Original subtitles

This is the story of an all-American family...

You could tell they were a very close-knit family.

Very sincere people, very sweet.

...who dote on one another...

This is a family that hugged and kissed all the time,

didn't matter how old you were.

...and are there for each other,

through good times and bad...

We take care of our own.

It's that simple.

...but lurking somewhere in these precious home movies...

...is a monster.

He said to me one day,

"Sandy, I'm sleeping with one eye open."

This wasn't just a random act.

This was very proficient.

And for the very first time,

a confession in the killer's own words.

It wasn't until I saw them

pulling the stretchers down the stairs

that I realized what was happening.

I still can't comprehend.

You killed the people who loved you the most.

Summer 1975 -- encino, California.

On the left is 28-year-old bridesmaid Sandy sulzman.

It was such a happy day

that Sandy doesn't need these home movies to remember it.

I just remember there was so much laughter

and so much happiness.

Getting married today, Sandy's identical twin sister, alene.

She's the one on the right.

I always say, I was the cute twin,

and she was the pretty twin.

Alene was so stunning.

Alene's husband-to-be, 30-year-old George Jenkins,

certainly thinks so.

That's him beaming from ear-to-ear

and clearly head over heels in love with alene.

Alene was working in one of those big companies.

That's where she met George.

They went out on a couple of dates,

and it became very obvious --

they were perfect together.

Finally, all eyes turn to the beautiful bride.

Alene's dress was white with touches of yellow.

The same flounced collar that was on

Princess Diana's wedding dress.

It had this beautiful wide-brimmed hat,

and it was so alene.

It was so alene.

It's a proud moment for alene's father, bill Grossman.

My folks loved George and were very happy for alene

because there was no work to their happiness.

It just came naturally.

The twins' father, bill, knows the secret to a happy marriage.

He was an intelligence officer during world war ii

and a poster boy for air corps recruitment leaflets.

Bill met and married Lynn, a beautiful girl from queens,

when they were in their early 20s.

With their good looks and fun-loving personalities,

the couple make a perfect match.

They were the best of friends.

The two of them just made it work.

In 1947, three years after they wed,

twin girls Sandy and alene

came along to complete the family.

The photogenic twins grew up in New York.

Vacations in Pennsylvania hold special memories for Sandy.

We would go in the winters to the pocono mountains.

And alene and I, our first ice skates were double runners.

And we were ice skaters all our lives.

Here they are, just five years old,

doing their best to stay upright

as dad bill corrals them onto the ice.

That's my dad and alene and me.

Everything was fun, even falling.

Finally, mom Lynn comes out from behind the camera

to show dad and the girls how it's done.

Alene soon catches the hang of it,

or perhaps it's Sandy.

Sometimes, it's hard to tell.

We were very different, and yet very similar.

I remember just having the most wonderful childhood.

The fact that the grossmans

even have 8-millimeter technicolor home movies

proves they were a family of means.

My dad had a great 8-millimeter camera.

We had a screen that we could put up in the living room

to play all the film.

The Grossman twins graduated high school in June 1965.

That's alene.

And you look so happy.

Both girls soon left home for university,

but alene quit after two years.

She just didn't like the academics very much.

After leaving college,

alene joins her parents in California

and starts work at a credit card company,

where she meets George.

The rest is history.

She had all those years of happiness with the right person.

The newlyweds waste no time

building a life for themselves, investing in real estate.

It was really quite something to see how well they did.

Within a few short years,

the jenkinses move to a 5,000-square-foot mansion

outside Los Angeles, perfect for entertaining.

I have lots of memories of weekend barbecues,

of being in the pool.

We spent our lives outside the house.

I mean, there was always a gaggle of people.

It was so much fun.

George and alene appear to have it all,

but their smiles mask heartbreak.

Alene has been told by doctors that she'll never be a mother.

Well, it became apparent that alene could conceive...

...but she would miscarry every time.

And then they decided that they wanted children,

and that maybe adoption was the route to take.

In may 1980, their dream comes true.

This footage shows the family heading home

for the very first time with their adopted baby son...

Joshua Bradley Jenkins.

Sandy and the rest of the family welcome the new arrival home.

I was there when Joshua was brought home.

There's a yiddish word -- it's called kvell.

It's like your happiness pours out of you.

And I remember my mother saying,

"my mouth hurts, I can't smile anymore."

Once Joshua was brought home, everyone converged on the house,

and we all had to be kicked out at some point.

