- 11 hours ago
The Rookie - Season 8 - Episode 15: Survive the Streets
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00:177-Matter-15, we're code 6 at the 911 call location.
00:21Any further contact from the distressed individual?
00:23Negative. Do you want me to start additional units?
00:25No, give us a minute to scope it out first.
00:28You ready?
00:28Do I have a choice?
00:30That's a spirit.
00:39LAPD, we've received a distressed call from this location.
00:42We are making entry.
00:52Do you feel that?
00:54Feel what?
00:55Something evil's in here.
00:57It sure smells like it.
01:07I can't die.
01:09It's inside of me.
01:11It won't let me die.
01:13It won't let me die.
01:15Elise, show yourself.
01:20It can't die.
01:21It's inside of me.
01:22It won't let me die.
01:23Don't touch that, all right?
01:24Just call this in.
01:25Call it in.
01:26I need an RA to my location for a stabbing victim.
01:29So I usually sit right next to camera to keep the eyeline tight?
01:31Then I'll just sit on the other side.
01:33No, because then you'll split his look.
01:35Oh, hey, hi.
01:37Thanks again for sitting down with me.
01:38Us?
01:39What?
01:40Oh, right, us.
01:42Why are you filming?
01:42Oh, I just wanted to document the new partnership.
01:45Abigail was very excited.
01:46It's not a partnership.
01:47It's totally a partnership.
01:48The judge was very clear.
01:49The judge?
01:50My name is Abigail Tierney.
01:52I'm currently trapped inside a secret lab at Westview Psychiatric.
01:55All attempts at escape have proven fruitless.
01:57I may have inadvertently used some of Abigail's footage in my last documentary without gaining
02:02the proper permissions.
02:03Translation.
02:04He stole my intellectual property.
02:06I sued, and the judge gave him a choice.
02:08Pay me 200,000 damages or give me equal partnership in his next project.
02:12He never said equal, but you know what?
02:14Never mind.
02:15Let's focus on the story that we're here to tell.
02:17Seat.
02:20Perhaps the most shocking case of murder and mayhem we've ever seen.
02:24Would you say that's a fair assessment?
02:25Um.
02:27No, no.
02:27Stay back.
02:28Stay back.
02:28Stay back.
02:29You don't understand.
02:29Okay, relax here, okay?
02:30We're trying to help you.
02:31Who stabbed you?
02:32I stabbed myself.
02:35It's inside of me.
02:36I've tried everything else.
02:37I can't kill it.
02:39I can't die.
02:40See?
02:41No, don't pull that.
02:42No, don't pull it out.
02:42Oh, God.
02:46Oh, he died instantly.
02:48I mean, the wound was fatal.
02:50You can't stab yourself in the heart and survive.
02:53But the way the knife was lodged, he wasn't bleeding.
02:58Once he pulled it out...
02:59It was Blood Fountain City.
03:01Not exactly, but...
03:02As shocking as that was, it was far from the most shocking thing you found.
03:05Oh, we should get him to say that to set up the opening credits?
03:08That's not...
03:09We don't put words in people's mouths.
03:10It's a documentary.
03:14Yeah, it was, uh...
03:16Straight up crazy.
03:18We don't think...
03:19There's a body in there?
03:21Oh!
03:22And they have finally found it.
03:24Ah!
03:26Please don't kill us.
03:27We will join your cult.
03:28Yeah.
03:29Oh, God.
03:30You arrived on scene as the sergeant's supervisor?
03:33Yes.
03:33I got there before the ambulance.
03:36Not that there was any aid they could have rendered.
03:38Is there a reason you didn't want us to interview you with Tim?
03:41What?
03:42No.
03:43We're just...
03:43I'm just shaking it up.
03:45Let's stay focused.
03:47Were you the first to recognize the victim?
03:49Uh, sort of.
03:51I thought I knew his face, but it wasn't until we ran his prints that we got a name.
03:55Rich Rowley was retired LAPD.
03:58He had been with the department for 30 years and was a little bit of a legend.
04:01Mostly because he made a series of training videos from the mid-90s till his retirement in 2015.
04:08Which, by modern standards, are a little cringe.
04:12Hey, everybody.
04:13Rich Rowley here with another installment of...
04:18Now, today, we're going to be talking about proper cuffing technique.
04:23Excuse me, officer?
04:24I hurt my shoulder at the gym.
04:27Would you mind cuffing me in front?
04:30Pretty lady like you.
04:33What's the worst that could happen?
04:38You're welcome.
04:40Ha!
04:40Oh!
04:42Rich was a trip.
04:44The life of the party, at least early in his career.
04:47Then, as the years went on, he became a little, uh, crazy.
04:52Crazy how?
04:53He was deep into conspiracy theories.
