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n [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who if you will be his Valentine he will be your
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Frankenstein here is the captain that's right and I'll be putting on the rits it's good to be seen and good to see you
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thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very excited to be
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featuring waiting for October and I'm so glad that I did shout out to my brother-in-law John who got me this for
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Christmas last year and I waited till October waiting for October is a Bourbon Barrel age pumpkin spice latte Imperial
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Stout that's a mouthful but it's a delicious mouthful made by the good Folks at track 7 Brewing Company who are
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teaching us the virtues of patience waiting for October recipe features coffee pumpkin vanilla lactose and
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pumpkin spice ABV 14.1% so drink this one at home garage grade five out of five bottle caps Bingo
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Boingo and here's a big cheers to our garage friends first up a cheers to Valerie Grace in Tucson Arizona and a
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or apple podcast subscription to get off the Record you're going to love it trust
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me and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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crime [Music] stalking is a very serious and not so well understood criminal offense that
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many times can lead to violence while every case is different people who stalk can be very
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dangerous stalkers May threaten attack sexually assault and or even kill their victims unfortunately there is no single
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psychological or behavor behavioral profile that predicts what stalkers will or will not do stalker behaviors can
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escalate from more indirect ways of making contact like phone calls and text to more direct contact like delivering
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gifts or an unwelcome visit many victims struggle with how to respond some victims try reasoning with their
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stalkers hoping that being nice will make it stop many victims minimize their experiences
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telling themselves it's not that bad still others may confront or threaten the stalker to try to fight back while
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victims cannot control the stalking behavior they should feel empowered to take steps to keep themselves their
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families and their loved ones safe if you or someone you know needs help there are many resources available if you feel
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you are in imminent danger or are in fear call 911 immediately if you or a friend are
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seeking individual assistance please reach out to your local law enforcement agency even when the stalking is not
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related to domestic violence domestic violence Andor sexual assault service providers are often the right people to
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contact about stalking please always remember that website history can be monitored and it is impossible to erase
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completely it is possible that an abuser and or stalker is monitoring one's browser history it would be best to seek
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help via phone call or text if possible two recommended resources are first the victim connect resource center it's a
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referral helpline where Crime Victims can learn about their rights and options confidentially and compass
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they are available 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the phone number is 1
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8554 victim and perhaps the best may be the National Domestic Violence Hotline they can be reached by texting start to
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88788 or by calling 1800799 safe that information will be included in Today's Show notes but
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remember if you are in danger call 911 and please talk to your local law enforcement agency this is true crime
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[Music] garage check out Empire on blood it is a great binge listen Empire on blood is an
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almost unbelievable true crime story about a fascinating case filled with plenty of WTF moments go and listen to
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Empire on blood podcast [Music] tonight on November 23rd 1959 proud parents Ellen Dunn and Dominic Dunn
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welcomed their third third child Dominique into the world and this time it was extra special as this baby would
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be the couple's third child but their first baby girl she was born in Santa Monica California and little Dominique
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would be the couple's pride and joy she was named after both of her parents her full name Dominique Ellen Dunn her
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father was an investigative journalist actor and producer her mother Ellen who went by the name name of Lenny came from
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a pretty well-to-do family as said they had two boys already this is Griffin and
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Alex dun when Dominique was still young her parents split up they divorced in 1967 but that didn't slow her upbringing
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down because Dominique went to some of the finer schools attending Harvard Westlake School in Los Angeles Taft
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school in Connecticut and Fountain Valley School in Colorado after graduation Dominique spent a year in
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Florence Italy a year abroad studying art and she learned to speak Italian after all of this she went back
