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A note: This episode includes graphic information and discussions of self-harm that some people may find upsetting. Listener discretion is advised. The surveillance footage clearly showed a white Tesla gliding into a parking lot. It appeared to be the most ordinary of scenes, especially for Encino, California, a wealthy enclave a few miles northwest of Los Angeles.
But then, instead of beginning the classic Angelino ritual of circling around looking for an empty spot, the driver pulled the car to a halt in front of a dumpster. The driver was a white man with long dirty blonde hair and dressed in nondescript white tee and jeans. He quickly got out of the car. He walked over to open the gate in front of the trash bins. Then he crossed back to his car and popped the trunk.
The driver leaned in and reached for...something. It was wrapped in a black trash bag, but whatever it was, it was big and unwieldy and difficult to carry. He wrapped both arms around it to roll it toward him and pulled it out of the car. He wrestled with it, trying to get a good hold on it. He bent his knees to heft its weight.
and then threw it over his shoulder and struggled to make a few steps to the waiting dumpster, looking almost like a parent carrying a sleeping child who was maybe a little bit too old for that. A couple other cars cruise through the scene, including a white van that passed right by the driver as he finished disposing of whatever was in the bag.
His mission accomplished, he swung the gate shut behind him and got back in the car. He then slowly and smoothly executed a three-point turn and left the way he came. The driver is alleged to be Sam Haskell IV, the son of a major Hollywood power player, and his life was about to take a turn straight out of a movie.
This is The Opportunist, an original podcast from Podcast One. You're listening to a story told in one episode called Sam Haskell IV, Second Raid Slasher. I'm Sarah James McLaughlin. In this episode, we tell the tale of a troubled Hollywood princeling who struggled to come into his own and the grisly scene he left in his wake.
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Haskell Sr.'s story of plucky charm and determination reads almost like a classic script about a man on the rise. He started in the mailroom at the William Morris Talent Agency, one of the biggest and most powerful firms in Hollywood. From the very lowest rung on the ladder, he became the agency's youngest senior vice president, and within 20 years, he worked his way up to running the entire television department.
As a talent agent, Haskell Sr. represented huge global stars like Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin, helping put together projects and making sure they got the best deals possible. This was a position that gave him incredible power throughout the industry. He helped put together iconic TV shows like Lost, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
In 2007, he was named one of the 25 most innovative and influential people in television of the last 25 years, alongside titans like Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey. And, like any movie worth its salt, Pascal Sr.'s story also has a healthy dose of romance.
He married his college sweetheart, Mary Donnelly, a literal beauty queen who was crowned Miss Mississippi in 1977. After his illustrious agency career, he made beauty pageants his business and transitioned to work with the Miss America organization. With his guidance, the iconic pageant, which had fallen on hard times, was revitalized, returning to a prime television slot.
But then, in 2017, a revelation came out that put a permanent black spot on Haskell Sr.'s good guy image. The Miss America pageant famous for its dazzling gowns, swimwear, and those crowning moments. New York! Now plagued by scandal after emails from the organization's CEO, Sam Haskell, were leaked to the Huffington Post.
After several damning emails were leaked to the Huffington Post, it was revealed that Haskell Sr. had engaged in and encouraged crude, sexist comments about many past contestants.
Based on his correspondence, Haskell wrote and replied to various offensive messages describing women using "vulgar" anatomical references as well as stooping to fat shaming and slut shaming. This was particularly disturbing given how much effort and enthusiasm these women poured into the competition and how much their participation meant to them and generations of girls.
Haskell was happy to parade them in front of cameras in their swimsuits for profit, but behind closed doors, he belittled and demeaned them. Haskell Sr.'s success story left a big pair of shoes for his son to fill, as far as making it on your own. But also, there was a prominent dark streak of indiscretion, and appalling treatment of women that may have also shaped Jr.'s views growing up.
