# Murder at paradise city?



## Bood_Samel

I'm out of the crusty loop anymore, though years ago I was not. I've large and by cut that realm of things out of my life for various reasons. However I heard that this this guy I know/knew Tim Bradly was beat to death at paradise city in west philly. I heard this from this lady Crystal who posted a bulletin on myspace. Her first message was-

"i'm sorry to say tim bradly was beaten to death last night. if you do not him by name he used to have dogs named nay-nay and kimball."

My retort was-

"Do you know what the circumstances were?
I ran into him one day after he got out of jail and I was hoping he was gonna fly straight."

And finally she said-

"he was flying pretty straight. he was off dope and being drunk. i got beat up a few weeks ago and i'm afraid it had something to do with that. soem dude yoshua beat me up and tim wanted vengeance, last night he wanted me to hang out because he was "taking care of business" i didn't go because i didn't like the crunken behavior that surrounded it. it's now all over the news he was stomped to death on the roof of paradise. 3 people are now in custody they were caught trying to hop out. i'm not sure who they are, but i do know he was hanging out with montana billy, natas, and a girl named amber the only one i know is billy and he's some dumbass, but i think harmless. if you hear anything let me know and it would be much appreciated if you went to the services i will help you get there. i think his parents are only expecting me and kevin to show up and i want to try and show them he wasn't completly alone."

Tim was a mess over the years and had done lots of horrible things, including acts of lethal degrees of violence to people. I know if he went in there looking for a fight he went in looking to kill and would have. I've been in that building a few times and I know that if you're attacked by someone in that building with a weapon its a kill or be killed situation. I'm not mad at anyone and I think the whole thing is sad, ugly, and pathetic. I would just like know more of this story because I did at one point like the Tim that existed before drugs turned him into a monster.


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## CaseyCatastrophe

That's a really sad story. It really breaks my heart to hear about people falling through the cracks and not being able to climb back out. It tears a hole in the lives of their family and friends.


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## Bood_Samel

I have foundn't out too much more about it outside of these media sources here-

http://tinyurl.com/yr4ozx

http://tinyurl.com/2v97g9

http://tinyurl.com/3yqfn6

I read a news feed about this on my boss's blackberry today and that was in and of itself pretty weird. It had an aerial shot of paradise city on it too.

Tim and I were the same age and go involved in the philly punk/crust crowd roughly around the same time in the mid 90's. Both of us were perhaps a bit too young to be immersed in a world of an incongruent mixture of political extremism on one end, and drug addicts on the other. Tim however was from NJ, in a town over the river. I remember I found out one day after knowing him a couple of years that he was once the second highest rank soccer player for his age bracket in the country and was once training for the Olympics until he was kicked out of high school. Her never talked about it, I think it was a difficult thing for him, and also it was the crowds we were around at the time. Sports aren't really ok in punk circles, nor is really training to do something well. I found out because one day him and I were skating around Drexel university and he out of no where did a rail slide on a hand rail. He hardly skated anymore and abruptly did that. I was shocked and he informed me of his sports history.

During that time was the height of the Lancaster ave punk warehouse days when stalag 13, fakehouse, and the killtime were all up and running all the time. I tend to say bad things about that time and the folly of those who set it into motion, but I'll concede that if it was an experiment, it was on that had disastrous results that realistically no one could have completely seen coming. I will say that the cultural climate of the time was very negative despite the rhetoric being thrown around and that the discrepancy between half-assed ideology and ugly reality created the circumstances that killed lots of people and destroyed the lives of many who still linger on. The only people from that era who aren't dead or fucked up from it, are people either from its fringe periphery, like Justin Duerr and Myself, or its explicitly bourgeois liberal anarchist element who are large and by doing the same things in the same places to this day.

Tim let himself get caught up in the hardcore scumfuck element of those days. I did travel with him and car full of people cross country. Right before we left philly I said to him and to another fellow who is dead, "If we never got that first crass record we never would have been here right now". We drove out to San Francisco but he got into trouble right away. A guy tried to rape him, he hit the guy with a smiley, and got arrested. His dad flew out to handle his court, and he went back to philly early on probation to jump into being strung out. In '99 we also ended up on some retarded trip with a bunch of people weaving between a stolen van, a rainbow gathering, a stolen car, a small ohio town, and a stolen u-haul. He went off to Chicago with our friend Jesse to smoke crack and shoot heroin. I was on my way to play rifts in Michigan outside of flint. Violence seemed to follow him in those years between 1997 and 1999. He stabbed crackheads a few times and was in jail for stabbing this one annoying crusty but the charges were dropped. One of the crackheads he thought he might of killed. One night he got beat up trying to buy 40's around 52nd and woodland on a beer run from the refinery.

Tim over time got to the point with his addiction that he stopped having friends. He didn't travel, he didn't hang out or go to shows, he didn't do anything but get high. He wasn't crusty he was a junky bum. He fucked people over and burned lots bridges. A few people really went out of their way to help him and he ruined it. At one point he did close to two years in the county jail and got out a few weeks ago. I ran into him on south street one night and a bit of the old Tim seemed to be there for the time being. I thought maybe at best he was gonna turn into the new Rob Hess, a notorious but well meaning fuck up who has been an on/off junky for a long time. Whatever was to come it was cut short, and again I'm pretty sure it was his own fault.

For Tim Bradley it seems his body caught up to where his heart died long ago.

Post edited by: MattPist, at: 2007/06/27 15:33


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## CaseyCatastrophe

So he was just a kid when the end began. That's very sad. It's hard watching people destroy their own lives; if I can relate to you on only one level, it's that one for sure.

I'm sorry that people have to experience situations like yours. People all over this country, regardless or class or subculture, have to watch friends and family self-destruct through addiction.


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## Mouse

I honestly wouldn't put it past Montana Bill to stopm someone... though probably not to DEATH... but stomp someone pretty damn bad. I've witnessed him beat the shit out of his close friend before.

I dunno. It really sucks... but this type of shit comes witht he territory. I wouldn't wish it on anyone but I'm never surprised.


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## Mady

hasnt paradise city been like...not open for sometime now? I heard some tweakers raided the liquor store across the street and then ran right back into the squat in plain sight xD


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## Bood_Samel

It's been re-opened a few times over. That building can't be secured properly. Or at least no one seems to want to spend the money on doing a good job to do so.

I would advise anybody planning on traveling through philly this summer to not dress the part if possible. Its not a good idea to be obvious until this blows over, so carharts and shit would be a bad idea.

Post edited by: Bood_Samel, at: 2007/06/21 08:38


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## Laura Loci

Bood, you and I are friends, but I find it pretty fucked up for you to take this opportunity to talk shit on someone who is dead. 

This isn't about you or your feelings about the scene. 

You should know better by now, this is why people threaten you and don't take you seriously. You talk so much about being outside the scene yet when anything happens you are the first one with an opinion, the first one to gossip, the first one trying to get attention. 

I don't want to start shit with you, I like you. i especially hate internet drama, but all these kids who don't know whats going on are going to be reading all your posts, so I think you should be a little more careful about what you are saying.


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## CaseyCatastrophe

I don't see him talking shit...

...unless he was making this kid out to be a junkie when he wasn't.


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## Mike Str8

Laura,

I know personally (Oh do I know) that Bood has a tendency to “bend facts” in order to push his agenda. It gets him hated and I had to even talk people from beating his ass after he made up shit about Ken (I just really don’t think anyone should be attacked for “talking shit on the internet”) but reading over what he said he didn’t seam to distort anything. He makes personal attacks, but that is his style. Maybe you are offended by Bood’s lack of compassion, that you and I have, for people who have been fucked by the repressive system we have grown up under. It doesn’t fit his Social Darwinist stance. I am sure he will correct me if I am wrong (and I hope he does) but he blames people for not having the strength to avoid the pitfalls of Drug addiction and stupid/violent behavior that he (and I, and yourself) has. I feel we are all products of a fucked up dominate culture, that is alienating and hierarchical, and some people deal with this in fucked up ways and while they do have responsibility for their own action, we must not forget that what factors have fucked them up and spend our time trying to change this factors that create these behaviors instead of spending all our time attacking and degrading those damaged children.

