Episode 314

Summary

Sword and Scale – Episode 314 (August 25, 2025)

Episode Overview

This harrowing episode of Sword and Scale, hosted by Mike Boudet, delves into the brutal sword murder of a homeless man along the train tracks in Lake Worth, Florida. Through graphic 911 calls, police interviews, and unsparing commentary, the show explores not just the gruesome crime, but the hidden realities and dynamics within a homeless encampment—shedding light on mental illness, predation, and the systemic failures that allow marginalized lives to spiral out of control. The episode asks uncomfortable questions about accountability, the limits of compassion, and society's role in tragedies at the edge of civilization.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Shocking Discovery (03:18–08:53)

• Setting: November 25, 2017, Lake Worth Tri Rail Station. Employees spot a blood-soaked body near the tracks, sparking panic and shutting down train service.
• 911 Calls: Both train employees and passengers call in with disturbing reports—"There's a dead man on the side of the train…he's all bloodied up and beat up." (06:09)
• Police Arrival: Palm Beach Sheriff's deputies determine the victim did not die accidentally but was violently stabbed multiple times.

“A four foot long broadsword, slick with blood. Think of Braveheart.”
— Mike Boudet (09:07)

The Hidden Camp & Its Inhabitants (08:53–18:27)

• Discovery: Police trace a blood trail from the victim to a secluded, organized homeless encampment in the woods.
• Camp Structure: Comprised of three tents: two couples (Tasha & Robert, Carol & Kenny) sharing basic resources, while a socially ostracized man named Chris (George Christopher Livingston) occupies the farthest tent.
• Daily Life: Tasha, still working and new to homelessness, paints a nuanced picture:

“We work, we eat, we have a generator, TV and all those things…because that’s what we spend our money on, not on drinking and drugs.” (15:53)

• Profile of Chris: Known for loud, aggressive outbursts and erratic behavior—“He has a big tattoo in the center of his forehead that looked like a swastika or maybe a plane propeller…he wore a snake pendant…and rode a scooter around town.” (18:27)

Interviews: Camp Dynamics & Chris's Mental State (21:55–29:21)

• Mental Health: Residents describe Chris as schizophrenic or suffering from severe mental illness, frequently ranting about “invisible friends.”
• Weapons Cache:

“His tent is a weapon... all kinds of swords, knives, throwing stars…”
— Kenny (28:53)

• Fear in the Camp: Both women, Tasha and Carol, express wariness and fear of Chris, but recount internal boundaries maintained for safety:

“All the men back here…told him do not come this way. We have women that live here. We don’t want to see you. And he…stayed away.” (25:35)

Chris & Dave: The Fatal Encounter (33:52–36:14)

• Victim Identified: David Beckett, mid-50s, known to Tasha and Robert. Described as a problematic figure with a long rap sheet—for indecent exposure, trespassing, and sexual predation.
• Rumors and Reputations:
  • Tasha: “Dave was one of those people that when women see him, they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.” (45:41)
  • Local consensus in the homeless community: Dave was a sexual predator.
• Day of the Crime: Robert reports seeing Dave and Chris run past his tent, with Chris screaming about being wronged by Dave, likely over a woman:

"He was yelling something like, I was going to marry her. You raped her or something…" (35:32)

Societal and Policy Commentary (38:07–40:15, 65:33–66:36)

• Encampments as "No-Go Zones": Devin Kurtz of the Cicero Institute asserts that most violence in homeless camps is interpersonal, not from outsiders:

“If you get an encampment that’s far enough out, there’s no one coming to help, and there’s no one surveilling it…until there’s a murder, it’s just left on its own.” (38:07)

• Policy Debate: Boudet sharply questions the “housing first” approach, pointing to the complex issues of crime and mental illness that housing alone cannot resolve.
• Public Attitudes:

“The narrative…is that housing is a human right. What a dumb idea. Obviously some Karen came up with that who’s never had to compete for limited resources.” (66:36)

The Interrogation & Chris's Perspective (49:47–64:23)

• Chris’s Account: He claims Dave tried to rape him, echoing a pattern of past accusations. Chris admits to lending Dave the sword as a gesture, but his story is confusing and inconsistent.
• Mental Instability: Chris rambles about lightning-induced injuries, government conspiracies, and internal bleeding, oscillating between delusion, paranoia, and moments of lucidity.
• Self-Defense Claim:

“I never premeditated…impulsive. When your life is threatened, you’re gonna react, but you don’t remember exactly how you do what you do. But you’re alive because you’re fighting for your life.” (56:27, 57:04)

• Confrontation with Police: Chris refuses to elaborate, invokes his right to remain silent, and berates the detective for “not respecting” his boundaries (62:45–63:18).

“I want my attorney then.” — Chris (62:45)

• Mirroring Fear: Chris and the camp residents express similar unease around Dave.

“You ever feel when you can’t turn your back on someone because they feel like they’re looking over your shoulder?” — Chris (59:34)

Final Reflections & Societal Questions (66:36–End)

• Boudet's Take: The episode closes with biting commentary—questioning the premise that most homeless are helpless victims of circumstance and pushing the idea that accountability, not just compassion, is necessary for solutions.
• Tragic Parallels: Both perpetrator and victim were outcasts even among outcasts; both failed repeatedly by mental health and legal systems.
• Ultimate Question: Did Chris, driven by delusion or self-defense, perform a vigilante act that did society a "favor" by killing a predator? Or was this another senseless, preventable tragedy born of neglect and systemic indifference?

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Somebody has to die for your entertainment, you fucking weirdos. But it is what you’ve come to expect when you come here, isn’t it?” (02:10, Mike Boudet)
• "There was a trail of blood towards the sounds in the brush…The camp wasn’t accidental. It was laid out with intention. This wasn’t just survival. It was strategy." (09:06–09:58, Mike Boudet)
• "The only man who had weapons in their camp was Chris." (28:39, summarized from Kenny and Carol’s interview)
• "When the police investigated Chris’s tent, it was filled with weapons and a few cats. Poor things." (29:21, Mike Boudet)
• “He claims…to have been struck by lightning. And there was a time I’d come home and find dead raccoons laid out of my doorstep, you know…Oh, I thought you could make a nice hat out of them.” (32:18, Robert)

---

Key Timestamps

• 03:18 – First 911 call about the body
• 08:53 – Police arrive and realize victim was butchered, not struck by train
• 13:26–18:27 – Tasha describes camp, Chris profiled
• 21:55 – Carol and Kenny interview, Chris’s mental illness explained
• 28:53 – Chris’s weapon cache described
• 33:52 – Robert recounts day of crime, identifies Dave
• 38:07 – Cicero Institute policy argument on encampments and policing
• 49:47 – Chris’s lengthy police interrogation
• 52:57 – Chris alleges being sexually harassed, reinforces community rumors about Dave
• 61:39 – Chris describes fatal fight, self-defense claim
• 66:36 – Closing commentary: the meaning and limits of compassion toward the homeless

---

Conclusion

Sword and Scale’s 314th episode exposes the raw, grim world lurking at society’s edge—a tight-knit homeless camp hidden in the Florida woods, thrown into chaos and murder by a collision of mental illness, predation, and neglect. By interweaving police audio, on-the-ground interviews, and cynical social commentary, the episode challenges listeners to grapple with the realities—and failures—of the systems meant to protect both victims and the accused. The grim suggestion: in the margins, the last line of accountability is often nothing more than another outcast, armed and afraid.

Transcript

[Robert]

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and.

[Mike Boudet]

Violence and is not intended for all audiences.

[Robert]

Listener discretion is advised.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Why don't you ask him how many people he's raped and how many people he's murdered? Why didn't you bring him to justice?

