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Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast
Speaker 1: are solely those of the individuals participating in the show
Speaker 1: and do not represent those of iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV.
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Speaker 2: Hi, everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
Speaker 2: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: We are your host. I'm a vet GENTI.
Speaker 4: Lay and I'm Raschia Peccuerero and as always, our text
Speaker 4: and producer Trevor Young is with us.
Speaker 1: Hello, good morning, good afternoon, and good night.
Speaker 3: All the things.
Speaker 1: I don't know when people are listening to this, so
Speaker 1: just had to get all the covered.
Speaker 4: I know it could be any time of day, but
Speaker 4: they are listening.
Speaker 1: So one thing I wanted to maybe do today just
Speaker 1: before we get going, is talk about some important podcasts
Speaker 1: that are out there, you know, some of our contemporaries
Speaker 1: and some of the work they're doing. One show that
Speaker 1: is on the Tenderfoot side of things is a new
Speaker 1: true crime show called La Monstra that I think everybody
Speaker 1: should be listening to. Matt Graves who is originally from Austin,
Speaker 1: Texas like me. We bonded over this when I talked
Speaker 1: to him once. Is the host of the show. He
Speaker 1: moved to Belgium decades ago and got entwined in the
Speaker 1: story about a Belgian serial killer named Mark Dutroux. And
Speaker 1: it's a really fascinating story of a number of people
Speaker 1: who were missing and murdered in the eighties and nineties
Speaker 1: by Mark Dutroux. So it's going now and for anybody
Speaker 1: who hasn't started listening, I couldn't recommend it anymore. It's
Speaker 1: just incredible. So I wanted to throw that out there.
Speaker 1: I also want to say that we're making a show
Speaker 1: right now. It's actually the third season of a show
Speaker 1: called Thirteen Days of Halloween. It's just a fun little
Speaker 1: anthology horror story for October people. So but yeah, are
Speaker 1: are you all listening to anything? Or anything you guys
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about? So?
Speaker 4: Well, Number one, I have to tell you Trevor Vanna
Speaker 4: is obsessed with and please tell me Sola Monstra, right,
Speaker 4: that's how you pronounce it monstra. So she started down
Speaker 4: that rabbit hole because prior to you know, root of
Speaker 4: Evil and facing Evil. She hadn't ever really listened to
Speaker 4: true crime, and she realized that because she she was
Speaker 4: recently diagnosed with ADHD, that she was listening to music
Speaker 4: when she was working and she wasn't staying focused. But
Speaker 4: when she was listening to Facing Evil, she was like,
Speaker 4: maybe I should try other true crime shows because I
Speaker 4: kept sending her all these other shows because I like,
Speaker 4: you know, I'll self help and Happy Galucky shows a
Speaker 4: lot of the time. And so she started Withla Monstra
Speaker 4: and now she's listened to everything that Tenderfoot and iHeart
Speaker 4: have done together, but her favorite thus far is Atlanta Monster. Yeah.
Speaker 4: She just loves really everything you have done, Trevor.
Speaker 1: I'll have to hear that, thank you.
Speaker 2: I mean, I just have to say that I love
Speaker 2: The ten News and I know it is, you know,
Speaker 2: four children, and we are so lucky that, you know,
Speaker 2: our producer Tracy Kaplan, you.
Speaker 3: Know, is the head of that show.
Speaker 2: And my lovely niece Leilani has you know, been a correspondent.
Speaker 4: She's a tenor.
Speaker 3: She's a tenor.
Speaker 2: But I just love it because it's so informative, yes
Speaker 2: for the kids, but even for us adults. So that's
Speaker 2: what I am listening to.
Speaker 4: All right, So with all of that being said, Trevor,
Speaker 4: I would be honored if you take us through today's case.
Speaker 3: We're the cast from My Sister Sam. Now one of
Speaker 3: us is gone forever.
Speaker 5: Rebecca Schaeffer was only twenty one years old when her
Speaker 5: life was taken by a single shot from a handgun.
Speaker 5: There's a fellow here that's been here are lots of
Speaker 5: times who has a large bouquet and about a five
Speaker 5: foot teddy bear, and he's left it with us, and
Speaker 5: he wants us to deliver it to Rebecca Shaeffer. Zenka's
Speaker 5: testifies that Barto hired him to find Rebecca Shaeffer's birthdate
Speaker 5: and home address in May nineteen eighty nine, two months
Speaker 5: before the murder.
