Speaker 1: 0:00

What is it that intrigues us so much about murder? Why do we consume true crime documentaries and podcasts like they're primetime news? In fact, I think most of us prefer to watch those over the actual news nowadays. Is it the victim that makes us invested, or is it the killer? Is it seeking justice? Maybe it's all of the above. Now, most of us can probably say that we've never witnessed a murder with our own eyes. That is not counting those of us who have, say, gone to war. But then again, you don't really find war documentaries under the true crime category on Netflix, do you? It's kind of ironic.

Speaker 1: 0:45

So when this guest, who we'll call Malachi, contacted us and told me that he had witnessed a murder on the streets of LA and wanted to tell the story on the show, it piqued my interest, not only because it was a murder, but because he said no one did anything about it. I don't mean that no one was arrested or prosecuted. I mean the incident just kind of came and went and nobody really paid attention. The victim was known, the killers were known. So how could that be In modern America? Could a person be murdered, surrounded by people in broad daylight, and no one reacts? Could that really happen. I needed to know more, so we set up a call and told them to lay it all out From the Redacted Podcast. I'm Matt Bender and this is Murdering Malachi, episode 1, unnecessary Waste here's the thing I it was, I think, 18 years ago.

Speaker 2: 2:09

I'm terrible at math now. So to put it that, 2006, 2007, somewhere in that rough area, and I was, uh, coming off of, I was coming out of a rehab or something in philadelphia, and and somehow I got the opportunity to go to arizona, to mesa, where it's like a really big recovery city, and I did really well there, got a salesman job, big office, but it all came too soon and so the money, the success, basically led right back to drug use. So while I'm in Arizona, I was you know, you know what. Let me get on out of this small town where, like, I've got drug dealers showing up at my door with suitcases full of drugs Not suitcases, briefcases, briefcases with scales and bags of drugs. Let me get the hell out of here.

Speaker 2: 2:54

So I got on the bus and I thought let me go to LA, because in my naivety I thought LA was what you saw on television. I thought it was like a big bumping fast city. And that's how I know how to survive. I'm from the big city, philadelphia, which is basically New York. I know how to survive, I know how to make it. I show up and by the end of the day, I got a room or an apartment or something. So I get on a bus to go to LA. I realize I'm a little short of money because I was on you know whatever reason, because I was getting high. Somebody in the Western Union gave me some money and on the Western Union there was a note that said get out of LA, go to San Francisco right now. Basically said you stopped at the wrong place, get back on the bus. And I was like I'm here now. I don't know what their problem is, and I took the money, I got off, I left the bus station and I'm expecting to see a big cosmopolitan, you know, like a New York, like a Philly, and instead I got off to the third circle of hell in Dante's Inferno. I actually don't know what the third circle was, but it was the third circle, regardless. It was horrible and it was just.

Speaker 2: 4:08

You get off the bus stations in downtown LA and the first thing you see is a line of crackheads standing on the street. And I'm not saying that to be insulting, I'm saying that because that's just what they were. They were crackheads. And there then I walked down a block and there's like tents everywhere. I'm like what the living hell is this? And I'm thinking, you know, with my history I was still not young, young, but I was basically grown man. But young, grown man I thought I could just jump into an apartment, jump into a room, jump into something. By the end of the day, like I've done everywhere else. I've literally moved around the country by the end of the day, like I've done everywhere else. I've literally moved around the country by the end of the day.

Speaker 2: 4:46

I'm in somewhere Not downtown LA Wow, I mean, it was just a wake-up call and I'm walking around with my bags maybe two bags and I'm like I'm trying to figure out where the rooms are, I'm trying to figure out where the cheap apartments are, I'm trying to figure out what's going on and where the rooms are. I'm trying to figure out where the cheap apartments are. I'm trying to figure out what's going on.

