Small Town Murder - #556 - Incurably Crazy Killer - Lewiston, Idaho

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

This week, in Lewiston, Idaho, a wild scene emerges, when a man is found beheaded by a co-worker. The only suspect had already left to check himself into a hospital, claiming that his name was "Dump Truck", and that he heard voices telling him to kill "the mark of the beast"! That's not even the craziest thing he says, but the question remains... just how disturbed is this guy??Along the way, we find out that Idaho views vary from pristine valleys, to composting plants, that you never know what voices are in some people's heads, and that when you decapitate someone, you don't get to pick your prison sentence!!New episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, the Cotton Club murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express.

Yay and choo choo. Oh yay indeed Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petragallo, I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. As you know, 10 pounds of murder, two pound bag. It's a lot.

We're stuffing it in here. We got a crazy story today. Of course, as usual, it seems to be the expresses are nuts always. Good. Then again, so is the regular episodes. Who cares? There we go. Let's get into this.

Shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for 2025. They are out. They are for sale. Yeah. We can do some places we've never been before. Grand Rapids, I know. They are out. They are for sale. Yeah. Some places we've never been before. Grand Rapids. I know. Portland, Seattle. Holy. Thank you for coming through. You're amazing. You're coming through Pittsburgh. You're up first. You better get on Columbus. Yes. It is Superbowl weekend. We understand. We understand the Steelers are good. We understand that.

I don't care. Get your tickets right now. You know they won't be in it. Come on. Let's go. They'll mess it up somehow in the playoffs. Get out there anyway. Just do it. Get your tickets right now. Columbus, all that stuff.

Get them in there. We can't wait. We're very excited. Shutupandgivemurder.com is where you get all of those. Also, you certainly, definitely first of all want to listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports and Your Stupid Opin opinions, which are just hilarious. And crime in sports this week, we are covering, doing a two-parter on a guy who makes any, the worst character on the wire

look like a good guy. Like it's just a terrible, terrible guy we're talking about there, so check that out. Patreon is the bonus stuff, that's what you definitely want. Patreon.com slash crime in sports is where you get all the bonus material anybody five dollars a month or above You're gonna get hundreds of episodes You've never heard before immediately upon subscription of back bonus stuff and then new ones every other week

One crime in sports one small-town murder you get it all baby you betcha with a low low price of five dollars For crime and sports this week. We're gonna talk about it's Christmas. We're gonna do some light stuff We're gonna do sports songs where we are gonna watch athletes try to sing week we're going to talk about, it's Christmas, we're going to do some light stuff, we're going to do sports songs where we are going to watch athletes try to sing and we're going to laugh at them. Oh, embarrassing. It's going to be great. We got Macho Man, we got some very fun Carl Lewis stuff. And they're taking it seriously.

Oh, they're taking it real serious. They think they're good at this. It's a lot of fun. Then for Small Town Murder we're going to talk about remote viewing, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars for the CIA to try to figure out if you concentrate enough, can you see into a cave 10,000 miles away? Who signed that check? I'm going to punch you in the dick.

Wow. Lots of people. That is wild shit here. Oh, through multiple administrations. This is a bipartisan fuckery is what we'll call that. Jesus. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all that. That said said I think it's time everybody. Let's go. Let's do this. Let's get this started. Let's all clear the lungs. Arms to the sky. Let's all shout.

Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this everybody. Let's go on a trip shall we? We shall. We're going to Idaho everybody. Hell yeah. Oh boy. This is northern panhandle Idaho too. Yikes. Yeah this is on the, like kind of on the Washington border right there. Okay.

Yeah, frightening folks. Western panhandle. This is militia country is what we're talking about here. Yeah. It's everybody that wants to move that panhandle into Washington. Yeah. It's everybody that wants to move that panhandle into Washington. Yeah, there's a lot of like quaint towns here too and stuff, but I mean, obviously, probably not when the marches have come through on Saturday afternoons. So it's about five hours to Boise from here.

So way up there. God damn. Yeah, it's about eight and a half hours to Idaho Falls, which is our last Idaho episode. So completely on the other side of the state That is episode 509 almost got away with it is the name of that one Populate that fucking big guy. I know it's huge. Yeah, it's a big goddamn state and this is practically Canada You know what I mean? Yeah, it goes that's what it does. It goes from the top of Utah all the way to Canada It's wild is pretty long population here

from the top of Utah all the way to Canada. It's wild. It is pretty long. Population here, 33,964. So a decent amount of people actually. Median home price here, or median income, household income, normally it's about 69,000 in the rest of the country here to $60,581. Median home price, $327,500.

Is that right? Nicknames for this town. They don't have any mottos, but they do have two nicknames that they proudly put out there Lewiston yeah, Lewiston, Idaho is this town Nicknames here one is L town which sounds like a failed boy band from 2001 Also, very bad now that L means just losing, you know what I mean? You don't want to be called an L town.

No, that doesn't work. And then River City also, which how many of those are there? Pittsburgh. Every city on the river. Cincinnati, Poughkeepsie, you name it, they're all on the river. There's a lot of cities that are bigger than you on River City.

History of this town here. It's believed to have been named after Meriwether Lewis from Lewis and Clark. Okay, all right. There's a lot of Lewis and Clark shit up here. There's the Lewis and Clark colleges up here and all that kind of stuff. But, and also after Victor Trevett's hometown

of Lewiston, Maine, but people did not know that that was the reason Trevett had the idea. So basically he named it. Trevett, really? He came up with the idea to name it after his hometown but was like, we'll name it after Lewis. So that way, yeah, nobody noticed. He simply stated the Journal of Lewis and Clark

talked about being in the valley. He didn't tell anybody that he was also from Lewiston here. Now the city of Lewiston's reservoir failed on January 18th 2023 just and when I say failed I mean you wouldn't think how does a reservoir fails or a leak in it? This is catastrophic this failure call caused flooding with the release of three million gallons of water That's a lot. That's a lot. So things to do here. Surfing. You wouldn't expect that, would you?

Northern Idaho. Reviews of this town. Gotta go through these quick because they are, they vary vastly, we'll say. Really? We'll do a five, a three, and a one star and see how it goes down the line. Here's a five star. This person loves this fucking place. First time I saw Lewiston was at night coming from the north. You come to

a steep grade. You look right down to a valley. The view was incredible to me. Lights from the town expanded. Then then then not then that's why I messed that up. Then you saw the river running through the town. I guess that's gorgeous. G O, I'm sorry, G-O-U-R-G-O-U-S, Gorgas, town Gorgas. The town has a feel of the old meets the new with their brick old buildings in the lower half but clean, nice and family friendly. To the other half of the town which has new hip stores and the old and young alike can shop at. Of course.

Oh boy, the streets are clean and maintained, patrolled regularly, makes you feel safe in a crazy world. Jesus Christ. Just 33,000 people, how fucking unsafe can you feel? That's what I mean, that's what I'm saying. I've only been here a short time, and if I was to recommend a town to a couple about to start a family without hesitation,

I would say Lewiston, Idaho. Yeah. Without hesitation. Wow. I just found out it existed. family without hesitation I would say Lewis tonight oh yeah without hesitation Wow I just found out it existed Jesus that's what I'm saying this guy is without hesitation first words always tonight oh beautiful view coming from the north oh anything about the south no no you come in from the north boy that's the view invade this mother from Jesus amazing three You're gonna see something amazing. Three stars. It's a retirement community. There isn't much going on. It's a calm town and I'm not sure I would like to see it change. I think it's meant to be that way, except they said it's meant to be that why, which

probably makes more sense if you've been here. If I could recommend it to a young person, I would. I would. I just feel as though I don't belong here. So this person's like, I don't think it's right for me, but you might like it. You might enjoy it. You may enjoy it. You're old enough. And then one star, a great place to start a militia or a meth lab. Now we're talking.

There you go. The town smells like rotten eggs and garbage because of the paper mill and composting plant Yeah, this is not what? composting plant We take all of our poop and we mash it together here This is they didn't mention that when they were driving into town and seeing the lights in the river They didn't mention the composting the composting plant in the distance. Also, There's nothing but junk food and everyone is obese. I am 190 pounds which is skinny by Lewiston standards.

I am moving tomorrow. To fucking Lewiston. So things to do here, Hot August Nights, that's what they got. Hot August Nights which is, it kicked off in 87, and began as a way to bring the Lewis Clark Valley a taste of great music and artists they've never had a chance to experience before. After the initial success of the first few years,

a classic car show was added to the mix. They all always have a classic car show. How do we get old men to come here? Put out a fucking car and put its hood up, and they'll just show up. Men over 50 will just wander in. They don't even know why. We're thinking about having a festival.

We're thinking about a classic car. I don't know if they've earned it yet. Let's have a couple success holes first. See if a few years first and see if they can handle a classic car show. Before we burn some 91 octane down here. Literally, though. Fuck that.

Guys just wander to these, they don't even know why they're there. They're like, why am I here? Like, aliens drew them there. And if they brought their car there, they are the most jacked person on earth. They're like, I get to park it and have people look at it. A hood up on a 69 GTO and here I am. I don't know why.

Lewiston's Hot August Nights is truly a community event. Downtown Lewiston streets are closed down so all the classic cars can be displayed. The event kicks off on Thursday at the local Toyota dealership. What I think of when I think of classic cars. I think of Toyotas. Yeah, with a preview of classic cars on their lot. They got like a 77 Corolla all fucking polished up for you. There was a guy that put a million miles on a Corolla and they gave him a brand new Corolla for it.

Gee, thanks. I mean, nothing wrong with a Corolla, but I mean, give me something a little extra for that. That's not a reward. Yeah, is there a turbo version or something? And then Friday night is Valley favorite with classic car cruise and all these lead up to a car show and award ceremony. Wow, we go from the Toyota dealer and cruise somewhere,

park these motherfuckers and give out awards. And then judge some shit. Now the bands. Yeah, who's playing that? Here's some bands from over the, I don't know which year any of these bands are playing. This is from different times. Colby Kallat, C-A-I.

Colby Kallat, you know her. There you go, I do? Yeah, you've heard one of her songs. Okay. She has one song that's very famous. This is a two time Grammy award winning singer-songwriter who sold over six million albums and 10 million singles worldwide.

Her breakthrough hit, Bubbly, remains one of the best selling, I don't know what that is, digital tracks in history. The cool sounds of Colby will bring a new feeling to the Pioneer Park venue. I don't know who the fuck that is. I still don't. You've heard bubbly though. I promise you.

God damn it. I hope I haven't. And then Friday night, enjoy the beats of local bands, the Maple Bars. She wonder if they came down from Canada. What do you think? They came down from the north and Mantis. Have I heard of Mantis? I don't know.

That sounds like a Slayer cover band is what that is like their piss they didn't get signed to you guys signed rat what the fuck and then night ranger baby of course oh is that right they're gonna have night not night ranger cover band night the real night rain actual night ranger okay let's talk about some murder, shall we? Let's do this. Yeah, let's do it. Let's go back to June of 2002 here. Let's go back in time a little bit. Not too too too far, but a little bit far here. 20-something years. Let's talk about a man first, Brian K. Elliott. 2Ls1T by the way, which really

really screws up a lot when it comes to newspapers and things like that. Now he is 43 in June of 2002 he was born June 16th 1959 to Alfred and Betty Elliott in Lewiston. He grew up in Lewiston, attended school in Lewiston. He is Lewiston through. He had a beard when he was eight you know. You bet. It's a beard and a collection of flannel by that. And a beer belly. Ohiston through. He had a beard when he was eight. You bet, yeah. He has a beard and a collection of flannel by that time. And a beer belly. Oh, for sure. He is a big, and this is in this area also, big deal.

He's huge into camping, hiking. That's his jam, the outdoors, which Northern Idaho, you better like the outdoors, because there's a lot of it. Yeah, absolutely. That's what's up there. You got square print, whether it's a flannel or just a regular shirt. It's a lot of squares yeah absolutely that's what's up there you got square print whether it's a flannel or just a regular shirt it's a lot of squares a lot of you got

a lot of jeans a lot of 90 degree angles going on yeah now he is one of four brothers here so it's him and three brothers to his mother and father. His favorite thing to do is, because he likes camping and hiking, but he likes to go up to the Snake River, sit on the banks of the Snake River, and read western novels. Like old time, 2002 we're talking, the 90s into the 2000s, which is interesting.

Western novels, which were big in like the 50s You know what I mean? Like and before that he's an old soldier. He's an old soul up here Now his father and his older brother both are dead by 2002 His oldest brother and his father. So when we catch up his mother and his two brothers are still alive. They live in Lewiston He lives in Washington State though, but not too far from here, just across the border. Yeah, that's, it's, I think it's right near the border. So people probably- Yeah, that Coburger kid was in Washington.

He lived in Washington too. Went over to Moscow. It was real close. Yeah, it's right there. It's right across the border. So his brother Dave says he's just a nice guy, likes people, likes to talk. That's that's Brian He's a real friendly guy makes friends with people Ask them about their personal life and what's going on and remembers people's you know, how's your wife?

So and so he's one of those guys backwoods. He shit they love that Yeah, but it's not not everybody's like small talk. Not everybody's like that, but he is apparently People said that at work he they would tease him about his appetite. Apparently he eats like a fucking monster. But he's a thin guy. He's a thin guy but eats like crazy. He's 5'11", weighs 160 pounds and eats like a horse, 43. So he's killing it here. One of the coworkers said, we always teased, boy I wish I could eat like that and look like that. So, you know, not be a heavy set here. He works at Paulucci's shoe and clothing store.

Is that right? Paulucci over here, yeah. There's the one Italian man in northern Idaho they found here. Well he was tired of how you motherfuckers dressed and opened a store to fix it. He's like it's a shoe store and clothing store. He's like I'm gonna fix this fucking place. Now Jack Palucci is the owner of this joint of course and he said that Brian was always on

time to work. He's on time. I'll tell you that much right now. I feel like Mr. Palucci will tell him if he's late too. Oh yeah. That's the reason he's on time. What do you think? Is Brian a good guy? I don't know if he's a good guy. He's always on time to work though. That's one of those guys. I don't know nothing about nothing, but he's on time to work. That's all I care about. He said quote, he's a good worker. You can't find people who want to work anymore. It's true. People have been saying that since the forties. That's what's funny. Every time like, yeah, people are lazy now. They've always been lazy. Has never not been a thing that's existed in humanity. The very first person was lazy.

