The Playboy Murders Season 2 Episode 1
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00:01In the early 2000s, Hef was dating multiple people at a time.
00:05He was getting a lot of attention for it,
00:07and his girlfriends were getting a lot of attention, too.
00:11For Sandy Bentley, living at the mansion
00:13as one of Hef's girlfriends,
00:14you get to be the center of attention.
00:16But there's also restrictions, too,
00:18and Sandy knew what the red line rules were.
00:23Sandy was under contract.
00:25She was to be with Hugh Hefner, no one else.
00:28It wasn't your typical run-of-the-mill,
00:30oh, I have a rich boyfriend thing.
00:32But it was very unusual.
00:34He did not care about Hugh Hefner.
00:37He didn't care about what Hugh Hefner did, thought, or said.
00:42All he was focused on and obsessed with was Sandy Bentley.
00:57Hefner's record for the two of them,
00:59and his parents were wrote on the other hand.
01:00This is to be the best of all he had on the other hand.
01:01He's going to love to be safe.
01:02The best of all he's got is that he is going to be safe.
01:03I'm not going to love him.
01:06He's not going to hang out with the others.
01:08You're going to be working as a city.
01:11Do not mention the other hand here in this place.
01:13He's going to be a man.
01:14It may be a man.
01:16This is his typical city.
01:17But it's not his favorite house.
01:19So in the first place,
01:20The opposite place is not his boss.
01:23It will be his voice.
01:24In the late 90s, Hef was in his 70s.
01:45He had just separated from his second wife, and he was looking to date again.
01:50He was going out to the hottest nightclubs in LA several times a week.
01:54That's where he first met the Bentley twins.
01:58The Bentley twins are Sandy and Mandy.
02:04Hugh Hefner's always had a thing for twins.
02:09And Sandy and Mandy were perfect twins for him.
02:15They posed for Playboy.
02:20And then he started a relationship with them.
02:23And in the early 2000s, they ended up being celebrities.
02:27Please welcome Hugh Hefner and his pals, the Bentley twins.
02:32Your sisters.
02:33Twins?
02:34Yeah.
02:35Yeah, yeah.
02:36My mom and her dad.
02:37They knew each other.
02:38They were on Sex and the City.
02:40They were on Two and a Half Men.
02:43There was one.
02:48And it was all through Hugh Hefner.
02:53The Bentley twins, Sandy and Mandy, grew up in Joliet, Illinois.
03:03They had a very strict Catholic upbringing, and they really weren't allowed to do many of the things that teenagers growing up were allowed to do.
03:11They weren't allowed to drink soda.
03:13They weren't allowed to have junk food.
03:15And most importantly, they weren't allowed to date boys or even really consider dating boys.
03:20Sandy absolutely loved her mom and had a great relationship.
03:24The big problem that she shared with me many times was about her dad, that he was an alcoholic.
03:30And, you know, it ripped out her heart that this was part of her life that she grew up with.
03:36The twins attended a Catholic high school and then went on to the College of St. Francis.
03:41And from there, Sandy moved on to the University of Las Vegas.
03:45And her age might have been 19, but she was very intelligent, very smart, very wise, very shrewd.
03:54She was very, very driven as far as getting her degree at UNLV because she wanted to work in the business arena.
04:05In 1997, I dated Sandy Bentley.
04:09I'm a championship tennis player, so I was on the court and Sandy Bentley is sitting in the benches right by center court.
04:19And I looked over several times during the match and I thought, oh my God, she's taken my breath away.
04:25She was from Joliet and she told me that right away. She told me about her identical twin, Mandy.
04:33They were so striking and gorgeous and beautiful that even though they weren't celebrities,
04:38when people saw them, they craned their heads. The guys, they craned their heads to see the twins.
04:44So I said to Sandy, have you ever thought about modeling? You're statuesque and you're beautiful.
04:50And she told me that celebrities, sports stars, entertainers, those were her biggest interests.
04:59Eventually, Mandy decides to visit her sister Sandy in Las Vegas.
