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00:00I got the call at work from my mom, we have a problem, Alex.
00:22My stomach drops.
00:23They move in, but then they won't pay and they won't leave.
00:29If you don't stop squatters right away, it can take months to get them out.
00:33Jameson Bachman was a very scary person.
00:38The suspect will be charged with first degree murder.
00:42You've made me uncomfortable, unsafe in my own home.
00:46Get the motherfucker out.
00:59I was at the time working in a law firm and I talked to my attorneys that I worked with
01:06and told them the information that I had.
01:09They were like, you're in very deep.
01:13And they helped me with the letter.
01:14I gave it to him in writing.
01:17And the attorneys that I worked for advised me to get them out.
01:22As soon as possible, you're in danger.
01:28I said, I think we have to enlist the landlord.
01:33Landlord wanted no part of it.
01:35Jameson Bachman understood enough about tenancy laws to know that once he was in the apartment,
01:41there was no way he was going to leave except on his own terms.
01:47He was a serial squatter who had terrorized roommates up and down the east coast.
01:52And he was living in my house.
01:56I didn't know what to do.
01:57So I thought about how to do this properly, legally.
02:02I'm going to have to do things that are going to make him uncomfortable.
02:09To make my home a place that he did not want to be anymore.
02:16I knew of some of Jameson's dislikes, which included smoking, drinking, rap music, loud
02:23noise.
02:25So I took those dislikes and came up with an idea to have a party.
02:34I was going to have Jameson whiskey served to send farewell to Jameson, bringing on the
02:42ruckus.
02:43I'm a Wu-Tang girl, baby.
02:48That's a story for another time.
02:55Alex invited probably 20 or 30 friends.
03:01I was there.
03:02I wanted to be a part of the party.
03:07Jameson was in his room.
03:09He had an online tutoring business.
03:13And it was in the time slot when he normally did his online tutoring.
03:19People were smoking pot, I was blasting Wu-Tang, punk rock, things that were very obnoxious.
03:28People knelt down and blew cigarette smoke under his door.
03:34And I knew one thing that would make him very uncomfortable was that I knew of his sordid
03:40And I knew that he was going to be a part of the room.
03:49And I knew that he was going to be a part of the room.
03:52So everyone was talking about him so that he was being bombarded on all senses.
03:59And his friends were like, hey, he came out, whoa, this is exciting.
04:06He didn't really understand what was going on until he saw.
04:14My apartment was littered with the quotes from his website and the article from the city paper.
04:22Time's up, squatter.
04:26I know your name, Jameson Bachman, you're not going to take over my space.
04:34But he put on a really good face, like kind of a joker smile.
04:41Which is when I said, don't you want to join the party?
04:44He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
04:47He went back into his room.
04:49He came back out with the dog and walked out.
04:56Alex's friend took a screwdriver and took the door handle off of his bedroom door.
05:06So he couldn't lock himself in there.
05:11Jameson came back in, slammed his way into his room, and then discovered he couldn't lock his door.
05:18So he was really annoyed.
05:24He was kind of bristling with anger.
05:28He was pacing in his room.
05:34I turned up.
05:36I turned up the music.
05:37I cranked it louder.
05:39And we will party every day until it's over.
05:44Unless it happens to you, it's hard to understand.
06:02But it can happen.
06:03It happened to me.
06:04It happened to other people.
06:06I didn't know Jameson was a squatter.
06:10You know, if I had a crystal ball and I'd have known, I never would have let him in my home.
06:16Biggest mistake.
06:18Once they're in, you can't get them out.
06:21It's not that easy.
06:27Jameson lived there with me for almost four years.
06:31And, you know, people say, well, God, Arlene, four years he was with you?
06:36I mean, yeah.
06:38I couldn't get rid of him.
06:40At one point, I was ready to leave, but I knew he wouldn't pay the rent.
06:44And I didn't want to screw my landlord, Peter, so I stayed.
06:48But something had to give.
06:50It just had to.
06:51It was just unbearable.
07:00It was October 13, 2010.
07:04I, you know, got the cable bill and I handed it to Jameson.
07:09I said, here, I need you to pay this from now on, because I'm not paying it anymore.
07:13He refused to pay anything.
07:18And I just, I just lost it.
07:22So I slapped him.
07:26He was in my face.
07:28I slapped him.
07:29He was, he was choking me.
07:33And I thought at that point he was going to kill me.
07:37So I kicked him really hard with my knee.
07:42And he, and he let go.
07:43And I, and I ran out of the apartment.
07:46I called 911.
07:48And then he called 911.
07:50So two police officers came, one for me, one for him.
07:54And I'm telling the police officer what happened.
07:57He said, go to family court tomorrow morning and get an order of protection against him.
08:06But before I got an order of protection against him,
08:10Jameson went and got an order of protection against me.
08:14And they served me with the papers.
08:17But Jameson didn't say he wanted me out.
08:21So we were living together with two orders against each other.
08:27So it was just, this went on for about six weeks.
08:33That's when the shit hit the fan, so to speak.
08:39It was November 17th, 2010.
08:43I went to Peter, my landlord, and I told him what was going on.
08:47And I said, I want Jameson out.
08:49I can't get him out.
08:50He won't leave.
08:51Would you come with me to tenant court to file eviction?
08:56So we went that morning, and Jameson must have overheard me.
09:03And when I came back home, I was in the mirror,
09:07and I was putting on, you know, a little bit of makeup.
09:13He was behind me, just standing there, glaring at me.
09:19Dark, dark eyes gave me the chills.
09:26He then left, just abruptly left.
09:31And I got on the subway, went into the city.
09:34My phone rings.
09:35It's Peter, my landlord.
09:39He's like, Arlene, the cops are here looking for you.
09:43So, went to the precinct.
09:46The detective came out and said, Arlene, I have to arrest you.
09:49And I said, for what?
09:51And he said, well, because you came after Jameson with a knife.
09:54I said, really?
09:55When did that happen?
09:57He says, this morning.
09:58I said, that didn't happen.
10:02Apparently, he called the police telling them that I came at him with a knife.
10:07It was a felony charge.
10:09Then they took me to central booking and threw me in a cell with, like, ten other women.
10:17I never thought anything like that would ever happen.
10:22I mean, you can't make this up, you know?
10:24It's just, it was just unbelievable to me.
10:27And I was just in shock.
10:30I was there overnight, and the judge calls me in.
10:37And the judge said, you can't go back to your home.
10:42Uh, and you're on probation for a year.
10:46I pleaded with him, I said, you know, it's my apartment, I pay the rent, I pay all the bills.
10:57It doesn't matter.
10:59Because he got the order of protection against me first.
11:02So that gave Jameson the power to stay there.
11:05I felt like I was in the twilight zone.
11:11I didn't know what to do.
11:12I just remember it was about maybe 11 o'clock at night.
11:16I remember, you know, getting close to Queens Boulevard and seeing the bus come.
11:22And I thought about throwing myself in front of it.
11:28I can't even describe the feeling.
11:31He had my cats.
11:35Two were very ill, and they needed medication.
11:38So to go back to the apartment, I had to get a court order.
11:43And that took time.
11:46But before I could get in to the apartment,
11:50he took the two sick cats to a kill shelter.
11:56By the time I got to them, one of my cats I had to euthanize because she was just too far gone.
12:04And he kept two of my other cats, Abby and Emma.
12:10And I just felt like I failed my cats, you know, by leaving this monster with them.
12:17He was a sociopath, Jameson.
12:30Well, after Arlene got arrested, she was ordered to stay away, kicked out of her own apartment.
12:36Now, Jameson Barkham was my tenant.
12:39His hobby was wreaking havoc on people's lives.
12:44Did he wreak havoc on your life?
12:46He sure did.
12:54It was all-out war.
12:56It was me trying to get him out.
