WEBVTT 1 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:35.200 Welcome back to the Pathway Chili. I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and I'm 2 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.600 Ashley. So before we dive into this week's case, I wanted to take 3 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:44.840 a second to share something super magical with our listeners. You guys are getting 4 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:51.119 another fun friend to hang out with on the Pathway Chili because I am expecting 5 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:58.640 a new baby coming October of this year. Yay yay, So I'm excited 6 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:02.560 we look for and having this little bundle of joy co host with us about 7 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:06.319 ten years from now. Hey man, Reagan already has to digest everything, 8 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:08.120 but this one. I'll be growing up listening to true crime too, So 9 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:15.640 everybody buckle up and get ready. May sixth, nineteen eighty eight, Burbank, 10 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:21.239 California. Crystal Spencer, a twenty eight year old aspiring actress working as 11 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:26.400 a topless dancer, phones her sister and mentions that she's feeling ill. No 12 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:30.280 one hears from Crystal after this, and one week later, her decomposing body 13 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:34.840 is discovered in a corner inside her apartment. She is nude from the waist 14 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:41.079 down, entangled in her telephone cord, and the coroner is unable to determine 15 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:46.359 her cause of death. However, neighbor's report having heard screams from Crystal's apartment, 16 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:51.879 and her boyfriend notices odd discrepancies in her autopsy report which make them suspect 17 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:56.319 that she was a victim of foul play. After that, the path what 18 00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:00.879 a chili. So today we're going to explore a pretty strange case which was 19 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:06.879 featured on Unsolved Mysteries, the Unexplained nineteen eight death of Crystal Spencer. This 20 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:09.759 is the story of a small town girl who moved to Hollywood with aspirations of 21 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:14.960 becoming an actress, but wound up coming to a tragic end. However, 22 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:20.439 the exact circumstances what actually happened to her a big mystery. All anyone knows 23 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:23.400 is that Crystal was found dead inside her apartment one week after she was last 24 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:28.319 heard from. For her body was so decomposed by this point that no one 25 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:31.759 was able to determine how she died. It's possible that she simply succumbed to 26 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:36.719 an unknown illness, but there are enough bizarre elements in this story to suggest 27 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:40.280 that she may have actually been the victim of foul play. Cristel's biggest advocate 28 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:45.759 was her boyfriend Anton Kleine, who is quite a unique character himself, and 29 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:50.199 has pushed forward the theory that Cristel was murdered and that the potential perpetrator was 30 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.960 a former police officer who became a murder victim himself less than one year later. 31 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:58.360 But we'll delve into that in a little while as well. To try 32 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:02.680 to determine the most likely explain for Crystal Spencer is bizarre death. This one 33 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:07.240 is really bizarre because you had the phone call to her sister where she says, 34 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.319 I'm feeling ill and if that's all we had, and later she's found 35 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:15.400 decomposing in her apartment, you could almost wonder is it something where she was 36 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:19.800 truly sick? Is it something where she had ingested something earlier that evening? 37 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.120 But then when you start to talk about the way she was discovered, where 38 00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:28.960 she's nude from the waist down, she's entangled in a telephone cord, and 39 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:35.319 there's screaming herd coming from her apartment. That's it's horrifying. You know that 40 00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:38.319 something makes it to the effect that she's been a victim of foul play. 41 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:43.400 This couldn't have been an accident. It doesn't sound like something where she would 42 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:46.520 be going through a mental health crisis. We've seen those cases where mental health 43 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:51.280 actually ends up being the issue, but this one seems so bizarre that it's 44 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:55.520 where the coroner says there's an undetermined cause of death. It seems like there's 45 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:00.159 foul play clearly based on the way she's discovered. Yeah, it's definitely a 46 00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:04.719 weird one because they couldn't find anything on the autopsy report to figure out how 47 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:09.520 she died, so if it was natural causes, it was likely an illness 48 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:13.199 that no one had ever heard of before. So it's definitely one of those 49 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:18.759 cases where there's no explanation that makes one hundred percent complete sense. Our story 50 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:24.800 begins in Burbank, California, in nineteen eighty eight. Our central figure is 51 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:29.959 twenty eight year old Crystal Spencer, who originally hails from the small northern California 52 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.079 town of Yukaiah. Like many young women, Crystal dreamed of becoming a famous 53 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:39.399 actress and left home to make a move to Los Angeles in nineteen eighty two. 54 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:45.279 Unfortunately, Crystal had little success finding much acting work, so in order 55 00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:47.160 to pay the bills, she took a job as a topless dancer at the 56 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:54.199 Wild Goose a club located near Los Angeles International Airport. The job paid decent 57 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:58.040 money, and Crystal could take home hundreds of dollars in tips every night, 58 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:02.000 but as the years passed, her attempts at an acting career never went anywhere, 59 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:06.279 as the only job she was able to procure were two small roles in 60 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:12.839 television commercials. In May of nineteen eighty seven, Crystal became involved in a 61 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:17.399 relationship with Anton Klein, a PhD candidate in history who was attempting to find 62 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:23.639 success as a screenwriter. Even though Anton was nearly a decade older than Crystal 63 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:27.240 and they hailed from different backgrounds, the two of them hit it off. 64 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:32.160 According to Anton, he helped broaden crystal cultural horizons by introducing her to the 65 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:36.839 world of museums, art galleries, and classical music. However, Crystal would 66 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:42.040 not tell Anton about her job as a topless dancer, and he only found 67 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.720 out about it four months into their relationship as a friend of who has just 68 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:49.279 happened to see her on stage at the Wild Goose. Even though Anton was 69 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:54.439 not happy about Crystal's profession, he knew that it was helping her make ends 70 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:59.600 meet and reluctantly accepted it. I think anybody who cares about someone would be 71 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.600 concerned about this kind of career and this kind of lifestyle because of who Crystal 72 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:09.000 would have been exposed to and the way that you view her with respect and 73 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:13.680 love and care. And then you assume that the people who are frequenting her 74 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:17.319 bar are not doing the same. So I absolutely understand the concern and kind 75 00:06:17.319 --> 00:06:21.839 of frustration that that's the way she has to be making money right now. 76 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:28.879 But it's interesting that Crystal's working hard. Her site is set. Yes, 77 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:30.600 she's at the topless bar, but she continues to go on. She's trying 78 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:34.160 to get these acting jobs and it just doesn't work when you have people in 79 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:38.720 these big cities and you have, you know, minimum wage jobs going on. 80 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:42.439 It's no wonder people turned to a career like this, and I don't 81 00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:46.040 think they're always, Especially in the eighties, I don't think you were really 82 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:49.879 aware necessarily of all of the risk and all of the things you were going 83 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:53.279 to be exposed to, right that this wasn't just a job that you went 84 00:06:53.319 --> 00:06:56.120 to and you got to go home. There were bigger risks associated with that. 85 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:00.160 Yeah, I think that Antin was particularly understanding because he was kind of 86 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.240 going through the same thing, like she wanted to break in as an actress 87 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:06.480 and he was hoping to break in as a screenwriter as well, So he 88 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:11.360 knew what the struggles were at trying to find work on Hollywood, and the 89 00:07:11.399 --> 00:07:15.480 difference was Anton did have a full time job which paid the bills, but 90 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.279 he also understand stood that the options may have been a bit more limited for 91 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:21.959 Crystal. So he figured, well, I'm not particularly happy that she's working 92 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:25.879 in a place like this, but I'll let her do it because it helps 93 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:31.879 her Meatan's meet. The couple's relationship continued on for a year until Anton stopped 94 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:36.720 by Crystal's apartment in Burbank on May fourth, nineteen eighty eight. Crystal was 95 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:41.160 sick with the flu, but she had some important news. She was being 96 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:46.399 considered for a potential job opportunity in Japan. The three month gig would involve 97 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:49.519 working as a hostess girl at a Japanese nightclub, but even though Crystal was 98 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:54.279 nervous about the idea of living abroad, she was determined to go for it. 99 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:57.759 In fact, before she got the job, she had made an entry 100 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:01.519 in her journal which read quote, I feel stuck. I'm going to get 101 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.199 unstuck. God guide me, get me out of the wild goose by the 102 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:09.519 end of May end quote. After Anton left Cristel's apartment, they spoke on 103 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:13.839 the phone again the following night, and she told them she was feeling much 104 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:18.519 better. On May the sixth, Bristol had a telephone conversation with her sister 105 00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:22.319 Julie, who lived in Torrance at the time. Their mother was renting temporary 106 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:26.360 quarters from a family in Los Angeles, and Cristel asked for her new phone 107 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:31.160 number. According to Julie, her mother had told her to only use it 108 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:35.000 in the event of an emergency, and since Chrystel had a tendency to talk 109 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:39.159 people's ear off on the phone, Julie pretended she did not have the number. 110 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:43.480 Cristel responded by saying she was really sick and could hardly make it to 111 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.799 the bathroom, but Julie figured she was just being over dramatic and refused to 112 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:50.519 give out the number. Their call soon ended, but this would turn out 113 00:08:50.519 --> 00:08:56.039 to be the last time Crystal was confirmed to be alive. Oh poor Julie. 114 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:58.799 I feel really bad for her. She's doing what her mom asked like, 115 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.879 Hey, listen, your sister talks my ear off, don't give her 116 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.039 this number, and Julie's doing what her mom told her to, but to 117 00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:09.360 be holding that, you know, my sister is now deceased. She didn't 118 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.759 feel good. She was wanting to reach out to my mom. That's heavy. 119 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.639 That's a lot of emotional baggage to carry, and a lot of guilt 120 00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:22.320 to carry even though it's not needed. And then you also have from May 121 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:28.720 fourth to May six that Crystal is pretty sick. She obviously is telling Anton, 122 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.919 I have the flu. I feel really sick. By the time she's 123 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:33.200 talking to her sister, she said, I can barely make it to the 124 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:39.240 bathroom, and I feel really sick. It sounds like she was distressed too 125 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:43.600 about work at the time. Was there ever any testing to see if someone 126 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:48.639 at work could have been doing something like poisoning her or making her ill, 127 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:52.840 or even potentially did they know if work knew she was sick and therefore compromised 128 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.320 or weaker at the time where someone might see her as more of a victim. 129 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.639 It's kind of weird because there's going to be some ambiguity about when exactly 130 00:10:01.799 --> 00:10:05.480 was the last time Crystal went to work, and I don't we might talk 131 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:07.679 about this on this episode or the next. But years later, her brother 132 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.480 would make a comment on a message board talking about all these rumors that he 133 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.600 had heard that Crystal may have been poisoned and this was the source of her 134 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.639 illness. But we don't really know when or where this poisoning would have taken 135 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:22.759 place. But if it is, what happens as we're going to talk about. 136 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:28.120 They obviously did not find any traces of poison in her autopsy. Yeah, 137 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:30.720 that's what I was wondering. If she was poisoned, she might have 138 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.519 been in a weaker state. But it's clear from what you see or what 139 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:37.600 you're hearing, it sounds like someone then came to her apartment to hurt her. 140 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:41.799 Because being nude from the waist down and having the cord wrapped all around 141 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:46.279 her, it seems would she have done that herself. That seems a little 142 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:50.600 bit bizarre. I've got a question for you, Robin. Okay, So 143 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:54.679 I don't know if either of you are very familiar with hostess culture in Japan, 144 00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:00.440 but I remember I've listened to a couple episodes. I think God Rotten 145 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:05.080 Mango and Stephanie Sue went into the culture really deeply. There was a case 146 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:09.679 rather recently where a hostess murdered a host from another bar and she was like 147 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.559 thought to be too pretty to kill in the press and all this. And 148 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:18.159 then there's another case where a Korean man who was quite wealthy who was living 149 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:22.960 in Japan killed a British woman who was there working at a hostess club. 150 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.799 She goes really deeply into the culture there, and it's really really interesting. 151 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:33.320 But the Yukuza thought to be pretty involved in a lot of these clubs, 152 00:11:33.480 --> 00:11:37.639 because organized crime is often involved in a lot of those types of clubs. 153 00:11:37.039 --> 00:11:41.799 So I find it interesting that she was considered for a job opportunity at a 154 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:46.840 hostess club in Japan. I wonder how she would have procured this interview, 155 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:52.320 how she could have got this job opportunity. Do you know any of those 156 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:56.679 details? Unfortunately we don't really. I mean, she just said she was 157 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:01.399 being considered, she had never actually gotten hired. But aren't any specific details 158 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:05.039 about how this process worked, if she actually talked to someone from Japan or 159 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:09.159 auditioned at some sort, or if it would have gotten given her the opportunity 160 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.080 to cross paths with some shady characters. So probably know, it just could 161 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:16.919 be a thing where someone liked her looks and says, oh, you'd be 162 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.519 good over in Japan. But it's not clear to me if she still had 163 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:24.919 like more of an addition process before she got the job. I was just 164 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:28.360 wondering if maybe she was mixing with certain people that maybe knew somebody that was 165 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.639 like, hey, you know friend of mine, or you know a relative 166 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:37.440 or whomever runs this club back home, and you would be great for it, 167 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:39.480 because it's not like today, you know, back then it was obviously 168 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:43.240 there wasn't the Internet, so you couldn't just apply for a job online. 169 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:48.919 You would either have to see like some posting physically somewhere, or you would 170 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.240 likely have to know somebody or read something in the classified section of the newspaper. 171 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:56.919 Maybe yeah, And it isn't really even true whether she was getting this 172 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:01.759 job through the Wild Goose or if she actually read about it independently. I 173 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.799 mean, we're going to talk about a former cop that had a lot of 174 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:09.960 connections in Los Angeles, and it's very possible that Crystal could have gotten this 175 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:13.080 gig through him. But it's just a lot of details are murky because I 176 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:18.480 don't think Crystal shared too many details with their friends and family about how she 177 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.559 was looking to procure this job. Anton claimed that the next time he tried 178 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:28.480 to contact Crystal was on May eighth, but after calling her number multiple times, 179 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:31.759 he kept getting a busy signal. He contacted the operator, who told 180 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:35.480 him that Crystal's phone was off the hook, and this did not concern Anton 181 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:41.240 too much since Cristel was a very disorganized person who had a tendency to leave 182 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:45.480 her phone off the hook after she finished a call. Anton then spoke to 183 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:48.919 the door man at the Wild Goose to ask if anyone had seen Crystal, 184 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.960 and he was told that she hadn't worked there for a couple of days because 185 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.639 she left for Japan. Anton figured Cristel already left to start her new job 186 00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:01.000 without saying goodbye, and even though he found that unusual, he believed she 187 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:07.159 would soon call him from Japan. Well. On May thirteenth, which incidentally 188 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:11.639 happened to be Friday the thirteenth, neighbors from Crystal's buildings started complaining about a 189 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:16.639 foul odour coming from her apartment, so the police were notified. When they 190 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:22.000 arrived and went inside, they discovered Cristel's body. She was resting in a 191 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:26.639 corner nude from the waist down and dressed only in a red shirt. Her 192 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:30.639 body was entangled in her telephone cord, and there were no records of any 193 00:14:30.679 --> 00:14:33.120 calls from her apartment since she last talked to her sister on May sixth. 194 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:39.120 By this point, the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, which 195 00:14:39.159 --> 00:14:43.120 seemed to indicate that Crystal had been dead for several days before she was found. 196 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:46.879 There were no signs of any forced entry, and while the apartment was 197 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:52.039 in a state of disarray with belongings scattered everywhere, Crystal was not an orderly 198 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:56.559 person and her place was often a mess, so this did not prove that 199 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:01.360 a struggle had taken place. An autopsy was performed, there were only slight 200 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:07.480 traces of alcohol and marijuana found in crystal system well. There was no indication 201 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:11.279 that she might have died by suicide. There was no signs of trauma or 202 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:16.120 assault on her body either. In the end, while the authorities were inclined 203 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:20.919 to think that Crystal died of natural causes or some unknown illness, the Los 204 00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:24.840 Angeles County Coroner could not figure out what killed her and officially ruled her cause 205 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:31.799 of death to be undetermined. Okay, So for me, I'm overwhelmed when 206 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:35.919 you say there was no sign of any kind of struggle or foul play that 207 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:39.600 had taken place. It didn't kind of physical attack on her. I was 208 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:43.360 sure there'd be some kind of indication that she was strangled or something because of 209 00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:46.399 the way her body was found. But then I'm thinking, Okay, if 210 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:50.840 she's let's say, dying of an illness, or she can't catch her breath 211 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:54.679 or she can't breathe and she's panicking, could she have gotten caught up in 212 00:15:54.720 --> 00:16:00.120 the phone cord. Possibly, But it seems so bizarre to me that you 213 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:03.960 know, she's working at this club, she's complaining of being sick for several 214 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:08.440 days, which I mean would allude to there being some natural cause going on 215 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:12.399 leading up to her death. But she is in a high risk lifestyle. 216 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:18.720 She is engaged with people who likely do deal in criminal activity and violence. 217 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.639 And so the fact that Anton hadn't heard from her, the fact that no 218 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:26.120 one hears anything. And it's odd too that Anton says I didn't hear from 219 00:16:26.120 --> 00:16:30.440 her and it wasn't concerning because I thought she'd call from Japan. It kind 220 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:37.120 of shows how Crystal lived. There was probably a very risky lifestyle there where 221 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:41.879 she's not checking in with people all the time. It's not abnormal for her 222 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:45.600 to go missing for a couple of days and not contact you. That signifies 223 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.600 a kind of high risk lifestyle too, So I'm shocked. I'm kind of 224 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:52.840 a speechless when you say nothing was found that could show someone put their hands 225 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:56.120 on her body. I was sure that was going to be what happened. 226 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:00.639 Yeah, when you hear the detail about the timeelephone chord, that really does 227 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:04.160 sound on the surface like there's a violent struggle. But I guess it's not 228 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:07.960 impossible that if she was having a violent seizure or something, or she was 229 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:11.599 having a bad reaction, that she could have attempted to call nine one one, 230 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:15.920 but before she dibbed the number, she kind of fell over something like 231 00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:18.759 that entangled herself in the chord. Because that is the one piece of evidence 232 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:22.599 which points to foul play. Yet there's nothing else in the apartment that indicates 233 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:26.319 that someone else was there and could have murdered her. Did they do a 234 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:32.200 rape kit? That's actually never been clarified, and I am actually curious about 235 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.039 that. But I think if they had found any semen or any signs of 236 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:37.480 sexual assault, I think they would have recorded it. But then again, 237 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:41.119 because of the decomposition, I don't know if that can kind of skew the 238 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:45.480 results or something so that you can't really tell if someone has been sexually assaulted 239 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.319 after a certain period of time. I was also wondering, and that I 240 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:55.920 obviously not a forensic pathologist, so I don't know. But depending on how 241 00:17:55.960 --> 00:18:00.640 many days somebody has been dead, is there any way that that decomposition could 242 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:04.880 mask some signs of physical assault. It is possible, Like I've studied other 243 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:10.000 cases like that, I don't know the exact timeline, like I've seen it 244 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.079 in cases where say someone has been murdered in an outdoor area in a rural 245 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:18.119 area, and they've been out in the elements for several days or a week 246 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:22.039 before their body is found, and then there's so much decomposition that they say, 247 00:18:22.039 --> 00:18:26.559 we can't say with any certainty if this person was raped or sexual assaulted. 248 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.519 But I don't know if things would reach to that point if she's been 249 00:18:29.559 --> 00:18:36.400 dead for about a week inside an apartment. So on several occasions, Crystal's 250 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.319 family requested a viewer body, but was told by the Coroner's office that it 251 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:44.359 was in no condition to be seen. In spite of this, her family 252 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:48.400 was given the impression that Crystal was the tragic victim of a fatal illness and 253 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.960 had no reason to believe that anything was amiss. Crystal's body would soon be 254 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.200 cremated, and her friends and family held a private memorial service in which her 255 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:02.720 ashes are scattered beneath the Hollywood Sign. However, Anton would soon uncover information 256 00:19:02.839 --> 00:19:07.000 which led them to believe that Crystal may have been murdered. It turned out 257 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.359 that at around four am on the morning of May to seven, two of 258 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:15.200 Cristel's neighbors, who lived downstairs beneath her apartment, were awoken by what sounded 259 00:19:15.240 --> 00:19:18.880 like a woman screaming. The neighbors were Jet Taylor and yes that is his 260 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:23.640 real name, and his Deionce Susan Aiken, who happened to be semi famous 261 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:27.839 since she was a former Miss Mississippi who won the Miss America pageant in nineteen 262 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:33.519 eighty six. The couple believed that the screams were coming from Crystal's apartment and 263 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:37.000 thought they also heard some gagging and choking sounds. At first, they thought 264 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:41.599 it might have been a sexual s and m thing, but the noises continued 265 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:44.960 on for a great deal of time, and begot the impression that they were 266 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.279 genuine screams of pain. Susan would describe it as sounding like someone being tortured 267 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:55.359 while being continuously burned with a cigarette putt. However, even though Susan wanted 268 00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:57.839 to call the police, Jet did not want to get involved, figuring that 269 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:02.240 it might be a domestic dea, which wasn't their business, so he talked 270 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:06.640 her out of it. Later that day, Jet did tell the building's landlord 271 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:08.720 about the screams and advised him to check it out, but he did not 272 00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:14.359 want to get involved either. After Jet and Susan learned about Crystal's death, 273 00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:18.359 they finally shared their account of the screaming with the police, but claimed that 274 00:20:18.400 --> 00:20:22.759 the officer they spoke to seemed disinterested and dismissive of the murder theory. In 275 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:26.839 fact, he seemed to imply that Cristal was a drug addict who died of 276 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.680 an overdose and told them quote, don't you believe she was just sick? 277 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:33.359 Well, I mean you can have both. You can have yes, that 278 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.079 she was sick and that she was also a victim and in fact, that's 279 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:42.519 often more probable than someone who's not sick being a victim. So that's a 280 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:48.119 really insensitive and frustrating comment to have an officer make. It seems just uneducated. 281 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.000 Right. The more sick someone is someone who's an addict, someone who's 282 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:56.160 homeless, someone who's in a high risk lifestyle, then they also have a 283 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:03.319 higher threat of being the victim of foul play. So anyway, that's an 284 00:21:03.319 --> 00:21:07.920 ignorant comment. But when you go back and you hear these screams, they 285 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:12.200 don't sound like a sexual scream like you could even think about was she using 286 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:18.880 that chord to sexually exphyxiate herself? But then there's also no sign of strangulation 287 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:22.920 or anything. So that doesn't make any sense because let's say you were into 288 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:26.240 erotica where you were using a chord so powerfully that it would have you pass 289 00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:30.759 out a little and come back and pass out and come back. Then you 290 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:33.720 would see marks, or you would have some kind of act of you know, 291 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:37.480 discolouration around her neck or something. But that's not how they found her. 292 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:41.839 They said, there's no sign of any kind of foul play, And 293 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.480 at first, a chord tightly around your neck or signs that you had something 294 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:49.039 tightly around your neck would indicate potential of foul play. So that doesn't seem 295 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:55.720 right. And the longevity of her screams like she's almost being tortured, is 296 00:21:55.799 --> 00:22:00.160 really concerning, because again, if it's sexual and she alone in that apartment, 297 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:06.000 how often are you hearing screams? How long do you hear those screams. 298 00:22:06.519 --> 00:22:11.000 The neighbors clearly picked up that there was a concern, and it's almost 299 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:15.039 like that concern was kind of shut out because there wasn't any evidence to point 300 00:22:15.039 --> 00:22:17.599 to foul play, so they just said, let's chalk it up to her 301 00:22:17.640 --> 00:22:22.039 being sick. Did they stop short of investigating the way they needed to to 302 00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:26.880 get a clear answer of whether or not it was natural, accidental, or 303 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:32.480 homicide. Whenever I think of autoerotic asphyxiation, I think of the case of 304 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:37.640 David Carrodine where he was doing it and I think he was living in Thailand 305 00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:40.359 at the time, and then he was found deceased, and it was like, 306 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:42.839 is there more to it or is it just that this was something that 307 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:47.079 he liked to engage in. Yeah, I remember that was kind of a 308 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:49.559 big controversy. I know that the consensus seems to be that it was just 309 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:55.200 an accident where he just kind of went too far and inadvertently caused his own 310 00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:56.960 death. I mean, in Crystal's case, like, even though she was 311 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:02.680 wrapped in a phone cord, it didn't really look like autoerotic asphyxiation and didn't 312 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:06.319 look like she was strangling herself. But I do wonder though, like about 313 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:10.519 the illness explanation. If you're like violently ill and you feel like you're dying 314 00:23:10.599 --> 00:23:14.079 or something, are you going to have the energy to scream for a prolonged 315 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:18.039 period of time. I mean, I know that that's what the police think, 316 00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:21.160 is that she died of an illness, But is that typical to cause 317 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:25.160 reaction just to start screaming for a long time. I don't think so. 318 00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:27.640 I feel like, if she had this strength to be sitting there like moaning 319 00:23:27.720 --> 00:23:32.799 and screaming to a point that sounded next door like she's being tortured, why 320 00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:34.279 not pick up the phone call nine one one. Why not walk to your 321 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:37.559 neighbor's house and be like, I'm so sorry, but I think I'm dying, 322 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.079 Like I'm scared. You would do something like that, wouldn't you? 323 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:44.319 If you had the energy to sit there and for hours be in so much 324 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:48.319 pain as to scream. I feel like you could find a way to get 325 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:55.279 assistance in the time that that took. I agree, it just seems unlikely 326 00:23:55.519 --> 00:24:00.400 that you'd be screaming and wailing so loudly, and that does take a great 327 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:06.480 reservoir of energy to continue on with that. So unless you were restrained in 328 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:11.839 some capacity or unable to walk, maybe she'd suffered some kind of seizure or 329 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:17.279 something like that, and maybe he was unable to use her limbs properly. 330 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:22.440 I don't even know what would be an explanation for being able to be so 331 00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:29.240 loud vocally but not being able to move your body physically. Anton also became 332 00:24:29.319 --> 00:24:33.319 suspicious when he found Crystal's camera in her apartment and decided to develop the film, 333 00:24:33.319 --> 00:24:37.279 which was inside. The last time they saw each other, Anton and 334 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:42.119 Crystal had taken eight photographs of themselves together, but there was a ninth photo 335 00:24:42.200 --> 00:24:47.759 on the roll featuring a man with a mustache sitting at Crystal's table, whom 336 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:52.680 Anton did not recognize. He eventually figured out the identity of the man and 337 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:56.440 gave his name to the police, who interviewed him and dismissed him as a 338 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:00.240 suspect. Well, Anton does not believe this man was in in Cristel's death. 339 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:06.559 The fact that police did not even bother to check Crystal's camera themselves made 340 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:11.680 him question the thoroughness of their investigation. He continually asked for Crystal's autopsy report 341 00:25:11.720 --> 00:25:17.400 and was refused on multiple occasions, but finally received a copy from the Los 342 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:22.039 Angeles County Coroner's office. It was here that he noticed some very odd discrepancies. 343 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:27.000 The report listed Crystal as five to seven and one hundred and forty pounds, 344 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:32.680 but this was not accurate at all. Only three weeks before her death, 345 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:36.880 Crystal had visited a clinic and their medical records listed her as five feet 346 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.039 tall and one hundred and five pounds. In addition, Crystal had metal pins 347 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:45.160 and plates in her right ankle from an accident that she'd suffered nine years earlier, 348 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:49.000 but the report made no mention of this, and stated that her body 349 00:25:49.039 --> 00:25:53.279 was tested for foreign objects such as metal, but turned up nothing. This 350 00:25:53.400 --> 00:25:59.279 made Anton wonder if the autopsy report was for the wrong body. In fact, 351 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:03.559 given that the advanced state of decomposition had made Crystal virtually unrecognizable when she 352 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:10.079 was found. Anton even pondered the possibility that the body in Crystal's apartment might 353 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:15.559 not have actually been her. However, investigators would maintain that the discrepancies in 354 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.839 the autopsy report were nothing more than clerical errors. They claimed that they ran 355 00:26:19.880 --> 00:26:26.599 the body's fingerprints through both county and state files and positively identified her as Crystal. 356 00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.240 Believe it or not. By the time they did this, the fingertips 357 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:34.200 were too deteriorated for normal printing, so they actually had to surgically remove her 358 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:38.160 fingertips from her body and send them to a lab to make a formal ID. 359 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:45.079 The official explanation for the height and weight discrepancies was that mismeasurements of height 360 00:26:45.160 --> 00:26:48.079 can occur when a body is bent or toes or pointed, and the body 361 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:53.000 weights could be miscalculated by fifty pounds or more when workers failed to account for 362 00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:57.359 the weight of movable gurneys the body is resting on. It should also be 363 00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:03.240 noted that no X rays or dental records were used to officially identify Crystal, 364 00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:07.759 and that the coroner's office failed to keep any tissue samples for further review before 365 00:27:07.799 --> 00:27:12.519 her body was cremated. Okay, so, what did they do properly? 366 00:27:12.920 --> 00:27:15.799 I mean, like, how do you know any of this was proper when 367 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:21.400 there's all of these discrepancies. It's frustrating. Like I said, it feels 368 00:27:21.480 --> 00:27:23.720 like with the comment where they said, or she's just sick, Like did 369 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.279 you think about that? You know, it's almost as if that was their 370 00:27:26.279 --> 00:27:30.039 conclusion from the get go. And we've talked about so often, Yes, 371 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:34.200 her body was incredibly decomposed. Yes there's not a clear sign that something happened. 372 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.480 But if they went in assuming this is a natural death or an accident, 373 00:27:40.039 --> 00:27:42.799 did they fall short of putting the time and resources into it? And 374 00:27:42.799 --> 00:27:47.480 when you get a report and you see that there's all these discrepancies, how 375 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:51.480 do you not think that they dropped the ball here? This is one of 376 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:55.559 those cases where, even if Crystal's death was natural causes, you can understand 377 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:00.400 Anton for being so angry about this and wanting to perform his own in independent 378 00:28:00.480 --> 00:28:03.880 investigation because he believed she could have been murdered. And we always talk about 379 00:28:03.880 --> 00:28:07.920 how with every death scene you should always treat it as a potential homicide at 380 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:14.160 the outset and only go towards natural causes or accidental death or suicide if the 381 00:28:14.200 --> 00:28:18.079 evidence takes you in that direction. But it seems like here they just automatically 382 00:28:18.160 --> 00:28:21.720 assumed it was some sort of illness or natural death and did not do a 383 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:29.079 proper investigation and seemingly made every clerical error imaginable when cataloging her body, so 384 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:33.200 that by the time Anton started checking into it, he was finding like all 385 00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:37.440 these discrepancies which made him believe that a major screw up occurred here. So, 386 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:42.319 even though Crystal's body was no longer available, Anton had several medical experts 387 00:28:42.359 --> 00:28:48.759 review Crystal's autopsy, and they all concluded that an additional investigation should be performed. 388 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:52.880 One of the experts he consulted was doctor William Eckert, a renowned forensic 389 00:28:52.920 --> 00:28:56.799 pathologist who had worked on the post mortem of Robert F. Kennedy, and 390 00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:02.759 he thought there was a possibility that the exact cause of Cristel's death was strangulation. 391 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:07.319 In spite of this, the Burbank Police Department continued to maintain that they 392 00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:11.960 had already performed a full investigation and found no evidence of murder. They claimed 393 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:17.319 their inquiry revealed that Crystal had a history of alcohol and drug abuse and had 394 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:22.960 threatened suicide in the past. The official autopsy report even contained quotes from Crystal's 395 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:26.720 friends who claimed she was depressed about her situation and had developed a drinking problem, 396 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:33.160 and Cristel's own mother even described her as having a quote unquote unstable personality. 397 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:38.160 Even though Jet Tailor and Susan Aiken had reported hearing screaming from Cristel's apartment 398 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:44.279 during the early morning hours of May the seventh, another neighbor apparently told police 399 00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:48.119 that they heard the sounds of someone who was violently ill, which started during 400 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:51.559 the day on May the sixth and gradually got worse as the night went on. 401 00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:55.720 If these sounds were made by Crystal, then this will lend credence to 402 00:29:55.799 --> 00:30:00.279 the idea that she was suffering from a fatal illness. While her exactly cause 403 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:03.799 of death was listed as undetermined, a coroner spokesman was quoted as saying that 404 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:10.240 out of the approximately eighteen thousand deaths investigated in Los Angeles each year, there 405 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:14.319 are about forty or fifty where it is just impossible to tell how the victim 406 00:30:14.359 --> 00:30:18.960 died. However, there was some uncertainty about how sick Crystal actually was on 407 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:22.759 May to sixth, as she allegedly danced at the Wild Goose that night, 408 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.720 even though the club did not have a record of Crystal signing in for that 409 00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:32.680 ship. A waitress friend of hers and the club's security officer recalled her having 410 00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:37.440 worked there on Made the sixth and May the six Just to recall, that's 411 00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:38.759 the night that she was talking to her sister. That's the last time she 412 00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:42.319 had the phone call, Yes, exactly. So the way she was acting 413 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:45.200 on the phone with her sister does not seem like she would have been working 414 00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:49.319 that same day. So there is a possibility that maybe these employees are just 415 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:53.839 mistaken about the night she was there. Yeah, Either that she's playing it 416 00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:59.359 up for her sister, or and she's not really sick, which decreases the 417 00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:03.759 likelihood that she's dying of natural causes. Or is she so desperate that she 418 00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:08.160 needs that money or feels so desperate that she needs that money and goes is 419 00:31:08.200 --> 00:31:12.119 there someone that night that poisoned her? Again, because you hear of people 420 00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:17.119 who will say, yeah, you know, there'll be a case where there's 421 00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:19.039 a poisoning death, but you go the wife tried to kill him on May 422 00:31:19.079 --> 00:31:22.559 thirteenth, it didn't work. She just got really sick or he just got 423 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:26.559 really sick, and then tried again on April fourth, and then tried again 424 00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:29.119 on May six, Like, is it possible she did go to work and 425 00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:32.519 someone slips in the air drink and then broke into her apartment that night as 426 00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:36.799 well? I mean it is possible because I remember Anton, when he last 427 00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:40.200 saw Crystal, said that she was very sick. But then when he spoke 428 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:42.599 to her again on May the fifth, she told him that she was feeling 429 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:45.240 much better. And then all of a sudden on May the six when she 430 00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:48.640 talks to her sister, she's very sick again, and so sick that she 431 00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:52.160 says she can't make it to the bathroom. So if this was a poisoning, 432 00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:56.319 I guess it is possible that someone attempted it the first time it did 433 00:31:56.359 --> 00:32:00.240 not work, so they may poison her again sometimes between me the fifth and 434 00:32:00.279 --> 00:32:04.680 the sixth, and this time it actually did work. And you see here 435 00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:08.880 too that this renowned forensic pathologist says he thinks that it actually could have been 436 00:32:08.920 --> 00:32:13.799 strangulation. If you think it could have been, how is everybody else so 437 00:32:13.839 --> 00:32:17.240 clear that no, it's not. Her body was so decomposed to immediately say 438 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:22.799 we're confident that this is either this is natural causes, nothing happened, and 439 00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:25.839 then you have a world renown forensic pathologist who comes in and says, hmm, 440 00:32:27.079 --> 00:32:30.759 I actually believe that, you know, strangulation is a high probability. 441 00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:36.680 To just rule that out seems wild to me. The fact that she was 442 00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:40.160 an exotic dancer might have factored in, especially since they thought that she had 443 00:32:40.440 --> 00:32:45.640 a problem with alcohol, that she had mental health issues, and the potentially 444 00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:49.359 an issue with drugs as well was brought up. I just think that there 445 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:52.720 they may have lost their vigor to investigate, and we're just too quick to 446 00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:58.000 go, oh, this was obviously just accidental. It was an illness. 447 00:32:58.079 --> 00:33:00.799 It was not murder. Just like they were too quick to write her off 448 00:33:00.839 --> 00:33:05.640 because she was like the less dead. Yep, she's a less valuable victim, 449 00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:10.799 right, the invaluable victim. That seems wild. Anton continued to believe 450 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:15.119 that a cover up was being orchestrated for Crystal's death. He claimed that he 451 00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:20.119 spoke on the phone with law enforcement officials who told him, quote, bad 452 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:24.839 things happened to bad girls. When Anton asked for clarification about what that statement 453 00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:30.000 meant, the official replied, quote, you know, exactly what I mean 454 00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:35.880 before abruptly hanging up. Crystal's mother filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County 455 00:33:35.880 --> 00:33:40.759 Coroner's Office over the mistakes with the autopsy report, while Anton filed suit against 456 00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:45.640 Burbank PD on multiple occasions in order to garner access to their files about the 457 00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:51.599 case. On each occasion, the courts ruled against Anton, but he made 458 00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:54.400 sure to keep Crystal's story in the spotlight, as it was profiled on an 459 00:33:54.400 --> 00:33:59.920 episode of Unsolved Mysteries in March of nineteen ninety one, and featured on such 460 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:05.279 TV shows as Hard Copy and A Current Affair. The Los Angeles Times published 461 00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:09.119 an extensive article about the case in February of nineteen ninety two, and one 462 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:14.559 of the original detectives, Kevin Kraft, claimed that Anton had accused him of 463 00:34:14.599 --> 00:34:20.239 being associated with Japanese organized crime. Well. A few weeks later, the 464 00:34:20.280 --> 00:34:23.719 Times published a letter that Anton had written to the editor in which he denied 465 00:34:23.800 --> 00:34:29.559 ever having said this. It was during this article that Anton named a potential 466 00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:35.880 suspect in Crystal's death. Horace McKenna, a three hundred pound bodybuilder nicknamed Big 467 00:34:35.960 --> 00:34:40.239 Mac. McKenna, was a former California Highway patrol officer who was fired and 468 00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:45.920 spent time in prison after he was caught passing counterfeit money. After he was 469 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:50.039 released, McKenna became the owner of a bunch of talkless bars, one of 470 00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:53.840 which was allegedly the Wild Goose. As a convicted felon, McKenna could not 471 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.559 legally get a permit to operate these bars, which is why he was not 472 00:34:58.719 --> 00:35:02.280 listed on their financial reas and was considered to be a secret owner who took 473 00:35:02.280 --> 00:35:07.000 home a bulk of the profits. McKenna was known for being a very eccentric 474 00:35:07.039 --> 00:35:12.840 figure who lived on a forty acre estate which housed exotic animals like monkeys, 475 00:35:13.159 --> 00:35:20.000 wildcats, and alligators. He also allegedly operated an illegal gambling casino out of 476 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:22.679 a warehouse in Inglewood, and, according to a waitress who worked at the 477 00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:28.719 Wild Goose, Crystal often spent time at the casino. He was rumored the 478 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:32.320 McKenna often held parties for his friend's law enforcement and used some of the women 479 00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:37.400 from his populace bars to entertain them. Well, whether or not he's a 480 00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:40.079 murderer or not, this guy clearly is up to no good because he can't 481 00:35:40.079 --> 00:35:45.760 even get a permit to operate a bar, he's a convicted felon, and 482 00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:51.199 yet he lives this luxurious lifestyle. So you have to step back and say, 483 00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:53.559 where did you get those funds? Like you're not even able to procure 484 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:59.679 certificates and permits and things you need to run a business establishment, So where 485 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:02.159 are you laundering your money from? How are you getting access to all of 486 00:36:02.199 --> 00:36:09.280 these funds, and yet you can't legally operate an operation a legal operation. 487 00:36:09.519 --> 00:36:15.199 So it's definitely a concerning friend and associate to be linked to. And it's 488 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:20.039 concerning that he has his law enforcement friends over at these almost you know, 489 00:36:20.039 --> 00:36:23.480 near illegal parties where you don't know what's going on there. But that's not 490 00:36:23.559 --> 00:36:28.719 surprising all the time. What does Anton think? Does he know that there 491 00:36:28.760 --> 00:36:30.559 was trouble between the two when he throws his name out, because that's a 492 00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:35.159 big accusation. Well, that's the thing is that, as we're going to 493 00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:38.599 talk about, Torus, McKenna was already dead by the time Anton started publicly 494 00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:43.039 accusing him. He is quite a shady character. You could probably do a 495 00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:46.760 whole podcast episode on just McKenna himself because of all the stuff he was involved 496 00:36:46.760 --> 00:36:52.840 in throughout his life. But the problem is is that we still aren't even 497 00:36:52.880 --> 00:36:55.320 one hundred percent certain if he ever crossed paths with Crystal. I mean, 498 00:36:55.639 --> 00:36:59.480 it's rumored that he was a secret owner of the Wild Goose, and we've 499 00:36:59.519 --> 00:37:02.280 heard all the stories about these parties he was hold, but it's nothing more 500 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:06.920 than your saying gossip, because I don't think anyone has ever verified that, 501 00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:10.840 Yes, Crystal often spent time hanging around McKenna and entertaining some of his friends. 502 00:37:10.840 --> 00:37:15.559 So it could be just be a thing where this is like Anton's speculation, 503 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:19.039 where he's heard about this guy and he automatically assumes that because he was 504 00:37:19.079 --> 00:37:22.119 involved in such shady stuff that he had to have a role in Crystal's death. 505 00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:27.840 We know she was really depressed about her situation, that she'd had people 506 00:37:27.840 --> 00:37:30.719 close to her that had said as much, and we don't know if she 507 00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:36.000 knew Horace McKenna. But is it possible that she was really depressed about her 508 00:37:36.039 --> 00:37:39.519 situation not just because she was working at the Wild Goose, but maybe because 509 00:37:39.599 --> 00:37:45.960 something happened at one of these parties at Horace McKenna's, Because it seems like 510 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.760 there's a potential that there could be some powerful people there. We know that 511 00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:52.719 there's friends in law enforcement, but we have to think maybe there's other people 512 00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:57.320 who were higher up, and did she know too much? Did she see 513 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:01.280 too much? Was there some motivation to silence? Sure, it is certainly 514 00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:05.559 possible, and there have been a lot of rumors like that that have spread 515 00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:08.280 over the years, even though they've never been confirmed. And I can see 516 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:12.840 something where if Crystal had to attend one of these parties and she was sexually 517 00:38:12.880 --> 00:38:15.920 assaulted by, say a law enforcement officer, I could see a remaining silent 518 00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:21.119 about that and not telling Anton because she didn't initially even want to tell him 519 00:38:21.119 --> 00:38:23.760 that she was working at a topless bar. So if she was getting involved 520 00:38:23.800 --> 00:38:28.480 with in situations where other men were having sex with her or raping her, 521 00:38:28.599 --> 00:38:34.719 I could see her not telling Anton and then being very depressed about it because 522 00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:37.679 it doesn't seem like to both of you that I mean. Now, it's 523 00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:42.239 a little bit different if you're going to move abroad and start a completely different 524 00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:45.920 job, But it seems more extreme back in the nineteen eighties because you'd have 525 00:38:45.960 --> 00:38:52.440 to get calling cards, you'd have to use payphones, less people spoke English, 526 00:38:52.559 --> 00:38:55.199 you didn't have translation apps, you didn't have the internet, you didn't. 527 00:38:55.440 --> 00:39:00.519 You couldn't call on your smartphone. These weren't options, and there was 528 00:39:00.599 --> 00:39:04.760 no cell phones back then. There was no computers or there was no internet. 529 00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:07.440 There was computers, but you just didn't have that option. So to 530 00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:12.639 make this decision, especially when you already have a boyfriend, you have to 531 00:39:12.639 --> 00:39:15.119 ask the question is what are the reasons that she's running away? Is she 532 00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:19.519 running away because she isn't happy, is she trying to leave her problems, 533 00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:22.679 or is there a specific incident that she's trying to flee from. Well, 534 00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:25.840 that's the thing is that she apparently said that her gig in Japan was only 535 00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:30.519 going to be about three months, so it would just be a temporary thing. 536 00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:34.119 It wouldn't like pause her to uproot her life or anything. But it 537 00:39:34.159 --> 00:39:37.679 is kind of frustrating that we have no more details about the Japan gig, 538 00:39:37.679 --> 00:39:42.559 about who got it for Crystal and who she hooked up with, because if 539 00:39:42.599 --> 00:39:45.519 it was something to do with Horace McKenna, then you can kind of see 540 00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:51.639 that maybe there are aulterior motives here that if McKenna is connected to Japanese organized 541 00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:54.440 crime, maybe he's sending her over there to entertain friends of his. But 542 00:39:54.760 --> 00:40:00.800 we just don't know anyway. By the time Anton publicly expressed his suspicions about 543 00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:04.639 McKenna, he had already become the victim of his own murder. On March 544 00:40:04.840 --> 00:40:08.000 ninth, nineteen eighty nine, ten months after Crystal's death, a government fired 545 00:40:08.039 --> 00:40:13.039 twenty rounds into McKenna while his limousine was parked outside his match in Brea, 546 00:40:13.119 --> 00:40:17.960 California. The prime occurred only hours after court records were unsealed, which revealed 547 00:40:17.960 --> 00:40:23.119 that a Los Angeles district attorney was investigating McKenna and his business partner, Michael 548 00:40:23.119 --> 00:40:28.960 Woods for tax fraud. Anton would eventually learn that the FBI had been keeping 549 00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:31.440 a file on Crystal, and although they turned it over to him, twenty 550 00:40:31.480 --> 00:40:37.480 one pages of documents from the file were withheld. This made Anton suspect that 551 00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:42.079 Crystal was working as an informant for the FBI as part of their investigation into 552 00:40:42.119 --> 00:40:45.840 McKenna, which may have put her life in danger. Well. Even though 553 00:40:45.920 --> 00:40:50.079 mckennon's murder was still unsolved at the time Anton pointed the finger at him, 554 00:40:50.239 --> 00:40:54.079 there would finally be a resolution in two thousand. It turned out that mckennon's 555 00:40:54.079 --> 00:41:00.760 death was a contract killing orchestrated by his partner Michael Woods and another business associate, 556 00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:05.480 David Amos, who paid a gunman named John Patrick Sheridan twenty five thousand 557 00:41:05.480 --> 00:41:08.119 dollars to shoot ni Kenna so that they could take control of his businesses. 558 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:14.679 In exchange for their testimony, Amos and Sheridan each received twenty year sentences from 559 00:41:14.679 --> 00:41:19.239 manslaughter, while Woods was convicted at his trial and received a sentence of twenty 560 00:41:19.239 --> 00:41:23.039 five years to life for hers degree murder. Throughout all this, no evidence 561 00:41:23.119 --> 00:41:28.400 was ever found to connect Horas McKenna to Crystal Spencer or implicate him in her 562 00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:34.159 debt. The investigation into Crystal's death was never reopened, so the actual circumstances 563 00:41:34.199 --> 00:41:37.719 of how she died continued to remain unknown. So I guess you could say 564 00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:44.800 the path went Chile. Okay, let's rewind to where Anton eventually learned that 565 00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:50.119 the FBI was keeping a file on Crystal and they turn it over to him. 566 00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:54.920 There's twenty one pages withheld. That's a big document that the FBI has 567 00:41:54.960 --> 00:42:01.679 on her for what? Question mark for what? Because something bigger's going on 568 00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:06.920 than her just being a topless dancer who might struggle with alcohol. Something bigger's 569 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:12.639 happening, So, yes, you withheld this information. Is it that she 570 00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:15.800 was an informant? It doesn't have to be mckinna, but it could be 571 00:42:15.920 --> 00:42:21.000 someone who finds out she's telling about the Topless Bar. A lot of human 572 00:42:21.039 --> 00:42:25.880 trafficking and sex abuse goes on in these bars, a lot of undercover prostitution 573 00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:30.960 happens, All kinds of things occur in these places, drug deals. So 574 00:42:30.199 --> 00:42:34.800 if she was being in an informant, whether it's related to McKenna or not, 575 00:42:35.519 --> 00:42:38.320 that is a high risk position to have her in as well. And 576 00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:44.960 what in the world was the file started for in the first place. Yeah, 577 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:47.360 that is the most frustrating element of this case that we've never found out 578 00:42:47.440 --> 00:42:52.400 what was in that file or what Crystal would have been doing for the FBI, 579 00:42:52.599 --> 00:42:57.119 which just seems crazy that this topless dancer who wants to become a Hollywood 580 00:42:57.159 --> 00:43:00.960 actress would become involved in something like this. Part of me is wondered if 581 00:43:00.039 --> 00:43:04.679 maybe it has something to do with her so called Japan trip, like maybe 582 00:43:04.719 --> 00:43:07.360 it was some sort of undercover assignment where she was going to be sent over 583 00:43:07.400 --> 00:43:12.840 there to help the FBI with an investigation. But that's all just speculation. 584 00:43:13.039 --> 00:43:16.840 We still don't know. And even though, like McKenna, was already dead 585 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:21.519 by the time Anton tried to inquire about this file, they still would not 586 00:43:21.639 --> 00:43:25.440 give him this information about why exactly they were keeping her on the payroll. 587 00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:30.159 See. To me, that's a major red flag and problem. I don't 588 00:43:30.199 --> 00:43:34.719 think the FBI has a file on me, unless it's because of my Internet 589 00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:38.559 searches. But the fact that there was even a file on her says that 590 00:43:38.599 --> 00:43:43.519 there was something bigger going on in Crystal's life that clearly none of us are 591 00:43:43.559 --> 00:43:45.800 aware of. So I think this would be a good time to bring an 592 00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:49.960 end too Part one, but join us next week as we present part two 593 00:43:49.960 --> 00:43:52.239 of our series about the unexplained death of Crystal Spencer.