- 9 hours ago
The Rookie S08E15 - Survive the Streets
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00:147 matter 15, we're code 6 at the 911 call location. Any further contact from the distressed individual?
00:19Negative. Do you want me to start additional units?
00:22Uh, no. Give us a minute to scope it out first.
00:24You ready?
00:25Do I have a choice?
00:27That's a spirit.
00:35L.A.P.D., we've received a distress call from this location. We are making entry.
00:43Oh, do you feel that?
00:51Feel what?
00:51Oh, something evil's in here.
00:54It sure smells like it.
01:04I can't die. It's inside of me. It won't let me die. It won't let me die.
01:12Elise, show yourself.
01:16I can't die. It's inside of me. It won't let me die.
01:20Don't touch that, all right? Just call this in. Call it in.
01:22I need an R.A. to my location for a stabbing victim.
01:25So I usually sit right next to the camera to keep the eyeline tight?
01:28Then I'll just sit on the other side.
01:29No, because then you'll split his look.
01:31Oh, hey, hi. Thanks again for sitting down with me.
01:35Us?
01:36What? Oh, right. Us. Why are you filming?
01:39Oh, I just wanted to document the new partnership. Abigail was very excited.
01:43It's not a partnership.
01:44It's totally a partnership. The judge was very clear.
01:46The judge?
01:47My name is Abigail Tierney. I'm currently trapped inside a secret lab at Westview Psychiatric.
01:52All attempts at escape have proven fruitless.
01:54I may have inadvertently used some of Abigail's footage in my last documentary without gaining the proper permissions.
02:00Translation, he stole my intellectual property, I sued, and the judge gave him a choice.
02:05Pay me 200,000 damages or give me equal partnership in his next project.
02:08He never said equal, but you know what? Never mind.
02:11Let's focus on the story that we're here to tell.
02:14Seat.
02:17Perhaps the most shocking case of murder and mayhem we've ever seen.
02:20Would you say that's a fair assessment?
02:23Um...
02:23No, no. Stay back. Stay back. Stay back. You don't understand.
02:26Okay, relax here, okay? We're trying to help you. Who stabbed you?
02:29I stabbed myself. It's inside of me. I've tried everything else. I can't kill it. I can't die. See?
02:37No, don't pull that. Don't pull it out.
02:39Oh, God.
02:43Oh, he died instantly. I mean, the wound was fatal. You can't stab yourself in the heart and survive.
02:49But the way the knife was lodged, he wasn't bleeding. Once he pulled it out...
02:55It was Blood Fountain City.
02:57Not exactly, but...
02:58As shocking as that was, it was far from the most shocking thing you found.
03:02Oh, we should get him to say that to set up the opening credits?
03:05That's not... We don't put words in people's mouths. It's a documentary.
03:11Yeah, it was, uh... It was straight-up crazy.
03:16There's a body in there?
03:18And we have finally found it.
03:22Please don't kill us. We will join your cult.
03:26Oh, God.
03:27You arrived on scene as the sergeant's supervisor?
03:29Yes. I got there before the ambulance. Not that there was any aid they could have rendered.
03:35Is there a reason you didn't want us to interview you with Tim?
03:38What?
03:39No.
03:39We're just... I'm just shaking it out.
03:42Let's... Let's stay focused.
03:43Um, were you the first to recognize the victim?
03:46Uh, sort of.
03:47Um, I thought I knew his face, but it wasn't until we ran his prints that we got a name.
03:52Rich Riley was retired LAPD.
03:54He had been with the department for 30 years and was a little bit of a legend.
03:58Mostly because he made a series of training videos from the mid-90s till his retirement in 2015.
04:05Which, by modern standards, are a little cringe.
04:09Hey, everybody. Rich Rowley here with another installment of...
04:15Now, today, we're gonna be talking about proper cuffing technique.
04:19Excuse me, officer?
04:21I hurt my shoulder at the gym.
04:23Would you mind cuffing me in front?
04:26Pretty lady like you...
04:30What's the worst that could happen?
04:34You're welcome.
04:38Rich was a trip.
04:40The life of the party, at least early in his career.
04:43Then, as the years went on, he became a little, uh, crazy.
04:49Crazy how?
04:50He was deep into conspiracy theories.
04:52He, uh, had a real thing for cults and cabals.
04:56To be fair, Los Angeles does have a pretty dark history.
04:58But Rich took it to the next level.
05:01And his training videos got more and more intense because of it.
05:03We finally got around to updating the videos this last year, but that caused quite a controversy with some of
05:09the older officers.
05:10They said we were being insensitive.
05:12Why would updating training videos be insensitive?
