Episode Transcript
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This is a studio both and production. On November two of two thousand and
four, Stephen Lorenzo implicated Scott Schweikertand Scott Schwiker alone in the disappearance of
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Jason Galehouse. This followed a month'slong online sting operation wherein Scott Schweiker admitted
to assaulting a man in Tampa,Florida, among other things, and following
an interview with witness A, aman who claimed that Stephen Lorenzo and his
friend Scott drugged and assaulted him,and after reviewing dozens of chats between Stephen
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Lorenzo and Scott Schweikert which discussed drugging, kidnapping, assaulting, and even murdering
gay men. The next day,on November third of two thousand four,
a search warrant was finally executed onScott Schwikert's family home in Peru, Illinois.
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Throughout the search, police recovered andseized a Compact Presario laptop, computer
and one external ZIP drive, Scott'scell phone, a business card belonging to
Stephen Lorenzo, Scott's check book,and some unspecified documents. During the search,
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Detective Columbia and Agent Albrecht briefly interviewedScott on the premises, and Scott
told them that he did in factknow Stephen Lorenzo, that he had briefly
lived in Order Orlando, Florida,from October of two thousand and three through
December of that same year, andthat while living in the area, he
had met Lorenzo online, and thatnot long after meeting online, Scott drove
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to Tampa and met Lorenzo in personat a bar. He said that during
that meeting, Lorenzo told him he'dbeen in trouble with the law on narcotics
charges. Scott said that shortly afterleaving Florida, he lost touch with Lorenzo,
and that the pair hadn't had anycontact since around April of two thousand
and four. He then casually mentionedthe incident with witness A, and the
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police immediately began to mirandize Scott,at which point he informed them that if
he was read as rights, hewould not talk without an attorney present,
and so police ended the interview.Two weeks later, Tampa, PEEDI returned
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to Stephen Lorenzo's house with their secondsearch warrant. Upon arrival, they found
that Jason Snelling Lorenzo's former roommate,who was involved with Lorenzo in the alleged
stocking of Snelling's ex boyfriend, wasnow living in Lorenzo's home on West Powaton
Avenue. During the search, Snellingadvised Tampa Pedee that Stephen Lorenzo had given
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him other printed AOL instant messenger chats, chats which Snelling then handed off to
Lorenzo's attorney, chats that the policehad never seen. Throughout this second search,
police recovered and seized an e machinecomputer, an assortment of floppy and
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compact discs, a videotape, asmall green plastic baggie found hidden between compact
discs in Lorenzo's office, and anelectronic organizer. About a month later,
on January twelfth of two thousand five, police conducted a more formal interview with
Jason Snelling, and Jason advised thatover the course of the last twelve months
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or so, he'd provided Lorenzo's attorneywith several packages, including one as recent
as December of two thousand and four, but when pressed on the contents of
those packages, Snelling requested to speakwith an attorney and the interview ended.
Even though Lorenzo had implicated Schweikert inthe disappearance of Jason Galehouse Tampa Pedee were
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more interested in Lorenzo's long list ofassaults, his drug charges, and the
very damaging items seized from his home. They began preparing for a grand jury
and started lining up witnesses. ByJanuary of two thousand and five, the
police had already tracked down at leasttwelve different Florida men who had alleged that
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Stephen Lorenzo drugged, kidnapped, andor assaulted them incidents that spanned from nineteen
ninety eight through late two thousand three. Seven of those men agreed to provide
testimony for the federal trial and witnessy, and several others were on board to
provide testimony for the state trial.Two of those men had since died and
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two had moved out of the country. On April thirteen of two thousand five,
Assistant U S Attorney Percelli called DetectiveColumbia with Critical News. Forensic analysis
of Lorenzo's computers and hard drives foundand recovered a previously deleted file, a
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file that contained twenty photos. Thephotos were of Michael Wachold's There appeared to
be blood around his mouth, ligaturemarks around his wrists and ankles, and
obvious signs of lividity. Michael Walcoltswas dead in all twenty photos which were
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taken in Stephen Lorenzo's living room andbathroom. In at least one of the
photos, an undetermined individual is holdingMichael's feet to pose him for the picture.
