He entered his house, beheaded him and took his head: the brutal murder of a Hollywood star

“I don’t really remember. I do not understand. I’m not saying I have a mental illness … But apparently I do because … Who in the right mind can do that? ” Kevin Lee Graff in United States Justice. His remarks come after he apologized for committing one of the bloodiest crimes in Hollywood in history. The victim: screenwriter Robert Lees.

I: The worst death in Hollywood

Madness found a representative of flesh and blood on June 13, 2004. Another. The events narrated below — with no room for ambiguity — only find a point of comparison with the most twisted Hollywood slashers or thrillers. Seven deadly sins? The suspicion? Halloween?

Robert Lees was far from this kind of films in his 91 years of life. The first Californian dancer and then screenwriter excelled at writing scripts for countless short films, feature films and comedy television programs from the 1930s to the late 1960s.

His last works were produced under the pseudonym of JE Selby, since 1951 he refused to give names before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives in and was blacklisted in Hollywood. This caused Lees to move her family to Tucson to work as a waitress at a cost of two dollars per hour.

co -wrote with Frederic Rinaldoyour primary professional partner, hit the ice Y grab me with that ghosttwo of the five films they wrote for the famous comedy duo Abbott and Costelloas well as the film jumping jacksstarring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

But there are exceptions to the actor’s career. Believe it or not, Lees started working for Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) on the series The crime is free of chargefiction based on real life crimes. Would he write a crime like his?

II: The Case

California. 11 in the morning. Kevin Lee GraffThe 27 -year -old got out of a van and entered Robert Lees’ home.

The young man, who seemed homeless in the area, intercepted the old man and attacked him with a knife. He tortured him and, when he died, beheaded him.. Immediately, Graff left the house while hugging the screenwriter’s head. Like the star of Alfredo García’s Bring the Head, he jumped the fence in the backyard and entered the neighbor’s house.

Graff is now preparing to attack a 69-year-old retired doctor named Morley Engleson, a character that has little to do with Lees ’history. Robert’s neighbor was the next stop in the killer’s assault.

Engleson was on the phone, more precisely making a plane reservation with Southwest Airlines. He wanted to vacation in San José. But their conversation was cut short when Graff was spotted and attacked from behind with a poker fireplace. Then above it, he stabbed it with some kitchen knives he saw where. The killer left Lees’ head in a room.

The phone still works. As a result, the Southwest Airlines agent on the other end of the line heard everything going on at Engleson’s home and quickly called the police. Meanwhile, Graff flees with the victim’s Mercedes-Benz … and the screenwriter’s head is gone.

The police did not take long to find the culprit..

During a visit to Engleson’s home, investigators discovered Lees’ head on his neighbor’s bed. The writer’s girlfriend Helen Colton, found the headless body of his mistress covered in blankets. Five hours have passed since Graff killed him. Helen goes to pick up Lees so they can go to an Academy event in Beverly Hills together.

Police still did not know who the culprit was at the time, but Graff was soon sent to the front. The day after committing the two murders, the 27-year-old man showed up at the door of the Paramount Pictures studios and began to misbehave. He talked to himself and shouted at passing cars.

A security guard identified him from a photo shown by Los Angeles police on television. Yes, the famous “wanted” pics. Graff was stopped at the scene – away from the door – and then arrested. He had a Bible and a can of Mace.

III: The Resolution

After being asked about what he did, Graff admitted that a man on the street gave him methamphetamine and ecstasy the day before the attacks and that he apparently killed the two men under the influence of the drug. At first, he declared that he had no recollection of what had happened.

Four years later, under a plea deal not to receive the death penalty, the killer pleaded guilty to ten counts of the murders of Lees and Engleson, two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances along with eight other number. which includes torture, mutilation, robbery and sexual penetration into a foreign object.

On February 26, 2008, Graff received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole..

In addition to the time of incarceration, the killer was ordered to pay $ 9,900 in restitution and court fees, including $ 700 in funeral expenses for the Lees family donated to a college scholarship fund.

Graff’s attorneys wrote in an official document that their client suffered from “a serious mental illness consistent with bipolar disorder with psychotic features or schizoaffective disorder.”

When Graff declared the sentence at the beginning of this note, nearly a dozen Lees family and friends, including his son, were listening. They heard Keven tell the High Court that he was not a violent man and that what he did were “just vain acts for no reason … in vain.” “I can be sorry, but it’s not enough to be sorry.” , declared at that time the murderer.