WEBVTT - The Murder Years S2: Ep. 6, Only Happy When It Rains 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.640 The following podcast contains explicit descriptions of violence, including sexual violence, 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:09.440 that some listeners may find upsetting. Continue at your own risk. 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.680 In the nineteen nineties, it seemed like serial killers were 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.639 really having a moment. For whatever reason, the public was 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:25.280 fascinated by them. We couldn't get enough think about it. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.240 One of the most successful movies of nineteen ninety one 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.320 was Silence of the Lambs. It even went Best Picture 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.160 and pretty much everything else at the Oscars that year. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.200 And then over the next few years we got inundated 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:43.159 with serial killer movies Jennifer Aids California and Natural Born Killers. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:46.120 Then in nineteen ninety five you had two big serial 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.920 killer movies in theaters at the same time, Copycat and Seven. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.560 Serial Killers were box office gold. The more sick and twisted, 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:00.560 the better. And then there was Real Life inteen ninety four. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.880 The same year, the Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.520 to death in prison by another inmate. The notorious killer 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.520 clown John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal injection. 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:13.880 And then you had your active serial killers of the nineties, 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:16.759 like the Green River Killer and the I ninety five Killer. 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:20.280 In addition to our own personal hometown horror, the Domino 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:31.040 Beach Killer living in a serial killer's hunting ground. At 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.000 the time of all this serial killer fever was a 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:34.760 bit surreal. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:36.520 See. 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.520 It was also a time when the Internet was just 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.960 starting to catch on in a big way, and we 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:43.160 were all getting exposed to what goes on in the 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.080 darkest corners of the darkest minds of our fellow men 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:51.160 and women, well mostly men. The early adopters of the Internet, 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.560 the first people to figure out how to build and 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.559 publicize these new things called websites, seemed to love two 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:03.280 things above all else, celebrities and serial killers. By the 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.640 fall of nineteen ninety five, as I was learning to 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.640 navigate this new and incredible resource, my research led me 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.560 to theories about the Domino Beach Killer from all over 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.240 the country, all over the globe for that matter. 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:16.320 A lot of the. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.680 People behind these theories wanted the killer to have some 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.360 kind of Hollywood gimmick, like the way Kevin Spacey was 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.320 using the Deadly Sins to make statements about his victims 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:27.960 in seven, or how the guy in Silence of the 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:29.880 Lambs was trying to make himself a suit out of 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.800 human skin. The most common fantasy I found was that 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.800 the murders were part of some ritual intended to subvert 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.960 the apocalypse that was destined to befall our planet at 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.799 the dawn of the millennium. But that kind of thing 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:46.840 was everywhere you looked back in the nineties. It's true 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.880 the Domino Beach Killer had written about the imminent end 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.320 of the world in his second letter to me, but 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.480 I never got the feeling he was on some kind 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.760 of a holy mission or whatever. As far as I 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.920 could tell, he had no adgea and no greater calling. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.800 It was just a monster, a monster that I had 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.680 become convinced was the rich, privileged son of the most 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:28.840 powerful man in town. I'm Courtney Barnes, and this is 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:33.000 the Murder Years, Episode six, Only Happy when it rains. 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:38.800 We the jury and the above and title action find 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.680 the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:46.040 of murder. November nineteen ninety five, one month after O. J. 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:48.480 Simpson was found not guilty by a jury of his 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.200 peers for the murders of his ex wife Nicole Brown 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.200 and her friend Ron Goldman, was when the Domino Beach 0:03:54.280 --> 0:04:00.440 Killer struck one final time. The victim was Trudy Masterson, 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.480 the twenty eight year old singer, songwriter and rising star 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.800 in the music world who was doing a week's worth 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.600 of performances at Triple B's, the most popular bar and 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.160 music venue in town. November wasn't normally a time of 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.880 year that attracted notable performers to Domino Beach, but Trudy 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:17.880 was just on the cusp of breaking out in a 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.599 big way. She had recorded an album that was due 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:23.880 to come out in March of ninety six, and had 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.200 been invited to take part in a big New Year's 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.120 Eve show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles that featured 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.320 a bunch of major nineties rock bands and folk singers. 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.680 She was amazingly talented. I saw her play myself three 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.960 nights before she died. But hold on, let's back up 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.000 a second last episode. I told you how I began 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.960 to suspect Connor Langford was the Domino Beach killer months earlier, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:51.920 in late April nineteen ninety five. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.200 To be honest with you, Connor Langford was one of 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.839 the first people I looked at way back in fall 0:04:57.880 --> 0:04:58.560 of ninety two. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.760 That's Damon Stokes, retired Sheriff of Delsall County. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:05.839 Some things about his original story just seemed a little 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.279 too coincidental to me. First of all, I found it strange, 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.600 with his history with a victim, that he and his 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.359 friend were the first ones to find Virick Hendrick's body. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:17.240 He claimed he saw what he thought was some trash 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.719 over by the rocks, and that's why he came over 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:20.400 to investigate. 0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:23.719 But far as I could tell. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:24.960 You couldn't see her body until you got right up 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.680 on the rocks. And he said he spotted her from, 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:34.599 you know, maybe two hundred yards away. Now, it's true 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.279 that the body had been knocked around by the waves 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.160 a little before I got there, so it's possible he 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.240 saw something I didn't. But then when he told me 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.520 I knew her, and later when I found out that 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:48.520 he'd had sexual relations. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.560 With her, I mean, I don't know. It just didn't 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:51.080 sit right. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.359 But he did seem genuinely saddened by her death, and 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.320 maybe that's how he was able to convince me of 0:05:58.360 --> 0:05:58.960 his innocence. 0:05:58.960 --> 0:05:59.359 I don't know. 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.680 I'm sure you never had any reason to question him. 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.920 In the nineteen ninety three death of Billy Boy Reeves. 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.320 But what about the ASU students in ninety four? Was 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:09.240 he ever questioned? 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.960 Well, sure, he'd been seen at those girl's house that week. 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:16.400 He even admitted to being there the night that they 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.039 were murdered. But you know, about two or three other 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.720 dozen people were there, you know, And Connor answered all 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:24.839 my questions. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:25.840 To my satisfactions. 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.480 I didn't suspect him of those murders any more than 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.839 I suspected Stan Majors, who ended up taking the charges 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:33.200 for them posthumously. 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.520 As you say, you know, and Angela Bowers. You may 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.320 remember Angela Bowers from episode four, the only person to 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.239 ever escape from the Domino Beach Killer with her life. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.960 I brought in just about every white male between the 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.120 ages of twenty one and thirty five I could get 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.479 my hands on to put in a lineup who would 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:56.919 say the words. Angela remembered him saying. 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.000 Scream and you die right here, and now yeah. 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:01.080 Those other ones. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.320 Unfortunately, she was not the greatest witness in the world. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:10.240 I mean, she identified eight people before she admitted, I say, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.640 realized she just couldn't remember what the guy sounded like. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.640 Was Connor Langford one of the men in those lineups? 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:20.680 No, I tried to bring him in, but his father 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:21.640 got him out of it. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.200 In defense of the retired sheriff, Angela did tell me 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.600 when I was interviewing her the morning after her attack, 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.880 that she didn't think she'd be able to identify the 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.720 man who tried to abduct her. She never got a 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.760 good look at him, and all she could remember about 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.800 his voice was that he was disguising it. But what 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.680 if Connor Langford had been forced to go into the 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.320 sheriff station stand in a lineup with a bunch of 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.800 other guys his age, and read that line in a 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:53.520 gravelly voice like everyone else Sheriff's Stokes brought in. Would 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.080 that little light bulb have gone off for her? Would 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.440 Angela have been able to identify him? Would one Fsice 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:06.920 and Trudy Masterson still be alive? We'll never know. It's 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.600 easy to blame Sheriff Stokes for missing what he missed, 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:14.120 especially with the benefit of hindsight, But I'm equally to blame. 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.640 My own investigation into Connor Langford wasn't exactly turning up 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.160 any new evidence. In fact, all I had was my 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.880 gut telling me it was him, and after a few 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.920 months I was starting to doubt myself. I didn't dare 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.280 share my thoughts with anyone, not Sheriff Stokes and certainly 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.800 not my editor or anyone else at the Soochul Journal. 