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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid.
it's morbid it's morbid how are you i'm doing great i'm feeling better actually i love that i'm feeling better too except i do miss my sultry voice we all miss our sultry voices i wish i could just recreate it when I wasn't sick like but there's there's no way you see like it doesn't work I was I was gonna try but I oh I figured but it it doesn't hit scary same yeah yeah it doesn't want my teeth can I have a second see a quinoa in your teeth no I'm done look at that cute little after snack I love a little after snack saving that for later a little quinoa a little quinoa a little quinoa um not any
business you got any recommendations for us us today oh man put me on the spot well you I mean you're a recommendation gorley I know I really am a recommendation gorley none I don't know if I have any right now wow that's upsetting um oh there's somebody on tiktok I have a tiktok I knew if I said it it would start I was just thinking okay there there's um someone I follow on tiktok uh she talks about paranormal shit um some some some true crime shit she talks about all kinds of spooky shit she's very smart she's very well spoken she's fun to listen to she's beautiful she's just cool her name is cam
everything and i think her name on tiktok is um and let me double check it i think it's swamp witch that's iconic i'll give you a vamp moment swamp underscore witch underscore hell yeah and she's great and i just need to give her a shout out because i think i like like almost all of her videos that come through my feed i'm just automatically like like because i know i will like a bunch of spooky shit yeah she's just and she's really smart and she lives in a haunted house so you get to see lots of that stuff and she does she's to like tell stories from her house she does she gives stories she gives
like she and she tells others like folklore and shit she's just really like fun to listen to so cam swamp witch hell yeah go get it i know what i'm i'm doing tonight go flood swamp witches tiktok make her get the numbers no pun intended because you know what she puts in the work flood the swamp so fuck yeah swamp witch cam swamp witch forever i knew i could pull what that's actually one that's been sitting in my back pocket for a while and i keep forgetting to plug her so start a list i'm actually glad you brought that up because i really wanted to plug her see here you said you were like you're
putting me on the spot and i was Like it's for a reason.
That's what it's for.
Every season has a reason.
Turn, turn, turn. I think I said that the wrong way around, but.
It doesn't matter. It sounded great.
Thanks. All right. Well, we're in a part two right now.
So in part one, we were talking about the very, very tragic murder of Jack Tupper.
It was like real brutal.
And we're going to get a little more into it in this part.
It's so sad. This is a really sad case so far.
It is because Buddy is just like was born an asshole.
Yeah. Yeah, and I just felt really bad for Melanie and I felt really bad for Jack.
And his family. Yeah.
Jack had a lot of promise that just got completely robbed from him.
So when we left off in part one, Buddy had been harassing Melanie like crazy and then she came home one day after and the saddest thing about this too was that they were just about to get the fuck out of there.
Yeah, they were making moves to get away from him.
She had signed a new lease that morning, Melanie, for her and Jack to move out and while she was gone signing the new lease, Buddy went and did whatever he did.
But at the end of part one, the universe caught up to him because he was sitting directly in front of a cop and a bolo alert basically had gone out being like, yeah, check out this license plate.
And the guy was like, oh, you mean the one right in front of me?
You mean this asshole right here?
You mean this yellow Cadillac asshole guy?
So he got arrested.
And when Buddy was arrested, he was in the company of a man named Salvatore Giammo, which checks.
he told the officer that he was just a hitchhiker and he had nothing to do with the crime but it was later learned that Salvatore was on Buddy's payroll and he worked as a general contractor on one of his buildings so they spotted the lie there ah there it is there it is the prosecutor would later determine that there was a third man involved as well another Salvatore this one Pranito I believe is how you say the last name and he had already been dropped off when Buddy got pulled over so had he been pulled over a little earlier they would have caught all three at once right there that would have been
the jackpot that would have been but still still good it was a jackpot yeah so at the precinct buddy told detectives that his employee referring to giamo he said he had come to his apartment earlier that day and suggested that buddy buy his car from him so they took the car out for a test drive and according to buddy the car drove so nicely that he just kept on driving.
Yeah. And that's how they caught him on the bridge that afternoon.
Absolutely. Yeah. It was just out driving.
Just a joy ride, you know?
It just felt so good that I kept on driving.
That's my alibi. I was just driving.
Just driving things.
He was not willing to say more than that.
And he immediately demanded a lawyer.
So he was placed in a holding cell while the police started looking into this story.
