All language subtitles for The.Real.Murders.of.Los.Angeles.S01E01.720p.WEBRip.x264-BAE

- Hollywood is glitz, glamour.

There is no way to separate
Los Angeles from the movies.

It'd be like if you
ripped the beating heart

out of someone's chest.

You can't do it.

- The film industry was always
baked into LA, in its history.

And back in the '90s,
Larry Austin

was the keeper of the flame.

He was the high priest
of silent cinema.

- The Silent Movie Theater

was Larry Austin's
lifelong passion.

But like so many dreams
in the City of Angels,

it all came crashing down.

[suspenseful music]

- The murder shocked everybody
because it came out of nowhere.

[gunshots]

And then you find out
that what was real...

[gunshot]

Was a lot different
than what you're seeing.

- The city itself
is all make-believe.

What you see is
not what you get.

- They didn't know
they were being victimized.

- There was a secret liaison.

- The assets
of the Silent Movie Theater

included cash,
original prints, and films.

- His estate was about
$3 million to $3 1/2 million.

- People have died for so
much less than $3.5 million.

Detectives, of course,
had one question.

Who benefits?

[dramatic music]

* *

- Los Angeles
in the late 1990s

was a city spreading
its wings to embrace

an exciting new future.

- Back then, we were
coming out of the scourge

of the crack epidemic, with
its violent crime activity.

There was definitely some
transitioning going on.

- Los Angeles was
undergoing a metamorphosis,

and there was
an explosion of culture.

There was an influx
of skater kids.

There was a lot being tried
out that was new and different

in West Coast rap.

It was misfits
and mad geniuses.

LA in the 1990s, it was
a really cool place to be.

- But as the city
transformed,

people who wanted to connect
with old Los Angeles

could still find it
at the Silent Movie Theater

in the local Fairfax District.

- My name is Joan Renner,
and I'm an author,

investigative historian.

And I cover LA cases,
old ones primarily.

The Silent Movie Theater,
they had a dedicated audience

who went, really, every week.

It drew people like me,
who loved movies.

- But the feeling
of magic and wonder

would be forever silenced
on January 17, 1997.

* *

- The Silent Movie Theater
was going to have

its sixth-year anniversary.

And there was that feeling of
sort of a Hollywood premiere.

Lawrence Austin, the owner,
was very excited about it.

In the auditorium,
people are laughing.

They're having a good time.

But there's a noise.
There's a pop...

[gunshot]

Like someone
dropped a light bulb.

And then there
was a louder pop.

[gunshot]

And that's when the audience
realized that it's a gunshot.

They start to
drop to the floor.

[gunshot]

* *

- I'm LAPD
Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton.

Friday, January 17th,
while I'm out at dinner,

my pager goes off.

We just had a shooting
over on Fairfax

at the Silent Movie Theater.

When I arrived at the location,
there were a number of people

outside of the theater.

I found out from the officers

that we have two people down
in the lobby.

And one of them
did not survive.

- Detectives
quickly head inside

to take in the devastation
the killer left behind.

Near the entrance
to the lobby,

paramedics are working
furiously

to save the life of a victim

who's quickly losing
consciousness.

- My name is John Miller.

In January of 1997,

I was working
out of the Homicide Unit

of the Hollywood Division
of the LAPD.

One victim was
just a young girl

that worked at the theater.

She was 19, and her
name was Mary Giles.

The detective knew her

because her grandfather

was a retired
Los Angeles police officer.

She was immediately
taken by rescue

to Cedars because she had
a gunshot wound to her chest.

* *

- When Detective Miller and
I went through the lobby,

we see a second victim behind
the concession counter.

He was deceased.

Witnesses that
had come out told us

this was the owner of
the theater, Lawrence Austin.

- Mr. Austin is an elderly
white male, 74 years of age.

And he was on the floor.

* *

I saw three distinct
bullet wounds--

one in the head,
one in the torso,

and then there was one
in the upper thigh.

