WEBVTT
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H a wall Street line, shackle change, Oh someome girdie,
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it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's
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been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Wrangle three.
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Come in by me to die inside these walls, inside
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the wild and went no girl as I'm.
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Hey everyone, welcome back to Bloody and Gola. And this
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week we are continuing this fifty Shades of Eagles series,
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and today I'm going to bring you to Georgia, and
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I'm going to take you back to March eleventh of
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two thousand and five, because that's when Brian Nichols, sitting
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in a Fulton County courthouse awaiting trial on rape charges,
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suddenly overpowered and hit his deputy escort, storms into a courtroom,
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murders a judge and a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy,
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and later that day an off duty ice agent a
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twenty six hour man hunting sues before Brian Nichols is captured.
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And that is only a small aspect of this story.
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So let's get into it, and we're going to start
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off in nineteen seventy one in Baltimore, Maryland, where Brian
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was born to parents Clothier who was an IRS employee
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in Jean Nichols a business owner and a restaurant entrepreneur. Now,
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he was the youngest of two sons in this family.
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He had a brother, Mark, and Mark was four years
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older than him. His family was very close knit. They
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were very large. He had a ton of cousins and
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aunts and uncles and all those sorts of things, and
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they would have get togethers often. His family was very successful,
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and they were middle to upper middle class, and throughout
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the early seventh these through the early eighties, that family
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would continue to see success economically. The Nichols family was
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very respected in the Baltimore area and pretty well known,
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especially with his father's relationship to those restaurants. And he
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was very well raised, a very mannerly young man, et cetera. Now,
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in the mid to late eighties, and really throughout his
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adolescence in high school, Nichols took up karate and he
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really developed a passion for it. Now, in addition to
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working out, he was also very athletic, and around sixteen
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years old, you could tell Brian Nichols was already a
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very imposing figure as it related to his size. He
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was six foot one, he was over two hundred and
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ten pounds, so much so that private schools would start
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to take notice, and he would attend a private boys
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school where he was a stand linebacker as a matter
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of fact, so good that midway through his high school career,
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he transfers to another high school that kind of recruited
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him and that would provide him with more opportunity sports wise.
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They were just a better football team. Now, in nineteen
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eighty nine, fresh out of high school, Brian attends a
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division to college in Pennsylvania and he walks onto that
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football team. He didn't have a scholarship there, and he
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showed some talent, but it's also at this point in
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Brian's life that these anger issues would kind of start
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to surface with him. Now. He plays on that team
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for about a year before having to leave the team
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after he gets accused of stealing, and he also had
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some scrapes with the law. Between the ages of eighteen
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and nineteen, he would have a confrontation at the university
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dining hall where he picked up a threat charge. He
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based was trying to get in a fight with this
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other guy. I don't know exactly how he threatened him,
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but he made some sort of threat and picked up
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a charge for it. He also had another incident where
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he was caught using a fake ID and he even
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had another charge for criminal trespassing that earned him a
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two night stay in jail during this time. So it
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is with all this legal trouble and these are just
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scrapes at this time, nothing huge, that Brian decides in
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early nineteen ninety one to enlist with his best friend
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in the US Army Reserves. He does that, he ends
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up training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and at the
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age of twenty, he also bothers a daughter with his
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college girlfriend. Her name was Stephanie. Now shortly after his
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daughter's birth, that relationship does end, and later on in
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life he would actually get in some serious trouble for
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some back child support issues. He apparently had like thirteen
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thousand dollars that he owed in back child support by
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the year two thousand for this child that he fathered
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with Stephanie. Now between those ages of twenty and twenty two,
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after he gets out of he's not out of the
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Army Reserves, but after he gets out of his training,
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and then you go for once a month and two
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weeks a year, right, he goes back to college. I'm
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assuming on the GI bill, and he ends up going
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to a college called Newbery where he continues to play football.
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But for whatever reason, college just was not for him,
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and he does leave college in late nineteen ninety four
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without a degree. It's at this point that he's kind
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of at a crossroads in life, not sure what he
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wants to do. He ends up moving to Atlanta, Georgia.
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When he moves there, he starts seeing some success. He's
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very successful. Well, actually, he gets a really good job
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as a systems engineer with Hewlett Packard, which was huge
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back in the nineties, and he also leaves there for
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better opportunity with ups as a systems engineer. However, in
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nineteen ninety six, trouble finds him once again when he's
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arrested for felony drugs, which involved just a small amount
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of marijuana. But at this time, y'all, it's the mid
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to late nineties, we wouldn't legal anywhere, and so he
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gets in some trouble for that marijuana. Now he doesn't
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get to jail for it, but he does end up
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with three years of probation and he didn't come off
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of that probation until nineteen ninety nine, and from here
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it really appears Brian was getting his life together. And look,
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this is not your typical thug. Brian Nichols very smart guy,
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very articulate, came from a great family as I mentioned,
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and very well put together. He actually looked at that
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time almost exactly and I'm talking spitting image of Denzel Washington.
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I have a picture that I use in the artwork
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of this particular episode, and it's gonna give you an
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idea of how much you would think this was Denzel
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when you look at this guy looks just like him.
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He was also, from all reports, very charming, considered himself
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kind of a ladies man, and all of that is
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gonna matter as we go along in this story. It
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seems Brian Nichols has figured life out. These scrapes early
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in life. A lot of people go through that. You
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go into college and things, and you do stuff maybe
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you wouldn't normally do. But at this point in his
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life he seems like he's kind of figuring it out.
