Episode 4: ’Ollywood nights
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So let me just go ahead and I'll read your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Do you understand? Yes. Okay.

Why were you having the barbecue?

Wendy was having a really bad day and just depressed. And we'd been looking for houses quite a bit, you know, to rent. And we didn't have any lined up for the next day. And I was just trying to do something to make her feel better. So we have this tradition called Hollywood Fun Night. Hollywood Fun Night. Oliver was her once-in-a-lifetime almost guide dog, except he wasn't really a guide dog, but he was her guide dog.

And so I said, why don't we have an Hollywood family fun night? And she said, OK. And she brightened up. So I said, well, I can get the burgers and stuff, but we don't have a barbecue anymore. We sold it. So I went to Osh. I got a portable grill and they were cheap. I asked the woman. I didn't know anything about it. And I said, so you put the coal in, you put the lighter fluid in and you light it. And then obviously, once the flame is down, it's OK. Right. Right.

And she said, yeah. And I said, I don't have to worry about a thing. And she said, no. Jill tells the officers that she bought the grill, lighter fluid, and charcoal briquettes the day before the barbecue. And then the next day, Friday the 13th, she set everything up for the sisters' special Hollywood night.

And, you know, we made a fire and we made burgers and we ate burgers for a while. And, you know, we talked and I put the Bose thing, the music thing, and we played music. And it was just like I was just trying to make a nice night. You know, we laid blankets out for the dogs and they hung out and and they brought their balls in. The balls might still be there. I don't know. But it was it was just like a cool night. You know, it was nice out. It had been hot. It was cool now.

She did have a drink, and Wendy never drinks, ever. And I'm always trying to get her to drink to loosen up because I think it would be a better version of Wendy to tell you the truth. So we had this, like, mango disgustingness.

I tasted it. It was gross. And I think it was a concentrate. And I gave her a drink and she tasted it. She said, it's gross. So I said, I think seltzer would help. So I poured it up. I added seltzer. And I think she drank it all. So she was a little loopy, you know, but okay.

So what did you mix with the mango and seltzer? Vodka. And not very much. She couldn't handle much, I don't think. She drank it out of a red cup. And we were just hanging out. We were listening to music. We were listening to Springsteen bootleg. We're big Bruce Springsteen fans. This whole thing about, like, she was having a, like, she wanted to have a fun night with Wendy, this Ollywood night. Yeah.

Here's Anthony Frere again. He said he got a bad feeling when he heard this part of Jill's interview. It reminded him of one of the saddest days of his life. I was like tearing up because I remember when I put my dog down, Ruby. She was a 25-year-old chihuahua. Like, I mean...

I took her out for the best night ever. Like, I had her groomed. I had her nails done. I did, like, all of these things because I knew I was killing her the next day. I was putting her down, right? And when I was telling this to this therapist friend of mine, he started to cry. And I'm like, what? And he's like, oh my god. Like, it reminds me of my dog, Kelvin. Like, did I do enough on his last day to make him feel great? So it had this, like, little quality of giving you one last chance

hurrah, like one last night before I get rid of you kind of feel. She ate two burgers and she said they were really good. Did you have any drinks that night? I did. I had a swig of vodka. Just a swig, like a shot? Yeah, right out of the bottle. Okay. That's a big treat for me. A very big treat. And that's the bottle we saw, the gray goose? Yeah. And then Wendy, she had the drink, that drink too, and you think she finished it? Yes. Yes.

And I even wrote in my notes, much like you would sedate a dog before you would, right? Like that's the process. The process when you put a dog down is you sedate them first so they fall asleep so that they don't feel the final injection and their heart stopping and all of this stuff, right? So that was also like very prevalent for me. Like vodka, she doesn't drink. That sort of same sort of feeling of like a mercy put down or something.

Next, the detectives want Jill to explain what happened at the end of the night. What was Wendy doing?

She gets tired, you know. She's in bed at 8 at night usually, so we were 8 o'clock at night and we were still in the garage. She was tired and she was in an Adirondack chair. Yeah, that's in the garage, yeah. Yeah, she laid down there because then Bruce, he's giant and he smacks you with his paws and he must be touched at all times. So he laid down next to her, he wanted that, and Bruce plopped down next to her and they were happy. And that's the last place I saw her.

She said, okay, I think I'm ready for ice cream now. So I went inside to get it and I tripped a couple times and I thought, shoot, you know, that's what happens with lupus. And I had a little panic because that did happen with lupus and I like had black eyes. That can be documented. I mean, I fell all the time, but whatever. I kept going in and I got the ice cream. I brought it out and I said, you know, we have marshmallows. And she said, that might be good.

I said, I don't know how old they are, but they might still be good. They're in the refrigerator. And she said, that would be kind of cool. Do you think we could melt them? And I said, yeah, I think we could. So did you ever get to the marshmallows? No. You never used them? No, I never. I got in the house, and I don't know what happened. We had the ice cream, but I never got to the marshmallows.

Jill went on to explain that when she went to get the marshmallows, she must have tripped, fallen, and passed out because she couldn't recall anything else until the next morning when she woke up on the lawn.

Go ahead and tell us what happened, what was happening there. I thought I was hallucinating in the desert is what I thought because it was so hot on my neck. Like, I think I've been abandoned in the desert kind of hot. And then I felt the grass and I tried to move and I really couldn't move. And I must have had my phone with me. I don't remember having my phone, but I must have because I called my friend and I said, I think I'm having a stroke.

And she said, is this one of your dramatic, I think I'm having a stroke things? And I said, no, I think I'm having a stroke. I can't really move. Who was that? Dr. Tracy Reese. And she said, I'm calling 911. You don't sound right. When the firefighters, paramedics arrived, you were sitting up on your bed and you were on the phone. I don't even know how I got up there.

The officers are curious. Why didn't Jill call 911 first instead of calling her friend Tracy? Jill says she didn't even realize Wendy was dead until paramedics arrived to the house. I have a very hazy memory of somebody saying, as I was getting into the ambulance, Wendy is dead. But Jones challenges Jill on this point.

Because they had already interviewed Tracy Reese. Tracy said you told her that you thought Wendy was dead in the garage with the dogs. I might have said that, but it's something I would say because it was so quiet. About Wendy being dead in the garage? Well, no, not specifically Wendy being dead in the garage, but like, oh my God, somebody might be dead in the garage because it's so quiet.

So you meant that it's just because of how quiet it was? Crazy quiet. My house is never that quiet, ever, ever, ever. Wendy is loud. She bangs into things. There's always chaos going on. The dogs are always loud. The officers move on now. They're going to confront Jill about three key pieces of evidence that they believe indicate Wendy was killed.

The first, why were there two sources of carbon monoxide fumes in the garage? The barbecue grill and that large silver metal trash can? This is a big old tin garbage can that you would use on the East Coast. And I threw all the unused briquettes, is that the word? Uh-huh. In there for the future. So instead of just keeping it in the bag, you emptied the bag in the trash can, correct? Yeah, I hate bags. Okay. Okay.

When the officers point out to Jill that the coals in the silver trash can had actually been warm when first responders arrived, Jill now remembered maybe she did like them. When we were going to make the marshmallows, I said, wouldn't it be cool if we, hey, I have an idea, like what if we just use like a drop of oil of that... Niter? Yeah, and just do a couple, and then it would be a fire, and you could make toasted marshmallows. From the trash? Right.

Got it. Separate from the barbecue. Right. So you're the one who actually pulled the barbecue and tin garbage can inside. Yes, I dragged them in because it was getting cold out.

I don't know if you can imagine, if you can just think about this, right? So she describes this garbage pail as like this New York garbage pail. And I live in New York, so I know how deep they are, right? And I can't imagine the charcoal is enough to bring the fire anywhere close, or the charcoal is anywhere close.

So to roast marshmallows, like if you think about how long the stick would have to be so that you wouldn't burn your hands, you'd have to like stick your hands in this flaming. It doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense to me. Then you go from that to I thought it would be cool if I lit it and and roasted like it doesn't compute.

The second key piece of evidence detectives need Jill to explain, all the garage doors were shut when first responders arrived. Who closed the garage doors? Did you? Maybe I did. I don't remember that. Okay, well, who else would have done it? Not Wendy, right? Wendy could have. She could have.

Shut the door, the garage door. She could have shut the door if she was cold. I don't know. I don't have good answers for you. I don't. I can only tell you my intent. And your intent was to go get marshmallows. Yeah. I mean, she asked for them and I said, okay. And I got up and fell. And I was like, well, hell, I'm going to get the marshmallows because she wants them. And this is her night. It honestly felt like her story was falling apart. And I think she...

She tripped over herself in many ways. Like, there were a lot of inconsistencies. It felt like there were some plausible parts of her story and then had to maybe produce the rest to...

Yeah, like the sense that if I just told the truth, they might not believe me. So I have to like make it more and explain more. I don't know. It felt like I had a little bit of that quality. And finally, Jones and Castro asked Jill how could she possibly explain everything she had written that made it look like a murder-suicide was in play. Like the letter by Wendy's hand and all those post-it notes Jill put up around the house.

