A Pennsylvania man attacked and killed his neighbor this week using a knife and a chain saw while wearing a mask and costume like the one from the movie “Scream,” officials said.
The man then returned home and watched a movie until police came, according to a criminal complaint from the Pennsylvania State Police.
Police said Zak Moyer, 30, surrendered after the attack and was taken into custody without incident. He has been charged with criminal homicide and is being held at the Carbon County Correctional Facility.
Lehighton Borough police and later state police responded to an active assault incident Monday in Carbon County, in which a man attacked another man using a knife and a chain saw.
Officials found Edward Whitehead Jr., 59, who lived at the home, had been “struck” in the head with the weapons by a man who was “wearing a mask and a black costume-like garment, consistent with the ‘Scream’ movie character,” according to the criminal complaint.
Whitehead was taken to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, state police said. He had cuts on his right arm and on the right side of his head above his eyebrow, wounds on his hands that were “consistent with defensive wounds,” and “a large bleeding wound to the right side of the head,” the complaint said.
Security video showed the suspect leaving Whitehead’s home through the back door and entering the rear door of a home next door, where neighbors said Moyer lived, the complaint said.
Police established a perimeter around Moyer’s home and communicated with him through a notebook, the complaint said.
Moyer’s sister told police Monday that her brother told her a week ago that he wanted to kill Whitehead, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Moyer told police that he had gone to the family’s house Monday with a knife and a chain saw while wearing the “Scream” costume to scare them. Asked about the costume and the weapons, police said, Moyer admitted he had planned to kill Whitehead.
Moyer also admitted to stabbing Whitehead in the head, returning to his home to watch a movie until police arrived, and hiding the chain saw in the attic and the knife in his desk drawer, according to the criminal complaint.
Police said in a news release that the investigation is active and there is no threat to the surrounding community.
Suspect charged in Rockford, Illinois rampage that left 4 dead, 7 injured
Suspect charged in Rockford, Illinois rampage that left 4 dead, 7 injured
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A spring break sleepover turned into sheer horror for three teenage girls who were among the random victims of an alleged spree killer in Rockford, Illinois, a county prosecutor said.
Christian Soto stands accused of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder. One of the victims, Jenna Newcomb, 15, died trying to save her sister and her friend, according to Rockford’s mayor.
Officials disclosed the details at a news conference Thursday outlining the case against Soto.
“It’s spring break, girls watching a movie. I can’t even comprehend that,” said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara, choking on these words.
Jenna’s friend, who was only identified by her initials, had spent the night, and the girls were watching a movie in the basement on Wednesday afternoon, Winnebago County Prosecutor J. Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister was in the kitchen fixing something to eat around 1:30 p.m. when Soto entered the home through an unlocked back door off the garage.
Soto, who was covered in blood, grabbed one of Jenna’s softball bats, Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister, who also was not identified, ran to the basement to warn the girls.
Soto followed, cornered them in the room, and began hitting the girls with the bat, Hanley said. Jenna collapsed and lost consciousness.
She never recovered.
As Hanley described the horrifying details, he struggled to keep his composure.
At one point, Jenna’s friend was lying in a fetal position as Soto struck her on her left side.
Suddenly, Hanley said Soto stopped and said he was going upstairs to get a gun.
That’s when Jenna’s friend called the police and then ran outside to find officers already nearby responding to Soto’s ongoing rampage.
Soto told detectives that he entered the home through the open garage and back door, found a bat in the kitchen, and went to the basement to attack the girls, Hanley said.
Jenna’s sister and friend suffered lacerations and bruises, and the sister also was being treated for a fracture.
The bat was discovered in an upstairs bedroom, covered with blood.
John Dodge
John Dodge is a veteran Chicago journalist with experience in print, television, and online platforms.
“Pee-wee’s Playhouse” was a jarring departure from typical television programming when it premiered in 1986. The show, centered on the antics and misadventures of Pee-wee Herman, a bow-tied man-child in a three-sizes-too-small suit, played like an acid trip spin on “Howdy Doody” and “Captain Kangaroo.” “Playhouse” was nominally intended for children, but the show was infused with an arch, psychedelic sensibility that seemed designed for adults with a taste for the bizarre.
