Thank you sweetheart, Oh..
Yeah Hello, Hey, Mr Oswalt?
- Hey, Deputy So-and-So. - Hey listen, I'm sorry to get back to you so late in the day
I couldn't make the calls from the office. You know, the sheriff.
Yeah, I understand. But, I got what you asked about.
There was a Martinez family in Sacramento, California that died in their garage in 1979.
Their car was set on fire. And one of their sons was 9 years old, they never found him.
Do you have the street address? - Yes, 8224 Billington in Sacramento.
What about St. Louis?
The address of the house where the Miller murders occurred is 2976 Piedmont Way St. Louis.
That is excellent! All right. 29... Wait, did you say 2-9-7-6? Like 29-76?
Yeah, what? Does that mean something to you? - Uh, no,no, it doesn't. Thank you, thank you, Deputy.
Before the Stevensons moved here, they lived where the Miller family murders happened. Holy shit!
Oh God! Is he ok? I found him outside.
We have to put a lock on his door. It's way worse than it was.
I'll call the doctor in the morning.
All right now, you stay with him. I left something outside.
Good dog.
Good dog. I don't wanna hurt you.
I just wanna get my bat.
So if you come at me I'm gonna bash your head in.
That's fine, you keep it.
You ok? - Yeah, I'm fine. Come on.
Trevor is too old to still be having these. He's supposed to have outgrown them by now.
Oh, he's all right. - Just stop.
Stop what? - Drop the book.
Look, we can pack up, get out of town, and never look back. - Why? Because he's having some night terrors?
No, it's more than that. He's never been this bad.
You've never been this bad. You've been at this book less than a week and you're already a mess!
You never crack into the whiskey this early.
So now you're saying I'm a drunk? - No, I'm saying there's something you're not telling me.
Something that's eating you up, and whatever it is,it seems to be getting to Trevor as well.
Something's different. - Yeah something's different. Do you wanna know what it is?
How much do you wanna know? I want to know why you're different.
Something is different because I have never been onto something this big before.
Do you remember how it was when I was writing 'Kentucky'? Do you remember that?
Well this is much bigger than that! Much!
I'm talking about a potentially important work, here!
I'm talking about a mega hit. This could be my " In Cold Blood"!
A movie deal, talk shows, right? A national book award.
And more money than.. we could live on it forever if we wanted to. - I don't care about any of that!
Yes you do! Everybody does! This is my shot, Tracy!
What? - I'm just worried about you.
Well, don't be. Nothing is wrong.
Then why did you come in white as a ghost?
Because I saw a dog.
A dog? - A very big dog.
Like Cujo, baby, I had never seen him before.
Is he gone? - Yeah, he's gone.
I just need a little more time. I promise it's worth it.
Every minute that we're here, we are a minute closer to the happy ending that we always dreamed of.
We're almost there.
Deputy. - Mr Oswalt, these came in this morning.
I had a few of the pertinent files pulled for you and had them faxed over.
Really? Thanks. - No problem.
You think I could come in for a second?
Yeah, sure. - Thanks.
Look, I know what you must think of me, some small-town deputy...
that's starstruck with the famous writer, but I'm not some local moron.
I didn't say that you were.. you know...
I have a degree in criminology and I've taken my fair share of forensic science courses.
I also know a series of connected murder cases when I see one, Mr Oswalt.
Look, listen, we missed something, I get that.
But if you want me to run interference for you while you get this worked out,
I gotta be in the loop. Just, a little bit.
You really want to help?
It's my home, Mr Oswalt. What happened here, happened to all of us.
All right, come here.
Who is that? - I don't know.
That's what I'm hoping to find out.
You think that these are serial murders? - Maybe. More ritualized than necessarily serial.
They're really spread out. Not just regionally but over time.
The first one I found dates back to the 60s.
The 1960s? - Yeah.
Wait, that would put the guy, what, in his 70s? - Or his 60s.
Yeah, I don't know. Look at the methodology.
In the toxicology reports.. in some cases the killer drugged his victims.
