âI have a psychic, and she says Iâm lonely. She says inside of me is turning out all wrong. So now I just sit here, and think of meaningless things to say.â - Spencer Cohen, 22, Sinner/Wrath
Spencer is angry all the time. Not that it shows, in fact, if you didnât know him very well, youâd think he was a sweet guy who somehow ended up in fights by accident. Thereâs always a reason Spencer lashes out, maybe someone was rude to a girl, or slapped their kid, or yelled at their dog in public. Maybe they were just an asshole to the guy behind the counter at Starbucks. But Spencer is there to defend them whether they want him to or not. Itâs all just an excuse though, and even when he loses the fight, heâll still grin as he spits blood.
DOB: June 20th, 1995 (22)
HOMETOWN: San Antonio, Texas
OCCUPATION: Intern for City Hall
POSITIVE TRAITS: Sincere, Devoted, Clever
NEGATIVE TRAITS: Awkward, Angry, Impulsive
Spencer grew up in the suburbs of San Antonio, the adopted son of Rachel and Lewis Cohen. San Antonio not being a hotbed of Judaic culture, he was an anomaly in his largely Catholic and Baptist neighbourhood. He learned Spanish and Hebrew back to back on the weekends, when he wasnât racing in and out of his friendsâ homes playing a variety of games. It was a largely idyllic childhood, as these things go, though there wasnât always a ton of money to go around, and his parents were always a little nervous to let him out on his own. They made him avoid any kind of sleepaway camps, public speaking, or organized sports. He just assumed that they were overprotective âhelicopterâ parents, since they were a lot older than most of his friendsâ parents, and had always told him theyâd tried very hard for a child until theyâd given up, and then had him. But it turned out to be much worse.
One day in eighth grade, during math class, he was called to the principalâs office, which was unusual, since he generally flew under the radar, despite being a bit of a class clown and amateur acrobat. There, several police officers took him into custody and escorted him to the station where he was informed that his parents were under arrest. Only they werenât his real parents. They were his grandparents, and theyâd stolen him from his mother, whom they claimed was unfit. Theyâd fled their home of Reno, NV, and been in hiding in San Antonio ever since.
While his parents/grandparents served prison time for kidnapping across state lines, Spencer was shipped to Reno to meet his birth mother and her new family. It made the news, and there was a Lifetime movie-of-the-week made, âHidden in Plain Sight: The Spencer Cohen Storyâ. Spencer has always felt that the casting and dialogue made him look like an idiot, and that his parents were never the monsters they were portrayed as. His mother, Deborah, had lost a toddler and gained an angry and awkward 14 year old. They didnât really bond, especially as he continued to refer to his grandparents as Mom and Dad. He got in trouble in school, since all his classmates knew, or thought they knew, his life story. The unauthorized book written about him by one of his teachers pretty much sealed the deal on his decision to leave him and not look back.
He got accepted at UNLV where he received a double-major in history and economics, which turned out to be highly useless. His mother reached out to a friend of a friend and scored him an internship with the Mayor, where he now works. He doesnât have the requisite passion for politics, but heâs diligent at his job, and since he has no idea what else he wants to do with his life, itâs good enough for now.
