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penniesforthestorm · 3 years ago

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“No, I’m an idiot; you can ask anybody”: Justified Season Three, Episodes 8-10

Well. Howdy, folks. (The great thing about this is, thanks to tungle.hell’s lack of visible timestamps, most of you probably have no idea how long it’s been since I did the last one of these. At this point I don’t even know. But, on the off-chance that there is someone out there who’s been wondering when I’m going to make another one, here you go.) This trio of episodes is one of my favorites of the show’s entire run, so I might dive in with some extra insight here and there; if you want read back, click on through for the premiere, Episodes 2-4, and Episodes 5-7. Join me under the cut, and stop by my inbox any time:

Episode Eight: “Watching the Detectives”

-OK, off-topic, but first of all, this episode’s title happens to be one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs, and also, I know he didn’t write it about Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer, but it’s about her nonetheless...

-We open with Sammy Tonin in a restaurant; Sammy takes a phone call with the Feds listening, and, following Quarles’ orders, links Raylan Givens to Boyd Crowder.

-Raylan, meanwhile, is sitting in his home-base bar in Lexington, listening to a sultry rockabilly singer. (Jack-and-Coke was my ‘starter’ drink when I was younger; it served a purpose but if I never have one again, I don’t think I’ll regret it...)

-Robert Quarles, in a car with Wynn Duffy and Mike the bodyguard, gets a call from a contrite Tanner Dodd. Duffy stops the car in front of the former home of Winona and Gary Hawkins, and lets Gary out of the trunk. Quarles tells Gary, “I want you to give a message to Raylan”, and then shoots him in the chest. Back at Quarles’ house/clinic, he’s approached by Ellstin Limehouse, who informs him of Boyd’s plans to run Shelby Parlow for Harlan County sheriff. Limehouse tells Quarles that he likes to back “the winning side”.

-Next morning, Raylan’s barman pal tells him there was someone tampering with his car; Raylan discovers scratch marks around the keyhole of his trunk. On the drive to work, he gets a call from the Lexington Police Department, and arrives at the scene of Gary Hawkins’ murder. He identifies the body for an already-suspicious LPD detective.

-At the Marshals’ Office, Deputy Tim reveals he knew that Gary was living under an alias in Tulsa, and he’s just been hassling Raylan about Gary’s fate for fun. Elsewhere in the building, persnickety US Attorney David Vasquez is approached by FBI Agent Barkley, the mole for the Detroit mob. Barkley asks to see Vasquez’s file on Raylan.

-Quarles meets with Tanner Dodd, who takes full responsibility for the hit on Boyd Crowder’s Oxy clinic. Quarles tells him he has one last chance, and sends him back to Harlan.

-Winona arrives at the Marshals’ Office, and Raylan informs her of Gary’s death. The LPD detectives question Raylan-- turns out his fingerprints were on the fatal bullet casing. He tells the story of tossing that bullet onto Duffy and reveals it was something he heard on the Johnny Carson show. The older and more skeptical of the detectives goes to Quarles’ house, and finds him insouciantly eating leftover spaghetti with Wynn Duffy at his side.

-Down in Harlan, Sheriff Tillman Napier starts his car, then gets out. The car explodes, tossing him to the ground. In short order, he goes to arrest Boyd.

-At the Marshals’ Office, Quarles and Duffy befuddle the LPD, and Winona gets pulled aside for questioning. Raylan realizes he’s being framed. Just as he’s trying to plead his case to Winona, Barkley and Vasquez show up, and Barkley hauls Raylan into Art’s office, accusing him of corruption.

-As Boyd is being perp-walked into the Harlan County courthouse, Raylan storms out of the meeting with Art, Vasquez, and Barkley. Tim offers to “take him downstairs” where the LPD is waiting, and after a chat in the elevator, he lets Raylan go check on his car. Winona calls; she’s found the gun inside her house. She brings it to Raylan, and tells him firmly, “Don’t come find me.” Back at the office, Barkley asks Tim, “Where is he?” and Tim cheerfully responds, “Where’s who?”, while snacking on some dried fruit.

-Sheriff Napier meets with Tanner Dodd (who planted the car-bomb), berating him for setting off the explosives too soon. Dodd tells Napier to pony up the money he owes, or the next batch of fireworks might ignite even sooner.

-Raylan’s in the clear; Agent Barkley didn’t want to divulge the source of his “tip”. Said source, Sammy Tonin, informs Robert Quarles that their association has come to an end. On a hunch, Raylan visits Quarles’ Lexington house, finding Wynn Duffy. Raylan warns Duffy that Quarles is on borrowed time, and Duffy doesn’t exactly disagree. Quarles, meanwhile, listens to a fire-and-brimstone radio sermon as he drives through the night, and pops a pill, ignoring his ringing cell phone as he pulls up to where Limehouse is waiting.

Episode Nine: “Loose Ends”

-Raylan hides the gun Quarles used in his bedroom. Next morning, Art pulls him in and asks him why he’s looking for Brady Hughes, a missing hustler who was last seen with Quarles. Art asks what Raylan has on Quarles that he can prove, and then tells him to back off.

-Delroy Baker, the Harlan bordello owner, takes three of his ‘girls’-- Ellen May, J.J., and Crystal--to rob a payday-loan office. Crystal gets shot, and Delroy tries to calm the now-hysterical J.J. and Ellen May with some blather about ‘soldiering on’. (We all agree that Delroy grew up in a cult, right?) They dump Crystal’s body in a slurry pond, and Delroy shoots J.J. Ellen May manages to escape into the woods.

-Ava visits Raylan at the Lexington bar, and after some banter, tells him that Boyd has some information he should hear. Raylan goes to Boyd’s jail cell, and Boyd connects Tanner Dodd to the clinic shooting and to Quarles. Raylan calls up Trooper Tom Bergen to help him find Dodd.

-Quarles visits Limehouse to discuss the campaign for sheriff, and Limehouse introduces him to Harvey, the county clerk. Over at Johnny Crowder’s bar, as Ava is preparing to open, a bruised and terrified Ellen May shows up, and Ava takes her inside.

