David Brown was born on November 16, 1952, into a large, struggling family with eight children. After his family relocated from Phoenix, Arizona, to Garden Grove, California, David learned the value of money early on and became highly resourceful, eventually leaving school after the eighth grade to enter the workforce. Despite his intelligence and knack for computers, David had significant emotional issues; he was likely a narcissist, highly manipulative, and a severe hypochondriac who frequently faked illnesses—including terminal cancer—to gain sympathy and attention from others.His tumultuous romantic life began at age 15 when he met his first wife, Brenda. The teenage couple moved out, eventually married in May 1970, and had a daughter named Cinnamon. During this time, David returned to his education, completing high school and pursuing a career as a computer technician. However, the marriage fell apart after four years due to David's possessiveness and his affair with a coworker named Lori, who soon became his second wife. While married to Lori, David earned a computer science degree and secured a highly-paid job, but he soon grew bored with the relationship and divorced her in 1978.Even before his second divorce was finalized, David targeted a teenager named Linda Bailey, who came from a destitute family with eleven children and an uninvolved single mother. Using his classic manipulation tactics, David pretended to be terminally ill with only six months to live to convince Linda's mother to let her daughters clean his house. He quickly won the impoverished family over by showering them with gifts, food, brand-name clothing, and trips to Disneyland. David and Linda married in June 1979, but he filed for divorce just a few months later, complaining that she was unready for marriage and wanted to socialize with friends.Shortly after discarding Linda, David married his coworker Cindy in May 1980, marking his fourth marriage. He quickly grew dissatisfied, claiming she only cared about his money, and he divorced her less than a year later. Throughout his brief marriage to Cindy, David had secretly continued his relationship with Linda, who remained infatuated with him.To win back Linda's skeptical family, David leveraged his newly founded, highly successful hard drive data recovery business to employ Linda and her siblings, giving them well-paying jobs. This manipulative strategy worked, and David and Linda remarried in Las Vegas in December 1981. The couple moved into a luxurious, rented house in Garden Grove. They were soon joined by Linda's 15-year-old sister, Patti, and David's teenage daughter, Cinnamon, who frequently clashed with her biological mother, Brenda, and preferred living with her father and her young stepmother.

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