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00:00:00Hollywood. The stars, the magic, the murder. For the next two hours, we'll retrace the
00:00:10most horrifying murders that helped make this town infamous. Crime scenes, forensic experts,
00:00:17celebrity friends. Choked her unconscious, banged her head on the floor. And perhaps
00:00:21the most chilling, the killers themselves. You people just don't understand. What really
00:00:30happened may surprise you. Join us for these gripping personal stories shared only with
00:00:36E as we count down the 20 most horrifying Hollywood murders.
00:00:51On the outside, they seemed like the perfect Hollywood couple. But behind closed doors,
00:01:12she struggled with substance abuse and he tried to keep their marriage from falling
00:01:16apart. Number 20, the murder of Phil Hartman.
00:01:21I can suddenly become Jack Benny or John Wayne. By 1998, comedian Phil Hartman hit
00:01:28his stride in television and movies. I want to touch people's lives and I want to be liked
00:01:34by a lot of people. We laughed at him, whether we were laughing at his face on Saturday Night
00:01:39Live or we were laughing at his voice on The Simpsons. But Phil's wife, Brynn, didn't completely
00:01:44share his joy. For years, she put her acting career on hold to be a stay at home mom. Brynn
00:01:50began taking antidepressants. She had been parked in a couple of movies and TV shows,
00:01:54but it just was never going to happen for her. And by Phil's growing attention and growing
00:01:59popularity and fame, it was just eating away at her. There was a dirty little secret that
00:02:04Brynn Hartman was living with, and that was her addiction to prescription and other drugs.
00:02:09And Mr. Hartman was very upset over this and they argued over it. On May 27th, 1998, Brynn
00:02:17went out for dinner with a girlfriend. She left the restaurant around 9.45 p.m. Sometime
00:02:24before 3 a.m., Brynn returned home. Whether she and Phil argued is unclear, but at some
00:02:29point, Phil fell asleep in their bedroom. Brynn Hartman, at some time in the early evening
00:02:36after the children had gone to bed, pulled a gun out. Brynn pointed the gun at Phil and
00:02:41fired three shots. The fatal wound to Mr. Hartman was a gunshot wound to the head.
00:02:48And he had two additional wounds, one of which was considered non-fatal. The other was considered
00:02:55a potentially fatal wound. Brynn Hartman was a drug addict and a cocaine addict. So somebody
00:03:03who's in a drug-induced state has no control over their impulses, is profoundly depressed.
00:03:10I mean, this is a woman who is very lost. The Hartman children were still asleep down
00:03:15the hall. Brynn Hartman left her residence and drove to the residence of a longtime friend,
00:03:21Ron Douglas. Brynn told Douglas that she shot Phil. After he discovered that she was in
00:03:27possession of a handgun, he ultimately agreed to follow her back to her residence. Brynn
00:03:33and Douglas returned to the Hartman home. When the gentleman got there and he actually
00:03:38saw that Mr. Hartman was deceased, he then got on his cell phone and called the police.
00:03:44I think there's been a shooting here. Okay, do you see a victim? Yes. Before the cops
00:03:51arrived, Brynn barricaded herself in the master bedroom. Moments later, Brynn picked up a
00:03:56second gun and laid down next to the body of her husband. She held the weapon to her
00:04:01own head and pulled the trigger. It appears to be a murder-suicide. Mrs. Hartman died
00:04:07of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Mrs. Hartman was in bed, sitting up in bed with her back
00:04:13against the headboard before she had taken her own life. The homicide-suicide is devastating
00:04:19to the public and it's something that, as a member of the media, you look at it and
00:04:22say, my God, how can this happen? And then you see these LAPD officers quickly carrying
00:04:28these kids out of that home. It is a tremendous tragedy for two young children to lose both
00:04:33parents at the same time. Police later learned that Brynn's blood alcohol level was .12,
00:04:40well above the legal limit. Mrs. Hartman had the trace of prescription medication known
00:04:46as Zoloft in her system and also tested positive for cocaine use. Sometimes combinations of
00:04:52drugs that are found may often interact and cause erratic behavior. She was clearly an
00:04:59unstable person to begin with. That, fueled with drugs and booze, I mean, that's what
00:05:03sent her over the edge. Phil Hartman doesn't tell everybody, my wife's an addict. My wife
00:05:07has these major problems. So when she does this act, it comes out of the blue. Phil Hartman's
00:05:12life ended at the age of 49. The father was forever immortalized on the silver screen,
00:05:28but for the son, his fame began with murder. Number 19, the case of Christian Brando. Christian
00:05:37Brando, son of movie legend Marlon Brando, barely knew his famous father. The boy was
00:05:42shuttled between his bickering parents until the age of 13, when Marlon won sole custody.
00:05:49Being the son of Marlon Brando was never going to be easy, and being the daughter of Marlon
00:05:53Brando is not going to be easy either. Christian Brando wanted to give his younger sister,
00:05:57Cheyenne, the protection and love that he never had. They were probably the closest
00:06:03of his sisters and brother. They had something special. On May 16, 1990, Christian and Cheyenne
00:06:11had dinner in Hollywood. Cheyenne told her brother that Dag Drolet, the father of her
00:06:16unborn child, hit her. I do believe that she manipulated her brother, and to say things
00:06:22like Dag was abusive to me, Dag hit me, and it just escalated. He thought he had to protect
00:06:27Cheyenne, I think. Anger went right through his mind. Christian had been drinking, and
00:06:33according to Cheyenne's statement, her brother was looking for a fight. When Christian drank,
00:06:38he lost his top, his temper. He's got a very bad temper. I wanted to bust him in the chops.
00:06:45I wanted to knock him out. Okay, what was the reason that you wanted to do that? Because
00:06:49you've beaten up my little sister, but she's four months pregnant. He then went over to
00:06:54a house he was living in with his girlfriend in Hollywood, got a gun, went up to the Brando
00:07:01place where Dag Drolet was staying with Cheyenne Brando. Christian arrived at Marlon's house
00:07:08in the Hollywood Hills and had a brief conversation with his father. I want to know what she said.
00:07:14I said, believe me, Pop, you don't want to know. And he got up and left the room. Christian
00:07:24went to the living room to speak to Dag. Cheyenne told police she saw Christian holding a gun,
00:07:30but she assumed the men were just playing and left them alone. Moments later, she heard
00:07:35a gunshot. Marlon ran to the room and found a terrifying scene. I saw Dag right there.
00:07:43And I tried to get a hold of myself. And I felt his pulse on his neck. He still had a
00:07:53pulse. And I breathed into his mouth. And I called 911. The bullet entered Drolet's
00:08:05left cheek and exited through the back of his head near the base of his neck. According
00:08:10to police, Christian immediately confessed to killing Dag Drolet, a man he had met for
00:08:14the first time only hours before. But police investigators maintain that the position of
00:08:29Dag's lifeless body painted a different picture. He was found slumped with his head back on
00:08:35the sofa. In his hands were a TV changer, some cigarette papers, and a bag of tobacco,
00:08:41and a lighter. All these were clasped in his hands. And this indicated to us that
00:08:46there had been absolutely no struggle. I didn't want to kill him. You've got to believe me,
00:08:53please. Don't wait. I'm not going to do that. I know too much to lose. Dag Drolet was never
00:08:59given any attempt to defend himself. Someone marched in, leaned over, and fired a gun through
00:09:04his face. At trial, the presence of Marlon Brando caused a media frenzy. Marlon tried
00:09:10to change the focus of the case from Christian to him. In the end, Christian took responsibility
00:09:17for what happened that night. He pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter. I am at fault for
00:09:23this. If I could trade places with Dag, I would. Christian Brando was sentenced to ten
00:09:28years in prison for manslaughter. Christian was later paroled after serving only five
00:09:34years. Cheyenne lost custody of her infant son to Dag Drolet's parents. On April 17,
00:09:401995, she committed suicide. Marlon Brando died on July 1, 2004. He was 80 years old.
00:09:49On January 26, 2008, Christian Brando died in a Los Angeles hospital while being treated
00:09:56for pneumonia. Christian Brando was 49.
00:10:04She was a stunning playmate and promising actress who desperately wanted a divorce.
00:10:14But a volatile meeting with her estranged husband became the starlet's final casting
00:10:19call. Number 18, the murder of Dorothy Stratton. There was something luminescent and very special
00:10:27about Dorothy. Dorothy Stratton first appeared in Playboy in 1978. The next year, she made
00:10:34her movie debut. In 1980, Dorothy was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year. There was
00:10:40something about her right away that touched me. I mean, she was really beautiful, but
00:10:46there was more than that. Unfortunately, her personal life took an ugly turn. By the spring
00:10:52of 1980, Dorothy's marriage to her manager, Paul Snyder, was in trouble. Dorothy was in
00:10:57love with another man, her director, Peter Bogdanovich. She told me she was going to
00:11:02end the marriage because she wanted to be with me. And I said, but when you want to
00:11:07end the marriage anyway, you're miserable. However, Snyder refused to let her go. He
00:11:12wanted to make sure that if she was going to be a star, he was going to go along for
00:11:16the ride. And when he couldn't, and he realized he wasn't going to, then nobody was going
00:11:20to have her, and she was going to wind up dead. Just before noon on August 14, Dorothy
00:11:26arrived at their West Los Angeles house to discuss a divorce. At some point, the meeting
00:11:31turned violent. Around 11 o'clock that night, Paul's roommates returned home. At some point,
00:11:38I opened the door, and what met my eyes was the horror of two dead bodies. They were both
00:11:45naked, and Dorothy was draped over the right side of the bed. Police speculated that sometime
00:11:51just before 1 p.m., Paul strapped Dorothy to a sex chair. Dorothy Stratton, at one time,
00:11:58was laid face down on the slant board with her head closest to the floor, and it would
00:12:05appear that she was held in that position by medical tape. That's when Paul pointed
00:12:09the barrel of a Mossberg pump-action 12-gauge shotgun at her chief and fired around. It
00:12:15also blew off the tip of one of her fingers. The blood was all over the curtains and the
00:12:19walls. It was a hell of a thing. She had some post-mortem abrasions to her forehead, knees,
00:12:26and her left shoulder. The fact that they're post-mortem indicates that there was some
00:12:31manipulation of her body after her death. Police say that within a half hour of murdering
00:12:37the love of his life, Paul Snyder turned the gun on himself. He was 29 years old. Dorothy
00:12:45was just 20. The Dorothy Stratton case, to this day, remains one of the scariest cases
00:12:53in Hollywood crimes, because this is a woman who did nothing to deserve being shot by her
00:13:00own husband. Coming up, jealousy and rage end a promising career, and was it greed
00:13:08or revenge that led to this infamous phone call?
00:13:23Two parents sat peacefully in their living room. They never imagined their sons were
00:13:33in the front yard planning their assassination.
00:13:40It was the first time that ordinary people became stars based on a murder charge.
00:13:48Jose Menendez was a prominent movie and music executive. His wife, Kitty, was a socialite.
00:13:54Jose often clashed with his rebellious sons, Lyle and Eric. The Menendez brothers looked
00:14:00at their father with a combination of hatred and worship. They hated the pressure and the
00:14:05demands that he put on them. The strained relationship between father and sons created
00:14:11tension at home. But on August 20th, 1989, 21-year-old Lyle and 18-year-old Eric did
00:14:20the unthinkable. That night, the boys went out. Jose and Kitty fell asleep watching a
00:14:26video at their Beverly Hills mansion. Around 10 p.m., Lyle and Eric crept back into the
00:14:33house. The two sons burst in with shotguns and started blasting my wife. Lyle fired at
00:14:39Jose, hitting him in the left elbow and right arm. Then Lyle placed the gun against the
00:14:45back of Jose's head. They ran out of ammunition and they had to run back out to their car
00:14:50and reload their weapons. Went back in, put the gun up to their mother's face, point blank
00:14:55and pulled the trigger. The Menendez brothers carefully gathered the shell casings, leaving
00:14:59only the dead bodies of their parents for the cops to find. They ditched their clothing,
00:15:04ditched their blood, ditched the blood-stained clothing and guns, returned to the house,
00:15:08pretended to have stumbled on the crime scene for the first time. At 11.47, Lyle made that
00:15:14very famous 911 call to the Beverly Hills Police Department.
00:15:18What's the problem?
00:15:19There's someone killed right there.
00:15:21There was shots?
00:15:22Yes.
00:15:23Who was the person that was shot?
00:15:25My mom and dad.
00:15:27Your mom and dad?
00:15:28My mom and dad.
00:15:30The boys were frantic and hysterical. And if you listen to the 911 call, it's extremely
00:15:36disturbing.
00:15:37In the beginning, the boys weren't suspects.
00:15:40They didn't interrogate them at length. And usually, if there's a killing inside the home,
00:15:47you're supposed to start with those people who are closest to the victims and work out.
00:15:52Yet they didn't do that.
00:15:54It just seemed like, you know, somebody wanted these two people dead. It just came off as
00:15:59if it was a professional hit.
00:16:01But in the first months after the murders, Lyle and Eric went on a spending spree, blowing
00:16:06more than one million dollars.
00:16:09It was mostly the boys' own activities that drew attention to themselves. You know, if
00:16:14they had flown under the radar, you know, who knows what would have happened.
00:16:19Eventually, Eric, the younger of the two, started feeling guilty. And he blabbed to
00:16:24his psychiatrist that they were the ones that did it. And the whole thing fell apart.
00:16:29Lyle and Eric were arrested in March 1990. They pleaded not guilty.
00:16:36In fact, they gave a statement. They fired a gun. So really, you don't be a genius to
00:16:42figure it out. And the case is whether or not it's a self-defense.
00:16:47In court testimony, Lyle and Eric claimed they were the victims, not Jose and Kitty.
00:16:53My dad had molested me.
00:16:55They developed what's known now as the abuse excuse. They claimed that they were being
00:16:59sexually violated, abused by their father.
00:17:02Well, very often with parasite, and that's when a child kills their parents, there is
00:17:07a history of abuse. And so they kill off their parents in an attempt to stop the abuse from
00:17:14happening.
00:17:15I think before the Menendez case, we felt as a culture that nearly everybody who claims
00:17:21that they were abused probably were. Well, then along came the Menendez, who had killed
00:17:25not only the dad, who they say had abused them, but the mother, who never abused them.
00:17:29That's the kind of shocking fact, I think, made the jury take a step back and say, wait,
00:17:33we need to really examine this abuse excuse.
00:17:35On July 2, 1996, after two extensive trials, the Menendez brothers were found guilty of
00:17:42first-degree murder.
00:17:44Ultimately, the jury didn't buy the little crewneck sweaters, the little sad boy looks,
00:17:49and I think saw through the defense that they put on. I saw that they were cold-blooded
00:17:54murderers.
00:17:55Kyle and Eric are currently serving life sentences without parole at two separate California
00:18:00correctional facilities.
00:18:09A beautiful young actress with a promising career, a jealous ex-boyfriend with a volatile
00:18:14temper, one fatal encounter.
00:18:18Number 16, the murder of Dominique Dunn.
00:18:22Dominique Dunn was destined to enter show business. Her father was author Dominic Dunn,
00:18:27and her brother was actor Griffin Dunn. In 1981, Dominique's acting career was in full
00:18:33bloom. The future co-star of Poltergeist was about to hit the big time.
00:18:38She was a young, aspiring actress. She had an innocence about her that was amazing.
00:18:46That same year, she met executive chef John Sweeney at a birthday party. The two quickly
00:18:51became inseparable.
00:18:53And Sweeney was known as having a hot temper, and a lot of Dominique's friends didn't
00:18:59really care for him very much.
00:19:01By the summer of 1982, Dominique became the target of Sweeney's violent outbursts.
00:19:07Sweeney beat the crap out of her. She thought she was going to die. He choked her unconscious,
00:19:11banged her head on the floor, did all this. I was absolutely blown away. I couldn't believe it.
00:19:16On October 30th, Dominique told Sweeney their rocky relationship was over for good.
00:19:21He did not take the news well.
00:19:24That night, Dominique was at her Hollywood home rehearsing scenes with actor friend
00:19:28David Packer. Sweeney arrived at the front door. According to the police report,
00:19:33this is what happened next.
00:19:35She leaves her friend inside, goes out, and they get into this fight.
00:19:39Mr. Packer said he then heard loud noises, a loud conversation coming from the front
00:19:44porch.
00:19:45At some point, Sweeney lost it, lunged at her. They fell off the porch, up to the side,
00:19:52into the bushes, and he had his hands around her throat.
00:19:55Started choking her here. She started screaming. He then went next door, down this driveway,
00:20:00all the time, going down this direction. He was choking her.
00:20:05But to me, the shocking thing was that someone could have been inside the house, heard her
00:20:09scream, I believe, and didn't go out and do anything to try and stop it.
00:20:14The police report states that Packer came outside and saw Sweeney kneeling over Dominique
00:20:19in the next-door neighbor's yard.
00:20:21At that point, John Sweeney told him to call the police and commit a terrible crime.
00:20:26At 8.52 p.m., a frantic David Packer called the police.
00:20:31Sweeney stayed at Dominique's side, trying to give her resuscitation.
00:20:36At some point, the police arrived and plucked him out from the driveway.
00:20:40Police reports state that Sweeney told the deputies, I've killed my girlfriend.
00:20:45You know, it's a very personal way to kill someone, because you're really looking right
00:20:49at them.
00:20:50However, Dominique was still alive. Following the attack, she slipped into a coma.
00:20:56Then she's on life support for, like, almost a week. And the family, finally, after this
00:21:01agonizing week, decided to pull the plug.
00:21:04On November 4, 1982, Dominique Dunn died, just three weeks shy of her 23rd birthday.
00:21:11Something like this should not happen to a girl like that. It was extraordinarily shocking.
00:21:17This was one of those obsession cases. If her boyfriend couldn't have her, she couldn't
00:21:21have life as well.
00:21:23He was charged with murder. But during the trial, his lawyers claimed Sweeney killed
00:21:27Dominique in the heat of passion.
00:21:30On November 10, 1983, he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
00:21:35Sweeney was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
00:21:39It's without a doubt the worst trial that I've ever participated in in 30 years.
00:21:45I was absolutely stunned when I heard the verdict. I was furious. I was enraged.
