The Bierdz brothers

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Thom Bierdz (on the left) was a soap-opera star. He quit the show at the height of his popularity. One of his reasons was that he was gay and he was tired of lying to his adoring female fans.

Gregg (in the middle) followed Thom to Hollywood. He tried (and failed) to become an actor. Then he tried (and failed) to become an agent. Then he met a beautiful girl (a former beauty queen) who had inherited a fortune. She fell in love with him almost on sight. He fell in love with her money.

They got married. They had two kids. She gave him all of the things he could ever want except one - freedom. He felt smothered by her constant need for affection.

One day they had a horrible argument. She tried to rip his balls off - literally. She grabbed his testicles and pulled on them as hard as they could. He called the police.

After that the marriage was over. They tried to reconcile but it didn’t work.

He grew despondent because he believed that, after the divorce, he would never be able to see his kids.

He moved into an apartment with no furniture - just a mattress on the floor.

One morning he crawled into his closet and blew his brains out.

Troy (on the right) did the worst thing of all.

He was a very troubled kid. He started out with petty vandalism and graduated to grand larceny.

His mother begged the court to send him to a facility where he could receive treatment but he ended up in a halfway house.

He escaped. His mother took him back in.

One evening he and his mother went to dinner at a cousin’s house. When they got home he took a baseball bat and bashed her head in until her brains were splattered all over the floor. Then he stole her car and began heading west.

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Before murdering their mother, Troy had sent Thom a drawing depicting the manner in which he intended to torture and then murder him. Thom dismissed it as a sick joke.

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Troy was arrested a week after the murder. The cops found a torture kit in the trunk.

He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The judge sentenced him to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years.

His relatives disowned him. They urged the judge to give him the maximum sentence.

Five years later Thom got a call from an old friend who claimed to have psychic abilities. The friend told Thom that Thom’s mother had come to him in a dream. She told him that Troy’s soul was dying and that Thom was the only one who could save him.

Thom was skeptical but he arranged to visit his brother.

When Thom arrived at the prison he was shocked by Troy’s disheveled appearance - his hair was literally matted to his head. He was stunned to learn that his brother had not spoken a single word to anyone in five years. He had not been given any medication since his arrival.

Thom arranged for Troy to be put on meds immediately. He began visiting regularly.

Slowly, Troy improved to the point that he was able to have a semi-normal relationship with Thom. Eventually he was able to express regret for the murder.

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