WEBVTT - 1. Mr. Malibu 0:00:14.996 --> 0:00:33.836 Pushkin. The Channel Islands have the kind of stark, pristine 0:00:33.916 --> 0:00:37.996 beauty that makes people fall in love with California. Santa 0:00:38.036 --> 0:00:41.116 Cruz Island is probably the most stunning in the archipelago. 0:00:41.676 --> 0:00:45.556 About thirty miles due west of Malibu. It's surrounded by glassy, 0:00:45.636 --> 0:00:50.996 indigo water, giant kelp forests, and tide pools. But probably 0:00:50.996 --> 0:00:54.916 the island's most fascinating feature, the one that draws kayakers 0:00:54.916 --> 0:00:58.036 and scuba divers from all over, is its abundance of 0:00:58.116 --> 0:01:03.916 sea caves with names like Shipwreck Cave and Limbo. On 0:01:03.996 --> 0:01:06.516 the north side of the island, a couple hundred feet 0:01:06.516 --> 0:01:09.676 into the ocean, there's a huge, white, spattered rock with 0:01:09.716 --> 0:01:14.236 a sheer cliff face. It's called bird Rock for obvious reasons. 0:01:15.836 --> 0:01:19.036 Bird Rock has its own sea cave, a tall chamber 0:01:19.076 --> 0:01:23.076 with walls that are covered in green algae. It's mysterious 0:01:23.116 --> 0:01:26.716 and cool, but once you know the story of Fred Railer, 0:01:27.476 --> 0:01:30.316 it's impossible to look at the sea cave or any 0:01:30.316 --> 0:01:35.756 part of this beautiful island the same way again. On 0:01:35.876 --> 0:01:39.436 January second, nineteen eighty one, Railer, a thirty eight year 0:01:39.436 --> 0:01:41.916 old man from Malibu, was pulled out of the water 0:01:42.156 --> 0:01:44.996 on the open ocean side of Bird Rock, along with 0:01:45.076 --> 0:01:48.396 his wife, thirty six year old Verna Johnson Railer and 0:01:48.516 --> 0:01:53.596 her son, his stepson, eight year old Doug Johnson. Verna 0:01:53.636 --> 0:01:57.476 and Doug were soon declared dead. Fred was cold, but 0:01:57.556 --> 0:02:01.916 other than that fine, His pulse was steady, his breathing 0:02:01.996 --> 0:02:07.276 was normal. He appeared to be unscathed. Fred said their rowboat, 0:02:07.316 --> 0:02:10.676 a sixteen foot orange story, overturned and he had done 0:02:10.756 --> 0:02:14.756 everything possible to save his wife and stepchild. He was 0:02:14.796 --> 0:02:23.916 the sole survivor and the only witness. For many, many months, 0:02:23.956 --> 0:02:28.316 we were just trying to figure out what happened and 0:02:29.516 --> 0:02:33.636 is there any truth to Railer's story. That's a criminalist 0:02:33.716 --> 0:02:37.116 named doctor Dwayne Mose. At the time of Verna and 0:02:37.156 --> 0:02:40.356 Doug's deaths, he worked for a California state crime lab, 0:02:40.996 --> 0:02:43.436 and eventually we decided there was no truth to it 0:02:43.516 --> 0:02:50.876 at all. We could not substantiate anything he said, but 0:02:51.036 --> 0:02:57.556 we could substantiate alternatives. And as I saw this going on, 0:02:58.036 --> 0:03:05.756 it all came together in my head as a story. 0:03:05.876 --> 0:03:10.036 Doctor Mose is an expert in crime scene reconstruction. When 0:03:10.036 --> 0:03:12.476 he found out about the sea cave inside Bird Rock, 0:03:12.876 --> 0:03:15.716 he wanted to investigate and I said, I want to 0:03:15.716 --> 0:03:20.036 go inside, and I looked around at the rocks, the 0:03:20.116 --> 0:03:23.476 height of the cave, and that's when another piece of 0:03:23.476 --> 0:03:26.836 the puzzle fell in place. That's what I turned to 0:03:26.956 --> 0:03:29.156 the people in the boat and I said, this is 0:03:29.196 --> 0:03:32.396 where it happened. It did not happen out there in 0:03:32.436 --> 0:03:36.036 the ocean. It happened in this cave. The cave, he said, 0:03:36.396 --> 0:03:42.356 was spacious and secluded, and it's tall and narrow. It's 0:03:42.436 --> 0:03:45.996 tall enough so that a man can take an oar 0:03:46.196 --> 0:03:50.076 to a rowboat, swing it high, and bring it down 0:03:50.156 --> 0:03:54.876 on an object with some force. My theory is that 0:03:54.956 --> 0:03:58.596 he rowed the boat into this cave with the intention 0:03:58.636 --> 0:04:01.556 of killing both of them. He would have started with 0:04:01.636 --> 0:04:05.596 Verna catching her off guard. Verna was in the bow 0:04:05.716 --> 0:04:10.316 and Douglas was in the stern, and Railer was sitting 0:04:10.636 --> 0:04:13.676 where a rower would normally sit, and he was in 0:04:13.716 --> 0:04:19.316 the middle. So while Verna would be looking forward to 0:04:19.356 --> 0:04:22.516 defend the bow of the boat against the rocks, Railer 0:04:22.556 --> 0:04:25.676 could easily pick up an oar, swing it hit her 0:04:25.716 --> 0:04:28.916 on the head. Then he would have turned to Doug. 0:04:29.556 --> 0:04:34.076 I believe that Douglas Johnson sprang from the stern of 0:04:34.156 --> 0:04:40.596 the doorway onto Railer in an attempt to protect his mother, 0:04:41.676 --> 0:04:45.996 and I believe that Railer took Douglas by the head 0:04:47.156 --> 0:04:52.396 slammed the back of his head twice into the edge 0:04:52.396 --> 0:04:56.076 of the seat where the seat met the inside surface 0:04:56.116 --> 0:05:01.716 of the hull. Verna was petite, one hundred and fifteen pounds, 0:05:02.276 --> 0:05:07.876 Doug only fifty something. Fred was six feet two. First 0:05:07.916 --> 0:05:11.276 thing in the morning. He could have easily overpowered them, 0:05:11.396 --> 0:05:14.676 knocking them out, Moses says, so he could finish them off. 0:05:15.596 --> 0:05:19.996 He then threw, pushed, or carried both of them overboard 0:05:20.356 --> 0:05:26.396 and drowned them. He then exited the cave, and it 0:05:26.436 --> 0:05:28.756 would have been difficult to get both bodies back in 0:05:28.836 --> 0:05:31.196 the boat, so I think he pushed the boat out 0:05:31.236 --> 0:05:35.436 of the cave and then took the two bodies and 0:05:35.556 --> 0:05:38.196 swam around on the other side of Bird Rock, where 0:05:38.236 --> 0:05:42.596 he was found and taken out of the water by 0:05:43.116 --> 0:05:46.116 the people on this boat that was passing by. That 0:05:46.356 --> 0:05:50.356 explained so much, explained all the damage to the hull 0:05:50.356 --> 0:05:54.716 of the dory, explained while there was no witnesses to 0:05:54.916 --> 0:05:59.236 what went on, it just made it easier to do 0:05:59.356 --> 0:06:02.676 what he did. By the way the oars for the 0:06:02.716 --> 0:06:07.236 Dory were never recovered. They were lost somewhere somehow in 0:06:07.276 --> 0:06:11.836 the ocean. But this is just a story, albeit a 0:06:11.836 --> 0:06:15.036 powerful persuasive one. It's a story that a lot of 0:06:15.036 --> 0:06:18.356 people have come to believe is true. It's a story 0:06:18.396 --> 0:06:24.996 that helps send Fred Rayler to prison. But Fred's story 0:06:25.396 --> 0:06:27.276 that he was trying as hard as he could to 0:06:27.316 --> 0:06:30.796 save his wife and stepson, that he was a rescuer, 0:06:31.076 --> 0:06:34.796 not a murderer. His story has a few supporters too. 0:06:35.796 --> 0:06:40.596 To this day, I do not believe he did this. 0:06:41.716 --> 0:06:46.516 That's Verna's sister, Julianne, Verna's mother, went to her grave 0:06:46.716 --> 0:06:51.196 convinced of Fred's innocence. And Verna's daughter Kim, who lost 0:06:51.236 --> 0:06:54.116 not only her mother but also her little brother Doug, 0:06:54.876 --> 0:06:58.996 she believes Fred too, So do his two daughters, Heidi 0:06:59.116 --> 0:07:03.276 and Kirsten. They all maintain that Verna and Doug died 0:07:03.356 --> 0:07:06.956 in a tragic accident. And it's not just the family. 