[ad_1]
Viral celebrities, by their very nature, are fickle.
We inspire people with adoration and likes for media snippets like viral videos, only to discover something offensive about them.
Praise turns into contempt, and viral stars become persona non grata. In the social media realm, we call such a person a “milkshake duck.”
There’s the milkshake duck, and there’s Kai the hitchhiker, who went from hatchet-wielding viral hero to murder suspect in three months.
Kai, whose real name is Caleb McGilverly, is serving a 57-year sentence at the New Jersey State Penitentiary in Trenton for the murder of a New Jersey attorney.
Canadian hitchhikers get real criminal treatment in “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker,” a documentary directed by Colette Camden, out Tuesday, January 10 on Netflix.
Caleb “Kai” Lawrence McGillvary rose to fame as “Kai, the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker,” in a 2013 interview with TV news reporter Jessob Reisbeck in Fresno, California.
As Reisbeck explains in the documentary, when Kai became a local hero, he was a sports reporter on his first day covering news for the KMPH station. saw the man, Jett McBride, run into a civil servant with his car and pin him to a truck. You said you attacked someone.
The then 24-year-old bandana-wearing hitchhiker picked up a hatchet and, in his signature words, said the alleged white supremacist McBride, “Smash, smash, smash.” One of the women Kai tried to defend said she saved her own life.
“If I hadn’t done that, he would have killed more people,” Kai told Riisbeck.
Kai could sing, play the guitar, beatbox… and swing a hatchet.netflix
Kai channeled Surfer-Man-Encounter-Ninja-Kame-Encounter-Bill-and-Ted, calling the Fresno incident “dangerous” and likening it to the biggest wave he’s surfed in his life.
People focused on the lighthearted tone of his way of speaking, rather than the overall aspect of him doing a lot of damage with his hatchet.
Even before Kai told Raisbeck anything about the attack, he wrote what appeared to be a touching and positive message ahead of the interview.
“Before I say anything else, I want to say that whatever you do, you deserve respect. It’s worth it, no one could take it away from you.
The interview took a turn from there. Kai claimed McBride said he raped a teenage girl. And that was just part of the conversation.
Realizing that he had filmed something people wanted to see and share, Reisbeck uploaded nearly six minutes of the entire conversation (including parts that didn’t air on TV) to YouTube and went to bed. He woke up and counted half a million views.
Today, the video has been viewed 7.9 million times.
At one point, Kai was recruited to do a movie segment for ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live! The results were… questionable. netflix
It didn’t take long for Kai’s memes, songs and remixes to dominate the day. Soon, everyone wanted more hitchhikers, including talk shows and talent managers.
But no one could find him — he was a man with no phone number or fixed address. I was.
Kai claimed to be “just outside Dogtown” (an area of Santa Monica and Venice, Calif.) via West Virginia, but was actually Edmonton, Canada. And he was always on the move.
Eventually, however, Reisbeck was able to reconnect with him via email. In a follow-up interview, Kai blasted a song he wrote on guitar at a music store, proving he’s a consummate performer and candy for any camera. However, Reisbeck and others who entered his orbit realized that he was a loose cannon.
For one minute, Kai might be doing a little harmless, impromptu beatboxing. He had this kind of charm that made the harsh violence he was capable of (and proud of) somehow delicious and even endearing in the eyes of the public.
Many will tune in to this documentary just for Kai’s memory from the original viral interview. The idea that there was a game for this breezy, catchphrase-ready guy to fly around California and “smash, smash, smash” when called out seemed like an urban legend come true.
Warning: Video contains profanity and explicit content
It’s the same reason he made the eyes of TV producers shine. An offer to give Kai his own reality show was on the table. However, the hitchhiker claimed he was only interested in going to the Bay Area and smoking weed. Appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
The show’s researchers who were caught in the interview quickly realized the gamble they were taking in booking Kai on the show.
The hitchhiker may have become a public figure, garnering great fanfare from those who recognized him on the street (and shouted his “smash” refrain), but he didn’t give much thought to decorum. After Kai arrived in Hollywood, he did a quick job in a hotel room bar, flashed knives, and was kicked out of the facility for skateboarding. (When Kimmel gave Kai $500, Kai gave it to a security guard to make up for peeing on a billboard on the show).
Those who remember those days in the documentary note that Kai wasn’t the carefree guy you imagined or guessed from the viral videos. Got alarmed (perhaps it was the whole hatchet…). Whether or not Kai would actually appear in ‘Kimmel’ was anyone’s guess.
Then the police showed up.
Police arrived at the set of the late-night show and took Kai into custody, seeking eyewitness testimony about the incident that inspired his viral celebrity. Attacks on Fresno utility workers were being investigated as hate crimes.
However, Kai eventually made an appearance on “Kimmel,” co-starring with the host in a car sketch, telling Kimmel that he preferred “Homeless” to “Homeless.”
“Thank you for not killing me with the hatchet,” Kimmel said after presenting Kai with a surfboard and wetsuit.
It was a harmless reference at the time. Here, emotion acts as a chilling premonition.
Kai seemed to revel in his freewheeling viral fame. They provided him with a ride and gifts. “Kimmel” even recruited him for his segment of movie reviews (what an outtake).
Kai is serving a 57-year sentence in New Jersey State Penitentiary.netflix
But that all changed in a very short period of time.
Kai emerged as the prime suspect when Clark’s attorney Joseph Galfi Jr., 73, was found beaten to death in his home in May 2013.
Kai’s celebration turned into a Kai manhunt.
Not only did a train station video show the two men together, but Kai took to social media to claim that he had been drugged and sexually assaulted, and asked his followers what to do. When Kai expanded on Smash’s quotes and suggested an attack, Kai replied that he liked the idea.
A famous hitchhiker arrested in Philadelphia told police the attack on Galphy was in self-defense. He alleged the lawyer who offered him a place to stay after meeting in Times Square drugged and sexually assaulted him before the attack at his Clark home. .
Kai spent six years in Union County Jail before his trial in 2019.
This documentary delves into Kai’s backstory growing up in Canada to find answers to questions about his behavior. It is said that he started a fire in his house when he was a child, about which he sang a song.
He claims he was abused as a child from being held captive.
Rape and molestation are recurring subjects in Kai’s account of life, and self-defense is also discussed.
A jury has found Kai, now 34, guilty of the murder of Galfi. His 2021 appeal has been dismissed.
thank you for reading.Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
Contact information for Amy Kuperinski is: akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and continued @Amy Cup on Twitter.
[ad_2]
Source link
