♪
All I hear is, boom,
boom, g*nshots.
They set the house
on fire to make it
look like an accident.
Six victims,
and two of them are
unborn children.
I remember being numb.
[News] Brooke Phillips was
featured in the HBO
reality show,
"Cathouse."
We don't know
who did this.
I wanted to know...
why.
Dennis may have
coined the phrase
"The Cathouse Murders"
as a way of putting
the name out there.
He was using Brooke
for more publicity.
Everybody was a suspect.
Dennis was the one
that told me
Brooke was pregnant
with his child.
I wanted somebody to go
with me to the authorities.
Big break in the Oklahoma
City m*rder investigation
that's getting
national attention.
Dennis was going
to go to the trial.
And he was told repeatedly,
"No, absolutely not."
He didn't care what
the DA told him.
He's making a
spectacle of it.
He didn't come there
seeking justice for her.
He came there
seeking attention.
She didn't deserve
to die that way.
Nobody does.
♪ [suspenseful] ♪
[g*nshots]
I just,
I miss my friends.
♪ [moody pop]
♪
♪ You put me
under the covers ♪
♪ For all the
world to see ♪
♪ But I never recovered ♪
♪ You never
cared about me ♪
♪ So now you're
being uncovered ♪
♪ I kept all the receipts ♪
♪ You and all of
the others ♪
♪ Under the fantasy ♪
My name is Jose,
and I'm the
only living witness to
The Cathouse Murders.
[Crew] Jose, marker.
♪
[Jose] I was in shock,
I think, for about 5 years.
And finally, after 5 years,
I cried so much.
I just sat there one day,
on the anniversary of it...
and it just hit me,
and I just broke down.
I,
and I couldn't stop.
♪ [tense instrumental]
[Jose: exhaling sharply]
And this is the first time
I'm telling my story.
[News] Breaking news
as you're waking up
with us this morning.
We do want to tell you
there has been a house fire.
On 56th Street,
firefighters battled the
blaze before discovering
inside the
Oklahoma City residence.
One man and 3 women
had been shot to death.
Two of the women
were pregnant.
Among the victims,
a former reality TV star
on HBO's "Cathouse."
♪
I first met Brooke Phillips at
The Moonlite Bunny Ranch
in 2008.
I really liked her.
We were both from the same
small town in Oklahoma.
She was a brunette.
Very pretty,
very bubbly.
Brooke came in after
seeing the show
and wanted to be
a part of it.
I was her mentor,
and I showed her
the Bunny Bible,
and told her about
how to negotiate,
what the rules were.
And she was just a
wide-eyed young girl.
I think Brooke
wanted to be a star.
She had high hopes for
her life getting
turned around.
♪
[Shelly] But she,
uh, changed
not too long after
she got there.
She dyed her
hair blonde...
and changed into
a different girl.
♪
[Shelly] Dennis Hof,
the owner of
the Bunny Ranch,
he had a specific
look he liked.
Blonde hair,
red lipstick, red nails.
And, a lot of the
girls would
change their
appearances for him.
I only worked with her
a few months before I left.
♪
[Shelly]
Later on in 2009,
I was visiting in Oklahoma
with my fiancé,
at a bar.
One of my brother's
friends came up to me.
I was actually
pregnant at that time,
and he said a girl from
Oklahoma that was
on Cathouse that
was pregnant,
she had
just been m*rder*d
and he thought it
was me so, he was...
frantic and
calling my brother.
That's how I found out
Brooke had been k*lled.
♪
I was home asleep.
I was on call,
got the address and
responded
to the scene.
♪
[Ryan] Everything
was charred.
The fire department
removed
four bodies
out of the house.
All four victims had
g*nsh*t wounds
and were badly burned.
Once the medical
examiner had made
their
preliminary findings,
the victims were identified
as Casey Barrientos,
Brooke Phillips,
Jennifer Ermey,
and Millie Barrera.
We also found out that
Millie Barrera and...
Brooke Phillips were
both pregnant
at the time of
their homicides.
♪
Because the death of
the mother resulted in
the death of the fetus,
it's an additional
m*rder charge,
which brought us up to
six counts of
m*rder in the first degree.
We also received information
that Brooke Phillips
was an actress on the
HBO show, Cathouse.
It's the
worst day in the
the Bunny Ranch.
Everyone is in shock
at The Ranch.
This young woman was
just so full of life.
And now she's dead.
♪
[Shelly] I remember
feeling like
the air had been
knocked out of me.
I was absolutely horrified.
She must have felt terrified
right before she died.
[Caressa] It makes
no sense whatsoever.
She would hurt nothing.
Nothing!
[Ryan] The first thing
we thought of
was to start
recovering
as much evidence
as possible.
♪
Once we make entry
into the residence,
we see it is a complete
and total loss.
There's nothing recognizable
inside the house.
The heat was extensive.
We don't know
who did this.
Nobody knows why
this happened.
We were looking
into the victims.
Casey Barrientos was...
a major
drug distributor
here in the
Oklahoma City area.
Millie Barrera
is 22-years-old.
She's from
Mustang, Oklahoma,
and she has befriended
Jennifer Ermey,
a girl from Edmond,
Oklahoma.
She's 25-years-old.
Brooke Phillips is also
an Oklahoma native.
She used to be a dancer
at a strip club
until she began
working at
the Bunny Ranch
brothel in Nevada.
♪
[Ryan] The police department
was looking for information.
[Detective]
There's a tip line set up,
a special tip line:
that's for calls only
regarding this case.
[Ryan] We had
phone calls coming in
through the tip line.
But the media had already
identified Brooke Phillips
with her connections with
The Bunny Ranch in Nevada.
And also associated her
with the HBO show,
The Cathouse.
[News] One of the fan
favorites on Cathouse,
a 21-year-old
Oklahoman.
Outgoing and friendly,
no one knows why anyone
would want to
harm Brooke.
[Ryan] We knew that a
homicide of this nature,
with this many victims...
was going to be
front forward
with the media,
but we had no idea
how much the media was
going to start
concentrating more on...
the relationship between
the reality show and
what actually took place.
[Dennis] She's an
amazing dancer.
She's got a great
personality,
and everybody
loved her. Everybody.
I got almost 500 emails
after the show that
just aired
about Brooke.
[Ryan] All of a sudden,
the media dubbed this
"The Cathouse Murders"
solely off of one person.
The other victims had nothing
to do with The Cathouse.
♪
If I remember correctly,
Dennis is the one who
coined the phrase
"The Cathouse Murders"
as a way of putting the
name out there and
promoting Cathouse.
Dennis was addicted
to headlines.
So, even if it was
something terrible...
if it was a headline,
he really had a
hard time resisting.
♪
♪
I was best friends
with Brooke Phillips.
♪
The way that the
press went about it,
I didn't
appreciate it.
I don't think anyone
appreciated it.
It was sensationalized
like Brooke was like,
the main star
of Cathouse.
She was only in,
like, one or two
very small scenes.
♪
[Shelly] They wanted to
portray Brooke Phillips
as a happy girl,
the happy hooker.
We were told to smile and,
it makes everyone think
that everything's okay.
But that was not true
in the slightest.
This is the one
that I used in-
whenever I learned
how to [beep].
And it gets the [beep].
I noticed, like,
when I'm, like,
feeling like I'm gonna [beep]
and I want to speed up
the process, if I hold my
hand like right here...
[Shelly] She drank
all the time
while working at
the Bunny Ranch.
♪
[Kisha] Before Brooke
decided to go to
The Bunny Ranch,
she was super fearless.
Snakes, spiders,
all of that.
She was a huge
prankster as well.
What drew people in
was her energy.
It was just positive
and radiant.
The world should
know that she...
wasn't just who they
portrayed her to be
on Cathouse and
with the press.
She was more than that.
[Shelly] This is
a paragraph that
Dennis Hof
wrote in his book,
about Brooke Phillips:
"She was completely clean.
No drugs,
no alcohol, nothing.
Just a wholesome girl
who also happened to be
amazing on the
stripper pole."
There were a lot of damaged
girls at The Ranch.
♪
And, Brooke
was one of 'em.
She had a very traumatic
childhood...
and she drank
to cope with that.
And a lot of the girls
used drugs and alcohol
to try to cope with
their trauma.
[Kisha] Both of her parents
struggled with addiction.
There was
abuse going on
from the
mother's boyfriends.
♪
[Kisha] Brooke had
started doing sex work
as well as being an
entertainer in the strip clubs
before she was 18.
But she never necessarily
let it define her.
[Ryan] When you're dealing
with a case with somebody
with a background
such as...
Brooke did
with the prostitution,
it can open the door
for so many
different scenarios or,
you know,
do we have a stalker?
Do we have a
jealous person?
Do we have somebody
that's furious because
their spouse had
met up with her?
Was she involved
in drugs?
Did she owe money
to somebody?
So, there's so many things
that that profession
that kind of threw
extra wrenches
into an already
difficult investigation,
of trying to figure out
who did this.
♪
[Jose] When I saw the smoke,
I knew they k*lled 'em...
And that they tried to set
the house on fire
to make it look
like an accident.
♪
I know who did it,
but I don't know why.
♪
I wanted to know...
why.
♪
At the very beginning
of the investigation,
we were really concentrating
on the evidence.
We worked
for two days,
two
sifting through
all the debris,
looking for anything of
any evidentiary value.
SFX: [Camera shutter clicking]
[Ryan] We found numerous
spent shell casings
for various calibers,
Our ballistics
analyst verified,
yes, we got two
different calibers.
Multiple g*ns were used.
So, we knew that there was
gonna be more than
one person
involved in this.
We also throw in the
smell of the gasoline,
the accelerant, this is
an intentional fire.
Is it a
domestic situation?
Is this g*ng-involved?
You know, has someone come
into their home in the
middle of the night and done
something to them?
At this stage,
it's a mystery
as to what's happened.
And so, we needed to find
out about these victims,
and why they were in
the home that night.
[Ryan] We knew
Casey Barrientos had
various ties with different
street gangs, cartels.
He sold drugs,
and he had done
time in prison.
[Merydith] He was
living in a home
in a nice neighborhood
that was rented
by Jose Fierro.
[News] Police are
looking for Jose Fierro.
If you have any information
on his whereabouts,
please call
♪
[Jose] I was born and
raised in Oklahoma.
Grew up in a rough
neighborhood.
Casey Barrientos and
I grew up together.
We ended up on the
same soccer team,
and we were both the
same position, forwards.
And so,
we kind of got...
used to each other
playing sports
and then just
hanging out together.
He'd come to my
house after school,
and would hardly
ever go home.
And one day his mom
just showed up...
and told my dad that she
couldn't control him.
So, my dad
took him in and
he lived with us
for six years.
So, he kind of became
like a brother to me.
He was troubled,
so was I.
We were in an alternative
middle school.
My dad...
you know, got me
straightened out.
And Casey,
he just kept going
the wrong way.
[chuckling]
He was just
always in and out of jail.
In 2005,
after my divorce,
I started going
to strip clubs.
Sometimes Casey
came with me.
I started hanging out
at Night Trips.
Every girl there's like a
ten or so, and uh,
you know, that's where
Brooke worked.
I was a client at first.
I'd have her sit
with me all night.
We eventually got close,
and trusting and,
you know,
hanging out outside
of Night Trips.
♪
[Shelly] We're headed
to Night Trips to see
where Brooke Philips
worked as a stripper
when she was trying
to save up money
to become a nurse.
She had gotten pregnant
when she was 16,
and had wanted to
get her certified
Nurse Assistant License.
This is a nice area
of Oklahoma City.
There's a lot
of restaurants.
The water park
is right here.
This metal box right here
is Night Trips.
♪
And this is considered
the nicest strip bar
in Oklahoma City.
A lot of girls will strip
before they move on
to working in a brothel.
They don't have an
education or family support,
and so they do what
they have to do
to take care of
their kids.
And I...
I respect that.
I know how it feels
because I've been there.
I was
and I had
just started
dancing at
Night Trips.
When I met Brooke Phillips,
we just started hanging out
and were inseparable
from like that day.
We became roommates
about a year after.
And this was one of my
favorite pictures of her
from that time,
this was 2005.
This is pretty much
what she looked like
when I first met her.
♪
[Kisha] Brooke was
a young mother,
so her focus was making
sure that she had
a better life for her
and her daughter.
One time, Brooke and I
were watching Cathouse,
and she saw someone
from her hometown,
named Shelly,
on there,
and she was
super excited about it.
Cathouse just
fascinated Brooke.
It showed a prost*tute's
not just
working on the corner.
It's not like being
strung out on drugs.
There are women
at the Bunny Ranch
making a lot of money
who looked like
they were happy.
So, when Brooke decided
to go to the Bunny Ranch,
she definitely was going to
use that as a catalyst
for doing more.
She thought the Bunny Ranch
was going to be
her big ticket to
something better.
[Shelly] "Cathouse,"
the HBO show,
brought in more girls.
The young girls were
coming to work there
that probably
would have never
even thought of working
at the Bunny Ranch
if they hadn't
seen the show.
Brooke Phillips
was one of them.
Dennis likes to sleep
with the new young girls,
so all these girls he
recruited through the show
were new prospects for
him to have sex with.
♪
He's their boss.
What are they
supposed to say?
And nobody wanted to anger
Dennis or offend his ego
because of retribution.
He was very vicious.
So, the women didn't
have a choice.
♪
[Kisha] Brooke ended up
coming home
less than a year later.
So, I was like, "Well,
you're back already?
Like, what's going on?"
But she definitely was like,
"Yeah, I'm back.
I'm pregnant."
♪
And that was the
last conversation we had.
♪
[whispers]
Sorry...
♪
♪
[Dennis] She came to work
for us nearly two years ago.
Just recently left
because she's pregnant.
[News] The owner of
the ranch, Dennis Hof,
says Brooke wanted to be back
home in Moore with her family.
And he says he just
talked with her last week.
[Deanne] There's been a lot
of talk that Brooke Phillips
was pregnant with
Dennis' child.
♪
I personally have
no knowledge of this,
but there are people who
say that they heard it
from Dennis himself.
Dennis was the one
that told me
that she was pregnant
with his child.
♪
[Ryan] We don't know
if Dennis Hof
was involved at this point.
Everybody was
a suspect.
There was too much
associated with
Casey Barrientos,
with Brooke Phillips,
and the Bunny Ranch.
So, everybody was a suspect,
and we wanted to
talk to everybody,
to include Dennis Hof.
♪
We had a tip line
that was open.
We interviewed the victims'
friends and their families.
We wanted to talk
to everybody.
My partner was able to
make contact with Dennis Hof
and do an interview
with him over the phone.
Dennis was very
cooperative.
What he discussed was
Brooke's background,
about her being pregnant,
leaving the Ranch,
Bunny Ranch, to come
back to Oklahoma City
to have the child.
He had indicated he thought
he may be the father,
but that he had nothing
to do with her death.
It's probably
the most emotion
I've ever seen him express
when he told me
that she was pregnant
with his child.
And he choked up
talking about her death.
♪
[Shelly] He was the owner,
and he wanted to
have sex with the
new, young girls.
And he didn't
wear a condom.
♪
I definitely know
Dennis Hof was not
the father of Brooke's
unborn child.
I do know who it is,
but I cannot say.
[Deanne] I'm not surprised
he would lie about
something like that.
He would say anything
to get some publicity.
[Merydith] We did not know
who the father of
Brooke Phillip's
unborn child was,
and pretty soon after,
we knew it wasn't
consequential really
to our investigation.
[Ryan] About 48 hours
into the investigation,
we get a call,
a phone call
from a person who was
inside the house and had...
managed to escape.
[Jose] The worst was just
going through my mind
and I was really afraid so,
I called the, the police.
[Ryan] He was extremely
concerned for his safety,
so we really had to...
sneak him in after hours
through a
back alleyway.
We asked him to start
from the beginning,
what all took place,
what happened.
♪
[Jose] It's November 8th...
and Casey calls me to
come pick him up
at the house on 56th.
Casey is like a
brother to me.
So, I give him a ride
to the bar
where he's gonna
meet these two girls,
Millie Barrera...
and Jennifer Ermey.
Jennifer and Millie
have just met
very recently and,
this is the first time
they're kind of
going out together.
They're at
Henry Hudson's,
a local...
blue-collar kind of bar,
and they hung out there
with Casey,
with Jose.
[Jose]
And we started drinking.
♪
We were all having fun,
and it's about closing time
for the bar, and I get a
phone call from Brooke,
so I answer it 'cause I
hadn't heard from her
in such a long time.
And I said, "Hey, Crazy.
What are you doing?"
And she was like, "Hey, um,
can you come pick me up?"
[Merydith] And Jose leaves
because he's gotten a call
from Brooke Phillips,
who's having trouble
with a john,
and so he's going
to go meet her.
♪
[Jose] When I
picked Brooke up,
we started talking and then
she tells me she was pregnant.
I was in shock.
[Merydith] Brooke,
she wanted to go
stay with Jose
that night.
And he told her,
"I'm staying at Casey's
home tonight.
We're waking up early
tomorrow morning."
They were going to Denver to
a Monday night NFL game.
And so, they go
to Casey's house.
[Ryan] We asked him,
"What was your intention?
What do you want to take
her home for?"
And he goes, "You know..."
We're like, "Why,
were you trying to be
romantic with her?"
He goes, "Yeah."
♪
[Jose] So, we go
to the bedroom
and we start undressing.
♪
And then, somebody starts
knocking on the door.
♪
[knocking continues]
And I told her that I'm not
gonna answer it because
any time somebody
came to that house,
Casey would either call me
and let me know
to go let them in,
or go handle some
kind of business for him.
♪
[Merydith] In the meantime,
back at Henry Hudson's bar,
Casey, Jennifer,
and Millie,
they hung out there
until last call.
And when they shut
the bar down at two...
Casey, Jennifer,
and Millie leave together.
♪
[Jose] We're messing around,
um, we're, you know,
hot and heavy.
They just kept
knocking and knocking.
[knocking]
We put our clothes on,
and I was like,
"Just let me go
see who it is."
[knocking]
So, I go peek out
the front door,
and I see David Tyner.
He goes by "Hooligan."
And he was Casey's
bodyguard at the time.
He was an MMA fighter.
He was a former marine.
♪
[Ryan] Hooligan was
looking for Casey.
Jose told him
he was not there.
He would normally not let
anybody come in and sit,
but he knew Hooligan
and he trusted Hooligan.
[Jose] I told him that Casey
would be home from the bar
any time,
and, you know,
you just wait in
the living room.
And then I go back
to the bedroom,
and we start messing
around again.
And now I hear...
Casey coming in to
the front door with the
two girls that he had
left the bar with.
♪
So, Brooke hears the girls,
and says,
"I want to, uh,
see who it is."
♪
[Merydith] Brooke wants to
go out and talk to the girls
who have come home
with Casey,
so she leaves
that room.
[Jose] And I'm like,
"Ugh!"
And then the music
comes on,
and I'm just still kind of
sitting there waiting for her
to come back to
the bedroom.
And then, um,
all I hear is,
"Oh, what the [beep]?!"
♪ [suspenseful]
[g*nshots]
[Jose] And, boom, boom,
just g*nshots.
And I froze.
It was just ongoing,
like just shot, after shot,
after shot, after shot.
[g*nshots]
[Jose] I went numb from,
like, my knees down.
I didn't know
what to do.
♪
[g*nshots]
Until I didn't hear
any more g*nshots.
The last g*nsh*t
I heard, actually,
a hole came through the
door of the room, and I...
just got up and took off
running through the left door.
He ran out
a back door
to the room
where he was at,
which led to
the garage.
[Jose] I hit the button to
the garage door opener.
[whirring]
And I ran to
the garage door.
I didn't even let it finish
raising up, I dove under it,
and then when I got up
to start running,
here comes Hooligan.
[Ryan] He turns round,
Hooligan's chasing after him
telling him to come back.
And Hooligan
puts up his hands,
and says, "I'm not,
not after you!"
[Jose]
I kept running because
there's no way
I'm going to believe that.
[Merydith] Hooligan takes
off after Jose Fierro.
He starts running after him
down the street.
But Fierro is like
a soccer player.
He's incredibly quick.
[Jose] I ran pretty hard
to the, like,
two houses over...
jumped in a backyard,
and I ran to the yard
over to the next street.
♪
[Merydith] Jose Fierro
is running for his life
through backyards,
on these one-acre lots.
♪
[Jose] There was a big tree
that I climbed up
and sat in,
so I could see the streets
to see if anybody was
walking around
looking for me
or any cars driving around.
[Ryan] He waited there
until he smelled smoke.
He noticed that it was
coming from the
direction of the house.
[Merydith] He starts
to get scared,
and then gets down out of the
tree and continues to run.
[sirens]
[Jose] I heard sirens.
And I just
started thinking, like,
man,
I hope they're okay.
And then I understood
that they k*lled them,
and that they tried to set
the house on fire
to make it look
like an accident.
I was like, "Oh no,
oh no, oh no."
[Ryan] He decided at that
point it was time to go find
some place he can stay
safe and stay hidden.
[Merydith] And so,
Jose continues to run
towards his
grandmother's home.
[Jose] When I got to
my grandma's house,
I started knocking softly
on the window right there.
And then my Uncle Mario
comes out and answers the door.
I said, "Hey, Uncle,
I'm in some trouble.
I need to use the phone."
I called, um, a lawyer.
I told him, you know,
I know what happened,
but I wanted somebody to
go with me to the authorities.
♪
[Ryan] Jose Fierro,
he gave us David Tyner
on a golden platter.
♪
[Ryan] We decide
it's time to move quick,
and we issued an
arrest warrant for
David Tyner for the murders.
We had gotten word
that he fled the state
shortly after the homicides.
So, I contacted
the U.S. Marshal services.
[News] A big break in
the Oklahoma City
m*rder investigation that's
getting national attention.
A suspect wanted in the
m*rder of six people,
including a reality TV star,
is now in custody.
Investigators say he knew
he was a wanted man
and gave up.
[Ryan] He had
turned himself in to
the Pryor police department,
and was taken into custody.
♪
[Merydith] He's transported
down here to Oklahoma City,
and he won't talk.
He won't talk to
law enforcement.
He won't really tell his
attorneys even what happened.
♪
[Ryan] At this point,
it was still unclear
why everything happened
inside that house,
and why everybody
was left m*rder*d.
♪
[Merydith] The problem
is that Jose Fierro
only saw Hooligan.
And while Hooligan pleads
guilty to the homicides,
he does that without
giving the state
of Oklahoma,
or any law enforcement,
any idea as to what
actually happened
inside of that home.
There's a 40-caliber g*n
and two 380s,
so we have at least
three g*ns in the home.
So, we knew it wasn't
just Hooligan
who k*lled everyone.
♪
So, after Hooligan
is sent off to prison,
we continue working
to make sure that
everybody involved
is held responsible.
And we knew that
Hooligan's tie...
to Casey was Denny Phillips,
and we start ramping up
the investigation
directed at Denny Phillips.
[Ryan] He had a...
vast, dangerous,
mean background.
A lot of assaults.
[Merydith] Denny met
Casey in prison.
And at the time,
Denny Phillips
is head of this
Native American prison
g*ng here in Oklahoma,
The Indian Brotherhood.
And so, when they both
get out of prison,
Casey becomes a supplier
for Denny Phillips.
And then, there had
been a falling out
between Casey
and Denny because
Denny was
skimming off the top...
when he would take drugs
or money back and forth.
So, Denny Phillips...
wants to k*ll Casey.
[Ryan] We began researching
the Indian Brotherhood,
and then we find out
David Tyner, Hooligan,
was what they
call a prospect.
So, prospects usually
have to do the bad stuff
to become part of the g*ng.
♪
[Merydith] The detectives
and the investigators
continue to dig and find,
to get in the
Indian Brotherhood,
Denny Phillips told Hooligan
he had to take out
Casey Barrientos.
♪
After three years
in maximum security prison,
Hooligan was done
being the fall-person
for Denny Phillips.
He was done taking it
all on himself.
So, the detectives decide
they're gonna take
a run at Hooligan.
And so, they travel
to where he is
and they talk to him.
[Ryan] We sat down,
identified ourselves.
He knew who we were.
And then we dove right into
the meat and potatoes:
"Hey, this is
why we're here."
[Merydith]
And sure enough,
he's decided
that he'll talk.
[News] It has been a long
seven-year wait for the
families and victims of
The Cathouse Murders
that happened back in 2009.
♪
[Merydith] At this point,
we're years into the
investigation and the
detectives travel
to where Hooligan
is in prison.
And sure enough,
Hooligan tells them about
Denny Phillips setting up
this entire thing.
[Ryan] According to
Hooligan,
Denny had decided
he wanted to get
more than what
Casey was offering,
they were having issues
with money,
over drug sales.
[Merydith]
And so, Hooligan
tells the detectives,
for him to get into the
Indian Brotherhood,
Hooligan needed to
rob and k*ll Casey.
[Ryan] Casey Barrientos
was the target.
And, Hooligan tells my
partner and I
there were two other
people involved.
[Merydith]
Hooligan was...
not the only sh**ter
inside of that house.
♪
John Cochran...
And Russell Hogshooter.
Russell Hogshooter, he's part
of the Indian Brotherhood,
and so, is no stranger
to being in trouble.
John Cochran,
he is...
smalltown,
not educated, and...
met Hooligan while
working construction.
