The Fall of the House of Horsch Film | RC Horsch & His Son's The Early Years — Transcript
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- 0:02[music]
- 0:09>> This is Raymond Charles Horsch, better
- 0:12known as RC.
- 0:15He died in May of 2025 at the ripe old
- 0:19age of 82. He'd been to federal prison
- 0:22before,
- 0:24but when it came to the women who
- 0:25disappeared around him, he never faced
- 0:28charges. He got to grow old.
- 0:32Their families were still waiting for
- 0:34answers.
- 0:43But it's May 2025.
- 0:46Time keeps moving and Raymond's death
- 0:48has brought no conclusion for the family
- 0:51still waiting for answers.
- 0:53The house on West Chew Avenue, once
- 0:55filled with drugs, exploitation, and
- 0:58Raymond's so-called the horror art, was
- 1:01quiet now.
- 1:03The house remained, but the life that
- 1:05had filled it was gone. Its past [music]
- 1:08seemed to hang over it like a storm
- 1:10cloud. Now, I want you to meet Krista
- 1:13Killing.
- 1:14For decades, Krista was Raymond's muse.
- 1:18Many of the women who appeared in his
- 1:20films, his books, his art, never lived
- 1:24to see what came next. Krista outlived
- 1:27Raymond, but only by a few months. She
- 1:30appeared in the exploitative film or
- 1:35which presented the day-to-day life of a
- 1:37woman surviving through sex work and
- 1:40drug use.
- 1:41>> I think if I heard like there's some
- 1:43kind of bondage film, right? And I you
- 1:45know, we got wind of it through a
- 1:46debriefing. I think the first thing I
- 1:48would want to find out is if it if it's
- 1:50consensual, right? Because, you know,
- 1:52are people doing this because they're
- 1:54getting paid to do it, right? Or are
- 1:57they being coerced, right? Is it an
- 1:59underage population?
- 2:01>> She was also a central figure in his
- 2:03fictionalized book, Empathy. Now, in
- 2:06this book, Krista's character is
- 2:08strangled and disposed of like garbage.
- 2:12That was fiction.
- 2:13But, it's
- 2:15But, it cast a disturbing shadow over
- 2:17the real life that followed. After
- 2:20Raymond's death, Krista was living with
- 2:22the consequence of years of drug use.
- 2:25She lost a leg after using drugs
- 2:27reportedly contaminated with fentanyl
- 2:29and other substances.
- 2:31>> Sex worker population was a very
- 2:33vulnerable population because they were
- 2:35either misguided or this was their way
- 2:39of life not by choice, but because,
- 2:41again, they had to pay off uh their um,
- 2:44you know, entry into the country or to
- 2:46support themselves because they didn't
- 2:47have family members.
- 2:50>> She told a friend she was afraid of
- 2:52Eugene.
- 2:54And oh, yeah, that reminds me.
- 2:56There was Eugene, Raymond's adult son.
- 3:00According to the accounts from people
- 3:01around him, Eugene dealt drugs and
- 3:04possessed firearms despite being a
- 3:06convicted felon.
- 3:08Now, he didn't have any of his father's
- 3:11ability to draw people in.
- 3:13He was volatile.
- 3:15His presence would help bring the Horsch
- 3:17household to its end. This was the fall
- 3:20of the house of Horsch.
- 3:23Three days after Raymond died, Krista
- 3:25reportedly passed out with a lit
- 3:27cigarette still in her mouth.
- 3:29She woke to the house on fire.
- 3:32Smoke and flames billowed out of the
- 3:35upper floors of the Victorian home.
- 3:38Somehow, Krista made it out alive,
- 3:41but only for a few months later,
- 3:43she was found dead of an overdose.
- 3:47Eugene had her cremated, and he He
- 3:50supposedly distraught. Her ashes were
- 3:53placed in a jar and set on the mantle
- 3:55besides five other urns including his
- 3:58father's.
- 3:59The house had gone quiet.
- 4:02But the story wasn't over yet.
- 4:06>> On June 19th, 2026, this year, Eugene
- 4:10Horse, who's the son of Raymond Horse,
- 4:12was sitting at this fire hydrant. A
- 4:15police officer or park ranger had heard
- 4:18something that disturbed him, that
- 4:19caught his attention.
- 4:24>> Stop doing that.
