Sword and Scale - Episode 139

Episode Date: June 9, 2019

Andrew Urdiales, a serial killer with military training, attacks and tortures women across three states for ten years. Only one woman lives to the tell her harrowing tale; but with no evidence left behind, how many years will pass until justice is served?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised I knew I was gonna die But I didn't know what he was gonna do to me before he killed me and that scared me most of all Most of all! Welcome to Season 6, Episode 139 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. A lot of us dream about what we would do at the right moment, if given the opportunity. Throwing the first pitch at a major league ball game, or giving an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards.

It's often fun to think of how we would act so much better than some dumb celebrity if only given that golden opportunity. Only those of us who worry a lot, who perhaps have an issue with our own levels of anxiety, think of the inverse of that. What would we do? How would we act if we were put in the worst-case scenario, the most horrifying of situations? Would we be able to keep our wits about us

and escape the situation? Or would we panic, freeze up, and catatonically await our fate? Today, you will hear the story of a young woman who despite all odds was able to somehow escape the clutches of a young woman who, despite all odds, was able to somehow escape the clutches of a serial killer. January 18, 1986. It's just after 10.30 pm at the Saddleback Community College campus in Orange County, California. 23-year-old Fine Arts major Robin Brandley has just finished her shift as a volunteer

usher for a sold-out piano concert and reception. The lights in the parking lot, allegedly on an automatic timer, had switched off at 9pm. Lit only by the night sky, Brand Bradley continues her path towards her car, no doubt sensing the change in the air. That someone is watching. She stops and turns. This is when she sees a figure silhouetted in darkness. For a moment, she says nothing. Then looking down, she sees the man is holding a hunting knife, nearly a foot long. She screams as he puts his hand over her mouth. He says he wants her purse. She complies immediately.

And then the knife goes into her back, once, twice, several times. Again and again. She falls to the ground and is stabbed dozens of times in the neck, hands and chest. At one point, the knife gets stuck between her ribs, and the man steps on the body to pull the bloody blade out. By the time the attack is over, she's been stabbed a total of 41 times. Her fully clothed body is found half an hour later, but there appears to be no immediate

evidence of a robbery or sexual assault. With no weapon found and no witnesses either, Bradley's parents are left wondering why this happened to their beautiful daughter, an honor role student who was on her way to graduate this semester and pursue a career in broadcasting. As for the assailant, in the moments that follow the murder, the man drives 45 minutes south, somewhere along the way, he rubs grease from his car engine on his jeans and jacket to conceal the blood. He then approaches Camp Pendleton, one of the largest marine core bases in the United States, and he tells his superiors that his car had broken down and he had to fix it. They believe him.

Why wouldn't you? Which makes the man think their quote, dumb shits. His name is Andrew Urdialis. And like all marines, Urddi Alice is trained to kill. But while we expect our servicemen and women to protect our country and fight against those who would do us wrong, one soldier chooses to harm the innocent.

One man's battlefield is another man's dimly lit parking lot. Fast forward, six and a half years later, September 27, 1992. Jennifer Aspinson is 19 years old, working at a crippled children's hospital in Desert Hot Springs, California, caring for six physically and developmentally disabled girls, from 10 at night until 6 in the morning. What you're about to hear is pretty disturbing. It's a first-hand account of what it was like to come face-to-face with a sadistic serial killer.

In this video uploaded to YouTube in 2016, Jennifer Aspinson shares her horrific ordeal seated in a metal folding chair in the middle of the California desert. It's the very same spot her encounter with Erdi Alice occurred 24 years earlier. It is a little weird to be in the place and I did not even plan on crime because I am strong. And I want to show you that you could be strong too. I went to the bus stop to catch the bus and I didn't really know the bus schedule that well.

So I went in the store and I got some candy and stuff like that for the children. And when I was in line at the store, I saw the bus go by. I panicked. Because I had been warned that if I didn't get to work on time, I would be terminated. And so I went out to the bus, the bus stopped, and a car pulled up, and it was a man. And he rolled down his window and he said,

do you need a ride? And my instinctual reaction was no. I don't. But then I thought about it and I thought, actually, yes, I do. Or I'm gonna be fired. And so, I said, yeah, you know what? I do, I need a ride. So, I got in the car. He was just the regular guy next door. He didn't do anything bizarre. I never thought he was bizarre. I even felt bad for prejudging him.

But, the car that I got into was not the right car. Never underestimate your snap judgments. There's subconscious signals sent to your brain in the quickest of moments to help you survive. When Andrew Ordealis drives Jennifer Aspinson to the bus station near her work, he asks her for a phone number. But trust is something that should be earned. So Jennifer gives him a fake number and begins her shift.

In the morning, when the next woman arrived at 6 o'clock, I got my backpack and I walked out the front door. I looked down the road towards the bus stop, and I saw a car there that looks sort of similar to his car. I had the feeling I should walk the other way, and not walk straight to the bus stop. But I wasn't scared.

I was 19, my brain wasn't even fully developed. I wasn't scared. I was optimistic, I trusted everybody. So I started walking the other way, which was not a good way because it was more desolate. I started walking and I could hear wheels pulling up along side of me. I could hear the gravel underneath the wheels just turning. And I didn't even let, because I knew it was him. What I felt was, how am I going to tell this guy to just leave me alone?

I'm not interested. So he stopped. And he was nice. He talked to me through the window. And he said, so do you want to go to breakfast? And I laughed. And I said, no, I told you no, that I don't want to go to breakfast. And he said, well, then how about I give you a ride home? And I thought, okay, I'll take a ride home. That sounds fine.

All that was going through my mind was what I was gonna say to him to try to blow him off and easy to let him know that I didn't wanna go on a date with him. And then he started driving and I got my stuff situated. And then he brought up the phone number. He brought it up casually. He said, what was that phone number that you gave me?

And I said, oh, the phone number, that was the phone number to my work. And he just freaked out. And he just started screaming and he pulled me by my hair and he screamed at me and called me names and he shoved my head into the dashboard. And I remember thinking that it was a joke and I couldn't process it. I had never been treated this violently before ever in my life by a stranger. And then again came out. What Jennifer doesn't know is that Erdi Alice has been fighting the urge to torture and

kill for three years. It's a rubber band tension in the back of his mind that's been pulling back since the spring of 1989, waiting to snap. July 1988, it's been two and a half years since Erdiallis brutally murdered Robin Brandley. He's left the coastline behind. Now restationd at a marine base in 29 palms, California, just north of Joshua Tree National Park, in the Coachella Valley desert. An hour away is Cathedral City. It's here that Erdiallis drives along a road frequented by prostitutes. He picks up 30-year-old Julie McGee and offers her $40 for sex.

He drives her to a remote construction area where they have sex in his car. Afterwards, Erdiallis takes out a 45-calibre handgun. He orders her to get out of the car. McGee complies, of course. And then, Erdialis fires a bullet into her head. Later, Erdialis describes the scene as, so quiet and peaceful. He gets back in the car and drives to the pink lady, a strip club, to have a few beers and watch the girls dance. It's September now, two months have passed.

Another sex worker, this time 31 year old Marianne Wells, is also paid $40 for sex and taken to a remote industrial area. This time, San Diego, where she is promptly shot in the head and killed. Radealis recovers the $40-hued pater, dumps her body in an alley and drives away. Mary Ann Wells' murder arrives during a time of chaos in the ocean side community, gripped by a string of dozens of murders of sex workers, transients, and hitchhikers, all women throughout the mid-1980s. 43 cases are investigated by a special homicide task force that year, but since Mary Ann Wells is shot and not strangled, She does not fit the profile.

Erdi Alice continues to hide behind his military stripes, more confident than ever that no one can stop him. When I saw the gun I went into shock. Vince Wine came out and my hands were pulled behind my back. It all happened so fast. I just kept saying, is this a joke? Is this a joke? I was using any skill I've ever learned in life

to try to get out of this man's possession, but he wasn't listening. He would just stare out the window and he would yell shut up. And I felt a sense of evilness. I knew that he was evil, but I didn't know what I was in for. At one point, hands up his pants. And he told me to perform oral sex on him, but I didn't know what I was in for. At one point, Anne zipped his pants,

and he told me to perform oral sex on him. And I couldn't, because he had a erectile dysfunction. And he hit me in the head, I sat up. And my thoughts as he was driving was, please, please don't turn, where I think you're gonna turn, because that means we're going into the middle of nowhere. And he turned, and all I could see is telephone poles.

And each time we passed this telephone pole, I lost more and more and more hope. The next thing he did was when we passed about 20 telephone poles. He pulled around and into here. He did was when we passed about 20 telephone pulls. He pulled around and into here. I was still in shock. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was sitting in the passenger seat of the car.

But at this point, I knew I was going to die. But I didn't know what he was going to do to me before he killed me. And that scared me most of all and He punched me and he He started cutting my shorts and he couldn't get him off So he just ripped him off. He ripped my underwear off and cut them off It was all going so fast. I just saw a knife. I stopped talking and then He tried to cut up my sweatshirt and he thought that's gonna take too long. He cut my bra off because he couldn't

get my sweatshirt off. He was so forth full of the whole time and he knew what he was doing and he was so methodical and so fast and so precise and he knew it was just to me in my mind it was like things were being pulled everything was being done I don't know what was going to happen next it was the perfect scenario for him the only thing that I could think of the whole time was, I am in hell. I just went into life. That's all. And then he told me to tell him that I loved him.

