Serial Killer Realizes He's Been Caught 45 Years Later

This man is 74-year-old John Arthur Getrue, an elderly homeowner in Hayward, California.

What he doesn't know is that he's speaking with an undercover officer closing in on a decades-old secret, and things are about to take an unexpected turn.

Um, I was turning around in your driveway and I accidentally hit your car.

Which one?

The one parked in the driveway.

Um, do you want to maybe take a look to see if we should exchange insurance information?

Yeah, take a peek.

Oh man, I'm so sorry.

So embarrassing.

Go ahead, you can't be on your back.

Face the clock.

Go ahead and face the clock.

Alright, watch this.

Watch anybody else in the house?

No, my wife's at work.

Deputies give John a routine pat down before he's led to the front seat of a police vehicle.

You want to rest on that seat?

You're going to close the door, make sure the dogs?

Yes.

We'll take care of your dogs.

Okay.

Though he hasn't been told why he's been arrested, John applauds the deputies for the ruse.

Good line for coming out of the house, get you that guy out of the house.

Months earlier, cold case investigators in Santa Clara County reopened a murder case that had remained unsolved for 45 years.

DNA from the crime scene was compared to a public database, allowing investigators to trace a family tree and identify John, a husband, father, and former Boy Scout leader as the primary suspect.

Investigators bring him in for questioning, hoping to uncover the truth.

Is this devoted husband and father simply the wrong man?

Or has his carefully lived life been a cover for something far more sinister?

The following is based on official police records, and most of the footage has never been seen before.

So I'm Sergeant Cortez, okay?

I'll let you know what's going on and why you're here today.

Yeah, I'd like to know.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, of course.

Before I let you know what's going on, I just want to get your personal information.

Yeah.

Just confirm your name.

Your full name is John Arthur... Getru.

Getru?

G-E-T-R-E-U.

Okay.

Were you ever in the military?

No.

No?

Have you ever been arrested in the past?

No.

John shares basic information about his past and childhood, revealing that he was born in Newark, Ohio, and spent the early years of his life moving frequently due to his father's long military career.

He spent a significant part of his teen years in West Germany, where his family lived on a U.S. military base.

Now, you mentioned that he had never been arrested, and I found out that something happened in Germany.

I was arrested in Germany.

Okay, what happened with that?

Can you tell me about that?

I was accused of murder.

The revelation is especially jarring given that he's here today on accusations of his involvement in a completely separate murder.

Tell me about what happened.

What was the accusation against you?

I killed a

Chaplains are not chaplains.

Yeah, a chaplain's a daughter.

That was all I knew.

Okay.

Do you remember what happened with this young female?

No.

I didn't even know her.

The young girl, 15-year-old Margaret Williams, attended a dance at an American youth club one Saturday night in 1963, when John was just 18 years old.

The two were said to have met on the street shortly after, where she agreed to let him walk her home.

Her body was discovered the next day on a baseball diamond behind the club.

She'd been sexually assaulted and strangled.

You didn't even know her?

Why did they arrest you?

Probably the next day.

After they found the body, I guess.

How did they tie you to this body?

How did they connect you to this body?

Somebody had seen me walk that direction or walk towards the school.

It was an elementary school.

I don't know the details of what happened.

I don't know the details either.

Did you actually meet this young lady?

That's what they say.

Though John maintains his innocence, he was found guilty at trial for Margaret's murder, ultimately receiving a sentence of 10 years in a German juvenile prison.

Because of his age at the time, he was released after serving roughly two-thirds of his sentence.

Then he walked free.

And so you spent actually six years in prison?

Something like that.

Wow.

And then how...

After you were released, what happened?

I just was dropped off at McGuire Air Force Base and my father picked me up and that was it.

That was it?

You came back to the United States?

Never heard a word from him.

Nothing.

OK. After returning to the United States, John moved to California and in 1975 was once again at the center of a serious crime.

And then at some point,

There was another accusation against you about a sexual assault from the Palo Alto Police Department?

Yeah, Palo Alto Police Department.

Okay.

That's when I was the leader of an explorer post.

Okay.

Can you tell me about what happened there?

Nothing.

Okay.

You know, I was accused, interviewed, and that was it.

Okay.

What's this allegation?

I've got to ask you.

Yeah.

You know.

This allegation that this young girl made against you that you sexually assaulted her, did that actually happen?