Speaker 1: 5:11

And there's just nothing A wasteland of dead bodies that happen to still be walking around. Where Malachi actually found himself that day was smack in the middle of Skid Row in Los Angeles. It's right in the heart of downtown, bordered roughly by 3rd Street to the north, 7th Street to the south, main Street to the east and Alameda Street to the west. It spans several blocks, but it's primarily concentrated at the intersection of 5th and 6th. In most modern, cosmopolitan American cities, that spot would be prime real estate filled with high-end housing, entertainment and shopping. But that's just not the case for Skid Row. In fact, it's a stark juxtaposition to the glitz and glamour of neighboring areas like Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Instead, it's characterized by dilapidated buildings, vacant lots and a palpable sense of urban decay. Despite its central, perfect location, skid Row is often overlooked by tourists and locals alike, and its existence is merely relegated to the margins of public consciousness.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Its origins can be traced back to the early 20th century, when economic downturns and urbanization led to an increase in the transient populations in the downtown Los Angeles area. By the 1930s, skid Row had solidified as a hub for temporary workers, migrants and individuals grappling with poverty and mental illness. The 1950s brought with it a new wave of challenges, as deinstitutionalization policies shuttered psychiatric hospitals, releasing thousands of mentally ill individuals onto the street without any kind of a plan. Skid Row, which was already a magnet for those on the fringes of society, then became an even worse version of itself, only exacerbating the cycle of poverty, addiction and violence.

Speaker 1: 7:10

Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, this area became synonymous with urban blight, a real no-man's land, where law enforcement turned a blind eye to the rampant drug trade and criminal activity. By the 1980s, the crack cocaine epidemic made it even worse, fueling a surge in violence as rival gangs battled for control of lucrative drug markets. Statistics paint a sobering picture of life there. According to a report, as of 2020, the Skid Row area accounted for a significant portion of Los Angeles County's homeless population, with over 4,600 individuals living on the streets or in temporary shelters. Substance abuse disorders were prevalent, with some figures indicating that at least 70% of homeless people in this area also struggled with addiction. It's no surprise, really. Malachi found himself planted in this neighborhood in the mid-2000s, or, as he put it, the third circle of hell.

Speaker 2: 8:13

And by the end of the day, the nighttime was falling and I'm just, I'm in a state of shock and you know I'm a Weight Watcher walking around a giant donut factory, you know it wasn't going to end well. So yeah, by the end of the day, the night's calling and I see some dude hand, another dude, a handful of crack right in front of my face, and I'm just like you know what, give me one of those. I'm done and off to the races. I was, was.

Speaker 2: 8:48

So it's the same old drug story. The details of what I did and how I did it and whatever, I don't know. But I don't think it lasted long because you know I'm in a whole new city, got no connections, got no nothing. I'm in hell. That was probably just maybe a few days or a week and I found myself in a salvation army, broke, busted and disgusted, going. What the hell did I do? You know a few days or a week, and I found myself in a Salvation Army, broke, busted and disgusted, going. What the hell did I do? You know, salvation Army is a whole other story and that's suffice to say. There are some people that get help at Salvation Army, but the general picture of them is they're not really there to help, but that's a different conversation. Helping is a guise for them to make more money. But we and so I'm in Salvation Army and one day I'm up on like the third floor, I'm in my room. I think I had a private room because I tend to scream in my sleep and tend to go through some things because of you know, some PTSD, like real PTSD, not this new PTSD where you stub your toe and you need therapy for five years. I'm talking, you know violence and rape and all this other shit. So I've got some issues. So I think I was in my room by myself and I heard some commotion, hollering and screaming and all this, which isn't unusual, but something about it sounded different, like there was a different feel to it. So I looked out the window Even though I'm not a looky-loo, I still just human reaction, I guess was like what the hell is going on out here?

Speaker 2: 10:22

And I see this young kid, maybe 20, 21, technically an adult, but still basically just a kid just a kid running around the corner and he, he had the look. I don't know who he was, but from my free, damn vast experience in the underworld, he had the look of someone who was still dipping and dabbing, someone who was new to addiction or new to the darkest sides of addiction. I mean, he could have been an addict for 10 years because he was, you know, 12. But he had the look of someone who had not yet succumbed to complete control of the demon of addiction, like he was still on that sort of borderline of there's hope. You know, you look at someone and you're just like yeah, he's gone. He was not one of those. He could have been coming off of a party one night and just got too high and got carried away. You know he wasn't an old veteran, just a young kid fucking up. Yeah, a young kid fucking up. And, yeah, a young kid fucking up. And he's coming running around the corner and I see this old, black, burnt matchstick. I mean, when you picture crackhead, you know think Dave Chappelle's show. Perfect example, dave Chappelle's character of the crackhead. That's what perfect example, dave Chappelle's character, the crackhead.

