Of course, they thought about doing it, and talked about doing it, in the days leading up to today. But I'll bet today was the day they made the final decision. Because today they took the first overt act towards the commission of this crime, and ordered a USA People Search report on Bryan Kocis:
Did Harlow and Joe realize that by ordering this report, they risked creating an electronic evidence trail for the police to follow later? Perhaps they did...but ordered it anyways. They needed info on their murder target, and had no where else to go to get it. Except of course from Brent and Grant; but since Grant had catagorically shot the "Canada" remark down at the Le Cirque dinner, there was obviously no way they could turn to them for tactical info on Bryan. Besides, they were not on speaking terms after the "Hang-Up Call" anyways.
Did Harlow and Joe think the murder would hopefully mend this rift? If so, they were assuming Brent and Grant would be grateful...a very bad assumption, it turns out. Or maybe they knew murder suspicion would naturally fall on Brent and Grant (Grant specifically told them this, in fact, at the Le Cirque dinner), and hoped to blackmail them into a web partnership? The MySpace emails sent on 3/3/07 would seem to support this latter theory:
In any case, under either theory they must have thought the murder would also remove any further stumbling blocks caused by the settlement negociations (by simply killing one of the negociators). A win-win situation.
It was probably on or around this day that some of Harlow and Joe's escorts began to notice a big change in how their bosses acted. According to one of them, Andrew Shunk (aka Confidential Informant #1), Harlow and Joe began acting "very suspicious and unusual" shortly after their return from Vegas. Specifically, they curtailed their flashy, flamboyant, free-spending lifestyle, and became reclusive, shunning contact with nearly everyone. Even more odd was Harlow changing his phone number and taking his MySpace page private - "highly suspicious" behavior for an escort such as Harlow, as these are tools he relies on to make a living. His pre-booked 2nd day session with Matthew Brannon ("BRANNON said he took him back to his hotel and picked him back up on 01/20/2007 where he spent approx. 5 hours with him from 0800hrs to 1300hrs") was probably his last escort work for a while.So, two years ago today was a big day. Harlow and Joe had furtively begun planning and carrying out a homicide...
7 comments:
I never quite noticed before how inept a "blackmailer" Joe was:
"You need to make some king [sic] of contact with us before I tell them you hired us."
Since "telling them you hired us" would mean he'd be confessing to murder-for-hire and going to prison for the rest of his life, I think this is the very definition of an empty threat. How about "before I tell them you TRIED to hire us"? Might be more prudent.
Will--
This is the guy who would slap Cuadra on the butt to wake him up, but only after stroking his Desert Eagle 9 mm. The gun with its big boom and kick must have compensated for something Joe lacked. You will note the threat message seems to have come from the script of a bad operator in the Rockford Files.
Jim just to clear up something Andrew Shonk is actually informant #2 justin is informant #1 this is important based on their testimony on the affidavit and other court documents.
I seem to recall PC getting the order different for some reason, but who knows, maybe you're right.
I'm curious though, why would this be "important?"
That would be Andrew Shunk. In fairness, Mr. Shunk would have given statements based on events that only Shunk would have seen, overheard, perhaps participated in. Making sure we are attributing quotes to the right informant would be proper.
will g said... I never quite noticed before how inept a "blackmailer" Joe was:
"You need to make some king [sic] of contact with us before I tell them you hired us."
Since "telling them you hired us" would mean he'd be confessing to murder-for-hire and going to prison for the rest of his life, I think this is the very definition of an empty threat. How about "before I tell them you TRIED to hire us"? Might be more prudent.
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Joe with any brains, (and Sean and Grant with any guilt over this ordeal) should have popped a pocket voice recorder running into his shirt and got something to use in the event those "coconspiring/hiring con-artists" try turning on them in a nasty San Diego sting operation.
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But there was nothing to tape, the smart ones here know that. And Joe must feel like the ultimate fool with his empty threat, tales of making a tape recording,...and then all those recordings made later with him caught in the trap. It is like he was tricked back, the whole thing was turned back on him.
I would have liked to have seen his or Harlow's face the first time he or Harlow heard about recordings at Black's Beach or Crab Catcher. Or were they so in denial that even that revelation was considered trivial. Hopefully Madam Renee, or some other source will later reveal how that went over.
Had I been Harlow or Joe, I might right about that time have been looking for a very sharp object, and thinking about the quickest way to fly off and out from this life. It would have been like, ok endgame, tally up the points and fold up the tent.
"I would have liked to have seen his or Harlow's face the first time he or Harlow heard about recordings at Black's Beach or Crab Catcher."
As I recall, Joe was first informed of the recordings during the "interrogation" after the arrest (see transcripts on PC's site), and Joe's reaction was to ask whether Sean and Grant had been arrested too. Hannon simply said "no," and just let the implications of that simmer into his brain without further commentary. :-)
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