Absolutely. Now the store itself is on main street in Lewiston and it's in the 500 block of main street and above the store are some apartments. I guess you could call, they're more like dorms really than apartments, to put it. So above the store are the apartments, but in these apartments, by 2002, by June of 2002,

only one person lives in these apartments above the store, even though there's several. There's a guy named John Mark Cope, C-O-P-E. He's 42 years old at the time and he moved in to these apartments in April 2002 with the help of Brian Elliott as we'll talk about here. Now this is this is not luxury accommodations above the shoe store by the way. This is dormitory style rooms with a common bathroom Meager as fuck. Yeah, this is sharing a shitter with strangers, which is That is I will not do that. That's where I'm it's it's not just the shitter. It's the shower

It's a sink gross. It's everything. Yes. I'm not doing that. I'm not I'm not fucking doing it I'm not doing it. I'm not fucking doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I don't care. I'll shit in the field first before I do that. I'll shit in the field in a place where no one else has shit recently. That's where I'll shit. There's ways of not getting their shit on you or their piss on you.

Doesn't matter. There's no way to not get their grime on you. Imagine sitting down on that seat and feeling warmth like the seat was warm from a stranger's ass. I will not do it I will not ever I know but I would wipe that fucking Time and that would make it cold You know what I mean what I would spend on fucking Lysol wipes would completely wipe out any savings I'm getting for living like this. You know what I mean? I might as well have a bathroom at that point.

Yeah. Constantly cleaning supplies. Shower shoes. I wouldn't wear them again. I would throw them the fuck out every time I showered. Every time I went to piss, I'd come in with a cart like a fucking hotel maid with like supplies and gloves on. It would be horrible.

I couldn't live like that. I've had the flu all week. I've showered like 30 times I'd have gone through a Walmart shelf of shower shoes. I'm telling you dude. It's gross. So Now apparently the cope is the only guy that lives up there. The shoe store is below Everybody hates John Mark. Cope in the shoe store Except for Brian. That's his buddy.

Well, he feels bad for him. Brian is the type of guy, if everybody else doesn't like someone who won't talk to him, he'll may go out of his way to talk to him, make him feel better. That's the type of guy Brian is. So his coworkers, Brian's coworkers said that he was the guy who dealt with Cope. Like whenever Cope would come downstairs to get mail or something like that like they would all turn their backs and Brian would be the one to deal with him because he was the only one who could deal with him. Everybody else couldn't stand him. Is that self-preservation you think? Like if

if Cope flips out at least I'm gonna be the one taking care of him? Maybe that was always my strategy in the office. I'd find the person most likely to snap and befriend them always. That's worked every time. The craziest people always were like, yeah, fuck this guy, that guy, you're all right. You know what I mean? It worked. It worked, I did it with comedy too. It's gotta be this too, right?

I knew some of those open micers, they could snap at any moment, and I was like, I'm gonna be friends with that motherfucker because he's gonna kill all of you. And not me though. I'm surprised there was only one. I know, it's shocking, isn't it? Shocking.

But he did it in a scenario that was world or night at least nation everyone knew who we are pretty amazing Yeah, disturbing more famous more people know who he is than any other fucking local Phoenix, common Shit, we were competing with them. That's who we're competing with That's it. So the the Jack Paloo Palucci's wife, Pizzi Palucci, her name is Pizzi, Pizzi Palucci, Pizzi Palucci said Brian was the one who was always nice about John, meaning John Cope there. He said that most of the store employees did not like Cope and for a reason because Cope's a fucking weirdo as we'll talk about.

What's he do? Oh God, he's a mess and a bit of a menace. He's got a lot of mental problems, several involuntary, you know, since oh yeah, several in different states even like is that right? Even whatever the standard of that state was, he'd fit it every time. Like you can't even call it environmental at that point. Nope. No, no, no. He's a he's a fucking he's got problems.

This guy and very strange. Pizzi Palucci said it felt very uncomfortable when he came into the store. But Brian just said don't be so judgmental. And Brian would deal with him and be nice to him. Come on, don't judge the guys obviously got problems. Yeah, he's obviously got problems. She said Elliott, Brian would go outside to smoke and would talk to Cope when he'd go out to smoke. Cope would come down and talk to him and that kind of kept him at bay. It was Elliott who got Cope into the apartment above the shoe store.

That's how he got there. Because he was, at the time, he was homeless, Cope. Yikes. He had no home. I guess 20 years before this, these bathrooms were be rented out by like old like retired single people with on a fixed income because they shared a bathroom and all that. But recently they had stopped I guess. Paloochee owns all this. They had recently decided to stop renting them out because they said the renters were no longer respectable getting shitty old people

coming in here. So he said, I'm not renting out any of my place. I'll take nothing. I don't want these people. I rent nothing anymore. I rent nothing. It's just, I have empty apartments I keep up there, which is crazy.

So Cope was the only person left living up there because it was all empty, but Brian Elliott convinced his boss to let Cope stay there. Come on, rent him a place. The guy has got, he's down on his luck It's clearly all that kind of shit. Yeah, and Paluci said that cope paid his rent on time and didn't cause any problems There's no one to cause fucking problems with no one else lives there. Yeah Once the shoe store closes at what six? Yeah, you can go buck wild up there. No one will care

Go nuts every walls. Yeah at one time Palucci said that Cope had a lot of visitors coming and going but then nobody else then they then it stopped and this isn't from April to June 2002 so he had friends and he didn't have friends. A little bit about Cope's past here to get a little you know window into this guy. He moved a lot number one never really stays at one place for very long, because he's always has problems. And he's known to have lived in California,

he lived in Coeur d'Alene, and all that kind of thing. I guess he has a background of commitments in California, all up and down the state of California. He's been committed to mental institutions and put in places, put in hospitals, basically. So they said a number of occasions he's been involuntarily committed in California. I don't know what a number of occasions means, but it sounds like a lot. Sounds like quite a bit. Since then, since he came to Idaho, he was cited for trespassing three times, which is normal for a homeless person.

That's, they get a lot of trespassing charges. Once for disturbing the peace, and once for battery on February 15th, 2002. So he attacked somebody. So that's three, four, five, that's five separate police actions in the past six, eight months in this town. That's a lot. That's an awful lot. And if he's homeless, that makes sense.

In the case of battery, he was taken into jail and then he battered somebody else as well. He wounded a fellow inmate at the Nez Perce County jail in a fist fight over what television program to watch. Hell yeah. This is the guy who goes to jail and fist fights people over what's on TV. That's this guy. Over television.

Television. We want any same person goes to jail, whatever's on is on, I don't fucking care. I'm not fighting criminals over fucking TV time. If there's a program, I'm watching it. I could give a fuck don't fucking care So he was involuntarily committed for mental health problems in the state of Idaho on three occasions prior to this by the way So those are all arrests and then he's been committed Number on three different occasions as well just in Idaho. Yeah, do we know what the imbalance is?

Is it just a short fuse? He's got a lot going on. We don't know. We'll find out his exact diagnosis later. But he's got a lot of problems mentally. Is it chemical? It's definitely nothing that he can just wish away. It's definitely something he needs to be on some serious

medication for here. The hospitalizations were from June the 7th of 2001 until August 2nd of 2001. Then October 25th, they put him back in. Right back in. So I mean, he lasted not even three months of 2001. And he's in there till January 15th. And then January 15th, he gets out in 2002.

