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Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329

November 21, 2022 / 47:57

This episode covers the murders of several gay men in Bakersfield, California, including Neural Renfro, Stephen Tauser, and the implications of a network of predators.

The episode begins with the story of Neural Renfro, a millionaire who was murdered by John Oren Biggs after making sexual advances. Biggs was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served only three and a half years, raising concerns about the treatment of gay victims in the justice system.

Next, the discussion shifts to Stephen Tauser, an assistant district attorney who exploited a troubled young man, Lance Hillis, leading to Hillis's drug addiction and eventual death. Tauser was murdered by Hillis's father, Chris, who believed Tauser was responsible for his son's demise.

The episode also touches on the broader context of violence against gay men in Kern County, highlighting the leniency shown to perpetrators and the lack of justice for victims. The narrative suggests a possible connection between these murders and a larger network of powerful individuals.

Throughout the episode, the hosts reflect on the systemic issues within the Bakersfield justice system and the societal attitudes towards homosexuality during the time of these events.

TLDR

The episode discusses murders of gay men in Bakersfield, focusing on systemic injustice and a network of predators.

Episode

47:57
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foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
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Captain that's enough of the business everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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foreign [Music] we discussed three murders yesterday and unfortunately there will be more today
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we start off with neural Renfro who was a 50 year old millionaire his business Gold Coast Realty and investment was
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booming Renfro was not out in fact none of his friends had any idea that he was gay
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he apparently liked to hang out in the company of young men entertaining them at his home or at his mountain cabin
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on December 19 1982 Renfro was hosting 18 year old John Oren Biggs who answered an ad placed by
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Renfro for a live-in caretaker for his house this was a house in a modest but nice neighborhood of Bakersfield but
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this house was noted for its fortress-like bars on the windows and neighbors said that the shades were
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always drawn anyway Renfro and Biggs were playing pool and Renfro made a pass at Biggs
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Biggs said he let it go but when it happened again a few minutes later Biggs grabbed a fire poker and bludgeoned
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Renfro 40 times over the head Biggs was then rifling through the house looking for cash and then he stole
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renfro's car and went and picked up a friend this is 18 year old William Blankenship
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the two returned to the house and stole a safe but were later very disappointed when they found the safe contained
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nothing of value Biggs was arrested and charged with renfroe's murder his defense was a
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variation of the quote gay Panic defense they allege that Renfro was a pervert and Biggs attack on him was prompted by
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renfro's advances it turns out and it appears that neural Renfro had a history he on at least three prior occasions
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lured young men to his house using the ad for employment made advances and then actually raped one of these men
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his house was found to be missing interior door knobs the doors required a deadbolt key to open them so one could
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not always leave of their own free will once inside it's kind of like the Bundy method that he used in his car but
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inside his house a Renfro the Pierce may have been a violent sexual predator Biggs was ultimately convicted for
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killing him but only for voluntary manslaughter and he served only three and a half years even though he had a
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rap sheet going back eight years this is going back till when he was about 11 years old he didn't get a
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double charge for manslaughter plus you know robbery my notes only state that he was
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convicted of voluntary manslaughter it might not have pressed charges if they stole the safe and there was nothing in
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it though so that's a possibility well his rap sheet going back to when he was 11 this included things like assault
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and battery shooting at police extortion robbery and burglary wow so this is viewed as basically a slap on
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the wrist and it did outrage many people at the time particularly gay rights activists who believed that Biggs got
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off easy because simply because Renfro was gay yeah but see here's here's the issue
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again we have we have a case where somebody ends up murdered and then we have robbery and some other things that
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went down during the commission of that murder we have allegations that are brought forward against the man who is
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is now dead and unable to defend those allegations it's this is a whole big messy story
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and around that same time we have William tayak he threatened shot and killed two gay