[Mike Boudet]

Hi, this is episode 314 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters sometimes don't need them. Bunch of dubstep. I'm your host, Mike Boudet. Or sometimes it's Bidet, or sometimes it's just that Nazi or that racist or that misogynist over there, the one that hosts that show that nobody likes. Anyway, I'm here not to talk about politics, but I'm just gonna play some jams today because you know what? That's all I've ever wanted to do. I just wanted to be a dj. Just wanted to play some tunes. You. Well, people listened and praised me for it. That's what we're doing. That's nice, isn't it? Gotta love that jazz guitar. Oh, yeah. They say that when you get tired of what it is you're doing, when you. When you get sick of it, you should probably stop doing it. Well, the people that say that are fucking morons because you still have a mortgage and some electric bills and whatnot. So here we are again, and we're going to tell you a murder story. Yes, we are. Unfortunately, somebody has to die for your entertainment, you fucking weirdos. But it is what you've come to expect when you come here, isn't it? I guess that's my fault. I guess everything's my fault. I keep doing bad things. I'm such an unempathetic jerk. You know, I should probably just quit and delete my show. Reddit would throw a parade. Actually, that's a good reason to keep going. November 25, 2017. It was just after 4 o' clock in the afternoon in Lake Worth, Florida. At the Tri Rail station, an employee was frantically pacing in his booth as he called 911. A crisis was looming on the train tracks.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Chairman, hi, my name's Charlie and I'm calling from Trirail and I'm here to report. One of our passing trains reported that just north, about 100ft north of the 7th Avenue north crossing in Lake Worth. We have a crossing there just west of I95. There's somebody lying down about 10ft east of the east track, lying on the ground. We don't know if it's. If it's a body or if it's a, you know, somebody just sleeping or whatever. I do have security on the way. I'm. One second, please. Yeah, Paul, go ahead.

[Mike Boudet]

As the caller was on the phone, one of his colleagues came into the booth. He had more to report on this mysterious body.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

They're covered in blood, so I'm gonna shut everything down. All right. Your radio, that was about that subject. Yeah, that's exactly right. All right, so 7th Avenue north and where else? Well, on the railroad track, the tri rail tracks.

[Mike Boudet]

The body on the side of the tracks was covered in blood, his legs and arms splayed out. It wasn't clear whether he was dead or alive just yet. And no one could get close enough because the trains were still rolling into the station. One by one, panic set in as the Trirail employees tried to figure out what had happened. If he'd been hit by a train, this could be a major problem. Terrible optics. We know how important PR is these days. The crew had no choice but to call an emergency and try to shut things down as quickly as they could.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

And is he breathing? You know what I do. Okay, so. Okay, so I'm gonna get the termination, but near the tri rail station. Hold on a second. Need a tri rail track. There's a male covered in blood. Okay, Sierra. East or west side of the track? East side of the track. Sir, what's your name? Charlie. Is he breathing, sir, or do you know of. Can you ask your guy there down the radio? They. They just call him. This came from a passing train. That's all they had. First they said, you know, it looked like maybe a body or somebody sleeping there. And then the second train just went by and you heard what I did from the dispatcher about this ems. Just for your guys information, we're getting another call and they said that the guy's possibly deceased and he's possibly got hit by a train. Possibly.

[Mike Boudet]

Trains kept rolling through the station as calls flooded in. At the same moment, another passenger dialed 911 from his cell phone.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

I'm taking the train down from West Palm beach station. Down. There was a dead man on the side of the train. I saw him from window. Did you see that? There was a dead guy on the side of the road. Where? Where at, sir? Yes, I'm talking to an officer right now on the train. I'm going to talk to him. Okay? Okay, but he's on the train. No, no, he was running on the ground. I was looking out the windows. We're pulling into Lake Worth Station. Just above Lake Worth station. There was a man. Either he got shot and he's or got hit by the train. Okay, so this is at the Lake Worth Chiral station, above the Lake Worth station, along the tracks. We're slowing down, coming into the station. There's a dead man on the side of the road. He's all bloodied up and beat up.

[Mike Boudet]

Passengers had gathered around the collar. How could they not after miles of gravel and green bushes? They rolled into the city station and just as the train picked up speed again, there it was, a bloody mess just off the tracks.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Looks like somebody was crossing track and got hit by a northbound train. All right, stand up when I need to get the paramedics on the line. Okay.

[Mike Boudet]

The train kept going. The body was now a memory in the distance, but that image was unshakable.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

I was just talking to the officer here on the train. There's already people on the way to take care of it. What's the address? Sir? There is no address. I'm on the Amtrak train heading south just above Lake Worth station. There was a man on the other side of the track. I was looking out the window. He was dead. From what I could see, he was really messed up. Can you tell me, are you just north of Lake Worth Road? Actually, no, I'm on the train. We're just north of Lake Worth station along the train track. He was along the train tracks on the, on the north, south side of the train, just on the other side of the track. He was laying face up and he was a mess up. I mean literally. His feet are probably just off the track.

[Mike Boudet]

Passengers talked in groups, trading half form memories of the body they thought they saw as the train sped on. Meanwhile, Trirail employees were still on the phone with 911, trying to make sense of it all. What most passengers didn't know is that this wasn't just a one off tragedy. In cities across America, the edges of public infrastructure like train tracks, underpasses and wooded areas have quietly become home for those with nowhere else to go.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

That's another call. That's another call that. I guess a citizen called that in. So he was like right by the track. Sir, Your driver said yeah, about 10ft east of the tracks we do have a train traffic shut down at this time. And he didn't say if he could tell. Talk to me how old this male was or anything like that? No, ma'.

[Detective]

Am.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Do you have a colon description or anything like that? White, black, Hispanic? Nothing.

[Mike Boudet]

The Palm beach sheriff soon arrived at the train station. They hiked up the tracks towards the bloody man. The closer they walked, the more obvious it became this man hadn't been hit by a train. He'd been butchered. He lay sprawled on the cobblestones, blood soaking the rocks beneath his head. His blue eyes stared skyward, frozen in fear. The victim had a fatal stab wound to the neck, the source of all the blood. He also had defensive wounds on the fingers of both hands, a laceration to his left hand and his stomach, and a slice to his right jawline. It was brutal. His T shirt, his khaki shorts, his bare feet. The man looked like someone's middle aged dad who'd wandered off the beach and walked straight into hell. Blood covered every inch of him. As officers moved up the tracks, they spotted a pair of sunglasses. Then a few steps later, they found it. A four foot long broadsword, slick with blood. Think of Braveheart. The officers paused. The sword was ornate. It had a woven silver handle with two floral designs at the edges. It looked like something out of a Scottish museum. Yet here it was, lying on the dirty rocks by the train tracks, covered in blood. Nothing about the victim fit the weapon, but the blood, the sword, it all pointed to something very deliberate. That's when officers heard it. Voices drifting from the trees just beyond the tracks. So they started walking. And as they did, they found themselves following a trail of blood towards the sounds in the brush. About 75ft north of where the body was found, the police discovered a small homeless encampment. The camp wasn't accidental. It was laid out with intention. There was distance between the tents and shared resources. This wasn't just survival. It was strategy. In 2017, sleeping in public was criminalized in Palm Beach County, a place where lots of very wealthy people live. So the people here stayed out of sight and far from the law. There was one large tent on the far north side of the camp, tucked away in trees like a little plastic cottage. About 20ft down from that was another tent, set up in the same neat and organized fashion as the first one. The police drew their weapons and announced themselves. Two couples emerged from the tents with their hands up and shocked faces. After things cooled down, the police started recording.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

All right, who would like to. Who would like to speak with me?

[Robert]

Take your pick.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

All right, how about we go this way? You're up.

[Kenny]

All right.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Hi, I'm Paul.

[Mike Boudet]

Excuse me?