- 4:26>> The woman had said something along the
- 4:28lines that she was afraid of Eugene. In
- 4:30the car, he had cattle prods. He had a
- 4:33couple handguns, pistols that had ground
- 4:35off serial numbers. And there was swords
- 4:38on their faces. The woman gives an ID
- 4:42and the name is Blair Tanzelli. However,
- 4:46Blair Tanzelli was a missing woman. And
- 4:48the missing woman can
- 4:50>> connected back to the house. If you do a
- 4:52background search today, her name comes
- 4:54up connected to the house that Eugene
- 4:56and Raymond shared.
- 4:58>> And another spot, if we walk down the
- 5:00road a little bit,
- 5:03he's sitting right across the street
- 5:05from George Washington's house.
- 5:08What remains of George Washington's
- 5:09house.
- 5:10>> It's bizarre, right?
- 5:11>> Yeah, it's crazy.
- 5:12>> Like so this guy, why wouldn't he think
- 5:14that he's untouchable, right? Tell me a
- 5:16little bit why why he would think that.
- 5:17>> I think that well, I think at this point
- 5:20his father was protecting him for so
- 5:22long or his father kept him in check. So
- 5:24his father passes away late 2025
- 5:27and now he's just sloppy. He's a
- 5:29disaster. I mean, I think he was
- 5:31diagnosed with schizophrenia as well as
- 5:33what I've I've read recently.
- 5:34>> It's Eugene you're talking
- 5:35>> Eugene. Yeah, so if you turn around, you
- 5:37can see the what remnants of George
- 5:40Washington's house.
- 5:42It's like a place that everybody goes to
- 5:44see cuz it's one of the main points in
- 5:47[music] Philly.
- 5:49There's a lot of activity. There is uh
- 5:51people around, tourists, people with
- 5:54kids. This is a nice part of
- 5:55Philadelphia. It's a beautiful area.
- 5:57It's not uh where you think you would be
- 5:59sitting to do these illicit activities.
- 6:01>> How do you split it?
- 6:03This is the spot.
- 6:08>> Among the illegal firearms, drugs, and
- 6:11cattle prod recovered from Eugene's car
- 6:14was something else.
- 6:15A counterfeit DEA badge complete with
- 6:19Eugene's photograph and a false name. On
- 6:23June 19th, 2026, Eugene Horche was
- 6:27arrested. But, what began as an
- 6:30encounter with a park ranger outside
- 6:33Independence Hall was about to become
- 6:35something much larger.
- 6:38>> We rely heavily on bad guys being
- 6:40stupid. We we love it. And you showing
- 6:42fake IDs is what basically [music]
- 6:45started this whole investigation. Who
- 6:47knows what he said to them. Who knows
- 6:49what the conversations they had when
- 6:51they were interrogating him, right? Um
- 6:54I guess they don't have enough to link
- 6:56him to the video, so it's still ongoing.
- 6:59I'm not 100% sure what his connection to
- 7:02that is, but like me and Joe believe
- 7:04that he has to have some knowledge.
- 7:07>> Investigators followed the evidence back
- 7:10to a 417 West Chew Avenue, the aging
- 7:14Philadelphia home Eugene had shared with
- 7:16his father, Raymond. Inside, they
- 7:19reportedly discovered another firearm, a
- 7:22marijuana grow operation, and a
- 7:25makeshift laboratory containing
- 7:28chemicals and containers filled with
- 7:30unidentified liquids.
- 7:32But, perhaps the strangest discovery was
- 7:35in the basement. A 55-gallon drum
- 7:39connected to the water lines that
- 7:41reportedly led to a hole in the ground.
- 7:45What was this equipment being used for?
- 7:47And what else had been happening inside
- 7:49that home?
- 7:51Investigators also recovered bank cards
- 7:53belonging to Blair Tonzel Lee, the
- 7:55missing woman whose name happened to
- 7:58appear on a counterfeit identification
- 8:00card at the scene of Eugene's arrest.
- 8:04But, there was no sign of Blair herself.
- 8:07And Blair wasn't the only woman
- 8:09investigators were looking for.
- 8:11Amy Mekhael, Raymond's former wife, had
- 8:14also disappeared years earlier. Her last
- 8:18known whereabouts were connected to this
- 8:20very address.
- 8:22Two missing women, one house, a father
- 8:25and son with decades of criminal history
- 8:27between them.
- 8:28By the end of June 2026,
- 8:31the investigators were making headlines
- 8:33throughout Philadelphia.