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He's flying right, and he's not getting into any significant
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trouble until August nineteen of two thousand and four, he
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gets arrested for some serious shit. Now, he'd been dating
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this girl off and on for approximately eight years, and
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she was a very successful person in her own right.
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She was actually a corporate executive. She made a ton
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of money. And throughout this relationship they would live together.
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And incidentally, at this point in time, he's still in Atlanta, Georgia. Now,
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she took care Brian. As a matter of fact, at
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one point she bought him a BMW. They would attend
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church together, and even though they were on again off again,
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throughout their relationship, generally they seemed very happy. They seemed
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like typical couple. However, in April of two thousand and four,
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they do break up. Now, although they were reconciled shortly thereafter,
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it wouldn't last long. And what caused this breakup was
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Brian Nichols allegedly had been simultaneously seeing another woman who
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would become pre with his child.
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Uh.
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Oh, nobody to explain that one away.
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Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today?
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Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
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what happened in New York.
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It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
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you about yesterday. In Louisiana.
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You know what, we should do a podcast.
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About it, And with that we did. Crime War Weekly
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covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.
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We cover trending crimes from all over the country and
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even sprinkle in a few globally.
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Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to
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your podcasts.
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Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link
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in the description of this podcast. And when his longtime
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girlfriend would learn about this, she would end that relationship
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for good. It was like the final blow for her.
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Get out the door, don't ever come back. So from
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here forward, I'm going to refer to this young lady
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as the victim. And the victim starts dating another man
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after her and Brian break up. And his name is Chris.
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And Chris was a minister from a church that she
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and Brian Nichols would attend. And he didn't like any
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of this at all, meaning Brian Nichols. He didn't like
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her dating this dude. He probably wouldn't like her dating
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any dude. And Brian, as I said, he was a
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very charming, attractive guy, very well spoken. He was also
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kind of a narcissist. I mean he was a little
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bit arrogant. He thought very highly of himself, and so
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this ate him up. That she was with this other
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guy who was a pastor and she was happy and
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he didn't like it. So Brian first tries to beg
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her to reconcile with him, does all the things right,
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goes to her house, please, I made a mistake. I'll
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never cheat on you again, all those sorts of things.
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None of that worked. Then he tried to threaten to
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commit suicide because he said he couldn't handle the breakup.
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That didn't work. She wasn't having it. She wanted nothing
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to do with Brian anymore. And those confrontations would continue
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to escalate, and in early of August two thousand and four,
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he would start confronting not only her but the minister
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outside of her apartment. In addition to that, he would
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also confront them when they were at restaurants and things
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of that nature, just always showing up when these two
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were together and confronting them. And that's going to bring
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me to August nineteen, two thousand and four, when Brian
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Nichols apparently lost his shit. And this is according to
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the victim. So around five o'clock am, Brian Nichols would
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appear in the doorway of her bedroom. This is again
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August nineteenth of two thousand and four. She was sleeping,
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and he would point a silver semi automatic handgun in
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her and order her to turn off the security alarm,
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which she complies. She does that. He would then bound
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her wrist in her ankles together with duct tape and
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tell her if she complied, he's not going to hurt
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her and he would eventually let her go. But he
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would also say if she did not comply, he would
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kill her, and then he would kill himself. And the
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way that he would kill her was especially crude. He
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would take lighter fluid, pour it all over and burn
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her to death. And Brian Nichols was serious about this,
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now so serious in fact, that he'd come prepared with
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two guns, duct tape, numb chucks, lighter fluid, and even
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a cooler full of food, which tells you he was
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planning on stayin a while. He brings her to the bathtub,
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still bound lead the room, comes back and tells her
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that he planed to stay and assault her until her birthday,
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which was three days later. Incidentally, He then pulls out
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the lighter fluid, and he threatens to set her on
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fire if she escaped or even yelled. He then fills
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that bathtub full of water and submerges her at several
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points during the ordeal, basically putting this girl underwater until
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she can't breathe anymore, and then pulling her up right
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before she passes out. So for seven hours during this ordeal,
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he rapes her, forces her to give him oral sex,
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videotapes her as she was naked, just the most horrible,
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inhumane things you could ever imagine, And after it was
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all over, he warned her not to escalate the situation
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by calling police. As a matter of fact, he said,
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if you call police, I'm gonna kill your whole family
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and all your friends if any of this is reported.
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And just prior to leaving, he tells her, quote, I'm
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out of your life. This is over for me as well,
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and this has put closure to our relationship unquote, and
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he walks out the door. Well. The victim, being as
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brave as only one could imagine, she indeed calls the
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police and a SWAT team is sent to the location
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of Nichols, and he is arrested for a slew of charges.
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Those charges included burglary, rape, aggravated assault side of me,
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and some other charges, and he is indeed looking at
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a life sentence just for the aggravated rape alone. So
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this is in the summer of two thousand and four
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that Nichols gets actually indicted on these charges. So he's arrested,
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but we all know when you're arrested, you have to
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get indicted. So it goes to a grand jury and
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they say, yes, there's enough evidence here to actually prosecute
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and get a conviction on this person. So that occurs,
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and he's in jail during this time on those rape charges.
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He's thirty two years old at this point in his
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life and he's held without bond at the Faulton County Jail.
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So he gets an attorney, and his attorney would later
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say that Brian was a very respectful guy and he
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was kind of warm with him. Really, he was warm