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neighbors after some kind of Confrontation and it appears he did so simply because
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they were gay right it's hate crime yeah yeah so this has a similar outcome tayak was convicted of only involuntary
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manslaughter of one of the men despite having threatened to kill them and then bragging about it afterwards one writer
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said of the result quote this case would reinforce a national impression of Bakersfield in Kern County being a place
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where violence against gays is tolerated end quote in the wake of these verdicts
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the State Attorney General was convinced to take a look at whether homosexual victims of violent crime were being
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shortchanged in Kern County well there were a lot they were for a long time in history 60s 70s 80s it seemed that there
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was a contradictory history in the Kern County Justice System some killers of gay men got light sentences despite the
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Law and Order approach Kern County prided itself on while some well-connected powerful gay men escaped
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scrutiny or got off easy to despite having sex with minors it's really a situation where you see
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all this going on and you have to I mean you can only throw your hands up in the air and go what is going on here
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right what truly is going on here then we have Attorney General John Van de camp
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he established a commission on racial ethnic religious and minority violence Los Angeles attorney Thomas Coleman
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headed up the investigation of the Biggs and the tayak trials in which the defendants received light sentences
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allegedly because of the homosexuality of the victims Coleman said quote what you're talking about is corruption
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whether the victim is gay or not the presence of sexual orientation as a factor has in the past at least given
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the appearance of unequal treatment end quote after studying the situation he established a campaign against hate
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violence and encouraged stiffer penalties for cases involving violence against certain groups including gays it
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was a start but it did not address the systemic problem embodied by the Lords of
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Bakersfield yeah and this is going to heat up too because one of the activists and one of the people leading this
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charge for stiffer penalties uh is actually going to be murdered Marshall Jacobson was a 48 year old millionaire
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real estate and criminal defense attorney in Bakersfield and he spoke in front of the Kern County Crime
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commission urging these harsher sentences for criminals who perpetrated violent crimes
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against homosexuals Jacobson himself was gay and known to frequent the baker's field Greyhound bus
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station apparently this was a popular meeting spot for men and where Ed buck had also been known to frequent
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Bakersfield Police knew about Jacobson and had looked into allegations of sexual misconduct made by an underage
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boy but charges were never filed then at the bus station he met Randy Ray backin
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who was 19 years old and this man went on to live with him for eight months Jacobson provided food lodging and a job
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including tuition for school but required sex in return yeah he's a sugar daddy beckon wasn't gay and he said
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later that he was disgusted by the relationship but he needed a roof over his head
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he resented Jacobson and he broke the house rules in fact he skipped school two days in a row when this happened
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Jacobson kicked him out and back and left the house he returned a week later demanding entry
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into the home and even climbing Over The Back Fence then he went inside the unlocked sliding doors
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once inside he stabbed Jacobson in the stomach 10 or 11 times and then he proceeded to rob the house
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he drove Jacobson's car full of stolen goods all the way to Los Angeles and he sold the car then he tried to escape to
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Mexico but he was turned in by a friend of Jacobson's who he had called for help
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here the lenient sentencing ran out back in got life without the possibility of parole but again it was a case of an
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older man surrounding himself with young men and one who ended up killing him and
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yeah this is going to bring us to the year of 1998. so depending on who you talk to
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a number of years passed before any more murders occurred this seemed to have anything to do with the patterns
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surrounding possible members of the Lords of Bakersfield as you said Captain 1998 we have Sid
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Sheffield who was a prominent education and health activist in town he was found
