Hollywood slashing suspect once pulled machete on a childhood friend, acted ‘paranoid’

The Hollywood scion accused of chopping up his wife and her parents once pulled a machete on an estranged childhood friend who saw him behaving erratically and acting “paranoid” weeks before cops found what they believe to be his wife’s dismembered torso in a dumpster.

The unnamed woman reportedly noticed something seemed off when she last saw Sam Haskell IV and his children at a Los Angeles diner.

“Typically, when we run into each other, it’s a hug,” the unnamed woman told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “This time, he was backing away from me. … He doesn’t want a hug, and he’s backing up, like I’m a threat or something like that,” she continued, without providing the date of the encounter.

“He seemed very paranoid, and then he sat in the far back of the restaurant away from everybody,” she said, adding that he waved her away. “So that was just weird, even for Sam.”

Haskell, 35, was arrested last week after a bottle scavenger found a woman’s torso in a Tarzana dumpster, about five miles from his home.

Samuel Haskell IV wields a firearm in one of his heavily produced Facebook clips.Samuel Haskell Jr/Facebook

Police believe it belonged to his wife Mei Haskell, 37, who had already been reported missing along with her parents Yanxiang Wang, 64, Gaoshan Li, 72 — natives of China who lived with the Haskells and their three young children.

Authorities believe Haskell chopped up his wife in his home and then hired day laborers to dispose of three garbage bags full of the odious evidence, which prosecutors say weighed about 50 pounds each.

The workers returned the bags and their $500 payment after they opened them and saw their grizzly contents — not believing his claims that they were full of rocks.

Haskell is charged with the murder of wife Mei Li after police found what is believed to be her torso in a Los Angeles dumpster.Samuel Haskell Jr/Instagram

“I started seeing body parts, a belly button,” one of the workers told NBC4 in Spanish.

Police are still searching for the remains of Wang and Li, even as Haskell is charged with their slayings.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman had said there was evidence he had slaughtered them in their home, adding “I don’t need a body to charge a murder.”

Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell III – a veteran talent agent and film producer who has repped the likes of George Clooney, Ray Romano, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Whoopi Goldberg – and actress Mary Donnelly Haskell, known for roles in “7th Heaven” and “Days of Our Lives.”

Haskell IV, the murder suspect, is a director of low budget slasher films that typically objectify Asian women.

Police found human remains believed to belong to Li in a San Fernando Valley dumpster.ABC NEWS 7

His anonymous childhood friend described him to Fox Digital as “attractive, intelligent and extremely socially awkward,” and detailed how he once pulled a huge knife on her and her brother after he was asked to stop calling her so much and showing up at her house uninvited when they were teenagers.

“My brother came out to be a brother, and my brother was way older,” she reportedly said. “[Sam] went into the trunk of his car and pulled out a machete, not just a pocket knife, a knife.

“My parents worked it out with his parents, and he wasn’t allowed to call me anymore after that. He got a little weird. Looking back now, he obviously liked knives or sharp things.”

Haskell brandishes a large knife in a dramatic clip posted to Facebook.Samuel Haskell Jr/Facebook

No charges were pressed in connection with the threat and Haskell left her alone until they reconciled as adults after buying houses on the same street.

“If you just look at any of his TikTok videos, or if you heard him at all open his mouth and just say, ‘Hi,’ you can tell he’s weird,” she said. “But that’s fine because, well, it didn’t end up being fine, but at the time, prior to this, being weird didn’t mean that you couldn’t be nice and kind.”

Haskell is being held on $2 million bail. His three children are in the custody of his parents, who are married.

“People are, I’ve seen on social media, saying hopefully his parents don’t get the kids. That is unfortunate because his parents are incredible,” the childhood friend reportedly said.

“Obviously, if someone is sick like this, it’s not their fault — it’s not like they didn’t raise him right. They did. They were hard on him. They didn’t take what happened to me, when he pulled out the knife, lightly, at all.”

With Post wires