He suffered as a child sexual abuse and physical violence. And so he knew well what would happen in his life when he grew up.
He said he would force people to call him "Avengers Alaska" because he had a mission and nothing would stop him.
Jason Vukovich took his super gun, a hammer, and transformed into the man who would render what he considered justice. Revenge he was looking for people who sexually abuse minors and that is exactly what he did.
He entered the public register of sex offenders in his state and found the list of convicted pedophiles. He had an "excessive desire to act," he said when he was caught because of his own troubles. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his stepfather.
His thirst for revenge on behalf of the victims of perverted pedophiles was an aspect of his story that resonated with a section of the local community.
In a bizarre turn of events, the Alaskan Avengers denounced his actions in prison, calling on victims of sexual abuse to seek help rather than retaliation.
This is the controversial story of…
Born in Anchorage of Alaska in June 1975, Jason Vukovich grew up in his early years with his mother. Until at least she remarries and his new father adopts him.
Only Larry Lee Fulton, instead of becoming his guardian and protector, became the little boy's tyrant. "Both my parents were devout Christians and took us to every church service, 2-3 times a week," he described the beginning of his life in a letter to the local Anchorage Daily News.
"So you can imagine the horror and confusion I experienced when this man who adopted me started recruiting for evening, very evening, meetings for ''prayer"in order to abuse me."
Aside from sexual abuse when it got dark, the stepfather beat him during the day. He beat him savagely with wooden sticks and whipped him with his belt.
Years later, at the Avengers trial, his brother, Joel Fulton, described the suffering the two boys had suffered while living with their torturer: "It was my job to go first, to leave Jason alone."
The anthropomorphic beast was eventually convicted of abusing a minor in 1989, but did not spend a single day in prison. In fact, according to Vukovich, no one came to see if the children were okay.
Despite the conviction, the abuse continued for another two years. Only then did 16-year-old Jason pick up Joel and they kicked him out of the house. The minor found his way to the state of Washington, without papers and a way to live.
He thus turned to petty crime to survive. Encounters with the law at this time are many and all tragic. He would later admit that all this had to do not only with the need for survival, but also with the anger he felt for the society that left the monster unpunished.
At one point he even came to hate himself. Sexual abuse as a child was something he could not manage, but he had nowhere to turn: "The tacit understanding that I was useless, a waste… The foundations that were laid in my childhood never left," he said at one point in a self-critical mood.
Now living like a real criminal, his criminal record spanned from Washington and Oregon to Idaho, Montana and California. In 2008 he returned to Alaska and continued to do the only thing he knew.
His criminal record was getting heavier and heavier. Theft, possession of drugs, even assault on his then wife. The latter is the only one he does not accept as a charge. "I could never," he had said.
So we came to 2016, when the open trauma of his childhood would reappear. Now he was reading about the sexual crimes of Alaskan pedophiles and the blood was boiling inside him.
After searching the register of convicts pedophiles of Alaska, in June 2016 decided it was time for action. He looked for three of them and went to find them, with the index he had made with the names and addresses under his arm.
The morning of June 24, 2016 knocked on Charles Albee's door. When he opened it, Jason pushed the 68-year-old inside and ordered him to sit on the bed.
After throwing a few cuffs at him, he described how he had found his address and told him that he knew exactly what he had done. And then she stole it and left.
Two days later, he would do the same at Andres Barbosa's house. This time, however, he appeared at his door at 4:00 in the morning and had two female accomplices by his side.
Vukovich threatened the 25-year-old pedophile with one hammer, hit him in the face and told him that he was there to "collect what Barbosa owed", according to the case file.
One of the two accomplices was filming everything with her cell phone and the other was "scraping" the house. In the end they stole the car and escaped.
When he hit his third target, he was about to become more violent. Wesley Demarest heard his doorbell ring after midnight and before he could open it, he found Jason in the living room.
"He told me to lie on my bed and I told him no," the pedophile recalled, "he told me to fall to my knees and I told him no."
Jason hit him in the face with the hammer. During the attack, she told him: "I am an avenging angel. I will award justice for the people you hurt. " And then he did again what he knew well: he stole it and left.
When he was covered in blood, Demarest called the police. It would not be long before they found the perpetrator, Jason was sitting in his car, a little further from the pedophile's house, with the hammer, the stolen items and the notebook with the names and addresses of his three victims…
Vukovich was arrested on the spot and now faces 18 charges, for attack, burglary, theft, etc. He initially pleaded not guilty, but accepted the agreement with the prosecutor, changing his statement.
His admission of guilt for an assault case and a charge of theft acquitted him of a dozen additional charges. The only term he put? His sentence should not be greater than the total years spent in prison by the three "alleged victims", as he said.
In 2018 he was sentenced to 28 years in prison. Will stay in at least 23. A few months ago, in the letter he sent in 2017 from the cell to the "Anchorage Daily News", Vukovich clarified the motives of the lawsuit. And his remorse.
"I think about my experiences as a child… I took matters into my own hands and attacked three pedophiles", he writes, "if you have already lost your youth, like me, because of a man who abused you as a child, please do not waste the present you and the future by committing acts of violence ".
- Anchorage Daily News (@adndotcom) February 26, 2018