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She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
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Hey, weirdos. I'm Alayna. I'm Ash. And this is a mini morbid.
It's Elaine-centric. It's Elena morbid, so it's a full morbid.
I was going to say, it is not even a mini.
It is just huge. Yeah, I was really thinking at first.
So this is a case, and I'll tell you what it is in a second, but you can all just hang on to your butts.
It's a case that I've been wanting to do for a long time.
Love that. And it's been sitting there just waiting for the right time.
And I always thought it was going to be like a mini mini because I thought it was like pretty straightforward.
Yeah. But then I dove into it. And you were like, never mind.
And wowzer. So... Eight pages later, we have... We have a full-length morbid.
We have a full-length morbid that's going to be labeled mini.
But, you know, you guys are used to this. by now I was gonna say you know what what else is new so yeah what else is new um I don't think there's a whole lot of like crazy news.
We're going to be moving forward soon on like new merch. new stuff for patreons which we are really excited about and i think you guys gonna like pee your pants in excitement i hope so at least I hope you're holding on to your butt.
Yeah, I hope all of you have to change your trousers when we tell you. i like that change your trousers yeah and That's going to be coming soon.
We've been working on it really hard, so we're really psyched.
And we'll let you know when that's going on.
Other than that, I think the really only thing that we wanted to just quickly address was some new dates for the shows, because as we know, COVID-19 has just like, like roundhouse kicked us all in the face.
Yep. And... And right as we were about to go on our tour, it was like, no, no, no, no.
It was like, say less, say less. Literally.
So now we finally, and I know a lot of people have been asking, you know, is this one going to be rescheduled?
Luckily. Yes. They're all getting rescheduled and we have some dates for you.
So. If you have tickets to any of these shows, hang on to them because they can be used in these new dates.
And if you haven't got tickets to some of these places that are not sold out, go ahead and get some tickets because even if they get moved, you can still use those tickets.
Get yourself a ticket. Do it. All right.
So as of right now, we have Philadelphia at the Punchline Comedy Club on August 11th.
We have Washington, DC at the DC Improv on September 16th.
We have Nashville, Tennessee at Zany's on September 23rd.
And those are back-to-back shows. So two shows, one night.
Back to back, early, late. Get it. We also have...
Huntsville, Alabama at Stand Up Live on September 24th.
So the day right the day after the national show.
And we have Chicago, Illinois at Talia Hall on November, or no, sorry, October 11th.
And that's two shows. Yeah, that's also two shows on one night.
So October 11th, Talia Hall, Chicago, Illinois.
That's going to be fun. I'm excited. We also have Charlotte, North Carolina, which a lot of people have been asking about the North Carolina ones.
Charlotte, North Carolina, Comedy Zone, that's going to be November 10th.
Then we have Raleigh, North Carolina, Good Nights Comedy Club.
That's going to be November 11th. So back-to-back shows, November 10th, November 11th in North Carolina.
That's so crazy. Those were going to be like the day after tomorrow.
I know. It's so crazy because it kept popping up on like my calendar.
It would be like today, Talia Hall, Chicago. go illinois and i was like no i saw it in my planner last week and i was like oh cool i'll just go fuck myself Right?
It was such a bummer. Such a bummer. And then we also have the Wilbur Theater in Boston, but That is moved to March 26th, 2021.
Very long time from now. Very long time.
But you know what? The good news is with that one, first of all, there's plenty of tickets left.
So go get your tickets for that one. eat them up um so yeah go get those wilbur theater tickets and we're excited because we have all this time now to make that show like a blow out extravaganza because it's like our hometown so we gotta make it crazy um and we're still gonna try to have emily walsh the comic stylings of emily walsh there so Yeah, so get your tickets for those shows.
We are hoping, we're fairly positive that we're also going to be at CrimeCon in October.
If that changes, we will let you know, but we're pretty sure we're going to go to the rescheduled date.
We're excited about that. But I think that's really all we have.
Cool, that's that. What the fook is your mini about?
So my mini slash main is... The story of Zach Bowen and the murder of Addie Hall.
Now. I don't know. This takes place in Nolens.
Nolens. Nolens. Which, researching this case makes me want to go to New Orleans so bad, because, not because of, like, the murder and all that, but, like, because...
It's just got like a vibe to it that I'm like, I need to get there.
It has like a spooky voodoo old school fucking coven jazzy vibe. oh i just everything that we are in a city it really is like we are just we're ready for you I want to have a show in New Orleans and that is on my bucket list.
Coven themed show in New Orleans. Oh, we got to do it.
That's all I could get out. I'm just like, oh.
So, New Orleans, we love you. So this is a crazy tale.
It is a murder-suicide. And it's just bonkers bananas.
Why do I feel like I know this? You might.
You might know, like, the gist of it. Okay, go ahead.
A lot of the information I got was from a book called Shake the Devil Off by Ethan Brown.
Yeah. And Ethan Brown is like a journalist and he got so much insider information in this case, like he got a lot of background into Zach. he got a lot of background into their relationship together that I think a lot of people didn't know.
I certainly didn't know, so... I also used a ton of articles, which I'll link a few in our show notes.
All right, so let's go to October 17th, 2006.
A guest at the Omni Hotel in New Orleans sees a man's body outside his window on a roof. of a parking garage after hearing a thud and called the front desk.
Oh, my God. Yeah. So he sees the body on the parking garage.
He's like, holy shit. He had just heard like a giant thud.
He calls the front desk. They call 911. police get the call saying there was a jumper at the hotel.
Because unfortunately, it's kind of common for people to jump off of hotels.
But so they show up and they find Zachary Bowen. had jumped from the roof of the hotel and landed on a parking garage roof five stories down wow Yeah.
I mean, a lot of times it's like when people jump off of things, you either get like a very clean scene or you get like a...
A really rough one, depending on what they hit.
So if he hit the pavement below, it would have been a different story.
But because he hit a roof... They said he didn't even look like too like mangled, essentially.
They said it's just like a little blood coming out of his mouth.
But other than that, they were like, he kind of just looked like he was like half asleep.
That must be so strange. Right? It just feels like that would be a strange thing.
Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is very eerie.
But so the police show up, they find Zachary Bowen, and when they surveyed the scene, they were like, okay, well, he was obviously dead right on impact.
And they look inside his pocket and there was a Ziploc bag.
And in that Ziploc bag, They were his army dog tags with his name on it, so he was obviously in the military.
Mm-hmm. And there was also a folded up note that said, for police only.
Oh, shit. So they're like, oh, a suicide note.
We're like, oh, that's for us. Yeah. And they're like, you know what?
That cleans up nice. Cool. Well, I bet it was way confusing.
Well, then they open up the note and it says, quote, I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took.
Oh. If you send a patrol to 826 North Rampart, you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend Addie in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge, along with full documentation on the both of us and a full signed confession from myself.
Shut the fuck up. Yeah. The keys in my right front pocket are for the gates...
Call Leo Watermeyer to let you in. Zach Bowen.
So they're like, oh, this is not just a suicide.
Okay. This is a murder. Yeah, this is a bad, real bad, bad, bad murder.
On the stove, in the refrigerator. In the oven.
In the oven. Okay. And then he's like, and there's also a full confession, tell you everything you need to know.
Okay, this does sound familiar. Keep going.
Mm-hmm. It's crazy. So according to his friend, Zach left his friend's home that night with a bag of cocaine worth about 20 bucks.
I don't know anything about cocaine or how much it's supposed to be worth.
Sounds like that's a lot. I don't really know. cocaine is like very expensive so I'm assuming it's not that much I would think so but they made it seem like it was like a good amount so I don't know I don't really know I don't know.
Color me crazy. But according to hotel security tapes for that night, Zach went up to the rooftop bar at the Omni where there was a pool.
He drank there from like four in the afternoon all the way until about 830 p.m.
I would be fooked up. Oh, he surely was.
He opened up a tab. He was heavily drinking the entire day and night. and just before 8 30 p.m the security tapes show him pacing from the roof's railing to the pool and back again like several times like he's contemplating Right.
At 830 on the dot, he walks up to the railing and just launches himself over.
Oh, geez. Yeah. So police are like, uh-oh.
So they got to the address on North Rampart Street at around 10 p.m., And they asked the landlord, Leo, to let him into Zach's apartment.