We spoke to Rachel Howlett, a journalist with knowledge of the case, who provides more context on how Haskell Jr.'s upbringing may have shaped him. Well, obviously growing up in Los Angeles, you have access to so many resources. You have access to the types of people that can open up doors for you, especially in something like the entertainment industry. Growing up in Los Angeles, the, you know, the entertainment world, like Hollywood is your favorite.
backyard, your playground almost. And for Samuel Haskell, that was really no different. He grew up with an immense amount of wealth, immense amount of opportunities. But for whatever reason, he was not seeing success in the way that he was felt like he should be owed that sort of success based off of his upbringing.
Samuel Haskell is the son of a huge Hollywood executive and Emmy Award winning producer. He was also his father was also an agent for some time and he's represented the likes of Dolly Parton and George Clooney back in the day. His mother, she was also an actress and a former Miss Mississippi back in the day. And he
Samuel Haskell attempted a foray into the entertainment business, much like his parents, but didn't quite meet the same amount of success as they did. That's a bit of an understatement. While Haskell Sr. guided the careers of some of the biggest stars in the last 50 years, Haskell Jr. couldn't seem to break out past direct-to-YouTube short horror films and photo shoots with influencers.
It was a little bit of the outside looking in for him. And he really wanted to be a part of that circle, be the center of attention and really pave his own way in the entertainment business. And unfortunately, that was just not how his adult life was panning out for him. I know he was he was a producer on several TV shows. I believe I was just making sure I believe he was credited as a producer for
The Rich Housewives of Beverly Hills at one point. He also directed and created several of his own independent films that didn't really gain much traction. But what was interesting about those is like they were violent slasher movies, which didn't quite sit well with the audience at the time.
But these films didn't quite sit well with the audience. They were quite violent and many referred to them as slasher films. He was also credited a few times as producers on popular television shows, but he really hadn't made a name for himself in the world of Hollywood quite yet. Junior may have failed to match his father's meteoric rise in Hollywood, but as far as romance, they appeared to be on a similar track.
at least at first. Like Haskell Sr., Haskell Jr. met his wife in college at Cal State Northridge. Meili, later May Haskell, came to the States from China to study accounting. Meanwhile, Haskell Jr. pursued a career as a photographer and director.
It seems like she was the main breadwinner of the family. It is unclear what, if any, financial contributions Samuel Haskell played in their dynamic, in their relationship, but she was working several jobs to be the family's main breadwinner. After meeting, the couple quickly married and started having children. They eventually had three boys in quick succession.
And after their first was born, Mei's parents, Gaoshan Li and Yanxiang Wang, came over from China to help raise their grandkids in the couple's Tarzana home. Located near Encino, away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Tarzana has become a favored neighborhood for families who want a suburban feel while still having easy access to everything the city has to offer.
Tarzana is located sort of the west side of the San Fernando Valley, I would say. And it's very close to an area called Encino, which is in the last several years become a true celebrity hub. If you don't want to live in Beverly Hills or some of these other affluent neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Encino has really become the place to be. Multi-million dollar homes, a huge celebrity presence. It's just above the 405 and above, you know,
Santa Monica. So there is that allure because you're just outside of the city, but you can still get in pretty easily to enjoy the city life, but then come back out to the valley to raise your family and be at home.
So, Tarzana has been a place where celebrities have congregated in the past several years. We've seen celebrities like Matt LeBlanc, Kelly Cuoco, Maya Rudolph, Khloe Kardashian. Those types of celebrities have all spent time and lived in Tarzana. For many years, the Haskells appeared to live in peace.
Mei worked as an accountant and ran an organization to help fellow Chinese immigrants to America. Meanwhile, Sam did photoshoots and made short films. He was active on social media, mainly TikTok. From 2022 to 2023, he uploaded many clips to the app, and he had a habit of name-dropping. Everyone from skincare influencers like Patrick Ta to celebrity friends like Brad Pitt.
Hey, what's up you guys? Hey, shout out to Patrick Taw for keeping my skin hydrated. You can hardly tell that I've had acne for like the past 20 something years. So epic. It's like an epic vampire move. Like pull up in an Escalade outside Paul Wesley's crib. Kids are like, dad, where's mom going? What's mom doing? And she's like, oh, she's going to go chill with Brad Pitt. She's going to go chill with Brad Pitt for a while. Maybe go to a concert.