-Raylan visits Tanner’s mother Imogene, a seemingly dotty woman who asks him to help her with her TV. Raylan gently explains that ‘some very dangerous people’ are after Tanner, and she drops the act. “The first time some no-dick lawman ran that game on me, Tanner was ten years old!” she snaps.

-Tanner, who has been hiding at Limehouse’s place with Errol, gets the call that Raylan’s looking for him, and Errol relays that to Limehouse. Limehouse admonishes him to see that Tanner’s “loose ends” are taken care of. Raylan goes to see Sheriff Napier, bringing along a friend he addresses as “Masters from the ATF”. He informs Napier that they’ve traced the car-bomb to Dodd, and not Boyd Crowder.

-Johnny Crowder chastises Ava for not unlocking the bar’s front door. She tells him about Ellen May, and Johnny makes what’s clearly intended to be a grand romantic play. He alludes to Ava’s soft heart-- “You’re always bringing in broken things and trying to make them well” (i.e. It’s me, I’m the broken thing)--and when Ava suggests that he take in Ellen May, he hauls himself up out of his wheelchair onto a barstool, and softly tells her, “You know I always wanted a blonde.” David Meunier’s performance in this scene kills me every time (fwiw he’s a very attractive man); on the one hand, who would have guessed that Johnny was a dreamer? On the other hand... buddy. Ever hear of “reading the room?” Ava, thoroughly annoyed, says that she’ll turn Ellen May over to Delroy; after all, “It’s what Boyd would do.”

-Napier tries to lure in Dodd, telling him he’ll pay up; Dodd and Errol visit Lemuel Briggs, the eccentric tinkerer last seen in S1E11: “Veterans”. Dodd demands that Briggs ‘refund’ him for the car-bomb, and Briggs directs him to a bag of money on top of a cabinet inside his shop. As Dodd steps up to retrieve it, Briggs informs him that he’s standing over a ‘Bouncing Betty’ landmine. Errol shoots Briggs and takes the cash, promising to care for Imogene. Some time later, Trooper Tom calls Raylan, saying that Dodd’s ready to talk.

-Ava, toting a shotgun, hauls a bewildered Ellen May out of the bar’s back room. Delroy’s waiting out front. As soon as he sets down the money Ava asked for, Ava shoots him, and instructs Ellen May to help her clean up.

-Raylan and an actual ATF agent converge on Briggs’ shop; Dodd reluctantly agrees to talk but insists the landmine be defused first. Just as Raylan makes the connection between Napier, Dodd, and Quarles, Dodd drops the pistol he’s holding, and the change in weight makes the device arm itself. Raylan and the ATF agent manage to get clear, but Tanner isn’t so lucky.

-At a VFW debate moderated by Harvey the county clerk, Napier and Shelby Parlow face off. Napier jibes at Shelby’s current job as a big-box store greeter, but Shelby gets an assist from the newly-sprung Boyd Crowder, who electrifies the room by painting Napier as a “company man”. At Johnny’s bar, they’re toasting success when Ava asks Boyd for a word. Johnny, suspicious, watches them go. Boyd, for his part, seems a little less than thrilled that Ava actually killed Delroy, and is clearly surprised when she asks to take over the bordello.

-Errol brings the money to Imogene Dodd, telling her to call if she needs anything. Raylan, concealed in her parlor, thanks her and hands her the remote for the new TV, which he’s helped set up (whatever else, he’s not entirely without grace). He then goes to see Limehouse, who tries to bait him by mentioning not only Arlo, but Frances, Raylan’s mother. Raylan passes along another warning about Quarles, but Limehouse appears unconcerned.

Episode Ten: “Guy Walks Into a Bar”

-Deputy Mooney and another Harlan cop attempt to plant a bottle of pills in Shelby Parlow’s truck, but he wards them off with a rifle, telling them he has terminal cancer, and he’s prepared for his own fate. At Johnny’s bar, Shelby reassures Boyd and Johnny that he was lying about his health. (I know that Shelby’s story in S4 essentially amounts to a retcon, but Jim Beaver’s understated cool is a big factor in why it works.)

-Johnny and Boyd strategize how to go after Napier; Johnny mentions that Napier has a sister. Limehouse and Errol agree track her down, but Limehouse voices some misgivings to Boyd. Boyd does his best to smooth things over, and Limehouse gives him Harvey, the county clerk.

-In Lexington, rascally Judge Reardon gives Raylan some bad news: Dickie Bennett is about to be pardoned, so that the state can avoid a lawsuit for wrongful imprisonment.

-Boyd visits Napier’s sister Hannah, who insists that she’s estranged from her brother, clearly terrified that Boyd’s going to harm her. Instead, he says he’s come to offer her a job.

-Speaking of leverage, Raylan tries to get Attorney Vasquez’s help to keep Dickie behind bars; he offers to have Wade Messer testify. Vasquez reminds him that if the charges are dropped against Dickie, Messer will be released by default, since he was only charged as an accessory.

-At Johnny’s bar, transformed for the day into Shelby Parlow’s campaign headquarters, Boyd receives the word that Dickie might go free. Johnny asks, somewhat unnecessarily, if Boyd thinks Dickie’s stupid enough to come back to Harlan.

-Raylan calls in Dickie’s buddy Jed, who took the fall for Helen’s murder. Jed reveals that his grandmother had a pact with Mags, and Mags called in a favor. Raylan goes to see Granny, finding her in a nursing home with severe aphasia following a recent stroke. She’s able to get Raylan to bring her two milkshakes, and when he hands her one and sits beside her, she dumps it in his lap, then takes the second one and sips with a triumphant gleam in her eye. Back at the office, Art raises the idea that Raylan should give a statement in court against Dickie’s pardon.

-The votes are in: somehow, Sheriff Napier won. In Napier’s office, Robert Quarles lays out their further business relationship, including a desk job for himself. County clerk Harvey arrives with some bad news-- turns out, sister Hannah is on the county payroll, which makes Napier ineligible for office due to a nepotism statute. Shelby Parlow will step in until a recall election can be held. Quarles departs, fuming, only to be confronted by Boyd and Johnny. “Don’t forget who packed your bags,” Boyd sneers.

