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The Rookie Season 8 Episode 15 - full
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00:197-Matter-15, we're code 6 at the 911 call location.
00:23Any further contact from the distressed individual?
00:25Negative. Do you want me to start additional units?
00:28No, give us a minute to scope it out first.
00:30You ready?
00:31Do I have a choice?
00:32That's a spirit.
00:42LAPD, we've received a distress call from this location. We are making entry.
00:49Oh, do you feel that?
00:56Feel what?
00:57Something evil's in here.
00:59Well, sure smells like it.
01:10I can't die. It's inside of me. It won't let me die. It won't let me die.
01:17Police, show yourself.
01:22I can't die. It's inside of me. It won't let me die.
01:26Don't touch that, all right? Just call this in. Call it in.
01:28I need an RA to my location for a stabbing victim.
01:31So I usually sit right next to the camera to keep the eyeline tight?
01:33Then I'll just sit on the other side.
01:35No, because then you'll split his look.
01:37Oh, hey, hi. Thanks again for sitting down with me.
01:41Us?
01:41What? Oh, right, us. Why are you filming?
01:45Oh, I just wanted to document the new partnership. Abigail was very excited.
01:48It's not a partnership.
01:49It's totally a partnership. The judge was very clear.
01:51The judge?
01:52My name is Abigail Tierney. I'm currently trapped inside a secret lab at Westview Psychiatric.
01:57All attempts at escape have proven fruitless.
02:00I may have inadvertently used some of Abigail's footage in my last documentary without gaining the proper permissions.
02:05Translation. He stole my intellectual property. I sued, and the judge gave him a choice.
02:10Pay me 200,000 damages or give me equal partnership in his next project.
02:14He never said equal, but you know what? Never mind. Let's focus on the story that we're here to tell.
02:20Seat.
02:22Perhaps the most shocking case of murder and mayhem we've ever seen. Would you say that's a fair assessment?
02:28Um.
02:29No, no. Stay back. Stay back. Stay back. You don't understand.
02:31Okay, relax here, okay? We're trying to help you. Who stabbed you?
02:35I stabbed myself. It's inside of me. I've tried everything else. I can't kill it. I can't die. See?
02:43No, don't pull it out. Don't pull it out.
02:45Oh, God.
02:48Oh, he died instantly. I mean, the wound was fatal. You can't stab yourself in the heart and survive.
02:55But the way the knife was lodged, he wasn't bleeding. Once he pulled it out...
03:01It was Blood Fountain City.
03:03Not exactly, but as shocking as that was, it was far from the most shocking thing you found.
03:07Oh, we should get him to say that to set up the opening credits?
03:10That's not... We don't put words in people's mouths. It's a documentary.
03:16Yeah, it was, uh... It was straight-up crazy.
03:21There's a body in there?
03:24We may have finally found it.
03:28Please don't kill us. We will join your cult.
03:31Oh, God.
03:32You arrived on scene as the sergeant's supervisor?
03:35Yes. I got there before the ambulance.
03:38Not that there was any aid they could have rendered.
03:40Is there a reason you didn't want us to interview you with Tim?
03:43What?
03:44No.
03:45We're just... I'm just shaking it out.
03:47Let's... Let's stay focused.
03:49Um, were you the first to recognize the victim?
03:51Uh, sort of.
03:52Um, I... I thought I knew his face, but it wasn't until we ran his prints that we got a
03:57name.
03:57Rich Rowley was retired LAPD.
04:00He had been with the department for 30 years and was a little bit of a legend.
04:03Mostly because he made a series of training videos from the mid-90s till his retirement in 2015.
04:10Which, by modern standards, are a little cringe.
04:14Hey, everybody. Rich Rowley here with another installment of...
04:20Now, today, we're going to be talking about proper cuffing technique.
04:25Excuse me, officer? I hurt my shoulder at the gym.
04:29Would you mind cuffing me in front?
04:32Pretty lady like you.
04:35What's the worst that could happen?
04:40You're welcome.
04:44Rich was a trip.
04:46The life of the party, at least early in his career.
04:49Then, as the years went on, he became a little, uh, crazy.
04:54Crazy how?
04:55He was deep into conspiracy theories.
04:58He, uh, had a real thing for cults and cabals.
05:01To be fair, Los Angeles does have a pretty dark history.
05:04But Rich took it to the next level.
05:06And his training videos got more and more intense because of it.
05:09We finally got around to updating the videos this last year.
05:12But that caused quite a controversy with some of the older officers.
05:15They said we were being insensitive.
05:18Why would updating training videos be insensitive?