- 8:35But, the public had only begun to
- 8:37understand how far back this story
- 8:39actually went.
- 8:41Raymond Horsh, he was dead.
- 8:44Krista Kellen, the women who lived among
- 8:46him for years, dead, too.
- 8:49And now Eugene, Raymond's only son, was
- 8:52sitting in federal custody.
- 8:54Yet, the most important question
- 8:56remained unanswered.
- 8:58What happened to the woman who
- 9:00disappeared?
- 9:02What, if anything, could the evidence
- 9:04inside that house tell investigators
- 9:06about their fate?
- 9:08And how had one of Philadelphia's family
- 9:12become connected to [music] so many
- 9:14disturbing stories?
- 9:16To understand why investigators were now
- 9:18searching this particular home, we have
- 9:20to go back
- 9:22before Eugene's arrest, before the
- 9:24barrels, the chemicals, and the women
- 9:26who disappeared. Back to the man who
- 9:28spent much of his life constructing
- 9:30different identities for himself.
- 9:32A counterfeiter,
- 9:34a drug manufacturer,
- 9:36an artist, and for several years,
- 9:39an international fugitive.
- 9:42Because long before Raymond Horsh was
- 9:44making films about violence against
- 9:46vulnerable women,
- 9:47he was running from the FBI.
- 9:50And that story takes us thousands of
- 9:52miles from Philadelphia to a quiet town
- 9:55in New Zealand.
- 9:56The year,
- 9:581981.
- 10:00Raymond Horsh is living under another
- 10:01man's name.
- 10:03His son Eugene
- 10:05just entering the world. And the man
- 10:07authorities are searching for has
- 10:09convinced an entirely different country
- 10:12that he's somebody else.
- 10:16But to understand how we got there, we
- 10:18have to go back just a little further.
- 10:21>> Amy McRae was born in South Philadelphia
- 10:24in 1972.
- 10:26And before we get into the story of what
- 10:27happened to her, I think it's important
- 10:29to understand something.
- 10:31Amy didn't enter this world as a missing
- 10:33person. She wasn't born into the
- 10:36circumstances that would eventually
- 10:37bring her to Raymond Horsh's doorstep.
- 10:40She was a little girl growing up in
- 10:42Philadelphia.
- 10:43Her father struggled with drug addiction
- 10:46and alcoholism, and for much of her
- 10:47childhood, her mother was the one who
- 10:49raised her.
- 10:50According to the accounts of Amy's early
- 10:52life,
- 10:54>> Amy,
- 10:56are you okay?
- 11:00>> Her father's absence
- 11:02affected her deeply, and I think there's
- 11:04something particularly sad about that.
- 11:07Amy would eventually spend much of her
- 11:09adult life struggling with some of the
- 11:10same things that had taken her father
- 11:13away from her.
- 11:17By the time Amy was 14, she had begun
- 11:19experimenting with drugs. She reportedly
- 11:22tried PCP or angel dust.
- 11:25And what started as experimentation
- 11:27eventually became something far more
- 11:29serious.
- 11:31Around this time, Amy became involved
- 11:33with an older teenage boy who dealt
- 11:35drugs.
- 11:36At just 15 years old, she became
- 11:38pregnant. Her daughter, Amanda, was born
- 11:41while Amy was still a child herself.
- 11:44So, Amy had her daughter at 15. At that
- 11:46time, she stopped
- 11:47>> [music]
- 11:47>> attending high school.
- 11:49And in the late '90s, she met Ray Horsch
- 11:53in
- 11:54Kensington, Philadelphia.
- 11:56>> But wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We're
- 11:59in the '90s already?
- 12:01No. That's much too far ahead. Let's
- 12:04rewind. Philadelphia, the 1970s.
- 12:08And this is where things start getting
- 12:10weird.
- 12:18>> I I became a fugitive in '76. Actually,
- 12:21on my birthday, I I left and I was
- 12:23driving down to Florida and I pulled off
- 12:25the road. I took out my old
- 12:27identification and all that kind of
- 12:28stuff and had a little mock funeral
- 12:30burial ceremony by the side of the road.
- 12:33>> And you took on another identity from
- 12:34then on, did you?
- 12:35>> Yeah, one of many.
- 12:37>> By this point, Raymond Horsch had
- 12:39already lived what seemed like several
- 12:41different lives.
- 12:42>> [music]
- 12:42>> He had worked in children's television,
- 12:44including Sesame Street, spent time
- 12:47behind the camera for NFL films, and he
- 12:51directed his own pornographic films.
- 12:55His early work also supposedly had mafia
- 12:57funding and connections.
- 13:00>> Where did the money for the film come
- 13:01from?
- 13:01>> This Italian gentleman named Sam the
- 13:04Barber, who put up some extra money that
- 13:07he had laying around in a shoe box
- 13:09behind the bar. We're talking about
- 13:10organized crime. Everybody in the mafia
- 13:13either ran a bar or something like this
- 13:14or had, you know, had some kind of
- 13:16operation going. So, Sam ran a bar
- 13:19called the Baggage Nails which at 13th
- 13:21and Locust in Philadelphia. He put up
- 13:23the money for Mail Chauvinist Pig. He
- 13:25put up about 60-70% of the money and I
- 13:27put up the rest. I kind of borrowed it
- 13:29from the family.
- 13:30>> In the Archival Rialto Report interview,
- 13:34we have his definitive first-person
- 13:37account of his life. He discusses making
- 13:39the Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist
- 13:42Pig,
- 13:43which nets him a profit of $30,000.
- 13:46But, Raymond never seemed particularly
- 13:49interested in doing only one thing for
- 13:51very long. And he liked to describe
- 13:53himself as someone interested in the
- 13:56darker side of life.
- 13:57>> I came out of the theater wanting to be
- 14:00the villain.
- 14:02>> [laughter]
- 14:02>> I never wanted to be Tom Mix or Hopalong
- 14:05Cassidy or any of those. I mean, they
- 14:06were just like I just couldn't face the
- 14:08idea of like having to kiss my horse at
- 14:10the end of the show, you know.
- 14:12I just loved the Ming the Merciless
- 14:14character.
- 14:15>> So, what was it that attracted you to
- 14:17the the bad guys then?
- 14:19>> [laughter]
- 14:20>> I guess I was subliminally identified
- 14:23with uh
- 14:25>> [laughter]
- 14:25>> because I certainly became a villain
- 14:27later in life.
- 14:28>> Was this because you felt rejected from
- 14:29the mainstream in school?
- 14:31>> Yeah, but I think I did most of the
- 14:33rejecting. Whatever other kids were
- 14:35interested in, I was just totally did
- 14:37not interest me at all.
- 14:39>> How were you viewed by others?
- 14:41>> I would be described as a nonconformist,
- 14:44which was
- 14:46a pejorative term in those days. I never
- 14:48wanted to be like the other kids. In In
- 14:51other words, I never wanted to be part
- 14:53of any kind of in-group or anything like
- 14:55that. The group that I did identify with
- 14:58were all the misfits, the homosexuals,
- 15:01the artsy-craftsy crowd, and that sort
- 15:03of thing.
- 15:04>> He was constantly reinventing himself.
- 15:07Sometimes, those reinventions crossed
- 15:09well beyond the borders of the law.
- 15:13One of the more interesting incidents
- 15:15involves an organization called
- 15:16Wackenhut.
- 15:18It's founded by an ex-FBI agent. It was
- 15:21known to traffic drugs. It was made
- 15:23infamous by the work in the Reagan era
- 15:25Iran-Contra scandal.
- 15:28Raymond would claim to work for the
- 15:30organization on a job-to-job basis,
- 15:33where he could bug telephones. We'll get
- 15:35into this part of the story later, as
- 15:37it's one of the most misunderstood parts
- 15:40of Raymond's life, in my opinion.
- 15:41[snorts]
- 15:42>> Working for an outfit called Wackenhut,
- 15:44which was a brand new company at the
- 15:45time, a security firm staffed by FBI
- 15:49agents and that. And what I did for
- 15:51them, again, I was I was 21, I bugged
- 15:53telephones and committed burglaries for
- 15:56them.
- 15:58>> In 1974, the Secret Service busted
- 16:01Raymond for his involvement in an
- 16:02elaborate counterfeit operation in
- 16:05Pennsylvania. He served approximately 2
- 16:08years in prison. It's an exceptionally
- 16:10light sentence considering the offense.
- 16:13>> I rationalized making US currency
- 16:15because I figured, well, the government
- 16:17turns out worthless papers, why can't I?
- 16:19>> But, prison didn't seem to do much to
- 16:22discourage Raymond.
- 16:24And by 1977, he was in trouble again.
