Story Of Jesse James Hollywood - "Alpha Dog"

Jesse James Hollywood (born January 28, 1980 in Los Angeles, California) is an American drug dealer and fugitive. He allegedly kidnapped and ordered the murder of Nicholas Markowitz. Ryan Hoyt, a "posse member" of Jesse James Hollywood, has been convicted of the slaying of Markowitz on August 9, 2000. Hoyt reportedly owed Hollywood money for drugs and was offered the opportunity to kill Markowitz as a way of erasing his debt. Hoyt was convicted of 1st degree murder and was sentenced to death. He currently is on death row at San Quentin State Prison in California.

Hollywood's drugs trade allowed him to acquire a small fortune with which he bought a $200,000 property in the San Fernando Valley area of Southern California and numerous exotic sports cars.

He was profiled on America's Most Wanted on June 12, 2004. Upon being captured, AMW showed him again on March 12 and April 2, 2005. Hollywood was found to be living in Saquarema, Brazil. American authorities worked with Brazilian agents and found out that Hollywood was supposed to meet a cousin in a mall. He was arrested by Interpol agents in Saquarema on March 8, 2005, at 11:35am, and was returned to the United States on March 10, 2005.

He is currently awaiting trial in California, starting after 2007. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.


Alpha Dog

In January 2007, the movie Alpha Dog, based on Jesse Hollywood and the kidnap and murder of Nicholas Markowitz, premiered at the Sundance Film festival. The film stars Emile Hirsch (as Hollywood, under the name Johnny Truelove), Justin Timberlake, Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster and Harry Dean Stanton. Universal Studios originally set a release date in May 2006, but the film was pushed back to be released on January 12, 2007.

During filming, Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Ronald J. Zonen provided copies of virtually every document in his file and served as an unpaid consultant to the film, citing his desire to have Hollywood captured. Zonen prosecuted Hollywood’s co-defendants and was poised to prosecute Hollywood. This alleged conflict of interest led to the decision by the California Court of Appeal for the Second District, who ruled on October 5, 2006 that, based on Zonen's disclosure of the files—which included confidential information and service as consultant to the film—he should be recused from further involvement in prosecuting Hollywood.

On December 20, 2006, the California Supreme Court granted review on Hollywood and a factually-unrelated case, Haraguchi v. Superior Court, involving the recusal of another prosecutor from Zonen's office, thus effectively staying the order to recuse Zonen. It is unclear how long it will take for the California Supreme Court to decide whether Zonen or his colleague will remain on their respective cases.

NBC's Dateline and Fox Network's America's Most Wanted have been covering this story extensively. You can get the Alpha Dog DVD Here>>>