the murder of nick markowitz
I thought I’d start at the very end – it’s a crappy story so let’s at least start with a happy beginning. We begin on March 9, 2005 in Saquarema which is in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, “Michael Costa Giroux ” and his very pregnant girlfriend Marcia Reis are heading to a cafe to meet up with Michael’s cousin who is visiting from the United States. But that’s not who they meet, they are instead greeted by a Brazillian Federal Agent because Michael was not this man’s real name. He was actually Jesse James Hollwood and he was being extradited back to the United States to be tried for the kidnapping and murder of 15 year old Nicholas Markowitz 5 years before.
So who was Nicholas Markowitz, who was the jackass legally named Jesse James Hollwood, and how the fuck did we get here?
Nicholas Samuel Markowitz was born on September 19 1984, in West Hills, Los Angeles, California, to his parents Jeff and Susan Markowitz. He had two older half siblings: Ben and Leah. Ben will definitely play a big part in Nick’s story. Nick was described as a kind, gentle, soft spoken boy, who aside from not liking sports – was a pretty typical teenager. He had started to rebel, as one does, and by 15 had experimented with marijuana and valium.
On August 5, Nick came home and had an argument with his parents when they, and his sister Leah thought he appeared to be high and noticed a large bulge in his pocket and confronted him on it. Instead of having a fight late at night, his parents decided that they would all go to sleep and talk in the morning. By the time Jeff and Susan woke up, Nick had flown the coop to avoid a battle. Nick was walking only a mile from home when a white van approached him. Two young men jumped out, while one remained in the driver seat inside, and they proceeded to attack Nick and shove him in their van and kidnap him. The three young men we are speaking of are 20 year old Jesse Rugge, 20 year old William Skidmore, and 20 year old Jesse James Hollywood.
There were two witnesses to the attack. Pauline Ann Mahoney and her children were driving home from church when Pauline saw a group of young men attacking a young boy. “They were beating him up pretty badly. The lot of them threw him into the van, and then they jumped in, shut the door, and the van started moving.” This was before everyone had cell phones on them, so Pauline sped home, reciting the license plate number over and over again out loud. Having her children do it with her, as to not forget. There was LAPD follow up but the 911 call was coded incorrectly. It was coded as an assault and not kidnapping in progress. So when the police scanned the area, they saw no victim around and that was that.
Another police call had come in about the incident. Rosalia de la Cruz Gitau was a UCLA student at the time, whose parents lived in West hills. She had called the police from a cell phone within a minute of seeing the attack. Rosalia said “At first I thought it was some kind of gang initiation, but when I saw them pick him up and throw him into a van…. That’s what I thought warranted the call” Police had failed to track down the van, until a month later, even though they had the license plate number. They also did not link Rosalia’s emergency call to the initial report. Rosalia later testified that even though she had given the 911 operator her name and phone number, no one from the police department contacted her for further questioning.
So was this a random kidnapping? Was this a gang initiation? No, these guys were friends of Nick’s older half brother Ben. I stress the word were. Ben and Hollywood, who had played Little League together, coached by Hollywood’s drug dealing daddy, Jack Hollywood, were in a full on feud because Ben owed Hollywood a $1,200 drug debt.
See, Hollywood was a mid-level drug dealer that took on the drug business from his dad. He had his friends out selling drugs for him. He seemed to enjoy it when they were in debt to him, because he could hold that power over them, getting them to do tasks for him until they could pay him back – degrading them along the way. Considering in reality Hollywood was about only 5’4 – he seemed to be realllly trying to overcompensate. The person who Hollywood piled on the most was 20 year old Ryan Hoyt. Ben was not one to stand down, so when a drug deal fell through on his end, and Hollywood came to collect, Ben basically told him to shove it and started a war.
One night in February, Jesse and his girlfriend went to a restaurant in Woodland Hills where Ben’s girlfriend worked. They wracked up a tab of about $50, then left a note saying: “Take this off Ben’s debt.” Ben then retaliated by messing up a $35,000 insurance scam Hollywood had set up. Ben also went over to Hollywood’s house and smashed up a couple of windows with a metal pipe.
August 6th is where we find Hollywood packing up his house and moving with the white van when they spot Nick walking and Hollywood gets an idea to steal him.
Hollywood, Rugge, and Skidmore then went and picked up another friend, Brian Affronti, and drove to Santa Barbara- just a few hours away. The group told Nick why they were holding him, and Nick initially flipped out so they incapacitated him with drugs (valium) and alcohol. Hollywood said “If you run, I’ll break your teeth.” Nick eventually decided to cooperate, because he didn’t want to make trouble for his big brother. He wanted to ride it out.
While in Santa Barbara, Nick met Rugge’s friends Graham Pressley, Natasha Adams-Young, and Kelly Carpenter and went to several different house parties with them. Reports indicate that many witnesses, parents and teens all saw Nick with the others, but did not realize anything was up. Also, many people knew Nick had been kidnapped, but did not notify the police because he appeared to be safe, playing video games and having lots of fun.
While Rugge was monitoring Nick, Hollywood was trying to assess the situation else-where. He went to speak to his father’s attorney – Stephen Hogg. Hollywood asked Hogg about legal repercussions for kidnapping someone. Hollywood said that his friends kidnapped a kid, and that he was super concerned they would be in trouble. Hogg said “If your friends hurt this guy, or if your friends asked for money from him, they can get life” which was not what Hollywood wanted to hear, and he was dead set against calling the police.
While this was going on, Nick’s parents were understandably freaking out and looking for their son. His parents filed a missing persons report on August 8, while Nick was being escorted by Hollywood’s posse to the Lemon Tree Inn in Santa Barbara. They were calling it Nick’s Final Partay. He would be returned home in the morning, and everyone wanted to celebrate. That’s definitely not what happened.
Hollywood was freaking out after the visit with his father’s attorney and in his oh so brilliant mind he thought it was better to just get rid of the kid, then to let him go and risk him talking to his parents or worse the police. Since Ryan Hoyt was always looking for ways to pay off his debts to Hollywood, he was quick to agree when Hollywood showed up and said there was a mess that needed to be cleaned up, and that his debt would be cleared. Hollywood had with him a bag containing an assault pistol known as a TEC-DC9, a model which was used in the Columbine shooting. But oh wait there’s more – this gun was extra special, it had been modified into a fully automatic machine gun capable of spraying 12 rounds a second.
Back at the Lemon Tree Inn the party was in full effect. Nick was enjoying himself, given the situation. People were taken to his kind nature. They called him “stolen boy.” But around 11 pm when the party was hoppin, Rugge announced that someone was going to come and pick up Nick to safely return him home, so they all needed to GTFO.
Hoyt arrived, but he was not there to take Nick home. While Nick relaxed at the hotel with Graham Pressley, Hoyt and Rugge went back to Rugge’s house to get shovels. Rugge states he refused to get out of the car and get the shovels and made Hoyt go get them himself. When they returned, Hoyt needed to know a private spot to take Nick to. Rugge said he didn’t know and told Hoyt to ask Graham, who up until this point hadn’t been involved in anything. Rugge threatened Graham with the gun and drove him to Lizard’s Mouth trail in the Santa Ynez Mountains. There Hoyt made Graham dig what would become Nick’s grave.
They returned to the hotel and then Hoyt, Rugge, and Graham drove Nick to the mountains. Rugge and Hoyt walked Nick up the trail to where the shallow grave was. Rugge allegedly told Nick “I’m not going to hurt you.” To which Nick replied “I know.” Rugge then bound Nick’s hands behind his back and covered his mouth and eyes with duct tape. Hoyt then hit Nick in the back of the head with a shovel, knocking him into the grave, and shot him nine times with Hollywood’s gun until the clip jammed. He died instantly. Hoyt then hid the gun under Nick’s body, and they covered him with dirt and sticks. According to police interviews, Rugge got physically ill, but Hoyt just stared in awe at what he had done.
Four days later, hikers and a small film crew found Nick’s badly decomposing body.
On August 16th, 2000, Hoyt, Rugge, Skidmore, and Pressley were all arrested, but Hollywood went on the run, with the help from several people.
Here’s where we can talk about how dumb Hollywood was. He fled to Brazil and impregnated a local, because of a case he had heard about where a train robber, Ronnie Biggs, fled to Brazil and fathered a child to avoid deportation. That didn’t work for Ol’ Hollywood. The law had since changed, and Hollywood had entered into Brazil on a false Canadian passport. Therefore, he was extradited back to California to finally stand trial.
Ryan Hoyt, aged 20 at the time of the murder, was charged with the first-degree murder of Nick. He was convicted on November 21, 2001 and sentenced to death on December 9, 2001.
As of 2019 the new governor in California had granted a temporary reprieve to California’s 737 Death Row inmates, which includes Hoyt. So he’s in prison for life without the possibility of parole now. In 2020 he tried to get a new trial but was denied.
Jesse Rugge, aged 20 at the time of the murder, was charged with aiding in the kidnap and murder of Nick. He was convicted in 2002 of aggravated kidnapping for ransom or extortion with special circumstances and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after seven years. After being granted parole on his second try, Rugge was released from prison on October 24, 2013.
William Skidmore, aged 20 at the time of the murder, was charged with kidnapping and robbery. In September 2002, he was sentenced to nine years in a state prison as part of a plea bargain. Skidmore was released in April 2009.
Graham Pressley, aged 17 at the time of the murder, who dug Nick’s grave. He was tried twice. In July 2002, he was acquitted of kidnapping; the jury hung on the murder charge. In October 2002, he was retried on the murder charge and was convicted of second-degree murder. Pressley was incarcerated at a California Youth Authority facility until shortly before his 25th birthday in 2007. He has since been released.
Jesse James Hollywood, aged 20 at the time of the murder, was arrested in Saquarema, Brazil after being on the FBI’s most wanted list for five years. In 2009, Hollywood was convicted of kidnapping and first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In July 2005, Marcia Reis gave birth to Hollywood’s son, named John Paul Hollywood-Reis. Marcia and Hollywood are no longer together. In jail, Hollywood began writing to a Hawaiian woman named Melinda Enos. The couple got married in the visitor’s room in prison on Jan. 19, 2014.
The feature film Alpha Dog, based on the events leading up to the murder of Nicholas Markowitz and directed by Nick Cassavetes, was released in 2006.
In 2003, the Markowitz family won an $11.2 million civil lawsuit against the kidnappers and the murderers, along with other defendants such as the family friend whose van was used in the kidnapping and the owners of several homes where Nicholas was held against his will.
Nick’s mother Susan wrote a book, My Stolen Son. She talks about how she was hospitalized 13 times for suicide attempts after Nicks death, before Hollywood’s capture. She said she finally held on because she was determined to be alive when they were ALL held accountable.
Quote from an interview on a dateline:
The Markowitzes now say they only hope Nick’s death has some meaning. They say young people should be taught that the partying, easy money, and drug-fueled lifestyle of the Jesse James Hollywood posse, which seemed so enticing… led to death. They say it’s incredibly sad the young people involved were more worried about preserving their lifestyle and currying favor with Jesse James Hollywood than in protecting Nick.