That was a happy time.

First-time parents George and alene are clearly besotted.

Alene loved being a mother, and she doted, you know.

And of course George, coming from this germanic-type culture,

his first-born is a boy.

Hey!

Joshua's first few months fly by.

Grandma Lynn has her own special bond with her first grandson.

I was like, "okay, enough. Put the baby down."

That baby never would have been in a crib

had my mother and father had anything to do with it.

They're a close, loving, picture-perfect family,

and it's hard to imagine a future filled

with anything but happiness.

It's 1981, and alene and George Jenkins' son, Joshua,

is getting ready for a very special occasion.

Mom alene is behind the camera,

capturing it all on glorious 8-millimeter film.

Joshua was the most magnificent child.

I used to say he had mascara eyelashes,

dark hair, blue eyes.

Just a stunning child.

There's joshy.

Look how gorgeous he was.

Just breaks my heart.

For one-year-old Joshua, life is a cakewalk.

You've got US now?

Joshy, blow a kiss out.

Joshua.

Everyone just going, "wow," you know,

"we got lucky. Look at this child."

Long piece of red spaghettis.

Two years later, for his third birthday,

George and alene pull out all of the stops.

They've hired an entertainer

for two dozen of his closet friends.

I made a mistake, but a slim mistake.

There's Joshua, the dark hair.

Wait a minute!

I forgot to tie it.

Everyone doted on him, and he was spoiled

like every other little boy.

The air won't stay in it till you take the balloon

and you tie it right up.

Joshua's adoring family loved to shower him with expensive gifts,

by far the best present he ever gets

is a baby sister.

In 1985, when Joshua is 5 years old,

George and alene adopt a newborn baby, Megan.

They didn't want to have Josh be an only child,

and here comes Megan into the picture,

and the dynamic changed.

And Joshua doted on her...

...'cause, for a 5-year old, this is a toy.

Megan was the Princess.

George called her "Princess" all the time.

She was very feminine, and she loved her brother,

absolutely loved her brother.

The good times look like they'll go on forever,

but in 1991, they come crashing to a halt.

Recession hits america, and property prices plummet.

The Jenkins' income dries up,

leaving the family on the brink of financial ruin.

Last one? Yep, all done.

They realized that they were gonna have to

give up everything.

The Jenkins family are forced to sell out

and relocate to a rental property in Las Vegas.

It's a far cry from their Los Angeles mansion.

From being his own boss,

George finds himself looking for a new job.

You've got George, who was probably 100 pounds overweight.

You walk into an interview,

and it's gonna be very, very hard.

You think you can maybe help put them away while I unpack?

Alene said to me, "I don't do poor well."

You want to give me a hand here?

It's very frustrating to come from means to nothing.

I used my credit line, and I bought them a car.

It was a 1989 Mercedes turbodiesel,

a piece of junk,

but it was still a Mercedes.

11-year-old Joshua is also feeling the strain.

He's not fitting in at his new school.

Although he's smart, he's been diagnosed with severe dyslexia.

He had over a 160 IQ at that point,

but couldn't read.

Emotionally, that was hard on him.

George didn't know how to deal with it at all.

I don't understand this, Joshua.

What's going on here?

These grades are terrible -- d-, f, f!

He may have said some things that weren't so kind to Josh,

out of his own inability to know how to deal with it.

Hey! Hey, come back here, young man!

What are you talking about? Joshua: Just leave me alone!

Open this door, Josh!

George. Damn it!

George. Calm down, okay?

It's not gonna help.

Megan kind of retreated.

Listen to me, it just makes it worse.

It makes it much worse. Makes it worse?

Please! Please!

How could it possibly be worse?

It does. Have you seen those...

Megan would come into their room,

"I have a terrible stomachache."

I'm not feeling well.

Okay.

You know, you look back on that,

and that's how a lot of children process stress.

The family home becomes a pressure cooker of tension.

The Jenkins family, once so tight-knit,

is falling apart.

It probably happened over a period of time,

but all of a sudden, it took a nose dive.

You!

In these home movies from 1980,

the Jenkins family are living a millionaire lifestyle,

and anything seems possible.

But in 1992, their fortunes plummet.

George saw it as a failure because you're the golden boy,

and then all of a sudden, things happen.

It was a full-time job

just trying to hold everything together.

At the same time, son Joshua's behavior

is on a downward spiral.

Josh, enough.