But we didn't find a gun.

- And we were not able to
find any shell casings.

* *

- When I looked
down at the body,

there was a bag of money.

It was less than $500.

Some of the money
was even bloodied.

* *

- In the Hollywood area,

there had been a high
incidence of robbery

at that time of the night.

So we were open
to the possibility

that it was
a robbery gone bad.

And, you know,
maybe it's someone

that was not a mature criminal,

and they just panicked and fled
without all the cash.

* *

There was blood spatter,

and then there was
a blood smear

on the counter and some
of the glass.

- In order to unpack exactly
what happened that night,

detectives head
outside to interview

some of the witnesses.

- We had some of the patrons
that were there

that were crying and some that
were very physically shaken up.

We were told there had
been a movie going on,

and this person
came in the lobby

and shot these two people.

Then the individual
fired rounds

inside of the theater
in the dark,

possibly
to scare the crowd.

Then that suspect
ran out the back door

into the alley that
parallels Fairfax

and fled from the area.

- Running out the back, firing
rounds into the theater,

that didn't make sense.

With robberies, you come and
take the money, and you leave.

- I just don't know a whole
lot of criminal suspects

that are going to go

towards the maximum number
of witnesses.

But, unfortunately, no one
had seen his facial features.

- After that, we walked
through the theater.

Then we noticed that there
was a couple of bullet holes

high on the wall.

* *

- A young man that identified
himself as James Van Sickle,

who was the projectionist,

he assisted us
by obtaining a ladder

to look up at the wall
to see if that was actually

a bullet impact, which it was.

* *

- Our Scientific
Investigation Division

dug the bullet
out of the wall.

And we could tell that it was

a .357 magnum bullet.

- We also had a fingerprint
technician come in.

They dust.

They do laser analysis,
spectrum wave analysis

for both trace evidence
and for fingerprints.

We try to get things
like footprints.

But, forensically, we didn't
really find anything

that was immediately
identifiable.

* *

- While the CSI team
continues to scrub

the scene for evidence,
detectives ask Van Sickle

what he knows
about the victims.

- He appeared distraught about
what occurred with Miss Giles

and with Mr. Austin.

He told us that he worked
at the theater

for quite some period of time.

And he was helpful,

in terms of giving
us background information.

* *

- My name is Michael F. Blake,

and I was friends
with Larry Austin.

Larry's death hit
everybody hard

in the silent-movie community,
because he was very kind.

And the Silent Movie Theater

was the only
silent-movie theater

in the world.

* *

- It was founded by a young
couple in the 1940s

who loved movies.

Lawrence went
to Fairfax High School

in the 1940s.

And he lived just
a couple of blocks

away from the movie theater,
so he became obsessed with it.

John and Dorothy Hammond, who
owned the theater at the time,

really took Larry
in kind of as a son

because he loved
the theater so much.

But then the theater
shuttered in 1979.

And it just sat there, derelict
and neglected and vacant.

And John Hammond died in 1990.

Running a theater was
not something his widow

wanted to do on her own.

What she did was instead
sign it over to Larry.

And he just breathed
new life into it.

He fixed the broken seats.

He did everything
to really spruce the place up.

* *

- My name is Chris Perkins,

and I met Larry Austin
in 1993.

He looked like a classic,

quintessential kind of fringe
Hollywood character.

He would wear
these leisure suits.

And he had this
red turban of hair

that kind of flopped over,

but he would wrap it
around his head.

And the Silent Movie Theater

was a reflection
of his persona.

* *

- When
the Silent Movie Theater

reopened under Larry in 1991,

he pulled out all the stops.

He had lights up in the sky
like an old movie premiere.

And there was a guy there
with a bagpipe playing

as the audience came in.

And it gave us
a sense of Old Hollywood

that maybe never
really existed,

but you felt it existed.

* *

Larry loved what he did.

He loved walking down the aisle
to "Pomp and Circumstance"

and saying to everybody,
hello, welcome to the world's

only silent-movie theater.

