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This Disturbing Disappearance Case Will SHOCK You · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It began with a boy and a dime.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: On a quiet Saturday morning in nineteen twenty eight Los Angeles,
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: a mother handed her nine year old son some change
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: and watched him walk down the street to see a movie.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: But he would never come back, and what followed was
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: a nightmare that spiraled beyond comprehension, one that pulled in
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: corrupt police officers, a grieving parent, a false reunion staged
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: for the press, and a string of horrors buried beneath
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: a chicken coop in the California desert. And at the
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: center of it all was Christine Collins, a woman who
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: simply wanted her son back and instead found herself fighting
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a system determined to silence her. This is the story
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: of the Boy who wasn't Walter. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and murder all things that I love to consume, and
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I know you do too, You sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: minded fresh Rupert didn't like that. Rupert's in the background
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: right now, Sorry, buddy, He's already like what the hell anyway?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Today is a in sane case. And I actually heard
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: about this case years and years and years ago when
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I watched a movie called The Changeling with Angelina Joee.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Highly recommend you watch it. It is heartbreaking and I'm
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: going to give you the background to this case, which
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: is even more crazy than the movie. But anyway, without
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: further ado, aside of Michael, our seatbelts, go mock five
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the swindshield into this insane case together. Christine Ida Collins
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: was a single mother raising her son Walter in Los
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Angeles during the Roaring twenties. Born in eighteen eighty eight,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Christine was independent and a determined woman, which was something
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: of an anomaly in that era because women were often
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: expected to.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Be submissive if you will.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: She would work as a super at a telephone company specifically,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and was known for her business like, no nonsense demeanor
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: when dealing with men in authority, which is badass bitch mode.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: We love that, But our personal life have been challenging
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: because her ex husband, Walter Collins, Sr. Was an ex
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: convict serving time in the Fulsoon State Prison on a
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: robbery conviction and for running a prohibition era speakeasy. You
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: don't know what speakeasy is. It's like a little secret
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: bar and the prohibition was banned alcohol. Alcohol was banned
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: if you didn't know that in the twenties, So everybody
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: was going around doing illegal handling of alcohol. And so
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: they had a lot of these speakeasies as little underground
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: bars where you could go drink, and it's against the laws.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So he got caught. He's in jail.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: So Christine is a single mom basically, So this just
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: left Christine to provide for her young son, Walter, all
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: on her own, which she managed admirably in their middle
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: class home in Lincoln Heights in the Mount Washington area
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: of LA. And despite the stigma of being a divorced
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: single mother in the nineteen twenties, which was not good.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: To other people.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: To me, I really give a shit. Nobody can get
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: a shit now, but back then it was like incredibly
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: looked down on. She was determined to give her son
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: a normal, happy childhood. And Los Angeles in the late
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: nineteen twenties was a city of booming growth and rampant corruption.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: As we will see through this case.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: The film industry and agriculture were thriving, but so was
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: organized crime and vice was the Los Angeles Police Department,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: the LAPD under chief James two Gun Davis. It's a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: very generic, weird nickname, but okay for a police officer,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: but he had earned a notorious reputation for brutality and
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: scandal fantastic.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: We always love that in police departments.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: The Davis had even formed a so called gun Squad
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty six, which only amplified public fears of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: police lawlessness. And this was basically a fifty man unit
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: with orders to shoot criminals dead, not alive, not good
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: police because law can't be done if the criminal's debt.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: So by nineteen twenty eight, the LAPD was under intense
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: scrutiny for corruption and incompetence. At Christine's resolute character would
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: soon bring her into a dramatic confrontation with the city's
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: corrupt police. So nine year old Walter Collins was the
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: center of Christine's world. Born in September of nineteen eighteen,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Walter was bright and a good natured boy, and he
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: just enjoyed the simple pleasures of childhood in the nineteen twenties,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: which was I don't know, rolling a ball with a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: stick on the ground or something the better times. But
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: he was known to be quiet and polite and quote,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: A happy lad of ten summers, as one newspaper later
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: described him, and though his father was absent because he
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: was a criminal, Walter had a loving home with Christine,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: who worked hard to provide for him. But in the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: spring of nineteen twenty eight, however, their ordinary life was
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: about to take a nightmarish turn, setting in motion one
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: of Los Angele's most notorious true crime. So on Saturday,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: March tenth, nineteen twenty eight, Christine Collins gave Walter a
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: dime and permission to go see a matinee at the
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: local movie theater. It was just a special treat for
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: the weekend, something he had done lots before, and a
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: neighbor would actually later report seeing Walter around five pm
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: that evening near the corner of Pasadena Avenue and North
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Avenue twenty three in Lincoln Heights, not far from their home.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: But when night came and Walter still hadn't returned home,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Christine started to grow very anxious, and after frantically searching
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood and phoning friends with no luck, she reported
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: her son missing to the LAPD later that night, and
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: the LAPD's initial response was routine, assuming perhaps the boy
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: had run off or gotten lost, but Christine knew that
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: something was wrong because Walter had simply vanished without a trace,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: and this was very out of character for him, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: within days the Los Angeles Times ran articles about the
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: missing boy, and the expanse of search was underway, so
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: police squads and volunteers scout the streets and vacant lots
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: in northeast LA. Even the lake in Lincoln Park was
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: searched for evidence of a body, and tips and sightings
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: poured in from near and far. One gas station attendant
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: from Glendale claimed he actually saw the boy wrapped in
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: newspapers in the back of a car driven by a