05:20Even three years on, a lot of his friends were still mourning his death.
05:24And saw the videos as a way to keep his memory alive.
05:32Divers are searching for any signs of retired Los Angeles police officer Richard Rowley after a sailing trip gone wrong.
05:40Koska responded to a distress call this morning from Raleigh's wife, who says the 55-year-old fell overboard after
05:48the sailboat he was captaining was struck by a rogue wave.
05:52Any time someone disappears from a boating trip, it automatically sets off alarm bells.
05:56Why is that?
05:57It's just an ideal place to cover up crime, throw a body overboard, weigh it down.
06:01The likelihood of us recovering it before it becomes fish food is low.
06:05And the circumstances were suspicious.
06:08By all accounts, Rich was a skilled sailor.
06:10It was a calm day, and the only witness to his demise was Darla Phillips, his on-again, off-again
06:16girlfriend who he married five days prior.
06:18So you suspected foul play?
06:22Not necessarily, but we couldn't rule it out.
06:24Why wasn't Rich wearing a light vest?
06:26He never did.
06:27He was a strong swimmer.
06:29He must have hit his head when he fell.
06:32Why didn't you jump in after him?
06:33I'm scared of dark water.
06:35Dark water?
06:36Water you can't see the bottom of.
06:38Life? Just blackness?
06:40With condoms what lurking below?
06:43You stand to inherit Rich's entire police pension.
06:45That's quite a bit of money.
06:47How dare you?
06:48I just watched the love of my life die in front of me.
06:53We don't know that for sure yet.
06:55They haven't found his body.
06:57Unless you know more that you're not telling us.
07:02Go to hell!
07:03This interview is over.
07:04Did it ever occur to you that Rich might still be alive?
07:07As we said, we couldn't rule anything out.
07:09But there was no evidence that he'd faked his death.
07:12Until he turned up dead again.
07:14Needless to say, we had a few more questions for Darla.
07:17Helping someone fake their death isn't a crime.
07:19I checked.
07:20You're right, but profiting off of that death,
07:22collecting Rich's pension and his life insurance,
07:25that's fraud.
07:26Not to mention the resources that were wasted
07:28trying to recover his body.
07:30He could be facing some serious charges.
07:32So, tell us, why did Rich want to fake his death?
07:38After Rich retired, he kind of fell apart.
07:42His drinking got worse, and his paranoia,
07:46he was always a little intense.
07:48But it started to get scary.
07:51He covered all his windows with newspapers.
07:54He started writing down the license plates of passing cars.
07:58What was he so afraid of?
07:59He said there was this group.
08:02Like a secret society of dangerous and powerful people.
08:07He'd been onto them for years.
08:09But he said that they found out about him.
08:11That he was in danger because of it.
08:13It was too much for me.
08:15So I broke up with him.
08:17And then a year later, he showed up on my doorstep
08:20and asked me to help him fake his death
08:24in return for his pension.
08:26I needed the money.
08:27So we got married, and we did the deed.
08:30And I never saw him again.
08:32So you have no idea why there was a coffin in his garage?
08:36We'll probably hold this piece of the puzzle
08:38until the end of the first act.
08:40You know, hit the audience with a twist
08:41when it's dramatically expedient.
08:43You know, seems manipulative.
08:44All good storytelling is, so...
08:45Uh, just tell us about finding the coffin.
08:48Uh, so once I arrived and we secured the crime scene,
08:52we cleared the rest of the house,
08:53and then we moved on to the garage.
08:59Oh.
09:00Oh.
09:01You don't think there's...
09:02That there's a body in there?
09:03I absolutely do.
09:05Okay, are we going to open it?
09:07Because I don't want to open it.
09:09What do you think?
09:10I mean, it's clearly been dug up.
09:13Given the state of the coffin,
09:14it's clearly been underground for a few years.
09:16If there is a body in there,
09:18it's likely long dead.
09:20Unless...
09:20Unless what?
09:22Unless he put a fresh victim in an old coffin.
09:28Oh, okay.
09:29Got it.
09:30Oh.
09:32Oh, God.
09:37The body belonged to a 54-year-old truck driver named Marcus Ford,
09:42who was the victim of an unsolved homicide back in 2020.
09:45How was he killed?
09:46Uh, he was stabbed in the heart.
09:49Just like Rich.
09:51Wait.
09:52Rich murdered Marcus Ford.
09:53Did I just solve the case?
09:54No, we were able to alibi Rich out.
09:59He was hospitalized with double pneumonia the day Marcus died.
10:02Medical records say he was so weak that he could barely get out of bed.
10:05Or that's what he wanted you to think.
10:07Moving on.
10:08Digging up a body is no easy task.
10:10Why would Rich go to all that trouble?
10:11Initially, we thought it was simply the demented act of a clearly disturbed mind.
10:17And in some ways, it was.
10:19But then we found the tattoo.
10:21At first, it was a little bit difficult to make out exactly what it was.
10:25A half a decade of decomp does a number on the skin.
10:28But when we look back at the case file,
10:31there was a photo of it taken during the original autopsy.
10:33That's actually kind of sick.
10:35I wonder if there's a way to track down the artist.
10:37I've been meaning to start the sleeve on my other arm.
10:39Like, uh.
10:40To my collaborator's point, lots of people have tattoos.
10:44What was it about this one that jumped out at you?
10:46Well, something about it was familiar to both of us.
10:49But we couldn't place it.
10:51So we started asking around.
10:53And the answer couldn't come from a more unlikely place.
10:57I watched the Rich Rally training videos more than any person alive.
11:01So I recognized the symbol immediately.
11:05Sometimes citizens panic when they can't get in touch with their friends or loved ones.
11:10That is why we always advise the public to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.
11:15Well, most missing person reports stem from a lapse in communication.
11:19Every once in a while, you'll encounter a true, workable case.
11:24Officer, help!
11:25My sister is missing!
11:27When's the last time you saw her?
11:28Last night at the bar?
11:29Her boyfriend said she never made it home.
11:32You always want to take a report like this one?
11:35Seriously.
11:35So Rich did the same symbol in his training videos that was tattooed on the body of a murder victim.
11:41What did you think that meant?
11:43Uh, I don't know.
11:45I can't believe I'm saying this, but Smitty was right.
11:47In Lesson 187, the tattoo symbol was hidden in the background.
11:51Although, the instructions to wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person are wildly outdated.
11:56Uh, anyways, it got me thinking.
11:59What if Rich put messages in other videos?
12:02What kind of messages?
12:03I'm not totally sure yet.
12:05I binged every single Rich training video I could get my hands on.
12:08Yeah, it's been a fun few nights.
12:09And I did find a few other possible leads, but there's a problem.
12:12The department's archive is incomplete, and without all of the videos, I can't be sure that I'm not missing a
12:17vital piece of information.
12:18So, what happened to the missing videos?
12:20So, when the training topics in the videos become outdated because of new laws or protocols, the department has to
12:27make new ones.
12:27And the obsolete videos are supposed to be digitized and archived for historical record.
12:33But Rich is, we're just gone.
12:36Gone is then destroyed?
12:37Like a cover-up?
12:38No one's saying that.
12:40Most likely it was a human error.
12:42You know, someone got lazy, didn't archive them.
12:45I tried reaching out to the production company that made the videos to see if they had any copies left.
12:49Bad news is, they went out of business a few years back and auctioned off all their equipment.
12:55What's the good news?
12:56Well, I managed to track down the auction logs, and I actually know the person who purchased the studio's old
13:03hard drives.
13:04Careful, I'm very ticklish.
13:06Like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
13:08Same.
13:08I hear it's a sign of intelligence.
13:11Is that a fact?
13:12Then I am smart as the dickens.
13:14So, you purchased hard drives from Speak Now Studios?
13:17Yeah, Dropout was still in its infancy.
13:20I was building the company from the ground up.
13:22We had to be smart about how we were spending our money.
13:25We bought a huge amount of equipment secondhand.
13:27Hard drives, cameras, wigs.
13:29Wait, you bought secondhand wigs?
13:32Give them a little shake before we put them on.
13:34That's awesome.
13:35Do you still have that wig connect?
13:36Because I'd love a referral.
13:37My guy is...
13:39Back on track.
13:40Uh, the hard drives you bought contain police training videos.
13:43Did you happen to watch any of them?
13:44Of course.
13:46Rich Rowley, right?
13:47We were obsessed with those videos.
13:49We probably watched them like a dozen times.
13:51I'm Rich Rowley, and this is Survive the Streets.
13:55That's great.
13:56Vic can do the best impression.
13:57Do you think you'd be able to make copies for us?
14:00I totally would, but I can't, because we wiped all of those hard drives to use as servers
14:05months ago.
14:06Sorry, I couldn't be more help.
14:08You'll still feature this interview, right?
14:12Yeah, probably not.
14:13Wait, you said you and the Dropout crew watched the video, like, dozens of times, right?
14:18Yes, sometimes on an edible.
14:19Mostly sober.
14:20I have an idea.
14:21Okay, so then you'd be like, don't forget to check the closet, you'll die.
14:24So, I don't know.
14:25I think it's a little bit more like, like, if you forget to check the closet, Freddie,
14:28Jason, and Chucky will rip off your screen.
14:31Okay, I think there's less foot stuff.
14:33I feel like he's like, and then your crazy met the ex-girlfriend who's been hiding in
14:37the hallway closet will chainsaw your face when you get home because you forgot to clear
14:42the room.
14:43Clear the room.
14:44Check the room.
14:45I think he was so close to pulling out a gun.
14:47What are you guys doing?
14:48That's a great question.
14:49They're, uh, they're reenacting the police training videos since you guys wiped them off
14:51your hard drive.
14:52Oh, the Rich Rowley ones.
14:53Those are so funny.
14:55I actually stole one of the hard drives so I could watch it when I'm in the tub.
14:58You're talking about your time, man?
14:58A little self-care, you know, trying to relax a little more.
15:01It's not working.
15:02Can we have it?
15:03If you want to borrow it, I could, you know, please.
15:05No, I think this is actually working great.
15:08Okay.
15:08You can keep this up.
15:09The riffing.
15:10Clearing the room.
15:10Help us.
15:11Okay, I finally finished watching all of the Rich training videos and there is a lot.
15:16Um, take lesson 277.
15:22My azaleas.
15:23A cold case where victim Azalea Robinson was found stabbed near a ski resort.
15:29You're kidding.
15:30No.
15:31And in lesson 290, Rich is holding a folder with a post-it note on the back with a brown
15:35star drawn on it.
15:36I'm lost.
15:37Right.
15:38So I looked up the cold cases to see if there were any victims with names like Star or Stella
15:43and there was one hit, Stella Brown, also found stabbed in the chest.
15:48In all, Lucy found clues pointing to seven different cold cases.
15:53But why was Rich hiding the names of murder victims in police training videos?
15:56Based on what we could piece together, he believed he had stumbled upon a conspiracy,
16:00a series of connected murders committed by person or persons unknown.
16:04If that were the case, why not just report his suspicion?
16:07He was a cop for 30 years.
16:08Well, Rich had a bit of a reputation within the department for, shall we say, magical thinking.
16:15So unfortunately, his theory was dismissed out of hand.
16:19But why did he think the murders were connected?
16:21Well, for starters, they were all stabbed in the chest.
16:24But more importantly, each victim was found with a penny either in or on their person.
16:28What do you mean in?
16:29One had a penny in her stomach.
16:31Another had one shoved up his nose.
16:33Stella Brown lucked out.
16:35Hers was just clasped in her hand.
16:37And when we re-examined Marcus Ford's corpse, the Emmy found one inserted into the heel of his left foot.
16:43Why?
16:44Did we mention that they were all minted in 1930?
16:47Okay.
16:47Well, I just got goosebumps.
16:48Rich's autopsy also revealed that he had swallowed close to 50 pennies before he died.
16:53Gross.
16:54So at this point, was your theory...
16:56I actually have no idea what the theory would have been.
16:58Yeah, well, I would tell you, but we were way off the mark.
17:01Which we were about to discover when we got access to his cloud account.
17:06Okay.
17:08I may have finally found it.
17:11I am so close to getting some real answers.
17:16See that?
17:28Oh, my God.
17:42For a guy pretending to be dead, breaking into a secure military facility doesn't seem like the best idea.
17:48No, he wasn't just breaking into any military facility.
17:52It was Area 67.
17:54What does that mean?
17:55That's where the government keeps the aliens.
18:03So, Rich broke into a secret government base on the hunt for a massive conspiracy, then stabbed himself in the
18:08chest?
18:08I mean, at that point, it's obvious what happened.
18:10Is it?
18:11Come on.
18:12Remember what Rich said right before he died?
18:14I can't die.
18:16It's inside of me.
18:17It won't let me die.
18:18Yeah, I'm not following.
18:20Rich was exposed to an alien parasite.
18:23It was inside him.
18:25Were you familiar with Area 67?
18:28I'd heard of it.
18:29Yeah.
18:30There's this AM radio station I used to listen to back in Foxburg.
18:33Kept me awake when I was working late.
18:35The host was obsessed with UFOs.
18:38Val's Velvet Bunker?
18:39That's the one.
18:40He was a little bit out there, but always entertaining.
18:44Area 51 is theater.
18:47Do you believe, do you really believe,
18:50the most secretive military installation of the world
18:53would let itself become a tourist attraction?
18:56No, no, no, no.
18:58Area 51 is the distraction.
19:00Area 67 is the real deal.