And one of the great
things Larry did,

he managed to bring in
a whole new audience

of younger people.

They loved it.
It was a godsend.

- Larry Austin was the high
priest of silent cinema.

He was the last man on Earth

that was the keeper
of the flame.

* *

After he had died,
people were heartbroken.

They were shocked.

He was a great person,

important
to the cinematic community.

Everybody was trying
to figure out

who would want to murder Larry,
and there was no answer.

In my mind, he had no enemies.

- The fact that Larry
had no known enemies

gives credence to
the theory that this

was a robbery gone wrong.

But detectives fear their only
opportunity to find the killer

may be slipping away.

- We quickly realized
there's really

only one person alive that got
a good look at the murderer.

And that's the other victim,
Miss Giles.

But she was severely
traumatically injured,

and we don't know if she's
going to survive this.

- Coming up...

[gunshot]

- They actually worked
together at a company.

So they knew each other.

- We determined
that he had actually

served time for embezzlement.

- He was charged
with an attempted murder.

[gunshot]

- He looked at this composite
of this murder suspect

and said, this
looks just like you.

And he said, that is me.

I'm the one
who did the killing.

[dramatic music]

* *

- In the early-morning hours
of January 18, 1997,

Detectives Miller and Hamilton
race to Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

They hope that Mary Giles
survived the night.

She may have been
the only person

to catch a glimpse
of the shooter

who killed Larry Austin
in what appears

to be a robbery gone wrong.

- 6:00 or 7:00 in
the morning,

Al and I went to
Cedars-Sinai Hospital

to talk to Mary Giles.

And I'm expecting
she's going to be waiting,

either for surgery or
just come out of surgery.

But when I get up to the
room, Mary's standing up,

and her cousins
are dressing her.

That bullet went from
her chest to her shoulder

and did not hit
one vital organ.

- Miss Giles was
clearly traumatized.

But she was going to survive.

- She did ask about
Mr. Austin,

and I did tell her
that he was dead.

When I looked at her face,

I could tell
that it had saddened her.

- As Mary begins to speak,
her voice wavers.

But she has a clear memory
of how the night began.

- She says, I was
at the concession stand.

I was reading a book.

And a guy came in, and he
asked to see the manager.

- She had brought
Mr. Austin over to him.

And Mr. Austin went kind
of behind the counter.

And then the guy
immediately drew a gun,

demanded the money.

* *

And while Austin was putting
the money in the bag,

he just shot him...

[gunshot]

Point blank,
right in the eye.

* *

- And then the shooter
turns toward her.

* *

And he shoots her in the chest.

[gunshot]

And she goes down.

- And then she heard
two more shots...

[gunshots]

Which we know from
our investigation

that he went back and
shot Austin twice.

- At this point, she's
got to be petrified

because she doesn't know
if he's going to come back

and shoot her again.

* *

- Fortunately for us,
Miss Giles had

a clear recollection of what
this individual looked like.

- She did not
recognize him.

Well, she said that the suspect
was a male Hispanic.

He had dark hair, and he
was holding a revolver.

* *

- Miss Giles remembered that
the individual was dressed

in, like,
an artsy-type garb,

wardrobe.

But he was wearing an apple
cap, like an artist cap,

and a dark coat.

- After speaking with Mary,
detectives continue

to ponder the robbery theory.

But something is
nagging at them.

* *

- What stood out
with this shooting

was that this individual would
fire at someone

after not encountering any kind
of resistance to asking

for money or anything else.

And there was
actually cash still there

that hadn't been taken.

So maybe that robbery
is not the goal

and is not the intended
purpose of that violent act.

- But if robbery
wasn't the motive,

was this a personal attack
by someone Larry knew?

Anxious to find out if there
are any skeletons buried deep

in Larry's closet,

detectives begin tracking down
those closest to him.

- Three days after the murder,
Monday, January 20th,

the detectives go and speak
to a nephew, Dennis Horner,

to see if he can fill
in some blanks for them.