In one way my stance is similar to Boods – I am done with dealing with this shit. I am tired of this Scumfuck world and have been since the “Stalag days”. I don’t have the energy to hold the hand of every damaged crusty that wants to prove themselves by being an asshole. I don’t. I won’t say that junkies deserve to die like Bood has, but I will not let certain people into my home or my community. That is my stance - I wrote about the murder and will send that too you.

The only thing that I really disagree with is the comment about the Stalag era where he says “The only people from that era who aren't dead or fucked up from it, are people either from its fringe periphery, like Justin Duerr and Myself, or its explicitly bourgeois liberal anarchist element who are large and by doing the same things in the same places to this day”.


Actually the “Proletariat Radical anarchist element” is doing many positive things with our time – raising kids, rebuilding houses, living off the grid, creating art, forming craft collectives so we own the means of our own labour, running independent cafes & bikeshops, having collective meals with our neighbors, getting involved in local west philly community groups, spending time in European autonomous communities – Ok maybe we are doing the same things we talked about 10 years ago, and to tell you the truth, I am proud of all of us…*These are the "Same things in the same places" that Bood speaks of - things that seem to be of interest to others that use this site*

(Actually these days, instead of squatting or renting many of us have bought places in order for us to stay in our neighborhood, including the community spaces of Lava and the A-space)

Bood, loves to talk shit, I swear this opposition to the Anarchists of West Philly is a big part of his identity. Bood wants attention and is trying to create a movement, so he attacks the dominate counter-culture group in West Philly – the Anarchist community, which he sees as his polar opposite. It wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't my family, and he didn't get his facts wrong. I have joked with Bood before that he is the “Grinch that is trying to steal West Philly’s Mayday” maybe you Laura, can be the Cindy Lou Whoo in his life to make his heart grow. 


OK I am getting off subject… But really, in this case….about Tim’s murder, he pretty much stated his opinion and he is someone who just found out that a former friend is dead .He got the facts pretty close to what had happen, which because of his past misinformation maybe surprising to you. Tim was a junky and was involved in violent behavior, and Bood believes that he got what was coming and drugs destroyed him. 
Me, I try not to pass such hard judgments, and I just find the whole situation, so very, very sad.

Post edited by: Mike Str8, at: 2007/06/27 17:24

Post edited by: Mike Str8, at: 2007/06/27 17:48


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## Mike Str8

I wrote this a few days ago about the murder in my neighborhood and I sent it to some friends, for closure and to clear up rumors...it is my opinion, that is all , and not a overall view of what happened


It is really a strange feeling to have hung out with someone who was murdered, and those who did the murder, a few hours prior to it happening. It is strange I tell you, especially when it was just another Sunday, and I was just running my dogs at the place we go almost daily. A few hours later I was working, when the people I was around were going through, what really was - a life or death struggle - and I guy I know was beaten, beaten to a point of death.

It is strange, but maybe not so unexpected, as we live in a violent society, and violence is a norm all throughout America. This society is fucked up - where alienation runs rapid and people feel the need to find some scene of power in their lives. People can try to lose themselves through methods; like drugs, violence, or pride. It sucks when this is manifests itself in such vicious ways though. It really sucks, and it is really sad…because someone I knew died a few days ago for nothing….for nothing except

I work Sunday nights so I make sure to run my dogs a lot before I go. I live in West Philly, where there are a number of parks, but my favorite place to go is along the Schuylkill River, near an old oil refinery. There is plenty of places for Molly & Pepper (my two dogs) to run, and an old pier that it a wonderful place to hangout. My friend Danny and I were going there daily before he left for Germany - we would sit on the pier, stare over the river and talk about philosophy, our lives, places we have been, what we dream about, and about what really makes a good metal band. It is a excellent place to do some thinking, or at least enjoy one of the few semi-autonomous urban spaces in West Philly. On the way to the pier, you have to pass a firepit, a fire pit that many people (including myself) use as a social gathering space at night. During the day it is almost always empty, except for last Sunday.