-In Wynn Duffy’s trailer, Quarles pops a few more pills. A young man with a pistol storms inside, demanding to know what happened to Brady Hughes. Quarles describes his own lurid history: forced to turn tricks as a child to finance his father’s drug habit, then initiated into the Detroit mob by killing his father at the age of 14. Duffy looks on in horror as Quarles assures young Donovan that he “tried to help” Brady (the naked hostage Quarles was keeping in the Lexington house).

-At Raylan’s Lexington digs, bartender Lindsay tries to give him a pep-talk about his statement, advising him not to bullshit. Duffy and Quarles arrive; Quarles is pissed about the election, and he still thinks Raylan is cooperating with Boyd. He threatens to kill Raylan, and Raylan clears the room and invites him to go ahead. Lindsay intervenes, pulling a sidearm from under the bar, and once Quarles and a distinctly fed-up Duffy have departed, Raylan and Lindsay get frisky upstairs.

-In court the next morning, Dickie Bennett babbles to Judge Reardon that he’s found a new purpose in life, and Reardon looks about ready to walk over and physically shut him up. Raylan gives a revised statement: let Dickie walk, and when he inevitably stumbles into another misdeed, the Marshal Service will be there to catch him. Outside, Raylan clues in a skeptical Art: there’s the unresolved question of Mags Bennett’s missing fortune.

-Errol brings news of Dickie’s pardon to Limehouse, who embarks on a parable about “hog-killing weather”-- essentially, it’s all a question of timing.

-In a motel room, Robert Quarles gets undressed, muttering all the while about refusing to give up and fighting one’s enemies to the bitter end. He walks into the bathroom, where Donovan has been gagged and bound against the toilet.

#tv #recap #justified season 3 #long post #did you miss my heart on purpose

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samanthasroberts · 7 years ago

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Pickup Artists Preyed on Drunk Women, Brought Them Home, and Raped Them

How a San Diego woman discovered details of her rape on a pickup-artist blog—and fought to bring her attackers to justice.”>

*Warningthe following article contains a graphic depiction of a rape.

Alex Smith and Jonas Dick considered themselves part of the elite.

The two men were instructors in the community of pickup artistsmen who obsessively study and practice methods of meeting and sleeping with as many women as possible. Some men in the community say pickup is about self-actualization, and finding meaning in their lives.

But according to San Diegos district attorney, Alex and Jonasboth 27 years oldare predators and the pursuit of their art has led to the rape of multiple women.

In what may be a first for the pickup community, the two menalong with their student, 28-year-old Jason Berlinwere charged in 2015 with the rape of a San Diego woman. Jonas and Jason pleaded guilty to the charges; Alex has maintained his innocence, claimingcontrary to Jason and Jonass sworn pleasthat the events of that night were consensual.

The investigation of the San Diego charges not only uncovered another victim of Jonas Dicksa 16-year-old girl for whose rape Jonas also pleaded guiltybut suggested the possibility that many more victims could remain unidentified.

Jonas received eight years in state prison for the two rapes; his student Jason faces a maximum eight-year sentence. Both will spend a lifetime on the sex offender registry.

Meanwhile, Alex Smith went to trial last week, before a jury of 10 men and two women. (At an emotional jury selection, the majority of female candidates said they couldnt remain impartial at Alexs trial, citing a personal account or relationship with a woman who had been raped under similar circumstances.)

Alexs defense lawyer, Samantha Greenea charismatic former deputy district attorneylaid out her clients case in opening statements, taking the line that the woman (well call her Claire, though thats not her real name) had consented and now regretted it. This case is about Claire being embarrassed, not rape, she told the mostly-male jury.

For years, feminists and bloggers have lambasted pickup websites and blogs as echo chambers for misogyny, criticized their techniques as de facto harassment or assault, and called the groups leaders advocates for rape. But pickups thousands of fans and followerswho congregate with other anti-feminists in the online space known as the manospherehave roundly dismissed that criticism as blue pill thinking (a reference to the Matrix). In contrast, pickup artists and others in the Mens Rights Movement think theyve swallowed the red pill and can see through the evils of a politically-correct society whose supposed goal is to kill what remains of the worlds masculinity.

From 2011 to 2013, Alex Smith, Jonas Dick, and Jason Berlin congregated in pickups corner of the manosphere, indoctrinated themselves with the teachings of their pickup artist heroes, and contributed to its chatter in a series of concerning online blog posts. But its what they did with that ideology in the real world thats now at issue for a San Diego jury.

CLAIRES RAPE

On a Saturday night in October 2013, Claire, then 31, went out with her friend, lets call her Laura, for a girls night out in San Diegos trendy Gaslamp Quarter.

They were having a good time. At Analog, a bar advertising good food and strong drinks, Claire ordered a glass of champagne, then a Fireball shot, followed by a pear cider, while Laura drank vodka sodas. They ran into a bachelorette party and took another shot, a cactus cooler. After several rounds, sometime around midnight or 1 a.m., the women left and crossed the street to a different barthe Tipsy Crowfor two more drinks: a lemon drop shot and a cocktail.

Just what Claire drank that night, at what times and in what quantities, would become the subject of intense scrutiny over the next three years; her state of drunkenness was at the heart of the states argument as well as Alex Smiths defense. The prosecution says that Claire had been too drunk to consent to sex, Alexs defense attorney says she couldnt have been that drunk.

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Claire was tipsy, then slightly tipsier, as she remembers it.

When the bars closed for the night, Claire and Laura shuffled out with the rest of the crowd onto Fifth Avenue. They called an Uber, and as they waited, they were approached by two men, Jonas Dick and Alex Smith.

Jonas and Alex were no strangers to meeting girls on that street at that time: they referred to two in the morning as pull oclock because of how easy it was to bring home the last women leaving the bars. They invited Claire and Laura to their place for drinks. It was only a few blocks away.

Claire says she doesnt remember meeting Alex and Jonas. She remembers stumbling and someone with a receding hairline pushing her along, leading her to an apartment building. She remembers being in a semi-furnished bedroom on a mattress without a headboard. Someone giving her a clear drink. The sip she took didnt taste like water, maybe it was alcohol? Before she could think about it, she was falling backwards, and thats when she says it all goes black.

