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January 14, 2006

More on Cortez

Another friend of Paul Cortez has some thoughts to share about him:

I was also a student at Poly Prep at the same time as Paul Cortez and considered myself at one point to be very close to him. He was a very deep and magnetic person, the kind of guy that could draw a girl in with only a few words and a smile. Needless to say, many of the girls wanted Paul and he was well aware of that. Though he was coy, he was not the type to shoot anyone down or intentionally hurt anyone. Still, I also saw a dark side in him, similar to that described by the other anonymous alumni. During one of the shows he was in, he wore a WWJD bracelet and secluded himself to write poetry very often. I was fortunate to have been among the people that he shared these poems with. They were very deep, eerily similar to some of what the Post reported to find in his diary.

There was always a dark side to Paul but at the same time, he seemed very internal, not the type to get violent or hurt another person. He would say a lot of strange things about himself (he'd comment on how dark he was) and it was obvious that he was often very conflicted. On one hand, I guess that is the sort of thing a lot of high schoolers go through, but for Paul, it was very defining. He was always trying to be in tune with who he was. He would tell me, "I'm a bad person." He'd get quiet and look down at his bracelet and say, "I'm just a bad person, you don't understand." I tried to talk to him about this and get him to explain himself, but it often just went in circles, with him reciting some poem or quoting from some song he'd written. Back then, I decided it was just part of his allure, the mystery he tried to keep going about himself. I guess I never realized how deep those feelings ran for him. In one way I'm totally surprised and in another, I wonder how I never saw this coming...

From my own experience, whenever someone tells you that they are a bad person, you should believe them. They are trying to tell you something, if only you would listen. Of course, when this happened to me, I thought they were only kidding.

Update

Geraldo's web site has copies of Cortez's holographic statement to the cops regarding his whereabouts on the day that Catherine Woods was murdered. The pages take a long time to load, but they are interesting.

Cortez' former band, Monolith, also evidently has a web page at Myspace, according to Huff's Crime Blog. I visited their web page, and there are several of their songs on it, but no mention of their former lead singer. There is, however, the headline "MONOLITH SEEKS NEW SINGER!!!".

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Comments

Keep in mind - the victim (Catherine Woods) had blonde hairs in her hand at the time of death. Blonde Hairs that absolutely do not match the defendant's...

Additionally, the footprint on Catherine's back is supposedly a size 10 1/2 shoe. While Paul is a 10 1/2, David Haughn ALSO is a 10 1/2. And so are thousands of strip club patrons.

If you look at the crime scene photos, you will see that this was done by a trained, professional killer - someone who has practiced or actually killed before, not someone who had an electric relationship with a "complex" girl.

Posted by: IsJusticeBlind | Feb 7, 2007 1:46:09 AM

I met Paul at a work party about 7 years ago and he was a waiter there. I realize now that he lied about how old he was. We hung out that night and he was nice and sweet, so we exchanged numbers. We went out on a date a few days later. When we went back to my place, he was different. He was very aggressive to get me to bed, almost forceful. He was so persistent that it was scary and I asked him to leave. He kept calling me for days after and I would not return his calls until he got the hint.

Posted by: Stella | Feb 8, 2007 1:43:48 PM

looking for paul's written statement to police if anyone has it please post . thank you

Posted by: sve | Feb 23, 2007 9:10:44 PM

Blonde hairs my ass, where did you get this mis-information? He is guilty as sin and should be put in a cell with another violent killer so they can wreak havoc on each other, NOW THAT WOULD BE JUSTICE!

Posted by: Derek | Sep 5, 2008 2:19:09 PM

Paul Cotez is a pretty boy---he is going to receive alot of attention in prison----he`ll have 25 years to pull trains in his mouth and ass

Posted by: viveca von verheim | Jan 23, 2009 8:56:17 PM

I just finished rreading DEATH OF A DREAM...first of all, his two trial attorneys were totally incompetent...as a matter of fact, one of them had charges pending against her. Yes, there were blonde hairs in Catherine's hand and, of course, Paul does not have blonde hair. That, alone, is reasonable doubt. The jurors also should have asked to see the shoes Paul said he was wearing the day of the murder and compared them to what they saw on the DVD. If I had been a juror, I could NOT have voted to convict because of too much reasonable doubt. It would be total INJUSTICE if he does not get a new trial. I pray for that.

Posted by: Mary K. | Sep 8, 2010 9:33:24 AM

I went to the Boston University College of Fine Arts and had several classes with Paul. I recall a rehearsal I was in for Company, in which Paul's ex girlfriend played one of the love interests. Paul saw the girl and the male lead rehearsing a love scene through a window in the auditorium door and punched it, breaking the glass. There were 20 odd people in the small theatre, with stage lights, mics, stage hands and such. It was obviously a rehearsal. I heard some gossip that the girl had had problems with Paul being aggressive and had sought legal assistance. Whether this is true or not, he scared the pants off of everyone involved in that production. I can't say I felt suprised to hear that he'd been convicted of a violent crime. Most of his classmates agree that there was just something not right with him.
On a side note, I've been an "exotic dancer", and can say that Catherine made herself no more of a target through dancing than anyone else in the service industry. A dancer takes great care to protect her identity, where she lives, what car she drives, and other personal details that a customer could use to track her. Hypothesizing that a customer from her club could have been her murderer rather than a former lover who knew her habits and where she lived is ridiculous. In cases where a dancer is the victim of a crime, the defense often attempts to paint her profession as a crime, like a girl in the sex industry must have been involved in illegal activity, and was, therefore, asking for trouble. I, personally, find the way Catherine has been described on certain other posts to be horrific, almost as abominable as how she died. Even more frightening is that a site dedicated to Cortez's freedom is the first result on a Google search of the murder.

Posted by: FormerClassmate | Dec 31, 2010 8:50:09 PM

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