Summary

• Worst Roommate Ever is a Netflix true crime series that explores disturbing stories of roommates gone wrong, including a serial squatter and a serial killing grandma.
• The series leaves out important details about Jamison Bachman, such as his traumatic experience witnessing the murder of his close friend and his legal background.
• Viewers found the series impactful because it highlighted the potential dangers of living with strangers and the need for thorough background checks when finding a roommate.

Netflix's true crime series, Worst Roommate Ever, details multiple disturbing stories of living situations gone wrong, but what does the documentary leave out about Jamison Bachman? Worst Roommate Ever is a true-crime docuseries based on an Intelligencer article of the same name. The series recounts four separate true stories of terrifying roommates, ranging from con artists to murderers. The two-part finale of Worst Roommate Ever, "Roommate Wanted," takes up the subject of the original article: Jamison Bachman. Bachman was a serial squatter who terrorized dozens of roommates across multiple decades.

Bachman used his law degree and charming demeanor to insert himself into people's lives, only to reveal his darker side. He took advantage of tenancy laws to avoid eviction. However, he eventually met with a tragic end, as Bachman hanged himself in jail after murdering his brother. Despite dedicating two episodes to his story, Worst Roommate Ever leaves out some details about Bachman's crimes. The show focuses on three victims of Bachman's serial squatting: Alex Miller, Arleen Hairabedian, and Sonia Acevedo. However, other roommates experienced trouble with Bachman and there is more to his past relationships with his traumatized roommates.

What Worst Roommate Ever Leaves Out About Jamison Bachman's Past

Jamison Bachman's Close Friend Was Murdered

One of the most stunning aspects of the Jamison Bachman backstory, which is recounted by one of Bachman's childhood friends, is his traumatic experience witnessing the murder of his close friend, Ken Gutzeit, during his time at university. This is a separate true-crime story nested within the true-crime story. While the Worst Roommate Ever provides a cursory explanation of how this event may have shaped Bachman's personality and led him down a dark path, the show doesn't go into detail about what happened and why Gutzeit was killed. The event took place at the Sigma Chi fraternity house in New Orleans in 1976.

Ken Gutzeit was a high school friend of Jamison Bachman, and the two were eating dinner together at the fraternity house. Randell Vidrine suddenly entered and stabbed Gutzeit. Vidrine worked as an assistant at the Tulane University library and had confronted Ken Gutzeit about eating food in the library months prior. Vidrine asked him to leave, but he refused, prompting Vidrine to call the campus police. The murder occurred after Gutzeit returned to the library eating food for a second time. That evening, Vidrine walked past the fraternity house and once again got into a fight with Gutzeit. He later returned with a knife to kill him.

Worst Roommate Ever Glossed Over Jamison Bachman's Legal Background

Jamison Bachman Used His Legal Knowledge To Bully His Roommates

Another extremely important part of the Jamison Bachman story is his legal training. Worst Roommate Ever leaves out many of the details of Bachman's legal background. Bachman spent years abroad and only began his legal training later in life, obtaining his law degree at the age of 45. It's interesting to note that Bachman seemingly had a very positive reputation. His instructors at the University of Miami and Georgetown described him as a "remarkable" student with "extraordinary talents." One particular professor even went so far as to state "In 20 years of university teaching, I have encountered very few people of his caliber."

However, Jamison Bachman would later fail the bar exam in 2003 and never try again. Therefore, he could never really put his legal skills to professional use. That being said, Bachman would often use his legal knowledge to avoid paying rent and putting off eviction for as long as possible. However, the full extent of Bachman's wielding of legal jargon is not explored. When arguing with Alex Miller, Bachman accused her of breaking "the covenant of quiet enjoyment," and when he found a cigarette in the toilet bowl one day, he texted Miller saying he would not be paying next month's rent because of the "warranty of habitability."

It's clear that, over the years, Jamison Bachman had honed his knowledge of legal minutiae to take advantage of those around him. When sued by a woman for a repayment of $36,000 in debts, Bachman alleged the two had slept together and that she had given him herpes. Worst Roommate Ever's Bachman proceeded to counter-sue her for "tortious transmission of an incurable venereal disease." In another situation, when confronted about clogging his roommate's toilet with cat litter, Bachman arrogantly stated: "Correct me if I’m wrong, as I only have two graduate degrees, but my understanding was that the proper place for sh*t is in a toilet."