19:03You know why California has all those earthquakes?
19:05It's not San Andreas Fault, my friends.
19:08It's the sonic resonance from Area 67's underground testing chambers.
19:14Did you believe in his theories?
19:15No, no.
19:17Like I said, just entertainment.
19:19Let's hear from a caller.
19:20Hi, name's John, long-time listener, fourth-time caller.
19:23Hey, John from Foxburg, welcome back.
19:25What have you got for us tonight?
19:26I swear to God, I just saw a UFO.
19:32John is such a common name.
19:34I'm open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
19:37You are?
19:38Yeah, it's a big universe.
19:40Anything could be out there.
19:41I don't know.
19:42People who claim to have seen aliens tend to be a little off.
19:45You were friends with a corpse, right?
19:46Well, yeah, we were more than friends, but fair enough, okay.
19:50Legally, is it necrophilia if she only did over-the-clothes stuff?
19:53That's a great question.
19:54Oh, I definitely believe.
19:56In fact, I've been abducted by aliens.
20:00Really?
20:01Multiple times.
20:02Apparently, I'm a fascinating subject.
20:06I remember the last time Smitty was abducted.
20:09Turns out he partied too hard in Vegas and woke up in Wisconsin.
20:12Missing time.
20:14One of the hallmarks of alien abductions.
20:17Had been stricken.
20:18Point is, the government had little gray men in their secret labs for decades.
20:24What are they doing with them?
20:26They're implanting the aliens in unsuspecting hosts and taking over their bodies.
20:30You just never know who might be one of them.
20:35Some people in the station believed Rich dabbed himself to kill an alien parasite.
20:40But I wouldn't say that was a dominant theory.
20:44It wasn't long before we figured out Rich believed something darker.
20:47And it was connected to the seven murders.
20:50Then why did Rich break into the army base?
20:52Yes, I remember the incident.
20:55Rich Rowley cut through a fence.
20:56He trespassed on government property.
20:58He was promptly apprehended and sent on his way.
21:01Do you have any idea what Rich was looking for?
21:03As it turns out, he was looking for me.
21:06But not because of any alleged aliens.
21:09So why did he come?
21:13This part is a little bit embarrassing.
21:18Before I found my calling in the military, I thought that I wanted to be an actor.
21:23And I was in a few DTV movies.
21:26What's DTV?
21:27You're so young.
21:28Direct-to-video.
21:29They made all these super cheap movies back in the 80s and 90s.
21:33You make them as cheaply as possible and then hope that someone was drawn in enough by the cover art
21:38to rent them.
21:40A guy can't have a side gig?
21:41Totally.
21:42How did you get into acting?
21:43Some director scouted me when I pulled him over.
21:46He said I had a bitchin' bod.
21:49Well, he wasn't wrong.
21:50But I gave it up.
21:52Because the people of this city needed a savior.
21:56Yeah.
21:56You are the model of public service.
21:58Right?
21:59Anyway, Rich became interested in this terrible B-movie that I was in.
22:05I played a monk.
22:06It was called 300 Days of Hell.
22:12Terrible B-movie?
22:13That's what he called it?
22:15300 Days of Hell is the scariest film of the 1990s.
22:18Really?
22:18The Ring, Scream, Blair Witch Project?
22:20Which one of us executive produced a horror movie?
22:23Trust me.
22:23T-H-D-O-H is true nightmare fuel.
22:27It's not that scary.
22:28She may be watching the beginning of our relationship.
22:31When he was still trying to impress me.
22:34You want to watch it again tonight?
22:36I would.
22:38Totally.
22:39I do have plans, though.
22:42Yeah, I'm not watching that crap.
22:44Even if it is for a case.
22:45I see enough horror on the job.
22:48That being said, 300 Days of Hell was our first real window into the rabbit hole that Rich had gone
22:54down.
22:54A rabbit hole filled with demons.
22:56Or rather, a demon.
22:58So Rich believed a demon had killed all those people?
23:00No, the killers were definitely human.
23:02Killers?
23:03Plural?
23:03Yeah, there was different trace DNA on all the bodies.
23:06All from different subjects, and none of them were in the system.
23:10Meaning?
23:10The murders were committed by a group of people with shared beliefs.
23:14A murder cult.
23:15The cult believed a demon named Malifus had been possessing people all across the city, jumping from host to host.
23:21And it was up to them to stop it.
23:29The legend of Malifus is centuries old.
23:32The first mention we see of him is 1433's Lesser Grimoire of Solomon by Slovenian Inquisitor Terentius Bruma.
23:41A reference text of demons and their attributes.
