Dirty John: Escape
LOS ANGELES - This couple is all wrong, the lawyer thought.
There sat the husband, John Meehan, glowering wrathfully as he plotted legal mayhem on his enemies.
There sat the wife, Debra Newell, soft-voiced and love-struck and helplessly in his grip.
As he gazed across a conference room table at his newest clients in April 2015, attorney John Dzialo sensed that Debra was in danger.
The lawyer had not wanted to take this case, though Debra had paid an upfront $25,000 fee. His paralegal had been chilled, looking into Meehan's background. Extortion. Stalking. Harassment.
And now Meehan wanted the lawyer to prove that he had been the victim, in case after case. His plan was a salvo of lawsuits. Against an ex-girlfriend whose accusations had put him in prison. Against cops. Against another woman he swore had cheated him.
Debra wanted help too. She wanted to fix her fractured relationship with her kids, who believed her husband only wanted her money. Could anything be done?
A post-nup, Dzialo explained. If they got divorced, it would cut John off from Debra's money.
Meehan did not erupt, but he crossed his arms. He sank into his seat. His lips tightened. His eyes were hazel, but they filled with a fury so intense that Dzialo would recall them as "black as coal." Dzialo sensed a "seething cauldron" in the man's brain, a rage that looked as if it would split his forehead.
There are tales of encounters with religious personages so holy that their aura persists in memory, years later. It was like that for Dzialo, only inverted. Meeting Meehan would stay with him as a glimpse into some kind of human abyss.
"Scariest man I've met in my 70 years," he would say.
He took the