I'd never even told my own parents that I loved him, because they had never raised me like that. I didn't know how to say I had never said that to anybody, so I tried to take a minute because I wanted it to seem so real because I had never said it or ever even practice saying those words. So I said it. I just said it just because that's what he wanted to hear. So I said it and it didn't sound good. They grabbed my underwear and he shoved them in my mouth.

And he kept shoving them in my mouth until I went into my throat and then I started gagging on them. And I felt like I was drowning. Still my hands are tied behind my back. I have no way to defend myself. I'm wiggling my legs. He's sitting on them. He's gagging me with my own underwear. And then he lodges them into my throat. Then he ties the bra around my mouth like this.

So hold him in my throat. I thought I was gonna die right then. From gagging on my own vomit. I started to get a reflex and made the underwear just lodge from my throat. It's been when I was able to make some noise and I tried to say I love you. He took everything off my face, the brawn that I knew where. He told me to tell him I love him again. the brawn that I knew where he told me to tell him I love him again and I messed her up everything from anything I ever knew and it came from a real

place I had to make it sound like I love this guy so I tried to say it again and the look on his face looked as if he was trying to receive it as something real. Then he got really mad and he just started strangling me and that was really, really, really weird and all I could do is look into his evil eyes. He just kept strangling me and I just remember feeling like I was gagging and but I couldn't breathe in or out. I start having these thoughts, these thoughts that I think maybe everybody has before they die.

And all I felt was love. All I felt was a feeling of love. And then with all my heart and soul, I thought life is so short. What is this? I'm dying today. While my friends are sleeping. While my parents are sleeping. While the lady at work is helping the children, I'm in the middle of this desert being murdered. And then I thought to myself, please, I don't know if this exists, but if there's a way for me to convey all the love that I have in my heart and that I have ever had in my heart to all the people that I have ever loved, please let it to shoot out of my body and through the universe and to everybody to my parents, who were sometimes mean, I didn't care.

To my friend, that couldn't give me a ride to anybody, any petty little situation that I had ever been upset about, I didn't care. The last thing I wanted to do with my physical being was just spread of love in my heart to everybody and let them have the feeling that I love them. And then I just saw why I think I died. The shows never let me say that, but I think I died. Unfortunately for Jennifer, Herdealis isn't ready for her to die, just yet. Let's go back to April 1989. The last time Erdiallis satisfied his bloodlust.

Seven months have passed since Erdiallis murdered sex workers Julie McGee and Marianne Wells. And it's been three and a half years since Erdiallis first decided to eviscerate Robin Brandley. He's still stationed at 29 palms, once again trolling the Coachella Valley for sex. 18-year-old Tammy Irwin has had sex with Erdiallis on at least one prior occasion, but on this night, Tammy Irwin will become Erdiallis's fourth victim. After performing oral sex, a conversation takes place outside of Erdiallis's truck that ends in Erdiallis shooting Irwin with the same 45 caliber handgun that killed both Julie McGee and Marianne Wells.

He gets back into his truck to leave, but notices Irwin still standing up, hands pressed against her blood-drenched head. Still in the driver's seat, Erdi Alice fires again, sending her to the ground. Before driving off, Erdi Alice fires a third time. Shortly thereafter, Birdie Alice dismantles his pistol and scatters the parts far and wide,

leaving behind yet another body in the California desert. I don't know how much time passed, but then I saw his eyes, again, close up, and then far away, close up, and then far away close up and then far away and I started trying to comprehend what was going on and where I was because I didn't know what was happening and then I realized why I'd see him close up and far off and that was because he was banging my head pounding my chest I don't know if he resuscitated me or not this is the only part of the story. I don't know if he resuscitated me or not. This is the only part of the story that I don't know because I wasn't there.

And then he just starts sucking on my neck. And I just remember thinking that I wanted to die. And I just laid there with my arms still twined behind my back. And I felt his slumber just running down between my breasts. And I just thought, hurry up. Hurry up and kill me. And then he sat up. And when he sat up, he opened his mouth for just a second. And I saw blood and skin in his teeth and blood coming down his mouth.

And I really didn't care at the moment, but it did make me aware that he had just tried to bite a chunk out of my neck and that that was not sloppers, that that was blood. And I looked down and I had blood running down my sweatshirt. He pulls me out of the car right here. And I remember looking around and seeing this trash and thinking this is where he's going to kill me.