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: stranger who was quote a foreign looking couple, and apparently
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: the couple sped off in evaded capture, leaving behind a
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: terrifying possibility that Walter had actually been abducted, and other
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: witnesses reported seeing a distressed boy fitting Walter's description in
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: towns up and down California, even as.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Far as San Francisco.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: So investigators struggled to sort credible leads from false ones,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and early on police considered one theory offered by Walter's father,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Walter Colin Senior, because he feared that his criminal pass
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: had actually caught up with him because Colin Senior had
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: been a trustee in the prison cafeteria who reported on
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: other inmates wrongdoings, which is.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Bad in jail because if you haven't heard it before.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Snitches get stitches. So this would possibly make vengeful enemies
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: behind bars, and those people behind bars could contact people
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: outside bars and potentially endanger his family. At least that
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: was his theory, So he suggested that a former prisonmate
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: might have kidnapped Walter as revenge. So this lead was
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: pursued seriously for a time because could a vendetta against
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the father explain the Sun's disappearance, But nothing seemed to
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: come of that because with no concrete evidence, the revenge
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: kidnapping theory remained speculative. So throughout the spring and into
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: summer of nineteen twenty eight, Christine lived every parent's worst nightmare,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: just waiting by the phone day after day for any
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: word of her missing child, and public pressure on the
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: LAPD mounted as the case went unsolved, and the department
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: at this point, as we know, was already stuck in
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: several corruption scandals and was just desperate for a victory
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: or at least some positive publicity. It's about to get
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: really bad, because unfortunately, this desperation would soon lead the
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: LAPD to make a fateful and shocking blunder, in this case,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: one that would only add to Christine's heartache and scandalize
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: the entire city. So in August of nineteen twenty eight,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: a stunning development seemed to offer hope because, nearly five
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: months after Walter's disappearance, authorities in Decab, Illinois picked up
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: a runaway boy who claimed to be Walter Collins. And
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: the boy had given Illinois police a differing name at first,
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: but after hours of questioning, he suddenly asserted that he
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: was Walter, the missing boy from Los Angeles. So, skeptical
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: but eager for a breakthrough, the LAPD exchanged letters and
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: photographs with the Illinois authorities, and on paper, the Midwestern
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: boy did bear resemblance to Walter, and Christine Collins herself
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: paid for the child's train ticket to California, intensely hoping
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: he might truly be her son. So the LAPD arranged
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: a highly publicized reunion which is sucked up like this,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: Mom's son has been missing for so long and she's
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: just waiting to have him in her arms again, and
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: now there's going to be cameras everywhere surrounding them in
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: this awkward situation. Also, she doesn't even know if this
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: is actually her son, Like, it's just disgusting behavior. But whatever,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: we'll keep going. But this was intended to look like
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: a celebration of a case solved. But when Christine met
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the boy who stepped off the train, her heart sank because,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: under the gaze of reporters flashbulbs, she whispered, in dismay, quote,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I do not think that is my son. Because a
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: nine year old boy looked similar to Walter in some ways,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: but Christine would immediately notice differences because Christine knew her
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: child and this boy was an impostor. It had only
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: been a few months, It's not like it had been
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: years and years. So for a mother to be like, no,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: that's not my kid, it shouldn't be questioned for a moment. However,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Captain JJ Jones, the officer in charge of the case,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: was in no mood to have his big triumph spoiled.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Jones would urge her to quote try the boy out
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: for a couple of weeks. What he literally told her,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: you know, probably not your kid, and I don't really
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: care if it is or not, so maybe just try
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: him out see if he's a good replacement for your kid.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: That's basically what he's saying. He doesn't care if this
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: is the kid or not. He just wants this all
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: to be shoved under the rug. It's just horrifying to
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: think about. But he would tell Christine to take him
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: home and see if maybe she could have been mistaken,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: And with all the cameras around and all the police around,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: reluctantly and in a state of shock, Christine brought the
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: boy home and crowds and cameras looked on. So for
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the next three weeks, Christine attempted to reconcile herself to
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: the strange situation. She never stopped gathering evidence to prove
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: what she knew in her heart, because this imposter boy
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: was destructive and inconsistent on details of Walter's life, and
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: she would say that he didn't feel or sound like
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: her child. So just knowing in her heart after these
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: few weeks that this just was not her child, Christine
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: would quietly obtain Walter's dental records and would have friends
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: and teachers examined the boy herself, you know, shit that
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: the LAPD should have done. But whatever, you know, just
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: simple investigative work. But whatever. But the proof of this
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: boy not being Walter Collins was overwhelming because Walter Collins
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: had fillings in his teeth, whereas this boy had none,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: so he just got them taken out. What And the
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: neighbors and family friends signed statements affirming that the child
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: was not Walter because even these people, they aren't even
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: his mother, but they knew that this wasn't Walter. So,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: armed with hard evidence, Christine marched back into the Los
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Angeles police station in late August of nineteen twenty eight
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: and demanded justice. And she would confront Captain Jones with
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the dental charts and affidavits, declaring once again that the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: boy was an imposter, even after giving him a try
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: for three weeks. But despite the proof, Captain Jones was
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: just furious and he was unwilling to admit the LAPD's mistake.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: And Jones would then harshly dismiss Christine as delusional and ungrateful,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: which is fucking insane, and he would berate her for
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: humiliating the department after they had quote found her son.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: So embarrassed at the prospect that the LAPD had brought
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: the wrong boy across the country. Jones insisted Christine was mistaken, and,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: according to later court testimony, Jones asked her mockingly, quote,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: what are you trying to do?
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Make fools out of us all?
