🚨 I GOT KIDNAPPED OVER THE CROWBAR KILLER STORY. THEY FORGOT TO TAKE MY PHONE.

The "Crowbar Killer" Says It Was a Joke. Her Friend Isn't So Sure. Either Way, Her Crew Took Me to a Rooftop Over It.

By Alex Sterling, who was there — and recording.

First, the retraction

Last week I reported that a woman known as the Crowbar Killer — "Hell Razor" — was seen dragging a victim into Pillbox Hospital, and that she'd claimed multiple victims. She told me that herself, to my face, at the hospital.

I'm retracting the "serial killer with multiple victims" part. She now says she made it up.

She told me that on a rooftop, with guns pointed at me. So take that for what it's worth. More on that below.

How I ended up on a rooftop

After we re-ran the story on a tip, I got a second tip with a callback number. I did what I do — I followed it. That's how I ended up standing on a roof surrounded by an armed group who thought I was somebody else.

They wanted whoever posted the Crowbar Killer story. They'd decided it was my colleague Ross. Couldn't find Ross. So they grabbed me instead. Their words: "We couldn't get Ross, so they got you instead."

Wrong reporter. Bad start.

The tip was bait

At one point I read the tip number aloud to the group and asked if anyone recognized it.

A man calling himself Finkelstein — the one who'd already introduced himself by bragging that he runs a tunnel "with guns and drugs in it" — answered: "That's my number, dumb fuck." Then he explained the plan: "It's all a catch to get you out of that little shelter you guys always hide in. See, that's how easy you are to fool."

So to recap: they made up a tip to lure a reporter out of the newsroom, and then mocked the reporter for following the tip they made up.

Fine. But here's the part they should have thought about.

They didn't take my phone. Or my camera.

I'm a reporter. I carry a camera. They knew that — I offered to play back my footage of the Pillbox scene for them and was told, "No, I'd rather you not have that."

They still didn't take it.

They also didn't take my phone. Halfway through the conversation I asked, out loud, "Are you guys gonna kill me if I pull my phone out?" The answer was, "No, it's fine." So I pulled it out.

Triple-tap the back of the phone. Voice recorder on. That's it. That's the whole trick.

Everything below is off that recording. Everything in quotes is verbatim.

Amateurs.

What Hell Razor says happened at Pillbox

Her name is Hillary. Her account now: the person she was carrying into Pillbox was her friend Penny, hurt while the two of them were "sparring" during their first days in the city. Penny screaming that Hillary was the Crowbar Killer, and the "cowboy" Willie Wankus hyping it up, was — Hillary's word — "content."

I reminded her that she'd told me, in person, that she was a serial killer with two prior victims.

"You can post that I lied, but at least I'm not a killer."

Noted.

What Penny says happened

After they let me go, I called Penny. Asked her straight: Hillary's saying it was all a prank. True?

"Um, well, I don't know what to say."

Then: "I know that she killed someone with a crowbar when we first flew into the city, but it kinda seemed like an accident."

I asked if Hillary did it again — to her. "Not with a crowbar." But she confirmed she went to the hospital "after she did hurt me that one time," and that her memory of it is hazy.

So: sparring partners making content. Or a person killed with a crowbar that "kinda seemed like an accident," and a friend who can't quite remember how she ended up in Pillbox. Hillary told me one version on a rooftop. Her friend told me another on the phone. You're reading both. Decide for yourself.

Penny says she's been kidnapped twice herself in all this and just wants to rest. She's agreed to sit down with me. Wankit is invited.

The threats, verbatim

  • Before I'd said much of anything: "If he shows up, I'll just gun him down. I can care less."
  • When I said I had a story to publish: "I don't think you're gonna be leaving here to publish that story."
  • On the roof: multiple guns on me, and a man named Jason holding a machete. I mentioned this out loud. Nobody disagreed.
  • Finkelstein, on the record: "If my name ends up in an article, every single one of you at that news station is going to be dead."

His name is Finkelstein. He's in the article. It's recorded.

The demands

They wanted the story retracted. I told them I'd retract anything shown to be false — which is what I'm doing, above, for the one claim Hillary herself walked back. That's how retractions work. Guns don't factor in.

The release

I was told to "get out of here for your safety." I asked for a ride. They said no. Somebody suggested I rent a BMX.

We were on a roof.

I took the elevator and walked.

Why any of this happened

By Hillary's own account, the whole chain — the tips, the kidnappings, hers and mine — traces back to a falling-out with a former friend, MJ, whose "feelings she hurt." She summed it up better than I can:

"It's fucking bananas."

Bottom line

  • The "serial killer, multiple victims" claim is retracted. Hillary says she made it up.
  • Whether the crowbar part was made up — her own friend says someone died. Draw your own conclusions.
  • Finkelstein and his crew faked a tip, kidnapped the wrong reporter, threatened the whole newsroom, and left my phone in my pocket.
  • I was told publishing means we die. This is me publishing.

If you see any of these individuals, expect the same level of judgment they showed here.

Alex Sterling, Los Santos News