05:02And the two of them then decided that they were going to take a road trip to Los Angeles, California, to the Garden of Eden.
05:13The Garden of Eden was one of the biggest night spots at the time.
05:16It was frequented by many, many celebrities. And it was really the place that you wanted to be if you wanted to be seen.
05:25All the celebrities, the beautiful people would go.
05:28It was really almost mythical.
05:35Hef used to go there and that's where he first met the Bentley twins in 1998.
05:41When Hef saw the twins from across the bar, he was just completely struck with their beauty.
05:45He really wanted to get to know them better.
05:47For somebody in their 70s, I would say Hef came across much younger.
05:51You don't see a lot of 70-somethings out at the nightclubs dancing and meeting new people.
05:58Hef starts to invite them to some of the parties at the Playboy Mansion.
06:05The very first party I went to at the Playboy Mansion was in August of 2000.
06:08It was a Midsummer Night's Dream party and Hef was still dating the Bentley twins at the time.
06:13And I remember seeing them and just thinking they were the best looking women I'd ever seen.
06:17They were really tall, thin, gorgeous, had perfect hair, had the prettiest costumes.
06:22I was just in awe. I thought they were so beautiful.
06:25To walk into your first mansion party, even though there's so many beautiful women,
06:29you definitely feel, you know, on display, the center of attention.
06:33It was the biggest, you know, most elaborate party I'd ever seen.
06:36There were celebrities everywhere.
06:39In LA, it was the place to be at the time. Everybody wanted to get a chance to go.
06:42After the twins got to experience a taste of this completely different lifestyle
06:49than the one that they grew up with, they started to think we could really get used to this.
06:53In 1998, both of them moved into the mansion and officially became Hef's girlfriends.
06:59My relationship ended with Sandy before she was at the Playboy Mansion.
07:05But knowing Sandy, when she has the invitation from Hugh Hefner, who's one of the most famous people
07:11in the entire world, it's a no-brainer decision that this young girl from Joliet is going to live
07:18at the Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner. I have no doubt that Sandy, as well as Mandy,
07:24made that decision instantly. Sandy and Mandy were really young, 22 years old.
07:30Mandy was a little more reserved and Sandy was more confident, assertive, business-like.
07:36She knew how to put herself together and just had a really bright future ahead of her.
07:39These are my girlfriends. Every one of them is your girlfriend?
07:44Yes. It was definitely a strange gimmick to be dating two twin sisters at the same time.
07:52I don't know how seriously people took that, but it was definitely controversial. It was definitely
07:57something that got a lot of attention. You must feel so special.
08:01You all have a great time together. We're all best friends.
08:05The early 2000s was kind of pop misogynistic. This is the height of the Howard Stern shock jock era.
08:11You had all these shows like The Man Show and things like that. And, you know, Hef's response to that
08:17was, look at me, I'm dating three women all at once. Two of them are identical twins. And that got him a lot of publicity.
08:24My name is Stacy Burke, and I was one of Hugh Hefner's seven girlfriends during the 2000 era.
08:31The Bentley twins were before the seven girlfriend thing. This started it. He was with them,
08:38with Sandy Mandy and Brandy Broderick, who was a playmate and Hugh Hefner's main girlfriend during
08:44the Bentley twin era. Living at the mansion is one of Hef's girlfriends. You get to order whatever
08:59you want to eat at any time of the day. You're living on this gorgeous property. But there's
09:03also restrictions too. There's a curfew. You know, you're not supposed to date anybody else.
09:07You're not really being allowed to do your own thing necessarily.
09:10When it came to what Hugh Hefner expected of his girlfriends, he had a lot of demands. He wanted
09:16all of his girls to always be ready in full hair and makeup. The Bentley twins got the thousand
09:23dollars a week. Plus, when you go out for special events, he has an allowance for outfits because he
09:30knows you have to get dressed up. You have to have the shoes. You got to have the hair. You got to have
09:33makeup. Basically, everything is taken care of for you and extra. If you wanted a boob job,
09:39you wanted a nose job. If anything you wanted was taken care of for you.
09:44He ended up putting the Bentley twins on the cover in the May 2000 issue of Playboy.
09:51Playmates are reserved for up and comers. Playboy wants to be, this is who we discovered.
09:57They're kind of like the debutante ball.
10:01The twins pictorial was really stunning. They were on these orange colored satin sheets. They were
10:07wearing pajamas that were supposed to look like Hef's pajamas. Like one of them had the top,
10:10one of them had the bottom. And it showed them like in the limo. It was supposed to give you kind
10:14of a feel for what would your night look like if you were dating these women. Like if you were
10:19Hef and you were dating these women. To be Hef's girlfriend, basically whatever Hef's schedule is
10:25your schedule. You're part of him. You're his shadow. You're his arm candy. You're expected to look a
10:31certain way when you're asked questions about the relationship you're expected to answer in a way
10:36that Hef would approve of and in a way that's only flattering to him. So you definitely have to keep
10:40an eye on everything you're doing. Even though Hef dates multiple women at once, all of his girlfriends
10:46were expected to be completely faithful to him. Not only was it a personal thing, but the concept of
10:51fidelity was really tied up into his public image as well. If you were seeing someone on the side,
10:57it's not good for his image because that's his image. Having this girlfriend at his side,
11:03being loyal. There was definitely a streak of possessiveness. The other side of moving into
11:08the mansion is it's a world of other things you don't think about like private investigators,
11:13curfews. You're being watched all the time whether you realize it or not.
11:17Sandy was driven like a magnet to men who had power. She absolutely was attracted to men with
11:32power. There's not even a question about it. I think one of the worst things you can do in a
11:38relationship with Hef from his standpoint is be seen with another man. And Sandy knew what the
11:45red line rules were. A lot of men, you know, whether it was like rock stars in the 80s or like,
11:51you know, young Wall Street guys in the 2000s, like they would look at Playboy magazine and pick
11:55people out and be like, I want to meet her. And if a woman wanted to meet a successful man posing in
12:00Playboy could definitely be an avenue to meeting those kind of men for sure. In the summer of 1999
12:08in Las Vegas, Sandy Bentley met Mark Yagala. Mark was incredibly successful. He was a high roller.
12:17He's buying homes for $1.2 million. He's got a fleet of cars, an oil company, a racehorse.
12:24Mark Yagala was in the late 90s. Best description I could give of him is an absolute runaway train.
12:34Mark was and is brilliant. In high school, he realized that he could make money in investing.
12:45When Mark was 20, he had hundreds of thousands, turning into millions of dollars. So what do you
12:52do? You go to Las Vegas. And that's what he did. He really could buy anything he wanted. It wasn't
13:01just materialistic things. It was access to the upper echelon women.
13:09Shortly after Mark and Sandy began dating and their relationship took off like a house on fire,
13:17he flew her by helicopter to a Bentley dealership and bought her a milk and honey Bentley.
13:24The American Express bill for one month that was over a million dollars. That's how much money he was
13:33spending on Sandy. Mark was spending a lot more money on Sandy than Hef was.
13:39The understanding was it had to be kept quiet. Sandy was dating Hef. Mark was never disillusioned and
13:47never thought that Sandy only liked him because of who he was. The largest part certainly was the
13:57money that he was spending on her. Mark Ugala was buying Sandy a million dollar house. He was buying
14:02her all these jewels. It was a lot. It was very unusual. It wasn't your typical run of the mill,
14:07oh I have a rich boyfriend thing. But also it's a bad look. Sandy was cheating on Hef. Mark did not
14:15care about Hugh Hefner. He didn't care about what Hugh Hefner did, thought or said. All Mark was focused
14:24on and obsessed with was Sandy Bentley. All was going well in the Mark and Sandy relationship. And one night
14:34out in Las Vegas at the Bellagio they ran into a friend of Hef's and his eyes almost popped out of
14:43his head when he looked down at this short well-dressed man Mark Ugala arm in arm with Sandy.
14:52There were some photos taken which Sandy got very upset about because
14:56she couldn't afford to have Hugh Hefner seen this photo. Even after I moved in I saw women get kicked out
15:04and not let back in the mansion. All their stuff was packed up and put out the back gate because
15:08they were caught out with another man. Hef when he found out was very not only hurt but pissed off,
15:16angry. In the fall of 2000 Sandy and Mandy Bentley ended their relationship with
15:21Hef and moved out of the Playboy Mansion.
15:23After Mark and Sandy's relationship was out in the open, Mark had the opportunity to have Sandy all to himself.
15:38She was amassing this beautiful jewelry collection of necklaces and rings and earrings. She even had a
15:45replica of the necklace from the movie Pretty Woman that was worth $250,000 and for all intents and
15:53purposes living with Mark Ugala in Vegas. In the summer of 2000 Mark was respected by people in
16:02not just the financial world but he was respected by celebrities just by virtue of who he was hanging out
16:11with and who was on his arm. Mark perfected this facade. But Mark's business became your classic Ponzi scheme.
16:23The bulk of it was going to fund his lifestyle.
16:29In October of 2000 that's when Mark ran out of money and it all became you know very clear it was a
16:37slam dunk case and so the cops arrested him as yellow Corvette and he was arraigned on federal
16:44securities fraud charges. Mark Ugala is sentenced to more than five years in prison
16:50and he also has to pay 30 million dollars back to his investors.
16:57To the surprise of no one as soon as Mark gets arrested Sandy drops him like a hot potato.
17:02After everything ended with Playboy and with Mark Ugala Sandy started spending more time with a man
17:09named Michael Tardio. Michael Tardio was 35 years old was a father of two and was separated from his wife.
17:18He raced motorcycles. He was part of the scene there in LA. Michael Tardio recently moved to Los Angeles
17:25from New York and he was working there as a part-time model as well as being a doorman at the Garden of Eaton club
17:33where he met Sandy Bentley. Somehow they hit it off. So Sandy and Michael kind of hook up. Sandy and Michael seemed to have a genuine connection.
17:44They were similar in age. They had shared interests. Nobody could point to this and say it was a transactional relationship.
17:50Sandy is still living in Las Vegas but Mark Ugala has been arrested.
17:56He's in a prison down in Florida and Sandy's back with Michael Tardio.
18:01Sandy was trying to put everything with Mark Ugala behind her but the SEC wasn't finished with her yet.
18:10In an effort to recoup some of the money that Mark has stolen from his investors,
18:14the SEC starts tracking where this money's gone. Every single thing that Mark bought for Sandy Bentley
18:25was with OPM, other people's money. Sandy didn't know that Mark was stealing this money to buy her things.
18:36In total it was estimated that Mark had spent about seven million dollars on Sandy. Once it was discovered
18:42that much of this money was actually spent on Sandy and her home and her vehicles,
18:47her expensive furs and her jewelry. Sandy was actually ordered to give all of that stuff back.
18:54We settled with her. She agreed to give back all the bill gotten gains. We went out to Vegas to
19:01retrieve these assets per an agreement with Sandy and her council. When we got there and she wasn't there,
19:07obviously that was not a good sign. The safe was locked. So we had to bring in
19:12a locksmith. As soon as the SEC was able to gain entry and access to the home and do an inventory
19:21of all the assets, they realized there is no way Sandy didn't abscond with at least some or all of this
19:34jewelry. Through counsel, Sandy claimed that some of the jewelry that Ugala had given her was stolen
19:41well before Mark was arrested. That was her story and she was sticking to it. And we weren't really
19:48in much of a position to find otherwise. But we kept looking, we kept digging and trying to connect
19:56Sandy with the stolen jewelry. And we were getting a lot of pressure from the SEC because these folks
20:01lost a lot of money. In 2001, after confronting Sandy about the stolen jewelry, the SEC is at a dead end.
20:09Sandy is living her life in LA and they cannot prove that Sandy has committed a crime. So the case goes cold.
20:25In 2002, the detective at LAPD reached out to me because he was dealing significantly with Sandy Bentley.
20:34That's when we first learned about the murders.
20:39When I heard Playboy Playmate was involved in this, it didn't strike me as anything unusual at the time.
20:48I didn't learn until later how deep that involvement went.
21:00My name's Tim Shaw. I worked for LAPD for approximately 34 years.
21:04This murder case was very unique and very different than any case I'd ever worked.
21:10This was a very layered case with many factors and many players in this investigation.
21:17I remember arriving to the scene at about 3.40 in the morning. I remember the scene being very,
21:31very dark. A black Mercedes SUV in a well-to-do neighborhood was found completely engulfed in flames.
21:39There were two bodies in the passenger seat of this Mercedes SUV.
21:52The coroner gets there and at that point they discovered the cause of death.
21:57Both victims had gunshot wounds to the back of the head.
22:00The whole thing may have been set up by thugs because coroner's office determined that whoever
22:07the shooter was, he was sitting in the back seat with the victims. And then set the car on fire.
22:16The victims were removed from the vehicle at scene.
22:21North Hollywood homicide detectives started their investigation trying to find out who these two
22:25people are and why they ended up dead. The two victims are Chris Monson and Sandy Bentley's boyfriend, Michael Tardio.
22:37Michael Tardio and Chris Monson were best friends. They raced motorcycles together. They were two
22:43well-off men in their 30s that seemed to be living respectable lives. They were close to their families.
22:50So the cops were trying to figure out who would want these guys dead.
22:55We ran the license plate number for the black Mercedes SUV. The vehicle was registered to a
23:02rental car company. We sent detectives to get information on who had rented the vehicle.
23:08It was a repeat customer, Michael Tardio, who had rented this Mercedes-Benz a couple of days earlier.
23:14Michael Tardio, we learned, was the doorman at a popular Hollywood nightclub, the Garden of Eden.
23:19Investigators go over to the Garden of Eden nightclub to ask questions.
23:39While investigators were interviewing people, famous playboy playmate Sandy Bentley showed up.
23:44Sandy identified herself as Michael Tardio's girlfriend.
23:53Sandy's really worried. She had made 20-some calls to Michael that morning.
24:02She hasn't heard from them. But it wasn't until she ran into the homicide detectives at
24:09Garden of Eden that she found out about Michael Tardio and Chris Monson being killed.
24:15I first heard about the murders from one of Hef's friends at the dinner table one night before
24:19Hef came downstairs. I was like, what now? I never heard Hef say a word about it. If any
24:25investigator ever spoke to him about it, I don't know. This was two years after Sandy and Mandy had
24:32left the mansion. I just know that Hef would have wanted to keep himself and playboy as far from the
24:37story as possible.
24:41They ask her, when's the last time you saw them? Sandy says that she had seen them the night before
24:48and that Michael had actually gone somewhere in Hollywood with Chris Monson.
24:52Sandy says that Michael told her, hey, if something happens, call this number.
25:05This is the guy Michael Jacobs.
25:09And that was all that she knew. She didn't know why they ended up dead.
25:14When she told them Michael Jacobs, the detectives take that name, go back to the station, run up to
25:25do a check on him. On September 27, 2002, we obtained Michael Jacobs' cell phone records.
25:34These cell phone records indicated that Michael Jacobs was in contact the night of the murder
25:40with Michael Tardio. We find Michael Jacobs at his residence and his girlfriend.
25:47Michael Jacobs voluntarily went back to the station and was interviewed by detectives,
25:52while I stayed at his house along with other detectives and interviewed his girlfriend.
26:03When the detectives talked to Michael Jacobs, he did say, oh yeah. I knew Michael Tardio and Chris
26:09Monsonot, but I don't know what happened to them. I was with my girlfriend. So the murder occurs in
26:15North Hollywood, which is on the east side of the valley. Michael lives over in Woodland Hills.
26:21Michael Jacobs says, I wasn't there. Well, why is your cell phone pinging off the tower that's right
26:29next to where the murder happened? His answer to that, the telephone company's wrong.
26:34But the phone stuff was so new at the time that detectives could not hold Michael Jacobs. They had
26:40to release him, but they put surveillance on him. And then once again, North Hollywood detectives
26:47go down to the Garden of Eden in Hollywood.
26:52On September 23, we interviewed one of Michael Tardio's co-workers, who said that in early 2001,
27:00Monson and Tardio had driven to Las Vegas and collected jewelry and furs worth approximately
27:06$500,000 from Sandra Bentley's house and drove back to Los Angeles in an Escalade. This was the first time
27:13I'd heard of the jewels and furs. Previously, Sandy had claimed that the jewelry that Udala had given her
27:20was stolen. But once Tardio and Monson were found killed, that explanation had no longer made sense.
27:27At this point in the investigation, it became very clear that Sandra Bentley is not being forthright
27:34and honest with us. So we started an investigation into Sandra Bentley.
27:47When we first got the case, the investigation at that point had showed that the jewelry was
27:51missing from the house in Las Vegas where Sandy lived with Marky Gala back in 2001, and that Michael
27:59Tardio and Chris Monson may have had that jewelry in Los Angeles.
28:06Before she left Las Vegas, Sandra Bentley had given testimony to the SEC that she didn't know
28:13anything about the jewelry. And now it's becoming clear that that jewelry was in
28:18fact in possession of Michael Tardio and Christopher Monson.
28:22We knew that Sandy was the most important person that we needed to speak to.
28:28Sandy's residence was in West Los Angeles, a nice house, really nice neighborhood.
28:33My partner and I went out to talk to Sandy, and she invited us in. She was all dressed up really nice.
28:40But we sat down and talked to her. We knew that she was holding back.
28:44It must have been really jarring to go from living at the mansion for two years where you're very,
28:49you know, controlled and sheltered to living the high life with Marky Gala.
28:53And then the next thing you know, you're in the middle of this big case, and maybe you don't have
28:57like the resources of the people to talk to. And all of a sudden, you know, you feel like you're in big
29:01trouble and don't know what to do next. She denied anything about the jewelry. She doesn't know anything
29:07about why Michael and Chris were killed. I mean, she was just stonewalling us.
29:12I personally thought there was so much jewelry stolen from the house in Las Vegas. She still
29:19had to have some in her house in Los Angeles. I just remember when I left there telling her that
29:25when you see me again, you may not like it.
29:27One of Detective Cox's first moves was to execute a search warrant on Sandy's property.
29:38We went to her house early in the morning. I was there. The district attorney had come with us,
29:45which they usually don't. FBI had come with us and the IRS. Search warrant was also served on Sandy's
29:53sister Mandy on the same day, because one, they're twin sisters. They stayed with Hef together at the
29:59same time at the mansion. We know that Sandy and Mandy were close, that they lived close together.
30:05Maybe Mandy is holding some of the jewelry. Evidence is really what we're looking for.
30:10The federal agents came and searched the twins' houses, which must have been absolutely terrifying.
30:15It became clear that Mandy didn't know really anything. So we released Mandy. But in Sandy's
30:25house, we found evidence. The Louis Vuitton bag. Sandy became my best friend that day, because murder
30:33is much more important than tax evasion. So we played the good guy and says, you know, we can take care
30:40of your IRS problem if you play with us. After that, Sandy told us the whole story.
30:49In her confession, Sandy admits to the police that she and Michael Tardio
30:53did steal the jewels from her old residence. But she says this all spawned because of the
30:58financial hardship that she was facing in the wake of the end of her relationship with Playboy
31:03and with Mark Yagala back in 2001.
31:12Sandy's really upset about losing this money, losing her home. And she speaks to her boyfriend,
31:18Michael Tardio.
31:20She calls him crying one night from Las Vegas, saying, I have to leave. They're kicking me out
31:26in the morning. I will have nothing. No money, no house to live in, no cars, nothing.
31:34They come up with the idea to steal some of those jewels and furs.
31:38Michael and Chris drive to Las Vegas. Chris stays in the car.
31:43Michael jumps the fence in the back, goes inside the house. He sees the jewelry that Sandy has there.
31:50And he goes, oh no, that's not enough. We need more.
31:58He takes the jewelry. Sandy also had four furs that were made for her. Her name is embroidered on
32:07the inside of the coats. They took that. They took some Louis Vuitton bags. But the big thing was the
32:14jewelry and the furs. Sandy and Michael were putting it in bags, which they were then throwing
32:20over the fence into the neighbor's yard where Chris Monson was waiting to collect these items.
32:25Sandy and Michael put all the stuff in the car. They drive back to L.A.
32:29When that relationship with Mark U. Gallup ended, Sandy needed money. And so did Michael Tardio. And
32:39they thought they were going to pretty quickly be able to sell that jewelry. But the idea of let's
32:44sell this stolen jewelry is a dangerous game. Michael took it to a jeweler there in Beverly Hills.
32:53He laid out all this jewelry. He gave a story like somebody had died and left this jewelry.
33:00The potential buyer ended up backing out after she started to think that this deal just looked too
33:04good to be true. After a year, Sandy and Michael were still holding on to the jewelry.
33:11Michael had been going to the Garden of Eden and looking for somebody to potentially buy these
33:14jewels or put them in contact with somebody who can help. Through these conversations,
33:19Michael Jacobs and Michael Tardio became acquainted with each other.
33:23Michael Jacobs tells Tardio, I got a buyer. I can set you up with a buyer.
33:29Sandy told Detective Cox that this person was somebody that was only going by the name of
33:34Mr. Big. When Michael Tardio knew he was going to go meet a buyer for his jewelry,
33:40he rented the Mercedes. And he wanted someone that he knew could cover his back in case
33:47something happened. So Chris, just being the good friend he is, said he would go with him.
33:52Sandy says on that day, Michael had gone out to get a money counter. That's how naive he was.
34:00He thinks he's going to collect, I don't know, maybe a quarter of a million dollars.
34:06And Mr. Big is going to give him a quarter of a million dollars cash. He even took counterfeit
34:10markers to check the bills. He had all the jewelry cleaned. He had all the furs cleaned. He picked it
34:18all up. He had it all in the rented Mercedes. He has Chris in the car with him. It was like nine
34:24o'clock at night. They go over to Sandy's house and they tell Sandy they were going to go. And they
34:30would make contact with each other through the telephone. The last contact Sandy had with them
34:36was they were driving through Mount Olympus area in the Hollywood Hills.
34:41Michael tells her that they are getting ready to go meet up with this buyer, Mr. Big. And that was
34:49the last she ever heard from him. Sandy said, you know, I never, I never even thought about them being
34:57killed. That was the last thing that I ever thought of. The jewelry is a concrete lead for police because
35:05you would think that the killer is trying to sell these jewels somehow. If the police can find the
35:13jewels, they might be able to find the killer. I found out from Sandy where Michael Tardio had the
35:19jewelry appraised back in early 2001. So we went to the jewelry store, which was in Beverly Hills.
35:26And woman at the jewelry store told us about how she had seen the Michael Tardio's appraisal slip.
35:32She wasn't involved in that jewelry stuff, but she had seen it. Then a month or so later,
35:38after Michael and Chris were killed, she was working. When this man comes in, the man shows an
35:45appraisal slip to the man behind the counter who doesn't know anything about it. But the girl had seen
35:52it. She recognized it as the same appraisal that Michael Tardio had brought in just the month before.
35:59Now Michael's dead. Who is this guy that's coming in a month after Michael with the same appraisal slip?
36:16If Sandy would have been more cooperative at the beginning and been more up front and honest with
36:20us, we probably would have gotten things done quicker. They still have Michael Jacobs on their radar.
36:27Maybe they can find some way to tie him to these murders. They get him, they take him to the station,
36:33and they start questioning him. As a detective, you're counting on him giving you something.
36:40Maybe when you talk to him, he may think, oh, you know, the gig is up. I got to talk. And Michael Jacobs was a complete wreck,
36:47because he knew that we were continually doing this case. So he knew it wasn't going away.
36:56According to Michael Jacobs, he was just going out to connect Michael Tardio and Mr. Big.
37:05On the night that this all happened, they're in Hollywood. They're both parked there on this side
37:11street waiting for Mr. Big. So when he saw Mr. Big's car come, he just says adios to Tardio and Monson and he leaves.
37:26We want to know who Michael Tardio was going to meet. Mr. Big, who is this guy? And Michael's going to
37:35tell us because we have him. We have him right where we want him. He wanted to tell us. I think
37:40he was kind of tired at this point of always thinking he was being followed or the case was
37:45still being investigated. He took us right to the point of where it looked like he was going to tell
37:49us something. But Michael Jacobs feared someone else more than he did the police. He let us down by not
37:57saying anything. And so we had to release him. We never were able to find out who the man was that came in
38:04to try to sell this jewelry.
38:09With so many loose ends, police are now forced to put together the last moments of Chris Monson
38:14and Michael Tardio as best as they can.
38:19I personally think that whenever Michael and Chris are driving up through the hills and they last have
38:24contact with Sandy, shortly after that, they pay to stop. And this is where they think they're going
38:30to make the deal. They let somebody in the backseat who they think is going to pay them the money or
38:37look at the goods or whatever it is. And that's not what happens.
38:46I mean, the thing with Michael and Chris, they had no street smarts.
38:50They had no street smarts. And when you get yourself involved in that, you're going to get hurt.
38:54We have no idea who Mr. Big is till to this day. Even Michael Jacobs says,
39:00I don't know who Mr. Big is. And Sandy didn't know. It's a cold case.
39:08This case has never been solved. You would think that the paper trail would have given somebody
39:13away. You would have thought that somebody trying to recover these jewels, that would have come out
39:20somehow. And it's surprising to me that whoever did this got away with it. It would be different
39:26if it happened now. But back in 2002, no. The jewelry may have been melted down and broken apart.
39:34There are some pieces that may be serialized. There still may be some hope for those pieces.
39:39But at this point, the jewelry has never been found. Meanwhile, Sandy and Mandy Bentley are
39:45doing their best to stay out of the spotlight. Sandy has decided to settle down. She started a family.
39:53The image the twins had when they were dating Hef, they just looked so gorgeous. And I know Hef spent
39:58a lot more money on them than he did with like girlfriends that came after. When I moved into the
40:03mansion, things were not as luxurious. And I think that is because he felt so burned by that.
40:09First relationship after his marriage that he was a lot more careful with his girlfriends moving forward.
40:19It's sad when you have a double homicide. You have families that are torn apart.
40:23There are loved ones that they'll never get to see again. And there are special occasions throughout
40:29life that they'll never be a part of. So it's still frustrating that that closure wasn't provided to the families.
40:36While this case has been considered a cold case for quite some time, investigators actually did decide
40:43to recently reopen the investigation into the deaths of Chris Monson and Michael Tardio.
40:48I know there's someone that's working on that cold case team. I think if anybody can help solve it,
40:54then she will do whatever she can. So I'm hoping.
41:07The Playboy Mansion is very mysterious. You're being watched all the time, whether you realize
41:15it or not. If you get the wrong set of eyes on you, it could lead to something really awful.
41:21I called it the Playboy Curse because once you were associated with that world, things went horribly wrong.
41:27When Hugh Hefner has a master plan for you, you do what he tells you to do.
41:31A beautiful woman, a murder of another woman. She was accused of something that she said she didn't do.
41:37She was supposed to be at Sharon Tate's home. The people who murdered her friends were out to get her.
41:43When a girl does Playboy, you never know who you're surrounded by.
41:47It's one of the most heinous cases that I've ever worked. This is an animal out there that did this.
41:53Stato-masochism, choking, bondage, snuff films. It's a really sick thing.
41:59We find a female subject lying.