- [Newscaster] The suspicious
death of a central Fresno man
has now been deemed a suicide.
51 year old John Lang was found barricaded
inside his burning home with
stab wounds back in January.
- [Narrator] What is up, EWU crew?
Are you guys ready for one
of the weirdest stories
to ever hit the world wide web?
Today, we're going to talk
about the mysterious death
of an internet activist
and police whistleblower,
Mr. John Paul Lang of Fresno, California.
Grab your thinking caps
because you're going to
need it for this one.
On January 20th, 2016,
at around 3:00 p.m.,
John's neighbors noticed smoke billowing
out of his home and called it in to 911.
As his home was highly
secured by iron gates,
the fire department
had to force their way onto his property.
According to news reports,
when they attempted to enter the house,
they discovered all entrances
had been barricaded from the inside.
When firefighters were
finally able to get in,
they found John unconscious and bleeding,
lying on the floor at
the back of his home.
Investigators found
something quite intriguing
in John's living room.
There were two monitors that
appeared to be hooked up
to a surveillance cameras outside.
A mattress lay on the floor nearby
as though he slept next to these monitors.
John was rushed to the hospital,
where he was pronounced dead.
The fire, they say, had
been set intentionally.
Okay, let's back up a bit here.
Exactly who is John Lang?
Well, that's a great question.
At the time of his death,
he was 51 years old.
Apparently he was born in
Ohio, but it isn't clear
when nor why he relocated
to the Fresno area.
In fact, there really
isn't a whole lot known
about this individual,
outside of his activism.
He said he worked at the local
Payless Brakes and Tires,
but we weren't able to
find out what he did there.
Internet searches also show
two businesses being connected
to Lang's north Van Ness Avenue address
and his phone number.
They were Lang Marine,
a marine supply shop,
and also the name of his YouTube channel.
And the other was
something Valley Handyman.
We also know that he was once married
to on Alma Lousberg, and that together,
they had one daughter named Emma.
From some of his online posts
we gather that their marriage
had been on the rocks
at some point starting in 2009.
Court records reveal that
Alma filed for divorce
in August of 2011 and that it
appears to have been finalized
three months later in November.
And really, that's all we know
about this guy's personal life.
There isn't even a single
photograph of him anywhere online,
which, in this day and
age, is really just odd.
Don't you think?
You'd figure would be able to find a pic
or at least a little bit more information
about him on the internet.
Starting several years prior to his death,
John became known in the
Tower District community
for this police accountability activism.
And for exposing corruption
within the Fresno Police Department.
More specifically, he apparently alleged
the cops were conducting an unethical
and potentially illegal
license plate scanning scam
in low income neighborhoods.
Supposedly, they would
patrol store parking lots
scanning license plates, to see
if they could find criminals
and drivers of unregistered vehicles.
Then they would pull over their targets
when they left the parking lot.
It's not exactly clear how
Lang discovered the scam.
But a brief search of court
records in Fresno County
shows that one John Paul Lang,
was cited for operating
an unregistered vehicle
in September of 2008.
John began to voice his
concerns about the PD
in comments on articles
from the local newspaper,
the Fresno Bee.
And that's where it seems a
lot of his troubles began.
On his now defunct
website, jodymurray.com.
The activist explains
what appears to have been
some kind of breaking
point in his narrative.
First of all, he stated
that Fresno law enforcement
is trying to set him up on a charge
related to illegal images of children.
He wrote, "As I've mentioned
in the past, Fresno LE
"had already illegally and
secretly entered my home,
"copied my hard drives in
order to get a good game plan
"for the eventual false arrest.
"There also appears to be a pattern here.
"Anyone who has ever
talked publicly about,
"accused or discussed Jerry
Dyer's supposed scandal
"with that 16 year old
girl had found themselves
"in some type of legal peril
within a few short years."
A quick Google search
shows that Jerry Dyer
did in fact face allegations
as John described.
He signs off with, "And with this letter,
"I have for certain signed my
death warrant with Fresno LE."
He also stated that in
2013, he sent emails
to the Fresno Bee and the
Sacramento Bee newspapers
informing their editors
that a Fresno Bee employee
by the name of Jody
Murray, had been sharing
the IP log data of Bee commentors
with Fresno sheriff personnel.
