Hey everyone, I recently wrapped my other show, Unsafe Spaces. It's an
investigative serialized true crime podcast that looks into Stephen Lorenzo and Scott Schweikert, two
gay men who were targeting and murdering other gay men in the Tampa Bay area
of Florida. Season one is complete and bingeable now, So while you're waiting
for the next season of true crime bullshit coming next month, I'll be sharing
the first four episodes of Unsafe Spaces with you here. Listen and then head
on over to Unsafe Spaces and Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening now and binge
the rest of the season. This is a studio both and production. On
November two of two thousand and four, Stephen Lorenzo implicated Scott Schweikert and Scott
Schwikert alone in the disappearance of Jason Galehouse. This followed a month's long online
sting operation wherein Scott Schweiker admitted to assaulting a man in Tampa, Florida,
among other things, and following an interview with witness A, a man who
claimed that Stephen Lorenzo and his friend Scott drugged and assaulted him, and after
reviewing dozens of chats between Stephen Lorenzo and Scott Schweikert, which discussed drugging,
kidnapping, assaulting, and even murdering gay men. The next day, on
November third of two thousand and four, a search warrant was finally executed on
Skis S. Gott Schweikert's family home in Peru, Illinois. Throughout the search,
police recovered and seized a compact Presario laptop, computer and one external ZIP
drive, Scott's cell phone, a business card belonging to Stephen Lorenzo, Scott's
checkbook, and some unspecified documents. During the search, Detective Columbia and agent
Albrecht briefly interviewed Scott on the premises, and Scott told them that he did
in fact know Stephen Lorenzo, that he had briefly lived in Orlando, Florida,
from October of two thousand three through December of that same year, and
that while living in the area, he had met Lorenzo online, and that
not long after meeting online, Scott drove to Tampa and met Lorenzo in person
at a bar. He said that during that meeting, Lorenzo told him he'd
been in trouble with the law or co excharges. Scott said that shortly after
leaving Florida, he lost touch with Lorenzo, and that the pair hadn't had
any contact since around April of two thousand and four. He then casually mentioned
the incident with witness A, and the police immediately began to mirandize Scott,
at which point he informed them that if he was read as rights, he
would not talk without an attorney present, and so police ended the interview.
Two weeks later, Tampa Pede returned to Stephen Lorenzo's house with their second search
warrant. Upon arrival, they found that Jason Snelling, Lorenzo's former roommate who
was involved with Lorenzo in the alleged stocking of Snelling's ex boyfriend, was now
living in Lorenzo's home on West Powatton Avenue. During the search, Snelling advised
him Pupiti that Stephen Lorenzo had given him other printed AOL instant messenger chats chats
which Snelling then handed off to Lorenzo's attorney, chats that the police had never
seen. Throughout this second search, police recovered and seized an E machine computer,
an assortment of floppy and compact discs, a videotape, a small green
plastic baggie found hidden between compact discs and Lorenzo's office, and an electronic organizer.
About a month later, on January twelfth of two thousand and five,
police conducted a more formal interview with Jason Snelling, and Jason advised that over
the course of the last twelve months or so, he'd provided Lorenzo's attorney with
several packages, including one as recent as December of two thousand and four,
But when pressed on the contents of those packages, Snelling requested to speak with
an attorney and the interview ended. Even though Lorenzo had implicated Schweikert in the
disappearance of Jason galehouse, Tampa Pedee were more interested in Lorenzo's long list of
assaults, his drug charges, and the very damaging items seized from his home.
They began preparing for a grand jury and started lining up witnesses. By
January of two thousand and five, the police had already tracked down at least
twelve different Florida men who had alleged that Stephen Lorenzo drugged, kidnapped, and
or assaulted them, incidents that spanned from nineteen ninety eight through late two thousand
and three. Seven of those men agreed to provide testimony for the federal trial,
and witness Ay and several others were on board to provide testimony for the
state trial. Two of those men had since died and two had moved out
of the country. On April thirteen of two thousand and five, Assistant US
Attorney Percelli called Detective Columbia with Critical News. Forensic analysis of Lorenzo's computers and
hard drives found and recovered a previously deleted file, a file that contained twenty
photos. The photos were of Michael Walcolt's There appeared to be blood around his
mouth, ligature marks around his wrists and ankles, and obvious signs of lividity.
Michael Walcoltz was dead in all twenty photos, which were taken in Stephen
Lorenzo's living room and bathroom, and at least one of the photos, an
undetermined individual is holding Michael's feet to pose him for the picture. One week
after it was determined that Stephen Lorenzo had photos of Michael Walcolts dead inside of
his home, a third search was conducted on two thirteen West Powaton Avenue.
This search included a detached garage and apartment on the property in addition to the
main residence, and again, Jason Snelling was at the house at the time
of the search, and he told officers that most of Lorenzo's furniture was in
a storage facility near by, a storage unit that was rented in Lorenzo's sister's
name. From the main residence, Officers seized a belt from Lorenzo's closet,
which was present in several of the photos of Michael Walcolt's In the garage,
Cadaver dogs hit on multiple areas, as well as one in the back yard
adjacent to the garage, and officers discovered a recently poured concrete area near where
the dogs had hit, and so Tampa Pede filed for search warrants to dig
in the backyard, seese and search Lorenzo's jeep Cherokee, and to search Lorenzo's
off site storage facility. On May nine, Tampa Pede returned to Lorenzo's house
to meet with Jason Snelling. They had something they needed him to see.
In the analysis of the hundreds of photos found on Stephen Lorenzo's computers and hard
drives. There were approximately sixty photos of one man who appeared to be unconscious
and in various stages of undress, and Tampa Peade believed that man to be
Jason Snelling. When they showed him the photos, Jason began to cry.
He confirmed that he was the man in the photos and that he had no
recollection of them ever being taken. He advised that on the day that the
photos were dated, he had moved back into Lorenzo's house. He recalled drinking
wine and chatting with Lorenzo in the living room that night, and then waking
up fully clothed on the couch some time later. He said that he didn't
recall ever taking any illegal substances, taking his clothes off, or any photos
being taken of him. He also confirmed that he and Lorenzo did not have
any sort of romantic relationship nor any sexual relationship at the time, and it
was in that moment that Jason Snelling realized that his best friend had likely drugged
and assaulted him without him ever even knowing. The day after sharing photos of
his presumed assault with Jason Snelling, Tampa Pedi and Assistant US Attorney Picelli met
with Scott Schweikert at the federal courthouse. They advised him that he was being
subpoenaed for the grand jury in their case against Stephen Lorenzo, and when asked
if he had or needed an attorney, Scott said that he didn't have one
and that he didn't need one. He was ready and willing to cooperate,
at which point he was informed that at that time he was only a subject
of the investigation and not a target, and so Scott Schweikert began to share
his account of what happened on the weekend of December nineteenth of two thousand and
three. Scott told investigators that after meeting Lorenzo online, they met in person
twice in Tampa. At first, he denied knowing about Jason Galehouse and Michael
Wachold's, and when shown a photo of Jason Gailhouse, he said that he
wasn't the person that they met on December nineteenth at twenty six oh six,
but very quickly he changed his story within several minutes. He went on to
tell detectives that on December nineteenth of two thousand three, he and Stephen Lorenzo
went to twenty six oh six to look for a sub and while there they
met Jason Giehouse and the three of them went back to Lorenzo's house to have
sex. According to Schweikert, at some point during the sex, he went
to the bathroom to masturbate, and when he returned, Stephen Lorenzo had Jason
Giehouse in a chokehold. He said that fifteen minutes later he realized that Jason
was dead, and that Lorenzo forced him to help carry Jason Galehouse's body to
the garage, where the two wrapped him in a tarp and then placed him
on a trailer. He said that Lorenzo said he was going to dispose of
Jason's remains at a nearby landfill, but that Scott immediately returned to Orlando,
and this is what Scott testified to at the grand jury. But as he
walked back to the police headquarters with the detectives following his testimony, Scott began
to add more detail to his story. He said that while in the garage,
he helped Stephen Lorenzo dismember Jason Galehouse. He said that the pair placed
Jason's remains in multiple plastic construction trash bags, and then they drove to various
dumpsters west of Lorenzo's house in Tampa to discard each bag individually, and that
he did not, in fact drive back to Orlando that night. Instead,
he stayed with Lorenzo. He said that he was afraid of Lorenzo, but
for reasons unclear, not only stayed with him, but returned to twenty six
oh six with him the following night, and that's when the pair met Michael
Walcolts. Scott told detectives that after meeting Michael Walcolts at twenty six oh six,
Michael agreed to go back to Stephen Lorenzo's house with them. He followed
them there in his jeep, and upon their arrival, Scott saw Lorenzo give
Walcolts an unknown substance from his pocket. He said that shortly thereafter, Scott
once again excused himself to use the bathroom, that while he was in the
bathroom, he heard Lorenzo call out for help. He ran out to the
living room and found Lorenzo trying to handcuff Michael Walcols, and he assisted Lorenzo
in putting the handcuffs on him Michael, and then Lorenzo began suffocating him.
Scott said he watched as Michael slowly died, and then he helped Lorenzo wrap
Michael's body in a floral bed sheet and move him into the back of Michael's
jeep. Lorenzo then told him to follow him in Michael's jeep to a dumping
sight. According to Scott, Lorenzo was speeding and driving erratically. At one
point, he rushed through a yellow light, which forced Scott to run the
red light. Scott was certain that Lorenzo was either trying to lose him or
get him pulled over, driving Michael's car with Michael's body in the back,
but the pair eventually arrived at the Camden Bay Point apartments, where Michael's jeep
and remains were discovered on January sixth. After they abandoned Michael and his jeep
there, they returned to Lorenzo's house, where Schwekert gathered his belongings and immediately
returned home to Orlando. So to be clear, according to Scott, Schweikert,
he just happened to be in the bathroom when both the attack on gaelhouse
and the attack on wocklets occurred despite extensive searches of the dumpster. Scott claims
they disposed Jason Gaelhouse's remains in and the Tampa area dumps and transfer stations.
Jason Gaelhouse's remains have never been recovered. When I started writing this show,
I wasn't sure how I felt about Lorenzo's and Schweikert's relationship. It's something the
researchers, Doctor Scott, and I went back and forth over. Was Schweikert
a patsy or a criminal mastermind? Was Lorenzo a calculating killer or an idiot
who Schwekert used to take the fall? Was there a dominant submissive dynamic within
their own relationship, and if so, who was the dom Some days,
it felt like Schweikert had seamlessly set up Lorenzo to take the hit for his
own crimes. He sought out Lorenzo online and then went to where he lived
to commit the crimes in Lorenzo's own backyard, and then he left. But
other days it seemed like Lorenzo was using Scott, that Lorenzo had a long
prior history of violence, and he was not only using Schweikert to escalate that
violence, but to also eventually pin any crimes he committed with Schweikert. On
Schweikert, all of our opinions changed almost from day to day, and while
Tampa Pede, at least externally, were putting all their energy into Lorenzo,
it seemed that behind the scenes they were having a similar debate. But with
Scott's confession that he helped dismember Jason Galehouse's body and then helped dispose of Michael
Walcholtz's body, Tampa Pede had enough to arrest him, and on May twentieth
of two thousand and five, a year and a half after the murders of
Jason and Michael, they finally arrested Scott Schweikert, six months after they arrested
Stephen Lorenzo. In the week following Schweikert's arrest, Tampa Pedi conducted multiple interviews
with people who knew Scott, starting with a former cellmate of his. On
May thirty. First, they met with a man who served time with Scott
in two thousand one, following a duy That's got received in Georgia while living
in South Carolina. It was one of many DUI's and driving violations Scott would
receive in that period of time. He said that while in prison with Scott
that Scott portrayed himself as a straight man despite being very effeminate. He said
that Scott mentioned living in Florida for a brief time prior to that arrest,
but that he left not long after moving there because he hated the humidity,
heat, and bugs. This statement is interesting for a few reasons. I
mentioned last episode that based on the alleged first online chat between Lorenzo and Schweitkirt,
it seemed like they had definitely met prior, and here we had a
former cellmate of Scott stating that Scott had briefly lived in Florida at some point
prior to two thousand. This is not, by any means proof that there
was a prior relationship, but it's an interesting note because it does place Scott
in the area years prior to that alleged verse conversation in October of two thousand
and three. Second, it shines a light on Scott's relationship with homosexuality and
masculinity. Scott tried to present as straight in jail despite being considered a feminine
Scott had also talked about hating twinks and effeminate men in his online chats with
Lorenzo. It's representative of a gay self loathing that came up over and over
again, not just in my conversations with doctor Scott, but with my other
gay friends about how these crimes occurred for as long as they did and how
they might have affected the greater gay community in Tampa. My name is Drew
Mackey. I'm a writer and creative person living in Los Angeles, and I
happen to have a podcast. It is not about murder. It is about
LGB episodes of classics that come such a much lighter subject than drue crime.
Here's some of my conversation with Drew Mackie, who hosts the Gayest Episode Ever
podcast. So, I guess, in realizing that you at least were attracted
to other men, how did you feel or how did culture, media that
people around you make you feel about that? Bad? Like really bad?
Because I don't know if you remember what the depiction of gay people on TV
was like in the nineties, but it actually wasn't always great, and this
is something that I talk about a lot of my podcast. For example,
the entire character of Chandler on Friends has a running joke where he's always been
mistaken for gay, and whenever it happens unmistakably, it is a bad thing.
He does not want to be seen as gay. It is something that
people tease him about. And when you're a little kid who listen in to
a small town who doesn't have access to rural representations of resentations to real gay
people, or you certainly don't know any that is sort of what you internalize.
And to this day, going back and rewatching some of these old TV
shows or movies, I'll realize that I internalize something from popular culture that my
band is just like, well, this is what it's like. And I've
held in the back of my head throughout my adult life until I finally like
catch on to it and interrogate it, and I was like, this is
a fucked up thing that I don't need to be thinking anymore, but I
actually need to catch it before I can do that. Yeah. I think
it's interesting because we focus a lot on kind of the more aggressive homophobia,
you know, being called names or people voting against gay rights, and I
think often the more painful I guess anti gay experiences growing up, or those
more nuanced ones where it is lighter and more normalized to just be like ooh,
don't think of me as gay, or like ooh, that's gross,
or using gay as a pejorative. And I think as gay men we often
overlook that when we're interrogating or trying to heal, But those are the ones
that are more pervasive because they're quieter and they happen more frequently. I completely
agree, And I don't know how I come across to people. Usually gay
men figure out I'm gay pretty quickly, but I don't necessarily think that straight
people do. And I have a hard time even thinking of how to express
this phenomenon in words without sounding happy about it, because like straight passing is
such a loaded phrase, and I don't ever want to make it seem like
I'm hiding. But then I try to think about how do I conduct myself,
Like how do I stand? How do I talk? How do I
dress? And am I doing all these things because this is who I am
and I figured out who I am as an adult, or am I still
in some way trying to guard against straight people figuring out that I'm gay because
I fear big a tree, but also that like soft discrimination that is bad,
and I still get when I go back to our hometown, how often
are you thinking about whether or how you're presenting is gay? A lot of
times when I go on a first date is something that I'm putting a lot
of thought into because you know, like it's it's a first date, so
you're hyper aware of how you're presenting yourself. And then I try to think
about, like how am I like presenting or dressing differently than if I were
meeting like a non gay man for a non date for the first time,
and I don't I talked to my therapist about this kind of stuff a lot,
but like you can really trip yourself up trying to figure out who you
are and how much how much of what you're putting out there is a reaction
to what's happened to you, and like reaction to stuff that's like all in
your head hypothetical that maybe hasn't even happened to you yet, but like often
often, And then like recently I went back to I went back home,
and you know, I'm packing my suitcase with some clothes to change into,
and I'm really conscious of like self editing for something I might wear to my
day to day life in Los Angeles versus a small town I grew up in.
Yeah, it's funny. I didn't even notice I did it, but
my partner pointed out. And I'm out to my dad, but you know,
I've been out to him for almost twenty years, and even today,
if I get on the phone with him, my voice drops an octave,
just like weird stuff like that that you don't even realize you're doing, or
you really have to be conscious of. It's strange you talked about editing yourself
or being aware of, you know, or thoughtful of how you're presenting yourself
on dates. Is that something? Do you feel comfortable around other gay men?
Yeah? I don't really, I don't know. I guess I had
an idea for what living in a big city was going to be like when
I was a kid, And LA is relatively safe for me, and I
can go to most of the places I would go on my own, and
I don't really think about my personal safety aside from being like a pedestrian who
might run over by a car. But I also have in my head some
anecdotal stories of men just like me who were who were taking advantage of who
are sexually assaulted and or sometimes physically assaulted without a sexual component. And it's
weird how those anecdotes don't make me feel more personally scared. They don't,
oddly, and I can't really explain why not do you go to gay bars
or gay clubs often? I did before pandemic. I just am very lazy
post lockdown, but I've been a few times. Yeah, what's that experience
like for you? It was something I didn't really think twice about before pandemic.
Having had a break from interactions with groups of people, I am slightly
less comfortable like injecting myself into a group dynamic pretty much anywhere about even at
a gay bar. And then a few times I've been in a place like
that where I've been aware that, like, oh, this person's being handsy
in a way that is maybe flirty or maybe just friendly, and that's who
they are, but I'm not super comfortable with it and needing to try to
figure out a way to like extricate myself from the situation in a way that
doesn't feel rude, which is just not something that happened earlier in my life.
Yeah, it's interesting I remember coming out, and you know, you're
repressed sexually for so long, and then all of a sudden, you're you
know, usually if you leave your small town, you're in a gay space
and you can kind of go buck wild. But there's this weird push and
pull between wanting a supportive community and then being looked at as like a sex
object. And I had a really hard time, like finding my identity as
a gay man that was not entirely steeped in sex. Yeah. Yeah,
it's I don't know how anyone can get that right away. Maybe some people
are emotionally intelligent enough to figure that out right away, but I think you
kind of have to do that through practice and maybe making some choices that you
would not have made a few years down the line, you know. Yeah,
do you feel like you fit in with a gay community? No?
Why not? Because I feel I don't know, it was weird, so
I didn't fit in, like all the way growing up, I'm like,
oh, something's off. And then when I figured out I was good,
I'm like, oh that's it. And for a while that did the trick.
And then as I got older, I was like, I feel like
everyone here is operating under they have the same operating system and I have something
that's slightly different. And I don't know quite what the difference is, but
just reactions to stuff is different. I don't like dancing, and this is
a weird thing. And I think a lot about self presentation and like being
comfortable in my own body and why I am not someone I'll dance at weddings
and that's like not a big deal. But like if I'm with a group
of people and they're like, we should go dance, and I'm like,
I think I'm good, I just have no desire to go do that.
And that's one of those things where I'm like, I think my brain is
wired a little differently. And I don't know whether that's a like neurological thing
or if it is a product of having so many pent up feelings about performative
masculinity that I don't like myself enjoy certain things. When you spend your formative
years being told that the world will hate you for loving who you love,
it's hard to believe you could ever truly love or be loved, especially as
yourself. The same week that Scott Schweikert was arrested Tampa, Peedi returned to
A's house on West Powaton Avenue to search the yard and dig under the concrete
slab. They found nothing of evidentiary value in either search, but while they
were there, they found Jason Snelling smoking a cigarette in the backyard. Jason
apologized for being confrontational and uncooperative at first, and he said that he was
ready to cooperate with their investigation. He said that the case had damaged him
severely, that he was essentially hiding out from the world. He was parking
his car in a back alley and then climbing over the fence just to avoid
the press. He said that when he visited Lorenzo in jail and confronted him
about the photos, Lorenzo gasol at him. He told him that not only
did Jason know about the photos, but he consented to the photos. Lorenzo
told him that the police were just trying to manipulate him and turn him against
Lorenzo, but Jason said that he didn't believe him. He knew that he
hadn't consented to the photos. He affirmed he didn't remember the photos ever being
taken. He said that he was still incredibly upset, but also that he
forgave Stephen Lorenzo. Stephen Lorenzo was his friend. As Tampa Peedi continued interviewing
Scott Schweikert's friends and acquaintances, they were quickly able to place him in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida multiple times between nineteen ninety nine and two thousand and four,
including several occasions where he was reportedly traveling with un named hustlers or street people.
Interestingly, Stephen Lorenzo had a condo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, even
more so, On June twenty seventh of two thousand and four, several weeks
after Lorenzo's house was first searched and months before Schweykert would even be implicated,
Mark Jackson, a thirty five year old gay man, disappeared from an apartment
building directly across the street from that condo. Was Stephen Lorenzo dumb enough to
commit a murder while on the police's radar, or was Scott Schweikert smart enough
to abduct someone from Lorenzo's own backyard while he was on the police's radar?
Well, I also wanted to say I loved list catching up on the episodes,
and I ran through the most recent one twice because your narrative actually took
me in a slightly different direction and understanding regarding the more this is where it
gets confusing using these terms, the more dominant of the two of the personalities,
and the driver I really thought was Lorenzo. And then I'm realizing,
oh no, no, no, no, that this was almost almost equal.
Like as far as them motivating each other, they just have very different
personality types. But you know not, couldn't be a worse combination for two
people to find each other. We have been Harry came who were so calm
and so do I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't tell that if I read
so we have been two it, or I read call what you work?
Call? You couldn't do that. Now, you couldn't tell that. Nothing.
You couldn't do that. I mean noth This episode was written, researched,
edited, and produced by Me Your host Josh Hallmark, with additional research
by Kaz. This episode featured Doctor Scott from the La Not So Confidential podcast
and Drew Mackey from the Gayest Episode Ever podcast. This episode was made possible
by the following Patreon producers, Adrian I, Yellow, Amelia Hancock, Amy
Basel, Annette El, Benjamin Choppathong, Casey Jensen, Richardson, Happy Birthday,
Dana Keith, Doctor, Jill Cooper, Drew Vipond, Halle Reed,
Jessica, Ali Hoadzig, Gillian Natale, John O'Leary, Kendall, c Kimberly,
Kay, Lauren f Linley, Tuscoffmanolis Bullcose, megancap Sewell, Mike Sherman,
Nicole and Dennis Henry, Sarah King, sc Shannon Foster, Shelley Brewer,
Tuesday Woodworth, Zach Ignotowitz, Warren, Beth McNally, John Comrie,
Jordan Taylor, Carly McNutt, Lana Sarah See, and Lydia Fiedler. Thank
you to True Crime Bullshit's newest Patreon supporters, Renee O, Tammy P,
Sarah P, Wendy, Joe, Rachael Beach, Josh h not Me,
Sidney Gabriella, Julia, j Amy P, Tasha s and Chelsea. To
support the investigation, go to Patreon dot com, slash Studio both and.
This episode featured music by Evolving Scapes, Grizzly Bill, Light in the Shadow,
Hypnagogia, Haskel Rez and Yotama Gone with featured music by Chris Garnot.
I didn't believe you. You didn't believe me either. You don't know me.
I don't know you. In fact, I don't know you well.
I was always sure. Wait walla, the door we have been have me
come. You are so calm and so cool. I couldn't do that now.
I couldn't do that nothing all. I couldn't do that free now,
oh oh oh oh