And Leo's like, what the fuck? What they found inside that apartment was an absolute horror show.
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Now before we go into what they found in that apartment, let's back it up a bit and talk about Zach for a moment.
Okay. Because I think it's important to learn about Zach and it's important to learn about his girlfriend.
Yes. So in his adult years, there's really nothing to say that Zach was anything other than a totally normal and relatively unremarkable dude up until this point.
Um, he was well liked, but like nothing crazy.
Like there's just not a lot that like totally stands out about him.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. He didn't have this crazy temper.
He didn't, you know, he was kind of known as like a somewhat of a goofball, but like he was also kind of shy.
So he was just kind of there. Just like a regular dude.
Yeah, and by all accounts a very friendly nice guy people liked him and He did like to drink way too much.
That becomes an issue later, but you know.
And how old was he? Um, when he died, he was shit.
He was 28. Okay, so like a little too old to be continuously like heavily drinking, but also 20, so.
Oh, yeah. And he had, as you'll see, he had a lot of responsibility that he should have been taking.
Not drinking and actually taking care of.
It seems like he was kind of trying to take care of his situation, but it seemed like a lot was working against him as well.
Okay. He was born on May 15th, 1978. His parents were Zach and Lori.
And they began he and his older brother Jed's life pretty like nomadic.
Actually, like they took them, they had a VW bus and they took them like all over.
I'm so into that. Yeah, they would be like, I knew you would be.
I'm not at all. Like, that does not sound at all.
I am before that. No way. And they ended up, you know, like they would just camp out places.
They would go, which is cool. They got to see a bunch of places.
Yeah. Um, They ended up settling in Ojai, California for a bit.
And then they moved to Whidbey Island in Washington.
And... Their marriage, the parents' marriage, was, like, kind of on again, off again.
They didn't really, like, break up or anything like that, but it was on again, off again good.
You know, like... Yeah, yeah. it would be tough for a little while and then be really good and tough for a while really good okay uh There's nothing to say that, like, there was any abuse or anything like that.
It was just kind of a tumultuous marriage.
I was going to say, yeah, it sounds pretty tortuous.
Yeah, just not like volatile. So when they moved to Whidbey Island, this is when Laurie and Jack's marriage really began to sour.
He was staying out all night with friends doing God knows what, like drinking, partying.
It sounds like he just wasn't ready to give that up either.
And he was leaving Lori alone with the kids all the time.
And like, it just wasn't happening. Recipe or disaster.
Exactly. So Laurie finally left him in 1990.
She moved with the boys to Santa Maria, California.
In school, teachers either loved Zach or they hated Zach.
There was, like, no in-between. There was just no in-between.
He was popular in school, but he was... he was pretty shy like he was very shy but like also goofy at the same time you know those kind of people yep yep for sure um And according to those who knew him, he was also really friendly.
He could be outgoing if he knew you, but he was into metal and grunge music.
Oh, cool. Yeah. One of the biggest disappointments and one that his family points to as, like, a real thing that affected Zach for a long time...
It's something that might be strange to some of us as like a big disappointment, but I'm not.
I mean, it was important to him. So it was him losing Homecoming King.
Oh, okay. Yeah. It devastated him. Wow. I guess he was like on, I forget how it works.
It's like he was like nominated. Yeah. Is that what it is?
Like he was in the court. It's different everywhere.
Yeah. And I guess he had to like give a speech and he gave like he tried to be funny and say that like all these other things. dudes were like all dressed like really preppy and like you know they were the typical homecoming king yeah yeah and he dressed up with a cape on like he had a black cape oh and which i'm like you go you would have voted for him for sure i don't know why he didn't win that's awesome And then they all were like, you know, talking about their plans after high school and like really making it like serious speeches.
And his speech included him saying that there should be a mandatory two hour nap period every day.
That's hilarious. That's like what you're supposed to say when you're leaving high school.
And he was joking. Like he was saying it to be funny.
To make people laugh. He didn't win and everybody kind of treated it like you messed up. by doing that.
Okay, so I can see where he felt like he disappointed other people.
Yeah, and I feel like he was really insecure.
Also in high school, because the other thing is he's very tall and lanky.
Which, later in life, because you know all the shit that sucks in high school that kids don't get in high school?
It works out for you later. Yeah, it becomes the thing that makes you awesome later.
So it's like tall, lanky dudes are like where it's at.
But it's like... In high school, you're gangly.
Exactly. Exactly. At John. But in high school... you're in your awkward phase, so being taller than everyone is, like, makes it even weirder, and, like...
It makes you insecure. So it's just he was in the middle of that like weird, awkward phase.
So having everybody kind of like reject him when he was trying to be funny, I think just like really crushed his confidence a little bit.
It makes total sense. And this was just something that kind of like kicked off a lot of disappointments and what he looked at as failures in his life.
Right, right. Because a big theme in Zach's life is his failures.
He sees... he sees many many failures happen in his life and he beats himself up for it and he kind of blames himself for everything Um, so after he lost Homecoming King, his grades started slipping.
He had been doing like, he had been getting like A's before that.
Like, he was doing well in school. But this really shook him.
So he started- So it's, like, a little ridiculous. it's a lot i mean like i'm gonna go ahead and i mean he's a murderer so like i feel like i can say it that it's like pretty ridiculous that you let that affect you that much Well, it's like, I'm not here to tell anybody what should be important to them, but like...
Don't peak in high school. When you look at the grand scheme of life, there's going to be far more disappointing things than losing homecoming.
Well, and that's the other thing. It's like, I'm going to be real right now.
If somebody told me as part of, like, their, like... success story and i was homecoming king or queen i'd be like cool you peaked in high school I'd be like, are you really still using that?
Like, are you really still telling people that?
I don't know. But, you know, that was important to Zach.
It's like a one on the Richter scale. Right?
It's just not really important. But to him it was super important, which, you know, says a lot.
So he ended up really fucking up school.
He decided he was going to drop out and he wanted to live with his dad in Washington.
Okay. Now, he wasn't like, you know, him and his mom were not like not getting along.
Like, he had a fine relationship with his mom.
I think he just like... He thought he could start over in Washington.
I was going to say he wanted like a fresh start.
Yeah, exactly. So I think he was just like, I'm going to do this.
Um, so he decides that they're going to do that.
So he does. And him and his dad ended up going on this like crazy cross country road trip together.
Um, Because, again, his dad has not really grown up a lot.
According to Laurie, Jack kind of was like the best friend and not the parent.
Right. Which... is not good it never works out yeah you gotta wait till later in life to be their best friend unfortunately it just sucks but like you gotta be their parent Or you might just not end up being their friend.
Exactly. If you want them... It's like in Modern Family when...
Claire Dunphy says that like your kids, once they hit like a teenage phase, they go around the dark side of the moon.
And then they come back again. And you lose contact with them and everything's weird and you don't know what's going to happen and then all of a sudden they come around the other side and contact comes back and you gotta grab it. that was me yes i was like fuck you i do i really do and then you just floated around the dark side of the moon i back You just gotta hold on while they float around that dark side of the moon, that's all.
So... Right. So he's going, you know, he's going to, I think they went through like Fort Lauderdale.
They went to Savannah, Georgia. They went to all these cool places together.
And then they passed into New Orleans. Okay.
This is where Zach re-enrolled in high school.
So he was like, because they settled in there, they decided to get an apartment.
And he was like, all right, cool. So he re-enrolled.
He kept in touch with his mom the whole time, obviously, because they have a fine relationship.
Right. Um... But he told his mom a lot of the times on the phone that he was like, I don't know, like, this isn't really what I thought it was going to be.
And like, dad's kind of like a fuck up. I don't know. and like you know i don't know if i'm getting along with people at school um he didn't end up finishing high school there But he was digging New Orleans, the actual place.
He was like, I like the place. It's just this is not what I want to do.
So at this point, he was turning 18 years old.
He was starting to be more confident at this point because he is six foot ten.
Yo. So he is very tall. All cur. He's very tall.
And as you can imagine... being that tall in high school is probably tough.
Yeah. Like more often than not because kids suck.
I don't think I knew anybody who was 6'10 in high school.
That's really tall. I mean, John's 6'4", and that's really tall.
Damn. Yeah, so he was 6'10", but at this point, he's starting to, like, grow into himself because you're turning, he's turning 18.
Right. Like, the baby fat is going away.
