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Every week, 39 00:01:56.040 --> 00:01:59.799 another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous 40 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:03.959 kill there's in true crime history. True Murder with your host, 41 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:06.840 journalist and author Dan Zufanski. 42 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:21.599 Good evening today. You'd call Balentine suburban, but back then, 43 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:24.199 at the start of the summer of nineteen sixty six, 44 00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:28.319 it was country, just a cluster of houses, some of 45 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:32.280 them shacks on or near Valentine Road in the town 46 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:36.400 of Cherlet, New York. And while June twenty fifth started 47 00:02:36.439 --> 00:02:39.280 like any other day, it would end in a nightmare 48 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:44.560 in the devil at Genesee Junction. Veteran crime writer Michael 49 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:48.960 Benson returns to his formerly rural hometown to take on 50 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:53.039 the double homicide of his friends Kathy Bernhard and Georgie 51 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.719 Anne Formacola that took place that night. The two girls 52 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.759 were missing for a month and then found in the 53 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:07.120 bushes horribly mutilated. The double homicide changed the author's childhood 54 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:11.400 suddenly and drastically. He went from living in a rural 55 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:15.319 playland to being encased in fear, wondering who among them 56 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.599 was the werewolf who cut up Kathy in George Anne. 57 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:22.439 This hain'tus crime was never resolved and didn't go away 58 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.439 in recent years. The author is teamed up with a 59 00:03:25.560 --> 00:03:29.360 victim's mum and a local private investigator to delve deep 60 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:33.680 into the June sixth, nineteen sixty six murders. Developing along 61 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:38.080 the way some strong new leads and shocking details. Together, 62 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:40.599 they have heated up the icy cold case, and their 63 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:44.560 investigation has led them in a startling new direction. The 64 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:47.319 book that we're featuring this evening is The Devil at 65 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:52.560 Genesee Junction with my special guest journalist and author Michael Benson. 66 00:03:52.759 --> 00:03:54.759 Welcome back to the program, and thank you very much 67 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:56.639 for green to this's interview Michael Benson. 68 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:01.120 Thanks Dan Pleasure, Thank you very. 69 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:07.039 Much, Michael, and congratulations on what has to be one 70 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.719 of your most personal, if not your most personal books. 71 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:11.120 I'm sure and. 72 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:15.560 Yeah, I was thinking about that. I mean, next to 73 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:19.920 raising two practically perfect kids, just maybe my proudest moment. 74 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:24.480 The book has literally been forty nine years in the making. 75 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:28.279 I started writing sections of it when I was twelve, 76 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:33.439 and those sections appear in the book, and I worked 77 00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:39.279 on it oft and on until earlier this year, when 78 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:43.000 since then it's been a matter of getting it published. 79 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.680 And holy cal, I can't believe this is actually happening 80 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:47.519 after all this time. 81 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:53.160 Yes, it's really is. I know it's not really a 82 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:55.600 good description when they talk about it. It's part memoir. 83 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:00.040 It's just I think the greatest true crime and the 84 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:04.439 greatest nonfiction is when the author has the opportunity, or 85 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:09.399 it is the necessity, or the project just again necessitates 86 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.639 that the author is involved in the story. So I 87 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.160 think it's fascinating that you're so involved in this and 88 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:18.480 it becomes even a more profound story by Virtue. 89 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.319 Yeah, you know, it's like I didn't choose the subject. 90 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:25.879 It shows me, as she said, when I was nine 91 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:29.279 years old, George an Formacall. It was a friend of 92 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.319 mine and my babysitter. She was fourteen at the time. 93 00:05:32.439 --> 00:05:34.439 She lived two houses away. She lived on a dirt 94 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:37.839 road with a field that led back to a creek 95 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.600 not far from the Genesee River. She and her friend 96 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:46.279 Kathy Bernhard, we also knew, lived a little bit down 97 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:49.639 the road. They went swimming in their two piece bathing suits. 