Gun modifications were also a part of his specialty. However, sometime in , the show ceased to continue airing. Probably a payment rift, you may guess? Well, it was something else. The name of the show? This process is then shown, and the episode usually ends with a test of the finished product at a shooting range. But, sometimes, they head to a training ground in the presence of the customer. Being a skilled gunsmith, Hayden did all sorts of modifications with ease.
He seemed to do it without any effort. In any case, the show shows an incomplete production process. On August 27, , Discovery Channel management canceled the show after five seasons. He was also the owner of the arms store Red Jacket Firearms. He was sentenced, as, apparently, Will Hayden, turned out to be a pedophile. And many young girls had suffered at the hands of Hayden. The jury six women and six men unanimously found the defendant guilty of two rapes over a year period.
Both victims, then 15 and 37 years old, were present in the courtroom. After the verdict, they burst into tears and hugged Judge Mike Erwin. For the five seasons that made it to air, Sons of Guns — a show about Red Jacket Firearms and its custom guns — was a hit for Discovery. Warning: This article covers rape convictions. By the time Sons of Guns debuted on January 26, , the staff around Red Jacket had grown to encompass a range of eccentric individuals, some of whom would sign on to form the show's core cast over its five seasons.
While the set pieces of reality shows are obviously staged and produced as a matter of routine, the cast of Sons and Guns had real bonds that predated the arrival of lights and cameras—like Stephanie's husband Kris Ford, whom she met in and convinced to begin working as an apprentice at Red Jacket. Two more key members of Red Jacket in the Sons of Guns era were Joe Meaux , the company's chief of operations, a marksman and mechanic who was often the deciding voice on the show when it came to determining the feasibility of a custom firearm job.
There was also Charlie Watson , a well-educated forensic scientist, and Glenn Fleming , a shop welder who left the regular cast after a year to start his own store, Acadiana Gunworks. Together, the shop employees worked to commission custom gun jobs or restore historical oddities, sometimes bringing in an outside consultant depending on the project.
But they always tested their work on TV, which is part of what made the show so watchable—whether they succeeded or failed, you had a pretty high chance of seeing something cool blow up.
From the very first episodes of Sons of Guns , the staff of Red Jacket made a big impression with their "shoot it and see what happens" approach, firing Civil War cannons and grenade launchers into the sky and otherwise confidently announcing their arrival on the reality TV scene. Over the three years and five seasons that followed, the show had a number of standout moments where the team was tasked to restore something rare, build something bizarre, or team up with a famous guest to develop weapons for a specific theme.
Hayden highlighted many of his favorite moments in a companion book to the series that was published in For the second season episode "Will's Floating Fortress," Red Jacket worked with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department to attach a M machine gun and a MK19 grenade launcher to the department's gulf patrol boat, a job Hayden later described as "beyond cool"—especially when it came to testing the equipment. Another early guest was WWII veteran Hershel Woodrow "Woody" Williams, a survivor of the Battle of Iwo Jima who wanted to restore an old flamethrower from the war—a risky proposition, considering how fickle a weapon even a modern flamethrower can be.
As far as guests were concerned, an episode where World War Z writer Max Brooks visited the shop to help brainstorm potential weapons for a zombie attack was a standout for fans and the show's cast alike. Sons of Guns wasn't on the air for long before it stirred up trouble in the news. Naturally, this being a show called Sons of Guns , the truck was loaded with firearms and explosives—an extremely bad thing to leave just sitting around an airport anytime, but especially on that particular date.
Even worse, that spot of the airport was a known reception area, on a daily basis, for U. You couldn't screw up more unless you tried to sneak a hand grenade through a body scanner. Federal officials shut down roads leading to the terminal for two hours as canine and bomb squad units staged a response area nearby. No one was harmed in the incident—it didn't even result in the delay of any flights—but a production company executive later apologized, calling it "a simple yet colossal error in judgement by a member of our staff.
The first year of Sons and Guns also saw Red Jacket Firearms come under increased scrutiny by the media, who soon uncovered another incident Hayden had had in the past with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
This one, which occurred in , cost both him and his daughter Stephanie, resulting in the surrender of their Federal Firearm Licenses. During a routine inspection operation by the bureau, it was discovered that 10 guns registered to Red Jacket Firearms were missing and unaccounted for—major violations for a gun business. This time, there was no robbery to blame for the missing weaponry, so the agency came down hard on the company, revoking their licenses. The business was restructured, with a licensed gun dealer taking over the company and Will and Stephanie taking on employee roles—on paper, at least.
On August 11, , Will Hayden was arrested by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Department on charges of child molestation and an aggravated crime against nature. Within weeks, an additional charge of aggravated rape of a child was added. Hayden's victim? His own daughter, whom he began raping, repeatedly, in when she was 11 years old.
The details of Hayden's crimes are devastating and terrifying, with Hayden's young daughter being threatened with violence should she report his abuse. She would later tell investigators he had once demanded of her, among other things, "Don't tell them nothing, because I'm all you got.
By August 27, Will Hayden had been legally separated from control of Red Jacket, and Discovery announced that the show had been canceled. In the beginning of September, after initially defending Hayden, Stephanie revealed that her father had molested her as a child as well, and Hayden's young daughter was removed from his custody for good. Ultimately, multiple women both in and outside of the family would come forward to accuse Hayden of unwanted sexual advances and rape.
Stephanie appeared on Dr. Phil in mid-September, bravely addressing her father's true nature as a predator who once scared her so much she began to make a habit of carrying knives when she was around him. He controlled my entire world. He suggested the woman was perhaps eyeing filing a civil lawsuit against him. Cardia-Porter repeatedly and sometimes sarcastically referred to Hayden as being "pretty important" back then.
Hayden did acknowledge that he was worried about someone trying to kidnap his children at the time. Through several bouts of nausea on the witness stand, Hayden's year-old accuser concluded her testimony Thursday morning after beginning it Wednesday afternoon.
The girl recalled how Hayden had raped her in his home and also made her perform oral sex on him, including once in his red Dodge pickup. Hayden said he did not own the truck at that time. The girl said she turned to destructive behavior to cope with the sexual abuse that Hayden allegedly inflicted on her. In a poem she wrote that was seized by East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's detectives in August , the girl described herself as a dead flower and Hayden as having a dark side.
Hayden is being tried on two counts of aggravated rape of the girl, and a count of forcible rape of the nowyear-old woman who testified earlier in the week. He also faces rape charges in Livingston Parish.
One of those charges involves the year-old girl. Edit Close.
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