Original subtitles

Well, don't wait. I'll grow up and they'll never go.

You have to make decisions and stick to them.

If you don't, you never get any play. Oh, my gosh, Gretchen. He is so dreamy.

dreamy. I want to go on a date with him so bad.

Well, you know what?

I bet he's the great way.

How would you know?

How would I know?

Not for your little ears.

I always thought Gretchen Fritz was lucky.

She was beautiful.

Her parents had money, and even her kid sister was sweet.

Hey, I heard there's another party tonight.

You coming?

So if I was kind of snotty around her, I guess it's because I was jealous.

Maybe we all were.

Yeah, I'm coming.

We're gone.

Ready to go to a party?

But I feel awful thinking about it now.

because that night at the Cactus Drive -In, when Gretchen drove off into the

dark, that was it.

None of us ever saw the Fritz sisters alive again.

Tucson, Arizona in 1965 was a strange combination of a boom town, the old Wild

West, and nowheresville.

It's a beautiful, beautiful spot between two mountains, but it is stark.

Like a lot of other parts of the country, Tucson area had this booming

population of adolescents.

A really big number of kids would congregate with almost no supervision.

It's a place to go without parents and teachers breathing down your neck with B

-Way. It was just a bunch of gas stations, car washes, bowling alleys,

that.

But it was better than being bored out of your skull at home.

I became a cop in 1958 with the Tucson Police Department.

And by 1965, the culture...

had changed substantially.

These things were going nuts.

Oh, my God, guys.

Booze, staying out all night, and sex.

There wasn't really anything else to do.

One of the things that we really know about adolescents is how much more prone

they are to engaging in bad behavior when they are around each other.

Was there anything unusual going on lately here at home?

With a girl fighting?

Any other problems?

No. No. We'd just gotten back from California this week.

Everything seemed normal and then...

We had an event to attend last night, and the girls wanted to go to a movie.

The last time that Fritzes saw their daughters was 7 .30 the night before,

they were going to the Cactus drive -in.

If it was just Gretchen, they wouldn't be worried.

But Wendy does not behave like this.

Why do you say that, just Gretchen?

Hi there.

Is that cigarette for me?

But Gretchen wasn't just pretty and rich. She had an edge.

She was always looking for some excitement, a thrill.

They had had problems with Gretchen before sneaking out and having Boyd

in.

Hey. Hey, how's it going? Good.

See that tall guy over there? Well, he was telling me that he could beat the

of you up.

Gretchen had always been a problem.

She liked to be the focus of attention.

The police had a bit of a history with Gretchen from some juvenile incidents.

Gretchen wanted to do what Gretchen wanted to do.

But they were two totally different children.

Wendy, the younger one, was a mottled child and would never stay out all

So if any of us had to guess how the Fritz girls got into trouble, it was

probably something to do with Gretchen.

Do you remember seeing either of these two girls?

Sure, yeah.

The police went to that drive -in.

It was confirmed that they had been there, had seen the movie.

Did you see who she left with?

No, not at all.

So they put an APB on Gretchen's car.

She had brand new Pontiac, and if she didn't want to go to school this week,

didn't go this week.

Gretchen's new Pontiac meant she could just take off on her own.

So the police probably thought if you found Gretchen's car, you'd find her.

You are aware it's not unusual for girls at this age to run away.

In 1965, teenagers outnumbered grown -ups just about everywhere.

It was bound to happen. Alta's babies born right after World War II had to

up someday.

About a year before the Fritz girls disappeared.

She's a beautiful girl.

There was another girl who was 15.

and her name was Eileen Rowe.

Eileen Rowe disappeared while the mother was at work at night.

The police got reports all the time about teens who ran away, and most of

time they came back again just fine.

She's not a runaway.

She's missing.

Most of the time.

And it would have been the Fritz's worst nightmare to have their daughter stay

lost. like Aline.

The Fritz family became so frustrated with law enforcement's inability to find

the kids that they went out and hired a private detective.