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I'm Paul.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

My hands are dirty. Okay. I'm sorry. Can. What is your first name?

[Tasha]

Tasha. T A. S H A.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Can you tell me who resides in this location?

[Tasha]

As far as I know, it's just. Robert and I. Are those first tent okay. And it's green and it's got, like, a black tarp that's got the bisqueen blossom plastic piece over top of it. And then pretty good distance away, you have to walk a path through. In between, there's a generator. After the generator is the white and blue tent.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

So your tent is the furthest north.

[Tasha]

Ours is the furthest north.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. All right. So then you pass a generator. Who do you get to next?

[Tasha]

I get to. Which I thought her name was Gladys.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Okay.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

What's her name?

[Tasha]

Carol.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

That's how close we stay as neighbors. And then I know Kenny because he doesn't work with Robert. He lives with Carol.

[Mike Boudet]

According to Tasha McGraw, the camp was quite spread out. Tasha and Robert Pelletier shared a generator with another homeless couple, Carol Thompson and Kenny Schmidt. But that was about all they shared.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Robert and Tasha, Carol, Gladys and Kenny. And then who else is here?

[Tasha]

I know that somewhere this way, there was a guy named Chris. And I only know of him because he is, I guess, Tourette's is what I was told he was.

[Robert]

Tourette.

[Tasha]

He has Tourette's?

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

He has Tourette's.

[Tasha]

That was my guess.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

Because he spends hours on end yelling, get out of my ass. Get out of my house. I said, no, I. You know, And I mean, he does it continuously until he wears himself out.

[Mike Boudet]

And passes out the man with turret syndrome. Chris lived far, far off in the brush, away from the two couples who shared the generator. But he was loud, always screaming and making a fuss. So Tasha heard him even if she didn't see him.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

So, Tasha, I'm sure you know why we're here.

[Tasha]

I have no idea.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. All right.

[Tasha]

I'll be honest with you. Being a woman, I am curious and probably should be smiling because there's detectives here, which means there's probably something serious that's happened.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay, so you have no idea why we're here?

[Tasha]

I heard somebody yelling earlier.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

Around when it was Chris, probably. I lose track of time. I was holding clothes, maybe 3:30. And I could be. Robert would be. If I looked at my phone, I could tell you exactly what time I heard yelling, because I was texting at the time that they yelling. And I said to Robert, I think Chris has gotten out.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

And we came to the door and listened. And he said, I think he's like, I think it's just Chris and Dr. Cleaning.

[Mike Boudet]

Life at the small encampment was relatively calm, except for Chris, Though his tent was far away and hidden beneath some brush, he still came out but he was one of the people that Tasha stayed clear of. She'd only been on the streets for a few months and still had a job she went to. All the couples at the camp were living a pretty normal existence beyond the fact that they were homeless and living in the woods in houses made of nylon.

[Tasha]

These four people, Kenny and Carol and Robert and I stay away from the drama. You don't see us hanging out in front of the store. None of us drink or do drugs. We can't. We get. We work, we eat, we have a generator, TV and all those things because. Because that's what we spend our money on, not on drinking and drugs. My car was just recently towed and I've been back here for just a few months.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

I leave at 4:45, 4:30 in the morning. I work at the labor hall, and I'm lucky to get home by 6 or 6:30 at night. I'm lucky to get Belglade, so.

[Detective]

Wow.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. Is there anybody else that you know of that stays here or lives here, anything like that?

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

No.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. Does anybody ever have any people over?

[Kenny]

No.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

I would never bring anybody.

[Mike Boudet]

I have to say, if all of this is true, Tasha is pretty incredible. She's got some serious spiritual serenity we could all use a piece of. She is homeless, living in a tent in the woods. Her car has been towed and she clearly can't get it back. But here she is making the best of it, still getting up at 4:45am to go to work. I mean, that's admirable to the public. Homeless encampments often conjure images of chaos and danger. And although that's true to some extent, that's not always the full story. People like Tasha are holding down jobs, folding laundry by flashlight, and doing their best to live quiet, invisible lives.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

What does Chris look like as far.

[Tasha]

The only way. The only way I know what he looks like is because they described him to me. And I remember seeing.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Go with it. Tell me.

[Mike Boudet]

Work.

[Tasha]

He has some kind of tattoo. Tattoo on his forehead. I believe it was a tribal tattoo on his forehead.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Does it look like a propeller?

[Tasha]

I think it's more like a tribal thing. It could be a propeller.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

I know it's not a teardrop, but.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

It'S right smack center of his forehead. And it's not tiny, it's big.

[Tasha]

Yeah, it's a good size tattoo.

[Mike Boudet]

All right.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

I think I know Chris. Okay.

[Tasha]

And then he had longer hair and he always wore spandex shorts.

[Mike Boudet]

The officer knew Chris from the streets. It was hard not to he looked like Iggy Pop if Iggy Pop wore spandex and hiking boots and rode a scooter around town with his mullet blowing in the wind. What a sight. Chris had a big tattoo in the center of his forehead that looked like a swastika or maybe a plane propeller. Nothing says I want to be homeless forever than a tattoo on your face. He wore a snake pendant around his neck and a thick gold Superman ring on his finger. Most days he didn't bother to put on a shirt. While one officer talked with Tasha, a few others made their way down to Chris's tent. When they got to his spot, they noticed a large sword hanging by the door like a do not enter sign. The camp had become sort of a no go zone. Not officially, but practically. Police didn't patrol it. Why would they? Until this moment, they hadn't even known that it existed. As the officers got closer, they could hear Chris inside his tent. When he finally came out, he was screaming, he attacked me. He attacked me. Chris's hand was bloody and so swollen it looked like a baseball mitt. It had been wrapped up in a bandage that was soaked with blood. The officers cuffed him. As they sat him on the ground, they suddenly noticed the trail of blood that they had originally followed. It led straight to Chris tent. How's that for Detective Orc? It was a strange irony, a crime this loud in a place built to be silent. If it hadn't spilled onto the train tracks, the world may have never found out about it. Off the tri rail tracks in Lake Worth, Florida, passengers on various trains had noticed the dead body of a middle aged man out on the tracks. Train traffic was halted as the police investigated what happened to this unassuming victim who looked like he belonged at a Palm beach casino instead of butchered by the railroad tracks. Next to the victim's body was the murder weapon, a four foot long sword. If I'm not mistaken, that may be the first sword murder we've told on sword and scale, which is kind of weird. Following the blood trail from the victim's body, the police discovered a small homeless encampment where three tents were set up. Two of the tents were inhabited by couples and the furthest tent was owned by a man named Chris. A very wild man named Chris. He was known on the streets for his erratic behavior and ridiculous appearance. The police took Chris up to the fire and rescue to get his hand injury looked at. And while they did, the other officers continued to question the couples at the encampment. They started talking with the other couple, Carol and Kenny.

[Detective]

Okay, so, Carol, what's been going on today? Who. How'd the day start out? What's. What have you been doing all day?

[Carol]

Well, as normal, we always wake up to Chris screaming.

[Detective]

He wakes up screaming. Is that a normal occurrence?

[Carol]

He's schizophrenic.

[Detective]

Okay, no problem.

[Carol]

At least that's a weekly feel.

[Detective]

So normal. Normal day.

[Mike Boudet]

Go ahead.

[Carol]

We went to Dunkin' Donuts, came back, and this is what we're at. We were in a tent watching TV when the sheriff, Carol and her husband.

[Mike Boudet]

Spent most of their time shuffling back and forth from the Dunkin Donuts to their tent. Inside, they had set up a makeshift kitchen and bedroom where they tried to stay away from Chris's chaos. As Carol put it, he was unstable. But over time, the chaos became routine. So when he knocked on their tent. And I say knocked because I don't know what else to say. When he knocked on their tent asking for an ACE bandage, she didn't think much of it.