And then March 1st, they put him back in. And then the 20th, he gets out. So it's like he's in for three weeks, he's in for a month, out for three, in for a month, out for three basically. And that was the most recent involuntary commitment leading up until June of 2002 was him getting out on March 20th of 2002. And then in April he gets out, he's homeless, Brian helps him get the apartment in April, there we go. So shortly after discharge, the last time, he became non-compliant with his outpatient mental health treatment and they said this made him suffer a decompensation of his illness. He got worse, obviously. He needs to be on medication, this guy. There's

no if, ands, buts or two ways about it, you know, it's one of those fortunate He's probably never gonna be a rich man He just needs to focus on this and this is where you mark your that's the mark of a successful man when you're in this position Is yeah get better committed. Yeah. Yes, try to try to stay out and stay on the on the level here Number of society that's success and he has a history of basically, when he's non-compliant with his treatment of medications, when he's on medication, he's fine, everybody says. He's fine, but the problem is he doesn't stick with it at all.

And they said when he's not sticking with it, when he's non-compliant with that shit, he has a history of aggression and violence toward people. He lashes out at people, obviously. Frustration. Over a fucking TV show. So he was homeless, had no support system, had no anything like that. Another factor here is that he is a huge alcoholic too.

So he has mental problems and he's drinking like crazy, which is only going to exacerbate mental problems obviously I mean yeah You might drink yeah, you might drink to quiet the voices in your head quote unquote, but yeah They're not gonna help voices in your head They're gonna make them louder probably right and all that does is make them scream because you can't hear them Yes, they're gonna shout louder now because you can't they can't hear you sir you can't hear them so those are a lot of factors to this guy and are gonna shout louder now, because they can't hear you. Sir, you can't hear them. So those are a lot of factors to this guy.

And they said each time he's been involuntarily committed, that's the pattern. He gets out, he does his outpatient shit for a little while, throws it away, within a couple more weeks he's in the hospital again. Rinse and repeat, basically. That's why we saw that pattern emerging. That's his pattern.

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as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. So June 29th, 2002 comes around. Okay. Okay. So Brian's birthday was a couple weeks ago.

Oh, he's getting ready to see the festival. It's got hot August nights is coming. he's getting ready to see the festival. He better get it together. Hot August Nights is coming. He's getting ready to see Night Ranger. He's ironing his Night Ranger t-shirt that he got in 84 during the tour. Oh man, so. I'm listening to them tonight.

I fucking loved them. Gonna rock some Night Ranger, fuck yeah. So it's 2 p.m. that day. The shoe store is open and bustling and and John Mark Cope is upstairs. John Mark Cope is upstairs in his apartment. Brian Elliott is working at the shoe store. He tells the employees as fellow employees he's got to go upstairs to the apartments to quote check on something. So I got to go check on some of you back in a minute. Okay, so he takes off

Doesn't come back right away gone for quite a while Oh boy, but he always talks to cope so his employees are like he's probably stuck in a conversation with this guy Yeah, that's what happens. I mean how how busy can a Main Street shoe store be or like we're we're flooding Come on. We need somebody all hands on deck, man Somebody measure that kid's fucking feet. They're not gonna measure themselves Get his foot out of that who didn't give him the sock who's got my god Where's the sock does anyone know where the cat tell gas Brian where the sock is no one can find the sock man the sock so then

3 p.m.. Comes around. Yeah. So it's an hour later. John Cope enters the emergency room of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center at 3 p.m. Okay, they said he's super distraught and that really doesn't even scratch the surface here. This is crazy shit. Okay. He had a small cut on his hand. Not huge cut but you know a decent decent little gash Maybe a couple stitches But he is covered in blood. Oh Like he was standing in the hallway in the shining like fucking covered in fucking blood and there's a little gash on his hand They're like, wow, that's a bleeder, huh?

Holy you a hemophiliac or something? What the fuck is wrong with you? Holy shit. So he acts so weird. And the fact that he's covered from head to fucking toe soaked, I mean, blood is dripping off of him. Wow. And he's got a cut on his hand. So they're like, this isn't normal. So they call the police also. Um, but he refused to identify himself. And his conversation was what they called quote nonsensical in the reports. They couldn't even understand what he was talking about. So they didn't know any they were like, wow, this is crazy. So they were talking to him and they said, would you like some help with your, you know,

point it just pointing at your head. She likes some help with whatever fucking dust bunnies are floating around in there And he said yes He was he voluntarily committed himself to the hospital psychiatric unit on the fifth floor So okay, they check him in there. All right, he's all checked in We'll talk about some of the stuff he was saying because it was fucking wild He wouldn't they said what's your name? And he said, dump truck. Oh boy. He would not give his name. He would only give his name as dump truck. That's his name. First

name dump last name truck. So over 20 years and that's a nurse with a big caboose. I understand. Yeah, it's a dump truck. They're like, like he he wasn't saying his name he was complimenting that nurse that's what he was doing now I understand him he's just horny he's not crazy he's just horny he's just very sane he likes big asses that's understandable we all get that so 4 p.m. comes around now. Brian Elliott still never came back to the shoe store. And it's only been a couple hours. It's been two hours.

This guy's already in the fucking mental. He's in the psych ward, right? So they're like, well, we should, someone should go fucking, at least maybe bail him out of a conversation. Maybe he's stuck up there with this guy. Come out and go, hey, we're super busy down there Brian could use you that sort of thing so Bill Lee one of his co-workers ran upstairs to go check on him he's like I'll fucking find him when he gets there he doesn't even get to the top of the stairs when he

sees the problem and that is Brian Elliott is laid out dead at the top of the stairs and it's a fucking scene man This isn't really this isn't oh is he okay? Let's go check his pulse. He doesn't have a head What his headless corpse is at the top of the stairs? Holy shit head sitting nearby. No that you know that's not the last it. Oh, it's sitting there Yeah, and take it with him or anything so not he left it oh it's sitting there yeah I didn't take it with him or anything so yeah I take what the fuck this guy thought he was getting five minutes away from the shoe store and he found something he did not want to

fucking find so yeah this is the top of the stairs that lead from Main Street to the second floor apartments so his yeah that's his, he's decapitated like a motherfucker. That's the only way to put it. He's super decapitated. Lee, the guy who found him, said it was not a pretty scene. It was one of those unfortunate things that happened. That's a little bit more than unfortunate. I would say so.

His head is not on his body anymore. He said, you expect to read about stuff like this in a large urban area, but not in a small town like this. Oh come on man. Thank you Bill Lee for making our premise relevant. So we've been done saying that for several years. The cops get brought there.

Blah blah blah. They do all this shit. They get they find the body. They do all that. They go where's the guy that lives here and they give them they give his name John Mark Cope and they're like hold on a minute. They start putting two and two together, they go back to the hospital. We saw a guy covered in blood a little while ago.

That's not good. So they're going to interview Cope, which is going to be an adventure, number one here. The detective also said that bloody footprints line the hallway of the apartments up there and there was a blood trail leading from the apartment to st. Joseph's Medical Center Stop you could follow a fucking blood trail from his apartment to the hospital My he was dripping blood all over the place just left us. That's wild So he they advise him of his rights and he immediately starts making completely incoherent statements that in the midst of these incoherent statements are the fact that he did kill Brian Elliott.