- 16:27This time, federal agents raided a
- 16:29methamphetamine manufacturing operation
- 16:32in Philadelphia, seizing equipment
- 16:34allegedly used to produce and distribute
- 16:37the drug.
- 16:39>> A jail with this feeling that, well, I
- 16:40just wasted 2 years of my life and I got
- 16:43to catch up. And my way of catching up
- 16:45was to involve myself in another
- 16:49technical area.
- 16:50>> Oh boy, what direction did this take?
- 16:52>> So, I had this little laboratory in
- 16:54Philadelphia, where I was playing around
- 16:56with the chemistry.
- 16:58>> And this is something you taught
- 16:59yourself as well, or did you have
- 17:00partners and
- 17:01>> No, no. I always pretty much have no one
- 17:03to blame but myself.
- 17:05>> [laughter]
- 17:06>> I I I have a strong background in
- 17:08chemistry, physics, and actually
- 17:10computer science, too. So, anyway, I was
- 17:13puttering around in the laboratory, and
- 17:14when all of a sudden, they arrested me.
- 17:17So, I got arrested for that and the
- 17:19trial date came up kind of quickly and I
- 17:22just did not want to go back to jail, so
- 17:25I became a fugitive.
- 17:28>> Raymond was facing another stretch
- 17:29behind bars and he apparently wasn't
- 17:32interested in going back. So,
- 17:35he did what any responsible criminal
- 17:37would do. He skipped bail. He adopted a
- 17:40new identity and he disappeared.
- 17:44Raymond wasn't just changing his name
- 17:46though. He was becoming someone else
- 17:47entirely. His new identity belonged to a
- 17:51real man, a chemist named Dr. Stanley
- 17:55Eugene Sokalski,
- 17:57who held a doctorate from Stanford
- 17:59University.
- 18:01And in 1980, Raymond and his long-time
- 18:03girlfriend Anna were married in Nevada
- 18:07under that assumed identity.
- 18:09Thousands of miles from the United
- 18:11States on the other side of the Pacific
- 18:13Ocean, Raymond had found himself a place
- 18:16where nobody knew who he really was.
- 18:21New Zealand. And in a quiet port city
- 18:23called Timaru, the fugitive would begin
- 18:26yet another chapter of his life.
- 18:28Only this time,
- 18:30he wasn't going to be living alone
- 18:32because in 1981, Raymond would become a
- 18:34father. His son was named Eugene
- 18:38would take the fake name of Sokalski,
- 18:41not the name of Hoersch.
- 18:43And you can easily imagine this changing
- 18:46of the names
- 18:47having a profound effect on a young
- 18:49Eugene.
- 18:51But for the next several years, this
- 18:53little boy would grow up in a world
- 18:55built around his father's greatest
- 18:57talent, convincing people he was
- 19:00somebody else.
- 19:02>> Hey Zach, wait a minute. You interrupted
- 19:04me right in the middle of Amy's story
- 19:06and took us all the way back to the
- 19:081970s
- 19:09and somehow ended up somewhere in New
- 19:11Zealand. And Raymond's off having the
- 19:13time of his life being a fugitive. But
- 19:15there's someone we're forgetting about
- 19:16here.
- 19:17Think we need to talk about Anna
- 19:19Prakunyak.
- 19:20Raymond's wife, or her friends called
- 19:22her Annie.
- 19:23This is Anna Prakunyak. Because of all
- 19:26of Raymond's stories about being a
- 19:27fugitive, the forged passports, the
- 19:30stolen identities, and the excitement of
- 19:32outsmarting the authorities, there was a
- 19:34woman living through all of this with
- 19:36him.
- 19:38And now there was a little boy. When
- 19:40Raymond spoke about Anna years later,
- 19:42something about his demeanor seemed to
- 19:43change. For a man who described himself
- 19:46as a sociopath, there appears to be a
- 19:48genuine affection when he remembered
- 19:51her.
- 19:52He credited Annie with holding their
- 19:54family together during some of the most
- 19:56chaotic years of his life. And she
- 19:59wasn't simply important to Raymond in
- 20:01his own recollections.
- 20:03A psychological evaluation conducted in
- 20:061985 described Anna as an important
- 20:08source of emotional support. The
- 20:10psychologist even believed she was
- 20:12having a positive stabilizing influence
- 20:15[music] in his life. But here's the
- 20:16thing.
- 20:17Most of what we know about Anna's life
- 20:19with Raymond comes from Raymond himself.