But not all of his TikToks were so cheery and upbeat. Some of them took a more sarcastic tone and seemed to reveal his personal and professional frustrations, as well as potential substance abuse. Yo, shout out to LinkedIn for just making it like so much more streamlined for me to be told no repeatedly. Like my resume says unhappy, bitter, resentful.
and like really good at ordering off the menu. Real quick, you guys, by mistake, and the number one thing they talked about was consistency, like be consistent. Now I'm consistently never going to stop drinking. Using the pseudonym Sam Basinger and the Instagram handle Tragic Streets with a Z, he slid into women's DMs to request they do photo shoots with him.
But his social media presence was throwing a signal that something was off. One model who worked with him made a similar assessment. He's always hit me up through Instagram to do photo shoots and photoshoots.
Of course, in the beginning, I was kind of scared to do a photo shoot with him, but the consistent asking, eventually I took in the offer. I always knew he was a little bit more different. He was always very different, but I took it as he was just very passionate about his work. And it wasn't just online that Haskell had an eerie presence. There was also concern from people that knew him in real life.
One of his neighbors described him as socially awkward, though she was quick to clarify that he didn't strike her as creepy. She said, "When I say the socially awkward part, he was just very quiet, kind of pensive, always seemed to be deep in thought about something." Other neighbors went further with their descriptions.
The neighbors we spoke with, well, they described May as a really loving and hardworking mother who also really cared for and loved her parents, which was such a stark contrast with her husband, Samuel Haskell. The neighbors described Samuel as strange and weird, a bit off and kind of a creepy vibe, to be honest.
There was a sense among neighbors in the area that there was really something off about him, and they didn't really understand the dynamics of their relationship. In addition to being standoffish, Haskell also had a large collection of weapons like crossbows and samurai swords, which he proudly displayed.
That same neighbor was so concerned about these that she forbade her children from playing anywhere near them. And apparently even Haskell's wife was uncomfortable having the weapons in her house because they also had three young boys running around. But in the end, it wasn't her sons that she needed to be worried about.
In the fall of 2023, an old friend of Haskell's ran into him and said he was acting strangely, saying, "He seemed very paranoid, and then he sat in the far back of the restaurant away from everybody. So that was just weird, even for Sam." Coming up, Haskell's paranoia and general strangeness escalates into a series of unthinkable acts with a twist like something taken straight out of one of his slasher movies.
This guy was as cold and calculated as they come. Maybe we weren't going to get it solved.
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In the fall of 2023, then 35-year-old Sam Haskell Jr. was living with his 37-year-old wife, May Lee, her two parents, and their three sons in the charming enclave of Tarzana, California. To their neighbors, the family was a bit of an enigma. No one could quite figure out what was going on between Sam and May. People liked her well enough. She seemed to be kind and hardworking. As for her husband...
Neighbors thought he was a little odd with his habits of keeping to himself and collecting unusual weapons. But nothing seems seriously amiss until a week after Halloween. On November 7th, Haskell paid $500 to hire a crew of four day laborers. He tasked them with hauling away a stack of heavy black plastic trash bags from in front of his family's home. Haskell told them the bags were full of rocks.
But when the men picked them up, something felt off. The bags didn't feel like they were full of rocks. They were heavy enough, but they felt soft, soggy, like they were full of meat. At first, the men attempted to complete the job, loading the bags up into their truck. But they only got about a block away before deciding they had to check what was in the bags.
So they stopped, pulled over, and opened one of them. The bags contained human body parts. Frightened and wanting no part of whatever was going on, the men immediately turned around. They returned to Haskell's house, where he tried to convince them that the body parts they'd seen were just Halloween decorations from the previous week.
