Billionaire Boys Club’s Joe Hunt hopes for freedom
SAN FRANCISCO—The young Joe Hunt once used his intelligence, a high-energy salesman’s patter and powers of persuasion to get wealthy friends to invest in his Billionaire Boys Club to fuel an opulent lifestyle that abruptly ended with a first-degree murder conviction and a prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Now he’s using those same skills in to try to close the biggest deal of his life.
He’s calling on California Gov. Jerry Brown to make him eligible for parole and give him a chance to leave prison after spending 34 years behind bars.
A Los Angeles County jury convicted Hunt in 1987 of killing Ron Levin, who disappeared in 1984. Prosecutors have said Hunt killed Levin over a false promise to rescue the financially struggling “club,” which purported to invest members’ money in commodities but was mostly a Ponzi scheme that relied on new cash infusions to keep it afloat.
Hunt argues Levin faked his own death to escape a pending fraud case.
Hunt, 59, is hoping to capitalize on Brown’s desire to burnish his gubernatorial legacy during his last two months in office. The termed-out Democrat took office eight years ago vowing to reduce the prison population and reform harsh criminal justice laws, which includes reconsidering some life without parole sentences.
Brown’s office said the governor has given 42 inmates with those sentences a chance at parole during his two terms in office, including 18 this year.
With time running out on Brown’s final term, Hunt and his family have launched a publicity blitz to sway the governor to commute his sentence before he leaves office in early January.
For most of an hour-long telephone interview with The Associated Press, Hunt displayed the same confident, enthusiastic and articulate hustle that he used to convince his wealthy high school buddies to join his “investment club” with their families’ money. Hunt originally named the group after a favorite restaurant—Bombay Bicycle Club—but it became known as the Billionaire Boys Club because of the hedonistic gang’s larger-than-life presence in Los Angeles.
To appear successful, Hunt rented an expensive business office suite, tooled around town with his top assistants and was often seen dining at the trendiest restaurants. His exploits were the subject of two Hollywood movies.
During the interview, Hunt discussed prison culture, what he believes are inherent inequities in the legal system and—most of all—his claim of innocence.
But Hunt went quiet when asked what would happen if Brown turns him down. He tenaciously but fruitlessly fought for three decades to win his freedom in the courts. He said he had resigned himself to never leaving prison when he lost his final appeal in 2016 but that his hope was renewed after inmates serving the same sentence walked out of prison because of Brown’s intervention.
“I see other men similarly situated getting commutations and figured ‘Why not me, too?’” he said.
Brown’s spokesman Evan Westrup declined comment on Hunt’s appeal, saying the governor does not comment on commutation applications.
Levin went missing in the summer of 1984 and has never been found. Kevin Spacey played Levin in the 2018’s financial flop “Billionaire Boys Club.”
No body, weapon or any physical evidence like blood was found. But the jury convicted Hunt on the strength of club members’ testimony that Hunt had bragged he killed Levin—and a macabre “to-do list” Hunt wrote that was found in Levin’s home.
“Closed blinds, scan for tape recorder, tape mouth, handcuff, put gloves on, explain situation, kill dog,” the note read.