98 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.600 George and Say's brand News. She bought it at the 99 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.240 mall just that day, and they went swimming in Black 100 00:05:54.279 --> 00:05:58.399 Creek next to an ancient stone trestle which was originally 101 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:00.879 built back in the nineteenth century. There is a towpath 102 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:03.519 for mules to pull barges up the Genesee Valley Canal. 103 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:08.040 And this was in the town of chi Lai. Yeah, everybody, 104 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.800 everybody from out of town pronounced to the Chile. It's okay, 105 00:06:11.319 --> 00:06:14.800 but it's Chilai and south of Rochester, New York, and 106 00:06:14.879 --> 00:06:18.639 the spot was adjacent to the Genesee Junction, thus the title, 107 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.959 and that was where the Pennsylvania and New York Central 108 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:26.120 railroads crossed again, not far from the river, just east 109 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.839 of my dad's property. Back maybe in the nineteen twenties, 110 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:33.439 there was a little village there because that was where 111 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:36.360 passenger trains stopped and people transferred from going east west 112 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:39.040 to north south. But by nineteen sixty six it was 113 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:42.800 pretty much a ghost town back there. The train still ran, 114 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:47.360 but they were now freight trains, and there were maybe 115 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.040 two buildings back there today if you want, if you 116 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:52.040 went back to the Genesee Junction, it shows up as 117 00:06:52.040 --> 00:06:54.120 a town on maps still, but you went back there, 118 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:56.839 you would find, you know, a path going through the weeds. 119 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.560 It was graduation night at local high school. It was 120 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.319 the first night of summer vacation. Then the girls went 121 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:09.120 back there carrying nothing but two towels and a transistor 122 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:13.519 radio and they never returned. Now, during the time the 123 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:16.759 girls were missing, some folks said that they just run off. 124 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:21.240 Experts from the Sheriff's office said they didn't think so, 125 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.720 because girls who run away almost always take clothes in 126 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:28.319 and makeup. The other theory was that they had drowned, 127 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:31.839 but that also seemed unlikely. You know, both of them 128 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:36.079 probably wouldn't drown, and they were excellent swimmers. And it 129 00:07:36.120 --> 00:07:40.040 never it didn't occur to me as a little boy 130 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.560 that there was foul play involved. I just didn't think 131 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:45.680 that way at that age. Well, a month went by 132 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:48.360 and we kept waiting for the girls to be found, 133 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:52.839 you know, maybe with boyfriends off someplace. But after a 134 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.199 month long search, they were found by a farmer on 135 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:59.839 a tractor who was investigating an unpleasant smell the site 136 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:03.279 to the west of my dad's property. They disappeared on 137 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:05.279 one side of our land and were found on the other. 138 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:07.519 So I spent the rest of my childhood with the 139 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:11.240 knowledge that, you know, a very real boogeyman had walked 140 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:14.360 behind my house. I never looked out. I never looked 141 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:16.519 out a window at night again after that, because there 142 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:18.160 was too much of a chance that someone might be 143 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:22.800 looking back. The girl's remains were in bad shape. As 144 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:26.279 you said, it wasn't just from decomposition. They had been 145 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:29.040 knife to death and horribly mutilated in a manner that 146 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:32.919 civilized newspapers couldn't report at the time, although they handed 147 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:35.919 at it. The details which I later learned are in 148 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.600 the book. The sheriff told the press that they were 149 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:42.279 looking for a sex maniac. So you know, again, from 150 00:08:42.279 --> 00:08:44.639 my nine year old perspective, I was learning about sex 151 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.799 crimes before I had learned about sex. But the sheriff 152 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:52.480 was right. Years later, when looking at suspects, I always 153 00:08:52.519 --> 00:08:54.600 asked myself that question up front. It's this guy a 154 00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:58.320 sex maniac, and some where some weren't, and if they weren't, 155 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:01.480 they tended to be crossed off the list. And you know, 156 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.279 as you noted that the murders had a terrible effect 157 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:08.159 on my neighborhood in my childhood, we were sad, of course, 158 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.279 but we were also terrified, you know, there was a 159 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.440 monster on the loose. I've been living in a rural paradise, 160 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:16.759 kind of a Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer type world, 161 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:20.679 barefoot kids running around dirt paths through the fields because 162 00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:24.480 everybody took a bee line to each other's houses. And 163 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:27.440 as soon as the bodies were found, all those paths 164 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:30.679 grew over because kids who had been free to explore 165 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:32.759 the creek area and the railroad junction on the other 166 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:35.240 side were now kept on a short leash, never allowed 167 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:38.120 out of Mom's site. So the bottom line was I 168 00:09:38.120 --> 00:09:41.320 grew up obsessed with the crime, and this may be 169 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:43.240 the reason why I became a true crime writer in 170 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:45.240 the first place. I don't think that's a coincidence at all. 171 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:51.639 And the crime was never solved, possibly until maybe the 172 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:54.039 very near future, but you know, we'll get to that. 173 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:58.000 During the nineteen nineties, when I was in my thirties, 174 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.360 I conducted my first investigation. At the time, I was 175 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:05.200 a magazine editor, not dealing with crime at all, but 176 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:08.039 with a little bit of knowledge of how the world worked, 177 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:14.519 and I became obsessed with true crime books. It was 178 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.480 a rather young genre at the time. I read them all, 179 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:24.480 I think, and I was looking forms that matched our case, 180 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:30.240 my case, and although I didn't know the precise details, 181 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:34.039 I knew that there was sexual mutilation involved, and so 182 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:38.840 I read them all. And the guy who fit the 183 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:44.159 bill closest initially was Arthur Shawcross. I'm sure your listeners 184 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:48.080 are familiar with him. He was a convicted serial convicted 185 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:51.039 serial killer of prostitutes in Rochester during the nineteen eighties. 186 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.360 There are a number of things about Shawcross's biography that 187 00:10:54.440 --> 00:10:59.159 got my attention as a youth, he established a pattern 188 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:04.039 of traveling back roads by car, setting fires, and spending 189 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:05.840 lengthy times alone in the woods. 190 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:06.639 You know. 191 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.120 He turned twenty one years old in June of nineteen 192 00:11:09.159 --> 00:11:14.080 sixty six, nineteen days before the girls disappeared, and during 193 00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:17.080 that month he was floating around upstate New York looking 194 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:20.159 for a job. That's what he's This is according to him, 195 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.519 and as was his lifelong habit. When he was free. 196 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:26.960 He liked to park his car and wander along streams 197 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:31.360 and rivers looking for secluded places to fish. At least 198 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:34.799 that's what he called it. In nineteen seventy two, around 199 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:37.960 the time of his first two known murders, Shawcross's then 200 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.960 wife Pandy, said that he'd gone on dozens of fishing 201 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.759 trips during their time together, but he'd never once come 202 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:48.120 home with any fish. So Chawcross was sexually messed up 203 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:50.480 even as a youth, and he reportedly got a sexual 204 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:54.159 charge out of lighting fires. He'd done to prison once 205 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:58.639 for arson. He torched a factory in Watertown Factory Street, 206 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:01.559 creating more than a quarter million dollars of damage, and 207 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.960 in nineteen sixty six, he'd been on parole for just 208 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:07.960 over a year, he was expert with a knife. He 209 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:11.799 hunted deer he could dress game. Later he would talk 210 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:13.799 about wanting to kill a dough so that he could 211 00:12:13.879 --> 00:12:18.519 use his hunting knife to remove the animal's vagina. One 212 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:20.279 of his jobs as a young adult was as an 213 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:24.799 apprentice butcher. He had mis rated animals in Adams, New York, 214 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.480 and he later boasted the for eighty five dollars a week. 215 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:31.600 He learned to slaughter nineteen thowsand bowls a day and until, 216 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:34.440 as he put it, the krick runs red. During the 217 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.600 summer of sixty six, due to his domestic woes, he 218 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:40.840 wasn't get along with his wife. He thought of himself 219 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.240 as a bachelor again, and he was rambling around. He 220 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:47.559 said that he did strange things that summer. He drove 221 