Movie madman's highly privileged past revealed – as friends share shock at stabbing spree against four young girls

A blond knifeman who went on a rampage across Massachusetts is believed to be the wealthy son of a successful mental health clinician, who lives on Martha's Vineyard.

Police began searching for Jared Ravizza, 26, after four girls aged 9 to 17 were stabbed by a knifeman who was “laughing the whole time” as he attacked them at an AMC multiplex in Braintree, Saturday around 6 p.m.

A 21-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man were stabbed an hour later, 30 miles away, at a McDonald's in Plymouth, before police caught up with Ravizza when he crashed his Porsche in Sandwich.

Massachusetts law enforcement sources told Boston25 that Ravizza was also the man they were looking for after a body was discovered Saturday afternoon at a vacation rental in Deep River.

The former UMass student claimed to run a “global digital marketing and social media management agency” with offices in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, Paris and Naples.

But friends from his old college lacrosse team told Dailymail.com they remembered him simply as a “strange guy.”

“He only went to school with us for a semester and then disappeared off the face of the earth,” Jay Gallipo said.

“He was a social media influencer at the time, it was kind of a joke with us.

“The only person he was close to was his sister Kate, he was perfectly nice but kind of weird.”

Ravizza has lived for three years on the island that is home to politicians and celebrities and was often seen in the company of a man he introduced as his father, according to the Martha's Vineyard Times.

The family lives in a $565,000 home in the western Massachusetts town of Agawam, where her father Jason Ravizza works as a licensed mental health counselor.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate is a licensed school principal and has focused on working with youth “paying attention to the whole person, helping to unlock each person's full potential as than being human,” according to a biography.

In December 2021, the younger Ravizza was profiled by the MV Times and claimed to run a charity called Ravizza Global Initiative.

He explained that his family had been coming to the area for a long time and vaguely explained the goals of his initiative.

“We spend a lot of time in Vineyard, Massachusetts, and I just want people to know how approachable I am,” he said.

“I see it as a movement and a lifestyle, as well as an initiative that we do to change people's lives, to inspire them. It’s a lifelong bond, a lifelong relationship, being there, being a mentor.

Following his arrest, the newspaper spoke to residents who recalled a series of “bizarre and hostile interactions in public places”, including at a local yoga studio.

Ravizza successfully petitioned the Dukes County Local Court last month to change his name from Jared Christian Ravizza Jones to Jared Love Jones.

Previously, he had earned a series of glowing profiles on obscure news sites, including snowmag.com and beverlyhillsmagazine.com.

“Jared Ravizza is more than just a media mogul and serial entrepreneur. He is an American model and professional skier,” it reads.

“Most importantly, he is a family oriented man who spends quality time kitesurfing, surfing and playing tennis with his family in his free time.”

Ravizza describes himself as an “artist” on his Instagram page which has 218,000 followers and where he uses the pronoun “she”.

Posts from six years ago show a conventional-looking young man who attracted occasional comments from friends.

Four years later, he returned to the site with a muscular new look, posing on beaches and with his artwork, driving a series of Porsche cars and showing off drug paraphernalia.

He wears lipstick and makeup in subsequent posts, the most recent of which was uploaded just hours before the stabbings.

The Braintree Theater was almost empty when the girls arrived for a screening of the children's film “IF” starring Ryan Reynolds.

The attacker entered without purchasing a ticket and said nothing before launching his attack on the girls, wearing what one employee thought was “an oversized trench coat, sunglasses and a long blonde wig.”

“They were the only four people in that movie theater,” Lisa Dembowski, mother of two of the girls, told WCVB 5.

“They had just sat down. They had just obtained their concessions.

I guess he came in behind them in the row – they were in the second row – and he came in behind them.

“My oldest leaned over to get something. He got her in the back, then my other daughter in the upper chest.

“Then my last daughter put her arm over his arm – laughing the whole time – and then she grabbed her friend and ran away.”

The girls were taken to Boston area hospitals where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries as police began searching for the attacker who fled in a black Porsche.

The young couple at the McDonald's also escaped with non-life-threatening injuries, although they were attacked with a 10-inch knife.

Ravizza is believed to have spent a few weeks at the Deep River vacation rental with a male companion, and neighbors heard arguing from the house.

Police found a body when they arrived at 3:36 p.m. Saturday after reports of a disturbance.

“Lots and lots of police cars came and they barricaded themselves, it looked like a little ambush there at first,” neighbor Charlie Brashears told Boston25.

“They backed the two cars up at two of my neighbors' houses, and they were on the hoods, I don't know if they had weapons or not, but they were on the hoods, and then they ended up barricading the area.

“It’s hard to understand that.”

Ravizza will appear in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday to be charged with assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Connecticut police have not yet announced any charges related to Dep River's murder, but they are no longer looking for a suspect.