Joe Hunt, the convicted leader of the 1980s Billionaire Boys Club, is still in California state prison. Now in his sixties, he is held at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, serving life without the possibility of parole for the 1984 first-degree murder of Beverly Hills con man Ron Levin. So the short answer to where Joe Hunt is today: incarcerated, in declining health, and pursuing executive clemency after exhausting his court appeals.1CBS News San Francisco. Billionaire Boys Club’s Joe Hunt Seeks Parole
Where He Is Held and Why
Hunt has been in California custody since his 1987 conviction in Los Angeles County for ordering Levin’s killing. The jury returned first-degree murder and imposed life without the possibility of parole. No body, no weapon, and no forensic evidence such as blood was ever recovered; the prosecution built its case largely around a seven-page handwritten note in Hunt’s hand found in Levin’s apartment (including the entries “tape mouth, close blinds, handcuff, put gloves on, kill dog”) and testimony connected to BBC security director Jim Pittman, who later confessed on television to being the actual shooter.2Daily Astorian. Billionaire Boys Club’s Joe Hunt Seeks Cut in Life Sentence3E! Online. The Billionaire Boys Club Podcast Tells a Twisted Tale of Greed, Murder, and 1980s Excess
Hunt was also tried separately in 1992 for the kidnapping and murder of Hedayat Eslaminia, the father of BBC member Reza Eslaminia, who suffocated in a steamer trunk during a plot to seize his estimated $30 million fortune. That jury deadlocked 8–4 in favor of acquittal, and prosecutors chose not to retry the case. The charges were dismissed.4MetNews. Hunt vs. Pliler – Ninth Circuit Reinstates Habeas Petition The Levin conviction is what keeps him in prison.
His Health Behind Bars
The California Health Care Facility is a medical prison, and Hunt is there because his health has deteriorated significantly. In 2020 he was hospitalized for heart failure. Doctors diagnosed arrhythmia, atrial fibrillation, and tachycardia. His ejection fraction, a measure of how effectively the heart pumps blood, was just 19 percent, a critically low reading. For nearly two years afterward, his resting heart rate averaged 125 beats per minute. A cardioversion procedure performed by an electro-cardiologist in Modesto eventually restored a normal rhythm, and his ejection fraction improved to 35 percent.5Free Joe Hunt. An Update on Joe’s Life
Hunt has also been diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, described by his advocates as a rare and particularly dangerous form of the disease for which doctors have indicated no treatment is possible. His platelet count has been reported as acceptable.5Free Joe Hunt. An Update on Joe’s Life
The Only BBC Member Still in Prison
Part of what fuels ongoing interest in Hunt’s case is that everyone else linked to the killings is free. His advocates return to this comparison often.
- Dean Karny, Hunt’s second-in-command, received blanket immunity for testifying against the others. He admitted participation in both murders and entered the federal witness protection program, where he has remained for decades.6SFGate. Murder Defense Wants Witness Secrets Revealed
- Jim Pittman had two juries deadlock on the Levin murder charge, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and to a handgun charge, and was released on time served. He later confessed on A Current Affair to shooting Levin, asserting double jeopardy protected him from being recharged.3E! Online. The Billionaire Boys Club Podcast Tells a Twisted Tale of Greed, Murder, and 1980s Excess
- Ben Dosti was convicted in the Eslaminia case, freed on appeal, pleaded to reduced charges, and served no additional prison time.7Corey Law. Centennial Docket – Billionaire Boys Club Article
- Reza Eslaminia’s conviction was also overturned. His retrial was dismissed in 2000 after Karny refused to leave witness protection to testify.8Los Angeles Times. Final Billionaire Boys Club Case Dismissed
Hunt is the only BBC member still incarcerated.
The Push for Clemency
By 2016, according to his advocates, Hunt had exhausted his court appeals and shifted his focus to executive clemency.1CBS News San Francisco. Billionaire Boys Club’s Joe Hunt Seeks Parole A subsequent habeas petition was denied by the Los Angeles Superior Court in October 2018.9Free Joe Hunt. The Legal Odyssey
In January 2018, Hunt’s attorney Charles Carbone filed a formal commutation application with Governor Jerry Brown asking that Hunt be made eligible for parole. The application acknowledged that the BBC operated as a pyramid scheme and described Hunt’s past behavior as that of a “catastrophic, world-class jackass,” while arguing that his prison record and the disparate treatment of his co-defendants warranted mercy. Brown did not act on the petition before leaving office.10KRON4. Billionaire Boys Club’s Joe Hunt Seeks Cut in Life Sentence
A second application was submitted in September 2020 to Governor Gavin Newsom, accompanied by 539 letters of support from inmates, professionals, clergy, correctional officers, and family members, along with declarations from seven jurors in the Eslaminia trial who favored acquittal.9Free Joe Hunt. The Legal Odyssey No governor has acted on either petition.
The public campaign is run by Hunt’s wife, Jamie, along with Katherine and Michael Olivier, who operate FreeJoeHunt.com and its social media accounts. A Change.org petition tied to the effort had reportedly reached 50,000 signatures by mid-2024.11Free Joe Hunt. 44,000 Strong and Growing – New Insights and Advocacy for Joe’s Freedom One correctional officer quoted on the site described Hunt as “solidly in the top one percent as far as suitability for reintegration with society.”12Free Joe Hunt. Free Joe Hunt – Home
One boundary worth noting for anyone assuming a routine parole path exists: California law generally excludes inmates sentenced to life without parole from elderly parole and most other expanded eligibility pathways, which is why clemency, not the parole board, is the practical route his lawyers are pursuing.13California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Changes in the Law Expanding Parole Eligibility for Long-Term Offenders
What He Says Now
Hunt maintains his innocence and argues that Ron Levin faked his own death. During his second trial in the Eslaminia case, he presented five eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen Levin alive after 1984, including a couple who said they saw him at a restaurant in Mykonos, Greece, on Christmas Day 1987, and a Los Angeles funeral director who claimed he spotted Levin at a burial in Westwood the same year.14Virginia Tech Scholar Library. Joe Hunt Seeks New Trial in Billionaire Boys Club Case Levin has never been located.
New Public Attention
The case has resurfaced in popular culture more than once, including a 2018 film and an earlier NBC miniseries. In 2025, CNN premiered a new documentary series titled Billionaire Boys Club, which debuted on July 13. The series examines the group’s rise and collapse in the context of 1980s Los Angeles and features Hunt, Karny, and Dosti among its subjects, though it does not appear to introduce new evidence in Hunt’s case.15CNN. Billionaire Boys Club – Greed16CNN. Billionaire Boys Club
More than 40 years after Ron Levin’s disappearance, Hunt remains at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton. Whether the renewed attention or the ongoing clemency effort changes his situation is up to a sitting governor.