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I've never wanted to punch a dead guy in the
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: face so bad. It was nineteen twenty eight. He's long dead,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: but Jesus like, I hope he's rotting in hell. What
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the just horrifying to think about. I can't even imagine
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: being a mother and the LAPD bringing a childhome that
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: isn't yours and just trying to convince you that it
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: is yours, and you're saying it's not it. This is
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: peak gas lighting. This is where gas lighting was invented.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: So he accused the distraught mother Christine, of being either
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: hysterical or scheming, and in an outburst, Jones called Christina
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: a liar and even accused her of being a bad
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: mother who was trying to dump her child on the state,
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: saying quote, you are the most cruel hearted woman I
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: have ever known. Again, I've never wanted to punch a
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: dead guy in the face. So bad in my whole life.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. So Christine, not taking no for an answer, persisted,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: but Jones abruptly declared her mentally unstable, saying, quote, you're
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: insane and ought to be in a madhouse. And he
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: would say, you're under arrest. And with that, Jones invoked
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: a Code twelve interment order, which was a harsh procedure
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: that allowed police to summarily commit individuals who were deemed
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: quote difficult or an inconvenience to authorities. It's just it's
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: so incredibly sad. So Christine was carted away against her
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: will to the psychiatric ward at Los Angeles County General Hospital,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and there in a barred institution cell, the anguished mother
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: was held for ten days of psychiatric observation. Essentially the
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: LAPD just not wanting to admit that they were wrong.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: So as Christine suffered in the psych word, the facade
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: of the returned boy was rapidly crumbling, so under renewed questioning,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: now without Christine's presence, the impostor finally broke down and
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: confessed the truth. The little kid. He was like, yeah,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I'm actually not Walter Collins. They convinced me of that
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: because they just wanted this case to be done with,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: and his real name was actually Arthur J. Hutchins and
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: he was a twelve year old drifter from Iowa, so
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: he wasn't even the same age as Walter. And Arthur
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: admitted he had seen a resemblance between himself and Walter
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: from Missing Child flyers and came up with the ruse
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: as a way to get a free trip to Hollywood
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: to meet his favorite cowboy movie star.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Tom Mix.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: In fact, Arthur actually had a very troubled home life
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and was fleeing a stern stepmother and impersonating Walter was
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: a spur of the moment escape plan that spiraled out
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: of control, and the police just saw an opportunity.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: To go along with it.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: So it's both the kid's fault, but mostly, you know,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the adult's fault for just going along with it. So,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: in news of the confession reached hospital officials, Christine Collins
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: was immediately released, as she should be, so after more
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: than a week of wrongful incarceration, Christine walked out of
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: County General and she was cleared of any delusions about
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: the boy's identity, Yet she was still without any answers
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: about her real son's fate. So at this point the
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles Police Department's deception was exposed and the city's
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: sympathy swung decisively onto Christine's side. And in the aftermath
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: of this bizarre impostor saga, public outrage against the LAPD
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: reached a fever pitch, and Christine Collins wasted no time
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: speaking out. So barely free from the hospital, she filed
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: acclaim against the city, Davis Jones, and the LAPD for
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: false imprisonment, and the press, which had initially praised the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: LAPDE for finding Walter, now criticized the department for its
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: cruelty and incompetence, and by the early fall of nineteen
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: twenty eight, civic groups and ordinary citizens were demanding accountability.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: So a dramatic hearing was convened at Los Angeles City
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Hall by the city's Council Welfare Committee to investigate Christine's allegations,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and at least one thousand furious citizens crowded into the
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: October nineteen twenty eight hearings, just with overflow. Crowds so
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: large that loudspeakers had to be set up outside city
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Hall so people could actually listen on the streets and
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: on the stand Christina recounted Captain Jones of the words
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: and her ordeal in the psych word, bringing many of
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: the people in the audience to tears and drawing gasps
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: of disbelief at the department's behavior. And the sensational Walter
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Collins case had snowballed into a major scandal for the LAPD.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: One that quote inspired a media frenzy and captivated the Southland,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: and did so in the same way a high profile trial.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Like oj Simpson's would in late decades.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: So Christine Collins, a victim now turned accidental heroine, was
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: now at the center of a much larger story about
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: police corruption of authority and a mother's unwavering love for
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: her missing child. So, while Christine was battling the LAPD
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, a horrifying parallel story was unfolding on
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a dusty chicken ranch in Riverside County, because, unbeknownst to
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: the public, Walter Collins had likely become one of the
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: victims of a serial child murderer operating in the Shadows,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and the perpetrator was Gordon Stewart Northcott, a twenty one
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: year old poultry farmer whose name would soon be etched
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: in infamy. So Northcott lived with his family on a
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: remote farm in the community of Wineville, which was a
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: rural area just east of la and by nineteen twenty
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: eight he had embarked on a spree of kidnapping and
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: young boys, and it later emerged that Northcott, sometimes with
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the assistance of his mother and his teenage nephew, had
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: howard and abducted numerous children to his ranch, where he
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: would unfortunately ask them and ultimately murder them in a
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: gruesome fashion. And the exact number of Northcott's victims remained unknown,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: but police were able to confirm at least three murders
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: during his reign of terror, because Northcott himself would boast
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of killing as many as twenty boys. And Northcott's methods
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: were as depraved as they were calculated, because, according to
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: later testimony, he had small chicken coops on the ranch
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: that he had repurposed into a private chamber for his
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: victims for these little children, and he would hold the
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: captive boys in the coop, sometimes taunting them by leading
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: them into an adjacent incubator room to see chicks hatching,
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: but this would just be a lie to distract them
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: before he slapped them, and when he was tired of
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: aphiding them, Northcott would murder children, often with an act,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: and then he would disposed of their bodies and he
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: would just become adept at covering up evidence. Northcott would
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: bury body parts in shallow graves or in pits on
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the property and douse the remains in quicklime, which was
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: an alkaline agent used to cover up decomposition. So by
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: early nineteen twenty eight, Northcott had already had blood on
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: his hands, and on February second, nineteen twenty eight, just
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: five weeks before Walter went missing, a headless was found
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: discarded in a ditch in La Puente, east of Los Angeles,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: and the victim was a Latino teenage boy who had
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: been shot in the with a twenty two and at
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: the time, authorities did not connect the gruesome discovery to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: any suspect, but it was later revealed to be one
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: of Northcott's early murders because he had actually killed a
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Mexican farm worker later dubbed the Mexican boy in headlines
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: and dumped the body, then taken that back to the
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: ranch to destroy it and conceal the victim's identity and
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Northcott's crimes continued on through the spring, and on May sixteenth,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: nineteen twenty eight, Nelson Winslow, who was ten, and Lewis Winslow,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: who was twelve, disappeared while walking home from a model
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: yacht club meeting. And they were two young brothers from Pomona, California,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: and the Winslow boy's parents received strange letters in their
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: son's handwriting a couple weeks later, and one letter claimed
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: the boys had run off to Mexico and another bizarrely
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: said they planned to stay missing as long as we
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: can to become famous. And these letters, as it turned out,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: had been dictated by Northcott to mislead the family and
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: delay any search for them, which is so heartbreaking and
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: just horrifying, and it was just evidence of his cruel
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: psychological manipulations. And at the time police treated the Winslow
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: brothers as a separate missings person's case, not yet linking
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: it to Walter Collins or the unidentified boy in La Puente.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: But in reality, all these mysteries were just threads of
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the same horrific tapestry centered on the Northcott's Wineville ranch.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: But Gordon Northcott did not act entirely alone which is
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: even more horrifying because living on the ranch with him
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: was his fifteen year old nephew, Sanford Wesley Clark, whom
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Northcott had brought down from Canada under false pretenses in
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: nineteen twenty six, and Sandford was effectively Northcott's prisoner, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: he endured two years of unspeakable things happening to him
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: from Northcott. Things that he would do to his victims
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: was done to Sandford besides him, obviously, and at the
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: hands of his uncle, with no other option. He was
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: also coersed into assisting in the crimes. And Northcott also
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: had an unusually close and rather disturbing relationship with his mother,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Sarah Luis Northcott, and Sarah was fiercely devoted to her son,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: way too much so weird and creepy lady to the
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: point of abetting his crimes completely, and later evidence suggested
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: an incestuous family dynamic and hints that Gordon himself might
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: have been a product of incest or s within the
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Northcott family. She's just some weird shit happened on the
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Wineville ranch. So this toxic family environment produced a deadly collaboration,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: a mother and a son covering for each other. And
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: a young nephew trapped as a reluctant accomplice, and by
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the late summer of nineteen twenty eight, the Wineville crimes
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: were on the verge of exposure thanks to the courage
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: of the Sandford's family because Sandford's older sister, Jesse Clark,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: had grown suspicious after not hearing from her brother for months,
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: and that September, Jesse actually traveled from Canada down to
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: north Cott Ranch completely unannounced to check on Sandford, and
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: what she would find would alarm her because she could
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: tell that her uncle had been doing terrible things to Sandford,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: and she sensed more terrible things were happening as well,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: and during her brief stay, Northcot behaved oddly and even
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: attacked Jesse at one point, and there are conflicting accounts
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: as to whether Jesse, or potentially her mother, Winfred, contacted
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: authorities reporting that Sandford Clark was being held captive by
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: the Northcotts and that Northcott had likely harm other boys.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: But regardless of who set the report, the tip finally
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: set law enforcement on Northcott's trail. So Los Angeles police
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: and immigration authorities coordinated with Riverside County deputies to investigate
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: the isolated Winefille ranch in mid September of nineteen twenty eight,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: and officers would descend on the Northcott property and there
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: they would find a shaken Sandford clerk and confronted by investigators,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: Sandford poured out a confession of what had transpired on
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: the ranch. And it was horrifying because he would tell
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: authorities that his uncle, Gordon Northcott, had been kidnapping boys,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: doing terrible things to them like sc and Torton eventually
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: killed them with an axe one by one, and Sanford,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: in fear of his own life, had been forced to
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: assist with some of the killings or even disposal of
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: these bodies. So you had a scared kid, not wanting
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: to be hurt because he's literally watching what happens if
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: he disobeys his uncle and he's having to do these
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: horrible things. I just can't even imagine how this child feels,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: let alone the victims. It's just a nightmare, this nightmare ranch.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: And in a matter of fact tone, the traumatized teen
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: recounted how Northcott would cover the victim's remains in quicklime
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: and bury them around the ranch, and he also revealed
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: secrets behind the headless body. Northcott had actually killed that
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: boy too, and the Mexican boy, whose name was potentially
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Alvin Gothia decatated him to impede identification, and he would
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: dispose of the skull back at the ranch. And crucially,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Sandford named names and he would identif fight Nelson Winslow,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Lewis Winslow, and Walter Collins as three of the boys
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Northcott had abducted and murdered. And the authorities were stunned
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: of the Collins and Winslow case, which they hadn't connected
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: before and had just suddenly converged in this teenager's horrifying
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: testimony and Sanford's statements meant that the most dreaded outcome
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: might be true, and that is that Walter Collins was
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: likely dead murdered at the Wineville Ranch, and Gordon Northcott
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: himself was nowhere to be found when police arrived. Just
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: sensing the net closing in, Northcott actually had fled the
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: ranch with his mother, Sarah the incestuous weirdo, and a
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: man hunt ensued across state lines and into Canada, and
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: on September nineteenth of nineteen twenty eight, Royal Canadian Mounted
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Police actually caught Gordon Northcott and Sarah Louisa, his incestuous mother,
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: in a small town in British Columbia, and the pair
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: was arrested and held without bond as California sought their extradition,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: and the extradition process hit a few buicratic snags because
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: paperwork errors delayed their return for several weeks, but by
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: the end of November nineteen twenty eight, the north Cots
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: were back in the US and they would go to
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: Riverside County to face justice. And meanwhile, investigators began the
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: grizzly task of searching the Wineville ranch for evidence, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: what they discovered just confirmed Sandford's account and shocked even
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: veteran officers because scattered around the chicken coop and the
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: grounds were human bone, frame and bards mix in with
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: quicklime and soil, and allegedly there was fifty one parts
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: of human anatomy found and in shallow graves beneath the coop,
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: detectives found pieces of blood soaked mattresses and bits of
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: the boy's clothing and a twenty two caper rifle with
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: spent shells matching the caliber used in that boy's murder.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: And perhaps most heartbreaking were the personal clues, because at
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: the ranch house police recovered a book from the Pomona
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Public Library that had been checked out by one of
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the Winslow brothers, as well as the letters the Winslow
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: boys had written to their parents under north God's dictation,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: and one note in child's handwriting reassured quote, don't worry,
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: we are fine, which is again.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Just so freakin' sad like. It's just horrifying.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: It was just another lie forced upon the boys before
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: they were killed. And there was also physical evidence tentatively
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: linked to Walter Collins, such as boy's clothing that matched
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Walter's size found on the property, and authorities later said
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: trace evidence of a boy who could be Walter, likely
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: fragments of bone or hair, was identified among the remains
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: of the chicken coop, but unfortunately, there was no hard
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: enough evidence that could be directly attributed to Walter being
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: actually found. However, faced with these findings, it was almost
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: undeniable that the Winslow and at least one unidentified Latino
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: boy had all met their end at Northcott's hands, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: back in custody in California, both Gordon and his mother
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Sarah made confessions, then retractions, then new confessions in a
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: dizzying whirl of statements as each tried to just save
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: themselves because they're both pieces of shit, And while jailed
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: in Canada awaiting extradition, Sarah Northcott had impulsively confessed to
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: murdering Walter Collins herself, supposedly to protect Gordon, but she
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: later recanted that story before leaving to Canada, as did Gordon,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: who had briefly admitted to kill five boys and then
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: withdrew his confession completely, and after they were extradited and
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: separated in custody, Sarah Luisa Northcott once again confessed in
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: late nineteen twenty eight, and this time formally pleaded guilty
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: to the murder of Walter Collins and in a Riverside
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: courtroom on December thirty first. In nineteen twenty eight, Sarah
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: claimed that she, not Gordon, had killed Walter with an
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: ass and insisted her son was innocent, and many suspected
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Sarah's confession was a ploy to either cover for Gordon
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: or at least prevent him from getting the death penalty
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: for Walter's murder. So whether any of Sarah's statements were
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: truthful remains doubtful, but her willingness to do anything to
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: protect her son was on full display, and the ploy
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: worked to an extent because by taking responsibility for Walter's death,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Sarah remove the possibility of Gordon being tried for that
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: particular murder. So the judge accepted Sarah Northcott's guilty plea
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and spared her of any chance of execution because California
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: law at the time did not hang women, but he
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: would sensence her to life in prison for the murder
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: of Walter Collins. So Sarah was shipped off to a
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: women's prison in TEHECHOPPI sorry if I said that wrong
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: to Hikapi. I'm really sorry for Brits pronouncing that. And
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: she would serve eleven years before being paroled in nineteen
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: forty and she would die in nineteen forty four, still
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: claiming her son's innocence. So, with Sarah Northcott convicted for
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Walter's killing, prosecutors focused on bringing Gordon Stewart Northcot to
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: trial for other murders, and in November of nineteen twenty eight,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: a Riverside County grand jury indicted the twenty one year
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: old Northcott on multiple counts for the murder of the
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Winslow brothers, Louis and Nelson, and the murder of the
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: unidentified Mexican youth from La Puente. And notably, Northcott was
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: not charged with Walter Collins murder since his mother had
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: already confessed to that crime and double jeopardy rules complicated
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: adding it to Gordon's case. But nevertheless, Walter's fate loomed
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: heavily over the proceedings, and everyone understood that proving Northcott's
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: guilt in the other killings would also mean implicating him
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: morally in Walter's presumed death. So the stage was set
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: for one of the most sensational murder trials in California history,
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: a trial that Christine Collins would watch intently, seeking both
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: answers about her son and justice for the moment monstrous
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: crimes that had claimed his life.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So as the Wineville.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Horror came to light in late nineteen twenty eight, Christine
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Collins experienced a bitter sweet vindication because the discovery of
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Walter's likely murder at the hands of Gordon Northcott proved
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: that Christine had been right all along in refusing to
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: accept the fake Walter and her sanity was never in question.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: It was the LAPD's integrity that was just utterly broken,
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: and public anger towards the Los Angeles Police Department, already
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: high from the Impostor debacle, now boiled over with the
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: revelation that while police had been persecuting Christine, a serial
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: killer had been free to prey on children. And in
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: the court of public opinion, Christine was not only vindicated,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: but put on a pedestal for her courage and persistence
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: in seeking the truth. And official responses followed under intense
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: public scrutiny, and the LAPD deeply embarrassed, as they should
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: be idiots, not now, just nineteen twenties LAPD. We're not
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: going to talk about the LAPD right now anyway, but
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: they just scrambled to discipline those responsible for Christine's mistreatment,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: and Captain JJ Jones, who had orchestrated that the impostor
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: fiasco and ordered Christine's committal, was suspended from duty pending
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: an investigation, and the Police Commission held a hasty hearing
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: but initially refused to punish Jones, an outcome that only
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: fueled public anger. Like I have no words, so under
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: mounting pressure, the Los Angeles City Council's Health and Welfare
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: Committee took up the matter, and after reviewing evidence and
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: hearing Christine's testimony in the packed hearings, the council formally
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: recommended that both Captain Jones and Chief James Davis be
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: removed from their posts. As you should, and such a
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: move was virtually unprecedented. It was just a sign of
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: how awful the public found this misconduct, and publicly the
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: mayor and citi's leaders assured that swift action would be
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: taken to restore trust good luck. Christine took her fight
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: to the courts as well, and as mentioned earlier, she
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: filed a civil lawsuit against Captain Jones of the LAPD
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: for false imprisonment and a she had suffered. In nineteen
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: twenty nine, a superior court jury cided squarely with Christine
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: and she would win a judgment of ten thousand, eight
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars in damages against Jones, which was a huge
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: sum at the time. It was about equivalent to two
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in today's money, but it was nothing
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: compared to everything she had gone through, and the judge
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: who ruled in her favor made scathing comments about the
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: police treatments of an innocent mother, and Christine announced that
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: the award would go to continuing the search for Walter,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: or at least finding out what had actually happened to him,
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: because even with the confession from Sarah and the little
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: evidence that they found, she still didn't know for sh
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: where her son was, which is the most heartbreaking part
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: of this whole case. And also, in a final insult
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: towards Christine, Captain Jones refused to pay a dime of
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: the court order damages and he ignored the judgment completely
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: and the city did not enforce it, so at the
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: end of the day, it just none of it meant anything.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: And years later, Christine attempted to collect a judgment against
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Jones of around fifteen thousand dollars in nineteen forty one,
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: and again she had no luck. So Jones, it seems,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: never actually paid the penalty for what he'd done, and
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: by nineteen forty one Jones had retired comfortably, just highlighting
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: the frustrating lack of accountability. But nevertheless, Christine's case did
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: force meaningful changes, at least because, outraged by the ordeal,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: California state legislator passed a new law in nineteen twenty
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: nine prohibiting police from committing someone to psychiatric facility without
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: a warrant or a hearing, which, like, yet, no shit,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: and this reform specifically targeted the LAPD's infamous Code twelve practice,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: ensuring that never again could officers lock a person up
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: in an asylum simply for being an inconvenience, which like, again, yeah,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: no shit, dude, what the first So it was just
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: a direct legacy of Christine's courage, and in addition, the
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: massive publicity surrounding her case shamed the LAPD and contributed
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: to growing push for reform and oversight, and Chief James Davis,
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: who had been particularly embarrassed by the Collins affair, was
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: forced out of his job by nineteen twenty nine amid
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: broader corruption investigations, though he would stage a comeback and
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: be reappointed as chief just a few years later in
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: nineteen thirty three, which is crazy, and Captain J. J.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: Jones was also dismissed for his position for a time. However,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: the political wins in Los Angeles shifted in the early
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: nine teen thirties, and remarkably, both men eventually just returned
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: to the force, but such reversals were just a reminder
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: that true reform would be a very long battle. But still,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: Christine Collins had struck a mighty blow, and she did
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: humble the shit out of the LAPD in the eyes
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: of the public and spurred tangible legal protections for citizens,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: which is incredible. And through it all, Christine never stopped
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: asking the haunting question, where is my son? And even
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: as courts and committees addressed the wrong done to her,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Christine remained focused on finding out Walter's fate. But tragically,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: by the time of the north Cots trial, all signs
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: pointed to Walter being one of his victims, and Christine
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: would pay close attention to the legal proceedings related to
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: the Winefield murders, holding onto a sliver of hope that
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: some evidence might confirm Walter's whereabouts or that Northcotts himself
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: might have confessed directly to her quest for the truth
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: would lead her to a dramatic face to face encounter
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: with her son's presumed killer, just seeking closure from a
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: man incapable of giving it. And in early nineteen twenty nine,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: the eyes of the nation turned to Riverside, California, where
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Gordon Stewart Northcott stood trial for his heinous crimes, and
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: his trial for murder commenced on January second, nineteen twenty nine,
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: in Riverside County's courthouse, and it unfolded like a macabre circus,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: but due to the shocking nature of the charges, the
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: presiding judge actually took the unusual step of excluding women
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: from the jury because it was that bad. What happened
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: in those chicken coops was absolutely horrifying, because women at
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: this point were still relatively new to jury pools at
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: the time, as they had only recently gained the right
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: to serve, So twelve men would be impaneled to decide
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Northcott's fate. The women were allowed to watch from the gallery,
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: and many many did, driven by morbid curiosity in sympathy
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: for the victim's families, and the prosecution, led by Deputy
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: District Attorney Earl RedWine, presented a compelling, if largely circumstantial
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: case because without intact bodies of the victims, red Wine
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: relied on Sandford Clark's testimony and the forensic fragments from
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: the ranch and Northcott's own inconsistent statements. So Sanford Clark
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: took to the stand and recounted in devastating detail the
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: abs he witnessed and endured, and he would speak of
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: Northcott's situal perversion with the boys and described how his
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: uncle used an axe in the killings, and red Wine
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: skillfully painted Northcott as a pathological liar and sadistic fiend,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: emphasizing his brazen behavior and lack of remorse. A Northcot,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: for his part, turned the trial into a spectacle of
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: arrogance and madness because he had a right to counsel,
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: but proceeded to fire or alienate three defense attorneys in succession,
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: ultimately insisting on representing himself, in part because he just
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: loved attention and he was a giant piece of shit,
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: so in court he appeared oddly self assured. Even one
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: observer noted Northcott was quote as much at home in
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: the courtroom as any attorney, despite having no legal training.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: And Northcott would even take the stand in his own defense,
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: effectively questioning and answering himself, which is fucking insane, And
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: in a bizarre stunt, he also put the prosecutor, red Wine,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: on the stand, and the judge admonished him. But Northcott's
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: antics continued, and he often smirked and cracked jokes with
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: the court officials during recesses, as if the trial was
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: just a giant game to him, and throughout the proceedings,
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Northcott spewed a whirlwind of just contradictions, and he accused
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: the sheriff deputies of conspiring to kill him and labeled
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: his own family members, including Sandford and his mother, as
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: liars who had been coerced by police, and at times
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: even hinted there were more victims beyond those named, but
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: he would never confirm it just a giant monster, And
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: in an especially startling move, Northcott had his mother, Sarah Northcott,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: brought from prison to testify in his defense, and taking
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: a stand in February of nineteen twenty nine, Sarah only
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: deepened the weirdness of it all, and she launched into
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: a story about her husband's incest with their daughter and
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: claim that if true, would mean Gordon was both her
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: son and grandson. Just just stop shit, I don't know,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: And she also shrieked at the prosecutor in a rage
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: at one point, yelling the next time I get married,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: it won't be to a man like you. You're going to jail, bit,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: You're gonna die in jail.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: It'll be all right.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: So this testimony, an outburst from his mother, did nothing
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: to help Gordon's case. If anything, it underscored the dysfunction
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: of the Northcott family and Gordon's father, Cyrus George NORTHA
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Cod also testified, and he did Gordon no favors either.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: Desyrus frankly stated that his son had bragged about killing
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: numerous boys and that he had seen the evidence of
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: these crimes, and even admitted he purchased some of the
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: chemicals that were used to destroy the remains.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Just laid it on thick.
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't know that he's probably a piece
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: of shit too, but at least you know, he did
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: something positive by putting his son behind bars. But such
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: damning testimonies from Gordon's own parents just left an impression
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: on the jurors, a very negative impression. That is so,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: after a twenty seven day trial filled with these dramatic episodes,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: the case went to the jury on February eighth, nineteen
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: twenty nine, and it took the all male jury only
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: about two hours of deliberation to reach a verdict, which
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: is not a lot of time. I think it should
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: have been two minutes, but you know who am I
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: to say? And Gordon Stewart Northcott would be found guilty
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: on all three counts of murder for the killings of
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Louis Winslow, Nelson Winslow, and the unidentified Mexican youth, and
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: did not return a conviction for Walter Collins's murder, and
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: again that was since that charge had not been formally
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: included due to Sarah's prior confession, but nonetheless, in the
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: public mind, Northcott was understood to be responsible for Walter's
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: fate as well, and the judge promptly sentence Northcott to
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: death by hanging on February thirteenth, nineteen twenty nine. And
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: as mentioned, Christine Collins was not a direct party in
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: the trial, but she paid very close attention and she
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: had vested interest in anything Northcott might reveal under oath
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: about her son. However, Northcott gave her no clear answers
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: in court, and he either flatly denied killing Walter or
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: avoided the subject altogether, and the trial would conclude without
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: definitively resolving Walter's fate, just adding to Christine's torment, and
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: luckily Northcott's legal appeals failed to save him, and after
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: eighteen months on death row at San Quentin State Prison,
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: the date of execution was set for October second, nineteen thirty,
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: and as the hour of reckoning approached, the killer finally
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: lost his nerve, and when the prison guards came to
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: escort him to the gallows, Northcot collapsed in terror, which
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: I find awesome and hilarious, and I don't care because
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: he's a literal monster, and I don't know, maybe it's
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: maybe it's messed up to say that gives me great joy,
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: but it does. But he would begin screaming and trembling
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: uncontrollably in his cell, just like the boys did in
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: the Chicken Coops, awaiting for him to murder them, and
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: the once cocky young man's hands shook so badly the
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: guards had to physically drag him out, and he even asked,
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: will it hurt? Just pitiful, pitiful, just shit stain of
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: a person. But they would lead him out, step by
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: step to the gallows trapdoor, and he requested a blindfold
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: so he wouldn't have to see the noose, so he
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: would climb those thirteen steps to the scaffold, and Northcott
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: had to be half carried by the guards and he
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: would say he would plead, quote, please don't make me
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: walk so fast again, just a pitiful, just scared, little
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: waste of oxygen. And just before the lever was pulled,
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: Northcott requested, quote a prayer, Please say a prayer for me,
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: And those were his last words and Gordon Stewart Northcott
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: was hanged by the neck until death at San Quentin
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: and pronounced dead at the age of twenty three, and
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: it allegedly took thirteen minutes for him to die by strangulation,
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: as the hanging was actually botched. But I say it
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: was deserved, thus ending the life of the Wineville murderer,
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: but not the mysteries that surrounded him. And true to form,
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: even in death, the Northcott left a maddening trail of questions,
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: and after execution, San Quentin's Warden Clifton Duffy, searched Northcott's
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: cell and there he had actually found a hand drawn
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: map of Northcott's ranch with coffin shaped boxes sketched on
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: it and a cryptic note scribbled in the margin saying
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: I am not guilty. If you will look here you
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: will find what you want. So it was as if
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: Northcott had one last sadistic joke or diversion for the authorities,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: just a map that likely led to nowhere, and indeed,
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: subsequent searches based on it turned up nothing definitive. However,
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: the suggestion of more graves on the property was not
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: something to be taken lightly, and in fact, only six
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: weeks after Northcott's execution, a hunter in the desert not
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: far from the ranch stumbled upon the skeletal remains of
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: another young male victim, estimated to be about twelve to
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: fifteen years old. And this boy was never identified, but
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: investigators wrongly suspected he too had fallen prey to Northcot,
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: and the discovery just underscored the likelihood that Northcott's crimes
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: extended beyond the known four victims, and it also meant
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: that Christine Collins was left with an agonizing sliver of
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: hope because could it be that Walter was not killed
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: and that some other unknown boy's remains had been misattributed
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: to him? And one other key figure received a measure
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: of justice separate from Northcott, which was young Sandford Clark,
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: whose bravery had brought the crimes to light and was
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: not charged with murder in recognition that he had been
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: another of Northcott's victims himself just forced into complicity, and
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: instead Sandford was sent to Whittier State School, a juvenile
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: reform institution, for a rehabilitation focus sentence, and he was
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: initially ordered to serve five years, but Sandford earned the
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: mercy of officials who saw him as just traumatized and
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: a sentence was commuted to twenty three months due to
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: good behavior and the compelling circumstances of coercion, and in
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: nineteen thirty one, Sanford Clark was released and returned to
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: his native Saskatchewan in Canada, and remarkably, Sanford went on
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: to live a quiet, productive life and he would die
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety one at the age of seventy eight,
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: just carrying the burden of Wineville with him to the grave. So,
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: with Northcott executed, the legal saga reached its end, but
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: for Christine Collins, a heartbreaking chapter still remained opened, which
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: was the final truth about Walter, because nobody had been
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: positively identified as Walter and Northcott had never clearly admitted
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: to killing him, and Christine's heart understandably was not ready
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: to let go. She didn't have that confirmation that let
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: the solid, non contradicting evidence. So Christine Collins was a
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: mother who just refused to give up hope. Even after
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Gordon Northcott was condemned and the Wineville seemingly solved, Christine
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: continued to search for any other evidence that her son
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Walter might still be alive or at least to get
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: a definitive answer about his death, and her struggle evolved
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: from an immediate rescue mission into a thirty six year
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: odyssey of uncertainty, and during Northcott's incarceration, while he was
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: still alive, Christine attempted to personally confront the killer to
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: extract the truth, and in late nineteen twenty eight, after
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: Northcott's arrest, Christine secured a meeting with him in jail,
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: and face to face with a man accused of murdering
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: her child, Christine directly asked Northcott if he killed Walter,
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: and Northcott was evasive and bizarre, and he alternated between
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: denying any knowledge of Walter and making half confessions, only
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: to retract them immediately after. And after one such jailhouse interview,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Christine left convinced that Northcott was just insane because he
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: contradicted himself so much that he didn't even seem to
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: know what really happened, or he was just psychologically to her,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: because he obviously took pleasure in that. But Northcott's madness
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: kind of gave Christine a paradoxal comfort because if he
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: couldn't clearly remember Walter, maybe that meant that Walter wasn't
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: one of his victims, and Christine just clung onto that possibility.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: And in the final days before Northcott's execution in nineteen thirty,
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: Christine made one last effort, and Northcott, perhaps seeking attention
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: or forgiveness, sent Christine a telegram from prison, and in
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: it he claimed he had lied earlier when he denied
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Walter was among the victims, and he now promised to
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: tell her the truth, but only if she came in
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: person to hear it. So it was an unbearable temptation
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: for a grieving mother, and just hours before Northcott was
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: to hang, Christine traveled to San Quentin and was brought
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: to the condemned man's cell. And what followed was just
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: a cruel twist because as Christine stood outside the cell,
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Northcott balked and refused to speak, and he said, quote,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: I don't want to see you, I don't want to
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: know anything about it. I'm innocent, just retracting the promise
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: he made in that telegram. So Northcott's sudden silence left
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: Christine just dumbfounded and heartbroken, and a contemporary news account
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: described her as quote outraged by Northcott's conduct, but also
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: comforted by it because the killer's continuous, ambiguous refusal to
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: account for Walter and his inability to recall specific details
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: like what Walter was wearing or the color of his eyes,
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: allowed Christine to continue believing that maybe her son might
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: not be one of the victims again. So Northcott went
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: to his death without ever divulging Walter's fate, and Christine
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: walked away from San Quentin with no closure yet a
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: renewed resolve, and until undisputed evidence proved Walter dead, she
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: would never stop looking. And Christine maintained hope for years,
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: and in nineteen thirty five, a shocking development made headlines
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: and must have stirred Christine's heart a little bit, because
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: that year, just five years after Northcott's execution, a boy
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: in ill health came forward in rural California, claiming that
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: he was one of the boys abducted by Gordon Northcott,
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: and that he actually escaped from the Wineville Chicken coop alive,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: and this boy had disappeared around the same time as
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: Walter and the Winslows, and authorities back then speculated that
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: he was one of Northcott's unknown victims, and if his
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: story was true, it meant Northcott hadn't murdered him and
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: that at least one child survived the murder farm. So
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: could Walter have been another who somehow escaped Northcott's clutches.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: And Christine certainly took notice of the story, but unfortunately,
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: upon investigation, Sandford Clark refuted the notion that any child
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: ever escaped once taken to the ranch, and he would
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: say in his testimony that Northcot killed all of his
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: captives and the nineteen thirty five boys claim was either
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: a mistake or just a cruel hoax. But nevertheless, Christine
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: was not prepared to abandon hope, and the mere idea
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: that a Wineville victim might have survived was enough for
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: her to imagine that Walter iiO could maybe be out
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: there somewhere, just unable to remember, or was hidden or was.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: Waiting to come home.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: So as the decades passed, Christine lived a relatively private
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: life in Los Angeles, yet she would still quietly continue
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: her quest to find her son, and it's very likely
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: that she continued to correspond with law enforcement and missing
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: persons organizations whenever rumors of found boys circulated, and by
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: the nineteen forties and fifties, the Wineville case had faded
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: from national headlines, but locals remembered Christine as the mother
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: who never gave up. And Christine would never remarry, and
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: she would just dedicate her life to the faint possibility
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: that Walter might reappear someday. But tragically, he never would,
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: and Christine Collins would die on December eighth, nineteen sixty four,
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: just shy of.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: Her seventy sixth birthday, and to her last day, she
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: never received.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: A definitive proof of Walter's death, and lacking that closure,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: she reportedly maintained the belief that Walter might have survived
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: Northcott's horror and was still out there somewhere. So Christine's
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: unwavering hope in thirty six year search stands as a
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: testament to mother's love and refusal to forget, And though
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: her life ended without the reunion, that she longed for
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: Christine Collins fight for her son that left an unforgettable
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: legacy in Los Angeles history, and the story of Christine
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: and Walter Collins, intertwined with the Wineville Chicken Coop murders,
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: left a profound legacy on multiple levels and the legal
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: policy realm, the case was a catalyst for reform, and
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: LA lawmakers, embarrassed by the Christine Collins affair, instituted new
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: checks on police power, most notably the Christine Collins Law,
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: which required due process, assigned warrant or commitment order before
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: a person could be involuntarily held in a psychiatric facility.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: And more broadly, the scandal contributed to ongoing efforts to
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: clean up the LAPD's corruption in the nineteen thirties, and
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: while true reform took many many years and additional scandals,
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: Christine's case became a cautionary tale cited by civil libertarians
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: and police critics about the dangers of unchecked authority and
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: the importance of accountability. And for the communities directly touched
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: by the murders, the impact was immediate and very lasting,
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: and the farming village of Wineville, seeking to disassociate from
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: the infamy of the Northcot crimes actually took the extraordinary
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: step of changing its name altogether. In nineteen thirty, shortly
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: after Northcott's execute, Wineville officially was renamed to Mira Loma,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: meaning View of the Hills. And over the decades, the
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: Collins Northcote saga has been the subject of books, articles,
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: and dramatic retellings, even a movie, and in the nineteen fifties,
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: the popular radio and TV series Dragnet produced an episode
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: called The Big Impostor, loosely based on the case, recounting
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: a scenario of a child impostor and a determined detective,
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: reflecting the lingering notoriety of the story. And it wasn't
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: until the twenty first century, however, that the case reached
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: a truly worldwide audience, because in two thousand and eight,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: director Clint Eastwood brought Christine's story to the big screen
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: in an acclaimed film called The Changeling which I cannot recommend.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: This movie more.
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: I watched it, I think around two thousand and ten
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: twenty eleven.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: I've never been so shattered.
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: By a film, and going through this case page by pay,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: it is a very well done retelling of the story
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: with those possibilities. The emotion that is invoked in the
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: film is it's just like it's heart wrenching. The performances
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: are very well done. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: say anymore, but I just highly recommend you watch the movie,
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: but forewarning, obviously I kind of skated over the details
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: of the murders. It is hard to watch, but it
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: is a very well done movie. But screenwriter Jay Michael
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: Stratzinski had painstakingly researched the case, unearthing long forgotten city
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: archival records and court transcripts to create a screenplay that
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: closely followed the real events, and Angelina Jolie's portrayal of
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Christine Collins introduced millions to the mother's decades long ordeal
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: and the film's haunting depictions of the imposter reunion and
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: psych word commitment, which was also crazy. Also glazed over
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: that a little bit because of YouTube things, But she
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: was treated horribly in those institutions, and I really appreciate
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: how the movie goes into that as well. But The
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Changeling just also shone a light on Gordon Northcott's crimes,
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: with actor Jason Butler Harner playing Northcott and he does.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: A little bit too good of a job.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: I literally I can't even look at him in other
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: movies because of how good he plays a horrible, evil monster.
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: But again, work the watch, and luckily in the movie
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: they kind of imply more than show the worst of
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: the violence, which I also appreciate. It's not just like
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: a just a gore fist. It's very well done. But
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: the film's release prompted renewed interest in the historical case.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: Obviously here we are. I mean, I think this is
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: one of the craziest cases I've ever gone into, and
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: it just revisited the facts and even the actual Chicken
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Coop ranch site was located by Eastwood and historians, and
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: today the Collins case stands as a somber chapter in
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Los Angeles history and just a story of a mother's
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: love and resilience against systemic injustice and of heinous crimes
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: that forced a city to confront its own failings. So
• 58:08
  Speaker 2: it's just a powerful example of wrongful incarceration and police
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: corruption and historical societies. And Riverside Preserve records of the
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: Wineville investigation and archival photographs from nineteen twenty eight show
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: Christine Collins a determined look on her face on wavering
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: in the pursuit of her son, and other images show
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: the dusty ranch where investigators dug for evidence and unearthed
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: the truth. And these visuals, preserved in the Los Angeles
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: Public Library and UCLA Archives, remind us that these were
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: real people and real events, not just a Hollywood drama,
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: and the cultural memory of the case carries a mix
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: of sorrow and admiration. Sorrow for the innocent lives lost
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: and the torture that Christine endured, but admiration for Christine's
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: steadfast pursuit of justice and truth and the boy who
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: wasn't Walter, the tragic impostor became a catalyst that exposed
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: deeper evil and led a broken mother to become an
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: agent of change. In Christine Collin's story and that of
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: her son indoors as a powerful true crime tale of grief, gaslighting,
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: and a fight for justice.
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: And that is the end of this video.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: I Yeah, this case has been sitting in the back
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: of my mind for years and years and years, and
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: I thought it was an important one to talk about
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: because it just goes over all all of these crazy
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: facets of gaslighting and not believing victims and just discorruption
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: and systemic failures and persistence of a mother. It's just
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: a very heartbreaking case, and I again I recommend you
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: look into the case even more yourself, or if just
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: watch the movie. I'm usually not one ever for dramatized
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: Hollywood movies, but I think they did a really good
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: job of this way back in two thousand and eight.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: But I always read the comments, So please let me
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: know what other cases you want me to deep dive into,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: and I will see your beautiful face in the next video.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: Stay safe out there, okay bye,