Jan. 30, 2026

"SPANDAU BALLET RAPIST GUILTY, COFFIN ESCAPE ARTIST'S LAST-DITCH BID & THE CONMAN WHO FAKED HIS DEATH"

"SPANDAU BALLET RAPIST GUILTY, COFFIN ESCAPE ARTIST'S LAST-DITCH BID & THE CONMAN WHO FAKED HIS DEATH"

Reid Carter dives into the tabloids for Friday's bizarre crime roundup. Spandau Ballet singer Ross Davidson convicted of raping one woman and attempting to rape another - prosecutor says the "sex symbol" expected "sex on demand" and attacked women he met on Tinder while they slept. Double killer Gordon "Woody" Mower makes first public appearance in 30 years - the hulking murderer who slaughtered his parents and once tried escaping prison in a coffin now claims his lawyers bribed him to plead guilty. Nicholas Rossi, the world's most dangerous conman, faked his death to flee rape charges - was found in a Scottish hospital claiming to be an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.

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WEBVTT

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Caalaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter Friday, January thirtieth,

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twenty twenty six. Taking a break from the courtrooms today

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instead tabloid crimes that sound too insane to be real,

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but they are. A Spandau ballet singer convicted of rape.

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Ross Davidson, who performed under the stage name Ross Wilde,

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replaced Tony Hadley as frontman of the nineteen eighties hit

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Makers in twenty eighteen. Prosecutor called him a bit of

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a sex symbol who expected sex on demand, met women

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on Tinder, attacked them while they slept. One victim woke

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up to find him raping her. Another woke up in

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Thailand to find him attempting rape without a condom. Guilty

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on all charges, sentencing next month. A double killer who

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once tried to escape prison in a coffin is making

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his first public appearance in thirty years. Gordon Woody Mower

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slaughtered his parents with a point two two rifle in

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nineteen ninety six, fled with his fourteen year old girlfriend,

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got caught after appearing on America's Most Wanted. Now he's

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claiming his lawyers bribed him ten thousand dollars to plead

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guilty once his sentence vacated. Security so tight they're driving

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him two hundred and sixty miles round trip each day

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rather than let him stay overnight anywhere. And Nicholas Rossy,

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the world's most dangerous con man accused of raping multiple

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women in Utah, faked his own death, published an obituary,

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fled to Scotland, got caught in a Glasgow hospital when

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staff recognized his tattoos from an Interpol notice. Claimed he

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was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, now serving at

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least five years. New documentary drops today on Prime Video.

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I'm Red Carter Today. Predators, escape artists and the con

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man who thought he could fake his way out of everything.

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This is Celebrity Trials. Ross Davidson thirty seven years old,

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Aberdeen born, musical theater actor, aspiring songwriter, singer, stage name

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Ross Wilde. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Davidson

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replaced Tony Hadley as the frontman of Spandau Ballet in

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twenty eighteen. The nineteen eighties new wave band True Gold

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Only when You Leave Classic Hits. Hadley was the voice

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during their heyday Davidson stepped in to fill those shoes.

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He lasted eleven months. Now he's facing prison for rape,

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attempted rape, sexual assault, voyeurism. Wednesday, a jury at Woodgreen

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Crown Court in London found Davidson guilty on all charges

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after more than eleven hours of deliberation. Two victims, one

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raped in London in March twenty fifteen, another sexually assaulted

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and nearly raped in Thailand in December twenty nineteen. Prosecutor

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Richard herndonted a devastating picture called Davidson a bit of

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a sex symbol, very good looking, physically fit, sings plays guitar,

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charming and charismatic. Had starred in the Queen based West

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End musical We Will Rock You before joining Spandau Ballet.

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His darker side is not the first thing that many

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women and girls notice about him, Herndon told the jury.

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But the women in this case can all attest to

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that sinister part of his personality. Here's the prosecution's theory.

