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#video #film2026 #movie2026 #The Rookie Season 8 Episode 15 - full
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00:207 Matter 15, we're code 6 at the 911 call location.
00:23Any further contact from the distressed individual?
00:25Negative.
00:26Do 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.
00:44We are making entry.
00:49Oh, do you feel that?
00:56Feel what?
00:57Something evil's in here.
01:00It sure smells like it.
01:10I can't die.
01:12It's inside of me.
01:13It won't let me die.
01:15It won't let me die.
01:17Elise, show yourself.
01:22I can't die.
01:23It's inside of me.
01:24It won't let me die.
01:26Don't touch that, all right?
01:27Just call this in.
01:28Call it in.
01:28I need an RA to my location for a stabbing victim.
01:30So 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.
01:39Thanks again for sitting down with me.
01:41Us?
01:41What?
01:42Oh, right.
01:43Us.
01:43Uh, why are you filming?
01:45Oh, I just wanted to document the new partnership.
01:47Abigail was very excited.
01:48It's not a partnership.
01:50It's totally a partnership.
01:51The judge was very clear.
01:52The judge?
01:52My name is Abigail Tierney.
01:54I'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.
02:11Pay me 200,000 damages or give me equal partnership in his next project.
02:14He never said equal, but you know what?
02:16Never mind.
02:17Let's focus on the story that we're here to tell.
02:20Seat.
02:23Perhaps the most shocking case of murder and mayhem we've ever seen.
02:26Would you say that's a fair assessment?
02:28Um.
02:29No, no.
02:30Stay back.
02:30Stay back.
02:31Stay back.
02:31You don't understand.
02:32Okay, relax here, okay?
02:33We're trying to help you.
02:34Who stabbed you?
02:35I stabbed myself.
02:37It's inside of me.
02:38I've tried everything else.
02:40I can't kill it.
02:41I can't die.
02:42See?
02:43No, don't pull it out.
02:44Don't pull it out.
02:45Oh, God.
02:48Now he died instantly.
02:50I mean, the wound was fatal.
02:52You can't stab yourself in the heart and survive.
02:55But the way the knife was lodged, he wasn't bleeding.
03:00Once he pulled it out.
03:01It was Blood Fountain City.
03:03Not exactly, but...
03:04As shocking as that was, it was far from the most shocking thing you found.
03:08Oh, we should get him to say that to set up the opening credits.
03:11That's not...
03:11We don't put words in people's mouths.
03:13It's a documentary.
03:16Yeah, it was, uh...
03:18It was straight up crazy.
03:21You don't think that there's a body in there?
03:23Cool!
03:24And we have finally found it.
03:28Please don't kill us.
03:29We 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.
03:38Um, not 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!
03:45But we're just...
03:46I'm just shaking it up.
03:47Let's...
03:48Let's stay focused.
03:49Um, were you the first to recognize the victim?
03:51Uh, sort of.
03:53Um, I thought I knew his face, but it wasn't until we ran his prints that we got a name.
03:57Rich Rowley was retired LAPD.
04:00He had been with the department for 30 years and was a little bit of a legend.
04:04Mostly 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.
04:15Rich Rowley here with another installment of...
04:20Now, today, we're going to be talking about proper cuffing technique.
04:25Excuse me, officer?
04:27I 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.
04:55Crazy 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,
05:11but 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?
05:21Even 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.
05:27I'm sorry.
05:28I thought Rich died six months ago.
05:29Yeah.
05:30He did.
05:31I'm talking about the first time.
05:32Divers are searching for any signs of retired Los Angeles police officer Richard Rowley
05:38after a sailing trip gone wrong.
05:41Coast Guard responded to a distress call this morning from Rowley's wife,
05:45who says the 55-year-old fell overboard after the sailboat he was captaining
05:49was struck by a rogue wave.
05:52Anytime 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,
06:14his on-again, off-again girlfriend who he married five days prior.
06:18So you suspected foul play?
06:20Yes!
06:22Not necessarily, but we couldn't rule it out.
06:24Why wasn't Rich wearing a life 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.