Josh became angry when, financially,

things took a turn for alene and George...

Josh, stop!

Enough! Stop!

Stop it! Enough!

Stop.

...and he said, "I blame you. It's your fault."

When Joshua is 14,

George and alene seek expert help.

The behavior was changing, not for the better.

It was creeping.

It was creeping.

There was only one child psychiatrist

in the state of Nevada, and that's who they took him to.

He was put on some medication.

It didn't seem to do very much.

He said it slowed him down.

And a violent incident at Joshua's school

horrifies his parents.

Some football player made fun of him,

and Joshua picked him up and threw him down the stairs.

George and alene, they're starting to become afraid.

George said to me one day,

"Sandy, I'm sleeping with one eye open."

That became the catalyst for them figuring out

Joshua needs more than they can give him right now.

Vista del mar is a boarding school in west Los Angeles,

helping children with behavioral issues.

He was totally resistant to go to vista del mar.

The sales pitch was,

"this is what they've committed to do for you

to help you with the anger and everything else."

It took a while, and finally he said, "okay."

With Joshua at boarding school,

peace returns to the Jenkins household.

But just a few months later,

the family are hit by another bombshell.

Alene and Sandy's now-74-year-old mother, Lynn,

has some devastating news.

I called my mother, and she said,

"I've got breast cancer."

Lynn has always been a rock for her daughters.

Now it's their turn to be hers.

Alene and George decided

they were gonna drive in from Vegas with Megan,

and they all got there safely.

Lynn and bill now live in an upscale gated community

in vista, California.

Next-door neighbor phaedra bell

is best friends with their granddaughter, Megan.

She was just a great person, always happy.

I remember her freckles.

I remember her super-straight forehead bangs.

Every time she did come down, she would make it a point

to let me know that she was there

so that we could hang out together.

It's Saturday, February 3, 1996.

I walked up the stairs to their front door...

...and I noticed that the blinds were closed.

Lynn and bill were early risers.

They always had the blinds open.

I mean, by, like, 6:30, 7:00 in the morning,

so you knew when they were awake.

You knew when they weren't home,

and I thought that was really weird.

I had talked to Megan the night before.

She said they had no plans.

I'm thinking, "what's going on?"

Phaedra decides to try again a few hours later.

I walked out my front door, around the front of our patio...

...and I went running up to Megan's door...

...and that's when I saw

that their bedroom window was on fire.

And I immediately started screaming,

you know, "call 911! Their house is on fire!"

That night, a local news crew captures the scene

as the fire is finally brought under control.

But once the flames are quenched,

firefighters find something far, far worse.

I had just arrived home from work.

Deputy Brock.

I received a phone call from my boss explaining

that this was a lot deeper

than just a simple house that caught on fire.

I had been to crime scenes before,

but this one just had a very different feeling.

The smell of the burnt building was eerie.

And the pressure began to mount about the seriousness

of what occurred at this place.

The next morning, phaedra bell watches in shock

as the full horror of the situation becomes clear.

It wasn't until...

...i saw them pulling the stretchers

down the stairs...

...that I realized what was happening.

Bill and Lynn Grossman have led a charmed life,

raising children and then grandchildren.

But on February 3, 1996,

firefighters are called to their California home.

Inside, they discover a scene

more ghastly than anyone could fear.

The bodies were piled in the bedroom on the floor

in between the bed and the doorway.

It is immediately clear the fire is a cover-up.

Five members of the Jenkins family have been murdered.

The bodies of five family members,

including a 10-year-old girl,

were recovered by firefighters from this vista home yesterday.

Authorities indicated a homicide investigation is under way.

Alene had 12 blows to the head.

Grandmother also had blows to the head,

blunt-force trauma, and stab wounds.

Muah! No kisses?

Muah! No kisses?

The grandfather had multiple blunt-force trauma to the head.

George Jenkins, the dad, had 18 blows to the head

and then 12 stab wounds to the chest.

The final victim is 10-year-old Megan Jenkins.

She had nine stab wounds directly in the chest,

in the heart.

Investigators are flabbergasted by the brutality of the attack.

You know, people that kill from a distance,

generally, there's not a personal aspect to it.

This was definitely personal.

It was close.

It's essentially overkill.

The authorities waste no time canvassing the area for clues.

One deputy on the scene,

he noticed that the complex entrance

was guarded by a camera.