And sheriff personnel were
subsequently harassing
these folks who are posting
comments on the Bee website.
He claimed that following his sending
of said emails, he was
being watched, followed,
and harassed by the Fresno
PD, and that officers
were using intimidation
tactics against him.
He also documented most if not all
of these alleged incidents,
either on jodymurray.com
or on his YouTube channel, Lang Marine
where we frequently posted footage
from his home security cameras.
He also filed a complaint about it
with the Office of Independent
Review in March of 2015
which John claimed
heightened the harassment
from the local police.
In one video posted in April 2015,
a dark colored van can be seen parking
directly across the street from his home.
Its door slides open and a man can be seen
holding up some kind of large camera
pointed in the direction of his house.
Of course, that's not
something you see every day.
If it happened to you,
what would you think?
What would you do?
Another video posted a month later
shows several police
parking alongside his block.
They seem to simply be having
friendly casual conversation.
Although the officers did
not actually do anything
to Mr. Lang that night,
he felt the incident
was designed to mess with him.
On January 14th, 2016,
almost one year later,
John made a desperate post
on his Facebook account
which read, "Just wanted to
give you guys a heads up.
"If anything happens to
me in the next day or two,
"it will be the result of Fresno PD,
"my neighbor, and an employee at my job,
"Payless Brakes and Tires on Blackstone."
The next day he had posted on the wall
of Corin Hoggard, ABC30
Action News Facebook page.
He told the reporter,
"Corin, you want some news?
"Corrupt Fresno cops are going to try
and kill me this weekend,
possibly tonight.
"This is no joke."
And the following day,
he posted a YouTube video
of a van parked in front of
his next door neighbor's house.
The side of the van reads
"Guarantee Carpet Cleaning"
and has a phone number.
And here's where things
get really, really creepy.
Some people have said this
business doesn't even exist.
According to one YouTube comment,
"Is anyone else weirded out
that the carpet cleaning service
has no location, and their website
has one sentence per page, no
pricing, and no information?
Now a man is seeing exiting the van
from the passenger side
and smoking a cigarette
before walking to the neighbor's gate
to stuff a flyer into it.
While many people thought the man
was dropping the flyer into John's yard,
it was his neighbor's yard.
We'll pull up an image right now
so you can see exactly
where this man was standing.
This is the little box that
he stuffed a flyer into.
Admittedly, the guy did
look back at John's house
several times throughout the video.
Even seemingly glancing
straight into the camera
at one point.
A quick search about this company
reveals that it was originally registered
with the state of California in 2015
and that it was owned by a Clovis resident
by the name of Zaki.
And just last year, the
company was dissolved.
Now, back to the topic
of whether his business
is real and legitimate.
Some people have taken it upon themselves
to actually call this phone number
and to their surprise someone answered.
It was Guarantee Carpet Cleaning.
They say the business is real.
But according to one Redditor,
Guarantee Carpet Cleaning's website
was deleted right after John
posted this video on YouTube
and only three days before he died.
They stated, "I'm a little
creeped out at this point."
What the heck?
Could this possibly be true?
And if so, why?
Another Redditor claimed they called
the mysterious phone
number, asked about John
and got a peculiar response.
Their post read, "The person
who answered the phone
"proceeded to call me stupid
"and said that the cleaning
van was near his house
"because they were servicing
one of his neighbors."
This exactly lines up with the fact
that the man in the video stuffed
a flyer into the neighbor's gate.
So, is Guarantee Carpet
Cleaning a real business
or simply a ruse?
It may forever remain a
heavily debated mystery.
What do you think?
In the caption of this video John wrote,
"If I turn up missing or dead
tomorrow, remember this van.
"I think I've seen a
couple of guys sneak out
"the side door and into the building
"when it was parked in the
carport this afternoon.
"I've been causing the city
of Fresno a lot of problems
"recently, which I now regret."
If Guarantee Carpet
Cleaning is to be believed,
why would John be so freaked out
by his neighbor hiring a
carpet cleaning service?
Why would he post the video to YouTube,
even though they were simply
servicing his neighbor
and placing a flyer in their yard.
Was John simply delusional and losing it,
and some internet sleuths theorize?
That night, he made a serious
request for protection
when he made a Facebook post that read,
"Anyone want to crash at my pad tonight?
"Must be a legal gun owner.