There were a few people and their dogs there, Molly & Pepper went to check it out and I followed, and it turns out that I knew some of them. Montana Bill was there, completely trashed, which is not unexpected, even at 2pm on a Sunday. Montana Bill (named for the tattoo of the state of Montana on his cheek, isn’t that bad of a kid, just a bit lost. Lost in a bottle is his main method of dealing with life, which makes him a pain-in-the-ass to deal with. He used to come to my old house, as we would often hold shows and have parties. He would be that pain-in-the-ass drunk kid who I, my wife Widler, or our neighbor RuthBeth had to deal with. But we were always decent with him, and in his drunken ways Montana Bill respected that. Now every time I see him, he showers me with friendliness and apologies for his prior drunken fuck-ups. Still he is drunk nearly every time I see him, so it makes friendliness and apologies a pain-in-the-ass to deal with, but he tries I guess, and who knows what ever happen to him to lead him to the state that he is in. He has told me of his parents and the abuse that he has gone through. He the boy has been fucked in this lifetime and he doesn’t seem to have the strength to overcome it. So he drinks. That is what he was doing when I saw him at the fire pit.

Montana wasn’t alone, as there were four others. One guy was already passed out, and there was this couple who were new to town, along with a guy named Tim that I knew a log time ago. Tim I know from Stalig days, Stalig 13 was a ware house that my friends started that held much of Philly’s punk shows during the mid-late 90’s. Not only was it a show space, but also a bunch of punx lived there including myself - where in the summer of 98, me and Ken shared an upstairs room (when bands played downstairs 3 to 4 nights a week). It became one of the key punk/crusty spaces in West Philly, a place where everyone would hangout and squatters nearby could get basic necessities like water. A lot of people hung out there, and where it was fun and interesting - it was also in an era where a lot of crusties got into dope, and got caught up in a “Macho guy” behavior where so many felt the need to prove just how tuff and crusty their were. This was the beginning of the “scumfuck” era and to tell you the truth, I hated it then.

Tim I knew briefly, as at one point the scene was split between - those who do dope and those who didn’t. I was firmly of the “non-junky camp” and made a conscious decision that I didn’t was to even associate with them. Now anyone that has been around many junkies can tell you the multiple reasons not to be around junkies - things being stolen, pointless conversations etc. - I had another reason. That I hated dope and hated what it did to people and I didn’t what it in my scene, and in my world, so I drew a line. That is when I lost contact with Tim and I haven’t seen him in years until about a month ago. He was with an old friend of mine named Crystal, and he seemed friendly enough, and I have reached a point in my life when I realize that people can fall into heavy drugs because of other issues in their life that they want to escape, so I did not keep past prejudices. Tim seemed to be doing well and off dope, and we had a friendly acquaintance. Tim was heated that day I saw him at the fire pit and he talked about how he wanted revenge, as a few days before our mutual friend Crystal had gotten in a fight, and was beaten pretty badly. Tim, who was playing with a handgun when I was there, said he was going to find the guy who attacked her and get revenge. Everyone around the fire pit seemed to agree with him on what that guy deserved.

The couple who were there were new to town, and were seriously trying to prove exactly how crusty and tuff they were. They told stories about the “streets of San Francisco” and how they got “kicked out of C-squat, because of fighting”. They told me, in the brief time, I was there about how much fighting they did. They bragged about it, about being so tuff they got kicked out of C-squat. They talked about the facial tattoos they want to get and about different types of booze. All of this did impress me, as I was quite impressed about how annoying they were and how I really just wanted to keep walking in the woods with my dogs.

So I left, went on with my day. The dogs and I went to the beach near Bartram’s Gardens and then I went to work. Everyone else I assume kept drinking. Eventually they ended up at “Paradise City” a large squatted apartment building. Sometime late that night a fight broke out, and allegedly that couple attacked Tim. They attacked him pretty badly, because he never got back up. They killed him, over what I am unsure of, all I know is that they were friendly drinking buddies early that days. Drinking buddies whose conversation was focused on violence. Violence was a big part of their identity, they all talked and bragged about it, to me - who is just some guy, who some off them kinda knew, who was walking his dogs by the river near his house. Now, all I keep thinking of is how sad it all is, and how I just don’t want to be around this shit at all.