Speaker 1: Rebecca Shaeffer was a twenty one year old model and
Speaker 1: actor who was killed in Los Angeles, California, in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine. She was known for roles in TV shows
Speaker 1: like My Sister Sam and the film Scenes from the
Speaker 1: Class Struggle in Beverly Hills. One person who watched her
Speaker 1: developed an obsession with Rebecca. This man attempted to meet
Speaker 1: Rebecca multiple times and even hired a private investigator to
Speaker 1: find her home address. On January nineteenth, nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: that fan showed up at Rebecca's door. She politely asked
Speaker 1: him to leave, but he showed up again a few
Speaker 1: hours later. He pulled out a gun and shot her
Speaker 1: point blank in the doorway, and she died before reaching
Speaker 1: the hospital. The stalker was quickly arrested. He was convicted
Speaker 1: of first degree murder and given a life sentence without
Speaker 1: the possibility of parole. Rebecca Schaeffer is one of many
Speaker 1: women who have faced violence at the hands of a stalker,
Speaker 1: and for high profile individuals, stalkers can be particularly dangerous
Speaker 1: and difficult to manage. And so who was Rebecca Shaeffer,
Speaker 1: who was the man who murdered her? And what does
Speaker 1: the story tell us about parasocial relationships and how they
Speaker 1: often lead to dangerous situations.
Speaker 4: So that's all so much, right, I mean, every case
Speaker 4: that we talk about is so much. But when we
Speaker 4: first started looking at cases, I knew I wanted to
Speaker 4: do Rebecca Shaeffer's case because I remember being such a
Speaker 4: big fan of hers. You know, I was really young
Speaker 4: and the show she was on was all about you know, sisters.
Speaker 4: My sister Sam was one of my favorite shows when
Speaker 4: I was a kid. But I couldn't fathom how someone
Speaker 4: could just go to her home and shoot and kill her, right,
Speaker 4: And I wanted to know more. And I do remember
Speaker 4: initially like knowing all the good things that happened after that,
Speaker 4: and because of that, and that's why I wanted to
Speaker 4: to talk about it. But you know, I was thinking
Speaker 4: about stalking and about if that had ever happened to
Speaker 4: like me or Evet or you know, thankfully nothing like
Speaker 4: that has ever happened. But anytime you put yourself in
Speaker 4: the public eye, you're vulnerable, right, Yeah, And we even have,
Speaker 4: you know, sadly, we have some cyberstockers that we've had
Speaker 4: to keep it bay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, everything that you said is very true.
Speaker 2: And you know, what we do know is the majority
Speaker 2: of stockings that take place in this country, they are
Speaker 2: perpetrated by someone that the victim knows.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, like an.
Speaker 2: Ex boyfriend or you know, a friend, I mean someone
Speaker 2: that they know, a coworker, yeah, someone that they know.
Speaker 2: But then there are people that are in the public eye,
Speaker 2: like Rebecca Schaeffer, and they're stalkers. They usually have no
Speaker 2: prior relationship to those that they pray upon, and yet
Speaker 2: they behave right as if they already know them, right,
Speaker 2: Like that is someone that they already have a relationship with,
Speaker 2: and they don't.
Speaker 4: That is they're infatuated with them, right m Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: a real problem, and I think that's that happens with
Speaker 4: a lot of celebrities. You know, it happened back then,
Speaker 4: it's happening now. I mean, nearly one in three women
Speaker 4: and one in six men have experienced stalking at some
Speaker 4: point in their lifetime. And that's according to the Stocking
Speaker 4: Prevention Awareness and Resource Center. And of course that behavior
Speaker 4: can range from harassment to threats to invasion of privacy
Speaker 4: two of course more serious crimes like assault or even murder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it seems to be potentially an even more risky
Speaker 1: thing in the age of social media. I think, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, people who are high profile are now like
Speaker 1: making their lives more accessible and visible through things like
Speaker 1: social media, and so I think people have to be
Speaker 1: even more careful now, you know, especially what kind of
Speaker 1: presence they have on Instagram or Facebook or what have you,
Speaker 1: because you know, all of a sudden, you're posting pictures
Speaker 1: of your family and your kids and your fans now
Speaker 1: know who your kids are, what inside of your house
Speaker 1: looks like, you know, all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they know your location. You have to be very conscious,
Speaker 2: you know, of being on social media and Russia and
Speaker 2: I have this conversation all the time and again with me.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a love hate relationship because of that.