And so, on
November the 9th, 2009,
Hooligan, and
Russell Hogshooter,
and John Cochran,
they travel to Oklahoma City
to rob Casey Barrientos.
♪
[Jose] I had no idea.
You know, I just opened
the door, let him in.
[Knocking]
Because Hooligan is, uh,
Casey's bodyguard.
I told him to just
sit on the couch
and wait for Casey
to come home.
[Merydith] Once Hooligan
is in the home,
he contacts Denny...
who's sitting in his car,
orchestrating the hit.
And tells him,
"Jose Fierro's here.
But there's girls here.
We can't do this right now."
And it was at that point that
Denny Phillips told him,
"I will k*ll your family
if you don't do this."
♪
[Ryan] According to David,
once he gets in,
he's in the house
when all of a sudden,
Cochran and Hogshooter
come in through
the back door.
♪
[Ryan] David Tyner
states that
he ended up sh**ting
Casey right off the bat
'cause he was
closest to him.
[g*nshots]
And then, he shot
Jennifer Ermey
and Millie Barrera...
[g*nshots]
And that Brooke Phillips
was shot by
Russell Hogshooter.
[g*nshots]
♪
[News] A second man has been
charged in the 2009 k*lling
of a reality TV star and
three other people.
Denny Edward Phillips was
charged with six counts of
first-degree m*rder because
two of the victims
were pregnant.
Phillips is currently being
held in a federal prison.
[Merydith] Then John Cochran
and Russell Hogshooter
were arrested
and charged.
Pretty quickly, we...
made a plea deal
with John Cochran.
♪
[Ryan] Denny Phillips
and Russel Hogshooter,
they want a trial.
They want to
try to beat it.
And then we received
information that Dennis Hof
was going to come down
and come to the trial.
We didn't want that.
We didn't want him
coming in,
parading around
with the cameras,
drawing attention
to himself and...
focusing the spotlight
on Brooke Phillips.
You know, you could have
that one juror that says,
"Well, based on what
she's done in her past,
you know,
she's a bad person,
therefore these guys
are okay."
You know,
you just don't know.
You never know what you're
gonna get with a jury.
♪ [suspenseful]
[Merydith] So, with the
seriousness of the case,
more than 50 witnesses,
cooperating inmates,
cooperating accomplices...
there's so many
moving parts.
But in the background,
The Bunny Ranch in Nevada
is blowing up
our phones here,
wanting Dennis Hof
to have his
moment in the sun.
And he kept saying,
"We got to jump on the
bandwagon here.
This is a great
opportunity."
And he was going to go,
planning to go to the trial.
[Merydith] And he was
told repeatedly,
"No. Absolutely not."
[Deanne] The DA told him,
"Don't go to this trial
because we don't want the
jury to see this woman
as being a prost*tute.
We want them to see
a human being,
a woman who was pregnant,
who was m*rder*d."
♪
[Merydith] The effect that
it could have on a case
is huge.
Oklahoma is a red state.
There are people who
we could potentially
have on a jury
who might think, "Well,
if you're involved in
those kinds of professions,
you kind of get
what you deserve."
It doesn't matter
what she did for a living.
She didn't deserve to die.
And especially that way.
Nobody does.
♪
[Ryan] But, you never
know with a jury.
[Merydith] The best thing
for this case is
for him not to show up.
[Ryan] But he shows up.
[Ryan]
When Dennis Hof decides
to come to the trial,
he shows up in his red
and black bowling shirt
with his hat on with
bright white "HBO"
on the head.
He's doing just
what you'd think.
He's looking
for the camera,
and the camera's
looking for him.
[Dennis]
And I had to be here.
If, if there's...
if there's an afterlife,
and uh...
she came up to me, and said,
"Why weren't you there?"
I wouldn't
have an answer.
He notified
the media, before,
that he was coming.
He didn't care
what the DA told him.
I saw him
in the news.
He sat there and pretended
that he cared about her,
pretending to be upset.
But they were
crocodile tears.
[Dennis] This is like the
saddest day of my life.
[Ryan] Now he's in front
of the camera, now it's,
"All the attention's
about me.
I'm Dennis Hof.
I have these feelings.
I lost somebody,
it's about me.
Come talk to me."
He's making a
spectacle of it.
♪
[Deanne] There was no line
that Dennis wouldn't cross
if he thought it
was beneficial.
One of Dennis's favorite
lines I heard him say
over and over,
"What's in it for me?
