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Accused Murderer Sam Haskell Trial Delay · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
0:06
Speaker 2: All hgule Ll breaks loose when someone discovers a female
0:11
Speaker 2: torso and a dumpster. It doesn't take California police very
0:17
Speaker 2: long to track the torso to one person, the son
0:22
Speaker 2: of a famous Hollywood agent.
0:24
Speaker 1: The son Sam Haskell.
0:28
Speaker 2: Not only is his wife missing, but so are his
0:32
Speaker 2: in laws. In the last days, accused killer Sam Haskell
0:37
Speaker 2: appears in an LA courtroom and a judge delays setting
0:41
Speaker 2: the date for a preliminary hearing on whether Haskell will
0:46
Speaker 2: stand trial for murdering his wife and parents. What's the
0:50
Speaker 2: hold up? I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank
0:55
Speaker 2: you for being with us. You know, isn't it odd
0:58
Speaker 2: that whenever really rich defendants are involved, there's always delays
1:04
Speaker 2: and sticky situations in court. Let me tell you if
1:09
Speaker 2: someone that wasn't educated, privileged, wealthy was charged with the
1:16
Speaker 2: murder and dismemberment of his wife and likely murders and
1:20
Speaker 2: dismemberment of his in laws, they would be under the jail.
1:24
Speaker 2: So what's the hold up with Sam Haskell? He keeps
1:27
Speaker 2: showing up in court showing off his muscles without a
1:31
Speaker 2: shirt on. You know, what do I need to see
1:33
Speaker 2: that how did the whole thing start.
1:37
Speaker 1: Take a listen to this.
1:38
Speaker 3: Police said they got a call from one of Sam
1:41
Speaker 3: Haskell's neighbors who reported seeing suspicious bags outside the Tarzana
1:44
Speaker 3: home and the bags appear to have body parts in them.
1:48
Speaker 3: LAPD Detective E from Gutierrez the RIDA calling.
1:50
Speaker 4: The RIMA seventh at about five point thirty pm involved
1:54
Speaker 4: the suspicious bag they possibly contain the human reoms. When
2:01
Speaker 4: the officers responded, nothing was located.
2:03
Speaker 3: Even though nothing was located, an investigation was launched.
2:07
Speaker 1: This is what we know.
2:08
Speaker 2: The original call to police, we first thought was from neighbors,
2:13
Speaker 2: but now it appears to be from some construction workers
2:18
Speaker 2: in the area.
2:21
Speaker 1: What a twisted story. Listen.
2:23
Speaker 3: The men try to report what they've seen to the police,
2:26
Speaker 3: but it turned away twice. The men went to the
2:30
Speaker 3: Highway of Patrol station first, but we're told they had
2:32
Speaker 3: to go to the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD
2:35
Speaker 3: Topanga station tells the men to go back outside and
2:39
Speaker 3: call nine to one one from the courtyard.
2:41
Speaker 2: Okay, I've got an all star panel to make sense
2:44
Speaker 2: of what we know right now about three missing people
2:49
Speaker 2: and a woman's torso that has been found in a
2:54
Speaker 2: dumpster there in LA. But first to Alexis Terrestok joining
2:59
Speaker 2: me from this jurisdiction Crime online dot com investigative.
3:03
Speaker 1: Reporter Alexis, thank you for being with us.
3:05
Speaker 2: So I mean, bottom line, Alexis police and not one
3:10
Speaker 2: but two locations send these citizens trying to report what
3:15
Speaker 2: they think is a bag of body parts on a
3:17
Speaker 2: wild goose chase, a scavenger hunt, so to speak.
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Speaker 5: They do.
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Speaker 6: They went, they had these trash bags.
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Speaker 1: They thought, oh my gosh.
3:25
Speaker 6: This is not something normal.
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Speaker 7: This is probably body parts.
3:27
Speaker 6: We think this is what it is. They go to
3:29
Speaker 6: a police station. The police say, well, where did you
3:31
Speaker 6: get these bags from? Oh, you got it from this
3:33
Speaker 6: house over there. You need to go to that jurisdiction.
3:35
Speaker 6: Didn't look at the bags, nothing at all. Probably didn't
3:38
Speaker 6: even believe them. So they send it to the next place.
3:39
Speaker 6: They're like, yeah, you got to.
3:40
Speaker 7: Call nine one one.
3:41
Speaker 1: You know, this is right out of a movie.
3:45
Speaker 2: Let me go to Chris mcdona, joining me, director of
3:47
Speaker 2: the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective, host of a
3:51
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. The interview room where I found them. Chris mcdona, Uh,
3:57
Speaker 2: have you ever seen Home Alone? Okay, I know you
4:01
Speaker 2: know where I'm going. Where the mom calls. I believe
4:05
Speaker 2: this must have been Home Alone two where she calls
4:07
Speaker 2: from Paris and she gets sent to one person, and
4:11
Speaker 2: then they knock on the wall, and they send the
4:13
Speaker 2: phone to the next person, and back and forth and
4:17
Speaker 2: back and forth. She never gets the right police officer,
4:23
Speaker 2: and finally starts calling neighbors. I know that is a funny,
4:29
Speaker 2: a comical example of what we're talking about, but really,
4:34
Speaker 2: these people are trying to report a bag of human
4:40
Speaker 2: body parts and they get sent on a wild goose chase.