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Davidson believed his looks and star quality entitled him to

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whatever he wanted. When women didn't give him what he

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thought he deserved, he took it anyway. It is because

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ross Davidson expects to get sex on demand, that he

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will resort to rape and sexual assault if he is

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not given what he thinks he deserves. Herndon said Davidson

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met his victims on dating apps Tinder, plenty of Fish,

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the modern hunting ground for predators who hide behind profile

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pictures and charm. The first victim met David's in February

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twenty twelve on plenty of Fish. By March twenty fifteen,

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she went to stay with him at his home in Finchley,

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North London. That's when he attacked her. She told the jury.

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Davidson made her wear an S and M sex collar

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with wrist restraints, put her in them for about twenty

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minutes without her permission. She was confused and in a

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state of shock. He removed them when she asked, but

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that wasn't the worst of it. Davidson attacked her while

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she was asleep in his bed. She recalled feeling helpless

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and scared to react. Before the assault, Davidson had mentioned

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something disturbing. He told her he liked the idea of

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having sex with a mannekin, a person in a helpless state,

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someone not moving. That's not a kink. That's a confession.

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He's describing raping unconscious women, and then he did it.

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In court, Davidson called all these claims an out and

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out lie, said all the sex was consensual, described himself

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as sex positive, open dialogue, open mindedness about people's predilections,

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trying different sexual appetites, bondage restraint, group sex, sex parties.

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The jury didn't buy it. The second victim met Davidson

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and began what she thought was a whirlwind romance in

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Thailand in December twenty nineteen. They had drunken consensual sex

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one night, then she went to sleep. She woke up

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to find Davidson on top of her, trying to have

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sex without her permission, without a condom. When she calmly

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talked him down from raping her, Davidson's response was chilling.

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Thanks for being cool about it. Thanks for being cool

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about it, like she'd let him borrow her car, like

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she'd picked up the check at dinner, not like she

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just stopped him from raping her. The woman stayed with

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him that night described it as regrettable but fair. They

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spent time together the following day on a beach and sites,

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seeing she was processing in shock. Didn't fully understand what

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had happened to her, but there was evidence she didn't

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know about. Davidson had secretly filmed her while she slept,

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video on his mobile phone showing her being fondled while

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snoring asleep, still unresponsive, at least half naked in the

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Thailand hotel bedroom. She had no idea the video existed

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until police told her in twenty twenty three. Detectives tracked

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her down after finding the video on Davidson's phone. She

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strongly dismissed Davidson's claim that she'd given him permission to

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touch her while she was asleep. Why would I want

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a man to touch me when I am in a

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state of unconsciousness, she asked the jury. Davidson admitted to

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the voyeurism charge, said he created the video for selfish

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reasons for sexual gratification, claimed he had permission to touch her,

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but not to film. Then, getting emotional, he told the jury,

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I wish I had never done it. That's the only

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thing he admitted. Everything else he claimed was consensual lies misunderstanding.

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The jury disagreed guilty on all charges. This wasn't Davidson's

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first trial. In July twenty twenty four, he was convicted

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by a different jury of raping another woman and sexually

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assaulting two more four victims total from that trial, now

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two more from this retrial. Six women at least six

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that we know of, multiple victims across years, same pattern,

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dating apps, charm attacks while they slept. Detective Constable Camilla Catedrova,

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part of the investigation team, said after the verdict, Davidson

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is a prolific offender who carried out cowardly and opportunistic

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assaults against his victims. Cowardly, opportunistic, that's exactly right. He

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attacked women while they slept, when they couldn't fight back,

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when they couldn't say no, because unconscious women can't refuse.