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to California this time to study acting this is sort of the family business Dominique's father Dominic Dunn worked
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in television for a time and her older brother Thomas Griffin dun went into acting at the age of 19 he later starred
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in An American Werewolf in London which was a film from 1981 werewolf's London that was also one
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of the first horror films that I ever saw and it's uh I I remember it to be quite good I don't know if it holds up
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after all these years Dominic's first role in TV was a TV movie this was in 1979 where she played in a TV movie
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called Diary of a Teenage hitchhiker and then she landed several supporting roles
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in episodes of popular 8s TV shows and this included heart-to-heart and fame now most people today I believe will
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remember her from her role in the cult classic supernatural horror movie Poltergeist this was produced by Steven
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Spielberg and released in 1982 yeah it was the eighth highest grossing movie of that year Dominic
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played Dana freeling the oldest daughter of the freeling family whose Suburban life is upturned when they are haunted
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by malevolent Spirits the movie was a box office hit like the captain just said with a budget of less than 11
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million Poltergeist brought in over $120 million at the box and was nominated for
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three Academy Awards and Captain you and I are too young to have seen this in the
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movie theater in fact I don't think I saw this until I was a teenage but I do recall being quite young and
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hearing people talk about this movie like hearing kids my age talking about it because their older brothers or
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sisters had seen the movie and it scared quite a bunch of kids back back in the 80s when this movie came out yeah it's
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kind of interesting uh it's supposedly created by step Spielberg but there were was actually a lawsuit because this was
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kind of based off of a Twilight Zone episode where a girl goes missing and and is sucked into the house but because
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Stephen Spielberg was directing ET at the time they didn't want him to be directing both films they actually had
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Toby Hooper direct the film and and you would know him from directing the first Texas Chainsaw massacure Dominic Dunn
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was cast for several roles both on TV and film in large part from the Poltergeist film success but also
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because she was a talented budding star at the time let's go to September 27th of
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1982 Dominique had a starring role on a television show this was the old show Hill Street Blues her role was for one
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episode titled recream for a hairbag in the episode Dominic played a teenage mother who was a victim of Parental
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abuse and chose to give up her baby for adoption not wanting to repeat the cycle
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of abuse that she endured from her parents little did anyone know at the time Dominique didn't have to do a whole
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lot of acting for this role as she was trying desperately to get out of and separate herself from a real life
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abusive Rel relationship in fact it would later be learned that her onscreen bruises for
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this TV episode required no makeup at all her bruises clearly visible on screen were naturally caused by a
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violent altercation the day prior when Dominique suffered abuse from her onetime boyfriend his name is John
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Sweeney so a little bit of background on how they met yeah so Dominic met John Thomas SW he was a sue chef at a very
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popular restaurant Meson they met for my understanding captain at a party in 1981 so this would be shortly before
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she's she's already an actress by this time but this would be before the success of poltergeist this was a place
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that had no phone number you couldn't call to make a reservation wolf game puck I believe got his start at this
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Hollywood hotspot a lot of people that went there would say that the parking lot would be packed with rolls-royces
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the captain is right this was a very popular restaurant as said didn't even have the phone number in the phone book
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because they would get too many calls for reservations and so this was a very in
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demand high class restaurant located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles California
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this was the in place the place to be just as the captain had said the restaurant had been feed featured in
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movies over the years and is where world-renowned Chef Wolf Gang Puck launched his career it sounds like their
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relationship moved quite fast here Captain because the reports are that just after a few weeks of dating the two
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moved in together into a rental property in West Hollywood but due to John's Behavior what Dominique is going to
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learn about this this man very quickly is that he's extremely jealous and possessive and because of
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this the relationship is going to quickly deteriorate yeah and I believe that she was sharing some of this