0:07:07.636 --> 0:07:10.356 There are legal experts who leave Fred's case was a 0:07:10.396 --> 0:07:14.756 miscarriage of justice. This is Justin Brooks, director of the 0:07:14.796 --> 0:07:17.916 California Innocence Project. Well, it looked to me like the 0:07:17.996 --> 0:07:21.556 kind of case where a person was convicted based on bias. 0:07:22.876 --> 0:07:26.516 This summer, I got access to an archive of recorded interviews, 0:07:26.636 --> 0:07:30.956 investigation reports, and court filings. They led me into a 0:07:30.996 --> 0:07:35.796 forgotten world Malibu in the late seventies and early eighties, 0:07:36.676 --> 0:07:40.756 when the consummate family man was accused of horrible crimes, 0:07:41.956 --> 0:07:49.676 and Malibu itself was the motive. I'm Dana Goodyear and 0:07:49.876 --> 0:08:20.076 this is Lost Hills. This is Season two, Dead in 0:08:20.076 --> 0:08:28.956 the Water, Episode one. Mister Malibu. Fred Railer is an 0:08:28.956 --> 0:08:33.076 inmate at the California State Prison in Lancaster. He's serving 0:08:33.116 --> 0:08:36.236 a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the 0:08:36.356 --> 0:08:40.676 murders of his wife, Erna and his stepson Doug. For 0:08:40.716 --> 0:08:43.156 the past few months, he's been calling me most days, 0:08:43.516 --> 0:08:46.756 usually at eight thirty am sharp, just after I've dropped 0:08:46.796 --> 0:08:50.356 off my kids at school. Good morning, Hi, Fred, how 0:08:50.396 --> 0:08:54.836 are you? His daughter Kirsten put us in touch. She's 0:08:54.916 --> 0:08:57.836 forty seven, the youngest of the sisters, and she doesn't 0:08:57.836 --> 0:09:00.676 have a family of her own. She's devoted her adult 0:09:00.756 --> 0:09:04.116 life to freeing her father. In the time since I 0:09:04.156 --> 0:09:06.876 started talking to Fred, he's been given a diagnosis of 0:09:06.996 --> 0:09:10.156 kidney cancer, and the project of getting him released has 0:09:10.196 --> 0:09:14.356 become even more urgent. For his kids. Fred has told 0:09:14.396 --> 0:09:17.796 his story a thousand and one times. He's written it down, 0:09:17.996 --> 0:09:20.836 recorded it into a polygraph machine, sworn to it on 0:09:20.876 --> 0:09:24.556 the witness stand, committed it to memory. So the story 0:09:24.596 --> 0:09:27.436 has a plot in quality, like an old horse that's 0:09:27.436 --> 0:09:32.196 been led around the ring too many times. On January second, 0:09:32.356 --> 0:09:35.676 nineteen eighty one, the family set out early from Ventura 0:09:35.716 --> 0:09:40.276 Harbor on Perseverance, their fifty foot sailboat. It was a Friday, 0:09:40.436 --> 0:09:44.076 the first weekend of the new year. Much of Fred's 0:09:44.076 --> 0:09:47.156 extended family was on board, his mother and father, and 0:09:47.236 --> 0:09:49.316 his brother and sister in law, who were visiting from 0:09:49.316 --> 0:09:53.356 Indiana for the holidays. His wife, Ferna, the four kids 0:09:53.356 --> 0:09:56.516 they had between them, ages six to eleven, and the 0:09:56.556 --> 0:10:00.156 family dog, a six month old beagle puppy named Lady. 0:10:01.316 --> 0:10:05.996 They crossed the channel to Santa Cruz Island. Verna steered 0:10:06.036 --> 0:10:08.836 Perseverance into the anchorage to the east of Bird Rock. 0:10:09.196 --> 0:10:13.316 Around noon. They had lunch. Then Fred's brother and his 0:10:13.396 --> 0:10:16.316 wife took an inflatable dinghy to the island, bringing the 0:10:16.356 --> 0:10:20.436 two older girls with them. Kirsten was only six, and 0:10:20.596 --> 0:10:23.116 she was told to stay back with her grandparents and 0:10:23.236 --> 0:10:28.436 take a nap. That left Fred, Verna and Doug. Fred 0:10:28.516 --> 0:10:31.916 says an idea popped into Verna's head. We had to 0:10:31.996 --> 0:10:38.356 puppy aboard the first time, and Verna suggested that we 0:10:38.516 --> 0:10:41.196 go out and maybe take some pictures with the dog 0:10:41.276 --> 0:10:46.276 and Douglas and the boats and things. Verna, he says, 0:10:46.396 --> 0:10:49.916 had a specific shot in mind, Doug holding Lady in 0:10:49.956 --> 0:10:53.196 front of Bird Rock with perseverance in the deep background. 0:10:54.716 --> 0:10:58.116 So Fred, Verna, Doug, and Lady piled into the orange story. 