The Devil's Audition - Part One

THE DEVIL’S AUDITION Episode One: Temptation On November 9, 1980, twenty-six-year-old Valerie McDonald was doing something remarkably sensible: she was getting out. The aspiring filmmaker, actress, model and cocktail waitress had become frightened by the men managing her apartment building in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. She reportedly told friends and family about drugs, threatening behavior and activity she considered Satanic. With friends helping her move, Valerie appeared ready to put the Tower Apartments—and the people surrounding it—behind her. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Then Michael Hennessey arrived with an offer almost perfectly designed for an ambitious young actress. There was a movie shooting in town, he said, starring Dustin Hoffman, who was then at the absolute height of his career after winning the Academy Award for Kramer vs. Kramer. The production supposedly needed an attractive blonde woman for a small role playing the victim of a serial killer. The job paid $200 and, more importantly, offered Valerie the possibility of appearing opposite one of the biggest movie stars in America. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Valerie agreed to go. Her family would never see her alive again. The movie did not exist. A private investigator hired by Valerie’s parents later contacted the production company and Hoffman’s representatives and found no evidence of the film or the role Valerie had been promised. Someone appears to have constructed an elaborate fiction around Valerie’s ambitions and used it to lure her away. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Then the story became considerably stranger. Within days, Hennessey and convicted criminal John Gordon Abbott were fleeing north. On November 26, Canadian authorities caught up with them in British Columbia. A confrontation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police erupted into gunfire. Abbott was captured. Hennessey was killed. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Among the fugitives’ belongings, authorities reportedly discovered Valerie’s voter-registration and unemployment-benefit cards. The missing woman in San Francisco was now physically connected to the men who had fled hundreds of miles toward Canada. TDW_Devil Audition_1 But Valerie herself was nowhere to be found. In Episode One of The Devil’s Audition, we return to San Francisco at the dawn of the 1980s—a city emerging from Jonestown, the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk, and the fading glow of the counterculture—to reconstruct Valerie’s final days. We enter the Tower Apartments, meet the dangerous men who surrounded her and follow the irresistible promise of a Hollywood audition that appears to have been created specifically for her. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Because Valerie recognized that she was in danger. She was already leaving. Then somebody offered her exactly what she wanted. Listen & Follow: Follow The Devil Within wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. Rate & Review: Leave us a five-star rating and review—it remains one of the best ways to help new listeners discover the show. Watch & Subscribe: Watch The Devil Within on the Evio Creative YouTube channel, subscribe, and turn on notifications for every new episode. TDW_Devil Audition_1 Join the Conversation: Follow @thedevilwithinpod for episode clips, imagery, updates and more from the Evio Universe. Stories & Tips: Have a story you think belongs on The Devil Within? Send it to info@eviocreative.com. The Devil’s Audition — Episode One: Temptation, on The Devil Within. LISTEN • WATCH • FOLLOW Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices