Even though he was nearly 30 years old Chris Wilson always told people that he didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up but he dreamed of being a guitarist in a band. He had a hard time holding down jobs and never worked in one place for very long. In his late twenties his mom bought a hair salon in Wenatchee and Chris decided to start attending the Academy of Hair Design in order to maybe follow in her footsteps. Throughout his life Chris had a number relationships what different women some serious, some casual. He had even been engaged a time or two. One woman he dated on-again-off-again was named Tessa Shuyleman (Source). We will get more to her later.
Descriptions of Chris vary widely depending on who you ask, most people will tell you he liked being different. For years he dyed his hair black, occasionally wore eyeliner, chose to wear clothes that were “punk” or “goth”. Most people will also tell you that Chris Wilson was interested in things dark and macabre. He was obsessed with a show called Dexter which is about a serial killer. He was also interested in dark art and movies. He enjoyed talking about death, and serial killers and most of his time on the internet was spent on serial killer forums. Of course, Chris's friends always have stressed that he wasn't evil; he was just different and had unusual interests. Researching serial killers and liking shows like Dexter after all isn't really that unique. Wilson also sports a tattoo Hannibal Lecter on his forearm. He had been fired from at least one funeral home in Wenatchee due to “inappropriate” behavior that made his boss uncomfortable. Chris's former boss has never elaborated on this statement claiming it was not his place to talk about these things outside of court (source). However, another manager at the funeral home described Chris as an excellent employee (source). One woman who worked with Chris at Academy of Hair Design described him as “intimidating but not physically intimidating.” Other coworkers and neighbors remember Chris as artsy but was otherwise a typical guy (Source).
At one point Chris Wilson lived in Ellensburg, Washington and worked at a Goodwill in town. According to some sources, one night his manager discovered him rifling through the dumpster at Goodwill in order to take home a mannequin with him. (Some reports say it was a paper statue.) He told his co-workers that this was for his art. He took the mannequin home, dismembered it and painted it like he murdered body, then shared pictures of this artwork online (Source). Friends of Chris said that he found the mannequin already painted. They claim that he called the police and then photographed the limbs for his art (source). It appears that a police report was made so Chris’s friends may have the more accurate account of this particular event.
Wilson told another acquaintance that he strangled a woman to death with a belt in a hotel in Ellensburg (Source). Police said they have no evidence that a murder like this had ever occurred. One classmate interviewed reported that on Halloween The Academy of Hair Design was having a contest. Students were allowed to do a hair and makeup on a mannequin head however they liked, in a type of dress up competition. Wilson took a straight razor to his mannequin’s face and peeled the skin off, something that disturbed her deeply. Others though have said they didn't think it was that weird as it was for a Halloween game (Source). Wilson's love of Dexter, his tattoo, and the mannequin incident were not allowed to be brought up during trial the information was prejudicial rather than probative, but they are all important parts if the story.
Chris Wilson's odd behavior aside, law enforcement began looking into Chris's movements on the days around Mackenzie’s disappearance. Security footage showed that Chris Wilson left the Academy of Hair Design within 72 seconds of Mackenzie leaving (Source). He was shown walking across the parking lot at approximately 3:02 p.m. It was also determined that Wilson left through a different door than Mackenzie, which would explain why no one seemed to remember him leaving right after her. In the video, he slinks near the alley rather than walking across the lot (Source). As far as I can remember the Academy of Hair Design was rather open inside, so I think other students would have been able to see Mackenzie from wherever they were in the school, meaning Chris could probably see that Mackenzie left the building.
In February 2012, Chris lived in a studio in a building called the Burke Hill apartments. The tenement is across from the courthouse in a sketchy area of town, adjacent to a bail bonds business. The building is on Orondo Street only a few blocks from Academy of Hair Design. When Mackenzie car was last seen, it was actually headed towards Chris Wilson's apartment, which was the opposite direction from the Orondo boat launch. Verizon Wireless was asked if it was possible that Mackenzie's last text messages were sent from Chris Wilson's apartment rather than the Orondo boat launch. When they reviewed the data, they admitted that it was just as likely that Mackenzie was in the vicinity of the Burke Hill apartments, rather than the boat launch (Source).
Chris never returned to the Academy of Hair Design that day after leaving at 3:02 p.m. His whereabouts for the rest of the day are unknown and he doesn't have an alibi. His mother claims that at one point he swung by her house to pick up a plate of cupcakes, but it doesn't appear that Chris stayed with her for any amount of time (Source). Chris’s phone went unanswered from 3:30-3:50 pm (source). What we do know is that Chris Wilson had a car, but that a little before 4 p.m. he called his friend asking to borrow this friend's car. His friend said that he could borrow the car until 5 p.m., Chris said he needed the car for a longer but his friend told him that wasn't an option. Chris may have borrowed the car and returned it at 5:15 p.m. Chris’s defense attorneys claim that Chris did not end up actually using the car, and say that video surveillance shows that the car never left its spot in the parking lot (Source). Unfortunately, I could find no other information on this discrepancy, but we do know that Chris did ask to borrow the car on the afternoon of February 9th.
From 3:02 pm forward on February 9th, Wilson was in regular phone and text contact with his ex-girlfriend Tessa Shuyleman. Shuyleman and he talked 8 different times in between 3:30 and 6 pm. Shuyleman’s phone records revealed that she was also in contact with her current boyfriend who lived in Quincy, Washington only three miles from Crescent Bar. Tessa called her current boyfriend twice around 6 pm, and then also called him at 9 pm in a panicked state. She said “something really, really bad has happened” and then “please pray for me.” The man thought the request was odd as he described Tessa as “anti-religion.” He could not remember the exact day of this conversation but he believed it to be February 9th or 10th. Phone records showed that the time of the phone calls most likely happened on the 9th. Phone records demonstrated that this 9 pm call as well as another call Tessa made around 10 pm “may have originated in the Quincy area.” Another ex-boyfriend of Shuyleman reported that Tessa came to his home to pick up some things, sometime between Feb. 9th and 13th. He described her as agitated and fidgety. She stayed with him for about twenty minutes but left the residence without collecting any of her things (Source).
Additionally, Chris matched the description of the man seen walking down Pitcher Canyon Road, although this description could fit a lot of men in the area. School records show that in the days following the discovery of Mackenzie’s body Wilson was rarely at school, leaving for no reason at all or simply not attending (Source). Chris Wilson was not on anyone's radar until the summer of 2010 when police began re-looking at leads and then finally received the letter from Theo Keyes.
In August Wilson, along with other people who worked at the Academy of Hair Design, were interviewed by police. Later that month police got a warrant to DNA test students at the Academy thus obtaining Chris Wilson's DNA. Court documents say that Wilson gave his DNA willingly. Wilson's profile was sent to the crime lab. Wilson did not match the DNA in Mackenzie’s car, fingernail, or on the murder weapon, but his DNA was consistent with the one of the male profiles found on the duct tape at Crescent Bar. With this information police asked Wilson to come down to the station again to be interviewed. Law enforcement agents asked him if he had ever been to Crescent bar. Wilson denied this and was promptly placed under arrest for the murder of Mackenzie Cowell (Source). Detective John Kruse claimed that at this point, Chris looked at him blankly with no emotion on his face, and didn’t deny the accusation instead saying “I think I need a lawyer.” (Source).
Soon Chris Wilson's strange behavior and hobbies we're common knowledge among the people of Wenatchee. Pictures showed that he went to Mackenzie's funeral (Source). Chris Wilson claimed he did not know Mackenzie and had never talked to her before, although he did admit that he knew who she was. Subsequent interviews with the people who worked at the Academy of Hair Design revealed this wasn't exactly true. Many people remember Mackenzie talking to Chris. One person even described a relationship or friendship developing between the two. One woman claimed that Chris Wilson had told her that he found the Mackenzie “hot” (source). Adversely, Chris's mother claims that Mackenzie and Chris we're not friends on Facebook or Myspace even though they both used those websites. She also claimed Chris and Mackenzie never talked on their cell phones (Source), which is far as I can tell is accurate. Chris's friends stated that while Chris talked about some people he worked with at Academy of Hair Design, they never remember him mentioning Mackenzie (Source).
After his arrest police looked at Chris's cell phone records and his computer. They also located his car in Spokane, Washington which he had sold in April 2010 (Source). LE thoroughly searched the apartment he was living in which was the basement of Salon Couture, a building which his mother owned. Police ripped apart the apartment not realizing that this was not the apartment Chris was living in at the time of Mackenzie's disappearance and murder. They reported to the newspaper that luminol test showed blood in the stairwell. The blood was sent to the crime lab, which revealed that the blood did not belong to Mackenzie. One woman who worked at the salon recalled that when the salon was being painted a painter had cut his hand in the stairwell (Source). The blood was not connected to the case and police instead got a warrant to search the studio that Chris was living at in the Burke Hill apartments months earlier.
Chris had vacated his apartment in June of 2010. On Chris's computer police found some strange photographs as well as two strange videos. The photograph, which is not publicly available, is allegedly of Tessa Shuyleman laying on the floor of Chris's apartment posing as if she is dead on top of a brownish stain. Tessa gave two different explanations of this photo. In one explanation Tessa said that she had passed out drunk in Chris's apartment where he snapped the photo (Source). Another time she said that Chris and asked her to lie on the ground and then he took a photo. Tessa also said that she had no memory of anything that happened from February 9th to 13th and that she was not involved in the disappearance of Mackenzie.
The videos featuring both Tessa and Chris we're taken on June 26th and June 30th. They feature someone carrying around a camera and videotaping parts of the empty apartment. On the video from June 26th a brown reddish stain can be seen on the carpet. Right before the video ends, the videographer zooms directly in this stain, before going to the bathtub panning around the bathtub and then cutting off. In the June 30th film which is very similar, Chris and Tessa can be heard talking. Chris says “does it look clean in here?” and Tessa says, “clean for…? clean considering what's…. happening? Yes I think it's clean” and then zooms in again on the exact same part of the carpet but now the stain is barely visible (Source) (Source). Chris said he made the videos in order to show his landlord so that he could get his deposit back. He also said the stain on the carpet was from a party when someone had knocked over bong water. He said the stain smelled really bad so he cleaned it with Simply Green and got the stain out (Source). Some of Chris’s supporters say that the video shows nothing at all but others say the video is very damning, especially the remarks that Tessa makes.
When police entered the apartment and sprayed the area with luminol, the stain lit up. The carpet and carpet pad were cut away and sent to the State Crime Lab. The piece of carpet was very small, only a few inches square (Source). The State Crime Lab was able to determine that the stain was blood that belonged to Mackenzie Cowell (Source). This piece of evidence was the nail in Chris Wilson's coffin. The DA charged Wilson with second-degree murder.
The town of Wenatchee was shocked, bit by bit everyone's stories, memories, and recollections about Chris Wilson we're on the front page of the newspaper every day. Chris was arrested in October 2010 with his case would not go to trial until 2012. In early court documents Chris is represented by a public defender Keith Howard, who was once awarded one of the best lawyers in Washington State. Howard explained in court documents that the DNA found on the duct tape was not a complete profile and that the DNA sequence matched thousands of white men, perhaps even dozens of them in Washington State. He also pointed out the fact that Chris Wilson's DNA was not found on the murder weapon nor was there any evidence that Mackenzie had been in his car or that he had been in her car. After all the DNA from Mackenzie's car didn't match Chris Wilson either. Further, there was a second male DNA profile on the duct tape that was someone else entirely. Judge Bridges allocated $10,000 worth of public funds for the DNA to be retested at a private facility in Ohio before going to trial. Howard also discovered one of the DNA profiles found on the murder weapon belonged to a fingerprint analyst at the crime lab in Cheney. He also discovered that the second profile found on the knife could not rule out a deputy who arrived at the crime scene. Howard pointed out how sloppy this made investigators look and reminded the public that the DNA evidence was not as cut-and-dry as it seemed. For example, the profile on the duct tape was a y-str profile. It was not complete and could match one in 2700 males. This particular profile is most common among white men, and excludes all women. One in every 1,047 Caucasian men have this particular sequence, and it would be most common among Chris Wilson's relatives (Source). Chris Wilson however, had no male relatives living in the area as he was not a Wenatchee native. Chris’ biological father is unknown. His siblings do not share his y-str DNA as they have a different father than Chris.
Early on in my research did the math, and this profile could have belonged to approximately 7-14 people in Wenatchee- more if you include the outlying areas. While is it is not 100% matchable to Chris Wilson, it is a pretty good indicator when coupled with other evidence.
Everyone thought the case with the DNA evidence was a slam dunk, but then Chelan County district attorney did something that shocked everyone. He offered Chris Wilson a plea deal. 6 1/2 years for manslaughter if he would only plead guilty (Source). The move astonished the community. Chris Wilson rejected the deal saying he wanted to go to trial so that the truth could come out.
Preliminary hearings were held with Chris Wilson's new attorney John Henry Browne, a very prestigious lawyer out of Seattle. Browne has defended some famous criminals such as Ted Bundy and the Colton Harris Moore- the Barefoot Bandit. Browne planned on calling Liz Reid to the stand and throwing suspicion at suspects like Cerros, Cuevas, Joaquin Villasano, and Joey Fisher. He argued that all of these men had motive which his client Chris Wilson did not have (Source).
Browne also defended some people in 1995 during what was dubbed the Wenatchee Witch Hunt (Source). Many of us in the true crime community have heard of satanic panic. In the 1980s and 90s teachers, daycare workers, and others that worked with children were accused all across the country of participating in ritualistic abuse of children. There was a variety of very huge trials and scandals. One of the last major satanic panic scandals occurred in 1994 and 1995 and was dubbed the Wenatchee Witch Hunt. All in all, over 40 people were arrested for ritualistic child abuse in the Wenatchee Valley many of them daycare workers, preschool teachers, and Sunday school supervisors. Eventually, all of these trials ended in mistrial, overturned convictions, and acquittals. I
This phenomenon is a perfect picture the issues that can arise when people let emotions cloud their judgment, coupled with bad psychological advice, and a misunderstanding of how to interview children. Early on some people were convicted and sadly convections fell along class lines, with wealthier accused typically hiring good lawyers and being acquitted while poor defendants with no options more likely to be convicted. Eventually the state acquitted all of these defendants but several people involved in the Witch Hunt were able to keep their jobs in the Wenatchee Police Department and the DA’s office, including the DA himself (Source). Because of this history John Henry Browne was planning on pushing for the idea that Mackenzie's blood had been planted and Chris Wilson's apartment. And he was planning on using the story of the Wenatchee Witch Hunt to show the jury that law enforcement in the area could not be trusted (Source).
Browne’s strategy was a bold one. Many people had a hard time believing that police would collect blood from Mackenzie with the purpose of planting it in the apartment of someone who wasn't even on their radar when they collected the blood. This also assumes that police somehow knew that there was a stain in Chris Wilson's apartment that he would videotape and that they would be able to collect for evidence. Others have wondered why the police would try to frame someone with no criminal past and only vague connections to Mackenzie, when they could have easily framed someone like Buddha Cerros who had a very long criminal record. Police also were in possession of Buddha’s car, so planting evidence wouldn’t have been challenging.
Browne has also pointed out the sloppiness of the investigation. Of the three male DNA profiles collected from knife at the scene, one, possibly two, of the three profiles on the knife were determined to have belonged to law enforcement. One belonged to a finger print analyst at the state crime lab near Spokane. Another sample was a partial profile could not exclude one deputy who responded to the crime scene. The third profile is still unknown. Law enforcement has said that while there are steps to avoid contamination, it actually happens often, which is why the DNA of all analysts and officers is kept on file. Police also admitted to moving Mackenzie’s body from the river onto the shore without waiting for a forensics unit. They expressed fear that the body would float away due to dam fluctuations if it was not moved. However, in this event some evidence may have been moved, lost, or damaged (source).
Browne also spearheaded the idea that Chris might have been arrested for being weird in a small town. Like many people, Browne was also troubled by the apparent lack of motive that Chris had for killing Mackenzie. Right before trial a change of venue was requested by the defense. While that was being decided many pieces of evidence and information from Chris’ life were ruled inadmissible at trial (Source). Shawna Novak’s testimony along with some of Chris’s "weird" interests were to be supressed.
As jury selection got underway, approximately 85% of potential jurors admitted that they already thought Chris Wilson was guilty. A similar number of jurors have followed the case and knew about suppressed evidence (Source). On the day before trial was set to begin, Chris Wilson entered a plea of guilty for Mackenzie's manslaughter and requested the DA's previous deal of six years. The DA countered with a 14-year sentence in exchange for a signed document that said Chris had caused the death of Mackenzie Cowell. Wilson took the plea looking miserable the whole time, and was sentenced to 14 years, with the possibility of getting out in 10 with good behavior.
Browne explained to media outlets that sometimes defendants have to do what's best for them which is sometimes taking a plea deal even if they're innocent (Source). As soon as Chris Wilson was placed into prison he immediately tried to go back on his guilty plea and once again claimed he was innocent. Wilson seemed to think that if he did this he would get an immediate retrial or some sort of appeals process but this was not the case and today he is still sitting in Clallam Correctional Facility in Washington State (Source).
When the media asked why DA Riesen would offer such a lenient sentence for Wilson, he said that the reasons were two-fold. First, he felt that the jury would want a motive for the crime and he felt he and his team could not provide one, except for that maybe Chris Wilson was interested in becoming a serial killer himself, which is a pretty far-fetched idea. The other issue was is that while Mackenzie's DNA was in Chris's apartment the DA said he had no proof that Chris was there when it happened or that he caused Mackenzie to bleed. This coupled with the fact that his DNA was not on the murder weapon made him feel like his case was not as strong as the people Wenatchee seemed to think it was (Source).
There are still many unanswered questions about this case. Chris has maintained his innocence since the moment he was placed into prison. He says he regrets many things about his life especially his Hannibal Lecter tattoo which biased the public against him (Source). The biggest question many have is motive. According to all sources Chris and Mackenzie did not really know each other that well. There were no problems between them, they did not run in the same circles, they were not similar ages, were not in the same “grade” at the Academy, and they apparently did not talk to each other online or on the phone. Mackenzie was not sexually assaulted which doesn't necessarily rule out a sexual motive but it does make things a lot stranger. Further, there's still the question of the unknown DNA on the knife, on the victim’s fingernails, and in her car. These things seem the point to the fact that Chris Wilson must have had an accomplice. But who is he? I discovered one article which claimed that two inmates at the county jail were involved in the crime, although I could find no more detail on this matter (Source).
Others including Chris's attorneys have pointed out that Cowell's jugular was cut (Source). Injuries like these produce massive amounts of blood. If Mackenzie was killed in Chris's apartment why was there only a very small patch of blood on his carpet? Some have speculated that Chris may have laid down plastic in his apartment like on the TV show Dexter in order to make his clean up easier. But this would mean that the crime was planned out in advance and it would produce additional evidence such as the bloody plastic sheets. There's also the question of how Chris got Mackenzie into his apartment in broad daylight. Did he invite her up? Mackenzie was an athlete who regularly worked out. At 5’8” she was only a few inches shorter than Chris, who would have had to get her body from his second-floor apartment to his car which was parked on the street, without anyone realizing that he was carrying a bleeding, full grown woman. This further implies that he must have had an accomplice. Police have always theorized that Schuyleman was his accomplice but Tessa was ruled out as being a contributor of any of the DNA in the case. Further, her car was searched but nothing was found. Because of this her charge of aiding and abetting a criminal was dropped. Tessa legally changed her first and last name and moved out of the area as soon as the sentencing concluded. She was never charged with any crime.
In the years since this crime the 48 Hours episode and places like Web Sleuths and Reddit have allowed doubt to be thrown on Chris Wilson's conviction. Ever since John Henry Browne pioneered the idea that Wenatchee police are corrupt and planted Mackenzie's blood, people have questioned the validity of the other evidence in the case. I know I was a bit skeptical of police after hearing this but when I started doing my research, I realized the police might be able to plant physical evidence, but they cannot plant circumstantial evidence, and there was a good amount of circumstantial evidence that points to Wilson as the perpetrator. I am very perturbed by the lack of motive and by the four unknown male DNA profiles, one on Mackenzie's steering wheel, the duct tape, her fingernails, and the other on the murder weapon as it makes me feel like there's much more to the story and that murderers are potentially walking free. It was a surreal experience to have everyone in the area so convinced of Wilson’s guilt in 2012, only to have everyone start questioning their convictions after the 2014 CBS special revealed new or different information only a few years later.
Wilson supporters online have even wondered if homophobia is to blame for Wilson's arrest. Chris Wilson was definitely different, his dyed hair and penchant for eyeliner apparently made some people assume that he was gay even though he describes himself as heterosexual. Also he was one of only 3 male students at the hair academy (source). Personally, I have always found this a bit of a stretch as Wilson's on-again-off-again girlfriend was arrested with him, but I will not rule it out as I am sure Wilson has been on the receiving end of some not-so-nice comments especially in a small town like Wenatchee. I don't mean to say that a homophobia does not happen, but I don't think it was Chris's dyed hair that made people view him suspiciously rather, it was his odd behavior and frankly disturbing interests. For this I would say that his weird behavior is more to blame than homophobia. A lot of men dye their hair, but few dismember and paint mannequins like murder victims. At the end of the day, homophobia was the least of Chris Wilson’s worries.
Others have pointed to Liz Reed’s testimony and a question why Reid’s story was thrown out while Keyes’ story was believed. When asked why DA Gary Reisen trusted Keyes rather than Reid, Reisen said that Keyes’ story had merit. Not only did party goers back up his account of the choking incident, DNA confirmed Keyes’ suspicions about Wilson. Reid said that Liz’s story about Cuevas and Cerros is nothing but “blatant hearsay.” “Show me one thing that connects Cuevas to this crime,” says Risen, “One thing. There is nothing.”
Many locals are still skeptical of Buddha Cerros and Sam Cuevas. I remember at one point Buddha was working at a grocery store or convenience store and people would always side-eye him. Buddha has always said he is not involved and Liz Reid is someone who likes to ruin other people's lives. Sadly, Sam Cuevas has passed away but it appears that he did not get into any more legal trouble after his first run-in with the law. Cerros has always denied involvement and says that he's not a violent person and that he is trying his best to live an honest life, but as of 2020 Buddha was in prison yet again for heroin charge.
Other Things
A few things I wanted to mention but could not find a place for are theories for motive as well as Wilson’s lack of denial. Amateur detectives have long wondered what Chris Wilson’s motive was for the crime. My mom for example, has always speculated that Chris offered to sell Mackenzie drugs or even alcohol, which prompted her to meet Chris. Obviously, Cowell thought this would be a quick encounter and for whatever reason the exchange went sour and ended with Mackenzie’s death. I can find no indication that either Chris or Mackenzie used drugs, but this would explain why Mackenzie went to meet Chris and why she possibly entered his apartment willingly. It also explains that while Chris and Mackenzie left at around the same time, but they were trying to look like they weren't leaving together. Another theory is that Chris met up with Mackenzie and made a sexual advance that she rebuffed, ending in murder. A third theory is that Mackenzie knew that Chris was doing something unsavory at work (such as selling drugs or stealing money) and she threatened to tell. This could have led to an altercation. An alternative theory is that Chris Wilson was a burgeoning serial killer who simply wanted to commit a murder. Finally, some have wondered if Chris Wilson worked with Cerros and Cuevas to kill Mackenzie although it doesn’t seem like there is any evidence the men knew each other together.
I do not mean to accuse Mackenzie of being a drug user or imply any other negative behavior as there's really no evidence for any of these theories, but I did want to mention them in the name of being thorough.
Another thing that deserves a mention in this piece is Chris Wilson’s lack of denial. Although Chris has maintained his innocence since landing in prison, audio and video interviews with him show something interesting. Whenever Chris is asked if he killed Mackenzie or hurt Mackenzie or was involved in Mackenzie's murder, he doesn't really deny it. Instead, he answers with a question such as, “where did you hear that?” or “who is saying that about me?” It is a little bit odd to me as it seems like he deflects questions does not answer them head-on. Like many things in this case this fact alone does not feel guilt or innocence, but it is part the story that I wanted to include.
Timeline

1. Mackenzie left the Academy of Hair Design at 208 S. Wenatchee Avenue at 3 pm, asking a classmate if she had to sign out if she was only going to be gone 15 minutes. Mackenzie left the area on foot and walked to her car in a lot behind the salon. Classmates assumed that she was leaving to get coffee at her favorite stand, a place called Auto Mocha which was only a five-minute drive away.
2. 3:01 pm surveillance video shows Mackenzie walking to her car, getting in, and driving away.
3. 3:02 pm Chris Wilson seen on surveillance video exiting the salon and driving away within one minute of Mackenzie leaving. Chris left the salon out a different door so no one initially remembered him leaving right after her.
4. ~3:02 pm security video shows Mackenzie’s car driving west on Kittitas St. towards Chris Wilson’s apartment
5. 3:26 pm Mackenzie texts her boyfriend “hey”
6. 3:02-3:33 Wilson texts Shuyleman 4 times
7. 3:33-3:50 pm, Wilson does not answer his phone
8. 3:42 pm Joaquin Villasano texts back “hey” This is the last activity on her phone.
9. ~3:50 pm Chris Wilson calls his friend and asks to borrow his car at 4 pm, despite having his own car.
10. 4-5:15 pm Chris borrows friend’s car (possibly)
11. 4:04 - 4:08 pm Chris calls Shuyleman and is one the phone for 4 minutes
12. 4:36 and 5:03 p.m. Chris calls Shuyleman 4 times- one minute each time
13. 5:42 pm Mackenzie’s phone “pings” presumably when it is shut off.
14. ~ 4:30-5:30 pm Mackenzie’s car is abandoned in Pitcher Canyon. A man walking away from the car who vaguely resembles Chris Wilson, seen by three locals walking down the road toward town
15. 5:40 pm Reid Cowell calls Mackenzie- her phone goes straight to voicemail. He continues to call.
16. ~6 pm Shuyleman calls her boyfriend who lives in Crescent Bar twice, it does not appear that he answered
17. 8 pm a rancher calls police to report that a red sedan has been abandoned near his driveway since at least 7 pm
18. 9:10 pm Shuyleman calls her boyfriend in a panicked state and says “something really bad has happened” and then “please pray for me.” The call may have come from the Quincy area.
19. A little before 10 pm a police officer is dispatched to assess the abandoned car, he runs the plate and calls the owner, Reid Cowell, who explains that his daughter is missing.
20. 10 pm Reid Cowell and Mackenzie’s boyfriend Joaquin arrive at the scene. The car is empty but Mackenzie’s purse and her gym bag full of clothes are in the car. Only her phone and keys are missing. There are only one set of footprints in the snow; they lead away from the car towards the road.
21. Shuyleman and Wilson called and texted “several times” between 10:35 p.m. and 11:09 p.m.
22. February 13th 1 pm a body is found floating in the Columbia River. Two days later it is identified as Mackenzie Cowell