23:45Gnarly.
23:46Right?
23:47He's also known as the Deceiver, the Infester, and Demon of 300 Days.
23:53Why?
23:53Once summoned to Earth, Malifus won't rest until he finds a human host.
23:57After possession begins, he incubates.
24:00300 days.
24:02What happens after 300 days?
24:04He reaches full strength and his power becomes uncontainable.
24:09Uh-oh.
24:11Um, if Malifus was summoned to Earth, how would one stop him?
24:15Bruma suggests killing the host might slow Malifus down, forcing him to regenerate before he can find a new host.
24:22A process that also can be slowed by the use of copper.
24:28It was the pennies.
24:30The pennies.
24:30It all came back to the pennies.
24:32Before 1984, U.S. pennies were 95% copper.
24:36So the copper in the pennies was meant to bind the demon, but what about the 1930 part?
24:40Are you familiar with numerology?
24:43Well, some ancient peoples, and Taylor Swift, believed there was a mystical connection between letters and numbers.
24:52Using the Chaldean method, the name Malifus becomes a digit 1930.
24:57So you're saying...
24:58We had a theory.
24:59Whoever killed those people believed the victims were possessed by Malifus.
25:04They had to reach Malifus's host before he reached his true form.
25:09A 1930 penny was the perfect tool.
25:11Yeah.
25:12Rich's talk of, it's inside me, it won't let me die.
25:15He thought he was infested by this demon, too, and that's why he killed himself.
25:19Wait.
25:20I thought Rich didn't believe in Malifus.
25:22Isn't that why he was trying to stop the cult?
25:24Well, yes, but, I mean, years of obsession and paranoia can do a number on a person's psyche.
25:28I mean, it seems as though, in the end, Rich could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality.
25:33And you got this theory from Rich's files?
25:35Well, I mean, we actually got it from Malifus.
25:37And they say watching old horror movies isn't a good use of time.
25:42I never said that.
25:51Are we safe, brother?
25:53Is Malifus banished?
25:55His sigil is drawn.
25:57The rite is spoken.
25:59We have sealed his last human vessel with copper.
26:09Heaven forgive us.
26:11Indeed.
26:13For hell will not.
26:17Midnight.
26:18The 300th day.
26:21Our task was done none too soon.
26:50Yeah, that was me.
26:55Do you guys want a glass?
26:56Oh, you got anything stronger?
26:59Fine, I'll just take a glass.
27:02Okay, I'll just, I'll have nothing, actually.
27:04No fun for me.
27:05Yeah, that was my first big movie role.
27:09Well, my only one, really.
27:13Rich was so excited when I told him I booked it, he helped me run lines.
27:17Did Rich buy into the Malifus mythology?
27:20Did Rich buy into the Malifus mythology?
27:20No.
27:21Weirdly, given all the conspiracies that Rich believed in, he was a total atheist.
27:26But I wouldn't have blamed him after everything that happened on that shoot.
27:29Like what?
27:33Before production wrapped, the DP was paralyzed driving to set.
27:37A stunt person had his leg amputated.
27:39There were divorces, bankruptcies, careers ended.
27:43One of the actors even died in his hotel room.
27:46People say the production was cursed.
27:49What about you?
27:50What do you believe?
27:51I believe the real curse was the director.
27:55He was a reckless maniac that didn't know how to run a set.
27:59Cuts!
27:59Cuts!
28:01Arthur!
28:02Arthur!
28:03Your strangulation, it has to be real.
28:07I want to feel a life draining from him.
28:09And you, you, you cannot move from your position, not even an inch.
28:14Guys, this ritual is extremely specific.
28:19Okay, let's go again.
28:21Okay, I thought I was choking you pretty well.
28:23I'm sorry.
28:24Okay, I'm going to choke you a little hard.
28:25Ready?
28:26Douglas was real touchy about the religious stuff.
28:29I guess he had grown up in some sort of commune.
28:31And this was all based on stories he was told growing up.
28:34Okay, but what I heard is that they accidentally summoned Malifus for real.
28:38The director found some ancient tome and inserted the incantation and rituals verbatim.
28:44Ooh, I love that.
28:45And that's what got me thinking about the penny killings.
28:48We found the first victim just a little under 300 days after the summoning ritual was filmed.
28:53We knew Rich was aware of the Malifus legends.
28:55It was only natural to link them.
28:57So Rich thought that penny victims were killed by people trying to stop Malifus.
29:01Was he able to identify any of these killers?
29:03We know he tried.
29:06Hi.
29:07Hi.
29:07Hey, how are you?
29:08Jared.
29:08Hello.
29:10Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
29:13Pleasure to meet you, too.
29:14Why don't you tell us about yourselves?
29:15Yeah, we co-starred on a TV show together for 15 seasons called Supernatural.
29:24Yeah, we played Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers that, you know, tracked and fought supernatural beings.
29:32Like K-pop demon hunters?
29:34No, no, not like that.
29:35Well, I mean, you look kind of like that.
29:38Okay, can you tell us about your encounter with Rich Rowley?
29:42Yeah, yeah, yeah, Rich Rowley.
29:44He came to a fan event we did last year at MonsterCon.
29:49Yeah, you know, most people show up and they just want the autograph for a photo.
29:54But Rich was sort of a different beast altogether.
29:58Yeah, yeah, he was super fixated on this one particular episode where we fought a demon.
30:04Malifus.
30:05Yeah, that one.
30:07And anyway, he seemed to think we, like, knew more about it than we were saying.
30:13More about what?
30:14Demon hunting.
30:15He kept, like, asking these super pointed questions like he was, I don't know, testing us or something.
30:22Did you have an answer?
30:24No.
30:25No, I mean, we didn't come up with these stories, you know.
30:28We just did what the writers wrote.
30:29It's called acting.
30:31There's no actual demon hunters in real life.
30:33Exactly.
30:34Uh, that's not exactly true.
30:36There is at least one.
30:38And it actually connected to the movie.
30:42We heard the director brought a priest named Father Simon McCabe to bless the set every day before filming.
30:47Well, it was either that or the whole crew was going to walk.
30:50Does that name mean anything to you?
30:54About 15 years ago, Lopez and I had just finished our rookie years.
30:58We responded to a call at a house of a priest doing an exorcism with a 16-year-old girl.
31:02It had been going on for three days.
31:07Police!
31:08Police!
31:09Police!
31:10Help her!
31:11Please!
31:13Police!
31:15Police!
31:17Police!
31:18Police!
31:19Get away from her!
31:22Father, forgive me!
31:30did you feel like you'd seen the devil the only thing in that room that belonged in hell was
31:34father simon he kept saying he had to the whole way to the station i'm sorry i had to i'm
31:40sorry
31:40i had to because he believed she was possessed she had a brain tumor that's what they found
31:46after the autopsy she needed a doctor not an exorcism and he wasn't a man of god he was a
31:51killer the courts agreed so father simon was convicted of first degree murder when we processed
31:57him we found a penny in his pocket nothing else just a penny didn't mean anything at the time but
32:02after rich connected those seven murders it seemed likely he was involved involved like he killed them
32:07no simon was already in prison when five of the murders took place and his dna didn't match any
32:13that was found on the corpses but he could have been part of whatever group rich was so afraid of
32:18which means he knew more than he had told us so we had to go back officers i remember you
32:25you you
32:26were the ones who tried to stop the ritual i just wish we would have gotten here sooner becca scott
32:30might still be alive oh she was long gone before you arrived demon saw to bat malifas
32:37do not say its name in my presence boy you afraid we might accidentally summon it you may scorn me
32:45and my beliefs but i have fought this evil i know enough to fear its power what's more evil than
32:50murdering a child i took no pleasure in the act i'm grateful i had the courage to do what was
32:56necessary courage tell us about the penny that was in your pocket in the movie 300 days of hell
33:02malifas is sealed inside his host with copper before he can be killed banished not killed what's
33:09the difference the demon is a parasite it needs a host once you kill the body that inhabits it
33:16find a new one becca scott was just a single battle in a larger war if you're in here who's
33:24doing the
33:24fighting now the knights of avila los angeles has a long history of spiritualism esoteric religions
33:33that go back over a hundred years so think alistair crowley jack parsons l ron hubbard he freaking
33:39loves this stuff i do anyway a lot of these groups started out as fraternal orders similar to the
33:45freemasons where people would gather and and share well yeah yes and and some women and they would
33:52share new ideas explore philosophies they also like partying doing drugs and performing weird sex
33:59rituals sign me up for the intellectual exchanging of ideas obviously so the nice of avila is one of
34:08these groups it was like a lot of the similar organizations at the time it fell apart when the
34:12founder died it hasn't been active in 60 years then what was father simon talking about based on tim
34:19and lopez's conversation with father simon we began to believe that the group or at least the name
34:25had been revived sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s and rebranded as some kind of demon
34:32hunting cult so rich was actually right there was a murderous cabal after him it seemed that way
34:39and we were getting close to discovering who their ringleader was
34:43i found him found who doug roberts i want to fill a life training from him oh you mean the
34:51director
34:51of the sad little demon porn where i was going through some old industry trades from around the
