The Hitchhiker with an Ax is the story of a hero turned killer

But Lawrence McGilvary (who calls himself “Kay”) looked like a hippie from the last century. Dubbed an “axe-traveler” by the media, the hero soon fell off the plinth on which he had been placed when he rescued a woman. It turned out to be … a killer.

Caleb Lawrence McGillvary (who calls himself “Kay”) looked like a hippie from the last century. Dubbed an “axe-traveler” by the media, the hero soon fell off the plinth on which he had been placed when he rescued a woman. It turned out to be … a killer.


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  • The Ax Hitchhiker is a new true crime documentary on Netflix.
  • The film tells the story of Caleb “Kai” Lawrence McGillvary, who rose to fame in 2013 thanks to a viral video of him saving a woman.
  • That same year, Kay was arrested for allegedly beating 73-year-old lawyer Joseph Galfi to death.


Caleb “Kay” Lawrence McGillvary – episodic hero

Caleb “Kay” Lawrence McGillvary In the famous recording released on February 2, 2013, he didn’t utter the words (his speech was interrupted by the distinctive censorship “whistle”) when he told a local FOX journalist what happened to him. Kai was hitchhiking when he took him off the road Jet Simmons McBride.



The man initially confessed to a traveler that he had raped a 14-year-old girl on a business trip. Kay does not take his confession seriously at first, but when McBride states moments later that he is Jesus and “can do anything he likes”, Kay guesses his chauffeur is crazy.

The hitchhiker’s suspicions are confirmed a moment later, when McBride runs over a gas station employee. McGillvary immediately jumped out of the car to help the injured man, while the driver did not move. When Kay was joined by two women who also wanted to help the battered man, McBride lunged at one of them.



The traveler reported that it looked as if the mad driver wanted to break the woman’s neck like a “pencil stick”. Without thinking long, he pulled the famous hatchet out of his bag and hit the guy several times on the back of the head.

In describing the events, he used the words “Smash, Smash, SUH-MASH” that contributed to the recording’s viral success. People say, ‘Don’t move around. And look what happened—at least I was there’—he summed up his heroic feat in his unassuming Kay style.

Thanks to the recording, a man was baptized at that time “The traveler with the ax” Become a hero and a star. Kai even hosted the show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”. He then explained that he did not like being called “homeless” – he preferred the term “homeless”.



Watching McGillvary’s conversation with Kimmel, you can see that the former isn’t completely self-conscious and feels comfortable in the spotlight. reality show makers “keeping up with the Kardashians” They were even going to offer him their own program, but there were problems with the dependency.

However, Kai’s good name fame was short-lived. Just three months later, the man who saved the woman’s life was arrested for… murder.

How did the “axe traveler” end up behind bars?

Police arrested McGillvary in May 2013. A “national hero” has been charged with the murder of a 73-year-old New Jersey attorney Joseph Galvey. Kai confirmed that he had killed the old man in self-defense.



According to his account, Ghaly offered him a night in his apartment and then drugged him (according to the man, the drug was in the hamburger he was given). When the traveler woke up, the man was raping him, so Kai pushed and kicked him. He claims he didn’t realize it killed him.

Although Kai appears eccentric, he is certainly not a physical killer. Why did the court not believe his version of events? The court room statement made by McGillvary disagreed with statements made to the police. Furthermore, Galfi sustained three fractures to his skull and four broken ribs, so experts said it was highly unlikely that Kay had inflicted such injuries in self-defense.



According to the police, the sexual relationship between the two men was consensual and the murder was planned (although the motive was not revealed). Kay defended himself by claiming that he did not have sex for the money and, in particular, did not need it after his rise to fame. “You know how many hot chicks – never mind. Even if I’m gay, do you know how many hot guys want to fuck me after that shit in California? I’m not so vain. It’s just a fact… no offense but it [Galfy] “He wasn’t handsome,” Kai said in an interview with the portal. my call.



Supreme Court Justice Robert Kirsch described McGillvary as “dishonest, dishonest and manipulative” and described him as a “powder keg of explosive rage”. The man’s documented history of substance abuse and behavior testified in court against the man. His violent outbursts almost drove him out of the room several times.

Kai maintains his innocence

In 2019, Caleb “Kay” Lawrence McGilvary was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 57 years in prison with the possibility of parole only after serving 85 percent of his sentence. Rule.

In early 2020, Kay gave an interview from prison on the Inside Edition channel. McGillvary pleaded not guilty throughout. The journalist asked him why he had not called the police if he was acting in self-defence. Kay argued that he was afraid of a police investigation because he is an illegal immigrant (the man is from Canada).

The Traveler also claimed that evidence that he had drugged him by Galfy had been ignored and destroyed. The interviewer disagreed with the man’s account of his innocence and asked him which Kai was “real”—the one who saved the woman or the one who killed Galfi. Kay replied, “I’ve never killed anyone.”

McGillvary appealed the verdict, alleging 15 counts of “misconduct, abuse of discretion, and ineffectiveness of counsel”. In August 2021, a New Jersey court denied his appeal and upheld the verdict.

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