In order to see the pictures and videos referenced in this piece I would watch the CBS documentary called “Secrets of the River.” It is the only place one can watch the video of Chris leaving the salon, as well as the only place that you see the bizarre apartment video and the carpet stain. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-secrets-of-the-river-be-careful-what-you-plead-fo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Mackenzie_Cowell
The Wenatchee world has over 200 articles on the case available on their website https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/
Finally, two good podcasts on the case are first degree podcast and true crime brewery.https://www.stitcher.com/show/true-crime-brewery/episode/the-beauty-school-murder-who-killed-mackenzie-cowell-51131251
https://podtail.com/podcast/the-first-degree/mackenzie-cowell/
There are so many questions that make this “solved” case a mystery. Who killed Mackenzie Cowell? Is the right man in jail? Or was he railroaded for being a unique person in a cookie cutter town? If Wilson isn’t responsible, then who is? If Wilson is responsible who helped him? What do you think happened 17-year-old Mackenzie Cowell?

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Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

When the Paranormal becomes normal.

 I am going to tell you right off the bat that I am going to say some pretty crazy things. Half of America probably believes in the paranormal but still might feel skeptical about stories they are told.. While I did believe in the supernatural/paranormal, I never had an experience that I thought was even possibly paranormal....until recently. I never imagined I would ever experience anything like this. It’s not easy for me to share this. While this kind of thing is very rare, it is as real as you are reading this right now. I have some footage that is unlike anything else I have seen, you will see the link for them in my story. I will show that they are straight off a Nest-cam feed, so that at least rules out CGI. I didn’t wanna share my story unless I could get some type of evidence. The things that you will see are obviously not normal. I feel like with footage of this, you can’t question my sanity. You can still question my integrity if you decide. I have to share this because it’s one of those things if I don’t do, I will always be thinking about it. In June of 2017 I moved in with a grandparent who couldn’t really live alone but didn’t want to go in a nursing home. This gave me the opportunity to get back on my feet and start my life over after living the wrong way for so many years. This was a home that I spent some of my childhood living in so it had a familiar comfortable feeling. The very room I settled into was a room that I would later feel real happiness and eventually complete terror. It’s amazing how much life can swing up and down, even in just one day. Over the next few years of my new life I had ups and downs like anyone else. 2020 was a crazy year for everyone, when COVID-19 broke out and businesses were shutting down, I would wake up in the morning and think “Is this really real?”....but I definitely didn’t see this one coming. I can’t say exactly when but sometime in late 2019 or early 2020 I had some strange occurrences happen. As strange as they were, they never brought fear. The main one is I would be laying in bed getting ready to fall asleep, I was looking at my phone and my bed was lightly pushed, like it was given one very very light kick. I definitely felt it and couldn’t figure out where it came from, my best guess was it must have been from the oil burner kicking on. The oil burner is on the floor below me and about 18ft away, this did not make sense but it was the only answer I could come up with. The amount of force used was enough for me to notice but not too much to get seriously startled. I actually mentioned it to a few people after it happened a few times i said something along the lines of “I think I may have a ghost in my house”. I said this nonchalantly, I was more joking than I was serious. It happened maybe 5 or 6 times over the course of roughly a year. I was never frightened or lost sleep over this, but I did always remember it. Another weird thing was there were quite a few nights I would look at the blanket on my bed at night and the wrinkles on the blanket looked like they were moving, just like ripples in the bay. It was very subtle. Not even visible on video, but I definitely noticed it and I have great vision and I thought maybe it was the light reflecting off the blanket. I didn’t feel alarmed whatsoever. Looking back, I know whatever eventually made itself known was for some reason spending a lot of time on my bed. Some people believe that when we sleep we are closer to the other side, like in between worlds. This is probably why sleep is called the cousin of death. The downstairs of the home is lived in by another person and this person is always in bed and quiet by about 10pm. I think about three times spaced apart, I heard two people having a conversation. It didn’t sound like the person who lived downstairs and it didn’t sound like it was coming from a TV. I couldn’t make out where exactly it was coming from and when I asked the person living downstairs the next day, he told me he did not have anyone over and was asleep. I made it a point that I wasn’t complaining, I was just trying to figure out where the voices were coming from. That was a little unsettling. While I was hearing this I was sure someone was in the house. I’m convinced that this was also related to what I will soon tell you about. Looking back, all these little events were warnings like before a volcano erupts, but I wasn’t able to see what was about to take place. I don’t think these things happening over the course of 9 months to a year would make most people that worried. I wasn’t at all. This is the part where things get crazy. Everyone has those days in their life that separate time, we look at our lives as “Before this happened, and after this happened”. 11/16/20 is one of those days for me, the day before my birthday. The month prior to November 16th I did not have any of the strange occurrences I mentioned take place, they were very few and far between. On 11/15 I had a new mattress delivered, ironically it was a “Casper” brand mattress and I even bought an $85 foam pillow to go with my new mattress. I bought these because my old mattress was worn, not because of any of the things I mentioned before. These was a gift to myself. On 11/15 I slept on my new mattress....and this night was the last night of undisturbed sleep I have had since. On 11/16, I went to bed and while laying in my bed thinking to myself, I remember feeling something come up from the foot of the bed and I could feel the very slightest bit of pressure being put on the blanket and work it’s way up from my feet to right before my head. It hovered for 30 seconds or so. I remember at that moment feeling scared, shocked and confused trying to figure out whether my gut reaction was right. My gut reaction felt a presence hover over me and a persons instant reaction is usually correct. Am I being visited by someone? I was too scared to move or react, I remember only a single tear rolled down my eye. I was stunned. (Why does the same eye always drop the first tear when crying?, anyone else notice that?). The next day I talked about the incident and this was to intense to brush off. At that point I don’t think I was 100% convinced that my gut reaction was right, but I was pretty sure. I spoke to my mom and she did not have anything negative to say, she thought maybe it was someone visiting me. I myself didn’t think it could be something malevolent. I have never experienced anything like this before. The next night I went to bed and within a minute of getting into bed and turning off the lights I felt the bed shake gently, very gently. I would say that the force used was similar to a 4 year old boy pushing at the frame or base of the bed. Before this night, past incidents were just a single nudge, this however was something/someone making themselves known. This lasted for 30 seconds or so and then stopped. I was stunned and eventually I fell asleep and the next day all I could think about was what was happening and why. The next 3 or 4 nights this continuously happened and some nights were worse than others. It lasted 30 seconds or maybe a few minutes. A few times I got up out of bed after it started, and it suddenly stopped. I didn’t feel pure fear but I felt very uneasy. I spent a lot of time trying to find something online about someone having a similar experience. I wanna mention that if you search “bed shaking phenomenon” on YouTube, a video will come up from a YouTuber called “Paranormal Kativity”....Yes it’s Kativity. Never mind what is said in the video, the point I wanna make is that there are over 500 comments of people who must have had their bed strangely shake for no obvious reason and they were concerned enough about it to search it on the internet in hopes of finding an answer. I doubt that all 500+ people are crazy. BI believe that there is some sort of supernatural reason that causes this...There was another YouTube channel of a guy who recorded his bed slightly shaking...It was not enough to be seen on film, but it was obvious these videos were posted by a guy who was shook up and trying to find answers, people did comment and describe some strange things they experienced also. I actually messaged him to try and talk to him but I don’t think he even opened the message. So while this is going on I am consumed by trying to figure it out, but what could I really do, I still had to sleep at night. This continued and by the weekend like the 21st or so the light shaking of the bed continued, one time it shook and my body swayed the tiniest bit from the force. I remember thinking “WTF IS HAPPENING?!?”. Now besides the shaking, at times I felt that something was bubbling up from with in the mattress, like in the way that water boils, at times it felt like it was almost breathing. Looking back I think something was slowly gaining strength or form. I’m sure you are trying to imagine a mental picture of what this was like, it was not severe like in the Exorcist, not even close, but it was enough for me to notice. One thing to remember is I bought a new mattress, so some of my family wondered, “is he freaking out over a new mattress?” I know that some people can bring haunted objects into their home, but I don’t think it had anything to do with a new mattress, there were definitely strange events before the mattress was delivered. The first night I slept on it (15th), everything was normal. I think it had something to do with my birthday. What that is?'... IDK. Anyways after 5 nights of my bed moving at night and me searching the internet for some kind of info, I messaged a paranormal group and explained what was happening and a response was given that said “perhaps it is someone trying to get your attention somehow and it doesn’t sound like anything negative so maybe either acknowledge it or just ignore it”...Up until that point I still didn’t try to speak to whatever was there...It is probably pretty hard for anyone to figure out what is going on based off the few things I spoke of. I kept repeatedly messaging this group and they stopped responding at one point. I’m not the type of person to be imposing, but you can imagine my state of mind at this point. After almost a week of this, I started to get hesitant to get in bed at night. The fear was definitely there by now. I did call out to it and say “who is there?”...but I wasn’t expecting a response and I didn’t get one. Then at one point, probably 2 days or so before Thanksgiving, while in my living room. I feel a vibration in the air right by me. I can’t compare this feeling to anything else I have ever felt...It was just the feeling of a magnetic type of pressure. I just knew that this vibrations feeling I felt beside me, it was related to whatever was shaking my bed. Well at this point I am obsessed with trying to figure out what is going on, and I am hesitant to get in bed. Thanksgiving Eve I pulled my phone out and started recording my room. There I was on Thanksgiving Eve like a crazy person recording my room and moving the camera slowly around despite the fact that nothing blatant is happening. Then while sitting in a chair in my room I suddenly swung the camera to face behind me because I felt a presence behind me. I turn around and see nothing ....I know I felt it. Here is the video that I took that night. 

