The Slaying Santas

The figure of Saint Nicholas has generally been regarded as a kindly one throughout many stories and cultures. It’s easy to love the jolly gentleman who spends his days building toys for good boys and girls. It’s even easy to be fond of your local mall Santa whom you take your children to each year. But what about a darker Santa?
What if I told you that not every Kris Kringle has a merry twinkle in his eye? What if I warned you that the creepiest parts of Santa Claus’ stories extend beyond his creepy crystal ball gazing and breaking-and-entering? What if the stories that we’ve seen in the cold of winter, stories like Silent Night, Deadly Night, have become vivid realities for some people?

1. The Covina Massacre

The Covina Massacre is easily the most famous of the Santa Claus slay rides. On December 24, 2008, the Ortega family was hosting a Christmas Eve party in Covina, which is a small city in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. Roughly around 11:30 P.M. there came a knock at the front door, and a little eight-year-old girl opened it to see a darling Father Christmas. Unknown to her, the Christmas hero was Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, ex-husband of one of the Ortega daughters.

She was abruptly shot in the face, and Pardo shoved his way into the house and opened fire on the party. Unsurprisingly, chaos fell with everyone scrambling for their lives, and in the mayhem, he unwrapped the present that he had brought with him- a homemade flamethrower. He set to work torching the house and lighting people up with 9-millimeters; the result was the death of nine individuals with at least three other injuries.

The flames climbed up to 50 feet tall, and it took 80 firefighters to extinguish it. Pardo fled the scene after ditching the Santa suit, and the police later located him in his brother’s house, dead by self-inflicted gunshot. This Krisp Kringle did not escape unscathed from the flames, and the authorities found bits of the Santa suit burned into his skin.

2. The Grapevine Shooting

The Grapevine Shooting is perhaps just a little more depressing. Christmas Morning, around 11:00 AM found middle-aged Aziz Yazdenpanah at the door of his ex-wife’s apartment. She and their children were in the middle of opening gifts when Yazdanpanah appeared in a Santa Claus suit. His niece, sent two texts to her friend around that time saying, “Soo we’re here. We just got here and my uncle is here too. Dressed as Santa. Awesome” and then, “Now he wants to be all fatherly and win father of the year.”

Yazdanpanah then opens fire on the family, shooting his son, daughter, niece, sister-in-law, and ex-wife. During this time, he placed a call to 911 where you could hear someone asking for help, before he says, “I am shooting people.”

In total, he killed six people and himself on that Christmas Day. The reason? He was jealous that his wife and children were able to be financially stable without him in their lives.

2. The Grapevine Shooting

The Grapevine Shooting is perhaps just a little more depressing. Christmas Morning, around 11:00 AM found middle-aged Aziz Yazdenpanah at the door of his ex-wife’s apartment. She and their children were in the middle of opening gifts when Yazdanpanah appeared in a Santa Claus suit. His niece, sent two texts to her friend around that time saying, “Soo we’re here. We just got here and my uncle is here too. Dressed as Santa. Awesome” and then, “Now he wants to be all fatherly and win father of the year.”

Yazdanpanah then opens fire on the family, shooting his son, daughter, niece, sister-in-law, and ex-wife. During this time, he placed a call to 911 where you could hear someone asking for help, before he says, “I am shooting people.”

In total, he killed six people and himself on that Christmas Day. The reason? He was jealous that his wife and children were able to be financially stable without him in their lives.

3. The Stalking Santa

If you are looking to commit a more anonymous murder during the holidays, dressing up as a Santa Claus would be a route to go.

On January 6th, 2012, Fuad Abu Mana and Tufik Dalou took turns trading off a Santa outfit while stalking Gabriel Cadis through a Christmas parade. Cadis was the newly elected chairman of the Jaffa Orthodox Church Association, and according to members of the community, “The election campaign was very tense.” The duo stalked Cadis to church, attended service, then followed him out to his car where Fuad stabbed him twice in the back. Cadis cried out, collapsed to the ground, and died later from his injuries.

Mana and Dalou were later apprehended as the surveillance cameras caught them dashing away to an associate’s house, which let the authorities connect the pieces of the puzzle from the chairman to the house whose property was up for dispute. Perhaps, in this case, Cadis should’ve been wary of the stalking Santa, but we can still remember Father Christmas as a kindly figure this holiday.