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The wipeout that rendered “Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker” an accused killer was as sudden and spectacular as a swell breaking along Hawaii’s Banzai Pipeline.
One day, the freewheeling drifter was a folk hero for the digital age, a dude who clobbered a maniac with an axe, then offered the world a profanity-laced retelling of the story, which was deftly captured on YouTube. The next, Kai—a 24-year-old whose real name is Caleb Lawrence McGillvary—was a man wanted for murder in New Jersey, a brute who prosecutors say beat a 73-year-old man to death during a weekend romp. (Kai, who nearly slept on my couch two days before the alleged incident, says the victim drugged and raped him.)
All told, Kai’s righteous wave of Internet fame lasted nearly four months. And then, like all great tales ordained by the Internet, it was plainly forgotten by most. But not by all. Since Kai’s arrest in May, a number of die-hard fans have gathered in a corner of cyberspace to celebrate their hero’s sauntering spirit. And they’re doing everything they can to keep that spirit—and Kai himself—alive. Supporters have flown from Las Vegas and Europe to visit Kai behind bars.
They’ve written letters to him, donated books and shelled out $25 bucks for 15-minute phone calls. They’ve plastered “Free Kai” posters around cities, painted his portrait with watercolors and dressed up as the hitchhiker for Halloween. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” says Terry Ratliff, who launched the “Kai the Hitchhiker Legal Support Page” on Facebook. “But there’s no turning back now.”
Like most of the group’s current 2,051 members, Ratliff never actually met Kai, but felt the two had an immediate connection. A beat maker and music producer in Kingsland, Georgia, Ratliff had produced a YouTube remix of Kai’s viral interview back in February. Afterward, the two started exchanging regular emails. Ratliff saw a few videos of Kai playing guitar and singing songs. Soon, they were talking about collaborating on a music project together. “I saw his potential,” Ratliff says. “He was a talented individual.”
atliff later sent money to Kai. He invited the budding Internet celebrity to come crash with him and his family in Georgia. Kai never made it. Authorities hauled the hitchhiker on May 16 from a Greyhound bus station in Philadelphia. He was charged with beating Joseph Galfy Jr., a New Jersey lawyer, to death after the two allegedly met in Manhattan’s Times Square. Galfy was found dead in his home, wearing only his socks and underwear.
The same day that cops cuffed Kai, Ratliff launched the Facebook page. That night a Temple University student started another Facebook page called “Free Caleb ‘Kai’ McGillvary From Prosecution by the U.S. Justice System,” a private group that now has 983 members. And a movement, of sorts, was born.
Over the last seven months, members in each group have hosted fundraisers, organized events and kept a growing number of supporters involved in Kai’s cause. He has received dozens of visitors (including one from Finland) at the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey, along with postcards, books and phone calls.
Fans celebrated his 25th birthday in September, threw a Kai costume contest for Halloween, and are currently stocking his commissary full of cash for Christmas. Since he was indicted by a grand jury for murder on Nov. 13, fans have been posting photographs from Kai’s childhood each time someone donates to his legal defense fund. So far, roughly 90 donors have given more than $4,700.
eanwhile, Kai’s words continue to reach the outside world. In a series of phone calls recorded by Ratliff, Kai has performed songs, told stories about his former adventures as a “home-free” soul and maintained his innocence.
“This prison system needs to be abolished, along with the enslaved mind-set that it breeds,” Kai said in one of his so-called shout-outs. “No living person is meant to be locked in a cage.”
Shane Dixon Kavanaugh is a reporter with The Oregonian in Portland. His previous work has appeared in the New York Daily News, Crain’s New York, The New York Times and Consequence of Sound.
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