- When I talked
to Dennis Horner,

he told us that his
uncle loved that theater

and he had always been attached
to silent movies.

He wanted to be a part of
the legacy of Hollywood.

* *

- He tells detectives,
Larry often told people

that his dad and his uncle

were silent-film actors

and his mother was
a seamstress

for the great director
Cecil B. DeMille.

But none of that was true.

* *

- His father was not
in the business,

nor did his mother make things
for Cecil B. DeMille.

The Larry Austin that was
real was a lot different

than the Larry Austin
everybody knew

at the Silent Movie Theater.

- I was not remotely shocked

that he had created
this fake biography

because I think
he genuinely had a passion

for silent-movie history.

- It's always the
magic of the city.

It's all make-believe.

What you see is what
they want you to see.

Austin was a good example
of that.

He lied to make himself
closer to this movie life

that he wanted.

- Larry's version of his life,
as told by Larry Austin,

was kind of like, well,
if it isn't a true story,

it should be.

- If Larry was willing to lie
to sew himself

into the fabric of Hollywood
history,

just how far would he go

to protect
the image he had created?

Had he crossed
someone along the way?

- As part
of our investigation,

we look into Mr. Austin's
background,

and we determine
that he actually served time

for embezzlement at a company
that he worked at

years prior to his ownership
of the Silent Movie Theater.

- Larry's white lies
and past mistakes

have detectives
contemplating a new theory.

- We thought that maybe
the theater was struggling

and he had embezzled
from someone recent,

because if you cheat
the wrong person,

it can create a motive
for a murder.

[dramatic music]

* *

- In January 1997,

one week after the murder
of Larry Austin,

LAPD homicide detectives

have just learned
that Mr. Austin

has a history
of financial crimes.

And while investigators
begin to unravel

the mystery
of Larry Austin's past,

the media attention ramps up.

- This is a case, it really
does resonate with people.

People were grieving,
people locally,

people from around the world,
because he performed

this important function, making
this bridge between the past

and the present.

- It was devastating
news to hear.

He was a wonderful man.
He was a great friend.

- This is a man engaged
in a gentle, quiet occupation

who's brutally murdered
in a place that he loves.

- And it started
getting the attention

of a lot of the crime shows
that were happening back then,

including
"America's Most Wanted."

- The detectives agree
to appear on the show.

And on the program,
they interview the detectives

about the crime scene.

And they talk
to James Van Sickle,

who knew Larry very well and
is the theater's projectionist.

- Knowing that theater
employee Mary Giles

remembers the face
of her attacker,

the detectives decide
to use the show's resources

to help leverage
that information.

- The producers offered to not
only profile it on their show

but provide
the forensic services

of one of their sketch artists,
Jeannie Boylan.

So we picked Mary up and took
her to meet with Miss Boylan

and go over the incident
at length.

* *

After we obtained the sketch,
we released it to the media.

And we then ran
"America's Most Wanted"

nationwide so that we
could get the sketch

out there to the public.

* *

- To ensure maximum impact,

the detectives up the ante.

- LAPD offers a $25,000 reward.

And so now they're ready
to take tips

from the public.

This could be the making
of the case right here.

* *

- As they wait to see the
public response to the photo,

detectives dig into
Larry Austin's bank records

and hope to find clues
to lead them to the killer.

- When we look back
at Mr. Austin's finances,

ownership of the theater,
we determine

that there was basically a
little bit of a financial mess.

And with Mr. Austin
having a prior conviction

for embezzlement,
we needed to determine

if that was perhaps a motive

or perhaps somehow related
to the murder.

So, in order to unravel
quite a document trail,

we engaged our experts

out of our
Commercial Crimes Division.

* *

- My name is
Detective Dave Harned.

I was a detective assigned

to Financial Crimes Division
in 1997.

The first thing
we did was do search warrants

on Larry Austin's accounts
to see what was happening.