Four days after the girls go missing, Helig finds Gretchen's Pontiac in the

parking lot of the Flamingo Motel, which is right near the Speedway.

Sheriff's Department.

Detective?

You gotta come see this.

So Helig calls in the police.

And they examine the car.

Gretchen's purse is still in there.

There's a $20 bill in there.

When they do a canvas, no one can tell them anything, who dropped it off, who

drove it there.

But eerily, the odometer is disconnected, which suggests that maybe

trying to mask mileage on the car.

When they found Gretchen's car, They knew she hadn't just taken off on her

It looked like someone had taken her and was trying to cover their tracks.

The Fritz sisters had vanished, last seen at the Cactus Drive -In in Tucson.

Their car had been found in a motel parking lot.

But there was no trace of the girls.

Gretchen, the older one, was beautiful and had always gotten a lot of

So it made sense when the police got wind of a boy that could have taken her

away.

Someone from out of state.

Gretchen was bragging about some guy that she got involved with over in San

Diego.

But she hadn't said the name, and she could have met someone at the beach, she

could have met someone at the hotel.

The San Diego Police Department had a picture, of course, of the Fritz girls,

and they, in fact, interrogated different people, but they were never

come up with any specific information.

To our understanding, you used to date Gretchen Fritz?

Yes. At one point, yeah, we were kind of a thing.

So the search for Gretchen came back home to our group in Tucson, and the

wanted to talk to any guys Gretchen had been involved with around here.

Is there anything you can tell us about Gretchen's whereabouts?

My guess is that she ran away.

That's something Gretchen would do.

She didn't have an easy family life.

Charles Schmidt lived in a small house next to his parents.

Charlie Schmidt was a pretty good -looking guy, well -built, good athlete.

He was also 23.

He loved to throw parties.

And everybody wanted to go to those parties.

He was somebody who drew people to him.

And Gretchen was one of them.

Smitty was bitchin', as we used to say.

We all thought so.

When he laid eyes on you, it felt like you were the only girl in the room.

But the thing was, Mitty laid eyes on a lot of girls.

When you're young, you never believe the guys you date could be dangerous.

He could play the guitar and sing a little bit.

The kid really looked up to him. He was smart.

He was a musician.

And kids were sort of free over there to do what they want.

So when Gretchen Fritz went missing,

Thank you.

Of course, the cops looked at her ex -boyfriend.

This is Chevy Malibu. You want some of that?

Yeah.

But they found out that Charlie spent most of his time working on cars and

hanging out.

Charlie Schmidt had no criminal history at all.

Charlie Schmidt was kind of a model child.

Well, there was another individual that hung around who was extremely

interesting to the police.

Everyone knew Richie Bruns.

He was a creep and a loner.

And the rumor was he'd been caught up in a murder before.

So do you know why you're here?

No, I don't.

Why am I here?

Gretchen Fritz.

I don't know anything about that. Sorry.

What we heard was the police didn't have any real suspects at all.

But Gretchen did hang around the Speedway crowd.

And a lot of kids there had records.

Richie Brunn, he had done a lot of petty crimes. He was chronically suspended

from school.

And didn't seem to give a damn.

And he was rumored to have been involved in a murder.

The story went that a couple years back, Richie Brunn had been at work when he

got approached by some older guy.

You might want to get your sparks and your plugs fixed, too. Thank you.

Some older guy wanted to buy him beer.

And, of course, Richie, anybody going to buy him beer, he's going to sit and

talk to you for a while.

I did run away once, you know.

You want to run away?

He showed him this gun.

It was .38.

And Richie said, oh, man, that's so cool.

Why don't we go on in?

And the guy propositioned him, and Richie decided he didn't want to be

with this guy anymore, and he left.

About a day later, the man is found shot dead in a ditch.

He said he wanted to buy me a beer. I got in his car. He's a queer, though.

not his friend.

I don't know anything about that.