4:44
Speaker 2: I tell you what, if I were the police chief,
4:47
Speaker 2: which of course I'm not, I would totally clean a
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Speaker 2: house over who chose not to take a report on
4:54
Speaker 2: a bag of body parts?
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Speaker 4: Chris McDonough And I can bet you answer your hundred
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Speaker 4: percent right.
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Speaker 8: This is out of a Hollywood horror movie. And that
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Speaker 8: police chief Moore, Michael Moore, who's a LAPD chief. Now
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Speaker 8: he's going to be questioning a lot of folks.
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Speaker 1: Well, I hope he does more than question them.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you get a call about body parts, you
5:16
Speaker 2: better go like grease lightning to investigate. And that delay
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Speaker 2: cost the case a lot of time and possibly a
5:25
Speaker 2: lot of evidence.
5:26
Speaker 1: Let's move forward. Listen.
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Speaker 3: LAPD detective he from Gutiera says, early the next morning,
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Speaker 3: police received another call about human remains.
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Speaker 4: The caller was a homeless man that was digging through
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Speaker 4: the dumpster to look for recyclables and discovered what he
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Speaker 4: will need to be a human remains.
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Speaker 3: All that was recovered was the torso fine, there were
5:45
Speaker 3: clues in the bag just.
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Speaker 4: From a visual inspection. The stage of the decomposition were
5:51
Speaker 4: relatively early, so no more than a day or two.
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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm glad that an untrained cop can look in
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Speaker 2: and tell me the level of decomposition.
6:02
Speaker 1: But actually he may be right. You know, let me
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Speaker 1: go to.
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Speaker 2: Choice Layton, high profile criminal defense attorney joining us out
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Speaker 2: of this jurisdiction LA. You know, if there were anywhere else,
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Speaker 2: I would just assume they were the same body parts,
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Speaker 2: But in LA they could be entirely.
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Speaker 1: A different set of body parts.
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Speaker 2: But logically speaking, Choice Layton, do you think they could
6:27
Speaker 2: then add two plus two equals these are the same
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Speaker 2: set of body parts as we got reported yesterday.
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Speaker 9: Well, the corner and medical examiner, which are the same
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Speaker 9: here in Los Angeles. They're going to start having to
6:42
Speaker 9: piece these things back together. So the body parts that
6:46
Speaker 9: were recovered by these construction workers and whatever was found
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Speaker 9: by this homeless person, it's not going to take very
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Speaker 9: long for them to decide if that's the same body part.
6:56
Speaker 9: And the Robbery Homicide Division of LAPD, which is the
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Speaker 9: most elite squad in the LAPD, is going to be
7:04
Speaker 9: investigating and try and put two and two together.
7:08
Speaker 2: Doctor Michelle Duprey is joining me Forensic Pathologists, medical examiner,
7:12
Speaker 2: former detective, author of Money, Mischief and Murder, The Murdoch
7:17
Speaker 2: Saga the rest of the story on Amazon, and she
7:21
Speaker 2: literally wrote the book, The Homicide Investigation Field Guide, Doctor
7:25
Speaker 2: d Prix.
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Speaker 1: We're all talking.
7:26
Speaker 2: About bags of body parts, but to this victim or
7:32
Speaker 2: victim's family, the discussion of body parts that is their
7:39
Speaker 2: loved one, that is their daughter, their sister, their mom,
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Speaker 2: the their dad, their grandpa, that we're talking about body parts,
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Speaker 2: body parts.
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Speaker 7: You're absolutely right, Nancy, these are somebody's family. They are
7:57
Speaker 7: you know, I'm obviously there upset about this and it's
8:01
Speaker 7: a tragic thing to find.
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Speaker 1: No, it's not just.
8:04
Speaker 2: The shock ultimately learning that you have lost someone you love,
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Speaker 2: possibly that you love more than anything else in the world,
8:13
Speaker 2: but then finding out that they are a crime victim,
8:17
Speaker 2: a murder victim, and then to find out that they
8:20
Speaker 2: have been dismembered, that their dead body has been defiled
8:25
Speaker 2: in such a horrible, horrible way. To doctor Gary Pricato,
8:30
Speaker 2: clinical psychologist, author of The New Evil, Understanding the Emergence
8:35
Speaker 2: of Modern Violent Crime. Now that is a read, Doctor Pracato,
8:42
Speaker 2: That's a lot for one person to take in. I mean,
8:45
Speaker 2: I remember when my fiance was murdered. At first I
8:49
Speaker 2: just assumed that there had been a car crash, and
8:52
Speaker 2: then I found out he was murdered, and frankly, I
8:55
Speaker 2: don't remember a whole lot after that. But to then
8:59
Speaker 2: learn that someone dismembered the person you love more than
9:06
Speaker 2: anything else in the world, I don't know.
9:09
Speaker 1: How do you make a comeback after that?
9:10
Speaker 10: Extremely difficult because a person would have to make some
9:13
Speaker 10: kind of meaning out of what it is that happened
9:16
Speaker 10: in their life, some kind of existential or spiritual meaning,
9:21
Speaker 10: and to try to go out in the world and
9:23
Speaker 10: battle that kind of darkness so that other people don't
9:26
Speaker 10: have to experience it. And people that I've worked with
9:29
Speaker 10: who have been victims of violent crime it seems to
9:31
Speaker 10: be the only way that they're able to make any
9:35
Speaker 10: sense of purpose out of it.