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stabbed to death in his mobile home the murder weapon was a knife and he was robbed police discovered that he was
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leading a secret life one that did not go with his Public Image at the time he was promiscuous very social and was said
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to have no enemies and possibly was last seen with a young man in a cowboy hat at
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a local bar this case to this day remains unsolved and to be perfectly fair and transparent
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no one is really sure whether it has a connection to the Lords of Bakersfield or not but it's often brought up during
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those discussions yeah it's a similar situation we have a tough time figuring out what
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cases to include and what not to include and again who depending on who you talk
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to that can change drastically so let's go to 2002. because this is where things really
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really start to to fall apart okay we have 57 year old Bakersfield assistant district attorney Stephen tauser
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he had a public image of the caring do-gooder the public servant a good samaritan
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who took a drug addicted youth under his wing this kid was Lance Hillis who knew
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Stephen since Lance was five years old his father Chris worked for Stephen tauser as a district attorney
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investigator after he spent several years in the Bakersfield Police Department tauser was gay it was considered an Open
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Secret and he seems to have fixated on this young man Lance who was under the age of 18 when
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talzer started grooming him got involved with meth at the age of 16. and was not welcome at his home at his
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parents home because he was doing drugs talzer took advantage of this situation and offered Lance a safe haven a place
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where he could stay at first Lance stayed at tosler's home for several months but he told a friend he wasn't
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comfortable there and he was there just for the food and for the clothes and for
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a place to sleep now he would leave but he would always end up going back to tallser's home this
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mostly when money ran out for the drugs that he was yeah it seemed like as one of his
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only options once in a while when he left he would take one of tulsar's cars to which
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Stephen talzer would call the police but would never end up pressing charges for
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a stolen vehicle the police knew that talzer was spending a lot of time with this young man when
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Lance finally got his own apartment tallser co-signed the lease and it doesn't seem like anybody's really
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sure how Lance was actually paying the monthly rent but you don't have to use much of an imagination to come up with
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an idea so speculation of course was talzer was paying and he was a regular visitor to
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Lance's home talser continued to supply Lance with food credit cards lodging a car and a
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friendship such as it was yeah he was providing him with a little FNS well Lance continued into a downward
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drug spiral he was stealing he was crashing cars and he was injecting drugs into his veins
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his family was extremely anxious among other feelings for him to kick this drug habit they actually wanted him
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sent to jail they thought that this would be truly the only way to break the cycle of addiction that really had
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had a hold on this guy right so taller used his assistant district attorney influence to get Lance off
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anytime he was charged with stuff [Music] so Lance would just be facing rehab rather than facing jail time gone this
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is I mean it's not that far of a stretch to look at this situation and go like but
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this is like sexual trafficking in a sense you know by by enabling this person or possibly
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giving them the money for drugs maybe you're not injecting their form but you're basically creating the situation
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now that you have an addict that they're dependent on you for drugs are dependent
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on you for financial situations and then you're they're you're using them for sex
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I mean that's sex trafficking well it's also believed that Not only was Lance being sent to rehab because of
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talzer rather than jail but it's also believed that like any time there was a chance that Lance was going to encounter
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a tough judge in one of these charges that he would conveniently have the case moved to a different Court
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so again he could just get rehab so this happened repeatedly to the incredible frustration of Lance's family
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whenever Lance was in rehab talzer was a regular visitor even when Lance assaulted a worker at one of the rehab
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facilities tulsar had the incident buried Chris Hillis new tosser for years both in his role on