Richie's fingerprints were on the gun.

It turns out some guy in Phoenix actually killed the man, but that didn't

matter.

This was grade -A gossip, and stories about Richie Bruns took off.

And after the Fritz girls went missing, the police wanted to hear about anyone

we thought was shady. How you doing?

And whether they'd ever crossed paths with Gretchen. I heard you know

about Richie Bruns.

Richie Bruns is a creep.

Richie was your classic.

outsider none of the kids liked him he didn't care about anything except

cool but he was not very good at that he showed up and then they like looked all

of us and say like they start hey excuse me yeah um hey uh

i don't mean to interrupt or anything but i was i was at the uh i was at the

shop the other day richie He had a really difficult time trying to find

that he could date. He thought they were shunning him. They wouldn't come near

him. They wouldn't do anything with him.

I thought it would look really pretty on you. It's a heart for you.

Hang on a minute.

Richie was obsessive with girls.

He'd turn people off by his overly intense way of approaching them.

Kathy, I spent a lot of money. Don't touch me, man. Don't touch me, all

He would, you know, not take no for an answer, just appear at the house, follow

them around, including stalking one of his ex -girlfriends.

To the point where the father called the police a couple times.

Pleasure meeting you. Pleasure meeting you.

See you later.

Need a light?

Yeah.

What do you think about Kathy?

Pretty cute?

I don't know.

But Charlie Schmidt was willing to give Richie a chance.

And everyone wanted to get to hang out with Smitty.

You want a beer?

Hell yeah, I'll take a beer.

And one of the only people that would kind of pal around with him was Charlie.

Being around somebody like Charlie Smith, we get to feel like you were also

of the cool guys.

Charlie tried to help Richie by taking him on double dates. Trying to socialize

him, I guess.

And the cops put together that if Charlie was bringing Richie along on

must have known Gretchen pretty well.

Bruns had a horrible personality.

And was...

Not exactly charming. You're a deep freeze bitch. Do not speak to me that

Do you have any manners? Do you have any manners?

And just royally pissed off Gretchen. He's a bum.

Gretchen had a really volatile personality.

Just leave.

Don't talk, okay? Do not talk to her.

And actually, she also had a huge temper.

And from that day on, Richie and Gretchen hated each other and got into a

arguments.

Stop looking this way, okay? Please. It's very creepy.

It's so rude.

It's so rude.

I can hear you. I can hear you, you know. Okay, so then don't listen to us.

She enjoyed tormenting people. She enjoyed confrontation.

And she usually won.

Yes, I'm talking about it.

And for a socially awkward guy, that made things even worse.

Go away. We don't want you here.

Aggression's evil, man.

She deserves to die.

Disgusting, man. She's a little rich girl.

Better just take care of her myself, yeah?

He just really, really hated her.

He would not mind seeing her dead.

If you look at it like we all did, Richie was barely hanging on to his

life as it was.

And then Gretchen tried to make all the girls shut him out for good.

That was about as bad as it got.

So it stood to reason Richie would want revenge.

No one had seen Gretchen and Wendy Fritz for weeks.

And then Tucson police heard that Richie Bruns said that he thought...

Gretchen deserved to die.

So they came around trying to find out if they could connect Richie to the

girl's disappearance.

We have it on good account that you really didn't like Gretchen.

I mean, yeah, I didn't like her. Yeah, everyone knows that.

She didn't like me either, but I don't know anything about this. I'm sorry.

Even though Richie had a long rap sheet and told anyone who'd listen how much he

hated Gretchen.

The police didn't have anything solid to connect him to whatever actually

happened. They don't have a body.

They don't have any blood. They don't have a trail.

So really, they're at a dead end.

How are you? I'd watch your step.

Okay.

So the police kept pushing everyone in our crowd, trying to get something,

anything, to shake loose.

Still asking about those two sisters.

Police continued to talk to the teen speedway crowd.

Gretchen Fritz, do you know anything?