He does admit to that. He said that. Oh, he'll still give you a whole detail of what happened here. But there's a lot of comments about the beast. He's talking about the beast all the time and letting the beast out. And he insists that his name is Dump Truck also. I wish Dump Truck hadn't vented this jar.

This is so bad. This is crazy. Golly. So they said, what the fuck happened to you? Tell me. What made this happen? And he said, well, I was sitting in my apartment watching TV, as one does,

and I was drinking beer and I think maybe using some Benadryl too. Using some Benadryl. So beer and Benadryl will make you think your name is Dump Truck apparently. It certainly isn't good. And he said, as he's sitting there watching TV, drinking beer, taking Benadryl, like I said, as one one does that's when he started hearing voices in his head all the time

just just people shouting at him in there and you know it gets loud in there and so he said that's right when Elliot knocked on his apartment door right when he was hearing voices in the midst of the voices well we'll find out here so then he said he went to the emergency room covered and they said he was covered in blood, acting psychotic, talking about letting the beast out. He told an officer at that point that he was being tormented by the mark of the beast. Don't you understand anything? I'm being tormented. And when the mark of the beast came to his door, he was being tormented. And then that of the beast came to his door he was being tormented and then that's that's all these voices and then the knock came that must be the mark of the

beast oh god so he said he came when the when the beast mark of the beast came to his door he cut the beast's head off with a knife he said obviously dog what would you do mark of the beast is that my door timing that this had to have the timing So this is fucking crazy now the the reason why Elliot went up there was to remind cope that he had three days to move out of the apartment because I Guess there was a his time was coming to an end here so I guess he knocked I guess he knocked once and nobody answered, so he knocked again and that's when Cope attacked him

and grabbed a knife and decapitated him. Well the good news is he's got a new place to stay now. I would say so, he's not homeless anymore. And then if that wasn't enough, he severely mutilated the severed head after that. He took the severed head and attacked it with a knife and beat it and he said that he was trying to stop the head from talking and it wouldn't shut up.

The severed head. So he was stabbing it and just like punching it and kicking it and trying to get it to stop talking. Well I. What do you do with that guy? I don't even know what, I... What do you do with that guy? I don't even know what I mean. What do you do with this guy? What do you do? Oh my God.

Clearly there's some issues here. So he said he was following the instructions of, and then he wrote this down, because they were like, what is that? So he wrote it out. M-E-L-C-I-R-D-A-K, Melcerdack. That's who was telling him what to do, Melserdak. Doesn't mean a goddamn thing.

He said, I heard, H-U-R-D by the way, this is his writing, cause they said, write down what happened for us, will ya? Cause no one's gonna believe you said this shit that you're saying, so you gotta write it down, and then we'll have it in a report. Heard liked heard, alright. Yes. I heard God say finish him off he's the mark of the beast which how many times has God told you to do that I mean you got to ignore God sometimes you

know what I mean? Look yeah we got a society and I go not this one not today God Jesus Christ come on he said he's the mark of the beast get your knife and answer the door And there was a man who I thought was the mark of the beast a black man mutated white It's just Brian just a white guy from Idaho just From Idaho who got you a room. Who got you a room, helps you out, smokes cigarettes with you. That's how fucked up he was.

He didn't even see him as Brian. He saw him as a black man, mutated white and he said and that's when I slit both sides of his neck and ran him down, cut his head off and tossed it so he could not speak or hear. Wow. He said, I had been taking a lot of Benadryl and hearing voices. Take Benadryl off the shelves tomorrow. Tomorrow. If this is true, no Benadryl at all for anybody.

You give your kids that shit, you know? Yeah. Who knew allergy med and beer would do this? Wow, I'm gonna, I know what I'm doing tonight. Yeah, let's sport some, fuck. Give me three beers and a couple of Benadryls. I'm gonna have a fucking party, bro. This is gonna be great.

No one knock on my door tonight at all. Be careful. Everyone stay away from my house, because it's gonna be dangerous. There's gonna be pink lines drawn on all the tables in this house. So, yeah, that's gonna be dangerous. There's gonna be pink lines drawn on all the tables in this house. So yeah that's what he said. He decapitated him.

He mutilated the severed head and he said that's how he cut his hand. Mutilating the severed head. Yeah. So they go, we're gonna go ahead and arrest you. This is fucking crazy. So they go back police find a knife that a witness said he saw cope hide in a shrub at the corner of 3rd Avenue 6th Street at Pioneer Park in pioneer. That's where the concert is by the way. If you want to go listen to bubbly you can walk by the knife bush.

That's them. They're playing by the murder book. Playing right by the knife bush. And that's them. Nightrains are playing by the murder bush. Playing right by the old murder weapon shrub. That's great. So then there's a mail carrier here, Carla David, who was the postal worker who delivered mail to the store, and she also dropped off mail for the upstairs apartments in the store. She says, it amazes me this whole thing could happen. I just talked to him two hours earlier before his death about Brian. She gave Elliot a letter for cope. Yeah. And Elliot confirmed yes he's still living there. He's leaving in three

days. That is the other reason he went up to the apartment to make sure he gets the mail. So I'm gonna go give him his mail and tell him he's got three days left. And that's what happened. So if the mail didn't come he probably wouldn't have gone up there that day That's what's fucked up if he didn't have any mail So goddamn John it was probably nothing to it was probably publishers clearinghouse and this guy got it was way worse than that It was terrible. Yeah fucking money mailer coupon book or some shit and money mailer coupon book or some shit. So awful.

So now his mother and two brothers, Brian's mother and two brothers said they're coping with the shocking nature of this death because they said it's one thing for your kid to die. It's one thing for your kid to be murdered. It's a complete other thing for your kid to be murdered and decapitated and have his head mutilated and that's a lot to process. That's a whole lot. That's a lot. Dave, his brother said we're all leaning on each other and his mom Betty said if we don't have each other

I don't know what we if we didn't have each other. I don't know what we do it's like somebody took a slice out of my heart well he took a Fucking head off of your son. What are you talking about? Take a head off your son. Why say slice in that? That's why do people do is it's a weird thing that people can't, like their brain. It's gotta be stuck into you somewhere that you gotta say something about. It happens so often.

It's too much. So often where people don't. The last thing I would use is any knife work terms. Any knife reference at all. Well you know, we're trying to sharpen our emotions up on something and you know, it's really that life is a blade really if you think about it. There's edges to it.

Someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull, kind of six inch valley through the middle of my skull. That's how it feels. What are you talking about? What? So, Paluci here, Jack Paluci over here. He's he said it came as a shock this death He said anybody could have been the victim in here. So it could have been anybody. He said quote It could have been anybody literally

It could have been anybody. Why did they do that to Brian Brian didn't have anything to do with it Okay, let's break down this statement because I love an old Italian man's statement. It could have been anybody. That's just a sweeping generalization for the top of the key here. That's how they usually start a denial, but go on. Then why did they do that to Brian? Like there's 10 people who did it. They make it sound like it was like he went in an alley and a gang attacked him, you know what I mean, and took all his shit.

Then Brian didn't have anything to do with it. Do with what? Right. I guess the fact that he was leaving in three days. I don't even know. He didn't get a chance to say you have to be out in three days. He was too busy getting decapitated. So he knocked and then was just eviscerated.