- The value of the assets
of the Silent Movie Theater

included cash, property
and original prints,

original films.

- We found that
Larry Austin's estate

was about $3 million
to $3 1/2 million.

- There's no sign
of embezzlement,

and it appears that most
of Larry's wealth and accounts

are connected to the operation
of the theater.

But as
the Financial Crimes Unit

continues to unravel
the details,

they find a potential
smoking gun.

- After his death,
it appeared that money

was being diverted out
of the accounts of the victim.

So we contacted the bank
and asked for them

to freeze the account.

- And when detectives
reached out to the bank,

they realized that there were
two signatures on the account.

One was Larry.

One was James Van Sickle.

It's really odd.

Why would the projectionist
of the theater

be sharing an account
with the theater owner?

* *

- At this point,
seven days after the shooting,

we felt that it would be
essential that we

reinterview James Van Sickle.

- Investigators quickly follow
up with James Van Sickle

to ask why
he's diverting money

from the victim's account.

- During the interview,
Mr. Van Sickle

notified us that he
and Lawrence Austin

were business partners
in the theater.

* *

- Van Sickle was 34 years old

and had gotten a position in
the theater as a projectionist

five years before.

And then after a while,

Larry wanted him
to be his business partner.

- Mr. Van Sickle
identified himself

as the business manager
of the corporation.

So we thought that that was
kind of strange

because, initially, when we met
with Mr. Van Sickle,

he identified himself
as the projectionist.

He never really mentioned
this information at all.

- Detectives find out
that a week after the murder,

the theater was still open.

So James Van Sickle told
detectives,

look, I'm still trying
to operate the theater.

I've got expenses.

Freezing the account is
not serving me well at all.

I need to get to the money.

- Van Sickle is
very forthcoming,

but with so much
money involved,

detectives can't take
his story at face value

and need to continue
their questioning.

- People have died for
so much less than $3.5 million.

Are you kidding?

That kind of a motive
is compelling.

- We certainly had to
look into the business

to try and determine
if that was somehow related

to this violent act.

And Mr. Van Sickle still had
a lot of questions to answer.

[dramatic music]

* *

- LAPD detectives have just
learned that James Van Sickle

is more than just
the projectionist

at LA's Silent Movie Theater.

He's the business partner

of slain theater owner
Larry Austin.

So they continue to
press him for details

about his involvement
in the business.

- Mr. Austin had passed away,

and there was still money being
withdrawn from the account.

So we were looking
at why James Van Sickle

was taking money.

He was saying
he needed those funds

to help the theater go ahead.

- Not only that, but he says,
I'm having a special memorial

for Larry at this trendy
restaurant near the theater,

and I'm running out of cash.

- Then Van Sickle

offers a completely
unexpected admission.

- Mr. Van Sickle
became emotional,

and he said there was
more than just a business

and friendship relationship.

* *

- He said, well,
yeah, you know,

Larry and I were
originally lovers.

* *

- Mr. Austin was gay,
but he wouldn't admit to it.

He was not openly gay.

This was a secret liaison

with Van Sickle.

- He said, our relationship
ended amicably.

And after that,
I became a partner

in the business.

- It became clear
that he had

a pretty close relationship
with Mr. Austin.

And we felt that he could
be a suspect in this murder.

Maybe it's something personal
between the two of them.

But then you also
start thinking,

well, maybe it was one of those
situations where Mr. Austin

was maybe not able to take care
of the business anymore,

and Mr. Van Sickle was
taking a greater role.

So all of those questions
were part of the discussion

at that point.

* *

- While detectives contend

with these
lingering questions,

Larry's friends
celebrate a man

who was larger than life.

- Larry's funeral takes place

at a Mormon church
in North Hollywood.

A lot of people were there
that I knew

from the Silent Movie Theater,

either my friends
or people I had seen

at various screenings.

- There were a lot
of very interesting people

giving tributes to Larry.

They said that he was this
high priest of silent cinema,

you know, taking the torch
from Valentino

and D.W. Griffith.

He genuinely had
a passion for silent film.

That was electrifying for him.

- James Van Sickle
purchased Larry's headstone.

And it had Larry's name,
birth, and death.

And on the bottom,
it said "the silent master."

James chose somebody
to sing "My Way,"

which kind of fits Larry.

* *

And I remember Larry's death
hit everybody hard.

And there were a lot of people
that were sad that Larry died

because his theater was
kind of like a second home

for a lot of us.

- I was a pallbearer,
along with James.

And I remember James
was getting very upset.

He was shaking.

And I went,
and I put my arm around James.

And, you know, he's crying,

and I'm like,
it's okay, buddy, it's okay.

- The idea
that this grieving man,

one of Larry Austin's
closest friends,

had something
to do with his murder

is hard to believe.

So detectives know
they'll need to do

some more digging
into Van Sickle.

But before they do, they
receive a startling new lead.

- The middle of February
of 1997, we got a tip.

And we meet this young man.

He told us that he was friends
with this guy,

Christian Rodriguez.

And he said,
we were out driving

a couple of nights ago,

he says, and I had the paper.

And I looked at the front page,

and there was this composite
of this murder suspect.

And I showed it to Christian.

And I said, this
looks just like you.

And Christian said, that is me.

[gunshot]

I'm the one
who did the killing.

* *

After we got this information,
we run Christian Rodriguez.

And we get some hits on him...

but no crimes of violence.

They were misdemeanors.

He was a very young kid,
about 20.

He wasn't what I would consider
a hard-nosed criminal.

We look at some of the photos,

and the one photo looks
exactly like the composite.

And so we realized that
Christian Rodriguez

might be the shooter.

* *

But then we needed a motive.

- Investigators begin to dig
into Rodriguez's background,

looking for anything else that
might tie him to the crime.

- He was a very young kid,
uneducated, unskilled.

And he was struggling.
He needed money.

He wasn't going anywhere.

He had a wife and a baby.

- And then they hit
on something

that stops them dead
in their tracks.

- We look into his employment.

Mr. Rodriguez had worked
at R&D Lighting

in Redondo Beach, California...

with Mr. Van Sickle.

- James Van Sickle and
Christian Rodriguez actually

worked together at a company.

This is
a breaking-wide-open moment.

They knew each other.

[dramatic music]

* *

- LAPD investigators have just
learned that the man

who may have shot
Larry Austin,

19-year-old
Christian Rodriguez,

once worked
with their other key suspect,

Larry's business partner and
former lover James Van Sickle.

And now there's
no time to waste

tracking Christian Rodriguez
down to get some answers.

* *

- We set about to try and
identify where he was living.

And so of course, as
these things happen,

Christian Rodriguez
was not actually living

at his residential address.

He had moved
around quite a bit.

- We didn't know
exactly where he was.

* *

- They can't track down anyone
in Rodriguez's family either.

So detectives turn
to the young man

who told them about Christian
in the first place for help.

- We talked to him again,

but he only knew
Christian Rodriguez

kind of on the periphery.

He didn't know where he lived

or anything
other than he was a friend.

* *

- Desperate to get a potential
killer off the street,

detectives dig for clues
in Van Sickle's background

and quickly realize that
Rodriguez isn't the only one

with a rap sheet.

- What we determined was
that James Van Sickle

had a sordid criminal past.

- James Van Sickle has been
in trouble with the law

more than once.

And he also has had
some violent encounters

in his past.

In 1989, he served time
in Chino for selling drugs.

[door slams]

- In one case, he had
brutally beat his boyfriend.

And he was arrested
for that also.

- In 1988,
Van Sickle's charged

with an attempted murder
in Compton.

But the victim never
showed up in court.

- It was a shock
to us at the time.

- The detectives are stunned

and begin to notice
a troubling pattern

in Van Sickle's history
of violence.

- It appeared that
Mr. Van Sickle was involved

in numerous incidents
in the past,

where he would
establish a relationship

with an older male.

And these relationships
typically ended the same way,

with a violent encounter

and him leaving with material
goods from the relationship.

- But the victims didn't
want to prosecute,

didn't want to follow up.

- In the 1980s,
if the guy was an older man,

he might have been closeted,
and he would have been

very reluctant to come out
and press charges.

It makes you a topic
for conversations

you don't want people to have.

This is how Van Sickle
could victimize people

in their own community
and get away with it.

- Larry Austin had
a good amount of money.

He was by himself.

At the time, I'm just thinking,

maybe Van Sickle became
involved with him

for the money.

And it just went
downhill from there,

to the point where Van Sickle
put his name

on the victim's accounts
to control the money,

then hires a hit man
to kill Larry Austin.

[gunshot]

And when he was murdered,
the person who benefits most

is Van Sickle.

- And we felt
Christian Rodriguez would be

a perfect hit-man candidate
because he needed the money.

He was uneducated.

He was not working a lot.

He had a family.

[gunshot]

* *

- But having a theory
and proving it

are two very different things.

And investigators
are still a long way

from making an arrest.

- James Van Sickle--
he may have hired a hit man.

He may have known him, but you
could still make the case

that this kid
did it on his own.

So they need to
really nail him down.

They need a confession.

* *

- Detectives know it
won't be an easy task.

But once again,
the media helps them

get closer
to catching the killer.

* *

- A confidential informant
for the federal government

was watching
"America's Most Wanted"

and spotted James on the show
and recognized him.

* *

- He told us that Van Sickle
had approached him months ago,

months before the murder,
to kill Austin.

- Apparently Mr. Van Sickle
had actually been

in the Southeast Los Angeles
area trying

to find someone that could,
as Mr. Van Sickle described it,

help him out
with a business matter.

That's how James Van Sickle
met up with the informant.

- And this guy said, no,

I didn't want anything
to do with it.

But now that he heard
about the reward,

he will turn
on Van Sickle for us.

* *

- Detectives quickly put
a plan into motion.

The informant
agrees to call Van Sickle

on a recorded line
an hour later.

* *

- So he called Van Sickle
and said,

hey, look, I heard about
what happened at the theater.

And I know you killed him,
and I want $10,000,

or I'm going to go
to the police.

Van Sickle went, hey, don't
worry, I'll get you the money.

I'm going to take care
of everything.

This was important
because we have

Van Sickle making some
admission for the first time.

And then Van Sickle
called us, and he said,

I want my money right now.

- He was very upset
because of the fact

that the funds
were still frozen.

- So we went to the IRS,
and they removed the freeze

on Austin's bank accounts.

So I go back,
and I told Van Sickle

that I got it released to him,

because, I said, I know
you need money to live on.

- So the bank released
the money to James.

And when James leaves the bank
with this $10,000

in his possession,

he doesn't know it,

but he's leading a parade
of "plainclothesed" cops.

* *

- The LAPD is
already in position

with their confidential
informant wired up

and the surveillance team
dead focused

on Van Sickle's every move.

- There are six or eight, at
least, cars following him.

They go to James's
apartment complex.

And James pulls into
the subterranean garage.

And he's ready to meet
the confidential informant,

who comes up.

- The informant
approaches him,

wired up with a microphone.

And he's irate
and wants his money.

We told him we wanted
him to get Van Sickle

to admit to the killing.

* *

And, finally,
Van Sickle started talking.

[dramatic music]

* *

- On March 8, 1997,

almost two months after
the murder of Larry Austin,

LAPD investigators
are surveilling

suspected murderer
James Van Sickle

as he speaks
to their wired informant.

- Van Sickle started talking.

And, finally,
Van Sickle admits,

you know, yes, you know,
I did want him killed.

I got the money,
and I'll give you the $10,000.

- At this point,
we make a determination

that all of the information
that we needed

was obtained in that recording.