[Detective]

You guys went to Dunkin Donuts today. You were here watching tv.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Yeah.

[Detective]

How long ago would you say that he came up and asked for an ACE bandage?

[Carol]

I don't know what time it is.

[Detective]

Okay. It's 5.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

40.

[Mike Boudet]

Two hours ago, maybe two hours ago.

[Carol]

Two hours ago.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Mike Boudet]

Did.

[Detective]

Lady. What was he wearing? Do you know?

[Carol]

He had no shirt on, and I think sweatpants.

[Robert]

You know what color sweatpants?

[Carol]

I think they were blue.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Carol]

I'm only. I'm blind in one eye, so no problem.

[Mike Boudet]

So.

[Carol]

But he asked for an Ace bandage for his wrist. Me gave him an ACE bandage and he left.

[Detective]

Oh, really?

[Carol]

Yeah.

[Detective]

Are you guys close with him? Does he talk to you, or is it just kind of like a. I mean, you guys obviously know him or.

[Carol]

I mean, we try to avoid him.

[Detective]

Okay. Okay.

[Carol]

It says problems.

[Detective]

Would you say he's. Does he scare you or.

[Carol]

At times he does.

[Detective]

Okay, got it. How about before that? Did Chris say that he was having any conflicts with anybody?

[Carol]

He has inner conflicts with people inside his head.

[Detective]

Oh, okay.

[Carol]

He's always yelling at somebody to get out. He's going to kill him. He's always, always yelling at somebody to get out. Trespassing. You're doing this, you're doing that.

[Detective]

They're all diagnosed schizophrenia.

[Carol]

I don't know if he's diagnosed schizophrenic, but I'll tell you what, if he isn't, there's definitely a problem.

[Detective]

Does he take any medication?

[Carol]

No, he takes vitamins.

[Mike Boudet]

Tasha had thought Chris had Tourette's syndrome. But Carol assumed he was schizophrenic. Needless to say, none of these people were mental health professionals. Put it that way. Chris woke the whole camp up every morning screaming about trespassers or people who were trying to hurt him. He lived in his own head, which was a dark neighborhood that he could never crawl out of. But even his chaos had rules. He stayed mostly to his corner and others stayed to theirs. There was a kind of internal logic to the camp, full of invisible boundaries and unspoken understandings. But still, Carol was scared of Chris. Tasha was too. Being the two women in the camp, Kris made them nervous when the men weren't around. By the way, who's the Karen responsible for getting rid of mental institutions? Remember when all these people were housed and cared for, but then something happened and somebody got hurt, so we got rid of all of them. I know one of you Karens out there was responsible. At least one of your grandma karens with a PhD. What a fucking idiot. Just because a patient dies in a hospital doesn't mean you get rid of all hospitals. These so called experts really are useless, aren't they? Probably should have lobotomized her. Instead of taking Dr. Karen's advice.

[Tasha]

All the men back here, which would be Kendi and Robert, told him, do not come this way. We have women that live here. We don't want to see you. And he. Since then, he's respected that and stayed away. Because I'm new.

[Mike Boudet]

For the most part, Chris kept to himself and stayed clear of the couple's area. But whenever Chris did come knocking at their tents, the men would deal with them. Residents told police that earlier that afternoon, Chris had barged into the camp asking for an Ace bandage. Carol's husband Kenny had given him one.

[Detective]

He asked you for an Ace bandage?

[Kenny]

His right hand or one of his hand? Can't you tell us about what hand it was?

[Mike Boudet]

No problem.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Go ahead.

[Kenny]

After that, after we ate, was watching tv, one other incident happened. The train stopped right out here, okay. And then took off again. I figured, okay, he's playing his stupid games again. And train and stop. Because that's the only time they stop.

[Detective]

Gotcha.

[Mike Boudet]

I don't know if you caught that, but listen carefully. Kenny said that earlier that day he heard the train stop near their camp, which was 100ft north of the station itself. He assumed that it was because of this little game Chris usually played. He insinuated that Chris would often go to the train tracks and get close to the train, causing it to halt like a suicidal game. Of chicken. I guess when you're homeless you gotta entertain yourself somehow. Even if usually it's at society's expense.

[Detective]

What does Chris look like? Describe that to me.

[Kenny]

Tall, maybe six.

[Mike Boudet]

2.

[Kenny]

Skinny, long dark hair.

[Detective]

Hello.

[Robert]

Weird.

[Detective]

Okay, long dark hair, very weird. Okay, what makes him weird?

[Kenny]

He's schizophrenic.

[Detective]

Okay?

[Kenny]

He's got like 12. He's got a whole family of invisible friends.

[Mike Boudet]

It was hard to take anything Chris said with any credibility. He was always ranting and raving, fighting with the so called invisible friends in his head. Then Carol remembered something strange about Chris coming over and asking for a bandage.

[Carol]

Chris did come over to our tent before you guys did come up.

[Detective]

Okay. What?

[Carol]

Said somebody was tried to rape him.

[Detective]

Somebody tried to rape him.

[Carol]

It's something we've heard millions of times over.

[Kenny]

He did say someone tried to rape him.

[Detective]

Oh, okay, okay.

[Kenny]

When he was getting a Spanish, I said who? He said, I don't know. Okay, you got to understand, I live with him next door, screaming at all hours of night about him. His ghost was sticking something in his ass or mouth or something.

[Robert]

Wow.

[Mike Boudet]

Though the officer was shocked, Carol and Kenny were unfazed. They had heard rape accusations from Chris many times. Mostly about the ghosts who were trying to shove things into his backside orifice. So like every other outburst from Chris, they turned their backs and zipped up their tent. I mean, what else could they do? But now there was a man who had been stabbed to death in the place that Chris liked to go and try to halt the trains. According to Kenny, the only man who had weapons in their camp was Chris.

[Detective]

Does he have any weapons or anything?

[Kenny]

His tent is a weapon.

[Detective]

Oh, really?

[Kenny]

He's got all kinds of swords, knives, throwing stars, all kinds of wow.

[Detective]

Okay, I don't worry about him. Does he have any? Well, you say knives and throwing stars. They have like swords and stuff.

[Kenny]

Swords, wow.

[Mike Boudet]

All kinds of words.

[Robert]

Oh geez.

[Kenny]

Any kind of sword.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Knife.

[Detective]

Remember any one specifically. Any kind of swords. Like big swords or anything like five big swords.

[Mike Boudet]

When the police investigated Chris's tent, it was filled with weapons and a few cats. Poor things. Chris has display knives, samurai swords, throwing stars and other exotic weapons all over the edges of the inside of his little home. He had a blow up mattress, a makeshift kitchen complete with about nine bottles of vitamins, a boombox, a television, a DVD player, a microwave and a little mat at his front door. How cozy. Maybe this was a tent in the woods, but it was also his home. And most damning of all, inside Chris's Tent. They found the sheath to the samurai sword that had been used to kill the victim. Chris real name was George Christopher Livingston. What a name. Sounds like some sort of old timey explorer instead of a homeless nut. He was 51 years old and had been on the streets of Lake Worth for years. In fact, Tasha's partner, Robert had known Chris for a long time.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Tell me about Chris.

[Robert]

Well, I've known Chris for the better part of, I don't know, four or five years now.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

And he's always been somewhat less than cohesive.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. Have you been living with him for four or five years or just known him?

[Robert]

I've never lived with him. No.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Same camp.

