Latest / NO FILTER / His Lover and Projectionist Decided to Murder him at the Theatre he Owned _ True Crime(M4A_128K)

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His Lover and Projectionist Decided to Murder him at the Theatre he Owned _ True Crime(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: When Theodore Owner Larry Austin meets James Van Sikel, he
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: thinks he's found the man of his dreams.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Clary thought he was just a gift of the gods,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, not every Hollywood tale has a happy ending.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: At a certain point, it was clear that relations between
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: the two became strained.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: This is the true story of a volatile friendship between
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: a hustler he.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: Had to deceive these people into believing that he actually
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: cared for.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Them, and a man living out his fantasies.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: The last thing he said to me is God will
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: protect me.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: My name is Steve Shirripa. I grew up in a
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: pretty rough neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. I've seen good
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: people turn bad and bad people turn worse. Some took
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: contracts to carry out a hit. Some were victims of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: a hit. To hit man, life and death is just
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: part of the business. It's nothing personal. Hollywood nineteen ninety
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: seven hitman Christian Rodriguez is dressed like a villain from
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: an old time movie, and Lawrence Austin, an old man
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: who loves those timeless classics, is about to die. His
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: murder has been arranged by the young man he loves
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: James Van Sickle. The story of Larry Austin and James
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Van Sickle is a tale of two dreamers, Hollywood love
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: story and a cautionary tale. You see, you never know
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: what a person's fantasy really is until they decide you're it.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Larry longs for a beautiful young lover, but James has
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: dreams of his own. Both did dreams come true. So
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: why is this story a tragedy? Thank you for coming
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to enjoy the show. Larry owns the Silent Movie Theater,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a local landmark devoted to keeping Hollywood's history alive.
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: Larry Austin liked being very unique. Who else was doing
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: silent films. He just loved the attention he had. Many
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: people would show up and to sit in the theater
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: that were major stars of today, and he just loved.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: That inside his theater he's a living connection to those
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: glorious days.
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: We would have this routine at the beginning of each
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: evening that he would come down the aisle while I
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: played pomp and circumstance.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: He was full of pomp and circumstance, but on the
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: other hand, it reflected that he thought he was presenting
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: something important, and he was.
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: He was.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Welcome everyone to the world's only silent movie theater. Larry
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: Austin loved being a showman. He loved going in front
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: of the audience and just talking and introducing the film.
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: He told me that his family was involved.
• 3:34
  Speaker 7: With early Hollywood.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: He said his father was a character actor and his
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: mother was the head seamstress for Cecil b.
• 3:40
  Speaker 7: Demel I thought, wow.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Austin loves Hollywood traditions like making up your own backstory.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Austin says his dad was silent movie actor William Austin
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: not so and his mom, well, she never saw the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: stitch for Cecil be anyone. But in Hollywood, it's all
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: in the presentation, act, the part, and it's yours to night,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: We're gonna show Sunrise. There's only one missing piece, his
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: very own leading man. One night he appears Larry's nighthawk
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and shining Almah, James Van Sickle.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: Larry Austin first met James through a mutual friend. When
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: Larry asked for help to paint the theater. He brought
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: James along.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Here is this great, big guy who probably was Stanley's
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: stunning when he went to the gym every day broad shawlers.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I'm big arms, handsome face, all American boy, but large
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: economy size.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: You know, James.
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: Reminded me of a country boy, you know, a farm boy.
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: He was always smiling and had given everyone the once over.
• 5:03
  Speaker 7: He was such a flirt.
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: He was a flirt with apparently everybody.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: James Vincico might not be everybody's idea of a dream boat,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: but he is Larry's.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: Larry told me he looked at him, said Wow, he'd
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: like to have him.
• 5:20
  Speaker 7: He's such a hunk.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: What else can There may be some guys whose heads
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: are returned by a beautiful creature who is forty years younger.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Larry Austin is not one of them. Larry's a lonely
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: sixty seven year old man. James is a twenty seven
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: year old ex cord hustler looking for a sugar daddy.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Cupid draw back your boat sort of like that, like.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Your part in way is touching, because at this stage
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: James would have had a hard time making it as
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: a hustler because he was too out of shape.
• 5:59
  Speaker 8: You know.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: It took somebody with the loneliness and the passion and
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: the imagination to still see him as Hercules let's.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Say Larry Austin's dreams are coming true with his new
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: boy toy. It looks like he really has it all.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: His first passion the silent movie theater doesn't make Larry
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: a fortune, but he loves the work.
• 6:30
  Speaker 9: He'd had hundreds of old silent movie reels. Some of
• 6:36
  Speaker 9: them were original, one of a kind on the old seloid.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: It's a very beautiful art form that you have to
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: express this and that with your hands, your eyes, gestures.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Some things are much more powerful if they're revealed by
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: an image than a word.
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: Larry Austin had the great joy of acquiring a library
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: building that library up building, building building, and he loved
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: finding the rarest titles he could find and showing him
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: to the audience.
• 7:17
  Speaker 7: He just loved that.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Larry Austin's first touch into showing silent films to an
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: audience was at the Mormon Church and he just enjoyed
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: it so much.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: At the beginning. James Van Sikel is just what a
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: krumbling old theater needs.
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: He could do things that Larry could not do. Larry
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: did not like to get his hands dirty. James was
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: great to handle things that needed to be taken care of.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Him wonderful. What could be better than a helpful unk.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was a strong sexual attract and Larry
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: thought he was just a gift of the gods.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't take Larry long to decide James
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: would be great around the house too.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: It was just a relationship of of of lust.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: Here is a much younger guy who had done some
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: hustling and had latched on to this much older man
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: who had fallen hard for him. And it's a classic
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: recipe for big trouble.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Larry has no idea who he's lord into his bedroom.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: His young lover is fresh out of the pen six
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: years for beating an older gay lover half to death.
• 8:58
  Speaker 9: This was another gentleman, very similar to Lawrence Austen, wealthy.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Gay.
• 9:07
  Speaker 9: He took James in and bought him everything you know
• 9:13
  Speaker 9: that he had wont treated him very well. One day,
• 9:17
  Speaker 9: James got angry at something that this victim had said
• 9:22
  Speaker 9: and went into his room and hit him in the
• 9:25
  Speaker 9: head with a hammer.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: He put out at some levels sexually to these guys
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: to satisfy them and to draw them into a relationship
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: with him, and apparently succeeded quite well. And yet at
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: the same time, he entertained a secret hatred.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Freshen up okay.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: In his first ever interview, James reveals what he really
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: thinks about old gay men who put the moves on
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: young guys.
• 9:56
  Speaker 10: Well, I think they're all scum okay this earth. And
• 10:00
  Speaker 10: I would try to win their trust, all right to
• 10:03
  Speaker 10: a certain extent, to where I could get within their residence,
• 10:08
  Speaker 10: get them alone, to where I could do what I
• 10:11
  Speaker 10: felt I needed to do to them in order to
• 10:15
  Speaker 10: punish them for now.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Larry's ignorance is bliss.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: Larry loved to do for James, as May West would say,
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: you know, doing for him. He just idolized him and
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: whatever he could possibly do, you know, buying types.
• 10:41
  Speaker 7: Of foods that he liked.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: He was always thinking of something to get James, and
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: I thought, oh boy, you know he's in love. James
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: in the relationship with Larry was very dominant. Larry liked
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: that he liked someone strong around him.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: People like Austin want to have people like James sort
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: of dominate them sexually. James had to provide that level
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: of sexual service to keep a guy like Austin on
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: the hook.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Is James isn't to Larry as much as Larry lust
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: for James, not really. James doesn't see is Obama with
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Larry has a relationship. It's a job. He acts like
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: a loving partner and in exchange he gets a nice
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: lifestyle and some cash in his pocket. Here's a word
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: for what James is doing. So hustling is the politest one.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: James is good at it. How good well Larry will
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: never know. But James isn't even gay.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: When I would ask him did he enjoy this? It
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: was clear he did not. He comes across to me
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: as a straight guy. He professes personally to be offended
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: at gayness, and yet he engages in it. It's almost
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: like he's outside of the relationship. He sees the relationship,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: but he's personally removing himself at a distance from it.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: He's not accepting. Him and Austin were partners, for example,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: sexually or personally. But when you get closer and say,
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: you know, what about how did you hug?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Did you love?
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: I mean there's a rejection by James to me of
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: all that. It's I'm just like you.
• 12:28
  Speaker 10: I'm a studley guy.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: James Van Sickle is not at all whom he appears
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to be. Larry Austin's been making pillow talk with a
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: time bomb. Friday, January seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven, Hollywood Silent
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Movie Theater is playing Sunrise, a romantic drama built around
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: a murderous plot. Hitman Chris Rodriguez is at the theater
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: to turn a real love story into a real murder.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: It's not how a romance is supposed to end with
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: a hired killer. Rewind seven years and Larry really believes
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: his boy toy loves and admires him. He thinks James
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: shares his passion for old movies. It's an act.
• 13:36
  Speaker 7: He had no interest in film whatsoever.
• 13:40
  Speaker 9: He pretended like he liked the silent movies, and he
• 13:43
  Speaker 9: liked he had a love for the film, and he
• 13:47
  Speaker 9: played to mister Austin's fast ego. He liked to think
• 13:52
  Speaker 9: that he knew everything about silent movies and even some
• 13:57
  Speaker 9: of the stars. He said he had met some of
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: the stars Pickford and I think Buster Keaton and some
• 14:03
  Speaker 9: of the other silent movie people. He liked to think
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: of himself as of a connoisseur.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Stroking egos is child's play for any hustler. What's hard
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: for James is taking orders. He's working at the theater,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and Larry's the boss. James. We have some problems.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: When James was working in the theater, Larry was in charge.
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: I mean it was his show place.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: Everything went by Larry.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Larry's not so good on the labor relations front. For
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: one thing, he doesn't pay James, treats him like a kid,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: gives them spending money in presents. Larry expects James to
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: be happy with this arrangement, to love him for his
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: firm but kindly ways. Yeah, well, he's in dream land.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: If he woke up, he might see the writing on
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the wall.
• 15:06
  Speaker 9: Austin was a control freak, and he liked to keep
• 15:10
  Speaker 9: Vansickle controlled. He would give him just enough money to
• 15:13
  Speaker 9: exist on, but never enough to really do anything.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Well, if you're starting to think Larry's got blind is on,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: you're dead right. He thinks all James needs is some
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: firm guidance. There's a big problem with treating James van
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Sickel like a kid. I mean, he's the last person
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: on earth you want to remind of his childhood. He
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: started out in Nebraska, a great place unless you're poor,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and not even your family wants you. You see, James
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: isn't living his dream, not even close. He's running from
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: his nightmare.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: James grew up in a troubled household Shelby say his
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: earliest memories are of severe beatings and mistreatment. He was
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: made to feel ultimately like he was undesired.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: When his mom and dad split up and mom remarries,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: life gets way worse. His new stepfather has his own kids,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: and the blended family is toxic. James tells us what
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that was like.
• 16:32
  Speaker 10: My early childhood was very, very difficult. We were, you know,
• 16:39
  Speaker 10: extremely poor people, and so there was a little bit
• 16:43
  Speaker 10: of civilian disparity.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Someone has to go, and it's James.
• 16:53
  Speaker 10: It was a heart wrenching moment. I remember everybody was
• 16:56
  Speaker 10: crying and I was shaking like leaves. He terrified me,
• 17:00
  Speaker 10: and I was begging not to go.
• 17:04
  Speaker 11: I blamed myself for letting him go. I shouldn't have
• 17:09
  Speaker 11: let him go.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: James is handed off to a Christian home for kids
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: whose parents don't want or can't afford them. But the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: kids there don't learn to fear God nearly as much
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: as they live in terror of the people who worked there.
• 17:24
  Speaker 11: We thought they were such good people, and these people
• 17:28
  Speaker 11: were molested.
• 17:28
  Speaker 12: In my son.
• 17:31
  Speaker 10: There was sick perversions that went on. Okay, it first
• 17:36
  Speaker 10: began with the oral population. It wasn't killed. My thirteenth
• 17:42
  Speaker 10: year was when he started going in a different direction.
• 17:47
  Speaker 10: This guy was a monster and there was no way
• 17:50
  Speaker 10: you could escape them.
• 17:52
  Speaker 11: In my age, these people were supposed to be Christian people.
• 17:58
  Speaker 12: And they weren't. You don't do this to children.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: James is ten when he's putting the children's home. He's
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: fifteen when he gets out. Now, those are importing years
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: for a kid and for all of them. He is
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a sexual plaything for one of the authority figures there.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So when other kids are learning the three hours, James
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: is learning that if you satisfy someone's lust, they treat
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: you better, and all you lose is your innocence and
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: your dignity.
• 18:33
  Speaker 12: He was out of control. He was wild.
• 18:35
  Speaker 11: He was just I mean, just like something would trip
• 18:38
  Speaker 11: his mind and he would lose it.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: As soon as he's old enough, Van Sickle joins the Marines.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: He's angry and unstable.
• 18:50
  Speaker 11: He said in the Marines that there was people that
• 18:54
  Speaker 11: were the same as his molester.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: He soon discharged and ends up on the streets of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: La The only real skillies got is what have he
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: learned in that children's home? You can trade your body
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: for a meal and a warm bed. James Van Sikel
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: becomes a hustler.
• 19:20
  Speaker 12: He was doing sexual favors with men.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: To survive, to survive, or to take revenge. That older
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: gay lover he beat up wasn't the only one.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Many hustlers start out as straight, but because they are straight,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: they get confused because the John is the only one
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: who is really showing them affection, and they can build.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Up a great deal anger and or is that and frustration?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: What is a hustler really? I've known quite a few
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: over the years. I'll tell you this, stick up artists
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: whose weapon is charmed. They convince you that you want
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: to give them what they're The man.
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: James is a person just rubbed me the wrong way.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: And I can tell a user right from the get go,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: someone that looks like he's going to be scamming somebody,
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: and he just came off that way that he was
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: just out for himself.
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: And watch out.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: After two years with Larry Austen, james biggest beef is
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: he's still not getting paid. James, what are you doing?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: He solves that with direct action, just.
• 20:53
  Speaker 11: Getting a little pie.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: At a certain point it was clear that.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Relations between the two became strained and it was over money.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Love of money the root of all evil. But James
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Van Sickle isn't the only one of this odd couple
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of romance with the shady past. Larry spent a couple
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of years in the pen himself. Wait a second, Larry's
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: an X card too. As a matter of fact, he is.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: It's part of his real backstory you see before he
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: reinvents himself as a Hollywood aristocrat. Larry Austen is an
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: accountant who has a habit of pocketing other people's money,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: a habit that lands him two years for embezzlement. Does
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Larry reform in prison or just get more clever? And
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: how did he come to own the Silent Movie Theater
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: in the first place? It was owned by a little
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: old lady. Somehow Larry gets her to hand over the keys.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Larry Austin, there was a shady element to him. I
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: think there was some stretching of the truth on a
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: lot of things of how he got her to sign
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: it over to him.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: If it was a scam, he got away with it now.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: He's the keeper of Hollywood's history. He's a prosperous businessman.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Larry's good at getting what he wants and keeping his
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: young lover happy doesn't seem too hard. Larry and James
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: two hustlers chasing their dreams with this one. How could
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that lead to conflict? Larry gives James a cushy life
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and a new truck. What more could he want? Problem?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: This life comes with strings. The truck is in Larry's name.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: When James cuts those ties and gets himself a real job,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: he does pretty well.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: He was well liked, he was making decent money. He
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: was well thought of as a worker.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: He manages a small lighting factory. He hires a guy
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: named Christian Rodriguez to do the shipping. Remember Chris, we
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: haven't seen the last of him.
• 23:25
  Speaker 9: Rodriguez was a poor kid who was a little bit slow.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: They were just a simple person.
• 23:35
  Speaker 9: He was married, he had children.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Putting lamps in boxes is a little too complicated for Chris.
• 23:43
  Speaker 13: He gets fired, Yeah, gore again without.
• 23:57
  Speaker 14: Right.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: All the while, Larry's been enticing James to come back
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: to the theater. He finally gets his way by offering
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: him a share of the business and the job of projectionist.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: James tries to control his temper. It can't last.
• 24:14
  Speaker 10: I tried for several years to maintain I would totally
• 24:19
  Speaker 10: destroy personal property. I mean it was like a tug
• 24:23
  Speaker 10: of war type of thing with me.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: Larry called me and said, oh, Michael, James is acting
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: up again.
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: I said, what's wrong. He said, oh, he.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Said that he wanted money, and he said if he didn't,
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: he was going to break things.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: Good animal, Animal.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: If Larry is still thinking James is his dream come true,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: He's got some issues of his own. And if he
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: thinks his patience is a solution to Van sickles Anger,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: He's not a dreamer. He's delusional. Lie, but crossing it
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: can get you hurt. What begins as a normal evening
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: at Hollywood Silent Movie Theater is soon going to be
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: very unsilent thanks to the three point fifty seven that
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: first time hitman Christian Rodriguez has brought to the show.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: In fact, Rodriguez will be the show and the audience
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: will never forget it. Before that faithful night. James Van
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Sikel and Larry Austin are lovers who are heading in
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: different directions. Larry's in love. Trouble is his young lover
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: is scarred and damaged, and Larry is rubbing salt in
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: his wounds. James thought he had found himself with sugar Daddy,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: but the taste has gone bitter. They've been together six
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: years now, a long bumpy road.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: The relationship was disintegrating him.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: At this point, Larry had turned him down for some
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: hunk of money.
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: I was standing outside of the theater once before the
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: show and he came out. He seemed to be very angry,
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: mad at Lawrence, and he said something to the effect that, well,
• 26:18
  Speaker 6: that old man better watch out because he may wind
• 26:20
  Speaker 6: up dead one day. James was a person that you
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: would definitely keep arms length at. I mean, he was friendly,
• 26:30
  Speaker 6: but again when you talk to him more, he revealed
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: a little bit of a sociopathic streak that you would say,
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: is he really kidding or is he serious about what
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: he's saying? And you would wouldn't want to get too
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: friendly with him.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Where I want my money? But he recruits a couple
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of thugs to help him rob the theater.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Hey, come back. James really became on so languin.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: He attempted to rob the theater that was really out
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: there and scary.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: James clearly has problems with impulse control, but he isn't stupid.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: He comes back contrite and with a peace offering. The
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: other guys made me do it, he says Larry Bison.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: The big guys forced James to rob the silent movie theater.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, how likely is that. You may not believe it,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: but Larry does, or he pretends to. That way, the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: whole conflict could get swept under the rug denial. It
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: can be a fatal disease.
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: How do you like that?
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: Nah, Larry really was in love with him, and he
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: was looking for ways to forgive him too.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was very.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Sad and complicated and volatile, volatile, volatile.
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: It was definitely like a moth going to a flame.
• 28:05
  Speaker 5: He just couldn't stay away.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Austin found James compelling enough to keep him around, even
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: though he was smelling the danger. Tells you there's something
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: going on here at a sexual emotional level that's not
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: easy to unwind.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Be a star to calm the waters. Larry surprises James
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: at what he's always dreamt of, financial security. He writes
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a will naming James as his sole heir. The theater
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and phil Archive are worth a million dollars.
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: Austin must have felt that kind of emotional warmth towards James.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: How else do you envision him wanting to give what
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: remained of his, you know, his financial empire to James
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: upon his demise.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Trouble is, to James, Larry is now worth more dead
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: than alive.
• 29:07
  Speaker 8: Obviously this was not well considered, for sure, m good
• 29:25
  Speaker 8: morning James.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: By morning, Larry realizes he's made a bad move.
• 29:32
  Speaker 12: That will, I'm keeping some of your self.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Mhm, it's safe right here.
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: Austin's decision to put James on the will is what
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: probably triggered James into thinking, now I can Now I
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: can take advantage of this guy fully the way I.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Really want to. It might have been his death, knew.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: It was the culmination of a lot of effort by
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: James to get there, and that success at seeing himself
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: now empowered financially by Austin let him begin thinking.
• 30:09
  Speaker 13: Now I can get rid of this guy.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: For Larry Austin. When the excitement sim is down, he relaxes.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Everything's back to normal. Only Larry's normal is James's living
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: hell with the will in his pocket. The breaks are
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: off on James's rage.
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: Finally, one night they got into this heated, heated fight,
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: and James had taken a phone cord and wrapped it
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: around his neck and Larry thought he was gonna die.
• 30:59
  Speaker 10: I did almost kill him, kind of put the brakes
• 31:01
  Speaker 10: on what I really wanted to do to this person.
• 31:04
  Speaker 10: It's hard to explain what goes through my mind.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: What doesn't go through his mind is that physically attacking
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: someone is a crime. It's called assault. Larry calls the cops,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: but then drops the charges.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: I said, you know, I'm beginning to worry about the situation, Larry.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: You know, you know I'm getting afraid for you.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: This is not good and you really.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Need to take steps to protect yourself. Larry didn't want
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: to recognize the really true danger that he was in
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: that was escalating by the minute.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: He said to me, is God will protect me.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: James is now afraid that last attack might have scared
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Larry into dumping him. He's got to act fast panic.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: That's how a hustler with a violent temper becomes a
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: guy who can plot a cold blooded murder. So James
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: decides Larry Austen needs to die. That way, he'll get
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: everything he needs from him, vengeance and a small force.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: He decides to robbery gone bad. There is no way
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: to go, and he won't do it himself. He'll hire
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a hitman. But who can he recruit the pull the trigger?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Who's desperate enough to kill an old man for cash?
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: How about the dim bo from the lighting store? Chris Rodriguez.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: He's got a family to feed and no marketable skills. Perfect.
• 32:45
  Speaker 10: I don't know if he can say I snapped. It's
• 32:48
  Speaker 10: that I had a desire, an overwhelman's desire to finish
• 32:52
  Speaker 10: Lawrence Austin, Okay, And he began talking about it to friends,
• 32:57
  Speaker 10: anybody that would listen, I would I hate this person. Man,
• 33:01
  Speaker 10: This person's a scumbag.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: He does a lot more than call them bad names.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: He gives Rodriguez a detailed plan.
• 33:12
  Speaker 9: Vansickle told him almost everything to do, and whatever Vancco
• 33:16
  Speaker 9: would tell Christian to do, that's what Christian would do.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: James told Christian, look, you know, if we get this
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: to happen, we're both going to be in Clover. I'm
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: gonna have all this money and you'll be my sidekick
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: and we'll we'll go through life much better off than.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: We are now. So Larry Austin, the keeper of Hollywood's history,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: is about to become part of it, a real life tragedy.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Just a few blocks south of the boulevard are broken
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Dreams lud Vegas.
• 33:53
  Speaker 9: He had no criminal history, but once vancycle planted that
• 33:58
  Speaker 9: seed into him, but the money, it just ate him
• 34:02
  Speaker 9: up until he decided to go ahead and kill for it.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: So Chris Rodbergue sees his dream coming true. Before he
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: couldn't hold out to a job. Not all he's got
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: to do is kill a guy, and he's on easy street.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: For most people, this is where you're conscience or your
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: better judgment would kick in and say, WHOA, this is wrong,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: This is a bad idea, doesn't happen.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: My sense of Rodriguez is he just never really gave
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: this the kind of thought it needed. How would he
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: have ever envisioned himself succeeding at this process. I see
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: Chris Rodriguez an incredibly weak minded individual.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Larry Austin could see what's coming, his dream crumbling into
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a nightmare.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: Larry had told me like probably about two weeks or
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: three weeks before he was murdered. That he was frightened
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: of James, and he said that he has had a
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: cell phone now because he was afraid that James was
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: going to be cutting the phone wires and Larry couldn't
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: call for help. He told me that anything happened to
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: him point the finger at James.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Now that he has a plan, James doesn't mind pretending
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: to be the obedient boy toy, so he keeps the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: lid on his temper. This real estate will soon be
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: his and he'll be rich, and that powerful exploit to
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Larry Austin. He soon will get what he deserves. Enjoy
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the show.
• 35:42
  Speaker 10: In a stumback, okay. And I knew I couldn't do it, Okay.
• 35:48
  Speaker 10: I mean if I did it, everybody would know. I
• 35:52
  Speaker 10: thought about doing something, you know, in the theater, doing
• 35:55
  Speaker 10: it dramatic, all kinds of things.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Van sicklesat she gone way further than just music about it.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: He's justified to himself that Larry deserves to die.
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: His true goal is an avenging angel kind of attitude
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: towards people like Austin for the purpose of paying back
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: for the past history in his own life.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: James Picks Friday, January seventeenth nineteen ninety seven is to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: day for Larry to be killed. It'll be busy and
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Austin will be distracted. On Tuesday, he goes over the
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: plan with Chris Rodriguez. The hit man will act like
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: he's robbing the place. Rodriguez gets a gun, no money.
• 36:49
  Speaker 9: It was almost unbelievable that he would have done this
• 36:51
  Speaker 9: with nothing down. And he thought honestly that Vanska was
• 36:55
  Speaker 9: gonna pay. I said so, in other words, you did
• 36:57
  Speaker 9: all this on credit.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: This all on credit. Three nights later, Chris Rodriguez heads
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: to the theater. This is the.
• 37:22
  Speaker 9: Whole theatrics of in the dynamics of how Van Sickle was.
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: He was a control person also, and he wanted this
• 37:31
  Speaker 9: to be dramatic. And he thought he wears all dark clothes,
• 37:35
  Speaker 9: maybe he can get away easier. People won't recognize him
• 37:39
  Speaker 9: as quick.
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: We started the show as usual, he would come down.
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: We did pomp and circumstance, and he introduced the show.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Lawrence Austin welcomes the Silent Movie audience to the world
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: for the very last time.
• 38:00
  Speaker 12: All right, we're gonna.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: Today thank him.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Tonight, Larry Austin will fall victim to a masterpiece of foolishness.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Chris Rodriguez isn't playing out some twisted dream of his own.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: He's a simpleton and he's got a simple plan. He's
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: gonna kill old guy, get money, feed kids. James Van
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: Sickle is more complicated, but his judgment is clouded. He's
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: so angry he can't see Larry isn't really the guy
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: who hurt him. And Larry Austin well, he thinks everything's great.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Three people, three distorted views of reality. That's how dreams
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: become nightmares.
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: We went through the first short and then we went
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: into the second movie, which was called School Days, and
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: it was a comedy starring Larry Seaman.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Rodriguez has never shot anyone. It's his debut and he's
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: got stage fright.
• 39:08
  Speaker 14: Uh.
• 39:08
  Speaker 9: He was very nervous that at one time he got up,
• 39:11
  Speaker 9: he went into the restroom and he was sweating a
• 39:14
  Speaker 9: little bit. He didn't know if he was gonna go
• 39:17
  Speaker 9: through with it, but they started thinking about his wife
• 39:20
  Speaker 9: and his kids. He didn't have any diapers and no money,
• 39:24
  Speaker 9: and that pushed him over to make him go ahead
• 39:28
  Speaker 9: and do it. Got up, he went to the candy counter.
• 39:39
  Speaker 12: I uh, I need to see your manager.
• 39:42
  Speaker 9: He said he wanted UH to buy a h a
• 39:44
  Speaker 9: block of tickets for a future performance. And about that
• 39:48
  Speaker 9: same time, mister Austin Uh walked up to the.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Counter, Yes, sir, how could I help?
• 39:57
  Speaker 9: And then that's when Rodriguez pulled the gun and demanded
• 40:01
  Speaker 9: the money. Miss Ross complied absolutely started rounding up the money,
• 40:09
  Speaker 9: putting it in a paper bag, and Rodriguez kind of
• 40:12
  Speaker 9: leaned over the counter, got a little closer and pointed
• 40:15
  Speaker 9: the gun straight out as far as he could, right
• 40:17
  Speaker 9: up to Austin's head.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Larry Austin thinks he's being robbed. It's his last delution, Roberts.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Austin loves silent movies. He loves living in their dreamy world.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And when he dies, it's just like one of them.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Not a word. All action. Tonight inside the theater in Hollywood,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: there'll be a murder that will lend several dreams. It
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: won't be on the screen, and it won't be silent.
• 40:50
  Speaker 9: From five feet you could miss if you're nervous. Two
• 40:53
  Speaker 9: inches five inches right in the head, you're not gonna miss.
• 40:59
  Speaker 9: It was more important than he had diapers and rent.
• 41:02
  Speaker 9: Then mister Austin had a life at that point he
• 41:05
  Speaker 9: became a stone cold killer.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: The script says no witnesses. Too bad for tiket girl
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Mary Chiles.
• 41:18
  Speaker 9: He turned to Mary and shot her at point blank.
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: Miraculously, her woon does not fatal.
• 41:28
  Speaker 9: I believe it was God's miracle, just a twist of
• 41:31
  Speaker 9: her body a certain centimeter or an answer, you know.
• 41:39
  Speaker 6: I heard a series of pops coming from the lobby,
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: and I had thought that someone was firing off firecrackers,
• 41:48
  Speaker 6: and so I had turned around and I stopped playing.
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: I heard a few more pops, and then I see
• 41:57
  Speaker 6: the man running down this aisle, shooting, shooting over his head,
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: just shooting wildly.
• 42:05
  Speaker 9: He ran down an alley in to his car, which
• 42:08
  Speaker 9: he had parked a couple of blocks away.
• 42:15
  Speaker 6: After he waved out the back door, I ran up
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: to the lobby and that's where I saw Mary, and
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: there was Lawrence there, and he was shot through the eye.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: John Miller is the first detective on the scene.
• 42:53
  Speaker 9: No, originally we thought it was a robbery. I had
• 42:56
  Speaker 9: all the signs of robbery with the money with them,
• 43:00
  Speaker 9: and shot behind the counter. The strange thing about it
• 43:03
  Speaker 9: was he was shot point blank, I mean obviously killed
• 43:08
  Speaker 9: him instantly, but then he was shot twice more in
• 43:10
  Speaker 9: the leg, which didn't quite make sense to us.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: I want to help.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: The projectionist seems eager to help.
• 43:24
  Speaker 9: He told us that, you know, he was in the
• 43:26
  Speaker 9: projection booth. He heard the shots, he pushed the alarm,
• 43:31
  Speaker 9: but he didn't see anything by the time, he said,
• 43:33
  Speaker 9: by the time he got out, everything was over.
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: But he does hold something back.
• 43:40
  Speaker 9: He didn't mention anything about it relaship with Austin. He
• 43:45
  Speaker 9: said they were good friends and that he admired him
• 43:47
  Speaker 9: because they both had this love for silent movies.
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: Even though he apparently hated us enough to want him
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: to die. He tried to manipulate this into a situation
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: where it appeared that he was an innocent witness to
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: this terrible crime and not the perpetrator.
• 44:03
  Speaker 6: An hour or so after the murder, James had come
• 44:07
  Speaker 6: up to me and said, we need to reopen this
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: theater and run it as Lawrence had always run it before,
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: and it'll be you and me, Dean, and which I
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: thought was kind of strange to say that since his
• 44:18
  Speaker 6: lover had just been murdered.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: At Larry's funeral, James acts as a poll bear.
• 44:26
  Speaker 14: It's the end of a great error. I mean, we
• 44:28
  Speaker 14: lost an individual that was dedicated to preserving the silent movies,
• 44:32
  Speaker 14: the birth of the industry, and he's gone.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: The next day, when Detective Miller searches Austin's apartment, he
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: finds the will.
• 44:49
  Speaker 9: We thought, well, that was kind of strange, and he
• 44:51
  Speaker 9: would write a will and then it would be in
• 44:54
  Speaker 9: the computer and he would leave everything to Van Sickle,
• 44:57
  Speaker 9: who at that time we only.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Knew it was just just put injectionist. So the cops
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: have their suspicions about James Van Sickle, but nothing really
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: to go on. The real break comes when Mary Giles
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: describes the shooter to a police sketch artist. She's got
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: an eye for detail, that girl. I'll tell you this
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: sketch is so dead on that as soon as it
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: hits the papers, Chris Rodrigue has his own relatives called
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: the cops. At Chris's place, they find evidence that ties
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: him to James. Rodriguez confesses in a heartbeat. James is arrested,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and Detective Miller's dream comes true. What do detectives dream
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: about cases that solve themselves?
• 45:46
  Speaker 15: Our investigation determined that Ben Sikel, who was designated as
• 45:50
  Speaker 15: the sole beneficiary of mister Austin's estate, which is valued
• 45:54
  Speaker 15: in excess of one million dollars, hired Rodriguez to kill
• 45:58
  Speaker 15: Austin for approximately twenty five thousand dollars.
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: When James are arrested, I was shocked and I just
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: felt tremendous sadness, all right. I felt sad for him,
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: said sad for Larry's, sad for the theater, sad for
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: the patrons.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: Both men have found guilty of murder, but when the
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: jury hears what James Van Sickle's childhood was like, they
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: take pity on him. Him and Chris Rodriguez suspended death penalty.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: They both get life without parole. To this day, Van
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Sickle says he's innocent.
• 46:38
  Speaker 10: Never never did it. I did not hire this.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Guy to do it. No one believes him, which is
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: why he's speaking to us now from a California prison.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: James Van Sickle's mother serves her own life sentence, thinking
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: of how different things could have been.
• 47:03
  Speaker 11: I think he was a victim of his mind. He
• 47:09
  Speaker 11: had so much anger that he was hurting people. I
• 47:18
  Speaker 11: just want some peace for my son.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: There's little chance for that. Sorry, as you might feel
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: about a guy's lost youth. It's no excuse for cold
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: blooded murder. Larry Austen did not deserve to die.
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: He brought a lot of happiness to people, and I
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: think Larry would be appreciative that a lot of people
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: can walk away and say they were glad that Larry
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: ran the Silent Theater.