05:15Even three years on, a lot of his friends were still mourning his death and saw the videos as a
05:20way to keep his memory alive.
05:21I'm sorry.
05:22I thought Rich died six months ago.
05:23Yeah.
05:24He did.
05:25I'm talking about the first time.
05:26Divers are searching for any signs of retired Los Angeles police officer Richard Rowley after a sailing trip gone wrong.
05:35Coast Guard responded to a distress call this morning from Rowley's wife, who says the 55-year-old fell overboard
05:42after the sailboat he was captaining was struck by a rogue wave.
05:46Any time someone disappears from a boating trip, it automatically sets off alarm bells.
05:51Why is that?
05:51It's just an ideal place to cover up crime, throw a body overboard, weigh it down.
05:56The likelihood of us recovering it before it becomes fish food is low.
05:59And the circumstances were suspicious.
06:02By all accounts, Rich was a skilled sailor.
06:04It was a calm day, and the only witness to his demise was Darla Phillips, his on-again, off-again
06:10girlfriend who he married five days prior.
06:12So you suspected foul play?
06:14No!
06:16Not necessarily, but we couldn't rule it out.
06:19Why wasn't Rich wearing a light vest?
06:21He never did.
06:22He was a strong swimmer.
06:23He must have hit his head when he fell.
06:26Why didn't you jump in after him?
06:28I'm scared of dark water.
06:29Dark water?
06:30Water you can't see the bottom of.
06:33Just blackness.
06:35With condoms what lurking below.
06:37You stand to inherit Rich's entire police pension.
06:40That's quite a bit of money.
06:42How dare you?
06:43I just watched the love of my life die in front of me.
06:47We don't know that for sure yet.
06:50They haven't found his body.
06:52Unless you know more that you're not telling us.
06:56Go to hell!
06:57This interview is over.
06:59Did it ever occur to you that Rich might still be alive?
07:02As we said, we couldn't rule anything out.
07:03But there was no evidence that he'd faked his death.
07:07Until he turned up dead again.
07:09Needless to say, we had a few more questions for Darla.
07:11Helping someone fake their death isn't a crime.
07:14I checked.
07:14You're right, but profiting off of that death, collecting Rich's pension and his life insurance,
07:20it's fraud.
07:21Not to mention the resources that were wasted trying to recover his body.
07:24He could be facing some serious charges.
07:26So, tell us.
07:29Why did Rich want to fake his death?
07:32After Rich retired, he kind of fell apart.
07:36His drinking got worse.
07:38And his paranoia, he was always a little intense.
07:43But it started to get scary.
07:45He covered all his windows with newspapers.
07:48He started writing down the license plates of passing cars.
07:52What was he so afraid of?
07:54He said there was this group.
07:56Like a secret society of dangerous and powerful people.
08:02He'd been onto them for years.
08:04But he said that they found out about him.
08:06That he was in danger because of it.
08:08It was too much for me.
08:09So I broke up with him.
08:11And then a year later, he showed up on my doorstep.
08:15And asked me to help him fake his death.
08:18In return for his pension.
08:20I needed the money.
08:22So, we got married.
08:24And we did the deed.
08:25And I never saw him again.
08:27So you have no idea why there was a coffin in his garage.
08:31We'll probably hold this piece of the puzzle until the end of the first act.
08:34You know, hit the audience with a twist when it's dramatically expedient.
08:37You know, seems to manipulate him.
08:38All good storytelling is.
08:40Look, just tell us about finding the coffin.
08:42Uh, so once I arrived and we secured the crime scene, we cleared the rest of the house and then
08:48we moved on to the garage.
08:53Oh.
08:54Oh.
08:55You don't think there's...
08:57If there's a body in there, I absolutely do.
09:00Okay, are we going to open it?
09:01Because I don't want to open it.
09:03What do you think?
09:04I mean, it's clearly been dug up.
09:07Given the state of the coffin, it's clearly been underground for a few years.
09:11If there is a body in there, it's likely long dead.
09:15Unless...
09:15Unless what?
09:16Unless he put a fresh victim in an old coffin.
09:23Oh, okay.
09:24Got it.
09:25Oh.
09:26Oh, God.
09:32The body belonged to a 54-year-old truck driver named Marcus Ford, who was the victim of an unsolved
09:38homicide back in 2020.
09:40How was he killed?
09:41Uh, he was stabbed in the heart.
09:43Just like Rich.
09:45Wait.
09:46Rich murdered Marcus Ford.
09:48Did I just solve the case?
09:49No.
09:50We were able to alibi Rich out.
09:53He was hospitalized with double pneumonia the day Marcus died.
09:56Medical records say he was so weak that he could barely get out of bed.