0:10:59.076 --> 0:11:02.356 Fred made sure dog grabbed a life jacket. Fred had 0:11:02.356 --> 0:11:05.516 on a float coat buoyant but not life saving, and 0:11:05.676 --> 0:11:09.476 Verna didn't have any kind of floatation device. He rowed 0:11:09.516 --> 0:11:12.196 them around the north side of Bird Rock, the open 0:11:12.236 --> 0:11:16.716 ocean side to the spot Verna chose approximately thirty feet 0:11:16.756 --> 0:11:20.556 off the rock. In the anchorage, the water had been glassy, 0:11:20.996 --> 0:11:23.516 but out here it was rougher, and they were also 0:11:23.636 --> 0:11:31.636 effectively alone. So we had just gotten passed what they 0:11:31.676 --> 0:11:36.996 called bird Rock, and we're getting ready to start lining 0:11:37.036 --> 0:11:40.516 things up. According to Fred, Verna was in the bow, 0:11:40.796 --> 0:11:42.916 the front of the boat. He was in the middle, 0:11:43.116 --> 0:11:45.156 sitting on the bottom of the boat with his knees 0:11:45.196 --> 0:11:47.996 over the seat. He had his back toward Verna and 0:11:48.116 --> 0:11:50.956 was facing Doug, who was in the stern the rear 0:11:50.956 --> 0:11:55.196 of the boat. Verna had been holding lady with the 0:11:55.396 --> 0:11:58.516 dog's name, and she passed them to me, and then 0:11:58.556 --> 0:12:04.236 I passed the dog to Douglas. When the dog got 0:12:04.356 --> 0:12:08.556 very enamored with the birds that were on the rock 0:12:08.636 --> 0:12:13.676 and got excited, and no sooner head he got ahold 0:12:13.716 --> 0:12:16.076 of the dogs, and the dog started to go over 0:12:16.156 --> 0:12:20.596 the side. Lady, he says, lunged for the birds, and 0:12:20.796 --> 0:12:25.036 Doug lunged for Lady, toppling halfway out of the dory. 0:12:25.116 --> 0:12:30.396 So Douglas started to go for the dog too, and 0:12:30.436 --> 0:12:34.436 then I had one of the dog's legs and then 0:12:34.476 --> 0:12:37.476 I fall a bump in my back, and I was 0:12:37.596 --> 0:12:41.196 probably Verna trying to help as well. And with that 0:12:41.356 --> 0:12:45.916 final accidental jolt from Verna, Fred says, the dory flipped. 0:12:46.956 --> 0:12:52.476 Then the boat went over, and when I was underneath it, 0:12:53.356 --> 0:12:57.356 I got tangled and got stuck underneath the boat. It 0:12:57.436 --> 0:13:01.316 was terrifying, he says. Between the bow and stern lines 0:13:01.556 --> 0:13:04.156 and his camera strap and the strings on the hoodie 0:13:04.196 --> 0:13:07.716 of his float coat, he was caught. He couldn't find 0:13:07.756 --> 0:13:11.676 an air pocket and he couldn't breathe. I actually thought 0:13:11.716 --> 0:13:14.676 I was gonna die under there because I couldn't get 0:13:14.676 --> 0:13:16.476 my head away from the seat. And when we were 0:13:16.516 --> 0:13:20.356 I was underwater, so my head was up against his 0:13:20.476 --> 0:13:26.716 seat and I couldn't get loose, and I kept trying, 0:13:26.796 --> 0:13:31.956 and finally I did get loose. When he surfaced, he says, 0:13:32.396 --> 0:13:36.956 he looked around and spotted Ferna. Then I saw her 0:13:36.956 --> 0:13:39.356 on the bow of the boat with sort of like 0:13:39.436 --> 0:13:43.196 one arm on the on the overturned portion. She was 0:13:43.756 --> 0:13:47.476 like she was sort of holding on. Her eyes were open, 0:13:47.916 --> 0:13:52.116 but unseeing. He swam straight to Doug. Doug was in 0:13:52.236 --> 0:13:55.236 bad shape, listing in the water near the Doory's stern. 0:13:56.076 --> 0:14:00.956 I noticed Douglas was off just a few feet away, 0:14:01.836 --> 0:14:05.596 but he wasn't saying anything. The waves Fred says were 0:14:05.636 --> 0:14:08.796 splashing in Doug's face, so I got to hold his 0:14:08.876 --> 0:14:11.316 doug us and then I noticed that he was vomiting 0:14:11.396 --> 0:14:15.956 and wasn't really responding. So I cleared the vomita and 0:14:16.116 --> 0:14:20.036 I tried getting some air into him. Carrying Doug with 0:14:20.076 --> 0:14:23.356 one arm, he swam back to Verna. He tried giving 0:14:23.356 --> 0:14:28.556 them both CPR. They didn't respond. I was so stunned. 