Here’s a weird one: Mike Tyson was once interviewed by a journalist who later turned out to be a serial killer, but he seems to be a bit confused when it comes to a victim count.
The former heavyweight champion spoke to KIIS FM‘s Kyle and Jackie O this morning, and dropped the scandalous story for no reason I can decipher apart from the fact that it’s a good one.
After establishing that he was interviewed by this journalist, Tyson said:
“A week later my gym was surrounded by SWAT, and the cops showed me a picture that me and the guy took. The cops asked me how did I know the guy, [I said] I don’t know but if I did something wrong to him I’m sorry. And then he said, ‘No, Mr. Tyson. He liked you… he didn’t like the 38 people that he shot and the eight that he killed’.”
But it’s not the first time Tyson has wheeled this story out. Just two months ago, he was talking to hip hop music channel SiriusXM Radio, where Tyson ended his story with, “No, Mr. Tyson, he liked you… he didn’t like the 15 people he shot and the nine that he killed.”
And on Jimmy Kimmel Live, a couple days later: “No, he liked you, Mr. Tyson, he didn’t like the 28 people that he shot and the eight that he killed.”
In fact, the serial killer he’s referring to is likely Dale Hausner, who, along with his roommate Samuel Dieteman, terrorised Phoenix, Arizona with a series of drive-by shootings between May 2005 and August 2006.
Initially believing they were looking for one person dubbed the Serial Shooter, police eventually arrested and charged both men in relation to the crimes (investigators believed the pair were responsible for eight murders and at least 29 other shooting). Hausner was convicted of six of the eight murders in 2009 and sentenced to death, but killed himself in prison. Dieteman pleaded guilty to two murders, and was sentenced to life without parole.
[If you want to see the pic Tyson referred to, you’ll have to go to Murderpedia, which is a very real website I have just discovered.]
Given that some reports put the number of incidences (murders and shootings) committed by the Serial Shooter as high as 36, perhaps it’s understandable that Tyson is embellishing this yarn as he sees fit.
