01x05 - Roommate Wanted - Part 2

[bunniefuu]

[Alex] I got the call at work...

from my mom.

"We have a problem, Alex."
My stomach drops.

[discordant music playing]

They move in, but then they won't pay,
and they won't leave.

[reporter] If you don't
stop squatters right away,

it can take months to get them out.

[Alex] Jamison Bachman
was a very scary person.

The suspect will be charged
with first-degree m*rder.

You've made me uncomfortable,
unsafe in my own home.

Get the m*therf*cker out.

[door closing]

I was, at the time, working in a law firm,

and I talked to my attorneys
that I worked with

and told them the information that I had.

They were like, "You're in very deep,"
and they helped me with the letter.

I gave it to him in writing,

and the attorneys that I worked for
advised me to

get him out as soon as possible.
"You're in danger."

I said, "I think
we have to enlist the landlord."

Landlord wanted no part of it.

And Jamison Bachman
understood enough about tenancy laws

to know that once he was in the apartment,

there was no way he was going to leave,

except on his own terms.

He was a serial squatter
who had terrorized roommates

up and down the East Coast,
and he was living in my house.

I didn't know what to do,

so I thought about
how to do this properly, legally.

[intriguing music playing]

I'm gonna have to do things
that are gonna make him uncomfortable,

to make my home a place
that he did not wanna be anymore.

I knew of some of Jamison's dislikes,

which included smoking,
drinking, rap music, loud noise.

So I took those dislikes,

I came up with an idea to have a party.

I was gonna have Jameson whiskey served

to send farewell to Jamison.

Bring on the ruckus.

[laughing] I'm a Wu-Tang girl, baby.

That's a story for another time.

[guests chatting indistinctly]

[Susan] Alex invited
probably 20 or 30 friends.

I was there.
I wanted to be a part of the party.

Jamison was in his room.

He had an online tutoring business,

and it was in the time slot
when he normally did his online tutoring.

[Alex] People were smoking pot.

I was blasting Wu-Tang, punk rock,
things that were very obnoxious.

People knelt down
and blew cigarette smoke under his door.

[chuckling]

And I knew one thing
that would make him very uncomfortable

was that I knew of his sordid past.

So everyone was talking about him

so that he was being bombarded
on all senses.

Probably about 11:00, 11:30,
he came out of the room.

And my friends were like,
"Hey! He came out."

"Whoa, this is exciting."

[tense music playing]

[Alex] He didn't really understand

what was going on

until he saw my apartment was littered

with the quotes from his website

and the article from the city paper.

Time's up, squatter.

I know your name.

Jamison Bachman,

you're not going to take over my space.

But he put on a really good face,

like a kind of a joker smile,

which is when I said,
"Don't you wanna join the party?"

He said, "No, no, no."

He went back into his room,

came back out with the dog,

and walked out.

[dark music playing]

[Susan] Alex's friend took a screwdriver

and took the door handle
off of his bedroom door,

so he couldn't lock himself in there.

Jamison came back in,

slammed his way into his room,

and then discovered
he couldn't lock his door,

so he was really annoyed.

[suspenseful music playing]

He was kind of bristling with anger.

[Alex] He was pacing in his room.

I turned up the music.
I cranked it louder.

And we will party every day
until it's over.

[ominous music playing]

Unless it happens to you,

it's hard to understand.

But it can happen. It happened to me.
It happened to other people.

I didn't know Jamison was a squatter.

If I had a crystal ball,
and I'd have known,

I never would have let him in my home.

Biggest mistake.

Once they're in, you can't get them out.

It's not that easy.

Jamison lived there with me
for almost four years.

And, you know, people say,

"Well, God, Arleen,
four years he was with you?"

I mean, yeah.

I couldn't get rid of him.

At one point, I was ready to leave,
but I knew he wouldn't pay the rent,

and I didn't wanna screw
my landlord, Peter, so I stayed,

but something had to give.

It just had to. It was just unbearable.

It was October 13th, 2010.

I, you know, got the cable bill,
and I handed it to Jamison.

I said, "Here,
I need you to pay this from now on

because I'm not paying it anymore."

[menacing music playing]

He refused to pay anything...

and I just... I just lost it.

So I slapped him.

He was in my face, so I slapped him.

[menacing music playing]

He was choking me,

and I thought, at that point,
he was gonna k*ll me,

so I kicked him really hard with my knee,

and he let go.

And I ran out of the apartment.

I called 911, and then he called 911.

So two police officers came.

One for me. One for him.

And I'm telling the police officer
what happened.

He said, "Go to family court
tomorrow morning

and get an order of protection
against him."