04:55He, uh, had a real thing for cults and cabals.
04:59To be fair, Los Angeles does have a pretty dark history.
05:02But Rich took it to the next level.
05:04And his training videos got more and more intense because of it.
05:07We finally got around to updating the videos this last year,
05:09but that caused quite a controversy with some of the older officers.
05:13They said we were being insensitive.
05:15Why would updating training videos be insensitive?
05:18Even three years on, a lot of his friends were still mourning his death and saw the videos as a
05:23way to keep his memory alive.
05:24Uh, I'm sorry.
05:25I thought Rich died six months ago.
05:27Yeah, he did.
05:28I'm talking about the first time.
05:31Divers are searching for any signs of retired Los Angeles police officer, Richard Rowley, after a sailing trip gone wrong.
05:38Coast Guard responded to a distress call this morning from Raleigh's wife, who says the 55-year-old fell overboard
05:45after the sailboat he was captaining was struck by a rogue wave.
05:50Anytime someone disappears from a boating trip, it automatically sets off alarm bells.
05:54Why is that?
05:55It's just an ideal place to cover up crime, throw a body overboard, weigh it down.
05:59The likelihood of us recovering it before it becomes fish food is low.
06:03And the circumstances were suspicious.
06:05By all accounts, Rich was a skilled sailor.
06:08It was a calm day, and the only witness to his demise was Darla Phillips,
06:12his on-again, off-again girlfriend who he married five days prior.
06:15So you suspected foul play?
06:20Not necessarily, but we couldn't rule it out.
06:22Why wasn't Rich wearing a light vest?
06:24He never did.
06:25He was a strong swimmer.
06:27He must have hit his head when he fell.
06:30Why didn't you jump in after him?
06:31I'm scared of dark water.
06:33Dark water?
06:34Water you can't see the bottom of.
06:37Just blackness with God knows what lurking below.
06:41You stand to inherit Rich's entire police pension.
06:43That's quite a bit of money.
06:45How dare you?
06:47I just watched the love of my life die in front of me.
06:51We don't know that for sure yet.
06:53They haven't found his body.
06:55Unless you know more that you're not telling us.
06:59Go to hell.
07:01This interview is over.
07:02Did it ever occur to you that Rich might still be alive?
07:05As we said, we couldn't rule anything out.
07:07But there was no evidence that he'd faked his death.
07:10Until he turned up dead again.
07:12Needless to say, we had a few more questions for Darla.
07:15Helping someone fake their death isn't a crime.
07:17I checked.
07:18You're right, but profiting off of that death, collecting Rich's pension and his life insurance,
07:23that's fraud.
07:24Not to mention the resources that were wasted trying to recover his body.
07:28You could be facing some serious charges.
07:31So, tell us.
07:32Why did Rich want to fake his death?
07:36After Rich retired, he kind of fell apart.
07:39His drinking got worse, and his paranoia, he was always a little intense.
07:46But it started to get scary.
07:48He covered all his windows with newspapers.
07:52It started writing down the license plates of passing cars.
07:56What was he so afraid of?
07:57He said there was this group, like a secret society of dangerous and powerful people.
08:05He'd been onto them for years.
08:07But he said that they found out about him.
08:09That he was in danger because of it.
08:11It was too much for me.
08:13So I broke up with him.
08:14And then a year later, he showed up on my doorstep and asked me to help him fake his death.
08:22In return for his pension.
08:24I needed the money.
08:25So, we got married, and we did the deed.
08:28And I never saw him again.
08:30So you have no idea why there was a coffin in his garage?
08:34Um, we'll probably hold this piece of the puzzle until the end of the first act.
08:38You know, hit the audience with a twist when it's dramatically expedient.
08:40Yeah, seems manipulative.
08:42All good storytelling is, so.
08:43Just tell us about finding the coffin.
08:46Uh, so once I arrived and we secured the crime scene,
08:50we cleared the rest of the house and then we moved on to the garage.
08:57Oh.
08:58Oh.
08:59You don't think there's...
09:00That there's a body in there?
09:01I absolutely do.
09:03Okay, are we gonna open it?
09:04Because I don't want to open it.
09:07What do you think?
09:08I mean, it's clearly been dug up.
09:11Given the state of the coffin, it's clearly been underground for a few years.
09:14If there is a body in there, it's likely long dead.
09:18Unless...
09:18Unless what?
09:19Unless he put a fresh victim in an old coffin.
09:26Oh, okay.
09:27Got it.
09:28Yeah.
09:28Oh.
09:30Oh, God.
09:36The body belonged to a 54-year-old truck driver named Marcus Ford,
09:41who was the victim of an unsolved homicide back in 2020.
09:44How was he killed?
09:46Uh, he was stabbed in the heart.
