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Abuse, Brian Lee Draper, Documentary, Jacob Ind, Joshua Rofé, Josiah Ivy, Life sentences, Murder, Review, Sean Taylor, Torey Adamczik, Update
On 7 August 2014 I posted a review of the documentary, Lost for Life. It was a movie that I’d discovered by accident, but it looked interesting, and the subject matter – a look at five teen killers and whether they should be forgiven for their homicidal actions – was certainly compelling. I watched the movie and found it both horrific and uplifting in equal measure.
Over time, Lost for Life has become thedullwoodexperiment‘s most viewed post. It’s also the post I’ve had the most feedback about. A lot of that feedback has concerned Jacob Ind (see picture below), whose story makes up the second part of the movie. Along with his brother Charles, Jacob was regularly abused by his mother and stepfather, both physically and emotionally, and he had nursed ideas of killing them for two or three years before they were murdered. His defenders state that his actions were the result of the abuse he’d suffered, but what helps to muddy the waters for anyone paying even the slightest attention to Jacob’s case, is his decision to persuade a classmate, Gabrial Adams to kill his parents for him (and for $2,000 Jacob didn’t have). A loner, Adams botched the job, and Jacob took over from him, successfully shooting and killing Pamela and Kermode Jordan.
In my review, I said that there was “something not quite right about his responses and the moments when he closes his eyes – which happen quite a lot – it’s as if he’s reliving the memories of killing his mother and stepfather”. Having watched the movie again, I still have that same feeling, that Jacob is so divorced from the concepts of personal responsibility and guilt that it’s all a puzzle to him – and one he has no interest in trying to decipher. Looking further into all the surrounding arguments I found a quote made by Jacob after the killings: “I thought that when they were gone, my whole world was going to be better. I thought all the weight was going to be off my shoulders, all the misery would be gone. But it wasn’t, and I said, ‘Man, I screwed up.'” Reading this, it’s not hard to think that Jacob’s only regret is that he didn’t get away with it.
The person I most felt sorry for was Josiah Ivy (see picture below), an abused teenager whose level of disconnection from those around him prompted him to kill two strangers “just to see what it felt like”. Josiah suffered abuse as a child, but where Jacob Ind looks unfazed and unconcerned by his crime, Josiah looks adrift in his own mind, a victim of mental ill health who’ll never quite manage to acclimatise to society (even if by some miracle he’s ever allowed out). Josiah, like Jacob and co-murderers Brian Lee Draper and Torey Adamczik, has an awareness of the magnitude of what he’s done, but it seems so overwhelming to him he doesn’t know how to properly express himself.
Of course, the question of individual responsibility is one the movie tackles throughout, and whether or not the teen killers in question were cognisant of what they were doing at the time. Some commentators argue that teenage minds aren’t as sharply defined in their thinking as an adult’s, but to me that’s a specious argument; everyone learns from an early age that it’s wrong to kill someone, but it’s an awareness that means nothing when placed up against a greater driver: that person’s level of self-interest. Aside from the final story involving ex-gang member Sean Taylor, whose random firing of a gun led to the death of a rival gang member, these are all stories of teens who deliberately set out to kill someone: random strangers, a friend, family members. You could argue that the victims were “convenient”, such was their murderers’ feelings about them at the time, and such was the brutality levelled at them. The question isn’t whether or not we should feel sorry for them – clearly the answer is No – nor is it whether they should be given a second chance as adults. The real question is how can we stop these types of killings from happening again.
Murder in any form is abhorrent, but what Joshua Rofé’s thought-provoking movie also does is to make the viewer doubt whether or not murder is ever so clear-cut. By focusing on three such horrific cases – Taylor’s story acts as a necessary rebuttal to the idea that rehabilitation is a waste of time – the movie broaches the possibility that murder can be understood and forgiven, even murders as heinous as the ones recorded here. This is true, but it’s down to the individual to decide, and is a brave choice to make with such an emotive issue. This is why the participation of Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins and Sharletta Evans is so important: without them (and Taylor) the movie would be unremittingly bleak, and wouldn’t fairly reflect the ways in which the human spirit can overcome the darkness that often blights people’s lives (it’s all about personal empowerment, but that’s a whole different movie).
At this moment in time, Draper, Adamczik, Ind and Ivy are all still in prison, and all still living out their very steep sentences. Ind’s accomplice, Gabrial Adams committed suicide in prison in March 2014, while the families of the victims still struggle to come to terms with what happened to their loved ones, and why. But again, the why is the easy bit: it’s because Draper, Adamczik, Ind and Ivy all wanted to do what they did. For the underlying reasons that drove them to murder, well, those are things we’re never likely to know for definite – but it would be fascinating if we did.
April said:
Please tell be why you feel that Jacob Ind should feel remorse for killing two monsters? I can’t wrap my mind around that. He said that he feels remorse for the INNOCENT people who were hurt by his decision and I admire his honesty. Perhaps only an abuse victim or victims advocate can understand why he may not have remorse for getting rid of them, but maybe try to put yourself on the receiving end of what those boys went through.
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dullwood68 said:
Hi – I guess the problem that bothers me is the way in which he co-opted Gabrial Adams into (trying to) murder his parents. Whether or not you believe that he and his brother were abused, it was this pre-meditated approach that Jacob took that undermines his assertion that he “had no way out”. He was an intelligent teenager who knew exactly what he was doing; my suspicion is that if Adams had been successful in killing Pam and Kermode then Jacob would have ensured Adams took the fall entirely. It’s always seemed to me that when Adams failed in his attempt, Jacob’s response was almost along the lines of “I guess I’ll have to do it myself”. His continued lack of remorse isn’t surprising given the circumstances, and it seems unlikely he’ll ever admit that what he did was wrong. However you dress it up, murder is still murder.
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April said:
I didn’t look at it from from Gabriel Adam’s side, I admit. The way I look at that is that Gabriel would have most likely ended up in prison one day anyway whether he was hired to murder then by Jacob or later in life under some other circumstance. Think about this…some states legally murder people for their crimes with the death penalty and that is acceptable to many. In the situation with Jacob he was young and he snapped and a person’s mind can snap and still plan an escape route and to him it was the only way. Being in his frame of mind he got private justice. The state was told about this case before the murder and did nothing so consider the boy’s torment? God says thou shalt not kill, but He also warns parents not to provoke their children to wrath and Jacob was definitely provoked it seems. Consider if you walked in on your child being raped (I know that’s unthinkable) but wouldn’t you want to kill the person doing it?
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dullwood68 said:
Hi April – I’m surprised that you would say that about Gabrial as he believed what Jacob told him, like a lot of people since. Looking at the case as a whole, the police investigation failed to find any evidence of abuse, and at the time of the murders (and by Jacob’s own admittance) there hadn’t been any “abuse” for around a couple of years. I don’t think Jacob “snapped”, and I don’t think it was “the only way”. I do think he genuinely hated his mother and stepfather, and I think he probably thought getting Gabrial to kill them was a way out of his “predicament”. But I don’t believe from watching the movie that he has any remorse at all for what he did, and that’s my main concern about Jacob. I think he wanted Pamela and Kermode dead, plotted to do so over a long period of time, and never sought help from anyone in authority. And as I said before, however you dress it up, murder is still murder; and that’s what Jacob intended for Pamela and Kermode.
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April said:
From what I have researched Gabriel was not his friend. He was a strange kid from the school wanted the money. Did you only watch that particular movie?
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dullwood68 said:
I don’t think it matters if Jacob was friends with Gabrial or not. I think he chose Gabrial because he was weak-minded enough to go along with Jacob’s plan, and he apparently made no effort to get paid ahead of time, or at least make sure Jacob had the $2,000 he promised him. Gabrial is culpable, that’s for sure, but without Jacob he wouldn’t have done anything at all. And yes, I’ve only watched Lost for Life – are there any others where Jacob is included?
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April said:
Hello, I don’t think that my comments are going through?
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April said:
You should watch and review “Who Took Johnny”. It really brings up some expansive points of thought and discussion…It’s not a typical TV documentary kidnapping case. You can find it on Amazon.
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dullwood68 said:
Thanks for the recommendation – I’ll definitely check it out.
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shaunthebrummie said:
April you seem the typical feeble minded liberal who puts the killer before the victim.. i would have liked them to have been shot by the police…and as for the retard Ind…he has Adams blood on his hands as well..
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April said:
A little off topic, do you like true crime documentaries because if so I have a list of some of the most intriguing ones from my personal library. I didn’t know much about Jacob’s case until reading and surfing the web.
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dullwood68 said:
I like all types of movies, and I’m always willing to accept recommendations. Which movies do you think I should take a look at?
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April said:
Grrr! I just wrote you a long reply and a short list of documentaries and my phone erased it all. Let me go walk around scolding my cell and I will be back. 🙂
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dullwood68 said:
No problem! Scold away!
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April said:
Sorry that I haven’t given you that list yet but I got busy. In the meantime here is another video about Jacob. Parts 2 etc… are there also. Let me know what you think…. I think he needs to be free. This is a Frontline documentary.
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dullwood68 said:
Hi April – sorry to take so long getting back to you but Life got in the way of blogging the last couple of days and I wasn’t able to get back to you. I’ve watched the Frontline episode now, and I have to say it was clear from the beginning where its sympathies lay. But while I don’t have a problem with that necessarily (it’s an editorial choice after all), what I found really interesting was the difference between Jacob on Frontline and Jacob in Lost for Life. I think the difference is due to the natures of the two documentaries. I think on Frontline Jacob is aware that the programme will be biased toward him and he’s very approachable as a result. But in Lost for Life there’s no bias for or against him, and because of that, and because he’s not being regarded with open sympathy, I think Jacob gives too much away about his real feelings… and it’s not a pleasant sight. Whatever happened when he was younger, and I’m still not convinced it was as bad as he and Charles have made out, it’s still the case that he took a lot of time to plan Pamela and Kermode’s murders, and to avoid suspicion/detection? he tried to get someone else to kill them. There’s too much calculation there for comfort.
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April said:
Did my post go through?
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Globug said:
I have to disagree entirely. IF this boy was emotionally neglected by his mom from birth and very violently sexually, physically and emotionally abused by both parents from the age of 4. His sense of empathy would probably be extremely compromised. He does know that killing his parents was wrong, as he indicates in the Afterward portion of the book The Murder of Jacob (published about his life). Children must make emotional, trustworthy, and affectionate connections with their parents at a young age. If they don’t, all the things that non-abused people think are normal, are not normal for abused and neglected children. Look up Reactive Attachment Disorder. I believe without a doubt Jacob falls into that category. Being hated, abused, neglected, not be allowed to feel certain emotions and only ever being show emotions of anger, hatred, etc etc, that creates people like Jacob. He needed and probably still needs extensive psychiatric treatment, which he never got. So he is now trying to make sense of his situation on his own. From personal experience, I can tell you that is not easy.
I can understand if he feels no remorse for killing his parents. If what he and his brother say is true, I can’t really feel any remorse for them myself. The only reason why agree that he should be in jail is because no matter how deserving these people were of the deaths they got…murder is wrong.
We can all say why didn’t they tell anybody about the sexual abuse. Have you ever experienced sexual abuse? It’s not something you want to share with everyone. It’s something most kids feel ashamed of and also feel is their own fault. Many times, they are threatened by the abusers, so naturally they are terrified that if they tell and nothing happens, they will get hurt or abused even more when their abuser finds out. This is especially true for kids who are abused by family members or family friends.
Jacob is right when he says the emotional abuse is the worst. It stays with you the longest. It alters your own thoughts to the point you don’t feel in control of your own thoughts.
The real sadness here, imo, is not that his parents are dead. (That may sound cruel but I truly believe these kids were abused.) The real sadness is that prison, in all its forms, is the only life Jacob has ever and will ever know. The only “love and affection” he has ever known has been brutal and inappropriate. He is remorseful that he hurt the people that were innocent in the situation. He is remorseful that he took his brother’s parents away. He is remorseful that he hurt the rest of his family. Maybe he will never feel remorse for the actual act of killing his parents. (but they also weren’t innocent in his eyes) BUT he does say in the book that he knows killing them was wrong. He can only blame himself. He wishes he had been strong enough to stand up for himself.
You may see him hiring someone to kill his parents as cold and calculated. He wanted it to fast and painless. He didn’t want them to suffer. For him, that was probably merciful. In this situation, I see a kid who was scared and felt he had no way out. I see a kid who so badly wanted to be free of his abusers, but didn’t know what else to do. I also see a kid who was terrified of his parents and that is why he couldn’t and wouldn’t do it himself. He came to a point where it was either kill his parents or kill himself. If he had killed himself we would all be crucifying his parents. His brother would have come forward about the abuse and we all would have believed it because why else would Jacob take his own life. But instead, he chose the other option, and because of that he is a liar.
It’s extremely difficult for people to understand the psyche of an extremely abused human being. NO, not all abused individuals are the same. Not all abused individuals kill their abusers, but not all individuals are the same either. How we each react and respond to something will be different.
I understand feeling helpless, afraid (constantly afraid), anxious, stressed, fearful of what might happen that day, the anticipation of not knowing whether you might be hurt that day; not getting help from people after saying what you thought was clear as day; being fearful your parents might find out and hurt you. Those are not things someone who has never been abused can just make up with such accuracy. So if he is lying, I applaud his very extensive research!
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April said:
Who do you disagree with, me? Sorry, using my cell on comment sections can be confusing. I personally feel that Jacob should be released. The state has tortured him long enough.
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dullwood68 said:
Hi April – I’m disagreeing with you purely based on what I’ve seen of Jacob himself, and how he comes across. You see someone who’s been damaged, possibly irrevocably, and you might be right about that. I see someone who clearly made a choice, but which wasn’t the right one. And now he’s paying the consequences. That seems to me to be a fair outcome, and I certainly don’t feel that the state has tortured him over the years; he’s even stated he likes being in prison. And he’s gained a bachelor’s degree in the process. In the end, I don’t think we’ll ever know the full truth of what happened all those years ago because too much time has gone by, and Jacob’s had plenty of opportunities to elaborate on his childhood experiences. That he hasn’t concerns me as well.
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dullwood68 said:
Hi there, and thanks for joining in with the comments on Lost for Life. I read your remarks with interest, but the main thing that stood out for me was right at the beginning where you wrote: “If this boy was…” I have my doubts about Jacob and have done from the start, and I do recognise that not every abused child reacts to, or deals with abuse in the same way. My concern is that Jacob’s responses are probably less reliable now than they were twenty years ago. I just don’t think Jacob feels any actual remorse for what he did, and I don’t think he necessarily understands the concept. I do see a shell of a human being, but I’m not so sure that what lives inside Jacob is someone who should be on our streets. And as I’ve said before in this string, at the end of the day he committed murder, and there’s no getting away from that. Whatever your thoughts on child abuse and its causes, or indeed how victims may or may not behave, if the jury at his case had felt as strongly as you (and several other people) do, then he’d be free already.
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Globug said:
I only say “if” because it cannot be proven at this point, But I do believed they were. That is my opinion. At least 3 jury members have said if they had more information on the abuse their verdict may have been different.
My whole point is Jacob seems off to me because of what he has experienced. I agree that he does show remorse in the film. That he doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to feel remorse. I also think Jacob needs extensive and intensive rehabilitation therapy. Like I said, he hasn’t known a life beyond being imprisoned, as I believe his home was more like prison than the actual prison he is in. I am not sure that he belongs on the streets either. I am very divided in that way. I do feel an immense amount of sadness and empathy for him though.
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Didas said:
I would love to know what you think about Josiah Ivy. Besides Sean I feel that Josiah is the only one who seems as human as can be. To me anyways, it’s for me to tell that the others are mentally ill or something is just “wrong” with them when I saw them speak. But Josiah just seemed very humane and remorseful. But he was also very guarded so it was hard to tell if he was different or the same as the others. What are your thoughts on Josiah Ivy?
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Nancy said:
I’ll start by saying that murder is murder, there are very areas I don’t care what anyone says . Jacob , I believe, has no remorse for what happened only that he didn’t get away with it. He struggled with the word empathy, even saying it was confusing to him. Torey and his parents just leave me with my mouth agape. I was scratching my head the whole time thinking, if his parents don’t stop he’ll never take responsibility for what he’s done and he’ll never be able to move forward and deal with what he’s done and try to make amends. Will they ever stop? I mean he’s not f-n innocent, he stabbed a young girl to death for God sake, he admitted it on tape. Time to cut the cord lady, your son is a knife yielding killer. As for the rest I’m not sure how I feel but I’ll pray for everyone.
God Bless
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theeyesofbecca said:
I have to agree with some comments here. I would like to see Jacob get the treatment he needs and a chnace at parole. I don’t think he is going to be killing anyone else and that is the main concern when asking if these people should be allowed parole. I do think parole for Jacob should be very strict. You keep saying in all your responses to the comments that he doesn’t feel remorse for what he did, and to be honest I don’t feel one bit sorry for his parents. I do believe he was abused. Like another person here have said, he exhibits signs of abused children. Long term victims of abuse don’t share their experiences that easily. They fear everything but won’t show any signs of it. They are mentally geared to hide their true emotions. Short term abuse victims show their emotions and experiences. It’s hard to understand what a long term abuse victim is feeling and this is the reason why they aren’t believed. In fact people will think them cold blooded manipulators.
Now, you can still believe what want to believe and you are right to say murder is murder. But the real concern is will Jacob kill again if set free? I personally think he won’t. And this is the real question to ask. What jurors base their answers for this depends on the person and information at hand. I don’t know who the jurors are and they pick them. Not for the appeals. But I do think for this case they should evaluate Jacob by experts and decide if he can at least be given the chance to freedom under parole.
In the case of Josiah, he shows less growth than Jacob. He is not ready to talk about the abuse he received for years. He doesn’t want to say anything at all. Only that he is sorry. That’s not indicative of remorse. True, Jacob doesn’t feel remorse for killing his parents but he also admits to not feeling remorse for that. He does feel sorry for causing grief to others involved in his life. The reason that drives me to believe Jacob wont kill again is because his “victims” were his abusers. Josiah didn’t kill his abusers he killed total innocent strangers. Both need a lot of help, but in my opinion Jacob is the least dangerous.
In the case of Brian and Tory. Tory is a psychopath and his parents support his psychopatic behavior. Brian is someone who made a mistake influenced by a psychopatic person (Tory). If you watched the film then you know Tory told Brian it would be fun to reenact the movie screem. Brian being already mentally and emotionally weak followed him. Yes he said in the video he stabbed her and it felt surreal, or whatever he said, does weren’t his exact words, but I truly believe Brian is one of those people who is a casualty of society. He was adopted, do we know who his real parents were? No. They could have been people who abused drugs. He definitely was born with some issues because he was prone to mental weakness. That doesn’t excuse what he did and I think he should be in prison for life for taking someone’s life. But can he become a better individual? Yes he can. Can Tory? Nope. Can Josiah? Nope. Josiah will forever be tormented. Victims of cults are brainwashed to an extent they have no idea who they truly are. Its like they aren’t individuals but a part of one thing; whatever belief system the cult implements. Can Jacob become a better person? No. He is who he is, a long time victim of abuse by his own parents the very people children look up to for love and understanding. But can Jacob integrate into society? I think he can.
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