But before I got
an order of protection against him,

Jamison went and got
an order of protection against me.

And they served me with the papers,

but Jamison didn't say he wanted me out.

So we were living together

with two orders against each other, so...

[interviewer] You've got
dueling orders of protection.

It was just...
This went on for about six weeks.

That's when the sh*t hit the fan,
so to speak.

[tense music playing]

[Arleen] It was November 17, 2010.

I went to Peter, my landlord,
and I told him what was going on,

and I said, "I want Jamison out.
I can't get him out. He won't leave."

"Would you come with me
to tenant court to file eviction?"

So we went that morning,
and Jamison must have overheard me.

And when I came back home,

I was in the mirror, and I was
putting on a little bit of makeup.

[sinister music playing]

He was behind me.
Just standing there, glaring at me.

Dark, dark eyes.

Gave me the chills.

He then left, just abruptly left,

and I got on the subway,
went into the city.

My phone rings. It's Peter, my landlord.

[intriguing music playing]

He's like, "Arleen,
the cops are here looking for you."

So, went to the precinct,

the detective came out and said,
"Arleen, I have to arrest you."

And I said, "For what?"

He said, "Because you came after Jamison
with a knife."

I said, "Really. When did that happen?"

He says, "This morning."
I said, "That didn't happen."

Apparently, he called the police,

telling them
that I came at him with a knife.

It was a felony charge.

Then they took me to Central Booking

and threw me in a cell
with, like, ten other women.

I never thought
anything like that would ever happen.

I mean, you can't make this up, you know?
It's just...

It was just unbelievable to me,
and I was just in shock.

I was there overnight,
and the judge calls me in.

And the judge said,
"You can't go back to your home...

uh...

and you're on probation for a year."

[suspenseful music playing]

I pleaded with him.
I said, you know, "It's my apartment."

"I pay the rent. I pay all the bills."

It doesn't matter

because he got
the order of protection against me first,

so that gave Jamison
the power to stay there.

[dark music playing]

[Arleen] I felt like
I was in The Twilight Zone.

I didn't know what to do.

I just remember it was about


I remember, you know,
getting close to Queens Boulevard

and seeing the bus come,

and I thought about
throwing myself in front of it.

I can't even describe the feeling.

He had my cats.

Two were very ill,
and they needed medication.

So to go back to the apartment,
I had to get a court order.

And that took time.

But before I could
get in to the apartment,

he took the two sick cats
to a k*ll shelter.

By the time I got to them,

one of my cats I had to euthanize
'cause she was just too far gone,

and he kept two of my other cats,

Abby and Emma.

And I just felt
like I failed my cats, you know,

by leaving this monster with them.

He was a sociopath, Jamison.

[Peter] Well, after Arleen got arrested,
she was ordered to stay away.

Kicked out of her own apartment.

Now, Jamison Bachman was my tenant.

His hobby was
wreaking havoc on people's lives.

[interviewer] Did he
wreak havoc on your life?

He sure did.

[dark music playing]

It was all-out w*r.
It was me trying to get him out.

Jamison would constantly harass
myself and my tenant

by making life as miserable as possible.

He was running water constantly, 24/7.

You know, to increase the water bill,
so I have to pay more.

When I tried to shut it off,

the police would come,
"You're gonna get arrested."

He knew all the laws.

And he would throw kitty litter
out the back window into my yard.

He'd walk from room to room
with this huge log

and drop it on the floor
to annoy the tenant downstairs.

He started to threaten me
with the Housing Authority,

and he started to file the complaints,

and I was spending time in court
more than I have in my whole life.

[sinister music playing]

These are the court documents.
Over 50 pages of stuff.

When we'd go to court,
I'd have other lawyers come into the room,

listen to Jamison,
and tell me that I have a problem.

Jamison knew the law
better than the court system.

- [woman] Even though he wasn't a lawyer.
- Yes.

The scariest thing
is a brilliant psycho, you know.

It went on and on,

and he managed to stay there
for over another year.

It was February 2012
when Jamison was evicted.

When he finally had to leave,
I went over there.

He took two of my other cats,

and I pleaded with him
to give them back to me,

and he wouldn't.

He got in the U-Haul truck
and just drove off.

I don't know what ever happened to them.

[crying] I'm sorry.

[dark music playing]

[Sonia] This is where I used to live.

The apartment I had bought in 2006.

This was supposed to be my forever home,

and now I can't afford to retire.

That was my balcony, the third going up.

I remember that balcony well

because it's where
I used to put my Christmas lights up,

the big globe ones, and I took a picture.

One of the last Christmas pictures I took

before things changed.