Speaker 2: Like I just don't feel that everybody needs to know,
Speaker 2: you know, you're whereabouts at all times because of situations
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 4: So you know, I will say, you know, for me
Speaker 4: of course personally, like yes, I am very open on
Speaker 4: social media. But Mom gave us a really good tip
Speaker 4: years ago, especially when Facebook first started. She was like,
Speaker 4: you know, baby, just always, you know, post your location
Speaker 4: after you've left, you know. I mean, and I've had
Speaker 4: especially like right after I was on the Biggest Loser
Speaker 4: and Facebook was just kind of starting, I happened to
Speaker 4: check in somewhere and a fan you know, showed up
Speaker 4: at Red Robin where I was having a burger and
Speaker 4: like just wanted a photo. But like what if that
Speaker 4: would have been someone like Rebecca's stalker? You know, Like
Speaker 4: I'm trying to balance it, especially being a mom and
Speaker 4: having a family and all the things and my sister Evet,
Speaker 4: And I know, Trevor, you're you're much more private too,
Speaker 4: like you both teach me. Well, I'm doing my best
Speaker 4: to be open yet still you know, share and still
Speaker 4: be protected as well.
Speaker 2: But let's get back to Rebecca. I mean, we know
Speaker 2: she was so very young, and she was twenty one
Speaker 2: years old, right, Trevor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, she, much like Dominique Dunn, was very
Speaker 1: much at the beginning of her career. Dominique Dounn was
Speaker 1: another actor in Hollywood who we talked about a couple
Speaker 1: episodes ago, and you know, like Dominique, she had just
Speaker 1: started to make a name for herself on TV. Primarily
Speaker 1: I already mentioned the show My Sister Sam, which y'all
Speaker 1: had mentioned as well, which she was actually on with
Speaker 1: Pam Dauber, and that show ran for two seasons before
Speaker 1: it was canceled in nineteen eighty eight. Did either of
Speaker 1: you watch the show?
Speaker 4: I was heartbroken when it was canceled. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: I was obsessed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we totally watched this show and it was so
Speaker 2: cool because you know, it was filmed as if it
Speaker 2: was in San Francisco, you know, so to see the
Speaker 2: cable cars and all that before I'd ever come to
Speaker 2: San Francisco. Was like, you just loved it in the
Speaker 2: chemistry that they had, you know, between the two sisters.
Speaker 3: It's like Russia.
Speaker 4: We always of course, of course, yeah, but I was.
Speaker 4: I was actually really really sad when it was canceled.
Speaker 4: And I think it's because, if I remember correctly, it's
Speaker 4: because it moved to a different night, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like it had a really bad, you know spot,
Speaker 4: and it was up against the facts of life, like
Speaker 4: you know, everybody loves the facts of life, so it
Speaker 4: was kind of dead in the water when it moved
Speaker 4: to a different night. But yeah, I and I just
Speaker 4: loved the chemistry between yeah, the two women on and
Speaker 4: off screen, and you know, we'll get into that more
Speaker 4: because Pam, Pam loved Rebecca. Yeah, yeah, and so funny too,
Speaker 4: like of course, you know watching my sister Sam, like I,
Speaker 4: I of course love that show. But I had no
Speaker 4: idea that Rebecca spent a bunch of time in Oregon,
Speaker 4: where my wife and I live, and she was actually
Speaker 4: born in Eugene, Oregon, near University of Oregon Go Ducks.
Speaker 4: The Schaeffer family was Jewish, and as a child, Rebecca
Speaker 4: considered become a rabbi when she grew up, before she
Speaker 4: became the famous actress that she became. She began modeling
Speaker 4: in her junior year of high school and was even
Speaker 4: featured in print ads and was also an extra in
Speaker 4: TV and film. And Eugene, Oregon is really close to Portland, Oregon,
Speaker 4: and Portland is the bigger city, so she ended up
Speaker 4: actually getting an agent in Portland, and that is where
Speaker 4: she got the acting and modeling bug, so she was
Speaker 4: working consistently, and so with her parents' permission, she ended
Speaker 4: up moving to New York to pursue her career. So
Speaker 4: she landed a small role on one of my favorite
Speaker 4: soaproppers of all time on ABC one, Life to Live.
Speaker 4: And she ended up really just more so focusing on
Speaker 4: her acting rather than her modeling because she was only
Speaker 4: five seven, So she modeled a little bit in Japan.