When I was in Denmark I was trying to explain the “scumfuck” identity to my friend there as he had heard about this American “scumfuck” scene. I told him, what it was about, and where it came from. How it was once part of the punk/crusty scene, but now is something different, but still related. How paths cross and the conflicts between the two different sub-cultures. How I did security at a punk fest and basically that meant babysitting a group of self-proclaimed scumfucks, who showed up not to see any of the bands but to do what they tend to do, drink and then intimidate and fight. They were fucking arseholes, and that is what they wanted to be. They would brag about what arseholes they were. They were scumfucks and the said they “didn’t care” which was so full of shit. Because they did care, otherwise they wouldn’t have rode trains 100’s of miles in order to sit outside this one place for four days while concerts were going on. They came to be arseholes, to try to show dominance over the punks at the show. They wanted to act like a gang, they wanted some sort of attention, they wanted to feel important - like they were the “big dogs” of the show - and not follow simple respectful behavior to everyone else.

This one group is not alone, a whole culture has formed - the “Scumfucks”. I keep thinking of the violence, as that is what all this comes down to. What happen to all these people where constant violence is a way of life? Who would want this? And why? Really, what it comes down too is that I don’t want to live in that world at all. I don’t want to be associated with it. I find it sick, and sad. Really sad. I don’t want to be in place or surround myself with people who feel that fighting is a normal activity. Where people are beaten into a hospital, or, as what just happened, are killed. I can’t stand this “scumfuck” culture that this couple wanted so badly to be part of.

There was a murder, a few blocks from my house. Philadelphia has one of the highest murder rates in the country, so the cops have made this case a top priority. My friends squats have been raided, people I know have been pulled off trains and my roommate, my wife, and & were stopped by the police on the street, when we were walking to the coffeehouse that Wilder works out. America is a violent culture, based on exploitation and alienation. People react in fucked up ways because of it. This happen a week ago - and I saw who was involved in this killing when I was doing a daily act in my life, walking my dogs. This is not the world I want to live in. Whoever reads this, these are my thoughts on what happened last Sunday. It is all fuckin’ sad.

Post edited by: Mike Str8, at: 2007/07/10 08:10


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## Matt Derrick

wow, that really has to be one of the best descriptions of the scumfuck scene ive read in a while. the whole thing really is just as sad as you say, and i totally identify with how you feel about it, as it matches my feelings to a t. i don't want to be a part of it, and i really just don't want it to be around me... there's just nothing positive coming out of that scene and those people at all.


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## Laura Loci

And as usual, thank you Mike for tying things together so eloquently.


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## Bood_Samel

While Mr. Straight's comments about "scumfucks" are pretty on point (from a view),it's sad that in our on going debates he really has yet to ever address any points I make and rests heavily on efforts of character assassination rather then addressing the issues at hand. My critiques of a group of people who negatively impact the city of my birth are not unwarranted to be said and not unwarranted to be said by me either. These are not innocent people that I pick on, nor do they the false pretense of a moral high ground they like to assume. Really they deserve far worse the occasional bad blog or bulletin.

Honestly its very simple, every west philly anarchist should go back to where they came because none of them are from philly. Well ok, maybe one or two, but the majority of them are from middle class or wealthier families and no amount of dirt or dreadlocks can cover that up. The extreme left is a cult for the guilty children of the well off. None of you are proletariats, and the inconsistencies of your ideas have lead to countless situations like the murder of Tim Bradley. 

I should point out that I do support squatting and traveling. I just don't extreme leftist politics, chemical addiction, or addicts themselves. These people have done a great deal of damage to the local underground culture.


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## Poking Victim

Does Montana Bill also go by Billy Goat?


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## jack ransom

I know this thread is dead but I read it right after it happened and just reread it and I was wondering if Mike Str8's testimony has been published in a zine or something like that?

journalists have attempted to cover the whole scumfuck culture and confuse everything and generalize everyone. it seems like we're the only ones who are really qualified to tell our own stories. mike str8 did it nicely.


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## macks

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/15106

Interesting article, str8 got quoted
Some of the terms at the end are kinda funny


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