But the laborers weren't convinced. They refused to do the job and left the bags on Haskell's driveway and returned the $500. Still, after leaving the Haskell home, something wasn't sitting right with the workers. If they had really seen severed body parts in the bag, and they believed they had, then a terrible crime had been committed. So they decided they had to report what they'd seen to the authorities. But they almost weren't able to do that.
And the men then attempted to report this incident to the police. But sort of the crazy thing is about this, that the police almost missed this heinous crime entirely because the men only spoke Spanish. And when they tried to alert authorities, they were bounced back between California Highway Patrol and LAPD. And then finally, they were told to call 911 and speak to a dispatcher there.
They did eventually make contact with the police and alert them to what happened. The men told officers that they'd left a suspicious bag on the driveway of the Haskell home, but by the time officers arrived at the scene, the bags were nowhere to be found. The case might have ended right then and there, but the very next morning, more evidence came to light. Around 6:00 in the morning, a man was searching through a dumpster when he made a grisly discovery amid the trash.
a dismembered female torso. Later, surveillance footage was found that showed a man who bore a strong resemblance to Haskell driving the same white Tesla that Haskell drove and dumping a bag into that very same dumpster the previous day. Authorities got a warrant to search the Haskell house, and at this time, they found blood and other evidence inside suggesting a serious crime had occurred there. So to recap,
Haskell pays some guys to dispose of bags full of human remains. They refuse. That same day, someone who fits his description dumps a bag of something into a dumpster. The day after that, a female torso is found in the same dumpster, and Haskell's house is found to have blood and evidence of a crime. Oh, and also, no one has seen Haskell's wife or her parents since the day before all of this went down.
No one has been convicted of anything here, but the evidence paints a pretty compelling picture in blood and gore. Haskell himself would be hard-pressed to come up with a better plot. Haskell was arrested later that day at a local mall of all places. Meanwhile, it took several weeks to positively identify the human remains found in the dumpster. According to the Los Angeles Coroner's Department,
The site was so violent and the cuts were so horribly disfiguring that it took them almost a month to identify her body. But eventually, investigators learned the truth. The torso belonged to Haskell's wife, May Lee. We spoke with Wayne Cheung, a friend of May's and an online gamer by the handle of D22Soso.
He said, in the grand scheme of things, he didn't know May for long, but their shared Asian American background helped them form a real bond. It actually wasn't that long. It was only a couple of years, but...
We, you know, a lot of Asian Americans bond very quickly because we go through very similar challenges. One being adherent to like the Asian culture and two just dealing with the American culture. So we're kind of caught in between this, like trying to appease both sides. She was a Chinese immigrant from a poor family in China. And again, she's a little bit younger than me, but we're relatively in a similar zone.
So when she came to America, she didn't have friends and there was a language barrier and just she felt very lonely. In California, Mei Li ran her own business, the Haskell Consulting Group, where she coached and tutored foreign students to help them gain admission to top U.S. colleges. This was her way of paying it forward and making the difficult process she went through a little easier for the next generation.
I think it's less so like as she became older, she was more at peace with the way that she grew up. She just really had a passion for making sure kids like her didn't feel the way that she grew up. One of her projects was helping Asian, mostly Chinese immigrant children
kind of develop themselves like whatever they were interested in, if they wanted to get, you know, just to help them buff up their standings and to get into college, babysitting, mentoring, tutoring. She was literally the only Chinese person in her high school. And she just felt this loneliness. And I think that carried over into adulthood. And she really enjoyed working with these kids to make sure they're taken care of and they don't feel alone.
Chi-young described May as being charming, driven, and with a sense of self. Very charismatic, very independent. Like you can't, she has her own beliefs. You can't ever tell her like what to think. The more you tell her what to think, the more she's going to say no. And she's just very loyal, kind, especially giving to children. Just she never wanted, like I said, never wanted a child to feel like alone.
Some people who have a lonely childhood can try to compensate by associating with as many people as they can when they're older, collecting acquaintances and connections, almost like a form of currency. As the daughter-in-law of a well-connected Hollywood power player, Mae was in a prime position to seek this out. But Chi Young says she wasn't motivated to rub elbows with the rich and famous. No.