"I think the bad buys may
come and get me tonight."
In the days leading up to his death,
John made several
clearly distressed posts.
It was obvious he feared for his life
despite whether his fear
was unfounded or not.
Many people claim that John
was unmistakably suffering
from paranoid delusions
and mental illness.
But this cannot be confirmed.
And on the other hand,
anti-corruption activists
say this is yet another case
of snuffing out a whistleblower.
So when John Lang's body was
discovered by first responders,
Fresno Bee journalist Rory Appleton
originally reported the
death was suspicious
and was being investigated
by homicide detectives.
According to this initial article,
Fresno police lieutenant
Joe Gomez said that Lang
had sustained multiple stab wounds
to his abdomen and upper
back but it wasn't clear
if he died from the injuries
or from the fire itself.
I mean, that sounds like murder.
Right guys? Wouldn't you say?
Four days later, the Fresno Bee once again
reported that John has
sustained multiple stab wounds
to his abdomen and upper back.
Listen to that carefully
because those details are about to change.
Twice in a week's time, they reported
that Lang had been stabbed in the back.
Nearly two whole months later,
the publication corrected
their initial report
with new information.
On March 31st, 2016, the Bee reported
that John's death has
been officially confirmed
as a suicide, not as a homicide.
They quoted a spokesperson
for the Fresno Country sheriff
and coroner, Tony Botti,
in saying that the activist
had sustained "three superficial,
"self-inflicted stab wounds to his chest
"and no cuts on his back,
"despite initial reports
by law enforcement."
They added that a coroner's report
would be released the following month.
Botti also said that officials believed
Lang had started the fire himself.
When the coroner's report
was finally released,
the story became even more controversial.
According to Deputy Coroner
Loretta Andrews's report,
which was performed the day
after the fatal incident,
the manner of death
was recorded as suicide
and the cause of death was determined
to be inhalation of smoke
and soot due to fire.
Interestingly, the coroner's
mention in the report
that Lang's clothing had been removed
and was lying beneath his body
in the white body bag in
which he had been placed.
They specifically noted
that there were no tears in John's T-shirt
that would correspond
with the stab wounds.
Wait, what? How is that possible?
The report goes on to
say that Fresno police
brought in two different
knives with the body
for the coroner to examine.
A Japanese kitchen knife
with a smooth Granton edge
and a seven inch blade length
with a 3/4 inch wide tip.
They stated the second knife
was a serrated bread knife
with a blade less than
half an inch in width
and 10 inch in blade length.
Based on the appearance of
John's stab wounds to the sternum
and front of the heart, they concluded
that the serrated bread
knife was the weapon
used in the stabbings.
Let's just stop there for a moment.
Recall that the Fresno
County sheriff spokesperson,
Tony Botti, publicly
stated that the stab wounds
were superficial, which would
mean they're very shallow,
not penetrating much past the skin layers.
Yet, here in the coroner's reports,
we see that the front John's heart
had actually been penetrated,
which would suggest
it was, in fact, not a superficial wound.
In fact, the coroner's report
says the first stab wound
at the top "perforates the sternum
"at the left fourth rib level,
"perforates the anterior
surface of the pericardial sac,
"and perforates the upper front
"of the right ventricle of the heart.
"The heart wound is linear and
measures less than 1/4 inch.
"The inside of the heart
is free from injury.
"The pericardial sac contains less
"than 50 milliliters of liquid blood."
Okay, so let me get this straight.
They are telling us
this guy stabbed himself
with a serrated bread knife
so hard that it penetrated
not only his thick breast bone
but was even plunged into his heart.
A serrated bread knife,
piercing his own heart
with a serrated bread knife?
Anyone else confused about this?
Any of you ever used a
serrated bread knife?
I don't know about you,
but that seems to me
like it would require incredible strength
to be able to do that to yourself.
What do you think?
Most bread knives don't
have a pointed tip.
They're usually blunt at the tip
because it's the serration that
is the purpose of this tool
as it is used to slice bread.
Next, they say the second stab wound,
termed the middle stab wound,
also pierced the sternum
and created a pinhole wound
in the pericardial sac, which
created a superficial scrape
on the lower right ventricle of the heart.
And the third or lowest wound,
was also documented as
having penetrated the sternum
but did not go completely through it.
As far as stab wounds go, that's it.
