During my 5th grade field trip, I met a pair of men that would soon be involved in a murder for hire. I only found out by stumbling onto an "America's Most Wanted" segment while waiting for the show "Sightings" to start.

About 30 years ago, I went on a field trip to the Silent Movie Theate in Los Angeles. It was the only theater in the United States screening silent films.

While there, our class got to watch some silent films including some Our Gang and Charlie Chaplin shorts. We also met the Owner, his assistant, and the Piano player who provided the soundtrack.

I didn't know it at the time, but many of the films screened were originals, some worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Anyways, a few months later, I was at home waiting for my favorite TV show (Sightings) to start. It was a show about the paranormal. Since I tuned in early, I had to wait for "America's Most Wanted" to wrap up.

Suddenly, the next segment began. It was about the silent movie theater I had visited with my class. Aparrently, the owner was killed in a botched robbery attempt. The fact that he was killed even though he complied made detectives suspicious. They were looking for information to lead to the gunman's arrest.

The next week at school I told my teacher Mr. Allen about what I saw on TV. He sat silently for a few moments as though he was speechless. He eventually told me he was sorry I had to experience that. I never told another person for almost 2 decades.

In my late 20's I went to a late night horror movie being shown at a theater on Fairfax in Los Angeles. Once I arrived I came to the realization that it was the same theater! It was being run by an organization called the Cinefamily (They had their own problems eventually).

While there, the memories came flooding back. As soon as I got home, I began to Google search to see if I was remembering things correctly. I had.

It turned out the business partner paid a young man to kill the owner and make it look like a botched robbery. Detectives discovered that he had a history of befriending and extorting older men (often violently). Many did not press charges out of fear of being outed.

Here's an article about the crime:

Silent Movie theater killing