She had access to like a lot. I'm sure she has more access than me, even on her own without any of that. We live in LA. There's so many people that are just famous and it just like, you just get desensitized. You don't even care. It's like in the beginning, you're like, oh my God. In the first like X months or year, you're just like, oh my God. Then, then in the end, it's like, oh, you know, they're just people, you know?
Given that Mae seemed unmoved by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, it seems even more surprising that she ended up with Haskell. They seem to have come from very different backgrounds. He was raised in LA by a power agent and a beauty queen. She was raised in a poor family in China. For his part, Chi-Young speculated on what might have brought the two together. Okay, so admittedly, I'm going to have a biased point of view in the sense that I'm told one side.
her side i don't know how true it is she's a very honest person i would tend to like not think that anything was dishonest but it's also one-sided so i'm under the impression that sam was predatory basically isolated her and other other women too that were kind of in this like lonely state and just you know was predatory but again this is really tough because i only know her side
So I don't really want to put too much stock in this because this is potentially spanning decades. Obviously, we can't know the inner workings of her relationship between two people, much less once one of them is dead. But according to Chi-Young, in addition to any pressure Haskell might have put on her, Mei's traditional Chinese upbringing might have also added to the feeling that she couldn't leave the relationship once she was in it.
So one of the things was she wanted to get divorced with Sam, but her parents were like, you know, we're Asian, we don't really get divorced. And she's just like, okay. And that's just one of many examples of, but I think the parents and her were always good. We all appreciate and respect the way that we were raised.
way more good was done than bad. But some of the things that may be difficult, we just have to suppress that kind of conflict because of the overall respect that we have for our parents. I knew that she was in an unhappy relationship, but I had no idea how of the context until afterwards, because she was always very
positive and chipper-y. And I know she was protecting some of her personal life, but that's like normal. I don't know if that makes sense. It's just like everyone's obviously entitled to their own personal life in a private manner. This is, of course, all speculation. But it seems they had a lot to potentially clash over. His weapon collection, her parents coming to live with them, and of course, their finances.
Sources say that May was the family's main breadwinner. This might have shaped Haskell, particularly since he couldn't seem to get his own career to the level he wanted. Ultimately, we'll never know. All we know is that in November 2023, May's torso was found in a dumpster, the same dumpster her husband allegedly threw a suspicious bag into. Up next...
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Turning to that gruesome discovery on Wednesday in Encino, a torso of a female found in a dumpster. Tonight, frightening new details emerging surrounding the home of the man who's been arrested. In November of 2023, the discovery of a mutilated body turned a quiet, affluent neighborhood upside down. The remains were eventually identified as belonging to May Lee Haskell, wife of Sam Haskell, the son of a Hollywood power agent.
Wayne Chiang, a friend of Mei Li's, couldn't believe it when he first heard the news. So our mutual friend told me and I was just, I was in disbelief because I knew he wasn't kidding, even though, I just knew he wasn't kidding. And I was just like, I was like, how? I literally saw her a week ago and texted with her. I texted her less than a week ago. And now it's really chilling because she had alerts on, like it says, if it was red.
So when I texted her, it said read, but she never responded. I figured she was busy. And now I realize like it wasn't her that read the text. So that's like, it's a really weird emotion. Mei had been living in Tarzana along with her husband, Sam, their three sons, and Mei's parents, Gao Shanli and Yan Shi'en Wang. But her parents haven't been seen since November 6th.
and to this day, their bodies have not been found. Haskell was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, as well as special circumstance allegations that would increase the sentencing if convicted. He was held without bail. Haskell pled not guilty to all three counts. Then, in a surprising move, he abruptly changed attorneys, and from there, his behavior got even stranger.
During his first court appearance back in November, Haskell did not wear a shirt. He was seen scowling during the proceedings while May's friends carried handmade signs proclaiming their support for her. When he was brought before the judge for the second time, Haskell again appeared shirtless. Apparently, the sheriff's department determined that he was at risk of harming himself and wanted him to wear an anti-self-harm vest.
