WEBVTT - The Murder Years S2: Ep. 2, Pretend We're Dead 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.360 The following podcast contains explicit descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:09.160 that some listeners may find upsetting. Continue at your own risk. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.600 By the end of nineteen ninety two, the murder of 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:20.440 Erik Kendrick, just over three months before, had become old news. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.159 I had resumed my duties as copy editor at the 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.400 So Call Journal, which I was assured wasn't a demotion 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.560 since I had never officially been promoted to reporter anyway, 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:33.960 but it sher felt like one. Glenn Sherman, the journal's 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.680 star reporter, had written two follow up pieces to the 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:40.239 one I wrote on Vera's death. Both of them focused 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.519 on Vera's unorthodox lifestyle and honestly made it feel like 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.839 she had it coming. One even suggested she may have 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.840 committed suicide in the ocean, and that her injuries could 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.080 have been caused by her body being battered around on 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.760 the rocks. When I worked up the nerve to ask 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.320 Glenn about that angle, he took off his glasses, pinched 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:03.680 the bridge of hiss, sighed deeply, and said, Courtney, sometimes 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.800 you have to learn to play ball. I may have 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.480 been young and idealistic at the time, but I was 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.440 of the mind that journalism was about finding facts, not 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:18.640 playing ball, and my opinion hasn't changed over the years. Well, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:22.720 let's just say it hasn't changed much. The ball playing 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.120 Glenn was referring to was a result of the pressure 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.520 being put on him and the journal's editor in chief 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.959 by city councilman Greg Langford, who wanted the story to 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:34.640 fade away as quickly as possible. They wanted to keep 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:37.000 the paper on his good side, and it seemed that 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.680 Vera Kendrick wasn't a hill either of them was willing 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:43.200 to die on, and I guess I wasn't willing to 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:49.800 die on that hill either. At the paper's holiday party, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.040 sherman asked me if, in addition to my copy editing duties, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:56.160 I wanted to shadow him. He'd been at the paper 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.840 for fifteen years and had tons of sources all through 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.320 southern California and some national contacts. I would have been 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.320 stupid to turn him down, even though I knew it 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.880 was a whole thing he and his boss decided on 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:12.040 to keep me close and keep me quiet, and it 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.240 worked too, to my eternal shame, I kept my mouth 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.720 shut for far too long, even as the murders kept 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:38.120 on coming. I'm Courtney Barnes, and this is The Murder Years, 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:46.560 Episode two. Pretend We're dead. Once the calendar flipped to 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.280 nineteen ninety three, I was kept pretty busy. I helped 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.280 Glenn research and write about the inauguration of Bill Clinton 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:53.960 in January. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:59.519 My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.000 And the month after that, I helped him with a 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.840 major story when terrorists bombed the North Tower of the 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:05.840 World Trade Center. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.600 At this hour, more than five hundred rescue workers are 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.000 there on the scene of a massive underground explosion that 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:14.840 ripped through the World Trade Center just after noon. 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:20.000 Today, killing six people and injuring one thousand more. It's 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.360 weird to remember how big and scary that felt at 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.239 the time, before we knew just how bad an attack 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.720 on the Twin Towers would be. Later that year, in April, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.760 the FBI stormed the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.280 and sent it up in flames, killing seventy nine people, 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.960 including twenty one children and the Colts leader David Koresh. 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.440 I was eating lunch in Gerty's Diner when it happened. 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:48.520 Everyone in there was glued to the TV screen over 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.440 the counter for hours, and it was all anyone talked 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.600 about for weeks. With all that going on in the world, 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.720 and with a new tourist season just ramping up, the 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.840 death of a teenage homeless girl just didn't anymore with 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:05.240 pretty much anyone, myself included. I'm ashamed to say. 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.520 It's not like we were doing nothing. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.720 That's Damon Stokes, Sheriff of Delsoul County during the Domino 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.119 Beach murders, who you met in episode one. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.760 Council in Langford wanted us to keep it quiet, and 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.479 we did, but I was still running down every lead 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:23.240 I came across, like. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.120 Stan Majors and who was Stan Majors. 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.159 Come on, Courtney, you remember Stan Majors. You can't write 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:29.320 it that. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:30.880 It's for our listeners. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.960 Oh yeah, I forgot. You don't work in print. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.239 Anymore, No one does. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.520 Well, yes, you're right, okay, So Stan Majors. 