09:48Just like Rich.
09:50Wait.
09:51Rich murdered Marcus Ford.
09:53Did I just solve the case?
09:54Uh, no.
09:55We were able to alibi Rich out.
09:58He was hospitalized with double pneumonia the day Marcus died.
10:01Medical records say he was so weak that, uh, he could barely get out of bed.
10:04Or that's what he wanted you to think.
10:06Moving on.
10:07Digging up a body is no easy task.
10:09Why would Rich go to all that trouble?
10:10Initially, we thought it was simply the demented act of a clearly disturbed mind.
10:16And in some ways, it was.
10:18But then we found the tattoo.
10:20At first, it was a little bit difficult to make out exactly what it was.
10:24A half a decade of decomp does a number on the skin.
10:28But when we looked back at the case file, there was a photo of it taken during the original autopsy.
10:33That's actually kind of sick.
10:34I wonder if there's a way to track down the artist.
10:36I've been meaning to start the sleeve on my other arm.
10:39Like, uh...
10:39To my collaborator's point, lots of people have tattoos.
10:43What was it about this one that jumped out at you?
10:45Well, something about it was familiar to both of us, but we couldn't place it.
10:50So we started asking around, and the answer couldn't come from a more unlikely place.
10:56I watched the Rich Rally training videos more than any person alive.
11:01So I recognized the symbol immediately.
11:04Sometimes citizens panic when they can't get in touch with their friends or loved ones.
11:09That is why we always advise the public to wait 24 hours before reporting someone missing.
11:15While most missing person reports stem from a lapse in communication,
11:18every once in a while, you'll encounter a true, workable case.
11:23Officer, help! My sister is missing!
11:26When's the last time you saw her?
11:27Last night at the bar. Her boyfriend said she never made it home.
11:31You always want to take a report like this one? Seriously.
11:35So Rich hid the same symbol in his training videos that was tattooed on the body of a murder victim.
11:40What did you think that meant?
11:43I don't know.
11:44I can't believe I'm saying this, but Smitty was right.
11:46In lesson 187, the tattoo symbol was hidden in the background.
11:50Although, the instructions to wait 24 hours before reporting a missing person are wildly outdated.
11:56Anyways, it got me thinking. What if Rich put messages in other videos?
12:01What kind of messages?
12:03I'm not totally sure yet. I binged every single Rich training video I could get my hands on.
12:07Yeah, it's been a fun few nights.
12:08And I did find a few other possible leads, but there's a problem.
12:11The department's archive is incomplete, and without all of the videos, I can't be sure that I'm not
12:16missing a vital piece of information.
12:17So what happened to the missing videos?
12:19So when the training topics and the videos become outdated because of new laws or protocols,
12:24the department has to make new ones. And the obsolete videos are supposed to be digitized and
12:29archived for historical record. But Rich is, we're just gone.
12:35Gone and then destroyed?
12:36Like a cover-up?
12:37No one's saying that. Most likely it was a human error.
12:41You know, someone got lazy, didn't archive them.
12:44I tried reaching out to the production company that made the videos to see if they had any copies
12:48left. Bad news is, they went out of business a few years back and auctioned off all their equipment.
12:54What's the good news?
12:55Well, I managed to track down the auction logs, and I actually know the person who purchased
13:01the studio's old hard drives.
13:03Careful, I'm very ticklish. Like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
13:07Same. I hear it's, um, a sign of intelligence.
13:10Is that a fact?
13:11Then I am smart as the dickens.
13:13So you purchased hard drives from Speak Now Studios?
13:17Yeah, Dropout was still in its infancy. I was building the company from the ground up.
13:21We had to be smart about how we were spending our money. We bought a huge amount of equipment
13:25secondhand. Hard drives, cameras, wigs.
13:28Wait, wait, you bought secondhand wigs?
13:31Give him a little shake before we put him on.
13:33That's awesome. Do you still have that wig connect? Because I'd love a referral my guy is.
13:38Back on track. Uh, the hard drives you bought contain police training videos. Did you happen
13:43to watch any of them?
13:43Of course. Rich Rowley, right? We were obsessed with those videos. We probably watched them like
13:49a dozen times. I'm Rich Rowley, and this is Survive the Streets.
13:54That's great.
13:55Vic can do the best impression.
13:56Do you think you'd be able to make copies for us?
13:59I totally would, but I can't because we wiped all of those hard drives to use as servers months
14:04ago. Sorry, I couldn't be more help. You'll still feature this interview, right?
14:11Yeah, probably not.
14:12Wait, you said you and the Dropout crew watched the video like dozens of times, right?
14:17Yes, sometimes on an edible. Mostly sober.
14:19I have an idea.