Now, while he sat in a cell at the 43rd precinct, detectives went out to the apartment building in queens to inform melanie that jack had died had been murdered that's awful she was still actually with jack's friend that she had called over earlier that day and she explained to the officer that got there what they had discovered in buddy's apartment earlier that day and she actually pointed out a spot of what they believed was blood in the hallway outside of the apartment because if you remember in part one he had cleaned everything up including the hallway but uh you missed a spot yeah you never
cleaned it all up no never this it's just like so sad to think that while she was off doing this that's what was going on so the following week buddy and salvatore were charged with second degree murder and both were denied bail and this is a salvatore pronito actually so jack's autopsy was conducted the next afternoon but because his body had been so damaged in the fire and through everything that had occurred beforehand the assistant medical examiner had a really difficult time actually coming up with what the cause of death was so officially his cause of death was attributed to and this is a quote
two circumcised round markedly depressed fractures of the skull the largest diameter of which is one and a half and the greatest depth of this depression is half an inch i'm assuming now those two wounds which the medical examiner believed to have been from hammer i was just gonna say that sounds like a hammer they caused obviously massive brain damage so they believed those were most likely the primary cause of death oh yeah it's to think I think what they did to him, like, I can't imagine.
And you'd probably just assume that these three guys just banged on his apartment door and dragged him out.
Oh, that's awful. Because remember, his shoes were still in the apartment.
Yeah, everything was still in the apartment.
All of his stuff. In addition to the brain trauma, there was a myriad of other wounds, several of which would have also been fatal.
According to the examiner's report, quote, there are multiple lacerations and stab wounds.
Oh, my God. Mainly over the left side of the face and the left side of the head.
there are approximately 15 such wounds holy shit and then there were additional stab wounds on the torso as well one of which pierced jack's liver and then in addition to that there were multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body and his lower torso and finally there was the damage caused by the fire which occurred after jack had died but this was complete overkill so they bludgeoned stabbed shot and burned him yep oh my god and and like like sliced at his face like his face was found with a bunch of slice marks all over it they just they demolished his body wow it's horrible that's terrifying
so in the press conference held just a few days later investigators identified the victim and the killer while adding that other people were being sought in connection with the murder.
A spokesperson told reporters, quote, we don't know exactly where he was killed, but it appears he was dragged from his own apartment and brought to Jacobson's penthouse.
Now, they couldn't confirm that Jack had been killed in Buddy's apartment, but investigators did say that they pulled a slug from a wall in Buddy's apartment that was a match for those taken out of Jack Tupper's body.
So I don't really know why they couldn't for sure say say that he had been killed there because maybe they think that because my thoughts were there was blood on the outside of the apartment maybe they think that they hammered him in his apartment and then dragged him into that apartment he could have already been dead and kept going yeah so when they shot him he could have already been dead it's so scary to think about now as far as anybody could tell the case against buddies seemed airtight he had means he had motive he had the opportunity to kill jack he was known to have been obsessed with melanie
in the weeks leading up to the murder His apartment was literally riddled with bullet holes.
And witnesses, again, as we know, had identified him and his car as having been at the dump site in the Bronx.
So a little over a week after Buddy's arrest, a grand jury convened to hear the evidence in the case, as well as testimony from multiple witnesses.
And everybody was most interested to hear what Melanie had to say, of course, because she's the closest link here.
And she testified for over two hours.
worse. She gave all the details of her relationship with Buddy, his possessive nature, the desperate threats that he'd been making in the weeks just before Jack's murder.
And based on the evidence and testimony presented to the grand jury, Buddy was indicted for the murder of Tupper and he continued to be held without bail.
So by September, Buddy had actually gotten himself a new lawyer, Otto Fusco, who assured his client that he was going to get him out of jail.
He wanted to get Buddy out on bail.
Awesome. Even though requests for bail had already been denied, six times since Buddy's arrest. Oh my God.
Now, later that month, Fusco took Buddy's case to the state Supreme Court and he told Justice Louis Cialfi, I believe is how you say it.
He had a number of alternative suspects, all of whom had reason to kill Jack Tupper and frame Buddy.
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Oh yeah, there are so many cases where too good to be true turns out to be exactly that.
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But for one reason or another, the justice believed Fusco's defense and noted that if there were indeed other suspects, he said, I cannot deny this man bail.
So he set Buddy's bail at $200 ,000.
And remember, Buddy has a lot of money, but I guess he wasn't pulling in that much at this time because he claimed that he was unable to pay that amount.
So he remained in jail.
So in the weeks that followed, Fusco repeatedly argued with the district attorney and appellate court and was eventually able to successfully convince them to reduce the bail to $100 ,000.
That's insane. So they cut it in half, and Buddy easily paid that with a cashier's check and ended up being freed on October 18th, 1978.
Yeah, that must feel great.
Like, when they're almost certain that he killed this man like ten times over.
Literally bullet holes in his apartment.
And they're like, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's fine. Let's get you out on bail.
Let him walk around.
So now that he was free on bail, he wasted literally no time trying to go and see Melanie.
And when she made it very clear through the district attorney that she did not want to see him or speak to him, Buddy allegedly paid Terry McCart, one of the models for My Fair Lady, a thousand dollars to convince Melanie to see him.