He's starting to, like. Puberty's doing himself. some favors.
Yeah. So he ended up turning into like, you know, kind of a handsome looking dude.
He's six foot 10. I mean, like that's going to stick out in the crowd.
And it's like, so. He's getting more attention.
So he's like, I like this place. I picked that guy.
Yeah. In New Orleans, it's like you go out at night and he's like, he's where it's at right now.
Yeah. So when Zach was 18, he met a 28-year-old woman named Lana Shupak.
Lana had worked as a stripper for many years in Dallas and I think Houston.
Okay. She was looking to get out of that.
She was like it was making money, but she just wasn't really wanting to do it anymore. she was visiting New Orleans with her friend, and she saw Zach...
While she was out on Bourbon Street with her friend.
And she saw him selling Go Cups. What is a Go Cup? it's a foreign concept to us because like in the northeast because like we don't have we don't get to you can't drink alcohol like oh is that like a road soda Pretty much.
So apparently he would hang out of a bar window on Bourbon Street and he would serve to-go cups of alcohol to people on Bourbon Street.
A fucking dream. And because he was kind of handsome in this 18-year-old stud muffin over there, They picked him to lean out the window and try to entice ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure, to come over to the window.
We love a good marketing move. we love it it's smart it worked out and Lana was like break me off a piece of that Exactly.
And I guess Lana and her friend walked up and were like, yeah.
And I guess her friend initially was like, yeah, that's mine for the rest of the trip.
And then... And then Zach ended up really liking Lana.
And so the friend, which I was like, what a good friend.
The friend backed off and was like, oh, he likes you.
I love that. Which I was like, wow, friendship.
Ladies, good job. Squad goals. So... So, yeah, so they hit it off right away.
They ended up starting to date because Lana was like, I'm going to move to New Orleans.
Like, it seems like a cool place. It was going great.
Yeah, she's like, we're dating, but, you know, New Orleans as a place seems cool.
I liked it better there. I wanted to get out of where I am.
I don't want to be, you know. So she was like, I'm ready to do this.
So Lana became pregnant with their first child, Jackson, early in their dating.
And the problem is Lana was 28 years old and Zach was 18.
Okay. Lana did not know that he was 18 years old.
She assumed he was at least 21 because he was working at a bar.
Well, did she ask? I don't think she asked.
It's kind of important to ask your boyfriend how old he is.
Well, this was, like, before she got pregnant, she found out.
But, like, she... I guess in the beginning, like, when she found out, she got a little weird about it and, like, kind of pulled away.
But then she ended up... She really liked him, so she just couldn't...
Yeah, whatever. There's nothing wrong with it.
It's not like it's illegal or anything. He's 18.
I think at first she was just like, he's like a baby.
Like, you know what I mean? Like, he's not going to be really good with commitment.
If he was old enough to date a 28-year-old and she seemed like it was okay, he obviously was mature. enough yeah i mean he definitely so when she ended up getting pregnant they were not married yet or anything like that not that it matters but it was pretty early in their dating um And Zach initially was terrified when she told him the news.
I mean, yeah. Because he's going to be a teenage father at this point.
Like, he's like, what? Like, I'm 18. And he was like, I don't want to do this.
Like, I'm not ready for this. And she was like, well, I'm keeping this baby, so...
She was like, I don't know what to tell you.
And he was like, holy shit. He was freaking out.
But then she says when Jackson was born and Zach held him, it was like a switch flipped.
Because that's when dads become fathers.
They truly do. They need to see and hold and bond their baby.
Women become mothers when they find out they're pregnant.
The dad becomes the father when they see the baby.
Yeah, because it's easy, you know, because with mothers, it's like...
You're housing the baby. You're already taking care of the baby.
Yeah. So it's hard for fathers to feel as connected until they have that baby. me and my therapist talk about that legit all the time really yes i love that it's the truth yeah um And I mean, that's what happened with Zach, with Jackson.
He said she said he immediately shifted into this amazing dad.
He was totally focused on this child. He was like, I want to be here.
I want to be a better person for this child.
And he also started being a better partner to her as well, she said.
That's awesome. Yeah, she was like, it literally like flipped.
Soon they decided to get married. I guess it was like this really big ceremony in New Orleans at this church.
Where like a bunch of tourists showed up and like it was this big event.
Why does it all go wrong? I know. That's the thing.
It's like this whole thing is like, oh, this is great.
And then at the end, you're like, oh. oh no oh this is bad it gets real bad so They get married, and then Lana gives birth to a daughter, Lily, soon after.
Oh, I love the name Lily. It is really cute.
And again, Zach was fully committed to this.
He was like, I am a dad. I am psyched. He even went back and got his GED in 2000 because he was like, I want to do this for my kids.
So then Zach was like, I want to make sure I can give them a good life.
So he decided he was going to join the military.
He wanted to join the army because he was like, I can get insurance.
I can have security. I can, you know, show them how to work hard.
Yeah. So at the time, this was in 2000.
So at the time, He was going in, and there was no war going on.
Uh-huh. But once the war began in 2001 after 9-11...
He had to go and do a tour in Kosovo and one in Baghdad.
Okay, so he has insane PTSD. Oh this is definitely a case I fully, fully, fully believe that this is very heavily reliant on the fact that he has severe unchecked PTSD.
That breaks my heart because it's like, yeah, it's avoidable.
Yeah, exactly. It's like if he can, I shouldn't say avoid, this action could have been avoidable if he was given the help that he needed.
And it's not always readily available. No, it's not readily available.
It's also not, you know, there's still that stupid stigma, especially on like men.
Don't ask for it. help like don't ask for help don't go to therapy and stuff and it's like they're supposed to just suck it up and move on it's like it's like quote unquote man up and it's after what in hearing what he saw and knowing what like other you know military members yeah it's like no that you need help like to get through that i couldn't imagine trying to work my own brain around this kind of stuff.
So his military service seemed to definitely change him as a person. um he afterwards like we said he became super depressed he definitely suffered from severe ptsd And what happened was he lost a lot of, he lost a few people over there that were very close to him.
Right. And it really, really got to him.
And he probably looked at that like it was his fault.
Yeah, like there was this young girl, I believe she was 19 years old.
She was one of the only women in his unit named Rachel.
And they became super close. I mean, like, they were all... His whole unit with this girl was, like, super close.
They were, like... like attached at the hip.
And she ended up dying, being killed in action.
And she was like one of the first women to be killed on the front lines.
But she was only 19 years old. She was a child.
That's insane. And And I don't mean that in, like, an offensive way, like, she's a child, you know?
Like, I mean, like, 19, you're like a baby, I feel.
It's like, you know what I mean? Like, you're so young, you have so much ahead of you.
But she was killed. He was there when it happened.
And like his whole unit took it as like... really bad like it was that was really really hard on everybody especially him and then there was a time where he gave some like this little like um They said it was like a little Iraqi girl.
He gave her like a handful of candy because she was just like playing in the street.
Aww. And he found out that she was killed the next day for interacting with Americans.
Oh my god. And so he took that as like, I just killed a little girl, essentially.
Right. And then there was a little boy, a little Iraqi boy named Rashid.
And Zach took a huge liking to this little boy.
He would bring Zach and his friends in his unit, his fellow soldiers, like Coca-Cola and bags of ice from his family store. because his family owned a store nearby.
And so in return, Zach taught him English. and like really bonded with him this kid was like there every day well you have to think he has kids like he's a dad yeah Well, one day insurgents blew up the store and killed the entire family. for helping the americans no it was just like it just happened and uh They said that, I mean, they said it could have been partially what was going on.
I mean, we don't know, but. Right, right.
It definitely could have been that, but either way, it was just the idea that he was there one day and not there the next day.
Um, so he was already, like, a mess. And everybody in his, like, military unit said-
I think it was the author of that book that I mentioned, Ethan Brown, I think his name is.
He talks about emailing later all of his military buddies to try to get more information.
And they were all like, don't you dare say anything bad about Zach.
Like, he's an amazing person. Oh my god.
They were all just like really shocked that he could do what he did because they were like, that is just not him.
So, obviously, he does something beyond horrific later, but it's just...
I just want to point out like how much of a dichotomy this is to like what people saw.
Well, and it's like mental illness can make you somebody that you're not.
Oh, it's horrifying. Like PTSD is no fucking joke.