No.

I know Gretchen.

She's a snotty little bitch.

Then they get to Mary French.

She was not shy about her dislike for Gretchen either.

Mary French was a girl who most people who knew her described as not bright

intellectually and who also tended to get in a lot of trouble, right? She

dropped out of school and she was a pretty heavy drinker.

She caroused with the group and did what the group did.

Mary French was one of Charlie Schmidt's girlfriends.

Mary French was very jealous when he started fooling around so much with

Gretchen Fritz.

I don't think Gretchen gave as much a damn as Mary did because Gretchen had

other boys too.

We don't know any other boys that Mary had.

She was very much against Schmidt going with anybody, especially Gretchen.

You could tell that she knew that he really liked Gretchen.

But Mary wasn't just jealous of Gretchen.

She was ready to fight to get Charlie for keeps.

And she had one hell of a card to play.

It was the night before Gretchen went missing.

There was a big party at Charlie's house.

Mary French was not a nice person.

She had an evil, dark side to her.

And

that

culminated in this huge, dramatic fight.

Mary blurted out, I'm pregnant.

But Gretchen wasn't going to walk away from the table.

She always wanted to win.

And then, Gretchen, I'm pregnant too.

Everyone was witness to this.

Gretchen was probably just faking for fun or control or whatever.

But I heard Mary really was pregnant, so now she needed Smitty all to herself.

According to her, She was going to make sure that he would marry her.

So, Mary, how do you feel about Gretchen?

She was a rich girl.

The kind of girl who could take whatever she wanted, get whatever she wanted.

You didn't like that, did you?

No.

She was a kid, but she had a stare like nobody else.

Her eyes, I mean, she would get onto yours and she'd stay right there.

Detective Robles, she really bothered him, and he was an old veteran.

Everyone knew how spooky Mary was, but it was something else that made the

police think she could be mixed up in the Fritz girl's disappearance.

They'd actually questioned Mary before about another missing girl.

They interviewed her a year ago when Eileen Rowe went missing.

Remember Eileen Rowe?

We did.

The cops had chalked her up as just another teen runaway. But we all knew

different. Eileen wasn't like Gretchen and Mary. She wasn't part of the

scene.

Eileen Rowe was a model kid.

Good student and never was a problem to her mother or to anybody.

But what she did have was a neighbor named Mary French.

Ellie?

Come on in.

Her mother never felt comfortable with Mary, so Mrs. Rowe directed the police

to Mary French.

And for the first time,

The cops put together what us kids on Speedway had known all along.

There was a connection between Aline Rowe and the Fritz sisters.

But Mary didn't flinch.

If she knew more, there was nothing the police could do to get her to talk.

Weren't these friends of yours?

No. And you don't have anything to say?

No.

Is there anything at all you'd like to tell us?

There's nothing for me to tell. Do you know Gretchen? I don't know.

The police are so convinced that the answers are with this teen speedway

that they just, you know, keep going back to them.

There had to be something there that the kids knew.

Is there anything that you'd like to tell?

I don't know anything.

What do you know about Gretchen?

I don't know what you're talking about.

But the kids weren't talking.

The questioning went on for months, and it went on very intensely.

You know withholding information is punishable by jail time? Don't talk to

son that way. Let's go. The parents actually got a court order to stop the

police from questioning their kids.

The police got very heavily emotionally involved in this case because they were

so frustrated.

There just aren't any more leads to follow.

You know, sometimes cases are broken just by a lucky break, a lucky phone

The phone rang, and it was Richie Bruns.

Richie Bruns.

Remember that girl he was obsessed with?

Well, that situation had gotten way out of control.

Due to Richie's continual harassment, he was sent by

the local municipal court to Ohio on probation.

Where his grandmother lived.

But he had lasted only, I think, a couple of days.

He was afraid that the girl that he liked was going to be killed or raped. I

think he was genuine about that.

Can you connect me to the Tucson Police Department, please?