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information with her friends but I don't think she was leading her family on to believe that John was anything other
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than just a nice guy yeah especially early on in the relationship that seems to be the case Jon was a few years older
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than Dominique some of the reports that I've seen captain during their time together he regularly accused her of
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cheating on him and even going to the extremes of accusing Dominique of having abortions to hide her cheating of course
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none of that is true none of this is true at all John was just as we're going to learn was just a straight up madman
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an example of such this is according to One account during an argument on August
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27th 1982 John pulled Dominique's hair like tugging on her hair yeah so forcefully so that he yanked out
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handfuls of her hair by The Roots this of course frightened Dominique to the point that she left and
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went to her mother's house John Sweeney then shows up there yelling screaming shouting threats to the point of even
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pounding on doors and windows demanding that he be let into Dominic's mother's home yeah it
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seemed like John S could not only could he not control his temper but he couldn't control his irrational thoughts
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like you said oh you're cheating on me and you must be pregnant so you must you must have terminated the pregnancy with
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no evidence no no reason to believe any of these thoughts well and here he can't
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even control his actions in front of Dominic's mother right like he could have she could have showed up to Mom's
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house with accusations of John did this or John did that yeah and I'm sure her mother would have believed her and taken
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care of her but you could also one could suggest that truly what says that this is the truth is that he shows up
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screaming and yelling and pounding on the door now Mom knows for sure well my little girl's not crazy
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she's got involved with the wrong guy yes the the proof is in the pudding rightfully so Dominic's mother tells
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John Sweeney I'm calling the police and he eventually leaves for her that altercation seemed
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to be handled by Mom at least now regretfully just a few days later Dominique returned to her home that she
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shared with John Sweeney and it's reported that the two resumed their relationship but it seems like
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everything was would end then soon so because the next month we're going to go just to the very next month almost
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exactly a month to the date of this incident that we just discussed right this is during another
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argument at their home that they they shared where they were both staying this takes place September 26 1982 John
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Sweeney grabed ABS Dominique by the throat he throws her to the floor he's choking her he's strangling her there is
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a friend thankfully there was a friend that was staying with the at this rental property at the time this friend is in
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another room but hears like loud gagging sounds and can hear this attack on Dominique thankfully we got this friend
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that is staying there that hears what's going on on and can bear witness to this so we
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know about this attack because this is really crazy when you when you start to dissect what's going on here so after he
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attacks Dominique and we have we have the friend that is told by Dominique like yeah he was he was strangling me he
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he was trying to kill me but then we have Sweeney who's demanding that she go back to bed so this argument must have
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started in the bedroom or the attack did at the very least and he's demanding that she come back to bed and so she
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says yes I'm I will go back to bed I'm coming back to bed but instead she goes to the bathroom opens up the bathroom
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window and crawls out the window so now she's trying to flee the property because remember she just told her
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friend or the person that was staying there he he tried to kill me yeah she she believed that he was trying to kill
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her and who knows what he said to her while he was strangling her so she crawls out this bathroom window and she
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starts to flee she runs out to her car well note to self if anybody's strangling me it doesn't matter what
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they're saying to me they could be telling me that they love me but the actions are they're trying to kill me
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yeah the actions speak louder than words of course yeah she gots she hops in her
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car and she's attempting to drive off John Sweeney somehow figures F out that she went out the bathroom window and is
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trying to get away he runs outside and jumps on top of the vehicle he's a psychopath yeah so he's doing this in
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attempt to so she can't drive off well she drives off anyway for the next several days she just stays at her mom's
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house she she doesn't come back that night or the or the next day so she's staying at her mother's house she's
