Latest / DISGRACELAND / Winona Ryder: Drowning, Designer Theft, and a Deadly Kidnapping

Transcript

Winona Ryder: Drowning, Designer Theft, and a Deadly Kidnapping · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
0:03
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
0:07
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Winona Ryder
0:23
Speaker 1: are insane. She nearly drowned when she was just twelve
0:27
Speaker 1: years old. She once stole more than five thousand dollars
0:31
Speaker 1: worth of designer clothes on a whim, even though she
0:34
Speaker 1: was a super famous and successful actress at the time. Earlier,
0:38
Speaker 1: she was raised by beat nicks off the grid in
0:41
Speaker 1: northern California. Her godfather was LSD pioneer Timothy Leary, aka
0:47
Speaker 1: the Most Dangerous Man in America. Winnowna's unique upbringing molded
0:53
Speaker 1: her into an A list actress and into America's endearing weirdo.
1:00
Speaker 1: Her weirdness drew from the deep fears that she experienced
1:03
Speaker 1: when assimilating from a sheltered early childhood to a more
1:07
Speaker 1: typical nineteen eighties media overload when her family moved to California,
1:12
Speaker 1: and when one of those fears came true in her
1:14
Speaker 1: new California hometown, she found herself in an unlikely role
1:19
Speaker 1: trying to draw attention to a horrific crime to help
1:23
Speaker 1: solve a kidnapping case. Before and after her involvement in
1:28
Speaker 1: that case, Winoda Ryder made great films and Winna Rider
1:34
Speaker 1: made time with some great musicians as well, musicians who, well,
1:39
Speaker 1: you know what I'm gonna say, musicians who made great music.
1:44
Speaker 1: Unlike that music I played for you at the top
1:45
Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
1:49
Speaker 1: preset loop from my melotron called Johnny Forever MK one.
1:56
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:58
Speaker 1: rights to dream Lover by my Mariah Carey. And why
2:02
Speaker 1: would I play you that specific slice of five octave cheese?
2:06
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
2:10
Speaker 1: song in America on October first, nineteen ninety three, and
2:14
Speaker 1: that was the day Polyclass was abducted from her home,
2:18
Speaker 1: opening a kidnapping case that would rattle California and Winona
2:23
Speaker 1: Ryder to her core. On this episode, near Drowning Designer
2:29
Speaker 1: theft a deadly kidnapping in America's Ald Sweetheart, Winona Ryder,
2:35
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Winona Rider had
3:10
Speaker 1: seconds to determine whether she was going to live or die.
3:14
Speaker 1: The seconds ticked by slowly and the undertoe moved quickly,
3:19
Speaker 1: a current with Winona's body around like a rag doll
3:22
Speaker 1: that yanked her in circles, shook her like a snow gloab,
3:26
Speaker 1: and the ocean closed in on her from every angle.
3:28
Speaker 1: It dragged her farther into the deep five feet below
3:32
Speaker 1: ten feet below. Win Ona wasn't sure, but she knew
3:35
Speaker 1: she was fully submerged. Down, was up? Left? Was right?
3:40
Speaker 1: She spun until she had no clue which direction would
3:43
Speaker 1: lead her to safety. This was not a riptide. Winona
3:47
Speaker 1: Rider could not calmly bob the surface of the water
3:50
Speaker 1: and flag down help someone who could pull her back
3:52
Speaker 1: up the shore. She was caught in the undertoe, and
3:56
Speaker 1: the incoming waves bent Winona to their will, thrashed her
4:00
Speaker 1: arms and legs. She was motivated entirely by desperation. She
4:05
Speaker 1: struggled to wriggle free from the ocean's grasp, and the
4:07
Speaker 1: more she jerked her body around, the harder it was
4:10
Speaker 1: to focus. Keeping her mouth clamped shut, she held out
4:14
Speaker 1: as long as she could. She clung to one thought,
4:17
Speaker 1: don't breathe, don't breathe, and the sudden yank of the
4:21
Speaker 1: undertoe pried open her lips anyways, a silent scream. A
4:25
Speaker 1: stream of air bubbles from her mouth, more than she
4:28
Speaker 1: ever knew she had in her Her air supply was
4:31
Speaker 1: racing towards the surface, and there was only water now.
4:34
Speaker 1: A surge of seawater gushed into her mouth. The salt
4:38
Speaker 1: seared her windpipe as it forced its way into her lungs.
4:41
Speaker 1: Winoda couldn't stop the flow. It burrowed into her chest,
4:44
Speaker 1: deeper and deeper, until it felt like her lungs would pop.
4:48
Speaker 1: She choked as her body tried to cough, tried to puke,
4:51
Speaker 1: tried to do anything that would stop her from sinking
4:53
Speaker 1: to the ocean floor. Pruney and ragged, lungs ready to rupture,
4:57
Speaker 1: Winona's limbs slipped away. She lost all feeling in her
5:01
Speaker 1: arms and legs. She surrendered to the ocean. She surrendered
5:05
Speaker 1: to the ability to feel much of anything at all.
5:07
Speaker 1: Her peripheral vision darkened. Black curtains shrouded her sight. Her
5:12
Speaker 1: view narrowed to a fine tunnel a thousand yards long,
5:16
Speaker 1: and she stared down the corridor, empty, quiet, numb. She
5:21
Speaker 1: didn't feel it what. A lifeguard hoisted her from the
5:23
Speaker 1: water and laid her down on the sandy beach. Her
5:26
Speaker 1: body was limp, her skin a ghastly shade of porcelain.
5:31
Speaker 1: She had no pulse. Twelve year old Winona Rider was dead.