12:58Jameson would constantly harass myself and my tenant by making life as miserable as possible.
13:05He would run the water constantly, 24-7.
13:09You know, to increase the water bill, so I have to pay more.
13:13When I tried to shut it off, when the police would come, you're gonna get arrested.
13:20He knew all the laws.
13:23And he would throw kitty litter out the back window into my yard.
13:27He'd walk from room to room with this huge log and drop it on the floor to annoy the tenant downstairs.
13:41He started to threaten me with the housing authority and started to file the complaints.
13:46And I was spending time in court more than I have in my whole life.
13:51These are the court documents, over 50 pages of stuff.
14:01When we'd go to court, I'd have other lawyers come into the room, listen to Jameson, and tell me that I have a problem.
14:10Jameson knew the law better than the court system.
14:16Even though he was the lawyer?
14:17Yes.
14:19The scariest thing is a brilliant psycho, you know.
14:25It went on and on.
14:27And he managed to stay there for over another year.
14:31It was February 2012 when Jameson was evicted.
14:35When he finally had to leave, I went over there.
14:41He took two of my other cats.
14:43And I pleaded with him to give them back to me.
14:47And he wouldn't.
14:49He got in the U-Haul truck and just drove off.
14:54I don't know whatever happened to them.
14:55I'm sorry.
14:56I'm sorry.
14:57I'm sorry.
15:00I'm sorry.
15:01I don't know.
15:02I don't know.
15:03This is where I used to live.
15:05This is where I used to live, the apartment I had bought, in 2006.
15:27This was supposed to be my forever home, and now I can't afford to retire.
15:34That was my balcony, the third going up.
15:40I remember that balcony well because it's where I used to put my Christmas lights up,
15:45the big globe ones.
15:47And I took a picture that was one of the last Christmas pictures I took before things changed.
15:59You have to understand that when I first met him, nowhere in my mind did he strike me as
16:06a person that was sneaky.
16:10You know, he didn't portray that until he was served with the eviction papers and he threatened
16:19that he was going to take my home.
16:21That's when he started becoming more vocal and his tone was more angry towards me.
16:31I remember laying in my bed thinking, oh, I'm scared I might lose my home.
16:36But Sony, Sonya, you should be more scared that that man is right there next door to you.
16:45And that's when I started thinking, who's to say that he's not going into my room?
16:52I think I'm going to test it.
16:56And that's when I found a long, empty wine bottle.
17:02And just before I left that night, I put it just behind my door and I closed it and I left
17:09to work.
17:11And the next morning, 9 o'clock, when I came in, I noticed that the bottle was moved against
17:19the wall.
17:21And I said right there, got you.
17:24So even though his door was open, I cordially knocked and I said, Jamison, you cannot be
17:33going into my room.
17:36My room is off limits.
17:39And right there, I saw that his ear went from a cream color to beet red, got really red.
17:47And he swung around his chair and he got up immediately.
17:52Then he came and he faced me and he's a tall man.
17:57He's like 6'2", you know, I'm 5'2".
18:00So he said, you think I'm going to your room?
18:04And I said, yeah.
18:05And he goes, well, go ahead, bring it on.
18:07And he got me angry to the point that I did a palm heel strike to the door.
18:13And I hit it and I said, get your face off my face because you're barking up the wrong
18:19tree, asshole.
18:21And I know that the reason why I felt empowered was because I had an experience where a friend
18:27of mine was murdered, actually.
18:30I took self-defense and I'm a third degree brown belt in jujitsu.
18:37And I looked at him and I said, I'm not one of your young, innocent girls that you can
18:42take advantage of.
18:43I know how to defend myself.
18:45And he just kept going like, go ahead, go ahead, bring it on.
18:48He started getting closer.
18:50And I said, what?
18:51I said, you're not even worth the breath that I'm breathing on you.
18:55And you know what?
18:56I'm going to go to church.
18:59And I just walked, I left them like that, so angry.
19:01And I felt so good going, huh, and kind of walking away.
