Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter

WEBVTT

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Discretion is advised. This is ten
committed murdered. Zachary Davis was a quiet

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kid with a history of mental illness. When he was nine years old in

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two thousand and seven, he fell
into a deep depression. His father died

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from als aka lu Garrig's disease.
By the way, do people still call

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it lou Garrig's disease? Surely not. That guy died in the forties,

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and I bet he doesn't appreciate his
memory being associated with the disease that killed

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him. Anyway. Zach's paternal grandmother, Gail, claims that soon after his

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father passed away, he was brought
to see doctor Bradley Freeman at Vanderbilt University

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Medical Center. Zach did, in
fact have a mental disorder, the doctor

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claimed. Zach was given a schizophrenia
and depression disorder diagnosis. And it's also

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noting that zach claimed that he heard
voices. He was generally quiet, as

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I mentioned, but he was starting
to shut down even more. Zachary claimed

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during one of his four meetings with
doctor Freeman to have heard his dead father's

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voice. Now, it's common for
anyone, especially those who were young,

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to experience a severe depression after the
loss of a loved one, as Zachary

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had done. He experienced the first
two stages of the grieving process, but

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he didn't quite seem to make it
to the recovery stage, and this may

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be partly due to the fact that
his mother abruptly ended his counseling sessions.

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At his trial, even his grandmother
said that if Zachary had received the necessary

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medical care quote, this would not
have happened. Going on with their lives,

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the family relocated to Sumner County,
Tennessee. Melanie Davis, Zach's mom,

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put a lot of effort into her
paralegal profession and triathlon training. She

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made every effort to move on from
her husband's passing and maintain her boy's happiness.

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She didn't realize or grasp how far
down Zachary had gotten Among his peers.

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The fifteen year old zach was an
outcast. He frequently whispered this strange

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monotone whisper, and he wore the
same hoodie every day. On his phone,

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he had both a catalog of torture
devices and an app about serial killers.

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One of the terrifying and disturbing anecdotes, and his journals include quote you

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can't spell slaughter without laughter. He
read Misery by Stephen King and engaged in

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violent video game play, which bt
dubs. I've mentioned on this podcast before

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how the false claims of the effect
of violent video games. They're too often

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used as an excuse for violent behavior, and we can clearly see, as

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in the story we're talking about today, zach was mentally unwell. Playing Call

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of Duty did not push him over
the edge. And for the record,

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when I was about the same age
as Zachary, I read Stephen King's Misery,

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thought it was disturbing and fantastic,
and I also played violent video games.

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The big difference here is Zachary's mental
illness. It wasn't until the evening

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on August tenth, twenty twelve,
that it became clear that he was outwardly

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violent. Josh, Zach's older brother, who was sixteen, and his mother,

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went to see a movie together.
When they got back, Zach packed

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his clothes, notebooks, a toothbrush, gloves, a ski mask, and

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a claw hammer into a bag and
a satchel. Zachary might have appeared on

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the surface to be planning to run
away from home, but on the inside

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something more sinister was at work.
Did you kill your mother? Yeah?

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And why did you kill her?
Shea Washington taking care of my family.

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Did you think about discussing it with
her instead of killing her? I didn't

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think. I wouldn't do any song. When did you decide to kill your

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mother? No? Disheartened? And
the methode you chose was what Bearding heard

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at us? You beat her to
death with what a sledge hamer? And

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how many times did you hit her
with the sledge hammer? A sham?

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About twenty times? Was this a
three pound sledgehammer? Five pound sledgehammer?

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I don't know, heavy? Yeah, way bigger than hammer. In case

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you thought you misheard in that little
clip there from zach on The Doctor Phil

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Show, he did chuckle when describing
his murder weapon. At nine o'clock,

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Melanie went to sleep, Zachary got
a sledgehammer from the garage and went to

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his mother's room. He struck her
about twenty times as he bludgeoned her to

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death. Covered in her blood,
Zachary locked her door before heading to the

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family gaming room and doused that space
and alcohol in gasoline. He'd lit it

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on fire, locked the door and
left. His plan was to burned his

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older brother Josh to death, but
because he shut the door to the game

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room, the fire didn't spread quickly, and the alarm woke him up.

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His mother was a bloody mess when
he went to check on her. Josh

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went to someone else's house to escape
the fire and what he had done.

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Authorities located Josh a distance of over
ten miles away from his house, and

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his statement to the police, he
claimed to quote, I didn't feel anything

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when I killed her. You remember
opening the door, right, It wasn't

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locked, It wasn't Did you stand
there and look at her for a minute

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before you did it? Yeah?
Did she make a noise? I couldn't

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just hear the hammer hitting her?
Herd? And what did it sound like?

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There was this something shound? How
long before you hit her the second

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time? Just a few seconds?
Did you think she was already dead?

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She woke up and she started she
shing up. Did she look at you

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looked into her age, but she
didn't look at me. And again he's

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laughing as he details how he murdered
his own sleeping mother, a reminder of

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what he put in his journal.
You can't spell slaughter without laughter. Zachary

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Davis told the police how his father's
voice instructed him to kill his mother in

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a disturbing confession that was presented in
the court as evidence. When the detective

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questioned Zach in this confession about whether
he would still carry out the attack if

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he could go back in time,
zach replied, quote, I would probably

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kill Josh with a sledgehammer too.
In the course of the trial, defense

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lawyer Randy Lucas questioned Zach, quote, did he tell you to do anything

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specific to your mother? Zach said
no and displayed no remorse. Investigators showed

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him bloody photos of the work he
had done on his mother, no reaction.

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He actually never expressed any regret at
all. He claimed that he chose

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a sledgehammer as his tool because it
provided him quote the highest chance of killing

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her and because quote I was worried
that I'd miss Zachary's interview with doctor Phil

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was also shown to the jury at
the trial, part of which you just

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heard. Zachary made an attempt to
pin the murder on his brother. At

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one point during the trial. Even
his defense lawyer, who publicly stated in

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court that Zachary Davis killed his mother, was shocked by the claim his defense

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team was only trying to have his
sentence reduced, and trying to blame his

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brother for the crime did not help
that cause you turned bad, mister Davis.

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You crossed over to the dark side. Judge d. David Gay told

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him in court that much is clear
and easy. The legal system and the

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twelve person jury struggled with the idea
that while Zachary had obviously planned to kill

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his mother, it was equally plain
that he was seriously mentally ill. Zach's

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paternal grandmother argued that he had a
severe mental disorder and had not been given

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any assistance quote every guidance, counselor
and teacher ought to go on trial alongside

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Zach. According to her, Zach
is not an evil person. He made

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a terrible error as a child.
She thinks Smelanie died as a result of

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her failure to provide Zach the assistance
he required. Zach's original doctor, doctor

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Freeman, further testified in courts that
his judgment was driven by his psychosis and

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that as a result of his mental
illness, he was unable to have planned

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the killings. However, the judge
and jury had a different opinion, and

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Zach was given a life sentence after
the jury deliberated for three hours. In

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Tennessee, a life sentence carries a
minimum of sixty years with a fifty one

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year parole window. By the time
Zachary Davis gets released from prison, he'll

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be in his mid sixties. Whether
the murder was committed in cold blood or

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as a result of psychosis, we
won't ever really know, even though we

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can lean towards the latter. Probably, it's still a heartbreaking story of a

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family forever changed. That is ten
minute Murder for Today, brief and bingeible

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true Crime. I'm Joe, I'm
the host, and thank you so much

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for taking the time out of your
day to listen to this podcast. And

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I'll be honest with you, I
considered not putting those clips in there,

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those audio clips from the Doctor Phil
show, for no other reason than I

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don't really like Doctor Phil and I
can't put my finger on exactly why.

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It just feels like the vibes are
off. The Doctor Phil vibes overall are

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off for me. And I also
low key blame him for that catch me

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Outside girl becoming a thing by the
way she is rich now she turned that

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catch me outside thing into like some
big empire, and she's super rich.

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She could be a terrible person.
I don't know, but good for her.

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Gotta strike while the iron's hot,
I guess. Hey. If this

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Did you say the hose are laughing? Yep? How by the