- 20:22And as we already discovered, Raymond
- 20:24could be a very unreliable narrator. We
- 20:27know how much he enjoyed being a
- 20:28fugitive.
- 20:30What we don't know is whether Anna
- 20:31shared that excitement.
- 20:33Or whether she was simply trying to make
- 20:35the best of the life they were living.
- 20:37Something about Anna I want you to
- 20:39remember. Because years after her death,
- 20:42as Raymond's work became increasingly
- 20:43dark, something about Anna seemed to
- 20:46remain.
- 20:47In his stories, in his artwork, and even
- 20:49in the women he chose to put in front of
- 20:51his camera.
- 20:52In fact, at least one woman who later
- 20:55appeared in his work recalled Raymond
- 20:56telling her that she reminded him of his
- 20:59deceased [clears throat] wife. Was
- 21:00Raymond trying to recapture something he
- 21:02lost? Or was there something darker
- 21:05going on?
- 21:06I don't think we can answer that. Not
- 21:08yet, anyway. But, take a look at Anna
- 21:11because we're going to come back to her.
- 21:14>> I guess we'd been together for 5 or 6
- 21:16years or something. We got married
- 21:18specifically because we needed a a
- 21:20marriage license to get into New
- 21:21Zealand.
- 21:22>> Raymond had made this stolen life
- 21:24remarkably convincing. Using credentials
- 21:28of the real chemist whose identity he
- 21:30assumed, Raymond managed to secure a
- 21:32well-paying job in an alternate fuels
- 21:35laboratory in New Zealand.
- 21:38But, by 1984,
- 21:40the deception was beginning to unravel.
- 21:43Authorities discovered that Raymond had
- 21:45been traveling under multiple forged
- 21:48passports, and rather than face the
- 21:50arrest, he did what Raymond seemed to
- 21:52enjoy doing most.
- 21:55He ran.
- 21:57Only this time, he left Anna and their
- 21:59young son behind. Raymond would later
- 22:02describe a moment of clarity, claiming
- 22:04he realized what this life was doing to
- 22:06his son.
- 22:07>> He was missing seeing his grandparents.
- 22:10His grandparents were missing seeing
- 22:11him. It's just not a good situation. So,
- 22:14I thought I would just go to prison for
- 22:15a little bit and resolve it. So, but,
- 22:18>> whether this was genuine remorse or
- 22:22another attempt at portraying himself
- 22:24favorably is difficult to say.
- 22:27The FBI eventually caught up with
- 22:29Raymond in Florida in 1985.
- 22:32He was sentenced to 4 years in federal
- 22:34prison, but released in 1987.
- 22:38Again, this was a very light sentence
- 22:40for what he was arrested for.
- 22:43He returned to Pennsylvania and reunited
- 22:45with his family. And, for a brief time,
- 22:48these things appeared almost normal, but
- 22:51that wouldn't last.
- 22:52Anna Ferkunach was arguably the great
- 22:55love of Raymond's life.
- 22:57For a man who described himself so
- 22:59passionately as a sociopath,
- 23:03there seemed to be genuine warmth when
- 23:04he spoke about her. Raymond credited
- 23:07Anna with holding their family together
- 23:10during those years on the run, and
- 23:12perhaps she did.
- 23:15But, in 1989, with the family now living
- 23:18in Northeast Philadelphia, Anna died
- 23:21from an accidental overdose involving
- 23:23codeine and another depressant.
- 23:26She was only 39 years old. Their
- 23:287-year-old son, Eugene, was in the room
- 23:32when she passed.
- 23:34And while Raymond spoke of Anna with
- 23:36affection, there was often
- 23:38and accompanied by something else that
- 23:41could be best described as bitterness.
- 23:43Raymond seemed almost offended that she
- 23:46had died and left him with Eugene to
- 23:49raise.
- 23:50There's an interesting contradiction
- 23:52here. The same man who spoke so fondly
- 23:55of Anna, who credited her with keeping
- 23:57the family together, seemed unable to
- 23:59recount her death without making himself
- 24:03part of that tragedy. Perhaps that was
- 24:05his way of expressing the grief, but I
- 24:08think more likely
- 24:10that Raymond simply had difficulty
- 24:12seeing the world through anyone else's
- 24:14eyes but his own.