Speaker 2: 11:57

That's what this guy was, just every stereotypical evil, dark, filthy, dirty. I could smell him from the third floor. He comes running after. He was like 40, 50 years old. This is not some kid, this is a grown man who knew the war. He's chasing the kid and I think somebody blocked the kid with a bike and then the go guy and the kid fell against the wall and the older guy grabbed the bike and hit the kid in the head with the bike, like literally picked up the bike up overhead, hit the kid with the bike Somewhere. You know this is a long time ago so I don't have the exact um chronology of blows, but somehow he ended up with like a baseball bat. Yeah, he had somehow a baseball bat came into the I don't know where it appeared from, but he had a baseball bat and he hit the kid in the head with a baseball bat. It was an aluminum baseball bat and he just hit the kid in the head with a baseball bat. This point the kid's on the ground and the guy hits him in the head with the baseball bat again.

Speaker 2: 13:03

And then some old, filthy, 40, 50-year-old female crackhead who basically looked like the female version of the Dave Chappelle crackhead. Just absolute darkness, filth, darkness. Look like the kind of woman and I'm going to say something. Really I'm going to be careful how I say this, because my disgust is tainting my words she looked like someone who got raped 50 times but still goes in the same situation to get raped and still blames everyone else but her herself, like let me go do this really stupid thing. Or got beat up 50 times, let me go rob this person, get beat up and then blame the person I robbed. Let me go rob this person, get beat up and then blame the person I robbed. Let me go, you know, mug somebody with a pencil and blame the cops for arresting me. Just this person who every single decision she's ever made in life is someone else's fault. Yet probably every single decision she's ever made in the last 20 years has been based off of evil, filth, addiction and just demonic possession. You know like it's so hard to find empathy for her. I mean, you'd have to be a way better jesus follower than me, because I I would struggle to find empathy for her.

Speaker 2: 14:29

She came around the corner, went sort of like a sliding move onto her knees and had pulled out a butcher knife and it looked like a satanic ritual, which is so fitting, like you see in those old horror movies where they've got some pretty woman and they rip off her top, her titties are bouncing, she's laying on a concrete slab and some old white dude who their mass stabs are in his stomach. You know those ancient satanic death rituals in those old 40s movies? Well, that's where it looked like this woman just pulled this knife up over her head with both hands and then just stabbed the guy in his stomach repeatedly while she's on her knees. It was just like evil personified, and and the thing thing that stuck out to me was the dichotomy between the two, the ones who attacked him and him. What I mean by that is I don't know any of their stories, but there are certain things that you know without knowing. When you're 40 years old and you look that beat up, you don't get that way from smoking crack for one week. When you're 40, 50 years old and you've got one tooth in your mouth and you're ashy and your hair is, you don't get that way from smoking crack for one week. These were the ones who knew the game.

Speaker 2: 15:55

These are the ones who have committed, no doubt, thousands of sins, not just sins, but crimes. You know, I don't know their story, but common sense dictates these are the bad guys, since we always want to have good and bad. These were the bad guys, and the kid was a new. I don't even know if he's a bad guy or just a kid making a dumb mistake. He probably gagged them out of 20 bucks for a drug. Everything in me says he just gagged somebody for 20 bucks.

Speaker 2: 16:31

And these pieces of human garbage who've probably hurt thousands of people, robbed thousands of people, mugged and raped thousands of people are committing this horrific assault on this kid who probably just made one stupid, dumb mistake, whereas a lot of people would have been like dog, you really don't want to do that out here. You know, I mean, I'm gonna I'm even gonna let you go home, but I'm gonna. I've known drug dealers who have been like you know what, I'm gonna let you have that one, because you really don't know what you just did. I see you out here again, though we, you know, there's that another thing. I've known drug dealers who've done that, people that gagged them Like if they were new, if they knew that they were young, if they knew that they were new, if they knew that they really didn't understand the consequences of their actions. I've known drug dealers who have been gagged for 10 or 20 bucks, caught the person and was like I need my money next week or, you know, I need to never see you again. Like they understood that this was someone who had made a very bad mistake due to inexperience and youth. Here's these pieces of shit, murdering this kid when it was obvious he was new and young and stupid, and if anyone had the karma to be murdered it was them. So, anyway, they finished this assault on him, he gets out somehow and, as the body was still in shock, walks around the corner, because they were right next to the corner.