The door dash driver could have gotten this. Anyone who got knocked at that point while he was hearing voices I think it was pretty much over for them anybody so wow the The prosecutor here the county prosecutor expressed what he called Substantial concerns about copes mental health in his first appearance in court And he said he's prepared to move on with the case assuming cope is that competent to stand trial He said that mental illness doesn't prevent with the case, assuming Cope is competent to stand trial.

He said that mental illness doesn't prevent him with being charged with first degree murder, which requires the act to be willful, deliberate, and premeditated. Which, probably one out of three. Willful and deliberate, we got two of those. Yeah, not premeditated. Premeditated only takes a few seconds to call that, right?

That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't see premeditated only takes a few seconds to call that, right? That's what I'm saying. I don't see premeditated here. So the Main Street after a couple days, back to normal, nobody cares. What? That's it. The police captain said all they're doing now is just continuing with the investigation and following up with any potential witnesses. They said the crime tape that they used to cordon off the crime scene was removed and The peluchis opened their store again on monday and that was that

And they said there's the espresso card across the street people are sipping their lattes and doing their normal shit here Um, yeah later on in the day. They said the movies were full minority report was playing it was sold out with tom cruise So if only that was true we could have known anything about this so the police chief Jack Baldwin everyone's name is Jack in this town he said bad crime sometimes happen in small cities but his force is prepared to deal with it he said we're capable of restoring peace back in the valley when it occurs okay, it's one guy who went crazy. It's not like there's a

Rash in a band of fucking vigilante happened in the guy who did its house And the guy who did it wandered into a hospital if both of those things hadn't happened Yeah, you'd be fucking you wouldn't know anything like anybody else. So the They said that they they found the knife in his first court appearance. They said they had the knife. They're convinced cope did it alone obviously They said though they had several officers ready to testify that copes speech was nonsensical And the prosecutor also said he had unconfirmed reports that cope had been admitted to the psychiatric hospitals in the recent past They're confirmed. He definitely was He had unconfirmed reports that Cope had been admitted to the psychiatric hospitals in the recent past.

They're confirmed. He definitely was. So they said the prosecutor said it's important to establish as soon as possible whether he's actually capable of standing trial. And they said that the judge appointed the defense attorneys and he said, I can't imagine why Mr. Chapman or Mr. Van Eater, those are the attorneys, would want to contest this evaluation. But two hours after being appointed the one lawyer argued against the evaluation. I don't know what you're arguing against saying the defense should determine whether or not

to have COPE examined, not the state. So what if they suggested it for you? Why don't you do it too? That's like your stomach's growling, you're just about to say you're really hungry and someone goes, you want to go get dinner? And you go, you motherfucker, I was going to say that. Fuck you. But yeah, but that's so weird. You're both in this case, wouldn't you be like, thanks, great, do it because I'm going

to do it and we'll have battling people on. That's the whole point. His lawyer said there was no Substantial evidence that cope was suffering from any mental disease only the impressions of police officers. Who do you work for? Right. He said this is just put in the cart before the horse Sir, what are you talking about? Health, I apparently it seems like it so the judge admitted that the law was unclear whether the prosecution or defense should move forward with a mental Evaluation I think he's like it's never come up that the prosecution says a mental evaluation the defense says no the defense is the one

Going mental evaluation all the time The man said his name's dump truck and he sawed a man's he's accused of mark of the beast Let's check him out. Let's give him a little look-see. So the prosecutor described the apartment hallway, which has been sealed, as a biohazard due to the large amounts of blood still on the floor, as well as hair and flesh. For fuck's sake. Luckily, nobody else lives up there. That's good.

Nobody has to step over that So they the judge grants the defense team $2,500 to hire an investigator Also and said that hurry up because the scene needs to be cleaned up basically Yeah, he was hip-hop's biggest mogul the man who redefined fame fortune and the music industry industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk Cafe, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party so. Yeah that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three count indictment charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy,

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Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of the Cotton Club Murder early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Holy shit. So first July 5th now, a few days later, it says the prosecutor had requested the examination, but Cope's attorneys objected and now they said that he will not be evaluated. So then the judge finds him, even though he hasn't been evaluated, finds him incompetent

to stand trial and he needs to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for several months. So he's committed for the 90 days of diagnostic what the fuck is wrong with this person shit going on here he says that his attorneys now say because that once they said that he's competent then his attorney said no he's not they said they can't communicate with him so right yeah that's a problem here. Then they get the psychiatrist in here. Okay.

Two psychiatrists both come up with the exact same diagnosis. Really? Yes. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, which is not good. That's hearing voices and all that and antisocial personality disorder, which is also bad. That's real bad. Those are the two worst to have together. Together?

Those are a bad combination. Oh boy. Somebody's going to die. That is some kind of cocktail right there. So that's like fucking bleach and, what is it, bleach and ammonia mixing together. So yeah, he testified in this hearing that he may have been drinking beer. I think he was using Benadryl. He was definitely hearing voices.

Yeah. So the judge said to him, they've indicated that you have a serious mental health problem, a mental health problem that doesn't appear, that has ever been successfully treated in a manner in which you can manage yourself in society and not cause some kinds of problems. This has escalated to the point where you are before this court for a very serious offense I've got some very serious quite very serious questions about who the fuck was treating him elsewhere Well, they would put him in for a while. They'd get him on medication. Yeah, when he's inpatient. He takes medication. He's fine So they have to release him after a while and he's supposed to do outpatient medication but then he just stops taking his medication when no one's watching him. So

there's no way they're fucking figure out that these two things are his problem. I probably he's been in several mental hospitals I assume so but he just takes off he goes and moves somewhere else. Yeah. Oh that's a good point. If you're moving then that doesn't help either. Get help up there. Yep. That's it glad to be rid of that guy That's what people think probably so four months later. They finally deem him ready for trial all all fixed up now All saying now here is the thing there is no insanity defense in the state of Ohio Or Idaho. I'm sorry. There is no Not guilty by reason of insanity in Idaho it's one

of four states that does that where they do not you could be rip-roaring insane what running around with a fucking terriers skin on your head is a hat fuck blah blah blah yeah you're fine wow and that crazy that's wow there are crazy people. They exist. People who literally cannot control their actions and don't know right from wrong. We know that. So to say that they don't, not in Idaho they don't is crazy.

Not in Idaho. Not in Idaho, Kansas, Montana or Utah. Now luckily that's like 150,000 people total. So that's not a lot of people luckily, but still But Utah the amount of Mormon's those people are clearly crazy. Yeah, right No shit Planet your own planet, huh? Yeah, not crazy at all. Sure thing

So yeah, this was challenged in 1990 by a guy named Barrington Eugene challenged in 1990 by a guy named Barrington Eugene Cerci, who challenged Idaho's ban on the insanity defense. He argued that the unavailability of the insanity defense violates due process. But the Supreme Court of Idaho upheld the statute and holding that neither the Idaho Constitution nor the United States Constitution expressly requires the insanity defense.

Feels to me like that's about money, right? It's gotta be cheaper to hang on to somebody longer in prison than it is to hang on to somebody in a fucking insane asylum. That's about politics. That's about somebody got away with something. Someone didn't get prison time because they were crazy, and some politician ran on, I will make it so none of these people claim they're crazy anymore. And all this shit happened in the early 80s after

Hinckley. That was the thing. Hinckley was a big one that drove people to say that that crazy doesn't exist or even if it does if they do something I'm mad enough about it doesn't matter. It's kind of like the actual leader of the free world. Kind of like if you're 14 and you do something bad enough, you're an adult all of a sudden now. That's kind of like one of those things. If we can make you an adult, we can say you're sane too, I guess.