No. No fucking joke. Um, so he left the military after purposely failing his physical tests over and over and over again.
He was doing it on purpose so he could get back to his family.
I don't blame him. Yeah, and he left with a general discharge.
Now, this isn't the same as like a straight up honorable discharge.
It's honorable, but it's not the same as an honorable discharge.
Okay. he was not happy about this because a general discharge, it's like a general discharge under honorable conditions, which means that Your service was satisfactory, but it did not deserve the highest level of discharge for performance and conduct.
So why? Basically, what they're saying is like, you must have gotten in some kind of like disciplinary issue or something like that.
But he didn't. So he was very confused and angry about this discharge and people around him were too.
People were like, what the fuck? I think they even had a lawyer try to change that because they were like, I don't understand.
Did they catch on to him purposely trying to fail the fitness test?
Is that correct? that's what i wonder that's what i wonder i don't know if that's something that would do it but i mean if we have any military members that can shed light yeah let us know let us know because we love hearing about it.
But yeah, so he got a general discharge under honorable conditions.
Lana decided, so when he came back to her and was like, I'm discharged from the army, I'm stopping this whole thing.
Lana was pissed because she decided, she was like, you know what, we need to separate because she felt betrayed that he was like, Now I'm going to go work in a bar again and you can go back to stripping.
Like. And she was like, what the fuck? Like you said you were doing this to make us a better life.
And now you're just like, fuck it. Right.
So, and they were already having issues, like, you know, because he was going through a lot.
I think she was like... She was going through a lot with the kids and it's like, it just was a strange, strange relationship.
A recipe for disaster. again exactly so they separated and in 2005 um so they moved back to new orleans um In 2005, he began working in a bar in the French Quarter called Hogs Bar.
Apparently, he was very popular with the ladies as a bartender there.
And one fellow bartender was not interested in him at all.
And she was a woman who was like, just not, she was like, I don't understand it.
Her name was Adrienne Addy Hall. I knew it.
She was 29 years old, originally from Durham, North Carolina.
She was an artist. She was a dancer, a seamstress, a poet.
Damn. She was living this... Very like free spirited, bohemian, exactly what you think of when you think of like someone just living on Bourbon Street, just like, you know what I mean?
Love it. It's the very romantic notion of like this bohemian girl.
In my next life. She definitely, I know it keeps making me think of you.
But not this part because she portrayed that on the outside for sure.
And she was an incredible seamstress. She was an incredible artist.
She had all these talents. But who boy did she have a dark side?
Oh, okay. Yeah. Gemini? Just kidding. But she was very...
She was very carefree. She was artistic.
She'd come to New Orleans and lived in her car before finding her first apartment.
She ended up living with a playwright friend who said about her, quote, she was so smart, it just killed me.
Her poetry was very, very good, and when it came to sewing she could make anything from anything.
Oh, that's cool. So she sounds awesome. Right.
She seems like if she had certain things under control, she would have been awesome.
But there was a very dark side to her. And in 2003, it got real bad.
Uh, when she drank, which she drank a lot and she drank very heavily.
Well, she's a bartender on Bourbon Street, so... Exactly.
And so did Zach. So now these are two... things coming together that are just not good.
When she got drunk, it was like... a straight up abusive because oh that's not good yeah it was it was not good and what she would do is she would find your weakness or something that you're like the most insecure about and she would just dig the knife in.
That was like what she was known for. I had a stepdad like that.
Yeah, yeah, you did. You sure did. I'm like, LOL.
You're like, funny because it's true. Um, so, but yeah, like that was, and that's what people do.
Like the, those kind of drunks, that's like, they're real good at it.
They're really good. Literally, I was going to say it's like a talent.
It truly, truly is. Even if you don't tell them what your weakness is, they'll find it.
Oh, yeah. That's the thing. They know. They can find it.
They can sense it. And they will use it against you the second they have too many drinks.
And that's what you would do. So she had a lot of friends.
She knew a lot of people because she was kind of like this like, you know, fairy girl who just like floated around and was like just doing everything.
But they all knew that she had a really dark temper when she got drunk.
Like, they all knew this. Some of them were fine with dealing with it, but others were like, there was a time, especially in 2003, I believe it started, where people started dropping off a little.
Because they were like, I'm not dealing with this.
Because they were like, yeah, cool. We're not into that.
And grow up. One too many times you call me something terrible and I can't do it.
Yeah. So when she wasn't drunk, when she was sober, she was awesome.
That's the thing when she was great. A lot of people are like that.
Exactly. But then she was a different person when she drank too much.
So in 2003, this is when she got... she started getting into like bar fights a lot like she was getting way more violent with her behavior when she would drink and she was drinking way more She was also getting into cocaine, so she was going on, like, coke rages on top of getting, like, crazy drunk.
So it's like... Just a lot of bad stuff happening with somebody with that kind of temper.
Right. She went through a ton of roommates at this time because she just like couldn't hang on to somebody.
Makes sense. And she started hanging out with a lot of Coke dealers, which ended up not being a great idea because she even tried to rob a Coke dealer. at some point with her roommate girl yeah and her roommate was like no no i'm i'm good And like she was just, you know, she was drinking too much so she was starting to fuck over her friends.
And she was getting into a ton of like a string of relationships with like abusive men.
It just was a really bad time for her. And so this happened up until about 2005 when she met Zach.
And this is when she was working at, you know, this bar with Zach.
And she didn't get why everybody thought he was the tits.
No, because she said she was like, yeah, he was cute and like whatever, but like he's kind of goofy and he's like a frat boy and I'm not like into it.
Like she was just way too. She was like, no.
And this intrigued Zach. Because they always want the one that's not fucking interesting.
Exactly. Exactly. So it was like the one girl that's not falling all over themselves for him.
He's like, wait a second. Who's this girl?
And he said he was immediately attracted to her.
He just really liked her. She was fun. She was smart.
She was spunky. She was artistic. She was just...
Everything you think someone from New Orleans is going to be like just this awesome, you know, just colorful person. um so what he did to gain her favor finally is he was working the uh 2 a.m to 10 a.m shift i believe Yeah, so the middle of the night.
But he was actually making a lot of money because this happened to be a favorite bar of...
You know, people that are working those kind of hours around town.
It was like strippers and dancers and other bartenders, you know, people that are awake in the middle of the night.
Yeah, like come wind down. Yeah. So we got a lot of business.
But she worked the shift that was directly after his shift.
So like the 10 a.m. to whatever shift. So she didn't get the great people.
Yeah, pretty much. So he would work his entire shift and then he would just sit at the bar and just chat with her. while she worked and just wanted to get to know her, wanted to just hang with her.
That's cute. So finally she gave in. She just gave in.
She was like, you know what? You're super persistent.
You're pretty cute. And you're nice enough.
You seem like a pretty interesting person.
So they end up finally starting to date in 2005, finally.
I love love. I hate that it ends. I know.
It ends very poorly. Uh-huh. So they're dating.
They're having this whirlwind romance. And everyone's like this adorable couple that's just partying and is just, you know, living in New Orleans, just doing their thing.
Then Katrina hit New Orleans. Oh no. Yes.
Yes. um i'm sure people from new orleans can you know shed more light on what it was like there um but Everyone was evacuating at this point.
Right. Because the storm was coming. But Zach and Addie refused to leave.
They were like, nope. So they were like, we're gonna ride it out in our apartment together.
And Lana, Zach's, you know, soon-to-be ex-wife, she wanted him to come with her and the kids, right?
They were, like, further away. And she was even like, bring Addie.
Like, you can bring Addie. Wow, what a good woman.
You need to come. Yeah. And she was like, you can come, just bring Addie and we all need to be together.
Like, I'm worried about you guys. Yeah. We're a family.
She said that he was very callous on the phone and was just like, nope, not coming.
Refused to come with his kids. Yeah, that's shitty.
What the fuck, dude? You don't choose your new girlfriend in this crazy let's stay behind for the hurricane thing over your kids.
Grow up. So I guess like when they hung up the phone, she was like, what the fuck, dude?
Like you have to like you have kids like come here.
And he was like, you'll be fine. And then that was it.
Yeah, but like, what if they're not? And she was like, so that's dickish.
What if you're not? Exactly. That's the thing.
It was like, this was that young... I was a father very young, so I didn't get to live out my craziness time where he starts... making stupid choices.