((Recorded with an iPhone 12 mini) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKDPkicmfU4

 In the video there is a sound like the chair is tapped or something, I did not hear that while recording.... It played in my mind over and over with zero explanation. I went to bed and the same shaking continued. Thanksgiving morning I wake up and go about my day, I go to my moms house and I return home. I am sitting in my living room on the couch and I am researching anything I can that is paranormal and stumble across another video where people are describing a similar experience to mine. This was the night that who I was as a person changed forever. Later on I am back in my room and I am once again hesitating to get in bed and I start viewing the recordings I made the night before. I know I felt a presence behind me but I didn’t see anything when I viewed the footage that night. I was scared to get in bed and determined to find an answer. I had the video where I spin the camera behind me because I felt a presence... and then I view the clip that I recorded just one minute after. I hear whispering, I play it back and I hear a person whispering....See if you are able to make out what is being said, about half of the people who listen are able to make out the words being said. You need to use headphones and be in absolute quiet. I will tell shortly in case you are not able to make it out. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XtIOepvXp3U
I never felt so terrified and joyed at the same time...Now I could not doubt that something with intelligence that is not flesh and blood was in my room and making itself known. The presence I felt behind me was very real and it spoke to me but I could only hear the voice when I listened to the clip. The past week I was researching paranormal stuff and read about EVP’s. “electronic voice phenomenon” I didn’t know they could be picked up with an iPhone and special equipment was not needed. Whoever said that knew I was looking around for some kind of presence or whomever, and he was saying basically “Turn around” I know you are looking for me.
I texted my Mom at 11:59PM and insisted she listen to the clip right now and I wanted to sleep over her house. She did not want me to come over at midnight and make a scene. I insisted, but she told me to go to bed and that we would talk in the morning. I think we spoke on the phone briefly after she saw I texted her but we just had the same conversation we had through text over the phone. So I sat down again in my room and once I sat down I quickly felt a STRONG presence begin to build behind me. I immediately jumped up scared and said to myself “NO FUC**** WAY, NO FUC***WAY” ... There was no chance of me falling asleep at this point. I thought to go on Facebook live because I wanted to tell the world that ghosts were real and I had one in my room this very moment. I don’t have a big social circle at all and I don’t even really interact on Facebook, but I wanted to tell anyone who would listen. I decided against it. That night I never felt my mind race faster. I couldn’t even process what was happening. It really just can’t be put into words. I looked back at text messages for a reference point to type this story. I saw that night my mom said “I think this is an evil spirit”. She was right, I didn’t think it was a friendly one but I didn’t think things were about to get anywhere near as bad as they did. I got in bed and and pulled the blankets over me and now I don’t just feel the bed shaking. I felt what was like someone or something moving on the bed right around my feet...I jumped out of bed in shock, turned on the lights and thought “WTF!!!....OH SH* ! FU** THAT!!” The bed is not just shaking, now, something/someone is moving on it...I felt shocked, there is no way this is really happening, I heard this voice on tape so I know I’m not going crazy. It was just an unimaginable fear that you cannot stop thinking about. “What is this thing? Who is it?” “Why is it here?”...That moment/memory is one that is burned into my mind. It was almost 4AM, and I had to be up for work at 7AM....I needed to get to sleep...I got back in bed and asked this spirit to please leave me alone. I said “I don’t care if you wanna hangout here but please leave me alone and let me sleep”. This was NOT the right thing to say as this only feeds into it, like I am inviting it by conversing with it. At this point I still didn’t realize what I was dealing with was evil and about to torment me, I thought it was someone just trying to get a message across....I woke nthe next morning and sent the recording of a voice to members of my family and said “please listen ASAP” about half of them were able to make out what was being said without me telling them....I felt relieved that I had proof of whatever was occurring. I got ready for work feeling exhausted yet my mind was still racing. While at work I sat down and realized that something was pushing my chair lightly, it was not enough to push me out of my chair, nowhere near, but I definitely felt it.... I realized that whatever was in my room was now following me wherever I went. I got in my car to go home and I was having my seat pushed from behind me. I realized at this point this was not a friendly spirit, it was an evil one. It could clearly see that I am scared, yet it continues to do the same thing. I got home feeling exhausted and physically hungry but I couldn’t even eat due to the stress. I am home at 6pm and was desperate to sleep. I was terrified to go to sleep in my room with the lights off, so I laid on the couch in the living room my grandparent there with the lights on while he watched TV. Whatever was following me now was touching my feet as I tried to sleep. It just felt like one finger slowly moving back and forth on my foot, barely much pressure at all, but I felt it. It was at that very moment I realized I was screwed. About 5 or 10 minutes later my mom came to my home feeling concerned. She saw a pale, terrified and stressed person. I forgot what I wanted to tell her but I whispered something to her because I did not want this spirit to hear what I was saying. My mom being my mom just repeated very loudly what I had just whispered. (I can laugh now looking back on it) She believed me at this point and yelled for whatever was here to get out and leave me alone...I did not have faith that this would work but there wasn’t much else to do but pray for this thing to leave me alone...There was no way I was falling asleep anytime soon (once again) so I eventually went to get something quick to eat because I had to at this point. I don’t think I even ate lunch that day....Whatever this was it knew it was tormenting me. I went to bed later on, I turned off the lights and within one minute, I felt 2 small dog like animals jump on the bed and would walk all around me, and at times come right up to my face. I remember feeling what felt like a wet nose touch me. Even though I was never once hurt by them. I would wrap my legs up in the blanket tightly, if I didn’t they would make a digging motion just like a regular dog would, and they would try to get under the blanket just to crawl around underneath it. These particular ones couldn’t move right through the blanket. While the dog like animals were doing that, someone would still shake the bed lightly. I have heard of homes being haunted, but my family was the original owner and never experienced anything paranormal. I was the only one who was experiencing this. I have never in my life heard of animal like creatures harassing people. “Are they trying to take my soul?” “Are they going to try and possess me?”...This was the first of many scary nights to come and the worst had not happened yet.
I woke up that Saturday morning of Thanksgiving weekend and while this was all happening, besides fear I just felt absolute shock. “How could this be happening?” “Why is this happening?” I felt so scared and I felt so alone, no one that I knew could offer me any advice nor had they been through anything similar. So Saturday morning I went to work for a half day and put on my game face to hide what was happening. I could barely focus at work but I pushed through. That day I told my boss at my job what was happening. I felt comfortable telling him the whole story because he’s a down to earth person and I knew he would listen to me. I thought I might be on the verge of a nervous breakdown and I didn’t want him to think something else was wrong. I felt like I didn’t know what was gonna happen and thought I might need to be hospitalized at some point. As people get older we see more tragedy, maybe we lose a family member or we see someone go through cancer or maybe we ourselves get stricken with illness. At the very least we see someone else go through it and we sympathize. We see these unfortunate scenarios and we wonder what it would be like for us. It is probably difficult for you to sympathize for me because it just seems impossible to happen. Nothing can prepare a person for something like this, the only thing that can is a previous paranormal experience.