Speaker 2: 18:06

I didn't see what happened, but I was told, as soon as he got around the corner, he just dropped dead, which I don't see any. I don't even know how the hell he got up. We're talking this. I hit to the head with a bike. I hit to the head with a metal bat twice, about a good three or four stabs to the stomach with a butcher knife. How he even got up, you know, it's a testament to the fact he was a kid, you know. And he died around the corner. And what was ever? I mean, was this in like nothing? Daylight, it was daylight, it was the middle of the day, I think it was like two in the afternoon, two or three in the afternoons. I think we were on like afternoon break. If we get like you know, they give you like some small afternoon break because you know they work you to death at the salvation army.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Yeah, and knowing, knowing that, they work you to death at the Salvation Army and knowing that they work you to death. I do think sometimes they give you a small afternoon break or something like that In the middle of the day. No, it would never happen. Let me see if I can answer that question with a question, but just to myself Hmm, do the cops investigate anything that happens in Skid Row? No, skid Row exists to be a graveyard.

Speaker 2: 19:25

That's the whole purpose of Skid Row. The whole purpose of Skid Row is we will give you this square mile section and you die there. The whole purpose of Skid Row is we will give you this square mile section and you die there. You do not come to the Hollywood Hills. You do not come to whatever part of LA that actually has human beings in it. You do not go anywhere. We will give you tents. We will set up five different missions. There's like five fucking homeless shelters in one square block. We will have people from all sorts of churches and mosques and synagogues come and feed you every night. We will set up four porta-potties on every damn corner and we will not bother you. You live here, you get high here, you die here. We will eventually send someone to pick up your body. Other than that, this is your graveyard.

Speaker 1: 20:25

It's like a controlled anarchy, like a little anarchy no.

Speaker 2: 20:31

Not controlled.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Contained Contained anarchy no not controlled, contained, contained anarchy. Nobody has control and nobody wants control. It's just a giant black hole of chaos that, from the sound of it, nobody escapes. As he said, you go there to die, sometimes by your own doing and, like in this case, sometimes by another. Malachi continued his rant about Skid Row for a moment longer, and then I asked him after watching that boy's murder, knowing what and how it happened, boy's murder, knowing what and how it happened and seeing just how depraved the streets of Skid Row can get, how did that make you feel?

Speaker 2: 21:21

I think the only thing that really affected me was that dichotomy was thinking to myself you're the wrong ones, like you don't have the right to do this to someone, because look at you Like if he had done that to them I would have felt some human empathy, like, damn, that's fucked up, they died. You know what I mean. But I kind of would have been like, yeah, they probably, you know their life caught up to them. Like I could have processed it more, like, oh, that's caught up to them. Like I could have processed it more like, ah, that's fucked up to get murdered in your addiction. They probably crossed the line. You know I would have felt some human empathy, but it would have been like, eh, you know, at this point, who knows what the fuck they did, you know.

Speaker 1: 22:04

But with them being the ones it was more like, really seriously, you actually think you have the right to do that to him Did it affect you more, because you felt like there was hope for him still, because he was young, because he was new.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Yeah, that's the other side of the dichotomy which, you're right, I didn't focus, I didn't talk about. But yeah, the fact that he was young, the fact that he did have milk, it felt like that, really felt like a waste, and thank you for directing me there. If it had been them, it wouldn't have felt as much of a waste. I mean any life. Anyone is capable of redemption. Even the filthiest nastiest, whatever Jesus is real. There is some capability of human redemption. I mean, I'm not Even if you rape and murder children, you need to be in jail for the rest of your life. But if you want to go to church and jail and if you want to maybe try to help other child molesters get better before they get out like dude, they're going to release you in five years. Let me help you not to do this shit again. You know what I mean. Like everybody's capable of some level of redemption Doesn't mean you need to be free. It just means that, in the grand scheme of things, every human being, every human being, is capable of some level of redemption, with them being the victim. It's a little. It's a little more like it had they've been the ones murdered. It's more like, yeah, you're capable for redemption, but like we get it, you know, like you probably had 50. Damn, you don't feel as sorry for them. You're kind of like it would have been nice for you to get the shit together but you didn't. And we kind of get it, but for him it's like dude, it's like he's got his whole fucking life ahead of him.