Yeah, this is Richie Bruns. I have some information about the Fritz girl.

Yeah, I'll tell you everything you need to know. Can you just get me back to

Tucson, please?

You're going to want to turn left up here.

It had been over two months of the police questioning us and hunting down

ends. And then out of the blue, a call from Richie Bruns finally broke the

story open.

He knows what happened.

And the only way to get back to Tucson was to tell the story to the police.

It all started with the Eileen girl.

Richie Bruns tells police Charlie got it into his head that he wanted to kill a

girl.

He wanted to see what it felt like. He thought that would be exciting, a bit of

a thrill.

And Mary helped him do it.

She's got school tomorrow.

This was your job.

I'll call her.

Get her to go out on your double date with John. I'll come pick you up. I'll

have John with me.

I want to do it tonight. I want her.

I love you.

We need to do this.

You promised me.

Okay.

They learn to lean out by insisting that she go on a double date with this guy,

John Saunders, who is a friend of Charlie's.

Beautiful night.

Eileen, you like this part of the desert?

Yeah, it's really beautiful.

What do you like about it?

It's the calmness.

Elaine was a nice girl, and she trusted Mary. They were neighbors, and they were

friends.

It's the farthest edge of insane, but somehow, Charlie Schmid had convinced

other kids to lure a girl to her murder.

Mary French and John Saunders.

The police were hunting for a killer in the Speedway crowd, but finding a group

of them, that was touching evil.

Charlie was able to manipulate troubled teens because they believed that he

thought that they were special.

They'd do whatever he wanted them to, and Bren said that.

I mean, that's as cold as the devil when you think of it.

I know a great spot down a little bit.

Would you like to see it? Yeah, sure.

John? Yeah.

I'll hang here. Yeah. I want to listen to the radio.

See you soon.

Schmid said, rape her.

John Saunders couldn't do it.

And Schmid said, all right, I'll do it.

And he raped her.

In the car, Mary can hear the screams.

It's possible that Mary was somewhat conflicted.

He took her out and hit her in the head twice, and that's what killed her.

I love you so much, son.

I love you so much.

We've got to get to shovel. We've got work to do, baby, okay? Yeah.

Together, the three of them bury her in the tether.

He was telling everybody about what he did to her. He was even bragging about

it.

He bragged about killing Aline to a number of kids.

loved the adoration from this teen crowd.

He liked to instill fear in people, too, and people were afraid of him.

But not everyone was afraid, even when they should have been.

Gretchen was herself pretty mentally unstable.

Her approach to that... Discovery was not the normal fear and running for the

police.

Runs claimed that Gretchen held it over his head to extort whatever she wanted

out of Charlie Schmidt.

If Charlie thought Gretchen was going to be intimidated by the Eileen story, he

thought wrong.

Gretchen wasn't that kind of girl. For her, it was leverage.

The perfect threat for whenever Charlie stepped out of line.

That was the way she wanted to make use of this really important piece of

information, was to use it as a weapon.

And then the Fritz family took their vacation to San Diego.

But instead of distance cooling things off, it only made them worse.

While she was away, Charlie was living it up and having these parties, and when

Gretchen got wind of this, she was really upset.

Hey. I heard there's another party tonight.

You coming?

Richie Bruns tells police that Gretchen was at the movie.

Hey, Ron.

I'll see you at Smitty's.

Yeah, I'll see you at Smitty's.

And she hears that Charlie's having a party, which just makes her really

I just told Gretchen what I heard that night at the drive -in.

There's a party. Everyone's going to be at Smitty's.

I had no idea it wasn't true.

Or that some stupid words coming out of my mouth could turn so awful.

What gives you the idea that you can do what you want to do? Oh, maybe all the

guys you screwed. No, that is exactly not what we're talking about.

You didn't contact me, and you've been contacting other girls. What is the

problem there? Do you see the problem there?

I don't see anything.