[menacing music playing]

You have to understand
that when I first met him,

nowhere in my mind

did he strike me
as a person that was sneaky, you know?

He didn't portray that...

until he was served
with the eviction papers,

and he threatened
that he was gonna take my home.

That's when he started
becoming more vocal,

and his tone was more angry towards me.

I remember laying in my bed thinking,
"Oh, I'm scared I might lose my home."

"But Soni, Sonia,

you should be more scared that
that man is right next door to you."

And that's when I started thinking,

"Who's to say
that he's not going into my room?"

[sinister music playing]

[Sonia] "I think I'm gonna test it."

And that's when I found
a long, empty wine bottle.

And just before I left that night,

I put it just behind my door,

and I closed it, and I left to work.

And the next morning,
nine o'clock when I came in,

I noticed that the bottle was moved
against the wall,

and I said right there, "Got you."

So even though his door was open,

I cordially knocked, and I said,

"Jamison, you cannot be
going into my room."

"My room is off-limits."

And right there, I saw that his ear went
from a cream color to beat red.

It got really red,

and he swung around his chair,

and he got up immediately.

Then he came, and he faced me.

And he's a tall man.
He's, like, 6'2 ". You know, I'm 5'2".

So he said,
"Oh, you think I'm going into your room?"

I said, "Yeah."
He goes, "Go ahead, bring it on."

And he got me angry to the point

that I did a palm heel strike to the door,

and I hit it, and I said,
"Get your face off my face

'cause you're barking up
the wrong tree, as*h*le."

And I know that the reason why
I felt empowered was

because I had an experience where
a friend of mine was m*rder*d actually.

I took self-defense,

and I'm a third-degree brown belt
in jiujitsu.

I looked at him and said,

"I'm not one of your young, innocent girls
that you can take advantage of."

"I know how to defend myself."

And he just kept going, like,
"Go ahead! Go ahead, bring it on!"

He started getting closer.

And I said, "What?"

I said, "You're not even worth the breath
that I'm breathing on you."

"And you know what?
I'm gonna go to church."

And I just walked... I left him like that,
so angry, and I felt so good going, "Ha!"

Kind of walking away.

And I just walked.
I left the place, and I went to church.

You can see it swirling over my shoulder,
what's being called a superstorm tonight.

[reporter] The hurricane wrapped up
in a giant nor'easter,

pumped up by the jet stream.

I was waiting for the court date

in order to evict Jamison
from the apartment,

but Hurricane Sandy arrived.

[reporter] We're in Rockaway,
of Queens in New York City,

and it's one of the areas New York City
officials have told to evacuate.

[Sonia] And so I left Jamison
at the apartment,

and I went to Brooklyn,
where my mother lives.

- [somber music playing]
- [sirens blaring]

[Sonia] I came home
two weeks after the hurricane,

and when I arrived to the apartment,

Jamison was gone.

And I knew that
there's nothing for him here now.

He took everything from his room.

His animals were gone.

And I don't know what he did after that.

Once I fell behind due to Jamison's saga,

I could never recover.

[dark music playing]

I lost my home due to foreclosure.

[voice breaking]
And it still hurts me today,

you know, because I loved my home.

I had such a beautiful home,
and I don't have it, you know?

And I don't know that I'll ever be able
to afford anything like that.

Yeah.

It sucks.

[laughs]

After he left,

in my heart,
I couldn't be at rest thinking,

you know, "Where is this man?"

"And what is he doing today?
Did he straighten up or not?"

And this is when
I did a search for him online,

and I said, "Oh, my God."

"He just left and did the same thing
to someone else."

[sinister music playing]

I agreed to come talk with you today

because there's more to Jamison
than a serial squatter

and a violent man.

Jamison was a very complicated person.

[intriguing music playing]

I later found out
that his family was disappointed in him.

While his brother Harry
was very successful,

even his grandfather,
whom he revered, said,

"You were the horse I bet on,
and you let me down."

I got a feeling
of resentment and anger from him.

For 30 years,

I had absolutely no contact with Jammy.

So I was always still curious about him,
wanted to know how he was,

wanted to know if he was still alive,
wanted to know what his life was like,

and then I found him on Facebook.

And then we started calling each other

and texting and catching up on news.

As flawed as he was,
he still knew me my whole life.

I wanted to hold on to that.

We had a lot of good laughs together.

When we reconnected,

he would often say,

"I don't know why I keep running into
all these crazy women

that do these things to me."

He was always the victim.

There were story after story after story,

talking about the latest person
whose apartment he was squatting in

and the disagreement
he was having with them.

