Bradley Cadenhead: 764 Network, Texas Case, and Discord Lawsuit

Bradley Cadenhead is the Stephenville, Texas teenager who in January 2021, at age sixteen, founded the online child-exploitation network known as 764, named after the first three digits of his hometown’s ZIP codes. He pleaded guilty in Erath County to eight counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography and was sentenced on May 16, 2023, to a cumulative 80 years in Texas state prison. He remains incarcerated in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice with a maximum sentence date of December 1, 2102, while the network he built has splintered into dozens of offshoots and now sits at the center of an expanding FBI investigation.1TDCJ. Inmate Search Detail2ADL. 764

Who Cadenhead Is

Cadenhead grew up in Stephenville, a small city in Erath County about 70 miles southwest of Fort Worth. According to a Washington Post investigation, he became fixated on violent imagery around age ten and was sent to a juvenile detention center at thirteen after allegedly threatening to shoot up his school.3The Washington Post. 764 Predator Discord Telegram He ran his online operation from his mother’s home, undetected for months.

How He Built the 764 Network

In January 2021, Cadenhead started a Discord group he called “764” after the opening digits of Stephenville’s ZIP codes, 76401 and 76402. He pulled from a broader online subculture sometimes called “The Community” or “The Com,” which was already involved in hacking and sextortion. What he added was a structured system of coercion and an explicit culture of escalation, where members climbed a status hierarchy by producing more graphic and degrading content involving their victims.2ADL. 764

The network operated primarily on Discord, Telegram, and gaming platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox. Members targeted children roughly eight to seventeen, focusing on kids who were struggling with depression, eating disorders, or loneliness.2ADL. 764 The Washington Post reported that the group even circulated how-to guides on Telegram instructing members to befriend targets with flattery and to make a victim feel the predator was “the only person she could ever need in her life.”3The Washington Post. 764 Predator Discord Telegram

Once a child was groomed, the playbook turned to blackmail. Victims were pressured into sending nude images, which were then used as leverage to extract worse material. Recordings and personal data on victims were compiled into digital files known as “lorebooks,” which functioned as currency inside the network and were used to recruit new members and maintain rank.4U.S. Department of Justice. Leaders of 764 Arrested and Charged With Operating Global Child Exploitation Enterprise

What Victims Were Forced to Do

A CNA report found that 84 percent of 764 victims were female, with an average age of fifteen and some as young as eight. Children were coerced into producing sexual abuse material, cutting symbols into their own skin (“cut signs”), writing names or words in their own blood (“blood signs”), harming animals, and in extreme cases attempting or completing suicide.5CNA. 764 and the Com: Misconceptions and Guidance Children who resisted were threatened with swatting, doxing, and distribution of their images to family and friends.6FBI IC3. Public Service Announcement

One of the most widely reported cases involved Jay Taylor, a thirteen-year-old boy whose suicide on January 17, 2022, was livestreamed within the network after he was groomed and coerced by 764 members on Discord.7FindLaw. Parents Sue Discord Over Child’s Live-Streamed Suicide for 764 Cult Researchers have documented a victim-to-perpetrator cycle inside the network, in which groomed children were themselves pressured to victimize others. One teenage girl involved in the group described the dynamic to researchers as “a competition of who could do the worst thing.”5CNA. 764 and the Com: Misconceptions and Guidance

The Texas Case Against Him

The FBI identified Cadenhead as the founder and a central figure of 764 in 2021, and he was arrested that year.2ADL. 764 He was prosecuted in the 266th District Court of Erath County, Texas, under case number 22CRDC-00016. He pleaded guilty to eight counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography and was sentenced on May 16, 2023. Each count carried a twenty-year sentence, and the sentences were ordered to run consecutively for a cumulative 80 years, with a maximum sentence date of December 1, 2102.1TDCJ. Inmate Search Detail

Appeals and Habeas Petitions

Cadenhead filed a direct appeal to the Eleventh Court of Appeals in Eastland, Texas, but voluntarily dismissed it. The court granted his motion to dismiss on November 2, 2023.8Daily Caller. Cadenhead Texas Appeal Dismissed

He then turned to habeas corpus. His state habeas application, filed November 7, 2024, argued that his trial attorney was ineffective. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied it on February 5, 2025.9GovInfo. Cadenhead v. Director, TDCJ-CID He filed a federal habeas petition on February 26, 2025, in the Northern District of Texas (Case No. 4:25-cv-0184-P), again alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, this time claiming his attorney improperly advised him to plead guilty and failed to retain a forensic psychologist for mitigation at sentencing. On February 17, 2026, the federal court denied the petition and also denied a certificate of appealability, effectively cutting off further federal review of that claim.10Daily Caller. Federal Petition Denied

Where He Is Now

Cadenhead (TDCJ Number 02449471) is housed at the Estelle Unit in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system. His parole was denied on June 5, 2026, with the board citing the “nature of offense” and stating that the crimes involved “elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability” indicating he “poses a continuing threat to public safety.” His next parole review is not scheduled until June 2031.11TDCJ. Inmate Parole Review Detail

What Happened to 764 After His Arrest

Cadenhead’s removal caused leadership infighting that broke the original group apart, but it did not end the network. 764 splintered into a constellation of offshoots operating under names such as Harm Nation, CVLTIST, and Leak Society, sharing the same methods and goals, and “764” became an umbrella term for that decentralized ecosystem.2ADL. 764 Since 2021, at least 50 members of 764 or affiliated groups have been arrested for crimes tied to sextortion, child sexual abuse material, or violent attacks.12ISD Global. Networks of Harm

The FBI has classified 764 as a “Tier One/Category 1” terrorist threat, a designation reserved for organizations posing a direct threat to U.S. national security.2ADL. 764 As of May 2025, the bureau had more than 250 active investigations linked to the network, with at least 15 people in the United States arrested on child pornography or weapons-related charges tied to it.13ABC News. FBI Opened 250 Investigations Tied to Violent Online Network By mid-2025, the FBI had opened at least 100 additional investigations, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported it was on track to receive nearly 2,000 reports of abuse tied to 764 or similar networks in 2026.14ABC7NY. Online Extremist Network 764: FBI Investigating More Cases The Department of Justice classifies 764 and its offshoots as “nihilistic violent extremist” organizations with accelerationist goals, meaning the exploitation of children is treated as violence in service of hastening social collapse rather than as an end in itself.4U.S. Department of Justice. Leaders of 764 Arrested and Charged With Operating Global Child Exploitation Enterprise

Prosecutions of Others Connected to the Network

Cadenhead is the founder, but he is one of many people now facing prison time for conduct tied to 764. The most significant federal cases so far:

The Discord Wrongful Death Lawsuit

On February 19, 2026, Leslie and Colby Taylor, the parents of Jay Taylor, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Discord in Pierce County Superior Court in Washington state. The complaint alleges that Discord “supplied 764 with unlimited victims” and “failed to take reasonable steps to prevent or disrupt such exploitation” despite knowing about the group’s presence on the platform since at least 2021.19ABC News. Parents of 764 Victim File Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Discord It also asserts that Discord’s trust-and-safety team had only 79 staffers in 2022.7FindLaw. Parents Sue Discord Over Child’s Live-Streamed Suicide for 764 Cult

Discord removed the case to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on March 11, 2026. In late April, the company filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and a separate motion to compel arbitration. Both motions were fully briefed, and the court had not ruled on either as of late June 2026.20PACER Monitor. Taylor et al v. Discord Inc