Three to his chest area.
Not a single mention of any stab wounds
or injuries to the back,
as was initially reported
by the Fresno Bee and police
spokesperson Tony Botti.
Um, yeah. What about that?
That the heck?
The coroner's report also states
that Lang had soot all over
his face, hands, and feet only.
Nowhere else on his
body which might suggest
that he was actually wearing the clothing
that had been placed beneath
his body in the body bag.
Except for one thing.
Remember, that the examiner
said that his clothing
didn't have any tears where
the stab wounds would be.
That really makes no sense, does it?
So, now you're starting to see
why this case has become so controversial.
They also said there was
soot inside his mouth,
throat, and lungs and that
his left lung had collapsed.
Additionally, they noted
that a blood sample revealed
a 31% saturation level of carbon monoxide.
These findings, they concluded, points
to the cause of death
being smoke inhalation.
It may also be important to note
that their toxicology
reports showed no evidence
of drugs, alcohol, or other
substances in his body.
Interestingly, the coroner's report
also includes testimony
about the crime scene
from Deputy Coroner Loretta Andrews.
In it, she explains that
Lang's outdoor security cameras
had been functioning until just prior
to the firefighters' arrival
and that his indoor security cameras
had been functioning until
the day prior to the incident.
She goes on to say that indoor footage
shows John sitting in the living room area
of the house with a large knife.
Apparently, he displayed the
knife in front of the camera
and took it to another room.
She says Lang later approached the camera,
shut it off, and that no other
footage was recorded after.
No videos of him brandishing the knife
have ever been released to the public.
Some people online have also pointed out
the involvement of police
in the coroner's autopsy.
Indeed, two Fresno Police
Department detectives,
one Fresno Fire Department
fire investigator,
and Bureau of Investigations technician
from the Fresno Police
Department were present.
However, it is not uncommon for police
to be present for autopsies.
Wow, that's a lot.
And a lot of it doesn't
really made much sense.
How did he get stabbed if his clothing
has no holes from the knife?
Why did they say he had also been stabbed
in the back if he hadn't?
Fresno police claimed it was a mistake
and that incorrect
information had been released
to the press in the initial reportings.
So, as you can imagine,
this case has a lot of people worked up.
Many activists say that it's
clear John Lang was murdered
and that it probably involved
the local law enforcement
thanks to the victim's scrutiny
of their alleged corruption.
Critics believe the man
was mentally troubled
after his divorce and that
he eventually reached a point
in his paranoid delusions that
he ended up killing himself.
The case has been widely discussed
in a sub-Reddit devoted to the matter.
Additionally, a group of hacker activists,
or hactivists, calling
themselves Anonymous
has directly challenged the Fresno police.
They even released a YouTube video
in which they basically say
they're coming for the police
and that they know what the
crooks did to John Lang.
Now more than four years later,
people are still debating what
really happened to this man.
Can we really just pass
it off as mental illness
and suicide when there seems
to be so many discrepancies?
If nothing else, you've got admit,
portions of that coroner's report,
really don't make a lot of sense, do they?
And why isn't there a single photograph
of this man anywhere online?
Curiously, someone submitted
a Freedom of Information Act
request for all crime scene
investigation documents
and photos from the city of Fresno.
They objected to this
request to the extent
that they sought disclosure of documents
not required to be disclosed
under the investigatory records exemption.
And disclosure of
documents and information
that are protected by the
third-party right to privacy.
Instead, they produced
responsive documents
with privileged information
redacted and/or withheld.
Unfortunately, no crime scene photos
that could have shed more light
on this mystery were released.
As you can see by these documents,
there were tons of photos
that we may never, ever see.
But there was an interesting tidbit found
in the released documents.
Do you think it's true?
According to the fire
department investigation unit's
official documents,
"it is also my opinion,
"that the person responsible for this fire
"is also the victim.
"There is no way someone
could have entered
"or exited the home during the fire.
"John Paul Lang was the only
person inside with no way out.
"John Paul Lang had access
"to the supplies needed
to start the fire."
Under evidence, they stated, "Physical.
"Gasoline can and lighter
found in the AOO."
Area of origin.
So, what are you thoughts
on this, EWU crew?
What do you think really happened and why?
Be sure to leave us a comment down below
and let us know your
perspective on this case.
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