9:38
Speaker 1: What is happening?
9:39
Speaker 2: One set of remains found or spotted outside of home.
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Speaker 2: Police finally get there after sending the civilian informant on
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Speaker 2: a wild goose chase.
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Speaker 1: When they get there, no more remains. It's gone.
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Speaker 2: They don't execute a sortch warn't they do nothing? I
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Speaker 2: mean they don't have an enough evidence to execute a
10:02
Speaker 2: search warrant in the home. The next day it's reported
10:06
Speaker 2: that there is a female torso found in a dumpster.
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Speaker 2: Let's pick it up right there, take a listen to
10:13
Speaker 2: our friends at crime Online.
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Speaker 3: The LAPD says that when they processed the scene where
10:17
Speaker 3: the torso in the bank were found in a dumpster,
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Speaker 3: the investigation provided detectives with information that led them to
10:23
Speaker 3: the residence of Samuel Haskell.
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Speaker 2: Sam Haskell the Fourth who is that listen?
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Speaker 3: Sam Haskell the Fourth is the son of Sam Haskell
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Speaker 3: the Third, an Emmy Award winning producer who was a
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Speaker 3: high profile agent with Hollywood's William Morris Talent agency, where
10:41
Speaker 3: he represented a list stars like George Clooney, would be Goldberg,
10:44
Speaker 3: Dolly Parton and many others. Haskell the Fourth list himself
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Speaker 3: as a director and posted several clips online of low
10:51
Speaker 3: budget videos he wrote in filmed. Former Real Housewives of
10:55
Speaker 3: Beverly hillstar Brandy Glanville appears in one of the clips
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Speaker 3: for a movie which appears to be a high school
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Speaker 3: little teen drama.
11:07
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
11:14
Speaker 2: Sam Haskell the fourth, the Hollywood superagent's son accused of
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Speaker 2: killing and dismembering his wife and murdering her parents, who
11:24
Speaker 2: only moved in to help them raise the children while
11:28
Speaker 2: their daughter supported lazy Sam Haskell the Fourth was in
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Speaker 2: court again, this time facing the LA judge who will
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Speaker 2: decide if he will stand trial for the horrific slayings.
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Speaker 1: Sam Haskell, thirty.
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Speaker 2: Six old enough to know better, has been on suicide
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Speaker 2: watch at LA's notorious Twin Towers jail since his arrest.
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Speaker 2: He was led into the LA Superior Court shackled and
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Speaker 2: bare chested, just as he was at.
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Speaker 1: Prior court appearance.
12:00
Speaker 2: This man put on a shirt and by the way,
12:03
Speaker 2: if you don't know a horse, look at his track record.
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Speaker 2: This guy has never done anything for other people. It's
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Speaker 2: always about him. His in laws moved in with them
12:13
Speaker 2: to take care of the children so his beautiful wife
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Speaker 2: could work like a dog to pay the house note
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Speaker 2: while he did what flint around town and work out
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Speaker 2: in a local gym. Oh, this guy cares too much
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Speaker 2: about himself to commit suicide. Of course, I am not
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Speaker 2: a doctor, a medical doctor, but everything this guy has
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Speaker 2: ever done screams me.
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Speaker 1: Me, Me, Me me.
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Speaker 2: Sporting a shorter haircut and his heavily tattooed upper torso
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Speaker 2: he looks like he's blowing kisses at the camera. He
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Speaker 2: kept looking around the courtroom as if searching for people
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Speaker 2: he might know.
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Speaker 1: There were no family or.
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Speaker 2: Friends present, mostly because he killed them. But I did
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Speaker 2: notice his father, the superagent, and the rest of his
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Speaker 2: family didn't show up. And yes he's pictured in court
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Speaker 2: shirtless again. High school of course. Accused are murdering and dismembered.
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Speaker 2: He dismembering his wife, Maylee, with whom he shared three
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Speaker 2: beautiful children. Her dismember body was found in November. So
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Speaker 2: Sam Haskell the fourth is a son of a high
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Speaker 2: powered talent agent who was known as the quote.
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Speaker 1: Good guy of Hollywood.
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Speaker 2: The dad High School three was the CEO, I believe
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Speaker 2: of the Miss America pageant for many many years. Has
13:51
Speaker 2: I think still working with Dolly Parton in her Magnoia productions.
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Speaker 2: I mean the dad is renowned. In fact, I think
14:02
Speaker 2: he was the world wide head of TV work for
14:10
Speaker 2: William Morris.
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Speaker 1: Do I have that right?
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Speaker 6: Haskell three the father, he it was, but he was
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Speaker 6: the head of the pageants.
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Speaker 7: He was.
14:20
Speaker 6: He separated from the pageant organization about a year ago.
14:23
Speaker 2: Over just be regarding some emails, but correct. That leads
14:27
Speaker 2: me to the son Haskell four. Now, from what I understand,
14:32
Speaker 2: this guy Haskell four has directed a few things, including
14:38
Speaker 2: working with Tiger and Machine Gun Kelly, but he never
14:44
Speaker 2: reached the level of his father's fame.
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Speaker 1: Is that right?
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Speaker 6: Correct? Not in any way, shape or form. And he
14:50
Speaker 6: mostly put things on social media where he would do videos,
14:53
Speaker 6: you know, on TikTok.