Right. So once the storm had passed, they still stayed even though they didn't have electricity, running water, or any supplies because we all know how Hurricane Katrina was handled by the government at that point.
They were not getting any help at all. Most people were not back in the city, but they were already there with this small band of people that refused to evacuate.
No running water, no electricity, nothing.
They basically went into naked and afraid mode.
I was going to say, literally. Literally.
Like this turned into survivalist living, but they loved it.
Like loved it. Right. They became super well known because of this choice to stay with this group of like people that were like were like the renegades who are staying behind you know that whole thing um and they all banded together they sat outside at night where they lit mattresses on fire for like warmth and warmth and to like cook food and they made like a makeshift bar and restaurant outside of zach and addy's apartment where they cooked beans and like other food that they, supplies they could get.
They like made drinks because they went and like just stole alcohol from bars that were abandoned at the time, and they were both bartenders, so they were making drinks for everyone.
It was like this little commune kind of thing going on.
That's awesome. And at the time... They were getting attention for this.
Like, papers were covering it and stuff.
Like, there's pictures of Addie and Zach in a lot of papers because of this.
From Katrina. That's crazy. Because people started knowing who they were.
And they became kind of like the king and queen of the post-apocalyptic society.
Yeah. and um they also routinely went about trying to clean up the mess together like all these people like they would clear debris and like pick up trash and just try to like clean up the streets um so it seemed like kind of a cool like a little like renegade society here they also broke like I said broke into a bunch of bars they stole the alcohol like they were you know they were well I don't love that but you know like you do what you do and they broke into like some grocery stores that they would like take canned goods and stuff like that um because again this was all abandoned at this point like everybody's evacuated yeah um They appeared just to embrace this whole like weird...
New Orleans that was just like this little group of people that had chosen to ride it out.
And then they started like looking at it like we're the true New Orleans.
People like New Orleanians, you know what I mean?
I don't know if that's fair. Even though they weren't because they're from North Carolina and, you know, California, but...
But, like, okay. And also, like, that's just, like, that was just a choice that you made.
It doesn't make you any better than anybody else. else like that's really like like that's ridiculous and it's a lot but it became like a whole thing um it the the way it's described and everything i read is like They became very close during this time and they bonded because they had to basically.
They had no other choice. Yeah. They would like ride around holding hands on their bikes.
They were like attached at the hip everywhere they went.
People were like, look at these romantic couple.
It's like a really intense movie. Of just, like, bohemian, free-spirited lovebirds just walking around.
Fucking ghouls. Things I read said that they would have sex in the street in the middle of the night.
It was just like... total like just like give no fucks just like we love each other kind of shit Which it's like, whoa, like that's so much.
All of this is so much. And you look at this and you're like, wow, this can only end happily.
And it does not. No, you look at that and you're like, that's not going to end well.
I know. It's too much. Yeah. It's too much.
Like if I wrote this in a book, I'd be like, no, you can't write that.
That's silly. This is like, no. This is like the escalator to the top and you're like, oh, everything's going so well.
And then you crash and fucking burn. It's the roller coaster.
It's the slow climb to the top and then... plummet straight so so yeah people are like wow look at this weird ass romance and like let's write about it in newspapers and like everything's wonderful um in fact the newspapers at the time were referring to these people who left behind who like stayed behind as like tribes like they were calling them tribes makes sense In a New York Times article, it also mentioned that Addie was very good.
I mean, again, she's a free spirit. She doesn't give a fuck.
She was very good at keeping, because again, like I said, this is like post-Katrina when everything's still very up in the air there.
It's dangerous there at this point because it's like lawless at this point.
You know what I mean? Because there's no electricity, nothing.
It's like things are a little... Things are a little hairy.
Sorry if you just heard that bang that I dropped something.
How dare you. So there was police presence happening at times, but you really needed to be careful about where you were going at night and what you were doing.
But Addie was very good at keeping police coming to their home to help them out.
And the way she was good at this was, and here's the quote in the New York Times paper.
In the French Quarter, Addie Hall and Zachary Bowen found an unusual way to make sure the police officers regularly patrolled their house.
Miss Hall, 29, a bartender, flashed her breasts at the police vehicles that passed by, ensuring a regular flow of traffic.
I mean, Mardi Gras, am I right? I love that she's just like, all right.
I'll just use my tits and I'll get some police here.
I mean, they're there for a reason. Girls gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
Like... She would be awesome if she just kept it together.
Yeah. So, sounds great. Wasn't all great, though.
Like I said, outside of their little bubble of their little community they were making, there was like death, destruction, you know.
She was nearly raped at one point when she went into an abandoned grocery store to grab some supplies.
There was a man hiding in there, waiting.
Oh, that's awful. Yeah, so it was really scary.
So soon after all of this, the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army was brought into New Orleans to...
From Fort Bragg. And they were there to help with the aftermath.
They were there to help with peacekeeping.
Search and rescue. Like all that stuff. Exactly.
Problem with this was they were watching this from their balcony, like watching these like hundreds of soldiers like just march in and tanks and stuff.
And Zach has PTSD. Yes. And this was extremely triggering for Zach's PTSD.
Yeah. It's just like 4th of July, like fireworks, like anything like that is going to be. a huge trigger exactly and like we said his ptsd is very significant and very unchecked so this was not a good thing started with the flashbacks I mean that sends him into like a spiral um And he was using drugs and drinking because he was also like doing tons of coke.
He was like drinking like a fish at this point.
Every picture of them, they are either smoking, drinking, like there's never, they're just, they never let up.
They just lived that very fast, very hard lifestyle.
Yeah. And he's using this stuff to like check that PTSD, like drown it out.
And all it's doing is like just amplifying it until it's just going to explode. right so um so yeah so that happened um and add on top of this the fact that addy was diagnosed with bipolar disorder Okay.
And the storm had stopped her from refilling her prescriptions.
So she was unmedicated at this point and she remains unmedicated.
So... This brought for a lot of volatility between the two of them because there's a lot of psychological issues happening that are not being treated correctly.
So the then mayor ordered that police and military, quote, compel the evacuation of all persons from the city of New Orleans. regardless of whether such persons are on private property or have no desire to leave.
So, like, you gotta go. Because they were like, you gotta get out of here so we can, like, start getting shit back together.
And, like, this is, like... gotten too far at that point you should probably want to so that you can have your city be rebuilt Yeah, at this point, it's like, just, you know, just help out with this stuff.
It was, you know, an act of nature. Nobody can help that.
So Addie and Zach, with some other people, again, refused.
They refused to leave. Um, they were pissed.
They said they were trying to take their rights away and, like, we have the right to stay here.
I feel like they're just trying to help you.
I feel that way, but, um... They held out and a week or two later, everyone who had evacuated started slowly coming back in.
Because they were slowly being let back into their homes and all that.
And this is when Addie and Zach became very superstitious. superior about like these people coming back in they were like oh you're coming back now like this is our town you know what i mean like they started getting very superior about what they And one of their friends said, quote, they liked camping out.
They liked not having to work. They liked not having the responsibility of paying bills.
They didn't like the change back to normalcy.
Well, then go live in the woods. So it ended up being that... they they did really well with this like romantic notion of like we're gonna live this survivalist lifestyle together Or why don't you just go find a commune?
That's the thing. Go live it, man. You can live that way if you'd like to.
Yeah, you totally can. And what happened was, like, they started fighting again.
It started the romances dying. But before this is starting to get, like, really volatile... they still had to like rebuild you know what they already had along with everybody else so they started living in kind of like a commune situation in their apartment with a bunch of other people And they talked they used to people said they used to talk about their like post Katrina love story all the time and like romanticize it and tell it like it was this big epic tale.
And friends said they appeared to be deeply in love, like deeply in love. um people said zach looked at addie like she was the only woman on earth and they said i love Zach told his mother that Addie was his soulmate.
Like, things looked like they should go in the right direction.
But now, again, life is slowly returning to normal from this crazy Katrina stuff. and shits the the bohemian veil is starting to slip now um now we're in real life so Remember, this is all well and good, but we have to remember that Zach straight up abandoned his children during this.
Right. This is not like the, sure, romance, fun.
You straight up abandoned your children and the mother of your child.
Yeah. He didn't send messages. He didn't answer messages.
He didn't send money. He wasn't paying child support.
Poor Lana has no fucking clue whether he's dead or alive at this point.