06:39Just blackness.
06:40With God knows what lurking below.
06:43You stand to inherit Rich's entire police pension.
06:46That's quite a bit of money.
06:47How dare you?
06:49I 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, unless 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, but there was no evidence that he'd faked his death.
07:13Until 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, collecting Rich's pension and his life insurance, it's fraud.
07:26Not to mention the resources that were wasted trying to recover his body, he could be facing some serious charges.
07:33So, 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, he 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.
08:09He 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 and asked me to help him fake his death.
08:24In return for his pension.
08:26I needed the money, so we got married, and we did the deed.
08:31And I never saw him again.
08:32So you have no idea why there was a coffin in his garage?
08:37We'll probably hold this piece of the puzzle until the end of the first act.
08:40You know, hit the audience with a twist when it's dramatically expedient.
08:43Yeah, seems manipulative.
08:44All good storytelling is.
08:45Just tell us about finding the coffin.
08:49So, once I arrived and we secured the crime scene,
08:52we cleared the rest of the house and then we moved on to the garage.
09:00Oh, oh.
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?
09:09I mean, it's clearly been dug up.
09:13Given the state of the coffin, it's clearly been underground for a few years.
09:16If there is a body in there, it's likely long dead.
09:20Unless.
09:21Unless what?
09:22Unless he put a fresh victim in an old coffin.
09:28Oh, okay.
09:29Got it.
09:30Yeah.
09:31Oh.
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?
09:46He was stabbed in the heart.
09:49Just like Rich.
09:51Wait.
09:52Rich murdered Marcus Ford.
09:54Did I just solve the case?
09:55No.
09:56We 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.
10:34That'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.
10:40Like, 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.
11:02So I recognized the symbol immediately.
11:05Sometimes citizens panic when they can't get in touch with their friends or loved ones.
11:10That's why we always advise the public to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.
11:16Well, 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, her boyfriend said she never made it home.
11:32You always want to take a report like this one?
11:35Seriously.
11:36So Rich hid 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.
11:48In 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.
11:57Anyways, 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.
12:13The department's archive is incomplete, and without all of the videos,
12:15I can't be sure that I'm not missing a vital piece of information.
12:18So, what happened to the missing videos?
12:20So, when the training topics and the videos become outdated because of new laws or protocols,
12:26the department has to make new ones.
12:27And obviously, videos are supposed to be digitized and archived for historical record.
12:32But 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.
12:50Bad 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,
13:00and I actually know the person who purchased the studio's old hard 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.
13:15So, you purchased hard drives from Speak Now Studios?
13:18Yeah, 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, wait.
13:31You 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 my guy is.
13:39Back on track.
13:40The hard drives you bought contain police training videos.
13:44Did you happen to watch any of them?
13:44Of course.
13:45Rich 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,
14:02because we wiped all of those hard drives
14:04to use as servers months 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
14:15watched the video like dozens of times, right?
14:18Yes, sometimes on an edible, mostly sober.
14:20I have an idea.
14:22Okay, so then you'd be like,
14:23don'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,
14:26like, if you forget to check the closet,
14:28Freddie, Jason, and Chucky will rip off your scrum.
14:31Okay, I think there's less foot stuff.
14:33I feel like he's like,
14:34and then your crazy met the ex-girlfriend
14:36who's been hiding in the hallway closet
14:38will chainsaw your face when you get home
14:40because you forgot to clear the room.
14:43Clear the room!
14:44Check the room!
14:45I think he was so close to pulling that.
14:46I'm rich.
14:47What are you guys doing?
14:48That's a great question.
14:48They're reenacting the police training videos
14:50since you guys wiped them off your hard drive.
14:52Oh, the Rich Rowley ones!
14:53Those are so funny.
14:55I actually stole one of the hard drives
14:56so I can watch it when I'm in the tub.
14:58You're talking about your tube, man?
14:59A little self-care, you know.
15:00Trying to relax a little more.
15:02It's not working.
15:03Can we have it?
15:03If you want to borrow it, I could, you know.
15:05No, I think this is actually working great.