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Speaker 2: Wait a minute, I'm so glad you said that. Let's
14:59
Speaker 2: take a listen to Sam Haskell four, the fourth on
15:03
Speaker 2: social media. His TikTok. This is our cut fourteen, like.
15:08
Speaker 11: My resume says, unhappy, bitter, resentful. Now I'm consistently never
15:16
Speaker 11: going to stop drinking. Shout out to the waiter at
15:18
Speaker 11: the restaurant above, nor drums for just like completely burning
15:23
Speaker 11: out of my filet, like what kind of a monster
15:26
Speaker 11: are you? Homie?
15:27
Speaker 1: What what Sidney? Can I hear that again?
15:31
Speaker 11: Like my resume says unhappy, bitter, resentful. Now I'm consistently
15:38
Speaker 11: never going to stop drinking. Shout out to the waiter
15:41
Speaker 11: at the restaurant above nor drums for just like completely
15:45
Speaker 11: burning out of my file at, like, what kind of
15:48
Speaker 11: a monster are you? Homie?
15:50
Speaker 2: Okay, this guy, Sam Haskell the fourth is living in a.
15:57
Speaker 1: Nearly three million dollars home.
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Speaker 2: In Tarzana, which is a really beautiful area around LA.
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Speaker 2: He's got an enclosed backyard I've seen it myself, with
16:13
Speaker 2: a gorgeous pool, a play area for his children, the works.
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Speaker 1: It's a six bedroom home.
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Speaker 2: And he is whining that he's unhappy, bitter and resentful.
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Speaker 1: He's never going to stop drinking.
16:28
Speaker 2: Thanks for sharing and complaining that the waiter at the
16:33
Speaker 2: restaurant on top of North Troms, I.
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Speaker 1: Guess it's at the Tabanga Mall. I'm not sure.
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Speaker 2: North Troms, which is a really expensive department store, burned
16:43
Speaker 2: his filet Mignon and I, okay, Alexis, tell me about
16:49
Speaker 2: this area because I've seen it and it's really beautiful.
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Speaker 6: It is Tarzana is part of Los Angeles County. It's
16:58
Speaker 6: a little bit away from downtown in the valley. But
17:01
Speaker 6: so it's beautiful, lush, green homes, you know, very spaced out,
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Speaker 6: not right on.
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Speaker 5: Top of each other at all.
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Speaker 6: You know, tree lined streets, really good schools around there,
17:12
Speaker 6: nice areas for your kids to play. Nice you know,
17:15
Speaker 6: restaurants and malls where you could take your kids, parks,
17:18
Speaker 6: you know, the dumpster. Everything is right near a park.
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Speaker 6: Just a lovely area that for somebody who doesn't seem
17:26
Speaker 6: to work, you would think probably maybe his parents bought
17:29
Speaker 6: this very expensive home for him and they just moved
17:33
Speaker 6: there in December of twenty twenty, so in the middle
17:35
Speaker 6: of the pandemic they moved.
17:36
Speaker 2: And joining me right now is a special guest. It
17:39
Speaker 2: is l Been and me. Thank you for being with us.
17:43
Speaker 2: We're all trying to figure out what exactly is happening.
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Speaker 2: You are a friend and neighbor of May and Sam
17:53
Speaker 2: Haskell the fourth.
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Speaker 1: What can you tell us about them?
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Speaker 5: So they moved to the neighborhood, like you said, in
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Speaker 5: December twenty twenty January twenty twenty one, during the pandemic
18:05
Speaker 5: and from the beginning, I did think that they were.
18:09
Speaker 5: It struck me that they were very different Sam and May.
18:14
Speaker 5: He was She's extremely outgoing. Right when she moved in here,
18:19
Speaker 5: she came around and she introduced herself, and she wanted
18:23
Speaker 5: to make plans with us and the kids. And he
18:29
Speaker 5: was not like that. He would, you know, say hello
18:35
Speaker 5: if I saw him on the street, maybe kind of
18:37
Speaker 5: like nod his head. He would smile. So he was
18:40
Speaker 5: outwardly friendly. But in the I guess three years that
18:45
Speaker 5: he lived next to us, I never actually had a
18:47
Speaker 5: conversation with him, But with Mate it was very different.
18:50
Speaker 5: I had many, many long conversations with her, took many
18:54
Speaker 5: long walks, and I can't say the same for him.
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Speaker 2: Question, you spent time with May, and I know that
19:04
Speaker 2: May lived in the home with her parents, ages seventy
19:09
Speaker 2: two and sixty four.
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Speaker 1: What was she like?
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Speaker 5: I was just a very very sweet person, a very generous,
19:17
Speaker 5: very sweet, very caring, would kind of get excited about
19:22
Speaker 5: small things, kind of biting like a I guess, a
19:27
Speaker 5: childlike way, which was very endearing. She loved to be
19:33
Speaker 5: around people. She threw many parties. She was very dedicated,
19:37
Speaker 5: dedicated to her three boys, and always threw them really
19:44
Speaker 5: amazing birthday parties, really went all out. She you know,
19:47
Speaker 5: threw parties for Chinese New Year, and she always loved
19:54
Speaker 5: to make plans, make sure, you know, her boys have
19:57
Speaker 5: a lot of things plan out, and also took them
20:02
Speaker 5: to many extracurricular activities after school, from music to sport
20:10
Speaker 5: to you know, advanced math and so on.