To protect the wearer, these specialized garments are made of heavy material that cannot be rolled into a noose. But, according to Haskell's lawyer, he had a medical condition that prevented him from wearing the vest, and the Sheriff's Department wouldn't let Haskell wear a regular shirt, gown, or even a blanket.
Haskell's defense pleaded with the judge to let his client cover up in the courtroom, saying that making Haskell appear naked from the waist up has led to rampant speculation in the media and that the situation is dehumanizing and creates an inaccurate image of Mr. Haskell. I believe that.
Authorities were attempting to dress him in an outfit that would prohibit any sort of self-harm or self-mutilation. He was refusing to wear that. He did show up in court without wearing a shirt and just overall looked extremely disheveled. His state of mind looked deeply concerning to people who were in the courthouse. And he just kind of
kept muttering strange things to himself didn't seem incredibly present for those court appearances. As if to complete the disturbing image, Haskell also carried a small clear bag filled with his personal effects, including a carton of milk and a handful of dog biscuits. It's still early days in the case. More evidence is still coming out about the nature of May's death. For example,
The coroner found a sharp force injury at the neck and remarkably smooth bone margins, suggesting that a sharp powered tool was likely used in the decapitation and dismemberment. And then there was the finding that May Lee might not have even been dead during the entire ordeal. There is a possibility she was still alive when her head was sliced from her body.
As for a concrete motive, it's still anyone's guess what was going through the killer's mind. Police haven't shared any sort of motive or, you know, any reasoning for this crime. Really just the neighbor's testimony to the strange nature of the two's relationship and sort of just the strange behavior and overall attitude of Samuel Haskell in general.
Some of Mei's extended family, many of whom still live in China, have said that while they haven't heard of any fights or discussions of divorce, the family's finances were a strain on the relationship. That's certainly understandable, particularly if Mei was single-handedly bankrolling their expensive lifestyle and keeping the family afloat. Meanwhile, Haskell's parents were loaded. Sure.
Yeah, so I think the interesting thing about this case and why it garnered so much attention is Samuel Haskell himself and his rearing and childhood in Los Angeles. He clearly had Hollywood and the entertainment world at his fingertips. His father was a huge Hollywood executive producer. His mother was an actress, yet he was not achieving that level of fame. And
as almost a way to punish the world for not giving him what he believed that he deserved. He committed such heinous crimes against his family and the people close to him. I think people were really enticed by this story, not just because of the shocking, gruesome nature of it, but you think how does someone who has seen
seemingly everything and everything to work for and live for. A happy family, a wife, three kids, the possibility of a future career in the entertainment industry. How do you go from there to taking that all away from yourself and the rest of the world? For now, it's too early to draw conclusions from the horrifying findings.
There's still plenty of time for twists and turns in this unhappily ever after. Right now he's awaiting trial at a Los Angeles County jail.
And if convicted, Haskell will face life in prison without the possibility of parole. And even the Los Angeles district attorney, George Gascon, who has been notoriously soft on crime and seeking alternatives to long prison sentences, he has actually made it very clear that he doesn't see any sort of leniency happening in this case. But whether Haskell is found guilty or not, it seems impossible that there will ever be true restitution.
How do you even begin to think about what justice looks like in a case this shocking? Wayne Chiang isn't even sure it's possible to make things right. It's really tough because I've discussed with like a lot of parties what
justice would look like and I I don't even know and I don't even one I don't I don't know and and it doesn't that's not even like kind of the the point it's like this tragedy happened and the conclusion to a lot of our discussions is we just even though there's a void missing we should continue living with the positive influences that she had in our lives to honor her
So even if this true Hollywood tale turns out to have an unhappy ending, at least there's that silver lining. Thank you for tuning in to The Opportunist. This episode was written by Nani Okulagu and executive produced by Connor Powell. We'll be back in a few weeks with new stories about people seeing an opportunity to get ahead and taking it. Until next time.
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