What's in it for me?"
♪
[Merydith] He's giving
interviews out in the hallway
and, you know, all of these
families of these victims
are having to
walk past that.
[Ryan] And I know that
the families that...
of these victims
didn't appreciate it.
They lost their loved ones,
and now we've got
somebody down here
trying to make
a buck off of it.
[Deanne] He wanted to attach
himself to a story that
had nothing to do with him,
so he could promote himself
and promote his book.
[Merydith] He brought
a copy of it with him,
and had signed
the inside cover,
and written a, a note
to our elected
district attorney.
[Ryan] And it went right
where it should have been,
it went straight
into the trash can.
The prosecuting
district attorney
kicked him out of there,
and to Dennis' credit,
he did leave.
♪
[News] Denny Edward Phillips
and Russell Lee Hogshooter
were each convicted of
six counts of
first-degree m*rder and
one count of conspiracy.
[Merydith] Denny Phillips
and Russell Hogshooter
received the same sentence:
life without parole
on every count that
David Tyner received.
Two incredibly violent men,
and dangerous men,
are gonna die in prison.
[Merydith] The victims
didn't deserve to die.
They didn't deserve
to die in that way.
And to make sure that
everyone involved in that...
doesn't have the opportunity
to hurt other people
in our community
like that anymore,
that's a victory.
[Ryan] If we just gave up
after we had Hooligan,
there's three people that
would've never gotten
held accountable
for what they did.
So, it's...
you know, it is
satisfying to get them,
but more importantly,
it gave the family closure,
it gave the families
the understanding
of what happened.
♪
[Jose] The last image
I have of Brooke is just,
you know,
laying next to me.
She's just
naturally beautiful.
And, uh...
she uh...
Yeah, she's embedded in
my mind all the time.
♪
[Shelly] You can see
there's a new house...
because the
old one burned.
But this is the location
where Brooke Phillips
was k*lled.
♪
[car door closing]
♪
[Shelly] It's a little bit
eerie standing here.
♪
Brooke Phillips was way more
than just a working girl
at the Bunny Ranch.
She had a whole life
ahead of her.
I can't believe
she's gone.
♪
[Kisha] Brooke had
so much to give,
so much more
growing to do.
♪
She never even called
herself a prost*tute.
She was just
more than that.
She was a student,
she was a mother,
she was a niece,
she was a daughter,
a granddaughter,
a friend.
So much more than...
what she did for a couple
of years out of her,
you know,
already short life.
I did become close
with her daughter.
I attended her graduation,
and she was valedictorian.
Brooke would
be so proud.
[Sighing]
Well,
I just, you know,
I miss Casey
all the time.
I miss Brooke.
I feel guilty because I let
that guy in the door,
like, I didn't know
they had a falling out...
If he'd 'a just told me...
I wouldn't have
let him in.
So, to this day, it just
kind of haunts me.
I get a lot of [beep]
from people, like,
"Why aren't you dead
if you let him in?
Like why didn't
they k*ll you?"
And to me that's a
good question.
I don't know why.
But, uh, I just,
I miss my friends.
♪
[Sighing]
I just,
I miss them.
♪
[Phone ringing]
[Operator] 9-1-1,
what is your emergency?
[Woman]
Um, we need an ambulance.
It's the Love Ranch
out in Crystal, Nevada.
[News] Fox News Alert as
former NBA all-star
Lamar Odom is in the
hospital and said to be
breathing on a respirator.
They knew Lamar Odom
on Keeping Up with
the Kardashians.
We know that Lamar and Khloe
had split up and that
he had sort of gone
down a dark path.
Dennis Hof told her to
get whatever Lamar needed,
and to try to keep him
there longer.
They wanted him to
spend more money.
There were always rumors
about his drug use.
But now it got
out of control
when he wouldn't
wake up.
[Deanne] Lamar was
foaming at the mouth,
and he was unconscious.
Now he's almost
dead and...
Dennis was taking every
interview he could.
[Dennis] "Are you gonna do
any media?" And I said,
"Yes, I'm gonna go on the
Nancy Grace Show."
And they said,
"Please don't do that.
We'd rather have Khloe, uh,
say what needs to be said."
I told her to go to hell.
[Deanne] He was baiting her
with everything he could
so that there would
be a big media w*r.
We're going to tell you
the real story about
the Lamar Odom party.
Exactly what happened.
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