Was a A story so crazy it had to be true: a homeless surfer hitchhiks with a stranger to Fresno, California. During their ride, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound driver portrays himself as the second coming of Christ, confesses to raping a 14-year-old girl during a business trip in the British Virgin Islands and says all blacks people should perish, rather than crash their vehicle into a black pedestrian in broad daylight, pinning his body against a truck. As a bystander rushes to her aid, the man gets out of the vehicle, traps her in a bear hug, and begins to strangle her, only for the hitchhiker to thwart her efforts, pulls an ax from his backpack, and bashes the bear in the head. she. The KMPH reporter interviews the happy-go-lucky ax man with the Sideshow Bob ‘do, and the video of his outlandish retelling (“Smash, smash, SUH-MASH!”) explodes, drawing millions of views and turning it into an internet . folk hero
For many, that’s where Kai’s story ended. But in The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, a new documentary premiering January 10 on Netflix, filmmaker Colette Camden explores the deadly consequences of Kai’s viral fame.
A pack of media vultures immediately descended on the 24-year-old drifter, ignoring all signs of his mental instability. Brad Mulcahy, then a human-interest investigator for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, remembers cornering a very drunk (and publicly urinating) Kai for a couple of guest spots on the late-night show. Justin Bieber’s team approached a musical collaboration. Lisa Samsky, a reality TV brand manager who worked on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, even recruited Kai for a potential reality show (she signed the contract in hieroglyphics).
“We weren’t exactly sure what the show was going to be like, but I think what people saw in my company was that Kai could be a gateway to a world we’ve never seen: homeless people living happily on the streets.” says Samsky in the documentary. , not realizing how deaf that sounds.
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Those who knew him describe Kai, born Caleb McGillvary, as prone to fits of anger. In the full version of the KMPH video interview posted online, Kai mentions another incident in which he allegedly rescued a woman from an abusive man, bragging about how he “smashed him over the head” and “broke all his legs.” teeth”.
“Honestly, I think Caleb has mental issues, because he seems fine, but when it comes to a certain pressure situation, you either turn into a diamond or you get crushed,” says his cousin, Jeremy McGillvary Wolfe. “And in this case, Caleb gets crushed.”
Wolfe also claims that Kai had a challenging upbringing in Canada. Her mother, she says, would not allow her to play outside with the other children, and often she would “lock him in a room for quite a while” with blankets covering the windows. (Kai’s mother offers a weak rebuttal.) Kai tried to start a fire in the family home and was subsequently sent to foster care at the age of 13.
Then there was the matter of the incident itself. Kai began bragging to the Fresno locals that he had given the driver, Jett McBride, a joint laced with various drugs, but that he “couldn’t handle the shit out of him.” (A toxicology report only found marijuana in McBride’s system.) According to Fresno police, Jeff Stricker, Kai and McBride smoked a joint in the vehicle, prompting Kai to tell McBride that “they were both ghosts,” adding, “I bet we could drive.” through that truck right now and no one could see us.”
“He’s not perfectly clean in this incident,” Stricker contends.
In May 2013, three months after the viral episode, a 73-year-old attorney named Joseph Galfy was found dead at his home in Clark, New Jersey. He was wearing only underwear and socks, and he had been hit on the head. Police found a piece of paper under a laptop with Kai’s name and number on it, along with a receipt for a train ticket, which led them to surveillance footage of Galfy buying a train ticket for Kai at the station before giving him a goodbye hug. Authorities stopped Kai at a Philadelphia bus station a few days later.
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While Kai admitted to killing Galfy, his version of events described it as self-defense. Police interrogation footage shown on The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker sees Kai tell a pair of investigators that Galfy picked him up in Times Square, treated him to an Italian dinner, and offered to let him stay at his New Jersey home, which which Kai accepted. When Kai woke up, he tells the police that he believed he had been drugged and sexually assaulted while he was sleeping. On May 14, 2013, Kai posted the following message on his Facebook page:
“What would you do if you woke up with a groggy head, a metallic taste in your mouth, in a stranger’s house…you walked up to the mirror and saw water running out of one side of your face and you started tearing yourself apart at the same time. Realizing that someone had drugged, raped, and dumped their fucking load on you? What would you do?”
Caleb “Kai” McGillvary in The Hitchhiker wielding an ax
Kai told police that he did not retaliate, instead taking the train to Asbury Park, New Jersey, to meet a fan in hopes of bumping into her. When the fan didn’t materialize, Kai called Galfy and asked if she could stay at her house again. That night, Kai says he woke up to the septuagenarian attempting to sexually assault him and repeatedly hitting him over the head with his hands and elbows, killing him.
The police pointed out several holes in Kai’s story: there were no signs of a struggle, such as defensive marks. The attack was particularly brutal. His memories of his interactions with Galfy changed several times. He had been caught on video at the train station hugging Galfy and asked to stay with him a second time. And then he cut his hair and fled the state.
At 87 minutes, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker could have spent more time examining the evidence against Kai, and whether there was any to support his self-defense case (although its fast running time is a welcome surprise in this age of drawn-out true crime). . docuseries). It is much more effective as an indictment against the rapacity of the media, as well as its treatment of the homeless and mentally ill.
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Kai was ultimately convicted of first degree murder in 2019 and sentenced to 57 years in a maximum security prison. He must serve at least 85% of his sentence, and his appeal in August 2021 was dismissed. He continues to appeal the verdict.
In his sentencing, the judge called Kai “a tinderbox of explosive anger,” adding: “You created this public image of a free spirit, but underneath that free spirit the jury saw another side to you: cold-blooded, calculated. You callous killer.”
Source: news.google.com