He went around, and he opened the trunk, and he got out a bag of knives, like a paper shopping bag with knives in it. And he went around, and he put it in the back seat of his car. And when I saw that, I just thought, hell no. I might be dying today, but I don't want to be cut up with knives, so I just started running. And when I was running, I had a sweatshirt on

that went to like here. My hands were still twining behind my back. There was no way that was coming off. And I'm so far from civilization. I knew he would do one of two things he would either catch me or he would shoot me. And my worst fear was just being left out here in this desert with nobody to find me." In the late 1960s, when Andrew Erdialis was three or four, His parents Alfred and Margaret received news that their son Alfred Jr. had been killed in Vietnam. Margaret, who was raised in her own chaotic environment of

an alcoholic mother and womanizing father, continued the cycle of neglect and abuse at home. The death of her son set her into a psychotic depression, where she talked to ghosts, and could not take care of her living children. Other times, the Ordealus siblings recall her fierce temper. Of particular note, a belt kept in the freezer, which was used to beat them. which was used to beat them. The patriarch Alfred Erdiallis was also a proponent of violence. And when he and his wife weren't beating their children, they were fighting one another on at least one incident with knives. At age 11, young Andrew Sisters became his primary caretakers.

And in this troubling environment, his sister Monica, a young teenager herself, began sexually abusing him on several occasions. His other sister Cynthia had a fascination with knives, and said as a teenager she wanted to become a military sniper. She and Monica were both sexually abused by a relative during their childhoods. When their father found out, he beat the man within an inch of his life. At age 12, the young Andrew accidentally killed the family dog with a baseball bat, because it wouldn't come out when he told it to. He later told his parents that the dog had fallen on its own and broken its neck.

Young Andrew had also developed symptoms of Tourette's syndrome, which led to constant harassment and physical attacks from neighborhood kids. The fact that his family was of Mexican origin, the only family of Hispanic heritage living in the area only made things worse at school. He was an average student, but a social outcast. Eventually, he transferred to a vocational program in order to graduate. When he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, he had fantasies of learning to defend himself

and to destroy. Of course, we all know how that combat training was put to use. Then I feel something to the back of my head, and I couldn't think straight. So I didn't know if I was shot or what. All I knew is I fell back and I hit my head on the ground. But then they started moving. And then I remember looking on the sides of me and seeing the gravel going by me

and I realized he was pulling me through the desert by my hair and he pulled me through cactus, through rocks. I couldn't feel any of it. Then he stood me up. He told me to perform oral sex on him, and I told him to f off. Because you know what? They like when you plead for your life.

And I wasn't going to plead for my life anymore. And so I told him no. And I called him a coward. And I told him to kill me. Did I want him to kill me. Did I want him to kill me? I did. You may think I'm crazy and I kind of am from what I went through, but I was definitely insane at that moment. So he got his gun and he shoved it in my mouth. And he pushed it and all I did was squinted my eyes and I imagined the back of my head coming off.

Then I reaffirmed myself that that would be okay because it would be really fast. But he didn't do it, he just toyed with me and then he opened the trunk and then he drew me in the trunk and then the worst part was he kept giving me hope. I'm gonna die one minute and then I might live the next. Now what is he doing? He's putting me in the trunk. He put me in the trunk. My hands were still tied together. He slammed the trunk. He got in the car. When I fell

into the trunk I saw a bird right up there. That was the last thing I saw. I was a bird and it just looked evil. Everything looks evil to me. The whole world was evil. I didn't know if this had been the whole world all along or if it just happened. I didn't know what to do. Erdi Alice began his military career in 1984, serving as a field radio operator. He received a good conduct medal, a combat action ribbon, and a national defense service medal for his service during the Persian Gulf War, but his stint in the Marines goes south quickly.

At the peak of his military career, he's promoted to the rank of Corporal. Though Corporal Erdealis is quickly renamed Corporal Your Analysis. Pretty clever actually. Those serving alongside him say he's awkward and note his odd twitch. They refuse to take orders from him. He's quickly demoted and in 1991 leaves the Marine Corps with an honorable discharge. But before heading to his parents' home in Chicago, Erdi Alice pays a visit to a storage facility near the 29 Palms Military Base he stationed at.

Here he keeps hockey masks, a shovel, a machete, guns, and other memorabilia from his past victims. After all, Chicago is cold, and even though his military career is over, he has to start a new life there. Palm Springs sure is a nice place to visit. One year later, it's September 1992. Erdie Alice has rented a car and returned to the city, best known for warm summer nights in Frank Sinatra's former estate. But as Jennifer Aspinson knows all too well, Erdi Alice isn't in town for poolside cocktails. I had no time to waste. And so I thought of everything I've ever learned in my

life when you're in a situation like this, you would be surprised at the things that come into your brain that you have learned. They will just pour out of all of these places that you thought were closed off. You remember stuff from kindergarten, from first grade, from maybe when you were even born. I don't know. It's in your brain.

