Chase's friend and fellow porn actress Cece Stone says Hill once gave her a ride to a shoot. "He picked me up because I didn't have a car. I got in and the whole inside smelled like body odor. We were about a mile away from where he picked me up, and I just got out at the next light and walked off."
Jover tried to remedy the situation by installing a shower in the studio. "It had hot water, cold water. We just couldn't get the funk out. Everyone that worked with him on camera was uncomfortable. He was dead weight."
Finally, Jover asked Hill to leave. "I gave him two weeks' notice and I also gave him some money so he could find a place," Jover says.
But Hill wasn't ready to leave.
"I asked him to call his parents or an old roommate or something," Jover recalls. "I gave him two more weeks and those two weeks passed. Three days before the incident I said, 'You're going to have to leave or I'm going to have the police come and escort you out.' "
Hill's life was disintegrating. Several weeks before the attacks, he was involved in a disturbing incident on the campus of California State University, Northridge, which eerily echoed the 1998 threat at the University of Maryland.
Detective Joel Price of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division says Hill was on campus but not a student. "His father became concerned for the safety of those on the campus and ended up calling LAPD and said his son was making crazy statements about killing people," Price says.
David Hill explains, "I received an alarming e-mail from Stephen in which he threatened suicide, saying if he was going, he would be taking a lot of people with him. I notified the police immediately and they shortly picked him up at the Northridge campus, where he often pretended to be a student to use the computers in the library."
When police found Hill, he had swords in his vehicle. Price says of the Northridge incident, "He didn't harm anyone, but he was locked up for 72 hours for a mental evaluation."
Price also notes that, even after being turned in by his father, Hill stayed in contact with him. "When he last spoke to his father," Price says, "it was in an e-mail exchange several weeks before the incident in regards to his 34th birthday."
David Hill says of the e-mail conversation with his son, "I offhandedly remarked that I was 34 when he was born. This must have depressed him a bit, since he replied indicating that he felt bad about not having a wife and family of his own.
"A few days later, I got a call from my brother saying he had seen a news report about a porn actor who attacked his fellow workers with a Japanese sword. He hoped it wasn't Stephen, but I knew it must be."
Moments after Hill attacked that June night, Jover, Wong and businessman Drell raced to the room to try to calm the situation as Rachal lay bleeding on the floor. Seeing the men dialing 911, Hill lunged at them.
The men turned and ran. There was a pileup at the door. Jover and Drell made it out first, bolting from the room untouched and racing outside the building. Drell recalls he was "three feet out" of the building when he heard "Tom being butchered. It was a high-pitched squeal."
Drell ran back in to confront Hill. He saw Wong on the floor. "Tom was bleeding everywhere. He was cut at the waist and his elbow was cut to the bone. He was turning purple."
Hill began swinging the weapon at Drell. "I have martial arts training, and that kicked in," Drell says. "I stepped into him and he hit the wall."
Still, Hill managed to inflict on Drell's shoulder a wound that took 23 stitches to close.
Jover was next. Hill pursued him outside on foot for about 20 yards before he jumped into his blue RAV4 and attempted to run Jover down. Jover eluded him. Hill sped off into the night.
Police soon arrived. Wong was taken to a hospital, where he died of internal injuries and loss of blood.
Police began searching for Hill. "We don't know where he went," Detective Price recalls. "He could have spent those days hiding out around Chatsworth Park. We were somewhat surprised that he stayed around here locally."
Three days after the attacks, as local news organizations gave descriptions of Hill and his 1998 blue Toyota RAV4, a witness spotted the car in the 8800 block of Azul Drive in West Hills and notified authorities.
Hill was hiding on the property of a nearby home when police set up a barricade and made contact with him.
Hill ran, but not far. The property where he was hiding ends at a cliff just outside the Chatsworth Nature Preserve. Hill had a samurai blade with him, one of several swords he kept in his car. He held the weapon against his chest, threatening to stab himself or fall on the blade.
Porn isn't unique, we all know people on the edge it's sad that society doesn't do much for those on the edge.
why did you even bother to read this, if you care about the fringe of society, a fringe society of three year olds could have convayed more deeper meaning to such a hot sexy story. sincerly, morgan gorman.ps. the profile picture is hot.
I find it entertaining, that a porn director would call another person a 'd-lister'. YOU AREN'T EVEN ON A LIST TO BEGIN WITH!
The first sign of a problem was that he racked up credit card debt buying porn over the internet. Seriously... who buys porn over the internet?
Good article Mike. I'd also mention that the mopes cast as extras on Hollywood sets don't get fed as well as their pornish counterparts.
It's sad but not at all surprising to read about "Porno Samurai Killer"; that, also, didn't get the backlash it deserved.
I SEE that now the losers out number everyone,( include me I'm drunk ) And I mean EVERYONE !! That includes dead people..!! the hell is going on to OUR society ?
Reading the story, Hill's biography reads practically like what we now know about Jared Loughner. The guy had obvious untreated mental issues and finally fell off the rails.
boring. if he smelled funky then he shouldve showered more. crazy. and dont pornstars put their tongues and faces in all kinds of places im kinda surprised they care for smells.
I've never read that New Yorker piece, and I don't live in LA, so this is all new to me. It may be insensitive, but I find the story fascinating.