What occurred in that bedroom over the next hour runs in and out of Claires mind like waves. As she testified in court, she can feel the bed beneath her, coming to for a moment, and vomiting on the floor. She hears oneor is it two?male voices, mumbling like the adults in Charlie Brown before it all fades away again.

In another part of the apartment, Laura was sitting and chatting with Jonas. On the way in, Laura saw a man named Jason Berlin, lying on a makeshift bed of pillows on the floor. Laura and Jonas walked to the other bedroom, where he tried to kiss her. But Laura wasnt interested, so they shared a beer and talked for a while instead. After a trip to the bathroom, Laura realized her phone was missing. Jonas had hidden it inside the pocket of a shirt hanging in his closetwhich struck her as a strange thing for him to do. Uncomfortable, Laura got up and walked across the apartment to find Claire. It was time to go.

Laura knocked on the other bedroom door. When Alex opened it, Laura could see Claire on the bed. Claires dress was on the floor; she was lying facedown in a pool of her own vomit. Laura says she was unconscious. Surrounding her were two menAlex, who was completely naked and erect, and in the corner, another man, the one she had seen sleeping on the living-room floor on her way in. He was wearing only a T-shirt.

Claire, lets go. Im ready to go, Laura said, shaking Claire, and pulling her by the shoulders. It took a minute for Claire to come to, Laura says.

As Laura helped Claire put her clothes back on, Alex was laughing. Jonas had followed Laura in and was laughing, too.

We just tag-teamed your friend, Alex said.

As Claire gathered her things, she started screaming at Alex, the man with the receding hairline, swatting at him with her high heel. Alex was dragging Claire, then lifting herlike throwing laundry out the door, Jason later described it.

Get the fuck out of here, Alex said, and slammed the door shut.

Claire was sick and sore, and she knew she wanted the police.

When patrol officers arrived at the apartment complex, they tested Claires blood-alcohol level. It was three hours since her last drink and Claire blew a .151, about twice the legal limit to drive. Detective Garrick Nugent, a newer addition to departments sex crimes unit, arrived shortly after to take Claire and her friends statements. Claire agreed to a SART exam, more commonly known as a rape kit.

Ive never been in the back of a police car before, Claire thought, as they drove to the lab.

At the same time, police banged on the door of apartment 3031. Neighbors in the buildingfull of young professionals, bartenders, and club promoterscame out to investigate. Officers reported the sound of vomiting inside, but no one ever came to the door. So the officers just left.

Across town, Claire was identified as rape victim E960.1, directed into an exam room, and told to take off her clothes. She noticed her dress had been torn at the waist and her underwear was missing. An examiner with a professional camera took photos of the bruises forming on Claires arms and legs, and the scratches on her legs and chest. Then a nurse performed tests for sexually transmitted diseases, as well as a vaginal exam, to document Claires injuries and collect a DNA sample. Claire started to sob on the exam table.

There was no shower, so she washed the vomit out of her hair as best she could in the rooms miniature sink, then changed into a new set of clothes, and got back into the patrol car. When Claire got home, she crawled into bed and cried until she fell asleep.

THE INVESTIGATION

In the weeks following Claires rape, there was no hint that her attackers would ever face prosecution. While Claire was filling prescriptions for pain medications, waking from night terrors, and taking breaks from her IT job to cry in the womens bathroom, the hazy figures inside that San Diego apartment were going about life as usual. One of the men slipped Claires left-behind underwear, adding to a collection of several other pairs, into an empty beer box labeled Lost and Found.

The police hadnt gone back to the apartment to question suspects, or collect any evidence from inside, and they hadnt sought a search warranta misstep that a judge would later question in court. Obviously, we know that the police dropped the ball that night, San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser said, when discussing whether the Viagra, steroids, and Xanax prescription found in Alexs apartment safe months later could be entered into evidence.

Rape cases like Clairesthose involving intoxication or unconsciousnessare difficult to investigate and unlikely to ever be prosecuted. Most rape victims never file a report with police (PDF). Of those who do, its difficult to say how many cases are prosecuted because there isnt any sort of database that tracks sexual assaults from the moment a report is filed to its eventual resolutionif any comes. Still, statistics in San Diego show prosecution to be incredibly rare.

In the first half of 2016, 558 rapes were reported to San Diego County law enforcement (PDF).

The San Diego police provided some data showing 119 reports of rape (during that same time period) where intoxication was a factor and the San Diego Sheriffs Department said theyd received seven reports of rape where alcohol was a factor to date this year. Of those 126 reports of rape involving intoxication, 18 have been referred to the district attorneys office this year. According to statistics provided by the DA, state prosecutors declined to file charges in 12 cases, are currently reviewing three, and have taken on three. Since 2010, the San Diego DA has filed charges of rape by intoxication 28 times, rejecting 80 percent of the cases it received from law enforcement.

We work very closely with the DA and they say the intoxication ones are the hardest for them to prove, San Diego Police Lieutenant Paul Phillips told me. Phillips has headed up the SDPDs sex crimes unit since March and speaks passionately about his new position. We had to watch The Hunting Ground in our unit, and Ive been watching it with my wife.

Through her research, Claire discovered that Jonas was a pickup teacher, and working for Efficient Pickup, a San Diego company owned and operated by RSD alumni John Mulvehill and Josh Lewis. And she thought she recognized another instructor, identified as Beryl, who would turn out to be Alex Smiththe man with the receding hairline who led her to his apartment that night.

Efficient Pickup was a new companyits founders were emerging stars, or rejects (depending on whom you ask) in the pickup communityand its forum was relatively small. It didnt take long for Claire to read through the postings and come across a blog called Tales of a Sex Addicted Narcissistic Player. It was owned by an instructor calling himself Chrysoberyl (a variety of the gemstone known as Alexandrite and another handle employed by Alex Smith). A post dated Oct. 12the night of her rapecaught Claires attention. It was titled Run a train with bootcamp student, using a term to describe multiple men having sex with a woman.

