‘The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker’: How a Canadian viral star turned killer | 24CA News

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Netflix’s newest true crime providing, The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker, in all probability rings a bell in the event you spent any period of time on-line 10 years in the past.

The documentary focuses on Kai Lawrence McGillivary’s in a single day web celeb standing, which shortly spiralled into an arrest and a homicide cost.

According to Netflix, the documentary “chronicles a happy-go-lucky nomad’s ascent to viral stardom and the steep downward spiral that resulted in his imprisonment.”

The story made headlines worldwide in 2013 and drew specific curiosity in Canada due to Kai’s connection to Alberta.

Here’s all the things it is advisable to learn about Kai, his crime connections and The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker.

“Kai” isn’t his actual identify

The documentary focuses on a person who recognized as “Kai” when he shot to viral fame in 2013, however his start identify is Caleb Lawrence McGillivary and he spent the early years of his life rising up in Edmonton.

Family members within the documentary reveal that nobody referred to as him Kai as a child and it wasn’t till he moved away from Canada to develop into a nomad across the U.S. that he began utilizing the identify.

How Kai turned “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker”

Kai turned an in a single day people hero in February of 2013, after he was credited with saving lives when a person he had hitched a journey with pinned a utility employee towards a pole along with his automobile and allegedly attacked a lady who tried to assist the struggling employee.

To hear it in Kai’s phrases, which had been caught on video by native news reporter Jessob Reisbeck and shared to YouTube the day of the incident, Kai mentioned he hitched a journey with Jett Simmons McBride in Fresno, Calif. After McBride, an alleged white supremacist, pinned the employee throughout their journey, Kai jumped out of the passenger seat to hit McBride within the head thrice with a hatchet as McBride allegedly tried to assault a lady who had come over to assist the utility employee.

The bandana-wearing hitchhiker, then 24, gave Reisback an interview and have become immediately well-known for the road he used to explain his hatchet defence strikes: “Smash, smash, SUH-MASH.”

“If I hadn’t done that, he would’ve killed more people,” Kai advised Reisbeck.

Before he disclosed his account to Reisbeck, he prefaced the interview with what appeared like a constructive and inspirational message:

“Before I say anything else, I wanna say no matter what you’ve done, you deserve respect. Even if you make mistakes, you’re lovable. And it doesn’t matter your looks, skills or age or size or anything, you’re worthwhile. No one could ever take that away from you.”

His quirky, surfer-dude supply instantly endeared him to folks on the web and Reisbeck says that after importing the video that evening and going to mattress, he awoke the subsequent morning to half 1,000,000 YouTube views.

Kai’s on the spot celeb got here with a darkish facet

People instantly needed a bit of Kai, however it took some sleuthing to search out him. Because of his nomadic, carefree and no-fixed-address way of life, Kai was not simple to pin down.

Reisbeck finally related with Kai for a followup interview and realized that he was a reasonably gifted musician.

Once Kai was again on the map, TV producers started to supply him alternatives. There had been appearances on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night present and Justin Bieber’s staff reached out to him for a music collaboration after studying {that a} producer for Keeping Up With the Kardashians deliberate to make a actuality present about him.

And though Kai appeared to lean into his in a single day celeb standing, it turned clear to these in his orbit that he was a little bit of a free cannon.

One minute he’d be strumming a guitar, and within the subsequent he’d be peeing on Julio Iglesias’ star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He had no drawback shoplifting from shops within the Bay Area, however would flip round and provides the stolen items away to different homeless folks. He received kicked out of a lodge for making fast work of a bottle of Jack Daniels, flashing a knife and skateboarding within the foyer.

The web remained loopy for Kai

Despite those that had been closest to Kai having trepidations about his unpredictable behaviour and angle, the web remained fascinated by him, rooting for the loveable, catchphrase-ready nomad.

His lengthy, untamed hair made him simple to identify and he was repeatedly solicited by followers for selfies and to look of their movies — for which he typically negotiated a commerce, asking for a bottle of booze in return.

For those that couldn’t get a bit of Kai in individual, they saved up his cult standing with memes, songs and remixes, firmly planting him as one of many greatest viral video stars of the time.

A stunning homicide cost

Just three months after his star rose, it shortly got here crashing down.

In May 2013, Kai travelled to New York and shortly after arriving was arrested for the homicide of 73-year-old lawyer Joseph Galfy. Galfy was discovered useless at his dwelling in New Jersey, his head was bashed in and he was carrying solely his socks and underwear.

During the investigation, police discovered a bit of paper with Kai’s quantity and identify on it beneath a laptop computer in Galfy’s dwelling. There was additionally a prepare ticket receipt that the police used to trace down surveillance footage, which confirmed Galfy shopping for Kai a prepare ticket, and the pair hugging goodbye.

Police tracked down Kai at a Philadelphia bus station and Kai confessed to the killing, alleging that he attacked Galfy in self-defence after the lawyer, whom he met in Times Square and supplied him a spot to remain, drugged and sexually assaulted him the evening earlier than.

Authorities, nevertheless, claimed Kai’s statements had been inconsistent, that the sexual encounter was consensual and the violent homicide premeditated.

Kai is discovered responsible

After ready six years in jail for the trial, Kai was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide in April 2019. During the proceedings, he was combative throughout cross-examination and the choose referred to as him “a powder keg of explosive rage.”

Kai was sentenced to 57 years in jail, with the choose telling the then-30-year-old: “When you become eligible for parole, you will still be younger than Mr. Galfy was when you murdered him.”

The court docket decided that he must serve at the least 85 per cent of his sentence and whereas he appealed his conviction over cases of “misconduct, abuse of discretion and ineffectiveness of defence counsel,” his homicide sentence was upheld by a New Jersey panel in August 2021.

Speaking to Inside Edition in January 2020 from jail, Kai mentioned he didn’t understand he had killed Galfy regardless of his intensive accidents.

Kai’s household speaks out

Kai’s mother, Shirley Stromberg, seems within the documentary to share her facet of the story, saying that her son lied about being locked in a room for lengthy intervals of time as a child.

Instead, Stromberg says she tried to maintain her spirited younger son protected within the mornings by locking his bed room door — in any other case he would stand up earlier than her and get into harmful conditions. Stromberg additionally shared that getting her son assist through the years proved troublesome.

“Not really understanding what was going on, the medical field wondered if he had ADHD and things like that, but in the end, there wasn’t one diagnosis.”

In his 2013 interview with Reisback, Kai claimed that he didn’t have any household.

“As far as anyone I grew up with is concerned, I’m already dead,” he shared.

That line, says Kai’s first cousin, was fairly hurtful.

That cousin, Jeremy McGillivary Wolfe, tells the documentary staff that listening to these phrases was devastating and that he nonetheless cares for his cousin. Wolfe says that he believes Kai had a troublesome childhood and remembers him being susceptible to spells of rage.

“I honestly believe Caleb has mental issues because he seems well, but when it comes to a certain situation of pressure, you either become a diamond or you get crushed,” Wolfe mentioned. “And in this case, Caleb gets crushed.”

Kai’s father, Gil McGillivary, shared with APTN that Kai had been a drifter since 2011.

McGillivary mentioned his son didn’t get a correct training and hung out in a remedy centre as a baby till he was 18 years outdated.

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‘The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker’ is now streaming on Netflix Canada.