'The Truth About Jim': Sierra Barter Talks Grandfather and Possible Zodiac Killer Connection (EXCLUSIVE)

Sierra Barter's grandfather controlled the narrative for some distance too lengthy. "I think I'm super thankful he's gone," she instructed Distractify.

Feb. 15 2024, Published 3:01 a.m. ET

The Truth About Jim opens with Sierra Barter revisiting a harrowing memory from her childhood. She was 7 years outdated and strolling in the course of the woods together with her grandmother. Barter recalls feeling scared but not understanding why till she learned her grandmother was the one who was truly residing in fear. "Because she was married to a monster," cries Barter. "His name was Jim Mordecai, and he was a very bad man."

The four-part Max docuseries takes us through the tactics during which Mordecai bodily and emotionally tortured those around him. While on the lookout for other sufferers whose lives he may have ruined, Barter makes some demanding connections between Mordecai and two notorious crime sprees. "Was he a killer?" she asks herself. Sierra Barter's grandfather for sure had something dark within him.

Sierra Barter's grandfather was abusive and enjoyed taunting other people.

Anyone who didn't know Mordecai smartly would describe him as a pleasing man with a just right physique. He used to be a science instructor who also dabbled in landscaping but his actual pastime appeared to be "inciting fear," mentioned his stepson Michael Probst. Probst recalled two instances from his adolescence that summed up who his stepfather was once. One used to be when Mordecai encouraged his pacifist stepson to fight a bully, taunting him when he did not need to. The different was taking him for a drive and showing him where a lifeless body used to be found.

Mordecai's 3rd wife Judy, Barter's grandmother, said he "seemed kind of wholesome" when they met at her daughter Shannon's school. Her earlier marriage had ended in divorce, leaving Judy with little or no self-esteem. How may she have predicted that he would eventually be so frightening, that Judy would sleep with a gun? His popularity amongst some scholars at school was once that he was once a fab trainer. Mordecai would let youngsters drink at his house and would hang out with them in his hot bathtub.

In the series, Shannon talked about how he would harass her at school. "He got off on that. It excited him," she said. One day Mordecai cornered Shannon within the green area on the faculty where he threatened her. Things most effective got worse when he married her mother. When Barter spoke to her family about Mordecai, each dialog was once extra chilling than the final. The maximum provoking story used to be from Christi Probst, his stepdaughter from a previous marriage, who alleged he repeatedly raped her throughout her formative years.

As Barter dug deeper, she encountered different former scholars from the highschool the place Mordecai labored who had similar tragic studies with him. Many of his victims have been a part of the Future Farmers of America club which was led by way of Mordecai. His modus operandi was once separating younger ladies in the membership, then preying on them the usage of their interests. Is it possible that Mordecai didn't prevent at assault?

Sierra Barter examined two conceivable theories about different crimes her grandfather can have dedicated.

The bulk of the docuseries facilities round Barter's principle that her grandfather was fascinated by a sequence of unsolved murders from 1972 to 1973. All of the victims were hitchhikers in Sonoma County; maximum of them had been tied up or assaulted, and left at the aspect of the street. Authorities referred to these crimes because the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. Some have compatibility Mordecai's M.O. and he surely lived in the house on the time. He also drove round with a big knife and steadily threatened to hogtie and kill ladies which is what came about to one of the Santa Rosa sufferers.

While digging into that theory, Barter used to be momentarily sidetracked through any other speculation. A few years prior to the Santa Rosa murders, any other crime spree had gripped the similar space. A string of reputedly random murders have been traced again to one one who called himself the Zodiac. The timeline matched up, though the Zodiac's crimes never involved sexual attack. Still, Barter needed to eliminate this possibility.

She spoke with Zodiac professional Mike Butterfield who put Barter relaxed when he mentioned the Santa Rosa murders didn't look like the work of the Zodiac. And furthermore, there wasn't sufficient to attach Mordecai to the Zodiac.

Distractify spoke with Barter about that divulge which she stated made her feel higher. Prior to that moment, she was afraid issues had long past "too far" and discovered herself wondering if she would "ever be the same again."

Regarding her grandfather, who gave up the ghost in 2008, we requested Barter if she wished he was still alive to answer for his sins. "The good but terrible part is, my mom was always super vocal with him," explained Barter. "She never let him believe that she thought he was a good guy." Barter thinks he had managed the narrative for too lengthy. "I don't know if I would have anything to say to him," she said. "I think I'm super thankful he's gone."

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