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.040 Major waste of space is what we called them at 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.599 the Sheriff's station. Lived in a trailer park about thirty 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.880 miles inland from Domino Beach, almost right at the border 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:52.000 of Riverside. 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.240 County, middle of nowhere. 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.440 You could say that, which is what Stan Majors wanted. Well, 0:04:58.600 --> 0:04:59.840 I don't know if you wanted it, but the state 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.560 California didn't want him within twenty six hundred feet of 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.159 a school or a city park, or anywhere. 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:05.840 Else the minor might be. 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:06.839 And why was that? 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.120 Because he was a registered sex offender, which is what 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:11.880 put him on my radar in the first place. 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:13.839 In regard to the death of Arrick Hendrick. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.080 In nineteen eighty five, Stan Majors, then twenty three years old, 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.880 didn't take no for an answer from a young woman 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:24.200 who caught his eye at a bar in North Hollywood. 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.599 According to a transcript of his interrogation by the LAPD, 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.320 he was ridiculed by his so called friends for striking 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:34.920 out and decided to follow her out of the bar. 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.560 When she left, he pulled her into an alley, hit 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:41.920 her with his fists about the face and head until 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.839 she was semi conscious, and then dragged her behind the 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.880 nearest dumpster. He had pulled her underwear down around her ankles. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.839 When another man came into the alley to urinate, Majors 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:55.719 tried to run, but he was caught, beaten to a pulp, 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.160 then arrested, tried, and sentenced to six years in prison. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.000 As it turned out, his victim was seventeen years old 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:06.039 and had been in the bar with a fake ID, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.880 so Majors served every day of those six years. When 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.440 he was released from prison, he found life on the 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.560 sex offender registry kind of difficult, to say the least. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.839 He moved to a much less populated part of the state, 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.279 got a minimum wage job as an attendant and mechanic 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.560 at a seldom visited gas station on a seldom traveled 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.760 stretch of highway, where he lived a quiet, miserable little life. 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.880 I didn't have anything on him, mind you, other than 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:37.920 his criminal history. And when you're investigating a violent sexual assault, 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:39.640 it's just good practice. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:40.880 To check him with the local sex offender. 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.200 Well that was it, That's all you had. 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.160 Well, he didn't have an alibi for the night Vera 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.160 was killed. He probably didn't have an alibi for most 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.680 nights of his life. Wasn't exactly mister popularity. 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.080 You know? Did you consider him a suspect? 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.760 Not a suspect. And I had no reason to charge him, 0:06:57.839 --> 0:06:58.560 even hold him. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.479 He was a person. Event though I questioned him multiple times. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.720 When was the first time I drove out to. 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.040 The filling station where he worked, and asked him some questions. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.440 The afternoon VARA's body was found. He was nervous, and 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.480 you know, why shouldn't he be, even if he hadn't 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:16.160 done anything wrong. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.240 Excan's get nervous around cops? You know, it's understandable. 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.040 Anyway, he answered everything I asked him. Didn't make me 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:25.680 get a warrant. When I asked if I could search 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.480 his car and his trailer didn't find so much as 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.480 a joint. A couple of weeks later, when we still 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.840 hadn't come up with any suspects, one of my deputies 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:36.560 brought him to the station to sweat him out in 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.520 an interrogation room, and that was mostly done out of frustration, 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:45.000 not because of any new evidence or anything. Again, he 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.560 answered every question to our satisfaction, and we had no 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:49.920 choice but to let him go. In the end, we 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.760 decided it wasn't too hard to get a hold of 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.400 him if we needed him, but pursuing him any further 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:55.720 just felt like a wasted time. 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.040 So in the weeks and months following Viera is murder. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.960 How much pressure are you getting from the city council. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.520 Through the rest of nineteen ninety two, not too much. 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.880 We were just pretty much alone to do our jobs. 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.480 But by February or so of ninety three, they didn't 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:12.560 want to hear a word about. 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:12.960 It from anyone. 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.040 By they, you mean Councilman Greg Langford. 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:34.560 Yeah, you know, my dad could have used his pull 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.920 to help find Vera's killer. Instead, he used it to 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:40.360 get everyone to shut up about it. 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.000 That's Connor Langford, whom you may remember from our last episode. 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.080 Connor was one of the surfers who found Vera Kendrick's body, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.080 and he's also the son of city councilman Greg Langford. 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:54.240 I tried to get him to help. He said he 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.040 was doing everything he could, but we both knew that 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.640 was bullshit. He was doing everything he could to get 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.360 dominant beach. Just move the fuck on. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:06.080 You know, when I started working under Glenn Sherman at 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.640 the Sokow Journal, one of the things he asked me 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.280 to do was attend city council meetings and take notes. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:13.880 I didn't blame him for pawning that off on me. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:16.200 If I could have gotten someone else to go on 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.720 my place, I would have. The meetings were usually excruciatingly dull. 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.400 There were some moments of levity or excitement provided by 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.920 citizens who would go up to the podium to demand 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.960 that books they didn't like be banned from schools, or 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.880 for bikinis to be banned from beaches, or for bars 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.520 to be forced to close by ten o'clock, that sort 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.720 of thing. But if you were to condense every council 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.240 meeting down to one line, it would have to be 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.640 how can we bring more tourists to Domino Beach and 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.440 squeeze more money out of them. 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.480 My father was angling to become mayor of Domino Beach. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:52.840 What's her face? Either retired or died? 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.720 What's her face? Being Deborah Charles, the eighty five year 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.480 old mayor who would neither retire nor die for another 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:00.359 six years. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.199 But even that was only a stepping stone for him. 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.959 He didn't give through fucks about Domino Beach. Once he 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.440 served his mayor, he'd run for state office, then try 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.760 to go national with the House of Representatives, and from 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.119 there he'd weasel his way into somebody's cabinet and eventually 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:20.520 run for president himself. And he thought I was delusional 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.080 for trying to make it with my band. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.240 He said that laid out his political ambitions like that. 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.000 Well not in so many words. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:29.120 No. 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:32.640 The thing about my dad was if there was a 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:35.319 bigger job with more power, he wanted it. 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.760 I see. So getting back to why he didn't want 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.080 to help Salvera's murder, all. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.320 Right, Well, with him, everything was all about perception. If 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.360 he was responsible for it, it had to be motherfucking perfect. 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:54.240 I'm in his family, which, yeah, I'm man enough to admit. 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.200 I said to embarrass the son of a bitch every 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:57.040 chance I got. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.920 And his town too, right, Domeno Beach had to be 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:04.719 the safest, cleanest, most lucrative tourist spot in California, or 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.360 what he'd consider himself a failure? 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:13.160 Yeah, well, he'd never see himself as a failure. He 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.640 never took responsibility for a goddamn thing. You Competitive, things 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.120 weren't going his way, he'd find someone to blame for it. 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.760 Oh yeah, Langford blamed me for just about anything he could. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.440 If he wanted something cleaned up, he'd order me to 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.760 do it, And when I'd say I needed the council 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.480 to give me more resources, he'd get over wanting to 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.000 get it cleaned up and settle for hiding it where 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:35.360 no one would be able to see it. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.840 You know you're talking about Domino Beach's heroin problem. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.120 Yeah, the heroin problem. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.760 In the early nineties, if Domino Beach was known for anything, 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.600 it was good vibes and good times. It was a 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.120 safe place occupied by safe people, doing mostly safe things, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.960 and having a great time doing them. A lot of 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:57.679 that was because of where it was, far enough away 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.400 from the big cities to feel like a vacation nation, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.960 but close enough to them to take advantage of all 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.680 the conveniences they provided. But in spite of what it 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.800 looked like from the outside, Domino Beach had a heroin 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:13.400 problem that rivaled that of any major city, at least 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.040 on a per capita basis. After all, Domino Beach was 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.680 only about an hour's drive from the Mexican border, but 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.480 small enough that we didn't receive the scrutiny La and 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.679 San Diego got. Anyway, we had drugs in Domino Beach, 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.920 and wherever there are drugs, there are drug addicts. 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.600 The War on drugs was always a loser, but we 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:37.360 did what we could to manage it. I mean, during 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.320 the off season, the junkies would fade inland, which, to 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.960 be honest, was fine by me if they wanted to 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.280 waste their lives shooting up junk. As long as they 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.079 were doing it in the privacy of their own homes 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.200 and as long as they were not hurting anyone, wasn't 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:51.079 a priority to me. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:53.679 What about during the tourist season. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.160 Well, that was different. 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:59.920 When the tourists came to town, the junkies would wander 0:12:59.920 --> 0:13:04.000 in and two they panhandle turn tricks, sell skunk weed 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:05.040 to college students. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:06.960 You know, in a way, they were just like the 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:07.480 rest of us. 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:09.760 From April to August was when you had a chance 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:11.160 to make your nut in Domino Beach. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.360 So let's talk about Billy Boy Reeves. 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.400 Yeah, okay. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:24.400 In July of nineteen ninety three, I had been shadowing 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.800 crime and politics reporter Glenn Sherman for over six months, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.920 and I was starting to step out from under that shadow. 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.600 I had figured out that part of the reason he 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.600 kept tabs on me was because he read the article 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.200 I wrote on Vera Kendrick and got nervous. He saw 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.440 me as a good writer that the journal could hire 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.840 for a lot less than what he was making. So 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.920 it wasn't really a mentor protege thing. It was more 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:52.320 like a keep your enemies closer thing. So unless I 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.160 was working directly with him, I wasn't getting any crime 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.000 or politics stories to cover. During the summer, I wrote 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.120 a lot of pretty superficial fair like covering the fourth 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.120 of July five K fun run, or doing write ups 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:07.960 on new bars and restaurants, and I got admit I 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:10.960 enjoyed it. I was developing a style that seemed to 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:14.120 play better with lighthearted stuff than all that doom and gloom. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.960 So when Billy Boy Reeves was found dead in a 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:21.880 dumpster on Wednesday, July twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, it 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:23.560 wasn't me who wrote the story. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.480 Billy Boy Reeves had been in Domino Beach less than 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:29.360 a year, and I had had him in lock up 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.240 at least half a dozen times. He'd claimed to have 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:34.320 come from San Diego on his way to LA and 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.000 got distracted by the heroin. 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:40.440 Market in our sleepy little town so decided to stay. 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.520 Awhile, what do you mean he claimed to have come 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:44.720 up from San Diego? 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.720 I mean, no one knew where he really came from 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.120 or even what his real name was. Other than the 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:52.320 rap sheet I had on him. There was no documentation 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.080 he ever existed, and his body was never claimed. 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.680 Here's what I learned about Billy Boy Reeves. He was 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.040 somewhere in the neighborhood of sixteen years old and completely 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:07.200 on his own. Lord only knew how long he'd been 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.600 hooked on heroin, but it had to be long enough 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.520 that there was no limit to what he'd do to 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:12.400 feed his addiction. 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.200 Prostitution goes hand in hand with illegal drugs anywhere you go. 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.600 Junkies need their fix, and getting someone off in exchange 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.800 for a few bucks is one of the easiest ways 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.120 to make it happen. I picked up Billy Boy twice 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.800 already since April of nineteen ninety three for solicitation. Well 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.720 don't see propossessioned the wrong guy. Some spring break frat 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.560 boy didn't like the fact that Billy thought he might 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.280 enjoy a little attention from another guy. Frat boy beat 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.280 Billy Boy up pretty good, and I had him treated 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.640 at the hospital instead of arresting him. I tried to 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:48.000 help him see the error of his ways. But you know, 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:50.520 I guess that was naive of me. 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.680 So Domino Beach wasn't without it, Sarah. For violent crime, 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.360 of course not. We certainly didn't have it on the 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.720 scale of a big city. But you know, people will 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:01.800 be paid every year. 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:07.840 We had some fights, occasional sexual assault, although well you know. 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:15.040 I mean they were probably more than occasional, just underreported 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:16.280 and under prosecuted. 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.640 It was a different time. It was wrong, and I 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.800 never intentionally turned a blind eye to anything. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:24.640 I'm not here about that, no. 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.680 But I could have made more of a difference. I mean, 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.760 that is something I regret about my career. 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.840 I understand. But let's get back to Billy Boy Reeves. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:38.960 Okay, So, like I said, in the six or seven 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.120 months he'd been in town, I'd gotten enom as well 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.120 as I knew any of our troublemaking element. So that 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:48.840 morning when I got the call, I felt like I failed. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.760 I tried to help him, but I failed. 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.920 Billy Boy Reeves was found with his throat slit in 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.080 a dumpster in the alley behind Bleach Blonde Betty's one 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.160 of the more popular bars and music venues in Domino Beach. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.240 Triple Bees, as it was known to the locals, served 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.400 some of the cheapest boos in town and could hold 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.480 about three hundred sweaty mosh pitting kids. They had a 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.439 cool stage and a great sound system, and during the 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.360 peak of tourist season, hosted two or three bands a night, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:21.920 four or five times a week. 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.240 According to the autopsy, Billy Boy had been high on 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.680 heroin at the time of his death, maybe even unconscious. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.960 We came to believe that his murderer helped him score, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.080 got him higher than he'd probably ever been in his life, 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.879 and then once he was so out of it, he 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:40.520 had no idea what was going on. 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:43.879 But that was later. You didn't think that at first, 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:44.199 did you. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.760 Well, No, like I said, Billy Boy was a troublemaker. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.119 We'd assumed that he'd tried to get over on a 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.920 dealer or a john and it just worked out. 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:53.520 Poorly for him. 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:54.960 Did you investigate? 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.480 Of course we did. I talked to every junkie in 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:03.000 Delsol County. No one saw shit as usual. I did 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:04.879 get one girl to tell me Billy Boy told her 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.920 he was planning on hustling that night, but no one 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.680 saw him with anyone. No one saw him get into 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.200 a car or anything, or if they did, they didn't 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:13.800 want to tell me. 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.480 So Billy Boy got swept under the ruck like Vera Hendrick. 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.240 I wouldn't say that it wasn't the same thing no one. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.720 No one thought those deaths were related, not. 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:27.280 At the time. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.240 What no one noticed at the time was the clue 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.919 that linked Billy Boy Reeve's death with the death of 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.280 Vera Hendrick. There was a lot of graffiti in the 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.800 alley where Billy Boy was found, so it would have 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.119 been very easy to miss. But spray painted on the 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.760 brick wall above the dumpster were the words just say 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:04.359 no to individuality. In time, when the connection would be made, 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:06.720 we would learn that this is a lyric from a 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.439 song by the all female Los Angeles punk band L seven. 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:18.800 The title of the song Pretend We're Dead. If anyone 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.560 had been paying attention, they would have seen a pattern 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.880 for me. In less than a year, two people had 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.439 been murdered in Domino Beach, with song lyrics left alongside 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.640 their bodies, but no one was paying attention. The two 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.840 victims were both homeless teenagers, forgotten by their families and 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:39.560 easily dismissed by the town of Domino Beach. 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.480 Oh yeah, that junkie kid. 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.600 Wish you barely even heard about that. 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.480 That's Maya Morales again, girlfriend to Connor Langford. At the 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.359 time of the murders of both Vera Hendrick and Billie 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:55.800 Boy Reeves. 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.199 I mean, I practically lived at Triple B's during the 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.760 summer when I wasn't working. Bartender would usually let me 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:05.199 drink for free, long as I tip them good. And 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.000 Connor's band played there at least twice a week, first 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.000 set usually, but still. 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:14.720 So no one at Triple Be's talked about it, not really. 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:18.159 I mean, we knew a body had been found, but 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:23.080 it wasn't like. Look, Jeff Franklin, the owner of Triple B's, 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.080 he hired undocumented workers, okay, and it was one of 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.399 them who found the body, and well, he ended up 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.080 getting deported because of it. And Jeff considered. 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:36.840 It a pretty sensitive subject. 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.200 He didn't talk about it, and if anyone else did, 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.840 he would shut it down and kick them out of 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.480 the bar. To tell you the truth, we didn't even 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.080 know it was a murder. You didn't, no, I mean, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:50.840 we just heard they found a dead junkie. 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.080 Back then. We all assumed it was an overdose. 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.680 And I guess everyone who knew better just let us 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:03.320 believe that. The cops, the council, Jeff, everyone. 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:05.160 Was Connor's band playing that night the. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:06.560 Night before the body was found. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.280 Yeah, and were you there. 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.080 Yeah, but I didn't stay for the whole set. I 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.560 had just gotten a second job at Gravel Records and 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:16.360 I had to open the next day, so I did 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:16.919 that early. 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:22.359 So I have a question. 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.440