So, is it possible for someone to die from an atomic wedgie? Well, the answer might actually surprise you. Now, the story starts with this guy, Bradley.
And Bradley is 16 years old living in McCloud, Oklahoma, and he apparently has a bit of a drinking problem. Even though he's only 16, he gets caught by police one time. A few years later, he joins the Marines, and I guess he drinks a ton while he's there because he eventually gets discharged partially because he was abusing so much alcohol.
Once he's back to civilian life, his drinking doesn't get any better. Over the next 7 years, between 2004 and 2011, he gets caught drinking in public and gets fined three different times for public intoxication. He also apparently has a problem with drugs, too, but it's never actually stated which kind of drugs, so I don't know.
But, you get the point. The man doesn't like to be sober. Now, I'm not sure how Bradley's family feels about all this, but one of his regular drinking buddies is this guy, Denver.
And Denver is actually Bradley's stepdad. But, they don't have a typical father-son relationship. They're more like friends.
And Denver has a history of heavy drinking as well. Now, Bradley and Denver, they hang out often enough because he lives in a trailer next door to Denver and Bradley's mother. And Denver and Bradley's mother own that trailer, and Bradley is paying them rent to live in it.
Now, even though they're drinking buddies, I imagine Bradley and Denver actually have a pretty hot and cold relationship because, according to Bradley, Denver used to bully him a lot when he was younger, and he was abusive to him and his mom. So, that's not good. So, now we're in 2013, and Bradley is 33 years old, and Denver is 58.
And Brad's still living in the trailer next door, still paying rent to Denver and his mom, and still drinking heavily. Now, for some reason, around this time, Denver files for divorce from Bradley's mom. Maybe it just isn't working out, or maybe they weren't getting along because he was allegedly so abusive.
We aren't sure, but he files for divorce. And this is actually the third time the couple has tried to initiate the divorce process. It seems like they go through this every few years.
And I don't know if it's because of this divorce and Bradley is mad at Denver for leaving his mom, but at some point in 2013, Bradley stops paying rent. And he misses month after month after month. And eventually, he owes Denver $7,000.
Now, Bradley's mom would probably let this slide because you know, that's her son. But, she and Denver aren't together anymore, and Denver isn't going to let it slide. He gets super pissed off.
He wants his $7,000. And this makes things very tense between them. So much so that one day, Denver threatens to go over to his trailer and drag him out by his throat if he doesn't pay.
Now, he never actually does this, but the threat is there. The next day, Bradley must be upset at Denver because he texts his friend that he's about to go [ __ ] Denver up. So, clearly these two aren't getting along.
But, that night, Bradley goes over to Denver and his mom's place. And he's hanging out with him, so they're suddenly getting along again, I guess. While Bradley's mom is in the hospital getting hip surgery.
I guess the plan is for Bradley to stay the night at the house because the two of them are supposed to go visit her at the hospital the next morning. I don't know why he couldn't stay at his own place. I mean, cuz he lives next door, but you know, whatever.
Anyway, so the two are together, and of course, they start drinking. Apparently, they drink a lot of beer until they're both pretty wasted. Now, as you can imagine, at some point during the night, these two guys start talking [ __ ] to each other and Denver is really pushing Bradley's buttons and he ends up making some comment about Bradley's mom, his own wife, and Bradley gets super pissed off.
He ain't about to let anyone talk about his mom like that. So, he looks at Denver and he says, "You're a bully. " And this really upsets Denver.
And they get in each other's faces, clearly ready for a fight. And suddenly, boom, Denver finally tackles Bradley into the kitchen and pow, he punches him in the face several times. And these guys are taking swings and they're grabbing on each other and eventually the fight turns in Bradley's favor and he basically wins.
And so now Denver is either knocked out cold or he's just too drunk to get up, but he's basically out of commission. And Bradley is probably proud that he won, but he isn't done. He wants to make sure that Denver never bullies him again he wants to humiliate him and he wants to do something that he'll never live down.
So, he decides to give him an atomic wedgie. Now, if you have the luxury of not knowing what an atomic wedgie is, it's it's when you pull someone's underwear up over their head. Here's a picture from the internet of what one looks like.
And so anyway, so from here Bradley walks over to where Denver is lying unconscious on the floor and he grabs the waistband of his underwear and he pulls it up all the way over his head. And it's not enough for him to just do this. He wants to show people that he did it.
So, he pulls out his phone and he snaps a few photos. And you know, he probably laughs it off from here. Then, I assume he goes about his business waiting for his drunk ass stepdad to wake up.
But, what Bradley is too drunk to realize is that the elastic band of the underwear he put over Denver's head is stretched so tight around his neck that it's actually cutting off his air and strangling him. And after a while of not being able to breathe, Denver quietly dies of asphyxiation. Now, at some point, Bradley goes to check on Denver and he realizes that he's no longer breathing and Bradley starts to panic.
And he starts texting and calling his friend to come help him. Same friend he was texting before. Now, while he's waiting for his friend to get there, I guess he tries to think of ways to get out of this.
And in his drunken state of mind, he decides the only potentially good way to explain what happened in this situation is to claim self-defense. So, he goes around the trailer trashing the place, knocking things over, and making it look like he and Denver had more of an equally weighted fight and that Bradley had no choice other than to defend himself. Now, that doesn't exactly explain the atomic wedgie, but whatever.
This is his plan. Soon, Bradley's friend arrives and he sees that the place is trashed and there's a body on the floor with a wedgie over his head and he realizes this is bad. So, Bradley calls 911 and he tells them a version of what happened.
And pretty soon, police show up and they start investigating. And the place is totally wrecked. So, they're thinking, yeah, it's possible that these two just got into a fight and that Bradley defended himself.
So, it looks like Bradley might actually get away with this. Until. So, it doesn't take long before police notice this whole scene appears to be staged.
So, they are immediately suspicious of Bradley. Later, the autopsy report shows that before Denver was given the wedgie, Bradley had beat him up pretty bad. And he'd apparently given him head wounds that likely would have killed him anyway.
Plus, you don't really give someone an atomic wedgie in self-defense. And so, bam, Bradley is arrested. Here's his mugshot.
And ultimately, he takes a plea deal pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter, and he gets sentenced to 30 years in prison.
