If you’re on the lookout for your next YouTube deep dive, check out the latest documentary from Nick Crowley, the creator behind the viral smartschoolboy9 video – it’s been called the “craziest” case yet.
At the tailend of summer, the smartschoolboy9 saga swiftly went viral thanks to Crowley’s YouTube doc, ‘smartschoolboy9: An Internet Rabbit Hole’.
With more than 11 million views at the time of writing, it details how a grown adult from the UK has been posing as children online and sharing disturbing images involving minors.
Though the furor has since died down, especially after the smartschoolboy9 subreddit was banned, Crowley is never short of creepy cases to cover.
New Nick Crowley YouTube doc covers Gavin Collins case
Following on from his exploration of the cult-created kids’ TV show, the YouTuber has shared a new documentary examining a series of ‘YouTube’s darkest videos’.
One in particular has left viewers disturbed: the case of Gavin Collins. In April 2019, Collins was released early from HMP Ranby in the UK despite having set fires at the prison and assaulting staff shortly beforehand.
Just a day after his release, Collins went on a rampage during a psychotic episode, stealing multiple cars and driving recklessly through Nottinghamshire.
As stated by Crowley, the owner of the first stolen car had installed two cameras that captured clips of Collins’ rampage, which later made their way onto YouTube.
The footage shows Collins driving at high speed while growing increasingly enraged, claiming he’s “Jesus, descendant of God.”
It’s estimated he reached speeds of 85-120 mph before crashing the first car into a brick home. Not once but twice did this happen, but both times Collins came out unscathed.
For the third vehicle, he smashed his way into a family’s home, where he found a woman and her infant children. Collins is reported to have said, “Because I am Jesus, I will kill you if you don’t give me the keys.”
She handed them over, and before he left, he smeared crosses on each of the family members’ foreheads using the blood of his injured hand.
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It was his third rampage that ended in disaster, as Collins drove into 87-year-old Terry Radford near his home in Mansfield Woodhouse.
The injuries Radford sustained led to his death. Eventually the police were able to stop Collins, but the damage was done.
Following the incident, coroner Laurinda Bower criticized the governors responsible for Collins’ early release for failing to take into account his concerning behavior and actions while incarcerated.
Collins ended up being charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 21 years. The case has sparked plenty of comments from viewers of Crowley’s latest YouTube documentary, with many left disturbed by the shocking footage.
As said by one, “Gavin’s story has to be one of the craziest ever covered on this channel. There’s been some really disturbing stuff before, but the way Gavin not only acted but LOOKED was spine-chilling.
“I’ve never seen a person so absolutely detached from the world. The look in his eyes is horrifying.”
“Whoever allowed for Gavin’s release needs to be held accountable, what a disgusting display of negligence,” said another, while a third added, “The road rage one is genuinely horrifying.”
“Gavin’s face during that video was honestly the scariest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” wrote a fourth. “That is the face of someone who is gone. No human soul was behind those eyes.”
Collins is just one of four cases explored in Crowley’s vid, alongside Elaine Campione, the 2006 Dreamspace incident, and James Yoo.
For more of the same, read about whether smartschoolboy9 was ever arrested, Netflix’s most shocking docs and the best true crime documentaries of 2024.
