After twenty years, questions still remain in the killing of Anthony Dwain Lee….

Back in 1990 or so, Rhino Records presented a series of mid-century civil defense and police training films curated by Dr Demento at West LA’s Nuart theater. The police films in in particular were a hoot. Officers are depicted entering someone’s home for unspecified reasons. The Dragnet-style narration urges them to use their host’s hospitality to suss out plain-sight evidence of drug use. All the film really needed was to depict a pair of LA’s Finest stepping over a dead body, prone on the living room carpet with a knife in its back as they peer closely into the ashtrays, seeking out residual signs of marijuana use.

Foolishness that, along with the stop, drop & roll approach to a sudden nuclear detonation in your neighborhood, was as amusing as it was mildly horrifying.

Until a few decades later, when LAPD actually put it into practice, with deadly consequences.

All Hallow’s Eve 2000. Benedict Canyon. 9701 Yoakum Drive. A growing tradition — Halloween party at The Castle. The hosts, by all accounts well liked in the community. They offer guests valet parking to avoid traffic snarls, contact locals door-to-door to forewarn — providing hotel accommodations to those most effected by noise — promise an early witching hour and hire enough security to keep things…