It wasn't long before I got a 12 page letter from Daniel (double-sided on white college ruled paper - he ran out of the yellow legal pad). He's always quick to write back as, obviously, he has a lot of free time.
The letter started with a "Game of Thrones" reference - wondering if I'd be more a "sylph of Westeros" or one of "the Wilding Free Folk."
Definitely Wilding.
He addressed the idea of me writing about him right away. He said there are a lot better topics out there, but he has "no control over what gets written, or by whom," but he "will never deny another individual their right to express and use their artistic creativity."
Daniel can get a tad verbose at times. Words are often written in ALL-CAPS and underlined.
I get it. He doesn't want his whole life to be defined by a single "horrific act of violence," and any writing about him is sure to focus on that.
Let's call it like it is though: Daniel Wozniak's name will forever be connected with the violent murders of two college students (not to mention the decapitation of one).
There is no escaping it. There shouldn't be.
This didn't keep him from answering my questions, as long as I was "asking out of curiosity, as a friend."
Friend? Yes. Curiosity? Hell, yes!
Daniel and Rachel
Then he went into the topic of his ex-fiancée.
If you've read anything about Daniel, you know the name Rachel Buffett. She was a pretty young theatre actress who was once employed as a Princess at Disneyland. I'm guessing Cinderella or Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty).
Rachel and Daniel were supposed to get married on May 29, 2010, but that was cancelled when he was arrested at his bachelor party.
You can't make this stuff up.
Everything I've read in the press says that Daniel was murdering for money. He wanted to give his blonde, home-schooled beauty the wedding and honeymoon of her dreams.
I met Rachel. She was in the musical Nine with Daniel at our theatre. Honestly, she made no impression on me at all. Not positive. Not negative. I can't even remember if I thought she was good or not. Did I also ask her to audition for my play? No idea.
I find her much more interesting now. I'll be talking a lot more about Rachel in future posts.
Daniel Loses Rachel
So, according to Daniel, he and Rachel remained close for the first couple of months he was in jail. She wrote. She visited. After his arrest, he knew the two of them "would never be together," still he thought they would be friends. That didn't happen.
Here is the story Daniel told me:
Rachel and a male friend of theirs came for a jail visit. Without warning, Rachel walked up to the dividing glass, flipped him the bird with both hands and told him she never wanted to see him again. With that, she walked out of his life and stopped writing and taking his calls (inmates have to call collect).
He says he still doesn't know what changed and "not knowing exactly why...literally drove (him) to the brink of honest insanity at one point."
As you get to know Daniel, you learn quickly that "not knowing" something drives him crazy.
This happened before Rachel Mae Buffett was arrested herself for three felony counts of accessory to murder. Rachel is on bail awaiting trial.
When I had coffee with a Dateline NBC Producer (oh, you know there will be a post on that, too), she asked me if I thought Daniel was still in love with Rachel. I said no.
I asked him once if he thought he and Rachel would still be married now (you know, if they'd actually gotten married and there were no murders).
He said no.
Don't tell him I said this, but I agree.
Previous Post
February 2015
(Post Four)
When I got a letter back (dated August 31, 2014), I was giddy with excitement. Just seeing the red “Inmate Correspondence” stamp on the front of the envelope got me all a-twitter.
The second thing I noticed was the incredibly neat printing on the address. In pencil.
Inside was a three page letter on two sheets of yellow legal-sized paper (the first page with both sides filled) written completely in pencil in that super-neat printing.
Pat's First Letter From Jail To Me
He began by apologizing to me.
I didn’t expect that. I didn’t think he owed me an apology, but I think he has a lot of general guilt about any trouble he caused to anyone when he was arrested.
The truth is: that poor little theatre was on its last legs financially and I’m pretty sure that the publicity from his story did not hurt us at all (“if it bleeds it leads”).
Nonetheless, I thought it was a nice gesture on his part, assuming it was genuine and not just “the right thing to say.”
He thanked me for writing to him and, logically, asked me why I did.
He talked about how much he had loved acting in plays and how it was easier pretending to be someone else rather than being himself. This was right after Robin Williams had killed himself, and Pat mentioned that he’d always been a big fan.
He talked about depression and suicide attempts (both considered and actualized: Pat tried to kill himself soon after his arrest and ended up in a coma).
He wrote about his fianceé. Now, she was his ex-fianceé.
She had been his only friend and his life had revolved around her. He was devastated when, after he’d been in jail for three months, she cut off all communication with him.
Truth be told, I wasn’t exactly surprised that she’d “dumped” him, considering the situation.
It wasn’t just that he was being charged with murdering two people. She actually ended up getting arrested herself as an accessory after the fact. She’s out on bail and is also “awaiting trial.”
Did I mention that she was on Dr. Phil?
Pat talked about life and freedom and lack of freedom, and making a difference, and doing what you can to make things better no matter your circumstances. He’d just helped his “celly” pass the GED.
He talked about God. He asked me to not characterize him by the crimes that put him there, but by the man he is today. He hopes I can see that he is not an evil man.
He went on to tell me that he’d been using a lot of drugs at that time in his life (when he was doing the play at my theatre and getting arrested for double murder). He abashedly admitted it was a very “foggy” time for him, and that he wasn’t sure if he remembered me, but a picture would help refresh his memory…
I immediately went looking for pictures of me where I look cute.
Duh..!
Next Post
Previous Post
February 2015
(Post Three)
So. Why did I write Pat in the first place?
And why did I wait 4 years to do it?
My family members have asked these questions. My friends have asked these questions. The guards at the jail where I visit Pat have asked these questions.