What? But this made its way back to the courts.
and it was enough to convince the prosecutor to bring Buddy back in front of the state supreme court and they argued that Melanie still felt like she was in danger obviously yeah and Buddy's bail should be revoked now Otto Fusco vehemently denied any risk to Melanie's safety he told the court Buddy only wanted to meet with her to quote straighten out the time element of the case oh yeah and it's also like and he said he meant her no harm but it's like so he wants to go over over timelines with her like i feel like that's a problem yeah it's like okay so we're all stupid that's what that's what we're
going with that everybody around him is stupid like i don't understand why that why they want to get their story straight yeah like i think you're just arguing against yourself yeah pretty much so after hearing from both sides just did howard uh justice howard goldfuss ordered jacob saying quote not to contact miss kane or have others do so and if he did again his bail would be revoked okay so they slapped him on his wrist and they said don't do that again don't do that little buddy stop doing that do it now even though the court was uh abundantly clear that his bail would be revoked if he reached
out to melanie again but he just couldn't help himself oh my god but this time he was more strategic of course because he didn't want to get caught so he started sending her anonymous letters instead of implicating himself directly which is so much more chilling so much more chilling and these letters are weird in a letter dated november 20th 1978 he wrote no longer can you use the excuse excuse me no longer can you use the excuse the criminal justice system will work that's what he wrote her what the letter basically implied that the district attorney had been trying to keep melanie away from buddy
quote and he wrote because a combination of your facts and jacobson's would destroy his case and he said it would be wise to stop letting yourself be controlled by others wow so it was very clear that it was from buddy but he's writing it in like a in another to try to be ominous in another tone exactly now another later dated december 6 simply said jacobson has harmed no one in his whole life which uh excuse me please watch out for the giant lightning strike that is about to come from the sky and smite you truly he said even if his love and affection for you may have dwindled this past year oh
excuse me she left you i'm sorry what Let the record state.
Yeah. He always took care of you and looked out for you.
I know he only wants the truth and the trial, which will be many months from now, maybe too late.
What? Why would it be too late to have a trial?
What the fuck does that mean?
If you're having a trial, isn't the truth going to come out one way or the other, buddy?
Jesus. He's so creepy.
I hate him. And just that even if his love and affection may have dwindled.
Dwindled for you. Like, shut the fuck up.
Like, weren't you just screaming in a hallway that you were going to get her pregnant so fast?
In the past, she would have six children at once.
Yeah, but your affection said dwindled?
Yeah. I don't know if we have the same definition of dwindled there, bud.
You sure about that?
You sure about that?
You sure about that?
So free on bail until the start of the trial, Buddy reveled in the notoriety.
He made sure to keep up appearances.
He was not letting anybody know about the financial toll that the charges were taking on him.
Of course not. And he never relented in his campaign to contact Melanie.
Melanie. But he did start dating a new young model and made sure that he was seen out with her in all the same places that he used to take Melanie.
That's gross. Which he's clearly thinking that this is going to make her jealous, which I don't know in what world you would be jealous that a girl is dating a man who murdered the man that you loved.
Yeah. And it's like, who's this girl?
Yeah. Get it together.
That's another story.
Get it together. She just wanted a modeling job.
Yeah. Yeah. Wild. So Buddy carried on as the playboy that he was and he hoped everybody still believed he was.
But all the while, Melanie and the Tupper family were starting to wonder whether their faith in the justice system was misplaced.
They were getting worried that this wasn't going to go anywhere.
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it is.
Especially because he's out on bail.
Yeah, he's just walking around.
They probably never expected that.
No. I mean, it's literally cut and dry here.
You look at that crime scene, the witnesses, you look at everything involved.
It's like, how are you this stupid?
How? how it's insane.
So when Buddy was first arrested, the case to them, it appeared like we were just saying so straightforward and the evidence seemed so irrefutable that a conviction seemed inevitable.
Yeah. But just a few months later, his ability to kind of talk his way out of apparently anything and now the endless stream of rumors surrounding the case had them worried that they might not get their conviction for him.
Oh, man. Kevin Tupper told reporters, I thoroughly believe the police and da's office can handle people who shoot each other out on the street but i have a feeling that when they come up against a real attorney and then his voice trailed off before he could finish his thought huh he was worried yeah obviously and i don't blame him i would be too and the trial was still almost a year away and that's the crazy thing that they gave him bail knowing that he had a year to just walk around yeah and just do whatever he wanted i'm like that doesn't make any sense to me no it really doesn't but melanie
and the tuppers reasonably reasonably believed, there was still a chance that Buddy could talk his way out of these charges.
But little did they know, the case would take a turn, but no one really saw it coming.
So in the 14 months that passed between Buddy's arrest and the scheduled start of the trial, the New York City press could not resist following every lead and every rumor related to the Deadly Love Triangle.
There was talk of, among so many different things, a drug deal gone wrong, mafia involvement and they also were starting to say that my fair lady was being used as what they referred to as a prostitution ring now which also like you're not supposed to say it like that that's rude that's rude that's rude now by the time the trial began in october 1979 state supreme court justice william capelman or capelman excuse me imposed a gag order on everybody involved Oh, damn.
Noting that the extensive and often sensational media coverage might preclude a fair trial for Howard Jacobson.
Remember, Buddy's real name is Howard. Yeah.
So the media, excuse me, the order covered only those who were directly involved in the trial.
So the media was still free to continue reporting on the case, but they would have to do it without any commentary from the participants in the trial.
Okay. Now, Buddy's lawyers, Jack Ebseroff and Ben Epstein—or Epstein—immediately objected, and they cited their client's First Amendment rights, and they questioned the timing of the order.
But Kappelman overruled them, and the order was to stand.
Now, he spoke in generic terms regarding his motive for the gag order.
He said it was the extent of the media coverage, but it's also very possible that one of of the driving factors for the order was the number of interviews and impromptu press conferences that buddy and his attorneys were holding in the months leading up to trial because they were starting to try to spin a different yarn just a week or so before the order was put in place uh buddies two attorneys there reported that jack tupper was part of a major cocaine conspiracy oh damn and said quote he was killed by someone other than the defendant oh shit so now they're starting to So now we're trying to
smear Jack. Exactly, and put doubt in potential jury members' minds.
Of course. So by late October, the trial had already been delayed several times because of different pre -trial hearings, all this bullshit that was going on.
And then it again ground to a halt when Buddy's attorneys claimed that the DA's office was withholding evidence that would have cleared Buddy of any wrongdoing.
According to Ben Epstein, the DA's office had evidence that showed two known drug dealers were likely responsible for tupper's death but the two men he suspected quote had gone missing since the murder huh so he's like i have these two guys the only problem is um i don't have them that's not shady or fishy at all no not at all no that seems very legit it's like are you just looking for two random drug dealers to implicate in this right now and you just don't have them quite yet perhaps so justice campelman reviewed the material and he overruled the motion and he said that his attorney that Buddy's
attorney said would clear him.
He found that the evidence was insufficient to warrant any kind of acquittal.
Yeah, of course. Obviously.
He was like, why would you even waste my time with this?
So Justice Kappelman reviewed the material and overruled the motion that Buddy's lawyer said would clear him because that evidence was...
I wish there was a better word than insufficient because I feel like it was even so much more than that.
That's a vast understatement, I would say.
Yeah, but it was insufficient to warrant an acquittal.
So additional delays followed, and that was mostly because the defense was challenging literally every piece of evidence involved that they tried to enter ever.
I love that. Yeah, it's fantastic.
That's not annoying at all.
No. And there were other hiccups, too.
There were two potential witnesses that received anonymous death threats in the mail.
Jesus. I wonder who those came from.
Huh. Who do you think?
No, they're anonymous, Ash.
They're anonymous. They're anonymous.
butnumous the letters that buddy wrote to melanie yeah totally anonymous yeah and then also one of the prosecutor's sisters actually was found murdered behind a brooklyn bar oh my god however the murder was determined to be unrelated to the jacobson case oh new york was wild and wow but when i read that i was like he murdered the prosecutor but that's that's a lot yeah it was unrelated now after an unusual number of delays and pre -trial hearings buddy jacobson's trial trial finally got underway on january 30th 1980 with bill hrabsky prosecuting on behalf of the state and from his position at the podium
he presented the jury with a simple story of jealousy and of course a love trial triangle excuse me with a very tragic ending in which buddy jacobson and salvatore pernitto murdered jack tupper and disposed of his body in that vacant lot Now, most importantly, this wasn't just the same old, or this wasn't just some story.
The prosecution had more than enough evidence collected from Buddy's apartment that directly connected him to the case.
This evidence included Buddy's clothes, his eyeglasses, and pieces of his carpet, all of which had Jack's blood on them.
Oh, my God. His glasses.
Like, that for me is terrifying.
I was just going to say that is just something about that.
That's on another level.
Because that indicates a very close proximity.
Oh, that's really terrible.
And all just because Melanie didn't love him anymore.
And just because Jack was a good guy that was treating her nicely.
Exactly. And giving her the life that she wanted.
I just wish that they had been able to move out of that apartment before any of this happened.
It's terrible. It's gut -wrenching.
So, when the time came for the defense to present their argument, Jack Eversoff uh took the podium with a story that no one expected he told the jury Howard Jacobson is the product of a frame compounded by the inefficiency and incompetence by the authorities so he was trying to say the buddy was framed for this no which like I don't quite understand it's like please explain why they got his eyeglasses his clothes and his pieces of his his carpet yeah that's a that's a very intense frame job like somebody went into his home cut out pieces of his carpet got jack tupper's blood on them and then put
them back yeah i guess so i don't see that happening yeah you don't what no that doesn't seem legit to you no i don't know yeah seems legit to me the attorney claimed that they would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Melanie Kane, the girl of a thousand faces, who had masterminded the entire operation.
Wow. Like, listen, I love Mel.
I don't think she masterminded this entire operation and got that much blood evidence on all of Buddy's things.
That's also, like, wild when they just turn around and are like, let's try to ruin that girl's life.
Like, it's just like, whoa.
All right. They used her, like, title against her.
they called her the girl of a thousand faces because she's a she's a model and she'd been called that before so stupid now according to jack uh ebser ebser off i can never say his last name the murder wasn't he said the result of a love triangle but a quadrangle this man is going geometry no i was just gonna say do not bring geometry into this it's too late he did he said it included cocaine dealer joseph marguerite and the defense alleged that jack tupper was murdered over a bad cocaine deal with Marguerite, and Melanie had attempted to frame Buddy for it.
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Why would Melanie turn around and try to fuck over buddy if this other guy killed the man that she loved yeah why would she do that that nope nope because they're essentially trying to make it seem like her love for jack was not not what we think it was not real at all no i don't believe that it's like if that was the case buddy's a well -connected guy yeah why would she why wouldn't she just turn to him exactly and have him like fuck over joseph marguerite And why would she get rid of Jack?
I mean, that's the crux of the issue.
Wouldn't she just like be with Buddy if she wanted to be with Buddy?
Yes. That seems to be like the real question here is like, but wouldn't she just be with you if she wanted to be with you?
And she didn't. She made it very clear.
I think the men in this case didn't quite understand that.
They just can't handle it.
Because their whole thing was that like he left Melanie.
That's like how it sounds.
No, my friends. But they said when the murder was committed in Marguerite's apartment, which apparently had Buddy's carpet in it, I guess, and his eyeglasses and his clothing.
Absolutely, of course.
They said Buddy wasn't even there.
And the defense alleged he was just a 48 -year -old fool who was in love with the woman of a thousand faces.
They really went for that.
They were like, it's really good that somebody named her that because we can use that now.
Yeah, he may very well be in whatever you're calling love with her, but again, how did his shit get covered in Jack's blood?
No, it's really not making sense.
Nope. Make it make sense, my friend.
makes sense? It's literally that guy just like, you sure about that?
Sure about that? So despite their best efforts to convince the jury that Buddy was not connected to the murder, the evidence, circumstantial and physical, just wasn't on their side.
The math ain't mathin'.
The math is not mathing.
Throughout her testimony and the testimony of others, Melanie never came across as bitter.
She never came across as the vindictive lover that they claimed was framing Buddy.
In fact, when they attempted to sway the jury by showing several what they called exotic photos of Melanie.
Exotic. She had to interject to point out that at least one of the photos wasn't even of her.
It was of an entirely different woman.
Are you kidding me?
She had to stand up in court and say, yeah, I don't know what this has to do with anything, but also that's not me.
Like, wow, that gal's real pretty.
That's not me. Thank you.
Why are we showing those photos in the first place?
What does that have to do with anything?
But just the fact that she had to say, yeah that's not me that how stupid can you look like truly seriously you know in jury duty when the guy is when you're like how is anybody believing that this guy's a real lawyer here you go here we go here it is now the prosecution on the other hand very different story over there they had a mountain of evidence to support their claim that buddy was exceedingly jealous and possessive from the moment that he began dating melanie and all throughout and up to the start trial.
And then, of course, like I've said about 55 million times, there was the considerable blood evidence that placed Buddy at the scene of the murder.
Oh, that. And again, the eyewitness testimony from people who saw him at the dump site.
Where was Joseph Marguerite at the dump site?
Yeah, exactly. And they also wrote down his fucking license plate number.
That's the thing. They had the forethought to write down that license plate number, which yesterday when you you said that I was like hell yeah those people because honestly a lot of us wouldn't be able to remember it no or write it down which you should if you can but it's hard yeah and sometimes you can't see it things happen quickly it's like you don't think about it so thank goodness those people did and it's like now you're like this is just wild like so ridiculous guys you just now you should start think about minimizing damage instead of trying to pretend that he didn't do it like go for an insanity
defense yeah like you should be really looking at just trying to like mitigate everything because there's no way that you can say he didn't do it no so you have to figure out like why he like some reason why you're looking foolish here you are and that's the thing if this were intended as a framed job it was a a very complicated one orchestrated by some kind of criminal mastermind not a very very depressed and sad fashion model exactly that's just the truth no so after 10 weeks of evidence and testimony the jury retired for deliberation on April 9th 1980 and after eight hours they returned a guilty
a guilty a guilty they returned a verdict of not guilty in the case against Salvatore Pernetto and as for Buddy Jacobson the jury foreman told the judge that they believed they were unable to reach a verdict what I don't really understand that myself I'm sorry jury can we talk real quick that's basically what the judge said okay good he was like can you guys try again yeah he's like like, you know what?