- 24:16Now, whatever that answer was,
- 24:19Anna's death appears to have left a
- 24:21lasting impression on Raymond. And as
- 24:24his work became increasingly preoccupied
- 24:27with addiction, degradation, and death,
- 24:30it's worth
- 24:32it's worth asking how much of what he
- 24:33created was influenced by the loss of
- 24:35the woman he claimed to love.
- 24:38Following Anna's death, Raymond and
- 24:39Eugene moved into a three-bedroom house
- 24:42in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. At first,
- 24:44there was little to suggest what this
- 24:46house would eventually become. A father
- 24:49raising his son.
- 24:51Raymond tried his hand at the restaurant
- 24:52business. Eugene was attending school.
- 24:55But, Raymond's interest in adult
- 24:58filmmaking had never really disappeared.
- 25:01And over the years, his work would take
- 25:03an increasingly disturbing direction.
- 25:07Raymond began recruiting women from
- 25:09Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood,
- 25:12many of whom were struggling with
- 25:14addiction, to appear in his films and
- 25:16photography.
- 25:18His work blurred the line between
- 25:19pornography and what he considered art,
- 25:23simulated violence, bondage, and death.
- 25:28And increasingly, women whose real lives
- 25:30were far more complicated than the
- 25:32characters Raymond created for them. And
- 25:34then in 2003,
- 25:36Raymond released a film called Slaves.
- 25:39>> My name is Xyla.
- 25:41That's my real name.
- 25:43>> My name is Samantha.
- 25:44>> My name is Lorelei.
- 25:46>> My name is Maya.
- 25:47>> My name is Cecilia.
- 25:48>> My name is Ruth.
- 25:50>> I'm Rachel.
- 25:51>> I just turned [music] 20 last month.
- 25:53>> I'm a lifestyle submissive.
- 25:55>> I'm 18 years old.
- 25:56>> I'm 24.
- 25:57>> I see is my master, and I am his slave.
- 26:01>> It is reported that she it featured a
- 26:04woman named Krista Kellen.
- 26:06Krista would remain connected to Raymond
- 26:08for years to come.
- 26:10And there is another woman whose story
- 26:12we've already begun to tell, Amy Mekael.
- 26:16In 2004, Raymond and Amy were married in
- 26:19the backyard of the Shalfont house.
- 26:22It was a home that originally offered
- 26:25Raymond and Eugenie a fresh start
- 26:27following Anna's death. But by now, it
- 26:30had become closely intertwined with
- 26:32Raymond's filmmaking and the
- 26:34increasingly troubling world he was
- 26:36documenting.
- 26:38>> All right, so we're in a little bit of a
- 26:39sketch neighborhood here, but the the
- 26:41gist of this is this is the crematorium.
- 26:44That's [music] Liberty Crematorium.
- 26:46There were scandal involved with them.
- 26:49Uh what What have here is that Ray Horse
- 26:51was paid uh
- 26:53the guy that owns this in drugs so that
- 26:55he could film the dead bodies and we
- 26:57know of at least one of the dead bodies
- 26:59that ended up in the slaves
- 27:01>> [music]
- 27:01>> video film and that's because we see it
- 27:04on the trailer and he emulates or
- 27:06simulates that he had
- 27:09you know, [music] dead body. Gross as
- 27:11that sounds.
- 27:12Uh, end of the day this is associated
- 27:15with something Gonzo funeral may have to
- 27:20you know, come back [music] and pay the
- 27:21exact funeral but they were also selling
- 27:24body parts and there seems to be a lot
- 27:25of lawsuits going on.
- 27:27But
- 27:29generally speaking this is what we got
- 27:31as far as uh the
- 27:34location shots.
- 27:37>> For nearly 20 years the Shalfont
- 27:39property was part of Raymond's life.
- 27:42And then in 2009
- 27:44came another phone call to police.
- 27:52>> Please,
- 27:53there's someone in my house.
- 27:54>> [music]
- 27:55>> Hurry.
- 27:55>> Stay on the line, ma'am. A unit is
- 27:57close. Keep your voice down and stay
- 27:59where you are.
- 28:01>> A young woman inside the house reported
- 28:03that someone had broken in.
- 28:06Officers were dispatched to the
- 28:07property.
- 28:11They arrived expecting to investigate a
- 28:13possible burglary.
- 28:19But there was something else inside that
- 28:21house.
- 28:26Something that would bring Raymond
- 28:27Horse's carefully constructed world
- 28:29crashing down.
- 28:55>> Hey.
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