Speaker 2: 23:54

How many people go out here, get high for a few years and then they're just like, yeah, that shit was stupid. You know. I mean like, oh, we're doing that, like, wow, I almost threw my whole life away. They always talk about the addict who's been the addict for 20 years and finally got their life, but they don't really really talk about the person who's an addict for like a year, who was, who was partying for like a year. A lot of times that you, you know, if you really really listen, you'll hear people say, oh, in my 20s, you know in my 20s, and then they'll be like, but then I grew up, he could have been one of those. In my 20s I was kind of wild. You hear that a lot. They don't tell you what wild means. What wild means they were getting high, they were fucking everybody, they were getting in the fight wild means why?

Speaker 2: 24:38

it's your youthful indiscretion you get that youthful indiscretion period and and people don't always get into details what wild means but that's what it means. They were smoking crack or fucking people in the bathroom or beating up people that they had no right to beat up. You were stupid, you were young. Does it mean you had to die? You're 50, still doing that shit? Then it's kind of like you're wrong. You're like you already know the consequences at 50. Like it's a little harder to feel sorry for you.

Speaker 2: 25:20

Yeah, like you said, your your life caught up to you. Yeah, at some point right up to you. But at 20, come on. So, yeah, there was that. It just felt like an unnecessary waste, like, and it was an unnecessary waste by the ones who had no right to take. If it was another 20 year old, it would have made more sense. Like they were both 20, they were both stupid. One of them paid a bigger price than he should have. You could understand it, you could go. Oh, that's kind of the risk you take, because 20-year-olds are stupid. If he kills you, he's stupid. But at 50, come on, man, this kid was young enough to be your son. He could have been your son and you're out here murdering him on the streets because he did something stupid.

Speaker 2: 25:56

Like, really, part of what really pissed me off is that, like, even in the darkness there are elders. Even in the darkness, there are some who are just like, yeah, yeah, you don't need to go that route, I'm already here, this is my life, this is who I am for the foreseeable future, if not the rest of my life. Right, we see it in movies all the time. They always do some old bum or some broken down athlete or some person whose life is already fucked, and they'll look at a younger person and go yeah, you don't need to go this route, let me. Let me teach you a better run. You don't need to end up like me. They don't murder them. That's what pissed me off.

Speaker 1: 26:50

After listening to Malachi explain his perspective on the addict community and the differences between the young ones and the elders, as he called them, I actually found myself intrigued by the man himself. I don't think I would have ever expected a long-term drug addict who still struggles to this day to be so reflective and insightful. He said that anyone is capable of redemption. Now, was he referring to the young boy that was murdered, that should have been given a second chance? Or maybe was he referring to himself? The elders he spoke of the ones that exist even in the darkness, the ones who seem to have passed the point of no return in their own lives, but are somehow self-delegated to be the protectors of the young ones who don't quite know yet the rabbit hole they are about to jump all the way into.

Speaker 1: 27:48

Does Malachi see himself as one of those elders? Now? At what point does a person cross that line between having a chance and giving a chance? I had so many questions. The more we talked, the more Malachi went on to other stories and gave his detailed distillations of life and its meaning, and the clearer it became. This wasn't going to be only one episode, and this wasn't going to be about just one murder on the next episode of murdering malachi male strippers. Redemption, russian philosophy and one crazy demon lady, did you hear that?

Speaker 2: 28:42

I hear something. Did you hear that god the devil woman's back?

Speaker 1: 28:48

The demon found me. You're not going to want to miss this one. The Redacted Podcast is produced by myself, matt Bender, and my wife, pamela Bender. Make sure to go out there and give us a like, a share, share it with your friends, rate us. Every little bit helps. Thanks for tuning in, thank you, thank you.