10:00Or that's what he wanted you to think.
10:02Moving on.
10:03Digging up a body is no easy task.
10:04Why would Rich go to all that trouble?
10:06Initially, we thought it was simply the demented act of a clearly disturbed mind.
10:11And in some ways, it was.
10:13But then we found the tattoo.
10:16At first, it was a little bit difficult to make out exactly what it was.
10:20A half a decade of decomp does a number on the skin.
10:23But when we look back at the case file, there was a photo of it taken during the original autopsy.
10:28That's actually kind of sick.
10:29I wonder if there's a way to track down the artist.
10:31I've been meaning to start the sleeve on my other arm.
10:34Like, uh.
10:34To my collaborator's point, lots of people have tattoos.
10:38What was it about this one that jumped out at you?
10:40Well, something about it was familiar to both of us.
10:44But we couldn't place it, so we started asking around, and the answer couldn't come from a more unlikely place.
10:52I watched the Rich Rally training videos more than any person alive, so I recognized the symbol immediately.
11:00Sometimes citizens panic when they can't get in touch with their friends or loved ones.
11:04That is why we always advise the public to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.
11:10Well, most missing person reports stem from a lapse in communication.
11:14Every once in a while, you'll encounter a true, workable case.
11:18Officer, help! My sister is missing!
11:21When's the last time you saw her?
11:23Last night at the bar, her boyfriend said she never made it home.
11:26You always want to take a report like this one? Seriously.
11:30So Rich hid the same symbol in his training videos that was tattooed on the body of a murder victim.
11:35What did you think that meant?
11:38Uh, I don't know.
11:39I can't believe I'm saying this, but Smitty was right.
11:42In Lesson 187, the tattoo symbol was hidden in the background.
11:45Although, the instructions to wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person are wildly outdated.
11:52Anyways, it got me thinking.
11:53What if Rich put messages in other videos?
11:56What kind of messages?
11:58I'm not totally sure yet.
11:59I binged every single Rich training video I could get my hands on.
12:02Yeah, it's been a fun few nights.
12:03And I did find a few other possible leads, but there's a problem.
12:07The department's archive is incomplete, and without all of the videos,
12:10I can't be sure that I'm not missing a vital piece of information.
12:12So, what happened to the missing videos?
12:14So, when the training topics in the videos become outdated because of new laws or protocols,
12:20the department has to make new ones.
12:22And the obsolete videos are supposed to be digitized and archived for historical record.
12:27But Rich is... were just gone.
12:30Gone as then destroyed?
12:31Like a cover-up?
12:32No one's saying that.
12:34Most likely it was a human error.
12:36You know, someone got lazy, didn't archive them.
12:39I tried reaching out to the production company that made the videos to see if they had any copies left.
12:44Bad news is, they went out of business a few years back and auctioned off all their equipment.
12:49What's the good news?
12:51Well, I managed to track down the auction logs,
12:54and I actually know the person who purchased the studio's old hard drives.
12:58Careful.
12:59Well, I'm very ticklish.
13:00Like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
13:02Same.
13:03I hear it's, um, a sign of intelligence.
13:05Is that a fact?
13:06Then I am smart as the dickens.
13:09So, you purchased hard drives from Speak Now Studios?
13:12Yeah, Dropout was still in its infancy.
13:14I was building the company from the ground up.
13:17We had to be smart about how we were spending our money.
13:19We bought a huge amount of equipment secondhand.
13:22Hard drives, cameras, wigs.
13:24Wait, wait.
13:25You bought secondhand wigs?
13:26Give them a little shake before we put them on.
13:28That's awesome.
13:29Do you still have that wig connect?
13:31Because I'd love a referral.
13:32My guy is...
13:34Back on track.
13:35Uh, the hard drives you bought contain police training videos.
13:38Did you happen to watch any of them?
13:39Of course.
13:40Rich Rowley, right?
13:41We were obsessed with those videos.
13:43We probably watched them like a dozen times.
13:46I'm Rich Rowley, and this is Survive the Streets.
13:49That's great.
13:50Vic can do the best impression.
13:51Do you think you'd be able to make copies for us?
13:54I totally would, but I can't,
13:57because we wiped all of those hard drives to use as servers months ago.
14:01Sorry, I couldn't be a more help.
14:02You'll still feature this interview, right?
14:06Yeah, probably not.
14:07Wait, you said you and the Dropout crew watched the video, like, dozens of times, right?
14:12Yes, sometimes on an edible.
14:14Mostly sober.
14:15I have an idea.
14:16Okay, so then he'd be like,
14:17don't forget to check the closet, you'll die.
14:19So, I don't know.