Speaker 4: But then once she you know, came back to the States,
Speaker 4: she realized that New York probably wasn't the best fit
Speaker 4: for her, at least for modeling, but for acting is
Speaker 4: where she knew that was her sweet spot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally, and she definitely, you know had the drive,
Speaker 2: you know what, you absolutely have to have in this business.
Speaker 2: And apparently, you know, everybody said that she was a
Speaker 2: spitfire and you could just look at her and tell that,
Speaker 2: you know, she just you know, when they say that,
Speaker 2: you you have it. Like she definitely had it. And
Speaker 2: she was really, you know, serious about her work. So
Speaker 2: like you said, she wasn't modeling, you know, or doing
Speaker 2: as much modeling as she would like to do because
Speaker 2: of her height. So she was off, you know, to
Speaker 2: LA to get serious and become a serious actress.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm not sure if she was in LA
Speaker 4: or New York when she was cast in the Woody
Speaker 4: Allen film, but she was cast in a small role
Speaker 4: in the Woody Allen movie Rado Days, but sadly, her
Speaker 4: part was mostly left on the cutting room floor. So
Speaker 4: she kind of thought that was going to be her
Speaker 4: big break, but it wasn't. But interestingly enough, her big
Speaker 4: break came from being on the cover of seventeen magazine.
Speaker 4: And I had this magazine. I looked at it. I
Speaker 4: remember seeing her bright, shining smile and her curls and
Speaker 4: her dimples. And TV producers saw her on that cover
Speaker 4: and they ended up you know, going through a whole
Speaker 4: casting and auditioning process. But that is how Rebecca Schaeffer
Speaker 4: was cast on the show. We keep talking about my
Speaker 4: sister Sam, and Pam Dabber played her sister, and you
Speaker 4: might remember Pam from.
Speaker 2: Work and Mindy as Mindy, And apparently Rebecca and Pam
Speaker 2: became really close in real life. They were almost like
Speaker 2: real life sisters, you know, in that chemistry, like you
Speaker 2: can't make that up.
Speaker 4: So the show was incredibly successful, you know, we have
Speaker 4: said so much today. We both Vet and I watched
Speaker 4: the show, absolutely loved it. But sadly, after two seasons,
Speaker 4: my sister Sam ended up getting canceled and Rebecca ended
Speaker 4: up appearing in a few more you know, movies, and
Speaker 4: I think she did some more TV movies and I
Speaker 4: think one film, but by this time she had already
Speaker 4: moved out of Pam's house and into an apartment in
Speaker 4: the Fairfax neighborhood in LA.
Speaker 1: And just to back up a little and talk about
Speaker 1: the stalker in this case, it was while Rebecca was
Speaker 1: doing My Sister Sam that she started to receive fan
Speaker 1: letters from a man named John Bardo. And he was
Speaker 1: a teenager himself, a couple of years younger than she was.
Speaker 1: He certainly wasn't her only fan, but she responded to him,
Speaker 1: writing that his letter was quote the most beautiful that
Speaker 1: she had ever received. And on this letter she drew
Speaker 1: a peace sign a heart and signed it quote with
Speaker 1: love from Rebecca. So the day Bardo received this letter,
Speaker 1: he wrote in his diary, quote, when I think of her,
Speaker 1: I would like to become famous to impress her end quote.
Speaker 4: Little did she know she was writing to the person
Speaker 4: who would one day stock and kill her.
Speaker 1: Yes, but we need to take a break, so we
Speaker 1: will talk more about that after we get back.
Speaker 4: So to catch you up. Rebecca Schaeffer was a teenager
Speaker 4: at the time while she was co starring in the
Speaker 4: popular TV show My Sister Sam, and that's when she
Speaker 4: began receiving fan letters from John Bardow. But who was
Speaker 4: John Bardow?
Speaker 1: Well? Bardo was born in nineteen seventy in Edwards, California,
Speaker 1: and he was the youngest of seven children. He allegedly
Speaker 1: had a somewhat troubled childhood and he was diagnosed with
Speaker 1: bipolar disorder at a very young age. He was institutionalized
Speaker 1: at age fifteen to treat some suppose emotional problems, and
Speaker 1: he ended up dropping out of high school not long
Speaker 1: after that point. So he was just a young teenager
Speaker 1: himself when he began to stalk a different girl named
Speaker 1: Samantha Smith, who was a well known peace activist. So
Speaker 1: Bardo went as far as taking a bus to Maine,
Speaker 1: where Smith lived, and he continued to stalk her until
Speaker 1: she tragically died in a plane crash in nineteen eighty five. Wow.
Speaker 1: But the following year, in nineteen eighty six, John Bardo
Speaker 1: found somebody new he was watching My Sister Sam and
Speaker 1: quickly developed an obsession with Rebecca on screen. He built
Speaker 1: a shrine to her in his bedroom, supposedly, and started
Speaker 1: to obsessively write letters to her. Wow.
Speaker 2: In June nineteen eighty seven, he attempted to meet Rebecca
Speaker 2: by showing up at the Warner Brothers studio where My
Speaker 2: Sister Sam was being filmed, and the studio's chief of
Speaker 2: security said that that he just thought that this guy
Speaker 2: was love struck, adding that Bardo had actually called the
Speaker 2: studio multiple times, and he also said that when he
Speaker 2: was there, he was terribly like insistent upon being let
Speaker 2: into the studio and every you know, every other word
Speaker 2: that he was saying was Rebecca. This Rebecca that, So
Speaker 2: to me, that is a red flag. If I was
Speaker 2: the security guard, I'm just saying I would have told
Speaker 2: her people, right, told her manager, told someone that, you know,
Speaker 2: this guy is there's something askew here.
Speaker 4: So I was actually watching an entire documentary on Rebecca
Speaker 4: and her life in her case, and her manager was
Speaker 4: with Rebecca on set when John Bardo was at the
Speaker 4: gate at the Warner Brothers lot, and they did call
Speaker 4: over to set and talked to the manager, not to Rebecca,
Speaker 4: and the manager just dismissed it like, oh, not a
Speaker 4: big deal, like sorry, we don't have time for that
Speaker 4: fan today, and they didn't even think about it again.
Speaker 4: So to them, it wasn't a cause for concern. But
Speaker 4: for me and I think we can all three agree,
Speaker 4: like these are all major red flags, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely have to agree.
Speaker 2: You know, they just thought he was just a fan, right,
Speaker 2: a love struck fan, and ultimately, you know, they deemed
Speaker 2: him harmless and he was just escorted off of the premises.
Speaker 1: Right. Well, a few years later, that might have been
Speaker 1: different if this was happening in a different time period,
Speaker 1: because in nineteen ninety four, the Violence Against Women Act
Speaker 1: was passed, and since then, every single state has passed
Speaker 1: laws making this sort of stalking a crime, but back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, there was no such law in existence.
Speaker 4: Sadly it is, it is so sad.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Anyway, after this particular incident, John Barto returns to Tucson,
Speaker 4: where he lives in Arizona, and once he was there,
Speaker 4: he kind of got distracted and he ended up fanning
Speaker 4: out over Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and Madonna. So he was
Speaker 4: in a pop star phase as opposed to focusing on Rebecca, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, it was it was a sign of the times.
Speaker 4: But it was later discovered that Bardo had been carrying
Speaker 4: a knife in his bag when he was trying to
Speaker 4: reach Rebecca at the studio back.
Speaker 2: In LA That's just crazy. But can't you imagine though,
Speaker 2: if he would have gotten on and he's he's got this, you.
Speaker 3: Know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And at the time, I don't know if they
Speaker 4: would have patted him down or even done a metal
Speaker 4: detector or anything like that.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, anyway, his new obsessions with you know, the pop
Speaker 4: stars didn't last very long, and in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 4: I think this was a really big trigger for him.
Speaker 4: He watched Rebecca's latest film at the time, and it
Speaker 4: was a movie called Scenes from a Class Struggle in
Speaker 4: Beverly Hills, and it's very different from her past work,
Speaker 4: and it's let's just say, it's truly a film for adults.
Speaker 4: It's not for a teenage mind. And it's this farcical, dark,
Speaker 4: upside downstairs comedy about rich people and their staff in
Speaker 4: Los Angeles hooking up with one another. So Bardo I
Speaker 4: think he was very triggered, and he hated the fact
Speaker 4: that there is one scene in particular where Rebecca's character
Speaker 4: has sex with someone. Okay, so he's held on to
Speaker 4: this idea that Rebecca is this innocent girl like her
Speaker 4: character and she's like not having sex, right, and he
Speaker 4: says that she's now become quote one more of the
Speaker 4: bitches of Hollywood end quote. He was so upset and
Speaker 4: so enraged that he even drew a diagram of Rebecca's
Speaker 4: body and marks spots where he planned to shoot her.
Speaker 4: And he even asked his older brother to buy him
Speaker 4: a gun, and his brother helped him buy a gun.
Speaker 1: So now John Bardo has a weapon and he just
Speaker 1: needs to locate Rebecca Schaeffer, and so he goes to
Speaker 1: the links of hiring a private investigator to retrieve her
Speaker 1: personal address, and he's able to do that pretty easily.
Speaker 1: He goes to the California Department of Motor Vehicles and
Speaker 1: at the time, all you had to do was pay
Speaker 1: four dollars for that information and basically anybody could get it.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: And so Bardow knows how to do all this, how
Speaker 1: to hire the investigator and find out where she lives,
Speaker 1: because he's right up on it and apparently it's not
Speaker 1: a huge secret. So back in nineteen eighty two, there
Speaker 1: was actually another actress named Teresa Saldana who had this
Speaker 1: stoker who stabbed her at her apartment. After that man
Speaker 1: acquired her address, pretty much going the same route, right,
Speaker 1: like hiring a private investigator and going through the DMV
Speaker 1: in this whole thing. So there's like a method to
Speaker 1: doing this, and John Bardow has learned how to do that, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's become a stoker. Well, it's like he knows
Speaker 4: he's a stocker, right, Well, he knows he knows because
Speaker 4: he's doing exactly what that stalker did to Teresa Saldana,
Speaker 4: who thankfully survived. She survived, Yeah, and she became an advocate.
Speaker 4: So John Bardo in his head he's like, wait, that's
Speaker 4: some way that I can get to Rebecca. Like does
Speaker 4: he not know that he's a psychopath?
Speaker 3: Like yeah.
Speaker 2: But the crazy thing about this is that same you
Speaker 2: know investigator, that same PI was.
Speaker 4: The same guy, right, he used the same PI.
Speaker 1: His career is helping stalkers kill people.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, how can that PI feel good about themselves?
Speaker 4: Like that's just gross. So it is, needless to say,
Speaker 4: deeply unsettling. So around this time, John Bardo apparently writes
Speaker 4: in a letter to his older sister which includes the
Speaker 4: lines quote I have an obsession with the unattainable. I
Speaker 4: have to eliminate what I cannot attain end quote. So
Speaker 4: this now us up to the morning of the crime.
Speaker 4: So that day in July of nineteen eighty nine, Rebecca
Speaker 4: was awaiting the delivery of the script for The Godfather
Speaker 4: Part three, which she's auditioning for. And this is a
Speaker 4: normal thing. Couriers come by, they ring your doorbell, they
Speaker 4: drop off the script you signed for it. It's like
Speaker 4: a total thing in Hollywood. I remember, you Bet used
Speaker 4: to get these all the time when we lived together
Speaker 4: in La Yeah. So, but this time, when Rebecca's doorbell rings,
Speaker 4: like I said, she's expecting it to be the script
Speaker 4: being dropped off, but it's not. So Instead standing there
Speaker 4: is John Bardo, so ABC News reported.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 4: When she opened the door, he showed her the card
Speaker 4: that she had sent him in response to one of
Speaker 4: his many fan letters, as well as an autographed photo
Speaker 4: of her, and told her he was her biggest fan.
Speaker 4: According to police, she politely excused herself, telling him she
Speaker 4: had to get ready for an interview. End quote. So
Speaker 4: she is kind to him. She didn't say hey, get
Speaker 4: the f out. She was nice. But this apparently pissed
Speaker 4: him off because I felt maybe he felt like he
Speaker 4: wasn't special. But anyway, he ends up leaving and he
Speaker 4: goes to a diner where he stews over this entire interaction.
Speaker 1: Right, and just a quick sidebar. An interesting detail is
Speaker 1: that John Bardo has in his bag at the moment
Speaker 1: a copy of the book Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
Speaker 1: And interesting parallel with that is if that's the same
Speaker 1: book that was in the possession of John Hinckley Junior,
Speaker 1: who shot Ronald Reagan as well as Mark David Chapman,
Speaker 1: who we all know shot and killed John Lennon. So
Speaker 1: John Bardo is carrying this book around as a sort
Speaker 1: of copy characters. You know you were asking about earlier,
Speaker 1: like does he know he's like a stalker slash killer
Speaker 1: And it's like very clear, like who he looks.
Speaker 3: Up to and who who idols are.
Speaker 1: I think he's like very actively putting himself in the
Speaker 1: shoes of those people, you know, in his stated goal,
Speaker 1: you know, going back from the earliest time he was
Speaker 1: exchanging letters with Rebecca Schaeffer, was to be famous like
Speaker 1: she is. And that's what a lot of stokers say, right,
Speaker 1: a lot of stocker killers. So it seems like he
Speaker 1: thought this was his path to stardom, right, this, this
Speaker 1: would make him famous by killing a star, a celebrity.
Speaker 4: And so that's exactly what John Bardo is on his
Speaker 4: way to do. So he returns to Rebecca's apartment shortly after,
Speaker 4: and he rang her doorbell again, and this time when
Speaker 4: she answers, she's annoyed, right and tells him he's wasting
Speaker 4: her time, and he then responds by withdrawing the gun
Speaker 4: that was in his waistband, and he shoots her point
Speaker 4: blank in the chest. She dies before she even reaches
Speaker 4: the hospital.
Speaker 1: Right Bardo then flees from Los Angeles, but he has
Speaker 1: found the next day stumbling through highway traffic in Tucson.
Speaker 1: Police apprehend him, and he almost immediately incriminates himself in
Speaker 1: the crime. He also claimed he was quote stunned and
Speaker 1: saddened to see on television that Shaeffer had died, which
Speaker 1: is an interesting thing to say. You know, it obviously
Speaker 1: implies that maybe he didn't intend to kill her, but
Speaker 1: you know, wanted to harm her or just be known
Speaker 1: for having tried maybe, you know. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: we may never know.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that is the case.
Speaker 2: You know, we may never know getting into the head
Speaker 2: of someone like that, you just you don't you have
Speaker 2: no clue of what they're thinking.
Speaker 3: But we do know that.
Speaker 2: It takes two years for the trial to get underway,
Speaker 2: and it's a very dramatic trial.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we will talk about that trial after we
Speaker 1: take another quick break.
Speaker 4: So in the fall of nineteen ninety one, two years
Speaker 4: after he's admitted to knocking on her door and shooting
Speaker 4: her at point blank range, John Bardow's trial for the
Speaker 4: murder of Rebecca Schaeffer begins.
Speaker 2: The prosecuting attorney is Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark.
Speaker 2: And yes, that is the Marsha Clark that we all
Speaker 2: know who would later go on to be the lead
Speaker 2: prosecutor in the very famous OJ Simpson murder trial.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that OJ trial was also covered by a journalist,
Speaker 1: Dominic Dunn, who is the father of Dominique Dunn, who
Speaker 1: we talked about in a few episodes ago. So interesting
Speaker 1: connection there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely. So Bardo by this time has confessed to
Speaker 4: this crime, but he's pleaded not guilty to first degree murder,
Speaker 4: which would classify the killing as premeditated. And this leaves
Speaker 4: the prosecution with two big challenges. So first, Marcia Clark
Speaker 4: needed to prove that John Bartow acted intentionally, so that
Speaker 4: would mean at least twenty five years to life in prison,
Speaker 4: but even with this there would be the possibility of parole.
Speaker 4: So she also needed to prove that there's been a quote,
Speaker 4: special circumstance, and Marcia Clark said that in this case,
Speaker 4: that special circumstance was the fact that Barto was basically
Speaker 4: lying in wait.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So to prove this, she goes to a videotape jailhouse
Speaker 2: interview with Bardo, and in this video he describes the
Speaker 2: killing in detail, showing how he hid the gun when
Speaker 2: he knocked on the door, and in that tape he
Speaker 2: also acted out the sounds of the gun shut and
Speaker 2: Rebecca like dying and screaming.
Speaker 4: And as if that weren't enough to show that he
Speaker 4: had arrived at her apartment that day with an intent
Speaker 4: and a plan to kill her. He also revealed that
Speaker 4: the song Exit by YouTube inspired him to murder Rebecca.
Speaker 4: When the song was played in the courtroom, he actually
Speaker 4: sat there drumming along, smiling and lip syncing the lyrics.
Speaker 4: A psychiatrist who examined Bardo after his arrest did testify
Speaker 4: that Barto interpreted parts of the lyrics as literal references
Speaker 4: to himself and Rebecca Schaeffer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. That's a thing a lot of murderers do,
Speaker 1: is they imprint on musicians and songs, you know, like
Speaker 1: they see music as being about something more personal to
Speaker 1: them than it ever actually could be. You know, I
Speaker 1: think back to Charles Manson and his obsession with things
Speaker 1: like Helter Skelter, right where he was entirely misinterpreting it
Speaker 1: to be about some personal image he had in his
Speaker 1: own head that was very narcissistic in nature, but had
Speaker 1: no basis in reality. Anyways, on October thirtieth of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one, John Bardo is indeed found guilty of first
Speaker 1: degree murder. He's also found guilty of the special circumstance
Speaker 1: you mentioned Russia of the lying in wait to kill
Speaker 1: Rebecca Schaeffer. So basically what this means is that he
Speaker 1: now gets a life sentence without the possibility of parole,
Speaker 1: and in fact he's still serving his life sentence today.
Speaker 1: There was actually an attempt on his life in two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven when he was stabbed repeatedly with a
Speaker 1: shive by another inmate, but he survived this and is
Speaker 1: alive today.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 4: I don't ever want anyone to die, of course, but
Speaker 4: you know, I'm happy that he does not have the
Speaker 4: option of being prolled. But I will say, like I
Speaker 4: said at the very top of the episode, I remember
Speaker 4: being so inspired by Rebecca's case because I do know
Speaker 4: that laws were changed because of the Teresa Saldama's and
Speaker 4: the Rebecca Schaefers, and one of those laws that was
Speaker 4: passed was in nineteen ninety four, the Driver's Privacy Protection
Speaker 4: Act was passed. So this is a federal law that
Speaker 4: limits the disclosure of personal information like where someone lives
Speaker 4: that you can get from state DMVs, So no one
Speaker 4: can obtain someone's home address from DMV reports the way
Speaker 4: that that private investigator that John Bardo hired did. And
Speaker 4: this law was spurred to try to ensure the safety
Speaker 4: of people like Rebecca Schaeffer who are being stocked or battered,
Speaker 4: as well as instances of anti abortion activists targeting abortion
Speaker 4: providers and patients, you know, I mean, it protects so many, yeah,
Speaker 4: and so in that way, I truly believe that there
Speaker 4: is a little bit of light in this darkness of
Speaker 4: this story. Right, things are a little bit better for
Speaker 4: those of us or those of you who experience the
Speaker 4: terror of stalking, you know, But of course the problem
Speaker 4: is sadly far from over, but it's getting better.
Speaker 2: And that brings us to our EMUA. Today's message of
Speaker 2: hope and healing goes out to all of those like
Speaker 2: Rebecca Schaeffer who have faced fear and intimidation at the
Speaker 2: hands of a stalker.
Speaker 4: Being stocked can be a very scary experience. We have
Speaker 4: to remember that stalking victims suffer much higher rates of depression, anxiety,
Speaker 4: and insomnia than others, and the advancement of technology has
Speaker 4: made the problem more acute in many ways. More than
Speaker 4: twice as many victims are stocked with technology than without.
Speaker 4: Cyber stalking and cyberbullying are sadly on the rise.
Speaker 2: And what we do know is stocking behavior is still
Speaker 2: too often portrayed as just harmless or even romantic.
Speaker 3: But it isn't.
Speaker 2: It's incredibly dangerous and it should never be considered acceptable.
Speaker 3: End of story.
Speaker 4: If you're among the estimated thirteen point five million people
Speaker 4: who are stocked in a given year, we see you,
Speaker 4: and we will continue to speak out on your behalf.
Speaker 4: When enough of us do this, it can really make
Speaker 4: a difference. We all need to use our voices for good.
Speaker 4: Onward and upward, Emua, Emua. If you or someone you
Speaker 4: know is experiencing stalking behavior, you can find tools and
Speaker 4: resources to help at www dot stokingawareness dot org. That's
Speaker 4: www dot stokingawareness dot org.
Speaker 3: Well, that is our show for today.
Speaker 2: As always, we'd love to hear what you thought about
Speaker 2: today's discussion and if there is a case that you
Speaker 2: would like us to cover, find us on social media
Speaker 2: or email us at Facingeable Pod at tenderfoot dot tv
Speaker 2: and one request. If you haven't already, please find us
Speaker 2: on iTunes and.
Speaker 4: Give us a review and a good rating. If you
Speaker 4: like what we do, your support is always cherished until
Speaker 4: next time. Aloha.
Speaker 1: Facing Evil is a production of iHeartRadio and tenderfoot TV.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted by Russia Pequerrero in a Vetchintila,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk, Donald
Speaker 1: albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico.
Speaker 1: Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on
Speaker 1: social media or email us at Facingevilpod at tenderfoot dot tv.
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