19:06And I just walked, I left the place and I went to church.
19:10You can see it swirling right over my shoulder here, what's being called a super storm tonight.
19:14A hurricane wrapped up in a giant nor'easter, pumped up by the jet street.
19:19I was waiting for the court date in order to evict Jamison from the apartment, but Hurricane
19:25Sandy arrived.
19:26We're here in the Rockaway section of Queens in New York City.
19:29And it's one of the areas that New York City officials have told to evacuate.
19:33And so I left Jamison at the apartment, and I went to Brooklyn, where my mother lives.
19:41I came home two weeks after the hurricane.
19:52And when I arrived to the apartment, Jamison was gone, and I knew that there's nothing for
20:04him here now.
20:06He took everything from his room.
20:08His animals were gone, and I don't know what he did after that.
20:16Once I fell behind due to Jamison's saga, I could never recover.
20:22I lost my home due to foreclosure.
20:29And it still hurts me today, you know, because I loved my home.
20:34I had such a beautiful home.
20:37And I don't have it, you know, and I don't know that I'll ever be able to afford anything
20:43like that.
20:45Yeah, it sucks.
20:57After he left, in my heart, I couldn't be at rest thinking, you know, where is this man?
21:05And what is he doing today?
21:06Like, did he straighten up or not?
21:08And this is when I did a search for him online, and I said, oh, my God, he just left and did
21:15the same thing to someone else.
21:30I agreed to come talk with you today because there's more to Jamison.
21:36Then a serial squatter and a violent man.
21:42Jamison was a very complicated person.
21:47I later found out that his family was disappointed in him, while his brother Harry was very successful.
21:55Even his grandfather, whom he revered, said, you were the horse I bet on and you let me down.
22:03I got a feeling of resentment and anger from him.
22:09For 30 years, I had absolutely no contact with Jamie.
22:16So I was always still curious about him, wanted to know how he was, wanted to know if he was still alive,
22:25wanted to know what his life was like, and then I found him on Facebook.
22:31And then we started calling each other and texting and catching up on news.
22:40As flawed as he was, he still knew me my whole life.
22:45I wanted to hold on to that.
22:48We had a lot of good laughs together.
22:50When we reconnected, he would often say, I don't know why I keep running into all these crazy women that do these things to me.
23:00He was always the victim.
23:02There were story after story after story talking about the latest person whose apartment he was squatting in and the disagreement he was having with them.
23:14And he would say, oh, I should go medieval on her.
23:21I just felt that he was blowing off steam to me.
23:25I never imagined that he would actually do anything like that, that the ending would be what it was.
23:34The Jameson whiskey ran out, party was over, people were tired, I was tired, my mom was like, wrap this up.
23:51Everyone went home, and the next morning, I woke up earlier than normal, maybe 4.30.
23:59I was brushing my teeth, Jameson came out of his room, went into the kitchen.
24:11For him to come out at 4.30 in the morning was unusual.
24:16He's uncomfortable.
24:22Now I'm like brushing my teeth, like, oh, I couldn't sleep so well.
24:25And then the door swings open, and Jameson comes in like a storm.
24:38And he gripped my throat up like this, pulled me and pushed me up against the wall, held me up against
24:47the wall, choking me, and got this close to my face.
24:55Looked me in my eyes, and said, you made a grave mistake, you stupid girl.
25:07And he laughed, he walked out.
25:11And went into his room.
25:13My adrenaline rose, my heartbeat rose, the anger inside me rose.
25:19I went, and I threw open his bedroom door.
25:26I said, what did you just say to me?
25:29He was feeding his cat, he had a knife in his hand.
25:34He came at me, slammed the door, my legs in the frame, over and over and over again, 10 times at least.
25:43And then slashed at my legs with a knife.
25:55I thought, oh, hell no.
25:59No.
25:59When I got to Alex's apartment, the police were already there.
26:06And they were questioning her about what she knew and what was going on.
26:12One of the officers recognized that I had something on my neck.
26:22He said, did somebody grip you up?
26:28And I said, yes.
26:29I was choked by that man over there.
26:34The officer said, do you have any other marks?
26:37Alex, I think I'm bleeding.
26:42He walked over to Jameson and put him in handcuffs.
26:49The police did say that it would be a good idea for Alex to file for an order for protection.
26:57So we did that.
26:58And the judge granted the order of protection with eviction.
27:04Confirmation then comes that he's been placed in jail.
27:12I could breathe a little bit.
27:17But I realized that I had very limited time.
27:21I needed to clear out his belongings, right?
27:24I went to work fast.
27:30Really unsettling things I uncovered.
27:35I saw lots and lots of documents.
27:42Other cases of people he had affected before, including Arlene and Sonia.
27:51And then I came across a plastic case that housed at one point a gun.
27:58But where's the gun?
28:02There's a gun somewhere.
28:04I was very afraid that if he got out of jail, he would come and kill her.
28:13The district attorney's office contacted me to let me know.
28:25His brother, Harry, bailed him out of jail.
28:28Everyone was in pins and needles about where he was staying, keep Alex safe.
28:36My mom wanted me to move out.
28:37She was very concerned for my safety.
28:40And I kept saying, no, I don't want to go.
28:43I cannot leave.
28:44But I couldn't stay that much longer.
28:49The property management declined their right to renew my lease.
28:53Because of what happened with James?
28:55Yeah, I had to leave.
28:57That's devastating.
28:59I know.
29:01I know.
29:03You don't have to remind me.
29:05I know.
29:11How dare this man come into my space and take it away from me?
29:19Jameson had been released from jail.
29:22We had a court hearing coming up.
29:25And I had to assure Jameson that his belongings were going to be returned to him in full.
29:33I said, why don't we just do it at a police department parking lot?
29:41I arrived with everything that he asked for except the dog.
29:52He got mad at this point and said, you are a dead bitch.
30:00You're fucking dead, bitch.
30:02I'll kill you.
30:06And sped off.
30:07I was scared.
30:09The fact that I knew that there was a gun looming out there somewhere.
30:12Talk about white as a sheet.
30:14She was shaking.
30:16And I said, you march your little behind right back into the police station.
30:23He just violated your protection order.
30:39So there was a period of time where I didn't hear from Jameson.
30:44And then he called me and I said, where have you been?
30:48What's going on?
30:49He said, well, he was in jail.
30:52It took a while for his brother to bail him out.
30:56We were texting and his texts about his brother were very angry.
31:04Because while Jameson was in jail, Harry didn't do this and Harry didn't do that.
31:09That it wasn't fair that they wouldn't give him a place to live.
31:13And he was just furious with his brother.
31:15So I reached out to Harry and said, I'm really worried about Jameson.
31:23He said, don't, don't get involved, Bob.
31:26This is, this is our issue.
31:28This is when I was worried the most.
31:38At this point, he didn't have any money, no job, no place to live, no pets.
31:43He said that a woman kept Zach and his cat had died.
31:58He said Abigail died in his arms.
32:03I did wonder if, uh, if he killed the cat.
32:08I don't like to think of that, but I do wonder if he did.
32:19Police say they were called around 1215 Saturday afternoon to this home on the 400 block of North
32:26Sterling Road in Elkins Park.
32:28Saturday, November 4th, 2017, Harry Bachman's wife had contacted the Cheltenham Township Police Department.
32:35The call was for a welfare check after the victim didn't show up to meet a relative the night before.
32:40I've been in the homicide unit for 20 years and I've been a lieutenant there for the past nine years.
32:45Harry Bachman's wife was concerned because he did not arrive as expected in Albany, New York.
32:51Those concerns were heightened because Harry had sent a text to his wife the night before saying,
33:00guess who just arrived?
33:03It was his brother.
33:05When the officers went to see if Harry Bachman was at the residence, his
33:11Ford Escape was not parked in front of the house.
33:19The officers entered the house.
