Justin Bieber performs at Madison Square Garden on November 29, 2012 in New York, the same concert at which two men planned to kill him.
For the convicted-felon mastermind and two hit men who were allegedly planning a murder plot against Justin Bieber, there was no shortage of gruesome detail. From kidnapping to torture and ultimately castration, New Mexico police have revealed every horrifying step of the men’s scheme to kill the teenage superstar, intended to take place in late November as he played two sold-out shows at New York City‘s Madison Square Garden.
An affidavit obtained by New Mexico State Police reveals the grisly details of the murder plan developed by Mark Aaron Staake, 41, and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, reported by the Toronto Star. But police reveals the plan was initially concocted by a convicted felon, Dana Martin, who is currently serving two life sentences for raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Vermont in 2000, according to KRQE, a CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, N.M.
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Martin, “a very good manipulator” according to the affidavit, lured Staake and Ruane to be his hit men with lucrative monetary rewards and a multi-million dollar hideout, the Star reports. It was all a ruse, police say, hinged on a budding prison friendship and fueled by Martin’s obsession with the teen singer.
An ardent fan, Martin, 45, has written letters to Bieber and even has a tattoo of the 18-year-old star on his leg. In April, Martin met Staake while they were locked up together at a New Mexico prison near Las Cruces. He allegedly recruited Staake, who was released on parole in October, to kidnap, murder and castrate Bieber, his bodyguard, and two others, a total of four people in two states. Staake, who then asked his nephew to join him, has been in and out of jail for drug, DWI and burglary arrests, according to KRQE.
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Martin instructed Staake to strangle the four with a paisley necktie, and later, to castrate them with Fiskars “Durasharp” brand garden clippers, according to the Star. The affidavit states that the paisley tie is apparently Martin’s weapon of choice, having used it in previous crimes.
But it was apparently a wrong turn toward an international border that foiled this alleged case of Bieber fever. The first two people to be killed in the murder plot were two unnamed acquaintances of Martin, alleged witnesses to his 2000 crime, NBC reports. After, the men were supposed to head to New York City to carry out a similar fate with Bieber and his bodyguard during the Madison Square Garden shows on November 28 and 29.
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On November 19, Staake was driving a 1983 BMW with Ruane through Vermont to carry out the first two crimes. But the two would-be assassins missed their exit and were headed across the Canadian border. After reportedly getting lost, they were stopped by a U.S. border agent at the Highgate Springs border crossing, where Staake was arrested on the spot due to his outstanding warrants in New Mexico.
Without his accomplice, Ruane called Martin at the New Mexico prison to explain he would not want to commit the crime without Staake. Ruane spoke with Martin again while driving south to Rotterdam, N.Y. and discussed some of the horrifying details of the plot. Both calls were recorded by the prison. The next day Martin confessed the murder plot to police, and Ruane was arrested a week later on Nov. 26. Bieber’s New York City concerts just days later went off without any hurdles, and with no indication of the hit that was allegedly out on him just days earlier.
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