Netflix: the true story of Internet darling Kai turned “hatchet” criminal

In 2013, the Internet fell in love with Kai. Smooth face, innocent look, long hair gathered in a bandana decorated with motifs of peace and love, the young man had everything to please. With a flair for stagecraft, he’d fluently told the story that made him known to the world. In February of that same year, he saved a woman from being attacked by hitting her assailant with a hatchet three times. He had described her gesture in a sequence that has become a cult: «Smash! Smash! Suh-mash!». All this was enough for social networks to go wild: the interview extract was isolated, sampled, reproduced … Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, that’s his real name, became a star. Or rather, a «phenomenon», as he defines himself.

Three months after the interview and his heroic act, Kai was arrested for the murder of a lawyer. Netflix is making a documentary about him.

An incident that got out of hand

The platform describes the young man as a “carefree drifter who became popular in an instant […] he went from riches to rags and ended his parable by ending up in prison”. In the trailer for the documentary, a voiceover comments: “This man went from being a beloved public hero to a public enemy wanted for murder.” Who really is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, who calls himself Kai? On February 2, 2013, the California affiliate of Fox aired an interview with the hero of the moment. A young homeless man told a sensational story about how he saved a woman from a mugger. At the time of the accident, he was in the car with the man who had given him a lift. During the journey, the man driving ended up hitting a truck. One person was injured in the accident.

The man behind the wheel then got out of his vehicle, ranting with racist and incoherent expressions such as “I am Jesus Christ”. Then he had tried to attack a woman who had just arrived at the scene of the accident. “She could have snapped her neck like a pencil,” Kai told the reporter. Then he continued enriching the story with other details: «I started running after him with an axe. Smash! Smash! Suh-mash! If I hadn’t done that, he would have killed a lot of people.’ In the aftermath of the interview, the new hero flattered on social networks had made the rounds of television broadcasts to recount his experience, including the Jimmy Kimmel show.

From television programs to prison for murder

Kai’s success story came to a halt three months later when police went to a lawyer’s home for a routine checkup: Joseph Galfy had failed to show up for work. The authorities found his body lifeless, undressed and with clear signs of beatings. The investigation soon led to the police looking into Caleb Lawrence McGillvary’s background. The day before the lawyer’s death, suspect number one had posted a long and disturbing message on Facebook – immediately deleted – in which he claimed to have been “drugged and raped”. «What would you do?», He asked his followers. Police discovered that he had been staying at Joseph Galfy’s home two days after their meeting in Times Square. Arrested, Kai invoked self-defense. He said he was drugged and raped by the lawyer. The investigators, however, supported the thesis of premeditated murder and that the sexual relationship between the two men was consensual. To defend himself, Kai resorted to a rather singular argument: his popularity was such as to allow him to have sex with whoever he wanted and the lawyer in question was not one of them. The prosecutor found his statements inconsistent. Upset by his arrest, fans rallied to support him on social networks. One of them has even raised funds to cover the costs of legal aid.

The young man was imprisoned for five years. In 2019, at the conclusion of the trial, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 57 years in prison. He appealed, but the proceeding was rejected by the New Jersey Court of Appeals, which upheld the sentence in the summer of 2021.