The real story behind 'Alpha Dog'

Five years ago, just months after the murder of 15-year-old Nick Markowitz, Dateline began following the trail of accused mastermind  Jesse  James Hollywood.  

Bruce Correll, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s dept: We believe that Hollywood is so ruthless and so dangerous that anyone involved with him or would be in his company could be at risk.

Santa Barbara county chief deputy sheriff Bruce Correll told us then this was one of the toughest kinds of cases.

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: He’s got no interest at all in coming back.  He faces, either, if convicted, life in prison and possibly...

Cmdr. Bruce Correll: ...the death penalty...exactly.  He has no incentive to come back.  None whatsoever.

Hansen: Where does the trail go?  Where does it go cold?

Commander Bruce Correll: We believe that the moment

Jesse either read in the Los Angeles Times that a body had been found here or was contacted by someone who read the paper that a body had been found  that Jesse was gone.  He left immediately.

Hansen: Where do you think he went after he left California?

Commander Bruce Correll: We know that he went to Colorado Springs.                                       

In Colorado Springs, where his family once lived,  Hollywood visited an old family friend.   Police were tipped off, questioned the friend, but Hollywood was  gone.  

Investigators say in the week after Nick’s body was found, Hollywood had  also traveled with his girlfriend to Las Vegas, staying at the luxurious Bellagio hotel on the Strip.  He then headed back towards the San Fernando Valley.  After that the trail went cold.

A photo obtained by Dateline, taken at a photo studio in Vancouver, British Columbia,  appears to confirm that he was in Canada part of the time.

Hansen: Where do you think he is right now?

Commander Bruce Correll: I don’t know.

With Hollywood on the run, the  four other young people charged in connection with Nick Markowitz’s murder went on trial.

Apparently none of them had information about Hollywood’s whereabouts.     

The Markowitzes attended each of their trials almost every day and saw the gruesome crime scene photos of their murdered son.                              

Jeff Markowitz: He’d been in the ground for eight days, shallow, in 110 degree weather, I believe.   It was tough.

It was also difficult facing accused triggerman Ryan Hoyt.

Jeff Markowitz: It’s a bad feeling to be in a courtroom with somebody that killed your child.  It’s a bad feeling.

Hansen: Shot him nine times?

Susan Markowitz: His words were, “All I did was shoot him.”

Hansen: “All I did was shoot him?”

Susan Markowitz: Yes.

Hoyt was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.  Another posse member got life in prison for kidnapping.  Two others got lighter sentences for their part in the crime. 

But from day one, Susan Markowitz focused on finding Jesse James Hollywood:

Susan Markowitz: I was always looking over my shoulder, or handing out wanted posters or cards.  I made up cards.

Hansen: You actually made up cards, and handed them out in the community.

Susan Markowitz: Everywhere.  And I left them on windshields.

Hansen: You weren’t gonna let this thing go.

Susan Markowitz: No.

Eight months after Hollywood fled, investigators suspected that his parents knew where he was hiding.   At the time they believed his father, Jack, was the key.

Hansen: If as you suggest, Hollywood’s parents know where he is. Why can’t you arrest them? Why cant you compel them to tell you where this fugitive is?

Cmdr. Bruce Correll:  We would have to have clear-cut evidence that they are aiding and abetting him which we do not have. However, conversations from Jack Hollywood that have been relayed to us indicate that it is highly likely that he knows exactly where his son is.

The case received national publicity. The FBI distributed Jesse James Hollywood’s wanted poster all over the country — and posted it on the Internet. And Jesse James Hollywood began to become something of a legend.

A $50,000 reward was offered to anyone who could provide information leading to Hollywood’s capture.

In the meantime, Nick’s mother Susan could barely hang on. 

Susan Markowitz: I’ve been in the hospital, I think, 12--

Hansen: 12 times?

Susan Markowitz: 12-- something like that. I don’t remember.

Hansen: You contemplated taking your own life?

Susan Markowitz: Suicide.  Yeah.  Pills—with drinking.  And I cut my wrists.

But her personal pursuit continued, plastering the Los Angeles area with wanted posters and asking everyone she met to help.

Hansen: Did a day go by where you didn’t do something to try to help find Jesse James Hollywood?

Susan Markowitz: On the days that I was trying to kill myself, I wasn’t trying to find him.

Hansen: But other than that?

Susan Markowitz: Yeah, I pretty much focused on him.

Finally, two years after the murder, police got a tip that Jesse James Hollywood had headed south—all the way to Brazil, a country with a  reputation as a safe haven for international fugitives—like one Ronny Biggs. 

Biggs took part in England's historic great train robbery in 1963 and made off with millions.  He was arrested but then escaped.

And he ended up in Rio de Janeiro. He became a huge local celebrity.  and even though authorities knew where he was — Biggs was not extradited to Britain. A local law protected him because he fathered a child in Brazil.

As Ronny Biggs found, it is a swinging international city known for sun and fun, and... danger. It’s just the type of place American law enforcement officials believed would attract Jesse James Hollywood.

And in fact, two years after the Markowitz murder, police got a tip that Jesse James Hollywood was hiding in, of all places, a monastery. But there was little else to go on.  And investigators soon hit a dead end.

But it turned out that while Brazil seemed like it was a dead end — there would be new clues on this road leading out of Rio.

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