14:21Okay, so then you'd be like, don't forget to check the closet or you'll die. So, I don't know.
14:24I think it's a little bit more like, like, if you forget to check the closet,
14:27Freddie, Jason, and Chucky will rip off your scrud.
14:30Okay, I think there's less foot stuff. I feel like he's like,
14:34and then your crazy met the ex-girlfriend who's been hiding in the hallway closet
14:37will chainsaw your face when you get home because you forgot to clear the room.
14:42Clear the room!
14:42Clear the room!
14:43Check the room!
14:44I think he was so close to pulling out a gun.
14:45I'm rich.
14:46What are you guys doing?
14:47That's a great question.
14:48They're reenacting the police training videos since you guys wiped them off your hard drive.
14:51Oh, the Rich Rowley ones! Those are so funny.
14:54I actually stole one of the hard drives so I could watch it when I'm in the tub.
14:57A little self-care, you know, trying to relax a little more.
15:01It's not working.
15:02Can we have it?
15:02If you want to borrow it, I could, you know.
15:04No, I think this is actually working great.
15:07Okay.
15:07You can keep this up.
15:08We're riffing.
15:09Clearing the room!
15:10Help us.
15:10Okay, I finally finished watching all of the rich training videos and there is a lot.
15:15Um, take lesson 277.
15:21My Azaleas!
15:22A cold case where victim Azalea Robinson was found stabbed near a ski resort.
15:28You're kidding.
15:29No.
15:29And in lesson 290, Rich is holding a folder with a post-it note on the back with a brown
15:34star drawn on it.
15:36I'm lost.
15:36Right, so I looked up the cold cases to see if there were any victims with names like Star or
15:42Stella.
15:42And there was one hit, Stella Brown, also found stabbed in the chest.
15:47In all, Lucy found clues pointing to seven different cold cases.
15:52But why was Rich hiding the names of murder victims in police training videos?
15:55Based on what we could piece together, he believed he had stumbled upon a conspiracy.
15:59A series of connected murders committed by person or persons unknown.
16:03If that were the case, why not just report his suspicion?
16:06He was a cop for 30 years.
16:08Well, Rich had a bit of a reputation within the department for, shall we say, magical thinking.
16:14So, unfortunately, his theory was dismissed out of hand.
16:18But why did he think the murders were connected?
16:20Well, for starters, they were all stabbed in the chest.
16:23But more importantly, each victim was found with a penny either in or on their person.
16:27What do you mean in?
16:28One had a penny in her stomach.
16:30Another had one shoved up his nose.
16:33Stella Brown lucked out.
16:34Hers was just clasped in her hand.
16:36And when we reexamined Marcus Ford's corpse, the Emmy found one inserted into the heel of his left foot.
16:42Why?
16:43Did we mention that they were all minted in 1930?
16:46Okay.
16:46Well, I just got goosebumps.
16:48Rich's autopsy also revealed that he had swallowed close to 50 pennies before he died.
16:52Gross.
16:53So, at this point, was your theory...
16:55I actually have no idea what the theory would have been.
16:57Yeah, well, I would tell you, but we were way off the mark.
17:00Which we were about to discover when we got access to his cloud account.
17:05Okay.
17:07I may have finally found it.
17:10I am so close to getting some real answers.
17:13I am so close to getting some real answers.
17:15See that?
17:28Oh, my God.
17:32Oh, my God.
17:36Oh, my God, no, no.
17:41for a guy pretending to be dead breaking into a secure military facility doesn't seem like
17:46the best idea no he wasn't just breaking into any military facility it was area 67
17:52what does that mean that's where the government keeps the aliens
18:03so rich broke into a secret government base on the hunt for a massive conspiracy then
18:07stabbed himself in the chest i mean at that point it's obvious what happened is it come on remember
18:12what rich said right before he died i can't die it's inside i mean it won't let me die yeah
18:19i'm
18:19not following rich was exposed to an alien parasite it was inside him were you familiar with area 67
18:28i'd heard of it yeah there's this am radio station i used to listen to back in foxburg kept me
18:34awake
18:34when i was working late the host was obsessed with uofos val's velvet bunker that's the one
18:40yeah i he was a little bit out there but uh always entertaining area 51 is theater do you believe
18:48do you really believe the most secretive military installation in the world would let itself become
18:55a tourist attraction no no no no area 51 is the distraction area 67 is the real deal you know
19:04why california has all those earthquakes it's not san andreas fault my friends it's the sonic resonance
19:10from area 67 underground testing chambers did you believe in his theories no no uh like i said just
19:18entertainment let's hear from a caller hi name's john long time listener fourth time caller hey john from
19:24foxburg welcome back what have you got for us tonight i swear to god i just saw a ufo
19:32john is such a common name i'm open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life you are
19:38yeah i mean it's a big universe anything could be out there i don't know people who claim to have
19:43seen aliens tend to be a little off you're friends with the corpse right well yeah we were more than
19:48friends but fair enough okay legally is it necrophilia if she only did over the clothes stuff that's a great
19:54question oh i definitely believe in fact i've been abducted by aliens really multiple times apparently
20:04i'm a fascinating subject i remember the last time smitty was abducted turns out he partied too
20:10hard in vegas and woke up in wisconsin missing time one of the hallmarks of alien abductions
20:17and binge drinking point is the government had little gray men in their secret labs for decades
20:24what are they doing with them they're implanting the aliens in unsuspecting hosts and taking over
20:30their bodies you just never know who might be one of them some people in the station believed rich
20:38dabbed himself to kill an alien parasite but i wouldn't say that was a dominant theory it wasn't long
20:45before we figured out rich believed something darker and it was connected to the seven murders
20:50then why did rich break into the army base yes i remember the incident rich rowley cut through a
20:56fence he trespassed on government property he was promptly apprehended and sent on his way do you have
21:02any idea what rich was looking for uh as it turns out he was looking for me but not because
21:08of any
21:08alleged aliens so why did he come uh this part is uh is a little bit embarrassing um before i
21:19found
21:19my calling in the military i thought that i wanted to be an actor and uh i was in a
21:24few dtv movies
21:26what's dtv you're so young uh direct to video they made all these super cheap movies back in the 80s
21:33and
21:3390s you make them as cheaply as possible and then hope that someone was drawn in enough by the cover
21:38art
21:38to rent them a guy can't have a side gig totally how did you get into acting some director scouted
21:45me
21:45when i pulled him over he said i had a bitchin bod well he wasn't wrong but i gave it
21:52up because the
21:52people of this city needed a savior yeah you are the model of public service right anyway rich became
22:01interested in this terrible b movie uh that i was in i played a monk it was called
22:07300 days of hell
22:12terrible b movie that's what he called it 300 days of hell is the scariest film of the 1990s
22:18really the ring scream blair witch project which one of us executive produced a horror movie trust me
22:23t-h-d-o-h is true nightmare fuel it's not that scary she made me watch at the beginning
22:30of our
22:30relationship when he was still trying to impress me you want to watch it again tonight i would
22:39totally i do have plans though
22:43yeah i'm not watching that crap even if it is for a case i i see enough horror on the
22:48job that being
22:48said 300 days of hell was our first real window into the rabbit hole that rich had gone down a
22:54rabbit
22:55hole filled with demons or rather a demon so rich believed a demon had killed all those people no
23:01the killers were definitely human killers plural yeah there was different trace dna on all the bodies
23:06all from different subjects and none of them were in the system meaning the murders were committed by a
23:12group of people with shared beliefs a murder cult the cult believed a demon named malifus had been
23:18possessing people all across the city jumping from host to host and it was up to them to stop it
23:32the legend of malifus is centuries old the first mention we see of him is 1433's lesser grimoire of
23:40solomon by slovenian inquisitor terentius bruma a reference text of demons and their attributes
23:48gnarly right he's also known as the deceiver the infestor and demon of 300 days why once summoned
23:56to earth malifus won't rest until he finds a human host after possession begins he incubates 300 days
24:05what happens after 300 days he reaches full strength and his power becomes uncontainable uh-oh
24:14um if malifus was summoned to earth how would one stop him bruma suggests killing the host might
24:20slow malifus down forcing him to regenerate before he can find a new host a process that also can be
24:27slowed by the use of copper it was the pennies the pennies it all came back to the pennies before
24:351984
24:36u.s pennies were 95 percent copper so the copper and the pennies was meant to bind the demon but
24:41what about the 1930 part are you familiar with numerology some ancient peoples and taylor swift
24:50believed there was a mystical connection between letters and numbers using the chaldean method the
24:57name malifus becomes a digit 1930. so you're saying we had a theory whoever killed those people believed
25:04the victims were possessed by malifus they had to reach malifus's host before he reached his true
25:11form a 1930 penny was the perfect tool yeah rich's talk of it's inside me it won't let me die
25:17he thought
25:18he was infested by this demon too and that's why he killed himself wait i thought rich didn't believe
25:24in malifus isn't that why he was trying to stop the cult yes but i mean years of obsession and
25:28paranoia
25:29can do a number on a person's psyche i mean it seems as though in the end rich could no
25:33longer
25:33distinguish fantasy from reality and you got this theory from rich's files well i mean we actually
25:38got it from lopez and they say watching old horror movies isn't a good use of time i never said
25:45that
25:53are we safe brother is malifus banished his sigil is drawn the right is spoken we have sealed his last
26:03human vessel with copper
26:12heaven forgive us indeed for hell will not
26:20midnight the 300th day our task was done none too soon
26:43oh
26:53Yeah, that was me.
26:57Do you guys want a glass?
26:58You got anything stronger?
27:02Fine, I'll just take the glass.
27:04Okay, I'll just, I'll have nothing, actually.
27:06No fun for me.
27:08Yeah, that was my first big movie role.
27:12Well, my only one, really.
27:16Rich was so excited when I told him my book did.
27:19He helped me run lines.
27:20Did Rich buy into the Malifis mythology?
27:22No.
27:23Weirdly, given all the conspiracies that Rich believed in,
27:26he was a total atheist.
27:29But I wouldn't have blamed him
27:30after everything that happened on that shoot.
27:32Like what?
27:35Before production wrapped,
27:37the DP was paralyzed driving to set.
27:39A stunt person had his leg amputated.
27:42There were divorces, bankruptcies, careers ended.
27:45One of the actors even died in his hotel room.
27:49People say the production was cursed.
27:52What about you?
27:53What do you believe?
27:54I believe the real curse was the director.
27:58He was a reckless maniac that didn't know how to run a set.
28:01Cuts!
28:02Cuts!
28:03Arthur!
28:04Arthur!
28:05Your strangulation, it has to be real.
28:10I want to feel the life draining from him.
28:12And you, you, you cannot move from your position, not even an inch.
28:17Guys, this ritual is extremely specific.
28:22Okay?
28:23Let's go again.
28:24Okay.
28:24I thought I was choking you pretty well.
28:26I'm sorry.
28:26Okay?
28:27I'm going to choke you a little harder.
28:28Ready?
28:28Douglas was real touchy about the religious stuff.
28:31I guess he had grown up in some sort of commune.
28:33And this was all based on stories he was told growing up.
28:37Okay, but what I heard is that they accidentally summoned Malefus for real.
28:40The director found some ancient tome and inserted the incantation and rituals verbatim.
28:46Ooh, I love that.
28:48And that's what got me thinking about the penny killings.
28:50We found the first victim just a little under 300 days after the summoning ritual was filmed.
28:55We knew Rich was aware of the Malefus legends.
28:58It was only natural to link them.
29:00So Rich thought that penny victims were killed by people trying to stop Malefus.
29:03Was he able to identify any of these killers?
29:06We know he tried.
29:08Hi.
29:09Hey, how are you?
29:10Jared.
29:11Hello.
29:12Wow.
29:13It's a pleasure to meet you, gentlemen.
29:15Pleasure to meet you, too.
29:17Why don't you tell us about yourselves?
29:18Yeah, we co-starred on a TV show together for 15 seasons called Supernatural.
29:27Yeah, we played Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers that, you know, tracked and fought supernatural beings.
29:34Like K-pop demon hunters?
29:36No, no, not like that.
29:38Well, I mean, you look kind of like that.
29:41Okay.
29:42Can you tell us about your encounter with Rich Rowley?
29:44Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:45Rich Rowley.
29:46He came to a fan event we did last year at MonsterCon.
29:52Yeah, you know, most people show up and they just want an autograph or a photo.
29:57But Rich was a different beast altogether.
30:01Yeah, yeah.
30:01He was super fixated on this one particular episode where we fought a demon.
30:07Malefus.
30:07Yeah, that one.
30:10Anyway, he seemed to think we, like, knew more about it than we were saying.
30:16More about what?
30:17Demon hunting.
30:18He kept, like, asking these super pointed questions like he was testing us or something.
30:25Did you have an answer?
30:26No.
30:27No, I mean, we didn't come up with these stories, you know.
30:30We just did what the writers wrote.
30:32It's called acting.
30:33There's no actual demon hunters in real life.
30:36Exactly.
30:36Uh, that's not exactly true.
30:39There is at least one.
30:41And it actually connected to the movie.
30:44We heard the director brought a priest named Father Simon McCabe to bless the set every day before filming.
30:50Well, it was either that or the whole crew was going to walk.
30:53Does that name mean anything to you?
30:56About 15 years ago, Lopez and I had just finished our rookie years.
31:00We responded to a, call it a house of a priest doing an exorcism with a 16-year-old girl.
31:05I've been going on for three days.
31:06Father, help!
31:08In the name of the Christ!
31:10Police!
31:10Police!
31:12Help her!
31:14Please!
31:16Please!
31:18Police!
31:21Get away from her!
31:25Father, forgive me!
31:35Did you feel like you'd seen the devil?
31:37The only thing in that room that belonged in hell was Father Simon.
31:40He kept saying he had to.
31:42The whole way to the station.
31:43I'm sorry I had to.
31:45I'm sorry I had to.
31:46Because he believed she was possessed.
31:48She had a brain tumor.
31:50That's what they found after the autopsy.
31:52She needed a doctor, not an exorcism.
31:54And he wasn't a man of God.
31:56He was a killer.
31:56The courts agreed.
31:58So Father Simon was convicted of first-degree murder.
32:01When we processed him, we found a penny in his pocket.
32:04Nothing else, just a penny.
32:05Didn't mean anything at the time, but after Rich connected those seven murders, it seemed
32:09likely he was involved.
32:11Involved?
32:11Like he killed them?
32:12No, Simon was already in prison when five of the murders took place.
32:16And his DNA didn't match any that was found on the corpses.
32:19But he could have been part of whatever group Rich was so afraid of.
32:23Which means he knew more than he had told us, so we had to go back.
32:28Officers, I remember you.
32:31You were the ones who tried to stop the ritual.
32:33I just wish we would have gotten here sooner.
32:34Becca Scott might still be alive.
32:36Oh, she was long gone before you arrived.
32:38Demon saw to that.
32:40Malifus?
32:42Do not say its name in my presence.
32:44Boy, are you afraid we might accidentally summon it?
32:47You may scorn me and my beliefs, but I have fought this evil.
32:52I know enough to fear its power.
32:54What's more evil than murdering a child?
32:57I took no pleasure in the act.
32:59I'm grateful I had the courage to do what was necessary.
33:02Courage?
33:02Tell us about the penny that was in your pocket.
33:05In the movie 300 Days of Hell, Malifus is sealed inside his host with copper before he
33:10can be killed.
33:11Banished, not killed.
33:13What's the difference?
33:15The demon is a parasite.
33:18It needs a host.
33:19Once you kill the body that inhabits it, find a new one.
33:23Becca Scott was just a single battle in a larger war.
33:27If you're in here, who's doing the fighting now?
33:31The Knights of Avila.
33:34Los Angeles has a long history of spiritualism, esoteric religions that go back over a hundred
33:39years.
33:40So think Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard.
33:43He freaking loves this stuff.
33:45I do.
33:46Anyway, a lot of these groups started out as fraternal orders, similar to the Freemasons,
33:51where people would gather and share.
33:54Well, yeah.
33:54Yes.
33:55And some women.
33:56And they would share new ideas.
33:58Explore philosophies.
34:00They also liked partying, doing drugs, and performing weird sex rituals.
34:05Sign me up.
34:08For the intellectual exchanging of ideas, obviously.
34:11So the Knights of Avila is one of these groups?
34:14It was.
34:14Like a lot of the similar organizations at the time, it fell apart when the founder died.
34:18It hasn't been active in 60 years?
34:21Then what was Father Simon talking about?
34:22Based on Tim and Lopez's conversation with Father Simon, we began to believe that the group,
34:27or at least the name, had been revived sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s and rebranded
34:35as some kind of demon hunting cult.
34:38So Rich was actually right.
34:40There was a murderous cabal after him.
34:43It seemed that way.
34:44And we were getting close to discovering who their ringleader was.
34:50I found him.
34:51Found who?
34:52Doug Roberts.
34:53I want to throw a life training for man.
34:55Oh, you mean the director of the sad little demon porn?
34:58Where?
34:58I was going through some old industry trades from around the time THDOH was slated to come
35:02out.
35:03One of the articles mentioned that Roberts was a client of Stuart Wynecliffe at the Golden
35:07Talent Agency.
35:08The guy hasn't made a movie in 26 years.
35:09I doubt they still rep him.
35:11Not actively, no.
35:12But I called their offices, and I bribed or, like, I talked one of the assistants into
35:17giving me the address where his residual checks are sent.
35:19It's downtown.
35:19Let's go.
35:20Uh, hold on.
35:21You just want to go doorstep the guy?
35:23If that means go knock on a door while also filming, then yes.
35:26Yeah, I'm not in the business of gotcha journalism.
35:28What about the business of making that paper?
35:32The guap?
35:33Money, guy.
35:35Come on.
35:35The doc business is oversaturated these days.
35:37We need footage that P.O.P.'s.
35:39And what pops more than blindsiding a potential cult leader?
35:43Come on.
35:44What's the worst that could happen?
35:47This is it.
35:49Okay.
35:50Um, uh, here.
35:51Here's your camera.
35:52Um, I don't operate.
35:54Oh.
35:55Okay.
35:58Now, you do.
36:01Let's go.
36:04What floor is it on?
36:06Eight, but, uh, there's an elevator.
36:07Don't worry.
36:14Are you sure it's that way?
36:16Yep.
36:18Nope.
36:19You know, at the risk of being called a scaredy cat, you do understand that this is inherently
36:25neither a wise nor safe activity?
36:27You're asking a woman if she understands that it's inherently dangerous to go anywhere or do
36:32anything?
36:33When you put it that way, I sound like an ass.
36:36I truly thought that's a new one.
36:39Do you doubt me?
36:40Maybe we should come back?
36:42Hey, hello, Douglas Roberts.
36:44We're here to question you about murders and demons.
36:48That should get his attention.
36:51Oh, I am just an intern.
36:58So, clearly we're not deceased, which means...
37:02We saved you from certain deaths?
37:03I'm not sure how certain it was, right?
37:05Oh, it felt pretty certain to me.
37:07Please don't kill us.
37:08We will join your cult.
37:09Is there a membership fee or a secret handshake?
37:11I love a secret handshake.
37:12Ignore her.
37:13She's not right in the head.
37:14In fact, she has short-term memory issues, so if you let her go now, she won't remember
37:17any of this.
37:18Just shut up.
37:18No one's going anywhere.
37:19I mean, technically, we're all going somewhere.
37:26All right, let him go.
37:27Get your hands up.
37:29Up against the jeep now.
37:30Let's go.
37:37Oh, my God.
37:37Hey, uh, thanks for trying to save me, even though I'm the one who put us in danger.
37:43No problem.
37:44I was about to do the same thing, but you just, uh, beat me to it.
37:48I can be noble, too.
37:50No doubt.
37:50Yeah.
37:50Uh, I get very claustrophobic.
37:53Can I just point out how claustrophobic I get, please?
37:55So, when did you and Douglas meet?
37:57In the movie.
37:59He was, you know, so commanding and driven and everything I wasn't.
38:04When did he start talking about killing the demon?
38:06It was, uh, at least a year after that.
38:09He would call me, uh, late at night and talk about the demon and how scared he was for the
38:14world, and eventually it started to make sense.
38:17And he told you that someone was possessed?
38:21Correct.
38:21Correct.
38:21Her name was Cynthia.
38:23Um, she cried when I tied her up, and she kept saying that she was not a demon.
38:29She begged me to believe her, and at that point, he was very deep in my head.
38:39And then tonight, you know, all the lies he was spewing at the end, it was like somebody turned on
38:44a light switch.
38:45I could just see him for who he was, so pathetic.
38:52We'll need you to write up a detailed confession.
39:00I would like to make a deal.
39:03Uh, we have already located your co-conspirators.
39:06You don't really have anything to offer.
39:09You don't want to know what an alien spaceship looks like?
39:14I am all that stands between the world and damnation.
39:19So, all of the people that you had targeted, they had to die for the greater good?
39:25Yes, and my heart breaks for each of them, but I will not let innocence fall to perdition.
39:32Okay, have you had your fill of BS?
39:34God, yes.
39:35Okay, me too.
39:36So, uh, first victim.
39:39Cynthia Green.
39:40You did it for two years before she cheated on you.
39:42Marcus Ford.
39:43He worked as a teamster on your movie, then later sued you for non-payment.
39:48Pamela Jones wrote a scathing review of your movie.
39:52Really?
39:54I had no idea.
39:55All seven victims were people who wronged you in some way.
39:59You don't even believe in the demon, you just used it as a tool to get people with weak minds
40:03to do your dirty work for you.
40:07Exactly.
40:09I was the director, I think you'll find I never laid a finger on any of the victims.
40:14And I think you will find that Manson died in prison.
40:21All right, uh, anything else?
40:24No, I think we got everything.
40:25Okay.
40:27That was a crazy one, huh?
40:29Tell me about it.
40:30And look, thanks so much for all of your time, and for saving our lives.
40:33Anything from my favorite documentarian?
40:35Actually, the only documentarian I know.
40:37Not true.
40:38I'm a documentarian, too.
40:39Of course, yes.
40:40Oh, speaking of, how did this whole, uh, working together thing go?
40:44Is this the start of a beautiful friendship?
40:47I don't know.
40:48I mean, we have very different styles and instincts and, well, basically everything.
40:53But I'd be open to another collaboration.
40:57Oh, um, it's just I, uh, I kind of signed an exclusive three-film deal with Hulu.
41:04What?
41:05Yeah, I, um, I sent them a sizzle reel of this project.
41:07Just the me parts.
41:08And, uh, they freaked.
41:10Said I'm gonna be the new face of true crime.
41:12Their words.
41:13Wow, I mean, you'd probably be able to bring him along, though, right?
41:17Oh, totally.
41:19Totally.
41:22I gotta go.
41:23But, uh, thanks again.
41:24Hello?
41:25No, I said Toronto and then camp.
41:30She'll probably call you.
41:32Oh.
42:08I did.
42:09Damn it.
42:10Oh.
42:12Oh.
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