The Ironic "Shirtless In Court" Defense? Sam Haskell IV

The end of this Tinseltown true-crime saga was only the beginning. Good true-crime cases are becoming rare! It’s like nobody wants to talk about anything except Donald Trump’s temper tantrums.

Hollywood executive's son, charged in triple murder, dies in apparent suicide in jail

h ttps://www.yahoo.com/news/hollywood-executives-son-charged-triple-184441131.html

By Richard Winton for Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2025

A Hollywood executive’s son, charged with the murder of his wife and her parents, died in what appeared to be a suicide over the weekend, just days before a court hearing to decide whether he should stand trial.

Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 37, was found Saturday inside his cell at the Twin Towers jail downtown with what investigators believe are self-inflicted injuries, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

Haskell was arrested and charged in November 2023 on suspicion of killing his wife, Mei Haskell, 37; and her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64; and stepfather, Gaoshan Li, 72.

Samuel Haskell III headed Hollywood’s largest talent agency, William Morris Agency, married a Miss Mississippi (he grew up there) and is affiliated with Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, George Clooney and King Charles's brother, Prince Edward. His son somehow got yellow fever & married into a Chinese family, which time-wise coincided with Hollywood developing an interest in courting the Chinese movie market.

Similarly, the triple murder coincided with a sharp drop in box office receipts.

Nobody said a word about Gaoshan Li’s background. Seems to be a common name. There was a Li Gaoshan who survived the Rape of Nanking then died in 2018 of non-Haskell causes.

Haskell's body was discovered at 4:20 a.m. Saturday, according to sheriff's officials.

His death was the 26th in the Los Angeles County jail system this year.

It comes after the county jails had what County Supervisor Janice Hahn called "one of the deadliest starts to a year in its jail system’s recent history." In the first 20 weeks of 2025 alone, 20 incarcerated individuals died — more than double the number of deaths during the same period last year, including three in a single day.

A death per week in the LA jails? Looks like capital punishment is back in style.

Haskell had been due to have a preliminary hearing starting Monday on the three charges of murder with special circumstances. He previously pleaded not guilty. He faced life without the possibility of parole if convicted on any of the three counts.

Police say that on Nov. 7, 2023, Haskell tried to get day laborers to remove bags from his home that contained what they said were body parts. The workers, who said they were paid $500 and initially told that they were hauling away rocks, said the bags felt soggy and soft, like meat. The laborers tried to return the money and contacted police, but by the time officers arrived, the bags were gone.

This was where I got interested. Haskell has been in pretrial confinement for a year and a half, for an apparently slam-dunk, high-profile murder case? Such cases usually get fast-tracked because district attorneys love to notch their belts with them. They say it helps them win elections.

Note than Gascon lost the 2024 election for DA to Nathan Hochman, who was then sworn in by Arnold Schwarzenegger. This case was well-timed for Gascon to make a name for his reelection bid, but he didn’t do it.

The next morning, a man found a human torso stuffed into a duffel bag in a dumpster in an Encino parking lot near Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue, about five miles from Haskell’s home, police said. Haskell was arrested after the gruesome discovery.

Inside Haskell’s house, detectives discovered blood and other evidence consistent with killing and dismemberment, according to investigators.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman told TMZ that Haskell never revealed to authorities the location of his in-laws' remains.

"The only remains they found was literally the torso of his wife that had been dismembered," Hochman said.

L.A. County's top prosecutor said investigators recovered wood with blood of the three victims, a cutting saw, a machete, bullets and a .357-caliber handgun inside a rental car.

"They found blood on mattresses, on bedding throughout the entire house," Hochman said, adding that it was "a rock solid case."

Doubtful. Haskell was charged with triple homicide, but there’s only one body? There’s legal precedent for declaring a person dead on the basis of estimated blood loss, but even so, “no body” rarely makes “a rock solid case of murder”.

So, a heavily connected trust-fund baby who married into (spoiler) the Chinese film & student visa rackets, murdered his wife & in-laws for no stated reason, then languished in pretrial confinement until he killed himself the weekend before a preliminary trial hearing? I’ve dumped more solid rocks on the privy.

The biggest unanswered question is motive. Who were his in-laws and why did he want them dead?

Dumped body parts, a missing couple, abandoned kids: Horror, mystery inside Tarzana home

h ttps://www.yahoo.com/news/dumped-body-parts-missing-couple-211752675.html

By Summer Lin & Richard Winton, 5 December 2023

Yanqing Wang had a bad feeling.

He had not heard from his sister in days, and his calls were going unanswered. Then, he went to her WeChat social media profile and discovered that all her friends and photos, dating back 10 years, had been deleted.

Where was she? What was going on?

Wang got the grim news a day later, on Nov. 8. His sister, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and her husband, Gaoshan Li, 72, were missing. The torso of their daughter, Mei Haskell, 37, had been found in a dumpster, according to authorities. And the daughter's husband, Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 35, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Wang said he saw no hints of problems at the Tarzana home the two couples shared.

Wang and his extended family, many of whom live in China, are distraught. One of five siblings, Wang said he still hadn't told his two older sisters that Yanxiang was missing and likely killed.

Wang’s father was a stepfather per this account, which might explain one side of the family not letting the other know why Sister hasn’t been returning their calls.

Haskell, the son of a well-known Hollywood executive, started dating Mei when the two were students at Cal State Northridge, her uncle said.

The young woman moved to the United States in the mid-2000s to study accounting; her mother and stepfather had to sell their house in China to afford her tuition. Wang, who lives in Monterey Park, started working at a local restaurant to help pay for her education.

The parents cut themselves off from two daughters in their native land, to live with a son and daughter in a foreign land. And they bankrupted themselves to do that? for the daughter? We’re not being told where the money really came from.

Mei wanted her uncle to approve of her partner and introduced him to Haskell, whom Wang described as "strange" and "quiet and reserved" but also a seemingly "good guy." He said they didn't speak much because Wang doesn't speak much English.

That was a very stupid marriage decision, cutting across racial and cultural lines so thick that basic communication wasn’t possible.

Stupid, except in the context of secret societies continuing to use marriage as a loyalty enforcement mechanism…

The couple married after graduation, and following the birth of their first child 13 years ago, Mei's mother and stepfather moved from China to live with the Haskells, Wang said.

Meanwhile, at Daddy’s workplace in the mid-2000s…

Segue

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris_Agency

[In] 2004 they WMA opened an office in Shanghai.

Just a Cohencidence. Also that year, Haskell III quit WMA to eventually open Magnolia Hill Productions, a Warner Brothers-exclusive vanity project built around Dolly Parton. She’s demon enough to not entertain anybody these days, so its real purpose is unknown… although his son’s wife helped with many Chinese student visas.

End segue

Although Wang never heard of any fights between the couple or any talk of divorce, he said his sister complained that Mei was the only one paying for their $7,000-a-month mortgage and that Haskell hadn't offered financial support when they were looking to buy a house three years ago.

Wow, he’s the trust-fund baby and she’s the breadwinner? Her parents must have sold a VERY big house, to afford her tuition!

He said his sister had a stroke a few years ago…

In her early 30s? In 2021 perhaps?

…which made it more difficult for her to walk. But she still did a lot of the cooking and cleaning, as well as looking after the children.

Meanwhile, to afford their monthly house payments, Wang said Mei had to work multiple jobs, including at a consulting business for families who want their children to study in the United States.

A rather lucrative business, that one. Crime pays!

Little is known about what led up to the violence.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Silverman thinks the three are dead and said Haskell disposed of their bodies. "He had several days and drove through Los Angeles County," she added.

Silverman said earlier this month that no other bags containing body parts or remains have been recovered.

"But I don’t need a body to charge a murder,” the prosecutor said.

You only need a body to prove a murder, prosecutor. Habeas corpus! I wonder on which side of this Jew-China fence, DDA Silverman’s loyalties lie? Don’t tell me neutral.

h ttps://people.com/mei-haskell-hollywood-murder-blood-stains-possibly-found-tesla-8430509

Growing up in China, where she worked as a model in her teens, Mei longed for the typical American lifestyle and immigrated to Los Angeles in the mid-2000s.

Mei was Chinese entertainment media turned American media and “just happened” to meet the son of USA’s #1 talent scouting agency while attending college.

She was studying accounting at California State University, Northridge, and working as a waitress when she met Sam, a fellow student and the son of Hollywood executive Sam Haskell III, who produced TV specials for Dolly Parton and resigned as CEO of the Miss America Organization after sending sexist emails critical of former contestants in 2017.

The couple were married after graduating and had three sons: Sam, James, and William. Mei owned a consulting business that helped foreign students navigate the American education system, Sam was an aspiring filmmaker and made frequent trips to Japan to tape TikTok videos.

Human trafficking! technically legal, only because nobody asked for a real American’s permission.

Friends say they were an odd pairing. When the gregarious Mei hosted parties at their home, Sam made only brief appearances, says a friend of Mei’s. “He would just stand by himself somewhere, looking down or looking away, and then within a few minutes just disappear. Everyone who met him thought he was creepy.”

Consistent with the marriage being business not pleasure.

Sam Haskell kept wife he's accused of killing a SECRET and propositioned other Asian women for dates

h ttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14293767/sam-haskell-accused-killing-murder-wife-secret.html

By Cydney Yeates for Dailymail.com, 20 January 2025

Sam Haskell IV, the Hollywood super agent's son accused of killing and dismembering his wife and murdering her parents, kept his spouse a secret from his friends and propositioned other women, a new docuseries has revealed.

Haskell, 36, is currently detained at LA's notorious Twin Towers jail. He has been charged with his wife Mei Li Haskell's murder, as well as the murders of her mom Yanxiang Wang, 64, and dad Gaoshan Li, 72, whose bodies have still not been found.

Investigation Discovery has put Haskell's case under the spotlight in the latest episode of its show Death by Fame.

In the new episode, entitled In the Shadow, an anonymous contributor revealed that she met Haskell on a film set in 2012 and he asked her out on a date shortly after – but hid the fact that he was married and a father.

She said: 'Sam was in the camera department, and I was in the makeup department.

'I'm Asian and any Asian descent woman that would come to the studios, he would have interest for sure.

'[He would have] the googly eyes, you know, stuff that I kind of got when I first met him.

'He would do this to the Asian talents. Like [he] definitely [has] a type.'

He was not in love and she was not servicing his needs, three kids notwithstanding. I’m no female, but my guess is that Haskell is attractive enough that he could have had any woman he wanted. While researching this article, a picture kept popping up of Haskell making a courtroom appearance on murder charges in shackles while shirtless, semi-stacked, sleeved with Asian-style tattoos and dirty-blond hair down past his shoulders surfer-style.

That’s the hotness, I’m told.

Segue1

Sam Haskell IV made to appear shirtless in court: lawyer

h ttps://beyondthecrimescene.com/sam-haskell-iv-made-to-appear-shirtless-in-court-lawyer/

13 January 2024

The Hollywood heir charged with the brutal killing of his wife and her parents is being forced to come to court half naked, his attorney claimed.

Sam Haskell IV, whose father is William Morris Agency executive vice president Samuel Haskell III, was nude to the waist during while pleading not guilty in the case during a Friday court proceeding in Los Angeles.

Hmm, hot or not?

Haskell, 35, had to be in the state of undress because authorities believe he is at risk of self-harm, according to his lawyer Joe Weimortz, who slammed as “wild speculation.”

“Mr. Haskell has not indicated he wants to harm himself,” Weimortz told Fox News.

Ironic.

But the sheriff’s department insisted Haskell wear an anti-self-harm vest, he said.

Haskell was in blue jail pants with his wrists chained in front of his waist when he appeared in court Friday.

His lawyer claims Haskell cannot wear the anti-self harm vest because of a medical condition and that the Sheriff’s office “will not allow him to appear with a shirt, gown or blanket.”

Such a vest looks like a gown, the versions I’ve seen, and I can’t imagine what that medical condition could be. No, I don’t buy this excuse. Haskell would be safer wearing anything than nothing, when it comes to behaviors such as stabbing himself.

There was no jury, so that couldn’t have been a blatant sex-appeal tactic, but… well… for most people, a picture of them going shirtless in a courtroom would not be subsequently displayed in dozens of news articles, so there’s probably a sex-appeal angle here. Maybe the defense shopped around for a female judge? There’s definitely a “Luigi Maglione” vibe here.

Segue2

Accused killer Sam Haskell appears [shirtless] in LA court [again] as judge delays setting date for preliminary hearing on whether he'll stand trial for 'murdering wife and her parents'

h ttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13648937/Sam-Haskell-shirtless-court-delay-murder-wife-parents.html

By Leigh Egan, 19 July 2024

Female judge CONFIRMED!

Sam Haskell IV, the son of a prominent Hollywood agent, appeared in court Thursday to face a Los Angeles judge who will decide if he will stand trial for the alleged murders and dismemberment of his wife and the murders of her parents.

If? Were they trying for an insanity plea? Had they postponed just a few more times, he’d have been eligible for the AARPlea.

Haskell, 36, has been on suicide watch at LA’s Twin Towers jail since his arrest eight months ago. He was led into LA Superior Court shackled and bare-chested, as he did in previous court appearances.

According to DailyMail, none of Haskell’s friends or family were in the courtroom.

Ouch. Then again, this was a quarterly occurrence for six quarters.

A date was supposed to be scheduled for a preliminary hearing where LA's District Attorney will present evidence and testimony and Judge Lench will rule whether the case against Haskell is strong enough for him to be tried by a jury.

Oh come on, the judge could’ve seen the video for herself on TMZ by that point! This is stalling!

Segue2

h ttps://www.crimeonline.com/2024/07/19/accused-killer-sam-haskell-iv-appears-in-court-shirtless-again-judge-delays-hearing-on-triple-murder-charges/

Video obtained by TMZ shows that at 3:54 p.m, a man wearing a white shirt, who appears to be Samuel Haskell, flagged down a blue truck in front of his home in Tarzana.

Several minutes later, several men can be seen in the video carrying what looked like large garbage bags down the driveway and loading the bags into a truck.

The laborers left the residence, but they did not go far. Suspecting something was amiss, the laborers opened at least one of the bags and found human body parts, including what appeared to be a belly button.

At 4:15 p.m., surveillance footage shows the laborers return to Haskell’s house and return the bags. The men told NBC4 they gave Haskell his money back. Haskell can be seen leaving the property at 4:22 p.m. in a white Tesla.

That clinches it, he’s guilty of murdering at least Mei and it was NOT premeditated. Not when he sanitized the crime scene by dialing 1-800-GOT-JUNK. But the judge needed more time to figure that out!

End Segue2

But after consulting in chambers with prosecutor Beth Silverman and Haskell's attorney, Joseph Weimortz, Judge Lench delayed the setting of the prelim date by 90 days to a hearing on October 15.

That likely means he won't have a full preliminary hearing till at least another 90 days after that, meaning January 2025.

When she’ll get to see him shirtless again!

Mei's friends have told DailyMail.com she had wanted to divorce Haskell for at least four years, but feared his powerful agent father would persuade courts to give him custody of their three sons Samuel, 11, James, eight and six year-old William.

What’s this? Yanqing Wang DID mislead us by not mentioning this! The cause for this divorce-then-murder becomes clear: Mei’s youngest kid was finally old enough to not need full-time-at-home attention. A notoriously common time for a first-marriage divorce.

Then Haskell objected to his kids being taken away, and the in-laws inevitably… thanks in no small part to the race/language barrier, perhaps… sided with Skanky.

Last week, an LA probate judge appointed Britney Spears's ex-conservator Jodi Montgomery as temporary financial guardian of the young Haskell boys who will eventually inherit the $2.5 million Tarzana home where they lived with their parents.

Sheesh, gotta keep that money in the “family” much?

End segue

The murder is solved to my satisfaction, but we still have Haskell’s case being delayed into infinity. I don’t know if the prosecution was trying to throw the case by acting like Haskell was dangerously insane, which would’ve been the real reason for the Shirtless Defense strategy, or if he actually was insane… always a possibility in Dolly Parton’s orbit…

…or if they were just running the clock long enough for the influential Chinese-Californian community to forget the triple murder. But it works out the same: they usual suspects denied justice by delaying justice.

That actually explains why DA Gascon didn’t hurry to prosecute this case. Being a Cuban Jew just like Merrick Garland, he’s have been ((obligated)) to help Haskell get away with dumping dismembered body parts in the trash, as seen on TV. That would not have helped his soft-on-crime reputation during his 2024 reelection effort.

It also explains why Haskell was charged with the in-laws’ murders in the absence of bodies. Had he been found not guilty then he’d be protected by double jeopardy if any more torsos did turn up.

It even suggests why Junior would kill himself even had he not been suicidal, because his lawyers were so busy delaying justice that they’d forgotten he was a real, hurting person.

Then again, maybe the Chinese-Californians are powerful enough now to do their own Epsteins... in part because of exactly such alliances as Mei & Haskell. I’m just sayin’, one death per week is the new jail normal.

In this murder mystery, I bet both the Cabalists and the Chinamen saw race first, money second and family as a joke.