BONUS - Nathaniel Bar-Jonah - Love and Murder Podcast: Heartbreak to Homicide

In today’s surprise episode, we’re talking about a case that’ll drop your jaw. But don’t keep your mouth open too long, you never know what your neighbor might put in there. It’s the case of Nathaniel Bar – Jonah Right now on Love and Murder

Welcome everyone! Welcome to a new episode of Love and Murder – the weekly true crime podcast discussing relationships gone terribly wrong.

I am your host Ky and this show discusses true crime cases told in the form of a story with mystery, suspense, and just a little bit of humor sprinkled on top – but never at the expense of the victim.

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So we don’t normally drop an episode on Thursday, but I wanted to give you a surprise episode to go along with you meal. However, you may not want to be eating as you’re listening to this particular case. Seriously, there were many times while doing research that I had to calm my own stomach. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

But first, I wanted to remind you to head on over to our Patreon group where we have a ton of bonuses just waiting for you. Last week, we did a double bonus episode. One was a behind the scenes of us coming down from a heavy case and the other was a case of a little old lady who wasn’t as nice as you think a great great grandmother would be. We aldo have cases that made me so angry that I didn’t hide it while recording, cases about serial killers, and even an episode that portrayed an interview with a very sick individual. If you just want to support us and get commercial free episodes then join at only $1 a month, but if you want all the goodies, then our most popular tiers are $5 and above. Go check us out www.patreon.com/loveandmurder. We’d love to have you as part of our LaMs.

Now enough about that – on to the show…

David Paul Brown was born in Worcester, Mass. in 1957. I couldn’t find his parents names, but I did find alot about his childhood. Ready? Ready OK

When David was little, like around 6, he used to pick at his scabs until they bled then he would suck the blood from his cuts. His teachers would call his mother all the time to tell her what her kid was doing and that it was disgusting the students and teachers.

In 1964, when David was 7, he got a Ouija board as a present. What kind of present is that? Anyway, excited about his new present, he went to tell the 5 year old girl next door. He told her that they could try it out together if she’d come over. She agreed and the went to his house and into his basement. David brought out the Ouija board and while the little girl was inspecting it, out of no where he started strangling her. Of course she started screaming and David’s mother heard and stopped it. Instead of realizing this wasn’t normal, the mother figured David didn’t know what he was doing and told him “don’t do that again.” And that was that. She sure showed him! I’m SURE nothing like this will happen again. Lesson learned and all that jazz right?

In January of 1970, when David was 12, he went to play with his next door neighbor – a 6 year old boy. David told him that they were going sledding and the boy agreed. So they went over to a hill that was near their homes, but instead of sledding, David sexually assualted the boy. Did his mom think he didn’t know what he was doing again? Of course, nothing came of this incident either.

Next, not an exact time was given, David tried to get 2 boy who were riding their bikes at the time, to come with him to a cemetery. He probably told them he wanted to show them something. They started to follow, but one of the boys got suspicious and convinced his friend to leave. So they left, but later it was found out that David had planned to murder them. I know that little boy was happy he listened to his friend.

In March of 1975, when David was 18, he dressed up as a cop and went out. He told an 8 year old boy, who was on his way to school, that he was a cop and to come with him. The boy followed him, David snatched him up, put him in his car and drove away. A witness saw what happened and called the police. After a brief search, authorities found the car matching the witness’ description parked away from other cars in a parking lot. Backup arrived and both police made David get out of the car. When they approached the car, they found the boy bloodied and near death. He had urinated and defecated on himself due to sexual assualt and was near death because David had been strangling him.

David was arrested but received a year’s probation. What the hell is going on here?!

Being that he was getting away with doing what he wanted, David figured why the hell not and tried agin.

This time, a few days before he graduated from highschool, he went through the same motions AGAIN. He dressed up as a cop, told a 9 year old girl that he was police and to come with him. He abducted her as well and sexually assualted her. This little girl started throwing up uncontrollably so David drove up to a random sidewalk and threw her out of the car.

Once again, a someone witnessed this, took note of the license plate and called the cops. Do you see that David doesn’t even care of anyone sees him? Since he was young he had no consequences of his actions. Anyway, they called the police and he was arrested. Of course no one told David’s parole officer so he finished the parole he had already been on and got a letter basically thanking him for staying out of trouble and for his “cooperation.”

So now David basically knows he can do what he wants, especially to kids, and nothing’s going to happen to him.

So what do you think he did with this information?

On September 24, 1977 he went back out; this time to White City Cinemas in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He didn’t even bother dressing up you know. He want to a movie theater and, as two boys were exiting, he told them he was an undercover FBI agent and they were under arrest. He told them to get in his car, which they did, and he handcuffed them. He then took them to a secluded area and began molesting and torturing them. He then jumped on one of the boys’ chest over and over and over again. Mind you – he’s 375 lbs or 170kg at this time – and he’s jumping on a young boy’s chest. Then he strangled him. When he was sure that this boy was dead, he drove off with the other boy in his trunk. Well, he didn’t check hard enough because the boy regained consciousness and found the strength to go and find help. With the help of his descriptions, police were able to find the other boy and David. The boy was still in his trunk and alive.

David was arrested, AGAIN. This time, though, David was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 18-20 years in prison. They sent him to the Montana State Prison. Look, to be honest with you, If you’re eating right now, I would stop. There he would pick his scabs and suck the blood from his cuts, the same as when he was a child. The only difference is on of the guards reported that he caught him, once, with a scap in his mouth and he “appeard to be having sex.” During his time in prision, he met with a psychiatrist and in his sessions, he described his fantasies. He fantasized about killing, dissecting, and eating children. At this point, the psychiatrist put in a recommendation for him to be moved to a mental hospital. He was then moved from the prision to Bridgewater State Hospital.

This hospital is in southeastern Massachusetts and is a state run facility for the criminally insane and for people whose sanity is being evaluated for the criminal justice system.

On March 2, 1984, David randomly changed his name to Nathanial Benjamin Levi Bar-Jonas. No one really understood why he changed his name and he gave a plethora of reasons, none of which made sense. For instance, he stated he’d changed it because he was Jewish and he wanted his name to say that; however, if you looked at his background – his family was Scandinavian and Pentacostal. So then he said he changed his name because he wanted to know what it felt like to be discriminated against as a Jewish person. Either way, these are the only reasons he ever gave.

In the hospital, one of his therapists wrote in their notes, “Brown’s sexual fantasies, bizarre in nature, outline methods of torture [and] extend… to dissection and cannibalism” and also “express a curiosity about the taste of human flesh.”

In 1991, Superior Court Judge Walter E. Steele agreed with psychiatric evaluations that they didn’t find David/Nathanial to be a dangerous threat. Psychiatrists argued that Massachusetts had failed to prove that Bar-Jonah was dangerous and the judge ruled in their favor. This is INSANE. So, instead of transferring him back to prison, they RELEASED HIM and put him on probation IF he promised to move to Montana and live with his mother. He was also required to continue with psychiatric treatment. Of course Nathanial said OK and he was released and he moved to Great Falls, Montana.

On August 9, 1991, one month after being released, Nathaniel saw a 7 year old boy sitting in a car by himself at a post office in Oxford Massechusetts. This is CLEAR ACROSS THE COUNTRY! For those of yall who are not in the US, the distance between Montana and Mass is 2, 318 miles (or 3,720 kilometers). What was he even doing in Mass?! Anyway, Nathanial forced himself into the car and sat on the boy’s chest. At this point in time he weighed 275 lbs (125 kg). A bunch of witnesses saw this, including the boy’s mother and rushed to rescue him so Nathanial ran away. I mean, what did he expect? That the people who were around was just going to let him do it? Or maybe he was so fixated on the boy that he didn’t even realize anyone was around. Either way – that’s scary.

Police found him and he was rearrested. At the station, he told officers that he wasn’t trying to hurt the boy. “No see, what had happened was, I was just trying to get out of the rain. I have this disorder see that if rain touches me, I melt. So I saw this car and figured this kid would be kind enough to help me out.” No but seriously he told officers that he was trying to get out of the rain and that’s why he went in the car. But when no one bought that, he finally admitted that he totally planned on killing the boy. He was then sentenced to probation in Montana. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO PUT THIS GUY AWAY?! How many kids has he gone after by now? If my count is correct, this would have made 6? Add in the fact of what he told his phyciatirst that he fanatcizes about. I dont understand what it would take to put this guy away!

On February 6, 1996 a boy named Zachary Ramsay disappeared while on his way to school. He’d left his house around 7:34am wearing a blue denim jacket that had green sleeves, jeans, black hightops, and a blue jersey with his last name on the back in gold letter. He walked his usual route to school which was through an alleyway.

Witnesses said they did see him come through that morning, but they’d aslo seen an off whit car almost hit him. At 7:15am, someone reported seeing Nathanial wearing a navy blue jacket that could be described as “police looking clothes” and he was standing by a dumpster in the alleyway. Another witness said that around 7:45am they saw Zach, looking distressed, with an obease man following closely behind him.

Why is no one trying to help this child?

So, somewhere in the alleyway between 6th and 7th street is where Zack disappeared.

His parents filed a missing persons report. The Police Department wasn’t very used to cases such as this, and called it a cold case after a few leads went no where. In 2011, with the strong objections of Zack’s mother, a judge declared him legally dead.

In the meantime, Nathaniel was living in an apartment complex close to the disappearance of the boy. Some neighbors said they were suspicious of his activities, but no one had any hard evidence. You know how you just look out your window at the weird neighbor like “what are they up to in there” I guess that’s how people were with him.

One neighbor said that after her son spent time with Nathaniel, he became withdrawn and angry and she didn’t know why. Which, my question is, why is your son spending time with just some random dude. Some other neighbors said that whenever Nathanial cooked for them, the meat was strange, but he would always assure them that he got it from some deer that he’d shot. Which was a good explanation, except that he didn’t have a hunting license, a gun, and no one ever saw him going hunting

In 1999 was arrested, outside of an elementary school, for AGAIN impersonating a police officer and carrying a fake gun. They charged him with impersonating an officer adn put him in jail. Then they obtained a warrant to search his home.