[Robert]

There was a time a few years back when the radio station was all wooded areas. We stayed there. Chris burned that down, so we got jettisoned from that.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

I remember that.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Mike Boudet]

Chris had burned down the last encampment Robert lived in. It was such a big fire that the officer remembered it, too. Chris was always in trouble with the law, but it was never anything big enough to get him behind bars. Unfortunately, it was just a hindrance, a drain on society. The man needed some serious help. He was mentally unstable. Stories like Chris's aren't rare. Untreated mental illness, no steady psychiatric care, and a legal system that sees the need for help, but not the kind it can give. According to court records, his own parents had kicked him out of their home due to repeated violence, which is how he ended up on the streets in 1998. Things spiraled from there. In 2012, he'd been arrested in Boynton beach while hanging around a children's park with a large hunting knife. When the officers took him off the premises and searched him, he asked why they didn't also take his taser that was stuffed into his spandex shorts.

[Robert]

And around that time, you know, we'd have conversations from time to time. Nothing terribly extensive, but, you know, you can tell he's not playing with a full deck.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Mike Boudet]

He.

[Robert]

He claims, you know, to have been struck by lightning. And there was a time I'd come home and find dead raccoons laid out of my doorstep, you know, like going to hell, you know? Oh, I thought you could make a nice hat out of them.

[Mike Boudet]

Can you imagine?

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

So, other than Chris and you and Tasha, who else lives here in this. In this woods here?

[Robert]

Kenny and Carol are here.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

Gave back it. I don't be honest with you. I don't venture much past my own tent. The only reason I know Kenny and Carol is because we have a You know, a business arrangement. Sharing the generator.

[Mike Boudet]

A business arrangement. Imagine living in the age of AI and you have a business arrangement involving a generator.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

So the other person that you mentioned, Dave. What's Dave's last name?

[Robert]

Beckett.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

And you know that for sure?

[Robert]

Not with a 100 degree of certainty.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

But that's the name I've heard.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

Referenced to him.

[Mike Boudet]

What's.

[Robert]

On more than one occasion.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay, what is Dave's. Not Dave's story, but about how old is he? Can you describe him at all?

[Robert]

Well, he similar to my look, maybe a little shorter.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

But he's got the graying beard.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

Wears a ball cap all the time.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

About how old?

[Robert]

Early to mid-50s, I would guess.

[Mike Boudet]

Dave had been in and out of the camp like Tasha. He worked at the labor hall. In case you don't know. The labor hall is a temporary staffing agency that helps people pick up blue collar work throughout the area.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

When was the last time you saw Dave? Today? Or have you even seen him today?

[Robert]

See, I'm not sure it was Dave that I saw Chris encountering.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

I know at one point we had gotten back from the beach, I guess sometime between 1:30 and 2:30, Tasha and myself.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Thank you. I was gonna say. Who's we? All right, Tasha, 1:30 to 2:30, you.

[Robert]

Said between in that area.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

And we went into the tent and we're pretty much sorting through. Through clothes to decide what to take to wash and whatnot.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

At one point, I had to run to Sitco and get some gas for the generator.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

But at some point after we were home, I couldn't nail down a specific time. Two people. I. I recognized the second one as Chris ran past the tent.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

It appeared that Chris was chasing somebody. I thought it might have been Dave, but I wasn't certain.

[Detective]

See what the guy was wearing that he was chasing. Like a blur. Pulled it like a.

[Robert]

Well, the reason I'm not entirely certain it was Dave is because he was wearing. I don't know what specifically, but it was brighter colors than I'm used to seeing him. It's usually a camouflage or a darker color.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Robert]

You know, all right. But it seemed to me like he might have been wearing a. A T shirt. It was light and color, maybe. I don't know if it looked like it was light blue with orange sleeves.

[Mike Boudet]

The dead man on the tracks matched Dave's description perfectly. The gray beard, mid-50s, bright blue shirt with orange sleeves.

[Robert]

I thought it was Dave. Ran past the tent first. Now, Dave's more often than not drunk. So it wasn't with any real speed that he ran by the tent. It's more of a. And then, you know, three seconds behind him came Chris, just yelling. Yelling something like, I was going to marry her. You raped her or something. I don't know. I don't know. It wasn't a big commotion, but it was enough to catch my attention. Tasha and I both stood up and went, what the hell's going on?

[Detective]

Right.

[Robert]

And we. We walked out and we actually walked as far as the train tracks here and could see down here some altercation. But it didn't look. It didn't look too violent or too serious. It just looked like a couple of guys shoving each other.

[Detective]

Okay, did anybody look familiar?

[Robert]

Well, I. I could see one of them was Chris.

[Detective]

We saw one of them was Chris. What was Chris wearing?

[Mike Boudet]

We have to put this into perspective, because I know what you're thinking. If you heard two men rush past your home screaming at one another, you'd probably follow the noise to see what was going on. And if you saw them getting into it, you'd contemplate calling the police. But Robert and Tasha were homeless and squatting in the woods. During this time in 2017, there was an ordinance that made it illegal to set up permanent shelters on public property. Though their camp was hidden deep in the woods, it still wasn't allowed. Robert and Tasha didn't want to bring any attention, let alone the police, to their encampment. This is probably why they just all did their best to ignore Chris's outbursts and roll with the punches. The idea that you would call the cops for help concerning anything was preposterous. You don't do that when you're breaking the law yourself. It's the wild west out there. Which raises a broader question about the growing homeless population. Encampments are now a major issue in cities nationwide. For years, most advocacy groups and academics have followed the consistent provide housing regardless of sobriety or mental health status, and homelessness will decline. But the Cicero institute challenges that view. The public policy think tank argues that the housing first model has failed and instead supports banning unauthorized street camping and reallocating funds from permanent housing to short term shelters and treatment programs. Here's Devin Kurtz, public safety policy director from the Cicero Institute.

[Devin Kurtz]

Criminological literature, there's a lot of talking about, oh, well, this is a very visible population, which allows it to be policed more than other communities. And there's some truth to that. But there's also this, the sort of wild west component where if you get an encampment that's far enough out, there's no one coming to help, and there's no one surveilling it. So these have at times become, you know, no go zones for law enforcement. And it ends up until there's a fire or until there's a murder, it's sort of just left on its own.

[Mike Boudet]

This encampment in our story had definitely become a no go zone. The cops were unaware of it until the murder occurred. But how do you police something that's buried deep in the woods and no one even knows it's there? The Cicero institute's hallmark policy is the prohibition of street camping. Most non profits are very unhappy with the fact that they have passed encampment bans in 19 states and the framing by critics.

[Devin Kurtz]

And they usually come and they protest the hearing and they protest our office, as they did a couple weeks ago. And this criminalizes homelessness and ultimately leads to mass incarceration of them and saddles them with criminal records, et cetera, et cetera. The reality couldn't be further from the truth. This is trying to respond to the obvious need for a community to regulate the existence of encampments in their community. If there is a camp on the sidewalk in front of your house or in front of your business, obviously there needs to be some mechanism by which law enforcement and the city and county and the state can. Can ensure that that that is dealt with in a way that is certainly compassionate. But I would argue that we're not experiencing a homelessness crisis that's particularly unusual. As much as we are experiencing a crisis in unsheltered homelessness, what we're seeing in certain states is this population doubling.

[Mike Boudet]

Robert, Tasha, Carol, Kenny, and Chris were a part of this unsheltered population Tucked away in a no go zone of society's fringe. The crime happened in their hidden world. And if the victim's body hadn't been left by the side of the train track, maybe nobody would have ever known that this happened. In fact, Robert was the only one who witnessed the fight begin.

[Detective]

What was occurring when you saw them standing there?

[Robert]

Well, what I saw was whoever the other gentleman was, possibly Dave with his back to the fence, Chris shoving him against the fence. There was a shove back.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Okay.

[Detective]

Did you see anything else?

[Robert]

A little, you know, where they grab each other's elbows and, you know, and then who I thought was Dave ran that way, and Chris came back this way. And caution, I went back into the tank.

[Mike Boudet]

Okay.