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staying with some friends and things of that nature for a period of time during this time she officially ends the
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relationship with John Sweeney tells him that he's going to have to move out he does move out and she has the locks
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changed on that home so she doesn't move back into that home until after she's had the locks changed yeah which makes
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sense but you also wish in the situation that they would have just let this apart
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go because we have this individual that shows up he's tried to kill her he's beating her he's verbally
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abusive to have some sense that he there's no evidence that he's going to stop trying to be a part of her life I
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mean like you said he ripped hair out of her head has a confrontation with her mother and I think he thinks that hey if
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I can just get my foot back in the door we'll be together so I wish they would have just said hey this apartment
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doesn't matter we're moving you somewhere else or you need to live with somebody somewhere else where John
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doesn't know where to find you well and unfortunately so this incident that we just discussed this is what took place
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the day before filming the Hill Street Blues episode the one where we at a much later date learned
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she didn't need any makeup for the bruises and marks on her neck in the episode that they would have applied
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makeup for her to play that role she didn't require it because she already had bruises on her neck from being
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strangled by her boyfriend the day before we do learn a little more and some of the behind the-scenes stuff that
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that is not so heavily reported from Dominic's brother Griffin from his book that recently came out it's a family
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Memoir titled the Friday afternoon Club where Griffin states that the whole dun family disliked John
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Sweeney referring to John as Dominique's first real boyfriend yeah Griffin says that it was he and Dominique's other
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brother Alex who actually spoke up saying outwardly you know we don't we don't like this guy we don't trust this
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guy we think he he's a bad guy and in his book he calls John Sweeney a phony star [ __ ] ass kisser that's a
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mouthful yeah well he also says that less than a month before Dominic's 23rd birthday remember she had officially
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broke up with John Sweeney and that John Sweeney he was learning more about John
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Sweeney from his sister who was telling him Griffin that John's extremely jealous he's possessive and she tells
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him about John strangling her to the brink of her blacking out so that horrific attack that we we just
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discussed I believe is what she was telling her brother back then and she the problems though here is look we know
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how she's being treated and mistreated is what we should say and abused later John Douglas in his book Obsession his
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1998 book Obsession would would cite this situation as very much this guy's a stalker he was conducting a lot of
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behavior that's very typical with stalkers the brothers state that nobody in the family liked John Sweeney but
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that they particularly did not like him and that they got annoyed because on a couple of these occasions not on this
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one but on a couple of the occasions like we've already pointed out the ra the relationship would
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resume yeah she would go back to him he said at one point John Sweeney even called him so called the brother Griffin
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because he wanted to figure out how to get back with Dominique like can you give me any advice on how I can win her
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back or how can I get back into the house Griffin says that during this phone call he told John Sweeney the Sue
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Chef he refers to him as the chef quite often but he says that he told John Sweeney to stay the [ __ ] away from
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Dominique and if you ever touch my sister again I will kill you and that's a [Music]
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quote hey there it's Steve Fishman and this is my trailer for my new podcast release the director's cut of Empire on
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blood if you got to kill a few people to get what you want in life so be it you can build an
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insists he did not do you're not going to give up no can't can't I [Music] can't from the creators of the burden
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sling.com Cho that's sling.com Cho sling.com choose [Music] all right we are back cheers mates we
00:29:41
waited till October 5 out of five drink them up drink them if you got them tall cans in the air and back with me as
00:29:48
always is Mr potty mouth this episode yeah I I apologize I'm quoting from books here I I can't I can't control
00:29:57
what the written word this is why nobody should ever read books cuz they're full
00:30:01
of bad naughty language that's right I before we jump back into the case here Captain I do want to give a shout out
00:30:09
here the porch light project we we're taking on some new cases for the remainder of this year and looking
00:30:15
forward to three or four cases for 2025 and I want to give a shout out to Matt and a shout out to lesie both who made
00:30:24
big and very generous contributions to the porch light project and so we're going to do some really
00:30:30
good work and help out some people with your guys' donations and anybody that has donated to the porch light project