And he would say,
"Oh, I should go medieval on her."

I just felt that
he was blowing off steam to me.

I never imagined that he would
actually do anything like that.

That the ending would be what it was.

[dark music playing]

[Alex] The Jameson whiskey ran out.

The party was over.
People were tired. I was tired.

My mom was like, "Okay, wrap this up."

Everyone went home.

And the next morning,
I woke up earlier than normal.

Maybe 4:30.

I was brushing my teeth.

Jamison came out of his room,
went into the kitchen.

For him to come out
at 4:30 in the morning was unusual.

He's uncomfortable.

Now I'm, like, brushing my teeth, like...

[chuckles] "What? Couldn't sleep so well?"

Hmm.

And then the door swings open,

and Jamison comes in like a storm.

And he gripped my throat like this.

Like, pulled me
and pushed me up against the wall.

Held me up against the wall,

choking me.

And got this close to my face.

Looked me in my eyes and said,

"You made a grave mistake,
you stupid girl."

And he left. He walked out...

[suspenseful music playing]

...and went into his room.

My adrenaline rose.

My heartbeat rose.

The anger inside me rose.

I went and I threw open his bedroom door.

I said, "What did you just say to me?"

He's feeding his cat.
He had a knife in his hand.

He came at me, slammed the door.

My leg's in the frame.

Over and over and over again.
Ten times at least.

[percussive music slamming]

And then slashed at my legs
with the knife.

I thought, "Oh, hell no."

"No."

[Susan] When I got to Alex's apartment,
the police were already there,

and they were questioning her

about what she knew and what was going on.

One of the officers

recognized that I had something
on my neck.

And he said, "Did somebody

grip you up?"

And I said, "Yes."

"I was choked by that man over there."

The officer said,
"Do you have any other marks?"

"I think I'm bleeding."

He walked over to Jamison
and put him in handcuffs.

The police did say
that it would be a good idea for Alex

to file for an order for protection.

So we did that,

and the judge granted
the order of protection

with eviction.

[Alex] Confirmation then comes
that he has been placed in jail.

I could breathe a little bit. [exhales]

[tense music playing]

But I realized
that I had very limited time.

I needed to clear out
his belongings, right?

I went to work fast.

Really unsettling things I uncovered.

I saw lots and lots of documents.

Other cases of people
he had affected before,

including Arleen and Sonia.

And then I came across a plastic case

that housed, at one point, a g*n.

But where's the g*n?

There's a g*n somewhere.

I was very afraid

that if he got out of jail,

he would come and k*ll her.

[discordant music playing]

The District Attorney's Office
contacted me

to let me know

his brother, Harry,
bailed him out of jail.

Everyone was on pins and needles
about where he was staying.

"Keep Alex safe."

My mom wanted me to move out.

She was very concerned for my safety,
and I kept saying,

"No. I don't wanna go. I cannot leave."

But I couldn't stay that much longer.

The property management
declined their right to renew my lease.

[interviewer] Because of
what happened with Jamison?

Yeah, I had to leave.

[interviewer] That's devastating.

[softly] I know.

[laughing] I know.

You don't have to remind me. I know.

How dare this man come into my space
and take it away from me?

[somber string music playing]

Jamison had been released from jail.

We had a court hearing coming up,

and I had to assure Jamison

that his belongings
were going to be returned to him in full.

I said, "Why don't we just do it
at a police department parking lot?"

[Alex] I arrived with everything
that he asked for.

Except the dog.

He got mad at this point and said,

"You are a dead b*tch."

"You're f*cking dead, b*tch."

"I'll k*ll you."

And sped off.

I was scared.

The fact that I knew that there was a g*n
looming out there somewhere...

Talk about white as a sheet.

She was shaking, and I said,

"You march your little behind
right back into the police station."

"He just violated your protection order."

[sinister music playing]

[Bob B.] So there was a period of time
where I didn't hear from Jamison.

And then he called me, and I said,
"Where have you been? What's going on?"

He said, well, he was in jail.

It took a while
for his brother to bail him out.

We were texting,

and his texts about his brother
were very angry.

Because while Jamison was in jail,

Harry didn't do this,
and Harry didn't do that.

That it wasn't fair, that they wouldn't
give him a place to live.

And he was just furious with his brother.

So I reached out to Harry

and said I'm really worried about Jamison.

He said, "Don't get involved, Bob."

"This is our issue."

[unsettling music playing]

This was when I was worried the most.

At this point, he didn't have any money,

no job, no place to live, no pets.

[interviewer] What did he say
happened to his animals?

[Bob B.] He said that a woman kept Zach,

and his cat had died.