33:21Inside the dining room area, there was signs of a violent struggle.
33:30There was a hole in the drywall of the dining room.
33:35There was a broken plate and also a computer keyboard that had been smashed and had blood spatter,
33:46smears all over the floor. It was a scene of violence.
33:51They then followed a blood trail down the basement stairs where they found Harry.
34:00His body had sustained apparent head trauma, blunt force trauma.
34:04There was a pile of bloody clothes down in the kitchen of the residence.
34:13The suspect had changed into Harry's clothing.
34:16Then detectives found Harry's iPhone 7 and there was a notification from a credit card company that
34:28there was a recent purchase at a nearby hotel.
34:32So we sent a team of detectives over and the hotel clerk identified Jamison Bachman as the individual
34:40who had checked into room 102.
34:41At that time we secured a search warrant and deployed a tactical response team to make entry into the room.
34:51Jamison Bachman started swinging a camp style axe.
35:02He struck one of the officers in the face. He struck another one in the arm.
35:07He was eventually tased and taken into custody.
35:2060-year-old Jamison Bachman is charged with his brother's murder.
35:24Now according to the district attorney, there was an obvious struggle and Harry Bachman died of what
35:30appeared to be blunt force trauma.
35:32Jameson was recently bailed out of jail by Harry, but Harry would not allow him to stay at his home
35:38due to Jameson's alleged history of violence.
35:44My very first feeling after complete shock was extreme anger.
35:52What I think about most
35:54is Harry's family.
36:00I just feel sad.
36:07Jameson was in jail for killing his brother Harry,
36:11and a court hearing was set for December 11th.
36:15I showed up at court.
36:18I waited for his arrival.
36:21Oh, where the fuck was Bachman?
36:24Where could he possibly be? He loves court.
36:37He was still winning on his terms when he hanged himself.
36:42The failed part of him figured that if he took his life,
36:48he would take everybody else's ability to control him.
36:57I feel sad.
37:01But I'm glad he's not around.
37:06I guess I wasn't surprised.
37:09He would often say, you know, I should just kill myself.
37:12I felt bad for him.
37:15But at the same time, I felt mad.
37:19Because he took the easy way out.
37:23You know, he really needed to do time.
37:25I felt bad for all of the people's lives that he destroyed.
37:35How dare he?
37:38First, he ended up destroying himself.
37:41Then he killed his brother, the only person in the world left to help him.
37:46And then he killed himself.
37:54There is no question in my mind that the things that he did were evil.
38:01He killed a father, a husband, a grandfather.
38:12And he killed my best friend.
38:13I do have to remind myself to let it go.
38:27I'm in a good place.
38:29I know that I'm a strong woman.
38:31I survived him.
38:34We move on from these things in life.
38:36Sure.
38:36Now my motto is, don't take care of anyone else until you can take care of yourself.
38:45That's what I'm doing.
38:46I'm empowering myself.
38:47I'm trying to rebuild my credit.
38:50And I'm trying to be better about healing myself.
38:56The top floor was my apartment.
39:01I'm not unhappy about not being here.
39:04I mean, I was for a long time, but now I'm over that.
39:08When I talk to people and I tell them my story, they don't believe me.
39:14And that's one of the reasons I'm doing this documentary.
39:17Because it's real.
39:18I want people out there to know that this can really happen to the strongest person.
39:22You can be strong and it can still happen to you.
39:25And I'm a strong person.
39:26I've never been weak.
39:28But I've moved on and I'm in a good place now.
39:31I have a nice apartment and a nice area.
39:36But roommate?
39:38Forget it.
39:39Not doing it.
39:48But undertook about healing healing.
39:54I believe.
39:56Not doing it.
39:58I'm I think it's real.
40:00Okay, so do you see it.
40:03I do not believe.
40:04舞台?
40:05I do not believe.
40:05Go god, I do not believe.
40:06And all the things that didn't belong to you.
40:08To me is you.
40:08To be perfect.
40:09For fuck me is your life.