00:30:37
the captain's one of those I want to thank everybody for all of your help all these years and if anybody wants to
00:30:42
learn more go to porchlight online.org where we left off here Captain we have the brother who threatened rightfully so
00:30:52
right I like I don't really I'm down with threats man I don't care you you you touch my sister you touch somebody
00:30:58
in my family yeah I I'm not just making threats right I don't subscribe to that kind of behavior but if but in this
00:31:06
situation I would have gladly delivered a threat myself right this is or or a punch to the throat it's warranted and
00:31:13
unfortunately it was not enough to scare this guy off so we're going to we we went through an attack in August then
00:31:21
another attack in September and now we're going to fast forward to another month later this takes place on October
00:31:27
3rd 30th 1982 yeah to be clear this is weeks after Dominique broke up with John Sweeney now she's back at that West
00:31:38
Hollywood home that they once shared remember locks changed at this point and she's there with another with a man his
00:31:46
name is David Packer and they are they're simply just friends or in fact their their colleagues they're
00:31:53
rehearsing for a miniseries or something that they were doing together at the time yeah there's going to be a a mini
00:32:02
movie series on TV about a a writer that uncovers alien activity or something like that well called The V for visitors
00:32:13
Sweeny John Sweeney shows up at the door and of course I mean look this is a jealous
00:32:22
enraged lunatic anyway but I'm sure if he shows up and figures out that there another man there that there's no way
00:32:30
that this is going to end well Dominique is smart enough she's not she's not letting him in and they're talking to
00:32:38
each other through the locked door at some point Dominique does agree to go outside she's not going to let Jon into
00:32:46
the house but she agrees that she will go outside and speak to him if he can speak to her calmly on the on the
00:32:54
porch David Packer stays inside from inside the home he says that he can hear the two arguing things started to get
00:33:03
loud and then he says he heard like smacking sounds a couple of Screams call well yeah he called the police yeah
00:33:14
but I also think he called a friend first just to say this is what I'm hearing what the heck do I do because
00:33:20
this would be a a very difficult situation I mean like you said they're friends but they're
00:33:26
colleagues and like you you're trying to give her her personal boundaries I guess
00:33:33
but so he calls a friend and says what the hell should I do and they're like you need to call the cops yeah and th
00:33:39
this is weird because he calls when he calls the police he's informed by the police that he called that they're not
00:33:47
that home is not in their jurisdiction so he's attempting to call for help but he's called the wrong people un
00:33:53
unknowingly and you're right then he calls a friend has that discussion that you just talked about but he this the
00:34:00
other thing he says to the friend like if if I'm found dead if I end up getting killed John Sweeney is the murderer just
00:34:08
like friend know that keep remember that name John Sweeney is the murderer could
00:34:12
you could you imagine being on the other end of that call and your friends calling you I called the cops they can't
00:34:19
help me I got to do something and and then he tells you if I'm dead it's John Sweeney you you'd
00:34:28
have to be terrified you be standing by your phone waiting for that call back to
00:34:35
make sure everything was okay well and somehow the right the proper Police Department is notified and so they're
00:34:46
they're on their way to the scene now meanwhile back at the West Hollywood home David Packer decides I got to get
00:34:55
out of Dodge he decides to leave out the back of the house and then when he's walking around to the side of the yard
00:35:01
and then to the front yard he's now getting close he can see the driveway and he says at this point he saw John
00:35:09
Sweeney in some bushes nearby kneeling over top of Dominic who's lying on the the
00:35:17
ground and John shouts to David to call the police now remember they're already in route when the police get there they
00:35:28
pull up they report that they saw John Sweeney standing next to Dominique's unconscious body M she's now lying
00:35:37
either lying on the driveway or next to it the police say that John Sweeney had his hands in the air you know like you
00:35:45
show up and that's usually what the guilty party does when they see the police yeah and he's he's puts his hands
00:35:51
up in the air and he says I killed my girlfriend I tried to kill myself so they arrest him at the scene and he is
00:35:58
immediately charged with attempted murder Dominic Dunn is transported to Cedar's sin Medical Center where she has
00:36:06
to be placed on life support yeah she's in a coma so sadly she never regains Consciousness she was kept alive for
00:36:14
several days during that time doctors performed brain scans which revealed that due to oxygen deprivation she had
00:36:23
no brain activity right at that point so it was on November 4th that her parents
00:36:29
had to make the very tough decision to have their only daughter removed from life support well now the charges of a
00:36:39
attempted murder are going to be murder yeah so Dominique Dunn passed away 19 days before her 23rd birthday we talked
00:36:48
a little bit about those brain scans we do know that an autopsy was conducted immediately after she was taken off of
00:36:55
life support the autop y we have to be clear here on a couple of things the autopsy was conducted rightfully so you
00:37:04
I mean you would you would have one done anyway but even more so it's done in this case along with additional brain
00:37:12
scans that may not have been necessary to determine her state right or or what the future would hold or not hold for
00:37:23
this poor young woman but those additional brain scans along with the autopsy that that's conducted they know
00:37:30
that they need to conduct these for the for the courts for when this thing lands
00:37:35
in court because you we've seen this on TV right I'm sure everybody can relate to this and they've seen something like
00:37:41
this on TV where somebody is locked up for attempted murder and the detectives are telling him you better hope that she
00:37:47
pulls through right because if she doesn't you're you're facing a whole different set of charges and so they
00:37:54
they did these additional brain scans so that they would have proof if that time
00:37:59
came that it was going to court for murder that John Sweeny was going to court for murder that it wasn't her
00:38:05
death wasn't due to poor Hospital work or poor medical care that it was it was he caused her death therefore he
00:38:14
murdered this woman even though it took a few days for her to officially pass away the Hill Street Blues episode that
00:38:23
was filmed the day after she was beat up by John Sweeney aired on November 18th 1982 this is two weeks after Dominique's
00:38:33
death and again the bruises that were seen on screen were natural in fact John admitted to strangling her later he
00:38:44
would later admit to strangling her the day before that episode was filmed well we have a ear witness and and somewhat
00:38:52
of a eyewitness plus we have his comments to the police as he was being arrested I killed my girlfriend I was
00:38:58
trying to kill myself so we have that so that probably nudged him in the right direction to fully confess to the crimes
00:39:07
this uh episode of Hill Street Blues was dedicated to her memory to Dominique's memory and it can you imagine this is
00:39:15
like 12 days after her funeral well she has so much going for in her life Poltergeist was a huge movie and yes it
00:39:23
was out for a few months before she she is murdered but it was a big movie so it
00:39:31
was still in some theaters so this was a very big story because she was becoming
00:39:37
a big star look whether she was regardless of her stardom taking off which it truly was I mean she was she
00:39:45
was on a trajectory for a lot of success but I think regardless this John Sweeney
00:39:51
he he couldn't handle her leaving him her ending the relationship regardless of her her career yeah and in
00:40:01
John Douglas's book Obsession he says that there are two types of stalkers now keep in mind at at this time in the
00:40:08
early 80s you stalking was not recognized as really a thing BEC like it there were only
00:40:18
stalking laws set up in a few State a few States at this time from my understanding and in his book Obsession
00:40:26
he says that there are there's most commonly two types of stalkers one is the simple Obsession stalker which he
00:40:36
which Douglas says is by far the most common because it's typically an ex-boyfriend or
00:40:42
husband that becomes a simple Obsession stalker when the relationship is ending or the woman attempts to get out of this
00:40:52
terrible relationship and Douglas says that domestic violence is common in these relationships and usually leads
00:41:00
to the end of the relationship the other type of stalker is a love Obsession stalker this is more of the guy sees a
00:41:10
woman on the news or or famous woman on TV and becomes obsessed with her from afar yeah and then then goes and
00:41:19
starts it's very like the movie Bodyguard with Whitney Houston like the captain said we have this trial and the
00:41:26
trial is it it's it really stinks for the family and for really everyone involved
00:41:35
except for John Sweeney and his defense team that this trial took place in the early 80s because as we said there's
00:41:42
more that's known about stalking there's more that's known about this type of behavior and these abusive relationships
00:41:48
today than what was understood back then by the general public so his trial starts in August of 83 Sweeney did take
00:41:57
the stand at in his own defense at trial he testified that he did not intend to hurt Dominique that night he simply
00:42:07
arrived there hoping to speak with her to talk with her and he had hoped that they would reconcile the relationship
00:42:14
well like I said he can't control irrational thoughts but he can't also he can't control his temper and one of the
00:42:22
craziest things about this trial is that at some point John Sweeney attacks the judge yeah well and here's the thing too
00:42:31
like he's Sweeney is going to have to try to spin some of this right like some of this is by this point by his trial is
00:42:39
somewhat known fact so he's got to put a good spin on it in fact what he's trying
00:42:45
to say on the stand is that in fact they they were getting back together and that
00:42:50
he arrived there that night to talk to and talk about the their plans of getting back together right doesn't hold
00:42:58
water that story doesn't hold any water because we have the individual that was there that night that could hear them
00:43:03
arguing that they could hear them talking through a locked door so they clearly had not reconciled they clearly
00:43:10
had not planned on moving back in together he tries to say on the stand that the two had daily discussions about
00:43:16
getting married and having kids together and then further the family calls [ __ ] on this because we do know from
00:43:23
the brother Griffin he's like no this dude called me days before and I had to threaten him he calls me
00:43:30
asking me for advice on how to get back with my sister so clearly they were not together that's what Douglas points out
00:43:37
the the stalking behavior that he he doesn't believe that this is the first time that John Sweeny just showed up at
00:43:43
the house trying and demanding to talk with Dominique this was just the night that he happened to attack her strangle
00:43:51
her to the point where she's killed and also we have an eyewitness ear witness there the night of October 30th as well
00:43:59
Sweeney tries to say on the stand captain that you know he's he's already putting out this lie that they were
00:44:04
getting back together and then he says at some point that she changes changes her mind during their conversation and
00:44:10
that's when he exploded and lunged toward her it's exactly what he says quote exploded and lunged toward her he
00:44:18
claims to have no memory of of choking of strangling her claims he blacked out he says that all
00:44:27
remembers is that he was on top of Dominique with his hands around her neck and he says at some point he realized
00:44:34
that she wasn't breathing he says that he attempted to revive her mhm by trying to get her to stand up and walk around
00:44:43
she keeps falling over and he attempts to give her CPR and he said that both of them at
00:44:51
some point he stopped because both of them vomited at some point then he decided to run into the house and he
00:44:57
consumed two bottles of pills that he found I believe he said he found them in her bedroom or bathroom he consumed two
00:45:04
bottles of pills quickly and then returned to outside near the driveway and he laid down next to Dominique I
00:45:13
guess he's waiting for the pills to take effect that he was going to lay down and
00:45:17
die next to her remember he it sounds like he's of the belief that she's she's actually dead at this point right John
00:45:24
Douglas calls [ __ ] on this he says this is this dude's attempt to gain a lame attempt at trying to gain some
00:45:33
sympathy from the jury at his trial Douglas doesn't believe that he performed CPR on on Dominic Dunn and and
00:45:41
even if even if he did you're right he's still a [ __ ] bag even if he did it's noted in the book Obsession that a