Jonas [Dick] and I are both teaching BC [boot camp] tonight, the post began. We run into each other at pull o clock [bar closing]. He asks me to Wing for him. I do; within a couple minutes Im fingering my girl right outside of the bar in public. Pull back to the spot. 0 LMR.

LMR means Last-Minute Resistance and is loosely defined by pickup artists as the hurdles they believe women make men jump through before agreeing to sex. Its also called a shit test or token resistance which Jason described on the stand as getting past a girls bullshit.

Pickup artists have their own language. They speak in lingo and acronyms and pseudoscientific gobbledygook and it is perhaps telling that there are multiple terms to describe when a womans No might actually mean Yes.

(When an RSD member on the forum asked Alex in 2012 how to tell the difference between LMR and an actual rejection, Josh chimed in: He doesnt care about the difference. All resistance is token resistance. I call him the pitbull because once he latches on he wont fucking let go.)

Alexs post continued: Make her beg for my dick and I say only if my friend can fuck you too. So we run a train on the hoe. I text Jonas to choo choo her but he has to occupy her friend. Her friend came out and I was like yeah we just tagteamed your friend my chick freaked out (cause now shes the slut etc.) I get hit in the face with a high heel. I laugh; we kick them out. Detail to be added when I have time.

Though Alex never returned to the post to add any details, his student, Jason Berlinthe third man in Alexs apartment that nightprovided plenty of evidence in his field report, which Claire found next. In the now-deleted postavailable only through court documentsJason wrote that Alex came out of a bedroom naked, and called his name.

In 1973, Eric Weber published a handbook called How to Pick Up Girls and a movement was born.

Though mild by todays pickup standards, the books original introduction included a line (removed in subsequent printings) about how some women are so absolutely sexy, so downright delicious-lookingfor an instant you even consider rape.

Fast-forward to 2005, when journalist-turned-pickup disciple Neil Strauss penned The Game, a bestselling expos that introduced America to the seduction community, one that had been percolating under the guidance of a few dating coaches and practiced within small, local groups, called lairs. Soon, VH1 took pickup mainstream with a reality show that documented the efforts of Strausss protagonista lanky, soul-patched, fuzzy-hatted Canadian named Mysteryas he molded hapless suitors into serial Casanovas. James Franco is set to play Mystery in a forthcoming film adaptation of Strausss book.

Strauss has recently denounced the very pickup philosophy he popularized. The techniques, lets face it, are so objectifying and horrifying, Strauss told The Atlantic last year. Lets just face it, I got so deep into that community and was seduced by it that I completely lost myself in it. It happens in the book. Why did I really stop writing for The New York Times, hang out with all these kids running around, you know, the Sunset Strip like a maniac in stupid clothing? I see those photos and I vomit in my mouth a little bit. Even when I wrote it, I didnt think it would be a guide.

I thought it would be a book about male insecurity. I even knew then that it was about low self-esteem.

Strauss may have seen his own actions as desperate, but his disciples apparently missed the point. In the late aughts, as The Game was becoming more mainstream, two of its new playersa doughy Canadian named Owen Cook and his financier, Nick Khowere building a business that would come to dominate the pickup market. They enrolled thousands of lonely clients around the globe in seminars and workshops, known as bootcamps and hot seats, and sold them online programs they claimed were the blueprints to seduction. Their company, Real Social Dynamics, is the same one Julian Blanc worked for when he told his students to yell Pikachu before assaulting Japanese women.

In February 2011, Jonas Dick, then a student at Wichita State University, created a profile on RSDs forum, the online message board where members document their failures and successes with women. The youngest of four children, born to Catholic parents who valued hard work and Christian values, Jonas wasas his parents and siblings have explained in letters to the courtan altar boy, and a varsity soccer and tennis player. In family photos, Jonas wears a huge smile and his hair hides his face in long, sideswept bangs.

Jonas was studying international business, investments, and step aerobics at Wichita State when he got involved with RSD. For the summer, he moved west to the Las Vegas Strip, according to a former RSD employee who asked for anonymity for fear of breaching RSDs intense non-disclosure agreement.

Jonas was a nonevent, the former RSD employee, who knew Jonas in Vegas, told me. He was just a regular everyday kid without great hopes. Not that good-looking, not that intelligent. He would come to a lot of free events that RSD would hold to upsell paid events. Jonas was lonely, he didnt have any friends. He was just a lost soul.

Jonas moved to California in 2012. Thats when his family says he lost his way.

He was overwhelmed with the pretty girls, beautiful beaches, outstanding weather, and all that is associated with California, his mother wrote in a letter of support to the court.

Jonass lawyer, Peter Blair, told me the family was still in the dark about what Jonas was up to with RSD. They dont know the entirely of what he was into, Blair said. They know their son went to California, and came back with a charge for rape.

But it was in 2011, when Jonas was still in Wichita for fall semester, that he became more active on the RSD message boards as a now-senior member of RSDNation. Jonas posted stories both of his failures and random sexual encounters with women. Those postswhich have been deleted by RSDwere sent to The Daily Beast by a current employee, who asked not to be named.In October 2011, Jonas wrote in a field report that he had gone to a club and at the end of the night, taken a woman to his brothers home.

Man, this girl is wasted, but she obviously wants me to bang her, Jonas wrote. Im a little perplexed as I want to bang her, but at the same time dont want to get accusations.

He continued: I get on top her. Its dark and I know how wasted she is. For some reason I was having a little trouble getting it in. Mainly because she was drunk and I couldnt spread her legs very far as we were on a couch.

He says he then dropped her off at home. So yea i didnt give her any info and hopefully she doesnt remember any part of me tomorrow. She wasnt mad at all which is good. Sometimes chicks will freak out once they sober up and realize what theyve done for the night.

RSD member SirKonstantine replied, Dont sweat the shit 80% of chicks who WERE raped dont press charges. Chicks cant handle social pressure and pressing charges involves a lot of social pressure. Of the things that do get reported, the case needs to be solid enough where the prosecutor would want to pursue it. Meaning, if shes a dumb idiot, no lawyer (or cops) would listen to her. Those horror stories of a chick pointing the finger and a guy going to jail is media hype.

That post, and others like it, lived on the RSD site for years.

In a still-live post, titled LMR or Rape? The Fine Line RSD members discussed whether overcoming a womans initial no can indeed be rape.

A poster with the handle Jack The Repper wrote, Its a very slippery slope, a lot of what many of us do on a regular basis could be considered sexual assault. Theres always two sides to the story and society always sides with the female. We all know that it happens, but the lines are becoming so blurred.

Did RSD know about these sorts of posts?

The RSD management and coaches dont give a fuck, one former high-ranking RSD employee told me. They dont care whats on the forum. The forum is just a way to let the average everyday idiot feeling like theyre part of the community so that theyll buy more products.

Others within RSD told me the forum is moderated by instructors and volunteers.

One current moderator sent screenshots of examples of such oversight. In 2013, in a private chatroom visible to only moderators, RSD executive coach Jeff Allen Jlaixhimself known for his ownership what he calls a rape vanflagged a post titled How to Rape 90% of your day2s for removal with the comment, This is a public forum and RSD is a multi-million dollar corporation with a lot of liability. Reading these carelessly worded threads in front of a jury in a huge precedent setting lawsuits would be an ambulance chasers dream come true.

RSD did not return requests for comment on the San Diego case. In recent months, the company has integrated a lecture on consent into its online materials. Before a student can sign up for a live event, he must watchor at least fast-forward througha video titled Consent. In the video, Julien Blanc (the same instructor banned from several countries for his misogyny) reads a definition of consent off Brown Universitys Health services webpage and relates what he claims is his personal philosophy: Always leave a girl better off than you found her.

It was through RSD connections that Jonas met Alex Smith. Alex discovered pickup in the way most men didby reading Strausss The Gamebut he wasnt having much luck using its secrets on actual women. Then, according to his RSD posts and Efficient Pickups instructor page, on New Years Day 2012, he met the man who would become his mentor, an RSDer named Josh Lewis, and his life completely changed.

In real life, Alex is balding, lumbering, and smelly. He is intensely socially awkward, perhaps as a symptom of his ADHD, which he treatsor treated, according to his RSD postswith daily Adderall. In his spare time, Alex enjoyed online role-playing games. But on the RSD forum, Alex (or Beryl or Chrysoberyl as he was known), fashioned himself as a lady-killer who slept with different women every night of the week. His blog, titled Tales of a Sex Addicted Narcissistic Player, started, My name is Beryl, and I like to fuck models.

Efficient Pickups cofounder Josh Lewis took [Alex] under his wing, the companys Instructors webpage read (before it was scrubbed), and for the next two years, the pair would wing for one another, going out together every weekend to find women. Soon Alex was running his own boot camps, and his specialty, according to his blog, was train game, or having sex with a woman who has sex with another man immediately after. The reason I do it is because its fucking hilarious and my buddies and I dont generally give a fuck about women we pull, we get a hilarious story out of it and its really fun, he wrote, explaining his method to other RSD forum members. She will usually briefly freak out Have your buddy come in and start doing whatever on her, escalating up, then just hop off and have your buddy continue.

While Alex and Josh were perfecting their pickup game in Vegas and California, Jonas Dick was finishing his degree from the University of Wichita. And in 2012, Jonas moved to California for good, to join what he read on RSDs forum was one big party. With his bachelors in Finance, Jonas was soon living at a hostel in the Gaslamp and parking cars at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse nearby.

I just moved to San Diego and live in a shitty weekly rate hotel in the downtown bar area literally blocks away from the clubs. Best logistics, Jonas posted on the RSD forum. Thats 5 girls in the last 8 days.

In December of 2012, Alex and Josh, who had been running in similar circles, seemed to find each other on RSDs forum. DUDE IS THIS JMAN? Alex commented on Jonass blog.

RSD clients and fans were often doing thisuprooting their lives to act as unpaid volunteers or hangers-on at company events in the hopes of meeting and bonding with other pickup wannabes. For these men, RSD was not just a company offering dating adviceit was a way of life.

Youve got to understand the kind of power RSD has over these guys, Nathan Kole, an RSD instructor for eight years until 2012, explained to me.

On the forum, you hear about guys having epic success or a ton of fun. If youve had a shitty life for 20 years in your hometown of a thousand people, you pack your bags and go somewhere where you can start new.

A year after Jonas moved out to San Diego, he and Alex and their friendsalmost exclusively other San Diego pickup artistswere beginning to outgrow RSD.

People get a certain level of success, and they all think they can be coaches, said Kole, who currently runs his own dating coach business from Austin, Texas. Thats the blight of my life. Ive had dozens of guys who Ive coached go on to start their own thing.

By 2013, Jonas and Alex were teaching for Efficient Pickupa company started by former RSD assistant John Mulvehill and Joshua Lewis, Alexs old mentor. Efficient Pickup promised clients in Las Vegas and California a faster, rejection-proof technique. Mulvehillknown for wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the number of women hes supposedly slept with (he claims almost 500 these days)had been a mainstay of a group of pickup artists in Las Vegas known as the Vegas Pussy Massacre Crew. But Mulvehill was kicked off of the strip in 2015, as part of a one-year suspended sentence stemming from a night in May of 2013 when he allegedly locked a woman in his car, took away her phone, and masturbated in front of her.

The day after his arrest, Mulvehills RSD profile and more than 650 of his forum contributions were deleted. Mulvehills handle, JMULV, was added to a list of flagged terms, and the moderators were instructed to delete any mention of his name.

Mulvehill didnt respond to a request for comment for this article, but I talked with him last year for another story about his company and his alleged crime in Las Vegas. Back then, he insisted that compliance and resistance mean different things to the pickup community, and that the media and the public had gotten the wrong idea about his craft.

I know that sounds sort of rapey, Mulvehill told me at the time. But, he said, its not about convincing girls to do something they dont want to do.

In the summer of 2014, a year after his own arrest and six months after Claires rape, Mulvehill pulled Efficient Pickups website and its YouTube videos off the internet. He currently peddles his wares on Facebook, under the name Seduction Mindhacks Live, and has reduced the price for learning his technique, charging $45 for an online guide.

Mulvehill did address his decision to take down the site in November, during a question-and-answer session following a webinar pitching a $500 online program.