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the Bakersfield Police Department and at the DA's office and because he had done
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extensive renovation work at Stephen tallser's home he was getting desperate to save his son
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Lance he had Lance arrested in an attempt to save him from his meth and heroin addictions
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already a man with a temper who had been written up for the use of excessive force five times as a police officer he
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lost it when he was confronted with the reality that Stephen talzer's relationship with his son was far from
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that of a mentor relationship but was really a sex for drugs and money Arrangement the Hillis family realized
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that tallser had preyed upon their teenage son's desperation for drugs and abused him Chris Hillis confronted
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talzer in August 2000 and demanded to know what the obsession was with his son this ended in a violent confrontation
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which we have Chris who ends up hitting talzer and then calling the sheriff's department
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when the responding officers arrive he's telling them that tallser was inappropriately involved with his son
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Lance the sheriff's department refused to file a report rallying around the district attorney
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the assistant district attorney tosser ended up with a black eye and nothing else
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when Lance continued to be arrested for drugs and thanks to tosser's intervention to
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be sent to rehab instead of jail right the Hillis family truly felt that their hands were tied and that this man
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corrupted their son and there was little if anything that they could possibly do
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about it yeah well he corrupted their son and now he's corrupt in the system which is consistently enabling their son
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yeah and because their son is an adult and when a lot of this is going down it gets complicated for them to step in and
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try to get involved or you know take the reins and and really steer what's going on here now
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Lance's grandfather did just that he was a former Bakersfield Police Officer his
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name's Don Hillis he recommended to Lance's probation officer in January of 2001 that Lance
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should do six to nine months in jail just to get him cleaned up Lance's brother a probation officer for
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Kern County himself agreed to this and multiple probation officers continually recommended jail for Lance
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but tallser continued to intervene and once again Lance avoided jail time in July of 2002 Lance was enrolled in
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progress house this is a rehab facility in Sacramento this time Lance escaped from the rehab house
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he stole a car and he crashed into a truck unfortunately he died instantly during
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this accident this was on August 7 2002. this ripped up his family overcome with
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grief and rage Chris Hillis Lance's father murdered Stephen talzer on September 13th
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talzer was found dead in his garage with a knife sticking out of his head the Hillis family believed that if it
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were not for Stephen Tozer then their son Lance would still be alive yeah initially the father denied being
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involved he eventually pleads guilty to the crime and he is hit with 10 years for involuntary manslaughter right for
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voluntary mans for voluntary manslaughter and which is going to be a little bit different because the other
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charges those guys were getting about three years he's going to get 10. yeah Chris Hillis got out of prison in 2013
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he runs a drug rehabilitation facility in Bakersfield called Lance's Haven now the tulsar Hillis case brought to
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the Forefront some of the Old Wounds dating back to the late 70s and early 80s to the time when multiple murders of
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male Predators occurred by the hands of younger victims but now it was 2002. a different time
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what was overlooked back then was recognized in 2002 as pedophilia yeah illegal sex with minors and an old boy
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network of corruption and cronyism that talser had continued to get away with using his considerable power and
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influence to control the life of this young man to do him favors with big strings attached was shocking and
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disturbing and the fact that so many impositions of public service and influence looked the other way was
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horrifying they didn't protect Lance Hillis instead they handed him back over and over again to a predator
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the case gave rise to the expose in the Californian that dredged up all the old lords of Bakersfield tales and people
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realized that much of those old Legends were rooted and true [Music] [Music] all right cheers everybody and make sure