One week after it was determined thatStephen Lorenzo had photos of Michael Walcolts
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dead inside of his home, athird search was conducted on two thirteen West
Powaton Avenue. This search included adetached garage and apartment on the property in
addition to the main residence, andagain, Jason Snelling was at the house
at the time of the search,and he told officers that most of Lorenzo's
furniture was in a storage facility nearby, a storage unit that was rented in
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Lorenzo's sister's name. From the residents, officers seized a belt from Lorenzo's closet,
which was present in several of thephotos of Michael Wacholt's in the garage.
Cadaver dogs hit on multiple areas aswell as one in the backyard adjacent
to the garage, and officers discovereda recently poured concrete area near where the
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dogs had hit, and so TampaPede filed for search warrants to dig in
the backyard, seize and search Lorenzo'sjeep Cherokee, and to search Lorenzo's off
site storage facility. On May ninth, Tampa Pedi returned to Lorenzo's house to
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meet with Jason Snelling. They hadsomething they needed him to see. In
the analysis of the hundreds of photosfound on Stephen Lorenzo's computers and hard drives,
there were approximately sixty photos of oneman who appeared to be unconscious and
in various stages of undress, andTampa Pedee believed that man to be Jason
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Snelling. When they showed him thephotos, Jason began to cry. He
confirmed that he was the man inthe photos and that he had no recollection
of them ever being taken. Headvised that on the day that the photos
were dated, he had moved backinto Lorenzo's house. He recalled drinking wine
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and chatting with Lorenzo in the livingroom that night, and then waking up
fully clothed on the couch. Sometime later, he said that he didn't
recall ever taking any illegal substances,taking his clothes off, or any photos
being taken of him. He alsoconfirmed that he and Lorenzo did not have
any sort of romantic relationship nor anysexual relationship at the time, and it
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was in that moment that Jason Snellingrealized that his best friend had likely drugged
and assaulted him without him ever evenknowing. The day after sharing photos of
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his presumed assault with Jason Snelling,Tampa Pedi and assistant US Attorney Picicelli met
with Scott Schweikert at the federal courthouse. They advised him that he was being
subpoenaed for the grand jury in theircase against Stephen Lorenzo, and when asked
if he had or needed an attorney, Scott said that he didn't have one
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and that he didn't need one.He was ready and willing to cooperate,
at which point he was informed thatat that time he was only a subject
of the investigation and not a target, and so Scott Twikert began to share
his account of what happened. Onthe weekend of December nineteenth, of two
thousand and three, Scott told investigatorsthat after meeting Lorenzo online, they met
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in person twice in Tampa. Atfirst, he denied knowing about Jason Giehouse
and Michael Wachold's and when shown aphoto of Jason Gailhouse, he said that
he wasn't the person that they meton December nineteenth at twenty six oh six,
but very quickly he changed his storywithin several minutes. He went on
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to tell detectives that on December nineteenthof two thousand and three, he and
Stephen Lorenzo went to twenty six ohsix to look for a sub and while
there they met Jason Galehouse and thethree of them went back to Lorenzo's house
to have sex. According to Schweikert, at some point during the sex,
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he went to the bathroom to masturbate, and when he returned, Stephen Lorenzo
had Jason Galehouse in a chokehold.He said that fifteen minutes later he realized
that Jason was dead and that Lorenzoforced him to help carry Jason Galehouse's body
to the garage, where the twowrapped him in a tarp and then placed
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him on a trailer. He saidthat Lorenzo said he was going to dispose
of Jason's remains at a nearby landfill, but that Scott immediately returned to Orlando,
and this is what Scott testified toat the grand jury. But as
he walked back to the police headquarterswith the detectives following his testimony, Scott
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began to add more detail to hisstory. He said that while in the
garage, he helped Stephen Lorenzo dismemberJason galehouse. He said that the pair
placed Jason's remains in multiple plastic constructiontrash bags and then they drove to various
dumpsters west of Lorenzo's house in Tampato discard each bag individually, and that
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he did not, in fact driveback to Orlando that night. Instead,
he stayed with Lorenzo. He saidthat he was afraid of Lorenzo, but
for reasons unclear, not only stayedwith him, but returned to twenty six
oh six with him the following night, and that's when the pair met Michael
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Walcoltz. Scott told detectives that aftermeeting Michael Walcoltz at twenty six oh six,
Michael agreed to go back to StephenLorenzo's house with them. He followed
them there in his jeep, andupon their arrival, Scott saw Lorenzo give
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Walcolts an unknown substance from his pocket. He said that shortly there after,
Scott once again excused himself to usethe bathroom. That while he was in
the bathroom, he heard Lorenzo callout for help. He ran out to
the living room and found Lorenzo tryingto handcuff Michael Wokole's and he assisted Lorenzo
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in putting the handcuffs onto Michael,and then Lorenzo began suffocating him. Scott
said he watched as Michael slowly died, and then he helped Lorenzo wrap Michael's
body in a floral bed sheet andmove him into the back of Michael's jeep.
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Lorenzo then told him to follow himin Michael's jeep to a dumping sight.
According to Scott, Lorenzo was speedingand driving erratically. At one point,
he rushed through a yellow light,which forced Scott to run the red
light. Scott was certain that Lorenzowas either trying to lose him or get
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him pulled over. Driving Michael's carwith Michael's body in the back, but
the pair eventually arrived at the CamdenBay Point Apartments, where Michael's jeep and
remains were discovered on January sixth.After they abandoned Michael and his jeep there,
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they returned to Lorenzo's house, whereSchweikert gathered his belongings and immediately returned
home to Orlando. So to beclear, according to Scott, Schweikert,
he just happened to be in thebathroom when both the attack on Gaelhouse and
the attack on Wocklets occurred. Despiteextensive searches of the dumpsters, Scott claims
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they disposed Jason Galehouse's remains in andthe Tampa area dumps and transfer stations.
Jason Galehouse's remains have never been recovered. When I started writing this show,
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I wasn't sure how I felt aboutLorenzo's in Schweikert's relationship. It's something the
researchers, Doctor Scott, and Iwent back and forth over. Was Schwekert
a patsy or a criminal mastermind?Was Lorenzo a calculating killer or an idiot
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who Schwekert used to take the fall? Was there a dominant submissive dynamic within
their own relationship, and if so, who was the dom Some days,
it felt like Schweckert had seamlessly setup Lorenzo to take the hit for his
own crimes. He sought out Lorenzoonline and then went to where he lived
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to commit the crimes in Lorenzo's ownbackyard, and then he left. But
other days it seemed like Lorenzo wasusing Scott. That Lorenzo had a long
prior history of violence, and hewas not only using Schweikert to escalate that
violence, but to also eventually pinany crimes he committed with Schweikert. On
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Schweikert, all of our opinions changedalmost from day to day, And while
Tampa Pedi, at least externally,were putting all their energy into Lorenzo,
it seemed that behind the scenes theywere having a similar debate. But with
Scott's confession that he helped dismember JasonGalehouse's body and then helped dispose of Michael
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Walcholtz's body, Tampa Pedi had enoughto arrest him, and on May twentieth
of two thousand five, a yearand a half after the murders of Jason
and Michael. They finally arrested ScottSchweikert six months after they arrested Stephen Lorenzo.
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In the week following Schweikert's arrest,Tampa, Peedi conducted multiple interviews with
people who knew Scott, starting witha former cellmate of his on May thirty.
First, they met with a manwho served time with Scott in two
thousand and one following a DUI thatScott received in Georgia while living in South
Carolina, who was one of manyDUI's and driving violations Scott would receive in
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that period of time. He saidthat while in prison with Scott that Scott
portrayed himself as a straight man despitebeing very effeminate. He said that Scott
mentioned living in Florida for a brieftime prior to that arrest, but that
he left not long after moving therebecause he hated the humidity, heat,
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and bugs. This statement is interestingfor a few reasons. I mentioned last
episode that based on the alleged firston dad Line chat between Lorenzo and Schweitkirt,
it seemed like they had definitely metprior, and here we had a
former cellmate of Scott stating that Scotthad briefly lived in Florida at some point
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prior to two thousand. It's notby any means proof that there was a
prior relationship, but it's an interestingnote because it does place Scott in the
area years prior to that alleged firstconversation in October of two thousand and three.
Second, it shines a light onScott's relationship with homosexuality and masculinity.
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Scott tried to present as straight injail despite being considered a feminine. Scott
had also talked about hating twinks andeffeminate men in his online chats with Lorenzo.
It's representative of a gay self loathingthat came up over and over again,
not just in my conversations with doctorScott, but with my other gay
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friend about how these crimes occurred foras long as they did, and how
they might have affected the greater gaycommunity in Tampa. My name is Drew
Mackie. I'm a writer and creativeperson living in Los Angeles, and I
happen to have a podcast. Itis not about murder. It is about
LGBTQ episodes of classics that come sucha much lighter subject than drue crime.
(19:26):
Here's some of my conversation with DrewMackie, who hosts the Gayest Episode Ever
podcast. So, I guess,in realizing that you at least were attracted
to other men, how did youfeel or how did culture media that people
around you make you feel about that? Bad? Like really bad? Because
(19:49):
I don't know if you if youremember what the depiction of gay people on
TV was like in the nineties,but it actually wasn't always great. And
this is a thing that I talkabout a lot of my podcast. For
example, the entire character of Chandleron Friends has a running joke where he's
always been mistaken for gay, andwhenever it happens unmistakably, it is a
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bad thing. He does not wantto be seen as gay. It is
something that people tease him about.And when you're a little kid who lives
in a small town, who doesn'thave access to rural representations, of representations
to real gay people, or youcertainly don't know any that is sort of
what you internalize. And to thisday, going back and rewatching some of
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these old TV shows or movies,I'll realize that I internalize something from popular
culture that my band is just like, well, this is what it's like.
And I've held in the back ofmy head throughout my adult life until
I finally like, catch on toit, interrogate it, and I was
like, this is a fucked upthing that I don't need to be thinking
anymore, but I actually need tocatch it before I can do that.
(20:52):
Yeah. I think it's interesting becausewe focus a lot on kind of the
more aggressive homophobia, you know,being called names or people voting against gay
rights, and I think often themore painful I guess anti gay experiences growing
up, or those more nuanced oneswhere it is lighter and more normalized to
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just be like ooh, don't thinkof me as gay, or like ooh,
that's gross, or using gay asa pejorative. And I think as
gay men we often overlook that whenwe're interrogating or trying to heal, but
those are the ones that are morepervasive because they're quieter and they happen more
frequently. I completely agree, AndI don't know how I come across to
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people. Usually gay men figure outI'm gay pretty quickly, but I don't
necessarily think that straight people do.And I have a hard time even thinking
of how to express this phenomenon inwords without sounding happy about it, like
because like straight passing is such avoted phrase and I want to make it
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seem like I'm hiding. But thenI try to think about how do I
conduct myself, Like how do Istand, how do I talk? How
do I dress? And am Idoing all these things because this is who
I am and I figured it outwho I am as an adult, or
am I still in some way tryingto guard against straight people figuring out that
I'm gay because I fear big atree, but also that like soft discrimination
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that is bad and I still getwhen I go back to our hometown,
how often are you thinking about whetheror how you're presenting is gay? A
lot of times when I go ona first date is something that I'm putting
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a lot of thought into because youknow, like it's it's a first date,
so you're hyper aware of how you'representing yourself. And then I try
to think about, like how amI like presenting or dressing differently than if
I were meeting like a non gayman for a non date for the first
time, and I don't I talkedto my therapist about this kind of stuff
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a lot, but like you canreally trip yourself up trying to figure out
who you are and how much howmuch of what you're putting out there is
a reaction to what's happened to you, and like a reaction to stuff that's
like all in your head hypothetical thatmaybe hasn't even happened to you yet,
but like often often, and thenlike recently I went back to I went
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back home, and you know,I'm packing my suitcase with some clothes to
change into, and I'm really consciousof, like self editing for something I
might wear to my day to daylife in Los Angeles versus a small town
I grew up in. Yeah,it's funny. I didn't even notice I
did it, but my partner pointedout. And I'm out to my dad,
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but you know, I've been outto him for almost twenty years,
and even today, if I geton the phone with him, my voice
drops an octave. Just like weirdstuff like that that you don't even realize
you're doing, or you really haveto be conscious of. It's strange you
talked about editing yourself or being awareof, you know, or thoughtful of
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how you're presenting yourself on dates.Is that something? Do you feel comfortable
around other gay men? Yeah?I don't really, I don't know.
