Len Beacon

## Leonard Beacon

**Len Beacon** (born Leonard Beacon) was a low-ranking drug dealer in the San Fernando Valley of California.

## Biography

### Meeting Alex

In high school, Len was already involved with drugs and alcohol, and had relationships with people who were the same. He was in a relationship with a girl named Mosh. The pair hung out with a group in the parking lot of the mall, smoking weed.

Len first met Alex Stern in a mall parking lot, where Mosh brought Alex to meet her friends. At 12 years old, Alex was the youngest of the friend group. Seeing that she was nervous and feeling awkward, Len offered her a hit of the bong the group was passing around, despite the protests of Mosh. As she took a hit, the group of teens applauded her even as she coughed. Len complimented her, dismissing Mosh's scolding of not being a creep. Len shook Alex's hand and introduced himself.

Len had Alex help out with delivering the drugs to high schoolers, knowing that because of her young age, she was able to get past LAPD officers and security guards. Len would start grooming Alex at her young age. He gave her one of his leather bracelets, whispering to Alex to not tell Mosh about it.

### Relationship with Alex

By the time Alex was fifteen, she dropped out of high school and ran away from home. By then, Mosh went to art school, and she no longer hung out with Alex or Len when she came home for the holidays. When Alex ran away from the Scared Straight program her mom tried to sign her up for, Alex walked seven miles to Len, who was working at Baskin-Robbins. He had helped put Alex’s blistered feet in a tub of bubble gum ice cream. The pair then got high and had sex in the store.

From then on, Alex lived with Len, sharing a room with him at his apartment on Cedros Avenue in Van Nuys, which they all called Ground Zero. Len continued to provide Alex with drugs and involved her in his drug dealing and his various schemes to get rich quick. These schemes would never work out and the group at Ground Zero lived their day-to-day on the poverty line.

For example, Len met a guy he believed to be big in the film industry and a potential connection to Hollywood business, although Alex would later learn that he was just a production assistant straight out of film school. Throwing a party to foster a connection with the film guy, Len instructed Alex to make him happy. Alex, still fifteen, was at first just sitting on his lap all night and flattering him. Then, the guy brought Alex into the bathroom, where he prompted her for a blowjob and she complied. Len made his anger known the next morning in the kitchen of their apartment. Len called her a whore, derisive of her decision to blow someone not her boyfriend. Angry at his words, Alex yelled back, picking up their blender and smashing it against the refrigerator. Cowed, Len ran from the apartment and slammed the door. In the end, Alex apologized profusely when Len returned. The pair then got high and they had sex, although Alex didn't find any relief in this. This was the first of numerous favors Len would use her for.

One day, Len and Alex and some others of their group went to Venice Beach. There, Len and Alex met Hellie Watson on the Venice boardwalk. Len offered to let her stay at their apartment, intending to stoke some jealousy from Alex and give him another measure of control over her. In any case, Hellie agreed and since then had lived at Ground Zero. Len's plan would backfire when Alex grew close with Hellie and found a measure of comfort in her.

### Drug Dealing

As a drug dealer, Len depended on bigger suppliers for drugs and moved it for them, but very rarely proved he could move more risky, expensive products. Alex had been a part of his drug operation since she was in middle school. When Alex was fifteen, she was usually doing runs at colleges and malls. When one customer, a banker, didn't pay for the drugs, Len was furious and panicky and told her to make up the money or she would be the one to answer to Eitan.

Eitan Shafir, who was Len's supplier and a drug dealer with real connections, had a low opinion of Len. Eitan believed him lazy and degenerate, as Len was often smoking Eitan's product with his friend Betcha rather than moving it, which only served to make Eitan richer and Len's status stagnant. As a result, Eitan only trusted Len to deal out weed, never getting him more of the harder drugs like Adderall or oxy that make more money. "Len was always scraping by, always coming up a little short."

### Death

Len Beacon's status was subject to change when Ariel Harel, Eitan’s cousin, came to visit from Israel, and took a liking to him. Eitan deferred to Ariel, as he was violent and desired to see violence inflicted on others. Len believed that Ariel liked hanging out with Len and simply preferred the Ground Zero group over the fancy parties Eitan throws. According to Alex, Len could never figure out that Ariel was laughing at him and his desperation.

One summer day, Ariel invited himself to party at Ground Zero, to Len's eager agreement. Alex protested, only for Len to slap her in reprimand. He ordered Alex and Hellie to clean up the apartment and to look nice at the party. In defiance of his orders, Alex and Hellie left for West LA for the day, only for Hellie to go back for the party. Len was not concerned for Hellie's safety, and thus enabled Ariel to drug and rape her. At 3 am, Alex's screaming caught the attention of Len, who panicked at the sight of Hellie's body.

Len's planned to dump Hellie outside of a shady club called Crashers on Hayvenhurst Avenue and stage it like a simple overdose, spurred on by Betcha's agreement. Alex tried to say she'll tell the cops about what Ariel must have done but Len hit her hard, brutally stating that she's stupid; they'd go to jail and Eitan and Ariel would be after them. As Len and Betcha carried Hellie's body out of the room into the living room, Ariel observed what was going on, unbothered and giggling. Before they could exit, Alex shut the door and—unbeknownst to them, was possessed by Hellie—picked up a bat, glowing, and swung with her left, bludgeoning Len, Betcha, and Ariel to death, and used the remaining pieces of the bat to stake the two remaining occupants of Ground Zero.

When emergency services and police investigated the apartment, it was very clear the men died of a brutal homicide, although the case itself was left unsolved. Eitan Shafir, in his investigation as to what happened to his cousin, thought perhaps Len pissed off the wrong person.

## Personal Attributes

### Personality

Len took himself more seriously than he actually was. He leaned into his drug dealing career, believing himself 'hard' and dominant, and valued luxury and wealth despite never having it. Len was sexist and racist, often verbally expressing these ideas to put individual people down.

### Physical Description

Len had dark brown hair. He wore leather bracelets.

## Relationship

### Alex

Len groomed Alex to be his girlfriend from a young age, was manipulative of her, and even physically abusive. There was an element of Alex being a partner in in Len's drug dealing, but more often than not this was gross exploitation and Len frequently disregarded her opinions. Alex in the present acknowledges that Len was her boyfriend and they did have a sexual relationship, but there was little love to be had for Len. She was dependent on Len in various ways, for shelter and food as well as the drugs he could give her. When Alex contemplated leaving Len in the past, she feared losing the barest comforts she had.

### Betcha

Mitchell 'Betcha' Betts: “He’d run with Len since long before Alex and was always just there, tall, stocky, and soft-bellied, his chin perpetually flecked with acne.”

## Trivia

* Scarface is one of Len's favorite movies.
* At some point before she was 15, Len taught Alex how to snap zip ties.
* He likes protein shakes.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ninth House Chapter 7 (Winter)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ninth House Chapter 3 (Winter)
3. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 31 (Early Spring)
4. ↑ Ninth House Prologue (Early Spring)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Ninth House Chapter 19 (Last Summer)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ninth House Chapter 1 (Winter)
7. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 12 (Winter)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Ninth House Chapter 19 (Last Summer)
9. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 4 (Last Fall)
10. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 29 (Early Spring)
11. ↑ Ninth House Chapter 5 (Winter)