch, and the late Anton Yelchin.
But at first, Susan and Jeff are a little unsure of whether this is a good idea. Reliving their son's death, even if it's only based on their true story, is going to be a difficult thing. Oh, so this movie is literally based on... This story. Oh, I had no idea. But they end up agreeing under one condition. The filmmakers help fund the reward money in the hunt for Jesse James Hollywood. So they're like, make the movie, but use some money to find this ringleader. Got it.
And the director agreed, but then he did something a bit strange. He hired Jack Hollywood as a consultant on the movie. So he hires Jesse James Hollywood's dad to consult on the movie. What in the world? There's no way. They also contacted the district attorney's office who agreed to work closely with the filmmakers, which meant offering them their entire archive of files on the case.
And I'll come back to point out why this is a huge problem in a minute. But once the film was in pre-production, the officers at the Department of Justice who'd been assigned to Jesse's case felt a lot more pressure to now find this guy because this movie is going to come out and people are going to be like,
Okay, well, where is he? So they're running up against a clock. With the movie set to release in 2006, they needed to find Jesse James Hollywood to spare their own reputation. So they renamed the search Operation Movie Star, upped their resources, and got permission to take the hunt internationally. After all, they had good reason to believe Hollywood was still living abroad, and more specifically, somewhere in Brazil. Oh, so he went from Canada and now is in Brazil.
No freaking way. By March 2005, Hollywood had gotten a fake Brazilian visa and passport and had changed his name to Michael Costagiro. He was living in a small apartment in the coastal regions of Sacro Wama, not too far outside of Rio de Janeiro. I am confused how he wasn't placed on a no-fly list and shouldn't have been flying anywhere. Again, I think this guy was a lot...
Like hit a lot harder than it seems. What do you mean? Like he just was more of a criminal. Than it seems. Than it seems. Yeah. Because it seems like a little downplayed, but.
Obviously this is a big deal, but I mean, how was he not placed on a no flight list? Like as soon as he went to Canada, it's like, we don't want him going anywhere else. I mean, guess they didn't know he went to Canada, but put them on a no flight list. So he can't go anywhere. Right. And now he ends up in Brazil. And he'd met and impregnated a young woman named Marsha who was teaching private English lessons and walking dogs for money. It was a far cry from the lavish lifestyle he'd lived back in West Hills, but for years he'd gone under the radar. Yeah.
Still, his father had kept him afloat, sending him $1,200 a month in living expenses, despite Jesse being on the FBI's most wanted list. So he's an accomplice, first of all. And then how was he a... Now on the movie, like helping with the movie. Like he should be charged too. What is this? But after more than four years on the run, it seemed Michael or Jesse Hollywood had gotten a little too comfortable. And with the Department of Justice closing in on him, they had the perfect plan
plan to get him right where they wanted him. They had an agent pretend to be Jesse's long-lost cousin. She contacted him online and said she was in the area. She wanted to know if Jesse wanted to meet up for lunch. Jesse agreed, and on March 8, 2005, as he went to greet the woman, he found himself surrounded by agents and was placed in handcuffs.
Jesse James Hollywood was finally in custody. Good. That same day, Jack Hollywood was also being arrested by officers at his home in West Hills on charges of mass producing the date rape drug GHB. So not...
For aiding and abetting his son, but for drug dealing. That's interesting. Which was not a coincidence. Police wanted to make sure they nabbed them both at the same time so Jack couldn't try and pull any strings or call in any favors to get his son released. That's what I'm talking about. And it worked. By that night, Jesse was on a plane headed to LAX. From there, he was carted to Santa Barbara County Jail, booked, and kept in solitary confinement.
While the upcoming film certainly put pressure on authorities to track down Jesse James Hollywood, it impeded justice in other ways. And this is where I go back to those case files. Because the district attorney shared things like probation reports, police files, and other protected documents with production,
There were questions about the DA's integrity and whether he should even be able to remain as the prosecutor on the case, which in turn meant Hollywood's trial stalled out for a while. The issue escalated all the way to the Supreme Court, where they finally decided the district attorney would be allowed to remain on the case and the hearings could proceed. That's a big deal. The Supreme Court's getting involved. Yes.
It wasn't until May of 2009, four years after his arrest, that Hollywood finally saw his day in court. He was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder. Remember, the murder was in an effort to avoid that kidnapping charge. So that was karma at work. So curious how this works because he didn't kill someone, but he hired someone. He can still get convicted. Of first-degree murder? Yep. Even if you don't kill someone? Yep. I did not know that. In 2010, I mean, it's kind of...
Up to the DA. Yeah. But they can definitely go for it. Okay. In 2010, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and narrowly escaped death row himself.
As of this recording, Jesse James Hollywood remains behind bars at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego. As for the Markowitz family, they found the sentences to be just. Jeff Markowitz told the press, another son's dying isn't going to bring back Nick. Still, they couldn't help but wonder about the life Nick could have had if his kidnappers had not earned his trust. Had Nick not been collateral damage for his brother Ben's mistakes? And that is the story of Nick Markowitz.
I don't even want to, I don't even know if I want to get into all that because Ben's still out there. The family's still out there. Well, and also like it's not Ben's fault at the end of the day, it's not his fault. I just feel like it's not my place to get involved. So I'm not going to get involved. It's horrible situation that, uh,
And it sucks that a kid was taken away from his family for literally nothing he did. And not to put words in his mouth, but this is probably why most likely Ben would tell you be careful who you're running around with. Oh, for sure. This is why they say watch who your friends are. Like...
because you just never know. Horrible. So sad. All right, you guys, that was our case for this week and we'll see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.