[Robert]

A few minutes later, Chris showed up just Outside the tent, asking if we had an ace bandage for him that he could borrow.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Okay.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Did he have any. Any blood or anything on him?

[Robert]

I didn't see any. Zombies kinds of blood. Well, okay.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Does anybody here in this camp, you carry any weapons other than Chris?

[Robert]

No.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. What does Chris have?

[Robert]

Well, Chris has a cachet of weapons in there. Swords, knives, an assortment of knives, Chinese throwing stars.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Robert]

A collection he's rather proud of.

[Mike Boudet]

Everyone knew about Chris's tent of weapons. It was almost as infamous as he was.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay, did you see him, Chris, using any of those weapons tonight while this incident was going on?

[Robert]

When he ran past my tent, it looked like he had, like, a samurai sword, possibly in his hand.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

I don't know.

[Robert]

Again, I didn't get a really good look. I'm just speculating, but he had something that had some length to it and was silvery in color.

[Detective]

Chris had that in it.

[Robert]

Chris did, yes.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Robert]

When Dave walked away from.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I.

[Robert]

Again, I'm not sure it was Dave. I. I'm just guessing, but whoever it was that walked away back here, when they walked that way, they had something in their hands, too. But from where I stood, it looked like it might have just been a stick.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

If you saw a picture, Dave, would you be able to say, yes, that's him?

[Robert]

Yes, I would.

[Mike Boudet]

That's when the officer brought over a picture of the victim and showed it to Robert.

[Robert]

Yeah, that's Dave. Okay, so without the beard.

[Mike Boudet]

Robert had said that Chris was screaming when he chased Dave past their tent. Something about a woman he was going to marry and that Dave had raped her. But then Chris had told Carol and Kenny that someone had tried to rape him. It was all just the mumblings of a man who desperately needed psychiatric medication. But Dave Beckett had been slaughtered to death with a four foot long sword. Dave may have been a homeless drunk, but he was still a person who lost his life. And the police had to find out why. In his years of being homeless, Chris had been charged with a few misdemeanors for carrying illegal weapons. Maybe this whole murder was a manic episode, a full break from reality, where the hallucinations took the lead. Or maybe David pushed him, provoked something dark that needed to finally come out. Because that's the thing. For as crazy as Chris was, his criminal record was pretty minimal. And every time he was arrested for something, he cooperated and just mumbled incoherently to his imaginary pals. Chris did what Chris did. He rode around on his scooter in his spandex shorts, talking about the Ghosts in his asshole. He was out of his mind. The women were frightened of him because. Well, why wouldn't you be? I mean, I'm frightened of him. Wouldn't you be frightened of him if you lived in the woods in a nylon tent next to a screaming man with nothing but a thin layer of cloth to protect you? The potential of danger was there. But Chris had no track record of physically assaulting or sexually assaulting anyone within the homeless community. He just had zero social awareness, like someone freshly released from an asylum, dropped into the world without a map. Dave, on the other hand, had a reputation.

[Tasha]

I always called him Dave. I did not tell you his last name. I know him. He worked out of the labor hall with me since 2015. I heard he lived in one of these tents back here.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

When was the last time you saw him?

[Tasha]

I have never seen him back here except for my very first day, which was 13 to 6 months ago. That's when Robert came out and said, you are not welcome here to Dave.

[Mike Boudet]

Dave.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. Why was she not welcome?

[Tasha]

Because I'm here, okay? And he has a bad reputation. And since that day, I have never heard he is even. We've passed by at getting our checks cashed because we all have to go to the same place to get our checks cashed. He won't even look at me. He looks away. Dave, we one of those people that when women see him, they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

That was Davey said, okay.

[Tasha]

And that's when you want to back away. And so that's why I never spoke.

[Mike Boudet]

Throughout the Lake Worth homeless social circles, Dave was known as a sexual predator. Many women had been assaulted by him, and these rumors circled around the streets. According to the court records, Dave had been in trouble with the law since 2003. He's got two felonies under his belt, one for drug possession and another for driving with a revoked license, as well as a bunch of misdemeanors for trespassing, theft, public intoxication, and indecent exposure. In 2011, he was arrested for, get this. Possession of a Burmese python without a license and improper caging allowing escape. Now, a Burmese python is one of the most terrifying snakes on the planet. It's also one of the largest, and for some reason, they are infamous, in fact, Florida. Now, I don't know why this man had a python or what he was doing with it, but it fits, doesn't it? In any case, the records are sealed, but you can just imagine a homeless guy with a python What a sight. Anyways, the python was a rare one, but most of Dave's charges had to do with indecent exposure and even masturbating in public. One time, he was seen masturbating on the side of i75. That'll wake you up on the way to work. Then Tasha told the police something that made them question who the victim in this whole thing actually was.

[Tasha]

It was a rumor. And this is all just rumor that he almost. I have a friend named Robert Crofton.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

And that's the person you live with?

[Tasha]

No, no, no.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay. That's a different Robert.

[Tasha]

It's a different Robert. He goes by vote.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

Okay.

[Tasha]

That there was a rumor maybe six months ago that he had beat up Robert Crofton and sent him to the Delray Medical center, waved a beat up. And that was just a rumor.

[Mike Boudet]

Tasha said that Dave had raped and beat a male friend of hers so badly that he had to be hospitalized. Was Chris actually a victim? The target of a sexually aggressive drunken deviant? Dave was dead, so his side of the story died with him. Now all that was left was Chris. When the body of Dave Beckett had been discovered slaughtered on the side of the tri rail tracks in Lake Worth, Florida, police had followed the blood trail to a small encampment of five people, two couples, and an infamous unhinged man everyone knew as Chris. Dave had been murdered with a four foot long sword. As police interviewed the residents of the encampment, they discovered that Dave and Chris had been seen fighting down by the tracks. Earlier that afternoon, Chris had told the other residents that Dave had tried to rape him, but no one took it seriously because Chris was always saying things of that nature. But Dave had a reputation as a sexual predator and had even recently beat and raped another homeless man, sending him to the hospital for treatment. Now it was time to hear what Chris had to say. After paramedics took care of his hand, he was ready to start talking.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

So basically, I'm called out here. I'm expecting the sheriff's office because you've been detained for quite a while. You were handcuffed. I'm going to read your Miranda warnings, all right? Have you ever been read your Miranda warnings? She writes illegal rights.

[Robert]

I know them. You know them.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

So let me. Do you mind if I just do my job, Detective Oliver? You can call me Sean, call me dickhead, whatever you want. I don't care. You have a right to remain silent. Yeah, but I'm getting these. Actually, verbatim. It's our policy at this moment. Miranda versus Arizona. Yeah.

[Mike Boudet]

1962, Chris stated the exact law that created the Miranda warning. Miranda vs. Arizona. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. Ernesto Miranda confessed to a crime without knowing he could stay silent or ask for a lawyer. So the court said that violated his constitutional right. This decision created the Miranda warning, the rights you've heard read over and over and over for the last 10 years on this podcast and for the last 60 in the real world.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

How did he get to the point where he was injured with the sword? It's your sword. It's out of your tent. When did you get it to. I gave it to him almost a long ago, but he didn't know what.

[Robert]

To do with this.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I said, I'll give it to Red. Did you give it to. Somebody already told me that you. No, no. I tried to make. I tried to make some comment. I tried to. I guess. Symbolic. Yeah, that I. I'm in that.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Okay.

[Mike Boudet]

Chris admitted that he was skeptical of Dave, but he had been hanging around and he'd given Dave the sword as some sort of symbolic gesture, like, here's my weapon from my collection. Protect yourself on the street. That sort of thing. But then Chris told detectives that he was scared of Dave because Dave did weird things that made him crazy. Chris felt like he needed to stay away.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You told me earlier, I have never premeditate. Okay, Slaying man. He might as well do the reverse psychology. When I was injured, I couldn't help him anymore when he had injured himself, because I know he had injured himself. I turned my back on him when he saw. When he. When the injuries occurred to me, I would no longer defend him. That's the end of my statement.

[Mike Boudet]

But it obviously wasn't the end of his statement. Chris kept trying to explain that Dave was a sexual predator. He had raped and hurt other women on the streets, and Chris was fed up with it. Then he hurt some woman that Chris had declared he wanted to marry. This is what Robert heard when Dave and Chris came running by his tent earlier that day. But Chris's story was bouncing back and forth as he tried to explain himself. His main point was that Dave was secretly gay. Chris knew that Dave had raped other men in his tent. Then he started coming on to Chris and that changed the course of their relationship.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I was. I'd been sexually harassed. He made comments about my dementia where it was pretty for man. I knew that he was homosexual. If he's had men, he needs to. I am not. It's a prohibition in the state of Florida. It is not legal. And numerous men in his 10 having realized you're claiming something genuine of the statutes I'm very aware of. Well, I am. I. I feel threatened now. I didn't hurt.

[Robert]

I didn't hurt you.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You haven't been able to explain. I'm not going to explain it because I do not have to explain myself. Do a fake on your self defense.

[Mike Boudet]

Remember what Tasha told police? She knew a man who had also been raped, beaten and hospitalized by Dave. Without this rumor from Tasha, Chris's self defense could have been viewed as pure fiction. The ramblings of a crazy person. Something the voices in his head told him to say. But maybe there was some truth to all this. Maybe this time Dave had tried to rape him.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You said you injured yourself, but you didn't. We can't ask you to answer my questions. But you didn't even get any answer. You cut yourself on the sword, didn't you? Why don't you ask him how many people he's raped and how many people he's murdered. Okay, well what does that look me look like? What does that make especially rap? Murder somebody else. How many Just cuz they did that to someone else. Why didn't you bring him to justice? I, I jurisdiction. Were you born in Florida? I don't know him. Okay, that's a good, that's a good start with Dave. Slipped through the cracks. It happened how many other people? 25 years of cracks. Yeah. The system is not perfect and I. I agree with you in that system is not good. But you're claiming self defense and all I'm asking is. I don't want to claim anything. I'm not going to be incriminated either way by do this to protect other people as well. Very different. Yes. Okay. You realize he's dead. I did not realize anything about the man. I will defend myself and other people. You equally as myself. I feel your life would have been threatened as well.

[Mike Boudet]

Chris had slipped through the cracks when it came to his mental health. He should have been institutionalized or at least seen a psychiatrist, given a couple pills or something. But Dave slipped through the cracks when it came to his sexual crimes. And Chris was angry. Maybe he wasn't just a crazy man yelling at the moon for no reason. Maybe he knew something about the man he killed that justified his actions.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I'm giving you a chance. Don't put this on the other foot. That's my advice to you. Well, I can't. I don't. I don't live your life. I didn't. I didn't live that. I didn't live that. Okay, you do. What is your question that will help you dispose. Clarify. You did not consider I.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

True.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I never. Premeditated, impulsive. Would it be like an act of. You know what a credible. Credible threat is? It only requires a criminal intent to commit. Yes. An aggravated assault or. Or a felony. Right. And once you. Frank saw you running after you didn't have the sword. You don't know what they. No, we got statements from them. They saw you running after him with the sw. Okay, well. Oh, that the aggressor. Why were you running after him with a sword after this? Where did that. I took it back. Where did that happen? And then he took it back. Actually, when I took it back and then I gave it to him.

[Mike Boudet]

But the detective needed to decipher the facts based on the physical evidence. The evidence was a dead man slaughtered by sword and an assailant with a giant defensive wound on his hand.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You said so he fell on his sword. He had the sword. I gave it to him. Okay? I said, look, you're not going to use it on me anymore here. And I'll turn my back on him and left. I don't know if he ran after me or what. I don't know what happened. See, that's what I'm talking about. You know your adrenaline. When someone. When your life is threatened, you're gonna react, but you don't remember exactly how you do what you do. But you're alive because you're fighting for your life.

[Mike Boudet]

How annoying is this guy? I mean, why, why, why. Why is he out on the street? Oh, yeah. Karen and her virtue. Signaling out of sight, out of mind. Ain't that right, Karen?

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I'm not gonna be murdered in my sleep. How are you. How are you fighting for your life?

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Weird.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I just told you, right? Okay, I'm consistently. When I'm. I. When I get stressed out, I begin to bleed internally because of an injury happened 22, three years ago. I was all lightning. And you're causing it to hemorrhage. And it's internally bleeding. That's not good.

[Mike Boudet]

This guy thinks his hemorrhoids were caused by lightning. Lightning.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I'm not saying that you're.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

You're.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You're in a misconduct. You're talking your introduction. You don't understand. That is criminal. And it wasn't ill will against me because do. I wasn't. What did he exactly do, though, to put you in fear? Anything and everything he could to sway me from. Other than a heterosexual being a homosexual. I was. Verbal body language. The things he did. He walk out and he exposed the genitalia and urinate right in front of me. When I asked please. As many times I asked him, he never respected what I said. That please do not where we walk, exposure, urinate. And he does never respect anything. Go in the woods, right? You go deeper in the woods. Yeah, I do not. I obsess myself with any kind of gen failure of a man. Especially when it. This is common sense.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Yeah.

[Mike Boudet]

How passive is this cop? Yeah, I know I'm bitching a lot, but my God, slap the cuffs on him already. I mean, I'm all for due process and self defense, but perhaps maybe Mr. Garrison here is better suited for a career track in botany rather than law enforcement. I mean, Jesus, man, grow some assertiveness. This unassertive detective was not going to get a straight answer about anything. Not mumbling the way he was anyway. Chris said that Dave had tried to rape him and was making sexual remarks. But the truth about how the sword was passed between these two men was unclear. And without a witness who saw every inch of that murder, there was no real way to figure out what exactly happened. Then Chris said this about Dave, which mirrored exactly what Tasha had told the detectives. She and other women felt okay.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You ever feel when you can. When you can't turn your back on someone because they feel like they're looking over your shoulder? You can feel that stuff touching on my girl.

[Tasha]

Dave was one of those people that when women see him, they make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

[Interviewer / Police Officer]

That was Dave. You said Dave. Okay.

[Tasha]

And that's when you want to back away. And so that's why I never spoke like that.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

When he swung the sword, I punched him. And I don't know what happened because the sword's there and his face is there. My hand. How did he get the sword? He already said that you took it back from him. You said he swung at you. Sir, when someone's trying to kill your, adrenaline doesn't allow you to decipher every critical fact. You never gave me a sword. Yes, I did give him a sword. You said you didn't. You said you tried to give it to him and then you took it back. And then from that point on, you've never said that you gave him back the sword. I'm not trying to complicate this. It's simple. Just be truthful.

[Mike Boudet]

That's all I ask.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Be truthful. Don't Try to. You gotta accept responsibility for your actions. You understand that? You're a grown man now. I'm defending myself. Okay, but how? You have the sword. How are you defending yourself? It's your sword. You're running after him? You're running after him with a sword? I gave it back to him.

[Mike Boudet]

Chris couldn't remember who had the sword first or how it all unfolded. Maybe adrenaline and mental illness blurred all the details. His life had always been driven by fight or flight instincts. How could he reliably recount events when he lived each day assuming the world was against him? But what he did explain was that ever since Dave had started coming around the camp, he had been making sexual advances towards Chris. And that it finally hit a breaking point. The officer wanted to know why Chris didn't just pack up and leave. His answer was simple. I was here first. He said yes. Chris had loaned Dave the sword, that much was true. But when they got in that scuffle down on the tracks, Dave swung at him with the blade and Chris lost it.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I don't know whether we could blade his face or both, but once I was threatened, once he swung at me, that was it. I knew he intended to, but it's a. Where were you when it's time to. In the tent. I mean, in between the tents in my camp. How did you get that sword? Told you. I gave it to him.