I guess I had an idea forwhat living in a big city was going
to be like when I was akid, and LA is relatively safe for
me, and I can go tomost of the places I would go on
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my own, and I don't reallythink about my personal safety aside from being
like a pod asternhom I run overby a car. But I also have
in my head some anecdotal stories ofmen just like me who were who were
taking advantage of who are actually aand or sometimes physically assaulted without a sexual
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component. And it's weird how thoseanecdotes don't make me feel more personally scared.
They don't, oddly, and Ican't really explain why not do you
go to gay bars or gay clubsoften? I did before pandemic. I
just am very lazy post lockdown,but I've been a few times. Yeah,
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what's that experience like for you?It was something I didn't really think
twice about before pandemic. Having hada break from interactions with groups of people,
I am slightly less comfortable, likeinjecting myself into a group dynamic pretty
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much anywhere, but even at agay bar. And then a few times
I've been in a place like thatwhere I've been aware that, oh,
this person's being handsy in a waythat is maybe flirty or maybe just friendly,
and that's who they are, butI'm not super comfortable with it,
and needing to try to figure outa way to like extricate myself from the
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situation in a way that doesn't feelrude, which is just not something that
happened earlier in my life. Yeah, it's interesting. I remember coming out,
and you know, you're repressed sexuallyfor so long, and then all
of a sudden, you're you know, usually if you leave your small town,
you're in a gay space and youcan kind of go buck wild.
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But there's this weird push and pullbetween wanting a supportive community and then being
looked at as like a sex object. And I had a really hard time
like finding my identity as a gayman that was not entirely steeped in sex.
(26:56):
Yeah. Yeah, it's I don'tknow how anyone can get that right
away. Maybe some people are emotionallyintelligent enough to figure that out right away,
but I think you kind of haveto do that through practice and maybe
making some choices that you would nothave made a few years down the line,
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you know. Yeah, do youfeel like you fit in with a
gay community? No? Why not? Because I feel I don't know,
it was reird, so I didn'tfit in. Like all the way growing
up, I'm like, Oh,something's off. And then when I figured
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out it was good, I'm like, oh, that's it. And for
a while that did the trick.And then as I got older, I
was like, I feel like everyonehere is operating under they have the same
operating system, and I have somethingthat's slightly different. And I don't know
quite what the difference is, butjust reactions to stuff is different. I
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don't like dancing, and this isa weird thing, and I think a
lot about self presentation and like beingcomfortable in my own body and why I
am not someone I'll dance at weddingsand that's like not a big deal.
But like if I'm with a groupof people and they're like, we should
go dancing, I'm like, Ithink I'm good. I just have no
desire to go do that. Andthat's one of those things where I'm like
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I think my brain is wired alittle differently, and I don't know whether
that's a like neurological thing or ifit is a product of having so many
pent up feelings about performative masculinity thatI don't like myself enjoy certain things.
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When you spend your formative years beingtold that the world will hate you for
loving who you love, it's hardto believe you could ever truly love or
be loved, especially as yourself.The same week that Scott Schweikert was arrested,
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Tampa Peedee returned to Lorenzo's house onWest Powattan Avenue to search the yard
and dig under the concrete slab.They found nothing of evidentiary value in either
search, but while they were there, they found Jason Snelling smoking a cigarette
in the backyard. Jason apologized forbeing confrontational and uncooperative at first, and
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he said that he was ready tocooperate with their investigation. He said that
the case had damaged him severely,that he was essentially hiding out from the
world. He was parking his carin a back alley and then climbing over
the fence just to avoid the press. He said that when he visited Lorenzo
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in jail and confronted him about thephotos. Lorenzo gasped at him. He
told him that not only did Jasonknow about the photos, but that he
consented to the photos. Lorenzo toldhim that the police were just trying to
manipulate him and turn him against Lorenzo, but Jason said that he didn't believe
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him. He knew that he hadn'tconsented to the photos. He affirmed he
didn't remember the photos ever being taken. He said that he was still incredibly
upset, but also that he forgaveStephen Lorenzo. Stephen Lorenzo was his friend.
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As Tampa Peade continued interviewing Scott Schweikert'sfriends and acquaintances, they were quickly
able to place him in Fort Lauderdale, Florida multiple times between nineteen ninety nine
and two thousand four, including severaloccasions where he was reportedly traveling with unnamed
hustlers or street people. Interestingly,Stephen Lorenzo had a condo in Fort Lauderdale,
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Florida, even more so on Junetwenty seventh of two thousand and four,
several weeks after Lorenzo's house was firstsearched and months before Schweikert would even
be implicated. Mark Jackson, athirty five year old gay man, disappeared
from an apartment building directly across thestreet from that condo with Stephen Lorenzo to
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commit a murder while on the police'sradar. Or was Scott Schweikert smart enough
to abduct someone from Lorenzo's own backyard? Well, he was on the police's
radar. Well. I also wantedto say I loved list catching up on
the episodes, and I ran throughthe most recent one twice because your narrative
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actually took me in a slightly differentdirection and understanding regarding the more this is
where it gets confusing using these terms, the more dominant of the two of
the personalities and the driver I reallythought was Lorenzo. And then I'm realizing,
(32:46):
oh no, no, no,no, that this was almost almost
equal. Like as far as themmotivating each other, they just have very
different personality types. But you knownot, couldn't be a worse combination for
two people to find each other.We have been through through Harry Call.
(33:15):
You weren't so calm and so cool. I wouldn't do I would do.
I wouldn't do that if we havebeen through it all, Harry Call,
(33:57):
would you were call? You couldn'tdear. This episode was written, researched,
(34:27):
edited, and produced by Me YourHost Josh Hallmark, with additional research
by Kaz. This episode featured DoctorScott from the La Not So Confidential podcast
and Drew Mackey from The Gayest EpisodeEver Podcast. This episode was made possible
by the following Patreon producers Adrian IYellow, Amelia Hancock, Amy Basel and
El, Benjamin Choppa, Fong Casey, Jensen Richardson Happy Birthday, Dana Keith,
(34:51):
Doctor Jill Cooper, Drew Vipond,Hallie Reed, Jessica, Ali Hoadzig,
Gillian Natale, John O'Leary, Kendall, c kimberly Ka, Lauren f
Linley, tuscoff Manola Spoolicos, megancapSewell, Mike Sherman, Nicole and Dennis
Henry, Sarah King, sc ShannonFoster, Shelley Brewer, Tuesday Woodworth,
Zach Igntowitz, Warren, Beth McNally, John Comrie, Jordan Taylor, Carly
mcnaght, Lana Sarah Ce and LydiaFiedler. Thank you to True Crime Bullshit's
(35:15):
newest Patreon supporters Renee Oh, TammyP, Sarah P, Wendy, Joe,
Rachel B, Josh h Not Me, Sidney, Gabriella, Julia,
j Amy P, Tasha S andChelsea. To support the investigation, go
to Patreon dot com, slash Studioboth and. This episode featured music by
Evolving Scapes, Grizzly Bill, Lightin the Shadow, Hypnagogia, y Haskel
(35:38):
Rez and Yotama Gone, with featuredmusic by Chris Garnot. I didn't believe
may go. Don't know me.I don't know you. In fact,
(36:01):
I don't know you always, butI was always sure letting you who over,
no wings of flore way out thedoor. We have been re every
(36:51):
calm. You're so calm and socool. I couldn't do that now.
I couldn't do that. Nothing Icouldn't do They're free, you know.
(37:14):
Oh oh, oh oh