Rotten Mango - #227: The Most Evil Child Star

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

The couple were in bed. The same one that they had slept in every single night for the past few years. Only, nothing about the day was normal. Jackie was inconsolable.  She was sobbing, shaking, not understanding what was going on. Her husband, Tom, tried to comfort her. He told her everything was going to be alright. He was going to be with her.  He tried to lean over and grab her hand so he could lovingly stroke it, giving her more reassurance. Only, nothing was going to be okay. They were tied up, thrown onto the bed, by an evil child star who was making plans to have them thrown overboard the yacht.  Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. The couple were in bed. The same bed that they had slept in every single night for the past couple of years. Nothing about this day was normal though. Nothing about tonight was normal. Jackie was inconsolable. She was sobbing and Tom is trying to comfort her, trying to tell her that everything's gonna be alright. It's gonna be okay.

It's gonna be okay. Don't stress out. I mean, I feel like so many couples might have heard the same words coming from their partners, no? Like the same reassurance, the same comfort, it's supposed to make you feel safe. Tom was the type of husband that would do anything to make his beloved wife just feel safe. He shimmyed on the bed to move his hand to cover hers and he tried to soothe her by stroking her hand back and forth. The only difference tonight was that there were three people standing over them on the bed watching the scene unfold.

They were duct taped, tied up, and soon they were going to be thrown overboard their home-sash boat. Yeah, they live on a boat, and they're about to die. They would be tied up together, and a giant chain would be tied around them, and the chain would be secured to this massive anchor, like a scene from a sick movie. The evil killers would drop the anchor into the sea off the coast of Orange County, California and they would watch the couple were dragged across

their own boat deck, hit the railing, and ultimately dragged in to sea where they would disappear forever. The whole thing feels like a disgusting, sick, white lotus plot. Yes, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, as always, full show notes are available at RottenMinglePotCast.com. And this is a case that I've known about for years, and it's just, it's one of those cases that I never really

stopped thinking about. Every single thing, every single part of this case, it drives me nuts, like it just doesn't even make sense to me. Not to say that senseless murder generally makes sense to me, but this one is, it's out of this world. But this one, I feel like there's a lot of unanswered questions. Just the idea, the fact that this happened to someone, it, it sends chills down my body every time that I think about it. And I thought for a while, I wasn't actively thinking about it. It wasn't something that like popped into my mind. and I was recently watching White Lotus Season 2, and the whole time near the end, I could not stop thinking about this case. So I'm going online, I thought I already knew as much as I could about this case, and I

stumble upon a book. Dead Reckoning by Caitlin Rothner. And I just have to say that this book is very well written, meticulously researched incredibly engaging. The only thing is the book refers to Skylar with he-him pronouns, and I will be referring to Skylar as she-her pronouns. So there is a bit of misgendering in the book of that, um, I don't think it was out of ill intent, but it does get a little bit complicated, so just a trigger warning. Now, with that being said, let's get into it. The delion family was screwed up.

That's how most people would describe the delions. Even Skylar's own cousin said, oh yeah, absolutely screwed up family. And it all starts with the grandma. Skylar's grandma, Marlene, was the matriarch of this family. And she's like the evil queen of the family. Her grandkids would say, total-domineering woman, in her own right. I mean, she was crazy.

I mean, barely functional in society, level of psychopathic. She was physically mentally abusive, and everyone was terrified to death of this little grandma. See, that's what I'm saying. Grandma's also cute from afar, but some of them really are out here to get you. If Marlene was anything though, the lady was creative. I will give her that. If you ever talked back to her, it doesn't matter if you're a child or an adult. It's like something would snap in her eyes.

Her eyes would go visibly red. She would grab you by the neck and shove a bar of soap into your mouth. She would use your teeth like a cheese grater. She would rub the bar of soap back and forth till the little shavings of soap into your mouth. She would use your teeth like a cheese grater. She would rub the bar of soap back and forth till the little shavings of soap were settled in your tongue sliding down your throat, choking you, and your teeth felt slimy and just caked in this nasty, oily, greasy substance, and you would just be gagging

while she's screaming, you little son of a bitch! You're not gonna talk to me like that! Most likely, you hadn't even an even doctor in a certain way. Maybe you were a little snappy because you're 12 and you don't know better, but maybe you let it slip that you were scared of the dark. Or when there was a spider near you, you had pure panic in your eyes. Grandma would take a mental note of that. And next time that you were being punished, she would tailor make a fitting punishment for

whatever grievance that you gave her. Sometimes she would lock her own five-year-old daughter in a dark closet for hours. She would walk away, singing in a sing-songy voice. Be careful! I saw spiders in there! And if you ever stood up to her cruel and unusual punishment, you are now branded, the black sheep, the pariah of the family, you would be disowned, and grandma would forbid any members of the family to even talk to you, visit you, even sympathize with you. Yeah, it's bad. But it's not even that bad compared to what I'm about to tell you. One of Skyler's cousins, so another grandchild of Graham Lamarlene's.

His name is Brian. He approaches Graham Lamar one day and confesses that he had been sexually abused by his own father. So Graham Lamar's son, Jerry, had been sexually abused by his own father. So grandma's son, Jerry, had been sexually abusing his own son. Grandma Marlene looked shocked. And then a voice filled with icy rage and she spat at him. Your little goddamn liar. No child of mine is a pedophile.

And she did nothing. So great person. But you know, growing up in this environment typically two things happen. A child or grandchild of grandma Marlene is so disgusted by her behavior, so traumatized that they vow that they're never going to be like her. They would never treat their children like her. They would do the opposite of her. Or sometimes they become just like her. And that was what the case of John was. John is Marlene's son, the eldest son. Side note, all three of Marlene's children

would have a lot of psychological problems later in life. Like Jerry, the child abuser, he shot himself in the chest with a shotgun and survived. The molester. Yeah, the molester. And her son, John, the guy has so many issues. I don't even know where to start. John Delion, the oldest, the first problem that he had was that he was short. Okay, look, I love a short king, but John's problem was that he was super insecure about it and his insecurities showed up in violent ways. I also think that it didn't help that everyone called John big John because he was 5'5 and it was supposed to be a mean joke, an ironic nickname if you will, and all it did was Bruce John's ego. Don't get me wrong.

He would sit there and he would laugh and play along with his nickname, like, oh, my name is Big John, haha, haha. But in other aspects, he would find any tiny little reason, any little excuse to get aggressive in order to assert dominance in other ways. He definitely was overcompensating. Later, people would say that he had an Napoleon complex.

It's like when people are small in stature, so they overcompensate another aspects of their life. He's pretty good at it. The guy was intimidating. Okay. So John De Leon, he's like, you know what? I'm short, but I want to blow people up. He joins the Marines. He was dishonorably discharged for robbing a random stranger in a 7-11 parking lot using a crowbar.

So the guy gets discharged and he had learned of the thing or two during his time in the Marines and he would use that to scare the shit out of everyone, especially his first wife, Lynette Burchette. John and Lynette were like a sick joke of a couple. It's like when life plays a sick joke on you, that's what this pairing felt like. John was a natural born abuser. It took more effort for John to be a decent human being than to be a pure evil villain.

It's like his default settings were on horrible vile person. Meanwhile, Lynette had a history of being abused. She had unresolved trauma. She was a teenager when her sisters has been molested her while he took pictures. So she's just desperate for love, protection, safety, stability. And at 16, she runs into Big John at a party and the guy is 21.

And that's already very problematic, but he's really good at sniffing out vulnerable people. He's really good at sniffing out what you want in life and promising you all those things that you had ever dreamed of. So that's what he did with Lynette. He promised Lynette the world. She moved into Big John's after a few weeks of dating and that's how she found out that he was selling drugs for a living. Yes, okay, she didn't know. It's not really a respectable job per se, but John felt

like he was doing God's work. He's like, how is a drug dealer doing God's work? Because he sold Angel Dust, otherwise known as PCP. It's like a disassociative anesthetic that may cause hallucinations, audible distortions and violent behavior. It's like the worst type of drug. So yeah, devil in disguise, type of energy. And being surrounded by all of this, Big John gets Lenette hooked on the drugs, which honestly is very manipulative when you think about it, because Big John, he wants to be in charge, he wants people to bow at his feet to do whatever he says and getting Lynette hooked on these drugs was the easiest way to control her life

So at 18 she's hooked on drugs and she gets pregnant and she tells John look We've been doing God knows what type of drugs. I've been snorting practically every substance in the sea Like I don't know if that was sugar or PCP or cocaine. Like we've been doing a lot, okay? We should terminate the pregnancy. And I'm not ready. So the two of them hand in hand, walk into an abortion clinic.

She's in the patient room wearing a hospital gown. It's almost time she's getting anxious, she's upset, and suddenly the door bursts open, and John's screaming at her, you're not getting rid of my baby, I'll kill you first. Even though he agreed at first? Yes. Lynette did not want the child.

Okay, she was terrified of how John was going to react if she went through with terminating her pregnancy. So she tried to reason with him. She's like, okay, well, if you don't care about the drugs, John, babe, listen. You make me have three sums and four sums all the time with your friends. I don't even know if this baby's yours, I'm going to be honest. Yeah, no, I'm serious. Big John basically forced her to have three sums and four sums all the time. So genuinely, I mean, we later find out that there is big John's son, but the risk was there.

He didn't care. He's like, that's my baby, no matter what. Even his mom agreed. Tell me why Marlene is even involved in this conversation, but she was. She just weaseled her way in and it was settled. No one was going to argue. That baby was going to be born, whether Lynette, the carrier of the baby liked it or not,

and it was going to be John's baby. Lynette had no choice but to have a child and stay in this relationship. So the two of them they get married, while Lynette is pregnant, and once she committed to this pregnancy, she dropped all the drugs. She just tried to stay clean for her baby, who was born on August 12th, and she was named after John. Well, you and you know?

The 70s, I believe yes. So John Jr. was born male, but she would later identify as female and go by the name Skylar Delion. We're just gonna use she, her pronouns, and refer to Skylar by her chosen name for the story, but it is kind of pertinent to the story because keep in mind that Skyler was brought up a boy. Traditionally a boy, I guess what you would think a gender-norm boy, and most of her childhood she presented as traditionally a boy. And her

childhood nicknames were John-John, Little John, and Johnny. So Skylar is born and Lynette is over the moon. She's staying off the drugs. And for a little while, she's breastfeeding, but the minute that she's done, she's back on the drugs. And she tried to reason with herself. She's trying to convince herself. I'm only doing drugs to be a better mom. I'm tired.

I just need to do a little cocaine so I can play with Skylar. I just need to snort another line so I can make breakfast for a little Skylar because I'm exhausted. Lynette started hating her life. Like truly hating it. She felt trapped around Big John and it's not just because they had a child together, but because even if she left, she felt like he was going to track her down, drag her by the hair, or he would just straight up kill her and Skylar. Lynette said, big John was a mean, mean man. If everything didn't go his way, he was gonna take it out on you.

If dinner wasn't cooked right, you were gonna have it in your face. Everything was controlling, manipulative, it was bad. He abused Lynette in every sense of the word. She always had new and healing cuts, bruises, serious injuries. She couldn't even get medical attention because big John threatened to kill her if she did.

And it wasn't even just Big John. The guy had a ton of scary friends like drug dealers, criminals, bikers. Not that being a biker makes you a criminal, but you get it stereotypically terrifying people that Lynette would pee herself every time she was around them. And they all, for some reason, were like, yeah, I'm down to kill Lynette if you want me too. Which is a terrifying prospect. And they all, for some reason, were like, yeah, I'm down to kill Lynette if you want me to. Which is a terrifying prospect. Just to give you some context

on how terrifying these guys were, they were trying to manufacture meth in their garage. That's just like, think of what kind of risky personality that is. But the worst part is, Skyler wasn't even safe from Big John's abuse. He would swap Skyler's diapers with a wooden spoon spanking her until the spoon would snap in half.

And Lynette would cry out, you're hitting too hard, she's only a baby! Which side note, I'm using the correct pronouns, but Skyler's family, I don't know if it's changed since then, but they were using the wrong pronouns for all of Skyler's life. Anyway, Big John would snap. She can't feel it, the diapers cushioned the blow. But once they took off Skyler's diapers, Lynette would have tears in her eyes, looking at little red marks that were left on her behind.

And as Skyler got older, the abuse got worse. Big John, he strikes me as the type of person that would argue that child abuse makes a kid stronger for the future. Do you know what personality I'm talking about? Exactly right? He would constantly grab Skyler by the neck and slap her around, like this is when she's a toddler. His favorite thing to do, Lynette said, was Big John got joy out of slapping Skyler and grabbing Skyler as hard as he could. But surprisingly the worst injury Skyler would have growing up were pure accidents. For example, she fell through the bars of her crib had to be rushed to the

hospital at 18 months. She drove her car toy into the pool and almost drowned. So compiled with this and the stress of your child being abused all the time and big John making their lives harder, Lynette promised herself, I gotta leave. Like I can't do this, I can't be here. I gotta protect Skylar. Big John found out that she was in the process of getting a restraining order. and right there in the kitchen He starts choking her. She breaks free. Runs out the front door and Big John ran out in broad daylight with a large kitchen knife chasing her out onto the street choking her literally just on the ground in the middle of the street dragging her by the hair back inside while she's

Screaming and he's screaming. I'm gonna fucking kill you Look are all the neighbors at work because you better believe I'm a pretty detached neighbor. Like I'm not a Karen, but I would be doing something. Nobody was doing anything. Lynette is kicking and screaming while Big John is throwing her around and she's yelling somebody please help me, he's gonna kill us. Finally, she breaks free, runs to a friend's house, the police are called. Big John is arrested, but he's very quickly bailed out.

Because clearly he's not a threat to anybody's safety, you know? The guy was probably just stressed and Lynette is being so emotional. Lynette would later say, big John was going to kill both of us. If he couldn't have Skyler, nobody could. I don't know, because I've never been in this situation, so I can't make assumptions about what I would do, but I just like life changes as a parent and Big John is the worst person ever so it's really hard to say. Lynette made the decision that she was going to leave Skylar and Big John. She saved herself so she packed up all her bags and

she left. But I think her conscious was weighing heavy on her a few months later she comes back and she had her head tucked down, tail tucked in, she's just tearfully begging Big John for Skylar. And his response was to pick her up and throw her up against the fireplace. So Lynette decided to take it to a judge. Now tell me how the judge felt like Big John was a better fit parent. Big John managed to secure primary custody of Skyler. This guy has a police record of trying to stab his wife and you're telling me the judge

was sitting there like, wow, you're a much better parent than Lynette. She's a horrible mom. She almost got stabbed. What kind of mom almost gets stabbed? I just don't even know what to say. So Lynette, she has visitation rights which which Big John refuses to uphold, and it's not even like Big John loves Skylar. Big John was just using her to get back at his ex-wife, using Skylar as a pawn in his

sick plans to make his ex-wife miserable. The only time Lynette ever had time with Skylar was whenever Big John decided, hey, he was going on vacation. B, he's doing a drug run, so he's going to run drugs from, like, I don't know, Orange County to Las Vegas to Arizona. Super dangerous stuff. Or he wanted to spend a whole weekend just binging with a sex worker or his girlfriend of the week.

So for a while, Styler is alone with her dad and he just had free reign to abuse her. And I'm warning you, it's really bad. Styler had to do everything she was told. In the exact particular manner she was told to do it. Do you know how difficult that is as a child? Like even as an adult, I don't think I can follow directions that clearly. Imagine a child.

Like you're just so frustrated with yourself. And if she didn't do it correctly, she would get a super intense beating. She would get beatings just for existing. Her punishments were so bad. She would be forced to stand in a corner holding one of her legs up and if her shoulders or any part of her body touched the wall or she fell over lost balance, she would get beat an inch of her life.

Scather developed an anxiety driven nail biting habit. Drove big John mad. Oh, he went crazy. In a cruel twisted attempt at getting Skylar to stop biting her nails. He would shove toothpicks, not even thinner needles, toothpicks under her nail beds, like cringing at this. And he would forciertly leave the toothpicks in there for a long period of time.

If he didn't have toothpicks, he would just bite her fingernails as hard as he could, which is honestly really hard. Skylar responded in a very interesting way, so she refused to show her dad any sort of emotion, any indication of pain or discomfort, she learned how to keep a stoic face during all of her punishments. Sometimes a lone tear would just slide down her cheek, but it was more of a physiological response than an emotional one. And then a woman named Lisa Wilden came into their lives.