[Mike Boudet]

But why? Why would Chris give someone who he deemed a sexual menace a sword? Was he ever really playing with a.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

Full deck with a Dave widow? You have not told me for you to stab him. What justification do you have to use a sword on other than anger? Said that again. You were not there, so. And I did not tell you that's what happened. So you. You are. We know he's dead, you know. It's your sword. And you're injured because the sword cut you. And you have Dave's blood on. We have Dave's blood. Probably in the tent. Well, I don't have to ask you questions. I mean, you're asking all these questions. I'm going to ask you one question. You have. Are you a homosexual? Doesn't matter.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Okay.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

I don't care if you are. You know what? It doesn't matter to me. These questions you ask me anymore. And I don't mean it in disrespect. Fine. Yet nothing to say and I will not answer. I want my attorney then.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Fair enough.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

And you're a detective, Oliver? Yes. Okay. I'm suspending you.

[Mike Boudet]

Don't want.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You want. Well, I Can also have you taken in custody. I told the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Defense. Wonder why this went on for 25 years? Why they didn't serve a death warrant their self and execute him, I do not know. But I do not have to disclose any more information to you. Hold on.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Okay.

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

So you should respect that. Because as a man, I respect you and your profession. Goodbye.

[Mike Boudet]

This guy's got a real problem with gays anyway. Why does he talk like Eugene Porter from the Walking Dead?

[Chris (George Christopher Livingston)]

You know what goodbye means. Still didn't answer. I don't want you in the jurisdiction anymore. Remove yourself from Palm beach county, fourth week. You think I'm kidding? You're dismissed. Relieved. I said it a dozen times. Don't speak to me anymore. If you feel like talking again. Yeah, you meant to arouse me, aggravate me and call. Cause internal bleeding again. I'm bleeding in the neck and the chest now, thanks to you. We understand plain English. Do you understand? Yes. No. How about no more job. Put in a little bit more. I don't want to hurt you. Can you go in any. You already did. Move in any further. I don't want to hurt you. Seriously, you don't want to hurt you? Then leave and let her do her job.

[Mike Boudet]

That's when Chris turned away and let the female officer put him in the squad car. He was done talking. He was done trying to explain what had happened. The stress had caused him internal bleeding from his previous injuries. How exhausting are these nuts? I mean, I know how our audience just loves to be perceived as compassionate, but at what point are you willing to admit what a drain on society these people are? They provide nothing, not a single benefit whatsoever to society, yet they demand everything from it. It's just so insanely tiring. Crazy people can just. They can just drive you crazy, you know, it's contagious. There isn't a lot of great data on homelessness and crime, but according to Devin from the Cicero Institute, AI is slowly helping us get there. If it were me, a simple abattoir would do all the work. Slap chop it, I say. But that's why I'm never getting elected. Anyway, here's Devin arguing that statistics don't always match the cultural narrative.

[Devin Kurtz]

But in terms of hard data, the best we have is a report from San Diego District Attorney's office that did an analysis. They released it two years ago on homelessness and crime. And they found that unsheltered homeless people, those people who are living on the street, were hundreds of times as likely to commit crimes like arson, robbery, et cetera. And they were dozens of times as likely to be victims of similar crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, et cetera. So what we're seeing is the case that you described of two homeless people getting into a, you know, antisocial spiral. Ultimately an interaction that led to one of them killing the other. That is the majority of the violence that we're seeing in homeless encampments. There's this rhetoric by activists that's, oh, people are coming into these homeless encampments and they're robbing them and taking advantage of them. Well, those people tend to be other homeless people.

[Mike Boudet]

The narrative around homelessness has long been rooted in the idea that housing is a human right. What a dumb idea. Obviously some Karen came up with that who's never had to compete for limited resources. Somebody actually has to pay for it. Oh, so I get to work twice as hard to subsidize someone else's generator based business arrangement? Okay, sure, but that better mean we put all these people in a locked facility and never let them out. I mean, would housing alone have helped someone like Dave or Chris? Giving Dave a bed wouldn't have stopped them from sexually assaulting people. Maybe a temporary shelter might have limited Chris stockpile of weapons and kept it from growing into the unregulated arsenal it became. But both were deeply disturbed individuals, Misfits with serious mental health issues. They needed more than a roof over their heads. Sure, others at the camp would have gladly taken housing, but are they representative of the unsheltered population at large? I mean, we don't really know. The data just isn't there. It's hard to track a population in constant motion, both by nature and by necessity. Er, illness. Then there's the darker question. No one actually wants to. Do we even care that Dave was murdered? I'll be honest. I don't think I even need to be honest. You might actually be able to guess what I'm gonna say. Will you be honest, Karen? How much do you actually care? Past the virtue signaling tweet or the dollar you handed to that stinky man outside the Starbucks so he'd leave you alone until the Karens of the world with the ability to vote start being honest with themselves. Actual, tangible solutions that don't involve rotating blades will continue to remain out of reach. Dave Beckett was a known sexual predator. What the public knew was only the tip of a likely, much uglier iceberg. Did Chris and his own twisted way do society a favor? Don't you dare roll your eyes, Karen? Because ultimately, whose job is it to manage adults who are incapable of managing themselves? Chris and Dave weren't just homeless. They were rejected by their families, shunned by their peers, even outcasts within the homeless community itself. The sad truth is that most people living on the streets aren't victims of circumstance. It's a great story to tell and it keeps getting perpetuated by media. But those people put themselves there through their own actions. That may not be true all over the world, but here in America, the land of opportunity, you have no excuse for ending up homeless unless you want to. Not permanently anyway. That's just an uncomfortable fact that Karens who want to feel good about being lazy and shitty to everyone around them refuse to accept. Why demand accountability when you can just virtue signal feel good about yourself? The humans in this camp and many others like it were pushed so far to the margins, the only people left to deal with them were each other. And this time it ended in murder. So the question lingered. If society had stepped in sooner, not just with housing, but with real accountability instead of virtue signaling, would Dave still be alive? I think you probably already know the answer to that. Well, I'm gonna get a lot of hate mail this week. It's a good thing I don't read any of it. As a matter of fact, why do I even have an email address? Haven't gotten anything other than Nigerian scammers and Karens for the last 10 years. Anyway, that's gonna do it for another one of these silly murder shows you guys seem to love for some reason. Hope you enjoyed that one. We'll be back before you know it. Probably over the weekend with another one. They just keep happening, folks. People are shit. Speaking of which, head on over to our store to support us if you want to. We got some people or shit merch which we can't advertise on YouTube because that's a dirty word and all kinds of other stuff. Go check out store. Swordskill.com if you haven't signed up for Plus. That's where you get all the goodies. Extra episodes commercial free. Lots of good stuff in there. So go check that out at sword and scale.com and download our iOS or Android app. We've made lots and lots of improvements. It's way better. Much more stable. Got a lot more features in there. So check it out if you haven't in a while. And I think that's gonna do it. That's my sales pitch. Thanks again for joining us. Thanks for being a plus member if you are. We love you guys. Well, I don't love anyone other than myself because I'm a narcissist, but you know what I mean. I appreciate you. So does our staff. Oh, I almost forgot. This episode was written by mish Barbara way, one of our producers here that's been with us for a long time. She's great. That's gonna do it. Thanks again. Till next time, stay safe and stay out of the homeless camps.

[Dispatcher / 911 Operator]

Sam. Sa. Sam.