[ominous music playing]

He said Abigail died in his arms.

I did wonder if, uh...

if he k*lled the cat.

I don't like to think that,
but I do wonder if he did.

[reporter] Police say they were called
around 12:15 Saturday afternoon

to this home on the 400 block
of North Sterling Road in Elkins Park.

[Lt. James F. McGowan]
Saturday, November 4th, 2017,

Harry Bachman's wife had contacted the
Cheltenham Township Police Department.

[reporter] The call
was for a welfare check

after the victim didn't show up
to meet a relative the night before.

I've been in the homicide unit
for 20 years,

and I've been a lieutenant there
for the past nine years.

Harry Bachman's wife was concerned

because he did not arrive
as expected in Albany, New York.

Those concerns were heightened
because Harry had sent a text to his wife

the night before saying,
"Guess who just arrived?"

It was his brother.

When the officers went to see
if Harry Bachman was at the residence,

his Ford Escape was not parked
in front of the house.

[dark music playing]

[McGowan] The officers entered the house.

Inside the dining room area,
there were signs of a violent struggle.

There was a hole in the drywall
of the dining room.

There was a broken plate

and also a computer keyboard
that had been smashed

and had blood spatter smears
all over the floor.

It was a scene of violence.

[sinister music playing]

They then followed a blood trail
down the basement stairs,

where they found Harry.

His body had sustained
apparent head trauma.

Blunt force trauma.

There was a pile of bloody clothes
down in the kitchen of the residence.

The suspect had changed
into Harry's clothing.

Then detectives found Harry's iPhone 7.

And there was a notification
from a credit card company

that there was a recent purchase
at a nearby hotel.

So we sent a team of detectives over,

and the hotel clerk
identified Jamison Bachman

as the individual
who had checked into room 102.

At that time, we secured a search warrant

and deployed a tactical response team

to make entry into the room.

Jamison Bachman started swinging
a camp-style axe.

[dark music playing]

He struck one of the officers in the face.

He struck another one in the arm.

He was eventually tased
and taken into custody.

[dark music playing]

[reporter 1] Sixty-year-old
Jamison Bachman

is charged with his brother's m*rder.

Now, according to the district attorney,
there was an obvious struggle,

and Harry Bachman died
of what appeared to be blunt force trauma.

[reporter 2] Jamison was
recently bailed out of jail by Harry,

but Harry would not allow him
to stay at his home

due to Jamison's
alleged history of violence.

My very first feeling after complete shock

was extreme anger.

[Bob B.] What I think about most...

[somber music playing]

...is Harry's family.

I just feel sad.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Alex] Jamison was in jail
for k*lling his brother, Harry,

and a court hearing
was set for December 11th.

I showed up at court.

I waited for his arrival.

"Where the f*ck was Bachman?"

"Where could he possibly be?
He loves court!"

[suspenseful music stops]

He was still winning on his terms

when he hanged himself.

The failed part of him

figured that if he took his life,

he would take
everybody else's ability to control him.

[introspective music playing]

[Sonia] I feel sad.

But I'm glad he's not around.

[Arleen] I guess I wasn't surprised.

He would often say, you know,
"I should just k*ll myself."

I felt bad for him.

But at the same time, I felt mad.

'Cause he took the easy way out.

You know? He really needed to do time.

For all of the people's lives
that he destroyed.

[Alex] How dare he?

[voice breaking]
First, he ended up destroying himself.

Then he k*lled his brother,

the only person in the world
left to help him.

And then he k*lled himself.

[Bob B.] There is no question in my mind
that the things that he did...

were evil.

He k*lled a father,
a husband, a grandfather.

Um...

And he k*lled my best friend.

[Alex] I do have to
remind myself to let it go.

I'm in a good place.
I know that I'm a strong woman.

I survived him.

We move on from these things in life.

Sure.

[Sonia] Now my motto is,

"Don't take care of anyone else until
you can take care of yourself." [laughing]

That's what I'm doing.
I'm empowering myself.

I'm trying to rebuild my credit.

And I'm trying to be better
about healing myself.

The top floor was my apartment.

I'm not unhappy about not being here.

I mean, I was for a long time,
but now I'm over that.

When I talk to people,
and I tell them my story,

they don't believe... they don't believe me.

And that's one of the reasons
I'm doing this documentary,

'cause it's real.

I want people out there
to know that this can really happen

to the strongest person.

You can be strong,
and it can still happen.

I'm a strong person. I've never been weak.

But I've moved on,
and I'm in a good place now.

I have a nice apartment in a nice area.

But roommate?

Forget it.

Not doing it.

[dark music playing]