We shut down our YouTube channel and our site recently because when we first started our company a few years ago, we put a couple guys on our site that were advanced that we thought were going to be teaching programs for us, and they never actually taught programs for us, but they actually got into some legal trouble so we took our site down for the time being because those guys were fucking retarded and they werent affiliated with us at all, but were just taking it down for the time being.

The legal trouble Mulvehill is likely referring to would be the March arrest and charging of Alex, Jonas, and Jason in Claires rape.

Efficient Pick Ups co-founder and owner, and Alexs mentor, Josh Lewis, also declined an interview for this article. When Alexs attorney was considering calling Josh Lewis as a witness in the San Diego rape trial, Judge Jeffrey Fraser appointed Josh his own attorney, who advised him to take the Fifth Amendment because of Joshs own potential criminal liability in the case. Judge Fraser agreed with the counsels advice, noting that anyone with a connection to Efficient Pickup was potentially liable for conspiracy.

Im sure you dont have a narrative already in mind and youll portray what I have to say fairly, Josh Lewis told me over Facebook. Efficient Pickup has been dissolved, [Jonas and Alex] werent instructors, and Im in no way related to this incident, Lewis said before asking me never to contact him again.

Despite Joshs denial, Jonas and Alex were listed as two of the five instructors on Efficient Pickups website in 2013. And Jason wrote a glowing recommendation for Alex, which Efficient Pickup posted to its testimonial page: Boot Camp with Beryl is fucking awesome. He will positively impact your life to get better at pickup. I am grateful and privileged to have taken a bootcamp with him and highly recommend him as a pickup instructor.

By that time, Mulvehill, Josh, Jonas, and Alex had all been banned from RSD for promoting a competing company and for possibly crossing an unspoken lineafter years of writing blogs that promoted drinking, drugs, and what reads a lot like nonconsensual sex.

Jonathan Jacobsen, who, as a pickup instructor, goes by Manwhore, was moderating the RSD forum in 2013 and said he removed Alex and the other men from posting on it.

Jacobsen said he privately messaged Alex before the banif hes being a fucking idiot you contact the guy and tell him to stop, he explainedbut Alex couldnt handle it.

[I] want to make the distinction between what they [Efficient Pickup] do and what we do, Jacobsen told me. The point is to not do any of it without her wanting to. Thats not what this is supposed to be. Its a perversion, but these motherfuckers still manage to draw guys in.

Its not clear how many clients signed up for Efficient Pickups services; theres only proof of one.

Jason Berlin graduated from the the University of California, San Diego in 2010 with a degree in economics, and started his own business, Venture Pursuit Inc., in 2011. He bought fixer-upper houses and sold them for a profit. Apart from a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau and an incident that got him banned from the University of San Diego in 2012 (for stealing bikes, according to a university spokeswoman), Jason seemed to be doing all right, at least professionally.

I was probably depressed, but didnt really notice, Jason testified during Alexs trial last week. In November 2015, after several meetings with the DA, Jason pleaded guilty to raping Claire and signed on as a cooperating witnessa partnership that might, but is not guaranteed to, result in a more lenient sentence for him. Jason could receive anywhere from zero to eight years for Claires rape; the sentence is at the discretion of Judge Fraser. On the stand, Jason explained how he became Alex and Jonass original client at Efficient Pickup.

Apart from bad posture and a mild case of rosacea, Jason is good-looking; hes clean-cut, goes to the gym, and dresses well. But Jason was never very good with people, and was cripplingly shy and bumbling with women. So in the summer of 2013, Jason said he posted a call for a wingman on some PUA website.

Jonas responded to the post, according to Jasons testimony. He told Jason he would not just be his wingman but his instructorafter all, Jonas bragged, hed been in the pickup game for over two years and claimed hed slept with over 100 women. Jonas offered to impart his wisdom in so-called boot camps, for $300 a night. Alex also signed on to teach Jason his tricks, and soon the three of them were going out every weekend. Alex and Jonas would pick up girls and watch as Jason practiced their techniques.

I was always paying them, Jason said.

But Jason felt like he was getting something in return. In his testimony, Jason said Alex and Jonas taught him how to be an alpha male and create a mindset that would attract women. He said they taught him to isolate a woman from her friends, and to plow through her last-minute resistance.

Jason was a sponge who soon became a true believer. Still, when it came to actually getting women, I was the worst person theyd ever seen, he says they told him.

So the trio hatched a new idea for a more immersive experience. Jason would pay $2,000 a month for an apartment near the Gaslamp Quarter, a five-minute walk away from 16 blocks of bars and nightclubs. Alex and Jonas would technically live there, but Jason could come over on the weekends, go out with them for lessons, and crash there. They moved in on Oct. 1.

Jason Berlin was now deep into the world of pickup. He watched Youtube videos on pickup, listened to RSD instructor CDs in the car, and at every opportunity, went out with Alex and Jonas, along with a steady stream of pickup artists that would hang out in their new apartment.

It was like a hobby. Everyone was talking about it all the time. These people became your friends, Jason testified.

Twelve days after Alex and Jonas moved into the Gaslamp apartment, the men met Claire and Laura at closing time and brought the girls back to their apartment, where Jason was waiting.

THE TRIAL

In 2015, with a binder of evidence from Claire and a year-long police investigation complete, the San Diego district attorney formally charged Alex, Jason, and Jonas with two counts of rape, of an intoxicated person and an unconscious person.

Jonas Dick and Jason Berlin both pleaded guilty to one count for Claires rape.

Jonass crime was essentially rape in concerteven though he hadnt had sex with Claire, he admitted that hed known what Alex was allegedly planning to do to her. According to California law, by keeping Claires friend Laura occupiedin part by hiding her phoneJonas had acted as an accomplice, and was just as responsible.

Jonas was also charged with another rape shortly after being charged with Claires.

This one belonged to an underage girl who was celebrating her 16th birthday with two friends at the chain restaurant Dicks Last Resort in 2012. Jonas joined the girls table, then convinced them to accompany him back to the hostel where he was living. He offered a tour, grabbed the birthday girl by hand, took away her phone, and whisked her into his room. As her friends searched for her up and down the halls of the hostel, Jonas threw the 110-pound girl on his bed and raped her as she begged him to stop. When it was over, he ejaculated on her stomach, threw her a T-shirt, and said, Happy Birthday.