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you you don't be a douche canoe go to the store Page and except pick up a koozie or something
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the hat is awesome there's there's actually several hats there's several awesome things pick up the hats I'm
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sorry I'm just lost in this whole story I mean I'm I'm like swimming Through The
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Madness of what what this could be or what it completely is not you know what I mean yeah all right well here's the
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difficult thing is what was happening wasn't recognized correctly on what was actually happening
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and then but but does that mean because of all these um basically you have the murder victim
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was actually victimizing somebody beforehand or accused of doing so right and all those murder victims are
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um of gay orientation or is it files and there's a big difference and then on top of that just because they're of
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power doesn't mean they're necessarily connected and you know what we're going to get to some some bigger things
00:26:11
regarding this story here in just a second but really truly Captain I feel like there's
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a hundred different angles that you could look at this story from and I'm not certain that any of them are well
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the correct angle to approach it from there's a lot of angles that you don't want to look at this that's true so but
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but the major point of the story is to buy the Hat yes no get the Hat do that all right
00:26:39
let's get into uh one time Bakersfield district attorney Ed jagels Chris Willis says that he begged those
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are his words I begged jagel's in multiple phone calls to and letters to take steps to reign in
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his second in command which was Stephen talzer what you're talking about Willis and get him away from his son Lance
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Hillis jagel's response was that Lance is an adult and in interviews when asked about
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the Scandal that culminated in tulsar's Murder jagels insisted that talzer was like a
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Godfather to Lance who saw the young man as quote a project and who only had Lance's best interest at heart
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the district attorney for Kern County is a powerful position right but he this guy also seems
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a little bit like a [ __ ] bag so what he's stating he's the prosecutor right it's a district attorney
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they technically both can be prosecutors okay so the district attorney his second in control is saying to him
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hey you did wrong here right and he's saying no I did not do anything wrong that's where in these situations it
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makes you wonder is it just because of the high power they're in or is it the money
00:28:13
right is he protecting the person because of the high power or the protecting the person from the money but
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either way it seems like this a district attorney is a little bit of a [ __ ] bag
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it goes back to back to all the different angles that you could look at this from to where you
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you could also make the argument that what Ed jaggles is saying is the truth that Lance was an adult
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and that I mean we don't know how much he may have known or what he did know and was
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turning a blind eye to right the the the thing here is when this man retired after more than 25 years as a
00:28:57
D.A Ed jagel's famously boasted that during his tenure Kern County had the highest per capita prison commitment
00:29:05
rate of any major California county his mission was a Law and Order crime policy
00:29:12
sort of ironic since the Lords of Beggars field in many cases seem to be allowed to do their thing with virtually
00:29:20
no legal consequences and this did occur too under his watch right several of them should have been prosecuted for
00:29:28
rape statutory rape and crimes against children district attorney Ed jagels was in office since the early 80s and it's
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the opinion of many that jagels was complicit in helping brush the Lords of Bakersfield Scandal completely under the
00:29:45
rug he may not have just been looking the other way he as you pointed out may have actually helped to protect some of
00:29:52
those people that should have been prosecuted jaggles is best known for his campaign
00:29:58
that he initiated in the 80s to root out child sex abuse right so with all these
00:30:04
rumors going on about the Lords of Baker Fields instead of investigating this they're going to go after
00:30:11
the middle class well lower middle class citizens okay for so-called Satanic ritual child sex
00:30:19
abuse and molestation that this is so bizarre was not actually happening so jagel's put
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26 people these were teachers and even parents in some situations behind bars on felony child sexual abuse charges
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this all during the 1980s this was during the period of a national child sex abuse Panic where daycares and
00:30:45
schools were accused of horrific abuses of kids this was sort of a satanic Panic
00:30:52
involving children now under jaegel's 26 convictions were secured on what is arguably zero to little evidence
00:31:02
of these 26 convictions 25 were actually eventually overturned Kern County has paid out over 9 million dollars in
00:31:13
wrongful conviction settlements a 2008 documentary called Witch Hunt narrated by Sean Penn details this story I
00:31:23
actually believe uh Sean Penn was one of the producers on this as well and to be