He asked for management's help

to look at the footage on the camera,

and he saw what appeared to be a silver Mercedes

leaving the complex shortly after the fire started.

The Mercedes looks like George and alene's family car,

but the driver's face is obscured.

Officers put out a bolo on the vehicle

and call the registered owner, alene's sister, Sandy.

At 2:00 in the morning, someone woke me up...

Hello?

...said, "do you own a 1989 turbodiesel,

license number blah, blah, blah?

We're just doing a background check,"

and I thought it was odd.

And he said, "we'll get back to you."

A few hours later, Sandy's phone rings again.

It's her cousin Lauren.

So, the first thing she said to me, she said,

"they're all gone."

You know, those things are seared in your brain.

"They're all gone."

I remember going, "no, that can't be."

Neighbor phaedra bell also learns the horrifying news.

My mom sat me down and told me,

you know, that Lynn and bill and...

...George and alene, along with Megan,

had been murdered...

...and my first thought was, you know, "what about Josh?"

Investigators are asking the same question.

They head for Joshua's school in Los Angeles to speak to him

and discover he left the previous Friday

with his family.

Staff explain that Joshua hasn't been happy at the school,

but this past week, his behavior has changed.

He was very helpful.

He was a model person.

The result of that was he asked them,

"hey, I know my parents are going down

to see grandma and grandpa.

I've been really good. Can I have a weekend pass?

Can I go with them?"

Detectives need to track him down, and fast.

That same sunday morning,

just a few miles from the crime scene,

a gas station attendant sees a silver Mercedes pull up.

This exclusive cctv footage captures the driver on camera.

The attendant calls 911.

We raced over to the location.

We were three-quarters of the way...

And we saw him.

We made an immediate u-turn.

He looked at me, I looked at him,

and then the eye contact seemed to linger around

for a little while...

...and I kind of lost touch a little bit.

I was so overwhelmed by the presence of the person

whom we believe killed five other people.

The sound of the handcuff clicking

brought me back to reality.

Joshua is arrested and taken to the station for questioning.

The recordings of this interrogation

have never been seen by the public until now.

In these tapes, exclusively released in 2019,

detectives ask 15-year-old Joshua

if he can shed light on the brutal slaying

of his family.

Detectives steer the interview to the events of Friday night.

Joshua's chilling account of what happened next

stuns detectives.

I still can't comprehend how anybody could do this,

let alone someone I love.

In this footage, seen here for the very first time,

police are interrogating 15-year-old Joshua Jenkins,

the only person who knows how and why

his entire family were murdered in their home.

When he's arrested, you have 48 hours to arraign him,

so the clock starts ticking.

Muah! No kisses?

Detectives now need to discover what happened

to Joshua's younger sister.

The stunned detectives are left with just one question.

15-year-old Joshua is charged with five counts

of first-degree murder and one count of arson.

The severity of his crimes means that he is tried as an adult.

He pleads guilty by reason of insanity,

claiming not to understand the nature of his actions

and citing a history of mental illness.

How do you determine whether or not a person is insane?

Does he understand the nature and the quality of his act,

and did he know right from wrong?

We did not believe Josh was insane.

In this exclusive footage,

a forensic psychiatrist interviews Joshua

in preparation for the trial.

Prosecutors don't buy it.

Josh was very angry at his parents and his grandparents

over the fact that they had put him in this lock-down facility

in Los Angeles and restricted his freedom.

After three days of deliberation,

jurors reach a verdict.

Joshua is found legally sane

and convicted on four counts of murder

and one count of arson.

Jurors deadlock on whether Jenkins was sane

when he killed his father, and the charge is dismissed.

Joshua is sentenced to 112 years in prison.

He was never going to be out of prison,

and I was okay with that.

It didn't matter what they gave him

as long as I didn't have to fear for my safety.

Sandy has not seen her nephew, Joshua, since the trial.

Years ago, I thought at some point

I might be ready to communicate and ask the why,

but I'm never gonna get an answer,

so I chose not to.

I had to learn to mourn one person at a time

because it's too big otherwise.

And that abrupt loss is with me all the time.

I miss my sister every day.

I miss her counsel. I miss her love.

Every day of my life is a lonely day

without my twin sister.

Many of Sandy's relatives

refuse to watch old videos

of the family during happier times

but not Sandy.

It's a sad commentary that you killed the people

who loved you the most.

There's daddy.

Excuse me.

Every once in a while, it just creeps up on me.

I'm sorry.