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Hello, I'm Keith Morrison with a special preview

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of Murder in the Hollywood Hills. Our

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latest podcast takes us to Hollywood for

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a story about a smooth-talking predator who

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lured young women with the promise of

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fame. But most of

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all, it's about how a group of those

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women banded together to put him behind bars

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and keep him there. It

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was late on a Saturday afternoon when Douglas

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Kirkland ambled down to the end of his

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driveway in the Hollywood Hills to check the

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mail. To the west,

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way out over the Pacific, he might

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have seen a line of bruised-colored clouds

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puffing themselves up. Looked like

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they meant business. LA was in

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for some rain. It

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was at that moment that Douglas' wife,

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Francois, who was puttering in the garage,

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looked up and noticed that a young woman in

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a white sports car had stopped in front of

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her husband. It was a meowtide,

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and there was a very pretty girl, pretty

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blonde girl, in there with... What

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looked was her entire wardrobe next

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to her, and

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she looked very frazzled. Francois

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overheard the girl in the sports car

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ask Douglas about a house that resembled

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a castle. Douglas said he

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didn't know what she was talking about, but

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Francois did. And I

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kind of yelled out, said, you know, the

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castle is that place on Green

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Valley. It's sort of like the

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corner of a little street, and

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it's got statues all around it, a little

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turret and all that. That's the castle. That's what we

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call the castle. Relief washed

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over the young woman's face, along

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with, what, anticipation, anxiety, excitement,

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all mixed up in those

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big blue eyes. Douglas

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Kirkland knew the look. For

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decades, he'd been a celebrity photographer

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in Hollywood. He made

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his reputation taking iconic pictures

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of stars and those

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who had stars in their eyes. eyes. The

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young woman said thank you and pulled

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away and as her red taillights disappeared

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around the bend, Douglas turned to Francois

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and said, It's another one of

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those like little hopeful

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girls who is going to a photo shoot.

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I hope she's going to be okay. Douglas

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was right, of course. The young

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woman in the white sports car was on her

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way to a photo shoot or what

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she thought was a photo shoot. Her

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name was Kristy Johnson. She was

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21 years old that day. She

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would not see 22. Kristy

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Johnson disappeared February 15th after telling friends

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she was going to meet a man

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about a movie role. Yes,

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this is a story about what

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happened to Kristy Johnson one Saturday

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afternoon, but it's

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about more than that. It's

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about dreams. And a man

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who told a lot of young women like Kristy that

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he could make their dreams

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of Hollywood stardom come

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true. He talked about

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big bucks. He named numbers of

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money that I can't recall today, but it was

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a lot of money. He said, Are

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you kidding me? He said, you know, you're perfect. You're going

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to make all this money. You're going to be famous. You're going to be

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on all the talk shows. It's

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a story about what can happen when

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the people who administer our courts play,

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let's make a deal with justice. And

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it's about a group of victims and

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near victims determined to turn the tables

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on a predator. He

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did try this ruse on all of

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us. And that seems to be enough

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to bond us together. We all feel

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very connected like like a sisterhood. They

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were everything to the case. And, um,

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without them, we most

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likely would not have had a case. I'm

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Keith Morrison, and this is murder

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in the Hollywood Hills. The podcast

3:54

on Dateline. Thanks

3:57

for listening. Search murder in the

3:59

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