San Francisco: Vigilantes Torture Public Masturbator With Sick Series Of Tableaus


NBC Bay Area reported yesterday that Stephen Billingsley, Nikki Lee Williams, and a large gang of transients known as “Travelers” tortured and killed 66 year-old Stephen Williams in a strangely systematic three-day torture session in San Francisco.

According to CBS SF Bay Area, Billingsley, known by the moniker “Pizza Steve,” was charged with torture, murder, assault, conspiracy, and elder abuse, while Williams, who goes by the subtle nickname “Evil,” was charged with assault, false imprisonment, elder abuse and conspiracy. The two were aided in the crimes by other members of their San Francisco homeless gang as well, but the co-conspirators’ identities are unknown.

Although they would not give up their accomplices, Billingsley and Williams were very willing during the San Francisco trial to recount what had happened during their three-day encounter with the victim. They said they had wanted to deliver “street justice,” writes SF Gate, because they believed Williams had been exposing himself to children around San Francisco, and the methods they employed to do so were certainly harsher than what San Francisco’s police department would have meted out, especially without proof.

On May 22, “Pizza Steve” Billingsley encountered Williams in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, where SF Examiner says he pulled Williams into the park’s Alvord Lake with the help of other “Travelers.” Williams struggled, but the other members of the San Francisco gang allegedly hit him while Billingsley kept dunking him repeatedly, eventually causing Williams to pass out.

Williams survived the first brutal attack, but the Travelers apparently did not feel justice had yet been served.

They found Williams again near San Francisco’s famous intersection of Haight and Clayton Streets, at which point they knocked him to the ground. They proceeded to beat him senseless by striking and stomping on him, and once again they left him in bad shape but alive, remarkable considering Williams is 66 and, as a denizen of San Francisco’s streets, probably not overly healthy.

Still, however, the Travelers did not think Williams had been properly punished for his unproven crime.

They sought him out again the next day, finding that he was once again lingering around San Francisco’s Alvord Lake. They pushed the man down and delivered a beating similar to that of the day before. Either the beating was more severe, though, or Williams’ aging body could not withstand another round, because he did not survive the attack. Billingsley himself then dragged the body into Alvord Lake and left it floating for San Francisco authorities to find.

Surely San Francisco police would agree the Travelers’ punishment, even if it had not been of the vigilante justice variety, was overkill for alleged public masturbation.

The NBC Bay Area piece reports Billingsley walked into one of San Francisco’s police stations and voluntarily surrendered shortly after the final incident took place, before the body was even reported.

Tracking down Nicki Lee, whom Billingsley must have not liked very much if he ratted him out without exposing any of his other accomplices, did not take long; homeless people are relatively easy to find.

Max Szabo, a representative for the San Francisco district attorney’s office, noted that even though the criminals are homeless, their sentence will be just as severe as it would be for anyone in poetic terms.

“The circumstances surrounding the victim’s death are incredibly tragic. All human life is precious, and whether you live in a palace or in a park, we will pursue those who resort to violence.”

The two men have not been officially convicted yet, although they have confessed to the crimes. Their bail has been set at $1 million, and they will have to return to San Francisco’s courthouse on June 17 for their pre-hearing conference.

[Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]

Share this article: San Francisco: Vigilantes Torture Public Masturbator With Sick Series Of Tableaus
More from Inquisitr