She ran from the room, found her friends, and flagged down a patrol car to make a rape report.

Its unclear whether police tried to find or apprehend Jonas in his hostel that night. The San Diego PD did not respond to a request for details on that investigation and the court case file is thin. Its also unknown why it took three years to test her rape kit. Nevertheless, it eventually was testedand came back with a match for Jonas Dick.

During Jonass August 2016 sentencing for both rapes, District Attorney Lisa Fox asked Judge Fraser for eight years, the maximum that the plea deal carried. She noted that Jonass quick guilty pleas were not necessarily because he felt regret, but because he wanted protection from exposing himself to more [charges].

As it turns out, Jonass DNA swab matched yet another victim in a national DNA database, as Fox discovered at a preliminary hearing. For that casewhich, according to Fox, involved alcohol and a college studentJonas has not been charged.

For two cases with rape, it was a very good result, Jonass attorney Peter Blair told me concerning the eight-year sentenceessentially the plea deals maximum. Theoretically [the judge] could have given him 16. Jonas will also be a registered sex offender for life.

Claire read a victims impact statement at Jonass sentencing. For 12 minutes, she spoke about what her life has been like since the night she was raped. Claire said she no longer dated. When she went out in public, she sometimes saw her rapists faces on the people around her, so she stopped going out at all. But, she said, a greater motivation than fear had compelled her to find and confront her attackers.

These businesses that promote rape culture should be stopped, Claire said. This is not friendly dating advice or motivational speaking. This is promoting the thinking that women are only objects and men are entitled to their mind and bodies for their entertainment and satisfaction

I am standing here today in this room to bring this pickup artist community to light and to represent the women out there that are unaware they too are victims, and to the women who have yet to stumble upon the path of the pickup artist and their students. The night was not an oops or a coincidence of events. It was strategically planned by these men, who not only manipulated and raped women regularly, but blogged and profited from it, from their fans and followers.

The judge agreed, praising Claires bravery in hunting down and facing her attackers.

But for your detective work, we wouldnt be here, I dont think. I think that they would still be preying on people either here or in Vegas or San Francisco or somewhere, Judge Fraser told Claire. But not for you, this would not have stopped.

And because of you, he will be punished.

For his part, Alex Smith pleaded not guilty to the rape charges. Alex is now in a relationship, perhaps married, to a woman who accompanied him every day of his week-long trial. The trial, which included no witnesses for the defense, concluded on Monday.

The jury is expected to reach a verdict in the next few days.

UPDATE: On Wednesday afternoon, a San Diego jury convicted Alex Smith of two felony counts: rape of an intoxicated person and rape of an unconscious person. Hell be sentenced on October 20, and faces a maximum of eight years in prison.

Through their attorneys, Alex Smith and Jason Berlin declined to comment for this story. Jonas Dick, currently in prison, asked to be paid for an interview. The Daily Beast declined.

***

Linda Boisvert is the property manager for the apartment that Jason Berlin rented for Alex and Jonasthe apartment where Claire was raped. As part of Lindas duties, the 51-year-old San Antonio transplant regularly checks the website Crimemapping.com to monitor any criminal activity around her building. The Gaslamp District, as Linda explained over coffee and pie at a downtown diner, is in a period of transformation. But its still sort of the Wild West out here, she said.

While searching on the website, Lindawho wears stylish browline glasses, with her wavy greying hair cut shortwould pick up on bike thefts, vandalism, maybe a few drunken fights. But in October 2013, she saw the report of Claires rape. Knowing she had surveillance video that might aid in an investigation, she called Crimestoppers and offered the tapes.

Detective Garrick Nugent and Linda went through the security footage on the night of Claires assault. On it, Claire is seen staggering toward Jonass apartment building along with Laura and the two men. The group enters the lobby and Claire stumbles off to one side before Alex pulls her back to him. Theres a sloppy embrace and Alex leads her into the elevator as Laura and Jonas follow. Once the doors closed, Linda told Detective Nugent, they were out of view of the cameras.

But, Linda thought, they didnt have to be if there was a next time. With her co-op boards approval, Linda set up another security camera in the hallway of the third floor, and pointed it at Alex and Jonass apartment. She would watch the footage periodically, and over the next two months, Linda began sending Detective Nugent still photos of what she had seen.

They would come in with women who were happy and relaxed, and the women would come outwoman after womanwould looked stunned and upset with the same tense body language, Linda told me.

I dont know if they were raped, but if there is a body language to rape, what I saw would have been it.

One lady went in with two friends and came out covering her face, crying. When they got down to the lobby and the elevator door opened, I could see she was balled up on the elevator floor. It was heartbreaking. I just wanted to scream.

In court testimony, Detective Nugent described seeing several women from Lindas tapes who appeared distraught and upset. Linda couldnt say how many women she saw leave that way.

I stopped counting, she admitted, her eyes welling with tears. It was too upsetting.

None of those women have yet been identified.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/13/pickup-artists-preyed-on-drunk-women-brought-them-home-and-raped-them/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/pickup-artists-preyed-on-drunk-women-brought-them-home-and-raped-them/

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adambstingus · 7 years ago

Text

Pickup Artists Preyed on Drunk Women, Brought Them Home, and Raped Them

How a San Diego woman discovered details of her rape on a pickup-artist blog—and fought to bring her attackers to justice.”>

*Warningthe following article contains a graphic depiction of a rape.

Alex Smith and Jonas Dick considered themselves part of the elite.

But according to San Diegos district attorney, Alex and Jonasboth 27 years oldare predators and the pursuit of their art has led to the rape of multiple women.

Jonas received eight years in state prison for the two rapes; his student Jason faces a maximum eight-year sentence. Both will spend a lifetime on the sex offender registry.

CLAIRES RAPE

On a Saturday night in October 2013, Claire, then 31, went out with her friend, lets call her Laura, for a girls night out in San Diegos trendy Gaslamp Quarter.

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