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The Tragic Murder That Inspired ‘Alpha Dog’ · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: All right, so get ready, because today we're diving into
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  a story that's both captivating and incredibly unsettling, a story
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  you all asked us to explore. We're talking about the
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  real life crime that inspired the film Alpha Dog, the
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  tragic story of Nicholas Markowitz.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a case that really makes you think
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  about the choices people make, you know, the lines they're
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  willing to cross, and the terrible things that can happen
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  in places that seem totally normal.
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  Speaker 1: Because Nicholas, he was just your average teenager living in
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  the San Fernando Valley back in two thousand, loved theater,
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  got lost in books. Not who you'd picture, right, Definitely
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  not the kind of kid you'd think would get mixed
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  up in drugs and violence.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's what makes this case so interesting,
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  so powerful. It reminds us that these things can happen anywhere.
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  It shatters that illusion of safety that we all kind
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  of want to believe in.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, absolutely, it makes you wonder what was West
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  Hills like back then.
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  Speaker 2: Well, on the surface, West Hills in two thousand, it
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  was your classic suburb, think manicred lawns, kids writing their bus,
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  you know that feeling that sense of peace you get
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  in those quiet parts of California. But underneath all that
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  there is this dangerous undercurrent of drug activity.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where Jesse James Hollywood comes in. Right, that name,
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  it's like something out of a movie. What's his deal?
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  Speaker 2: Right? The name itself is kind of larger than life,
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  isn't it. But Jesse James Hollywood was no hero. Imagine
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  a twenty year old high school dropout goes from star
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  athlete to running a drug ring. He demanded respect, or
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  maybe it's better to say he instilled fear in everyone
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  around him.
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  Speaker 1: So how does Nicholas, this quiet kid who loves books
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  in theater, how does he get involved with someone like Hollywood?
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  Speaker 2: Debt? It always seems to come back to that, doesn't it,
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  and misguided loyalty. Nicholas's half brother, Ben Markovitz, owed Hollywood
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  a lot of money twelve hundred dollars to be exact,
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  and unfortunately for Nicholas, that debt would seal his fate.
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  Speaker 1: This is where it gets really tough to hear. It's
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  August sixth two thousand. Nicholas is walking down the street
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  and in broad daylight, he's just taken someone.
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  Speaker 2: Who lived near by. They saw the whole thing immediately
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  called nine to one. One even gave the police the
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  license plate number of the van, but it was too late.
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  Nicholas was gone, thrown into that van by Hollywood Jesse
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  Ruggard and William Skidmore, another one of Hollywood's guys.
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  Speaker 1: It's just terrifying how quickly everything changed. So what happens
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  to Nicholas after they take him for days?
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  Speaker 2: Nicholas is stuck in this bizarre, terrifying situation. They're moving
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  him between houses, making him party with them, even playing
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  video games.
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  Speaker 1: Wait, they're making him party and play video games. Seriously,
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  it's like they're trying to pretend that nothing serious is
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  happening exactly.
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  Speaker 2: It was a messed up way of trying to make
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  things seem normal while they were holding him captive.
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  Speaker 1: I can't even imagine what was going through his head.
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  Speaker 2: Think about it. You're fifteen years old, ripped away from
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  everything you know, and thrown into this nightmare. It's a
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  classic example of cognitive dissonance. That's when someone has beliefs
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  or attitudes that contradict each other.
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  Speaker 1: So both Nicholas and his captors are dealing with his
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  cognitive dissonance.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely for Hollywood, having Nicholas around might have been a
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  way to justify what he was doing, to convince himself
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  it wasn't really a kidnapping. And for Nicholas, imagine being
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  stuck with these older guys who are obviously dangerous but
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  also in a way acting like your friends. Talk about
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  a mind trip, especially for a teenager.
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  Speaker 1: And to make things even more complicated, they had Nicholas
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  believing he was helping his brother by going along with everything.
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  Speaker 2: They used his loyalty against him, telling him that as
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  long as Ben was safe, he would be too. This
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  manipulation just tightened their grip on him.
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  Speaker 1: And in the middle of all of this chaos, Nicholas
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  connects with another young guy, Graham.
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  Speaker 2: Presley, seventeen years old. Presley was another young person caught
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  up in Hollywood's web. He treated Nicholas with some decency,
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  which is really saying something considering how the others were acting.
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  They even formed a bond, which is strange considering the circumstances,
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  but it just shows how complicated this situation was and
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  how much Nicholas how much he needed a friend, someone
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  to connect with.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got Nicholas stuck in this horrible situation, hoping
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  he'll get to go home. But while he's trying to
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  deal with all of this, what's going on with Jesse
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  James Hollywood.
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  Speaker 2: This is where things get really interesting. You see the
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  shift in Hollywood. You know, he starts to lose that cockiness,
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  that feeling that he's untouchable. It's like the reality of
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  what he's done is starting to sink in, and he panics.
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  He's convinced the cops are closing in.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, it's crazy how fast that sense of power can disappear. Yeah,
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  when you're facing real consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And to make things even worse, Hollywood
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  decides to talk to his family's lawyer. You'd think that
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  might make him want to do the right thing, but
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  at backfires.
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  Speaker 1: I know, you'd think getting legal advice would make him
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  want to turn himself in, not make things worse.
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  Speaker 2: What happened, Well, it seems like the lawyer's advice, whatever
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  it was, just made Hollywood even more scared and paranoid.
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  Instead of telling him to surrender, it pushed him further
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  down a bad path. His fear turned into this desperate
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  need to cover his tracks. He became obsessed with silencing Nicholas,
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  believing it was the only way to get away with everything.
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  Speaker 1: It's just bone chilling. Did he try to get anyone
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  else involved in this plan?
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  Speaker 2: At first? He went to Jesse Ruggan and asked him
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  to kill Nicholas. But this request, it showed a little
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  bit of humanity in all of this, a line that
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  even in this world of crime, some people wouldn't cross.
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  Ruggy actually said, no, Well, that's.
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  Speaker 1: Something at least. He doesn't change what happened. But it's
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  good to know that someone had a heart in all
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  of this. But it still doesn't change the fact that
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  Hollywood was determined to go through with it. What happened next.
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, this is where Ryan Hoyt comes in. Like Ben Markowitz,
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  Hoyit owed Hollywood money, which made him easy to manipulate.
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  Speaker 1: It's just tragic how this whole thing revolves around debt
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  and owing favors.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Hollywood knew Hoyt was desperate, and he used that.
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  He promised to clear Hoyt's debts, offered him more money,
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  and to make sure he went along with it, he
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  gave him a Tech nine semi automatic pistol. It's a
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  horrifying example of how little Hollywood value to human life.
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  How he saw Nicholas as just a way to save himself.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine someone thinking like that. So what
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  happened to Nicholas?
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  Speaker 2: Early in the morning on August ninth? Hoyt, along with
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  Rugg and Presley, drove Nicholas to a remote spot near
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  Santa Barbara called Lizard's Mouth Trail. They had already dug
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  a grave, which is just chilling. It's a horrible scene
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  to picture. Nicholas was hitting the head with a shovel
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  and then Hoyt shot him nine times.
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  Speaker 1: Nine times. That's just pure evil.
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  Speaker 2: It just shows how cruel people can be, how quickly
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  they can take a life.
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  Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking. They buried Nicholas's body, trying to hide what
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  they did, but of course the truth always comes out.
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  What happened next? Did they catch Hollywood?
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  Speaker 2: Not right away? As soon as he knew the cops
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  were looking for him, Hollywood took off first. He went
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  to Colorado, then disappeared completely. Can you believe that he
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  vanished for almost six years, six.
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  Speaker 1: Years on the run, knowing what he did. It's crazy.
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  What finally happened? How did they find him.
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  Speaker 2: The police never gave up. They kept at it, following
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  every lead, every rumor. Only in two thousand and five
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  they found him in Rear de Genio. They brought him
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  back to the US to stand trial.
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  Speaker 1: It's true what they say that you can't outrun justice forever.
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  So what happened at the trial?
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  Speaker 2: Hollywood tried to act like he was just a young
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  guy who'd made some bad choices, caught in a bad situation,
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  but there was too much evidence against him. The jury
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  saw right through him, found him guilty, and sentenced him
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  to life in prison without parole.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine any other outcome. Really. What about
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  the others? What happened to them?