So 2003 here, they're talking about the death penalty for this guy and all this shit. Trial's about to come up. I mean. He's useless. Let's call it what it is. I mean, yeah, he's not gonna contribute much to society So he agrees instead to plead guilty to second-degree murder

Okay to avoid the death sentence That's that's the only deal is that that of the death sentence Well, the first degree murder carries the possibility of the death sentence second degree doesn't so he pleads guilty to second degree So there's no possibility of the death sentence here. So he has spent the last three months under state psychiatric treatment. And he's here. The prosecutor said questions about his mental state, among other issues, convinced him to make a deal,

the prosecutor said. Among other things. Yeah, among other things. He said, quote, I don't believe that in our justice system, a death penalty on an individual who was in a psychotic episode will be upheld he didn't say it won't it's wrong yeah he said I feel like the US Supreme Court will strike this down later is what he said so why bother they probably won't know but they there's a chance when someone's that fucking crazy that they're gonna at least commute it to life you know what I mean I don't I've never heard of any prisoner who got a

death sentence identifying themselves as dump truck that's the thing dump truck is different although they've they've executed people with like a 60 IQ that can't remember their fucking name so that's true too he also no they can't write the prosecutor also cited questions about the validity of the state's death penalty law following last summer, 2002 summer, meaning Supreme Court ruling that juries, not judges, must determine if aggravating circumstances exist to warrant execution. Idaho's system was not set up like that. It was still set up where the judge is the one to do that.

So they said that legislation reacting to that decision is awaiting a final vote in the Idaho House at the time. So he's like, I didn't know what to do. I'm stuck in limbo. So I made a deal with the guy. And he said also not having a trial will save tens of thousands of dollars for the state. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, and then we're gonna have, because also fighting all those appeals later on to the Supreme Court, that's going to cost the state a fortune. He's like, this is just clear it out now. It's very funny that they said tens of thousands. Tens, it's hundreds, yeah. Wow. So the judge said, I just want to ask them, meaning the person putting this plea, so that

I can determine whether or not you're entering a plea of guilty this morning knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently. I don't think he can do those three things, first of all. No. So, they said after a lengthy dialogue with Cope, which the judge reminded Cope of the charge against him, as well as the maximum penalty, said you plead guilty. He said he plead guilty. They said, has anyone promised you anything? Like that it would be easy on you if you plead, he said no, all that kind of thing.

So that comes up later so that's why I say that. The sentencing, the written plea agreement also included the following waiver of Cope's right to appeal. This is part of the deal. Unless the plea is rejected or withdrawn, the defendant hereby gives up any and all motions, defenses, objections, appeals, or requests that the defendant has made or raised could have served hereafter or to or against any matters preceding the court's entry of judgment and imposition of sentence.

So you're signing away your future rights to complain if you're pleading here. So the state filed a motion asking that the pre-sentence investigator be allowed to review the psychiatrist reports, Coop opposes this motion, arguing that prohibited use of that report in the criminal proceeding for any other purchase other than determination of competence because that's what that was for. So now they're being picky and they and that's gonna come up because the law says a statement made by a person subjected to a psychiatric or psychological examination or treatment

in Idaho code blah blah blah for the purposes of such examination or treatment shall not be admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding against him on any issue other than the defendant's ability to assist counsel at trial or to form any specific intent, which is an element of the crime charged, except that statements made of a defendant to a psychiatrist or psychologist are as relevant for impeachment purposes. So unless it's to say whether you're competent in a competency hearing, you can't use this in court. Okay.

You can't take his shit from there and go, look how crazy he is, he's a murderer. So at the sentencing hearing, the state called the doctor to testify anyway. Cope again objected, but the court overruled the objection and let him testify, even though it clearly states in the law that he's not allowed to. So the doctor testified about statements that Cope had made

during the competency evaluation, as well as his opinions formed there in so Anyway, the closing arguments and sentencing here Because he's already pled so they're just having these people testify to find out what the judge thinks is the sentence He should get exactly. That's exactly it Wow. So the prosecutor Argued that cope would never be safe on the streets sentence he should get. Exactly, that's exactly it. Wow. So the prosecutor argued that Cope would never be safe on the streets, pointing to his failure to take his anti-psychotic medications upon release from numerous involuntary commitments to mental facilities. He said

you can't trust him to, if he takes his medicine he's fine, he won't take it. He's proven that in the past. He won't do it. No. no. Now, cope. They said anything to say for yourself? He said, sure, I got a couple of. Oh, what? I'd like to throw a couple of things out there. He says this, this is his whole statement, and it's crazy, quote, I know it was a bloody mess. That's an understatement.

What, are you British now? I know, yeah, no, he said, that's what I thought too for a minute. I know it was a bloody mess. A bloody mess. He put in it afterwards and it was very different. I know it's a bloody mess, innit? He said, there was a lot of blood.

It was something I've never done in my whole life before. Hope not. I hope not. I know you never decapitated a man. Shocking. Gee, me neither. How did not... You just let this guy keep going?

I know it was a bloody mess. There was a lot of blood. It was something I've never done in my whole entire life before. Then he says, quote, I think a decade behind bars ought to be sufficient. I think 10 years should do it,? That'll be, I'll learn my lesson. Right there you say no no no he's crazy and you put him, I think 10 years behind bars ought to be sufficient. That should do. The flu couldn't kill me this week. That almost did.

This will do it. I think a decade behind Mars will be sufficient. What the fuck are you talking about? I mean, less if you think. I'm going to say ten years just to be magnanimous. But you can say less if you want and I'll take it. Ten years ought to make… I'm willing to do 10 on it.

I'll learn my lesson I think in 10 years. The judge has a lot to say about this by the way. Oh I can't wait. He has a lot to say before sentencing. The judge says, and I quote, I am very concerned. I have to be concerned about the fact that there does not seem to be any kind of outpatient setting that can handle your state of mental illness. If you are involuntarily committed, you are in custody, obviously, during those commitments.

You tend to clear somewhat. You are released, and then as this number one I read you states, shortly after discharge, you become noncompliant with your outpatient mental health treatment, suffering, and decompensation of your illness. I'm also concerned about your history of aggression and violence when you're noncompliant. And the reason is because the pattern is, you become noncompliant, then when you become noncompliant,

you're aggressive and violent, which obviously creates a great risk to others, and in this particular case, created the greatest risk of all. Three, I don't find or it doesn't appear to me that your circumstances are going to change relative to this factor. That you are homeless and lacking any support system doesn't help. You're a 43 year old man and this has been your situation for quite some time. You're not getting better.

Where the fuck is your family? That's the other thing. We have no idea. He said also chronic alcohol abuse. He said, and I don't think this is ever going to go away. And from your statement to the court, it just does not appear that that's something you are ever going to successfully manage on your own. So then he says, he said protection of society is the most important goal.