We then move in
to arrest James Van Sickle.

* *

And we take Mr. Van Sickle
into custody.

* *

- We talked to him,

but he didn't want
to tell us anything.

His story was he didn't do it,
he's being framed.

You know,
he just denied everything.

- With the likely
mastermind behind bars,

police shift their focus
to finding the triggerman.

So they turn to the LAPD's
network of informants

hoping for a tip.

* *

- On Sunday, March 9th, we
got information

on Christian Rodriguez
from an informant.

We surveilled his new address,

waiting in the car, watching.

And then Rodriguez
got into his car.

And then the surveillance unit
started to follow.

He made a turn, these little
funny little side streets,

and the surveillance unit
almost lost him.

But then they
just converged on him

and took him down.

Rodriguez gave right up.

- Following the arrest,
he was transported

to Hollywood station.

Detective Miller and I asked
Christian Rodriguez to tell us

his side of the story,
and he did.

- Apparently, Rodriguez
never got paid to begin with,

and he flipped
because he was real upset.

- He told us
that James Van Sickle

had approached him
to commit a murder for hire.

He wanted him to do it because
he had no criminal record

and no one would suspect him.

- He said he was going to pay
him $25,000 to kill Austin.

- He provided information
to Christian Rodriguez

on how to obtain a firearm and
how he could commit the act

and where he should do it
and how he should do it.

[gunshot]

And he wanted
Mary Giles murdered as well

to make it look like a robbery.

- And to us, that was the
coldest part of the whole case.

[gunshot]

- The police were
all just horrified

at how James Van Sickle
was perfectly comfortable

with collateral damage
of a young woman, 19 years old,

just so it looks
more like a robbery.

- Then in January of 1999,

James Van Sickle
and Christian Rodriguez

are tried together.

* *

- At the trial, Mary
was a perfect witness

because she was very innocent.

She was very matter of fact.

She actually showed the scar

from the gunshot
that had gone into her chest,

and it was a pretty
massive scar.

She was very sympathetic.

And when she said that God
saved her, she meant it.

- After that, they
had the confession

from Christian Rodriguez,

and what is on tape
from James Van Sickle

is enough to nail him.

* *

- Then in May of 1999,

just over two years
after Larry Austin's murder,

Van Sickle and Rodriguez
learn their fate.

- Ultimately,
at the end of the trial,

both Christian Rodriguez
and James Van Sickle

were convicted
of first-degree murder.

And they were both
sentenced to life

without the possibility
of parole

in California state prison.

[door slams]

* *

- After the trial, the district
attorney, Jeff Ramseyer,

said, do you want to
speak on Larry's behalf?

And I said, yes, I'd like
to speak about Larry.

So I get up.

And I told them,
James Van Sickle

and Christian Rodriguez,
you showed no remorse,

and you took a man's life.

* *

James kind of had a smirk.

And I said, you know, you
can smirk all you want, pal.

But you know what?

When I leave here, you're
going back in a cell.

You have no freedom.

You gave it up when you chose
to take a man's life

for profit.

- Today the people who loved
Larry Austin and the spirit

of Old Hollywood he
fought to preserve

are left with only memories.

The theater continues
to operate as an outlet

for art-house cinema

and occasionally even features
a silent movie,

for old time's sake.

- It wasn't nearly
the same, obviously.

There was no Larry Austin.

And it was more
of a hipster haven.

- They do have screenings,

but it's not the same.

Larry Austin had
a perfect vision

for the Silent Movie Theater.

It was his one chance

to sprinkle himself

and the area with stardust.

It was a little bit of magic
that he could make happen.

That's the Larry Austin
who died.

- When Larry died,
I didn't want to go back,

and I've never been back
in that building ever since.

I've driven by.

And it's bittersweet.

I wish we still had
a silent-movie theater

here in Los Angeles.

But you need somebody

with love and devotion
like Larry gave it

to run something like that.

It was Larry's life,

and when he died,
the theater died.