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  • « next »
    Bruce Jeffrey Pardo

    Santa Killer Had Disabled Son, Escape Plan

    By Owen Thomas, 11:39 AM on Sat Dec 27 2008, 14,780 views (Edit post, Set to draft, Slurp)

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    A picture is emerging of Santa-clad death sprayer Bruce Jeffrey Pardo's sorry life: a brain-damaged son he abandoned as a toddler, a beloved dog he lost in a divorce, and a murder plan gone awry.

    On Christmas Eve, a week after his divorce from his wife, Sylvia Pardo, was finalized, Pardo went to his in-laws' house with a gun and a fuel-spraying device. The Los Angeles Times has most of the details of what motivated his crime, how he planned to kill and torch his ex-wife's family, and how his escape went wrong:

    • Pardo had a son, Matthew, with a previous girlfriend. The child, now 9, suffered brain damage after falling into a pool when he was 13 months old while his father was babysitting him. After sitting by his side for a week at the hospital, Pardo abandoned him, but continued to claim him as a tax deduction for seven years. When Sylvia Pardo discovered this, the couple fought, a feud which led to their divorce.
    • The couple was separated for two years. Their divorce was finalized on December 18. Sylvia was awarded custody of the couple's dog Saki, a brown Akita.
    • On Wednesday, Pardo drove a rented Dodge Caliber to his former in-laws' home in Covina, Calif., arriving at 11:30 p.m., and began shooting. "Pardo had disguised a pressurized fuel tank as a Christmas package and responded to the 8-year-old girl who answered the door to Santa Claus with a blast from a semiautomatic handgun."
    • Pardo then shot partygoers: "A relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the dead included Pardo's ex-wife, her parents, two of her brothers and their wives, a nephew and a sister."
    • Pardo had $17,000 in cash and a plane ticket to Canada strapped to his body, suggesting he planned an escape. But the fuel he sprayed ignited unexpectedly, and the Santa suit melted to his body, causing third-degree burns.
    • Abandoning his escape plan, he drove 40 miles to his brother's house in Sylmar, Calif. His last act before shooting himself: turning his rental car into a bomb: "He removed his shredded suit and used it to set up a booby trap in the vehicle, police said. If the suit was moved, trip wires would ignite a flash fire and explode 200 rounds of ammunition."

    (Photo by Covina Police Department via AP)
    Read More: Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, Crime, santa massacre, Christmas

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