Lisa was a 21-year-old recovering cocaine addict. Her only goal in life at this point was to stay clean. She had almost died from cocaine. So she was in alarming 85 pounds. Her doctors were like, this is life or death. Like, you're gonna die, you're gonna waste away, or you're gonna get your life together. So she decides, I'm gonna get my life together. This is my second chance. So she runs into big John and she tells him all of this. And he's so impressed by her dedication to sobriety. And she was so

impressed at this charismatic car salesman. Yeah, he conveniently left out the detail that he was a drug dealer. But to Lisa, I mean, this was the dream man. He was picking her up in limousines, taking her to fancy restaurants. He would even plan these romantic picnics. They even went horseback riding. She said, it was like he was the man of everything.

He completely swept me off my feet. I fell in love. He waited a very long time to have their first night together and on that very first night that they had sex, he laid out lines of cocaine on his dresser and she begged him not to. And he just smiled and said, just in case you change your mind.

Whoa. Like the level of manipulation. Yes, and the way that he can sit there and do that and smile and say, just in case you change your mind after everything that she's opened up to him about is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard like just Vile John knew that she couldn't resist for long soon Lisa is back on cocaine moving into John's apartment and becoming a mom to Skylar side note when Lisa moved into big John's apartment he refused to let her bring most of her clothes because he didn't like her style. So he bought her a whole new wardrobe of super revealing very sexy outfits and he controlled every single thing that he wore. Sometimes Lisa would be in tears trying to pick out what she was going to wear that day

because Big John hated everything and she just wanted to make him happy. I think there's two sides of the red flag spectrum. When guys want their wives to dress so modestly and they're so crazy about, like don't even show that little part. And then the other side where they're like, I want you to be naked all the time, even if you're uncomfortable.

Like both sides are just raging red flags. I don't even know if there's one worse than the other. It's so alarming. Lisa noticed that Big John did the same thing to Skylar. If Skylar had a pimple on her face, which is super normal at that age, Big John would flip out, slap her around, accuse her of not taking care of her face, not washing it well. If Skylar wet the bed from, I don't know, probably all the freaking abuse, Big John would literally blow up.

Let's say Skylar wore an outfit that Big John didn't like, or maybe her hair wasn't in place, or maybe her shirt wasn't tucked correctly, he would have a full blown violent meltdown. Lisa tried her best to protect Skyler from Big John. She was really nice to Skyler. Skyler even started calling Lisa Mom, and Skyler told her, don't worry, Mom, because one day I'm gonna be 18,

and I'll marry you, and Dad will never be mean to you again. Now, think of it like when you're a kid, you don't even know really what marriage entails. You just feel like it's someone who protects you, just a family member. So I mean, it's pretty heartbreaking. To make matters worse, sometimes Skyler would have the chance

to visit Lynette, her biological mom, and she would open up to her and say, mom, and this is when Skyler is six by the way. She said, mom, Dad is molesting me. She's like, what? She didn't say those exact words, but she told Lynette of how big John Forster is sleeping the same bed as him naked. And he would do things in that bed.

But big John would just brush off Lynette and he screamed at her, but you know I don't like wearing clothes to bed. She's my fucking child! I would never do that. I do what I want. Besides, she has her own room and she cleaned it once in a while she could actually sleep in there but it's filled with junk! Lynette didn't know what to think okay let's be real she believes Skylar and not Big John but she didn't know how to react she was still terrified of Big John now this is where I I start to lose

my understanding of Lynette as a parent because I'm like, okay, well, I don't know. I just feel like if I ever had a child and they accused anybody in my life of sexually molesting them, I feel like I would burn a hellfire around the world to figure out what to do. No, like it's just, yeah. So she doesn't really do anything. In another alarming incident, Lynette caught Skylar putting on makeup and traditionally feminine clothes. That's not the alarming part, by the way. But Lynette asked Skylar, hey sweetie, why are you doing that? And Skylar said, one of Big John's neighbors had been forcing her to wear makeup and pose and do things for him.

So Lynette freaks out and she's like, well Skylar, honey, did you tell your dad? Yes, but he didn't do anything. And then after some brief silence, Skyler looked up into her mom, I don't know why I'm alive. Lynette rushed to call Big John and again, he just grunted. And he said, I'll take care of it. Around this time, Lisa, the stepmom also caught Skyler stabbing her teddy bears. And Lisa was like, Oh my God, Skyler, what are you doing? And she just very cryptically stated, I'm getting rid of the bad guys. So in hindsight, there were a lot of people that should have helped Skyler. Lynette, Lisa, Big John, obviously, because these are all the adults, the parental figures, but everybody was too scared of Big John.

Lisa felt even more trapped. She had gotten pregnant with John's second child, and she would later give birth to a daughter, Stephanie, and John was really happy with the baby. He would post Stephanie on a counter with $100,000 in cash surrounding her and take pictures. That's weird. That's a lot. Yeah. I guess he was about that drug money life, right?

This man, very interesting man. Everyone lived in fear of Big John, even when he did questionable things like this. They were just like, OK, that's fine. Let's post these pictures. His great picture. Let's frame it up on a wall. Everyone was terrified of Big John, except apparently the police.

The guy got caught with 138 grams of cocaine, and he got bail in only three years in prison. This is already with a criminal record, this is not his first offense. So while Big John is in jail, Lisa is constantly driving four hours to visit him in prison. She would bring the kids, she was pregnant with the second kid, constantly driving four hours to visit him in prison. She would bring the kids, she was pregnant with the second kid. So that's about to be three kids soon. And through the glass partition, John had the nerve to constantly complain that the kids aren't as well groomed as he would like them to be.

Yeah. Okay, not our problem, Big John. And when he finally gets out, Lisa made John an ultimatum. She picked him up from the prison and she said, if you can last four hours, just four hours without calling me a stupid bitch, I will stay with you forever. Look, that is not a hard thing to do. In fact, it is easier to not call someone a stupid bitch. He lasted 30 minutes. Lisa had forgotten something when picking him up from prison and he went on a raging rant and called her a stupid bitch.

Lisa was not bluffing. She dropped him off at Marlene's house and took her two kids and left. She felt horrible leaving Skyler behind, but she wasn't legally allowed to take her. And for a while, Big John tried to get Lisa back by threatening to kill Skyler, to kill Lisa, to kill the other two kids, kill himself. He even started cutting himself and showing Lisa the wounds. She was so fed up that one day on a phone call, she taunted him and told him, hey, big John, remember to cut up and down instead of side to side.

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progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates comparison rates not available in all states or situations. Price is very based on how you buy. Why would you break into these apartments? For money for drugs, whatever was in there Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's gonna catch us?

What a police It was the height of the crack era and instead of locking up drug dealers some New York City cops had become them I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%.

I saved my soul, just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series, available now in the Odyssey app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother s***er. Meanwhile, Skyler was bouncing back

between her mom's house and her dad's house and Big John really only demanded Skyler come back whenever he wanted to piss off Lynette. And also because he wanted to make money. So Big John got Skyler into acting, pushed her to be a child star of sorts so that he could make money off of her. Skyler would later go around telling everybody

that she was a child actor, almost hinting that she was like Disney star level, like Zendaya, Selena Gomez level, but in reality, she did a few commercials, she did some extra work, but nothing crazy or impressive. But Skyler would always brag about how she was on Power Rangers. And the way that she would talk about being on Power Rangers, the movie, it's like she,

she didn't flat out lie, but she indicated that she had a lead role. So she would talk about the long hours on set, the producers, almost as if she worked closely with them, which would indicate, oh, okay, this girl had a pretty big role in the movie, right? She was an extra without even a talking role. She didn't have any speaking lines. And the truth is, Styler hated this small amount of child start-up that she experienced. She said, I just remember, I couldn't remember any of my lines, and my dad made it help because I couldn't remember. I wasn't this and I wasn't that, something wasn't right,

so I just hated it. Maybe Big John was the reason Skyler didn't do well. As much as he wanted her to make money and do something, he was like a horrible dadager. He would storm onto a set, super pissed about something yelling at Skyler for the smallest mistake, stressing everybody out, disrupting the everyone's work environment, and Skyler was an extra.

It's like not that serious, bro. We got like 25 of the things going on. But this part of Skyler's life would later become very important, because this is when Skyler started becoming a full-blown pathological liar. It started with the child's stardup, then it went to surfing. She liked everybody that she was on the surf team at school, which wasn't true, but it's not the worst lie in the world, right? Like it's not devastating earth shattering.

I think all of this just fueled more anger in her. I feel like she was lying for a reason, you know. Maybe she hated her life. Maybe she felt like her life was unfair. The other kids, they had a chance at life. She was stuck in this abusive family that hated her. She probably hated her dad and her whole life with a fire burning passion. Skyler starts learning Jiu-Jitsu around this time.

It was like for a role, she was gonna learn Jiu-Jitsu and be in these like child action movies. But in fact, she just used all the skills to fight back to Big John. She starts tackling him to the ground. And he's like tapin' out. She's just all the skills to fight back to Big John. She starts tackling him to the ground. And he's like tapin' out. Look at this point. It's a good idea in theory to stand up to your bully. Show them that they can't overpower you.

But it also resulted in CPS being called to their house from reports of neighbors hearing violent screams from inside our neighbor's house. Please come help. Now they're calling. Yeah, now they're calling. Finally. What the fork and one CPS came,

Skylar would go back to covering for her father. Big John had so much audacity that he even demanded CPS write a formal apology of accusing him of child abuse. Like this guy was something else. I don't even know what to say about it. He still tormented his ex-wife too. He threw a rock through Lisa's window where she lived with a new partner in their kids. Anyway, he threw a rock through Lisa's window where she lived with a new partner in their kids.

Anyway, he threw a rock at her window. There was a note attached to it, shattered the glass. She walked up to it, picked it up. It said, next time, it'll be a bomb. And then the guy has the audacity to report Lisa to the authorities for being a bad parent. Yeah. So this is the life, this is the environment that Skyler is born into, like, what happened to her after something must have happened?

After high school, Skyler desperately wanted to get away. Her first step was joining the Marines. Now, there's a few reasons. Some of them more controversial than others. One, she wanted to go in spite of her father. It seemed like Big John had a chip on his shoulder about being dishonorably discharged. And he told her she would never make it in the Marines. Are you freaking kidding? Marines are for the big boys.

Yeah. Uh-huh. And the second reason which is a bit more controversial, I would imagine is that Skyler said she knew at the time that she was considering gender affirming surgery. So sex resignment surgery. And she thought that maybe if she went to the Marines She would, and I quote straight in herself out She would say later, you know, I was thinking that what I was thinking was wrong and the way that I think and maybe I could change my head That's what she said so regardless Hurstant in the Marines did not last long. She just basically went AWOL Yeah, AWOL is absent without official leave. It's like joining the military and then never showing up to the base, like never showing up for work. And you're technically enlisted, but you're not there.

It's a big, big no-no. So she gets discharged and it was the category of other than honorable discharge. So not as bad as dishonorable, like you committed a crime, but you're not honorably discharged. She was really upset by this, but she thought, I might as well get something out of the Marines, you know, like her dad did. So she ran around telling anybody and everyone who would listen that she had fought valiantly in Iraq and in Afghanistan. She even had a tattooed force recon emblem on her left shoulder blade, and she would show it off. She said that she was a sergeant and sniper

in training with counterintelligence and desert off. She said that she was a sergeant and sniper in training with counterintelligence and desert warfare. She said that she had secured identity with the NSA and had 28 confirmed kills and seven unconfirmed kills and was part of an elite recon unit. I would just listen. It's hard because literally I am so grateful for everybody who serves to defend our great country.

But then like sometimes when they talk too much about the service, I'm like, I need to know how much of this is true. Because why are you bragging about killing people? I don't understand. So clearly, Skylar had come a very long way from lying about being on the surf team. She's lying about killing people now. So at this point in her life, she starts changing her whole identity. She starts going by the name Skylar De Leon and she went from being a normal person to

being a deadly assassin. Okay, that's like her identity change. She went from being identified as a child star to deadly assassin sniper from the Marines with 28 confirmed kills. Anyway, she meets a woman named Jennifer Lynn Henderson, and this would be her future wife. So Jennifer was the opposite of Skylar. She grew up in a very religious family. She was what you would call the all-American type of girl.

She wanted to make her parents proud. She played softball, stayed out of trouble, went to church, and on top. Her friends thought that she was very sweet. She was like a homebody. She loved going to church, helping out, volunteering. She was a hairdresser now. Took it so seriously. I thought that she was very sweet, she was like a homebody, she loved going to church, helping out, volunteering. She was a hairdresser now, took it so seriously.

She dedicated herself to every single client that walked through the doors. To her? It was more than a job. It was her craft. Her clients loved her so much that every time they visited, they usually would come with a gifts and Starbucks and drinks and food for her. Well, on her off day, she's browsing a dating website and she meets Skylar and they immediately hit it off. Jennifer's 20th Skylar's 22 and Skylar was working on a

loan company as an administrative assistant. I don't know why she said administrative like that. Admin assistant and so far the story seems normal. Sure, trauma, you know, there's trauma, there's a little bit of weirdness, but maybe after meeting Jennifer, Skylar's life changes and the two of them go on to live normal calm lives. Which side note this has nothing to do with being normal, but Skylar didn't tell Jennifer that she was transgender. And I don't blame her, I guess she was just kind of figuring things out, but she did continue on with the line. Now, these types of lies, I don't know if I can judge them as much because I think it comes from a place of insecurity and confusion, but it was interesting. So Skylar had told Jennifer that she was one of three triplets in the womb, and the other two triplets were a boy and a girl, and somehow Skylar had absorbed the twins in the womb

and got both the male and female sex organs from her twins that she practically ate in the womb. According to Lynette, this was simply not true. Another lie was that Skyler said she had to remove her uterus because they posed a cancer hazard. But for some reason, in order for it to be insured to get the uterus removed, her therapist would have to approve

gender reassignment surgery. And for that to happen, Skyler had to pretend to be a woman. So she claimed it insisted that she didn't wanna be a woman, but she had to get her uterus removed, which I thought was strange because if it's a cancer hazard, I would imagine that insurance would cover it regardless of gender identity is what I would think. But either way, she didn't have a uterus, so the story itself was just false.

No, it's strange, but not nearly as strange as how much Skylar loved to talk about killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like that was the biggest red flag. Okay, that's like a but not nearly as strange as how much Skylar loved to talk about killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like that was the biggest red flag. Okay, that's like a what is going on right now, but Jennifer did not care. She did not care about the red flags. To her, Skylar was kind. Skylar bought roses and called her all the time. Took her on romantic dinners.

I mean, what more could she want? Whenever Jennifer even pulled away a little bit, Skyler always knew how to get her back. Skyler was in this really bad motorcycle accident, and she was injured because of this incident she would later have to wear adult diapers for the rest of her life due to permanent damage to the bladder. Life-changing, yes, traumatic, yes, absolutely horrid, yes, fatal, no. So Skyler lowered Jennifer back into her web by claiming to those around them that she was on the verge of death, like she was going to die tomorrow.

So Jennifer felt bad and came back to her and finally the two got married. And surprisingly, this is not the story of a super abusive relationship. They actually very much loved each other. There were some strange manipulative things going on, but they were very much in love and married in 2002. So how the hell do both of them end up in prison for double homicide? It all starts with a boat. Did you know that you should never rename a boat?

There's a legend behind it. Every time you name a boat, somebody brings it to the letter of the deep sea. Well, whenever a boat is made, okay, you name it. These sea assistants will bring it to the ledger of the deep sea. It's like a book, an accounting book of all the boat names. Some stories say that the ledger of the deep sea is ruled by Neptune. Others say it's Poseidon. But regardless, when you change the name of the boat, it is believed that you are trying

to slip something past the gods. And you will be punished for your deviousness. But typically, people buy used boats, right? So why would you keep the same name? Like what if the boat's name is Princess Stephanie, named after the boat owner's wife, right? A lot of boaters say they'll keep the same name because that name has protected the boat

and it's owner's tone now. So why would you change it? Others say it's just a legend. You can change the name of the boat, but first you have to have a renaming ceremony. If you Google these ceremonies, there's a lot of different ways to do it. Some say that you have to start with burning all traces of the former name. You must rename the side of the boat, burn anything with the old boat's name, paperwork,

old logbook, everything. And then you request the gods to forget the old name before, and everybody toasts with alcohol to the new name, and you must even drizzle some into the water. You also have to face north when you drizzle some into the water, then east, south, west because you have to appease the gods of the winds as well. There's other rules too. How you can't have any remnants, anything of the new name on the boat till you do this whole ceremony.

So you can't even bring in paperwork with the new boat's name. On to the boat, unless you do this ceremony. If you change the name on the side of the boat before you do this ceremony because you know things take time you'd have to have it covered with either paper or some sort of fabric until the ceremony is over with. But if that's too complicated an easier and more simplistic way would to be have a virgin urinate on the boat. Yeah, then it's like a virgin boat and you can name it whatever you want. Okay, that went from do these 10 things, or just pee in the boat. So it all came down to a boat. Skylar and Jennifer acquired a boat for their growing family.

So Jennifer had a kid at the time, so the two of them, they have a kid, then Jennifer gets pregnant at the time and they decide they're going to get a boat and they're going to rename this newly acquired boat. The boats, former name used to be the well deserved, and they changed it to pure luck. Yikes. Okay. And it wasn't by pure luck that they would end up in jail. It was cold, cold blooded murder.

Skylar and Jennifer didn't really have the money for a boat, at least not right now, but we all set goals, right? Like, we all set 2023 goals this year. The two of them managed to wake up $20,000 in credit card debt. They were practically six figures in debt with considering their car payments and everything. They had to constantly borrow money from Jennifer's dad to pay off all these things, and you would think that they would try to be a bit smarter with where their money is going. But the two of them, they wanted a luxurious yacht wedding in 2003.

They begged Jennifer's parents to pay for it, so they had the wedding of their dreams. I'm not gonna lie to you, this couple, they were greedy. They were just greedy people. They loved living beyond their means. Skylar even manipulated a co-worker into paying for their vacation, and later broke into this co-worker's house. I don't know what she was planning. We're not exactly sure. It belated a coworker into paying for their vacation and later broke into this coworker's house. I don't know what she was planning.

We're not exactly sure. But the speculation was that she was going to try to rob the coworker and get him to sign over his car to her. It didn't work. She ended up getting herself arrested for armed burglary, which she was sentenced to a year in prison, if you can even call it that. Skylar had work for a low, which meant that she wouldn't be in prison 24-7. In fact, she could leave jail every single day

to go to work, get a regular job on the outside world, then come home for prison time. It's basically taxpayer rent, Cinderella type of schedule. You just go to prison to sleep. I have no idea how Skylar even got accepted into this program after an armed robbery. Well, they do have an idea. Okay, so she simply omitted the word armed

from her motion to get work furlough from the judges and somehow nobody in the judges' office, not even assistant, apparently, all not the judge, double checked her prison file to be like, wait a day a minute, it wasn't burglary, it was armed burglary because that single word armed huge difference, life of a difference. Just like that, she got a loophole from line. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. The amount of stuff that you can get along with when judges don't check paperwork. So while she's in prison, she makes an unexpected best friend, a man named Alonzo Meshain.

Alonzo was a 19-year-old grave shift worker at the jailhouse. He was an officer. And it's not really every day prisoners become BFFs with their jailer, but Alonzo felt like they had a lot in common. Skyler's that she was also born in Mexico, similar to Alonzo, and she still had citizenship there. She claimed that her dad was a rich businessman there so that she would visit all the time. But she's lying.

I mean, Skyler's dad did do some drug dealing in Mexico, but I mean, it's gotta be easier to find out if she's lying, right? Like why did Alonzo not just check her file? Like you're just gonna believe her? You're literally the jailer. You're a CO officer. You could just go and check her goddamn file.

Alonzo was like, wow, this is gonna be my best friend. We have so much in common, and not only that, but Skylar, you are so cool. You used to be in the movie Power Rangers. Again, you gotta be able to identify. You can't just check that out. You're a Mexican citizen just like me and you're an assassin and you're super rich. Skylar told Alonso that she brings in about $4 million a month,

doing appraisals for Washington Mutual, Greenlight, and Ditec, which are like loan office companies, I guess. He's saying he makes $4 million a month? Yeah, like appracing homes. That's the first time I've heard of that. Yeah, $4 million. Like I gotta go start appracing homes tomorrow, so bye guys.

When in reality, she was working as an electricians assistant at Total Western. She also claimed that she was facing 15 years in prison, but money is power, and she bought the world's best attorneys to shorten her time drastically to one year. And when she gets out, she promised to find Alonzo a job. He said there was no reason to doubt Skylar. And look, I'm not trying to insinuate that someone should have been smarter, but Alonzo

should have been smarter. Alonzo claimed that he believed Skylar was rich because one time, while they were out, because Skylar has work furlough, you know, she could be out. Skyler took a Lonzo to the docks in Orange County, Newport Beach, Rich area, super rich area. She's pointed at boat. That one's fine. But we can't go near it because I forgot my key. Lonzo is like, that makes sense. Lonzo is 19, you said? Yeah. Okay, so we go. Oh yeah, I guess 19. Impressionable. Yeah. He's like, wow, I love that I have a friend who owns a yacht

that we can't step foot on or even get near because she doesn't have the key with her right now, but love it. So after six months of a sporadic friendship, Skyler was released from prison on Good Behavior, which just boggles my mind, because how do you even get released on Good Behavior? If you're not even there, half the time

to exhibit Good Behavior. So she's released, moves into Jennifer's parents garage in Long Beach, California, and the two of them are trying to live in half of a garage. So it was a two car garage, but they still need a park or car there. So they put up this drywall in the middle of the garage. They had a bed and all their clothes, like their hanging situation was basically a pole wedge between two dressers.

This was their closet. It was super cramped. To use the restroom, they would have to leave the garage, enter the house, use the bathroom, come back, and they had a child and Jennifer's pregnant. So it's a lot. Like, we gotta do something. We can't have four people living in a one-car garage,

it just doesn't make sense. Skylar suggested that they file for bankruptcy, move to Mexico, start over. I mean, they could always come back whenever they were financially ready, right? Which side note, the whole thing is fascinating, like the stark reality of life. While Skylar is bragging to Alonzo

about making four million a month, and Alonzo is like, oh my God, I wish I was Skylar, Skylar is living in a garage. This is like the don't believe everything you see on social media, literally. So speaking of Alonzo, he quit his job when Skyler was released. Skyler did get a job, but he was earning less

than he was making as a jailer. And the work was hard, so he quit. Then he had to get another job and he quit that too. And being a jailer to Alonzo at the time, it was like, this is my gateway into going into the sheriff's office. There was a career path that he had etched out for him. And now he is barely holding down a job. There was like no future. He just hung out at

Skyler's all day. And if you're like, wait, what didn't he know they have no money then? Skyler lied and said they were just living in the garage for now because their multi-million dollar home was being renovated. Besides, none of this mattered because Skylar was about to buy a boat that they were gonna live on while their house was being finished. And she started showing Alonzo magazines with a million dollar boats that she was contemplating about buying.

She would point at them and go pretty cheap. It was like two million dollars written on there on a boat magazine and she'd be like, that's actually not bad not bad Alonzo aided up scooped it up with a spoon and swallowed it whole One of the boats Skyler really wanted to buy was about five hundred thousand dollars and it was named the well deserved Interestingly Skyler loved the sea remember she constantly lied about being on the surf team. She loved surfing. But she had no idea how to even operate a boat.

She had no funds for a boat. But here she was trying to make her boat dreams come true. Look, if it was just a girl and a big dream, who's gonna hate her? But it was a lot more sinister than that. Just to give you an idea of how abysmal their financial situation was, the couple owed a ton of money, and collectively collectively they made about $20,000 a year.

But they were spending like they were on Jeff Bezos' payroll. It was a lot. They bought new trucks, cars, looked, the two of them, they just loved, loved money. And it's clear Jennifer cared a lot too. It wasn't just Skyler. Later she would use the defense that she didn't care about money. And that Skylar was the one that managed their finances, but in reality, Jennifer was the one managing their finances, so it seemed like she definitely knew that they were not doing well and that they were in massive debt. So if you're in debt, how

on earth are they gonna afford a $400,000 boat? Because Skylar works in the loan industry. They're not getting alone! Let's talk about the rifle owners of the boat first. Tom and Jackie Hawks, the true owners of the well-deserved boat. The boat was well-deserved. Tom grew up in a military family in California, so he didn't grow up in like L.A. or S.F. or a big city. He grew up on a chicken ranch. And on the weekends as a kid, he would take care of the chickens.

He would sell sweet corn, eggs, peaches, and watermelons at this empty roadside stand where maybe they would get three cars passing every day. It's a very small town. Later as the teenager, Tom's family moved to San Diego County, huge beach community. And the guy was in love. When he was a teenager, he looked at his parents

and he was like, I'm gonna own a boat one day. This is like a, they lived on a farm, they're a military family. The idea of owning a boat, that's so, that's a big, big dream. So he focused on working, studying. Side note about Tom, very handsome. He was voted best looking in high school. Woman described him as looking like a movie star even as he aged. Like they always said things like he aged like fine wine.

He took care of himself, incredibly active, really, really muscular. He did a stint in the Air Force at one point. So obviously, very active, you know, really good shape. After high school, after the Air Force, he gets a job as a fireman. Again, amazing shape. He's staying fit, all kind of pertinent later. Gets married, works on building a house for his family, literally building the house by himself,

like with his friends, and some crew that he hired. Tom is one of those guys that just seemed to have more than 24 hours a day. Endless amounts of time, it's that his friends would always joke he was endlessly working two jobs, even if he didn't want to. Or like even if he didn't need to, he just loved to keep busy.

He owned a restaurant at one point, opened up a bar, fun fact, he had an arm wrestling table at his bar, and he liked to challenge his customers. To arm wrestling competitions. The guy was really ripped, but the problem was, Tom's wife did not enjoy that life as much as he did. Like they were very different. They had a lot of love for each other,

they had these two beautiful kids together, but in the end, Tom wanted adventure. He wanted to be outdoors. His dream retirement was to buy a boat and cruise around the world. Meanwhile, his wife wanted stability. She wanted to maybe have a house in the city and be a homebody and like really put down her roots.

So the two of them, they broke up, got a divorce, and Tom seemed pretty content to live life as a single bachelor And then he runs into a woman that completely changed his entire life. His soulmate. He was 40. She was 29 at the time And her name is Jackie O'Neill and Jackie very similar to Tom had been divorced once before. It was big controversial, but she married a line man named Terry Newell, and he had two kids from a previous marriage and he was 11 years older than her. She gets married right out of high school. Her parents are skeptical, but they seem to be so in love,

what are you going to do, right? Everything ends in tragedy, though. Terry and Jackie were building this dream home very similar to what Tom had been doing with his former wife, but they had gone to Kmart for some supplies and they were on Terry's motorcycle. They were driving up to the house, their construction house, drunk driver pulls up in front of them, smashes into them. They skidded across the road and witnesses said all they saw were bodies flying. Terry was flung into the air and when he was dropped onto the pavement, he broke his neck and died instantly at the scene.

Jackie said she remembered being in the air and seeing the house they were building up the hill and then losing consciousness. She had no idea the level of pain she was in. It was kind of a miracle she survived. She had no bruises or marks really from the waist up, just a small little scrape on her forehead, but everything underneath her waist, it was bad. She had lost

about half her blood by the time paramedics got there. She suffered from a broken pelvic bone, compound fractures in both legs. Bones were sticking out of her left leg. They had to remove her spleen, insert screws in bolts into her leg. They had to take skin from one of her buttocks to repair the damage from the skin on her leg. she would always have a scar from that. But Jackie was proud of it. She was never ashamed of that scar because her life was saved.

The hardest part though wasn't even the injury or the scars, but it was knowing that Terry was gone. She wasn't even allowed out of the hospital to attend his funeral because of how bad shape she was in. Jackie's family said she never really had the chance to say goodbye. I think that really bothered her. Another thing, this injury made it too dangerous

for Jackie to ever have children. Her pelvic bone was permanently tilted, so it would be nearly impossible for her to have a viable pregnancy. She was devastated. All she ever wanted was a family. All she ever wanted were kids. She had to use a wheelchair for a great amount of time. She had crutches. And even then it took long painful

grieving months to learn how to walk again on her own. There were constant complications with her previous operation. She had intestinal blockages, infections. It was rough. And when she was recovered, she realized that while she was in the hospital her family friends and neighbors Had finished the construction of her dream home and she moved in and she was so thankful and she was so moved by that but It was just a reminder of Terry being gone and they had a salad Jackie did not seem in a rush to meet someone new She's just trying to be as happy as she could as an individual and you know it's when she's nearly 30 that she goes to her friend's chili cook off and she runs into Tom Hawks.

And he's so handsome, he's so adventurous and he has two kids. They're 10 years old and 8 years old and immediately all three. So he has two sons, right? All three of them fall head over heels for Jackie. She was like a breath of fresh air. She, they always said she always wear these crazy big sunglasses that took up like half her face. One of her shoes was higher than the other

because she had a, um, attilted pelvic bone. She had a wheelchair. She would let the kids touch the metal screws in her leg and they thought that she was like an iron man, you know? The kids thought she was so awesome. She would even goof around and let metal screws in her leg and they thought that she was like an iron man You know the kids let you so awesome She would even goof around and let them play with her crutches like most adults would be like don't play with that The boys loved her so much. They would even call her mom And Jackie felt like this hole in her heart was Finally starting to get filled you know

She had always wanted kids, but she felt like she finally found her family. Like this was her family. And Tom was this loving husband. He nicknamed her patches, because she was all patched up after the accident. And the two of them, they got married in the back yard of Tom's Arizona home, and they were like the coolest couple. Jackie got Tom's name tattooed on her butt to cover up the scar. And she even presented him with this huge photo, this framed art of her standing on the beach, and like, cheekily showing her butt at the camera, and you can see her Tom tattoo. And they just had like the same wantson life.

They just wanted to experience and explore. So in 2001, they both retired, sold their house, bought a boat. Tom had worked really hard for most of his life and Jackie received a settlement for that accident that she was in. So collectively, they had about 1.5 million dollars saved. And after 55 years, Tom's dream was coming true. He's 55 and they bought an older boat named The Well Deserved deserved and this boat was in rough condition when they bought it They spent every second of every day

remodeling it installing state of the art equipment like there was so much love being poured into this boat It wasn't like hey, I'm rich and retired. I'm a buy a boat They worked hard to make it their home. They were so adventurous But they weren't naive, and they weren't just hopeful people. They were prepared. They stalked the boat with a ton of food. They had a salt to freshwater converter,

so if they got stuck at sea, they would have no problem for a year. The boat was kept in meticulously clean conditions. When they got it already, the couple played it safe. They took many trips from Newport Beach to Catalina Island to just familiarize themselves with the boat. So their dream was to head to Mexico and cruise around.

And they had even this routine that worked for them. Breakfast was Tom's duty. He made these legendary omelets that he would use the leftover meats or whatever they had from the night before for dinner. And then Jackie would do the chores. Later, Tom would work out. His regimen consisted of 100 sit-ups, 50 pushups, 10 chin-ups, and 30 minute weight lifting sessions three times a week.

So for a 55-year-old, he's super fit. Jackie would read, or she would stitch. And then they would go out into town, take a hike, sunbathe, swim, kayak. Get back to the boat around five where Jackie would make dinner, except Fridays. Fridays they would do tacos or pizza night, and then they would sleep, and by 10 they would start over again.

Like they were truly living their dream. They loved to bring their family out on the boat. They loved taking all their family members, scuba diving, and they would swim with whale sharks, and for a while their lives were nearly perfect. And in a perfect world, they would have had so much more time and then they had grandkids and it changed their lives. They were like, we gotta sell the boat.

We gotta live near our kids. We gotta be near these grandkids. They're like, everything else felt ridiculous. They just wanted to be near these grandkids. They're like, they're like, everything else felt ridiculous. They just wanted to be with a grandkids. They wanted to see their grandkids every single day. They were like the apple of both of their eyes. Like, they're both family oriented people. They're like, going crazy. So they're like, okay, this is so, so sad. But we got to sell the boat. They're so excited. And they got a call from Skylar. And, um, interested in buying the boat. Tom was surprised that such a young sounding person

could afford to buy a boat of this caliber, right? Tom had worked his whole life to buy this boat, so it's kind of shocking. But when Tyler explained that she was a child actor, she had invested the money, and now she was, you know, just trying to live her best life, they were like, okay, I guess that makes sense. None of it was true.

In fact, Skyler and Jennifer were nearly six figures in debt, and not to that, Skyler had just been fired from her job, and they were just making collectively the two of them $10,000 a year. Skyler wasn't delusional. She worked at a loan office, she knew that she would never get approved for a loan, she had zero intention of buying the boat. But she was determined to own it. So she starts plotting, and even recruited Lanzo to help with this job.

That's what she kept calling it. She told a Lanzo that she worked for this Hitman company, basically a lot of people in the Marines work for this company. Why is this like a lie that everybody tells? But Skyler said, since she's a Hitman, basically she could kill people. People would contract her and as payment Skyler would get whatever assets that the victims would have.

It was only fair. That's how she was paid. And her new targets were very, very bad people who had a lot of money. Basically convincing Alonzo that the hawks were evil people, and they needed to be taken out. So to prove that the job was serious, Skyler gave Alonzo $20.

What? Like a down payment on the job. Which again, yeah, what? Like it's just really hard to believe that Alonzo believed all of this. But regardless, Skylar told Alonzo that they were going to take the couple out to see and just throw them overboard, easy breezy. Skylar bought stun guns, tasers, handcuffs, so this is beyond pre-meditated at this point.

Anyway, Alonzo would later claim that he believed that Skylar was really a hit woman, so if she was willing to kill someone, if he didn't go along with her, she would probably kill him too. He claimed that was his thought process. Anyway, the two of them drove to meet the hawks on their boat at Newport Beach, and Tom proudly gave them a tour of his home in Alonzo said, he started relaxing because it didn't seem like Skyler was going to kill them today. She seemed way too laid back. So they get back to their car, they dock, and Skyler filled Alonzo in, and she's like, we need another person.

What? Why? Did you see him? Tom? He's big. We can't overpower him with just the two of us, and he's got military background. He's big dude. We need someone big to help us.

Skyler also sent some hesitancy on the hogs part. So what did she do? Very clever. She called Jennifer out to come with their baby and their stroller and her big pregnant belly. And she literally said to Jennifer, come here, take a look at the boat, make the people feel more at ease. And does she know what's going on? I mean it's pretty clear right? Why would you need the former owners to be put at ease to buy a boat, right?

You're buying the boat. And like I said the hawks were loving people who had a soft spot for kids and it worked. I just don't know how two people can be so evil. Like their whole thought process is so gross and manipulative. That day, the couple scheduled a, um, sea trial. Basically, Skylar claimed that she needed to see how well the boat fared in open waters. So she would come back November 15th and all of them would test out the boat. The hawks felt bitter sweet. They thought the couple were super serious about buying the boat, so the C test was November 15th. They had maybe like a week or two so they hosted this huge celebration cruise. They invited all their closest family and friends to celebrate one last time on the boat.

The hawks mainly wanted to sell again because they just wanted to be closer with family. So as they're hosting the celebration, the hawks get a call from Skyler who confirmed if everything goes well, we're going to buy the boat that day. Like we're going to bring all the paperwork and stuff. The hawks could even hear Jennifer in the back saying, tell the hawks we want it. I mean, it sounds serious. They probably chatted about it all day.

A child star buying a boat sweet couple, they have a child, the wife is pregnant. That farewell cruise would be the last time the hawks families saw them alive. They had no idea that that farewell cruise was symbolic of saying goodbye to more than just the boat. Skylar, uh, I guess, love Jennifer. She didn't want Jennifer to be more involved than she was now. So it was just gonna be her, Alonzo, and another person to finish the job. And they chose a guy named

CJ. His name stands for Crazy John. Look, I don't know about that nickname. I would be terrified of anyone with that nickname. CJ had been in and out of jail since he was 15 years old, and even in jail, he couldn't stop committing crimes. He shattered a boy's entire jaw in jail. It was pretty bad. He attempted to murder people, he sold drugs, he did just about everything. Even murder.

Allegedly, he was arrested for murder, but the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. He loved drugs to the point where one time he was drinking drunk, the cops pulled him over, he got out of the car, started shaking his butt, dancing around, hop back into the car, and dead pants staring at the road ahead, hands on the wheel moving inside to side, basically pretending to drive like you went in a video game. Turns out he was drunk and had taken a PCP. He had no idea he was in the middle of a traffic stop.

And if you watch the main episode this week, this will sound a bit more familiar, but take it in PCP. He had no idea he was in the middle of a traffic stop. And if you watch the main episode this week, this will sound a bit more familiar, but CJ was part of the Long Beach drug gang called the Insane Crips. So there's that. He did not need much convincing to get in on the Hawks' Murder Pot. So Skylar had assembled her team. November 15th of 2004, the three of them, Skylar Alonzo and CJ, they bored the well deserved, Tom gave them another tour, and the five of them head out to sea. Very reminiscent of White Lotus, right?

They're all talking, having a blast and enjoying each other's company, Tom wanted to teach Skylar everything so that she could be a great owner of this boat. CJ said that he felt sick, so he went downstairs to the bedroom. Meanwhile, the rest of the group, they were above deck, right, they were on the deck. Skylar's like, hey, Tom, let's go

check up on CJ. So now downstairs in the room, there's CJ, Skylar and Tom, and upstairs we have Alonzo and Jackie. Jackie hears a thump from downstairs. Immediately she's on edge. She rushes downstairs and she's, you know, asking, everything okay? Tom couldn't even respond. Skylar and CJ were holding him down. Tom tried to kick and kick, but CJ decked him in the nose and he was bleeding down his chin. Alonzo came up behind Jackie and pulled out a stun gun and tried to subdue her, but she put up a fight. Alonzo also couldn't figure out how to work the gun.

So he pulled out his handcuffs, twisted her arms, painfully behind her, handcuffed her, threw her on the bed next to her husband who was also now handcuffed and tied up. They got duct tape from out of the bag, tied up Tom covered their eyes and mouths. So the couple, they're laying on this bed back to back, facing away from each other. Hand cuffed tied up. Skyler instructed Alonzo to babysit the couple.

So Tom and Jackie at this point, they were alone with Alonzo. And Skyler and CJ went upstairs to program the GPS system to go autopilot 40 miles further offshore and it was about to be sunset. Skyler had Jackie escorted upstairs first. She said, Jackie you need to sign this and if you cooperate we'll let you go. Jackie signed a piece of paper signing away the title of the boat to Skyler. She also signed a power of attorney document, blotted her thumbprint with a black ink pad. She gave Skylar her bank account information, social security number and everything. Skylar didn't notice that first, but when Jackie signed her name, she wrote Jackie Hawks instead of Jackie Hawks. She was desperately trying to get the clue to anyone that would

see that something was wrong. Later the document would show up with an S signed for hawks. It's speculated that someone potentially Skyler, maybe even potentially Jennifer had filled in the S. But you could tell it wasn't Jackie's S. But when she was done, they brought her down and brought up Tom. Skyler told him, if you try anything funny, I'm gonna hit you over the head. He went through the same process as Jackie, and eventually they were thrown back into the bed.

And Jackie tried to reason with the evil people. She kept saying, how could you do this, Skyler? You brought your wife and baby on the boat, we trusted you. I don't wanna die, we don't have any money, we'll give you everything we have, we'll do whatever you want. According to Alonso, it didn't face Skyler one bit. Hearing Jackie beg for her life, hearing Jackie talk about her grandkids, Skylar did not care not even a little.

Tom tried to calm his wife down. He tried to tell her while they're both tied up, facing away from each other. Jackie, everything's gonna be all right. It's gonna be okay, which is have to listen to what they say and we're gonna be okay. Alonzo said that he saw Tom shaming closer to Jackie

and eventually he would be able to reach her hand Okay, Alonzo said that he saw Tom Shemeen closer to Jackie and Eventually he would be able to reach her hand and he was just stroking her hand the whole time telling her It's gonna be okay. They were dragged up onto the deck of the boat and They were tied up and tied up to this very heavy chain which had this huge anchor attached to the other end and these evil people They threw the anchor into the water, and they laughed and watched, as Jackie and Tom's body got slammed around on the deck, being pulled to the side because the anchor's going down, and at the railing, their heads were literally, there was blood everywhere, they're getting stuck on this railing, and then they pushed them over,

and their bodies would never be found. Alonzo said there wasn't even a second, or a moment of silence for what just happened for what they did. Skyler immediately started barking at orders, telling the guys to put on gloves, and wipe down the boat, get rid of all DNA and fingerprints. There were any tasers overboard, they cleaned up everything in the boat, they threw away all the sentimental items overboard, Skyler felt like she was shopping or something. She kept all the things that she wanted, even

some of the couples clothes. And when they were done, they found a few thousand dollars of cash in an envelope, and Skylar split it evenly between the three. So they all walked away with $1,300, and Skylar walked away with a boat. They docked around 1am, back at Newport Beach. Alonzo was then told to take Jackie's phone to Tijuana and drop it off there to make it look like the hawks had ran off to Mexico. Alonzo claimed he only did this because he was so terrified of being killed next. All he ever got for his help in the murders was $1,300 in cash from the boat.

A few days later, the couple went to Target, bought a bunch of cleaning supplies, and went to the boat to clean everything, like disinfect at all. Jennifer even brought her own parents to the boat to brag about it, which her parents were shocked because I mean, the couple doesn't even have money! They owe us money! But Jennifer kept reassuring them, like it was all legal, don't worry, like Skylar had someone who owed her money. They even renamed the boat, well deserved, to pure luck. Which I mean, out of the two, the first one is a much better name. Why would you want something like a boat to feel pure luck that doesn't even sound safe in terms of sea superstitions?

They must have known what they were doing when they named it that. The hawks deserve the boat. Meanwhile, they got it out of pure luck. And it seems to me that Jennifer knew about everything. I mean, she was there separating Jackie's clothes into a keep and donate pile, donating Jackie's clothes to Goodwill,

so incredibly noble of her. They even stole the Hawks' car, and Jennifer told her Daddo's part of the deal. He thought it was super cool, didn't think anything was strange. I mean, where did he think that they were getting this money? A few weeks later, Jennifer's parents' house lit on fire, with a czar. Their aquarium had apparently shorted and it caught on fire, and it speculated that it was Skylar, but who knows? So they're all like staying at a hotel and Skylar's like, we should all go to Arizona.

Jennifer's dad is like, okay, let's go. So the three of them go and the main reason for this was because Skylar and Jennifer were trying to access the Hawks bank account in Arizona. They had no idea of how much was in there, but they were excited. The bank was not. The bank was very suspicious.

Immediately the teller contacted a manager and even with the power of attorney paperwork, which by the way was notarized, you're like, how? On one of the three people notarized? So Kathleen Harris was a real notarized woman and she would later claim that she had no idea of the murders. She notarized it after the fact illegally

to make $4,000 in cash. Wow. Yeah. Notarized are not though. The bank was suspicious. So we're all the Hawks family members. They noticed that Tom and Jackie weren't picking up their calls. They knew about the sea trial with Skylar and nobody had heard from the couple since. So they reached out to Skylar and the couple are like, well, we signed the papers, we sold them, we bought the boat and they just were gone after that. The hogs were not buying it.

The police were informed and they too were curious. You know, they looked into the couple and their big question was, hey, how can you afford to buy a $400,000 boat when you're $100,000 in debt and you make $10,000 a year? They tracked down the couple and asked them. And Skylar basically tells them, look, this is super embarrassing, but I got the money from drug deals. I was working with a drug

cartel from Mexico. I did some pretty good things for them and they paid me nearly half a million dollars in cash. Honestly, they paid me a little bit too little if I'm being honest because I did very, very valuable work for them. The police were very skeptical. Skyler even claimed that she gave Tommy briefcase of cash and then the hawks took off. For them, the story did not fit the hawks. The hawks were not like, you know when you have very buy the book's people, it's very rare that you're going to have someone take payment in cash for $400,000. To even want to do that? Unheard of.

Yeah, normally people are not going to do that. And if it's like a cash purchase, like you buy a house and cash, it's all through the banks. It's like a wire transfer. Nobody actually takes half a million dollars in straight cash. And Skythers like, I put it in a briefcase.

So they're like, we don't care about you, but we know the hawks would never do that. So the police obtained a search warrant and immediately went aboard the well deserved. They found a various suspicious target receipt for chlorox and trash bags. I mean, this doesn't even happen in movies. The police find the hawks' car in a residential driveway,

and they knock on the door, and the new owner is like, I just bought it from some person named Skyler Delion. Skyler's fingerprints were found in the car to really seal the deal. So they first arrested Skyler for money laundering while they were gathering evidence of the murders. And while they're working feverishly to build this case, something really bizarre came to their attention.

Skyler had been investigated for another homicide a year before. The murder of John Peter JP Jarvey. JP was Skyler's cellmate in prison. Yeah. So JP had a really high IQ. Loved money, loved fancy cars. He used to be a pilot. But I think he got really swept up in this vast life.

He got really swept up and being surrounded by rich people and he started doing a lot of drugs. He had a couple of incidents. He lost his pilot's license. I mean, his whole life kind of went to shit and it just led to him committing more vicious crime after crime. He even stole from his parents pondered,

drooling like it was a lot. He started trying to counterfeit money. He would bleach $5 bills to make them look like $50 bills. He wasn't really good at it. And he ruined his old kitchen sink in the process of trying to bleach and dye the money. He was arrested, landed in jail, right next to Skylar De Leon. They were sellmates for about two months

before JP was released. But Skylar had already dug her closet. She convinced JP that she was this really rich person who would make him a ton of money. She knew all these secrets from all these massive companies, and she was going to help him get rich with insider trading. So JP fell right into her trap and signed over $50,000 to invest with Skyler. This is while Skyler is still in jail. Like JP is out, but Skyler is still on work for a low.

Yeah, which side note, you're like, what did Skylar spend the money on because she didn't invest it? The day that she killed, so she took JP to Mexico, killed JP, came back to log in to prison because she got to come every day and she asked Alonzo to borrow his computer in prison and use some of that $50,000 to buy an

anal sex machine. I know. It's a little bit out of nowhere. 50K? No, like $1,000 though. Yeah. Skyler would later claim to Jennifer that the doctors prescribed her to get an anal sex machine to help her because they said it would strengthen her anal muscle so she could stop

wearing adult diapers. Which I don't know. Skyler just kind of has very interesting lies to Jennifer. It's interesting. So anyway, Skyler even told her cousin that after killing JP, she ate at California Pizza Kitchen and she told her cousin that she snapped JP's neck and it's just a lot.

The crazy part is that Skyler was technically still in prison and she murdered JP, her former cellmate, while she was out on work for a low-front prison, and after killing JP, she went back to the cell that she shared with JP. And that night after JP's murder, Skyler used Alonzo's computer in prison to order the anal sex machine. So the authorities, they have a hard grip on Skyler now and they're closing in. They just need a few witnesses.

Alonzo would be their star witness. He would also bring in CJ, right? The other guy would get arrested. The notary Kathleen Harris, Jennifer's dad's guy, there was cousin Michael, plus a few side people. They were all witnesses. In exchange, Alonzo was allowed to plead guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter kidnapping and robbery. He was sentenced to 20 years and four months. He was eligible for parole in September 2021, but he was denied. Alonzo also gave the name of CJ, the other guy that was there. He was tried in sentence to death.

He was currently on death row. Jennifer De Leon was arrested. She was found guilty in sentence to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. And as for a skiler, she was found guilty. But even in prison, she would continue to be a menace to society. She hired a hitman to try and kill the notary and her cousin for testifying against her. When they didn't go through with it, she was super pissed. Then she hired another hitman to try and kill her dad.

And then she tried to blame the whole thing on Big John. She was like, Big John killed the couple and he's making me take the ball for it. Which side note, I believe that Big John could have killed someone. Maybe he did. But at this point when the hawks died, Big John was wasting away from AIDS. Big John would even later say that while he was basically dying, Skyler came over to chase him around his house, tazing him. Skyler was sentenced to death and is on death row.

She was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, and in prison, Skyler did not want to go down without a fight. She stabbed herself, cut herself, and the guards found her trying to touch her penis from her body. The guards later said she didn't try hard enough, because apparently she was left alone for 20 minutes with a razor blade. And the guards argued she could have gone through the whole penis at that point if she really wanted to. Which in Korean, we have a saying like, ah, the katada is so. Which is like, why are you saying that like you're proud?

That you left a prison in mate alone in a cell with a razor blade for 20 minutes? Like you almost say like, oh, she could have totally cut off her own penis. Like, no, you're admitting so much fault on your own and like, you don't even see that. Like, what is going on? Like, are you really proud that you let this situation occur? That was our argument. Skyler attempted suicide multiple times, which guards again claimed that she was doing it for attention.

And in 2015, Skyler requested gender affirming surgery. It's unclear if she's gotten the procedure or not, which is a whole debate constantly, because it would be on taxpayers' money. So, I don't know how to feel, you know, it's just a debate that's out there in the world. And I couldn't find out much about Skyler now. She's still on death row, though it's unlikely she'll ever be executed. She was currently engaged to a couple different women. And I couldn't find out much about Skylar now. She's still on death row, though it's unlikely she'll ever be executed. She was currently engaged to a couple different women. And I just hope that she knows that her luck is right now. And she would have to sit and run in prison for the rest of her life, like she deserves.

And that is the story of what happened on the well deserved. What are your thoughts on this case? Let me know, and please stay safe, and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye! deserved. What are your thoughts on this case? Let me know and please stay safe and I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye!