the lapd, brian alexik, and the strange condo

some weeks ago, a gas leak was reported in a certain building. when the lapd tried to evacuate unit 701, the inhabitant refused to open the door which was a real problem as the gas seemed to be coming from it. when the police forced open the door, they were just in time to see its resident "scamper" down the fire escape carrying a couple of dufflebags. a pursuit failed, but in early june, the police did catch up with this man, named brian alexik (although known by a few other names) hiding out at his girlfriend's place. an arrest was made, but i'm getting ahead of myself... back to the condo.

there wasn't a gas leak. alexik was simply running a generator to supply his electrical needs as his power had been cut off. this is a bit amazing as this was a $3,400/month condo (some reports just round that up to $4,000) and he originally paid advance rent in cash. the days of plentiful cash were gone because he was on the verge of getting evicted. it's a bit mysterious as to WHY he got behind on his bills because he was engaged in a variety of criminal pursuits. for one thing, he was counterfeiting money.

so, we have the counterfeited money of which the police found about $15,000 worth. the way this guy was counterfeiting money was to bleach $1 bills and then reprint them as $50 or $100 bills. a lot of money orders were also found in his apartment.


ironically, this apartment was right next door to the u.s. federal reserve and the police found evidence that alexik had been watching it through binoculars. people have different theories as to why he was doing this... everything to plotting robbery to watching a particular person to general paranoia.

one bedroom had been converted to "a makeshift machine shop" that had "tools scattered around." in this, alexik had done some weapons modifications although the weapons reported left at the apartment were an AK-47, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. i've read some descriptions of what sort of modifications he was doing it doesn't sound like any of these weapons would necessarily be what he was working on, but idk.

other interesting items were some things to make false passports, some things the lapd assumed were drug-related (not sure if they were, but alexik does have a new jersey drug conviction from 1996). apparently, he hadn't made himself a fake driver's license because, more recently, he'd been caught driving without a license.

alexik also had photos of him with several celebrities. the lapd says he had some connections in the world of fashion and cosmetics. they opined that he had a way about him that drew some people to him. because of this sort of thing, they assumed he'd fled the country when, in fact, he was about a mile up the road.

alexik also had a number of photos of himself with different hairstyles, etc. several people seemed to think his photos look very familiar. one person swore he'd seen alexik's photo advertising a porn site (this was not a pornographic photo, btw). i don't know about that, but a lot of people did feel like they'd seen him before although most assumed he just resembled someone who was famous.

back to the condo... in the attic, the lapd found some interesting tilework.. apparently, alexik had wiled away his spare hours not devoted to counterfeiting, weapons modification, and forging to make a lovely "replica" of the cia shield. i put the quoties because it's not exact or anything. according to some reports he did some lovely tilework in his previous apartment although he used something else for inspiration. hanging over the lovely shield (which was on the floor) was a portrait of hugo chavez. at first, the lapd thought alexik had an obsession with the cia, but they say they didn't find anything else of that nature in his condo. although, when you handmake a 5-feet wide tile tribute, why would you NEED anything else?

the secret service now has the four hard drives taken from alexik's computers and the lapd is hoping to learn wtf this dude was up to. even though they have him in custody under $1 million bail, he doesn't feel like enlightening them. the secret service deals with counterfeiting in case anyone was wondering why them.

so, various people have been guessing ... personally, his set-up sounds like something from a movie or comic book (because it was in an expensive condo, a place ill suited to, say, a machine shop), but i know little about these sorts of things. i do like the guess that he's part of organized crime with a really good b.s.  story (for people he'd like to impress) that he has um... government connections. but, of course, who knows...

the lapd may be withholding information due to their on-going investigation, so there may not be as much mystery as there seems. one reason i think this is they've already arrested someone else he knows on weapons charges. his girlfriend was also arrested for aiding him in his flight from police.

to me, there are two main mysteries.. first, with all these money making methods (one of which is literal) he had, why couldn't he pay his bills? second, WTF is up with his freaking art project? the first mystery could be answered, i suppose, if he had a roommate and that person is the one who did a lot of these things, but it doesn't sound as if such a person exists. still, if this was a comic book, they would.

maniac's son sends maps to california police

back in the 80s a certain man in california regularly kidnapped women, held them captive while he abused them, and (if they didn't escape) killed them. he forced his son to help him dispose of the remains...

the police received maps leading to the remains of ms. turpin (missing since 1988). they also found a large redwood stump that had been hollowed out. one woman had been kept prisoner in it. inside the stump, they found old evidence that suggested someone had been kept there. it is unknown what happened to this woman after her escape.

another woman escaped. she had been taken on a boat to be killed. the police actually found her and got the story from her. at the time (late 80s), she chose not to go to the police. perhaps she feared that would lead the man who'd almost killed her to her whereabouts. or maybe he'd made her believe he was "in" with the police.

the man who did these crimes died in 2006. I don't know if there were more than three victims, but given he was old enough to have a teenage son when the above crimes occurred... I can only hope those women managed to escape like the two women above.

I can see why the survivors didn't report it... who would believe them? especially the lady who was held in the stump. who'd even think that was possible? but, it obviously was.

I guess the lesson is there is no limit to evil. I didn't bother with the name of the killer because he's dead and I don't care about his worthless ass. he caused a lot of misery in his life. his son now lives in north carolina and is not facing charges.

another casuality of reality tv?

in september 2006, melinda duckett shot herself only hours before an interview with nancy grace was set to air. she left three suicide notes, one to her parents, one to her grandparents, and one to the general public.

melinda's little boy trenton had been missing for a week. she said someone cut the screen, came in his window, and took him. one witness places her and the baby at a restaurant around the same time. melinda's death effectively ended law enforcements investigation into some areas.

to this day, her son trenton has not been found. her notes seem to indicate the boy may be alive causing some to wonder if she sold/gave him to someone. but, of course, it could also mean she really didn't know what happened to him.

melinda had expected the interview to be sympathetic. I suppose she might never have seen nancy's show. whether the interview started politely, it ended with nancy relentlessly demanding answers while pounding her desk.

some people believe this was too much for melinda and caused her to kill herself. in fact, her family is suing. nancy says melinda's "guilty conscience" caused her to commit suicide. melinda has been described as "troubled" before any of this happened. nancy did run the segment despite melinda's death.

so, nancy didn't want to be deposed on camera. she was denied that request which seems fair. she played cindy anthony's deposition for the civil suit brought by zenaida fernandez-gonzalez (zfg is suing casey anthony).

many of the questions cindy was asked pertain to caylee marie anthony, her three-year-old murdered granddaughter. since casey is on trial for her life, cindy probably would rather her deposition not be shown on tv. nancy showed it, so her not wanting her own deposition filmed is interesting.

however, I found it interesting that cindy came to think of anyone who was watching caylee as "zanny". that seems very, very weird to me.

I didn't know this until I was reading websleuths yesterday, but "zany" means xanax. was caylee's "babysitter" actually being drugged by partying mom casey? did casey turn to chloroform after she couldn't get xanax or it stopped working? anyway, there's a big thread about this. some also think "zenaida" was casey's alter ego.

back on topic, I think people involved with serious crimes (accused, witness, victim, etc.) and interviews with the media gets into some very weird areas. I wonder how it affects investigations and trials, not to mention the mental health of some people.