Instantly, they just... start fighting tell me what you're doing with these

other girls inviting them to other parties and not telling me about it at

you are nothing you are nothing okay why are you doing this to me

gretchen was impulsive and aggressive and wild she

loved lashing out getting her way

But she couldn't have known that when she tangled with Charlie Schmid, she was

running into a darkness she'd never escape.

You know who my father is?

You know that if I told him what I know about you, I could get you

in so much trouble.

What do you mean?

Tell him what?

You know what.

charlie felt like he had to eliminate her

he

allegedly got the guitar

string from his guitar and used it to choke her to death and then he went and

got wendy and did the same thing to her

And poor Wendy.

She was only 13.

She just happened to be with her big sister that night when that last awful

fight happened.

He then put them in the trunk of his automobile and took them out to this

area in the foothills of Tucson.

And then he came back and he drove Gretchen's car and left it at the

Hotel.

Yeah, that's her right there.

Smitty took me up there.

Said we had to move the bodies.

Richie explained to the police that about three weeks after the Fritz girls

missing... Right here.

Right here. Charlie took him out to the desert to show him where the bodies

were.

That's Gretchen?

Yeah.

He helped Schmidt drag him out to the burial spot.

You know, Rich, it's between you and me now.

You can't say anything.

He was quite afraid of Schmidt.

Police have made a deal with Richie that in exchange for this information, he

will not be charged.

Charlie wanted me to call Eileen.

So I did.

It was all Charlie's idea.

In exchange for reduced sentencing, Mary French and John Saunders agreed to

testify against Charlie Schmidt.

On the 10th of November, Lieutenant Robles and I placed him under arrest.

At that point, he was a different Charlie Schmidt.

His behavior is very bizarre. He stunk.

He was filthy.

He wore pancake makeup.

He wore really heavy coats of chapstick on his lips.

He wore a bandage across his nose as if he had been in some sort of fight.

And he had a beauty mark on his face that he accentuated with this black,

stuff. He seemed to believe that he looked like Elvis Presley.

He just wouldn't talk to us.

He was in almost like a trance.

At that point, he was probably on the verge of cracking up.

Charlie'd just been playing at the bitchin' Smitty character all along, but

it was over.

He looked like some kind of grotesque clown, but it wasn't funny for any of

It felt more like we'd been dancing with the devil.

He was so good at being phony.

He had recordings of one of the good... Guitar players in town.

And then he put the tape recorder under a cabinet that he had made.

But he wasn't playing at all.

All the things that Charlie did, when you step back and look at them today,

call him a psychopath.

But in 1965, that wasn't the kind of monster anybody knew about yet.

People who are psychopathic, in many cases, seem more alive, more

more interesting. But that mask conceals a real inner...

where he was a grandiose narcissist at the center of things who was able to

manipulate teenagers who were looking for guidance.

That was the most amazing part of it all.

That this guy, charming, yes, exciting, sure, but still just a guy,

got a group of kids to stand by while he killed three people and got away with

it.

He even had the nickname the Pied Piper of Tucson.

You expect at some point somebody's conscience is going to say, no, I've got

tell what I know.

Nobody said anything.

Nothing.

It's a better story to say there was something terrible about our crowd out

Speedway. That we were bad kids.

But the truth might be scarier. There was nothing going on in Tucson that

couldn't happen anywhere.

Adolescence is a time period, the parts of your brain that govern.

reward -seeking and curiosity are really active.

However, the prefrontal parts of the brain that govern impulse control are

underdeveloped, and that creates trouble.

The parts of the world that have the highest rates of violence are often

that have the highest proportion of adolescence.

We all do crazy things growing up.

I bet you did too.

Gretchen Fritz was just dating boys and having dramas with her friends. For

teenagers, crazy is normal.

And that's all it would have been if Hyde Piper hadn't come and played his

in our town.

There is a house in New Orleans They

call the rising sun And it's been

the ruin of many, oh boy

And me, oh God, I'm alone.