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Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:01
  Discretion is advised. This is ten committed murdered. Zachary Davis was a quiet
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  kid with a history of mental illness. When he was nine years old in
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  two thousand and seven, he fell into a deep depression. His father died
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  from als aka lu Garrig's disease. By the way, do people still call
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  it lou Garrig's disease? Surely not. That guy died in the forties,
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  and I bet he doesn't appreciate his memory being associated with the disease that killed
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  him. Anyway. Zach's paternal grandmother, Gail, claims that soon after his
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  father passed away, he was brought to see doctor Bradley Freeman at Vanderbilt University
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  Medical Center. Zach did, in fact have a mental disorder, the doctor
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  claimed. Zach was given a schizophrenia and depression disorder diagnosis. And it's also
• 1:00
  noting that zach claimed that he heard voices. He was generally quiet, as
• 1:03
  I mentioned, but he was starting to shut down even more. Zachary claimed
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  during one of his four meetings with doctor Freeman to have heard his dead father's
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  voice. Now, it's common for anyone, especially those who were young,
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  to experience a severe depression after the loss of a loved one, as Zachary
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  had done. He experienced the first two stages of the grieving process, but
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  he didn't quite seem to make it to the recovery stage, and this may
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  be partly due to the fact that his mother abruptly ended his counseling sessions.
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  At his trial, even his grandmother said that if Zachary had received the necessary
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  medical care quote, this would not have happened. Going on with their lives,
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  the family relocated to Sumner County, Tennessee. Melanie Davis, Zach's mom,
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  put a lot of effort into her paralegal profession and triathlon training. She
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  made every effort to move on from her husband's passing and maintain her boy's happiness.
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  She didn't realize or grasp how far down Zachary had gotten Among his peers.
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  The fifteen year old zach was an outcast. He frequently whispered this strange
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  monotone whisper, and he wore the same hoodie every day. On his phone,
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  he had both a catalog of torture devices and an app about serial killers.
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  One of the terrifying and disturbing anecdotes, and his journals include quote you
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  can't spell slaughter without laughter. He read Misery by Stephen King and engaged in
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  violent video game play, which bt dubs. I've mentioned on this podcast before
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  how the false claims of the effect of violent video games. They're too often
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  used as an excuse for violent behavior, and we can clearly see, as
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  in the story we're talking about today, zach was mentally unwell. Playing Call
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  of Duty did not push him over the edge. And for the record,
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  when I was about the same age as Zachary, I read Stephen King's Misery,
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  thought it was disturbing and fantastic, and I also played violent video games.
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  The big difference here is Zachary's mental illness. It wasn't until the evening
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  on August tenth, twenty twelve, that it became clear that he was outwardly
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  violent. Josh, Zach's older brother, who was sixteen, and his mother,
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  went to see a movie together. When they got back, Zach packed
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  his clothes, notebooks, a toothbrush, gloves, a ski mask, and
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  a claw hammer into a bag and a satchel. Zachary might have appeared on
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  the surface to be planning to run away from home, but on the inside
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  something more sinister was at work. Did you kill your mother? Yeah?
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  And why did you kill her? Shea Washington taking care of my family.
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  Did you think about discussing it with her instead of killing her? I didn't
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  think. I wouldn't do any song. When did you decide to kill your
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  mother? No? Disheartened? And the methode you chose was what Bearding heard
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  at us? You beat her to death with what a sledge hamer? And
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  how many times did you hit her with the sledge hammer? A sham?
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  About twenty times? Was this a three pound sledgehammer? Five pound sledgehammer?
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  I don't know, heavy? Yeah, way bigger than hammer. In case
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  you thought you misheard in that little clip there from zach on The Doctor Phil
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  Show, he did chuckle when describing his murder weapon. At nine o'clock,
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  Melanie went to sleep, Zachary got a sledgehammer from the garage and went to
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  his mother's room. He struck her about twenty times as he bludgeoned her to
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  death. Covered in her blood, Zachary locked her door before heading to the
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  family gaming room and doused that space and alcohol in gasoline. He'd lit it
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  on fire, locked the door and left. His plan was to burned his
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  older brother Josh to death, but because he shut the door to the game
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  room, the fire didn't spread quickly, and the alarm woke him up.
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  His mother was a bloody mess when he went to check on her. Josh
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  went to someone else's house to escape the fire and what he had done.
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  Authorities located Josh a distance of over ten miles away from his house, and
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  his statement to the police, he claimed to quote, I didn't feel anything
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  when I killed her. You remember opening the door, right, It wasn't
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  locked, It wasn't Did you stand there and look at her for a minute
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  before you did it? Yeah? Did she make a noise? I couldn't
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  just hear the hammer hitting her? Herd? And what did it sound like?
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  There was this something shound? How long before you hit her the second
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  time? Just a few seconds? Did you think she was already dead?
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  She woke up and she started she shing up. Did she look at you
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  looked into her age, but she didn't look at me. And again he's
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  laughing as he details how he murdered his own sleeping mother, a reminder of
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  what he put in his journal. You can't spell slaughter without laughter. Zachary
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  Davis told the police how his father's voice instructed him to kill his mother in
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  a disturbing confession that was presented in the court as evidence. When the detective
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  questioned Zach in this confession about whether he would still carry out the attack if
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  he could go back in time, zach replied, quote, I would probably
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  kill Josh with a sledgehammer too. In the course of the trial, defense
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  lawyer Randy Lucas questioned Zach, quote, did he tell you to do anything
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  specific to your mother? Zach said no and displayed no remorse. Investigators showed
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  him bloody photos of the work he had done on his mother, no reaction.
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  He actually never expressed any regret at all. He claimed that he chose
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  a sledgehammer as his tool because it provided him quote the highest chance of killing
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  her and because quote I was worried that I'd miss Zachary's interview with doctor Phil
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  was also shown to the jury at the trial, part of which you just
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  heard. Zachary made an attempt to pin the murder on his brother. At
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  one point during the trial. Even his defense lawyer, who publicly stated in
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  court that Zachary Davis killed his mother, was shocked by the claim his defense
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  team was only trying to have his sentence reduced, and trying to blame his
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  brother for the crime did not help that cause you turned bad, mister Davis.
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  You crossed over to the dark side. Judge d. David Gay told
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  him in court that much is clear and easy. The legal system and the
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  twelve person jury struggled with the idea that while Zachary had obviously planned to kill
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  his mother, it was equally plain that he was seriously mentally ill. Zach's
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  paternal grandmother argued that he had a severe mental disorder and had not been given
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  any assistance quote every guidance, counselor and teacher ought to go on trial alongside
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  Zach. According to her, Zach is not an evil person. He made
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  a terrible error as a child. She thinks Smelanie died as a result of
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  her failure to provide Zach the assistance he required. Zach's original doctor, doctor
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  Freeman, further testified in courts that his judgment was driven by his psychosis and
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  that as a result of his mental illness, he was unable to have planned
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  the killings. However, the judge and jury had a different opinion, and
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  Zach was given a life sentence after the jury deliberated for three hours. In
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  Tennessee, a life sentence carries a minimum of sixty years with a fifty one
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  year parole window. By the time Zachary Davis gets released from prison, he'll
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  be in his mid sixties. Whether the murder was committed in cold blood or
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  as a result of psychosis, we won't ever really know, even though we
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  can lean towards the latter. Probably, it's still a heartbreaking story of a
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  family forever changed. That is ten minute Murder for Today, brief and bingeible
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  true Crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you so much
• 9:41
  for taking the time out of your day to listen to this podcast. And
• 9:46
  I'll be honest with you, I considered not putting those clips in there,
• 9:50
  those audio clips from the Doctor Phil show, for no other reason than I
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  don't really like Doctor Phil and I can't put my finger on exactly why.
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  It just feels like the vibes are off. The Doctor Phil vibes overall are
• 10:03
  off for me. And I also low key blame him for that catch me
• 10:07
  Outside girl becoming a thing by the way she is rich now she turned that
• 10:11
  catch me outside thing into like some big empire, and she's super rich.
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  She could be a terrible person. I don't know, but good for her.
• 10:20
  Gotta strike while the iron's hot, I guess. Hey. If this
• 10:22
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  Did you say the hose are laughing? Yep? How by the