14:19I think it's a little bit more like, like,
14:21if you forget to check the closet,
14:23Freddie, Jason, and Chucky will rip off your scrum.
14:25Okay, I think there's less foot stuff.
14:27I feel like he's like,
14:29and then your crazy met the ex-girlfriend
14:31who's been hiding in the hallway closet
14:33will chainsaw your face when you get home
14:35because you forgot to clear the room!
14:37Clear the room!
14:38Check the room!
14:39I think he was so close to pulling out a gun.
14:41What are you guys doing?
14:42That's a great question.
14:43They're reenacting the police training videos
14:44since you guys wiped them off your hard drive.
14:46Oh, the Rich Rowley ones!
14:47Those are so funny.
14:49I actually stole one of the hard drives
14:51so I can watch it when I'm in the tub.
14:52You're talking about your tub, man?
14:53A little self-care, you know?
14:54Trying to relax a little more.
14:56It's not working.
14:57Can we have it?
14:58If you want to borrow it, I could, you know.
15:00No, I think this is actually working great.
15:02Okay.
15:02We can keep this up.
15:03We're riffing.
15:04Clearing the room!
15:05Help us.
15:05Okay, I finally finished watching all of the Rich training videos
15:09and there is a lot.
15:10Um, take lesson 277.
15:13Ah!
15:14Ah!
15:15Ah!
15:16My Azaleas!
15:18A cold case where victim Azalea Robinson was found stabbed near a ski resort.
15:23You're kidding.
15:24No, and in Lesson 290,
15:27Rich is holding a folder with a post-it note on the back
15:29with a brown star drawn on it.
15:31I'm lost.
15:32Right, so I looked up the cold cases
15:34to see if there were any victims with names like Star or Stella
15:37and there was one hit, Stella Brown,
15:41also found stabbed in the chest.
15:43In all, Lucy found clues pointing to seven different cold cases.
15:47But why was Rich hiding the names of murder victims in police training videos?
15:51Based on what we could piece together,
15:52he believed he had stumbled upon a conspiracy,
15:54a series of connected murders committed by person or persons unknown.
15:58If that were the case, why not just report his suspicion?
16:01He was a cop for 30 years.
16:03Well, Rich had a bit of a reputation within the department
16:06for, shall we say, magical thinking.
16:10So, unfortunately, his theory was dismissed out of hand.
16:14But why did he think the murders were connected?
16:15Well, for starters, they were all stabbed in the chest.
16:18But more importantly, each victim was found with a penny
16:21either in or on their person.
16:23What do you mean in?
16:24One had a penny in her stomach.
16:26Another had one shoved up his nose.
16:28Stella Brown lucked out.
16:29Hers was just clasped in her hand.
16:31And when we re-examined Marcus Ford's corpse,
16:34the Emmy found one inserted into the heel of his left foot.
16:38Why?
16:38Did we mention that they were all minted in 1930?
16:41Okay.
16:42Well, I just got goosebumps.
16:43Rich's autopsy also revealed that he had swallowed
16:45close to 50 pennies before he died.
16:48Gross.
16:48So, at this point, was your theory...
16:51I actually have no idea what the theory would have been.
16:53Yeah, well, I would tell you, but we were way off the mark.
16:55Which we were about to discover
16:57when we got access to his cloud account.
17:01Okay.
17:02We may have finally found it.
17:04But I am so close to getting some real answers.
17:10See that?
17:23Oh, my God.
17:27Oh, my God.
17:32No, no.
17:36For a guy pretending to be dead
17:38breaking into a secure military facility
17:41doesn't seem like the best idea.
17:43No, he wasn't just breaking into any military facility.
17:46It was Area 67.
17:48What does that mean?
17:49That's where the government keeps the aliens.
17:57So, Rich broke into a secret government base
17:59on the hunt for a massive conspiracy
18:01then stabbed himself in the chest?
18:03I mean, at that point, it's obvious what happened.
18:05Is it?
18:05Come on.
18:06Remember what Rich said right before he died?
18:09I can't die!
18:10It's inside of me!
18:11It won't let me die!
18:13Yeah, I'm not following.
18:14Rich was exposed to an alien parasite.
18:17It was inside him.
18:19Were you familiar with Area 67?
18:22I'd heard of it, yeah.
18:24There's this AM radio station I used to listen to back in Foxburg.
18:28Kept me awake when I was working late.
18:30The host was obsessed with UFOs.
18:33Val's Velvet Bunker?
18:34That's the one.
18:35He was a little bit out there, but always entertaining.
18:38Area 51 is theater.
18:41Do you believe, do you really believe,
18:45the most secretive military installation of the world
18:47would let itself become a tourist attraction?
