This is Part 4 of a four-part investigative series.
Part 1 laid out the horrifying facts of the child-prostitution case, Part 2 explored the LGBTQ pedophile ring's reach, and Part 3 shined a spotlight on the state's failure to protect the two little boys from suffering through serial sexual abuse allegedly committed by their gay activist fathers, who became their adoptive parents thanks to Georgia's courts and child-welfare system.
Today's fourth and final piece details what life is like in jail for these two alleged child rapists each facing over nine life sentences.
Life Behind Bars
Since they're being prosecuted as co-defendants, the adoptive fathers are housed separately while in pre-trial detainment.
An out-of-county transfer placed Zachary "Zack" Jacoby Zulock in Barrow County Detention Center's "maximum" security unit "due to the nature of the charges." Zachary appears to be experiencing what's colloquially called "jail justice," part of an honor code amongst inmates and a brand of justice directed at offenders who would harm children in any way: child murderers, rapists, and molesters, a.k.a. "ChoMos." In terms of the lock-up's pecking order, they're the lowest rung on the hierarchical ladder.
Meanwhile, the most William Dale Zulock Jr. is contending with is his dietary restrictions in Walton County Jail.
William and Zachary Zulock participating in an anti-gay hate campaign | William Zulock (Instagram)
Zachary told his relative, who exclusively shared their series of taped jailhouse calls from the fall of 2022 with Townhall, he's fearful that a fellow cellmate laced his drink. "Umm, I think someone put something in my drink," Zachary suspected in an October phone call, elucidating: "There was a comment made to me last night. Someone tried to give me something, and when I didn't, the way [the inmate] said it, like, 'You want another one?' And I was like, 'Another one? I never had another one before.'"
"It made my...arm and everything go numb," Zachary said. "I couldn't move my hands. My fingers were stuck." After experiencing "stroke-like symptoms," he implored the relative to get his lawyer to free him: "I can't have something like this happen again."
Zachary Zulock's selfies | Zachary Zulock (Instagram)
"[Haldi] needs to get me out," Zachary texted the family member through JailATM. The family member told Zachary the lawyer said his dilemma won't make any difference in being bonded out and that the judge would "laugh him" out of the courtroom.
A month later, Zachary still begged for his defense attorney John E. Haldi to "work a deal to get me out on some kind of bond."
"tell DA that I want an ankle monitor, and if required, a low bond," Zachary demanded in a message to the relative. "[H]aldi needs to try everything possible to get us out. i dont know if he can try to get William out too with this information, or just me."
Zachary Zulock's message in November pleading for his criminal defense attorney to bond him out of jail
"its not my fault that i got drugged," Zachary messaged his family member. "i still need to go to a hospital for stroke evaluation."
He had visited a nurse in the jail's medical wing, where staff took bloodwork, gave Zachary a Benadryl, and placed him on anti-inflammatory medication for several days. Zachary believes he was slipped his cellmate's prescription drug "for nightmares."
After alerting the jail staff of his ordeal, Zachary said he was threatened twice by the cellmate.
"i was just threatened again," Zachary said, "to physically beat me or have someone do it for him."
Zachary Zulock's texts in October stating that he's been drugged and threatened by his cellmate
"I mean, I guess the only thing I can ask for is if you can just pray at least, regardless," Zachary asked of the family member.
At another point in one of the telephone exchanges, Zachary said he bought a Bible from the jail's bookstore:
Reading the Bible is helping [...] And I think I read the whole thing in 16 days. But then, I've been re-reading it. That way I can, you know, re-understand things and retake things in, 'cause it's a lot to take in the first time you read it.
In the meantime, William—like other jailbirds—has a tablet to text on with a digital library of books to choose from. One time the relative checked in with William, he was looking forward to an origami do-it-yourself book "to keep my mind off of things."
But it's not always a state of zen for William, who's also in maximum security and temporarily let out of the cell block for a four-hour recreation period in the "offenders rec," as it's dubbed. Gang members, drug dealers, and murderers bunk together in William's dormitory, "but they're not allowed in our rec because if they touch us, they get assault charges," he explained. (It just so happens that William is related to one of his cellmates by marriage.) "I'm one of the least troubled ones in here," William claimed. "They don't know how to talk normal. They like to yell," William said, when detainees were shouting in the background of the call.
William, who's lactose intolerant and cannot drink the milk at breakfast-time or any dairy products offered in the slammer, complained about the soy patties and bologna-and-cheese sandwiches for lunch, which he doesn't eat. "I don't even know a dog would eat these bologna sandwiches. That's how low-grade the meat is," fussed William, whose weight is down to 120 pounds.
"This place is a joke," William snickered, grumbling about the jailhouse's "decrepit" housing conditions.
William Zulock posing for pictures | Zachary Zulock (Facebook)
"Pfft, yesterday was miserable," William said after seeing the indictment documents. "They called me up front again for fingerprints, and I saw the new charges that they're putting against—I'm assuming—both of us [...] There's 17 charges."
"The public statement mentioned there were [child porn] videos. I can imagine there was more than one video that will be a separate count. Do you think that's what they're doing?" the relative suggested. "I'm assuming so," William conceded, hesitantly.
William said he's "really worried" about his spouse's mental well-being. "I know Zack's a very emotional person, so I know he's probably locking up and shutting down and not talking." William requested from the relative: "Well, tell him I love him when you talk to him. I tell him goodnight and good morning, everytime, everyday. I haven't missed a single day that I tell him goodnight."
"All I can say is, umm, I don't want to say it, but brace yourself for the truth," a choked-up William weeped. "Okay? Just don't give up on us," he exhorted, breaking down in tears. Later on, signing off, William insisted: "If you talk to Zack, tell him I still love him."
Zulock couple portrait | William Zulock (Instagram)
The relative relayed William's message to Zachary. "Oh yeah," Zachary dismissed William's love note. "Did you figure out the Instagram thing?" asked Zachary, who wants his Instagram page taken down as rage-filled comments continue to flood his feed.
A week later, William still doted on Zachary. "Please tell him I love him and that he is my husband and I'll always worry about him," William texted the family member from the jail's tablet on inteleMESSAGE, an inmate-messaging application. "Have you talked to him recently? Try and ask him how his day is [and] what did he eat," William fretted. "Just try to keep him sane."
"Doing my best to keep my hope[s] up," William messaged.
William also divulged he voted in the 2022 midterm elections by mailing in an absentee ballot. "Oh, let [Zachary] know I got a letter in the mail for an absuntee baliot [sic]. I mailed it in so I can vote since I'm not convicted yet. See if he got one," he texted.
William Zulock's text in October stating he voted by mail in the 2022 midterms
Zachary, who proudly posted an "I Secured My Vote" sticker after voting in battleground Georgia's critical 2022 midterm primaries, revealed on Facebook that he voted for President Joe Biden during the state's primaries in the 2020 presidential election. He later regretted casting his ballot for Biden and wished he backed far-left socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) instead.
Zachary Zulock's Facebook cover photos (top)
Zachary was a fervent Black Lives Matter supporter during the 2020 violent Antifa-BLM riots, once adding an image of former President Barack Obama with a BLM frame as a temporary Facebook profile picture and making the Obama family as well as a BLM graphic—featuring the Pan-Africa flag, the Pride flag, the bisexual flag, and the trans flag—his Facebook cover photos.
Zachary Zulock's Facebook profile pictures (right)
What's Next?
Haldi, the Zulock couple's legal counsel, who waived the preliminary hearing to avoid the judge hearing any more jarring details about the case from the prosecution, has filed a special demurrer and motion to quash the 17-count indictment in November, claiming that the charges don't specify the manner in which the co-defendants allegedly committed the various child sex crimes.
Rather, the counts "simply state the statutory requisites and/or language." The offenses are alleged to have occurred within a 32-month window, the criminal defense lawyer noted, sometime between December 2019 and the July 2022 arrest date. Haldi argued that the prosecution ought to "reasonably narrow" the range of dates and requested an evidentiary hearing on this matter.
If an indictment is dismissed as a result of a successful demurrer, the state does have the ability to re-indict the case. "Very often," however, the dismissal will afford the defense another opportunity to convince the state of the weaknesses in its case in an effort to prevent a second indictment, which can lead to an ultimate dismissal of the charges, according to a Georgia trial lawyer.
Under current Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 17-7-53.1), if two indictments are dismissed as a result of a special demurrer, or any other legal motion, the state will then be barred from any further prosecution of the co-defendants, who then cannot be charged again.
DA Randy McGinley has since filed a motion to disqualify Haldi and moved to sever the Zulocks at trial, since they're jointly indicted as co-defendants. McGinley intends to call upon William and Zachary as witnesses in their separate trials, if severed.
At first, after agreeing to talk to authorities, Zachary initially blamed William for "starting" the child sexual abuse of the Zulock boys, according to court records. But, William pointed fingers back at Zachary during telephone discussions with the relative.
"There's a lot of stuff that went on that I don't know about..." William told the relative, when questioned about his and Zachary's taped confessions. "Yeah, 'cause, I mean, like I said, there was a lot of stuff going on that I had no idea about," he reiterated.
"With Zack?" the family member clarified. "Yeah," William replied.
"When they came to our house, I had no idea what was going on," William claimed.
William also denied knowing Lawless. "I've never even met him. I didn't even know the name until then!" he alleged.
The relative pressed William if he was ever aware of the 2011 child rape case naming Zachary. "2011, I don't know anything about any of that, because that was before me," said William, stressing he didn't start dating Zachary until August of 2013.
In addition, McGinley has requested that Judge Jeffrey L. Foster, the judge presiding over the Zulock case, sign off on orders granting limited immunity to William and Zachary to testify against each other at trial, requiring their respective testimonies, and stipulating that the then-severed defendants "shall not be excused from testifying on the basis of the privilege against self-incrimination." If the request is granted, and the Zulocks refuse to testify, the defendants shall be held in contempt of court.
"Hey, the DA is going to try and put us against each other!" William, reacting to McGinley's motions, messaged the relative:
Walton County can go to HELL if they think they can do that!!! [...] We will never go against each other and I know they will lie through their teeth to get us to fight each other. That's all these scum know what to do is lie. Well they are not going to get their way. The fight is on against them [...] I know [Zachary] knows I'm not going to do any such thing. I still stand by with the last thing I told him. Hopefully he remembers. I'm sure he does. LOL. He always remembers.
"One day this nightmare will end," William wrote.
William Zulock's texts in December reacting to DA McGinley's motions
Both of the Zulock co-defendants are due back in court for a motion hearing before Judge Foster on Feb. 1.
Read Part One, Part Two, and Part Three of this investigation.
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