15:08Okay.
15:08You can keep this up.
15:09The riffing.
15:10Clearing the room!
15:11Help us.
15:11Okay, I finally finished watching all of the Rich training videos
15:14and there is a lot.
15:16Take 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, and in Lesson 290,
15:32Rich is holding a folder with a post-it note on the back
15:35with a brown star drawn on it.
15:37I'm lost.
15:37Right, so I looked up the cold cases
15:39to see if there were any victims with names like Star or Stella
15:43and there was one hit, Stella Brown,
15:46also 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,
15:58he 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
16:12for, 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.
16:23But more importantly, each victim was found with a penny
16:27either 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.
16:34Stella Brown lucked out.
16:35Hers was just clasped in her hand.
16:37And when we re-examined Marcus Ford's corpse,
16:39the Emmy found one inserted into the heel of his left foot.
16:43Why?
16:44Did we mention that they were all minted in 1930?
16:46Okay.
16:47Well, I just got goosebumps.
16:49Rich's autopsy also revealed that he had swallowed
16:51close 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
17:03when we got access to his cloud account.
17:06Okay.
17:08We may have finally found it.
17:11I am so close to getting some real answers.
17:16See that?
17:29Oh, my God.
17:33Oh, my God.
17:38No, no, no.
17:42For a guy pretending to be dead
17:44breaking into a secure military facility
17:46doesn'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
18:05on the hunt for a massive conspiracy
18:07then stabbed himself in the chest?
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.
18:36The host was obsessed with UFOs.
18:38Fowl's Velvet Bunker?
18:39That's the one.
18:40He was a little bit out there, but always entertaining.
18:45Area 51 is theater.
18:47Do you believe, do you really believe the 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?
19:06It's not San Andreas Fault, my friends.
19:08It's the sonic resonance from Area 67's underground testing chambers.
19:13Did you believe in his theories?
19:16No, no.
19:17Like I said, just entertainment.
19:19Let's hear from a caller.
19:20Hi, name's John.
19:21Long-time listener, fourth-time caller.
19:23Hey, John from Foxburg.
19:25Welcome 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 extra-trustial life.
19:37You are?
19:38Yeah.
19:39It's a big universe.
19:40Anything could be out there.
19:41I don't know.
19:41People who claim to have seen aliens tend to be a little off.
19:45You were friends with the corpse, right?
19:47Well, yeah, we were more than friends, but fair enough.
19:49Okay.
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.
20:04Apparently, I'm a fascinating subject.
20:05I don't 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 strengthened.
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.
20:31You 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?
20:53Yes, 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.
21:10So why did he come?
21:13This part is a little bit embarrassing.
21:16Um, before I found my calling in the military, I thought that I wanted to be an actor.
21:23And, uh, I was in a few DTV movies.
21:26What's DTV?
21:27You're so young.
21:28Uh, direct-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?
21:42Totally.
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.
21:51But I gave it up.
21:52Because the people of this city needed a savior.
21:56Yeah, you 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.
22:13Terrible B-movie?
22:14That'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?
22:37I would.
22:38Totally.
22:39I do have plans, though.
22:43Yeah, 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, plural?
23:03Yeah, there was different trace DNA on all the bodies, all from different subjects, and none of them were in
23:09the system.
23:10Meaning?
23:11The 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, Terencius Bruma.
23:41A reference text of demons and their attributes.
23:46Gnarly.
23:47Right?
23:47He's also known as the deceiver, the infester, and demon of 300 days.
23:52Why?
23:53Once summoned to Earth, Malifus won't rest until he finds a human host.
23:57After possession begins, he incubates.
24:01300 days.
24:02What happens after 300 days?
24:04He reaches full strength and his power becomes uncontainable.
24:09Uh-oh.
24:12Um, if Malifus was summoned to Earth, how would one stop him?
24:16Bruma suggests killing the host might slow Malifus down, forcing him to regenerate before he can find a new host.
24:23A 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 and the pennies was meant to bind the demon, but what about the 1930 part?
24:41Are you familiar with numerology?