Give that one another shot.
Give it the old college try.
There was one person that was like, I have a reasonable doubt.
You know what? One person, I just want to talk.
What's going on? Let's just chat.
What's happening? But they tried again.
And on April 12th, the jury found Buddy Jacobson guilty.
Thank you. Of the second -degree murder of Jack Tupper.
So after he was convicted, he was returned to his cell at the Brooklyn House of Corrections to await his sentencing, which was scheduled for early June.
On the afternoon of May 31st, He had a visitor.
There's somebody coming to say, hey, buddy, what's up?
Just a visitor. Yeah, they checked in under the name Michael Schwartz, and they said they were an attorney.
And these two men sat and talked for a short time.
And when the guards came back to collect Buddy, he was nowhere to be found.
Oh, oops, we lost that inmate.
They lost that inmate who had just been convicted of second -degree murder.
Wow. wow why is everyone really bad at their jobs right now i don't know what was happening here like it was the 80s wasn't even the 80s yet i don't even think it was no it wasn't even it was the height of the 80s guys get it together could not find him get it together as far as they could tell the officials at the jail they the two of those men sat together buddy being one of them Buddy excused himself to go to the bathroom around 4 .30 and simply never returned man imagine if that's how you can get out of jail you're just asked to go to the bathroom excuse me I just have to go to the bathroom
real quick and then you just never return you just walk out bye everybody in his statement to the press assistant commissioner for the Department of Corrections Edward Hershey told the press Jacobson walked out of the visitors area using subterfuge and stealth Stealth.
And he did not leave the room wearing the same clothing he walked in with.
Okay, but you're still saying to me that he walked out of the visitor's room at a prison using stealth.
It's like, no, you began that sentence by saying he walked out of the visitor's room, which in and of itself kind of takes away all the stealth of it.
He just walked out of the the visitors room but it wasn't just stealth it was also subterfuge as well like you're huge he just walked out he just admitted that he said yeah he said no you know what not for me prison is not my bag so the way he murdered jack tupper and he just walks out of that he's a vicious killer yeah vicious killer and a stalker and a stalker and like like he's a terrible person truly and they're just like yeah we just let him walk out of the visitor center and then later you're like there was a lot of subterfuge and stealth involved it's like i don't know about that you sure
about that i don't know about that i am not sure a spokesperson said of the man claiming to be michael schwartz the attorney he's not giving us any information at this point we We don't even know if that's his real name or whether he's an attorney.
Wow. If I was at this fucking press conference, I'd be like, am I safe to live in this place?
Should I move several towns over?
I would be like, what the fuck is going on?
They're like, we don't know anything.
They're like, shit.
The guy, he said, hey.
And we said, you seem legit.
And we just let him in.
They're like, you know what they're saying?
They're like, the vibes were right.
Yeah. So we just foregone, we just forewent any kind of standard procedure.
That's fine. Or safety protocol, because the vibes were vibing when he came in.
They did a Jada essence.
They didn't even do a Jada essence hall and say, look, over there.
Yeah. They were just like, yeah, we don't even know what his deal is.
Yeah, no. We don't even know.
Luckily, they eventually found out what his deal was.
Oh, good. The man claiming to be Michael Schwartz's attorney was, in fact, Anthony DeRosa, a sometime longtime resident of Westover, Vermont.
And he was also the man who several years earlier had bought Buddy's stake in the ski lodge.
Oh, shit. The ski lodge comes back.
Yeah, isn't that funny?
The ski lodge makes a cameo.
I bet you thought that the ski lodge was gone forever.
I didn't. I was ready for her to come back.
There she is. I said we didn't see the last of her.
Vermont. Vermont, I'm coming.
Vermont, Loco, where you been?
So DeRozan had been one of of the potential witnesses interviewed interviewed by the defense before buddy's trial actually but both attorneys found that he seriously lacked credibility and they decided not to call him the defense who sucked ass was like this guy sucks more ass this guy sucks the most ass we cannot have says well he lacks credibility he lacks credibility we should put that little clip we should so it turned out that after initially buying into the ski lodge de rosa quickly ran out of funds and found himself I really love this expression quote deeply in hawk deeply in hawk aka debt
to buddy but it's a much better way to say I'm in the hawk oh man I'm in hawk I'm in hawk to buddy deep in hawk oh I am going to be ever in your hawk wow I like that I like it it's H -O -C -K not like hawk not hawk yeah okay I don't know if hawks say hawk but I don't either but so So that's why he was willing to lie for Buddy on the witness stand to help him escape because he never really paid back his debts for the ski lodge.
Because he was in deep hawk.
So, you know, let me just let you escape from fucking prison on your murder charge.
That's fine. He's like, and then we're square after that.
I mean, if one thing will get you square, that's definitely it.
No longer in hawk. It will also get you into a lot of fucking trouble.
Sure will. will because DeRosa was charged with escape hindering prosecution burglary criminal facilitation criminal in purse impersonation and possession of a forged instrument which was the fake ID that he used to check in at prison oops oops like you might want to be in hawk now now you're in like that's honestly that's no good so he was ordered to be held on five hundred thousand thousand dollars bail oh damn he was not getting out of the i was gonna say i don't think you're leaving no in february 1981 he was convicted of the charges and he was sentenced to one to four years in prison for his role
in buddy's escape was it worth it let me work it no no no even missy was like no she was like no i won't put my thing down flip it and reverse it she's like i don't have time for that in this bullshit of case so the DA's office placed several people in protective custody because remember at this point he's convicted but they have no fucking idea where buddy went oh yeah you've just let a shark out of the cage and here you go they have no idea what he's trying to do they were worried he was gonna kill people he believed to be involved in his conviction.
Excuse me. Yikes. So people were put into protective custody and those people included obviously Melanie.
Justice William Kappelman and one of the witnesses who ended up testifying against Buddy.
Damn. But luckily their fears were misplaced.
Buddy hadn't just fled Brooklyn.
He had left New York State entirely and fled to California.
Oh Oh, yeah. Where the skies are always sunny.
There you go. He's looking to, you know, surf some waves.
Yeah, catch ten. Catch ten, I said.
He can also catch ten.
Such a California girl.
After he hangs it, he can catch it.
Yeah, you know. Yeah, all that.
We're definitely not from New England at all.
No, what are you talking about?
It's autumn. We're like oceans.
Vibes. So according to his attorney, Buddy escaped, quote, in an effort to find new evidence to vindicate himself for the murder of John Tupper.
Absolutely. sir he went to california to find that why would that be in california because you why are you asking questions okay don't worry about it it's ridiculous like you don't need to know the method of his madness okay they're like we know jack tupper was murdered in um new york city absolutely about 3 000 miles away from california but the evidence to vindicate buddy yes was 3 000 miles away in california absolutely i don't understand what the question is here i'm confused yeah it makes a lot of sense to me yeah you know you know the math is mapping for you for sure now as far as investigators
could tell after escaping from prison buddy was met by his girlfriend he literally had a girlfriend at this point wow audrey barrett and his son his son david who drove him out of the area damn later that day buddy stole a car from one of the my fair lady models his own like fam there he is wild he's the definition of wild and he and his his girlfriend made their way to California, camping out and checking into motels under aliases along the way.
Wow. And once he arrived in California, Buddy, quote, got into negotiations with a real estate agent in Northern California to buy property.
Oh. This motherfucker thought he was just going to go to property and be selling Sunset.
Yeah, absolutely. Sir, what?
So ultimately, though, it was Buddy's son, David, that led to his recapture.
Oh, Oh, I kind of absolutely love that.
I absolutely positively love that.
Yes, love it. It led to his recapture six weeks after fleeing New York.
Good for him. Because from the moment Buddy escaped, detectives started following all of his friends, all of his relatives, all of his associates, nearly around the clock.
In fact, at one point, David Jacobson, the son there, was being followed so closely by the police that he pulled over to the side of the road, walked back to the police car and said, All right, let's use the same car and save gas.
Oh my god, I love it!
He was like, you know what?
He's like, you know what?
Why are we killing the planet here?
Let's save some gas.
He was 25 at this point, and he had actually run into some legal troubles himself, probably because his father abandoned him.
Yeah, there's that.
So he was offered immunity in exchange for information leading to the capture of his father, which he accepted.
On July 9th, David arranged for his dad to call him that afternoon, and the Brooklyn The Brooklyn District Attorney's office had placed a tap on David's line, obviously, and they were like, listen, you need to keep your dad on the phone as long as you possibly can.
Yeah. The trace took nearly 20 minutes, which is kind of crazy to think about because I feel like they must happen a little faster now, you know?
I would think so, but I honestly have no idea.
Yeah, I don't know really how that works.
My instinct is to say yes, but some things are still so slow.
They are. But eventually, the phone company was able to identify the incoming line as being a pay phone outside a diner in Manhattan Beach. So the DA relayed the information to Manhattan Beach police and Buddy was arrested that same afternoon.
Hell yeah. They said, got him.
Wow. So when he was arrested, he confirmed his identity, but he wouldn't say anything else to the police.
Of course not. Now the next day, he was temporarily transferred to a jail in LA before being returned turn to Brooklyn the next day.
And days later, in an interview with reporters, he claimed he had been betrayed by, quote, someone I had confided in, someone I trusted emphatically.
And that, he said, was the only reason he was recaptured or he was captured.
Like someone you trusted emphatically?
Try someone you abandoned as a child.
Yeah, you forgot about that part.
Yeah, sorry. You should add that in.
There's that small part, buddy.
That's the important part of the equation.
Exactly. So by the following spring, Buddy was tried alongside Anthony DeRosa for the escape and given a sentence of one to seven years to be served concurrently with the life sentence that he was given for the murder of Jack Tupper.
Wow. So life plus one to seven years.
Not getting out. Yeah definitely not.
Now in the years that followed his recapture but he he kept asserting his innocence.
He never would admit that he did anything to Jack.
Of course not. He did.
He insisted that he had been framed forever.
No. In an interview with the LA Times he repeated his earlier claim that melanie had manipulated her cocaine dealer boyfriend into killing jack who was also her boyfriend and then the two framed him for the murder i don't see it no one else did so you're not alone as evidence he cited the one holdout on the jury who after the trial told reporters they wore me down there's a reasonable doubt that he did it no where is that can you show it to me yeah just can you produce that reasonable what is the reasonable doubt i just don't see it now when the reporter suggested that his escape from prison might have only
made him uh look more guilty but he replied but the only reason i ran was to be free i hadn't done anything i was the same as those hostages in iran you sure about that that's the overstatement of the century i don't know about that buddy sir um sir you know what i do know about that that's a no we all know about that you are a drama fucking queen are you kidding me that's a lot that's not helping your case friends no that's hurting your case yeah you're an asshole like an asshole you've never looked like anything else but an asshole as for his feelings toward melanie but he claimed he had no ill
will for her he said i don't think melanie lied in court she was too dumb to lie she was sick she had hyperglycemia what does hyperglycemia have to do with lying he's like you know what she had to eat a cracker she's dumb she's stupid and she didn't eat a cracker it's like what the fuck guy like that That precludes you from lying?
That's like such an old man thing to say, though.
And then he's like, ah, she's stupid and she was hungry.
Like, what? What the fuck, buddy?
Like, damn. Correct.
What the fuck, buddy, is the theme of this entire thing?
And also, shut up. Stop talking about her.
Everybody stop asking him questions about her.
Don't put her fucking name in your mouth.
Exactly. Buddy believed that Melanie was manipulated by the district attorney and the police, who he said wanted to pin it on him in order to close the case.
So now he's away from the fact that Melanie framed him.
He's saying it was the police who wanted to pin the case on him for evidently no reason at all.
Okay, cool. And like, did the witnesses that saw the car that you were in, did they also?
Were they part of this grand conspiracy?
They too had hyperglycemia.
They too needed a fucking cracker.
Liars. They were stupid.
Correct. So there's that.
Wow. So in 1988, Buddy Jacobson was diagnosed with bone cancer.
Oh. Yeah. And prison officials at Attica suggested moving him to a secure medical facility for treatment, but Buddy refused.
He was not for that.
No? He told his sister during a phone call, they want to send me to a county hospital.
They want me to go there and die.
Well, you might not be wrong.
On May 16th, 1989, Buddy Jacobson did die.
Okay. At the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo at 58 years old.
Damn. Yeah. Following the trial, Melanie Kane, she tried to continue modeling, but she found that the notoriety surrounding the case made it way too difficult for her to find work but a short time later she did marry and she started a family and just hoped to put the murder and her relationship with buddy behind her damn and then jock's poor family was just left to clean up the pieces of his absence yeah oh all because buddy jacobson is a giant fucking twat because he couldn't just fucking move on he could have like Like that woman said in the beginning, he could have had nine girls, 13 girls.
Yeah, apparently he had no shortage.
And then he just became obsessed with this one girl and ruined her life and the man she loved.
And this girl was very upfront with him.
Melanie was like, I don't like you.
So let it go, move the fuck on.
And the thing was, he could have had her, but he treated her like shit when he had her.
So she was like, let me go find someone way fucking better than you in every way humanly possible.
Precisely. but yeah it's just such a senseless case in the way that they just over the overkill in this case oh that's horrific it's so sad it really does feel like a mafia style murder because it's so brutal and gruesome yeah I think buddy had some connections it's just like that there's just so much overkill that it just feels like a different kind of situation a little bit yeah I definitely I definitely think that there were some connections to that.
Yeah, there's something going on there.
Especially how powerful Buddy was in New York.
You know what I mean?
There's some kind of like something going on there.
Oh, it's awful. It's really sad.
Maybe we can cover something like haunted next or creepy.
I think up next we're going to be talking about a witch trial.
Oh, hell yeah. That's haunted and creepy.
And not the one you know.
Well, we know a couple at this point.
I'm excited about that.
Let's fucking go, girls.
It's a crazy one. see you on, I think it's like Thursday or something.
Yeah, Thursday. Hell yeah.
Look at me knowing when we record. Hell yeah.
Well, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But that's so weird that you lie a lot and kill people because I don't like that.
Don't be this guy. Just go eat a cracker.
Yeah, don't be dumb and hungry I guess.
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