Alex says a girl named Lisa Mae Badger started asking Meinecke, "Why you call the
cops on Lost Boy, on Alex?"

"He said, ' 'Cause I felt like it,' "Alex says, "and I was like, I thought to myself, I was like,
'Man, this kids got nuts." I mean, you can only push somebody so far.

"And he had this arrogant, fuckin' arrogant look on his face," says Alex. "I was already
riled up .... I was already nervous, and, you know, [one defendant] still hadn't gave me
the damn pack of cigarettes yet... and I said, 'Fuck it, you want to rumble? Let's go,' and I fuckin' hit him, and then Rudy started cryin. I was like 'Please, you a fuckin' wimp, you
stand here and talk all this cold-cash shit to me, and you fold'. And I said, 'Fuckin' kick his
ass .... Wait a minute, kick his ass out of my bedroom.' And they brought him in the
living room.

"I said, 'Take him,' " says Alex.

"I said, 'Do whatever you all want to do,' and they looked at me, and I said, 'You touch my stereo, you all gone.' I had a glass-front stereo. 'If you all want to beat his ass,' I said, 'I don't care, beat his ass.' That's when the shit started hitting the goddamn fan and shit.

"I said, '[Crystal], load up the CD player,' and she looked at me, and she was like 'I get to touch your stereo?'... She said, 'How many do you put in there?' I said, 'Put five CDs in
there, put that bitch on continuous,' and that's at least mother fuckin' six hours. I said,
"Turn it up,' and they're like 'How high?' [I said] 'I want you to turn it up so loud that I
can't even hear myself think.' I said, 'Don't you hear that peace and quiet?' She said, 'No, I hear Rudy screaming.'"

According to Alex, Meinecke was set on fire several times and beaten in different rooms
in the apartment, and at one point he tried to escape by jumping out the window.

"His screaming got on my nerves," Alex continues. " 'You need to shut the fuck up,' I
said. 'I got neighbors and shit in this building, You shut the fuck up, 'cause if you get me
thrown out of my apartment, Rudy,' I said, 'me and you are gonna rumble tough.' And he
kept screaming and shit, and I just lost my cool . . . I picked up [a metal exercise bar], and I felt it, and I was like 'Rudy, shut the fuck up.'... I just swung the exercise bar at Rudy, and all I know is it hit something, and it was Rudy, and I just went nuts."

I asked Alex how or why the beating went from assault to torture.

"Skinny Puppy," Alex says, pausing. "I shit you not.' He cites the band's song "Worlock,"
which had been playing during the beating.

There were constant interruptions, people coming in and out of the apartment, some of
the defendants leaving. Meinecke was moved from room to room and put in a closet for a
time while being periodically beaten. Alex says the group took breaks to drink beers and
eat. To cheer himself up, he lay in bed listening to "Don't Worry, Be Happy?

After a while, Alex says he started getting bored. He decided to put an end to it, chiming
he was pretending to take Meinecke to be killed while his real intention was to get
Meinecke to the hospital

Alex says he told one of the group, " 'OK, you tell everybody that Alex said we're getting ready to fuckin' kill this kid right now.'... Everybody got real riled up again .... They had met their ultimate goal. They were where they wanted to be; they wanted to kill him. OK, Alex said, this is over - - we're gonna kill him.'"

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