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  Speaker 2: They were all held accountable, but their sentences were different.
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  Ryan Hoyt, the one who shot Nicholas, was convicted of
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  first degree murder and sentenced to death. He's still on
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  death row.
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  Speaker 1: What about rug and Skidmore? They were part of the kidnapping,
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  but Ruggin wouldn't kill Nicholas? Did that make a difference?
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  Speaker 2: It did. Even though Ruggy refused to commit murder, he
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  was still found guilty of kidnapping and ended up spending
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  eleven years in prison. Skidmore made a deal and got
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  a nine year sentence for the same charge.
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  Speaker 1: So even though they weren't the ones who pulled the trigger,
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  they still had to answer for what they did. What
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  about Graham Presley, He was just a kid himself. What
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  happened to him.
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  Speaker 2: Presley's case was different because he was a miner. He
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  was tried as a minor and served eight years in
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  juvenile detention.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to know what goes on in the mind
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  of someone that young caught up in something so awful.
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  Did his friendship with Nicholas have any impact on his sentence?
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  It makes you wonder how this whole experience affected him.
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  Speaker 2: That's a tough question, and unfortunately we don't know all
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  the details, but it's definitely something to think about.
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  Speaker 1: It's easy to get lost in the legal stuff, you know,
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  the sentences, the time served, but we can't forget that
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  this is about a life that was cut way too short,
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  a young man who never got the chance to grow up.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Nicholas Markovitz was more than just a victim, more
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  than just a name and a news story.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: He was someone's son, someone's brother, someone's friend. He had
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  hopes and dreams, a left for theater and literature, and
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  it's just well, it's hard to think about how those
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  passions were probably with him even in those final days.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, when you think about Nicholas loving theater, loving stories,
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  it just makes what happened to him even more tragic.
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  Speaker 2: It really is a cruel twist of fate, and it
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  makes you think we can't let the violence over Jado
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  the person you know.
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  Speaker 1: Like you said before, these things can happen anywhere. There's
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  something about this case that's both disturbing and universal.
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  Speaker 2: At the same time, exactly, and that's why it's so
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  important to talk about, to revisit these kinds of cases.
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  It forces us to face some hard truths about our
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  own communities, about how darkness can hide even in places
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  we think are safe.
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  Speaker 1: I keep thinking about the role of chance, of circumstance
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  in all of this. It's almost like a bunch of
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  terrible things just happen to come together at the same time.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good point, and it just shows how complicated
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  these situations really are. You have the appeal of easy money,
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  the allure of power. These things can be tempting, especially
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  for young people, and.
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  Speaker 1: Then you have someone like Jesse James Hollywood, charismatic but
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  deeply troubled, someone who needs to be in control to
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  use intimidation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that need for control, along with his paranoia,
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  it created a downward spiral that ended up dragging everyone
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  down with him. It shows just how destructive unchecked power
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  can be. The terrible price that fear and desperation can
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  exact a.
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  Speaker 1: Lot to take in. It makes you wonder, could something
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  like this happen in my town, in my neighborhood. What
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  should we be looking out for?
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  Speaker 2: That's the question we should all be asking ourselves. And
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  while there are no easy answers, there are some warning signs.
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  Sudden changes in behavior, new friends who seem, I don't know, suspicious,
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  or if someone suddenly has a lot more money than usual.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, those are all good points. It's about paying attention,
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  trusting your gut if something feels.
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  Speaker 2: Wrong exactly, and if you see something, say something. It
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  might be uncomfortable, but it can make all the difference.
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  Nicholas Markowitz's story is a tragic reminder that we can't
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  just assume everything's okay. We have to look out for
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  each other.
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  Speaker 1: You've given us a lot to think about today as
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  we wrap up this deep dive. I think the thing
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  we should all remember is that even in the darkest moment,
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  even in a story as tragic as this, there's still hope,
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  there's still resilience.
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  Speaker 2: Remember Nicholas's love for theater, his passion for stories. Let
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  that be a reminder that every life matters, that every
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  story deserves to be told, and that no one should
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  be forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good place to end it, I think, And
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  to everyone listening, thank you for joining us for this
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  deep dive. We'll be back next week with another story.
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  Until then, take care,