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.600 around in a hot looking fifty eight pontiac, picked up 222 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:53.759 girls and had sex with them. He boasted, he couldn't 223 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:57.440 stop himself, which sounds like he's describing rape or some 224 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:01.440 sort of there was, you know, Romans and whatever it 225 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.399 is he's describing. There now Kathy and Georgiana spirit in June, 226 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.840 the values have found in July and in August, Shawcross 227 00:13:08.840 --> 00:13:11.919 and his wife separated for good and eight months later 228 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:14.960 he was inducted into the army. He went to Vietnam 229 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:18.360 and came back telling horrific stories in which he killed 230 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:22.759 young females. But since they were in this again of quote, 231 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.159 Viet Kong chicks, they weren't really murders at all. They 232 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.159 were kills. You know. He was big a war hero. 233 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:32.559 And in one story, he happens upon two teenage girls 234 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:35.639 bathing nude in a stream, waist deep in water, and 235 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:41.039 he bragged, quote, they were both VC. I mutilated them. 236 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:44.200 After his Rochester arrest in nineteen eighty nine, he complained 237 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.559 that that mutilation murder of the two girls in Vietnam 238 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:52.360 haunted him most. Still, he considered his Vietnam kills his accomplishments, 239 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:57.679 his achievements. He used post traumatic stress syndrome from the 240 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:00.879 war as an excuse for his later murders. Now, his 241 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:05.559 war stories were horrific, and they were also apparently untrue. 242 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:09.759 According to his military records, he served two six month 243 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:13.639 tours as a supply and parts specialist and was honorably 244 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:19.039 discharged in April nineteen sixty nine. So he made those 245 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:22.840 stories up? Or did he? I mean, he was confessing 246 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:25.159 to something. I talked to psychologists, and they said, you know, 247 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:29.720 he didn't make the stories are too detailed for them 248 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:35.000 to be completely imaginary. But he may have taken incidents 249 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.320 that happened elsewhere and put them in Vietnam so that 250 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:42.879 his ego could deal with them. And he always blamed 251 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:46.519 the war on his later murders. He committed his later 252 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:52.679 murders because of post traumatic stress. Now, during the eighties, 253 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:56.240 he murdered prostitutes and other vulnerable women in the street 254 00:14:56.279 --> 00:14:59.960 by strangulations and dumped them near or in the two 255 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.840 Oynasee River, and several victims were mutilated post mortem in 256 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:07.840 a way identical to the mutilations found in My Girls 257 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:12.240 in nineteen sixty six. So a comparison of Shawcross's behavior 258 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:15.399 and that of the Genesee Junction killer was compelling, and 259 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.600 so much though that in nineteen ninety nine, armed with 260 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:21.200 my knowledge of Shawcross and my limited knowledge of what 261 00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:23.720 had happened to Kathy and George An, because the papers 262 00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:26.519 didn't print it and police wouldn't talk to me, I 263 00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:30.519 sent a written summary of my findings to the Monroe 264 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:34.639 County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigation Division, spoke with a detective 265 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:38.879 sergeant there, who apparently was pretty impressed with the letter 266 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:40.919 I sent, and I pretty much laid it out just 267 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:43.759 as I laid it out for you. And they sent 268 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.679 a team of interrogators to the Sullivan County Correctional Facility 269 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:51.039 and asked Shawcross point blank if he knew anything about 270 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:54.000 Kathy and Georgia Anne. And Shawcross put his chin on 271 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:57.840 his chest, closed his eyes, all his hands in the fists, 272 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.879 and refused to discuss it. I was told that it 273 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:04.039 was the same reaction his interrogators got when they asked 274 00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:07.759 him questions about his mother. It was a standard response 275 00:16:07.799 --> 00:16:11.360 to what he considered a tough question. Now, sergeant told 276 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.120 me that was all he could do, couldn't discuss it 277 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:17.039 any further details because the case was still open. And 278 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:19.559 I thanked him and he hung up, and for a 279 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:22.559 time I felt great. I had, by proxy anyway got 280 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.159 me in the shop across the space and confronted his 281 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:28.519 entire ecosystem. He'd had a chance to deny that he 282 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:33.279 was the Genesee junction killer, and he'd refused, And that 283 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:38.039 was about it for my nineteen nineties investigation. I knew 284 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.399 that I couldn't come to a conclusion about who killed 285 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:43.679 the girls, though until I knew more about the initial 286 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:47.679 nineteen sixty six investigation by the Sheriff's office. But how 287 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:51.879 to do that? So exactly we skip We skip ahead 288 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:54.360 to the first decade of the twenty first century, and 289 00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:58.399 I'm looking at the crime from all angles, and I 290 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:02.799 came across an interesting thing, a conspiracy theory that I 291 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:05.440 still find somewhat difficult to ignore. I still find the 292 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:10.440 Shawcross evidence difficult to ignore. It's my philosophy that you 293 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:12.839 don't have to believe in conspiracy theories to enjoy a 294 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:15.079 good one. And this is the one I developed for 295 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:19.880 this case. It started during the early days of my 296 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:25.799 true crime career and I read this excerpt from a 297 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:30.440 called the Satanic Bible, and it goes, Satanic Age is 298 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:34.160 last one four hundred and fifty eight years. The last 299 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:37.400 one where God was on top and Satan was cast 300 00:17:37.480 --> 00:17:43.240 down started in eighty fiveh eight. Consequently, the new Satanic 301 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:47.319 Age began in nineteen sixty six, and this time Satan 302 00:17:47.519 --> 00:17:51.720 is on top. Nineteen sixty six is year one an 303 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:55.759 Ol Satanas, the first year of the reign of Satan. 304 00:17:56.240 --> 00:17:58.839 And those words were written by Anton Leavey, founder of 305 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:02.480 the Church of Satan right now. The original title of 306 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:06.200 this book was six slash sixty six because the murder 307 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:08.559 took place in June of nineteen sixty six and it's 308 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:11.839 the Devil's number, but that was mixed by the publisher 309 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.480 because numerals mess up search engines and make the book 310 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:19.119 difficult to alphabetize. So we went with the devil a 311 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:21.680 Genese junction, which I also liked very much, and we 312 00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:25.880 put the number of the beast in the subtitle. So anyway, 313 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:29.599 that's getting out of order. Going back to my original 314 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:34.079 discovery of this, I figured if there was Satanic significance 315 00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:36.200 to the month and year of the murders, you know, 316 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:40.000 six slash sixty six had meaning, then the proximity to 317 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:43.559 the Summer Solstice had meaning as well, because that's a 318 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:50.440 Satanic holiday. The next Black holiday after Summer Solstice would 319 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:53.559 feature Satan Goncore, and that turned out to be Lamas 320 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:58.119 Day August first, nineteen sixty six, which was the day 321 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:01.880 Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the University of 322 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:06.319 Texas Tower in Austin and using a sniper rifle, killed 323 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:09.799 sixteen people and will get thirty two others. People think 324 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:12.559 of Columbine. I think as the event that made school 325 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:16.039 spree killing a thing, but it actually happened years earlier 326 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:20.319 in Texas. After Lama's Day came all hollow z nineteen 327 00:19:20.359 --> 00:19:24.720 sixty six, and that was when beautiful co ed Cherry 328 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:27.559 Joe Bates was knife to death on the campus of 329 00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:31.400 Riverside Community College in Riverside, California. She was eighteen in 330 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:35.000 a freshman and later a note apparently from the killer 331 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.920 was found written on a desk in the college library. 332 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:44.480 Now today because of compelling handwriting comparisons and a letter 333 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:48.160 received by the press years later in which the purported 334 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:52.400 killer referred to doing his thing in Riverside, the murder 335 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:54.880 of Cherry Joe Bates is fought by many to have 336 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:59.000 been one of the first murders committed by Northern California's 337 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:03.319 notorious Odiac Killer. So you know Holy Cow year one 338 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:10.599 ono Satanas? Indeed, Anton LaVey caius your chills, the guy 339 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:14.640 who proclaimed nineteen sixty six is that year. Anton LaVey 340 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.680 his biography will you know you gave even more goosebumps. 341 00:20:20.200 --> 00:20:23.640 He was the first to publicly list the Satanic holidays, 342 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:29.079 which he admittedly stole from Wicca, and although no one 343 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:37.079 has accused LaVey of participating in ritual abuse or human sacrifices. No, 344 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:41.400 we're not so sure about his followers. There certainly could 345 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.160 have been those who read his book and took the 346 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:48.920 symbolism to heart. Some of LaVey's disciples might have just 347 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:52.839 been used full experimenters and kids, being backy and weird, 348 00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:56.440 rebels against everything, contrarians who stood up when they were 349 00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:59.079 told to sit down. And for them, you know, upside 350 00:20:59.079 --> 00:21:02.720 down crosses, anything goes, attitude, you know, there's like catnip 351 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:05.920 to cats. Some you know, they were vain. They dressed 352 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:10.640 up in God fashion. They like they dressed like Wednesday 353 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:12.599 Adams of the Adam's family. 354 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:14.599 Yeah, and they. 355 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:18.000 Had little plays and ceremonies in black masses. As far 356 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:20.279 as I could tell, you know, no one ever got hurt, 357 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:26.519 but they were. They were into that. Their slogan was 358 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:31.000 do as South Wilt, which means whatever you want to 359 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:37.880 do goes. So it's uh so, Well, here's the fact. 360 00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:41.640 Hundreds of homicides each year can be deemed satanically or 361 00:21:41.720 --> 00:21:45.440 ritually inspired, and yet in the cases that have been solved, 362 00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:48.799 the perpetrators have rarely turned out to be members of 363 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:53.000 any organized devil worshiping cult. But Richard Ramirez, the knight Stalker, 364 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:56.119 he drew pentagrams on his hand. He said tail Satan 365 00:21:57.200 --> 00:21:59.359 at the scenes of his murders, but turned out to 366 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.160 be alone, not not a member of any group. The 367 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:08.039 closest link, that is, the least degrees of separation between 368 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:13.440 Levey and actual Mayhem, came in San Francisco during the 369 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:17.960 summer of nineteen sixty six, even as Monroe County Sheriff's 370 00:22:17.960 --> 00:22:21.839 Office deputies are looking for George and Cathy. At that time, 371 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:26.440 Leavey produced a witch's review. It was sort of a 372 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:31.920 vaudeville cabaret show for the devil were worshiping set and 373 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:35.720 performing as a topless vampire. In the show is Susan Atkins, 374 00:22:36.160 --> 00:22:39.440 who later becomes notorious. Is Sexy Sady of the Charles 375 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:45.599 Manson family, probably through the person who killed Sharon Tate. 376 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:50.720 Bobby Bouselet, another Manson family member, was also co starred 377 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:54.559 with LaVey in a theater production of a It was 378 00:22:54.599 --> 00:22:58.240 called Invocation of My Demon Brother, written by Kenneth Anger, 379 00:22:58.279 --> 00:23:03.039 who later had a best selling called Hollywood Babylon. So 380 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.279 that brings us to twenty eleven, and this is when 381 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:10.880 my investigation really took off. So you know, we've got 382 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:18.000 a little sip of coffee. In June of twenty eleven, 383 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:22.720 two events came together, you know, almost magically, now I 384 00:23:22.759 --> 00:23:27.440 think about it. Kathy Bernhard as a mom was still 385 00:23:27.480 --> 00:23:30.960 around Alice, and she was a friend of my mother, 386 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:34.359 and they were at a party and the ladies are 387 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:38.000 sitting in lawn chairs under a tree, and Alice Bernhard 388 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:40.039 says to my mother, you know it's too bad your 389 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:45.519 Michael can't write a book about my Kathy Wow died. 390 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:49.359 My mom hadn't even gotten around telling me that yet. 391 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:54.039 When on the anniversary of the girl's disappearance, I changed 392 00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:57.279 my Facebook status to a little bit moreium for Georgiana 393 00:23:57.279 --> 00:24:00.759 and Kathy, And one response as I got from that, 394 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:05.640 came from a Bernhard family friend, Ebbie Douglas, who said, 395 00:24:05.720 --> 00:24:09.160 I should really call Alice. She would definitely be interested 396 00:24:09.200 --> 00:24:11.920 in speaking with me. So the bottom line is Alton 397 00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:14.359 and I partnered up. She said, bring me something to 398 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:18.480 sign and I'll sign it. So she signed documents making 399 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:24.319 me the family investigator and authorized me to see the 400 00:24:24.359 --> 00:24:27.839 police files from the initial investigation in nineteen sixty six. 401 00:24:28.759 --> 00:24:33.079