When they got inside, they found thousands of pictures of children that were cut from magazines, they found some kind of code-written notebook, a list of boys’ names including “Zackery Ramsey” with the word “DIED” in all caps next to it, they found newspaper clippings about the Ramsey case, and they found a piece of human bone.

Of course they dove deeper into investigating. They also found an off-white Toyota Corolla and found out this was Nathaniel’s mom’s car, which he was driving the day Zack went missing. It was also revealed that Nathaniel’s mother and brother were out of town on the same day Zack went missing. Also, on that day, the day before or the day after, Nathaniel didn’t go to work.

Some previous roommates of his, informed the police that they had found clothes in their apartment matching the description of what Zack was wearing when he disappeared. They’d also seen bloody gloves. Another roommate said that Nathaniel would just randomly bring up Zack in conversations. OK so why did none of these people go to the police and say something??

The notebook was sent off to the FBI and, after some months, they were able to decode it.

But before I tell you what it said, let me tell you about this part of the investigation.

When detectives went into Nathaniel’s garage and sprayed it down with a chemical mainly comprised of phosphorus, they found the word “Tita”. This means that “Tita” was written in blood. This cooincided with a missing boy whose name was James Teta. James had been abducted on August 23, 1973 and police found his body on August 25, 2973. The autopsy of the body showed that he had been raped and strangled.

Nathaniel was then charged with kidnapping and sexual assualt of 3 boys and the murder of Zach Ramsey.

When his trial began, he was prosecuted for abducting and molesting 3 boys, like I said, convicted of kidnapping, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and charged with torturing at least one of the boys who he had hung from the ceiling.

Around this time is when investigators were able to decode his journal. In it, it described torturing, killing, and eating children. There were recipes using children’s body parts. “Barbequed Kid,” “My Little Kid Dessert,” “Sex A La Carte,” “Little Boy Stew,” “Lunch is Served on the Patio with Roasted Child,” “French Fried Kid,” and “Little Boy Pot Pies” are just some of the recipes in his book.

The journal also referenced serving the previously mentioned recipes to his neighbors.

There was also a list of 22 names in the journal where alot of them were local children.

Police had also taken a meat grinder from the scene in which they found some hair inside. They took it for DNA testing, but it belonged to a black male not Zack’s. This DNA was also different from the bone fragment that they’d previously found.

The othe names that were in the journal were never identified.

His neighbors testified about the weird meat he’d fed them, but there was no actual evidence of this. The also noted that within the time that Zack disappeared, Nathaniel started having cookouts where he served burgers, chili, spaghetti, casseroles, meat pies, and other heavy meat dishes. Usually people would tell him that the meat tasted weird, but as I said before, he would tell them that he’d gone deer hunting and this was deer meat.

One time, one of his neighbors told Nathaniel that she thought the taste of the meat was disgusting to which he replied that he had personally “hunted, killed, butchered and wrapped the meat” of this deer.

Everything on this front was circumstantial.

They DID however, testify that Nathaniel had been molesting their children; one of which was the son of the woman who said his meat was disgusting.

Proseutors alleged that Nathaniell had killed Zach and eaten him; however, the defence swayed Zack’s mother into believing and testifying that her son was still alive, which made the jurors not convict Nathaniel for his murder. REALLY?! REALLY?! WOW!

Nathaniel pleaded what? NOT GUILTY and maintained his innocence.

Jurors wee still convinced that he was a dangerous sexual deviant and an extreme child predator, but not entirely convinced that he was a murderer. What. Does. It. Take. With. This. Guy?!

A now 36 year old Mary Patrone testified that Nathaniel was the man who had abducted her and assualted her in 1974 by drssing up and a police officer and luring her to his car. However, he couldn’t be charged for this because the statute of limitations had expired. UGH.

Investigators also implicated him in the disappearance of Janice Pockett – a seven year old girl – 10 months before the trial.

Nathaniel was found guilty and sentenced to 130 years in prison on molestation charges.

Montana authorities weren’t aware of Nathaniels’ Massachusetts criminal record, which was a talking point for activists who were campaigning to force former sex offenders to have to register.

I also want to note that when authorities had done an investigation after they’d tied Zack’s adbuction to Nathanial, they noticed that even though Nathaniel was known to be a 300 lb (140 kg) heavy eater, for the month after Zack disappeared, he didn’t really do any grocery shopping. BUT that’s still circumstantial because his pantries could have just been stocked before hand OR he could have paid for his groceries with cash.

Nathaniel appealed his sentence, but for the first time in his life he was denied. In December 2004, the Montana Supreme Court denied his appeal and upheald his 130 year sentence.

He maintained his innocence up until his death. On April 13, 2008, he was found unresponsive in his cell. With an autopsy, it was derived that he died due to his unhealthy appetite – he died of a heart attack.

He was 51 years old.

To this day no one knows how many people he killed, but he’s listed as a possible suspect in alot of murders in WHyoming, Montana, and Massechusetts.

And that is the insanely gruesome case of Nathaneil Bar – Jonah.

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Nathaniel Bar-Jonah: The 300-Pound Child Murderer And Suspected Cannibal (allthatsinteresting.com)