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Continuing our coverage of different true crime events, if you’ve never seen the 2006 American crime drama Alpha Dog, then you’re seriously missing out. First of all, this film is worth watching for the nicknames alone. There are characters named “Bobby 911”, “Lumpy,” Frankie “Nuts” Ballenbacher, and Johnny Truelove. The film basically follows a group of spoiled degenerate kids living in the San Gabriel Valley and selling drugs.
Despite living in beautiful homes in one of the most expensive parts of the country, these kids act like gangsters and even carry guns. However, when one of these drug-dealing degenerates takes his debt collecting a little too far, it leads to one of the strangest murder cases you’ve ever heard of, rarely found on true crime podcasts.
What’s even weirder? This film is based on the true story of the murder of Nicholas Markowitz that occurred in the Santa Ynez Mountains of California in 2000. And indeed, the lawyer of the alleged ringleader of this band of drug dealers tried to block the release of this film, saying that it portrayed his client in a negative light.
The case of the Nicholas Markowitz murder is sad, tragic, confusing, and highly controversial. However, due to the strange nature of this crime and the incredible ensemble cast that was put together for Alpha Dog, this movie is supremely entertaining. And, from what many of the people surrounding the Markowitz case have said, a large portion of this film was accurate to the true story.
Alpha Dog the Movie
The 2006 film Alpha Dog starred Emile Hirsch as Johnny Truelove, the leader of a group of drug-dealing degenerates living in the San Gabriel Valley, an area of Los Angeles County. Justin Timberlake also appears in this film as Frankie “Nuts” Ballenbacher, Johnny Truelove’s right-hand man (who seems to have a better moral compass than the rest of the group).
Bruce Willis plays Sonny Truelove, Johnny’s father. Ben Foster plays Jake Mazursky, another degenerate who owed a bunch of money to Johnny Truelove for drugs. And Anton Yelchin plays Zack Mazursky, Jake’s little brother, who gets kidnapped by Johnny Truelove as collateral.
The plot of the film is fairly simple. Johnny Truelove and his buddies are living it up in the San Gabriel Valley, dealing drugs, having parties, being misogynists, and generally behaving like wannabe gangsters. One night, Johnny Truelove (the ringleader) gets into a fistfight with Jake Mazursky (a guy who owes him money). After that, in an attempt to persuade Jake Mazursky to pay him back, Johnny Truelove kidnaps Zack Mazursky, Jake’s little brother.
While Johnny and his goons have Zack captive, they take him to parties, give him a bunch of drugs and alcohol, and even help him have sex. It seems Zack kind of likes being kidnapped. Unfortunately, the drug dealers become skittish that Zack is going to rat them out when they let him go and then they’re going to be prosecuted for kidnapping.
So, to solve the problem, one member of the group of degenerates named Elvis (played by Shawn Hatosy) murders Zack under the direction of Johnny Truelove. All of the members of the gang of drug dealers are swiftly arrested soon after except for Johnny Truelove, who is found in Paraguay five years later and brought back to California to face the death penalty.
Johnny Truelove and Zack Mazursky
The two main interests in this film are Johnny Truelove (the ringleader) and Zack Mazursky (the victim). So, who were these two based on? And how much of what happened in the film was accurate?
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Johnny Truelove’s character was based on a real person with an equally as ridiculous name: Jesse James Hollywood, son of Jack Hollywood. Jesse James Hollywood was raised in the West Hills neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Investigators believe that Hollywood started selling drugs only about a year before the murder. But, during that time, he was able to build up a profitable business with his friends Jesse Rugge, William Skidmore, and Brian Affronti. All of these kids were from affluent families living in one of the richest parts of the United States.
Another associate of Jesse James Hollywood was Ben Markowitz (who the character of Jake Mazursky is based on), who apparently owed Hollywood a $1,200 drug debt. Apparently, when Hollywood, Skidmore, and Rugge were on their way to try to collect the debt from Ben Markowitz, they noticed Ben’s half-brother Nicholas Markowitz (who the character of Zack Mazursky is based on) walking down the street.
The trio decided to kidnap Nicholas and hold him for ransom (just like in the film). Many witnesses saw Nicholas Markowitz with the gang but didn’t realize anything was wrong. They even brought Nicholas to a party that they threw at the Lemon Tree Inn.
However, once Hollywood learned how much trouble he could get in for kidnapping, he instructed one of his goons named Ryan Hoyt (who the character of Elvis Schmidt is based on) to murder Nicholas Markowitz with a TEC-9 that he provided.
As instructed, Hoyt brought Nicholas Markowitz out to a mountain range north of Santa Barbara, hit him in the back of the head with a shovel, and then shot him several times, killing him. Nicholas’s body was buried in a shallow grave and found several days later.
Similar to the film, Hoyt, Rugge, Skidmore, and another man named Pressley were all arrested shortly after. Jesse James Hollywood went on the but was eventually captured in a small town near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, five years later. Hollywood is now serving life in prison without parole.
How Much of the Film Was Accurate?
Nick Cassavetes, the writer and director of Alpha Dog, has claimed that the film is about 95% accurate to the true events in the case of Nicholas Markowitz’s murder. Apparently, he dug into the actual case files provided by the prosecution, looked at crime-scene photos, read police and probation reports, and went through countless hours of audio and video tape during the production of Alpha Dog.
So, a large portion of the film is based on the true details of the case. For instance, at one point during Alpha Dog, Zack Mazursky is seen unbound and playing video games with his captors. According to testimony from Brian Affronti (on who the character Bobby 911 is based), the real Nicholas Markowitz was seen playing video games and smoking weed from a bong while held captive at a house in Santa Barbara.
Throughout the movie, Zack Mazursky has a ton of chances to escape from his captors but chooses not to. And it even seems as if Mazursky was enjoying hanging out with these guys at certain moments. According to investigators into the real case, Nicholas Markowitz also had ample chances to escape but chose not to. In fact, according to testimony from one woman who he came in contact with while kidnapped, he said, “I’ve taken self-defense and stuff, it’s not like I couldn’t do anything right now, I just don’t want to. I don’t see a reason to, I’m going home, why would I complicate it?”
However, the infamous scene where Zack Mazursky has a threesome with the two women in the pool is not based on fact. There were reports of Nicholas Markowitz swimming in a pool while attending a party. There were women present at the party but Markowitz did not have sex with anyone.
Just like in the movie, most of the thugs involved in the kidnapping were arrested promptly after Markowitz’s death except for Jesse James Hollywood. Hollywood was captured in Brazil five years later (whereas the character Johnny Truelove was found in Paraguay) and received a life sentence without the possibility for parole.