Wait, with what? - Well, they couldn't tell for sure.
But by drugging them, the killer removes his need to overpower them.
Here it is the tree branch that did the heavy lifting.
In Sacramento, he lit a family on fire.
In St. Louis he slit their throats. The first family, he drowned.
Drowning? You never said anything about anyone being drowned.
The only other significant link between the murder cases is that
in each instance, the killer murdered the entire family, except one.
A child, which he took with him.
That, and this symbol appears in several of the crime scenes.
That looks like something from out of the occult.
Look, you might wanna call the university.
There is a professor, over there, Professor Jonas. He's an occult crime expert,
and the state police bring him in on some of the weirder stuff.
I think this qualifies.
So where do you think that drowning happened? - That's what I need you to find out.
Professor Jonas? -Yes.
Hey, thank you for getting back to me so quickly, I appreciate that.
Of course, I'm a really big fan. I'm flattered that you would even... -Thanks.
When I saw the photos that you had sent to me, I knew exactly what cases that you were studying.
How would you know what cases I was looking at?
The symbol that you sent me, isn't a pentagram.
It's not something that you would see teenagers or a Norwegian black metal band...
paint on the wall in goat's blood
to be edgy, or to piss off the Christians. No, this is a bit more obscure than that.
I know.. that one from the hallway.
That's from the late nineties in St. Louis.
The other one, the car hood, that is from Sacramento, that's about 30 years ago.
Tell me about the one in Sacramento.
It's a symbol associated with the worship of a pagan deity.
A pagan deity? What kind of deity?
A very obscure one, dating back to Babylonian times.
Named Bughuul. The eater of children. Did you say, 'eater'?
Yes, uh, of children. Thank you, Jessica.
The crimes that you're dealing with, they all have the element of a missing child, correct? - Yes, that's correct.
Well, Bughuul eats the children.
Now, the fragments of stories that have survived, they all revolve around him
eating the souls of children, to survive.
Now each story involves a different way that he lures
or tricks these children away from the physical world
and traps them in his own netherworld.
where he consumes their souls over time.
Now, any worship of this deity would include blood sacrifice...
or the wholesale eating of the child.
So you're saying the person who made these symbols is eating children?
Well, that would fit the stories. Of course, the few times that this symbol has shown up...
none of the crimes have been related in any way to any of this.
So this might be more of a cult initiation...
rather than the actual actions of any one man.
There's been another one, hasn't there?
I think so, yes. Tell me everything you can.
So, I appreciate you coming by. Yeah, that's not a problem at all.
So, we're becoming friends, right? - It suppose, yeah.
I mean, I can trust you, right? - Absolutely.
So if I were to ask you something in earnest, you wouldn't read too much into it?
Was there anything weird about the Stevensons?
No complaints from them about anything... strange?
No, not to my knowledge. - The investigators, they didn't notice anything odd or inexplicable about the house?
Any weird stories? - No.
Mr Oswalt, is there something you want to tell me?
Ok, look, clearly something happened and you want talk to somebody about it, right?
Ok, well does your wife know about it?
Wait, did she know whose house this is... was?
Oh man, that is a conversation I would not want to be around for! - Me neither.
I'm sorry, so, what? You saw some thing weird, heard something spooky in the house?
Yes, precisely. - What exactly?
I don't believe in any.. you know, stuff. By stuff, you mean...
supernatural, metaphysical, paranormal, that type of stuff?
Right, of course you don't.
You would have never moved into a crime scene if you did, so..
here we are, having this conversation.
But, there was none of that with the Stevensons, huh?
No, in the short amount of time that the Stevensons lived here, they never called the police...
and never have the police called on them or reported anything bizarre that came up in the investigation.
Want to know what I think? - Yes.
I think you have moved yourself into the house of murder victims...
and set about immediately trying to put yourself in their headspace.
I also think that you've begun discovering things on this case ...
that go to darker places than you were prepared for.
I also think that every time I come to your house, there's a whiskey bottlein your office.
Mr. Oswalt, I'm not saying that you have a drinking problem.