24:44Well, some ancient peoples, and Taylor Swift, believed there was a mystical connection between letters and numbers.
24:53Using 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' host before he reached his true form.
25:09A 1930 penny was the perfect tool.
25:11Yeah, Rich's talk of it's inside me, it won't let me die, he thought he was infested by this demon
25:17too, and that's why he killed himself.
25:20Wait, I thought Rich didn't believe in Malifus. Isn't that why he was trying to stop the cult?
25:24Yes, but years of obsession and paranoia can do a number on a person's psyche.
25:29I 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 Opus.
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 right 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.
26:51Yeah, that was me.
26:55Do you guys want a glass?
26:56You got anything stronger?
26:59Fine, I'll just take a glass.
27:02Okay, I'll have nothing, actually.
27:04No fun for me.
27:06Yeah, 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.
27:16He helped me run lines.
27:18Did 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.
27:30Like what?
27:33Before production wrapped, the DP was paralyzed driving to set.
27:37A stunt person had his leg amputated.
27:40There were divorces, bankruptcies, careers ended.
27:43One of the actors even died in his hotel room.
27:47People 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! Cuts!
28:01Arthur! Arthur!
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.
28:13Not even an inch.
28:14Guys, this ritual is extremely specific.
28:19Okay?
28:20Let's go again.
28:21Okay.
28:22I thought I was choking you pretty well.
28:23I'm sorry.
28:24Okay?
28:24I'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?
29:04We know he tried.
29:06Hi.
29:07Hey, how are you?
29:07Jared.
29:08Hello.
29:10Wow.
29:11It's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
29:13Pleasure to meet you, too.
29:14Why don't you tell us about yourselves?
29:15Yeah.
29:16We 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.
29:34No.
29:35Not like that.
29:35Well, I mean, you look kind of like that.
29:38Okay.
29:39Can you tell us about your encounter with Rich Rowley?
29:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:43Rich Rowley.
29:44He came to a fan event we did last year at MonsterCon.
29:49Yeah.
29:49You know, those people show up and they just want the autograph for a photo.
29:54But Rich was a different beast altogether.
29:58Yeah, yeah.
29:59He was super fixated on this one particular episode where we fought a demon.
30:04Malifus.
30:05Yeah.
30:06Yeah.
30:06That one.
30:07Anyway, he seemed to think we, like, knew more about it than we were saying.
30:14More about what?
30:15Demon hunting.
30:16He kept, like, asking these super pointed questions like he was testing us or something.
30:23Did you have an answer?
30:24No.
30:25No, I mean, we didn't.
30:26We didn't come up with these stories.
30:28You know, we 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.
30:39And 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 it a house of a priest doing an exorcism with a 16-year-old girl.
31:02I've been going on for three days.
31:07Police!
31:09Help her!
31:11Please!
31:18Get away from her!
31:22Mother, forgive me!
31:30Did you feel like you'd seen the devil?
31:32The only thing in that room that belonged in hell was Father Simon.
31:35He kept saying he had to.
31:37The whole way to the station.
31:38I'm sorry I had to.
31:40I'm sorry I had to.
31:41Because he believed she was possessed.
31:43She had a brain tumor.
31:45That's what they found after the autopsy.
31:47She needed a doctor, not an exorcism.
31:49And he wasn't a man of God.
31:51He was a killer.
31:52The courts agreed.
31:53So Father Simon was convicted of first-degree murder.
31:56When we processed him, we found a penny in his pocket.
31:59Nothing else, just a penny.
32:00Didn't mean anything at the time.
32:02But after Rich connected those seven murders, it seemed likely he was involved.
32:06Involved?
32:06Like he killed them?
32:07No, Simon was already in prison when five of the murders took place.
32:11And his DNA didn't match any that was found on the corpses.
32:14But he could have been part of whatever group Rich was so afraid of.
32:18Which means he knew more than he had told us.
32:21So we had to go back.
32:23Officers.
32:25I remember you.
32:26You were the ones who tried to stop the ritual.
32:28I just wish we would have gotten here sooner.
32:29Becca Scott might still be alive.
32:31Oh, she was long gone before you arrived.
32:34Demon saw to bat.
32:36Malifus?
32:38Do not say its name in my presence.
32:40Boy, are you afraid we might accidentally summon it?
32:42You may scorn me.
32:45And my beliefs, but I have fought this evil.
32:47I know enough to fear its power.
32:50What's more evil than murdering a child?
32:52I took no pleasure in the act.
32:54I'm grateful I had the courage to do what was necessary.
32:57Courage?
32:57Tell us about the penny that was in your pocket.
33:01In the movie 300 Days of Hell, Malifus is sealed inside his house with copper before he can be killed.
33:07Banished.
33:07Not killed.
33:08What's the difference?
33:10The demon is a parasite.
33:13It needs a host.
33:14Once you kill the body that inhabits it, find a new one.
33:19Becca Scott was just a single battle in a larger war.
33:22If you're in here, who's doing the fighting now?
33:26The Knights of Avila.
33:29Los Angeles has a long history of spiritualism, esoteric religions that go back over 100 years.
33:35So think Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard.
33:38He freaking loves this stuff.
33:40I do.
33:41Anyway, a lot of these groups started out as fraternal orders, similar to the Freemasons, where people would gather and
33:48share.
33:49Well, yeah, yes, and some women, and they would share new ideas, explore philosophies.
33:55They also liked partying, doing drugs, and performing weird sex rituals.
34:00Sign me up.
34:03For the intellectual exchanging of ideas, obviously.
34:06So the Knights of Avila is one of these groups?
34:09It was.
34:09Like a lot of the similar organizations at the time, it fell apart when the founder died.
34:13It hasn't been active in 60 years?
34:16Then what was Father Simon talking about?
34:17Based on Tim and Lopez's conversation with Father Simon, we began to believe that the group, or at least the
34:24name, had been revived sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s, and rebranded as some kind of demon
34:32hunting cult.
34:33So Rich was actually right.
34:36There was a murderous cabal after him.
34:38It seemed that way, and we were getting close to discovering who their ringleader was.
34:45I found him.
34:46I found who?
34:47Doug Roberts.
34:48I want to fill a live training for him.
34:50Oh, you mean the director of the sad little demon porn?
34:53Where?
34:53I was going through some old industry trades from around the time THDOH was slated to come out.
34:58One of the articles mentioned that Roberts was a client of Stuart Wynecliffe at the Golden Talent Agency.
35:03The guy hasn't made a movie in 26 years.
35:05I doubt they still read him.
35:06Not actively, no, but I called their offices, and I bribed their, like, I talked one of the assistants into
35:12giving me the address where his residual checks are sent.
35:14It's downtown.
35:15Let's go.
35:15Uh, hold on.
35:17You just want to go doorstep the guy?
35:18If that means go knock on a door while also filming, then yes.
35:21Yeah, I'm not in the business of gotcha journalism.
35:23What about the business of making that paper?
35:27The guap?
35:29Money, guy.
35:30Come on.
35:30The doc business is oversaturated these days.
35:32We need footage that P.O.P.'s.
35:34And what pops more than blindsiding a potential cult later?
35:38Come on.
35:39What's the worst that could happen?
35:42This is it.
35:44Okay.
35:45Um, uh, here.
35:46Here's your camera.
35:47Um, I don't operate.
35:49Oh.
35:50Okay.
35:53Now, you do.
35:56Let's go.
35:59What floor is it on?
36:01Eight.
36:01That's, uh, there's an elevator.
36:03Don't worry.
36:10Are you sure it's that way?
36:11Yep.
36:13Nope.
36:14You know, at the risk of being called a scaredy-cat, you do understand that this is inherently
36:20neither a wise nor safe activity.
36:22You're asking a woman if she understands that it's inherently dangerous to go anywhere or
36:27do anything?
36:28When you put it that way, I sound like an ass.
36:35Maybe we should come back?
36:37Hey, hello, Douglas Roberts.
36:40We're here to question you about murders and demons.
36:43That should get his attention.
36:45Oh!
36:47I am just an intern.