What Worst Roommate Ever Leaves Out About Arleen, Sonia, & Alex

Jamison Bachman Always Started As A Good Roommate

While Worst Roommate Ever focuses on interviews with three of the Jamison Bachman victims: Alex Miller, Arleen Hairabedian, and Sonia Acevedo, there are still some details left out of their accounts. For example, Alex and Jamison's relationship got off to a pretty good start. The two would spend their night together, drinking and watching The Rachel Maddow Show, which was one of Bachman's favorites. One time, when one of Bachman's roommate's hookups refused to leave the apartment, Bachman intervened, telling the man, "Buddy, I’m living here too. She’s asked you to go, I’m asking you to go. I’ll ask you one more time, or I’ll remove you myself."

Sonia Acevedo also recounts how perfect the first three months of Bachman's tenancy were. The two of them would eat breakfast as the sun rose, talking about a variety of topics. Acevedo almost believed the two were becoming friends, and once she grew comfortable enough with him, Sonia even invited Jamison Bachman to join her at Jacob Riis Park, where she often sunbathed topless. "He was very respectful," Sonia said. Bachman also comforted Acevedo when one of her cats died. He hugged her and said "I'm so, so sorry," with tears in his eyes.

These details, which were left out of Netflix's Worst Roommate Ever, paint a clearer picture of just how manipulative and two-faced Jamison Bachman could be, which explains why these victims were so trusting of him at first. This could explain why Arleen was so conflicted upon hearing of Jamison's death. According to William Brennan (the author of the Intelligencer article), Hairabedian burst into tears. She even said, "What if he just wanted somewhere to stay, and he showed up and his brother said he didn’t want him there, and it escalated? What if he was desperate? Here I am, making excuses."

Jamison Bachman's Other Victims That Worst Roommate Ever Leaves Out

There Were Victims Not In Worst Roommate Ever

Worst Roommate Ever also leaves out several other victims. One notable example is Melissa Frost. Jamison Bachman moved in with Frost in 2012, claiming to have lost his home in Hurricane Sandy. Over the months, Jamison gradually took over the space. Melissa Frost says that the "effort he put into doing this was life-consuming." She goes on to explain that "when things got bad between us, he stopped leaving the house because he thought I might change the locks."

During one incident where Melissa returned Bachman's microwave to his room because he wasn't supposed to keep his things in the common areas of the apartment, he shouted that she had "no right to touch his things" and Jamison Bachman used the microwave to push Frost back until she was standing on the edge of the stairs. Frost subsequently called the police. When one of Bachman's cats disappeared, Bachman wrote to Frost: "YOU ARE THE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF MY CAT’S DISAPPEARANCE AND PRESUMED DEATH … DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH ME AGAIN UNLESS IT IS THROUGH YOUR ATTORNEY."

Despite this behavior, Frost still attempted to negotiate a peaceful exit for Jamison Bachman, even going so far as to offer to return the money he'd paid in November and help him find a new apartment to rent. However, Bachman simply reacted with laughter, which caused Frost to burst into tears. Bachman then comforted her, saying, "You've got your whole life in front of you. You're pretty, and you're talented, and you've got this house," but he added "Well, you don't have this house anymore. This is my house." According to Frost, "It was like something out of a movie."

Speaking to a reporter in 2013, Jamison Bachman addressed the situation: "I’m happy to have her file an eviction notice. She files the filing fee, and then I piggyback on the filing fee and hit her with the counterclaim. That’s just tactics." When Bachman stepped before Judge Marvin Williams in Philadelphia, the judge told him "I find you to be totally incredible. I don’t believe a word you say — and, frankly, you’re frightening."

Other bizarre encounters include Michael Oberhauser, a 31-year-old composer living in northwest D.C. Bachman moved in with Oberhauser in 2016, and conflicts between the two men emerged almost immediately. Oberhauser recalls one particular occurrence where Jamison Bachman would move the red bath mat in the bathroom. When asked about why he kept throwing the bath mat away, Bachman simply replied that he "was going to clean it." But every time Oberhauser put the mat back in place, Bachman would throw it away again.

Another incident occurred when Bachman moved into an apartment with Mark Gainer, a former oboist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Jamison Bachman would walk around with a baseball bat over his shoulder. In January 2017, Bachman moved into the home of 40-year-old, Neville Henry. According to Henry, Bachman attacked him with the broken leg of a coffee table a week after moving in. Bachman later left the house and attempted to sue Henry. It's understandable why the Worst Roommate Ever documentary series chose to leave out some of these other stories, but it demonstrates the extent of Bachman's bizarre and aggressive behavior.

Why Worst Roommate Ever Should Only Have Been About Jamison Bachman

There Was Enough About Jamison Bachman To Eliminate The Other Stories

Worst Roommate Ever zeroed in on four stories that had to do with everything from murder to theft to serial squatting, but what happened to Jamison Bachman was given two whole episodes that still somehow managed to leave out much of his story. In actuality, the entire docuseries could've centered on the serial squatter himself. After all, despite including Dorothea Puente, Youssef Khater, and K.C. Joy, Worst Roommate Ever was inspired by an article that focuses exclusively on Jamison Bachman and the lengths he went to stay in and destroy his various roommates' homes.

There were plenty of accounts of his behavior that could've received attention from documentary filmmakers, and it would've made for more streamlined television. While Worst Roommate Ever is an interesting series, it's obvious the show was inspired by his exploits, given his double-episode billing and the project would've benefited from a closer analysis of his actions. So why wasn't Worst Roommate Ever about Jamison Bachman alone? The show was trying to appeal to as many people as possible and tick algorithmic boxes rather than present a focused case. Still, it would've been interesting enough with a direct focus on Bachman.

The extra stories about K.C. Joy, Puente, and Khater, intriguing as they are, felt tacked on to the main event and muddied the focus of the show. An exclusive focus on Bachman would've presented the opportunity to explore all the accounts of his crimes while going more in-depth into his childhood and the basis of his evolution into a serial home-wrecker, and the subjects of the other episodes should've received their own docs or mini-docs. All in all, Worst Roommate Ever parses out its information unevenly, and the entire documentary should've just been about Jamison Bachman.

Why Viewers Found Worst Roommate Ever So Impactful

Jamison Bachman Took His Own Life

Jamison Bachman's story took an even worse turn once he was incarcerated, as he took his own life while in prison for murdering his brother. However, the bizarre story of Jamison Bachman and the other subjects of Worst Roommate Ever stuck with viewers long after the series ended. Nearly every story depicted in Worst Roommate Ever ended in violence and financial ruin for many of the victims, and all because of a bad roommate. With the economy shifting, the prospect of living alone has become a financially burdensome decision, with most opting to find a roommate either from a circle of friends, a partner, or online.

However, people like Jamison Bachman and the others on Worst Roommate Ever have shown that something as normal and run-of-the-mill as finding a roommate could be a potentially life-changing and dangerous choice. After Worst Roommate Ever premiered on Netflix, there was an outcry on Twitter from users expressing understandable fear over living with someone else. What's so haunting about many of the stories is that these predators start out as kind and charming, lulling their roommates into a false sense of security before revealing their dark compulsions — and Jamison Bachman proved that once a roommate has moved in, victims are trapped.

What was so harrowing about the crimes depicted in Worst Roommate Ever perpetrated by Jamison Bachman and the others was how often they were able to get away with exploiting and robbing their victims with little legal recourse. Bachman was a serial squatter for years, changing his name to prospective victims as his exploits became documented. Dorthea Puente killed people and cashed their checks over seven years. K.C. Joy lived with his prospective murder victim for 18 months before snapping, and Youssef Khater was an international scam artist who almost got away with burying his hostel roommate alive.

If the crimes of Jamison Bachman and the other predators in Worst Roommate Ever prove anything, it's that anyone looking for a roommate (or a landlord, in Puente's case) should do a thorough background check on anyone who applies. No relationship is sacred in the eyes of a scam artist, and even something as ordinary as finding a roommate could prove to have disastrous and violent consequences. Worst Roommate Ever perpetuates the idea that a stranger can never truly be trusted, and the series had such an impact because it highlighted how people can be violated and exploited simply in the act of finding someone to live with.