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The prosecute nailed it in his opening. People assume men

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like Davidson don't need to rape. Blessed with good looks

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and star quality can get any woman he wants. Why

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force himself on anyone? Yet the reality belies that supposition,

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Herndon said. In this case, many young women have come

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forward to tell the police that they have been victims

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of mister Davidson's predatory behavior. Looks don't prevent predation, Charm

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doesn't eliminate entitlement. Some men believe they deserve whatever they want,

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and when they don't get it, they take it. Davidson

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wasn't in court to hear the verdicts Wednesday, suffering from

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a viral infection. Remains in prison. Sentencing hearing scheduled for

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February fourth. His career is over. Spandau Ballet, We Will

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Rock You, West End Musicals all finished. Now He's just

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another rapist waiting for his sentence. Ross Davidson was thirty

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seven years old. Singer actor sexim thought his charm entitled

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him to sex on demand. Thought women's unconscious bodies were

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his to use. Thought he could film his assaults and

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get away with it. The jury saw through all of it. Guilty.

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We'll be right back with a double killer who once

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tried to escape prison in a coffin, now making his

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first public appearance in thirty years, and the world's most

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dangerous con man who faked his death to flee rape charges.

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Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm reed. Carter March nineteen

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ninety six, Upstate New York, isolated farm in Otsego County,

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Gordon Woody Mower eighteen years old, took a point two

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two rifle and shot his father, Gordon Senior, fifty two

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and his mother, Susan fifty Then he fled with his

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fourteen year old girlfriend, Melanie Bray. Three weeks later, mo

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was featured on America's Most Wanted Moments. After the broadcast,

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police spotted him in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. While handcuffed,

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Mower smashed one of the cops holding him to the

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ground and took off running. Recaptured quickly, but even then

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he was establishing his reputation escape artist. Mower accepted a

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guilty plea to avoid the death penalty, sentenced to life

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without parole in October nineteen ninety six. His legal team

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convinced him his sentence would be reduced when New York's

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capital punishment law was declared unconstitutional. That didn't happen. He's

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been in prison ever since nearly thirty years, but Woody

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Mower hasn't stopped trying to get out. His most audacious

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escape attempt came in twenty fifteen at Auburn, a maximum

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security New York prison. Mower managed to build a coffin

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like box in the prison workshop. His plan hide inside

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the box which would end up buried under tons of

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sawdust regularly hauled away in a local farmer's trailer. He

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and another prisoner practiced the plan roughly fifty times before

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an inmate tipped off authorities. Three weeks before the plot

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was discovered, a guard saw Moer walking around with sawdust

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on him. Nobody connected the dots until the tip came in.

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Mower got five hundred sixty four days in solitary confinement,

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and he bragged to local media about how close he'd come.

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Smart enough to build a coffin and practice fifty escapes,

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too stupid to brush off the sawdust. Now Mower is

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attempting another way out, a legal one. Wednesday, the forty

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eight year old murderer made his first public appearance in

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thirty years at Otsego County Court in Cooperstown. Claims his

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attorneys mishandled his case that his rights were violated that

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his sentence should be vacated. The specific allegation his state

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appointed lawyers urged him to accept ten thousand dollars from

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his parents' estates in exchange for pleading guilty, told him

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to keep quiet about it when he was sentenced. In

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other words, He's claim he was bribed to confess to

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murdering his own parents. True crime author Susan Ashlin has

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been researching Moer for years. Her book Ungrateful Bastard, The

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Shocking Journey of a killer and escape Artist, comes out

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February fifth. She met Moer face to face at maximum

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security schawan Gunk Correctional Facility. Meeting him was absolutely terrifying,

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Ashlin told The Daily Mail. This man came out and

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he was big. He didn't look angry, but he just

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looked miserable, like I'd pulled him out of the lunch

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line or something, and that he was hungry. I was terrified.

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She described sitting alone at a table in what looked

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like a school cafeteria, five foot two, very petite, and

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then this hulking killer walked in. No restraints. Guards didn't

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stay in the room, just unlocked the door, let him

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in and locked it behind him. I thought, if this

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guy jumped the table and strangled me, they wouldn't even

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make it in time. Ashlin said her fear wasn't unfounded.

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In their initial letters and phone calls, Mower kept saying

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he was going to lure his former defense attorney to

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a visit, jumped the visiting room table and beat him

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to death on the floor. So Ashlin confronted the tension

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directly asked Moer, are you mad that I'm here? No?

