Dying in LA LA Land
This PodCast series from Ron Campise Retired Night Supervisor L.A.P.D. Crime Scene Investigator/Documentarian with 20 years on the job, 13 years of which as a Supervisor on the Night Shift. The busiest shift for Crime Scene Investigation, mostly from 2 to 4 am, "The Hours of the Spirits of the Dead". With over 3000 cases personally investigated and documented everything from run of the mill murders to occasional death of celebrities. And a vast number of fatal accidents, death investigations, robberies, officer involved shootings, drug houses and meth labs with vast amounts of cash, literally falling out of the sky. As the evening super I coordinated with a squad of investigators another 10000 cases. "Dying In LA LA Land" Are Stories of my actual Experiences and/or Experiences of Friends or Co-Workers, So be prepared to be shocked, horrified, amused or just plain disgusted!!
Dying in LA LA Land
Dying in LA LA Land: "The Falcon Gunner and the Snowman".
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Ron Campise tells the story of an Ex-Drug dealer trying to turn his life around and a Very special and unusual Shotgun.
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Welcome to my La La Land Podcast. This is Ron Campise, and the story is The Falcon Gunner and the Snowman. Steve Pergosian, aka the Snowman, was trying to restart his life. After a stint in prison for dealing coke for the Russian mafia, he had kept his mouth shut during his four-year sentence in San Quentin. After his release on parole, he even re-entered school. Community college and had a night job at the pantry restaurant downtown with a few other excons on the crew. He was taking computer lessons at Los Angeles Community College with the goal of putting his nefarious past behind him and starting a new life. One sweltering summer evening in his small single unit in East Hollywood area of La La Land, he sat diligently his computer going over his homework for the next day's class at LACC. He didn't realize until late after the deafening shotgun blast sprayed his chest, blowing Steve backwards out of his chair. The barrel of the shotgun had been placed less than one foot away. How? Why? What the frick just happened? He said out loud as he looked down and witnessed out of the corner of his eye the six foot shotgun barrel being quickly withdrawn out a front window of his small apartment. He had been shot with a specialized shotgun called a falcon gun, quietly placed and extended to a small cut opening through the Venetian blinds. The shooter was a mafia assassin known as the gunner. He used a birdshot round to cause maximum suffering, for birdshot couldn't be completely removed from the victim's body, causing certain death due to slow, oozing loss of blood. Steve just wanted to start a new life away from the Russian mafia, and even kept his mouth shut. The mafia wasn't so certain he would, and didn't want to take the chance. He now only had hours to live. That night when I arrived at the East Hollywood bungalow, detectives from Hollywood Division Homicide were there. It was evening, and in the small single unit it was a chair overturned near a computer console. A small amount of blood next to a bloody sweatshirt was on the floor, next to paramedic refuge. Bloody gauze, some tape, and a pair of scissors. But how was the question? The nearest window was six feet away near the front door. It was open, with Venetian blinds covering the window. The victim, an ex con named Steve Pergosian, had been shot with a shotgun blast less than one foot from his chest. No shell casings were in the living room. Yet Steve had taken the full force of the blast through the chest with birdshot. Looking at the blinds next to the door, an opening had been carefully cut in the blind. Just enough room for a shotgun barrel to be quickly inserted and rested on the top door frame, then quickly removed. The single casing picked up, the shotgun barrel disassembled, and the falcon gunner disappeared into the night. Detectives determined through an eyewitness account of a next door neighbor with an inquiring mind that the pump maxim shotgun had a special six foot barrel for shooting birds of prey, and thereby had been converted to a falcon gun. The gun was carefully inserted to the opening, reaching near the front of Steve's chest, and fired. What the frick? Steve was heard yelling out loud as he saw the black barrel aimed at his chest before it blasted the fatal round, blowing Steve backwards. The pain was immense, searing and cutting into him like a thousand hot knives. Then the wound began to bleed and bleed and wouldn't stop. The pellets had entered his chest and could not be removed completely. It was a fatal wound that would take hours to bleed out. The doctors told Steve that medically they could do nothing about it. Through capillary action and the severe nature of the blast, the blood would slowly drain from his body. Steve Purgosian was told by the doctors to contact next of kin to say goodbye. This was, in my experience, considered a hit or an assassination. Only one of a couple I had seen in my investigations. The other assassination I investigated was the 1996 shooting of the rapper, Biggie Smalls. That's another story for another day. Steve the ex con, who was just trying to make a new life for himself, was now completely sedated and quietly passed away in the hospital's intensive care unit within four hours of being shot in the chest. At his request, a priest had been brought in and gave him last rites. His family was never reached and he refused to talk to Hollywood detectives. In the end, Steve Pergosian, aka the snowman, never ratted out to anyone about the Russian mafia, and they had nothing to be concerned about. Thank you for listening to my Dying in Lalaland podcast. Hit the follow button. We would love your feedback. And tell your friends.