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Speaker 1: Okay, that is a mom that cares.
20:17
Speaker 2: I mean, I've been there and I know the ages
20:20
Speaker 2: of her children are three boys. You're constantly in the
20:24
Speaker 2: road taking one to music, or this one to gymnastics,
20:28
Speaker 2: or this one to soccer or whatever it is that
20:31
Speaker 2: they latch onto that they like. What was her relationship
20:36
Speaker 2: with Haskell?
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Speaker 5: For so, I will say that she never really discussed
20:39
Speaker 5: a relationship with him with me, but just from observing them,
20:45
Speaker 5: I would say that they weren't close. They didn't have
20:48
Speaker 5: anywhere near a close, you know, a close relationship. It
20:52
Speaker 5: would definitely not call it that. Never seen them be
20:54
Speaker 5: affectionate with each other. They never went on date nights.
20:59
Speaker 5: She never mentioned and them going on a date. I
21:01
Speaker 5: never have been going out anywhere together. They didn't go
21:06
Speaker 5: on vacations together. So she would go on vacation with
21:09
Speaker 5: her children and her parents, and he typically went on
21:13
Speaker 5: solo trips I think, typically to Japan. According to May,
21:17
Speaker 5: some of them were work related for filming. They both,
21:23
Speaker 5: for example, like to take walks in the neighborhood. I
21:25
Speaker 5: never saw them take a walk together.
21:28
Speaker 1: You know, That's that's really interesting.
21:29
Speaker 2: Ill And guys, you're hearing a friend and neighbor of
21:35
Speaker 2: May and Sam Haskell the fourth Troy Slayton. I'm just
21:40
Speaker 2: trying to imagine.
21:41
Speaker 9: This, Nancy. That's something very important. I love take walks
21:45
Speaker 9: with my spouse here in beautiful Los Angeles. But he
21:50
Speaker 9: lived with his in laws too. And I'm not making
21:56
Speaker 9: any kind of excuse, but people sometimes in that situation
22:02
Speaker 9: feel trapped. They feel that there are no boundaries and
22:06
Speaker 9: starting to think about what some of the defenses might
22:10
Speaker 9: be psychologically for him, and they.
22:12
Speaker 1: Live with his in laws. Are you kidding me?
22:15
Speaker 2: I've got my ninety two year old mother with us, Okay,
22:18
Speaker 2: and you know who's the very sweetest to her, My husband.
22:22
Speaker 1: He feels trapped, he hasn't said, so.
22:24
Speaker 9: That's nice, But a lot of people suffer tremendous psychological
22:29
Speaker 9: stress from living with their in laws.
22:33
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I can't wait to see how that goes over.
22:36
Speaker 2: Was that you l about to say something?
22:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was going to say that May's parents they
22:42
Speaker 5: were I mean, of course, I don't know what went
22:46
Speaker 5: on inside their home, but from what I could see,
22:48
Speaker 5: they seem to be extremely helpful. Anytime I observed them
22:53
Speaker 5: with the children, they always both of them were actively
22:58
Speaker 5: you know, chasing up to them helping. Her mom cooked
23:04
Speaker 5: a lot, I think, pretty much daily for them and
23:08
Speaker 5: for the kids when May for birthday parties. It was
23:11
Speaker 5: not that helped in any way. Was her parents, even
23:16
Speaker 5: though they didn't speak English, they were constantly actively helping.
23:23
Speaker 5: And you know, and her mom had suffered a stroke
23:26
Speaker 5: prior to COVID and so she did use or she
23:31
Speaker 5: does use a kid to walk. That didn't stop her
23:34
Speaker 5: from being always on her feet and helping.
23:37
Speaker 2: You know, just thinking about the dynamic you're telling us.
23:39
Speaker 2: But I want to circle back very quickly to something
23:42
Speaker 2: Alexis Terschak was reporting earlier.
23:45
Speaker 1: I want to go.
23:46
Speaker 2: Back to these day laborers.
23:50
Speaker 1: They construction workers. Take us to hour Cut too from.
23:53
Speaker 3: Dave Mac twenty five miles west of downtown Los Angeles,
23:57
Speaker 3: in an area once owned by famed author Edgar Rice
24:00
Speaker 3: Burrows and named for his famous character Tarzan. Tarzana is
24:04
Speaker 3: in the San Fernando Valley and has become a popular
24:07
Speaker 3: place for celebrities and those in the entertainment world to
24:10
Speaker 3: call home. It's also where Sam Haskell paid a group
24:13
Speaker 3: of day laborers five hundred dollars to haul away three
24:16
Speaker 3: large trash bags that were in his garage. Speaking to
24:19
Speaker 3: NBC for Los Angeles, the workers said Haskell told them
24:22
Speaker 3: the bags were full of rocks, but the workers said
24:25
Speaker 3: when they picked up the bags they felt like there
24:28
Speaker 3: was meat inside. Realizing what they were carrying wasn't rocks,
24:31
Speaker 3: the workers pulled over about a block from Haskell's house
24:34
Speaker 3: to look inside the bag. Opening the bags, the men
24:38
Speaker 3: knew they'd been.
24:38
Speaker 1: Tricked and more listen.
24:40
Speaker 3: The men described the bags to NBC four as soft
24:43
Speaker 3: and soggy and each weighing about fifty pounds. A block
24:46
Speaker 3: away from Haskell's house, the workers opened up the bags
24:50
Speaker 3: and said they started seeing body parts, specifically a belly button.