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Do I look mad? He said, yes, you do. Then

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she told him she'd come up with a title for

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the book, Ungrateful Bastard Dead silence, no reaction. Ashlin started sweating. Finally,

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Mower said, that's the nickname my mother gave me. More silence,

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Ashlin sweating bullets. Then he threw his head back, laughed

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and said, that's a really great title. The nickname his

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mother gave him ungrateful Bastard, and then he killed her.

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Security for Wednesday's hearing was intense. Authorities are so anxious

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about Mower that they're driving him two hundred and sixty

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miles round trip each day from prison to court and back.

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Won't let him stay overnight anywhere too risky. There's no

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question security will be heavy, Ashlein said. They won't even

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allow him to stay overnight anywhere because they can't take

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that risk, and I'm expecting him to be heavily heavily

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restrained in the courtroom. The night of the murders, Moer

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had planned to run away with his fourteen year old girlfriend.

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He packed a suitcase, put it in his jeep, went

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to see the movie Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta, but

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when he came out of the theater, his parents were

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by his car, screaming at him. His father hid him

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in the face, told him he couldn't leave. Back at

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the farmhouse, his mother continued yelling. That's when Moher grabbed

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his point two two rifle from his bedroom. I know

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I was out of my mind when this happened, he

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said in his statement to the court. I went into

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the bedroom and shot my father. Then I came back

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out and shot my mother. A horrified nephew discovered the

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bodies the next morning when he arrived at seven a m.

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To help milk the cows. Dennis Vaco, state Attorney General

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at the time, said Woody Mower is a remorseless killer

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who brutally murdered the two people who loved him most.

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Now Mower wants out, claims he was bribed, claims his

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lawyers violated his rights. High profile defense attorney Melissa Swartz

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is representing him. She recently overturned the manslaughter conviction of

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Caitlin Conley, who was convicted of fatally poisoning her ex

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boyfriend's mother. Here's a guy who has spent his whole

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prison life trying to escape, Ashlin said, now he stands

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a solid chance of actually getting out. Period. Gordon Woody Mower,

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forty eight years old, slaughtered his parents at eighteen, spent

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thirty years trying to escape, built a coffin, practiced fifty times,

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got caught with sawdust on his clothes. Now he's trying

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the legal route. We'll see if it works better than

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the coffin. Nicholas Rossy, thirty eight eight years old from

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Rhode Island, accused of raping multiple women in Utah in

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two thousand and eight. Rather than face justice, Rossi did

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something extraordinary. He faked his own death, published an obituary

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online claiming he died of non Hodgkin lymphoma. Friends mourned,

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colleagues paid tribute. The state legislature recognized him on the

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house floor. He'd been a child welfare advocate, a supposed

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warrior for children, all while he was very much alive,

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living in England, then Scotland under a new name. December

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twenty twenty one, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, a

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man with COVID woke up from a coma surrounded by detectives.

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They said he was Nicholas Rossi, one of America's most

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wanted fugitives. He said he was Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan,

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a disabled academic. Wrong guy, mistaken identity, but the hospital

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staff had recognized his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol wanted

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person noticed and DNA doesn't lie. After a long court battle,

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Rossi was extradited to the United States in January twenty

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twenty four. Last year, he was convicted of raping two

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women in northern Utah in two thousand and eight, Sentenced

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to at least five years behind bars, could get life.

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His release date will be determined by the State Parole Board. Today,

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a new documentary drops on Prime Video, Nicholas Rossi, Predator

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on Trial, following the investigators and journalists who first looked

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into his crimes, his return to the United States, his conviction,

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his sentence. But let's rewind because the story of how

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Rossi got caught is almost as bizarre as his escape.

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Before fleeing America, Rossi called former colleagues and associates, told

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them he was dying, used a raspy voice, tried to

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make them feel bad. Brian Coogan, former member of the

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Rhode Island and House of Representatives, got one of those calls.