 Well, anyways back to my crazy story. So i am at work on Saturday. I keep this little box on a shelf at my job that only I know about, I keep pens and a set of keys that I use. I am the only one who knows where it is. At the end of work on Saturday I went to put a pen and a set of keys in there and the box was not where I always keep it. I noticed that in its place was a light USPS padded envelope with my name on it. I remembered that I through it in the garbage at my home. This envelope was definitely thrown out at my home, I would not bring it in my car or job for any reason. I saw that the box that is usually in that spot was moved on the opposite shelf. Something moved this item and did it to show me it’s power that it can physically move things. This just sent me into a further panic. I left work and on my way home, I parked my car in a shopping center and called another paranormal group that I was messaging back and forth. I called this woman and told her what was happening. At this point I was talking in that right on the verge of crying voice. I asked her if this spirit could physically hurt me, like basically how much physical strength might it have. She said “at times some do have some strength” some spirits really do have strength but it was impossible for her to tell what exactly I was dealing with based off a conversation. She told me to be strong and that whatever this is will feed of my fear,. She sent me the St. Michael prayer and told me that a more experienced investigator would call me back in the next few days to speak about my situation. So there I was feeling terrified, frightened and my only hope was a woman I had never met would contact me and be able to somehow help me. I was banking on her to bring me back to a normal life. I went to a deli to get an egg sandwich, I regularly go there once a week. I am pretty good at putting on a mask to hide my emotions, but by now I feel like I am about to lose my mind. I walked in the deli, and the same young girl that is always working was there as usual. When I walked in we both looked at each other, the moment we did, I saw the look on her face instantly change. She thought to herself “I don’t know what it is but I just got a bad feeling, something is VERY wrong with him”....She was the only stranger who seemed to pick up on this. I wonder if she realized by the look on my face that I knew that she knew. Since she picked up on one thing she probably picked up on that also. After that I went to a jewelry store to purchase a crucifix. When you’re being harassed by something supernatural, if you were not religious before, you will become religious really quickly...at least I did. I don’t know if my belief was 100% sincere, but I channeled whatever faith I had. So there on the busiest shopping day of the year where most people are getting hyped for Christmas, I was buying a crucifix in hopes that this thing would ward off this evil spirit, just like the way it does to a vampire in a movie. I returned home and at this point I am still exhausted from the lack of sleep I was getting at night. I laid down on my bed in my room with some natural sunlight and closed my eyes to try and rest. Within about five seconds of closing my eyes, footsteps of what seemed to be four-legged something walked alongside my body and got to my chest and stepped right over me. I jumped up and I screamed at the top of my lungs “GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE” “LEAVE ME ALONE! ”. I screamed as loud as I possibly could for 30 seconds. This probably made my tormenter happy because he saw how upset I was. Once again I was not falling asleep anytime soon. I went to a friends house I have known for 20 years and I was in touch with him about all that was happening. This person did have their own experience or two, and they believed me because when you know someone for 20 years, you know them well. I explained to him and his girlfriend that something was following me and would walk around me right on my bed. It didn’t matter if I was trying sleep at night or if I even closed my eyes at this point. I then sat between him and his girlfriend and wanted to see if what was bothering would still come right by me while I was sitting in between two people, it did not. We tried to make sense of what was going on but couldn’t. I had their small dog sit on my lap while they backed away. I sat there petting it and like any dog it was happy with me doing this. Within a few minutes this spirit came right up against me with that same pressure and the dog jumped out of my lap and yelped like it had just been electrocuted. The dog was never hurt, it just felt the pressure of this thing which would make a dog or any person jump. When the two of them saw that, there was no doubt in their mind about something paranormal was happening with me. I soon left because I couldn’t really sit still and I went back home. I sat down on the couch and continued on with what was one of the worst days of my life. There was another day in my life that felt just as bad, but in reality it was nowhere near as bad, I was just a young child who didn’t know what was right and wrong in life and that was my immature reaction to that other bad day. That’s another story for another day. Whatever this was, it was now shaking the couch I was sitting on back home. It did not have the strength to flip the couch, but I felt it shaking. It would never do anything to expose itself while around poeple. However my grandpa couldn’t catch on to much and it was like they knew that. I thought to myself “How much stronger is this going to get?”. By this point if I closed my eyes while sitting on my couch I would see a flashing bright light with my eyes closed and whatever this was would walk on the couch right beside me, it actually always tried to move directly towards me. Even thought at this point it didn’t touch me, it’s not an easy thing to ignore. Another way to harass me was that it would scratch the carpet all around my feet, it would never actually touch them but that by itself was scary enough. Once it realized that I wasn’t reacting to this, it began to scratch on the couch right between my legs, it would scratch the sofa right by the last place a guy wants to be maliciously grabbed. So this being had intelligence and knew exactly what would freak a person out. Once that happened I just felt shock and thought, how will I ever explain this to another person, this is absolutely crazy!!! I was messaging back and forth with the woman I spoke with earlier today, she gave me the benefit of the doubt that I was not suffering from mental illness and she told me that I could get past this nightmare. I was told to pray and be strong and soon I would have another person call me back to help me. I was helpless, I couldn’t go to a hospital and tell them about the spirits harassing me. Otherwise I would be in a psych ward and whatever this is would be harassing me in the psych ward. Why a person and dog spirit were bothering me I don’t know, if you google hellhound there is a belief in a black dog that is a malevolent entity. My grandpa still had his wits despite his age. The past year and half maybe, there was a weekly or bi weekly occurrence where he would be on the couch dozing off, then he would jolt awake and tell me that he just saw a person in front of him. He was always adamant that he just saw someone, they were usually people he didn’t know. A few times he saw people he once knew who had passed away. A few times he was sure he felt someone had touched him. I figured he was old and getting senile, but there were no other aspects in his life where he appeared to be losing it. This happened not often but like I said maybe bi weekly on average. Well maybe a few months before this whole thing started, I googled “old people start to see people who aren’t there”. Some people believe they are getting closer to the other side and they are starting to see deceased people. Similar how some people believe kids are fresh from the other side and they can see ghosts/spirits. The reason I bring it up is because the week before this started, he told me one night he saw a black dog with a long nose just outside my room in the middle one night. I asked him if he was dreaming, he didn’t think he was. There was not one instance other than that where he saw any type of animal....I know that what he saw was related to what was going on with me....No doubt in my mind. So Saturday night I go to bed and it’s the same thing again. I would turn off the lights and lay down and it would immediately begin. I would literally feel the weight of them on the mattress, I would reach out to try and touch them and they wouldn’t they be there, the. they would just come from a different angle. They could move under the blanket and when I lifted the blanket they wouldn’t be there. Then they just came at me from a different angle. You are probably asking yourself “ Why not just leave a light on” ...the thing is if I left a light on they would still harass me. The freakiest thing is that they would come from behind me or right from the side of me, really just wherever I was NOT looking. I would close my eyes and I would feel them moving towards me. When I would open my eyes they would not be there...imagine that for a moment, it is a crazy scary thing to deal with. I woke up that next day which was a Sunday and I could feel the weight of one on my bed. It was probably there all night. It was Sunday morning and the initial horror and fear of the past 2 days had peaked. I still had no clue what was happening and what all this meant, but I was determined to still continue with my life. Whatever this was it wasn’t hurting me physically, and I wasn’t going to mentally give up. I made a decision to go about my life whether or not these things were bothering me. I had hope that this nightmare could one day be a piece of my past. My close friend offered to go to church with me and I said “No”...I am sure that some of you probably are thinking to yourself “That is the first place I would go! “ I made a decision that I was going to go food shopping do my laundry and a few other errands that I did not do for the past few days because I was barely able to function. I was determined to not let whatever this was control my entire life. I took care of a few errands and went to my moms for dinner while whatever was following me was there gently pushing my chair at the dinner table and I couldn’t prove it was happening to them but it was. It was just enough so I could feel it but not for others to notice. As night time comes around I am still waiting on this woman who has experience dealing with things like this to call me back and maybe offer some insight. I just had to get through this hard time so that my life could one day be normal again. I went to bed Sunday night and again the same thing continues. So Monday starts a new work day and I went to work and noticed that whatever was following me would make my thin necklace move on my neck. It was like the necklace was being flicked from behind, I did not feel anyone touch my skin, but I felt the necklace constantly move. Now this did not cause and pain at all it was just psychologically stressful, it was this things way of saying, “I am going to follow and torment you allllll day”.....So towards the end of the day on Monday, I was the only one left in one part of the building. I experienced something that would only happen one other time, this was one of the scariest parts of this experience. I legitimately was worried that this thing would try to possess me. I would of NEVER before worried about something like that and I bet you haven’t either. Well after the past weekend NOTHING sounded impossible. I felt this spirit sort of like fly into me, this was different then putting pressure against my body. I felt this spirit fly right at my me and I got the most intense butterflies, and at the same time I got this panicked feeling like something bad was about to happen. I felt mentally frozen like I lost my power to think and decide anything. The whole thing lasted maybe 15 seconds and that ended. Looking back I truly believe that something was trying to take me over. I drove home from work that day while this thing pushed my car seat from behind me and again I am just anxiously waiting for this woman to call me back so I can maybe resume a normal life again. Once I get back home the harassment changed and started in a new way. This particular method only lasted one day. I eventually sat down and the spirit would get right behind my back and I felt this pressure coming off it. This is something that is very hard to describe, it was air pressure. It felt NOT like a wind type of pressure, it felt like a 500 pound tiger condensed into 1 square foot and was poised to pounce on me. I was sitting on my couch with my back NOT pressed up against the back of the couch. This thing was right behind me giving off this pressure, so I moved to sit all the way back and it just moved on the top of the back of the couch. I couldn’t escape it. Whichever way I would turn it would move exactly as I would. It once again caused my whole body to feel butterflies and tense, even if you know this thing is not going to jump, just feeling that physical sensation causes a natural reaction in the body to be scared and tense. There is no other physical situation that compares to it. Finally, I hear my phone ring and see it’s this woman who can maybe help me. I answered my phone and this woman was very understanding and uplifting, just speaking to her made me feel better. She asked me standard questions for this kind of thing. “Did I play with a Ouija board ever or dabble in any sort of magic? or “Do I know anyone who practices any such thing” I told her I used a Ouija board a few times in 1996/1997, other than that I did nothing else similar. I told her that I made frequent trips to a cemetery to bring a grandparent to visit family’s graves. She said that cemetery’s are very active places for spirits and something could have followed me home. I explained to her that I did use drugs every day at one point but that’s been over with for years now. I was told that something could have been with me since when I played with a Ouija board those few times, perhaps since I was no longer destroying my life, maybe something that was influencing me was now trying to destroy me directly through harassment. I was told it could also be someone putting a hex or a curse on me, or maybe it was an old curse that was placed somewhere and I just walked through the wrong place at the wrong time. I also had a near death experience and sometimes that can maybe open up a level of consciousness that gave me new abilities. I became drug and alcohol free in 2016 after many years of addiction, and after like 19 months clean I relapsed and overdosed. I remember right before I was revived, I was flying fast through somewhere totally dark. As I’m flying fast through this darkness, there is like some type of explosion (NOT like a fire) happening right behind me. It was literally right behind me the entire time. While this is happening I can’t see anyone, but I hear friendly voices who are trying to help me escape whatever is happening right behind me. This lasted maybe a minute and I regained consciousness. Now I don’t know if I was really about to cross over to the other side, or if my mind gained consciousness before my body did, and that was how I interpreted the chaotic scene of the doctors trying to revive me. I just want to mention as much as I was terrified there was always a little bit of me that was maybe 2% fascinated 98% terrified by this whole thing. Ok so back to the conversation I was having, this woman told me at some point she could do an investigation and maybe make this thing go away. Also I wanna mention as soon as I got on the phone with her she told me to turn off every noise around me so that she may be able to hear any voices of spirits in the background, she did hear a few but couldn’t figure out much based off that. I think that just helped her to figure out whether I was really experiencing paranormal activity or if I was just crazy. This was all help provided free of charge so this person had no reason to lie to me. We were on the phone for about an hour and once I hung up the phone with her I remember she told me this might go away on its own without their intervention....When she said that I thought, “Hey if that’s possible, I am going to believe that and run with it”. I didn’t feel this presence for about 3 minutes when we ended the call, but it soon came back around. I eventually went to bed and the harassment seemed more intense now.” Whenever it came by my face I would always worry, will it posses me and have me hurt my family?” I prayed and used whatever faith I had to ask god for help and I did not want to feed this thing with fear. It seemed to make sense that it fed off fear, because at first the harassment was only in bed at night, then I felt the vibrations in the air a little bit, then it went to 24/7 after about a week. It seemed like it had to build itself up. I was determined to no longer be afraid and I hoped this thing would go away on its own. Over the next three days the fear did die down a little bit and it seemed as this this thing was getting weaker. It wasn’t pushing that hard on the back of my chair as it had before. It also wasn’t really flicking my necklace. By Thursday night, there was nothing that was walking on my bed, it was just back to only shaking a little bit. I felt this positivity like I could handle whatever life throws at me and just relief because I thought maybe it was almost over and done with...Things got ALOT worse before they got better, the crazy thing is they are still going on. Throughout my life one thing I have learned is that I am stronger then I think I am. I think that is true for most people, the ones who say nothing phases them are usually the first to fold. It’s like that saying in kindergarten with the poster of the kitten hanging onto the bar. “You have no idea how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have” ....I had to cut my Story short due to a character limit on Reddit but things got a lot worse before they got better, activity still goes on I am just used to it at this point. This activity only affects me, no one else in the house. I didn’t wanna share this but I feel like I had to....Maybe I can get some answers.....These clips below were taken with a Nest-cam. I have no animals or rodents in my house of any kind. I have seen nothing like this anywhere else. I know my room looks plain like a room of a mental hospital. One of my co workers pointed that out. I was sleeping with a hat because this spirit was touching my hair. 

Light orbs flying by
https://youtu.be/61Pz-fBp5us
I have no idea what this thing jumping at my face is... https://youtube.com/watch?v=8tW10oSTGQc&feature=share
This was recorded at 6:30AM. Again...no idea
https://youtu.be/0eHtIwyVGx8

Brevity is not my strong suit. No one is going to read this whole thing, but as long as one person reads at least one section of this, I'll be happy. Feel free to skip ahead to a section you specifically want to read a comparison about, if you don't want to read the whole thing. I recommend the Performance and Gaming sections.
Firstly, here is a Dropbox folder of photos, screenshots, gameplay footage, (no camera videos yet) for the things I will be referring to.
Secondly, I am no phone reviewer. I buy phones once every 3-4 years, until this time where I jumped the gun to switch to a Pixel, so I have only used 5 phones in my life (mostly midrange) and don't have too much to compare to.
Thirdly, this is long enough to have an outline, so feel free to jump to read something that interests you if you don't want to read the whole thing:

1. Introduction
2. Dimensions
3. Haptics
4. Display
5. Fingerprint sensor
6. Speakers
7. Microphone
8. Battery
9. General software and features
10. Default Launcher
11. Always On Display
12. Performance
13. Gaming
14. Camera
15. Dual Screen
16. Conclusion
17. tl;dr

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Introduction

Hi /GooglePixel I picked up a LG G8X as about 4 months ago when my Moto Z Play died on me, and the LG G8X seemed to have everything I wanted in a phone at the great price of $500 CAD (at the time – the phone’s even cheaper now!). Snapdragon 855, 4000 mAh battery with positive battery reviews, AMOLED display, wide angle camera, 128gb storage + expandable, headphone jack, front-facing fingerprint scanner (in this case, in-screen). I also could have bought a separate dual screen if I wanted.
Unfortunately, after having used it for 4 months, I started feeling wary of the phone. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it or not, but I felt the performance felt faster than the MZP definitely, but not… remarkably faster than this 4 year old midrange phone with a Snapdragon 625? The phone was heavier than I’d like and was actually straining my wrist with prolonged usage (weak wrists I guess), the standby time at my home was draining about 2%/hour, recently opened apps and websites seemed to require refreshes frequently, and most frustratingly of all, the “previous app” gesture was completely busted to the point I just use the Recent Apps page to go to my previously used apps.
For Boxing Week in Canada, lots of carriers had the Pixel 4a 5G for $260. This is the phone I would have bought if it had been out when my MZP died, so I decided to pick it up. If I didn’t like it, I’d have 15 days to return it. If I did like it more than the LG G8X, I’d try to sell my LG G8X. My fears were that the Pixel would have worse performance with its midrange SD765 (especially compared to the LG G8X's SD 855, 2019's fastest Android processor), possibly worse battery, I’d miss the expandable storage, and most importantly… that I wouldn’t be able to sell the LG G8X at a reasonable price to recoup the costs.
So here is an ludicrously in-depth, very long-winded comparison between the two phones, based on my personal experiences with them. Keep in mind the LG G8X is a 4 month old phone so in some ways may have deteriorated in terms of performance and battery. I guess you could say it’s a bit unfair to compare a brand new days-old phone with a 4 month old phone, but I guess it could also be said that it’s a bit unfair to compare a SD 855 phone with a SD 765 phone. That being said, I haven’t noticed an appreciable decline in performance or battery on the LG.
So, which came out on top? (Spoiler: surprisingly, despite its “worse specs” on paper, the Pixel won out in nearly every regard, completely creamed the LG in memory management, is basically the same in terms of app and website opening speeds, even games better.)
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Dimensions

Perhaps a dumb reason, but one of the main reasons I was thinking of switching away from the LG G8X is the weight. I didn’t realize how much of a difference 27g would make, but my wrist gets tired using the LG G8X after a while, whereas my wrist does not with the Pixel nearly as much. In terms of the length and width, though the LG is bigger, it doesn’t feel much bigger to use (outside of the weight).
Some people like huge phones, and good for them! For me, the Pixel’s lighter profile wins out by far.
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Hardware

Power buttons for both phones are on the right side. Pixel has volume also on the right, which makes taking screenshots a pain. LG has the volume buttons on the left, much more convenient for screenshots. LG also has a useful Google Assistant physical button on the right below the volume buttons, which is not remappable. Pixel has a matte plastic back with a camera bump, the LG G8X has a glass back that is completely flush with the camera. In theory this sounds nice for the LG G8X, but I suspect the glass contributes to the weight of the phone. This is an incredibly slippery phone! The weight of the charging cord is often enough to pull this slippery guy off a tabletop. Can be solved with a case.
LG wins here. The glass feels more premium, and the buttons are a lot nicer. The flush nature of the device is really nice.
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Haptics

Not something I care too much about honestly. I had read some review somewhere saying the LG haptics were bad, but I didn’t mind it at all at the time. Similar to the MZP. Now that I have the Pixel though, I think I see what they mean. The LG feels …tinnier? than the Pixel. The first time I received a notification on the Pixel I almost jumped out of my seat at how full and robust the vibration was.
Pixel wins here, I think. Maybe. But I don’t really care much for haptics so it’s a non-issue for me.
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Display

LG G8X has a slightly bigger screen at 6.4” vs 6.2”. In practice I can’t really tell the difference. In terms of image quality, I am no expert at distinguishing this. Pixel appears a bit brighter than the LG G8X at max brightness. Pixel appears a bit darker than the LG G8X at minimum brightness. Honestly not a huge difference either way. At low brightness, the LG has a bit of a “black smear” effect that I notice while scrolling that isn’t as evident on the Pixel. Colours, I don’t know. Reds and whites look more natural on the Pixel otherwise hard for me to tell much of a difference. However, LG gives you a lot of flexibility in playing around with the colours of the display and stuff and I’m sure you could get it to look the way you want. The Pixel only offers 3 colour options. Finally, the status bar on the Pixel is HUGE and feels like they could’ve saved a lot of space if they cut it down. Thus for many apps the LG G8X feels significantly more spacious because of the status bar – the Pixel’s status bar is, from what I can visually estimate, literally twice as tall as the LG’s. Auto brightness: LG G8X is way better. Smooth gradation, whereas Pixel is abrupt.
Overall I think the Pixel is maybe a tad nicer on default settings, but I’ll give it to LG G8X for the flexibility with adjusting the screen colours however you want, as well as the extra real estate afforded by the much smaller status bar (and of course bigger screen).
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Fingerprint sensor

LG G8X fingerprint is frustratingly inaccurate. I am only successfully like 60-70% of the time with my thumbs. Sometimes it’s fantastic, other times I cannot get it to work 5 times in a row and I need to enter the passcode manually. I can’t seem to recreate the conditions where it doesn’t work. That being said, I really like having front-facing fingerprint scanners: my phone is often sitting on my desk, and it’s really nice to be able to check things on my phone without having to lift up the phone or entering a passcode. Also, when my phone is on my desk, I unlock my phone with my index finger which is a lot more accurate than when I use my thumb, I guess because the index finger has such a smaller surface area. Thus that frustration with inaccuracy isn’t as big of an issue when my phone is on my desk, but it’s still generally much slower than a regular fingerprint reader.
The Pixel fingerprint reader on the other hand works ridiculously well (maybe because of the index finger thing? Though my old thumb Moto Z Play was also a lot quicker and more reliable than the LG G8X), and is much quicker in recognizing the fingerprint. There is also a “Swipe down on fingerprint reader” gesture to bring down notification panel. I constantly get false positives when I accidentally rest my finger on the sensor, so I’ve turned it off. The fingerprint reader is incredibly shallow to the point where I sometimes don’t know where it is because it’s hard to feel. As a result, sometimes I need to search for it a bit, and other times I accidentally turn it on without even noticing that I activated the fingerprint sensor. Both problems could be solved with a case (which I don’t have yet)
Overall it’s a tossup for me. I like the reliability and speed of the Pixel’s, but I like the front-facing sensor on the LG for when I have the phone laying on my desk (which is a lot of the time).
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Speakers

I can’t tell. They both sound different. The max volumes are very similar in volume. The Pixel has a much quieter, almost imperceptible min volume. The Pixel 4a 5G sounds more… spacious? Maybe echoey. The LG G8X’s speakers sound more… precise? There is an obvious difference in the two sounds, which sounds “better” might be an obvious difference to others but I can’t tell. I have to assume that the LG G8X’s headphone jack audio is much better than the Pixels with the HI-Fi Quad DAC thing, but I don’t have any high end headphones so I can’t test it really. The LG G8X has some fancy “DTS:X 3D Surround” effects, which all sound terrible always, so I never leave them on. LG G8X has an equalizer, Pixel does not. Audio for both come out of the bottom right “speaker grille” and the earpiece speaker grille. For both phone the bottom speaker is louder than the earpiece, but the Pixel’s speakers are closer in volume than the LG G8X’s: block the bottom speaker, and the audio is greatly diminished.
I think the LG wins this one with the audio options and flexibility? There’s probably something fundamentally different between the speakers on the two phones but I really I can’t tell which I prefer. People had a lot of complaints about the Pixel 5 speakers, I have no clue if the 4a 5G have the same problems.
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Microphone

Take a listen for yourself. I read a very relevant CBC report with both phones about 15 cm away from my face. I also recorded my laptop playing some music, about 30cm away from the phones. I think the Pixel maybe takes in more sound, but as a result also has more background noise than the LG. On the contrary the LG sounds tinnier to me.
Overall I still think I like the Pixel better, but again take a listen yourself!
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Battery

The Pixel has a 3800 mAh battery, the LG has a 4000 mAh battery. That being said, there are obviously many other factors contributing to battery life (processor, cell signal, etc). If I just use both phones nonstop, they both have great SOT. Both get about 8-9 hours for me of SOT uninterrupted. It’s the standby time that the Pixel excels at though. Overnight drain is <1%/h on the Pixel whereas it’s about 1.5% on my LG. Standby drain while out and about is about 1%/h on the Pixel whereas it’s about 2%/h on the LG. It’s unfortunately the standby drain that turns the LG G8X from a true 2 day phone to a not-quite-fully-2 day phone. (Also keep in mind cell signal plays a big role in battery drain – the signal in my area isn’t super great. I’m sure the drain for others isn’t as bad as the 2%/h I’m experiencing, but you might live in an area with better reception!)
Both phones have great battery life. I will give this one to the 4a 5G for the great standby time. I’ve included screenshots of my (very phone heavy) holiday break battery life, as per Accubattery. I may continue to add Pixel battery life screenshots as the days go by.
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General software and special features

Mostly just going to list features here, bear with me. Pixel has the huge advantage of having day 1 Android updates for 3 years. LG G8X has maybe 1 update left in it, if at all? Both phones have double tap to wake. LG has double tap the status bar to sleep, which is very nice. Pixel has call screening with the phone, Now Playing song recognition. Notifications are basically identical. LG G8X technically has a 1 handed/Reachability mode, but it has worked a grand total of 2 times for me despite trying it countless times. Would have been nice. The Pixel’s “Recent apps” screen has a Screenshot button and a Select (text) option. I don’t find the screenshot button very useful at all as I can just take a screenshot with the (admittedly uncomfortable) Power button + Volume Down combo. Select text I have not used yet but I could see being useful. The LG has an, in my opinion, much more useful set of frequently used icons on the bottom. Not customizable, but pretty true to what I use frequently. I use the feature very often. In addition to split screen apps, LG also gives you the option for a “pop up window”, Windows style, that you can drag around the screen, which could be useful for multitasking I guess but I’m still not sure in what use cases you’d have multiple windows-style windows open (they don’t work on the dual screen).
LG apps
LG has a bunch of bloatware that I never use and I disabled right away. I haven’t tested out the Whale browser at all. LG has its own LG Health app which I did not check out. It has an FM Radio which could be useful. There is a screenshot tool/app which could be useful, but I just use the regular screenshot shortcut. (Speaking about screenshots: Android 11 brought with it screenshots that are instantly taken as soon as you press Power + volume down, which is fantastic on the Pixel. On the LG, you still have to hold the buttons for a second or two. That being said, it is very annoying taking screenshots on the Pixel due to the volume and power buttons being on the same side. Android 11 also removed the ability to take a screenshot by holding the power button, which could have been great.) LG also has a pretty robust “HD Audio Recorder” app with lots of flexibility, but doesn’t do the transcribing that the Google audio recorder does (Which you can download though to the LG via apk). LG G8X has 2 apps you can assign to each bottom corner of the lock screen, which is where I put my GCam. Both phones have double tap power button to turn on camera shortcuts. LG also has a “Context Awareness” feature, which lets you adjust your sound profile, Bluetooth, wifi settings automatically based on your location. Also lets you find your parking spot. Neat in theory, but I didn’t use it much for concerns about battery drain (did not test to see if it really drained much). LG has a “Floating bar” you can turn on, which is a little tab which gives you shortcuts to apps that you can set, audio controls, screen capture, quick contacts. I could see this being really useful! I didn’t realize til just now writing this that we could set our own apps though, so I haven’t tested it to see if I’d actually use it. Finally, the G8X has a desktop mode, which I unfortunately don’t have access to. I can imagine this being useful in certain situations.
LG's previous app gesture
One big complaint that I have a big reason I was tempted to ditch the LG. The “previous app” gesture is completely busted on the LG. I won’t talk about it much here as I’ve already documented it elsewhere. In short, it’s completely unreliable and only works the way you’d expect it to work like 30% of the time. It is infuriating and makes me want to chuck out the windows at times. I’ve stopped using the gesture entirely and just open the Recent Tabs instead, which over time adds up a decent amount of time. The Pixel has no such problem. Generally the LG is also buggier than the Pixel, with jankier animations, turning off out of nowhere, sometimes getting stuck on the Recent Apps screen, completely going unresponsive at times – the latter three problems being quite rare, but they’ve happened.
Pixel power menus
Emergency info, power off, restart, Google Pay, Google Home devices. No longer has screenshot. LG power menu: Power off, power off and restart. Pixel definitely wins here.
Volume menus
Pixel has media volume slider, notifications toggle, Live Transcribe, and a shortcut to an audio settings overlay. LG has a context-sensitive volume slider (media volume slider when there’s audio playing, call volume during a call, notification volume otherwise), and a drop-down menu for individually controlling the different types of volumes. If you don’t want a context-sensitive slider, you can also set it to by default open just the one type. Pixel wins here for me: though the context sensitive slider can be useful, Live Transcribe is a pretty neat feature. Pixel also lets me control both notifications (Toggle) and media volume slider within one tap, whereas the LG only lets me change (in one tap) whichever context sensitive option is available at the time, otherwise I’d have to open the menu.
Overall, LG has a lot of features crammed in, but I rarely if ever use any of them. They are functionally bloatware for me. LG does have some genuinely useful software quirks like double tap status bar to sleep, the Floating Bar (I guess), and the lock screen shortcuts, but I have never been so aggravated with a phone before in my life with the previous app gesture and other bugs that I have to give Google the win here. (Also, reliable frequent software updates, less bloatware, and other useful features like Call Screening, Live Transcribe, Now Playing). The caveat is I haven’t used the Pixel long enough to see the bugs present in the Pixel.
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Default launchers

Google uses the Pixel Launcher. Very minimal flexibility, but it is pretty slick to use with great animations. Google search bar on the bottom, At A Glance (temperature, date, calendar events) at the top, Google feed to the left. You can’t adjust icon packs or grid size. App drawer showing frequently used apps at the top, and the rest of the apps in alphabetical order in a scrolling pile/list. LG has their own launcher with more flexibility (screen swipe effect, icon shape, grid size, option for left swipe to be Google feed or LG’s whatever feed). Unfortunately LG’s app drawer is truly horrendous, a horizontally moving multipaged mess that doesn’t automatically sort (if you add an app, you need to manually sort alphabetically to get them all alphabetical again). I never know which page I am on (there is an indicator at the bottom, but still) and thus it takes me far longer than it should to find an app I’m looking for. Just give me a scrolly bar!
Either way, both launchers aren’t great (except for animations -they’re both slick) and you should really use some 3rd party launcher instead. I use Microsoft Launcher personally, which has some janky animations but lots of great functionality. Nova of course is another popular option with even more customization.
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Always On Display

Pixel Always On Display displays 5 notification icons, time, date, weather, battery. No customization. LG G8X lets you customize the home screen quite a bit (you can add your own images, change aspects of the format, displays time, date, battery but only displays 3 notification icons. Has quick icons you can swipe to access to eg. turn on flashlight, change songs, etc. The Pixel’s is dimmer than the LG’s, which I think I prefer. The LG’s is very bright at night when I’m trying to sleep. Finally, picking up the Pixel will wake it up and bring it to the lock screen. Picking up the LG does nothing.
Kind of a toss up. At first I was leaning toward the LG for its flexibility, but the Pixel’s 5 notification icons are frankly more useful to me. I also like the dimmer AOD of the Pixel. If you’ve got the Dual Screen, you’re almost never even going to see the AOD on the LG.
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Performance

Okay, so I realize that “opening apps and web pages in quick succession” is not something anyone ever does in real life. That being said, I think there is a little bit of merit to it.
Another reason I was thinking of switching away from the LG G8X was that this supposedly high end Snapdragon 855 didn’t feel nearly as quick or snappy as I thought it would. A definite improvement from my Moto Z Play, but also not quite the blazing fast speed I was expecting? So I did a ridiculously unscientific speed test between the two. Keep in mind the following caveats:
- MY LG G8X is 4 months old
- LG G8X has 111gb used of 128gb, Pixel has 75.14gb used of 128gb.
- Apps are close to parity but not quite
- I love reading about tech, but have not myself owned too many products. I am not a professional reviewer by any means, and have never really owned any high end phones (I had an iPhone 4 when it came out, the next “highest end” phone I’ve owned would be this LG G8X). So eg. with displays, I’m not the best at judging.
- I only got the dual screen a day before I got the Pixel, so most of my LG G8X impressions are from Dual Screen use. I’ve also used the Dual Screen for a bit since getting it, so I do have thoughts in its own section.
- I did comparisons in two different scenarios: 1st scenario, both phones were restarted, full battery. 2nd run, both phones had been on and used over a period of about 48 hours without turning them off. LG G8X was at 70% and Pixel was at 100%. Pixel was used generally much more than the LG phone was all day. The reason for doing it both after a fresh restart and after a few days on is that I had noticed that my LG seemed to perform worse after several days, and seemed to be better after a fresh restart.
1st run
With both phones freshly restarted and at the same battery percentage, geeeeeeeeeeeeeenerally the LG G8X was faster at opening apps than the Pixel. But honestly not as frequently as I was expecting. The LG G8X was generally able to open more intensive apps a bit faster than the Pixel. I’ve attached the “stats” here. In short, the LG was able to open 12 apps less than half a second faster than the Pixel, whereas the Pixel was able to open 9 apps less than half a second faster than the LG. The LG was able to open 8 apps more than half a second faster than the Pixel, and the Pixel was able to open 6 apps more than half a second faster than the LG. The phones opened 7 websites equally quickly. In terms of websites, the LG was able to open 23 websites faster than the Pixel, and the Pixel was able to open 9 websites slightly faster than the LG. They opened 3 websites at the same speed.
The most egregious thing here was the Pixel completely smoked the LG in terms of keeping app and websites in memory. It wasn’t even remotely close. Even before I got the Pixel I had noticed my LG seemed to be dropping apps quickly, but it wasn’t clear how quick it was until I directly compared these two phones. On my first run, after loading tons of Chrome tabs, both phones had to reload 80 days (the most recent app). After that, the LG continued to consistently reload apps, whereas the Pixel was able to load at least 7 apps without having to reload before I stopped testing.
2nd run
At this point I had both phones on for about 48 hours and had used my Pixel for about 3 hours that day (then charged to 100%) and then used my LG for about 2 hours right before testing it (battery about 70% when I started testing). I cleared all the apps from memory. I have no clue if the battery difference contributed or what, but the results completely flipped around, and quite dramatically. The Pixel was able to open apps slightly faster by <0.5s than the LG with 38 apps. The LG was slightly faster by >0.5s than the Pixel with 10 apps. The Pixel was noticeably >0.5s faster than the LG with 8 apps, and the LG was noticeably faster >0.5s than the Pixel with 6 apps. They were equally fast at opening 17 apps.
Really striking results. I rarely turn off my phone, which is maybe why I’ve been feeling my LG gets sluggish pretty easily? Clear something about keeping the LG on for periods of time causes… stuff… to build up, and the Pixel completely smoked the LG in terms of app opening on the second run. That being said, the <0.5s speed advantages really are quite miniscule, could very much be due to margin of error from my tapping, and of course there are always a million variables impacting how quickly an app opens up. But still, the Pixel is no slouch with its SD 765.
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Gaming

I also ran the Dolphin emulator on The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. Both phones performed equally well, hitting 29-30 fps for Wind Waker and 59-60fps for Fire Emblem consistently. Genshin Impact ran a bit smoother on the LG than the LG (and the default setting for LG was “Medium” graphics, while for the Pixel was “Low”.) Both phones had lots of frame drops. I’ve included some screen recordings of Genshin Impact, both ran at medium settings, as well as the Dolphin games at default settings, using each respective phone’s default screen recorders. I’m not sure why the LG recording is such miserable quality (and muted), they both visually looked the same while actually playing the game. Similarly, I have no clue why the Pixel recording made the voices all echoey, they sound fine normally. Similarly, with the Dolphin emulator, normally Wind Waker is able to hold 29-30 pretty well, I suspect also running the screen recorder simultaneously caused it to drop frames. I repeated the Dolphin emulation after resetting the phone, and I still got frame rate drops. But uh, yeah, the Pixel also held its framerate better with the screen recorder than the LG did (normally they’re both good at holding the framerate).
Using Dolphin to emulate Xenoblade was a completely different story. Through the opening sequence, both phones (and my laptop) hiccupped at the same places. That being said, outside of those hiccup spots in cutscenes (and one area with a larger concentration of enemies), the Pixel 4a 5G was mostly able to maintain 30fps. Exploring Colony 9 was a smooth 30fps throughout the city. The LG G8X hiccupped in those cutscenes, but in other places where the Pixel was 30fps, the LG G8X was chugging along at 15-25fps. Most notably this occurred while exploring Colony 9. I have no clue what’s going on here, I didn’t actually expect the Pixel to perform so well here, or the LG G8X to perform so poorly. I tried walking around Colony 9 again when my phone cooled down a bit and it performed better, but quickly tanked back down to ~20fps within 15 seconds. I suspect LG throttles its phone pretty hard?
Overall, shockingly, I have to give the Pixel the win here. It’s no comparison. You can check out the gameplay vids yourself. I don’t know if I have a lemon of an LG G8X or what. If anyone else is able to emulate Xenoblade on their LG G8X, let me know how it performs for you. Is my phone a lemon? Or did LG just optimize their phone extremely poorly? (ALSO Apologies for the terrible resolution for the LG recorder, I didn’t realize you could change the resolution to full HD til my rerecording after the phone had cooled down).
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Camera

I thought the LG’s camera was fantastic coming from the Moto Z Play. Then I got the Pixel! GCam does help, but unfortunately you can’t set it to the double-tap-power button shortcut. The LG camera app does have some merits (lots of flexibility in image settings if you have the time to tweak settings to take a photo), but for a quick point and shoot it just doesn’t compare to the Pixel a lot of the time. That being said, I feel the LG actually sometimes takes more accurate photos? If I take a photo of something drab and dull, the LG captures it pretty accurately, whereas the Pixel takes a far nicer looking photo but doesn’t look like the drab reality. The Pixel though also takes much nicer, realistic photos of nice vibrant things, whereas the LG’s photos look more washed out. For day shots, or shots facing light, the… dynamic range? Is that what it’s called? For the Pixel is far better than the Pixel. The LG will blow out eg. the details in clouds (ie. Clouds will just appear white and uniform), while the Pixel will preserve the detail and colour of the clouds. For night shots, the LG actually takes better non-Night mode night shots than the Pixel. But the Pixel’s Night Mode absolutely smokes LG’s Night Mode, no questions asked. LG with GCam’s Night Sight helps a lot though. The LG’s selfie camera focuses off into the distance instead of your face so is functionally useless. Finally, I don’t take videos so won’t really comment on it. LG’s wide camera is a lot wider than the Pixel’s, which is a plus for LG.
Overall, the Pixel has a better camera but the LG isn’t too shabby, and sometimes takes nicer shots than the Pixel. Non-Night mode shots are actually better on the LG, but usually Pixel’s night mode turns out better looking. I’ll let the photos do the talking, where I have comparison shots between the LG (with the LG cam as well as the GCam), vs. the Pixel. I’m a lot more interested in shots with challenging lighting, thus the weird dark shots. Unfortunately the weather isn’t great here so no nice outdoor shots. Also unfortunately I have now noticed that a lot of them are blurrier than I’d like – I am too lazy to change them now! I may add more photos to the albums later.
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Dual screen

I just picked this up a day before the Pixel came in. I was pretty excited for it because there are definitely times where I want to multitask, or where I’ve got split screen open trying to copy some text from what window to the other but the keyboard pops up and blocks my view.
Unfortunately, the dual screen implementation feels far more half-hearted than that of what I’m hearing about the Surface Duo. The two screens feel more like two separate machines with a tenuous link, than like two parts of the same unit. At the same time, the 2nd screen doesn’t have the same functionality as the main screen: you can’t split screen it, you can’t change the launcher, the home screen is not continuous at all with the main screen’s home screen, and when you throw one screen’s contents over to the other screen, it often feels like a mystery what will occupy the screen whose contents you just threw over to the other screen.
Using one screen as a keyboard for the other screen in theory sounds really neat, but it only works with the LG keyboard, which has an embarrassingly tiny dictionary with terrible autocorrect suggestions. Even when it works with the LG keyboard, when you tap in a text field on the top screen, the phone does this janky animation where the keyboard first shows up on the top screen before jumping down to the bottom screen. If you tap on a text field on the bottom screen, it won’t by default push the bottom screen contents up and open the keyboard on the bottom screen (which could be what some people want, I guess).
Very, very, very few apps make good use of the dual screens, even with the 3rd party Wide Mode app which forces any app into Wide Mode (which just turns apps into Tablet Mode rather than giving unique content to each screen). The LG Whale browser seems to be the best app to make use of the dual screen (you can open links in one screen on the other screen) – that being said, I’d much rather use other browsers. Chrome does a reasonable job, and you can open taps from one screen in the other screen. I can’t find a way to get Youtube to open a video on one screen and me scrolling through comments/searching through other videos on the other screen.
Overall something I really wish they would have incorporated was, say, opening a link in one app and the internet browser automatically opening in the other screen, or at least giving me the option to open in the other screen! Say, a friend sends me a link to a website and then I open the website in the opposite screen automatically and then continue talking to my friend on the first screen. Not a feature that is currently implemented.
The LG Gamepad mode seems like a great idea: the top screen acts as the screen, the bottom screen acts as the gamepad. Supposedly the games will detect it as a native gamepad. Unfortunately, it was not compatible with Stadia, Xbox GamePass Streaming, or Dolphin Emulator. It was compatible with Final Fantasy V and PPSSPP. Games like Genshin Impact, a game without controller support absolutely begging for it, work really well with it as you can also create a custom gamepad with buttons that correspond to tapping areas on the game screen. I was most looking forward to it working with Stadia, Gamepass and the emulators though (I don’t play too many native Android games) so I definitely am pretty bummed.
My biggest complaint though is there just simply is no easy way to type with the dual screen vertical. Though I’d like to make use of the dual screen features sometimes for the occasional time I want to multitask, I sadly discovered the few times I would use the dual screen to its potential does not warrant having the carry this colossal phone around with its incredibly uncomfortable typing position. The obvious solution would be to have a “wide mode” split keyboard, which actually does appear if you Wide Mode an app and then use the keyboard. But from what I can tell, there is no way to “wide mode” a keyboard when you’re using the dual screens as, well, dual screens. On single screen phones I usually type with two hands, whereas I can’t type with one hand on this phone because the keyboard only shows up on one screen, and the other screen is in the way. On this phone, the only way to type is to hold the phone with one hand, and use a finger on the other hand to peck at or swipe the keys.
Overall, I think I like a dual screen in theory, but LG didn’t execute it very well at all. Instead of feeling like an extension of the main screen, it feels like its entirely own entity and doesn’t always flow well with the main screen. The absolute paucity of apps making use of the dual screen to its full potential is unfortunate. The biggest culprit is that typing in dual screen vertical mode (The way I use it most frequently) is extremely uncomfortable. All these drawbacks don’t make keeping the dual screen on worthwhile, as someone who only occasionally requires the dual screen.
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Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! This wound up being nearly 7000 words… wasn’t expecting it to be, like, even a quarter that long. I'll be happy if even one person reads through 50% of this.
I think the Pixel demonstrates that spec sheets really are not everything. Either that, or I got a lemon of an LG G8X (not outside the realm of possibility). With the caveat of the LG having much more fuller storage and being used for 4 more months, despite the LG’s supposedly better chip, performance is objectively pretty similar between the two phones in terms of app opening and opening websites. The Pixel was actually beating out the LG pretty consistently after both phones were used for 48 hours. Both phones run Genshin Impact kind of miserably, and run Gamecube games on Dolphin without a hitch. The Pixel was significantly better than the LG in emulating the Wii. The Pixel consistently destroyed the LG in terms of memory management. The Pixel’s smaller battery capacity of 3800 mAh outlasted the LG’s 4000 mAh battery, even when the LG was brand new. The camera in the Pixel is far better than the LG. The software experience of the Pixel is smoother and less buggy (and certainly less frustrating). The fingerprint sensor is a tossup for me. The audio is maybe better in the LG, but I can’t really tell. Screens are similar. The LG does “feel” more premium, but I do prefer the lightness of the Pixel. The one definitely advantage the LG has over the Pixel is the expandable storage.
Needless to say, I think I am going to keep the Pixel. I didn’t want to leave the LG G8X community behind though without giving a good reason to do so, and I hope this 6000+ word document with accompanying Dropbox folder of photos, screenshots, and screen recordings explain why I did so, and also demonstrate that spec sheets aren’t everything. I’ll probably try to sell the LG G8X + Dual Screen, but taking a look at how long these phones stay on Facebook Marketplace/eBay, I’m not very hopeful I’ll be able to sell it at even a fraction of what I bought it for. Anyway, thanks for reading.
I spent way too much time on this.
Also I haven’t proofread this, so I’m sure there are mistakes abound.
Also I really need to get working on actually important stuff. Thanks for reading!
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Much needed tl;dr (Which is still long):

- Spec sheets are not everything.
- Was getting tired of LG G8X's weight, previous app gesture being busted, standby drain, general glitchiness, slower performance than expected, so I picked up a Pixel 4a 5G.
- Did lots of tests which you can check out in the Dropbox
- I subjectively like Pixel's camera, speakers, microphone, default screen colour balance, software cleanliness better.
- Really surprisingly, my specific days-old Pixel 4a 5G outperforms my 4 month old LG G8X in app opening and website opening (unless I freshly restart both phones). REALLY surprisingly, my Pixel ran circles around the LG in Wii emulation, and was equally competent at Gamecube emulation and Genshin Impact
- I will be keeping the Pixel. I will try to sell the LG G8X but am not hopeful. I will miss LG G8X's expandable storage but not much else.