34:55time thdoh was slated to come out one of the articles mentioned that roberts was a client of
35:01stewart winecliffe at the golden talent agency the guy hasn't made a movie in 26 years i doubt they
35:05still read him not actively no but i called their offices and i bribed her like i talked one of
35:11the
35:11assistants into giving me the address where his residual checks are sent it's downtown let's go
35:15uh hold on you just want to go doorstep the guy if that means go knock on a door while
35:20also filming
35:20then yes yeah i'm not in the business of gotcha journalism what about the business of making that
35:26paper the guap money guy come on the doc business is oversaturated these days we need footage that p.o
35:34.p's
35:34and what pops more than blindsiding a potential colt later come on what's the worst that could
35:40happen this is it okay um uh here here's your camera um i don't operate oh well
35:53now you do
35:56let's go what floor is it on eight but uh there's an elevator don't worry
36:09are you sure it's that way yep nope you know at the risk of being called a scaredy cat you
36:18do
36:18understand that this is inherently neither a wise nor safe activity you're asking a woman if she
36:24understands that it's inherently dangerous to go anywhere or do anything when you put it that way
36:30i sound like an ass maybe we should come back hey hello douglas roberts we're here to question you
36:40about murders and demons that should get his attention oh i am just an intern so clearly we're not
36:52deceased which means we saved you from certain deaths i'm not sure how certain it was oh it felt
36:59pretty certain to me please don't kill us we will join your cult is there a membership fee or a
37:03secret
37:03handshake i love a secret handshake ignore her she's not right in the head in fact she has short-term
37:08memory issues so if you let her go now she won't remember any of this just shut up no one's
37:11going
37:11anywhere i mean technically we're all going somewhere all right let him go get your hands up up against
37:22jeep now let's go oh my god yeah thanks for trying to save me even though i'm the one who
37:34put us in
37:34danger no problem i was about to do the same thing but you just uh beat me to it i
37:41can be no
37:42no doubt yeah i get very claustrophobic can i just point out how claustrophobic i get please
37:47so when did you and douglas meet in the movie he was you know so commanding and driven and everything
37:55i wasn't when did he start talking about killing the demon it was uh at least a year after that
38:01he
38:02would call me late at night and talk about the demon and how scared he was for the world and
38:07eventually
38:08it started to make sense and he told you that someone was possessed correct her name was cynthia
38:16um she cried when i tied her up and she kept saying that she was not a demon she begged
38:22me to believe
38:23her and at that point he was very deep in my head and then tonight you know all the lies
38:34he was spewing
38:34at the end it was like somebody turned on the light switch i could just
38:39see him for who he was so pathetic
38:45we'll need you to write up a detailed confession
38:52i would like to make a deal
38:56we have already located your co-conspirators you don't really have anything to offer
39:02you don't want to know what an alien spaceship looks like
39:06i am all that stands between the world and damnation so all of the people that you had
39:13targeted they had to die for the greater good yes and my heart breaks for each of them
39:21but i will not let innocence fall to perdition okay have you had your fill of bs god yes okay
39:28me too
39:28so uh first victim cynthia green you dated for two years before she cheated on you marcus ford
39:36he worked as a teamster on your movie then later sued you for non-payment pamela jones
39:42wrote a scathing review of your movie really i i had no idea all seven victims were people who
39:49wronged you in some way you don't even believe in the demon you just used it as a tool to
39:55get
39:55people with weak minds to do your dirty work for you exactly i was the director i think you'll find
40:03i never laid a finger on any of the victims and i think you will find that manson died in
40:10prison
40:13all right uh anything else no i think we got everything okay that was a crazy one huh tell me
40:22about it and look thanks so much for all of your time and for saving our lives anything from my
40:27favorite documentarian actually the only documentarian i know not true i'm a documentarian too of course
40:32yes oh speaking of how did this whole uh working together thing go is this the start of a beautiful
40:39friendship i don't know i mean we have very different styles and instincts and well basically
40:45everything but i'd be able to do it on a collaboration oh um it's just i uh i kind of
40:54signed an exclusive
40:55three film deal with hulu what yeah i um i sent them a sizzle reel of this project just the
41:00me parts
41:01and uh they freaked said i'm gonna be the new face of true crime their words wow i mean you'd
41:07probably be
41:07able to bring him along though right oh totally totally i gotta go but uh thanks again hello no i
41:19said
41:19toronto and then camp she'll probably call you
42:00positive
42:01positive
42:02you
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