She thought he was dead at one point. And she told, so when her children asked her, like, where's daddy?
Because they were asking, like, is he okay?
Did she tell them that he died? No, she said that, oh, I told them that he was working for the Red Cross and he was helping build levees and he was helping people rebuild after the storm.
Like he's a hero. Wow. Like she's telling her kids that because she's like, I don't know what else to tell them.
Like that's the only thing I can think of to keep them thinking that he's this wonderful guy. when he's abandoning to do yeah so like good on you as hard as it is that's what you do That's, like, amazing to me.
I was like, good for you, Lana. Yeah, I love her.
Damn. So Lana said... So she's like, I just wanted them to be proud of him.
Finally, they get back in touch. She finds out that he's alive.
And then all of a sudden Zach is like, I want to see the kids.
So Lana's like, Jesus Christ. Well, Lana's like, all right, you are their father.
They miss you. I want you to have a relationship with them.
But she says, listen, I need to meet Addie.
If she's going to be around these kids, I need to meet her.
Very fair. At first, Zach was like super weird about it and was like, yeah, no, like you're not.
She doesn't want to meet you, blah, blah, blah.
And she was like, then you don't fucking. see the kids around it like it's real clear like i don't know what to tell you but apparently according to friends when he went back to addy and was like this is the deal like I want to have the kids over the apartment.
Addie was like psyched to meet the kids.
She was like, let's do this. So, apparently, she ran out, bought clothing for Jackson and Lily, was, like, psyched about it.
That's nice. But... Then it came down to it, and she sucked!
She sucked at the stepmother thing. She refused to even speak to Lana.
She would not speak to Lana, which she has no fucking reason to not speak to lana i was gonna say what's your what's your reasoning and lana said this a million times she was like in like the source i was reading the article lana's like listen i I could have had Zach back if I snapped my fingers.
I was done with him. Like, you don't need to worry about it.
I'm good. Right. Like, what the hell? She refused to speak to Lana, and then people said, and the kids said, that when they would go visit Zack and Addie, Addie wouldn't speak to them, like, wouldn't interact. with them.
Just totally flipped the switch. Do you think it's because she was bipolar and unmedicated?
I wonder. Because she's unmedicated, so it's not being checked.
And I'm wondering if this situation is just like throwing it into haywire.
High gear. And so she refuses to speak to them, doesn't interact with them.
The kids said that they didn't think she liked them.
Well, duh, she's not talking to them. At this point, they're like seven and five.
Like, they're like young. Yeah. They said she would go out to bars all night, then come home drunk and lock them out of the bedroom that she and Zach were in. awesome yeah and then she started saying that when um then she started saying to zach when when the kids come over you have to go to a hotel with them You can't stay here.
But why? Like, what the fuck? That's the thing.
So it's like, what the fuck, dude? There's so much strangeness when it comes to Zach and Addie's behavior.
Yeah. But particularly Addie's behavior.
By 2006, and like, let me be clear, I don't think I need to say this, but like, clearly she did not deserve anything that she got later.
No, obviously not. This is just reality, what was going on.
It's just what happened. And I think it's important to show what a crazy-ass relationship they had because it didn't just come out of nowhere.
By 2006, the couple was just partying, doing tons of drugs together, and then they would get in insane fights, like, all the time.
Addie was super abusive physically and verbally.
But Zach came right back at her, verbally at least, and there was no serious reports of physical violence on his end.
But there was one time where they woke up after a huge fight and she had bruises on her arm.
Okay. And so that's, nobody really knows, but that to me points at you were beating the shit out of each other or he hit you. so yeah or he may have like grabbed her arm yeah like stop her you just you don't know all it vainly says to me is like you guys shouldn't be together I was gonna say.
That's pretty much all it says. Or maybe you should stop doing drugs.
They would break up and get back together a ton of times.
Friends said that it was just getting super dark and they were getting wicked worried about them.
They were getting embroiled in the whole thing.
They would kick each other out of the apartment regularly.
And then they would chase. When it comes to that, it's like, what's the point of being together?
Do you want to live like that? I think they did.
I think they loved this. Yeah, I think some people do.
They love chaos. Exactly. And I think it's, they would kick each other out of the apartment and then they would chase the other one down to like beg them back.
So I think it was this like fun... Like, they needed this.
It was like, they need the craziness. No thanks.
And it was so toxic, like so toxic. Friends said at the end they would break up and reconcile literally every other day. like every other day, like 24 hours apart, they would do it.
In August 2006, Addie was actually arrested after one of their fights she stormed out with a handgun into the street started a fight with a dude like a random dude on the street and pointed the gun at him Yeah, you can't be out there doing that.
Yeah, and Zach refused to post her bail.
So the friends had to put together money to get her out of jail.
So already it's just looking bad. Looking bad.
Zach was constantly moving in temporarily with friends and then moving back in with Addie.
It was just insane. Zach then, finally, in 2006, he decided that he was looking elsewhere for... companionship now he started having a relationship with another man Okay, but did he end things with... No.
Yeah. I'm not sure... Was that okay with... I'm not sure exactly... their togetherness at their agreement was yeah but it doesn't look like there was an agreement that he could do this because addy gets real mad Okay.
So he's starting to understand at this point that he's bisexual.
Right. He's not exactly comfortable with it yet, so he's trying to hide it, but eventually Addie found out.
So Addie finds out that he's cheating on her with a man and she loses her shit.
Like, loses her shit, causes public scenes, she's calling him homophobic slurs in front of people, like, literally calling him an F-word, like... screaming it in the middle of the street at him.
Then she called every woman in his phone and told them that he had AIDS.
Oh, wow. Yeah. He didn't, by the way. Not that it matters, but like... Not okay.
Holy shit. How do you even come up with that in your brain?
How are you that mad that you're like, this is what I'm going to do?
This is what I'm going to do. I think it's going to work.
And this, I just can't imagine living this way.
No. Like why are you into this? Why is this what gets you off, dudes?
Like this is not okay. some people though like that's their personality like oh they love it some people love it yeah yeah some people thrive on it as a couple you know i mean it's just not good So because at this point, Addie's really like going off the rails at this point and she's scrounging together money because she was kicked out of her apartment. um she's not working a lot she's like real they like friends said that they saw her like using quarters to buy groceries once like Oh, that's really sad.
So she needs money. So she's pissed at Zach for this whole thing, but she convinces Zach to pay for a new apartment.
Okay. Because Zach is working like a hundred jobs at this point because he's paying Lana child support at this point.
So he's trying to- Well, that's good at least. and he's seeing his kids every other weekend so he's trying to like maintain that so he's working like crazy So she's like, listen, we will get back together.
Let's live together in this apartment. Let's have a new start.
Let's not wipe the slate clean, but you pay for it.
So Zach is like, cool. Let's do it. So this is the apartment.
Because we loved her. This is the apartment on North Rampart Street.
And they signed the lease together, but then days later on October 4th, Addie secretly had the lease put only in her name.
How do you even do that? She just went to the landlord and was like, put it in my name.
And then she suddenly kicked him out. Out of nowhere.
So she tricked him into buying her an apartment.
This was after he paid two months rent. ahead of time right so she didn't pay anything had him sign the lease got him kicked off the lease then was like you're homeless see you later Yeah, that's not okay.
And it's like, dude, okay, he cheated on you.
I get it. You're mad. But like just break up with him and walk away.
You do not need to do this kind of shit.
Like that's petty shit. Maybe like spit on his car or like.
Yeah. Like, absolutely. Like, do something like that.
You did the whole phone book thing. Exactly.
You know, just... Have a girl's night and yell about him.
But don't... there's a line and like take it from someone who's been like super cheated on by my ex-boyfriend there's really nothing you're gonna do that's gonna make it feel better Like, the only thing that you can do... You just have to let it happen.
Yeah, like just dip. Like that's all you can do to make yourself feel better is say fuck off and just leave and then leave it behind.
And get better for yourself. Exactly. Putting revenge out on them is not going to make you feel better.
It's just going to make it messier. And in this case...
It made it real messy. So, like we said, she was basically scamming him to get the apartment.
Apparently he was... I mean, he was really upset.
He loved her. He thought they were gonna try to work it out.
And he was mostly upset because he was taking the kids that weekend.
And now he had nowhere. And now he's homeless.