24:55
Speaker 3: The men said they felt bad they'd been tricked, so
24:57
Speaker 3: they drove back to Haskell's house and left the bags
24:59
Speaker 3: in the and gave Haskell as five hundred dollars back.
25:03
Speaker 3: Haskell played it off, telling the workers what they actually
25:06
Speaker 3: saw were Halloween props. Not believing Haskell, the men drove
25:09
Speaker 3: immediately to the police.
25:11
Speaker 2: Okay, alexais terreschat Crime online dot com investigative reporter joining
25:15
Speaker 2: us from LA what.
25:17
Speaker 6: So he hired it some men day laborer that you
25:20
Speaker 6: go to maybe home depot or somewhere like that, and
25:22
Speaker 6: you say, hey, guys, I've got some heavy things in
25:24
Speaker 6: my house. These men are usually big, strong men, and
25:26
Speaker 6: they have trucks they come to your house. So that's
25:28
Speaker 6: what they did. They took the bags and he said, oh,
25:31
Speaker 6: they're rocks. Well, rocks are really heavy and they don't move.
25:35
Speaker 1: You can't squish them.
25:36
Speaker 6: But these bags were heavy and squishy, and the guys
25:39
Speaker 6: their description was it felt like meat. So they were,
25:43
Speaker 6: you know, like a huge hunk of meat.
25:45
Speaker 1: Squishy but still a little solid.
25:47
Speaker 6: They looked in the bags, they saw what it was,
25:50
Speaker 6: and what they specifically described was they saw a belly
25:53
Speaker 6: button like the torso from you know, above your waist,
25:57
Speaker 6: below your chest, you're below your necks.
26:00
Speaker 5: And that was horrific.
26:02
Speaker 6: So they took the bags back. The guy gave them
26:05
Speaker 6: their money. They gave them money back, and then they
26:08
Speaker 6: went to the police. They go to the first police
26:10
Speaker 6: station they could find. The police said, well, that's not
26:12
Speaker 6: actually our jurisdiction. One either to his other police station
26:16
Speaker 6: or call nine to one.
26:17
Speaker 1: One.
26:18
Speaker 6: These guys come in with sure, it's a little bit
26:20
Speaker 6: of a wild story, but you should investigate this. This
26:23
Speaker 6: is really they're not telling you anything that is out
26:26
Speaker 6: of the Norman Los Angeles.
26:27
Speaker 2: Everything you're saying, I believe it's correct. But what's jumping
26:30
Speaker 2: out at me is changing his story. First, the bag
26:34
Speaker 2: is full of rocks. Yeah, Then he says, oh, those
26:37
Speaker 2: are just Halloween props, even though it looks like human body.
26:41
Speaker 1: Parts, that's so human body and yeah.
26:43
Speaker 2: Then the next thing we know, a bag of human
26:48
Speaker 2: body parts turns up in a dumpster. But let me
26:51
Speaker 2: take it back. Joining me is a neighbor of May
26:57
Speaker 2: and Sam Haskell. Fourth May, the mother of three little boys.
27:01
Speaker 1: By Haskell.
27:03
Speaker 2: Well, question, what if anything did you hear the previous night?
27:10
Speaker 5: So I was not home the previous night, but yes,
27:14
Speaker 5: my daughter she actually texted it to us that night.
27:18
Speaker 5: She heard what she thought was the youngest boy from
27:23
Speaker 5: their house, or perhaps from the yard shout hello, hello, help,
27:28
Speaker 5: and then she heard a car door slam and loud screeching.
27:33
Speaker 5: I guess of the car drove off?
27:35
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, did you saw that down? And tell
27:38
Speaker 1: me one more time?
27:39
Speaker 5: Okay, So my daughter texted us at around nine pm
27:43
Speaker 5: on Tuesday, the night before the torso was found, that
27:47
Speaker 5: she heard what she believed to be the high school's
27:51
Speaker 5: youngest boy come in too basically maybe from the house
27:58
Speaker 5: or from the yard, to call out hello, hello and
28:03
Speaker 5: then help. And then she heard a car door slim
28:06
Speaker 5: really hard and screeching sound allowed screeching, a drove off.
28:11
Speaker 1: And joining me?
28:12
Speaker 2: Now is doctor Trace sergeant Search Rescue, Recovery Expert, PhD
28:18
Speaker 2: in psychology, I focused on victimology, star of a podcast,
28:23
Speaker 2: The Seekers Quest, Doctor sergeant, thank you for being with us.
28:29
Speaker 2: You look specifically at predatory behavior. What do you make
28:37
Speaker 2: of someone that not only commits a murder but then
28:41
Speaker 2: dismembers the body?
28:43
Speaker 12: Well, Nancy, we look at several things, but I'd like
28:46
Speaker 12: to go back to Sam Hassel's the fourth comments on
28:51
Speaker 12: social media that in itself tells us a lot when
28:55
Speaker 12: we're looking at it from a criminal profile perspective. Behavioral
28:59
Speaker 12: analysis psychological analysis, and what is glaring to me is
29:04
Speaker 12: that he perceives himself as the victim. And I would
29:10
Speaker 12: not be surprised when this case and this story moves
29:14
Speaker 12: forward that he presents himself as the victim and maybe
29:20
Speaker 12: even go as far as blaming the circumstances that led
29:24
Speaker 12: to the death of his wife and probably his in
29:27
Speaker 12: laws that it was somehow their fault, not his fault.