No, not that I know of.

And if I was arrested for specifically that and then not even tried and then nothing happened like I told them, nothing happened.

I never saw her again, you know.

Did you end up serving time for that?

Do you remember?

No, it didn't serve any time that I know of.

Okay.

I can't, you know.

It was so piddly that...

It didn't go to trial or anything like that?

Okay.

According to multiple news sources, John was 31 years old when the teenager came forward, claiming he not only assaulted and strangled her, but threatened to kill her if she didn't comply.

He received a six-month sentence, serving just 30 days on weekends after five were suspended.

So I want to tell you a little bit about my investigation, okay?

Are you familiar with the Palo Alto area, Stanford area, the hills in Stanford?

Yeah.

You ever go out there?

I was a scout leader.

I traveled all those hills.

What hills?

Which hills are you talking about?

Well, we were way out in the...

Half Moon Bay Hills.

Okay.

And I traveled up through there, hiked with the boys.

Did you ever go in the hills, like in the area around Page Mill Road?

Page Mill Road, like just west of Stamford?

No.

No, you never went to that area?

No.

Okay.

So I'm investigating, there's a murder up there in the hills.

And would there be any reason that you were ever up in those hills?

No?

No.

Leslie Marie Perlov was a 21-year-old Stanford University graduate working as a law clerk at the North County Law Library in Palo Alto, California in 1973.

Her body was found dumped in the Stanford Dish hiking area.

A floral scarf was found tightly knotted around her neck and had been used as a ligature to strangle her to death.

It was DNA found beneath her fingernails that led them to John, who at the time worked near the Stanford campus as a security guard.

Do you ever see this young lady?

Do you know her?

No, who's that?

It's a young lady that an investigation on doing and she was murdered.

Do you ever see her at all?

No.

Does she look familiar?

Leslie's 1972 orange Chevrolet Nova was found parked at the gate of an old quarry near Old Page Mill Road, just east of where her body was found.

Do you remember ever stopping by the side of the road and looking into this vehicle?

No.

It's an orange Chevy Nova.

No.

No?

No, sir.

Okay.

Do you know the name Leslie Perlov?

Leslie Perlov?

No.

No?

Okay.

She wasn't a girlfriend of yours?

Oh, no.

Okay.

I had to ask.

She's cute anyway.

Yeah.

She'd be about 18 years old, I guess.

Okay.

At Stanford.

Stanford graduate, yeah.

But that's it.

I don't even recognize her.

Curiously, the sergeant hasn't shared with John that Leslie was a Stanford graduate.

Why do you say she's a Stanford graduate?

Well, just by the way she dresses and all in this area, you know.

Sure.

But, you know, I didn't say graduate either.

I said, you know, she's a college kid.

Oh, okay.

Now this young lady was obviously murdered, like I said.

She was strangled.

Would you ever think about doing anything like that?

Nope.

I know that you were accused of a sexual assault, right?

Would you ever think about committing a sexual assault?

I have no reason for it.

And I'm going to ask you these tough questions because it's part of the investigation.

When you were younger, did you ever fantasize about sexual assault?

That's what it sounds like by looking at my records.

Yeah, yeah.

Or killing a young woman?

Okay.

No.

In this investigation, if your DNA was on this young lady, why would you think your DNA was on her?

I haven't the slightest idea.

Were you involved in the murder of this young girl?

Nope.

As the sergeant continues to press for answers, John inches closer to a major mistake, not yet aware of what he's about to give away.

You kind of, you know about DNA and how it's transferred, right?

Yeah.

How it's transferred, I can always tell.

Okay, tell me about that.

One is semen.

Okay.

One is...

from the mouth sure you know yeah that's the only two that i know of okay now if there's some that are bodily i mean other than these two uh transferred then it's totally different and you know about technology now uh advanced technology is getting good yeah so they're catching them every day how do you think your dna would be on a person don't know you don't know

Okay.

Especially this person or these two persons.

What two persons?

Well, the two you're talking about.

Yeah.

The two young women.

Okay.

I showed you a picture of that one young lady.

Yeah.

No.

Okay.

What's the second young lady?

The one up on the hill.

Okay.

Yeah.

There's two different places you're talking about.

Okay.

One of them's up on the hill?

Yeah.

Okay.

And then up on what hill?

Well, you mentioned the hill.

You mentioned it too.

I mentioned the hills.

Yeah.

Okay.

And what's the other one?

Because I don't remember another one.

Well, there's the two girls.

It's not both the same place.

Okay.

I mentioned one girl up in the hill.

Yeah, I mean, okay, wherever she was, wherever the second girl was.

Okay.

While the sergeant doesn't yet know it, another woman was found in the Palo Alto area in 1974, one year after Leslie's body was discovered.

21-year-old Janet Taylor was found dumped along Sand Hill Road in the same Stanford Dish hiking area.

According to new sources, she'd also been assaulted and strangled to death.

The serial killer responsible for the deaths of both Leslie and Janet would escape justice for decades, until now.

I think I'm at a point in my investigation that, you know.

I'm guilty and that's it.

Well, I'm trying, you know.

Well, there's a couple things, John.

Your DNA's on her.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm not trying to find out who did it.

What I'm trying to find out is why you did it.

And I think you know more than you're telling me.

I wish I knew.

With John refusing to admit the truth, another investigator joins in the effort to obtain a confession and the added pressure will soon tear his lies even further apart.

It's not an accident that your DNA got there.

Your DNA and the type of DNA and where it is on the victim, there's no other explanation.

You committed this crime.

We know you committed this crime, okay?

What we don't know is why.

And we're going to give you the opportunity to explain it to us.

You don't have to.

I thought about it.

That's all I can think of.

No.

No what?

No, I'm not guilty.

Okay.

Well, I'm telling you right now you are.

Okay, fine.

Okay?

You had to have known this day was coming.

Yeah, I know that, why it took so damn long.

As they push harder for the truth about Leslie, John once again lets slip that she wasn't the only one he left in the hills.

So why her?

I don't even know who she is.

If that's the first girl or the one girl that's up on the hill or whatever, you know.

What do you mean the first girl?

Well, he said there's two people, there's two girls.

And that's a misunderstanding.

They were killed within probably an hour of each other and two hours of each other or a day or who knows.

Do you remember?

How do you remember those details?

Some of the questions he's asked me.

Do you remember seeing any newspaper articles or media about those?

Nobody, but that girl there is not the other one that he showed me.

If that's the girl there with the other picture, I doubt it.

Why's that?

I mean, look at the body.

It could be somebody else.

I don't think they're the same one.

Is that why you don't recognize her?

No.

Because that's not the girl that you killed?

I'm not questioning.

I don't recognize her.

I've never seen her.

Do you think it was a different girl that you killed and that's not the one we're showing you?

I didn't kill any girl.

You didn't kill the girl in Germany?

No.

Well, that's totally different.

That's when I was 18 years old or younger.

In a final confrontation, investigators forced John to face the mounting evidence against him.

There's a situation in Germany where a girl ends up dead and you weren't there.

And we have a situation here that was years later after you came back to the States where a girl ends up dead and you say you weren't there, yet your DNA is there.

What do you think the chances are of that happening?

I don't know.

What would you do if you were us and you were investigating this case?

What would that look like to you?

There's a brick wall.

What do you mean there's a brick wall?

Well, I mean, you found out.

You couldn't find out.

What do you mean I found out and I couldn't find out?

Oh, nothing.

I'm just letting it go.

Well, you understand it's my job not to let things like that go, right?

I have nothing else to say about it.

It's got to be quite a burden, John.

Well, I'm going to put the questioning from here on unless I'm represented by somebody in the courts.

What do you mean?

A lawyer.

Okay.

Thanks, John.

After requesting a lawyer, the interrogation came to an end.

But justice quickly caught up with 74-year-old John Arthur Getrue, who was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail with a $10 million bond.

In January 2019, DNA from the torn crotch of Janet Taylor's underwear was also determined to be a match for John.

In September 2021, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with infliction of great bodily injury in the killing of 21-year-old Janet Taylor.

He was sentenced to seven years to life in prison, finally putting a serial killer who had escaped justice for decades behind bars for good.

In January 2023, he pleaded guilty to the murder of Leslie Perloff and received a second life sentence to be served consecutive with the first.

According to multiple news sources, John Getrue died of natural causes on September 22, 2023, at the age of 79.

His DNA remains in the state database and will continue to be compared against evidence from unsolved murders in the ongoing effort to close more cases.

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