Stolen Boy - a story of drugs, money, and broken homes

Susan and Jeff Markowitz will be living the nightmare of the Stolen Boy story for a lifetime. Their son, Nick Markowitz, is the 15-year old boy whose life is represented by Bobby Leblanc in the novel Stolen Boy.

The parents assumed West Hills was the perfect setting to raise their children, including a son and daughter from Jeff's first marriage and Nick, the child they had together. In their wildest nightmares they wouldn't have believed their son would wind up the victim of a ruthless drug dealer.

Nick Markowitz's older half brother, Ben, was the one Susan and Jeff worried about - not Nick. Ben was always making poor decisions that inevitably wound up getting him in trouble.

When Ben was given an ultimatum to straighten up or move out, he moved out - setting the stage for what unfolds in the book Stolen Boy - the kidnapping and murder of his little brother by his drug rival Jesse James Hollywood.

In the beginning, Ben and Jesse were friends. And Nick idolized his older brother, as many young boys do. Jesse's father, Jack was a pot dealer who knew how to lay low while blending into the community with ease.

Like many kids, Jesse's life took a different path - from promise to pitted with trouble. He went down a similar path as his dad, buying a nice home with cash at age 19 using the drug money he had earned with his own business, which included pal Ben Markowitz.

When Ben came up short and owed money to Jesse, their childhood friendship came to a halt and little Nick Markowitz became the pawn in a struggle for power and money.

Read Stolen Boy to find out how this tragic story developed.

At the heart of the Stolen Boy story is the testosterone-laden back and forth feuding of young men who have no direction in life. What started with a $1,200 debt escalated into broken windows, trash-talking, kidnapping and eventually - murder.

Young men living the high life, watching money pour in from illegal activities - hoping to teach a wayward member of their gang a lesson. It happens in social circles all over America, and no suburb or community is immune from the lessons we learn in Stolen Boy.

Parents turned a blind eye to what was going on, just as they do everywhere, all seemingly alarmed when something tragic happens and a young person winds up injured or dead, or spending life in prison.

The story revealed in Stolen Boy shines a light on how many young people live life without realizing the danger they're in. Bobby Leblanc, like Nick Markowitz, doesn't believe his life will end after the kidnapping - he only thinks the good time of partying will come to an end and he'll have a cool story to tell his friends.

Countless witnesses knew of the kidnapping, but kept quiet, fearing the wrath of Jesse's brood. In fact, parents of some of the kidnappers even saw Nick in custody of his captors, but assumed he was just another visiting teen amid the mix of young men in and out of the house on a regular basis.

After Jesse James Hollywood realized the trouble he was in for kidnapping the boy, he offered another friend who owed him drug money a deal to erase the debt if he would murder the boy. Ryan Holt agreed, and Nick was taken to a mountain grave where he was shot repeatedly and buried.

Jesse James Hollywood was arrested after spending four years as a fugitive in Brazil, where he lived with a woman who became pregnant with his child. He currently awaits trial in California for the kidnapping and murder of Nick Markowitz and faces a possible life sentence.

You can read the entire tale of the Stolen Boy here, but be forewarned - you will not be able to put this book down!

Insightful story of teen violence, November 28, 2007
By K. A. Reed "voracious reader" (Oxnard, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first saw the movie "Alpha Dog", which was very disturbing. I then read the book to gain more insight as to what would make these teens commit such a senseless crime. The book did not disappoint. It was a tragic story of how drugs, money, and broken homes take their toll on kids, eventually brainwashing them into a murder. This was a heartbreaking story and one I won't soon forget.

On March 8, 2005, the day Brazilian Federal Police captured Jesse James Hollywood 60 miles outside of Rio de Janeiro, Michael Mehas' work on Stolen Boy suddenly took on a heavy pathos. His research had led him to meet with many of the key players involved in the real-life tragedy, and Hollywood's arrest caused Michael to experience conflicting emotions he had difficulty sorting through. On the one hand, he empathized greatly with the tumultuous emotions the victim's family had to be feeling at that moment. He could also understood the sorrow Hollywood's family must have felt for their son--who had been tirelessly on the run for nearly five years--and would now face a serious battle with the state of California for his right to live. Two days later, when law enforcement authorities transported Hollywood back to the US, Michael met with Jesse's father, Jack Hollywood, who was in custody, having been arrested on drug charges just before Jesse got nabbed in Brazil. From behind iron-meshed windows Michael told Jack Hollywood that the author needed to meet with Jesse's lawyer, in hopes of gaining access to his client and deriving greater insight into certain issues dramatized in Mehas' book. For his efforts, the author got much more than he bargained for.

To read more about this, visit Michael's discussion page at http://www.stolenboy.com

To this day, Jesse James Hollywood continues to battle for his life, and Ryan Hoyt already sits on California's Death Row. Hollywood's remaining co-defendants include Jesse Rugge, sentenced to life with the possibility of parole; William Skidmore, who's serving out the remainder of his nine-year sentence; and Graham Pressley, who serves his time with the California Youth Authority until he reaches the age of twenty-five. Stolen Boy is a book you will not want to keep to yourself. This page is designed to stimulate discussion of Jesse Hollywood's story, extending beyond any conversation generated by Stolen Boy. We hope it will broaden your understanding of the tragically bizarre circumstances experienced by those involved.

Nickolas Markowitz looks like any teenage boy - which is what makes this such a tragic story.

It could happen to just about anyone his age when enough things go wrong...