00:31:29
clear it wasn't that there was little to no evidence what a lot of in these a lot of these
00:31:35
situations were happening was they're rounding up these kids and basically getting them to just confess to anything
00:31:43
but not ever coming up with the story themselves so they coerced all these uh stories and all these allegations
00:31:52
basically out of thin air right they didn't bother to go find any evidence to back up these right accusations or these
00:32:01
stories by by children and so what this leads to is all of these well 25 of the 26 convictions
00:32:10
being overturned and then in 1999 a Pulitzer prize-winning book entitled mean Justice a true account of a Town's
00:32:19
Terror a prosecutor's power and a betrayal of Innocence exposes jagel's tactics including presumption of guilt
00:32:29
manufacturing or embellishing evidence persuasive interrogations prosecutorial misconduct
00:32:36
despite all of this Diego's continued to be re-elected and Bakersfield embraced its role as the poster City for the
00:32:47
quote tough on crime movement its Mock's slogan was come for vacation and leave on probation lost better than their last
00:32:56
slogan um come on vacation but only if you have some money and you're of power so what does all of this have to do with
00:33:06
the Lords of Bakersfield Legend well what's being pointed out here and has been pointed out by many is that the
00:33:13
lock Em Up D.A seems to have overlooked the activities of various businessmen politicians and social Elite that were
00:33:23
going on right under his nose many believe he was complicit in shoving The Dana Butler murder and the Glenn Fitz
00:33:31
situation his likely involvement in that murder under the rug by refusing to prosecute and investigative reports by
00:33:41
Rolling Stone magazine stated that many Bakersfield residents concluded that jagel's child abuse campaign was
00:33:49
possibly intended to divert attention away from illicit sexual behavior of the city's ruling Elite right a former
00:33:57
investigator for the DA's office under jaegels told the magazine Rolling Stone magazine that the 1980s molestation
00:34:05
trials were simply jagel's allies among the Lords of Bakersfield covering their tracks by going after other people
00:34:16
now we should mention here that Robert mistrell the the man that we've mentioned a lot throughout this
00:34:24
case yeah he actually named jagels as one of the men who sexually abused him I'm going to step in for a little bit
00:34:34
and throw my own two cents in here on this this my my humble opinion if you will
00:34:44
it seems to me and I talked to a friend about this who agreed we were discussing
00:34:51
this case and it just it seems like Robert mistrell while I believe him on some level it seems like he has just
00:34:58
spewed out so many names over the course of all of this it just doesn't seem plausible that they
00:35:05
were all sexual abusers of children at some point it at some point you really got to
00:35:13
question these allegations now Ed jaegel's retired from the DA's office in 2009 and he's never been
00:35:23
prosecuted for all of the wrongful convictions he inflicted upon innocent people right which is pathetic
00:35:32
so the legend of the Lords of Bakersfield truly it's it's just a vague Specter of
00:35:41
predatory alliances and abuses of power to me and to others I I got to say man it
00:35:50
doesn't seem that there is real tangible punishable uh ring of abusive men it seems more like this might be a wink
00:36:01
wink Association and a look the other way type of Tolerance yeah it's a difficult situation here
00:36:09
because one you know he's naming what 150 possible Predators [Music] um you know the average Predator I don't
00:36:19
know the exact number but I know it's the high 200s of roughs rough estimated victims a predator would have
00:36:28
so if you have 150 possible predators in that area would probably see then 20 000 victims and why aren't we having
00:36:38
more of these victims come forward uh and and present this so I think but then it's it's a sticky
00:36:48
situation no pun intended with the Lords of bakerfields because you wonder a couple things one
00:36:55
is it these people in power that are using this sick fetish of pedophilia to control each other
00:37:05
and have one have something on top of each other right have something over the other person who can to be able to
00:37:11
control them or blackmail them or is it just they're protecting these Predators because of wealth
00:37:20
or or their or their position of power so it becomes and I would lean to the latter two then
00:37:29
that it's some giant group with some giant conspiracy if that makes any sense at all well no I
00:37:39
think it does and it's only because because I've been you know waiting in these weird waters
00:37:44
for for a while now and really trying to come up with an answer myself and thinking that you know what the more I
00:37:51
look at this case and the more that I dive into these different avenues that go off the main road of this case here
00:37:58
that I think that I'm going to find my answer unfortunately I didn't like I said there's also other cases that that
00:38:05
some consider to be connected to this and I may not have gone down the right Road
00:38:11
off of off of the main road yet to find that but in the end my my general opinion is the
00:38:21
look there was illegal activity going on we can't deny that we also can't deny that there were plenty of murders going
00:38:28
on as well yeah but there's also a situation where some people may just not have known everything that was going on
00:38:35
or known what was at the root of a murder or at the root of of this whole mess and and therefore didn't take
00:38:44
actions against any of that you know there is a certain there's one thing to turn a blind eye to
00:38:52
something and there's another to just be blind to it and not know what is going on
00:38:59
and I think in this situation I was really going to try to avoid giving my my personal opinion
00:39:08
but I I think that I think I've walked down that path enough where I I think I gotta try to to
00:39:15
give this some kind of conclusion it's gonna say we're good we'll just stop here okay
00:39:23
buy the hat look it's it's very difficult with so many characters misdeeds and variables to really figure
00:39:30
out and state what was really going on in Bakersfield for all these years was there in fact an underground Network
00:39:38
hiding in the shadows and pulling strings and were these murders many of them still unsolved connected to the
00:39:45
legend of the Lords of Bakersfield from where I sit after reviewing this whole mess
00:39:52
I see a name that is repeated throughout this story and a general theme that seems to follow him this is Robert
00:40:00
mistrell by his own admission and others he had a horrible childhood he was selling himself at a young age
00:40:07
trading sexual favors to men for money drugs and anything else to get him by right and while of course I find the
00:40:15
actions and behaviors of the men who chose to employ him as illegal immoral and frankly disgusting
00:40:24
it's very tricky for me to go as far to call those specific situations abuse I understand he he is
00:40:35
a child and not of legal age but to me it somewhat appears that Robert was able to end this sex for
00:40:45
higher relationship at any time with these men and in fact did so when with the help of another brutally murdered
00:40:52
and robbed one of these men and could be suspected in another case as well so this story obviously just I mean it's
00:41:02
just full chock full of victims and a lot of predators Robert just might fit into both of those
00:41:09
categories I'm not certain as for Glenn Fitz the second murder that we discussed
00:41:16
I have to wonder if he is the outlier in this story was this like a budding Dean Coral situation
00:41:26
or is it as simple as once his wife passed and left him alone we have a sick man that turned his home
00:41:34
into a playground for teenagers filled with alcohol and they simply did not prosecute because
00:41:42
they lacked the ability to do so right that there wasn't something to cover this up they just didn't have the
00:41:48
ability to prosecute him and therefore did not bring those charges forward and had fits not died
00:41:57
be it suicide or be it murder who's to say that they wouldn't have drug him into court at some point for Dana's
00:42:03
murder eventually I also went to state that the double homicide committed by William tayak who planned murdered and
00:42:10
then bragged about doing so just because two gay men were his neighbors that today likely would be prosecuted as
00:42:20
a hate crime and it's very difficult to figure out if those crimes had nothing to do with the quote Lords
00:42:29
of Bakersfield or if the lack of proper punishment and what should have been a death penalty case very likely does have
00:42:38
something to do with it you know what I mean it's it's tough to figure out if the Lords of Bakersfield are at work in
00:42:44
some of these situations or if it's just someone else interfering with Justice for unknown reasons what I do think that
00:42:52
we have is in fact a network of men who frequented the same locations in search of similar entertainment they lived
00:43:01
Secret Lives and desired the company of young men and or boys now keep in mind something very simple that we have to
00:43:12
remind ourselves when we start to look into conspiracies conspiracy theories and these pedophile rings and all these
00:43:20
people possibly In Cahoots with one another anytime you have a person or persons
00:43:26
committing illegal acts you will have those same people covering it up whether it's they're covering it up for
00:43:32
themselves or if they're helping someone else and that's where it gets very difficult to truly discern
00:43:41
what is going on in this situation and in other situations that we look at is in fact there's no doubt that there's
00:43:50
a cover-up it's just to what extent is that cover-up how many people are involved is it just one person is it a
00:43:57
whole Army right of predators that are out there it's there's no doubt to me that most of
00:44:04
these men very likely knew each other again they frequented the same locations they were
00:44:11
in search of similar things you have to you just really have to look at this when when they all know that
00:44:18
their behavior in a lot of cases is wrong and illegal yeah and if we believe Mr Robert Mistral
00:44:27
well then they've very likely formed a ring of corrupt abusers that protected one another and if they did that it's
00:44:36
very hard to say what they would not have been capable of doing yeah I I agree that that's a possibility
00:44:43
and you again you'd have to believe Robert on some of this stuff but I think you'd have to back down the number of
00:44:49
the accusations that he's probably making Robert mistrell was released from prison earlier this year after serving
00:44:58
35 years he's now 52 years old he's married and is hoping to start his life over again this after getting his GED
00:45:07
while he was incarcerated although he recognizes his complicity in the murder of Edwin Buck he also recognizes that in
00:45:17
many ways he was not fully at fault for the circumstances that led him to the murder while I just want to be clear in
00:45:24
these cases that these older gentlemen are using drugs alcohol money all these briberies just because the
00:45:35
child agreed to it agreed to their Arrangement does not mean it's anything less than child abuse and
00:45:44
pedophilia agreed now as far as the legend of the Lords of Bakersfield and the cases that
00:45:51
we have discussed today we have just simply an implication of a possible connection in my opinion and
00:46:00
what we have here is we have Robert Price the journalist for the Californian who helped expose
00:46:06
this sword underbelly of Baker's field he put it in a May 2019 article that the cases had the same ingredients quote a
00:46:17
troubled and compromised young man a persistent much older male sponsor and homicide
00:46:23
[Music] foreign try the Hat do we have any recommended reading for this week we do this week we are
00:46:43
recommending American predator by Maureen Callahan American predator the hunt for the most
00:46:50
meticulous serial killer of the 21st century and some of you may have guessed it this
00:46:58
book is about Israel keys so you'll want to check that out and you don't have to
00:47:03
write that title down now you can just go to our website we have a recommended page there you'll find a lot of other
00:47:09
books and other recommendations for you on that page truecrime garage.com again thank you guys so much for listening
00:47:17
thanks for joining us in the garage every week your garage buddies and until next week be good be kind and don't
00:47:26
litter foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 80
    Most controversial
  • 75
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most emotional