This article is biased and condescending, plus it rambles and misses the point... Dislike. Thumbs down.
This is a really weird, strange journey into the mysterious world of porn. I just wanted to know about the murder.
This cookie-cutter L.A.-porn-noir piece is inappropriate:
This is one sad, difficult story of mental illness and meaningless loss that does not particularly need to be told, and certainly not in this way. We all read "The Money Shot" article by Susan Faludi in the New Yorker and have ever since suffered its progeny of L.A.-porn-noir reportage, so this article is hardly compelling or groundbreaking for its style or its "ironic" observations.
To the extent that it is news, it should be told directly and factually, out of respect for those involved - particularly the decent father of this troubled soul.
I'm disappointed in the L.A. Weekly for publishing it.
What's the point of covering up for the LAPD now? Everybody is dead. Hill didn't jump; he was tazed off of the cliff by the cops. The whole thing was taped and on the video you not only saw the tazer shots but you could see the wires coming out of his back as he fell to his death. By only mentioning the bean bags and characterizing the death as a suicide, the credibility of this whole article is undermined. The truth probably died with Dong and Driver. Who really knows what happened when all you have here are the comments of either people who weren't there or those with no objectivity. This is journalism?
This guy was on a downward spiral for a long time. Can you imagine another industry where he could fine people who would let him stay a year at their place of work while showing major character flaws and ultimately intense mental illness? As Hill neared his psychic cliff represented by getting kicked out of the studio and decided to kill some people before suicide by cops, its interested to note Mr. Wong might have died because he hesitated when Hill attacked due to their friendship. Crazy people live among us. Work in every industry. Hill meant to kill and would have killed more people if he had a better blade or more training. But consider why he didn't use a gun? Too expensive? Not the "warrior's" way according to his mind? And after the long standoff, he takes the longer plunge. What was he thinking? Hill was someone's son, someone's friend. Whatever else this story is about, the star is David Hill. And he is not unique. We are in an age where the mentally ill are left to roam the streets, treated in an emergency room if they are dying, then put back where they collapsed.
I found this on Google News, too, and it is indeed a good story. I've always known that pornography was run by and performed by human garbage. It's hard to believe that these losers do what they do for only $50 a scene. Not surprisingly, the porn industry supports the Democratic Party. Democrats and human garbage are inseparable.
Sitting at home on your computer and classing people as "human garbage" certainly does put you on higher moral ground. I'm sure you'll be getting off on your self-righteousness when you look at all that foot fetish porn tonight.
WOW - amazing how you turned this into a political jab at Democrats. Can you find a way to link cancer to Democrats too? You are so clever.
only the typical self righteous conservative would believe your crap...lol, nobody else possesses this level of self absorbed, elitist ,privileged, sense of jesus-ness.....a story about a bunch of losers in an trifling industry and you inject it with your toxic point of view and compare them to being liberal, fuck you you cunt!
Yes, and conservatives are the people who voted in an entire party who stated bluntly that they were going to fuck everyone in the ass by not doing anything to help anyone but their Corporationalist masters. Thanks for that, The-Cheese. Why do you hate America?
he must have missed the part where he has a narcissistic disorder and his father said he sounded like a "young conservative."funny thing is most conservative sex scandals are of homosexual nature and not just something like an affair but more like male prostitutes, airport bathrooms or fantasizing of orgies.oh the hypocrisy .
Hill was most probably demoniacally possessed. The Dark Lord's orders are summarized by the following: Deceive, Defile Destroy. Porn does that very efficiently..... even for the "stars".
shut the F-up, you sound like a real bitch! get your head out of your ass and stop trying to rationalize with your make believe "devil", what a joke...
You would be amusing if I didn't know what was in store for you. Sometimes a peculiar 'bad' smell is associated with the possessed. Quite rare, but unmistakable if you know what to sense. Its more like rotting meat than BO. No amount of showering or baths help and it gradually gets worse. The porn girl who got out of the car probably got just a psychic glimpse of what she was riding beside.
bad odor? maybe he didnt floss?" you would be amusing if i didnt know what was in store for you"? so now your special and have the details on the devil, and know whats in store for me!....put some of your special powers to work you genius, perhaps play the lottery "see the numbers" pick em and win enough money to pay someone to believe your bullshit....lol
I'm from Cleveland and saw this article posted on google news. I'm glad I clicked on it. This article is great. Very well written and I learned a lot, and its like a story.
Yet you probably spend your entire day beating off to them naked. Wonder what that says about you...
I had heard about this when it happened - and even saw a blurb of the crazy free fall video - but this is a genuinely good article, something I rarely r on the web anymore. Kudoz!
Is this a real story, because if so one might accuse the author of sensationalizing a tragic event...
Forcing low level drug prisoners into slave labor at 'for-profit' prisons is inhumane and trashy. Extending "payday loans" to poor people at usurious interest rates is inhumane and trashy. Foreclosing on people's homes at the drop of a hat is inhumane and trashy. Some porn is rather declasse', but the only thing (inhuman)e about porn is your opinion of a normal human activity that's been going on for time immemorial.Enjoy.
If you want to place blame, blame our Failed Mental health system, as long as they don't come in swinging the swords the hold em for 72 and send on their way!
Also Apple has had 17 suicides at it's I phone plant, do you feel the same about the Capitalist that drive people to suicide?
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