It will come up when it needs to come up. And that is when you need to survive. And then I remembered something. My grandma Mule told me that if I'm ever in trouble to pray, I prayed with my hands behind my back. And I said, God, it's there's the God. It's there's the God, please. My grandma said that you were real.

I believed you have always put my friend out alone and with me because because nothing like this has ever happened this far. And if you are there, please. Let me just break free from these binds and escape out of this shrug. I was hyperventilating when I did all of this. I said if I don't get out, please. Please stop me just dying. Just please just, me, just die, just please, just, let me just die.

Right now, just please just kill me. And then I just got really calm. I got really, really, really calm. And then I just heard popping. The twine was popping off of my wrist behind my back. It was just popping off of my wrist behind my back. It was just popping off. And I just reached my arms out and it was off.

But I didn't take that as God helped me yet because I was so afraid still because then my next thought was, okay, how am I gonna get out of this trunk? This was in 1992, there was no trunk release back then. But I can see everything because I grew up with no electricity. And so I had trained myself to look at stuff in the daylight and see it at night.

So the whole trunk lit up and it was like, I created that trunk. I was a different person. I thought to myself, where would you put the key in? You put the key in the middle, okay. So I felt for that and I saw it. I saw where to go. I felt where the middle was.

I started ripping and tearing that trunk apart. You put your hands in there and there's a latch and I turned the latch and I held the top of the trunk because I didn't want to fly up, but I noticed he was going fast and I wanted him to pull over. So I did let it go up and then I pulled it back down but I didn't shut it.

He pulled over really fast. He came back there, he saw, he shut it. He got back in the car. He was so afraid that people might have seen. I'm when he tried to take off, he got stuck in the soft sand. And then I timed it out. He would get stuck, he'd try to go. And then when he wasn't trying to get out of the soft sand, he would turn and yell at me. So I timed it. And when I knew that he was focusing on getting out of the soft sand. He would turn and yell at me. So I timed it and when I knew that he was focusing on getting out of the soft sand, I put my hands back in there

and I unlatched the truck and I jumped out and I ran. It's almost 8 o'clock in the morning and I'm running down a road that has hardly any traffic on it. And a car's coming up along the side of me and I just grab its side mirror. It just starts going faster and the woman and the passenger seat is hitting her husband, saying, go, go, and she's looking back. And I'm screaming, no, and I'm literally running. It's fast as that car can go because I'm holding on to their side mirror.

And I'm literally trying to get just a second so I could push up and try to jump into that window, into that car with them. But they take off and I almost lose my footing but I don't. And then I think don't look back. Don't ever, don't ever look back. But I look back. He was chasing me down the middle of the road with a machete. A car was coming towards me. It was a track. I was

spent. It could have run me over. But instead, it was two Marines and they stopped and they put me in the car and I told them everything that he had guns and weapons and all of that. And they said, no, this is for the cops. Betty had guns and weapons and all of that. And they said, no, this is for the cops. Is your blood pumping yet? Well, it's about to boil over. So they brought me to Marongo Valley, a town that's about 20 minutes away from here.

I went to the police station, and nobody believed me. Nobody believed me. Not even my own parents. Because I was a storyteller. I wouldn't lie and tell stories. But I didn't have TV and I had a wild imagination. So I would tell amazing fun stories. I would never tell horror stories.

But my mom told the police that I was a storyteller. So the police interrogated me. I don't know how long it was. I just remember being so thirsty and hungry and so exhausted and feeling like I was living in hell. And they asked me if a boyfriend had done this to me. They tried to bring me here to where it happened. I have not been back here until today, 24 years later. And I knew exactly where it was, but when they were trying to help me find this place, they wouldn't turn where I told them to turn. They brought me to other places.

It had me get out of the car and asked me if I was sure it didn't happen there. Yeah, I was sure it didn't happen there. Yeah, I was sure there was no evidence They went to where he got stuck in the sand and a bulldozer was there bulldozing the sand There were no tire marks. There was a bite on my neck. They measured the teeth marks on my neck That's all they had to go by and they still said did you get in a dispute with a boyfriend? No! I told him no. I told him he was a killer. I told him he's done this before.

He was going to kill me. They didn't believe me. So you know what happened to me? All I had was that bite mark and it healed. And all I had was the marks from the twine on my arms. And the only way I could talk to anybody about my story is if they asked what happened to my arms. So I began cutting my arms, and it would release my pain. And then when a friend found out I was cutting my arms, I woke up strapped to a table in a mental hospital.

September 28, 1992. Erdi Alice returns his rental car and flies back home to Chicago, the same day Jennifer Aspinson escapes. He has not heard from again for three more years. March 11, 1995. Erdiallis is once again on a perverted vacation in Palm Springs. And for those keeping track, Denise Manie will become his fifth infamous killing. She's next in a long line of women who die because nobody seemed to give a damn when Jennifer Aspinson told her story three years prior. The details of Denise Manie's death are again the stuff of nightmares. Erdi Alice picks her up in the same area he had previously picked up

sex workers Julie McGee and Tammy Irwin. He drives Manny to the desert, stops the car on a distant side road and orders her to strip and perform oral sex on him. When he gets tired of that, he grabs her by the hair, walks her to the front of the car and tells her to lie on her stomach. He then gets on top of her and ties her hands behind her back, again directing her to perform oral sex. Unsatisfied. He turns her over on her knees and shoves one of his fingers into her anus. She screams. Later, he would recall, quote, and then after a while, I drove in two fingers. I just kept going, shoving my fingers in her ass.

And that went on for a while. I just kept doing that to her. When he gets tired of that, he picks her up and walks her towards a desert. When she turns around, he puts the gun in her mouth and blows off the back of her head. There's more. Erdiallus watches her fall, hears gurgling sounds, and pulls out a knife to butcher her chest, throat, and stomach. He then strips the corpse of all clothing and possessions, leaving it for desert scavengers. And there's more. August 2nd, 1996.

It was the afternoon watch in early August. I was paged. They said that there was a body floating in Wolf Lake. Chicago homicide detective Don McGrath. There was in fact a nude female body floating face down about 20 feet off the shore. Her body was shot three times and suffered 29 stab wounds. I'd never seen anything quite like that before and I was quite disturbing. Her name was Lynn Hubert. Erdi Alice had met her earlier that summer when she was working as a sex worker in Chicago. They had previously had sex a number of times, and on one particular evening, Erdi Alice

offered Hubert a ride. An argument ensued, and Erdi Alice shot her in the head with a 38 caliber revolver. This will be important later on. In the process of removing her clothing, Erdiallis pricked his finger, which sent him into a rage, stabbing her already dead body multiple times, and shooting her again before dumping her corpse in a lake. But Linhuber wasn't the sixth of Erdie Alice's victims. She was the seventh and not the last either. Here again is Detective Don McGrath. When I got back to the office, the buzz was already,

oh, this is a second body and we'll flake. On April 14th, 1996, a man driving along the shore looking for rocks to decorate his garden spotted what he thought was a mannequin floating in the lake. Soon after, firemen retrieved the body of 25-year-old sex worker Laura Yulike. Unlike Lynn Huber before her, Yulike and Erdiallis had several encounters prior to her death. They had met the previous winner and spent two occasions at Wolflake having sex in a sleeping bag Erdiallis kept in the back of his truck. On a third visit to the lake, they began to argue.

When the body was examined, she had been stabbed 25 times, raped annually, and her body was covered in bruises. She had also been shot three times in the head with a 38-calibre revolver. A third body in Illinois that of Cassandra Corum was also removed from a body of water, only an hour away from Wolf Lake. It's later revealed in court transcripts the source of much of this story, that Erdiallis took Korum to Wolf Lake for sex, an argument ensued, which escalated to hitting and handcuffing, and Korum was stripped naked. He bound her feet with duct tape, and he positioned her head so that it was in his lap as he drove

south until he got tired. He and the still-naked Korum exited the truck where she was executed by gunshot, the same 38 caliber revolver he used to kill Lynn Huber and Laura Yulikey. Because he was mad at Korum for fighting and attempting to bite him, Erdi Alice got the knife out of his truck and repeatedly stabbed her. He carried her body to the nearby bridge

and dumped her into the river. As he drove back towards his house, he threw her clothes at the window, noting they were just garbage. Ballistics later determined that the same 38 revolver had fired the bullets that killed all three Illinois women. Unfortunately, the 38 revolver is an extremely common gun, and without a specific gun in question, all three murders would become cold cases.

November 14, 1996, Red and Blue lights pop in the rear-view mirror of Erdiallis's silver and white Toyota pickup truck. He seated there with a sex worker near a popular crack house in Hammond, Indiana. Rookie Police Officer Warren Friar, alongside his partner Edwin Ortiz, approached the vehicle and began questioning Erdiallis and his friend. During that discussion, one of the officers notices a 38 caliber handgun sticking out from under his seat. He asks if he has a gun.

Erdiallis without hesitation answers, yes. It's a snub-nosed, chrome-plated 38-special, fully loaded with six bullets. He says he uses it for his security work. The cops arrest him for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. As they search the car, they note the bed of the truck is spotless, save for a gym bag containing a few rolls of duct tape. They confiscate the gun, but Erdi Alice spends the night in jail. Paisa Fahin and his free to go once again.