29:31
Speaker 12: He will not take accountability or responsibility for his action.
29:35
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that, doctor Bracato.
29:37
Speaker 10: Well, I have a few things to say about this case,
29:41
Speaker 10: and I think in some ways I'm sort of uniquely
29:44
Speaker 10: suited to look at it because it touches on two
29:47
Speaker 10: areas that have been major ones for me in my research.
29:52
Speaker 10: First of all, dismemberment and mutilation need to be distinguished.
29:58
Speaker 10: I worked with doctor and Burgess, doctor Victor Petrica, Michael Stone,
30:03
Speaker 10: doctor Michael Stone, and we came up with definitions to
30:07
Speaker 10: distinguish those offenses. It's important for people to understand the dismemberment,
30:12
Speaker 10: according to our work, really means the destruction or removal
30:18
Speaker 10: of a large part of the body the torso, the arms, hand, helvis,
30:22
Speaker 10: legs or feet, and any destruction or elimination of a
30:27
Speaker 10: smaller part thereof of any you know, it would be mutilation.
30:31
Speaker 10: And the reason it's important is there are differences in
30:34
Speaker 10: the psychology and motives of people according to which of
30:37
Speaker 10: those things they're doing. What it sounds like here. We
30:41
Speaker 10: don't know how how much butchery there was, but this
30:43
Speaker 10: sounds like dismemberment offense. And with dismemberment, we found in
30:47
Speaker 10: our research that the vast majority offenders are doing that
30:50
Speaker 10: to get rid of body parts because of concern about capture.
30:56
Speaker 10: The outside, you know, looking in makes it seem like
30:59
Speaker 10: it's some kind of bizarre, psychotic, crazy thing to do,
31:03
Speaker 10: but the reality is it's a pretty organized thing to
31:05
Speaker 10: do that's done by a person that's trying to clean
31:08
Speaker 10: up after they've eliminated people. Now, the other thing that
31:11
Speaker 10: I can kind of put some in a unique position
31:13
Speaker 10: here is I know that, you know, there's been a
31:16
Speaker 10: charge that this man has killed not only this woman
31:20
Speaker 10: but her parents, which would place him in the category
31:24
Speaker 10: of mass murder. When I was at Columbia Medical Center,
31:28
Speaker 10: I led the largest study ever done of mass murder.
31:31
Speaker 10: And what I can tell you is is that in
31:33
Speaker 10: order to know the motives of a person who commits
31:36
Speaker 10: mass murder. We have to know what was used to kill.
31:39
Speaker 10: If a gun is used, there's a very low likelihood
31:43
Speaker 10: that the person was seriously disturbed or mentally ill. If
31:46
Speaker 10: something else was used, like a knife, then we start
31:50
Speaker 10: thinking that this was an individual who was unwell in
31:53
Speaker 10: some way. The statistics, it becomes much more probable that
31:57
Speaker 10: the person was disturbed.
31:59
Speaker 1: If they use an Is that what you said?
32:01
Speaker 10: Yes, the use of a knife would be more of
32:03
Speaker 10: a giveaway that you're dealing with somebody that would be
32:05
Speaker 10: authentically odd inter personally, a little more kind.
32:10
Speaker 1: Of unwell, right, Are you saying insane? Not insane, just odd? Odd?
32:16
Speaker 10: For example, the individual might be paranoid or a little
32:19
Speaker 10: bit aggressive.
32:19
Speaker 2: Are you talking about someone that kills and as members
32:22
Speaker 2: with a knife.
32:23
Speaker 10: Talking about someone who commits a mass murder using a knife.
32:26
Speaker 1: Well, what doesn't it go without saying that they're odd?
32:29
Speaker 6: Well odd?
32:30
Speaker 10: And when I say odd, I don't mean odd because
32:33
Speaker 10: you've committed murder or anything like that. I mean odd
32:35
Speaker 10: that even at baseline, the person would say peculiar things
32:39
Speaker 10: would be a little bit kind of odd to the
32:41
Speaker 10: average individual, hot headed, a little paranoid, a little peculiar,
32:46
Speaker 10: and that matches what we're hearing and that weird recording
32:50
Speaker 10: from TikTok and some of these stories about the detachment
32:54
Speaker 10: and the coldness between the members of the family. Now,
32:58
Speaker 10: what's interesting about this is when we see these kinds
33:00
Speaker 10: of cases where you know, there's been this explosive potential
33:05
Speaker 10: killing of a family and then there's dismemberment, there's usually
33:09
Speaker 10: one of two reasons it happens. One is elimination murder,
33:13
Speaker 10: as I term it, which is where the idea is
33:16
Speaker 10: to simply get rid of them because they are an
33:17
Speaker 10: impediment to something like, for example, I want to have
33:21
Speaker 10: a new romance or I am trying to get my
33:23
Speaker 10: hands on some money. The other that you see is
33:27
Speaker 10: some kind of domestic matter that causes an emotional disruption
33:31
Speaker 10: and somebody in an absolute rage kills someone and then
33:35
Speaker 10: has to kill everyone who has witnessed it in the family.
