Madness, Murder & Multiple Personalities - Fredericksburg, Texas

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Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay!

Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed.
My name is James Petrogallo. I'm here with my co-host.
I'm Jimmy Wistman.

Thank you, folks, so much for joining us on another absolutely insane edition of Small Town Murder Express. This is one that I've been saving for almost nine years now.
Oh, this case.

I've never done that. Oh, no, it's so good.

And I've just been saving it. I don't know why.
It's a bottle of camus.

Yeah, I've been hoarding it.

I'm telling you, I'll tell you the story as we get into it because you'll remember when I found it because I told you about it at the time.

So, very quickly, head over to shut up and give me murder.com. You can get all your merchandise, tickets for live shows.
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Then you get new ones every other week, one crime in sports, one small-town murder, and you get it all. Every damn drop of what we put out.

This week, what you're going to get for crime in sports, we're going to to talk about how

the sport of cycling is so dangerous. We are going to talk about so many dead cyclists just mangled and mauled.
And they die in horrible ways, too. It's not just, oh, they fell over and died.

It's crazy how they die.

Then for small-town murder, we're going to talk about Charles Starkweather.

Killed 11 people, blamed his 13-year-old girlfriend. We'll talk all about it.
It's a lot. 60s or 50s? 50s, late 50s.
They thought he was James Dean, this guy. We'll talk all about it.
So

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And you also get all of our shows, crime and sports, your stupid opinions, all the small town murders, all ad-free as well. Ad-free.

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So do that. Get in there and do that.
That said, I think it's time, everybody, to sit back. What do you say here?

Let's all clear the lungs, the throats, and everything.

And let's all shout.

Shut up and give

me murder.

Let's do this, everybody.

Let's go on a trip, shall we? We are going to Texas this week. We're going to Fredericksburg, Texas.
Oh, hey. Which we remember this because, okay, this case was found.
We were driving 2017.

This show, Small Town Murder, was about two months old at this point. And we were going the South by Southwest.
15 hours.

16. The festival in Austin.
We had been accepted with Crime and Sports, and it was a big deal because it's the first acknowledgement we had of any kind of anything.

So we drove all the South by Southwest at the time. It's a big festival.
It was a big deal. Great credit to have.

And so we got in Jimmy's Honda Civic, and we had enough money to stay to share a bed in a hotel room that was $89 a night. And we ate subway sandwiches from gas stations.
That's all we could afford.

And then we did all this. We did the show and made a U-turn and listened.
It came right, but we did not stay after doing the show. We drove straight back.

So Fredericksburg is on the way to Austin, as we'll talk about. And as we drove through, first of all, a ton of wineries.
I was like, what's going on here?

Then we found Bobby Colorado, the animal trainer, who does a bunch of animal training for movies and then became a crime and sports character based on that. And so I just.
And it's the home of LBJ.

Yes. And as we were going, I was just, as we were going through small towns, I was Googling murder at this town just because that's what we were doing.

And I found this case and I was like, holy shit, this is awesome. And I told you about it and I put it away and now we're finally going to do it.
So I'm excited. Fredericksburg, Texas.

It's in central Texas.

It is about an hour and 10 minutes to San Antonio and about an hour and a half to Austin. Okay.
I remember being excited too because we were almost to Austin finally. We were so close.

It's crazy to drive from Arizona to

so far.

So far. It's literally six hours to get to Texas and then 10 hours once you get to Texas.

That was when we were famously driving through El Paso, and Jimmy looked to the south and went, man, that side El Paso looks like shit. And I went, yeah, that's not even America, Jimmy.
That's why.

That is not Mexico, Jimmy. That is Juarez, isn't it? That is barely.

Mexico, hell, that is Juarez. Yeah, that's crazy.

Somehow, a step below Tijuana. Yeah, it is.
It's more dangerous than Tijuana. It's four hours, and Tijuana is a party town.
Yeah, it is. Juarez is not a party town.

They'll pickpocket you, but they want you alive. That's fine, yeah.

Four hours and five minutes to Lancaster, Texas, our last episode in texas episode 609 murder is life and that that was a twisted crazy one so i'm not even going to get into what that was gillespie county this is in area code 830 population here 10 864 not a big town you remember it has that like kind of quaint downtown area

and then it's very spread out with wineries and big properties and all that yeah i remember we driving down that fucking freeway and there was a giant ranch right there Yeah. Beautiful.
Yeah.

And the fucking freeway running right through the front you can't do it. Right through it.
Yeah. It's like, man, that is not idyllic.

Median household income here, $54,771. So not a ton of money, but the median home cost is crazy, $548,400.

Holy. That is a lot compared to the they must have lots of land, huh?

Yeah, all the houses, we saw a lot of ranches, vineyards, things like that. So that's

bring the average up. The nickname of this town, they call it Fritzstown

for a reason. We'll get into here.
A little bit of history to explain that. The county seat, first of all, it's the county seat of Gillespie County.

It was named after Prince Frederick of Prussia, which is Germany now. So

German residents refer to it as Fritzstown,

which some businesses still use as well.

It's notable as the center of Texas German,

which is a dialect spoken by the first generation of German settlers who initially refused to learn English. What is it? Just like you asked someone a question, they go, nine, y'all.

Ain't doing it.

That's Texas German, I guess. I don't know.

Who the fuck knows? Yeah, how many guns should I carry? Nine, y'all. Nine, y'all.

Wait, is he German or just heavily armed? I can't decide. What a town.
So, reviews of this town. Here's five stars.
Yeah.

Since the day I was born, I have been a member of the Fredericksburg community.

Wow, that is dramatic. It's been a blessing.

Way easier since the day I was born. It's been a blessing to grow up in this beautiful German town.
It gave me so many chances to grow as women, such as giving me the opportunity to be a Stonewall and

Gillespie County Fair Duchess. Oh,

pageant loon. Pageant winner.
She must be hot.

Maybe. Yeah, who knows? I bet her hair's big, though.
She might look like LBJ. We don't know.
We don't know.

Three stars. Housing is typically expensive for a nice house.
There are many run-down houses as well in certain parts of town. We didn't get to see any of those.

One star, very closed off from the rest of the world. It's great if you have money.
Otherwise, you're a servant. Are you? Yeah, that's most places.

And one star, administration and teachers target kids they deem bad and use excessive punishment for minor offenses. This person's kids a fuck up.
Yeah. That's what that is.

Why'd you tell your kids to stop being a nut in the control? To control your goddamn kids over here.

Things to do here. All right.
The Gillespie County Fair.

And they hear us from their website. There's nothing like a good old-fashioned county fair.
That's true. And the Gillespie County Fair does it right up.
Does it upright. Not does it right up.

Does it upright with a stock show, entertainment, rides, great food, and more. There's even a fair parade down Main Street, and of course, a contest

crowning the next Gillespie County Fair Queen. Oh, God,

the coveted. And they say, of course, we couldn't have a parade without a fair queen.

So there's that. It's returning.
They said they will have a paramuteal horse racing. What the frig is that? What is that? Paramuteal? M-U-T-E, or M-U-T-U-E-L? Paramuteal.

I don't know what that is. I've never heard of that.
And then there's livestock shows. Is it paramilitary? And they just spelled it wrong.
Who knows? Very wrong. Racing.
Camouflage horses.

They have an open cattle show.

They have

what else here?

Livestock judging. You just go by and you go, I don't like the looks of that cow.
You just judge it.

Real questionable. Fair food, household exhibits, a washer pitching tournament where

you bring your own washer and you throw it. Oh, yeah, the washers.
Yeah, yeah, the big washers. The big washers.
That's an antique tractor displays.

Okay, there's also the Stonewall Peach Jamboree and Rodeo.

That's Jamboree and Rodeo. That's the other one she was a fair duchess of, was the Stonewall.
Yeah, the Stonewall Peach Jamboree and Rodeo. Nightly dances, rodeo, peach queen coronation, goat roping,

which isn't that an insult, goat roper, isn't that an insult? That means you're not a

pussy if you're a goat roper.

A washer, washer throwing again. It's a big deal.
A 42 tournament, which is like 21 if you can count higher.

It is, it's like some kind of table game. Food, trucks, beer, wine.

Who knows? Oh, also a peach eating contest,

a pit spitting contest.

How do you win? I guess you eat the peach fastest? Fastest and the most of them, which will just make you shit everywhere.

Yeah, that's not good. That's fiber.
Pit spitting. There's also mutton busting, music, and of course, rodeo.
So

got to have that. We've got to get everyone involved.
That said, let's talk about some murder here.

Here we go. Here we go.
Like I said, a case that I have been sitting on for nine years in my notes, and I've just wanted to do it, and I'm like, ah, let's do it another time because it's too good.

I've just been saving it. I'm not even set we're doing it on this because I want to know all about whoever's performing at the Frederick.
I know, but they don't tell you, they give no name.

There's no information.

That's what I mean. Yeah, I looked out, believe me, I was looking and it was hard to find.
Who's buying that? So let's talk about some murder. Let's talk about a dude first here.

Let's talk about a guy, a dude, Scott Lewis Panetti, P-A-N-E-T-T-I, Panetti. He's born February 28th, 1958.
He is born in Wisconsin, from Wisconsin, north-central Wisconsin.

Yes, he is. And, well, let's talk about when he was a kid.
His parents, his mother said she remembers him as affectionate and even soft-hearted as a boy. Oh.
Yeah.

Jack Panetti, his dad, recalls one time when their oldest son, Tom, and then Scott also,

Scott was 14, they went deer hunting. And Jack Panetti said, quote, Scott was all shook up.
Oh, he hated the idea of killing an animal. He couldn't stand the blood.
Oh.

So that's what they thought of him. You know, just a.
Not a hunter. Not a hunter.
Now, he was a star athlete, apparently.

It was like all-county, like a big deal, but dropped out of Ponet High School or Poinette High School. And well, this is, you're going to drop out or get kicked out for this

after he got in trouble for punching the assistant principal. Well,

you got to expect that. You're not coming back to school on Monday.
Yeah, there's very little that you get to justify that. You have to be punched first, Jeff.
Yeah, was he trying to finger you?

Outside of that, that's really the only thing. Fighting back? That's the only time.
The only time it's okay.

So he was

transferred, or I should say, dropped out and re-enrolled in Portage High School to finish his education. In Wisconsin, still.
In Wisconsin, still.

And this is just a small acorn of a very large bat shit tree that will fall.

Or to use the scientific term, cuckoo crazy would be, I believe.

I do love a cuckoo clock. Yeah, well, he's a nuts is what the best way to put it.
He's fucking crazy as a loon, this guy.

Here's something his mother said, quote, looking back, I remember the danger signs, but I then associated his behavior with typical teenager weirdness.

Okay, typically

she said, after all, this was the early 1970s, which, yeah, kids were doing all sorts of crazy shit. Mental illness was not publicized or admitted to.
Again, also true.

If someone went to a psychiatrist, they'd go, what happened? Did you snap? Did you?

Did you just drive your car into a nursery school? Like, what did you do? Like, that's crazy. People really thought that.
She said, I told myself that Scott was just a unique person. He's not crazy.

He's just interesting. That's what she said, basically.

She said, there were no support groups to contact that I know of where one could go to for advice, probably especially in small town northern Wisconsin. I would assume that would also be part of it.

Psychiatrists or psychiatry was eyed with suspicion. I now understand what I didn't want to see then.
There was something dreadfully wrong with Scott.

Yeah, that is an understatement of all understatements here.

1976, at the age of 18, he joined the Navy. Let's give this guy access to weaponry.
That's good.

Wow. I don't even know how the hell you get into the Navy being this crazy.
How'd you not punch the guy interviewing you?

Yeah.

The doctor giving you the physical, you know? Fascinating.

He received an early honorable discharge. He told his parents it was due to him having arthritis in his hands, but he never had arthritis in his hands.
So

they think it was psychological that he he was psychologically, and he didn't want to say it because he was embarrassed, but they think he was psychologically discharged honorably.

Yeah, he tried, but he's too crazy. So we're picking him out.
Now, his parents ended up selling their dairy farm because that's where he grew up near Poinette and then moved to Fredericksburg, Texas.

Here we go. And he ended up joining them.

and meeting a woman and getting married.

So he ends up going with them down to Texas and meets a woman named Janie Lukenbach.

Oh, at Luckenbach, Texas?

I have no idea.

Luck or Luckenbach, however, he was.

L-U-C-K-E-N-B-A-C-H.

Yeah, I don't know. So he marries her.

He's going to have three kids with this woman, too, by the way.

An unstable man. Let's have three kids.

Not two. Not one.
Yeah. Three.

In 1981, he is involuntarily committed to the Kerrville State Hospital in Texas.

He's diagnosed as paranoid after being very hostile to his family. Apparently, he was being real weird with everybody.
He was getting thinking people were after him.

His own family was coming for him, things like that. Just unhinged, huh? They gave him a little break.
Now, in 1982, his family moves back to Wisconsin.

But he stays in Texas because he's got a wife and, you know, started having kids and everything else. And, you know, he's got a relationship with some psychiatrists and everything else.

So he's going to stay there. Got some friends, got some mechanics.

Yeah, why not? I got some people tinkering on

the old brain there. Yeah, when you got a specific car and you got a guy that knows how to work on it, you don't leave.

You don't move far from it. You don't leave, no.

So his wife is terrified of him by the time their third child is born in about 1986, basically. Here,

she ends up, she's going to file for divorce here pretty soon, because this is a lot.

But in her petition for divorce, she says that he'd been threatening her and become obsessed with the idea that the devil lived in their house.

Not that it was her or the kids, but that the devil was in a separate entity was living in their house. Yeah, he's in the house.

She said he claims he saw the devil on the wall and cut the devil with a knife and that blood had run out of him. That's what he said.
Wounded him.

He's stabbing the wall like Winona Ryder and Stranger Things, trying to fucking get to the under, the upside down. But got him.
But got him, apparently, is what he thought or said, which is.

Now he's pissed.

Yeah, now the devil's, I got him. I don't think I killed him.

Now think about how crazy, let's stack the levels of crazy. The devil lives in the house.
Okay, that's entry-level crazy. That's level one of crazy.
I see the devil on the wall. I seen him.

That's a different level.

That's level two. Then I not only, he's not only here and he's not only on the wall, but I interacted with him and stabbed him and devil blood came out.
Hand-to-hand combat, I got him.

That is the third outrageous. Wow.
That is outrageous. I mean, think about where your mind has to be for that.
You've gone completely outside of what is reasonable.

Ooh, daddy, what happened? What happened? So he's admitted to the Starlight Village Hospital in Texas here, obviously. Diagnosed with schizophrenia now.
Okay. Yeah, that's

there. He apparently had a history by now of speaking incoherently out of nowhere, saying crazy shit, and also serious paranoia.

So the wife said he absolutely became obsessed with the notion that the devil lived in the house. Fascinating.
He took all the family furniture.

And this is what made me put this aside for nine years and save it like a wonderful. I remember this.

Now you remember this part because because it's so crazy you went what you like you turned away from the road and were like are you kidding me he was a he was convinced that the devil lived in inside his furniture

so he took all the family's furniture from the living room couch coffee tables entertainment center everything and buried it in the backyard all outside

and buried it like underground yeah underground and buried it like the way it was set up in the living room too yeah like he was like

there

set.

Like it's like this, like if you found like the remains of Pompeii or something where they're like, they were sitting there having dinner and it just,

that's what happened. Here, done.
It is a still life.

Archaeologists, years in the future, they're going to go, there must have been a civilization landslide or something that came on in these people's. Ashley sofa under the city.
It's real weird.

Nice IKEA coffee table. They got a Wayfair entertainment center.
It ain't bad. It's not bad stuff.

So that's what's crazy.

He also then nailed the curtains in the house shut. Didn't tape the, nailed the

curtains.

Nailed them. Nailed curtains to the wall.
So, quote, that the neighbors would not film him.

Oh, through the windows.

And you need to nail them shut, otherwise they'll obviously blow open.

So he's also having hallucinations about the devil,

seeing blood come out of the walls.

She would catch him, the wife would catch him just washing the walls, and she's like, what are you doing? He's like, washing the devil blood off.

Caught him again. Caught him again.
Started speaking Texas German. Shit got weird.

Real weird. So for the rest of 1986, he's transferred to the Kerrville Hospital again, where he started back in 81, diagnosed with, like I said, schizophrenia.

Then he's transferred to the Waco Veterans Administration Hospital.

I was going to say he was in the Navy and honorably discharged, so he should should have access to veterans' services, I would think. He's diagnosed with schizophrenia there as well and

given antipsychotic medications. There we go.
Now we're in business.

He ends up moving back to Wisconsin in 1986 at the end of the day. Really?

Yeah, he's, I don't know if his wife called his parents and was like, I don't know what you did to handle him, but I can't handle him.

You need to take that. He's got along for at least three times, you know what I mean? For a second to be able to make three kids, but what the fuck? It's crazy.

His mother said, our plan was to get Scott the help he needed in the more progressive state of Wisconsin. Texas had a bad reputation concerning its treatment of the mentally ill.

And it still does, by the way.

We'll

talk about it for a second. I might as well just talk about it now, but Texas has like, they spend like a third of what the average state spends in mental health services.
Wow. Yeah, they don't.
Yeah.

If you're crazy in Texas, good luck. They got a prison for you.
That's what they do. Yeah.

So back in the hospital, he moved back to Wisconsin. He's admitted to the Toma Veterans Hospital, which I believe we did a Toma, Wisconsin episode, if I'm not mistaken,

where he's diagnosed with, I'm going to get you guess, Jimmy. Ah, schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia.

Seems like multiple hospitals come up with the same diagnosis. He might be schizophrenic.
He might be schizophrenic. Yeah.

He's then hospitalized in the Northern Pines Unified Services Center, where he's diagnosed with depression and suicidal ideation, as well as schizophrenia. Oh, no.

So he's transferred then to the Cumberland Memorial Hospital and diagnosed with depression, brain dysfunction.

I don't know if that's organic or caused by something else. Delusions, auditory hallucinations, and homicidal ideation toward his family.
This is real bad. This is bad stuff.

That's dangerous. This is real, true crazy.
You know what I mean?

Real life. Yeah.

Yeah. Something is wrong.

Organic issues.

Dare I say unfixable, too. You know what I mean?

Sometimes, though, these people, if they're on the right medications, can be very fine and very functional. They just need to get their shit balanced out.

There's plenty of people who are terrible mental illness that's very well helped by medication. You have to be willing to.

I mean, he be willing.

He's going to hospital after hospital to try to fix it.

And his family's trying to help him, and he seems to, but he's genuinely

pretty crazy. So somewhere in all this, his wife files for divorce, shockingly.

When the divorce came through, he became even more unstable

and then moved back to Texas. Really? I don't know if his family was like, okay, at least he's out of our hands or if they're like, holy shit, scared.
Now he's going back.

When he gets back to Texas, pretty pretty much immediately he's admitted to the Starlight Village Hospital again and again diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Transferred to the Kerrville State Hospital. This is becoming a pattern, same thing, and diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which is a combination of schizophrenia and manic depression, bipolar.

So

that seems to be where we're at with him. So in 1989, and I'm going to tell everyone out there right now, I know, listen, it's hard out there for everybody, but

if you can't, if you

just really want a relationship and can't find one, you are not looking hard enough.

It's on you. You're not.
It's on you. He gets married again in 1989.

Wow. I mean, honestly, if this guy can find a wife, what is your excuse? What are you doing? What's your excuse, man?

Are you stabbing the walls and then cleaning the devil blood off of them, burying the furniture in the yard? No, you're a catch. Get out there.
Have some confidence in yourself.

Have you wounded Satan? No. Yeah, no.

All right.

Do you speak Texas German? No. All right.
I think you're doing all right. You're doing fine.
So 1989, he marries Sonia Alvarado.

Now, they have a daughter that year as well. So I don't know if he married her because she got pregnant or what the deal was, but they have a daughter the same year they get married in 1989.

So again, now he's got four kids as well. Wow.
Four people call Scott dad. That's crazy.
Fascinating.

1990, next year, involuntarily committed to the Kerrville Hospital due to homicidal behavior, which was threatening to kill his wife,

their new baby,

his father-in-law, his wife's father, and himself when he's finished. Yeah, because I'm not going to pay for this.
So, yeah, back in the hospital he goes.

By this time, he was telling the doctors that he had genuinely come to believe that there was a plot against him

put forth by the entire citizenry of Fredericksburg. They had had it with him.

The whole town is after me. Yep.
He said that's where his wife and his parents-in-law and all those, they all live there. And the whole town is plotting.
Like, I'll see, I'll walk down the street.

I'll see people talking. They're obviously plotting against me.

Yeah. That's some serious paranoia.

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Now, Sonia, she tried, man. She tried.
They moved at least two times due to his craziness angering the neighbors and having all the neighbors hate them. So she was like, we'll move.

Move multiple times. She's really trying to make this work, man.

1992, admitted to the Kerrville Hospital again, diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder again.

This is again for threatening to kill his family.

Records reveal from this time that Scott had a series of different personalities now

and aspects of his own personality that he gave full-on names to.

Oh.

Last names and everything. I mean,

he has got characters in there now, multiple of them. So this is, you've seen this develop.
This is a cast.

A full cast, dude. A full cast.

Damn it.

There's like lighting guys and grips. Yeah.
The best boy grip is in there. It's got everything.

So August of 1992, Scott and Sonia separate, which, wow. And by the way, in addition to his mental illness and

behavior that's threatening everybody, he's also started drinking heavily as well. Let's add booze to this and not taking his medication.
He's going to try. Oh, substitute.

I don't know if drinking tries to try to quiet the voices because a lot of, I've heard that a lot.

People who are paranoid, schizophrenic, and multiple personalities, personalities, they will drink to try to quiet the voices.

And sometimes it works and sometimes it amplifies them. So you never know.

So Sonia takes their three-year-old daughter and goes to stay with her parents for a bit here.

Okay, her parents are Joe Alvarado, who's born November 23rd, 1936, and Amanda Alvarado, maiden named Carrion.

She's born April 30th, 1936. They've been married since 1958.

They apparently, I don't know if it's just if it was, they apparently had a child named Gloria born in 1954 before they were married,

who died in 1984. And then they had another daughter named Martha who died in 1977 at the age of 17.

Oh, no.

Yeah, so they have Sonia left as their daughter, and now she's going out with this guy.

So, okay, September 1st, 1992, Sonia comes home from work to her house, to Scott's house and everything, and found Scott just mumbling to himself, just mumbling, which is not a good sign.

They started to fight. He went and grabbed a rifle

and smashed her in the face with the butt of the rifle. Oh, Jesus.

So she then took the daughter, left, and went right to the police station or the court or something and got a restraining order against him immediately and moved in with her parents, which all of the correct things to do.

What else can you do? You know what I mean?

So she obtained a protective order to prevent him from contacting her or the child or her family.

Friends of the Alvarados here said that the couple,

the parents here, Joe and Amanda, had been afraid of him.

So one of the friends said, for a full week, Joe was worried about this man. He had already talked to the police about it.
So this was a church, a person that went to church with them.

He was talking, he's, God, my son-in-law, I'm scared of him. So

September 8th, 1982.

Here we go. Scott has got some stuff he wants to get accomplished today.

First off, he's shaving his head completely bald.

I get it. He's got, well, he's got hair.
He just decides to go

to the skin today.

Which nowadays people do all the time. In 1992, that was considered aberrant behavior to just shave shave your head to the skin.
You're either a Nazi

or a crazy person, one of the two, or from the future. Those are the only three options.
There was no way. You're really going through something right now.
You're going through something. Yeah.

So, September 8th, 1992, shaves his head. Then he goes in the garage and saws off a shotgun.
Oh.

Make that nice and short and easy to carry. Yeah.
Then he dresses up in full military fatigues. Oh, boy.

Gets in the car with the shotgun and a rifle,

and drives to the Alvarado home.

Okay, drives to Joe and Amanda, Alvarado, 55, 56 years old here. Now,

obviously, Sony has been staying here for

a whole week. She stayed for a couple weeks, tried to go back.
He was mumbling, hit her with the rifle. Now she's been back here for a week.

Now,

through the back sliding glass door,

she just heard glass shatter from the back, from coming from the back sliding glass door.

She immediately knew what it was, Sonia.

She heard the glass shatter of the door. She said, fuck Scott's here, and he's coming for me.
So she ran out of the house immediately.

But he caught up with her and hit her on the right side of the face with the butt of the deer rifle. Wow.
Bam. Nails her.

Then,

wow. So she, to get away from him from outside, crawled back into the house after being hit with the rifle.
Yeah.

So then Scott corners her

in a small hallway area, which is about six by eight feet.

So she is in deep shit. At that point,

here comes Joe and Amanda. They're in the mix, obviously, here too.
And

everyone's in this small hallway.

He just takes his 30-odd six-deer rifle

and shoots Joe and then shoots Amanda

with his rifle. Boom and boom.
Boom rifle instead of the shotgun. Instead of the shotty, which close quarters, the sawdoff is the weapon of choice, I would think.
Yeah.

But he's pretty good shot. Doesn't like hunting, but one shot each right through the head, these two kills them both.
Yeah.

Sonia said, I could feel the vibration of the gunshots on the floor. It was so loud.
Yeah, small hallway, too. It's a 30-caliber weapon.
That's tough.

He then turns it to her, to Sonia, and pulls the trigger, but it jammed. And he's fucking with it, trying to get it to work, and it won't work.
And he's trying to shoot her.

She said, I believe I'm alive today by the grace of God.

Wow. Yeah.
So apparently also

the child is right there. The three-year-old is watching all this.
Sweet Jesus.

When you bust open a sliding glass door, everyone's up in the house at that point.

Everyone's awake. You know, that's That's a big plate, girl.

Yeah, either you're in a lot of trouble or Stone Cold Steve Austin just got here. One of the two.
But you got problems. Either way.

So anyway,

he then, because the gun won't work,

he just grabs Sonia and the three-year-old and says, you're coming with me. Uh-oh.

So

he takes them at gunpoint

and

puts them in the car and drives about three miles west of Fredericksburg

to a bunkhouse that he knew about, that he had some stuff in, that he was like crashing at. It was like his hideaway pad.
I don't know what's going on. So he brings them in there.
There is a standoff.

The cops are aware of the situation because of the gunshots. People call the cops.
They end up going there.

He says, I'm not coming out and you want me. We're going to shoot it out, basically.
That's what's going on. I got my wife.
I got my daughter.

And we're all going to die today if that's what's going to happen here.

Or you're going to go away. This lasts for nine hours.
Nine hours standoff. Nine hours.
And then he releases the wife and daughter. He tells them, you guys can go.
Let's them.

They run out of the house. Then he dresses up in his best suit,

coat and tie and everything

and goes out

and surrenders. Oh.
But he's wearing his best suit with a cleanly shaved head.

So he looks super nuts at this point.

Real clean cut. Real clean.
Yeah, real clean.

One of the troopers said, I don't think the officers had any problem convincing him to surrender. I think he already had made up his mind before they got there that eventually he would surrender.

One of the sheriffs, this guy's kind of a dick, we'll find out later. Gillespie County Sheriff Milton Young or Jung.
J-U-N-J-G.

Jung. Young.
Young, either one. He said that Scott had been treated for mental problems before at the VA hospital.
He said, yeah, guy shaved his head and all that.

He said, quote, he's a very strange man. No shit.
Yeah. Really?

Obviously. They also said this was the first homicide in Fredericksburg in more than 20 years.

Oh, wow. It's been a while.
Yeah. Now, they also said we know him.

Officers describe him as someone who's been in legal trouble several times for alcohol-related problems, ones that we couldn't find in the newspaper because they were small.

They called him an unemployed former Navy man who's on medication and is prone to violent outbursts when his medication is not taken exactly properly. He apparently has several medications.

They all have to be taken in a very specific way. Yeah.
And if he doesn't do it, because he's loopy, he goes nuts. So it's sad.
I mean, that's real mental illness. I mean, it really is.

So one of their friends, the Alvarados' friends, when found out that she was,

that they were killed, started talking about them, them said mrs alvarado had been suffering from cancer and was undergoing chemo

and she said joe alvarado enjoyed working in the yard and around the house so that he could stay close to his wife he also worked at a stone quarry joe alvarado

there and said he was just a good man he was my best friend the woman said yeah so there you go now they bring scott in

he gives a full confession really

he goes yeah i did it yeah absolutely. That's why I had them in there.
I got all the guns. I mean, pretty obvious what I did.

You know, the devil and all and blah, blah, blah. Sure.
But he said it was me, but it really wasn't me. See, that's the thing.
The devil got in there? No, no, no.

It was a very specific person with a first and last name.

It was Sarge Ironhorse. That's the goal.
Wow. Which sounds like a great gay porn name, by the way.
Sarge Ironhorse. You are going to the top of the charts with that one.
But

yeah a guy named sarge he does bad

yeah he's seen some in the past and you know to look at

to look at a baby and name it sarge you got to know it's a there's some shit going on about to happen

sarge iron horse did it is this is the story like alrighty um now sonia warned them by the way sonia recalled a number of incidents prior to the crime in which she alleged that the police had failed to act on the family's concerns about the threat he posed she recalled that after one incident, only weeks before the killing of her parents, she said, My mother and I begged the police to take the rifles.

Scott had his deer rifle, the 30 odd six he used to kill my parents, the other shotgun at my parents' house. Even though the police were told to take the guns, they did not.

The court told them to, but they didn't follow it through.

She said Scott had made threats against my parents.

She said several occasions they responded to domestic violence calls and did nothing to reprimand Scott because she claims they either feared him or they were casually acquainted with him because he's been there a long time and they were like, oh, he's crazy but harmless is how they looked at him.

You know, he's not going to do nothing.

The police chief said that he couldn't recall any particular incident that was handled incorrectly and said the police knowing Scott was not a factor in how the domestic calls were handled.

Yeah, right.

He said, we dealt with Scott on several occasions,

adding that she has also made these allegations on previous occasions. Well, she sounds right at this point.
He just killed her whole family.

She said the police department and sheriff's department tried to keep all the facts about the events from the media in an attempt to protect the image of the community, not to protect her privacy.

She said their main concern was upholding the image of Fredericksburg as a nice tourist town. That's it.
That's all I gave a fuck about. Well, yeah, that's what this place is.

She was also ignored.

She says on the day of the crime, when she was taken away from the being held hostage, she was injured and traumatized and not provided any medical attention or counseling, she said.

She just made a statement to the police and they were like, bye.

She said that the denial of immediate medical attention by sheriff's deputies caused her to be denied funds from the victims of crime program as well.

So she said she was barefoot when she was kidnapped and was not given shoes or even a pair of socks to wear by the law enforcement officers at the scene. She was questioned for nearly seven hours

about the day's events without any medical attention or anything.

Said she was not

the county sheriff, this Milton Jung, said she was not held against her will. She could have gone at any time.

Well, maybe she's trying to be helpful. You're telling her that she needs to tell you everything and it'll be helpful.

She never requested medical care,

but she said this type of experience is just one of several with local law enforcement agencies that were handled carelessly.

She said about a week later, when my head and memory became more clear, I told the DA that I wanted to add more events as they occurred.

He told me it was best to just leave things as they were and they would stick to the original statement given, which is not how you do things, by the way. You got to get the whole story.

Yeah, especially a woman who's been hit with a deer rifle an hour before you talk to her.

I told them there were more things I wanted to add, but the DA told me it wasn't important. He wanted to stay with the first statement.
Too many mistakes. I feel this was wrong of him.

I feel now that I was used on the stand so that I would cover up for law enforcement mistakes and the sheriff knowing of Scott's mental illness for years, not to mention all the other reports that were not written out.

So Scott's evaluated in jail. Records indicate that he's being prescribed antipsychotic medications for his symptoms.

So he stays on those, apparently, for a while.

Later on, he'll discontinue the medication after

what he claimed was a religious experience that he had on it. They were like, let's take those away from you.

Now, he's got a court-appointed attorney. This poor bastard, by the way, when I tell you

what goes on in this trial, his responsibility is poor guy.

He said, quote, Scott was unable to cooperate with his attorneys or assist them in any way. He said,

I have never had a client who did not try to cooperate, who just separated themselves to where they weren't with us anymore.

I never had a meaningful conversation with Scott regarding the status of the case, the facts of the case, or any issue involved.

Oh, well, over a period of two and a half years, I never saw a change in Scott's demeanor and conversation. His talk was always bizarre.

He was never able to complete a rational and meaningful conversation with his attorneys, which is one of the things that you go on if they're competent to stand trial: can they assist in the defense of their case or not?

If their lawyers are like, I don't know, I ask him questions, he blows bubbles at me. What am I supposed to do here? What do you do? If you're that lawyer, you're fucked.

So summer of 93, the next year, he's still in jail awaiting trial and being evaluated and medicated and everything.

His younger sister visits him, and she recalls recalls that he was, quote, very paranoid and very hyper and was making many irrational and bizarre statements.

And she claimed that, remember that conspiracy in Fredericksburg that's against him? Yeah.

His lawyers are also part of a conspiracy against him as well, possibly connected to all the Fredericksburg people as well. Yeah.
So July 1994, he has a competency hearing.

Apparently, there is a jury for this competency hearing, which I didn't know that was a thing, but

the competency hearing is declared a mistrial after the jury is unable to reach a verdict.

So September 94. Does they call that a mistrial? They call that a mistrial of the hearing.
Okay. Whatever.
Anytime a jury can't reach a verdict, it's called a mistrial, whether it's a trial or not.

September 1994, second competency hearing. His lawyer testified that in the previous two years, he has had no useful communication with Scott because of Scott's delusional thinking.

A psychiatrist for the defense concluded that Scott was not competent to stand trial.

A psychiatrist for the prosecution agreed with the diagnosis of schizophrenia and that Scott's delusional thinking could interfere with his communications with legal counsel, particularly under the situations of stress such as a courtroom.

So that's only going to exacerbate the symptoms.

However, he said, Even with all that said, I think he's competent to stand trial, even though he can't assist in his defense and he's completely delusional. And he thinks everybody's out to get him.

I think he's fine.

And the jury said, competent. Yeah.

No problem.

So now he's competent and he wants to be his own attorney. Oh,

you want to have a party?

I'm so competent. I'm a lawyer now.
Yeah.

Me and Sarge are good. We got this.
Sarge Iron Horse is going to cover this case. So

that is.

Think about that. You're letting this man.
Yeah, it's too much. It's going to be a circus.
I mean, and it is. Way to hear this.

So according to what his sister said, his sister said he had a delusion that only an insane person could prove insanity.

That's his.

Okay.

Only an insane person can prove insanity, see? You know how that goes.

That is, that's insane. That is

what an insane person says. See? And she went, you're right.
You just proved it. Yeah.

Sold.

His fears of the attorneys were irrational and due to his paranoid delusions. I believe that his decision to represent himself was totally irrational.
This decision was because of his mental illness.

She also had a friend who was like a crime reporter for a

TV station.

And had that friend who knows about the justice system try to tell him this is a bad idea. And he was like, you're out of your mind.
You don't know what you're talking about.

So the judge found that he had voluntarily and knowingly waived his right to counsel and allowed him to be his own lawyer. Fucking unbelievable.

Leading up to the trial, he sent, constantly sent mail to his sister and family in Wisconsin. She said his writings were completely irrational.
He wrote many strange things that did not make sense.

This is while this is going on.

She said that he called her his legal assistant and he mailed all his papers, documents, and records for the trial because he was afraid to keep them in his cell because he thought the guards were looking at his work and would tell the people.

He's after me. Yeah.

She said, quote, I can't understand how he was supposed to get ready for his trial when his papers were in Wisconsin.

So she mailed the boxes and materials back to him for the trial, but, quote, the jury selection was over before the boxes arrived, so he did not use them.

So he doesn't even have the materials for the trial. He has no idea what's going on, none of the reports, nothing.
What the fuck is going on?

His standby counsel, because he's got a standby counsel at this appointed, said when the trial began, Scott did not have his files. The material that had been prepared was not available.

Scott's family brought the files back to Texas, but Scott never used the materials. I do not think that Scott had a rational understanding of the importance of that information.

Scott was for all the discovery, everything. Scott was filing motions and subpoenas with rambling statements and bizarre artwork.
He'd draw a picture. This is also what I want.
Oh, boy.

I also want a cat with dragon wings, if you could make that for me. I'd like this and that.
I'd like to pass this motion and make this reality. I need a signed Emmett Smith

helmet with full of ice cream. Rocky Road.
Full of ice cream, and I want my dragon cat to, instead of fire coming out of its mouth, it's Captain Crunch. That's what I want.
Perfect.

Fire comes out of his asshole. Everybody knows that.
Yeah, everyone knows that.

He also,

he also,

he has 200-plus

subpoenas he filed, the lawyer said. I have copies of the 200-plus subpoenas he filed.

Scott wanted to subpoena Jesus Christ, JFK, actors and actresses, people who have died that have nothing to do with this.

I know Ban Bancroft was one of the people he tried to subpoena, who I think was dead at that point. Yeah.

In his pretrial motions, including to, he filed several, Scott does, including to disqualify the judge for a change of venue, his central argument being that he couldn't get a fair trial because the people of Fredericksburg have been plotting against him for years.

So obviously the whole jury, they're all going to be in on it.

A psychiatrist who reviewed the records, a 10-page letter that Panetti sent the trial judge,

the psychiatrist said at this time, quote, contained numerous biblical passages, just idiosyncratic expressions, flight of ideas, meaning sudden changes in his thought processes, loose associations, meaning communication that was not coherently connected together, and incoherent and illogical thought processes.

Like a judge should have got that and said, this person can't stand trial. They're insane.
It's too much. Instead, they do do him this favor of suppressing his confession.

They suppress his confession here for some reason. I don't know.
what the reason is. And the judge also granted his change of venue motion and set the trial for Bandera.

That's where it'll it'll be happening.

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The prosecutor said

they're going to appeal the suppression of the confession. Like, it's not enough that you got a crazy person representing himself.
You need to stack the deck more. And that delays the trial.

So finally, August through September 95 is the trial. It begins with jury selection in late August.
And Scott's sister arrives in Texas for the trial and visited him in the jail.

And she said, quote, I had never seen Scott so sick. I got to visit with him in his cell since I was his so-called legal assistant.
Maybe that's why he did that.

Scott was acting all strung out and weird. He started screaming at the guards and acting like a madman.
Scott was laying on the floor so he could scream under the door at the guards. I was scared.

I had never seen Scott act so crazy.

So now he's the craziest he's ever been. So he's set to represent himself in a murder trial.
Here we go.

His appointed standby standby counsel here said that his attempts to help Scott were impossible due to his mental illness.

He said, Scott did not have a factual and rational understanding of the capital murder proceedings. Scott was not able to assist me, and I was not able to assist him due to his mental illness.

Scott was paranoid of a big conspiracy that everyone was out to get him. He had to represent himself to prove insanity.
Scott was not on any psychotropic medication during the trial.

Scott did not use the information I prepared for him. I tried to outline the theory of the defense, but Scott was only interested in his own show.

At a meeting during the jury selection, I advised Scott on several important issues. This was all way above Scott's head.
It did not appear to make any sense to him.

Every time I tried to talk about jury selection or discuss any of the items or things I brought him, he instantly changed the subject until he eventually ran out of time. Oh, boy.

So during the trial, he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. Really? This should be easy, right?

His truck. Oh my God.
Okay. Now, normally, just his mental stuff is going to cause a spectacle in the trial.
Oh, yeah. He goes even harder.
Really?

He walks into the courtroom, and this is what he wears every day, described as a, quote, 1920s cowboy-style outfit.

He showed up in like a

completely like

garish,

like 1920s,

30s movie cowboy outfit he showed up in a giant 10 gallon hat yeah

a huge bandana

boots with stirrup weird boots they're described as too not just regular boots weird boots that the pants were tucked into too oh nice with stirrup boots on the outside He had, I believe it was a purple, he wore purple shirts with green ties.

Oh, you can't do that. He's dressed like a circus clown cowboy.
Yeah. He's dressed like a fucking lunatic.
Like the Joker as a cowboy.

And affected, from a newspaper, affected the mannerisms and accent of a John Wayne movie character. Oh, no.

Like over the top. So he's like, let me tell y'all, little ladies and cusses a little something there.
I got a little something to tell you about this craziness now.

Mental illness will sneak on up on you, kind of like a Texas tornado, if you know what I mean. They just pop up out of nowhere now.
You know what I'm talking about. Like a rabid prairie dog.

I'll tell you what, when you're out there on the ranch with the donkeys, it's a little something.

Jesus Christ. This is crazy.
This is crazy.

So here's some different doctors'

observations of him during the trial, okay? Different psychologists.

Quote, in my opinion, Scott was not competent to stand trial because he was unable to assist himself in his own defense and didn't have a factual and rational

understanding of the proceedings. There's no doubt in my mind that he was mentally ill and he was incompetent to stand trial.
Here's another thing.

My main impression was, why was the judge allowing this crazy man to defend himself? I thought to myself, my God, how in the world can our legal system allow an insane man to defend himself?

How can this be just? I not only thought that Scott was incompetent, but I thought, but that it was not moral to have him stand trial. It was terribly wrong.

I did not know that our legal system would allow an insane man to represent himself in his own trial.

Here's another one. There's no question in my mind that Scott was incompetent at his trial.
Scott's questions and conduct were bizarre and represented a break from reality.

His conduct was bizarre in part due to his unusual dress, which I can only call a costume. Scott was more concerned with his dress and appearance than the reality of his capital murder trial.

The courtroom had an atmosphere of a circus.

Here's another. At the trial, Scott dressed in 1920s-era cowboy style.
It looked idiotic. He wore a large hat and a huge bandana.
He wore weird boots with stirrups.

The pants were tucked in at the calf. I had a feeling that Scott had no perception of how he was coming across.
He was totally unable to see the effect. His questions were completely without thought.

They were irrelevant. I felt like Scott was digging his own grave.
The trial was a joke. It was a big fiasco.

And two more here. When I watched Scott in court, he was very bizarre.
When I saw him on the first day of the trial, trial, I thought the judge should stop the trial and commit him to a hospital.

Scott was not competent to stand trial. My wife had written the judge a letter, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

I wanted to tell the judge to stop the trial because, oh, this is from his mother. My son was sick and incompetent.
Like, he's obviously nuts. Clearly, yeah, got a problem.

And his sister said, I think the justice system or the justice broke down in my brother's trial. It was not fair to let a mentally ill man be his own attorney when he didn't know what he was doing.

I am sorry to say the trial was a farce. It was a circus-like atmosphere.
I never expected justice to allow this. Even Sonia, whose parents were murdered,

said that she thought the trial was a big joke and a circus and that there was lots the jury did not know about Scott and his mental illness.

Even she was like,

What are we doing?

The actual trial, yeah, purple and green cowboy shirts. He wore leather chaps, for fuck's sake.
For fuck's sake. He didn't wear like a suit and tie and a cowboy hat and boots like a Texas lawyer.

He dressed like from a costume.

Anyway,

one person said, this is his lawyer, sorry. Mr.
Panetti's direct examination testimony essentially began with his birth.

He discussed a near-drowning episode, falling off a horse, and messing in his pants when he was a child. Oh, goddammit.

He later described his school in Wisconsin, the carpeting there, how he wanted to look up his teacher's skirt. This is great.

I know. You just.

What do you do? Yeah. We all get it, but you don't tell the jury that.
You can't.

Don't admit it, man.

At one point, he showed

the jury a tattoo on his arm, a wounded sunbird, and went into excessive detail about it. After the court redirected him, Mr.

Panetti talked at length about his high school sweetheart in a loosely connected manner. The judge redirected him for a second time to be to relevant evidence.
After Mr.

Panetti discussed bull riding, high school interactions, and that his father looked like Colonel Sanders, the court redirected him again to the relevance of the guilt-innocence phase of the trial.

Despite continued redirection, Mr. Panetti described working on his father's ranch in Texas.
The district attorney even asked the court to instruct Mr.

Panetti to talk about his guilt or innocence and not about his life story.

One of the doctors who attended the trial as a witness said, I witnessed a number of incidents where the inappropriate use of language and actions showed that Scott was mentally ill and incompetent.

Scott literally enjoyed the spectacle of the courtroom where he was the center of attention. Scott enjoyed the trial since he was getting attention and was being allowed to act like an attorney.

Hey, I get to dress up like a cowboy and ask people questions. Isn't this fun? Hey, Scott was acting out of

a role of an attorney as a facet of the mental illness, not a rational decision to represent himself at trial.

Scott was acting as his own attorney from his paranoid fear that his attorneys were out to get him. He gave a rambling presentation that showed

he could not think clearly nor understand the information that was important to his trial. The trial gave Scott the opportunity to get the attention that a paranoid person so desperately needs.

Scott needed to represent himself out of the delusion that he alone could defend himself. He wanted recognition as an attorney and got the judge to allow him to center stage.

The mental illness caused him to fail to recognize the importance of the jury. In his mind, the jury was not important.

What was important to Scott was the recognition of the judge, the DA, the witnesses, and the public that Scott was an attorney in the courtroom. Right.

So one witness, he asked this question here, quote, we, we subpoenaed Dr. Hal.
I mean, I didn't want to go to, I didn't want to go subpoena crazy, and I just turned the Pope loose

and JFK, and I never subpoenaed them, but Jesus Christ, he didn't need a subpoena. He's right here with me, and we'll get into that.
We'll get there. Huh? Give me some time.
He turned the Pope loose?

What the fuck are you talking about? I don't need him.

I don't don't need him. He's busy.
He also said

during one question, he called Jesus. He said Jesus Christ was sharing a cell with him.
He said he had a cellmate, and it was Jesus Christ, but he was serious.

And it wasn't a guy named Jesus, because it is Texas. Oh, boy.

He called 43 witnesses over eight days, subpoenaed John Kennedy, subpoenaed Jesus Christ. In the end, he did need to subpoena him.

He's busy.

Busy guy. I'm tired of all the miracles.

You are bound to be here.

I get that, you know, teach a man to fish, elite for a lifetime, and all that kind of shit, but you're also time-blind. You're real bad with times and dates.

At one point, he put his hand on the jury box

like he was shooting. He did finger guns at the jury and said, boom, boom, boom,

with a cowboy outfit on. Oh, my God.
He can't do that. No.

Scott's mom on the stand, he said, mom, I slept good and I had a dream and woke up real confused in the relevance of my ill to the relevance of my guilt or innocence.

Is there anything that has to do now? I flat ironed you. Yesterday you sort of expected I would call you, but you didn't expect it this morning.

That's what he said to have. I flat ironed you.
None of this makes any sense. Nope.
The judge said, you need to ask a question, Mr. Panetti.

And he said, Talk about my treatment, mom, before, after, and during my, the duration of my treatment. That's

directly relevant to my guilt or innocence as charged, mom. And the judge says, Mr.
Panetti, ask a specific question. I don't want a general question.

Scott says, I'm going to have to ask you a couple of questions that we didn't ask before, and it's safe to ask, Mom.

Well, there's things I should have said or didn't say or didn't say and should have said. The judge said, Mr.
Panetti, ask a question.

Then he testifies

himself. He said the day of the crime, he'd been under the control of Sarge Iron Horse.
Oh, Sarge did. Okay.
He's back.

He, yeah, he also said that the demons were cackling at him during his crime. Oh.

This is his quote. Quote, Sarge woke up, cut off Scott's hair.
Sarge suited up.

Shells, canteen, pouch, 30 odd six, tropical hat, tropical top, bunkhouse, fast, haircut fast, suited up fast, boom, really fast.

Fast haircut, web gear, top, brush hat, boots, out the door, in the Jeep, driving, wife, the bridge. Why is it taking so long? In front of Joe and Amanda's house.
Sarge, everything fast.

Everything fast. He sounds like English isn't his first language.
The way he's losing connector words. Everything fast.
Everything slow. Tapped on the window.
Shattered window. Sonia screams.
Runs.

Follow her. She runs out.
Out the front. Knife.
Birdie birdie. That's Scott and that's their daughter.
Where's Birdie? Pick her up. She's in bed.
Scott, what? Scott, what did you see Sarge do? Fall.

Sonia, Joe, Amanda, kitchen. Joe, bayonet, not attacking.
Sarge not afraid, not threatened. Sarge not angry, not mad.
Sarge, boom, boom. Sarge, boom, boom, boom.
Sarge, boom, boom. Sarge is gone.

No more Sarge. Sonia and Birdie.
Birdie and Sonia. Joe, Amanda, lying in kitchen.
Here, there, blood. No, leave.
Scott, remember exactly what Scott did. Shot the lock, walked in the kitchen.

Sonia, where's Birdie? Sonia here. Joe, bayonet, door, Amanda.
Boom, boom, boom. Blood, demons.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh, Lord, oh, you.

That's what he said? He said that on the stand. Those are words.

He said, what happened that morning? And he said that. That's what happened that morning.
My God. The judge said, Mr.
Panetti, let's stop. Yeah.
And he said, you you puppet.

That was Scott's answer to the judge. You puppet.

In closing arguments, he said this, quote, how long did this deliberate and that deliberate? I don't think.

I think that you are all way beyond and this ain't no show and there ain't no body in this point, any evidence.

And I proved without a preponderance of doubt, those are not words that go together like that. that I didn't know right from wrong and that I was insane, not lay experts or doctors.

And in your hearts, everybody knows. Do you honestly think any of you are going to go home after making the decision and second-guess it? I think, without hesitation, you won't.
And God bless Texas.

I will be done.

Oh, the law sometimes sleeps, but it never dies.

What does that mean?

The jury goes in, deliberates for two hours. God bless Texas, you guys.
God bless Texas. Hat tips his hat to him.

Ma'am, and he gives him one of those.

They find him guilty of capital murder.

Yeah, not crazy, not at all, guilty, regular old criminal.

The prosecution's going for the death penalty. Oh, Jesus.

Yeah, Scott's attorney said this is not a case for the death penalty. Scott's life history and long-term mental problems make it an excellent case for mitigating evidence.

Scott, instead, though, during sentencing, doesn't present any mitigating evidence. Oh, Scott.

It's fucking crazy.

He asked one of the, there's a different jury for the sentencing, and he asked one of them, quote, I despise the tragedy details, but as far as, do you understand what even I don't, do you know what mitigating means?

And the juror said, well, from what I gather off of him, the prosecutor, it means circumstances. Is that what? Something to that effect? No, not really.

And he says, Scott says, me neither. Me neither.

Okay. Oh, fuck.
His opening. Well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
I think it's maybe odd that you didn't see more of a breakdown.

It's been three years, and that was two years ago that I went into the, may have heard being uncomfortable with crime, but I went into the crime that I described as something that I heard in Jacques Cousteau analogy of tears that whales would swim.

And I hope that you don't think it's odd that I don't have more of a breakdown.

But again, I must reiterate, I had very untreated mental illness that in my brief look over some papers that a previous law firm sent, which I should have prepared earlier, there is my culpable mental state.

Oh, fuck.

What does that mean? I don't know what that means. It doesn't matter.

At one point, he said that sheep guilty, and that's not justice to the sheep, and I pose no future dangers to anyone, including myself, and even less and less if I were given proper medication.

I pose no threat. All right.

Judge, they come back. You, sir, may fuck off the death penalty.

Not only do they try this guy and let him represent himself, they're going to kill him.

God bless Texas.

God bless Texas. Yeah, what the fuck?

One witness said, I watched Scott question some of the jurors. The jurors would look scared.

One of the doctors who was at the trial said, in my opinion, Scott's mental illness had an effect on the jury that was visible.

It was obvious from the appearance of the jury that Scott antagonized them by his verbal rambling and antics. Scott was completely unaware of the effect effect of his words and actions.

Members of the jury had hostile stares and looked at Scott in disbelief when he rambled and made no sense.

Yeah.

So anyway,

that detective Jung said, quote, he's the best actor there is. I guarantee you that guy's an actor.
For his whole life, he's been doing this acting, huh? He did all this

in calculated ways so that he could murder two people. That's all he wanted to do for years.
He knew it.

Another, the lead homicide

detective said, I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. Why would someone who didn't know right from wrong run from the police, take hostages, and engage in a standoff? Because he's crazy.

Why would he do anything? The answer is nuts. So he appeals.
He's got tons of psychiatrists saying, holy shit, he's insane.

It's denied.

The state fights for the death penalty in every hard they want to kill Scott. Yep.

The Board of Pardons voted 14 to 1 to reject a request to commute his sentence to life and 15-0 in rejecting his

reprieve.

Sonia wrote in 1999, I do not hate Scott. I hate what Scott did.
Scott was a good person, except when he changed.

I now know that Scott is mentally ill and should not be put to death. It is her parents.

Please don't kill him. She said also, my family doesn't understand any of this.
She said, my family couldn't understand why I was alive and my parents were dead.

So they're mad at her because she wasn't murdered.

Talks a little bit about the daughter, but we don't have time for that. 2003, this goes to the Supreme Court.
They try to, but they don't listen to it.

The Texas Attorney General's Office said that he's fine, basically.

2003, Supreme Court

refused to consider the case.

They said that the U.S. Court of Appeals said during trial, Panetti proceeded while dressed in a cowboy suit, gave the appearance of hallucinating, and carried rambling dialogues.

He did, however, formulate a trial strategy, improved his trial performance over time, and was able to effectively cross-examine and cross-examine witnesses.

Is that what you heard from the quotes I gave you? Is that what he did? He's fine. Kill him.

Scott's mom said maybe they can throw him away like trash, but that's not what he is. He's a human being who is sick, but no one will help.

Wow.

Yeah, 2004, they issue a death warrant for Scott.

He says, by the way, in jail, he's known as the preacher in death row for his manic recitations from the Bible.

He's got to be, he's real fun to have around.

Yeah.

He's told several visitors that the state wants to execute him to stop his preaching. Oh.

They said he doesn't associate the death penalty even with the murder anymore. Now it's

in his head, they don't want him preaching the truth to the prisoners, so they're going to kill him. Oh.

2007. It's not that he's.
Okay. No.
2007, Panetti versus Quarterman.

Our U.S.

Supreme Court reversed holding that the state court competency proceedings had violated his right to due process and that the federal court had applied the wrong test for determining competency.

2014, Texas schedules a new execution date, but the Fifth Circuit issues a stay ordering a full hearing on his competency. 2022,

in an opening statement here, his attorney noted it's unprecedented to be litigating an execution competency claim for 20 years. In 2023, U.S.

District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that Scott was not competent to be executed,

saying that he had severe mental illness rendered him unable to meet rational understanding of what the fuck is even going on. Yeah, what is this? But they left him on death row anyway.

So he stayed on death row this whole time. May 26, 2025.
This is why we're finally doing it, by the way.

He dies. He dies.

Dies at 67 of natural causes at the hospital in Gallagher. Wow.

The Alvarados are buried at the St. Mary Cemetery in Fredericksburg there.

Got to bust out. We're way late here.
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