18:51No, no, no, no.
18:52Area 51 is the distraction.
18:55Area 67 is the real deal.
18:58You know why California has all those earthquakes?
19:00It's not San Andreas fault, my friends.
19:03It's the sonic resonance from Area 67's underground testing chambers.
19:08Did you believe in his theories?
19:10No, no.
19:11Like I said, just entertainment.
19:13Let's hear from a caller.
19:14Hi, name's John.
19:16Long-time listener, fourth-time caller.
19:17Hey, John from Foxburg.
19:19Welcome back.
19:20What have you got for us tonight?
19:21I swear to God, I just saw a UFO.
19:26John is such a common name.
19:29I'm open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
19:31You are.
19:32Yeah, I mean, it's a big universe.
19:34Anything could be out there.
19:35I don't know.
19:36People who claim to have seen aliens tend to be a little off.
19:40You were friends with a corpse, right?
19:41Well, yeah, we were more than friends, but fair enough, okay.
19:45Legally, is it necrophilia if she only did over-the-clothes stuff?
19:48That's a great question.
19:49Oh, I definitely believe.
19:51In fact, I've been abducted by aliens.
19:55Really?
19:56Multiple times.
19:58Apparently, I'm a fascinating subject.
20:00I remember the last time Smitty was abducted.
20:03Turns out he partied too hard in Vegas and woke up in Wisconsin.
20:07Missing time.
20:08One of the hallmarks of alien abductions.
20:12Had been stricken.
20:13Point is, the government had little gray men in their secret labs for decades.
20:19What are they doing with them?
20:20They're implanting the aliens in unsuspecting hosts and taking over their bodies.
20:25You just never know who might be one of them.
20:30Some people in the station believed Rich dabbed himself to kill an alien parasite.
20:35But, I wouldn't say that was a dominant theory.
20:38It wasn't long before we figured out Rich believed something darker.
20:42And it was connected to the seven murders.
20:44Then why did Rich break into the army base?
20:47Yes, I remember the incident.
20:49Rich Rowley cut through a fence.
20:51He trespassed on government property.
20:53He was promptly apprehended and sent on his way.
20:55Do you have any idea what Rich was looking for?
20:57Uh, as it turns out, he was looking for me.
21:00But, not because of any alleged aliens.
21:04So, why did he come?
21:06Uh, this part is, uh, is a little bit embarrassing.
21:11Um, before I found my calling in the military, I thought that I wanted to be an actor.
21:17And, uh, I was in a few DTV movies.
21:20What's DTV?
21:21You're so young.
21:23Uh, direct-to-video.
21:24They made all these super cheap movies back in the 80s and 90s.
21:28You make them as cheaply as possible and then hope that someone was drawn in enough by the cover art
21:32to rent them.
21:34A guy can't have a side gig?
21:36Totally.
21:36How did you get into acting?
21:38Some director scouted me when I pulled him over.
21:41He said I had a bitchin' bod.
21:44Well, he wasn't wrong.
21:45But I gave it up.
21:46Because the people of this city needed a savior.
21:50Yeah, you are the model of public service.
21:53Right?
21:54Anyway, Rich became interested in this terrible B-movie that I was in.
21:59I played a monk.
22:00It was called 300 Days of Hell.
22:07Terrible B-movie?
22:08That's what he called it?
22:09300 Days of Hell is the scariest film of the 1990s.
22:12Really?
22:13The Ring, Scream, Blair Witch Project?
22:15Which one of us executive produced a horror movie?
22:17Trust me.
22:18T-H-D-O-H is true nightmare fuel.
22:21It's not that scary.
22:23She made me watch at the beginning of our relationship.
22:25When he was still trying to impress me.
22:28You want to watch it again tonight?
22:31I would.
22:33Totally.
22:33I do have plans, though.
22:37Yeah, I'm not watching that crap.
22:39Even if it is for a case.
22:40I see enough horror on the job.
22:42That being said, 300 Days of Hell was our first real window into the rabbit hole that Rich had gone
22:48down.
22:48A rabbit hole filled with demons.
22:50Or rather, a demon.
22:53So Rich believed a demon had killed all those people?
22:55No, the killers were definitely human.
22:57Killers, plural.
22:58Yeah, there was different trace DNA on all the bodies.
23:01All from different subjects.
23:02And none of them were in the system.
23:04Meaning?
23:05The murders were committed by a group of people with shared beliefs.
23:08A murder cult.
23:09The cult believed a demon named Malephous had been possessing people all across the city.
23:14Jumping from host to host.
23:16And it was up to them to stop it.
23:23The legend of Malephous is centuries old.