Why I Wrote An Alleged Double Murderer
The first reason: This! What I am doing right now: writing.
I won’t deny it: this guy is FASCINATING!
I wanted to know more. I wanted to understand. It’s obvious that there is one hell of a story here, and I wanted to write about Pat. What I’d write was still beyond me, but I wanted to write.
I decided the best way to get this going was to write him a letter.
I didn’t know how to send a letter to someone in jail, but I figured there was some type of protocol.
It took a little searching, but I found out Pat’s birthday (he’s about to turn 31), his full name, his arrest date and his booking number. The booking number is most important. You need to put it on the mail you send, and you need to give it to the guards when you visit.
During this Internet searching, I discovered Pat’s trial still hadn’t happened! I occasionally wondered why I never heard any news or gossip about him. I had no idea he’d been sitting in jail… waiting… all this time.
Right now, he’s in a sort of holding location where most of his fellow inmates will be in and out in a couple of months. They will either finish their trials and be moved to a prison to serve out their stay, or they are only in jail for a couple of months for some relatively innocuous crime (drug possession or something like that).
Yes, this means I can actually go to Pat’s trial!
This brings us to my second reason for starting this relationship.
I love crime shows!
I don’t mean CSI type dramas. I’m an ID Addict.
Investigation Discovery is a cable channel that shows non-stop true crime shows like Dateline.
I’m a huge fan of Dateline. I also love Homicide Hunter, Murder Next Door, A Crime to Remember, True Crime with Aphrodite Jones, Most Evil, 20/20 (when it’s a crime episode and not some boring “my neighbor from Hell” story), Murder Book, On the Case with Paula Zahn… etc. etc. If a show has the words “Evil,” “Murder” or “Homicide” in the title, it’s on my TiVo list.
The contents of my bookshelf include The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Welcome to Hell: Writings and Letters from Death Row, Helter Skelter, Last Meals (yup, just lists of final meals of inmates before being executed) and many worn out paperbacks about Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez, David Berkowitz (Son of Sam), Zodiac, BTK, Jeffrey Dahmer… well, you get the picture.
So, I have this (possibly unhealthy) obsession with crimes and killers, and BAM: here is a possible killer who I’ve actually met!!
I’m super fascinated with what makes a person confess to a crime they didn’t commit. I’m in no way saying that this is the case with Pat, but let’s keep an open mind here, people. If any of you are familiar with the case of The West Memphis Three, then you know sometimes people really do confess to doing some pretty horrific stuff, even when they didn’t do it.
Just sayin’.
Anyway, I wrote a letter to Pat.
Keep in mind that we had only met briefly before his arrest; I wasn’t exactly writing to an old friend. I was nervous about it, too. I had no idea if he would remember me or write me back, and if he didn’t write me back... how in the world would I ever be able to write about him?
Also, what do you say to someone who is in jail and being accused of some seriously heinous stuff (double murder and dismemberment of one of the victims)?
Well, I talked about how crappy the dressing rooms had been at our theatre. I also mentioned that he’d been a huge topic of conversation around the place after he was arrested. I asked some questions about the truthfulness of Orange is the New Black (LOVE that show and wouldn’t care if it was all lies... but it’s not).
It wasn’t a long letter. Only 3 paragraphs.
He replied to me right away!
Next Post
Previous Post
January 2015
(Post One)
I have a new friend.
Actually I met him for the first time in 2010, but he really only became my actual friend until a few months ago when I first wrote him a letter.
He is in jail.
He’s “awaiting trial.” He’s been waiting a long time, too – 4 years and 7 months so far. That is a longer-than-usual time to wait for your trial. It’s especially a long time if you sit inside a cell 22 hours day. My friend is being charged with “special circumstances,” so he can’t get bail, and the prosecutor is asking for the death penalty.
Let’s start by saying that I am NOT going to use my friend’s name in this blog; at least not at this point.
Obviously, anyone could Google what I’m going to tell you about the case. You could find out my friend’s name and all about his alleged crime. I’m not trying to hide anything, but I watch a lot of TV, and I figure if I don’t say his name, then nothing I write can be used against him in a court of law.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
I’m going to call him Pat. My friend Pat, who is in jail.
When I first met Pat back in 2010, he was acting in a play at my theatre. I’m calling it my theatre because I was one of the people who helped with the day-to-day running of the place. I was a company member and a director.
Pat was just around for one show. Even though he was the lead actor in a musical running at the theatre, it was Pat’s first time acting there.
The show was doing well and it was making money. That was all that mattered to me.
So, even though Pat was just a visitor, I liked him. I didn’t think he was the greatest actor in the world, but he was doing a good job in the show and audiences responded well to him.
I started eyeing him for my summer musical. He seemed like a nice guy. He was good-looking and personable. He was funny and polite. He was even engaged to one of the actresses in the show, and they were getting married the next week! He seemed like he had his life pretty organized (at least organized enough for an actor in community theatre).
I chatted up Pat when I was house managing for his show one night.
This theatre was really small. There were a lot of people in Pat’s show, and he ended up having to use the theatre’s office for his dressing room (he was the only man in the show). I was selling tickets and snacks from the front of the office, while Pat was hanging out “back stage” in the back of the office.
A makeshift curtain hid him from the audience. He made me laugh, because every time someone would order a soda, Pat would hand it to me through the curtain.
A few days after the show ended, Pat was arrested.
He was at a restaurant having an impromptu bachelor party with some of his buddies. The Sheriffs swarmed in and arrested him just as he’d finished paying the check (a fact that annoys him a bit).
Next Post