00:21:51Sweeney served less than three years.
00:21:54I think she had tremendous potential, and I think she was a very special girl.
00:22:00It's really incredibly sad, and it's our loss.
00:22:05Coming up, a horrifying murder that continues to haunt Hollywood.
00:22:22At the end of a quiet street in a small upstate New York town stood the house simply known as High Hopes.
00:22:31Inside lurked a troubled young man, Ronald Butch DeFeo.
00:22:35More than 30 years later, his actions still haunt us through countless books and films.
00:22:41Number 15, The Amityville Murders.
00:22:45The town of Amityville is a small community. It's about 9,000 people.
00:22:49I mean, you're basically talking upscale living right on the shore.
00:22:53After a lifetime of hard work, Ronald DeFeo Sr. moved his wife and four children from Brooklyn to their dream home.
00:23:01But the dream was only a facade.
00:23:04It was a dysfunctional family at the height of all this turmoil that led up to the murders.
00:23:09The father was out of control. He was beating the children, beating the wife.
00:23:12On the night of November 13, 1974, fueled by a potent cocktail of booze, drugs, and self-pity,
00:23:19Butch decided it was time for the abuse to stop.
00:23:22Well, what he does, he goes up and grabs one of the guns and proceeds to walk into his mother and father's room
00:23:29and sticks the gun up and, boom, shoots his father several times.
00:23:33The mother just starts startled by the gunshots, and then as soon as she looks up, he shoots her.
00:23:38The boys were next.
00:23:40Eleven-year-old Mark was killed instantly.
00:23:43Nine-year-old John was not so lucky.
00:23:47The younger brother did not die instantly. It was a very painful slow death for him.
00:23:51He then methodically walks out, kills his two younger sisters, one after the other.
00:23:56Butch shot 13-year-old Allison in the face.
00:23:59Then he put the .35 caliber Marlin rifle against the head of his 18-year-old sister, Dawn, and pulled the trigger.
00:24:06Ballistics experts maintain that a blast from such a rifle could be heard a mile away.
00:24:12But no one heard a thing.
00:24:14Butch decided that he was going to take all of his bloody clothes and he was going to get out of there.
00:24:18So he drives out to Brooklyn, and he dumps all of his clothes.
00:24:21He showers, clips his beard, and he goes to the bathroom.
00:24:26He showers, clips his beard, dresses nicely, makes it to work by 6 in the morning, and goes on like normal.
00:24:35He decides to go to Henry's bar, a little local bar, and proceeds to get drunk with one of his buddies and shoot up heroin.
00:24:42Well, finally, he says he's going to sneak into the house, and when he does, that's when miraculously he discovers the bodies.
00:24:48Someone killed my parents. Someone killed my parents.
00:24:51Butch was a suspect from the beginning, and his own story spun wildly out of control.
00:24:56He starts to tell everybody that this was a mafia hit. The cops don't necessarily believe him.
00:25:01Butch pled not guilty by reason of insanity.
00:25:04You people just don't understand.
00:25:06He said the voices inside his head urged him to kill his family.
00:25:10The only chance he had was by showing that he was crazy by a defensive mental defect.
00:25:16Now, a lot of people want to talk about, is he mentally unstable?
00:25:19You know, the psychologist had rendered him to suffer from antisocial personality disorder.
00:25:25He basically admitted on trial. He'd done it to them before they did it to him.
00:25:30At trial, Butch admitted taking heroin before the murders. He was found guilty on all counts.
00:25:38A couple of years later, George and Kathy Lutz moved into the house, and within a period of 28 days, made one of the most horrifying novels that were ever made, and scared the hell out of America with the Amityville Horror.
00:25:52The Lutz's claimed that the house was haunted.
00:25:54They had been levitated. They said they heard disembodied bands. Their banisters had been ripped off, and the windows had been ripped out.
00:26:02And there's pigs with red eyes glowing, and there's ooze dripping out of the walls.
00:26:06Well, that's interesting, but it's also pretty much a Hollywood fabrication.
00:26:10The Lutz's story was soon discredited, but that didn't stop Hollywood from making eight sequels.
00:26:16In my opinion, the real story is ten times scarier than any fake ghosts or demons.
00:26:21So you know we're talking about true evil.
00:26:25In 1983, a legendary R&B singer moved in with his parents to try to heal their troubled home.
00:26:31Within six months, he was dead at the hands of his father.
00:26:35Number 14. The Murder of Marvin Gaye.
00:26:40There's so many shocking parts of the Marvin Gaye story.
00:26:43First of all, Marvin Gaye was a very famous actor.
00:26:46He was a very famous actor.
00:26:49There's so many shocking parts of the Marvin Gaye story.
00:26:53First of all, Marvin Gaye, a beloved American singer.
00:26:56Then the fact that it's a father killing his own adult son. That's almost unheard of.
00:27:01The Gaye family home was not exactly a happy one.
00:27:04Gaye prohibited any form of dancing, television, or popular music.
00:27:09He wanted to make sure that his children were brought up in the strictest form.
00:27:14Conveying every thought to pleasing God.
00:27:19In the case of Marvin Gaye, there was something, a dynamic in that family that was missing between him and his father.
00:27:26Young Marvin tried to escape the abusive home by turning to music.
00:27:30By the time he was 25, Marvin was one of Motown's rising stars.
00:27:35But with the fame came a whole new set of problems.
00:27:38Then ultimately, substance abuse comes in, and Marvin Gaye was an abuser.
00:27:46By 1980, despite being a millionaire many times over, Marvin Gaye was broke.
00:27:52Marvin owed over $4 million in back taxes.
00:27:55All of a sudden, all these 17 automobiles, we had to get rid of them.
00:28:01Yet Marvin Gaye had one more comeback left in him.
00:28:05In 1983, sexual healing made him the toast of the music world and earned him two Grammys.
00:28:12Back on top, the singer decided to move home to help his ailing mother.
00:28:17Marvin would move back into the house and was fighting his own demons, drugs at the time.
00:28:22On April 1st, 1984, a day before his 45th birthday, Marvin Gaye was killed by the very same gun he had given to his father as a present.
00:28:32No one is quite sure how the argument started.
00:28:35There was obviously a huge argument between the two of them, and Marvin's mother witnessed the whole thing.
00:28:42His father pulled the gun on Marvin and shot him at point-blank distance.
00:28:46The first bullet tore through the singer's heart.
00:28:49I found two gunshot wounds. One gunshot wound was considered fatal.
00:28:54That was the gunshot wound to the heart, lung, liver, and diaphragm area.
00:29:01And the father went up to the front porch, threw the gun into the front lawn of the house, and just sat down and waited for the police to arrive.
00:29:07The autopsy revealed drugs in Marvin Gaye's system.
00:29:11Later, it was disclosed that Marvin Sr. was severely bruised from his final fight with his son.
00:29:17The lawyers for the elder Gaye made this fact the basis of their defense.
00:29:22It was not difficult to be able to argue that there was a beating.
00:29:27It was administered contemporaneously to the shooting, and so we had some good defense issues.
00:29:33In a struggle, there's often injuries to both parties, and that can be helpful in reconstructing whether it's a cold-blooded murder or whether it happened after or during a struggle.
00:29:45The defense team was successful. Marvin Gaye Sr. was given a suspended six-year sentence for manslaughter.
00:29:52You know, I think Marvin Gaye is one of the most tragic cases because Marvin Gaye had become so paranoid from the drugs.
00:29:59This was almost a type of suicide that he'd brought on by provoking this type of murder.
00:30:04On the day of his son's funeral, Marvin Sr. was asked if he loved his son.
00:30:09After a moment, he said only, let's just say I didn't dislike him.
00:30:22She was a wannabe celeb who would do anything to grab the brass ring.
00:30:26But once she got what she wanted, someone viciously took it all away.
00:30:37The wife of actor Robert Blake had a checkered past.
00:30:40Bonnie Lee Bakley was a huge celebrity wannabe.
00:30:45She had actually a black book in which were names of every major star in Hollywood that she was hoping to get to.
00:30:54Then more information came out that she had scammed other men, that she had left a trail of tears behind her in her life.
00:31:00She led a very complicated life, selling pornography through the mail and breaking a lot of hearts and scamming people.
00:31:07Bonnie met Blake in 1999 at a birthday party. By the fall, she was pregnant with his child.
00:31:14Rather stormy relationship that was well known and well documented through their friends and through family.
00:31:21Despite their rocky affair, Bakley married the former Beretta star in November 2000, three months after the birth of their daughter.
00:31:29They didn't have a normal marriage. They didn't live in the same house. She was out by the pool in the pool house.
00:31:38The marriage continued to struggle, but on the night of May 4th, 2001, the couple decided to have dinner together.
00:31:45Robert and Bonnie went to their favorite restaurant in Studio City, California.
00:31:50At 8.30 p.m., Blake parked his car next to a dumpster by a construction site a block and a half from the restaurant.
00:31:57Blake brought along his pistol.
00:31:59They were having dinner at Vitello's restaurant in Studio City. He was eating his own dish.
00:32:04They have a dish on the menu, the Robert Blake pasta dish.
00:32:06Around 9.30, Bonnie and Robert finished dinner and headed back to the car.
00:32:10According to the police report, Blake said he forgot his gun and went back to the restaurant to get it.
00:32:16Says he left his gun at the booth. So he goes to the booth, can't find the gun, and he goes back out to the car.
00:32:24The police report continues to say that when Blake returned to the car, he found Bonnie bleeding to death from gunshot wounds.
00:32:31Now, that short span of time, if somebody wants to murder her, have to follow them and knows exactly the location.
00:32:39Knows exactly he going to walk away back to the restaurant.
00:32:43So this window of opportunity is very narrow.
00:32:47Blake ran to a nearby home and called 911. Paramedics arrived and raced Bonnie to the hospital, but she was DOA.
00:32:55Had multiple gunshot wounds. One gunshot wound to the right cheek, which was considered fatal wound.
00:33:01And one gunshot to the right shoulder, which was considered potentially fatal.
00:33:05Police grilled Blake for hours after the murder and searched his home.
00:33:10Blake maintained his innocence, but according to police, evidence began to mount.
00:33:15Turns out that Robert Blake collects guns and they happen to find this rare German gun in the dumpster a couple of blocks away that happens to be the murder weapon.
00:33:23In April 2002, after an 11-month investigation, police arrested Blake for the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley.
00:33:31When Bonnie Lee Bakley was murdered, the initial assumption was it has to be Robert Blake.
00:33:36It has to be her own husband, especially when information came out that he really didn't like her.
00:33:41The trial lasted three months. Bonnie's shady lifestyle was brought into question.
00:33:46And there's other people that she's finessed and finagled money out of, have reason to want to come after her.
00:33:52And so the specter of reasonable doubt is so high in that case.
00:33:57Bonnie Lee Bakley is a perfect example where the focus wasn't really on what occurred, but who she was, what she was like, and what her private and personal life was.
00:34:09On March 16, 2003, Robert Blake was found not guilty. No one else has been charged for Bonnie's murder.
00:34:19I thought that was the perfect example of a highly professional lawyer doing an extraordinary job of creating reasonable doubt.
00:34:32In November 2005, in a civil trial brought by Bakley's children, the jury found that Blake had intentionally caused Bonnie's death.
00:34:40Her children were awarded $30 million in damages.
00:34:45Some people said in Hollywood, if you kill your wife, you don't have to go to prison, you just have to pay a fine.
00:34:50Up next, hundreds of witnesses, several shots fired, an iconic rapper dead, and not a single arrest.
00:34:59Who wants to be the snitch?
00:35:01DNA, gun residue, trace evidence.
00:35:16Today, advances in forensic science help prosecutors nail their cases shut.
00:35:21So how is it possible that some murders remain a mystery?
00:35:25Number 12, the murder of Biggie Smalls.
00:35:30Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B.I.G., or Biggie Smalls, was one of the most influential hip-hop artists of the 1990s.
00:35:40The street buzz on him was exorbitant. It was a foregone conclusion that Biggie had something that was going to touch people.
00:35:49But everything came to an abrupt end on March 9, 1997.
00:35:55It was two weeks before the release of his third CD, ironically titled, Life After Death Till Death Do Us Part.
00:36:02The New York rapper attended a party in Los Angeles.
00:36:06Notorious B.I.G. and Puffy Combs were attending an after-party for a Soul Train music award.
00:36:13The party took place at the Peterson Museum.
00:36:16The party ended around 12.35 a.m.
00:36:20Biggie got into the passenger seat of his Suburban.
00:36:22Sean Diddy Combs was in the SUV in front of him.
00:36:26Three vehicles exited the parking structure and proceeded to the first light at Wilshire and Fairfax.
00:36:34A dark-colored Chevy Impala pulled up next to Biggie's vehicle.
00:36:42The driver opened fire on Biggie with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, shooting several bullets into Biggie's chest before speeding off.
00:36:51While Biggie fought for his life, the rapper's driver raced to the hospital with Diddy close behind, but it was too late.
00:36:58At 1.15 a.m., Biggie Smalls was pronounced dead at the age of 24.
00:37:05Biggie wasn't a dangerous person. He was a musician.
00:37:10He was just trying to make some records, trying to make some money. Biggie wasn't a bad guy overall.
00:37:17Police say dozens of people witnessed the murder, yet no one identified the killer.
00:37:22Who was behind this violent attack?
00:37:26I can tell you that obviously the parties involved are going to be East Coast and West Coast gang members.
00:37:34The major misconception, I think everybody believes this is a regular gang drive-by shooting.
00:37:41The evidence, in my opinion, shows that this was a organized hit.
00:37:46To this day, there's still speculation around that.
00:37:49Some people felt that Suge Knight and Death Row Records put out a hit on Biggie and Diddy.
00:37:55But Suge Knight doesn't see it that way.
00:37:58I ain't no Biggie to like Biggie or dislike Biggie, but if anybody know me, I'm a businessman.
00:38:03If I would have been on the streets before long, Biggie would have been a Death Row artist because he's a great rapper.
00:38:08All I would ask of this guy for is giving him a record deal, not to bring harm to him.
00:38:13Some people felt that some gang members were paid to kill Biggie as a result of the old debt that Biggie had with some gang members in Los Angeles.
00:38:24Without suspects or evidence to make an arrest, Notorious B.I.G.'s case went cold.
00:38:30One reason why the case hasn't been solved is the fact that there are police officers involved in the conspiracy to kill Biggie Smalls.
00:38:40There are political implications that have caused this case not to be officially solved.
00:38:46But maybe this cold case will heat up again one day. It all takes one witness to come forward, one suspect to come forward.
00:38:52In July 2006, investigators reopened Biggie's case, reinstating a $50,000 reward for any information leading to a conviction.
00:39:02People in the hip-hop world don't want to talk to the police. It's really that simple.
00:39:05Who wants to be the snitch? I just nobly snitched on somebody and here's my address, so if you want to kill me now, kill me now.
00:39:12Nobody wants to do that. The more dangerous the case, the harder it is to get it solved with a witness coming forward.
00:39:22On July 15, 1997, a world-famous designer bought his morning paper. His assassination an hour later became front-page news.
00:39:38Number 11. The murder of Gianni Versace.
00:39:43To the world of fashion, he's definitely a legend because he was so different. He created a style that you could not compare with any other designer.
00:39:53By the summer of 1997, Miami resident Gianni Versace was a bold and innovative presence in the fashion world.
00:40:01Versace's name became synonymous with Hollywood's red carpet.
00:40:06He did a lot of fun things. He took a lot of chances that weren't traditional.
00:40:10I think that he opened a lot of doors for some designers, too, to get a little crazier.
00:40:16With sales topping more than $560 million, life never seemed better.
00:40:22He's distinguished from other designers simply because he did what he did. He never did things that were aimed at trendy stuff.
00:40:29It's just what he did turned out to be very, very popular.
00:40:32But on the morning of July 15, Versace's world was destroyed.
00:40:37At 8.30 a.m., he returned home from a walk and opened the gate to his mansion.
00:40:43Without warning, a man approached and shot Versace point-blank in the back of his skull.
00:40:51The killer fired one more shot and fled the scene. The king of fashion was dead.
00:40:58Friends inside the house raced out and discovered Versace's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood.
00:41:06I was actually notified right away because I was on my way to work when this call came out, so I heard it on the radio come out.
00:41:13I didn't know it was Versace at the time, but I heard the call, shots fired, and the person running from the scene.
00:41:19I heard all of our troops responding.
00:41:22The news about Versace's murder spread quickly.
00:41:25I mean, when you finally understand what really happened, it's just very sad.
00:41:30It was horrible. And then I left for Europe the next day, so I saw it worldwide, the worldwide upset of this.
00:41:36Within a few days, police suspected Versace's death was linked to a bloody trail of other murder victims in Minneapolis and Chicago.
00:41:45Evidence from all five slayings pointed to a man named Andrew Cunanan, an elusive con artist on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.
00:41:55Andrew Cunanan, in addition to having probably some sociopathic tendencies, had a lot of rage.
00:42:01In the case of the serial killer, obviously, they become more empowered every time they do it.
00:42:06Eight days after Versace's murder, a tip led Miami police to a houseboat where Cunanan was hiding out.
00:42:14But as police were closing in, the serial killer took his own life, putting a gun into his mouth and pulling the trigger.
00:42:21He would have been so overwhelmed with shame for his actions that I think that from then on it would have become a total self-loathing, self-hating existence of desperation.
00:42:32So why did Cunanan target Versace?
00:42:35Versace was everything he probably wanted to be. He was wealthy. He was a gay man. He was successful. He had it all.
00:42:44And Andrew Cunanan had none of it. It was this case of anger and envy, and in that moment of killing, he was powerful. He was in charge of his life.
00:42:54Up ahead, a chilling glimpse into the mind of a celebrity stalker.
00:42:59It's just me and her, you know. Talking to her, you know.
00:43:14Hogan's Hero star Bob Crane was a beloved TV actor. His easygoing personality and fast wit won him friends and fans.
00:43:28But what he did behind closed doors led to quite a few enemies.
00:43:32Number 10. Bob Crane.
00:43:39The first blow opened up Crane's head at the scalp. The second hit crushed the actor's skull.
00:43:45The killer then grabbed a VCR cord and strangled him. But Bob Crane was already dead. He was 49.
00:43:54The reason there's a bit of an overkill, somebody wanted to do extreme violence, so there was a case of some anger and rage just against the person about Crane.
00:44:05It was horrific with a camera tripod. I mean, his head was a pulpy mess when they found him.
00:44:10On June 28, 1978, police found more than just a grisly murder scene. 50 pornographic videotapes were discovered in a closet, along with photo equipment in the bathroom.
00:44:23He would use this equipment to take photos of himself with maybe two or three or four other people, you know, all at the same time.
00:44:31He had one of the first home video cameras ever marketed, and he liked to tape himself having sex with women, lots of women.
00:44:38Clearly, the fun-loving actor had a secret dark side.
00:44:42In his private life, he was dealing with some pretty serious demons.
00:44:47He achieved this greatness because of his success and luck, and then part of his identity couldn't tolerate it, so he created this underworld that felt comfortable for him, and it just collided in this horrible way.
00:45:00After Hogan's Heroes was canceled in 1971, Crane seemed to sink ever deeper into his pornographic compulsion.
00:45:08He had deep addictions, not just the kind where, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna, you know, tie up the wife and have some kinky sex. No, it was like obsessive.
00:45:17The initial suspect in the case was Crane's longtime friend and sexual wingman, John Carpenter.
00:45:24They liked to corral these girls and tape each other. I think possibly Carpenter had a little bit more of an interest in Bob Crane than Bob Crane had in him.
00:45:32Friends maintained that Crane wanted to cut off the friendship. Police found the actor's date book with the name John Carpenter scratched out.
00:45:40I think there's a real good possibility that at or about that night that Bob Crane broke off a relationship with Carpenter, and that in turn apparently enraged Carpenter.
00:45:53After the murder, police found Carpenter less than cooperative.
00:45:57He began to look like a suspect just from his avoidance of trying to assist in the investigation, plus some of the things he was saying or not saying just didn't sound right.
00:46:09Police found small traces of blood in Carpenter's rental car, but since DNA testing didn't exist at the time, they could prove only that it was Crane's blood type, not his specific blood, so the case against Carpenter remained circumstantial.
00:46:25They had theories on how the crime had been committed, and I felt that those theories were unsubstantiated.
00:46:32The case sat on the shelf for 14 years, that is until police found overlooked photos that showed blood and what looked like brain matter in Carpenter's car.
00:46:43John Carpenter was finally charged with killing Bob Crane.
00:46:47I mean, you'd have the blood inside of the car, the blood type matched Bob Crane's.
00:46:51You had the tissue in the photograph that appeared very similar to the types of tissue from the bloody crime scene that was found on the pillowcase.
00:47:00All of those things together we thought was going to convince the jury.
00:47:03The evidence proved inconclusive.
00:47:06On October 31st, 1994, he was acquitted.
00:47:10Carpenter died four years later at the age of 70.
00:47:14There are no other suspects, and the case remains unsolved.
00:47:27Celebrities and entertainers would not be who they are if not for their fans.
00:47:32But at what point does fan become fanatic?
00:47:36Number nine, the murder of Rebecca Schaefer.
00:47:40Rebecca Schaefer is a horrifying Hollywood story, because this is innocence gunned down.
00:47:50In the 1980s, actress Rebecca Schaefer began climbing the Hollywood ladder of success as the co-star of My Sister Sam.
00:47:58Such a gorgeous, clean, down-home girl, really good actress, and obviously very beautiful.
00:48:04Rebecca had many admirers, including an eager fan in Tucson, Arizona named Robert John Bardo.
00:48:11Bardo was an emotionally unstable high school dropout.
00:48:15All the teachers commented on the fact that he was very isolated and exhibited no social skills.
00:48:20Bardo's adoration for the young star turned into an obsession.
00:48:24He wrote dozens of letters to Rebecca.
00:48:27In return, Bardo received a personal postcard and an autographed photo, but he wanted more.
00:48:33He had been obsessed with her, had written her constant letters, had told her that he was going to be with her, he was going to marry her,
00:48:39that he would come down and be with her one day. Well, he actually did that.
00:48:43In 1987, Bardo went to Los Angeles twice and tried unsuccessfully to visit Rebecca on the set of her show.
00:48:51Stalkers often feel like they aren't somebody unless somebody loves them.
00:48:55So there's really this hole, and so they're trying to achieve a feeling of, I am worthy, I am lovable.
00:49:02Two years later, Bardo hired a private investigator to locate Rebecca's home address.
00:49:07At the time, you know, she lived in an apartment where you could literally walk right up to the door.
00:49:13In the early hours of July 18, 1989, 19-year-old Bardo arrived by bus in Los Angeles.
00:49:20He found Rebecca's building and buzzed her apartment.
00:49:30After a friendly exchange, Bardo left.
00:49:33Bardo went to a nearby diner, then realized he forgot to give Rebecca a note he'd written.
00:49:43Just go back to her place and ask her, you know.
00:49:53Then, he went into the bathroom and loaded his .357 Magnum pistol.
00:49:58At 10.15 a.m., Bardo returned to Rebecca's building and buzzed her again.
00:50:03Rebecca came downstairs.
00:50:13Grab the trigger.
00:50:15Yes.
00:50:20Blood hit her.
00:50:22Blood squirted out.
00:50:24She lost it.
00:50:26She used to scream.
00:50:28I killed her.
00:50:30I think I killed her, you know.
00:50:32So, I think what happened is, my personal opinion is that he reached out to hand her the card.
00:50:38She leans forward to take the card, and she's shot in the chest.
00:50:45Bardo took off running.
00:50:50A neighbor called the police.
00:50:52Thirty minutes later, Rebecca Schaefer was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
00:50:57The next day, Bardo was found in Arizona and taken into custody.
00:51:01He ran away afterwards, really expecting to be caught on the way.
00:51:05He was waiting for the great result that would come after the attack, and it didn't come.
00:51:09So, now he gets back to Arizona, and he acts in a way that will predictably bring attention to himself.
00:51:14He walks around in the middle of traffic.
00:51:16He makes no denials about what he's done.
00:51:18In October 1991, Robert John Bardo was convicted of homicide in the first degree.
00:51:25He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
00:51:28It's why stars are afraid.
00:51:30It's why people run into nightclubs, and people, you know, zoom into their gates and have these gates shut.
00:51:36Hollywood can be a very scary place.
00:51:46A down-on-her-luck actress.
00:51:48An iconic music producer.
00:51:50A chance encounter that led to tragedy.
00:51:54Number eight, the death of Lana Clarkson.
00:51:57Lana Clarkson was tall and beautiful.
00:52:00The 40-year-old actress appeared in more than 30 movies and TV shows.
00:52:05But she was always looking for her breakthrough role.
00:52:08She took a job as a hostess at a very popular club.
00:52:12Many, many actresses do that because you meet people who can help your career.
00:52:18On the evening of February 3rd, 2003, Lana was working at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip
00:52:25when she met legendary rock-and-roll producer Phil Spector.
00:52:29She was titillated by a celebrity, and Phil Spector was a celebrity.
00:52:34Here's a very eccentric record producer who worked with John Lennon, and he worked with the Ronettes.
00:52:42Spector ordered a cocktail and a bottled water.
00:52:45He gave Lana a $450 tip and a ride back to his mansion.
00:52:51We don't know what happened behind those walls, but evidently somebody snapped.
00:52:56According to the initial police report, Spector's chauffeur was outside when he heard a gunshot.
00:53:02This is what he told the cops.
00:53:04Phil Spector comes out with a gun in his hand and says, I think I killed her.
00:53:08The chauffeur called the police.
00:53:10When they arrived, the cops found Lana Clarkson dead from a single gunshot wound to her mouth.
00:53:16A blue steel .38 Colt revolver lay under her left leg.
00:53:20Of course, a single gunshot, not necessary, it's a homicide.
00:53:24So sometimes the media report not really represent the fact.
00:53:28That could be a suicide, could be an accidental death.
00:53:32Police found teeth scattered on the floor.
00:53:35In my experience, most people who commit suicide with a firearm via the mouth
00:53:40typically place the barrel of the weapon inside their mouth and pull the trigger.
00:53:45They tend not to fire the weapon through clenched teeth.
00:53:49Police had to subdue Spector with a taser and cuff him while they searched his home.
00:53:54They found a blood-soaked cloth on the bathroom floor and a wet hand towel on the sink.
00:54:00Spector initially told police he shot the actress accidentally.
00:54:05Later, he officially changed his story and said Clarkson killed herself.
00:54:09Don't forget, Spector said, yeah, she was shot.
00:54:13The big issue was, was it accidental? Did she pull the trigger or did he intentionally kill her?
00:54:18The coroner ruled the death a homicide.
00:54:21Nine months after the shooting, Phil Spector was charged with Lana Clarkson's murder.
00:54:25He pled not guilty.
00:54:27We try not to talk about anything extraneous to it.
00:54:30Let the report speak for itself and let the case go through the court
00:54:35and give Mr. Spector the benefit of the doubt and let him have his day in court.
00:54:39He got it.
00:54:41Spector's trial began in April 2007.
00:54:44Five months later, jurors reported they were deadlocked and unable to reach a verdict.
00:54:49The judge declared a mistrial.
00:54:51Prosecutors then announced plans to retry Spector.
00:54:54Coming up, porn, drugs, and a brutal murder scene.
00:55:11The white stucco house in the Hollywood Hills was very easy to miss.
00:55:15But to the cops, it was a renowned drug den.
00:55:18And for porn legend John Holmes, it was his own personal pharmacy.
00:55:24Number seven, the Wonderland murders.
00:55:29John Holmes was the biggest adult film star in the late 70s.
00:55:34There was tons of money, tons of drugs.
00:55:37Holmes made more than 2,500 films as his alter ego, Johnny Watt.
00:55:42But all he had to show for his career was a $1,500 a day coke habit.
00:55:47This was a period where porn was still very much a shadow environment
00:55:50and the people involved in it were shadowy people.
00:55:53By the end of the 70s, Holmes was out of work, unable to perform due to his drug abuse.
00:55:59He fell in with the gang at the house on Wonderland Avenue.
00:56:03People would come and go from the house day and night.
00:56:06That balcony came into play.
00:56:08They would just throw the drugs down and the money up.
00:56:11Holmes also hung out with nightclub owner Eddie Nash,
00:56:14a man who always seemed to keep an ample supply of drugs in his Hollywood mansion.
00:56:19Desperate and broke, the porn star and his drug buddies decided to rob Nash.
00:56:25And basically the Wonderland Avenue gang were a bunch of dope house ripoffs.
00:56:29They would get police badges and go rip off drug dealers and then they would sell the drugs.
00:56:34So that's what they were known for.
00:56:36On June 29, 1981, hours after Holmes left a door unlocked at Nash's house,
00:56:43the Wonderland gang stormed inside.
00:56:46According to police, they came away with drugs, jewelry and $185,000 in cash.
00:56:53I stole some money, tied Nash up. Not a good thing to do.
00:56:56A day after the robbery, Holmes was spotted wearing some of the stolen jewelry.
00:57:01Nash forced a confession from the porn star.
00:57:04On July 1, 1981, Holmes led at least three men into the Wonderland house.
00:57:11John punched in the security code and they said, who is it?
00:57:14And he said, it's John Holmes.
00:57:16They let him in, not suspecting that they were going to be attacked.
00:57:19The murderers went from room to room, beating whomever they found.
00:57:23The victims were bludgeoned to death with lead pipes.
00:57:26There were five victims involved.
00:57:29Of the five victims, four died as a result of the attacks.
00:57:34One did survive, although suffered some debilitating injuries.
00:57:39The murders were so violent that when police arrived the next day,
00:57:43they discovered a grisly sight.
00:57:46Usually the bloodiest kinds of wounds that we see are typically stab wounds.
00:57:50They tend to be the worst kinds of bleeders,
00:57:53but blood force would probably be a close second to the amount of blood loss that will occur.
00:57:59In this particular case, the Wonderland murders presented a fairly gruesome, fairly bloody scene.
00:58:07Holmes immediately was a suspect,
00:58:09as he was the only link between the Wonderland gang and Nash.
00:58:13Now, how much he saw, how much he did is up for speculation.
00:58:17There are those who say that he was made to watch the murders and to get his hands dirty.
00:58:21They did find, I believe, there was a bloody palm print on the wall from one of the victims' blood,
00:58:26and that involved him.
00:58:28In 1982, Holmes was tried for the murders,
00:58:31but his lawyers argued that he was just another victim.
00:58:34Holmes was acquitted.
00:58:36Eventually, Eddie Nash pled guilty to conspiracy in connection to the Wonderland murders.
00:58:41He served just 31 months in prison.
00:58:44For John Holmes, he escaped prison time,
00:58:47but life didn't get better for the porn legend.
00:58:50He started to do gay films for money to feed his drug habit,
00:58:56and that's allegedly where he contracted the AIDS virus.
00:59:01John Holmes died on March 13, 1988.
00:59:05John Holmes was kind of the embodiment and the consequence of what happens with that kind of culture.
00:59:11That's what was going on on the Sunset Strip.
00:59:14That's what was going on in Hollywood.
00:59:16That's what was going on in America.
00:59:27Her music enchanted millions of fans.
00:59:30Her tragic death stunned the world.
00:59:39In the early 90s, Selena was the international queen of Tejano music.
00:59:44She won a Grammy.
00:59:46She was a very well-loved artist by the fans, by the people.
00:59:51Not only here, but every Spanish-speaking country in the world.
00:59:56Nurse Yolanda Saldivar was one of Selena's biggest fans.
01:00:00She explained that she had seen Selena in a concert in San Antonio, Texas,
01:00:07and they had really loved the music,
01:00:10and asking me if we had a fan club in San Antonio.
01:00:14I told her no, and she asked for permission to start one.
01:00:18By 1994, Yolanda was the Selena fan club president in San Antonio.
01:00:23She also worked as the bookkeeper for Selena's company in Corpus Christi, Texas.
01:00:28When she was president of the fan club,
01:00:30she was far enough away where she could admire Selena.
01:00:34And the closer she got, that admiration turned to envy.
01:00:38But in March 1995, Selena's father fired Yolanda,
01:00:42accusing her of embezzling money.
01:00:44I found a yellow manila envelope, a big envelope.
01:00:48In it was the last quarter of the Selena fan club statements from Bank One in San Antonio.
01:00:55And I started finding other documents in there that I knew at that moment
01:00:59that there was some money being taken from the fan club.
01:01:04Sometime during the next few weeks, 34-year-old Yolanda purchased a gun.
01:01:09On the morning of March 31st, Selena met up with Yolanda
01:01:13to tie up some loose ends in Saldivar's hotel room.
01:01:16She had some paperwork in her briefcase because Selena had asked her,
01:01:20well, you said that the paperwork was in the trunk of the car.
01:01:23And she says, well, I had some of it in my briefcase.
01:01:27So Selena says, I'm going to go out there and pick it up.
01:01:30Around 11.40 a.m., Selena and Yolanda began to discuss missing company records.
01:01:36Soon after, Selena opened the door to leave.
01:01:39Yolanda pulled out her pistol and shot Selena in the back.
01:01:44Selena ran from the door of the motel room all the way to the lobby.
01:01:50Yolanda came out with a gun.
01:01:53She was going to shoot her for the second time.
01:01:55Gunshot wound to the torso, whether it's from the front or the back,
01:02:00are certainly dangerous wounds because the internal organs are nearby.
01:02:07Selena collapsed on the floor of the hotel lobby.
01:02:12An ambulance arrived, and Selena was taken to the hospital.
01:02:15But it was too late for the 23-year-old singer.
01:02:19When we walked inside, a policeman approached me and says,
01:02:22your daughter was killed.
01:02:25And just abruptly like that, just shot me.
01:02:29Meanwhile, Yolanda got into her pickup truck at the hotel.
01:02:33Police surrounded the vehicle.
01:02:35She held the gun to her head and threatened to commit suicide.
01:02:40The first two hours, she's crying and saying, my God, I killed my friend.
01:02:46And then two hours later, she changed her story.
01:02:51It was an accident. It was an accident.
01:02:54Nine hours later, Yolanda finally stepped out of the truck and was arrested.
01:02:59In October 1995, six months after the shooting,
01:03:03Yolanda Saldivar was convicted of first-degree murder.
01:03:07She was sentenced to life in a maximum security prison.
01:03:11Yolanda will be eligible for parole in 2025.
01:03:15Well, you never heal from it.
01:03:18You know, it's a wound to the heart that will be there until you die.
01:03:23You learn to live with it.
01:03:25Anybody that has lost a child out there, they know what I'm talking about.
01:03:31Coming up, two gruesome deaths, two unsolved murders.
01:03:36Going forward, there's no guarantee you're going to be around long enough to be a witness in the case.
01:03:51On the morning of January 15, 1947,
01:03:55a young mother walked by a vacant lot near downtown Los Angeles.
01:03:59In a ditch, she spotted what appeared to be a Department Store mannequin.
01:04:04In reality, it was the victim of one of the most brutal slayings in Hollywood history.
01:04:13It is really the body that people are drawn to.
01:04:16This picture of the body in their mind.
01:04:19Bloodless, drained of blood, as though a vampire had been involved.
01:04:23The victim was identified as Elizabeth Short.
01:04:26She came to Hollywood to be a star.
01:04:30The nickname Black Dahlia came from Elizabeth Short's habit of dressing in black and wearing flowers in her hair.
01:04:36The 22-year-old was outgoing and beautiful,
01:04:39a combination that may have ultimately led to her demise.
01:04:43She wasn't a hooker, like people think.
01:04:45I mean, she did what was called dating for dinner,
01:04:47which was what a lot of women did back in the 40s.
01:04:49You know, they went on dates to eat.
01:04:51She was a woman who was trying to survive in a very, very difficult time,
01:04:56in a very difficult situation.
01:04:58She may have lived by her wits, but she didn't deserve to die the way she did.
01:05:03From the start, the LAPD was overwhelmed.
01:05:06The Black Dahlia was the very, very beginning of crime scenes and crime scene investigation,
01:05:12and everything was in its infancy.
01:05:14We had no idea, you know, if the body was moved, if anything was tampered with.
01:05:20There was a lot of walking on the scene and disturbance of evidence that might have been there.
01:05:27Elizabeth's mutilated body told a gruesome story.
01:05:30The murderer had placed the body on a series of boards on top of a bathtub.
01:05:37The ankles had been tied together, and the hands had been looped and tied to the faucet handles.
01:05:45The girl was not absolutely dead when he began to cut the body in half.
01:05:50Number one, he got off on the fact that he was torturing this woman
01:05:53and got to possess her by basically killing her.
01:05:56Number two, he derived a lot of pleasure by dropping the body off someplace
01:06:01where it would be found fairly quickly and in a shocking manner.
01:06:05Police were left with very few leads.
01:06:08There was no blood or very little blood.
01:06:10At the scenes, they had taken steps to drain the body of blood
01:06:15before they moved the body from wherever she was killed at to where she was eventually deposited at.
01:06:22In death, the Black Dahlia achieved the fame that had so eluded her in life.
01:06:27The Black Dahlia case represents the sickest type of murder,
01:06:32where you have a victim who isn't just killed, but really tortured and desecrated.
01:06:40Nobody had ever seen anything like it before in the history of Hollywood,
01:06:46and that is why it remains today.
01:06:49Hollywood's most gruesome unsolved crime.
01:07:04He was gunned down in this crime at a busy Las Vegas intersection with hundreds of witnesses.
01:07:11Why was the shooter never ID'd?
01:07:14Number four, Tupac Shakur.
01:07:19I mean, that case scares the crap out of everybody involved.
01:07:23In fact, the people involved are the ones who understand retaliation probably better than anybody else.
01:07:28You had a guy who was an icon in the music industry, one of the greatest rappers, who got killed senselessly.
01:07:34In the world of rap music, no star burned brighter than Tupac Shakur.
01:07:39You know, Tupac represents not only a controversial figure,
01:07:44Tupac is somebody who's complex, both volatile and also radical.
01:07:50What we're doing is using our brain to get out of the ghetto any way we can.
01:07:54So we tell these stories, you know what I'm saying, and they tend to be violent.
01:07:58On September 7th, 1996, Tupac and his manager, Death Row Records president Marion Shug Knight,
01:08:05left the MGM hotel in Las Vegas after watching a Mike Tyson fight.
01:08:10Shug led a procession of luxury vehicles on their way to a nightclub.
01:08:14His only passenger was Tupac Shakur.
01:08:17Shug's BMW stopped at the corner of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane,
01:08:23an intersection that was about to become an infamous crime scene.
01:08:27There was another car that pulled up alongside them, and some individuals began firing at the car,
01:08:33hitting Tupac several times.
01:08:35Shug Knight, I believe, got grazed, and Tupac went to the hospital.
01:08:40The shooter sped around the corner and disappeared into the chaos of the Las Vegas strip,
01:08:45never to be seen again.
01:08:47Tupac died seven days later.
01:08:52You had ten vans full of guys when Tupac got shot.
01:08:56None of them went or came forward.
01:08:59These are not the people that go, hey, let me tell you what I saw.
01:09:03Frankly, you come forward, there's no guarantee you're going to be around long enough to be a witness in the case.
01:09:08L.A. gang unit cops quickly pointed the finger at a man Tupac and Shug had confronted earlier that night,
01:09:15a known L.A. gang member named Orlando Anderson.
01:09:19Anderson was never formally charged with the crime.
01:09:22He was gunned down two years later at a Compton car wash.
01:09:26Well, a rapper-on-rapper killing is a lot like other gang killings,
01:09:30which is, you know, those witnesses don't want to come forward either.
01:09:33They'd rather deal with it in their own way.
01:09:35At some point, they'll bring their own type of justice.
01:09:38They don't even trust the system.
01:09:40To this day, those who know who killed Tupac aren't talking.
01:09:44It is a misconception when cases are unsolved that the police don't know who did it.
01:09:49A lot of times they do know who did it, and they just don't have enough evidence to arrest them.
01:10:01Four bullets tore into him, but the singer did not fall.
01:10:06He stumbled up six stairs and said only, I'm shot.
01:10:10Number three, the murder of former Beatle John Lennon.
01:10:14John Lennon was the embodiment of peace and harmony and nonviolence.
01:10:20He was a symbol for change in the world, and it was so expressed in his music.
01:10:26John Lennon loved walking the streets of New York.
01:10:29He enjoyed fans approaching him for autographs.
01:10:33One such fan was Mark David Chapman,
01:10:36a failed charity worker turned suicidal obsessive with a history of mental problems.
01:10:42He was completely psychotic, and he had this obsession with John Lennon.
01:10:48And a lot of these murderers, they have this desire to be known for something,
01:10:52to be known for something grand.
01:10:54On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman waited all day outside John Lennon's Manhattan apartment, the Dakota.
01:11:03Lennon was coming home with Yoko Ono.
01:11:06He was coming home from a recording session.
01:11:08A fan stepped out of the darkness and shot him.
01:11:12Chapman crouched combat style and yelled out, Mr. Lennon.
01:11:16He fired five times.
01:11:18John yelled, I'm shot.
01:11:20And he staggered into the vestibule and collapsed right there.
01:11:26Two shots struck the singer in the back, and two lodged in his left shoulder.
01:11:31The fatal shot pierced his aorta.
01:11:33Police arrived almost immediately.
01:11:36They couldn't even wait for the ambulance.
01:11:37Threw him right in the radio car and took him right over to Roosevelt Hospital.
01:11:41The staff in the emergency department said, no, this is impossible.
01:11:44This is another person.
01:11:45And only when Yoko Ono followed about a minute later did the staff say, oh, my God, this is the real thing.
01:11:52Lennon lost more than 80% of his blood.
01:11:56Chapman used hollow point bullets designed to inflict maximum and final damage.
01:12:01In spite of all of our efforts, blood transfusion, surgical procedures, intravenous line, ventilation, breathing tubes,
01:12:08John Lennon was pronounced dead.
01:12:10After the shooting, Chapman threw off his hat and coat and sat down on the sidewalk.
01:12:15He pulled out a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and began to read.
01:12:20Police arrested him on the spot.
01:12:22Chapman planned to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
01:12:26The only defense that had any chance of prevailing was that he was delusional, that he was suffering from a mental illness.
01:12:36Two weeks before his trial, Mark David Chapman told his lawyer that he spoke to God.
01:12:41Mark is still a very religious Christian person and believes that he is going to, quote, go to heaven.
01:12:49Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life for second degree murder.
01:12:54There's a very good chance that Mark David Chapman will never see the light of day outside of a prison cell.
01:12:59Chapman admitted he became a murderer as a way to get attention, cursed by feelings that he was a nobody.
01:13:05Clearly, there are better ways of going about achieving fame and a name for oneself.
01:13:11What happened to Lennon was shocking because it wasn't happening to a president or a political leader.
01:13:17It was happening to a singer.
01:13:19In a 1960s interview, Lennon was asked how he expected to die.
01:13:24He paused and then said with a smile, I'll probably be popped off by some loony.
01:13:32Coming up, a slaughter in the suburbs leads to the trial of the century.
01:13:53She was a California beauty trying to escape the shadow of her famous ex-husband.
01:13:58He was an all-American guy trying to become a movie star.
01:14:02Their brutal killing stunned the nation.
01:14:11On the surface, Nicole Brown and O.J. Simpson seemed like a happy Hollywood couple.
01:14:17But behind closed doors, the marriage was troubled.
01:14:20I saw pictures of Nicole Brown Simpson beat up.
01:14:23I heard that 911 call, the transcript of that, that she saved in a safe deposit box.
01:14:28And I know she was a victim of domestic violence.
01:14:31Nicole and O.J. divorced in October 1992.
01:14:35They continued to raise their children together, living in the same Brentwood, California neighborhood.
01:14:41This is a very important part of their lives, was to keep up a cordial environment
01:14:45so that their kids would try to grow up in a healthy manner.
01:14:48But for Nicole, everything came to an end on the night of June 12, 1994.
01:14:54Around 7 p.m., Nicole had dinner with her children and her mother at Mezzaluna Trattoria in Brentwood.
01:15:01So she returns home. Her mother calls and says she left her glasses behind at Mezzaluna restaurant.
01:15:07And so Nicole calls the restaurant, and one of the waiters agrees to bring the glasses over to her house.
01:15:13The waiter was Nicole's friend, Ron Goldman.
01:15:16When he left, he said to me, he said, he said, do you want me to call you?
01:15:21And I said, yeah, you can call me or I'll call you.
01:15:23And he said, great. And then he walked one way and then walked another.
01:15:26And the last words that I ever heard from him was, I'll see you later.
01:15:29Goldman arrived at Nicole's condo around 10.15 p.m.
01:15:33Simpson came out of the condo to let Mr. Goldman in the gate.
01:15:37And at that point is when they were attacked.
01:15:42According to the autopsy reports, an assailant stabbed Ron 11 times with a knife at least six inches long.
01:15:49During the struggle, the killer cut Ron multiple times on the neck and scalp and struck him with a blunt object on the back of his head.
01:15:57He was basically cornered in a very small area.
01:16:01He was unarmed. And you really, as hard as you fight, eventually, especially with the loss of blood,
01:16:07you lose acuity and you, you know, you pass out.
01:16:12And as hard as he fought, he really had no chance because he couldn't get away.
01:16:18The killer also attacked Nicole.
01:16:21What happened to Nicole Simpson, she had a cut of the neck that went down two inches to the bone.
01:16:26If you sustain a cut that deep, you're pretty much not going to survive because you can't breathe.
01:16:32You're bleeding out. It's fatal.
01:16:36Nicole was stabbed seven more times in her neck and scalp.
01:16:40She was also struck on the back of the head.
01:16:43Police found 25-year-old Ron and 35-year-old Nicole dead on the front steps just after midnight.
01:16:51Anytime you have somebody stabbed or shot or bludgeoned multiple times, multiple, multiple times,
01:17:04your first indication that somebody was very angry, that this is a crime of passion.
01:17:11You have to love a person a great deal to keep injuring the person after death.
01:17:16And that's part of the rage reaction.
01:17:18In the days that followed, investigators discovered a bloody glove,
01:17:22bloody shoe prints and other suspicious items at the murder site.
01:17:27Both these victims were, were stabbed.
01:17:30It was a very personal thing.
01:17:32And for that reason, I'm sure it led the investigators to think that quite possibly it was a domestic situation.
01:17:41According to police reports, O.J. Simpson became the prime suspect.
01:17:46There was his blood all over the crime scene.
01:17:49There was the victim's blood in his car.
01:17:51There was a mountain of forensic evidence.
01:17:54On June 17th, a warrant was issued for O.J.'s arrest.
01:17:58That afternoon, Simpson and his longtime friend, Al Cowling,
01:18:02led police on a now-famous low-speed car chase in his white Bronco.
01:18:07O.J. eventually surrendered at his Brentwood home.
01:18:10In January 1995, Simpson went on trial for the double homicide.
01:18:16The case became a media circus.
01:18:19At this time, can you shoot at her plea, guilty or not guilty?
01:18:22Not guilty.
01:18:24Based on all these issues of race, of celebrity, of wealth, of popularity in our society,
01:18:32it had something for everyone, in essence.
01:18:34And I don't mean to talk about it in such a detached way,
01:18:37but I think for all of us, that's what it became.
01:18:40It became something other than the fact that, you know, this man was on trial for murder.
01:18:45It became a cultural moment, a phenomena.
01:18:49If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.
01:18:52The O.J. Simpson-Nicole Simpson case was, at least in my memory,
01:18:57the most watched event in the history of pop culture.
01:19:02On October 3, 1995, nearly 100 million people tuned in to hear the verdict.
01:19:08The jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant,
01:19:11Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder
01:19:15in violation of Penal Code Section 187A, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson.
01:19:21I think the O.J. verdict helped the acquittal,
01:19:24because, one, O.J. could afford to have a whole team of fabulous lawyers.
01:19:30Second of all, you had O.J. Simpson. He was an all-American hero.
01:19:34People didn't want to believe he could commit such a crime.
01:19:37No one else has been arrested for the murders.
01:19:40Regardless of what happened, I don't think anybody came out a winner.
01:19:43He's not in jail, but, you know, his life has turned all the way around.
01:19:49It's just one big tragedy.
01:19:51Under the law, he was acquitted. Then he went on to the civil trial.
01:19:57In the 1997 civil trial, O.J. Simpson was found liable for the killings.
01:20:03O.J. was ordered to pay the victims' families $33.5 million.
01:20:09The most terrible thing about the case is that no one's paying for it.
01:20:13No one is in jail for this. These two people are dead.
01:20:16But no one is paying the price for these two murders.
01:20:20Up next, Hell in the Hollywood Hills, the number one most horrifying Hollywood murder.
01:20:47On the night of August 8, 1969, four people broke into a secluded house in the Hollywood Hills.
01:20:55One of the intruders announced, I am the devil, and I have come to do the devil's work.
01:21:01Number one, the Manson murders.
01:21:04No case had more prominent victims that were totally innocent,
01:21:10that were absolutely slaughtered by this cult element.
01:21:14Charlie Manson was an ex-con, failed musician,
01:21:18and self-proclaimed prophet to a fanatical group of followers known as The Family.
01:21:23Manson desperately wanted to be a rock star.
01:21:26Hung out with the Beach Boys, cut a few songs.
01:21:29Charles Manson was pissed off at the Beach Boys and their producer, Terry Melcher.
01:21:36Melcher, the producer, cut Manson off because Manson was so crazy,
01:21:40and it enraged him because Manson was getting a taste of fame.
01:21:43Manson called upon his followers to exact revenge.
01:21:47The only problem, they didn't know where to find Melcher.
01:21:50He knew that Melcher no longer lived there at 10050 Cielo Drive,
01:21:57but he knew that somebody prominent lived there.
01:22:03That prominent couple was director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate.
01:22:08Tate starred in the film Valley of the Dolls.
01:22:11Polanski was working in London that summer and asked friends to stay with Sharon.
01:22:16Manson wanted to commit some shocking murders.
01:22:20Charles Manson sent family members, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel,
01:22:26and Linda Kasabian on a mission.
01:22:28As they were driving out from Spahn Ranch, he leaned in the car and said,
01:22:32leave a sign, something witchy.
01:22:35In this group, he was God, he was mini-God.
01:22:39He decided who lived, who died, he decided how the murders would take place.
01:22:44The first to die was Stephen Parent, a recent high school grad who was visiting the garden.
01:22:50Stephen Parent begged him, please don't kill me, please don't kill me.
01:22:55He begged him, please don't kill me, please don't do anything, I won't say anything.
01:23:00Watson shot him four times at point blank range.
01:23:05Jay Sebring, a renowned Hollywood hairstylist, was next.
01:23:10Watson smashed him in the face with a gun and then shot him.
01:23:15Wojtek Frakowski, a Polish actor and close friend to Polanski,
01:23:20was stabbed 51 times and shot twice.
01:23:24His head was partially caved in by the butt of a gun.
01:23:28Watson then went over to help Patricia Krenwinkel stab Abigail Folger.
01:23:34Abigail Folger, heiress to the Folger coffee fortune, bled to death,
01:23:39the result of 28 stab wounds.
01:23:42And after they took care of her, Watson went back in the residence.
01:23:47Susan Adkins had Sharon Tate at knife point.
01:23:52Sharon was eight months pregnant.
01:23:54Sharon was crying and begging and pleading.
01:23:58She said, look, please, please don't hurt me, all I want to do is have my baby,
01:24:02please let me have my baby.
01:24:04Sharon Tate had 16 stab wounds, and of those 16 stab wounds,
01:24:08only three of the stab wounds were considered fatal,
01:24:11just simply one where the person was just stabbing indiscriminately.
01:24:17Sharon's blood was found smeared on the front door, spelling out the word pig.
01:24:22One common element in anybody that commits these types of crimes
01:24:26is to shock people, to shock the community,
01:24:31to create a sense of terror, and that somehow embraces them,
01:24:38makes them feel powerful.
01:24:40Manson hoped to spark a race war
01:24:43and then rule over the post-apocalyptic world himself.
01:24:47Charlie Manson's helter-skelter was a war that the Manson family
01:24:51were going to start between the blacks and the whites.
01:24:54Manson was going to jumpstart this war
01:24:56by making it appear like black people had done these murders.
01:25:00The next night, members of the family found two more victims,
01:25:04a Los Angeles couple, the LaBiancas.
01:25:07The LaBianca killings the next night was again, I believe,
01:25:11a matter of convenience to kill them.
01:25:14It was just by chance, simply by chance.
01:25:18The killers used a fork to carve war into one of the bodies.
01:25:23The city of Los Angeles was in a state of shock.
01:25:27People started locking their doors, locking their windows.
01:25:29That was the only subject people were talking about
01:25:32was these mass murderers who were out there killing and brutalizing people.
01:25:37It was a completely random situation, which is why it was so scary.
01:25:42It's why all of L.A. went crazy then,
01:25:44because it was like, oh, my gosh, who would kill these people
01:25:47and in such a brutal way?
01:25:49Loose talk by several Manson family members
01:25:52led to their eventual arrest.
01:25:54On January 15, 1971, a jury found Charles Manson,
01:25:59Patricia Krenwinkel, Susan Atkins, and Leslie Van Houten
01:26:03each guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
01:26:07Charles Tex Watson was found guilty of the same crimes at a later trial.
01:26:11One of the most famous misconceptions about this group of murders
01:26:15is that Charlie Manson had blood on his hands, and it's not true.
01:26:19Charlie Manson never actually killed anyone of those seven victims.
01:26:23Charles Manson has been up for parole ten times.
01:26:27Each time, he's been denied.
01:26:30Over the past three decades,
01:26:33Charles Manson has become almost a symbol
01:26:36of what ultimate darkness and evil represent.
01:26:40These aren't people you would have initially thought of
01:26:43to be such cold-blooded murderers.
01:26:45That in itself is pretty darn scary.
01:26:53These are the people we know,
01:26:55the famous, the beautiful, the powerful,
01:26:58gone but never forgotten.
01:27:02We are rolling.
01:27:03In a town of 1,000 manufactured deaths,
01:27:06it is the real stories of tragedy that grip us still.

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