And he was saying and even Lana's father, like his ex father in law, said that when it came to being a father. like when Zach put in the time he was great and that's all that mattered to him and those kids gave him purpose and And especially with the whole thing going on, like, you know, the military stuff, the perceived failures that he keeps seeing in his life. those kids, like, grounded him.
So I think now that he's looking at being homeless, not being able to take them, like... all this, he's starting to spiral.
Right, that's really sad. So that night that he found out on October 4th, like, that She had signed the lease just in her name.
It was kicking him out. They started fighting and they fought for hours I mean just knock down drag out constant hours hours hours and it ended with him strangling her to death wow He was not violent before this.
He was actually the one in the relationship that everybody was like, he was the level-headed one and she was like the volcano.
And they balanced each other out really well that way.
So it was shocking for everybody to be like, wait a second, he lost it?
He did that to her. Right. So this second floor apartment, it was a second floor apartment that they lived on.
It is over a very interesting landmark, which I'm going to talk about in a second.
But police went up once they were going, you know.
Now they found, I'm going to like go forward for a second.
When police found Zach's body, they went up and found the apartment in a crazy state.
It was a mess, an absolute mess. There was trash all over the floor, alcohol bottles, cigarette butts, beer cans, you name it.
He had left the AC blasting, so it was what police referred to as resembling the feel of a morgue freezer or a meat locker.
Oh, the walls were covered in black spray painted words. conveying Zach's obvious mental decline before his suicide.
The messages said things like, call Lana Bowen and then her phone number.
I loved her. Total failure. That's really sad.
Another wall said, help me stop the pain.
That was above his bed on the ceiling. Oh my god.
In the bathroom it said, I'm sorry I couldn't finish.
And then there was a message on the wall that said, look in the oven.
Oh. Ominous as fuck, right? Yep. So they look in the oven.
Because it told them to. This story is so... Or this case is so... like bananas that it doesn't even seem real.
No, it really doesn't. It seems like a book or a movie.
Like the spray painted words, like look in the oven and like.
Like in a movie, you'd be like, okay, that's overkill.
Yeah, you'd be like, this is fun fantasy.
Like, it's not real. Well, they look in the oven, which on the front was spray painted on the door with don't look.
And sitting in a tinfoil lined pan was a set of charred feet and legs.
In a pot on the stove were hands, and then in a bigger pot, a woman's severed head.
Oh my God. The New York Post at the time, which like leave it to the New York Post, put a headline out that said gal pal gumbo.
Isn't that fucked? How did they even put that out?
Oh, they get to do whatever they want. They put out the craziest headlines ever.
Her torso was found wrapped in a garbage bag in the refrigerator.
And they found an eight-page confession that was written in the last pages of Addie's journal.
Okay. So part of these said, so the first thing it said was, quote, she had stolen this apartment, tried to kick me out. then would not shut the fuck up, so I very calmly strangled her.
It was very quick. He said, quote, after sexually defiling the body a few times.
I was posed with the question of how to dispose of the corpse.
So before he did anything, he went to sleep with her dead body in the living room.
Like before he cut her up, he just left her body in the living room. woke up the next morning and went to work.
Oh. Yeah. He told one of their friends there that they broke, he was like, oh, Addie and I broke up and she like, she left.
Imagine if he was your bartender that day.
Yeah. And he was also working at a grocery store.
So I think this was like when I think he was like a delivery guy.
He had a full day visiting friends, living pretty normally that day.
Later that night, he dragged her into the bathtub. and began dismemberment using a knife and a hacksaw.
A knife? Yep. And he said in his confession, he wrote, quote, I came home, moved the body to the tub, got a saw, and hacked off her feet, hands, and head.
Put her head in the oven after giving it an awful haircut. put her hands and feet in the water on the range.
He then said he got tired after a while and he said, quote, I got drunker and some hours later turned off the stove. filled the tub with water, and passed out.
So then he said he was off for that weekend at work.
So he was like, I had tons of time to get this done.
But he said, quote, due to laziness, I spent most of that time coked up in various bars with different girls.
Can you imagine being one of those girls?
Can you imagine? I'd, oh, oh. So during this time, and these are like days passing by, like he's just living in that apartment with her rotting corpse that he's slowly pulling apart.
For her, like, is it extremities? Is that the word?
Boiling? Boiling. He roasted most of them.
Like, he charred them. A lot of them he charred, like, beyond recognition.
There's also no evidence that he ate any part of her and that what it looks like is he did this purely to get rid of her. like to make it easier to dispose of her but you have to think he's literally sitting in that apartment like if you're cooking a yeah flesh oh yeah it's gonna smell horrific oh yeah and people start smelling it and during this time he called lana And he had her bring the kids to his work. uh... this is when he was working at the grocery store and she did say she said he was happy jovial in a very good mood Told the kids, grab all the candy you want on me.
Kids were all excited. Do you think he, like, wanted to live out, like, perfect last days?
Oh, he definitely did. Because then he gave Lana $600 in cash and child support and asked if he could have the kids the following weekend.
Because he was like, Addie left. Can I have the kids at the apartment?
And he said I'm renovating the apartment.
I really want them to come over. And Lona's like, cool.
Yeah, definitely. So she tells the kids, like, want to see daddy next weekend.
And they were like, yeah. Right. Like, cool.
Now, Addie's still just on the stove and like part of her is in the bathtub.
Yeah, part of her is in the bathtub still.
So he writes, quote, Sunday night I sawed off the rest of the legs and arms and put them in roasting pans. stuck them in the oven and passed out.
I came to seven hours later with an awful smell emanating from the kitchen.
I turned off the oven and went to work Monday.
This would be the last day of work. So one of the neighbors, one of their neighbors in this apartment was named John Boutte.
And he remembers seeing the bathroom light on the night of the murder.
And he said he just couldn't stop like paying attention to it because he goes the light was on all night.
It never shut off. And it gave him, like, a weird vibe.
He just didn't like it. This neighbor... had lived in the apartment that this that apartment that he killed Addie in before.
And he had moved out because he felt so weird in the place.
He said that place has bad vibes, like it had bad vibes to begin with.
And he actually said he had a priest come and bless it before he left.
Oh, my God. I know, like, halfway through, I realized the case you were talking about, and I remember, I want to say I heard this on My Favorite Murder, and they were talking about... Oh, really? how the place was like fucked up it's bad juju and he lived in a few more units in that building and he said he never felt okay Like he never felt like he could actually live there.
So he said it just had bad energy. He didn't like it.
He eventually moved into a small apartment in the back building, and that's where he was living currently.
So he said the night of the murders, not only did he just watch the light on all night and he was like what the fuck he said he also thought he saw someone outside his window standing on his balcony And when he went over, there was no one there.
But then he said he kept seeing what he called shadow figures out in the backyard.
And he said he was like getting really freaked out.
He ended up calling a friend over to like stay with him because he was so freaked out by it.
Yeah. And he says in the book that I read, he said, quote, this is an old city with old spirits.
Don't tempt them. Right. Which is like... I was going to say that's like on some New Orleans or New Orleans stuff.
Some New Orleans stuff. So... like i said earlier this apartment sits on top of a well-known landmark which is that landmark is the infamous voodoo spiritual temple I was going to ask.
Run by Priestess Miriam Shimani. I was going to ask.
She's very well known, very well respected, very well liked.
She actually blessed the marriage of Nick Cage and Lisa Marie Presley.
Into it. Which, you know, Nick Cage has a tomb. in the St.
Louis cemetery at New Orleans, like ready for him?
You know, I do think I've heard that. one of my friends lindsey is like obsessed with nick cage i mean who isn't and he's it's a pyramid it's like the weirdest looking tomb when he finally goes in there But according to the website for this voodoo spiritual, I'm sorry, what is it called?
The Voodoo Spiritual Temple. According to the website, quote, it is the only formally established spiritual temple with a focus on traditional West African spiritual and herbal healing practices currently existing in New Orleans.
It has been serving New Orleans natives and visitors of all nationalities for 27 years.
Wow. So it's like well-respected, well-known.
Of course, people took this... And we're like, oh, he must have been under demonic possession.
And, like, it's voodoo. And it's all... This is what it is.
It all made him... But... I think he was just very sick and very at the end of his rope.
I think that's what it is. Maybe it contributed.