April 1, 1997. The same rookie officer in Hammond, Indiana, Warren Fryer, is on a routine patrol when he receives a call to check out a disturbance at the American in motel. According to a guard there, a man and woman are arguing in the parking lot. When officer fryer approaches the couple, he immediately recognizes the man he arrested five months earlier for the unpermaned weapon. Officer fryer pulls the woman aside. She's a sex worker that he's arrested in the past, and they regularly drive out to Wolf Lake to have sex.

But that was during the day, and lately, she's been hearing about women being murdered at Wolf Lake at night. She tells Officer Fryer, this guy is kind of kinky. He wants to take me in the back of his pickup truck and go up by Wolf Lake. And he's like, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. She tells Officer Fryer, this guy is kind of kinky. He wants to take me in the back of his pickup truck and go up by Wolf Lake, duct tape me, and fuck me in the ass. Officer Fryer makes no arrests that night, but he does note on his statement the previous firearm arrest for Erdi Alice.

Later that month, Detective Don McGrath of the Chicago Homicide Unit reads Officer Fryer's report and notices the immediate connection to the three local murders that had gone unsolved. But because Erdiallis had his gun confiscated in Indiana, McGrath and his partner situated in Illinois have to retrieve the weapon across state lines. It's a race against the clock. And incredibly, this critical piece of evidence is obtained just a week before it's scheduled to be destroyed. The gun is taken to the Illinois Crime Lab and analyzed.

It's a match. Proof that early Alice's gun was the one used to murder Lynn Huber, Lara Yulike, and Cassandra Korum. I don't think surprises is the correct word, but we were astonished. It was incredible. What a stroke of luck. On April 23, 1997, Detective Don McGrath

and his partner Raymond Krakowski approached the Chicago home of Alfred and Margaret Urdialis after a day of surveillance. Nine o'clock in the morning, a guy comes out, the back door starts walking down the alley. We approached him, we identified ourselves. He stressed and was guided uniform, with his little brown lunch bag, head and work. And we said we had a few questions. He only asked what we were done if we could give him a lift back to the train so we could get to work.

Erdi Alice has been working as a security guard at a downtown Chicago Eddie Bauer men's apparel store. Neighbors suggest he's just a normal, pleasant guy. He's a regular at the restaurant across the street from his parents' home, where he often sits in the corner to quietly have a couple of beers. When he's questioned at the station,

he denies knowing the three murdered women. But when asked about the gun he was arrested with, he brags that he'd always been careful to keep it locked up in a tackle box in his basement, and no one else could have ever used it, as only he had the key. From there, the detective simply had to lay out the truth. The gun, the one Erdiallis admits only he had access to was the weapon that killed Hubert, Yulike, and Korum.

He just looked down and loosened his tie. He said, I guess I won't be going to work today. I said, well, we got some explaining to do. He said, well, you might want to call California. Okay. Why would we want to call California. Okay. Why would we want to call California? Law enforcement officials in Illinois, Indiana, and California say they have never met

a suspect who documented his killings so thoroughly. He recalls everything from where and how he shot each victim down to the clothes they were wearing. One officer says he sounded like a novelist. It was like the details as much as his victims were the trophies. Erdi Allison myths to the slaying of eight women going back to college student Robin Brandley in 1986. More than 11 years had passed since then, and Erdi Alice was finally behind bars. But the legal saga that followed lasted another 21 years. The only survivor of a serial killer speaks out.

He murdered at least eight women, but she escaped, and now she's preparing to face him again in court. CBS News Tom Waititeshead down with her and joins us for this interview. Yeah, as we're talking in the break, such a powerful interview at this woman. Her story is very intense. Jennifer Asminson says she's been ready for years

to confront the man who tried to kill her, but delays in the legal process have dragged on for years. Almost 24 years to the month since Erdi Alice tried to sexually assault and ultimately kill asponson. She is still seeking justice. A trial date was set for this week and then another delay. It's so frustrating.

It's so frustrating because I always get told that it's going to happen. He was convicted of the murders in Illinois back in 2002 and later extra-died into California where he's been awaiting trial ever since. he was convicted of the murders in Illinois back in 2002 and later extradited to California where he's been awaiting trial ever since. It's just ridiculous how long it's taking.

As Vincent wants Erdi Alice to receive the death penalty, but she's worried it will be repealed this November when voters will decide on Prop 62, which could end it. And it's for why this has been so delayed. It's just routine legal motions on both sides. After his arrest in 1997, legal and political debates delay the Andrew Erdiallis trial opening for four years. In 2001, the trial for the murders of two of the three Wolflake victims, Yulikey and Huber begins. At the time, the question is whether or not earlyalis should be punished with the death penalty. And on May 30th, 2002, the decisive answer is yes. But less than one year later, a study by Northwestern University, Illinois determines that some death row inmates had been innocent.

Therefore, all 167 people sentenced to death, including Erdialis, would have their sentences commuted to life in prison. April 24, 2004, the proceedings began for Cassandra Corum, the third Wolflake victim. Here, Erdialis pleads guilty, claiming he was mentally ill. The judge nonetheless resentances Erdiallis to death on May 10, 2004. But seven years later, on March 9, 2011, today in this room under the watchful eye of President Abraham Lincoln by a constitutional majority of the members

elected to the Illinois General Assembly and by my actions as governor. We have abolished the death penalty in Illinois, the land of Lincoln. This was the most difficult decision and I've made as governor. It was made after many days and nights of reflection and review. It became law today with my signature. I've also commuted the sentences of 15 members of death row who were convicted and sentenced to death. I believe that we abolished the death penalty in Illinois.

We should abolish it for everyone. Erdi Alice lives on October 6, 2011. Erdi Alice arrives at the Orange County Jail, where the district attorney intends to prosecute him for all five California murders. According to the DA's press release, Erdi Alice is eligible for the death penalty. Seven more years of legal battles follow, until May 23, 2018, when Erdi Alice is convicted of all five murders. To understand the evil this man has committed,

put yourself in Jack Riley's shoes. More than 30 years ago, his then 23-year-old daughter, Robin Brandley, became the serial killer's first known victim. Her father had to listen to the details while sitting just feet away from the killer in court. The trial out here, when they showed the picture of Robin lying by her car, and then they showed the picture of Robin's face with the eyes open and the other picture were just pulled out and bloody hand and never hated anybody before.

Ever in my life, a boy I felt sitting there looking at him, I felt pure hate. Put on trial for five more murders here, including Robbins. Erdiolus today was found guilty on all counts. The father of Tammy Irwin, who was murdered in Riverside County when she was 18, hopes the next step is the death

penalty. Because of the nature of his crimes, the way he did the girls, like they were just trash, just fell them away. And I think he deserves it. I mean, it's what should be done. June 13, 2018, the jury has deliberated for one day. The penalty to be imposed upon defendant Andrew Ordealis to be death. Andrew Ordealis looked down as a clerk read a jury's recommended sentence, the death penalty for each of the five women he killed in southern California. The jury's decision coming as much awaited relief for the victims' families.

It's a long haul, but we got just today. And we're all happy. We're all happy. Here's senior deputy district attorney, Matt Murphy. This is one that behind the scenes, even though it took a long time, this case worked exactly the way they should. Counties got together, people cooperated. Law enforcement was seamless in the way

it handled it. I think this guy was not mentally ill. He didn't have schizophrenia. There's a thousand metal defects and diseases that people can suffer from. He didn't suffer from any of them. This is somebody who killed these young women because he enjoyed it because he got off on it. And there's absolutely, there were a sens a census as they were brutal these murders and his confessions were because the jig was up he knew he was busted he knew that he'd left a trail of fronts of evidence and that's why he confess but as we went through 41 stab wounds with Robin Brannley in all the brutality he visited on all these other women he sat and had no problem with that at all so

he did it because he liked it. He has absolutely no remorse. It's a disgrace to the United States Marine Corps. And the jury absolutely did the right thing today. On October 5th, 2018, Rhealisis sentenced to death for a third time. He's confined at California's San Quentin State Prison. The only death row for male inmates in the state. But California has not executed anyone since 2006 and inmates are far more likely to die from suicide or old age. One month later, November 5th, 2018. A convicted serial killer who was sentenced to death just last month has reportedly killed himself in prison.

54-year-old Andrew Ordealus was convicted of the first-degree murders of five Southern California women. He was sentenced to death in October and still had a chance to appeal his sentence. But on Friday night at San Quentin State Prison, staff members found him unresponsive during a security check. They believe he committed suicide as he was alone in his cell. March 7, 2019. Jennifer Aspinson gets the final word. I have a real big problem with victimhood and I think people are victims when they are being victimized. But once they're out of that situation, they are warriors. You know, they are rock stars. They are, they should have, should feel in themselves

the superhuman strength to go out and take on the world because they conquer that. They're not in that anymore. And to stay in victimhood and to live like that is kind of like putting yourself in jail. You know, why would you want to do that? You need to get out and live. Would you freeze or would you fight back? Would your intellect kick into high gear fueled by a wave of adrenaline?

Or would you drown in panic and despair? And are you sure of your answer? We all like to think we can nail that first pitch, put it right over home base and into the catcher's glove, but the odds state otherwise. All we can really hope for is to never find out for sure. That's going to do it for another episode of Sword and Scale.

Thank you for joining us. And until next time, don't get into Stranger's car and stay safe. ... you you