33:39
Speaker 10: So that what I would suppose, if it turns out
33:41
Speaker 10: that this is indeed a mass murder followed by dismemberment,
33:46
Speaker 10: was that there was some kind of hot headed, angry,
33:49
Speaker 10: odd person who became enraged or had a motive to
33:54
Speaker 10: get rid of these people did so and then attempted
33:58
Speaker 10: in a clumsy, weird way to And the reason it's
34:02
Speaker 10: so odd and the stories are ridiculous is often that
34:05
Speaker 10: the person is odd and lacks that kind of interpersonal
34:08
Speaker 10: empathy to kind of pick up that people would think
34:11
Speaker 10: these stories were weird.
34:12
Speaker 2: Let's go back to the Haskell's neighbor, Elle Benemy Elle question.
34:19
Speaker 1: I know you spent a good bit of time with May.
34:24
Speaker 2: Do you have any knowledge of Haskell having a fixation
34:28
Speaker 2: for on martial arts and kept samurai swords and crossbows
34:33
Speaker 2: in them?
34:34
Speaker 5: Yeah, so I did. I did notice that about him.
34:40
Speaker 5: I know that she mentioned that he would direct or
34:44
Speaker 5: produce martial arts related movies or videos, or that he
34:49
Speaker 5: would go in martial arts troops to Japan, I believe,
34:53
Speaker 5: and I don't know why I remember this, but I
34:55
Speaker 5: seem to recall that he may have a black belt
34:58
Speaker 5: or a couple of blood belts for martial arts, and
35:03
Speaker 5: and then I did know about their having various weapons
35:08
Speaker 5: in the house, such as the stores and samurai swords
35:11
Speaker 5: I believe across bow firearms. So that that's definitely something
35:16
Speaker 5: that stayed very top of mind for me as a
35:19
Speaker 5: mom of four living next door.
35:22
Speaker 2: Did her mays, children tell your children about all the
35:27
Speaker 2: weapons to the point you did not want your children
35:30
Speaker 2: alone at their home upstairs?
35:33
Speaker 5: Yes, so they did mention that to my kids several
35:38
Speaker 5: points about like let's say a samurai sword, or pointing
35:43
Speaker 5: up to where supposedly a specific firearm was kept. So
35:49
Speaker 5: that made me very nervous about their them going upstairs
35:53
Speaker 5: to one of the bedrooms. I did, of course, I
35:57
Speaker 5: trust me and I I did really like her three boys,
36:01
Speaker 5: so I was happy for them to play with my kids.
36:03
Speaker 5: I just didn't wonder to be any accident.
36:12
Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Welcome back, guys.
36:20
Speaker 2: We're talking about Sam Haskell, the fourth living in a
36:24
Speaker 2: multi million dollar home out in La his wife working.
36:29
Speaker 1: Like a dog to support him and their three children.
36:32
Speaker 2: He didn't even have to take care of the children
36:34
Speaker 2: because her parents moved in to take care of the
36:36
Speaker 2: children so she could work.
36:39
Speaker 1: Now, in this last.
36:41
Speaker 2: Court appearance that happened in the last days, once again
36:43
Speaker 2: he didn't have on a shirt. And the hearing before that,
36:46
Speaker 2: in front of a different judge that was back in January,
36:50
Speaker 2: he again appeared half naked. Is warn velcrow outfit to
36:57
Speaker 2: his prison blues, Rolls kept flipping down, prompting his lawyer
37:03
Speaker 2: to object to his client being photographed in court, saying
37:06
Speaker 2: his bare chest was dehumanizing. I personally think he was
37:11
Speaker 2: flexing his chest, but that's just me. In response to that,
37:16
Speaker 2: the judge presiding over the hearing order photographers to only
37:19
Speaker 2: shoot Haskell from.
37:20
Speaker 1: The neck up.
37:22
Speaker 2: But at this last hearing the attorney did not object.
37:26
Speaker 2: Why because Judge Lisa Lynch, the new judge, allowed no
37:30
Speaker 2: photographs in court at all. Now, this day in court
37:35
Speaker 2: was supposed to be the day set for a preliminary
37:38
Speaker 2: hearing to be scheduled, where ELA's district attorney will present
37:42
Speaker 2: evidence and testimony and Judge Lynch will rule whether the
37:46
Speaker 2: case against Haskell.
37:49
Speaker 1: Is strong enough for him to go to a jury trial.
37:52
Speaker 1: It's very simple.
37:54
Speaker 2: Preliminary hearings can be interchanged with grand jury indictments charging mechanism.
38:01
Speaker 1: What's the hold up? I mean, look at the evidents
38:06
Speaker 1: that we know about so far.
38:10
Speaker 2: It now appears Haskell won't have a full preliminary hearing
38:14
Speaker 2: for another ninety days, meaning in twenty twenty five, Haskell
38:24
Speaker 2: could face the death penalty if he's convicted. May's friends
38:28
Speaker 2: have stated she wanted to divorce Haskell for at least
38:32
Speaker 2: four years, but she was so afraid his powerful agent
38:37
Speaker 2: father would convince courts to give him or their son,
38:44
Speaker 2: Sam Haskell the fourth custody of her three sons, Samuel eleven,
38:50
Speaker 2: James eight, and little William just six. Delay, delay, delay,
38:58
Speaker 2: A defense attorney's best friend, we wait as justice unfolds
39:05
Speaker 2: for May and her parents.
39:09
Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,