5:38
Speaker 1: The lifeguard started to perform CPR, even though she looked
5:41
Speaker 1: like a lost cause, it was what he was trained
5:43
Speaker 1: to do. He pushed down on her chest over and over.
5:47
Speaker 1: He tilted her head back, pinched her nose tight with
5:49
Speaker 1: his fingers, put his mouth on her blue lips, and
5:52
Speaker 1: tried to breathe life back into her. Suddenly she twitched
5:56
Speaker 1: to life. She shot salt water into the sand by
5:58
Speaker 1: the mouthful. Winona's friends watched from the sidelines, stupefied or
6:04
Speaker 1: too stone to understand the severity of what had just happened,
6:08
Speaker 1: what almost happened, and their glazed eyes watched the vomit
6:11
Speaker 1: bring a blush of color back to Winona's cheeks, and
6:14
Speaker 1: then a thought dangled in the back of their daised minds,
6:17
Speaker 1: our parents are going to fucking kill us. This was
6:22
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen eighties. There were no smartphones, there was
6:26
Speaker 1: no internet. It was easy for preteens to go missing
6:29
Speaker 1: for a few hours. In fact, it was expected. Legions
6:33
Speaker 1: of suburban latch key kids went to school, came home
6:36
Speaker 1: if they felt like it, fucked off down to the
6:38
Speaker 1: river or into the woods, or even to the beach,
6:40
Speaker 1: and just be home by dinner. And looking back at
6:42
Speaker 1: the eighties from the twenty twenty two point of view,
6:45
Speaker 1: it might seem like disconnection was standard operating procedure, and
6:49
Speaker 1: it kind of was. You might not even notice that
6:52
Speaker 1: the kids were missing until the street lights came on.
6:56
Speaker 1: That's what Winona Ryder and her friends were counting on
6:58
Speaker 1: when they cut class or that day. The group left
7:02
Speaker 1: the drama of Junior High in their lockers and rolled
7:04
Speaker 1: up to Dylan Beach instead, where they rolled the skinny
7:07
Speaker 1: joint and sunned their stone cells on the shore. Young
7:11
Speaker 1: Wenona declined the drugs. She embraced the ocean instead, right
7:15
Speaker 1: until the undertow hugged her back so tightly that it
7:18
Speaker 1: almost didn't let her go. Winona survived that day barely.
7:24
Speaker 1: The cold clench of death lingered in her bones. Later
7:27
Speaker 1: that evening, she felt it prying at her skin, pulling
7:31
Speaker 1: her under. Fresh dose of fear followed her home to Petaluma,
7:35
Speaker 1: trailed her like a shadow, climbed into bed with her
7:38
Speaker 1: laid by her side, like an old friend, right next
7:40
Speaker 1: to all her other old childhood fears. The tally in
7:44
Speaker 1: her head was impressive. There was the Holocaust, for one,
7:47
Speaker 1: the horrors of Nazi Germany that claimed so many of
7:50
Speaker 1: our ancestors. No one could convince Monona those ghosts weren't real.
7:54
Speaker 1: There was also the ever present fear of nuclear annihilation,
7:58
Speaker 1: but that was nothing that the ordinary for all kids
8:01
Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties. Then there were the neighbors. She
8:05
Speaker 1: wanted to get inside their heads, know what they thought
8:08
Speaker 1: when her parents hippie van pulled into the driveway every day.
8:12
Speaker 1: What they thought of this new family. Some implants plucked
8:14
Speaker 1: from a progressive commune in northern California. Well, commune wasn't
8:19
Speaker 1: even the right word, but that's what everyone kept calling it.
8:22
Speaker 1: Commune sounded like a cult, and there was no cult
8:25
Speaker 1: where Winona came from. That was a flat out misconception.
8:29
Speaker 1: Other details were correct, though it was true that her
8:32
Speaker 1: last home had no electricity, no phone, no TV. Winnoona's
8:37
Speaker 1: hippie parents replaced technology with freethinking, traded the paranoia of
8:41
Speaker 1: broadcast news with nature. It was idyllic, idyllic until you
8:47
Speaker 1: tried to explain it to anyone else. Winona worried the
8:50
Speaker 1: neighbors would misunderstand their family conspire against them. She wondered
8:55
Speaker 1: if they would connect the dots that her godfather was
8:57
Speaker 1: quote the most dangerous man in America on quote well,
9:01
Speaker 1: according to Richard Nixon. Anyway, Wanova's parents appointed psychologists and
9:05
Speaker 1: LSD advocate Timothy Leary as her godfather, the guru of
9:09
Speaker 1: turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. He told Wanona
9:13
Speaker 1: to question everything, so she did, just like she was
9:16
Speaker 1: in bed right now, wide eyed, staring at the ceiling,
9:20
Speaker 1: driving herself right up the wall, questioning. Sleep frequently escaped her.
9:26
Speaker 1: Winoa didn't know the word insomnia. Yet, What if the
9:29
Speaker 1: neighbors turned on us? She thought? What if they try
9:32
Speaker 1: to lock us away? There was another question burning a
9:35
Speaker 1: hole in Wanona's restless mind. Why did children keep disappearing
9:39
Speaker 1: in California? That was the one fear that dwarfed all
9:44
Speaker 1: the others, the one that tortured her every time she
9:47
Speaker 1: indulged in the new luxury of watching television. Winona Rider's
9:51
Speaker 1: worst fear was getting kidnapped. Gone were the days of
9:55
Speaker 1: living in a secluded bubble cozy amongst the company of
9:58
Speaker 1: her parents and their fellow freethinking friends. Now that Wenoda
10:01
Speaker 1: lived in Petaluma, California, she heard everything. There was no
10:05
Speaker 1: shelter from reality, not with a TV in the house
10:08
Speaker 1: beckoning to her at all hours. Kidnappings colored the screen
10:12
Speaker 1: on a regular basis. Some cases went in circles for
10:15
Speaker 1: months until they reached a tragic dead end emphasis on dead.
10:19
Speaker 1: Others never ended at all. Winona knew some of the victims'
10:23
Speaker 1: names by heart. Tara Burke, three years old, held in
10:27
Speaker 1: captivity for ten months by sexual predators. Stephen Stainer, seven
10:31
Speaker 1: years old, trapped for seven years by a child molester.
10:34
Speaker 1: He only escaped because the sick bastard who abducted him
10:38
Speaker 1: wanted to lure in another boy, and the two kids
10:40
Speaker 1: made a mad dash together. Then there was Kevin Collins,
10:45
Speaker 1: ten years old. He was from the same neighborhood as Wenona,
10:48
Speaker 1: her older sister, even babysat at once. His buck to
10:52
Speaker 1: smile was printed across billboards in National magazine covers a
10:55
Speaker 1: literal milk curtain kid. He was still out there somewhere,
10:59
Speaker 1: dead or alive. Nobody knew, No one might ever know.
11:03
Speaker 1: The chill of fear burrowed deeper into winter on his bones.
11:07
Speaker 1: She pulled the covers over her head. Her fingers trembled,
11:10
Speaker 1: but no one could convince her she was overreacting, that
11:13
Speaker 1: her fears were unrealistic or childish. She almost died today.
11:17
Speaker 1: Anything could happen to anyone without rhyme or reason, and
11:22
Speaker 1: that might be the part that scared her the most.
11:50
Speaker 1: His blood ran cold when he saw the red and
11:52
Speaker 1: blue flicker against the trees. The colors were getting brighter
11:56
Speaker 1: and deeper. He knew the cops would show up eventually.
12:00
Speaker 1: It wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter
12:01
Speaker 1: of when. Deep breaths, he coached himself. He casually leaned
12:06
Speaker 1: against the hood of his car as the cruiser pulled over.
12:09
Speaker 1: He paced his breathing. He practiced his story in his head.
12:13
Speaker 1: But Richard Davis still didn't feel prepared sightseeing. He was
12:17
Speaker 1: just sightseeing, that's all. Pulled over to admire the great
12:20
Speaker 1: outdoors on a warm evening. Then he realized that sedan
12:23
Speaker 1: was stuck in a ditch. Wrestled with the damn car
12:26
Speaker 1: for hours, even crawled underneath at one point. Benny here
12:28
Speaker 1: Ever since, Yeah, that would work, Davis recited the story
12:33
Speaker 1: word for word. When a pair of police officers approached him.
12:36
Speaker 1: Their version of the story was slightly different. They had
12:39
Speaker 1: received a call about a mysterious man camped out on
12:42
Speaker 1: the side of the road on private property. It was
12:44
Speaker 1: all over the police scanner that night, Channel three. To
12:47
Speaker 1: be precise, Channel three covered all the Sonoma Valley San
12:51
Speaker 1: Pablo Bay to Santa Rosa, but it did not extend
12:54
Speaker 1: to Pedaluma, a city seventeen miles away. In Pedaluma, the
12:58
Speaker 1: scanner had different. In Petaluma, a twelve year old girl
13:03
Speaker 1: had been kidnapped by a stranger, the very same girl
13:06
Speaker 1: Richard Davis just dumped in the woods. Little polyclass left
13:12
Speaker 1: a window open on October first, nineteen ninety three. Or
13:15
Speaker 1: maybe her mother left at a jar right before passing
13:18
Speaker 1: out on a sleeping pill to escape a tedious migraine.
13:21
Speaker 1: Didn't matter, it was too late now. The window offered
13:25
Speaker 1: an invitation, and Richard Davis accepted it. He made quick
13:30
Speaker 1: clean work. He slithered right through the open window and
13:33
Speaker 1: into the house. Picked up a knife in the kitchen,
13:35
Speaker 1: He cut the chords from video game controllers, ripped up
13:38
Speaker 1: some bed sheets too. He'd need binding materials for this
13:41
Speaker 1: to go smoothly, and the strips of cloth did not
13:44
Speaker 1: to be big children had itty bitty wrists and ankles.
13:48
Speaker 1: Davis barged into Polly's bedroom as the family clock chimed.
13:51
Speaker 1: Ten thirty PM may as well be midnight to a
13:54
Speaker 1: twelve year old, or so Davis thought. He wasn't expecting
13:58
Speaker 1: to find Polly's slumber party just heating it up. Davis
14:01
Speaker 1: saw a panic flood the eyes of every girl in
14:03
Speaker 1: the room. He lingered in the doorway, the edge of
14:06
Speaker 1: the knife glimmered against the glow of Polly's clamshell night light.
14:10
Speaker 1: Davis kept his instructions simple. Scream and I'll slit your throats.
14:16
Speaker 1: They obeyed, shaking in silence. Davis then bound and gagged
14:21
Speaker 1: each girl, tied them up with their own sheets and
14:23
Speaker 1: video game cables, and then he bagged their heads with pillowcases.
14:27
Speaker 1: From Polly's bed. He blinded all the girls except Polly.
14:31
Speaker 1: He had other plans for her. Davis bent down on
14:34
Speaker 1: his knees, eye level with the trembling hoods. Count to
14:38
Speaker 1: one thousand. He ordered, Polly will be back by then.
14:42
Speaker 1: Polly would not be back. Polly was tied up in
14:46
Speaker 1: the woods in Santa Rosa, California, and the local police
14:49
Speaker 1: force had no idea all because they were tuned to
14:52
Speaker 1: the wrong channel on the police scanner, Channel three. One
14:56
Speaker 1: cop used a flashlight to look Davis up and down.
14:59
Speaker 1: Leaves and twigs poked out of his shaggy haircut, beads
15:02
Speaker 1: of sweat on his cheeks. His body language betrayed him.
15:06
Speaker 1: Davis just looked nervous, not car tutel. Nervous, like when
15:10
Speaker 1: you're stranded at midnight with a flat the guilty kind
15:13
Speaker 1: of nervous, one hand in the cookie jar. Nervous, but
15:17
Speaker 1: looking nervous wasn't against the law. And the other cop
15:20
Speaker 1: returned to the cruiser. He pulled up a report that
15:23
Speaker 1: summarized Richard Davis's driving record. Technology failed the police's second
15:27
Speaker 1: time that night, and the cursory report didn't include anything
15:31
Speaker 1: about Davis's criminal history, which would have revealed that he
15:34
Speaker 1: was a convicted felon. In fact, he was recently paroled
15:38
Speaker 1: after an eight year prison sentence for kidnapping, but with
15:42
Speaker 1: their limited nineteen ninety three technology, all of that went uncovered.
15:47
Speaker 1: The police found no dirt on Richard Davis. Beyond the
15:49
Speaker 1: dirt that covered his hair and clothes, which he claimed
15:52
Speaker 1: was a result of trying to freeze car from the ditch.
15:55
Speaker 1: After a tow truck dragged Davis's car back to the road,
15:58
Speaker 1: the police escorted him to the highway. He killed time
16:01
Speaker 1: in the fast lane for twenty minutes before he circled
16:04
Speaker 1: back to retrieve his stolen treasure. Davis parked properly this time,
16:09
Speaker 1: and he ducked back into the woods to find poll Class.
16:12
Speaker 1: He dodged branches and knotted tree roots by the light
16:15
Speaker 1: of the moon and found Polly where he left her
16:17
Speaker 1: a few hours earlier. He slung her over his shoulder.
16:20
Speaker 1: He untensed his muscles and released the nervous energy that
16:23
Speaker 1: had been racking his body since the police arrived. But
16:28
Speaker 1: Pedaluma's panic was only just beginning. There was a long
16:32
Speaker 1: standing rule when it came to child kidnappings, the chances
16:36
Speaker 1: of finding an abducted child alive or at all shrank
16:39
Speaker 1: significantly after the first forty eight hours. The Pedaluma Police
16:43
Speaker 1: Department had to act quickly, Polly's life could depend on it,
16:47
Speaker 1: and the FBI joined the case. Overnight, bloodhounds, helicopters, detectives
16:52
Speaker 1: rang up scores of ex cons. They interviewed sex offenders
16:55
Speaker 1: in surrounding counties, alibis checked out. Every volunteer and investigator
17:00
Speaker 1: came back empty handed except for one thing. The perpetrator
17:04
Speaker 1: left behind, a PONWM print pressed into Polly's bed frame.
17:08
Speaker 1: The FBI's database didn't include POWM prints in nineteen ninety three.
17:12
Speaker 1: This was unmapped territory, but it was literally all they had,
17:16
Speaker 1: and the clock kept ticking. The case spread like a
17:20
Speaker 1: California wildfire. Banners decorated the haunted town. Write down Petaluma Boulevard,
17:25
Speaker 1: Let Polly go. The signs cried scribbled and sloppy handwriting
17:29
Speaker 1: of school children. Polly's image covered public buildings. Her face
17:33
Speaker 1: cried out from flyers scattered across parks, library, shopping malls.
17:37
Speaker 1: Her story never left The News and Information hotline was
17:40
Speaker 1: a regular fixture on TV screens, and viewers were implored
17:43
Speaker 1: to call. Over the course of the case. That hotline
17:47
Speaker 1: received more than twelve thousand calls. That's twelve thousand leads,
17:51
Speaker 1: all dead ends. The hotline rang again late in the night,
17:56
Speaker 1: about ten days after Polly disappeared. A volunteer picked up
18:00
Speaker 1: the receiver soft sobs echoed on the other end of
18:03
Speaker 1: the line. The caller was moved to tears. She claimed
18:07
Speaker 1: she once lived only two neighborhoods away from Polly's house,
18:11
Speaker 1: and that they even went to the same junior high school.
18:14
Speaker 1: She just saw the news as she was calling from
18:16
Speaker 1: the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel, and the volunteer
18:20
Speaker 1: asked for her name, Winona. She didn't have to say
18:24
Speaker 1: her last name. The volunteer could tell who it was
18:27
Speaker 1: from her voice alone. The sulky, unaffected teen and Beetleshue,
18:32
Speaker 1: the love interest of Johnny Depp and Edward sciss her Hands,
18:36
Speaker 1: and in real life, for that matter, the girl who
18:38
Speaker 1: literally killed her classmate on screen as part of a
18:41
Speaker 1: cool series of fixed suicides in the dark comedy Heathers.
18:46
Speaker 1: But this call wasn't an act. Win Ona Writer's sorrows
18:49
Speaker 1: spoke volumes, her tears practically trickled through the phone. Winoa
18:54
Speaker 1: couldn't believe such a tragedy had struck Petaluma. Polly's parents
18:58
Speaker 1: couldn't believe someone as notable as Winona a rider wanted
19:00
Speaker 1: to pitch in, and there was perhaps no greater force
19:04
Speaker 1: that could pull Polly back to them. Paullie was a
19:07
Speaker 1: one own a super fan. One of her greatest wishes
19:10
Speaker 1: was to meet her in person. Then again, most tweens, teens,
19:13
Speaker 1: and fully grown adults felt the same. In nineteen ninety three,
19:18
Speaker 1: Winona Rider was the nineties. She was cool as shit.
19:23
Speaker 1: Her head's toe black ensembles were of gothlight legend. Her
19:27
Speaker 1: eyes brooded with attitude. Her smile could slice your heart open.
19:31
Speaker 1: She was on par with the other brilliant movie beauties
19:34
Speaker 1: of the day, sure, Julia Roberts, Zuma Thurman, Nicole Kidman.
19:37
Speaker 1: But Winona was different. She was weird, wicked, wonderful, all
19:42
Speaker 1: wrapped into one peculiar package. She was named after her
19:46
Speaker 1: town in Minnesota, For fuck's sake, no one was quite
19:49
Speaker 1: like her. Winona's assistance with the poly class Case wavered
19:53
Speaker 1: between low key and high profile. She could answer the
19:56
Speaker 1: information hotline and join in person searches just the same
20:00
Speaker 1: as any ordinary volunteer, Yet her celebrity status meant everyone
20:04
Speaker 1: listened when she spoke. Tabloids, fans, film critics. Winona witnessed
20:09
Speaker 1: the world's unquenchable thirst for a look into her private life.
20:12
Speaker 1: Then she yielded it to her advantage. If Wanona accepted interviews,
20:17
Speaker 1: she automatically drew more national attention to Polly's disappearance. Certain
20:21
Speaker 1: news outlets had no interest in reports about Polly without
20:24
Speaker 1: their precious q And as for Winona. First, Winona forced
20:28
Speaker 1: America to pay attention to the case. Then she put
20:31
Speaker 1: a price on it. Winona Writer offered two hundred thousand
20:35
Speaker 1: dollars to any person who could safely return Polly to
20:38
Speaker 1: her parents. Weeks dragged on months, Paully's parents published a
20:44
Speaker 1: letter to the kidnapper in the San Francisco Chronicle, imploring
20:48
Speaker 1: the stranger to bring their girl home. They left a
20:51
Speaker 1: note for Polly too, our darling, if you can read this,
20:54
Speaker 1: please know that your mommy and daddy love you so
20:57
Speaker 1: much and we will continue to search for you until
20:59
Speaker 1: we can hold you safely in her loving arms again.
21:03
Speaker 1: Every time Winona returned home from volunteering, she peeled the
21:07
Speaker 1: optimistic smile from her face. She would lay in bed
21:10
Speaker 1: and let the insomnia knock around all the bad thoughts
21:13
Speaker 1: in her brain again. The hope never left Winona, but
21:16
Speaker 1: it waned her childhood fear of kidnapping. Not at it.
21:20
Speaker 1: Winona almost died when she was twelve years old too,
21:23
Speaker 1: and this could have been her. Anything can happen to anybody.
21:27
Speaker 1: You could become a mega movie star, or a sink
21:29
Speaker 1: like a stone to a watery grave at the bottom
21:31
Speaker 1: of the ocean, or vanish from your bedroom, never to
21:34
Speaker 1: be seen again. Winona rolled over and turned her back
21:38
Speaker 1: on the fear, but it waded behind her and alongside
21:42
Speaker 1: her in bed, just like it had ten years ago.
21:51
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're were were. The
21:59
Speaker 1: police did find Polyclass, but they didn't find her alive.
22:05
Speaker 1: A cool breeze whipped across an abandoned mill yard and
22:08
Speaker 1: overlooked iyesore in Cloverdale, California, right off Highway one oh one,
22:13
Speaker 1: thirty miles from Petaluma. Richard Davis trudged through the empty field,
22:19
Speaker 1: dry grass crunched under his boots. The police followed close
22:22
Speaker 1: behind him. He was taking them directly to Polly. This time,
22:27
Speaker 1: Davis wasn't hiding anymore. He couldn't. The secrets he stashed
22:31
Speaker 1: in the woods were out in the open now. Davis
22:34
Speaker 1: was sloppier than he realized on that night two months ago.
22:38
Speaker 1: The police made a panic on the night of the
22:40
Speaker 1: kidnapping and his heart pounded, the sound drowned out his
22:43
Speaker 1: careful calculations, his attention to detail slipped away. Kidnapping tools
22:48
Speaker 1: slipped out of his grasp, and left a trail of
22:51
Speaker 1: evidence in the forest. A piece of silk fashioned into
22:55
Speaker 1: a hood, strips of packing tape perfect for binding of girls,
23:00
Speaker 1: Tights tied into a knot, complete with a tangle of
23:03
Speaker 1: human hair. A resident of Santa Rosa uncovered the clues
23:07
Speaker 1: when laggers cleared a portion of the woods on her
23:10
Speaker 1: property in December of nineteen ninety three. She was familiar
23:13
Speaker 1: with the class case by now most of California was
23:17
Speaker 1: after hearing about Paully's disappearance for weeks on end, and
23:20
Speaker 1: now it was her turn to dial the information hotline.
23:24
Speaker 1: But there was something else. The jarring discovery in the
23:28
Speaker 1: woods jogged the woman's memory. There was a man stranded
23:32
Speaker 1: on her property not too long ago, sweaty, panic stricken,
23:36
Speaker 1: roughly two months prior, read around the same time Polly
23:39
Speaker 1: went missing. When the police came to retrieve the items
23:42
Speaker 1: from the woods, she reminded them about the trespasser. They
23:46
Speaker 1: summoned the Santa Rosa Police records for good measure. On
23:49
Speaker 1: October first, police called the tow truck for a man
23:52
Speaker 1: named Richard Davis, and they knew that much to be true.
23:55
Speaker 1: But back at the station, there was more information about
23:58
Speaker 1: this man than just a flimsy p doubt of his
24:00
Speaker 1: driving record. Davis was an ex con. His criminal record
24:05
Speaker 1: never seem to end. Burglary, assault with the deadly weapon,
24:09
Speaker 1: assault with intent to rate auto theft, kidnapping, kidnapping. Richard
24:15
Speaker 1: Davis did eight years in prison for kidnapping. He was
24:19
Speaker 1: paroled in June of nineteen ninety three after serving only
24:22
Speaker 1: half of a sixteen year sentence. Three months before Polly
24:26
Speaker 1: went missing. On October first, police had their prime suspect
24:30
Speaker 1: in the kidnapping of Polyclass right there, standing in front
24:33
Speaker 1: of them, and then they escorted him to his escape rope.
24:37
Speaker 1: Investigators poured over his criminal record. Police even wrangled Davis
24:41
Speaker 1: a second time later in October, arrested for drunk driving.
24:45
Speaker 1: Davis then violated his parole by failing to appear in court.
24:49
Speaker 1: A warrant was out for his arrest. Bingo police had
24:53
Speaker 1: their inn they weren't letting Richard Davis slip away. A
24:56
Speaker 1: third time, they found him cruising around town in a
24:59
Speaker 1: van not far from where he was staying on the
25:01
Speaker 1: Coyote Valley Indian Reservation, about seventy five miles north of Petaluma.
25:07
Speaker 1: Police booked him on violation of his probation, cuffed him,
25:10
Speaker 1: tossed him in the clink, and then they took his
25:12
Speaker 1: pomp print. It was an exact match for the print
25:15
Speaker 1: found on Polly's bed frame. Investigators shared a knowing glance.
25:20
Speaker 1: The search for Polly's kidnapper was over. Davis knew it
25:24
Speaker 1: was over, too. He cracked after a few days. I
25:27
Speaker 1: screwed up big time, he told the police. And now
25:32
Speaker 1: Davis was retracing his steps, with the police by his side.
25:36
Speaker 1: He paused at a collection of weathered lumber mushrooms spread
25:39
Speaker 1: it from the heat, and he thrust his shin towards
25:41
Speaker 1: the rotting pile. Investigators overturned the pile board by board,
25:47
Speaker 1: and they found Polly resting underneath, haphazardly tucked into a
25:51
Speaker 1: shallow grave. Polly's family had prayed their search would end soon.
25:56
Speaker 1: They just didn't imagine it ending like this. Shattered the
26:01
Speaker 1: class family, now one member too small. It shattered Winona
26:06
Speaker 1: Ryder too. Her heart shriveled up and shrank. It reverted
26:10
Speaker 1: back to being twelve years old, beating at a ragged
26:13
Speaker 1: pace like she was a preteen, tortured by the undertow,
26:17
Speaker 1: once again barely clinging to life. Maybe Polly once felt
26:21
Speaker 1: the same when she was tied up in Davis's sedan.
26:24
Speaker 1: Winona would never know, she would never get the chance
26:27
Speaker 1: to facilitate Polly's happy ending. Winona struggled through the premiere
26:32
Speaker 1: of her new film, Reality Bites in February nineteen ninety four.
26:36
Speaker 1: The irony of the title sunk its teeth into Wanona's soul.
26:40
Speaker 1: She successfully convinced Universal Pictures to make the Los Angeles
26:44
Speaker 1: debut of the movie a benefit for the Poly Class Foundation,
26:47
Speaker 1: but her work still felt unfinished, woefully inadequate. Paully's greatest
26:53
Speaker 1: wish had been to meet Winona in real life, and
26:56
Speaker 1: that couldn't happen now. So Winona did the next best thing.
27:00
Speaker 1: She reached for Polly through fiction. Winona accepted the role
27:04
Speaker 1: of Joe marsh and a new movie adaptation of Little Women.
27:08
Speaker 1: It was Polly's favorite book. Winowa brought the story to
27:11
Speaker 1: life and dedicated her performance to Polly's memory. The role
27:16
Speaker 1: was a breath of fresh air for Wanona. For once,
27:19
Speaker 1: she wasn't the weirdo, she wasn't bewitchy. She was the
27:22
Speaker 1: strong female lead, determined and dependable, just like she had
27:26
Speaker 1: been for Polly's family for two months. Winona used Little
27:30
Speaker 1: Women to shoot away the darkness crowding her life, the
27:33
Speaker 1: same shadows that housed her fears and lingered by her
27:36
Speaker 1: side when she couldn't get any shut eye. Life didn't
27:39
Speaker 1: have to be a big dark room all the time.
27:42
Speaker 1: Maybe through her performance in Little Women, directors and casting
27:45
Speaker 1: agents would see that too, And if they didn't, win
27:49
Speaker 1: Onwa had to escape on her own before that big
27:51
Speaker 1: dark room caved in on her completely, she would have
27:57
Speaker 1: added it all up. As she could think clearly. Winona
28:00
Speaker 1: Rider's hands made quick work on the floor of a
28:03
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills fitting room. A Mark Jacob's cashmere sweater seven
28:06
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty dollars, a niece Saint Laurent Blause, another
28:10
Speaker 1: seven hundred and fifty four handbags. Those were at least
28:14
Speaker 1: two grand, a handful of expensive hair bows and bands
28:18
Speaker 1: worth about six hundred dollars, and six pairs of socks
28:21
Speaker 1: just for good measure, and those were eighty Bucks it
28:24
Speaker 1: with the snip of each security tag were known a
28:27
Speaker 1: snucker contraband into a Sacks Fifth Avenue shopping bag, the
28:30
Speaker 1: same bag from earlier that afternoon, her first shopping spret
28:34
Speaker 1: he already gave her credit card a three thousand dollars workout,
28:37
Speaker 1: but a fall when is planned. The second round's going
28:40
Speaker 1: to be on the house. Wanona crinkled a handful of
28:43
Speaker 1: tissue paper in the bag to cover the sound of
28:45
Speaker 1: her sniffs. When space ran out in the Sacks bag,
28:48
Speaker 1: she stuffed the stolen clothes in a bag she brought
28:50
Speaker 1: from home. A shopping assistant knocked on the door. Went
28:54
Speaker 1: own a froze in her position, bent over on her
28:56
Speaker 1: hands and knees, scissors in one hand and a pair
28:59
Speaker 1: of Cashmere Donnic Karen socks in the other. The clerk
29:02
Speaker 1: asked that the A list client needed anything. A coke
29:05
Speaker 1: went on, I said, a coke from the Sacks Fifth
29:08
Speaker 1: Avity cafeteria. Apparently shoplifting made her thirsty. The assistant's designer
29:13
Speaker 1: heels clicked on the tile floor towards the cafeteria. Fuck.
29:17
Speaker 1: She used that distraction once already didn't she Winona rubbed
29:21
Speaker 1: her forehead now or was she right? The bags filled,
29:24
Speaker 1: The bags blend in, then bust out of there went
29:27
Speaker 1: own A loaded the bags onto her arms. She walked
29:29
Speaker 1: towards the exit with confident strides. Her gate spoke for her. Why, yes,
29:34
Speaker 1: of course, I already bought all this. I'm a celebrity,
29:36
Speaker 1: Why would I shoplift? Security didn't buy her charade. Instead,
29:41
Speaker 1: they wanted to know when she planned on buying the
29:43
Speaker 1: designer goods visibly stashed in her arm full of bags. First,
29:47
Speaker 1: she played dumb insisted her assistant had already paid for
29:51
Speaker 1: the clothes. Then she switched stories and claimed the employees
29:54
Speaker 1: were keeping track of her massive haul and would just
29:57
Speaker 1: add the items to her first bill as if designed
30:00
Speaker 1: her department stores let you keep an open tab like
30:02
Speaker 1: a bar. And by the time the police arrived, Winnowna
30:05
Speaker 1: confessed to the crime, using a uniquely Hollywood excuse. She
30:09
Speaker 1: explained that a director instructed her to shoplift as research
30:12
Speaker 1: for her upcoming role in a movie called Shopgirl or
30:15
Speaker 1: was it called White Jazz. Winnowna's web of incoherent tales
30:19
Speaker 1: impressed no one. She left the Beverly Hills department store
30:23
Speaker 1: in handcuffs on December twelfth two thousand and one. They
30:27
Speaker 1: wanted strange and unusual. She would show them strange and unusual.
30:31
Speaker 1: It was a new century, now a new millennium even,
30:35
Speaker 1: but pop culture still wanted the Winona of the nineties,
30:38
Speaker 1: a dark haired goth girlfriend to tantalize them. In Tim
30:41
Speaker 1: Burton films, a cute, cuckoo like girl interrupted her most
30:45
Speaker 1: recent smash hit from nineteen ninety nine. Winona's heart thudded
30:49
Speaker 1: with fear as she ducked into the back of a cruiser.
30:52
Speaker 1: Yet a snicker spread across her lips. She could be
30:55
Speaker 1: a felon now she was still the outcast, still the
30:59
Speaker 1: weirdo typical. One year later, Winona Rider was not snickering.
31:26
Speaker 1: She was sweating. Her dark eyes darted across the courtroom
31:30
Speaker 1: from one stone faced lawyer to another. She understood about
31:34
Speaker 1: half this legal jargon they were spouting off, but she
31:36
Speaker 1: knew two things to be true. One, she was already guilty.
31:40
Speaker 1: She was a felon. It was right there in the
31:42
Speaker 1: shoplifting charges, felony, grant theft. There would be repercussions. Two.
31:49
Speaker 1: One of those repercussions could be jail time. Apparently, her
31:53
Speaker 1: lawyer is one hund real defense that Winona was too
31:56
Speaker 1: fashionable to shoplift didn't carry any weight. In a Beverly
31:59
Speaker 1: Hills courtroom, Winona uncrossed her legs for the seventh time
32:03
Speaker 1: that day. Fidgeting didn't speed the sentencing up. This was
32:07
Speaker 1: one story she couldn't flip to the end of the
32:09
Speaker 1: script and spoil the ending. She had to sit through
32:12
Speaker 1: a bunch of men in suits bickering over her character,
32:15
Speaker 1: not a character, her character, not just another dark haired
32:20
Speaker 1: beauty throwing smoldering glances across haunted mansions at movie sets.
32:24
Speaker 1: The people gathered in that courtroom had to see Winona.
32:27
Speaker 1: For Winona, her actions, not her acting, would determine her future,
32:31
Speaker 1: which may or may not involve trading her pile of
32:34
Speaker 1: stolen design her booty for an orange jumpsuit. Winona's defense
32:40
Speaker 1: brought forward her extensive involvement in the Polyclass kidnapping as
32:43
Speaker 1: the clearest example of her sterling character. Sure, she had
32:48
Speaker 1: donated a fat stack of cash to the poly Class Foundation,
32:51
Speaker 1: but she rolled up her sleeves alongside other regular volunteers too.
32:55
Speaker 1: It was a tender, eagleless gesture that Winona repeated for weeks.
33:00
Speaker 1: Maybe her help hadn't brought Polly back, but her murderer,
33:03
Speaker 1: Richard Allen Davis, was on death row, and that was
33:06
Speaker 1: the second best case scenario, and the prosecution refused to soften. Instead,
33:12
Speaker 1: they snapped, what's offensive to me is to trot out
33:15
Speaker 1: the body of a dead child, the opposing lawyer retorted.
33:19
Speaker 1: Winona sprang out from the bench, her eyes welled with tears.
33:23
Speaker 1: Her lawyer objected before she could defend her involvement, and
33:26
Speaker 1: before she could explain why that case still rattled her
33:28
Speaker 1: to this day. How seeing her worst fear, the fear
33:31
Speaker 1: of being kidnapped, come to life and a little girl
33:34
Speaker 1: not unlike herself, shattered her heart. Maybe no one really
33:38
Speaker 1: knew Winona at all. She plopped back into her seat
33:41
Speaker 1: with a sigh. Winona sighed again when the judge announced
33:46
Speaker 1: her penance four hundred and eighty hours of community service
33:50
Speaker 1: and nearly ten thousand dollars in fines and restitution, no
33:54
Speaker 1: prison sentence. The judge emphasized that if her sticky fingers
33:57
Speaker 1: ever stole again, she'd undoubtedly be pouting behind bars next time.
34:03
Speaker 1: The happy ending to her trial also created a happy
34:06
Speaker 1: ending for Weanona's witting streak at the box office. For
34:09
Speaker 1: most actresses, an acting hiatus would be devastating. For Winona,
34:14
Speaker 1: it was a relief. She actually called her arrests the
34:18
Speaker 1: best thing that could have happened in court that day,
34:21
Speaker 1: December sixth, two thousand and two. Winona was thirty one.
34:25
Speaker 1: She started acting in films when she was barely sixteen,
34:28
Speaker 1: and she never stopped. Winona Rider performed at more than
34:32
Speaker 1: twenty movies in the span of fifteen years. A break
34:35
Speaker 1: was long overdue. After her sentencing, she veered away from
34:41
Speaker 1: her strict regiment of back to back leading roles, took
34:44
Speaker 1: a step away from movie sets, and set new boundaries
34:47
Speaker 1: for herself, ones that would keep acting burnout at bay.
34:51
Speaker 1: She broke her newfound bliss sporadically for her special roles,
34:54
Speaker 1: a hilarious turn as commandment breaking puppet loving Kelly Lafonda
34:58
Speaker 1: and David Wayne's in two thousand and seven JJ Abrams
35:02
Speaker 1: Star Trek reboot. In two thousand and nine, Tim Burton's
35:05
Speaker 1: clamation creation Franken Weeny Darren Aronovsky's Nora Our thriller Black Swan,
35:10
Speaker 1: which involved Wanona repeatedly plunging a steel nail file into
35:14
Speaker 1: her cheeks but another script came across her desk years
35:18
Speaker 1: later that contained the real comeback gold. Something happened to
35:22
Speaker 1: Wanona when she took that break, something inevitable. She aged
35:27
Speaker 1: by the twenty tens, she was in her forties. Casting
35:31
Speaker 1: agents couldn't picture her as a twenty something love interest
35:34
Speaker 1: in movies anymore. That's when Netflix called. They gave her
35:39
Speaker 1: a shot at a roll that would be more age appropriate.
35:41
Speaker 1: A mother, your average suburban mom in the early eighties,
35:45
Speaker 1: totally normal, a little nervous, perhaps, but with the stranger
35:49
Speaker 1: danger panic at the time, what parent wasn't They needed
35:52
Speaker 1: her to portray a woman who would be tested, a
35:54
Speaker 1: woman who could portray gut wrenching fear and grief in
35:57
Speaker 1: her eyes without uttering a word. A woman whose son
36:01
Speaker 1: would vanish without a trace. It's an uncanny coincidence, but
36:06
Speaker 1: stranger things have happened, and that is anything but a disgrace.
36:13
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgrace LAMB.
36:24
Speaker 2: All right, thanks for riding on this Winona train with
36:26
Speaker 2: me here through Disgraceland. Apple podcast listeners, make sure you
36:29
Speaker 2: have auto downloads turned on, and guys, this week's question
36:33
Speaker 2: of the Week, which actress, most Embodies gen X for
36:37
Speaker 2: you and why is it Winona, Drew, Cameron, Penelope let
36:41
Speaker 2: me know six one seven nine six six six three
36:43
Speaker 2: eight with your answers via voicemail, text and add disgracelamd
36:47
Speaker 2: pod on the socials and I'll answer you back in
36:49
Speaker 2: the next after party bonus episode in your podcast feed.
36:51
Speaker 2: Leave a review for disgrace Land on Apple Podcasts or
36:54
Speaker 2: Spotify and win some free merch al Right, here.
36:56
Speaker 1: Comes some credits.
36:58
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
37:01
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
37:04
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
37:08
Speaker 2: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you.
37:11
Speaker 1: For supporting the show. We really appreciate it.
37:14
Speaker 2: And if not, you can become a member right now
37:16
Speaker 2: by going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership members can
37:21
Speaker 2: listen to every episode of disgracelan ad free, Plus you'll
37:25
Speaker 2: get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted
37:29
Speaker 2: bonus episode, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise
37:33
Speaker 2: and events.
37:34
Speaker 1: Visit disgracelampod dot com.
37:36
Speaker 2: Slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and
37:39
Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod
37:44
Speaker 2: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at Disgracelandpod,
37:48
Speaker 2: rock a Rolla