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He calls me up and he has this raspy voice

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and he says, I'm dying. Cougan recalled. He was trying

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to make me feel bad that he was dying. He

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tried everything, but Cougan wasn't buying it. I'm a street guy.

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I know when someone is a con artist, a bullshit artist,

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and I know he's a registered sex offender and now

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he's dying. His response to ROSSI, listen, you little fucking cockroach.

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Cockroaches don't die. You're a cockroach, Nick, Go fuck yourself,

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then hung up the phone. A few months later, news

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came that Rossi had died. Press release, website, obituary, the works.

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The state legislature recognized him on the House floor. Big

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deal in Rhode Island. But Cougan was watching and feeling sick.

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When I was watching it and knowing that he was

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a registered sex offender and the state police were looking

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for him, I wanted to throw up in my mouth.

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Even Rossi's family believed he was dead. His uncle Michael said,

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of course, I'm sad. I'm grieving. There's tears in my

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eyes and I'm feeling terrible because I'm one hundred percent

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believing that's the end of him. But Rossi was alive,

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living in Bristol, England, then Glasgow, Scotland, using more than

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a dozen aliases over the years, including Arthur Brown, the

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name he used to marry British woman Miranda Knight. They

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met in Bristol before moving to Glasgow. When he was

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finally identified in that Glasgow hospital, Rossi committed fully to

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the lie. Claimed to be Arthur Knight, said he'd never

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been to America, said he was being framed. It took

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until November twenty twenty two for courts to conclude he

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was in fact Nicholas Rossi. Then came the extradition fight,

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then the trials. One of his victims first met Rossi

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after responding to a Craigslist ad he'd posted. She was

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recovering from a traumatic brain injury at the time. They

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started dating got engaged within weeks. He asked her to

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lend him money, pay for dates, car repairs, take out

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loans to buy their wedding rings. Classic predator behavior. Find

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someone vulnerable, exploit them. Then he raped her in his

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bedroom one night after driving her home. She reported it

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years later, after discovering another woman had also accused him

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of similar crimes. At his sentencing hearing, Rossi maintained his

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innocence in a soft, raspy voice. I am not guilty

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of this. These women are lying. But one of his

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accusers had the final word, said, Rossi left a trail

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of fear, pain and destruction in his wake. This is

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not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for

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safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will

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never fully heal. Prosecutor Brandon Simmons said Rossi uses rape

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to control women and is a threat to public safety.

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Nicholas Rossi con man, rapist, faker of deaths, collector of aliases,

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Arthur Knight, Arthur Brown, whatever name he needed to escape consequences.

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He thought he could outrun justice by dying. Thought he

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could hide in Scotland under a fake identity. Thought his

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charm and lies would save him forever. Instead, he woke

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up from a COVID coma surrounded by detectives. His tattoos

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gave him away. His DNA confirmed it, and now he's

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serving time for crimes he committed nearly two decades ago.

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The documentary Nicholas Rossi Predator on Trial, premieres today on

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Prime Video. Some people are just cockroaches. They don't die,

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They just keep scurrying until someone finally steps on them.

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That's Celebrity Trials for Friday, January thirtieth, twenty twenty six.

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Ross Davidson, former Spandau ballet singer, convicted of rape and

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attempted rape, met women on dating apps, attacked them while

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they slept, thought his looks entitled him to sex on

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demand entencing February fourth. Gordon Woody Mower made his first

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public appearance in thirty years. The double killer who once

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tried to escape prison in a coffin now claims his

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lawyers bribed him to plead guilty. Security so tight they

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won't let him stay overnight anywhere. And Nicholas Rossy, the

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World's most dangerous con man, faked his death to flee

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rape charges. Found in a Scottish hospital, claiming to be

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an Irish orphan, now serving at least five years. New

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documentary on Prime Video today. I'm read Carter have a

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safe weekend. Lock your doors, check your dating apps. This

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is celebrity trials.