The crime
Nicholas Markowitz, a pawn in a power struggle between his half-brother Ben and a local drug dealer by the improbable name of Jesse James Hollywood, was kidnapped by Hollywood’s henchmen…if anyone in what seems like a pretty Keystone Kriminal organization overall could be said to merit the term “henchman,” but anyway, Markowitz served as a marker of sorts for a debt Ben owed Hollywood. Markowitz spent several days partying with Hollywood’s friends, none of whom concluded that he was a hostage, but at some point a decision was taken by Hollywood to have Markowitz killed (to charge off a different drug debt).

When Markowitz’s body was discovered near a hiking trail in the Santa Ynez mountains, Hollywood lammed it — and stayed gone for five years.