The real story behind 'Alpha Dog'

It had been four agonizing years since their son’s murder, when one day in late 2004 undercover Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies paid a visit to Susan and Jeff Markowitz:

Jeff Markowitz: They said, “We are going to find Jesse  Hollywood.”

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: “We are going to...”

Jeff Markowitz: “We are.”

Hansen: Not “try to find…”

Jeff Markowitz: They said, “It’s not if.  It’s when.”

And a few months later it turned out that having followed these roads 65 miles from Rio, investigators blazed a trail to new leads:

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies obtained intelligence that brought the international search for Jesse James Hollywood to this windswept beach resort on the eastern coast of Brazil called Saquerema.

It’s a place where spectacular sunsets are shrouded in the salty mist of the roaring waves. And just off the beach, behind these tall wooden gates, it was home to a man who locals knew as a young Canadian named “Michael Costa Giroux.”

Neighbors called him “Mike”. He didn’t talk much, but he seemed to love his two dogs—and he worked out with weights that he kept on the front patio.  This woman was a neighbor:

Woman: He was always wearing a cap, and kept his face down, hidden away—even inside his home.

But apparently, not all the time. There was a photo of Mike Giroux that he allowed to be taken for a Brazilian travel brochure.                   

And at night, “Mike” would often  drift from bar to bar.  At a small watering hole just 50 yards from his house, the crowd knew Mike as a guy who started talking as soon as he started drinking.

Bar patron: We kidded him, “Are you Mike like in Mike Tyson?” He joked “No, Mike Tyson uses his fists to defeat his opponents, I use a baseball bat to defeat mine.”

Neighbor: I always mentioned to my neighbors that this boy was needing some help.

A few years ago, at a singles bar in Rio de Janiero, Mike Grioux met a woman more than ten years his senior named Marcia Reis:

Hansen: What did he tell you about himself?

Marcia Reis, (translated from Portuguese): He said he was studying, he had come to Brazil to study. When I met him, I thought he was very young.  I thought he was a little lost.  He had had a lot to drink. 

They dated and eventually lived together at “Giroux’s” little house in Saquerema.  Marcia told Dateline he would get in bar fights at times, but that he treated her very well.                                        

Reis: With me he was wonderful.  He was very sweet, tender. He was very caring, attentive.  Everything I wanted he would get. He was always with me, kissing my feet, my hands.  Wonderful.  Leading a very decent life.

One day in March, 2005, Marcia said, the man she knew as “mike” got a phone call from a family member. 

A female cousin he hadn’t seen in  years would be visiting brazil...and the couple came to this little cafe in Saquerema to meet her.  As they sat down for coffee, ‘Mike Giroux’ had no idea police back in California had been secretly tracking his movements, and funneling information to authorities here in Brazil. And then, a woman approached his table.

Kelly Bernardo, Brazilian agent, (translated from Portuguese): At first when I approached him, he got up as if he knew me.

But the woman was not “Mike’s” cousin.  She was Brazilian federal agent Kelly Bernardo:

Bernardo, in Portuguese: He was surprised as I approached him and as the authorities told him he was under arrest, he kept saying he was someone else, Michael Giroux.

Of course, his name was not Michael Giroux. It was Jesse James Hollywood. After four and half years on the run, he was finally under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Nick Markowitz.

Tough police will not talk about it publicly, sources close to the case say they were led to Jesse James Hollywood by listening in on phone calls with his father, Jack.  Jack Hollywood has not  been charged connection with the case. 

In the meantime, Marcia Reis was in stunned disbelief.   The caring, loving man she thought she knew was accused in a murder thousands of miles away.

As Hollywood was led away from the café, Marcia pleaded with the agents:

Reis: I told them, no, this is not possible, we have a child together!  This can’t be!”

It turns out, Reis was six months pregnant with Jesse James Hollywood’s baby.

According to Brazilian authorities, Hollywood told them after his capture that he had been advised to take a cue from train robber Ronnie Biggs to father a child to avoid deportation.  

But if it was a ploy, it didn’t work.  The law had changed, having entered Brazil on a false Canadian passport, Hollywood was extradited immediately.                           

Back in California, Susan Markowitz had finally gotten her wish.  She collapsed in tears.

Markowitz: I broke down.  I hadn’t cried in a long, long time. It was just so final. Of it being all over.  And then me thinking why did this have to happen in the first place? Like just why?

In April, 2005, Jesse James Hollywood was arraigned in Santa Barbara.  He pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and murder. But even though he was not the shooter, or even present for Nick Markowitz’s murder, he could face the death penalty. 

James Blatt, defense attorney: It’s clear that Mr. Hollywood was not the shooter, he was not present at the scene, so the key determination is whether he gave the instructions for this unfortunate murder.

Now , there are new twists and turns in the Jesse James Hollywood saga. One leads to a street in Rio de Janeiro, where another innocent life has entered the story.  Another leads to Hollywood, the place.

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