23:27The first mention we see of him is 1433's Lesser Grimoire of Solomon by Slovenian Inquisitor Terencius Bruma.
23:36A reference text of demons and their attributes.
23:40Gnarly.
23:41Right?
23:42He's also known as the deceiver, the infester, and demon of 300 days.
23:47Why?
23:47Once summoned to Earth, Malephous won't rest until he finds a human host.
23:52After possession begins, he incubates.
23:55300 days.
23:57What happens after 300 days?
23:59He reaches full strength and his power becomes uncontainable.
24:04Uh-oh.
24:06Um, if Malephous was summoned to Earth, how would one stop him?
24:10Bruma suggests killing the host might slow Malephous down.
24:14Forcing him to regenerate before he can find a new host.
24:17A process that also can be slowed by the use of copper.
24:23It was the pennies.
24:24The pennies.
24:25It all came back to the pennies.
24:26Before 1984, U.S. pennies were 95% copper.
24:30So the copper and the pennies was meant to bind the demon, but what about the 1930 part?
24:34Are you familiar with numerology?
24:38Some ancient peoples, and Taylor Swift, believed there was a mystical connection between letters and numbers.
24:47Using the Chaldean method, the name Malephous becomes a digit 1930.
24:51So you're saying?
24:52We had a theory.
24:54Whoever killed those people believed the victims were possessed by Malephous.
24:59They had to reach Malephous's host before he reached his true form.
25:04A 1930 penny was the perfect tool.
25:06Yeah.
25:06Rich's talk of it's inside me, it won't let me die.
25:09He thought he was infested by this demon, too, and that's why he killed himself.
25:14Wait, I thought Rich didn't believe in Malephous, isn't that why he was trying to stop the cult?
25:18Yes, but I mean, years of obsession and paranoia can do a number on a person's psyche.
25:23I mean, it seems as though in the end, Rich could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality.
25:27And you got this theory from Rich's files?
25:29Well, I mean, we actually got it from Opus.
25:31And they say watching old horror movies isn't a good use of time.
25:36I never said that.
25:45Are we safe, brother?
25:47Is Malephous banished?
25:49His sigil is drawn.
25:51The right is spoken.
25:53We have sealed his last human vessel with copper.
26:03Heaven forgive us.
26:05Indeed.
26:07For hell will not.
26:11Midnight.
26:13The 300th day.
26:16Our task was done, none too soon.
26:45Yeah, that was me.
26:49Do you guys want a glass?
26:50You got anything stronger?
26:54Fine, I'll just take a glass.
26:56Okay, I'll just, I'll have nothing, actually.
26:58No fun for me.
27:00Yeah, that was my first big movie role.
27:04Well, my only one, really.
27:08Rich was so excited when I told him I booked it.
27:10He helped me run lines.
27:12Did Rich buy into the Malephous mythology?
27:14No.
27:15No.
27:15Weirdly, given all the conspiracies that Rich believed in, he was a total atheist.
27:21But I wouldn't have blamed him after everything that happened on that shoot.
27:24Like what?
27:27Before production wrapped, the DP was paralyzed driving to set.
27:32A stunt person had his leg amputated.
27:34There were divorces, bankruptcies, careers ended.
27:37One of the actors even died in his hotel room.
27:41People say the production was cursed.
27:43What about you?
27:45What do you believe?
27:46I believe the real curse was the director.
27:50He was a reckless maniac that didn't know how to run a set.
27:53Cuts!
27:54Cuts!
27:55Arthur!
27:56Arthur!
27:58Your strangulation, it has to be real.
28:02I want to feel the life draining from him.
28:03And you, you, you cannot move from your position, not even an inch.
28:09Guys, this ritual is extremely specific.
28:14Okay?
28:14Let's go again.
28:15Okay.
28:16I thought I was choking you pretty well.
28:18I'm sorry.
28:18Okay?
28:19I'm going to choke you a little hard.
28:20Ready?
28:20Douglas was real touchy about the religious stuff.
28:23I guess he had grown up in some sort of commune.
28:25And this was all based on stories he was told growing up.
28:28Okay, but what I heard is that they accidentally summoned Malephous for real.
28:32The director found some ancient tome and inserted the incantation and rituals verbatim.
28:38Ooh, I love that.
28:39And that's what got me thinking about the penny killings.
28:42We found the first victim just a little under 300 days after the summoning ritual was filmed.
28:47We knew Rich was aware of the Malephous legends.
28:50It was only natural to link them.
28:51So Rich thought that penny victims were killed by people trying to stop Malephous.
28:55Was he able to identify any of these killers?
28:58We know he tried.
29:00Hi.
29:01Hey, how are you?
29:02Jared.
29:03Hello.
29:04Wow.
29:05It's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
29:07Pleasure to meet you, too.
29:08Why don't you tell us about yourselves?
29:10Yeah.
29:10We co-starred on a TV show together for 15 seasons called Supernatural.
29:18Yeah, we played Sam and Dean Winchester brothers that, you know, tracked and fought supernatural beings.
29:26Like K-pop demon hunters.
29:28No, no, not like that.
29:30Well, I mean, you look kind of like that.
29:33Okay.
29:34Can you tell us about your encounter with Rich Rowley?
29:36Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:37Rich Rowley.
29:38He came to a fan event we did last year at MonsterCon.
29:43Yeah, you know, those people show up and they just want the autograph for a photo.
29:49But Rich was sort of a different beast altogether.
29:53Yeah, yeah.
29:53He was super fixated on this one particular episode where we fought a demon.
29:59Malephous.
29:59Yeah, that one.
30:02Anyway, he seemed to think we, like, knew more about it than we were saying.
30:08More about what?
30:09Demon hunting.
30:10He kept, like, asking these super pointed questions like he was, I don't know, testing us or something.
30:17Did you have an answer?
30:18No.
30:19No, I mean, we didn't come up with these stories, you know.
30:22We just did what the writers wrote.
30:24It's called acting.
30:25There's no actual demon hunters in real life.
30:28Exactly.
30:28Uh, that's not exactly true.
30:31There is at least one.
30:33And it actually connected to the movie.
30:36We heard the director brought a priest named Father Simon McCabe to bless the set every day before filming.
30:42Well, it was either that or the whole crew was going to walk.
30:45Does that name mean anything to you?
30:48About 15 years ago, Lopez and I had just finished our rookie years.
30:52We responded to a, call it a house of a priest doing an exorcism with a 16-year-old girl.
30:57It had been going on for three days.
30:58Father no!
31:00Father no!
31:00He's in the name of the Jesucristo!
31:02Police!
31:02Please!
31:03Help me!
31:04Help her!
31:05Please!
31:08Please!
31:11Speak to her, son.
31:12Ali.
31:13Get away from her!
31:16Father, forgive me!
31:24did you feel like you'd seen the devil the only thing in that room that belonged in hell was
31:28father simon he kept saying he had to the whole way to the station i'm sorry i had to i'm
31:34sorry
31:35i had to because he believed she was possessed she had a brain tumor that's what they found
31:40after the autopsy she needed a doctor not an exorcism and he wasn't a man of god he was a
31:45killer the courts agreed to father simon was convicted of first degree murder when we
31:51processed him we found a penny in his pocket nothing else just a penny didn't mean anything
31:55at the time but after rich connected those seven murders it seemed likely he was involved
31:59involved like he killed them no simon was already in prison when five of the murders took place and
32:06his dna didn't match any that was found on the corpses but he could have been part of whatever
32:11group rich was so afraid of which means he knew more than he had told us so we had to
32:16go back
32:18officers i remember you you you were the ones who tried to stop the ritual i wish we would have
32:23gotten here sooner becca scott might still be alive oh she was long gone before you arrived
32:28demon saw to that malifus do not say its name in my presence boy you afraid we may accidentally summon
32:36it you may scorn me and my beliefs but i have fought this evil i know enough to fear its
32:43power
32:44what's more evil than murdering a child i took no pleasure in the act i'm grateful i had the courage
32:50to do what was necessary courage tell us about the penny that was in your pocket in the movie 300
32:56days of hell malifus is sealed inside his host with copper before he can be killed
33:01banished not killed what's the difference the demon is a parasite it needs a host once you kill
33:09the body that inhabits it find a new one becca scott was just a single battle in a larger war
33:16if you're in here who's doing the fighting now
33:21the knights of avila los angeles has a long history of spiritualism esoteric religions that go back over
33:28a hundred years so think alistair crowley jack parsons l ron hubbard he freaking loves this stuff
33:34i do anyway a lot of these groups started out as fraternal orders similar to the freemasons where
33:40people would gather and and share well yeah yes and and some women and they would share new ideas
33:48explore philosophies they also liked partying doing drugs and performing weird sex rituals
33:55sign me up for the intellectual exchanging of ideas obviously so the nice of avila is one of these
34:03groups it was like a lot of the similar organizations at the time it fell apart when the founder died
34:07it
34:07hasn't been active in 60 years then what was father simon talking about based on tim and lopez's
34:14conversation with father simon we began to believe that the group or at least the name had been revived
34:20sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s and rebranded as some kind of demon hunting cult so rich
34:29was actually right there was a murderous cabal after it seemed that way and we were getting close to
34:36discovering who that ringleader was i found him found who doug roberts i want to fill a live training
34:44from him oh you mean the director of the sad little demon porn where i was going through some old
34:48industry trades from around the time thdoh was slated to come out one of the articles mentioned that
34:54roberts was a client of stuart winecliffe at the golden talent agency the guy hasn't made a movie in 26
34:59years i doubt they still read him not actively no but i called their offices and i bribed her like
35:04i talked one of the assistants into giving me the address where his residual checks are sent
35:08it's downtown let's go uh hold on you just want to go doorstep the guy if that means go knock
35:13on a
35:14door while also filming then yes yeah i'm not in the business of gotcha journalism what about the
35:18business of making that paper the guap money guy come on the doc business is oversaturated these days
35:26we need footage that pops and what pops more than blindsiding a potential coal leader
35:32come on what's the worst that could happen this is it okay um here here's your camera um i don't
35:43operate
35:43oh well now you do let's go what floor is it on eight but uh there's an elevator don't worry
36:04are you sure it's that way yep nope you know at the risk of being called a scaredy cat you
36:12do
36:12understand that this is inherently neither a wise nor safe activity you're asking a woman if she
36:18understands that it's inherently dangerous to go anywhere or do anything when you put it that way
36:24i sound like an ass maybe we should come back hey hello douglas roberts we're here to question you
36:35about murders and demons that should get his attention oh i am just an intern so clearly we're not
36:47deceased which means we saved you from certain deaths i'm not sure how certain it was oh it felt
36:53pretty certain to me please don't kill us we will join your cult is there a membership fee or a
36:57secret
36:58handshake i love a secret handshake ignore her she's not right in the head in fact she has short-term
37:02memory issues so if you let her go now she won't remember any of this just shut up no one's
37:06going
37:06anywhere i mean technically we're all going somewhere all right let him go get your hands up up against jeep
37:16now
37:17let's go
37:24oh yeah thanks for trying to save me even though i'm the one who put us in danger no problem
37:30i was
37:32about to do the same thing but you just uh beat me to it i can be noble too no
37:37doubt yeah oh i get very
37:39claustrophobic can i just point out how claustrophobic i get please so when did you and douglas meet
37:44the movie he was you know so commanding and driven and everything i wasn't when did he start
37:52talking about killing the demon it was uh at least a year after that he would call me uh late
37:57at night
37:58and talk about the demon and how scared he was for the world and eventually it started to make sense
38:04and
38:05he said he told you that someone was possessed correct her name was cynthia um she cried when i
38:12tied her up and she kept saying that she was not a demon she begged me to believe her and
38:22at that point at that point he was very deep in my head and then tonight you know all the
38:28lies he
38:28was spewing at the end it was like somebody turned on the light switch i could just see him for
38:34who he
38:34was so pathetic we'll need you to write up a detailed confession i would like to make a deal
38:50uh we have already located your co-conspirators you don't really have anything to offer you don't
38:57want to know what an alien spaceship looks like i am all that stands between the world
39:05and damnation so all of the people that you had targeted they had to die for the greater good
39:11yes and my heart breaks for each of them but i will not let innocence fall to perdition okay have
39:19you had your fill of bs god yes okay me too so uh first victim cynthia green you did it
39:28for two years
39:28before she cheated on you marcus ford he worked as a teamster on your movie then later sued you for
39:34non-payment pamela jones wrote a scathing review of your movie really i had no idea all seven
39:43victims were people who wronged you in some way you don't even believe in the demon you just used it
39:48as
39:49tool to get people with weak minds to do your dirty work for you exactly i was the director i
39:57think you'll
39:58find i never laid a finger on any of the victims and i think you will find that manson died
40:04in prison
40:08all right uh anything else no i think we got everything okay that was a crazy one huh tell
40:16me about it and look thanks so much for all of your time and for saving our lives anything from
40:21my
40:21favorite documentarian actually the only documentarian i know not true i'm a documentarian too of course
40:26yes yes oh speaking of how did this whole uh working together thing go is this the start of a
40:33beautiful friendship i don't know i mean we have very different styles and instincts and well basically
40:39everything but i'd be open to another collaboration oh um it's just i uh i kind of signed an exclusive
40:49three film deal with hulu what yeah i um i sent them a sizzle reel of this project just the
40:55me parts
40:55and uh they freaked said i'm gonna be the new face of true crime their words wow i mean you'd
41:01probably
41:01be able to bring him along though right oh totally totally i gotta go but uh thanks again hello no
41:13i said
41:13toronto and then camp she'll probably call you
41:56and then camp she'll probably call you
41:57damn it
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