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.840 If it had gotten back to Counselman Langford that I 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.679 was investigating his son for multiple homicides, it would have 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.640 been very difficult for me to continue living and working 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:49.720 in Domino Beach. So much to my regret, I kept 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:53.600 my mouth shut, and my cowardice may have cost Trudy 0:08:53.600 --> 0:09:05.080 masters in her life. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:07.200 I saw her last show, you know. 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.640 Speak of the Devil. That's Connor Langford himself, the man who, 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.080 in November nineteen ninety five, at the time of Trudy 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:17.199 Masterson's death, I believe to be the Domino Beach killer. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:19.360 I was working as. 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.439 A bar back in Triple B's, you know, washing glasses, 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:23.600 changing out the kegs. 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.199 Big change for you. Back in April of that year. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.199 You were performing at Triple B's with your band. 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.440 That wasn't my band. My band died months before that. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.400 Those guys just thought I'd help pull in some extra 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.400 bodies to hear them play. But I guess I turned 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.719 out to be more trouble than I was worth. They 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.240 kicked me out of the band in early July. Can 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.040 you believe that what a pain I must have been 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.320 if they were willing to lose their singer and guitarists 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:50.360 at the peak of the summer tourist season. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.679 Although tourism was down that year, well, the. 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.400 Peak is still the peak, even if it's not as 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:56.400 high as it used to be. 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:58.640 What made you want to get a job as a 0:09:58.679 --> 0:09:59.200 bar back? 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:00.520 I was fucking broke. 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.920 I was still crashing at my parents' poolhouse, but my 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.600 dad had frozen me out. I could get my mom 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.280 to slide me a little cash every now and then, 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:10.760 but that all went towards weed and. 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:16.280 H strange to witness. Honor Langford had been everyone's favorite 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:19.360 surfer dude in Domino Beach for years, but in late 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.640 nineteen ninety five he was already washed up, and he 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:23.960 wasn't even thirty years old. 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:28.400 I'd sold almost everything I owned for drug money by 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.960 that point, even my guitar. The only thing I held 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.520 on to was my surfboard, and I don't even know why. 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:40.760 I never surfed anymore. I never did anything. They gave 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.280 me that job at Triple Bee's out of pity, you know, 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.040 I had never had a job in my life before 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.600 that fucking pathetic man Christ would a goddamn mess I was, 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.200 I guess I don't blame you for believing I was 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.400 some piece of shit serial killer like Ted Bundy or whoever, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.760 although those guys usually have a pretty serious sense of 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.160 self importance, right, and I think it should have been 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.520 obvious to anyone that I lacked any kind of ambition. 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.520 So can we get back to Trudy's final show? 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:17.520 Yeah? Yeah, sorry. 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:23.520 He was quiet that night, even quieter than usual. I mean, 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.559 the bar was practically empty. They didn't really need me there, 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:31.720 but then again, they never needed me. Trudy was up 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:35.000 on stage with her acoustic guitar. You know, she was 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.960 way better than I could have ever hoped to be. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.839 She was a real musician. I was just playing at it. 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:43.679 She just had a. 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.360 Presence, you know, just her and her guitar, and somehow 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:49.439 it felt more full and complete than. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.200 Like a five man band. She had a soulful voice, 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.080 kind of husky, full of emotion. 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.040 Sounds like you were jealous of her. 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:59.120 God damn right, I was jealous of her. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.760 But I can't even imagine who would want to take 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:06.000 someone like her away from the world. She was gonna 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.959 be a star. So at the end of the night 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.640 she started playing a few popular songs, but not like 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:14.360 the ones I. 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:15.760 Played in that cover band I was in. 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.000 We were trying to sound just like whoever you know, 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.040 Nirvana up Pearl Jammed the Chili's. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.600 We were trying to replicate their sound. Not Trudy. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.000 She took a song and she made it her own 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.040 and it was usually better than the original. Fucking amazing 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.000 how she could do that. The final song she did 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:38.040 that night, well ever, I guess, was this slow down 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.319 acoustic version of Only Happy When It Rains by Garbage. 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:42.280 Remember that one? 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:43.520 I remember it? 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:46.040 Good song I'm too bad? You never heard it played 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:49.280 by Trudy Masterson. It was fucking haunting. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.679 So here's what happened after Trudy wrapped up her final show. 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.240 According to Jeffrey Franklin, the owner of the Triple B's, 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.720 Prudy Masterson finished her set just after eleven pm on Thursday, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.680 November sixteenth, nineteen ninety five. 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:10.720 Jeff tried hitting on her every night, even though she 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.360 made it crystal clear she was playing for a different team, you. 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.800 Know, So you're saying she was gay, How did you know? 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:19.440 It wasn't like it was a secret. 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:21.880 I mean, I talked to her a few times, and 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.080 it's not like she ever told me. But she could 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.240 have given a shit about me or any other guy 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.200 in the bar. But if there was a cute girl there, 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.480 Judy was eyeing her and smiling at her through her 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.040 whole set. But Jeff must have missed that, because whenever 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.080 she got to the bar, or right before she left, 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:40.080 he'd find some reason to go over and talk to 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:41.360 her and try to flirt. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:41.600 You know. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:44.400 That night he was asking her if she mightded playing 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:46.480 more covers, you know, because tomorrow's Friday and there'll be 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.240 more customers and people like music they already know. And 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.000 like I said, that garbage cover she did with some 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.000 fucking next level shit. So while I was cleaning up 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.000 behind the bar, I watched her and Jeff talk for 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.760 a while, and she's smiling and nod along, but it's 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:02.440 so obvious she just wants to get out of there 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.320 and go back to her motel. She couldn't pack her 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.400 guitar away fast enough. She was out the door by 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.280 eleven twenty eleven thirty latest. 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.520 Mister Franklin said that within minutes of Trudy masters and 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:16.640 leaving the bar, he told Connor Langford to clock out. 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.360 Yeah, I'd broken a couple of glasses and he got mad, 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:21.960 told me to go home and sleep it off. 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:22.880 You were high. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.920 I don't even remember. I was always either high or 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.360 chones in back then. I just don't remember which I 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:30.200 was that night. 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.320 Franklin said he didn't think Connor was on anything that night. 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.520 He said he seemed Connor high many times, but that 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.880 night he was stone cold, sober. He left the bar 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:42.880 no more than fifteen minutes. 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.320 After Trudy, So maybe he broke the glasses on purpose, 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.120 like he was trying to get sent home. 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:49.240 Oh that's what I believe you. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.000 It was four blocks to the motel where Trudy was staying, 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.440 and she walked to it every night after she played 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.000 at Triple B's, but she didn't make it there that night. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:03.800 It was the same time of year as the attack 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.680 on Angela Bauers in nineteen ninety four, and I know 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.600 Miss Masterson had been told it wasn't the best idea 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:11.040 to walk along late at night. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.480 But that was the thing about Domino Beach. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.720 It was clean, the streets were well lit, you hear 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.240 the sound of the waves in the distance. 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:22.240 It felt perfectly safe. 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:25.480 Did anyone see Trudy after she left Triple Be's. 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.880 Nope, no one saw, you know, no, no one. I 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.920 talked too, Sar. We don't know if she tried to 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.160 go straight to the motel, or if she tried to 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:35.960 go for a walk on the beach or the boardwalk 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.920 or what. But we just don't know what time she 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.400 was abducted or from exactly where. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.440 What we do know is when her body was found 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:47.800 at roughly three point thirty am on the morning of 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.040 November seventeenth. Trudy was found in a small park that 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.240 ran along the beach on the north end of the city. 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.120 It's really not much of a park. It's a strip 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.840 of grass, a few benches and palm trees, and it's 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.120 right next to the main road that separates the beach 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:05.000 from the downtown area a little further south. She had 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.400 been raped, beaten, and strangled to death, just like Vera 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.840 Kendrick in nineteen ninety two. Whether the killer intended to 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.120 spray paint some song lyrics near the body, like he 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.800 had done with Vera and Billy Boy Reeves, or whether 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.040 he wanted to leave some music playing, like he had 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.440 with Mary Crouch, Sandra Gerard, and Hally Blake. Will never 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.160 know because this murder had something none of the others had. 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:29.240 A witness. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.920 Henrietta Jones had lived in Domino Beach for at least 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.720 ten years. She's always been homeless, at least as long 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.360 as I've known her, and she was in Domino Beach 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:39.840 before me. 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:41.360 Did you know Henrietta? 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.240 Well, yeah, pretty well, God rest her soul. 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:47.840 I wouldn't say we always got along, but you know 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:49.360 she never gave me any trouble either. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.120 Did you know her? I mean, you know before this. 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.440 I know, not really. I kind of remember giving her 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:57.680 change a couple of times. 0:16:57.760 --> 0:16:59.360 But you should have gotten to know her. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.000 She might have been homeless, but she was sharp as 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.000 attack and she had eyes everywhere apparently, so you know 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.280 she might have been useful to you as a source. 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.080 I mean, you know, this wasn't the first time she'd 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:11.800 been useful to me. 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:14.240 I was still really young back then. 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.719 I was probably scared of her, but you're right, as 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.160 a journalist I should have been more open minded about 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:21.200 the help she could offer. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.000 Well, like you said, you were young, you know you 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:24.560 were trying to do it all yourself. 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.360 I'm not disagreeing with you anyway. 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:33.280 Yeah, anyway, Well it got cool in November, so Henrietta 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.080 would set up a camp in the park, you know, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.720 where the wind wasn't so bad. And Henriette was real 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:40.720 good at playing the game. She knew we'd have to 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:42.679 run her off if she was too visible, so she 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:46.399 always tucked herself away behind some bushes or trees or 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.840 whatever was around. And as long as she was making 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.120 an effort to stay out of sight, you know, out 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.439 of side of the tourists, we mostly let her be. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.480 Somewhat ironically, Henry Edta Jones had been something of a 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.080 mother figure to the Killer's first victim, Vera Hendrick. 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:06.080 She had given Vera the lay of the. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:08.919 Land, todd her where the best panhandling spots were and 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.120 the best times to be there, you know that sort 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.760 of thing. She was a friend to the Killer's first victim, 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:18.359 and she would help make sure Trudy Masterson was the last. 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.959 According to Henrietta's statement, she heard a car pull up 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.919 and stop at the curb right by the park, and 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.440 someone in her situation knows that when you hear something 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.560 that late at night, it's best to check and make 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:40.720 sure that it's not a threat. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:42.280 So that's what she did. 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.040 And she had set herself up near a little island 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.800 of palm trees and would have been hard to see 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:52.879 from the road, you know. So she looks out with 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.679 this little makeshift tent and she sees a light colored 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.640 band sitting on the curb by the park. She sees 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.840 a man, although she says she can't identify her. He's 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.000 wearing a hoodie something like that. But she sees him 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.800 open up the back doors of the van and pull 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:13.240 out a naked body, a naked body of Trudy Masterson. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.520 She knew it was a body right away, Oh, she 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:17.240 said she did. 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:19.959 I mean, she didn't know the woman's name, but she 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:24.200 said she knew it was a dead person. He got 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:26.920 Trudy out of the van, grabbed her ankles, and dragged 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.639 her into the grass. Well, I guess it got a 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.480 little too close to Henrietta for comfort, because that's when 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:32.920 she hit. 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:33.480 Her air horn. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:35.640 Her air horn or air horn. 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:35.920 Yeah. 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.119 I mean, like I said, she'd been homeless for a 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.640 while and she knew how to take care of herself. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.920 She had this nasty, rusty old knife of worse came 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:45.959 to worse, but I never knew where to use it. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.600 That airhorn, though I'd heard. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.879 It myself multiple times if someone tried to rob her, 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.280 or she saw someone she didn't like, that thing was 0:19:55.359 --> 0:20:00.280 so loud it would split the night wide open. And 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:01.240 that's what happened. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:02.960 What did the killer do? 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.800 She said, He froze, you know, for about a second, 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.760 looked back, saw her, and did she see him his face, No, 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.480 But she did hit the airhorn again, and he ran 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.679 for his van and peeled off without even bothering to 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.160 close the back doors. When she was sure he was gone, 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:22.119 Henrietta went to Trudy's body, confirmed or dead, and then 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:27.840 went to the nearest payphone called nine one one. 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.000 Henrietta Jones may not have gotten a good look at 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.399 the killer, but at this point she was only the 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.000 second person to lay eyes on him at all and 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:38.520