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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?
17:16Okay.
17:27Oh my god.
17:31Oh, wow.
17:41For a guy pretending to be dead, breaking into a secure military facility doesn't seem like the best idea.
17:47No, he wasn't just breaking into any military facility.
17:51It was Area 67.
17:53What does that mean?
17:54That's where the government keeps the aliens.
18:03So Rich broke into a secret government base on the hunt for a massive conspiracy, then stabbed himself in the
18:08chest?
18:09I mean, at that point, it's obvious what happened.
18:10Is it?
18:11Come on. Remember what Rich said right before he died?
18:15I can't die! It's inside of me! It won't let me die!
18:19Yeah, I'm not following.
18:20Rich was exposed to an alien parasite. It was inside him.
18:25Were you familiar with Area 67?
18:28I'd heard of it, yeah.
18:29Yeah. There's this AM radio station I used to listen to back in Foxburg, kept me awake when I was
18:35working late.
18:36The host was obsessed with UFOs.
18:38Val's Velvet Bunker?
18:40That's the one. He was a little bit out there, but always entertaining.
18:44Area 51 is theater.
18:47Do you believe, do you really believe, the most secretive military installation in the world would let itself become a
18:55tourist attraction?
18:56No, no, no, no. Area 51 is the distraction. Area 67 is the real deal.
19:03You know why California has all those earthquakes?
19:06It's not San Andreas' fault, my friends.
19:09It's the sonic resonance from Area 67's underground testing chambers.
19:14Did you believe in his theories?
19:15No, no. Uh, like I said, just entertainment.
19:19Let's hear from a caller.
19:20Hi, name's John. Long-time listener, fourth-time caller.
19:23Hey, John from Foxburg. Welcome back. What have you got for us tonight?
19:27I 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. I mean, it's a big universe. Anything could be out there.
19:41I don't know. People who claim to have seen aliens tend to be a little off.
19:45You were friends with a corpse, right?
19:47Well, yeah, we were more than friends, but fair enough. Okay.
19:50Legally, is it necrophilia if she only did over-the-clothes stuff?
19:54That's a great question.
19:55Oh, I definitely believe. In fact, I've been abducted by aliens.
20:00Really?
20:02Multiple times. Apparently, I'm a fascinating subject.
20:06I remember the last time Smitty was abducted.
20:09Turns out he partied too hard in Vegas and woke up in Wisconsin.
20:12Missing time.
20:14One of the hallmarks of alien abductions.
20:17And binge drinking.
20:18Point is, the government had little gray men in their secret labs for decades.
20:25What 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.
20:36Some people in the station believed Rich dabbed himself to kill an alien parasite.
20:41But I wouldn't say that was a dominant theory.
20:44It wasn't long before we figured out Rich believed something darker.
20:48And 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.
20:57He 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?
21:04As it turns out, he was looking for me.
21:06But not because of any alleged aliens.
21:10So why did he come?
21:12Uh, this part is, uh, is a little bit embarrassing.
21:17Um, 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.
21:30They 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.
21:47He said I had a bitchin' bod.
21:49Well, he wasn't wrong.
21:51But I gave it up because the people of this city needed a savior.
21:56Yeah, you are the model of public service.
21:59Right?
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, that'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, T-H-D-O-H is true nightmare fuel.
22:27It's not that scary.
22:29She made me watch it at the beginning of our relationship.
22:31When he was still trying to impress me.
22:35You want to watch it again tonight?
22:37I would.
22:39Totally.
22:39I do have plans, though.
22:43Yeah, I'm not watching that crap.
22:44Even if it is for a case.
22:46I 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, or rather, a demon.
22:58So Rich believed a demon had killed all those people?
23:01No, 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?
23:10The murders were committed by a group of people with shared beliefs.
23:14A murder cult?
23:15The cult believed a demon named Malephous had been possessing people all across the city, jumping from host to host.
23:22And it was up to them to stop it.
23:31The legend of Malephous is centuries old.
23:35The first mention we see of him is 1433's Lesser Grimoire of Solomon by Slovenian Inquisitor Terentius Bruma.
23:44A reference text of demons and their attributes.
23:48Gnarly.
23:49Right? He's also known as the Deceiver, the Infestor, and Demon of 300 Days. Why?
23:56Once summoned to Earth, Malephous won't rest until he finds a human host.
24:00After possession begins, he incubates. 300 Days.
24:05What happens after 300 Days?
24:07He reaches full strength and his power becomes uncontainable.
24:12Uh-oh.
24:14Um, if Malephous was summoned to Earth, how would one stop him?
24:18Bruma suggests killing the host might slow Malephous down, forcing him to regenerate before he can find a new host.
24:25A process that also can be slowed by the use of copper.
24:31It was the pennies.
24:32The pennies.
24:33It all came back to the pennies.
24:34Before 1984, U.S. pennies were 95% copper.
24:38So the copper and the pennies was meant to bind the demon, but what about the 1930 part?
24:43Uh, are-are you familiar with numerology?
24:47Some ancient peoples, and Taylor Swift, believed there was a mystical connection between letters and numbers.
24:55Using the Chaldean method, the name Malephous becomes a digit 1930.
24:59So you're saying...
25:01We had a theory.
25:02Whoever killed those people believed the victims were possessed by Malephous.
25:07They had to reach Malephous's host before he reached his true form.
25:12A 1930 penny was the perfect tool.
25:14Yeah.
25:14Rich's talk of, it's inside me, it won't let me die.
25:17He thought he was infested by this demon, too.
25:20And that's why he killed himself.
25:22Wait, I thought Rich didn't believe in Malephous.
25:25Isn't that why he was trying to stop the cult?
25:26Yes, but, I mean, years of obsession and paranoia can do a number on a person's psyche.
25:31I mean, it seems as though, in the end, Rich could no longer distinguish fantasy from reality.
25:35And you got this theory from Rich's files?
25:37Well, I mean, we actually got it from Lopis.
25:39And they say watching old horror movies isn't a good use of time.
25:44I never said that.
25:53Are we safe, brother?
25:56Is Malephous banished?
25:58His sigil is drawn.
26:00The right is spoken.
26:01We have sealed his last human vessel with copper.
26:12Heaven forgive us.
26:13Indeed.
26:15For hell will not.
26:19Midnight.
26:21The 300th day.
26:24Our task was done none too soon.
26:53Yeah, that was me.
26:57Do you guys want a glass?
26:58Oh, you got anything stronger?
27:02Fine, I'll just take a 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, he helped me run lines.
27:20Did Rich buy into the Malephous mythology?
27:22No.
27:23Weirdly, given all the conspiracies that Rich believed in, he was a total atheist.
27:29But I wouldn't have blamed him after everything that happened on that shoot.
27:32Like what?
27:35Before production wrapped, the 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!
28:04Arthur!
28:04Arthur!
28:06Your 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 Malephous for real.
28:40The director found some ancient tome and inserted the incantation and rituals verbatim.
28:46Ooh, I love that.
28:47And 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 Malephous legends.
28:58It was only natural to link them.
29:00So Rich thought that penny victims were killed by people trying to stop Malephous.
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.
29:18We 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, 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.
30:07Malephous.
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.
31:05It had been going on for three days.
31:09Please!
31:12Help her!
31:13Please!
31:16Please!
31:18She's been too slow.
31:21I mean...
31:22get away from her father forgive me
31:35did you feel like you'd seen the devil the only thing in that room that belonged in hell
31:39was father simon he kept saying he had to the whole way to the station i'm sorry i had to
31:45i'm
31:45sorry i had to because he believed she was possessed she had a brain tumor that's what
31:50they found after the autopsy she needed a doctor not an exorcism and he wasn't a man of god he
31:56was
31:56a killer the courts agreed so father simon was convicted of first-degree murder when we processed
32:02him we found a penny in his pocket nothing else just a penny didn't mean anything at the time but
32:07after rich connected those seven murders it seemed likely he was involved involved like he killed
32:12them no simon was already in prison when five of the murders took place and his dna didn't match
32:17any that was found on the corpses but he could have been part of whatever group rich was so afraid
32:23of which means he knew more than he had told us so we had to go back officers i remember
32:30you you you
32:31were the ones who tried to stop the ritual i just wish we would have gotten here sooner becca scott
32:35might still be alive oh she was long gone before you arrived demon saw to that malifus
32:42do not say its name in my presence boy you afraid we might accidentally summon it you may scorn me
32:50and my beliefs but i have fought this evil i know enough to fear its power what's more evil than
32:55murdering a child i took no pleasure in the act i'm grateful i had the courage to do what was
33:01necessary courage tell us about the penny that was in your pocket in the movie 300 days of hell
33:07malifus is sealed inside his host with copper before he can be killed banished not killed what's
33:14the difference the demon is a parasite it needs a host once you kill the body that inhabits it
33:21find a new one becca scott was just a single battle in a larger war if you're in here who's
33:29doing the
33:29fighting now the knights of havila los angeles has a long history of spiritualism esoteric religions
33:38that go back over 100 years so think alistair crowley jack parsons l ron hubbard he freaking loves this
33:44stuff i do anyway a lot of these groups started out as fraternal orders similar to the freemasons
33:51where people would gather and share well yeah yes and and some women and they would share new ideas
33:59explorer philosophies they also liked partying doing drugs and performing weird sex rituals sign me up
34:08for the intellectual exchanging of ideas obviously so the nice of avila is one of these groups it was
34:14like a lot of the similar organizations of the time it fell apart when the founder died it hasn't been
34:18active in 60 years then what was father simon talking about based on tim and lopez's conversation
34:25with father simon we began to believe that the group or at least the name had been revived
34:31sometime in the late 90s to the early 2000s and rebranded as some kind of demon hunting cult
34:38so rich was actually right there was a murderous cabal after him it seemed that way and we were
34:45getting close to discovering who their ringleader was i found him found who doug roberts
34:53i want to throw a life training for man oh 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 out
35:02one of the articles mentioned that roberts was a client of stewart winecliffe at the golden talent
35:07agency the guy hasn't made a movie in 26 years i doubt they still rep him not actively no but
35:12i
35:12called their offices and i bribed or like i talked one of the assistants into giving me the address where
35:18his residual checks are sent it's downtown let's go uh hold on you just want to go doorstep the guy
35:23if that means go knock on a door while also filming then yes yeah i'm not in the business of
35:27gotcha
35:27journalism what about the business of making that paper the guap money guy come on the doc business
35:35is oversaturated these days we need footage that pops and what pops more than blindsiding a potential
35:41cult leader come on what's the worst that could happen this is it okay um here here's your camera um
35:53i
35:53don't operate oh okay now you do let's go what floor is it on eight but uh there's an elevator
36:07don't worry
36:14are you sure it's that way yep nope you know at the risk of being called a scaredy cat
36:22you do understand that this is inherently neither a wise nor safe activity you're asking a woman if
36:29she understands that it's inherently dangerous to go anywhere or do anything when you put it that way
36:35i sound like an ass
36:39maybe we should come back hey hello douglas roberts we're here to question you about murders and demons
36:47that should get his attention oh i am just an intern
36:58so clearly we're not deceased which means we saved you from certain deaths i'm not sure how certain it
37:04was right oh it felt pretty certain to me please don't kill us we will join your cult is there
37:09a
37:10membership fee or a secret handshake i love a secret handshake ignore her she'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 any of
37:17this
37:18just shut up no one's going anywhere i mean technically we're all going somewhere
37:26all right let him go get your hands up up against jeep now let's go
37:37oh my god thanks for trying to save me even though i'm the one who put us in danger
37:43no problem i was about to do the same thing but you just uh beat me to it
37:48i can be noble too no doubt yeah i get very claustrophobic can i just point out how claustrophobic
37:54i get please so when did you and douglas meet in the movie he was you know so commanding and
38:02driven and everything i wasn't when did he start talking about killing the demon it was uh at least
38:08a year after that he would call me late at night and talk about the demon and how scared he
38:13was for
38:14the world and eventually it started to make sense and he told you that someone was possessed correct
38:21her name was cynthia um she cried when i tied her up and she kept saying that she was not
38:28a demon she
38:29begged me to believe her and at that point he was very deep in my head and then tonight you
38:40know all
38:41the lies he was spewing at the end it was like somebody turned on a light switch i could just
38:46see 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 you don't really have anything to offer
39:09you don't want to know what an alien spaceship looks like i am all that stands between the world
39:18and damnation so all of the people that you had targeted they had to die for the greater good yes
39:25and my heart breaks for each of them but i will not let innocence fall to perdition okay have you
39:32had
39:33your fill of bs god yes okay me too so uh first victim cynthia green you dated for two years
39:41before
39:41she cheated on you marcus ford he worked as a teamster on your movie then later sued you for
39:47non-payment pamela jones wrote a scathing review of your movie really i i had no idea all seven victims
39:56were people who wronged you in some way you don't even believe in the demon you just used it as
40:01a
40:02tool to get people with weak minds to do your dirty work for you
40:08exactly i 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 no i think we got everything okay that was a crazy one huh tell me
40:29about it and look thanks so much for all of your time and for saving our lives anything from my
40:34favorite documentarian actually the only documentarian i know not true i'm a documentarian too of course
40:39yes oh speaking of how did this whole uh working together thing go is this the start of a beautiful
40:46friendship i don't know i mean we have very different styles and instincts and well basically
40:52everything but i'd be open to another collaboration oh um it's just i uh i kind of signed an exclusive
41:02three film deal with hulu what yeah i um i sent them a sizzle reel of this project just the
41:08me parts
41:08and uh they freaked said i'm gonna be the new face of true crime their words wow i mean you'd
41:14probably
41:14be able to bring him along though right oh totally totally i gotta go but uh thanks again hello no
41:26i said
41:26toronto and then camp she'll probably call you
41:57don't know
42:09Damn it.
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