I don't think that.
Nor do I think that you're making any of this up to get attention.
I don't think that. What I do think is that you are under so much stress...
You put yourself under so much stress that your mind is trying to process all of it at once.
So you don't believe any of that... otherwordly stuff?
Are you kidding me? I believe in all that stuff.
I wouldn't sleep one night in this place, are you nuts? Four people were hung by their necks...
in a tree in your backyard. And that little girl, God knows, where... God knows what..
I'm sorry, you know what?
You should try to get out more, Mr Oswalt. Try to clear your head.
Total honesty?
Last night I thought...
that something was in the house.
And then I woke up on the couch
holding a baseball bat.
I guess if I thought something was in my home at night, I would be a little bit freaked out, too.
But, listen to me, Mr Oswalt. If you sleep in this house...
it's just gonna do terrible things to your head.
What's going on? - Your daughter apparently thought
there wasn't enough room on her walls for her new painting.
Ashley! -No, that's not it! - We talked about it! I only gave you one rule...
it was a big deal for us to let you paint on your wall. What was it? What's the rule, Ashley?
Paint only goes in the bedroom. - What makes you think you could paint out here?
I wanted to paint her picture, but she didn't want it in my room, because that used to be her brother's room
What? Who are you talking about?
Stephanie. - Who is Stephanie?
She used to live here. She's the one Daddy's writing his book about.
Ashley, go to your room and shut the door.
What the hell were you thinking? Did you think I wouldn't find out?
Of course I knew you were gonna find out, eventually, ok?
But don't blame me for not telling you, because remember, you never wanted to know.
Don't try and pin this on me! I asked you! I asked you if we were living in that house.
You asked me if we were living two houses down from a crime scene. I said, no.
We never should have come here! Nobody died here.
It's not like we're sleeping where somebody was killed! It's not like they had to wipe the blood off the walls!
So you're saying it didn't happen here? - No.
It happened in the backyard. - Oh, that is so.. and you think that makes a difference?
No Ellison, it doesn't. You have done some crazy shit in the past..
but this really takes the cake. My God, What on earth possessed you to move here?
We've never been this broke before. That's no excuse.
This came on the market and was a steal... Gee, I wonder why.
So, what Trevor drew last week, that happened here?
The previous owners of this home were hung from a tree in our backyard?
That is so sick, Ellison. And you let our little girl play back there?
Why shouldn't I? - Our son is having night terrors...
and drawing pictures of this crime at school
and our daughter just painted a little dead girl on our walls.
Technically, she's missing. - I don't want to hear about technicalities!
Do you understand what you've done this time? The kind of jeopardy you put your children in?
Your marriage? - Yes!, I do, I understand.
I see. Is there anything you won't do for your goddamn book!?
Apparently not. I guess this is all worth it to you.
What is it worth? Putting your family at risk.
Risk of what? Of more paintings? Don't! Your daughter...
My daughter has a father who loves her, that is always around,
who encourages her to be herself. The worst thing that ever happened to her...
is one time, she moved into a house where a family was killed...
she found out about the murders, she felt sorry for that little girl...
So she painted a fucking picture!
That's what she does, that's what she always has done.
What else do you want from me?
How about a home where we feel safe?
How about neighbors who don't hate us...
a town where I can buy groceries without getting strange looks?
How about a life that doesn't involve our kids...
drawing or painting the sick details of some horrific tragedy...
or working out their deep-seated anxieties by doing bizarre shit in the middle of the night.
How about that? Would that be ok? - I can give all that to you as soon as the book is finished!
This book isn't for us, it's for you.
Don't say that. It's not true. - It IS true.
There are plenty of other ways you can provide for this family.
Doing what?! Teaching?
Editing journalism textbooks?
Don't you understand?
That writing is what gives my life meaning.
These books are my legacy.
I have always supported you doing what you love
But writing isn't the meaning of your life.
You and me, right here, this marriage, that's the meaning of your life.
And your legacy? That's Ashley and Trevor.
Your kids are your legacy.
Did I get Daddy in trouble? No, sweetie.
Your daddy got Daddy in trouble. I'm sorry I painted on the wall.
I know. Get a good night's sleep.
What is happening?
One, two, three, four...
five, six, seven, eight...
Three, four, five, six...
seven, eight, nine, ten. What the hell are you doing?
We have to leave here.
What's the matter? What's happened? You were right.
I made a mistake. We should have never come to this house.
We have to leave now.
You're freaking me out. Get the kids and pack the car.
We have to leave. Go!!!
Honey, slow down. - I just want to get to the highway.
I want to put as much road between us and this town as we can.
Where are we going, Daddy? - We're going home, honey.
Our home? Like you promised? - Yeah, like I promised.
What about our stuff? - We're going to call the movers in the morning, all right?
It's ok.
Evening, Oswalts. - Sheriff.
License and registration.
Driving pretty fast for this time of night, don't you think?
Anything I oughta know about?
Just trying to take your advice, that's all. Which advice would that be?
Leave town and never look back.
You weren't bullied away, were you? - I'm sorry?
I don't wanna be reading in your book that angry townsfolks chased you out of here.
If you've been mistreated, I wanna know about it. - There isn't gonna be any book.
No book? - No, sir.
Well then, I don't see any reason for me to have your autograph.
One more favor? Hold it under 60 until you cross the county line?
Then you're somebody else's problem.
Yes, sir. - Did you mean that?
About the Book? Yes.
Promise? - I promise.
Let's go home.
That goes in the office. over there on the right.
$10 says that Trevor sleeps through the night.
No, I'm not taking that bet.
THREE SCANNED IMAGES FOR YOU
Mr Oswalt! I'm sorry that it took so long to get back to you.
There's been so little written about Bughuul...
that no one has actually bothered to scan this material before.
Well, what am I looking at?
You're looking at an engraving, an old sketch from the Dark Ages, and fragments of a deteriorated fresco.
There just isn't a lot left. Everything else has been destroyed.
Why? - Superstition.
Early Christians believed that Bughuul actually lived in the images themselves...
and that they were gateways into his realm.
Gateways? - Yes, the ancient church believed
that he would take possession of those who saw the images...
and cause them to do terrible things.
Or in some cases, he could even abduct the viewer into the images themselves
Children exposed to the images were especially vulnerable to
to Bughuul's possession and/or abduction.
What if you destroyed him? - Sorry, I don't follow.
If you destroyed the images..with a fire, what would happen then?
Do you mean literally, or in the stories?
In the stories, if an image was destroyed, then the gateway would be closed...
and Bughuul would no longer have access to this world, right?
Mr Oswalt, what kind of book are you writing, exactly?
I don't know. I'm not even sure I have a book anymore.
But, thank you for your time. Anytime.
DEPUTY SO-AND-SO
Do you know what time it is? - Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, but I've been trying to call you all day.
What's the problem? - Ok, the problem is that you moved.
How is that a problem? - I was compiling all the data that you've had me collecting
and once I started putting it together in a nice readable package, I saw the connection. It was obvious.
What was it? The dates! The addresses!
Each family that you had me look up had previously lived in the house where one of the earlier murders took place.
Each family? All five of them? - Yes.
When you put them in chronological order...
you can actually draw a line from murder to murder to murder.
We knew that the Stevensons previously lived in the same St. Louis house where the Millers had their throats cut.
But, before the Miller family was killed, the Millers lived in the same house in Orange County...
where the De Luzio lawn massacre occurred.
Guess where the Luzio's lived before they moved to Orange County?
In Sacramento, where the Martinez family was burned to death in their garage.
Exactly. The pattern goes back to 1966 Oregon drownings.
Listen Mr Oswalt, you just moved out of the last house in line!
If this guy is still out there, you not only just sped up his timeline, you put yourself in it!
Thanks, Deputy.
Stephanie.
It's the missing kids.
Goodnight, DADDY
I like that you made the movies longer. They're better this way.
Don't worry, Daddy. I'll make you famous again.