36:51So, clearly we're not deceased, which means...
36:55We saved you from certain deaths?
36:56I'm not sure how certain it was, right?
36:58Oh, it felt pretty certain to me.
37:00Please don't kill us.
37:01We will join your cult.
37:02Is there a membership fee or a secret handshake?
37:04I love a secret handshake.
37:05Ignore her.
37:06She's not right in the head.
37:07In fact, she has short-term memory issues, so if you let her go now, she won't remember
37:10any of this.
37:10Just shut up.
37:11No one's going anywhere.
37:12I mean, technically we're all going somewhere.
37:19All right, let him go.
37:20Get your hands up.
37:21Up against the jeep now.
37:23Let's go.
37:31Thanks for trying to save me, even though I'm the one who put us in danger.
37:35No problem.
37:37I was about to do the same thing, but you just beat me to it.
37:41I can be noble, too.
37:42No doubt.
37:43Yeah.
37:44I get very claustrophobic.
37:45Can I just point out how claustrophobic I get, please?
37:47So when did you and Douglas meet?
37:50The movie.
37:51He was, you know, so commanding and driven and everything I wasn't.
37:56When did he start talking about killing the demon?
37:59It was at least a year after that.
38:02He would call me late at night and talk about the demon and how scared he was for the world.
38:07And eventually it started to make sense.
38:10And he told you that someone was possessed?
38:13Correct.
38:14Her name was Cynthia.
38:17She cried when I tied her up and she kept saying that she was not a demon.
38:22She begged me to believe her and...
38:28At that point, he was very deep in my head.
38:32And then tonight, you know, all the lies he was spewing at the end,
38:36it was like somebody turned on the light switch.
38:38I could just see him for who he was.
38:41So 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.
38:59You 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.
39:12So all of the people that you had targeted, they had to die for the greater good.
39:17Yes.
39:18And my heart breaks for each of them.
39:21But I will not let innocence fall to perdition.
39:24Okay.
39:25Have you had your fill of BS?
39:27God, yes.
39:28Okay, me too.
39:29So, uh, first victim.
39:32Cynthia Green.
39:33You dated for two years before she cheated on you.
39:35Marcus Ford.
39:36He worked as a teamster on your movie, then later sued you for non-payment.
39:41Pamela Jones wrote a scathing review of your movie.
39:45Really?
39:46I...
39:46I had no idea.
39:48All seven victims were people who wronged you in some way.
39:52You don't even believe in the demon.
39:53You just used it as a tool to get people with weak minds to do your dirty work for you.
40:00Exactly.
40:02I was the director.
40:03I think you'll find I never laid a finger on any of the victims.
40:07And I think he will find that Manson died in prison.
40:14All right, uh, anything else?
40:16No, I think we got everything.
40:18Okay.
40:20That was a crazy one, huh?
40:21Tell me about it.
40:22And look, thanks so much for all of your time and for saving our lives.
40:26Anything from my favorite documentarian?
40:28Actually, the only documentarian I know.
40:30Not true.
40:30I'm a documentarian, too.
40:31Of course, yes.
40:33Oh, speaking of, how did this whole working together thing go?
40:37Is this the start of a beautiful friendship?
40:39I don't know.
40:41I mean, we have very different styles and instincts and, well, basically everything.
40:46But I'd be able to do another collaboration.
40:50Oh, um, it's just I, uh, I kind of signed an exclusive three-film deal with Hulu.
40:57What?
40:57Yeah, I, um, I sent them a sizzle reel of this project.
41:00Just the me parts.
41:01And, uh, they freaked.
41:03Said I'm going to be the new face of true crime.
41:05Their words.
41:06Wow.
41:06I mean, you'd probably be able to bring him along, though, right?
41:10Oh, totally.
41:12Totally.
41:14I gotta go.
41:15But, uh, thanks again.
41:17Hello?
41:18No, I said Toronto and then camp.
41:23She'll probably call you.
41:25Outro music.
41:27Hornomnio.
41:28Outro music.
41:35Outro music.
41:42Outro music.
41:45Outro music.
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