And Mr. Cope, I have to tell you, I view you as a very dangerous individual. No shit, the most dangerous. And the reason I do is because of the four factors that I talked to you about and that are contained in the mental health evaluations. Because of those four factors, you are dangerous to others. I think there's a high likelihood you'll commit another crime if you're released. I think so too. And everyone has indicated those criminal offenses have been escalating in nature. And some of them

may be characterized as kind of nuisance type offenses, but obviously you can you are capable of much more than nuisance type offenses. Yeah, taking someone's head off is more than a nuisance. Yeah, I wouldn't call that nuisance behavior. Wow. Your conduct caused and threatened serious harm. And there was no justification Absolutely none for what you did We can only describe it as being a particularly chilling and brutal manner in which you took the life of Brian Elliot He said in this particular case your mental illness has been described as incurable You're fucked. Yeah

It can be treated such as that you can be functional it appears in a custodial setting But the pattern has been anything less than that It can be treated such as that you can be functional, it appears, in a custodial setting, but the pattern has been anything less than that. You've not been able to successfully function in society and you've not been safe for others of us who live in society. I frankly can't conceive of feeling comfortable ever with you residing in the neighborhoods of any of our communities. And if I can't do that, if I can't conclude that in probability you could

be rehabilitated and could function in society, if there's a chance for that. But frankly, with the evidence before the court, your history of mental health treatment and your history of mental illness, your prior criminal conduct and this particular offense, I can't conclude probably that you would ever become positioned to be safe in society. We haven have years. Oh, I give you 12 doesn't you? We've talked about whether or not you might be able to circulate in the general population in a prison set setting They're like I wouldn't even put you in gen pop. Never mind society I love how you said ten years in jail when I can't even see you

murderers and right here to put you with other rapists and murderers. You understand? I fear for rapists' safety with you around. You need rehabilitation to be stepped down into population where these people are spending the rest of their natural fucking lives. Into normal murderer status. Holy shit. That's awesome. status. Holy shit. Wow. And that frankly is for prison officials and treatment providers

to make that determination. And I think they obviously are going to consider that based on the testimony I have heard this morning. You sir, may fuck off life without parole. There it is. Ten years, he said. I think a decade will do. I think a decade behind bars ought to do the trick he said. I think maximum probably Baker's dozen, 13 pushing it. That's it. We're good there probably. I mean if you could put me in for 15 I'll be out in 10 I could probably do that. I wish that judge would have laughed when he said a decade. Out of your fucking mind. Cut him off right there. So he appeals this, even though he's not allowed to appeal this somehow.

So laws mean nothing in Idaho. Crazy doesn't exist. You can put fucking psychiatric evaluations into court when the law clearly states you can't. You can sign an agreement saying no appeals and then appeal. There's no law in Idaho. Fucking whatever. He said that he shouldn't have allowed

a mental competency report to be included in a pre-sentencing report. Same thing he was arguing that the judge didn't let him do. He said it violated his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said, that shit I said to him that you weren't supposed to use for this, which is true. That's true.

He said that the district court erred in admitting this here. He contends the district court erred in admitting this here. He contends the admission for sentencing purposes of this report, disclosed statements made by Cope during the court-ordered evaluation and infringed. So, the state argues that Cope has no right to an appellate review of these issues because his plea agreement had a waiver of that. So it doesn't matter if he's right or wrong. They assert that with his exception of his claim of an excessive sentence, the issues he asserts on appeal have been waived.

So he said this is none of this matters. So he also maintains that his waiver is invalid though, because neither the court nor either party mentioned it during the change of plea hearing. And at one point, the district court advised cope that he had the right to appeal because they said that to him. The judge said that to him so that over I guess supersedes the agreement. I don't know. I guess.

They said both the prosecutor and defendant are bound by the terms of the agreement and are correspondingly entitled to receive the benefits for which they bargain. Consequently a defendant will not ordinarily be allowed to retain the benefits of a plea agreement while at the same time, disclaiming its provisions that benefit the state." They said, so, "'It's clear Idaho law permits the waiver of a rights appeal as a term of plea bargaining.

Anyway, all this shit,' they go, get the fuck out of here. There you go. You got what you got, man. We're not redoing any of this. What you did and you pled to. That's it. I don't give a fuck about any of the plea.

And they said he poses a grave danger to others if he should ever be released from prison in light of the primary goal of sentencing the protection of society. We cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in imposing a fixed life sentence. I would too because you're fucking nuts and you're violent. So that's that. He appeals again in 2006 and he is told that this was a gruesome and horrifying crime that warrants the sentence imposed by the district court when all the appropriate information and factors are considered it would be difficult to rationalize any other sentence.

When asked if you have anything to say, you led with there was a lot of blood. There was a lot of blood, let me tell you something. I get that. What? He was trying to be like, I get that what I did was bad. Look, I get it was gross, but 10 years. August 31st, 2019, here, 3.40 a.m. at the Idaho Maximum Security security institution in CUNA

Officials find cope hanging in a cell is that right? Absolutely, which is not surprising if he's got mental health problems and all that. Yep. They said that I he'd 59 years old They said they time of death they have him dying probably just before 9 p.m. But didn't find him till 340 a.m Almost seven hours in that cell here. So That's what happened then here are some comments from the Facebook post announcing this Announcing his death about announcing his death. Yes, like the news the local Idaho What do these crazy fucks have to say? Okay, this is how shit deteriorates. Okay, one says, as a family member to Brian, all I can say is good with four exclamation

points. My heart is filled with joy knowing this man no longer breathes air. Okay. Well, there's dancing in the blood. Yeah. Then, Idaho Cold Cases, who posted this, said, no kidding, were they strangers? Did you not read? You could have read the court documents.

I did it. Then they respond, in a way, he was a renter above the shoe store my cousin worked at, the owner of the shoe store also owned the apartments up above. Cope made a maintenance call and Brian responded, which that, I never heard that in anything. They said, wow, thank you for the info. I'm sorry for your family. Then someone else comments on this thread and says to the original person who said, that's my cousin, quote, the owner is a piece of garbage.

See what I mean? This has nothing to do with anything. John Polucci is just not a good human. Oh my God. This has nothing to do with anything. John Pellucci is just not a good human. Oh my god. This has nothing to do with this. Not that this is relevant to what happened but maybe if he wasn't such a piece of crap landlord then or now. So apparently they're blaming John Pellucci for this.

John was going to kick him out in three days so he sawed somebody else's head off and it's John's fault. Unbelievable. Someone else says I knew Benadryl can cause drowsiness but I didn't know it could cause hearing things. That's scary if indeed what he claims is true. And then someone comments on their thing, if it is then the family and the victims needs to sue Benadryl.

It's not true you idiots. Then someone else says, depending on the circumstances I know that a lot of cold and allergy medicine have interactions with different prescription medication Hallucinations being a common side effect and someone else says that is true I didn't think about the possibility that he was using other prescription medications Then someone says I couldn't agree more and someone says sue Benadryl someone says well Of course the person in the McDonald's hot coffee suit made bank That's the internet. It just deteriorates to nothing and says, well, of course, the person in the McDonald's hot coffee suit made bank. That's the internet.

It just deteriorates to nothing. And you know what? Her pussy was burned off. What are you talking about? Burned off. Yeah. Well, then a lot of people from the comments go, stop using that as an example. We know now that that was a fucking horrific thing and blah, blah, blah.

But that's the internet. Unbelievable. Within 10 comments it will deteriorate away from all this. We can't have a society. We can't. It's impossible. We'll never have one again. Anyway, there you go everybody.

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