00:45:49
toxicology report was done and this this lie of consuming two bottles of pills does not seem to be
00:45:57
factual it's because the toxicology doesn't show that he consumed pills yeah I also believe he's lying about black
00:46:04
and H well and remember what we have the the eyewitness who was there that night
00:46:10
says that he saw Sweeney standing over top of Dominique and then the police show up and he's he's already standing
00:46:17
up and he puts his hands in the air right so this whole trying to drug himself to the point of an overdose and
00:46:25
laying down next to her doesn't seem to to be accurate at all and that's backed up by the toxicology report that John
00:46:32
Douglas spoke about we have this very weird situation here where Dominique's father Dominic he would go on to be a
00:46:41
true crime author a very a very skilled and successful true crime author but at this point he's already a writer at this
00:46:49
point of his daughter's murder in 1982 and even once we get to the trial at 1983 Dominic dun has not written any
00:46:57
True Crime at this point he's he's he has authored a book it didn't do well um and in fact he's he was basically
00:47:07
recruited to write True Crime by Vanity Fair magazine and he says to them I don't know I've I've never written True
00:47:15
Crime before I don't I can't do it I don't know about it and they said no you we have this situation here that's very
00:47:22
unique that you will be able to write about a trial a murder trial but you're also writing it from a
00:47:30
perspective that's never been written from before the the the father of the victim attending the trial and what he
00:47:38
said in his writings about I think the I think the it was a long running article
00:47:44
that I believe was titled justice but he said that the trial became less about John Sweeney and more about his daughter
00:47:53
that he that his daughter was the one that seemed to be on TR trial like the because the defense was constantly
00:48:01
attacking her character because what the the defense was going to be Captain was
00:48:05
that they this was simply a one-time thing they got into an argument and he freaked out and now
00:48:13
she's dead that he's just as destroyed and distraught about this as as the family is and this successful young man
00:48:20
would never hurt of you in one jury please take it easy on him this we all make mistakes we were all young one time
00:48:27
and that's really how they tried to spin this thing he said you know they put my
00:48:31
daughter on trial at the for her murder the defense is trying to paint the picture of Dominique as this wild child
00:48:38
that was out every night and and drinking all the time and just a party animal and she couldn't be trusted in a
00:48:45
relationship none of that appears to be true even if it is true it's it's not grounds to kill anybody no absolutely
00:48:52
not listen to how coldblooded his defense team is the so by this point Dominique's mother
00:49:00
Ellen she went by Lenny she had multiple sclerosis she's an advanced Multiple Sclerosis at this
00:49:10
point to the point where she's wheelchair bound the defense team wanted her removed from the
00:49:16
courtroom because they were worried that it was prejudicial enough they were worried
00:49:23
that it would that the jury's sympathy would sway to the victim and the victim's family because they're seeing
00:49:30
the mom of a murdered girl in a wheelchair so the the defense didn't even want mom at the at the trial which
00:49:36
which she obviously was allowed to stay and I believe she even testified at the trial and you're right the captain when
00:49:44
you said the John Sweeney and his behavior in the courtroom there there was there was a situation when the jury
00:49:51
was not in the room and he attempted to like he's I believe he was still handcuffed he gets
00:49:58
up and he tries to like flee like run out of the courtroom like and so he's tackled and he tells the judge he's like
00:50:05
I wasn't trying to escape I don't know what I was doing I wasn't trying to escape like okay well most of the time
00:50:12
people don't just get up and start running out out of the courtroom where I come from we call that an attempt at
00:50:21
escaping yeah you think yeah yeah I'm no expert but not an expert on escaping but
00:50:27
yeah yeah you don't have to be David Copperfield or Harry Houdini to uh know that that's an escape attempt right
00:50:34
there the problem here though is it it does seem like the jury had some sympathy for Sweeney believe it or not
00:50:43
because I I don't have I I want to be clear here I don't have a great understanding of this situation so I'm
00:50:50
going to explain it the best that I can or as I expl as I understand it to be mhm that the sentence that the jury was
00:51:01
recommending I think it was like 2 and a half years I think that they were close
00:51:06
to just giving him probation that they were all up in arms about that and the judge this his name
00:51:12
was Judge cats k a TZ I believe and he says no he throws out the jury's verdict and
00:51:22
their sentencing recommendation saying this he's like this is a Mur trial this is this is murder can't any and which
00:51:30
was weird like which was quite the turn of events for the trial because it seemed like the judge was giving the
00:51:40
defense everything that they wanted this is what they got removed from the trial
00:51:44
you know how they have the hearings in advance and they and they say all right this will be allowed this will not be
00:51:49
allowed once we get in front of a jury what what they got removed from that was not going to be part of the trial is the
00:51:57
previous times that John Sweeney had beat up and even attempted to kill Dominique Dunn that was they weren't
00:52:04
allowed to present that prosecution was not allowed to present that at court which is sad because it it shows that
00:52:10
this is he's a repeat offender he's going to continue to do this this is who he is at his core he is evil this was
00:52:20
not an accident this was an act of evil well and the other thing that didn't make its way to court either because it
00:52:28
got ruled out was he had been in a previous relationship for like 2 or 3 years where he did the same thing to a
00:52:35
whole different to a different woman yeah to the point where she had to file like she filed charges against him got a
00:52:43
restraining order did everything that that you can filed charges against him I think I think she notified police like
00:52:50
10 times of him physically abusing her so it's not just a it's not just a History
00:52:58
of Violence with this guy in this specific relationship it's a History of Violence with with probably every
00:53:05
relationship and that's the thing too that if the jury doesn't hear this and then they're recommending probation or
00:53:12
two and a half years whatever it was a very light sentence do you think that do you think that if they heard all this
00:53:18
information that they're going two and a half years on this guy no they would go
00:53:22
we have daughters we have nieces if we don't lock this guy up for a much longer time he's going to get
00:53:29
out and he's going to do this to another woman he's going he he in fact he did do
00:53:34
it yes it was it was um I'm trying to think of the person who said it one of the observations that was made and I
00:53:44
apologize I can't I can't find in my notes the the gentleman that said this but he said look this guy's going to be
00:53:51
out in time to cook someone a nice meal and murder another woman so the judge steps in and for my understanding
00:53:57
Captain the sentence was changed to 6 years in prison for manslaughter yeah and he only served what like three and a
00:54:05
half years well and then he gets out and he changes his last name so nobody you know because he wants to fade from the
00:54:12
headlines and right you know that that statement I believe is awfully true and I and I look you hear the the snarkiness
00:54:19
in that statement but you know he says he purposely used because Sweeney was a chef he said cook somebody a nice meal
00:54:27
and kill another woman one thing that that should have resonated with the jury at least it would have for me and I
00:54:35
didn't even I didn't even witness this in person I just heard the reports about it was the coroner said that for her to
00:54:44
be in the state that she was in when the police arrived on the scene that it was
00:54:50
the medical examiner expert opinion that she was strangled for four to six minutes long 4 to 6 minutes to for her
00:55:01
to be in the state that she was founded that evidence alone should let you know that this was not some kind of accident
00:55:07
this is not manslaughter this is murder that's why I don't understand the the light sentence here and really the
00:55:13
leniency of the the what he ends what he's convicted of because the prosecutor after explaining that to the
00:55:22
courtroom held up his watch and there was four minutes of silence while they waited for 4 minutes to pass so it would
00:55:30
resonate with the jury of how long that actually is yeah how long that this dude
00:55:37
had his hands wrapped around her neck and he at any point he could have stopped in that four minutes but he did
00:55:43
not so don't for a second feel any sympathy for him because he said he blacked out and doesn't didn't know that
00:55:53
he did this and it was just simply a impulse Ive move that he exploded and it only took seconds and then she wasn't
00:56:01
breathing that's yeah that's just simply not true it's not true at all and then he gets out changes his name and he gets
00:56:08
a new lease on life meanwhile she's dead she's dead at the at before her 23rd birthday a whole life
00:56:16
ripped out of out of existence and some there's so many victims in this too because like how we said how they met
00:56:25
and he worked at this restaurant well that restaurant didn't even survive because of the them being
00:56:32
connected to John Sweeny they couldn't shake that reputation they didn't back him they didn't support him they weren't
00:56:40
in favor of this light sentence they weren't anything but it was just simply we're connected to John Sweeny he used
00:56:47
to work here and people don't want to come here anymore yeah and as John Douglas was saying this is we know more
00:56:53
today about stalking and and stalking Behavior this guy gets out of prison he gets to move on Dominic Dunn said in his
00:57:02
writings about the trial that the healing process didn't even start until after the sentencing which keep in mind
00:57:11
she was killed in 82 and this thing didn't go to trial until next week be good be kind and
00:57:18
don't litter and in fact I think that it was over a year before he was even sentenced so a long time for
00:57:26
any healing at all to begin with this family we have the simple Obsession stalkers we have the love of Love
00:57:34
Obsession so stalkers and with the simple Obsession stalkers they say that typical Behavior
00:57:42
signs of this are overly attentive spouse controlling spouse possible physical abuse in fact it's it's likely
00:57:51
in most of those cases that go on to be of that nature usually when these things go real bad the result
00:57:59
is a murder suicide yeah which unfortunately is no shortage of on anyone's local news everywhere well like
00:58:07
you were saying John Sweeny was probably lying about the murder suicide but that
00:58:11
was probably what was in his mind at the time and that's probably how he came up
00:58:17
with that lie and then like you were talking about her father Dominic he becomes a big contributor to the True
00:58:26
Crime world with the covering of his daughter's case but then he goes on to cover the OJ trial and the Menendez
00:58:35
brothers trial and if you have watched the Menendez brothers docu pick he is played by Nathan Lane which did a
00:58:43
amazing job here's another interesting observation too that I found when researching this case a man named David
00:58:52
Batty said that stalking is the only only instance we know of where a future murderer identifies himself to police
00:59:02
ahead of time and he goes on to say that this is an opportunity and a responsibility that cannot be ignored
00:59:10
because what they were talking about was one of the best things to do if you find
00:59:16
yourself in this type of relationship or trying to get away from somebody and this stalking behavior starts to take
00:59:23
place is you want to notify law enforcement as early as possible this is supposed to tip them off that look this
00:59:31
guy is a real danger not just to me but potentially other people as well it can't be ignored but it's also you're
00:59:38
starting the paper trail there are a lot of resources out there for people that are in these type of abusive
00:59:45
relationships and and we certainly recommend that the best thing for you to do if you are in this type of
00:59:51
relationship is to get help and tell other people as quickly as possible and to to get yourself to to safety and and
00:59:59
to keep yourself safe John Douglas did note another observation that I found interesting that he said people were
01:00:07
naturally for some reason intrigued by and fascinated with a celebrity who is attacked Andor killed by an obsessed fan
01:00:18
he says but this happens only about every two to three years for some reason people are not so interested when an
01:00:24
ex-boyfriend or husband attacks and or kills a woman and he says unfortunately this happens about every 2 to 3
01:00:32
[Music] hours want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage thanks for
01:00:49
telling your mother thanks for telling your brother and until next week be good be kind and don't lit her
01:00:56
[Music] [Applause] [Music]