Episode Highlights

  • The Tragic Case of Neural Renfro
    Neural Renfro, a millionaire, was murdered by his caretaker after unwanted advances. His death sparked outrage over the lenient sentencing of the perpetrator.
    “Biggs got off easy because simply because Renfro was gay.”
    @ 07m 11s
    November 21, 2022
  • Stephen Talzer's Manipulation
    Assistant District Attorney Stephen Talzer exploited his position to groom a young man, leading to tragic consequences. His influence allowed the young man to avoid jail time for drug offenses.
    “This is like sexual trafficking in a sense.”
    @ 17m 48s
    November 21, 2022
  • Chris Hillis' Revenge
    After his son Lance died due to Talzer's influence, Chris Hillis murdered Talzer in a fit of rage. He was sentenced to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter.
    “If it were not for Stephen Talzer, then their son Lance would still be alive.”
    @ 22m 40s
    November 21, 2022
  • The Complicated Legacy of Ed Jagels
    Ed Jagels, a powerful district attorney, faced accusations of complicity in covering up crimes while pursuing wrongful convictions.
    “It seems like this district attorney is a little bit of a [ __ ] bag.”
    @ 28m 22s
    November 21, 2022
  • The Lords of Bakersfield Legend
    The story of the Lords of Bakersfield reveals a network of power, abuse, and cover-ups.
    “The legend of the Lords of Bakersfield is just a vague specter of predatory alliances.”
    @ 35m 35s
    November 21, 2022
  • Robert Mistrell's Complicated Journey
    After serving 35 years in prison, Robert Mistrell seeks to rebuild his life while acknowledging his past.
    “He recognizes that in many ways he was not fully at fault for the circumstances that led to the murder.”
    @ 45m 01s
    November 21, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • It's good to be seen and it's good to see you.
    Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329
  • What you're talking about is corruption.
    Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329
  • The major point of the story is to buy the Hat.
    Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329
  • It seems like this might be a wink-wink association.
    Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329
  • Just because they agreed to it does not mean it's anything less than child abuse.
    Lords of Bakersfield /// Part 2 /// 329

Key Moments

  • Cheers and Thanks00:40
  • Canadian Garage Tour02:20
  • Murder of Neural Renfro03:37
  • Lance's Death22:18
  • Chris Hillis' Revenge22:25
  • Old Wounds Resurface23:21
  • Lords of Bakersfield35:35
  • Robert Mistrell's Release45:01

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown