6.15.2010

Greenspan's Body Count: Wayne and Herminia Zickefoose

This shocking tale comes from Anaheim, California where two young boys survived attempted murder by their father.

The story is unbelievably horrible:
A wounded 3-year-old boy was found hiding outside his family's Southern California home, and his 5-year-old brother was found unhurt inside, 12 hours after their parents were fatally shot in an apparent murder-suicide, police said Monday.

The shootings happened late Sunday but weren't discovered until midmorning Monday, when a co-worker stopped by to see why the father hadn't reported to work, Anaheim Police Sgt. Tim Schmidt said.

The co-worker instructed the 5-year-old to call 911.

"He said his dad killed his mom and shot himself and he can't find his brother," Schmidt said.

When police arrived, they found the parents' bodies splayed out on lawn chairs in the backyard. From there, they followed a trail of blood leading to the wounded 3-year-old, who was hiding behind trash cans on the side of the house, Schmidt said.

"This is a horrific scene," he said.

The 3-year-old had been shot three times in the shoulder, stomach and chest. He was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center, where he underwent surgery and was in critical condition, Schmidt said.


While police are not releasing the victims' names, the owners of the house at 541 North Fairhaven Street were identified as Wayne and Herminia Zickefoose...
who bought the home in 2001 with help from a loan backed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The couple borrowed against the house five times during the following six years, but paid off most of those loans, record show.

Most recently, the couple borrowed $462,000 from Countrywide Home Loans in January 2007, records show. They began missing mortgage payments on that loan in February 2009. They owed nearly $14,000 in back payments by May 2009, when the bank warned them it would foreclose if they didn't make their payments, records show.

The bank sent another notice in March of this year, saying the home "may be sold at a public sale" on April 1. At the time, interest and other charges added to the main loan had pushed the Zickefooses' debt on the mortgage to $491,960.18, records show.

Civil court records also show that a woman identified in one case as Hermie G. Zickefoose and in another as Herminia Zickefoose had amassed, since November 2004, more than $26,000 in debt on four credit cards issued by Chase Bank USA.
They bought the place in 2001 for a somewhat reasonable $232,000. But thanks to Greenspan's easy money bubble, they were given enough rope to hang themselves. They ended up sucking out all the equity and then some, up to almost a half million dollars in debt in a modest, working-class neighborhood.

Various online references to Wayne Zickefoose state that he's a USC MBA, owner of Trojan Auto Service in Buena Park, a "theta healing practitioner," and an amateur investment writer. And while he swore off the stock market in 2008, it sounds like he got involved with something more leveraged and dangerous: "land banking."
I believe the best investment, bar none, is in pre-developed land in the path of growth of a major metropolitan city.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 139.

Wayne Zickefoose
Herminia Zickefoose
Thomas S. Piazza
Troy Fogel
Michele Fogel
Cynthia Dunn Cannon
Jocelyn Earnest
Lynda Clark
Gregory Bellows
Sallie Gist
Rayshawn Reed
Byron Reed Sr.
Byron Reed Jr.
Elisha Gist
Elijah Gist
Tiera Davidson
Christopher Oetting
Neal Jacobson
Franki Jacobson
Eric Jacobson
Joshua Jacobson
Vincenza Garcia
Bill Sparkman
Debra K. Gibbs
Otis Beckford
Carol Kennedy
Diane Ward
Edith Moreno
Diana Moreno
Scott Peters
Tom Blackmore
Kevin Daniel O'Connell
Julie Fay
Wallis Fay
Siu Fong Ng
Ernest Scherer Jr.
Charlene Abendroth
J.D. Wood
Cynthia Wood
Aubrey Wood
Dillon Wood
Betty J. Lipply
Dwight Deely
Linda Patrick
David Kellerman
Christopher Wood
Francie Billotti-Wood
Chandler Wood
Gavin Wood
Fiona Wood
Gil Weber
Gregory Graham
Randolph Graham
David Kelley
Ramona woman
Del Mar man
Wayne "Mike" Anderson
Jeffrey M. Pearson
Ervin Antonio Lupoe
Ana Lupoe
Brittney Lupoe
Jaszmin Lupoe
Jassely Lupoe
Benjamin Lupoe
Christian Lupoe
Steven L. Good
Adolf Merckle
Mike Upham
Randy Motts
Kristy Hunt
Joseph Nesheiwat
Tom Brisch
Alex Widmer
Brian Pugh
Marilyn Lewis
Sid Agrawal
Kirk Stephenson
Barry Fox
Dallas Dwayne Carter
David Hetzel
Sharron Hetzel
Cliff Kendall
Pamela Ross
Roland Gore
Mrs. Gore
Wanda Dunn
Karthik Rajaram
Subasri Rajaram
Krishna Rajaram
Ganesha Rajaram
Arjuna Rajaram
Indra Ramasesham
Joe X
Isabelle Jarka
Robert Wagner
Lt. Michael Howe
John Roberts
Palmer C. White
Dianne Pittman White
Ed Boesen
Edwin F. Rachleff
Carlene Balderrama
Troy VanderStelt
Scott M. Coles
Dawn E. Armstrong
Thomas Lizotte
Jonathon Calvin "40-Cal" Jacques
Salvador X
Lupe X
Jade X
Little Boy X
Little Girl X
Kashmir Billon
Bill McMurtry

Lisa McMurtry
James Hahn
Raymond Donaca
Deanna Donaca
[redacted]
[redacted]
Michel Veillette
Nadya Ferrari-Veillette
Marguerite Veillette
Vincent Veillette
Mia Veillette
Jacob Veillette
Maurice Pereira
Natasha Pereira
Mark Achilli
Raed Al-Farah
Andrew Kissel
Rufus Shaw Jr.
Lynn Flint Shaw
Mr. Pierce
Walter Buczynksi
Marci Buczynski
Jason Washington

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't blame Greenspan. Blame the stupidity of men who think money and debts is linked to status and pride that it's more important than life itself.

Anonymous said...

This is just sad.

Why can't the murderer prior to his plan to take out his family and then himself be allowed to go to a welcoming place, soft music, attentive female bartenders, willing to serve up a tall glass of chocolate and hemlock.

It worked for Socrates.

Anonymous said...

"Don't blame Greenspan. Blame the stupidity of men who think money and debts is linked to status and pride that it's more important than life itself."

That's a yes and a no from me all at the same time. I do agree with your point about people looking to scapegoat others for their own lack of personal responsibility - like fat people blaming their lack of self control on the fast food industry but it is a two way street. My beef with The Maestro (a.k.a. The Bespectacled Chimp) is that we don't get our money's worth from him or his former employer. I mean for the money these people make and the influence they command, they are paid to be smarter than the average slob on the street or average part time financial blogger on the net. They are supposed to be making decisions and taking action behind the scenes that make life better and more stable - not worse and more unstable for the unwashed mob. I look at what happened and just get a gigantic sense of buyer's remorse and think to myself, "What the fuck are we doing paying these people for these kinds of results?"

But, Americans do complain a little much for problems of their own creation. Like one of my more worldly friends has told me on more than one occasion - America has the fattest poor people in the world.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

when the truth is found to be lies

the darkcloud said...

I remember a time when borrowers were regularly refused loans because lenders had assessed too high a risk of default on the part of the borrowers.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems this most important criteria of the loan process had been highly absent during the Great Real Estate Bubble?

Of the two parties, the lender is the seasoned party of "higher intelligence". Sorry, I blame them more than I blame the borrowers.

Isn't that why they call it "predatory lending"? And, I haven't heard too many cries of "predatory borrowing".

Anonymous said...

"Maybe it's just me, but it seems this most important criteria of the loan process had been highly absent during the Great Real Estate Bubble?"

You can thank the era of securitization for that reality. When a lender is going to write, hold, and collect the payments through the life of the loan it makes all the difference in the world where underwriting is concerned. To your defense of borrowers - the number of people who willingly and knowingly outright told lies on their mortgage applications would startle most people outside of this industry. Some were coached but a great many were not. When values climbed steadilly, they didn't care - it's only now that the market is out of greater fools that they are crying in their beers (when they are not killing their entire family) and screaming foul. When values were climbing, they were fat and happy. Think: Fat person who smokes for several decades and then gets diabetes and now wants to file a law suit against Ronald McDonald and the Hamburglar. Scapegoating.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

"Sorry, I blame them more than I blame the borrowers."

I think it is both to blame and of equal parts. The Mexicans are blaming their drug cartel problems on the American market and demand for drugs. Junkies blame their dealers. Kiddies say "Daddy didn't love me enough so I get wasted". Some blame their drug use on a "lack of economic opportunity". I used to do drugs because I liked getting high - don't anymore 'cause with age you figure out it ain't worth goin' ta' jail for but that was always the long and short of it for me. I just flat out liked getting high - today, I drink (in moderation) partly for taste but also in part because I like gettin' a little beer buzz going.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

Now bear in mind that we do live in a democratic republic where our leadership gives us what we say that we want - sometimes good and hard:

"For 25 years federal policy has been primarily focused on promoting homeownership and promoting the availability of credit to home buyers,” Ms. Bair said. She mentioned some of the many subsidies home buyers get, including the home mortgage interest deduction and the ability to deduct property taxes."

See Bill Bonner in Daily Reckoning today (6/18)

http://dailyreckoning.com/its-june-in-florida/

the darkcloud said...

"To your defense of borrowers - the number of people who willingly and knowingly outright told lies on their mortgage applications would startle most people outside of this industry. Some were coached but a great many were not."

Where was the due diligence of the lenders, i.e. the verification of the borrowers' [falsified] application information for loan approval?

"I think it is both to blame and of equal parts."

I still say the buck stopped with the more-seasoned lenders - they dropped the ball. Again, predatory borrowing?

Not quite sure of the relevance of your drug history and current beer buzz revelation.

Anonymous said...

"I still say the buck stopped with the more-seasoned lenders - they dropped the ball. Again, predatory borrowing?"

Scapegoating - go cry to Mom. Builders build (built) McMansions because that's what the vast majority of people like(d) and buy (bought). Many of them made that their life's mission for not much more reason than that was what their friends were buying/building/mortgaging. Baitball mentality. Lemmings going over a cliff - nose to tail. No one holds a gun to their heads and makes them build a little Donald Trumpesque McShack. That was the trend. As for lenders passing the buck - again, welcome to the age of securitization. Calpers and other pension funds now own those mortgages. Borrowers drove this demand; lenders were enablers. Everyone loved it so long as "values" continued to climb and there was a supply of "next greater idiot" to buy at inflated prices. The Fed was the kingfish of enablers. My comment on drug use is about being honest with one's self; read between the lines.

I've noticed that the host here has bought himself a CA shack and that the IA over at Skeptical CPA in TX has now taken the plunge (after gloating over the killing he made off the sale of a previous shack). Those Obamabucks are awfully tempting (especially when coupled with the funds obtained from the overblown sale of a previously owned shack), eh guys? But, for myself being a casual observer, I couldn't help but note the hypocrisy of someone going apeshit over bashing policy publicly on a web forum/blog but then benefiting from it personally. Struck me as odd. Must just be me. I would imagine that you read your commentary much the same as Adrienne does over JDA.

Out of here.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

p.s. for anyone who bit at the Obamabucks worm dangled on end of the hook - you blew your load early, dudes. More price declines are waiting in the wings.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

We the People.... blah, blah, blah... yeah right - From the WSJ

Collectively, we got what we deserved as a nation.

The paper notes that many government policies to bolster housing enjoyed bipartisan support. On the left, easy-lending policies helped fulfill social goals while on the right, they boosted the “ownership society” envisioned by the Bush White House.

How else to explain one congressional hearing in 2005 that produced statements like these, from conservative Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas): “With the advent of subprime lending, countless families have now had their first opportunity to buy a home or perhaps be given a second chance. The American dream should never be limited to the well-off or those consumers fortunate enough to have access to prime rate loans.”

And this, from liberal Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.): “[T]he housing market has been good to lenders. Everybody is making a lot of money. It would seem to me that our lenders would be a little bit more charitable.”

"Pressure on the U.S. government to expand subprime credit came from both mortgage lenders and subprime borrowers,” the authors write."


George Wallace 1968 quote - there's not a dime's worth of difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party.

Bob Dylan from Brownsville Girl - You always said people don't do what they believe in, they just do what's most convenient, then they repent.

Anonymous said...

more from the "collectively, we got the bubble that we deserved" file. As a nation, we can't even take an Obamabucks tax credit for buying a shack without trying to figure out some way of gaming or goosing the system. But, not to worry. The IRS and FBI have teamed up in a big, big way and are beginning to go after the cheats like never before. Like I said, this country got the bubble it deserved in may ways.

“Where there are questionable claims, the IRS has moved aggressively and successfully blocked or denied nearly 400,000 questionable homebuyer claims and opened more than 150 criminal investigations,” the IRS said in a statement responding to the inspector general’s report."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-23/irs-blocks-almost-10-of-first-time-u-s-homebuyer-tax-credits-after-audit.html

the darkcloud said...

"As for lenders passing the buck..." and
"...lenders were enablers."

BINGO.

Lenders were sleazy twice: they knew everybody they dealt with was going to get screwed.

Take the [sleaze] money and run - twice - mindset. How galant.

Greenspan's Body Count is almost exclusively borrowers: it's nice to know someone is rooting for the noble lenders who didn't reject the borrowers' impossible loans.

Lenders have the final say, I say!

Anonymous said...

Dark Cloud, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. This from 2005, just before the crash.

why we're going ga ga over real estate

BTW, many lenders that hold their own paper cautioned people, held to their ltv ratios, verified incomes and in general tried to get people to see reason - I'm one of them. I spent a fair amount of time playing "Daddy" to people who were supposedly grown ups. Stuck in a perpetual state of teenage angst is what many of them were. Many people now want to put all the blame off on lenders (maybe not you personally) but it's an easy scapegoat and a cop out. I put my money where my mouth is and have been renting a place for the past seven years. People I used to preach to viewed me as some sort of chicken little. Some women refused to date me because of the perception that I was some sort of loser 'cause I didn't get with the program. Now they think I'm a fucking genius. I'm not -just a very realistic person - that's what happens when you grow up poor and Southern. There's going to be a time to buy a house again coming in the very near future. That time is not right now but the train is coming down the track.

Jeff

Anonymous said...

"Lenders have the final say, I say!"

Tell you what buddy... you want to see some really stupid lending. Take a gander at some of the absolutely retarded loans that are made to people to buy automobiles. Those are securitized as well and sold off in investment bundles. Even motorcycles and boats. Want to see some really stupid shit and complain about all the lenders and defend the poor, poor hapless borrowers/consumers? Go spread some GMAC and Chrysler and Harley Davidson paper. If you understand what you're looking at, you can add them to your list of lenders to protest.

Anonymous said...

...also, this country needs lenders (hopefully responsible ones) because a large number of the unwashed masses refuse to save money and pay cash for what they'd like to buy.... plain and simple and the uncomfortable truth for many. Why do you think we've got 24 month free financing available so some schmuck can go buy a kitchen table and a sofa?...or his girlfriend an engagement ring?..... or junior his own i-Pad?....etc., etc., etc.

Want to see some consumer level / developer level fraud going on in a big way for real estate that was driven by greed, quest for status, one upsmanship, or some other phony baloney purpose? Go mosey on down to Rachel Dollar's Mortgage Fraud Blog and take a gander...
Many of the people who are currently in the lending game are not really lenders. They are salesman - plain and simple. I'm no good in sales but I'm pretty fucking good in lending. Sometimes some of my clientelle doesn't like me much but a lot of teenagers don't like their Daddy's, right? They hate being told "no" - poor Pookies.

p.s. Find a good credit union and join it. Hopefully it has a crusty son of a bitch running its lending department. hahahaha

Anonymous said...

...also, no one walks into a car dealership unless they want to buy a car... that's an old sales truth. I don't see anyone putting guns to peoples' heads and marching them over to a car dealership, or a motorcycle dealership, or a boat dealership, or new subdivision with demonstration models, etc., etc. gettin' the picture here?

Anonymous said...

and, host (W.C. if that's your real name) -

Not an Obama fan, huh? The zeitgeist of your blog says you have a hard on for this administration. Not an O supporter either. Having lived in Illinois for 20 years and being a bit of a political junkie, I wasn't an O supporter from the beginning. Chicago politics is as dirty as anything you've heard.

That being said (written), there has been more done in the last 18 months where combatting mortgage fraud is concerned than in the entire Bush 8 year Presidency. The crack down is happening from top to bottom. Borrowers, real estate attorneys, realtors with straw buyers, title companies, some banking officials, etc. are in the process of going down. The FBI and IRS have teamed up and are making their lives a hell. I'm happily munching popcorn and enjoying the show from the cheap seats. Some people from within were screaming to high heaven that something be done during the Bush years but the complaints fell on deaf ears. Very few resources were put into play. The excuse was that resources had to be focused upon "the war on terror" (pfffffffttttt).

Anonymous said...

"Greenspan's Body Count is almost exclusively borrowers"

Ever notice that they kill themselves (and sometimes others) over money? Anyone else find this as an over the top response to a problem or is it just me? Human beings have a long history of over reacting, I'd suppose. They fall in love with obviously flawed people (and material things, concepts, notions) and they sometimes hate those trying to help them. The human experience I guess.

Anonymous said...

"Lenders were sleazy twice: they knew everybody they dealt with was going to get screwed."


Trust me when I tell you this - many, many, many of them "drank their own Kool-Aid" and many, many, many of them are as dumb as rocks.

Anonymous said...

now, W.C. do you really think that those Obamabucks tax credits came with no strings attached? Uncle Sam doesn't give a fucking thing away without expecting something in return

the darkcloud said...

Jeff,

From Ritholtz' Big Picture blog (http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/06/stop-the-next-crisis-this-wouldnt-have-stopped-the-last-one/):

[Excerpt]: I cannot help but be struck by one thing in this reform bill.

If it were law since the year 2000, the only part of it that might have prevented, or at least slowed down the crisis, was the new minimum underwriting standards for mortgages. No more “No Doc, NINJA, or Liar loans.”

That Lenders must verify income, credit history and job status certainly would have prevented the worst vintages of sub-prime and exotic mortgages from ever being written, or subsequently securitized. [End]

Ritholtz captured my opinion perfectly. And the lenders knew better - and they did it anyway.

Happy Super Tuesday!