I mean, is... i'm a big believer and things like that so i just think i think unfortunately a lot of like news outlets pointed to miriam like priestess miriam and being like she must have had something to do with this bad energy and this bad vibe and stuff and it's like I don't think that's true.
Like, I think she's well, she's a nice lady from all accounts.
It's like, I don't think that was it. I think that this was a series of very unfortunate, very linked events and i i don't want to say recipe for disaster anymore yeah yeah it's it definitely is because i don't want to point to these outside forces as having something to do with it.
I think that minimizes it. Zach did it. Like, he chose to strangle her.
He chose to do this. Obviously, there were psychological things at play.
So on that Sunday, he and a friend, this neighbor, John Boutte... and his friend were outside the apartments having like dinner, I think, and His friend was like a doctor and his friend was like, what is that smell?
Like, what am I smelling? Oh, no. And John was like, yeah, I don't know.
I've been smelling that, but, like, you know.
And I think he says in the book, like, you know, New Orleans has tons of smells.
I didn't know what it was. Like, it's just a smell.
Yeah. And I guess the doctor was like, that smells very familiar.
Like, that's a bad smell. And he's like, and I'm a doctor.
But they were kind of like, you know what?
I'm just going to stay out of it and just eat my dinner and go on my life.
So now three days after killing her, he said he came home from work and the boiling, rotting body parts and the rotted corpse smell and headless torso was suddenly horrified.
Zach. Yeah. As it should be. As it should have been.
Oh no. So he wrote... in his confession quote halfway through the task I stopped and thought about what I was doing the decision to halt the first idea and move to Plan B, the crime scene that you are now in, came after a while.
I scared myself not by the action of calmly strangling the woman I've loved for one and a half years, and then desecrating her body, but by my entire lack of remorse.
I've known for forever how horrible of a person I am, ask anyone, and decided to quit my jobs and spend the $1,500 cash I had being happy until I killed myself.
So that's what I did. Good food, good drugs, good strippers, good friends, and many loose ends I may have had.
I didn't contact any of my family, so that'll explain the shock, and had a fantastic time living out my days.
It's just about time now. Wow. Isn't that so fucked up?
It sounds like he was in a very manic place and then he finally realized what happened.
Oh, for sure. And I almost feel like it's one of those things where they were the kind of people that wanted to be so extreme that he wanted that letter to sound extreme.
Yeah, I agree. I think it was just like, he's just like, you know what, fuck it.
Like, this is what I did. And now I'm going to go out in a blaze of glory kind of thing.
Like, he's like, whatever. And he went ham at strip clubs.
He slept with multiple women during this time.
He spent tons of money. He did tons of coke.
He drank himself silly. He partied. And in the days following, he drunkenly called Lana in the middle of the night at one point to try to get back.
Poor fucking Lana. Oh, yeah. And he's like, meet me.
I want to see. At one point he said to her, I want to see my favorite stripper.
And she was pissed. She was like, fuck you.
And... She refused. She's like, no. And he's like, I just want to meet with you.
Let's have a drink. Let's celebrate our time together.
And she was like, listen... We're both.
Who says that to the mother of their kid?
Sorry that thought came to me so late. Exactly.
I was like, what? And he's like, let's celebrate our time together.
And she was like, we're both in different relationships now.
Like, that's not appropriate. No. Like, we're not celebrating our marriage while we're in different relationships.
Like, go away. And he got pissed. Like, was like, fuck off.
So a week of Addie rotting in that apartment, he was still living there and still partying his ass off.
He went back home Sunday and burned himself 28 times on his body with a cigarette once for every year he was living.
And then he wrote out everything that he perceived to fail at.
So he said all his regrets in his life. In his final, like, note page, he wrote, Friends, jobs, military, marriage, love.
Every last one of these I failed at. And this is when he spray painted all the walls.
He left to party one last night and jumped off the Omni Hotel.
Wow. Now, New Orleans Police Detective Tom Moravich said when he came on the scene, quote, In 10 years in law enforcement, I had never seen any scene that disturbing. that's like the inside of somebody's brain nightmare a nightmare and Lana was informed of his death when she um And they told her where he had done it and everything.
And she said when she heard that it was at the pool, like the pool deck at the Omni.
Did he used to take the kids there? he used to take her and the kids there and she felt it was a personal way to hurt her. i mean yeah and one of the kids ended up like being very scarred by this the lily ended up having a ton of like stomach issues from it like couldn't get past it i guess like jackson just became very like introvert like he like held it inside a little bit you don't really what you do.
Yeah. Like this was, I mean, he destroyed so many lives with this.
One of their good friends, Zack and Addie's good friends, Capriccio, I think his name is.
Addie had dated him at one point. They stayed with him at times.
They hung out with him. They confided in him.
Zach worked at the grocery store with him.
When he heard the news he said quote, I was floored.
It's just not something that is reachable.
There are times when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes, but then there are some things that are so beyond our grasp of what we are capable of. or what we understand ourselves to be capable of.
We cannot go to that length. That's what this is.
It is surreally untouchable. It stays where it is.
Yeah. And it's, that's such a good way of saying it.
Like that is so far removed from what I can put my brain into like that kind of behavior.
It is. And friends said they were shocked that Zach had done this.
They said, you know, Addie was unpredictable and violent at times, but they were like, this... zach was level-headed they had a tumultuous relationship but they seemed to love each other um And their apartment was added to a well-known ghost tour in the French Quarter where people go by it and we'll be like, that's the New Orleans murder house.
You need to let like 50 years go by before you start making tours of crime scenes.
I know, it's a tough... It's one of those tough ethical and moral lines, but...
Ghost tours and like those kind of things.
I'm like, I get it. I see both sides of it.
Like I see both sides. I just can't. I can't sit here and pretend that I wouldn't go on that ghost tour.
Like, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm morally... like opposed to going on that coast tour i just feel like i'd be pretty opposed Yeah.
I feel like you dragged me to it. Yeah, I totally believe you.
I'm just, I can't lie to you listeners. I can't do it.
I would go on that ghost trip. Firmly sitting here and saying that I don't shame anybody for doing that.
Yeah, I'm not saying it's right. There's a level of... or a certain amount of time that should pass yeah i mean i think there's people period yeah I can totally see both sides.
I totally, I just can't. I can't lie to you guys.
I can't do it. I love you so. I can't lie.
That's what makes the podcast is those two very separate things. exactly um so just a couple of last things in this uh hour and a half many more in this main episode TB, Tina and I thought I was doing the main episode this week.
In 2016, Paranormal Lockdown, that show...
They did an episode where they locked themselves in the apartment for 72 hours.
No. And they got EVP that says you are not alone and strangled to death.
That's horrific. Then there's a crazy connection to another dismemberment in New Orleans.
Addie was best friends with a woman named Margaret Sanchez. who, along with her sex offender boyfriend, Terry Speaks, murdered a dancer named Jaron Lockhart and dismembered her body. uh we're gonna cover that i think i might cover it on the next mini because i was gonna say this and i think it would be nice to like connect right into it So we'll go further into that in the next one.
But that is the fucked up, crazy story of Zach and Addie.
Wow, that was bananas. I feel like it's really sad because I feel like, well, all murder is so preventable, but...
When mental health takes a part in it, it's like you wish that those two people could have gotten help.
It's true, you really do, because there was things I read, too, that said Zack tried to talk about it with some of his friends, and some of his friends that were outside of the military. and some that had served already and some of them weren't exactly super like helpful with it like they were kind of like what did you see that you're so fucked up from like they were literally like multiple extreme deaths which just pushes them further into believing they shouldn't be asking for help so it's like that sucks right And then Addie had, you know, unmedicated bipolar.
That's a recipe for trouble when they both got together. mm-hmm well uh as always thanks for listening and you can find us on instagram at morbid podcast Hit us up on Twitter.
Amorbid Podcast. Send us a Gmail. Morbidpodcast at gmail.com.
And you can listen to us anywhere that there are podcasts.
Do it. Because just you can. We hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep. It! It feels so wrong to do one right now.
I thought you were going to do it for this one.
I don't know. I thought you were gonna do it.
They're all wrong to do. Hold on. I was gonna say, aren't they all wrong?
They're all very wrong to do. I just don't know if my morals and my brain can go there today.
Your wrong and my wrong are different. Yeah, I'll try next time.
All right, we'll get you back. Bye. Thank you.
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