When a series of sex scandals forced Pee-wee’s alter ego, Paul Reubens (whose death was announced Monday), to intermittently retreat from the limelight in the 1990s and 2000s, his career went on pause. But the influence of Pee-wee continued to loom large, aided in part by YouTube clips, DVD box sets and fond memories of the 1985 big-screen cult classic “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” directed by a young Tim Burton.
Pee-wee’s anarchic and gleefully absurd spirit stretched across the comedy landscape in recent decades, appearing to inform the surreal humor of everything from Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show and Tim and Eric’s cult sketch series to Tina Fey’s satirical sitcom “30 Rock.” The powerhouse producer Judd Apatow made no secret of his fandom, and filmmaker Greta Gerwig has cited “Big Adventure” as a touchstone in the making of her smash hit “Barbie.”
In recent years, some of these creators joined forces with Reubens, helping to raise his profile and broaden his career opportunities long after the height of his fame. Reubens’ small but memorable output in the late 2000s and 2010s — a tiny film role here, a TV cameo there — reminded comedy aficionados why they adored him in the first place and introduced him to new viewers who were not old enough to watch his Reagan-era rise in real time.
Fey wrote a part expressly for Reubens on “30 Rock” — Prince Gerhardt Habsburg, a decaying monarch with a prosthetic hand whose physical appearance was due to “centuries of inbreeding.” The character, cartoonish even by the standards of the show’s fictional version of NBC, felt to Reubens like “something I would have written,” and he did not even have to audition for the role, he recalled in a 2007 interview with the Associated Press.
Apatow, who helped catapult actors like Steve Carrell and Seth Rogen to Hollywood superstardom, saw Reubens perform as Pee-wee in a stage show in the early 2010s. He then approached Reubens about the possibility of producing a third Pee-wee movie, and the pair tinkered with the idea for more than half a decade. The result, “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” debuted on Netflix in March 2016. It would be Reubens’ final film role.
Apatow recalled to The Los Angeles Times that year that getting “Big Holiday” off the ground represented “the fulfillment of a personal mission.” He had worshiped Pee-wee since he was in high school.
Paul Reubens in “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.”PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
“I always thought, ‘I know people want this movie,’” Apatow told the newspaper. “I just think there are very few characters in comedy history as strong and hilarious as Pee-wee Herman. The first moment you’re sitting in a room with Paul Reubens and he starts pitching you things Pee-wee might say or do, you think to yourself, ‘This can’t be happening.’ The first time he put on the suit, I thought I was going to pass out.”
The dreamlike imagery of the Pee-wee TV series and movies left an impression on viewers and filmmakers alike. Gerwig, whose “Barbie” is set partly in a joyously artificial-looking dollhouse, pointed to “Pe-wee’s Big Adventure” as a key influence and put it on a list that included “The Wizard of Oz,” “Singin’ in the Rain” and “An American in Paris.”
“I love ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure;’ that’s the best. Also, the rhythm of ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’: there’s that section where he gets on a train and is a tramp on a train and sings songs, then he gets bored of it and falls off the train and it takes 60 seconds,” Gerwig said in an interview with Letterboxd, a social media app for cinephiles. “It’s hilarious, but it’s just a really short thing.”
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in “Barbie.”Warner Bros. Pictures
In his final years, Reubens attempted to pitch studios on a “dark” version of his beloved character. The Hollywood Reporter said in January 2020 that Reubens had approached Josh and Benny Safdie, the filmmaking brothers behind the gritty crime drama “Uncut Gems,” about teaming up on the project.
The tributes that came pouring in for Reubens on Monday illustrated some of his appeal, and the lasting effect he had on his industry peers.
“No tweet can capture the magic, generosity, artistry, and devout silliness of Paul Reubens,” Conan O’Brien said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Everyone I know received countless nonsensical memes from Paul on their birthday, and I mean EVERYONE. His surreal comedy and unrelenting kindness were a gift to us all. Damn, this hurts.”
New Ukrainian movie focuses on hero of Bucha – CBS News
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Nearly a thousand people were killed in the Ukrainian town of Bucha while it was occupied by Russian soldiers. One man saved lives by driving more than 200 people from the town to safety, even though he could have fled at any time. Now, a new film is honoring his courage. Ramy Inocencio is in Ukraine with more.
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