When did you remember putting those out? Early morning. Friday morning? In the morning? If it was Friday, yeah. Yeah, Friday. I was trying to get my courage up. Pardon me? I was trying to get my courage up. I put the notes up to see how it feels. I'm a big see-how-it-feels person. And sometimes I do things and leave it and see how it feels.

So you're planning on doing that? Over the weekend, maybe. I thought if I saw them, I would have courage. But that's something I've been wrestling with, and I can't bring myself to do it. I'm sorry, what is that? You know. No. I'm assuming ending your life, correct? Yeah, and hers. And hers. So you were thinking about that?

I didn't know what else to do. I have nowhere to go. So I was thinking those thoughts. How could you not? But was I really thinking those thoughts? No. You know, as I was going on, I'm like, girl, you're confessing to like, you're literally confessing to having these thoughts and that you couldn't bring yourself to do it. And then I think she says something like the sticky notes. I put them up that morning thinking that it might help motivate me to do this.

Um, hello? Like, yeah. I mean, I just thought, shut up. Like, stop speaking because you're going to go to jail. Like, you are making yourself look really guilty here. Okay. And what about Wendy? What about her? Well...

Did you talk to her about this? Did you guys ever have a discussion about... About ending your lives? No. I thought about it, but I just thought it was unfair. I mean, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I just thought about my dogs, and it sounds stupid, but you know me. I love my dogs. Show me or tell us, how would we not look at this as a suicide attempt...

With you and your sister. Based on the... what we saw at the scene. Right. Just try to help us explain. That's all we're asking.

I just couldn't do it. I mean, you know, I ran a rescue for 10 years and I rescued 600 dogs and I euthanized a good amount of them and I prayed to God every time because I think it's so humbling to take a life and I just couldn't get there. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't think of a thing, but it's just not in my DNA. I mean, I'd be homeless first. I'd send Wendy back to New Jersey and I would never just kill her.

And expect to live a life, it's not a life I wanted. I love Wendy. I ran to get marshmallows and I fell. I didn't run for my life, I was coming back. Put yourself in our position. At some point, it seemed like something happened that you weren't able to complete this event. When we look at the scene, the notes, and the way everything ended up, it just seemed like this is just a failed attempt at what the actions read on the letters.

I completely hear you when you say what it looks like. I absolutely do. I'm not an idiot. I mean, I'm brighter than the average bulb. You are. Absolutely. And I can tell you only in my heart of hearts that I didn't have it in me, that for every minute of the last four, five, six months, that this has felt like the only way out.

But this is so much more humane.

What you saw was that I couldn't do it in the end. But it did happen. But it did happen. It was a god-awful tragedy. And if I could have been there, I would have been, because this is worse. I was never going to leave her alone, ever. I just can't imagine a life without Wendy. As much as I complained about her, I can't imagine it. And if I could have been there with her, I would have been, because...

We could have been together and our souls would be together forever. This is not what I wanted. About three hours into the interview, and this is when one of the officers asks Jill a question that throws her, and she loses her composure for the first and only time during the entire conversation. You'll hear the actors reading first, and then even though the quality is poor, because this is such a key moment in the interview, we'll play the original recording after. What would you tell Wendy if she can listen to you right now?

I miss you so much. I really tried my best to make it a good life. And we didn't say I love you, but I love you. I do. I believe in the soul. And I believe that she's with Oliver. What would you tell Wendy if she couldn't visit you or come? I miss you so much. I really tried my best to make it a good life. And we didn't say I love you, but I love you.

So after finally listening to Jill's police interview and learning about all that evidence, like Jill's suicide letter, it was clear why police arrested Jill. A lot of what she was saying didn't add up. And it sounded like she had planned a murder-suicide. But if that was the case, then a big mystery remained. Why did Jill survive? Since you've read the transcript, do you feel...

like she was intending to kill herself? Or do you think she was just intending to kill Wendy and get out of it alive? It's so hard to tell, but so many things are so convenient, right? Like, I don't know. I wrote some notes. It felt like a Jerry Springer, a good Jerry Springer title. This isn't a suicide attempt. I ran to get marshmallows and I fell. Like,

Like, it was almost like, what? Like, what are you... Like, okay. But it seemed all too... Like, again, good storyteller, right? And she even says at the beginning, like, ooh, like, I have a story to tell you, but I have to give you some history. Right?

for you to understand it. Like, who says that? When you look at all the notes, like the post-it notes, the letters, suicide letter, I mean, that took a lot of time to do. And playing devil's advocate, you could say she was definitely planning to kill herself too? Yeah, sure. On the surface, it certainly looks like she was planning on departing this world. I think it's very possible she was planning to take herself out. Although she...

Yeah, I mean, you know, it could be. It takes a lot of planning, right? But again, see, it's the producer in me. Like, it also takes me a really long time to produce a Christmas special. Talk about the fact that dogs were involved and how that factors into any kind of a suicide or murder-suicide attempt. In fact, dogs are usually protective factors to suicide. Yeah.

Yeah, there is this thing called extended suicide with your pets. That is something that usually occurs with people who might not have other resources for them to take care of the animals, you know, that kind of thing, or are so attached that the animal is like a child to them.

And I'm just not hearing that from her. Like I'm hearing, yeah, I love my dogs. I ran a shelter, like that kind of thing. But like, I don't know, I talk, you know, like I talk about my dog to my friends, like they're my kid. Right. So like there, I'm just not hearing that.

How tricky was she? Was she shifty? Could she have thought 10 steps ahead to think, "Oh, the police are going to come here and I'm going to make it look like I survived accidentally"? What do you think? I think when you're a TV producer with as much experience as she... I mean, she has way more experience than I did.

I mean, we've heard all these stories and everyone gets caught for the most part, right? So there's something about, I don't know if there's an, so we call it an access to, so I don't know if there's a personality disorder there, which would not

You know, I wouldn't rule it out because I would say a lot of people in the industry have personality disorders, mostly narcissism and borderline personality disorder. And if not the full disorder, you have some traits or features.

that even though we've heard about every case where someone tries to cover it up and they get caught, that if you have narcissistic tendencies, you believe that you're the one who's not going to get caught, right? Like you will believe that. Maybe, I can't say for sure, I haven't assessed her, but... Or you believe that you can produce a show so well? Yes, that's so believable that people will buy it.

I reached out to Jill Blackstone's attorney, Danny Davis, to let him know that I had finally gotten access to Jill's police interview, and he was not happy to hear that. He also didn't like my next question. How was he going to defend Jill, given that she told police she had been thinking of killing herself and Wendy, and had put up all those post-it notes? Davis quickly and firmly replied that Jill also told police she changed her mind, and the notes didn't matter.

It isn't about notes anymore. It's about what intent was in play when her sister died. The question that needs to be proved is what happened, right? And at first-degree murder, there's a level of criminal intent involved.

that has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. So I want to turn it back to you. Whatever notes, whatever emails, whatever anything's involved in this, the issue first is, can you prove beyond a reasonable doubt intent in my client at the level you're charging? I don't think they ever will. At this juncture, this case doesn't seem to be a candidate for a plea bargain ever. Are you looking forward to that trial? I am committed to the unique and iconic challenges of this case.

After this interview with Davis, I wouldn't see him again until two years later, on February 16th of 2022. The COVID delay was over. Jill Blackstone was back in court, in a wheelchair this time. Davis said she had been newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. But Jill was not in court for a trial because there wasn't going to be one. This case was over. Jill Blackstone was taking a plea deal.

The original murder charge, which could have resulted in a life sentence, was dismissed. In exchange, Jill entered a no-contest plea, meaning she didn't have to say she was guilty, but she agreed to accept the punishment for one count of felony manslaughter and three counts of animal cruelty. And so seven years after the death of her sister, Jill Blackstone was sentenced to eight years in prison. But because of time served and good behavior, she could be out in a few years.

such a sense of injustice. Shawna Leilani and her mom Wanda are so disappointed by the outcome of this case. They feel Jill's sentence is too light, a slap on the wrist, and she never had to tell the truth about what really happened to Wendy and the dogs. I've given a lot of thought to what I think really happened that night. I think it was supposed to be a murder-suicide. I think that just everything that was going on financially with them, and I think Jill just snapped, and I think she had enough.

And I think that she intended to kill herself as well as her sister and the animals. And I think that as everything was going down and it was happening, I think Jill had this moment of, what am I doing? I don't want to do this. And I think about poor Izzy dying in that garage. And it's just so unfair that somebody could do that to their family members and their pets.

Wendy loved her and trusted her so much. That's what really gets me. To have someone trust you that much for you to betray them and take their very life. It's like Wendy handed her her life and said, you know, I trust you.

And then she just squashed it. I'm sorry. But I miss Wendy every day. But Jill, I hope she hears Wendy's voice in her head for the rest of her life. Till the day she dies, I hope she hears Wendy talking to her. Because that's what she deserves. Wendy Blackstone's friend Joe and several other friends who called themselves Team Wendy are also not happy with Jill's sentence. Here's an actor reading what he wrote to me.

As we separately and later in some cases together looked into this, we not only had to come to terms with the death of our friend, but had to realize her sister was a murdering psychopath. Wendy is dead because she couldn't get out of the way. Neither could those dogs. It took three years for the LAPD to finally get someone from the DA's office to file charges. Will anyone care that the DA dropped the ball? Or about how much effort LAPD had to put into trying to do the right thing?

Wendy was a kind person with a disability who got in the way of a ruthless person. Sadly, a common tale. All around this world, people with disabilities are mistreated and sometimes killed because of a real or perceived burden. Joe wouldn't do an on-the-record interview with me because he said he didn't like how stories about Wendy focused on how she died, not how she lived. And he said no one ever seemed to mention the grim statistics about violence against disabled people.

I looked up that information and found that people with disabilities are almost three times more likely to be victims of violence than people without disabilities. There was also a study done that found in North America alone, at least once a week, a disabled person is killed by a caretaker, often a family member. Wendy deserves for her side of this to be told. It would so, it would sadden Wendy so much if

The whole world continued to think that she was an invalid, that she wasn't smart, that she, you know, she was just a burden to her sister. And all of this happened because she was such a burden, because that's not true. Wendy was vibrant and brilliant and smart and fun and energetic and positive. And everything that's really good in the world all rolled up into a little ball. It was like Wendy's heart.

And I feel like it's just so deserved that their story get told and that Jill gets exposed for what she really did. But with Jill Blackstone's no contest plea and no trial, there wasn't enough information to tell this story. And there were still so many unknowns, like what triggered Jill's second arrest and why did she end up taking a plea deal? Then we are on the record now and I am recording and you're okay with that, right? I'm okay with that, of course.

So I called Danny Davis one last time to ask him a few questions like, why did Jill plead no contest? And he tried to convince me, with the kind of defense lawyer talk that can make you dizzy, that Jill's no contest plea was really a way of saying not guilty. Actually what she's saying, in a way she's saying the deal is too good to turn down. And I'm not saying I'm guilty. I'm saying I'm not guilty and I'm not defending it.

Davis also wanted me to know that Jill should never have been charged with a crime because Wendy died by accident. And he blamed the lead detective in this case for needlessly pursuing a prosecution. He said she was an overzealous investigator who was obsessed with dogs. Detective Johnny Jones was fascinated, fixed, and dedicated to these dead dogs and strange sister relationships.

Do you think if Johnnie Jones had not been on this case, that Jill would have been re-arrested? Because they didn't do much more.

I had just one more question for Davis. It was the last one on my list from early on in this case. It was about the detail that when paramedics first arrived at Jill's house, they found her in her bedroom, only half-dressed. Did they ever get to the bottom of why she was naked from the waist down? Yeah. Why?

Davis then proceeded to give me the most bizarre answer I've ever heard in my entire career. Because her pants that she wore are in 10 pictures of a crime scene. And they're in the backyard, in the middle of the backyard. Does she know why they came off? Like, was she crawling into the house? Well, I think I know why she had no clothes on. Because the clothes she might that matched the office she had were in the backyard.

I had no idea what to make of that statement. She got raped by a wolverine? Left me speechless, also a little insulted. It felt like Davis was mocking my attempt to get to the truth of this story.

A truth that I was beginning to realize I might never find, because no one else was willing to go on the record. Not the district attorney, not the LAPD, or the Blackstone family. So I moved on and left this case behind. About six months later, on an ordinary Wednesday, I got a phone call from someone who knew I'd been working on the Blackstone story. They wanted to know if I was still following the case. "Not really," I said.

Would you start working on it again if you had new information, they asked. It depends, I answered, what kind of new information? They said I could find out, but I had to promise two things. First, keep their identity a secret. And second, tell the story of what really happened to Wendy Blackstone, because they didn't want the world to forget about her.

The next week, a large manila envelope arrived at my office. I opened it and was floored. Inside was all the evidence from the case file. Most of this material has never been made public. And it reveals an even darker story of not just how, but why Wendy Blackstone died. Every family has stuff. Right. And no family, every, I always say, show me a perfect family. I'll show you a family with secrets.

And then you put a bunch of humans together and there's all kinds of dynamics that can go wrong. That is very true. Everything from Inside That Envelope, coming up next in Episode 5 of The Blackstone Sisters. Thanks for listening.