0:14:28.836 --> 0:14:33.396 I didn't really know what to do it it was 0:14:33.516 --> 0:14:39.036 way too far to swim back to Perseverance. He was 0:14:39.196 --> 0:14:43.396 desperate to get to land. The dory was overturned and 0:14:43.396 --> 0:14:47.996 it was basically floating to the south away from us, 0:14:48.796 --> 0:14:53.196 and so I tried to go over to the rock, 0:14:53.316 --> 0:14:58.076 bird Rock itself. Meanwhile, Lady had somehow clawed her way 0:14:58.076 --> 0:15:01.676 onto his shoulders. So he swam that way with Verna 0:15:01.796 --> 0:15:04.236 under one arm and Doug under the other and the 0:15:04.276 --> 0:15:08.756 puppy riding piggyback. But Bird Rock was not to be 0:15:08.796 --> 0:15:13.476 there salvation. And when I got to the where the 0:15:13.556 --> 0:15:18.036 rock was, the bird Rock, there was a blow hole, 0:15:19.116 --> 0:15:21.516 which is like a cavity where the water goes in 0:15:21.676 --> 0:15:24.596 and then it shoots the water out. So we had 0:15:24.596 --> 0:15:28.036 to swim past that. That side of bird Rock is 0:15:28.036 --> 0:15:32.956 a sheer cliff some sixty feet tall, craggy covered in barnacles, 0:15:32.956 --> 0:15:36.476 no place to get footing. But somehow Fred says he 0:15:36.596 --> 0:15:39.716 was able to get Lady onto bird Rock. And then 0:15:39.756 --> 0:15:43.716 I pushed the dog up on the rocks, and I 0:15:43.756 --> 0:15:45.956 was trying to get a handhold so I could pull 0:15:46.116 --> 0:15:48.876 Vernon and dug out of the water right now into 0:15:48.916 --> 0:15:52.956 the rock, but I couldn't. It was January, the water 0:15:53.076 --> 0:15:56.236 was fifty degrees and they'd been in it, according to 0:15:56.236 --> 0:16:00.516 Fred's timeline, for something like an hour. They were bundled up, 0:16:00.996 --> 0:16:04.516 water logged by now. Fred had on jeans of a 0:16:04.596 --> 0:16:08.236 lore shirt and the float coat. Vernon was wearing pants, 0:16:08.356 --> 0:16:13.116 a blouse, sweater, and a brown and orange nylon ski jacket. Doug, 0:16:13.316 --> 0:16:16.596 Fred later noted, was dressed like Charlie Brown going out 0:16:16.636 --> 0:16:19.756 to play in the snow. Underneath his life jacket, he 0:16:19.836 --> 0:16:22.396 was wearing a bulky winter sweater and parka and a 0:16:22.436 --> 0:16:26.436 pair of jeans. Near the rock, the waves surged to 0:16:26.516 --> 0:16:30.716 four feet. There's three heads bobbed up and down. They 0:16:30.716 --> 0:16:35.316 were exhausted, near death, or maybe in Vernon and Doug's case, 0:16:36.036 --> 0:16:39.996 already dead. And then I knew, I was thinking. I 0:16:40.116 --> 0:16:42.076 knew that if I didn't, if we didn't get help, 0:16:42.116 --> 0:16:47.436 soon all three of was gone down. Finally, Fred says 0:16:47.516 --> 0:16:51.516 he saw a sailboat and yelled for help. They heard me, 0:16:52.276 --> 0:16:55.436 and then they came over to where I was and 0:16:56.396 --> 0:17:00.956 threw me a rope. We got. Vernon and Douglas were 0:17:00.956 --> 0:17:06.036 pulled up on board their boat. And then as I 0:17:06.076 --> 0:17:09.356 was trying to get get up the ladder. My aggs 0:17:09.396 --> 0:17:14.476 were shot, and then they winched me aboard, And the 0:17:14.596 --> 0:17:16.796 next thing I really knew was I woke up in 0:17:16.836 --> 0:17:22.156 the helicopter. He woke up into a nightmare. His wife 0:17:22.276 --> 0:17:28.116 was dead, his stepson dead. I'm gonna ask you point 0:17:28.116 --> 0:17:31.796 blank about Verna and Doug. Did you kill Verna and Doug? 0:17:32.916 --> 0:17:38.836 I did not to Fred. Verna was perfect. Their life 0:17:38.876 --> 0:17:43.356 together in Malibu was a dream. Why would he have 0:17:43.436 --> 0:18:08.676 killed them and ruined everything? You have to imagine Malibu 0:18:08.716 --> 0:18:12.596 when the tailors lived there, same epic beaches, bathed in 0:18:12.596 --> 0:18:15.876 the same magic our light, but with practically no one 0:18:15.916 --> 0:18:20.436 on them. It was the seventies. The innocent, squeaky clean 0:18:20.596 --> 0:18:24.116 gidget era of the nineteen fifties was over. The coke 0:18:24.196 --> 0:18:32.836 fueled eighties were just roaring into view. Malibu was on 0:18:32.876 --> 0:18:36.276 the cusp of becoming the maximalist fantasia it is today, 0:18:36.956 --> 0:18:40.116 one hundred million dollars mansions and Lamborghinis and Birken bags 0:18:40.116 --> 0:18:45.436 at the beach, But not yet. There were celebrities, but 0:18:45.516 --> 0:18:50.716 they were low key, laid back cool. Movie star Ali 0:18:50.796 --> 0:18:53.556 McGraw lived out there with her young son and her 0:18:53.556 --> 0:18:58.956 movie star husband Steve McQueen was nineteen seventy two, and 0:18:59.076 --> 0:19:03.836 we rented a house on that fantastic broad Beach, which 0:19:03.876 --> 0:19:07.636 at the time was the widest swath of perfect sand. 0:19:08.636 --> 0:19:12.196 I love, I loved it, and it provided my son 0:19:12.276 --> 0:19:17.156 with an incredible childhood. Their house, a rental on Broadbeach Road, 0:19:17.596 --> 0:19:20.756 was a street away from the railers. And she doesn't 0:19:20.796 --> 0:19:25.076 remember this, but Fred coached her son in sports. All 0:19:25.116 --> 0:19:28.756 of us had funky little houses left over from the fifties. 0:19:29.476 --> 0:19:31.396 You know, sand dunes in front of the house and 0:19:32.396 --> 0:19:35.556 the kind of flowers that only grow where there's sand. 0:19:36.356 --> 0:19:41.556 My house was a funky little clapboard house, really small, 0:19:42.556 --> 0:19:46.356 three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen, a living room 0:19:46.396 --> 0:19:51.636 facing the ocean. It was when I rented it, an 0:19:51.676 --> 0:19:59.956 absolute horror of brown wood inside, shag carpeting, brown kitchen appliances. 0:20:00.916 --> 0:20:06.036 Back then, the celebrities had privacy. Nobody came out there 0:20:06.036 --> 0:20:12.716 to photograph Steve or Goldie Hawn or Sylvester Stallone. These 0:20:12.756 --> 0:20:16.756 are people artists and directors and musicians. Half of the 0:20:17.276 --> 0:20:22.476 rock stars had second homes there. There was a freedom 0:20:22.556 --> 0:20:26.716 to do whatever. There were tons of drugs. I didn't 0:20:26.716 --> 0:20:30.796 do drugs at that point, but yeah, of course, I 0:20:30.836 --> 0:20:37.156 mean it was the most amazing moment in Los Angeles music. 0:20:37.636 --> 0:20:40.916 I never met Bob Dylan and he's still out there. 0:20:40.956 --> 0:20:44.036 But there, you know, there was Neil Young, there were 0:20:44.076 --> 0:20:46.996 most of the Eagles. There was you know, Peter Paul 0:20:47.036 --> 0:20:51.276 and Mary and Chris Christofferson, him and the band. You know, 0:20:51.916 --> 0:20:59.156 all of Robbie Robertson's crowd were out there. Robbie Robertson 0:20:59.196 --> 0:21:02.836 had moved his family there sight unseen, into Sam Peck 0:21:02.876 --> 0:21:06.036 and Pau's house in the Malibu Colony because his friend 0:21:06.116 --> 0:21:10.356 David Geffen told him to the night that we arrived 0:21:10.396 --> 0:21:13.796 there thing And I was sitting there with my wife 0:21:14.196 --> 0:21:20.196 and then we heard this ungodly screaming from a woman. 0:21:20.956 --> 0:21:23.676 So we jumped up and we ran out to the 0:21:23.676 --> 0:21:26.636 front door, trying to figure out what was going on. 0:21:26.796 --> 0:21:33.636 What was that? And we should call the police, we 0:21:33.676 --> 0:21:36.716 should what should we do? We're running back and forth, 0:21:38.356 --> 0:21:44.796 but the screaming keeps going on and on until it 0:21:44.836 --> 0:21:49.796 becomes like an odd thing and odd screaming. And as 0:21:49.836 --> 0:21:54.276 it turned out, our next door neighbor was Diane Cannon, 0:21:54.436 --> 0:22:00.236 the actress, and she was practicing primal scream he set 0:22:00.316 --> 0:22:04.276 up a studio in a former bordello called Shangola overlooking 0:22:04.356 --> 0:22:10.436 Zooma Beach. Everyone recorded out there, the band and Bob Dylan, 0:22:11.396 --> 0:22:15.476 we just we found this to be kind of like 0:22:15.516 --> 0:22:20.956 a sanctuary that you could be invisible as well as 0:22:21.036 --> 0:22:24.116 be around some of the most famous people in the world. 0:22:24.116 --> 0:22:30.956 It was a very unusual and great combination. The seventies 0:22:30.996 --> 0:22:40.396 became pretty crazy, and there was a lot of drugs 0:22:40.556 --> 0:22:46.036 and a lot of everything going on, and when you're 0:22:46.076 --> 0:22:49.796 just in the middle of something, it seems very natural, 0:22:50.796 --> 0:22:56.116 seems very normal, so you just participate. You just hang 0:22:56.196 --> 0:23:00.236 out and say, oh, everybody's doing it, this is cool. 0:23:01.316 --> 0:23:03.996 But most of the people in Malibudan were pretty normal, 0:23:04.636 --> 0:23:07.156 and the electricians and the school teachers and the movie 0:23:07.196 --> 0:23:10.516 stars all sent their kids to the local elementary school. 0:23:11.356 --> 0:23:15.756 What was extraordinary about it was in that time, I 0:23:15.836 --> 0:23:18.836 have to call them, real people lived there. It was 0:23:19.556 --> 0:23:23.196 just people who did every sort of job you can imagine, 0:23:23.876 --> 0:23:28.876 and it was so normal. So of course the sea 0:23:28.956 --> 0:23:33.676 there then was clean and beautiful, and the kids swam 0:23:33.796 --> 0:23:37.036 in it every single day after school. It was maybe 0:23:37.116 --> 0:23:39.996 the last moment that a middle class family could live 0:23:40.276 --> 0:23:45.396 beachfront in Malibu. Before long, even Ali McGraw got priced out. 0:23:45.996 --> 0:23:48.196 The house she was renting got put up for sale. 0:23:48.796 --> 0:23:52.236 I couldn't afford to buy it, and so a big 0:23:52.396 --> 0:23:55.276 entertainer bought it, took every single thing down off of 0:23:55.356 --> 0:23:58.036 the property, and is currently on the market for sixteen 0:23:58.076 --> 0:24:04.116 million dollars. Back then, Malibu was fun and it was sexy, 0:24:04.516 --> 0:24:08.076 and it was a little out there. It wasn't really 0:24:08.156 --> 0:24:10.636 yet on the map, at least not in the way 0:24:10.636 --> 0:24:16.836 it is now. But it was also changing, getting flashier, fancier, faster, 0:24:17.596 --> 0:24:24.636 and I was losing my fascination with the place because 0:24:24.756 --> 0:24:29.516 it was changing. This vibe that it was there before 0:24:30.676 --> 0:24:37.916 started evolving into different people and it didn't have the 0:24:38.036 --> 0:24:43.356 same charm, didn't have the same quality of coolness with 0:24:43.436 --> 0:24:48.236 all of these wonderful people. The drugs had changed, and 0:24:48.356 --> 0:24:52.996 that changed everything. I don't know. In the beginning, it 0:24:53.036 --> 0:25:00.316 felt fun and more inclusive and friendly, and later on, 0:25:00.956 --> 0:25:04.156 you know, with hard drugs, I mean, that's all it 0:25:04.196 --> 0:25:09.516 takes you. You know, you go from a social drugs 0:25:09.516 --> 0:25:14.436 through hard drugs and ain't social anymore. And there was 0:25:14.476 --> 0:25:20.556 a new crowd in town. It was a combination of 0:25:20.716 --> 0:25:27.236 some people with money and drug dealers, and you kind 0:25:27.236 --> 0:25:32.316 of scroungy people, and there was even It went from 0:25:32.356 --> 0:25:38.876 being this shangril world out there, this bit of paradise, 0:25:39.716 --> 0:25:44.276 into a feeling of it just felt dirty all of 0:25:44.356 --> 0:25:49.556 a sudden. Soon the middle class, the real people, would 0:25:49.596 --> 0:25:53.636 be edged out. People like Fred and Verna. She was 0:25:53.676 --> 0:25:56.796 a teacher's aid. He was a civilian employee of the 0:25:56.876 --> 0:26:01.036 naval base at Point Magoo, highly educated with the Masters 0:26:01.076 --> 0:26:05.316 from Berkeley in naval architecture, but a government employee making 0:26:05.356 --> 0:26:10.036 government money. They were raising four kids and what was 0:26:10.116 --> 0:26:13.956 quickly becoming one of the most expensive communities in America. 0:26:14.076 --> 0:26:16.916 It would have been hard to compete, let alone hang on, 0:26:19.476 --> 0:26:23.436 but the Railer family had something very valuable. They owned 0:26:23.476 --> 0:26:27.156 a house on Sea Level Drive, a private, gated street 0:26:27.276 --> 0:26:30.316 that dead ends at one of the prettiest beaches in Malibu. 0:26:31.196 --> 0:26:34.356 Their house was large and ugly, covered an orange shag, 0:26:34.996 --> 0:26:37.556 but Fred was fixing it up, building a roof deck 0:26:37.636 --> 0:26:43.076 with panoramic ocean views. He knew what they had and 0:26:43.156 --> 0:26:45.356 if they played it right, they might be able to 0:26:45.476 --> 0:26:49.556 ride this wave of real estate and money and get 0:26:49.556 --> 0:27:10.916 to live in Malibu forever. Fred and Verna bought the 0:27:10.916 --> 0:27:13.196 house on Sea Level Drive in the fall of nineteen 0:27:13.236 --> 0:27:16.756 seventy seven. They were a new couple in love, and 0:27:16.836 --> 0:27:21.676 they had a powerful connection. Fred was a widower. His wife, Jean, 0:27:21.996 --> 0:27:24.836 the mother of Heidi and Kirsten, had died the year before, 0:27:25.476 --> 0:27:29.356 and Verna was a widow. Her husband, Bill Johnson, the 0:27:29.436 --> 0:27:33.396 father of Kim and Doug, had also died by suicide. 0:27:33.436 --> 0:27:39.436 People whispered lovely. Verna's hair had turned prematurely silver. The 0:27:39.556 --> 0:27:43.116 kids were all little. Heidi and Kirsten needed a mom, 0:27:43.876 --> 0:27:49.876 Kim and Doug needed a dad. Fred was attractive, thick, curly, 0:27:49.996 --> 0:27:55.676 dark hair, a little broody, a catch, and Verna. Everyone 0:27:55.716 --> 0:28:00.476 in Malibu loved Verna. They found each other and it worked. 0:28:01.316 --> 0:28:04.436 I think a lot of people envied Fred and Verna. 0:28:04.756 --> 0:28:08.116 You know, they were the perfect story of yours, mine 0:28:08.116 --> 0:28:11.756 and ours. That's Mark Hetrick, an old friend of the 0:28:11.796 --> 0:28:15.076 family that I talked to recently. His wife, Beth, and 0:28:15.196 --> 0:28:19.276 Verna taught together at the elementary school. Mark was a carpenter. 0:28:19.676 --> 0:28:22.036 He was helping Fred with the roof deck and they 0:28:22.116 --> 0:28:26.396 all hung out a lot. He kind of could do anything. 0:28:26.516 --> 0:28:30.356 I mean, he wasn't a professional contractor or a carpenter, 0:28:30.596 --> 0:28:32.836 and he wasn't afraid to, you know, take the roof 0:28:32.876 --> 0:28:34.716 off of his house and put a deck on it. 0:28:35.316 --> 0:28:37.476 You know, he could weld, and he you know, he 0:28:37.636 --> 0:28:39.156 was a mechanic. I mean, he could just do all 0:28:39.156 --> 0:28:42.356 these things. He was just very mechanical and very engineering. 0:28:43.276 --> 0:28:46.796 As a family, they were athletic and outdoorsy, always hiking 0:28:46.876 --> 0:28:50.116 or getting in the ocean. They were a hundred percent 0:28:50.236 --> 0:28:55.476 involved in their children's lives. You know, Verna was in 0:28:55.516 --> 0:29:00.196 the teacher's assistance in their classes, and you know, Fred 0:29:00.316 --> 0:29:02.636 was there for all of the kids all the time, 0:29:02.756 --> 0:29:06.876 and Verna was there for all the kids all the time. 0:29:06.916 --> 0:29:10.756 And I mean they were the parents that every kid 0:29:10.876 --> 0:29:15.516 would want, and their family was just the most important 0:29:15.516 --> 0:29:18.796 thing to him. Mark told me he and Beth looked 0:29:18.876 --> 0:29:23.676 up to Fred and Verna. They were the picture postcard 0:29:23.956 --> 0:29:30.756 Christmas postcard family of just you know, two very handsome, 0:29:30.796 --> 0:29:35.916 intelligent people with four kids that were just delightful. Those 0:29:35.956 --> 0:29:37.716 were the kind of kids that we wanted to have 0:29:37.796 --> 0:29:40.436 and the kind of the family that we wanted to have. 0:29:42.316 --> 0:29:45.636 Fred and Verna seemed pretty unimpressed by the wealth and 0:29:45.676 --> 0:29:49.596 glamor of Malibu. They weren't your you know, your real 0:29:49.756 --> 0:29:55.836 upscale Malibu people that had a Hollywood connection, you know, 0:29:56.036 --> 0:29:59.316 or a movie industry of connection. Because Fred and Verna, 0:29:59.396 --> 0:30:04.236 you know, they were you know, they were pretty settled, solid, 0:30:05.036 --> 0:30:08.436 you know, upper middle class family living there that m 0:30:09.156 --> 0:30:11.876 you know, had this wonderful piece of property and they 0:30:11.876 --> 0:30:13.676