The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle (2026) s01e04 Episode Script

WILLIAM: Well. Home sweet home.
This is my new, new, new house.
First house I've had since,
since I don't know when.
I like the paneling.
Almost like a log cabin.
FURMAN: I'm glad you're here.
I thought the next time
I'd see it would be
at the Pearly gates
if I made it up there.
(LAUGHS)
You know, the old Irish toast.
When it's time, may you be dead.
And in the gates of heaven,
a half hour before
the devil finds you're gone.
(LAUGHS)
ERIC: Chico.
It's Eric and Shannon Evangelista.
-How are you?
-SHANNON: Hi, Chico.
We wanted to know if you were game
to meet up with us in Lafayette.
ERIC: Oh!
What do you mean by--
Why wouldn't it be?
What do you mean?
ERIC: Why is she scared?
This..
WILLIAM: This is my knives.
This is an old Chicago knife.
The forged tang. Full tang.
This is actually a cheap
version of the meat cleaver.
Do you think he's capable
of doing that?
Uh, boning.
Is there something you're not
telling us that we should know?
LT. JOHN: My name is Jonathan Eager.
I'm a lieutenant with
the West Lafayette Police Department.
Lafayette does have a lot
of cold cases happening.
Late '70s into the '80s.
I first got involved in
the William Powell case back in 2015.
And I just think that
there's more to this story.
Oh, wow.
This is the entire
Kozik file, right?
Yeah.
KEN: We are you starting
to take a close look,
at all the unsolved homicides
in the Lafayette area?
One of them was Kristine Kozik.
LT. JOHN: There she is.
SHANNON: Kristine Kozik
was a Purdue student
who was murdered in May of 1977.
George Keck and William Powell
were both janitors at Purdue.
Kristine Kozik went missing
from Purdue.
She had gone out with some friends.
She went to a place
called The Caboose.
She had some drinks.
The strangest part is her last
words to her friend was she said,
"Isn't it kind of strange
that you say, see you tomorrow
when you know you're not going to."
Is this the area where it happened?
LT. JOHN: This is going
to be the area
because that's where
Creek right there.
SHANNON: Kristine's body
was found in Wea Creek,
a wooded area that was
just two miles from the bar.
Oh, yeah. So that's George Keck.
George Keck was the prime
suspect in the homicide.
He's also a sex offender.
He had had a lot of
crimes against women.
According to his ex-wife, Keck
was extremely violent and abusive.
According to his wife's testimony to
the police, George had come home.
He was covered in blood.
He had defensive wounds
all up and down his arms,
scratch marks, bloody arms.
And this was the exact night,
that Kristine Kozik went
missing from Purdue.
SHANNON: George Keck was
brought in for questioning.
He failed a lie detector test,
and he ends up completely getting off
because of spousal privilege.
His wife had made all those
statements to the police,
but she refused to testify
before the grand jury.
And because of that,
George was let go.
So we learned today that Bill Powell
and Chico hung out with George Keck.
His ex-wife said that the three
of them used to work for (BLEEP).
SHANNON: Armed with this crazy
information from his ex-wife,
we're going to go back
and talk to Keck again.
ERIC: Hi. I'm Eric.
-Is George around?
-MAN 1: Yeah.
-Uh, just a second, buddy.
-Okay.
Hey, man,
you want to go in the car?
ERIC: Okay.
You know Bill Powell, right?
I wrote down some
questions I wanted to ask you.
Do you mind if I call my wife?
ERIC: Shannon.
I'm in the car with George Keck.
This is my wife, Shannon.
(LAUGHS)
What about Powell?
What (BLEEP) was he in?
What about Chico?
Was he in on that, too?
So, why did Powell and Chico leave?
Were they, like,
involved in something?
ERIC: Well, why can't you say?
Like, what did he know?
ERIC: That Powell killed?
They also found the body
unidentified in Murdock Park.
Is it somebody who's dangerous?
Who is it that everybody's scared of?
Can you at least tell me that?
Is it Powell?
I'm not afraid of Powell.
I should be?
George Keck, a suspect
in a homicide said,
that I had to be concerned for
my own safety around William Powell.
Benjaman Kyle.
NARRATOR: I'm going to
reach out to the crime boss's
former relative again.
She's the only person besides
Chico and Keck
who can tell us why Powell
fled Lafayette in 1976.
Hello.
KEN: Hey, it's Ken.
How are you doing?
Hey, Ken.
I have to tell you something.
SHANNON: George Keck
was a prime suspect
in the murder of Kristine Kozik.
But right now, George Keck is the
only reliable source of information
about Benjaman or William Powell.
I had to earn the trust
of George Keck in order to get
to a place where he
would be honest with me
about the illegal stuff
he did with Benjaman.
We're going to go talk to Keck.
And if he murders me,
I'm going to be at the morgue
with the shirt that has
coffee stains all over it.
And I'm going to be
standing over you and say,
I told you so. I should have
gone up there to the door with you.
SHANNON: The last time
we talked to Keck,
when I dialed in on the phone,
Keck really opened up to me.
SHANNON: Because of my background
as a criminal defense attorney,
I really learned how to make
people feel comfortable,
talking to me about anything.
-Yeah? Right.
-Yeah.
I'm (BLEEP) nervous.
This is fun,
just knocking on the door of
the crime suspect in
the Kristine Kozik murder.
George?
Hi.
I didn't have your number.
I wanted to
-I wanted to chat with you.
-(DOG BARKING)
I found out some
new stuff about Powell.
Remember me?
We talked on the phone.
Eric's my husband.
Eric, remember?
Okay. And you remember
Bill Powell?
You had said that he left
because he did something illegal.
And you gotta tell me what it was.
You know, you were friends with him.
You gotta help me out, George.
You gotta.
What did Bill Powell tell you?
You're his friend.
You guys are going around,
you're doing burglaries together.
You're doing stuff you can't get
in trouble for that anymore.
Statute of limitations is gone.
Who was after him?
So fast forward
to the night that Bill
and Chico just take off.
What? Why?
But listen.
If that was all, okay,
then Bill wouldn't
be scared to talk now,
because statute of limitations
has run on everything but murder.
And this guy has,
like, changed his name,
and he's gone to a lot of trouble.
So tell me why?
There has to be more.
There has to be a murder here.
I've also been poking around.
There's some things that
I've heard through the rumor mill.
This is like a super
uncomfortable question,
but I have to ask you.
You know that Bill
was a janitor at Purdue.
Okay? You know, he was back in town,
like, almost immediately after
he left in '76 he came back here.
Kristine Kosik, that homicide,
her car was found
right by his house.
Did he have something
to do with that?
They did?
What did you know?
Okay.
Was it Bill?
Okay. Go ahead.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
And died by accident.
Come on.
You gotta tell me who it is.
Well, then tell me his name.
Let me just say this.
Bob?
Last name?
(BLEEP)
No.
(LAUGHTER)
When he reached out
and grabbed me on my shoulder,
I just found myself
barely able to breathe.
I had no idea what
was going to happen.
I want to know.
I want to know
who this Chicago family is.
All right, listen,
hold on one second.
I got it. My dad's in the car.
I just want to tell him
everything's okay.
I'll be right back.
Okay? Don't leave.
All right.
Going to see George Keck was
terrifying,
so I did not sit next to him.
I said,
no, I won't sit next to you.
I'm okay.
This is my dad.
He knows a little bit about Bill.
I was telling him, like this
stuff that I had found out.
Do you know what
Powell really did at (BLEEP)?
What did they call Powell?
Yep.
(LAUGHTER)
That's right.
KEN: What, did he ever hurt anybody?
SHANNON: Was Powell going
to Chicago a lot?
What for?
George Keck informed us
that Powell had
some kind of hit list
that he kept with him,
and that Powell was involved
in shooting someone,
and that was one of the primary
reasons why he left Lafayette.
SHANNON: Definitely going
to have a nightmare tonight.
George Keck, he actually
confessed intimate details,
of a murder he had
firsthand knowledge of.
Kristine Kozik.
I have done so much
to find out and solve
the mystery of Benjaman Kyle.
But basically,
when Keck gets arrested as a suspect
in the murder for Kristine Kozik,
he'll know we basically
sold him out to the police.
So in one single moment,
I lose the only reliable source
of information about Benjaman.
But you know what?
She lost her life.
There's no turning back.
ERIC: Hey.
SHANNON: Hey.
They also found the body
unidentified in Murdock Park.
SHANNON: I know it's go time
now with George Keck.
Now, we're going to take
what we found out
and we're going to share it
with Lieutenant Eager.
We went to see George Keck because,
it was my intention
to get more information
about Benjaman and Chico
and why they left that night.
And in the course of talking to him,
I ended up asking him about Kozik,
what happened to her.
And I don't know if it's because
I just wanted to see him squirm.
I don't know,
but I just asked the question,
"Did Bill have something
to do with that?"
And at first he kind of
was like, "Ah, I don't know,
I don't know."
And then he just launches
into this story about
how his friend did it.
And I'll let you watch the footage.
-You hit play?
-Mhm.
Kristine Kozik, that homicide.
So if I'm going to relay a story
to you and confess to you,
I just find it hard
to believe after 40 some years
that you're going to remember
that you bought a bottle
of sloe gin to go.
Guys, don't talk like that.
Guys don't share details like that.
Oh, it gets better. Yeah.
Then he got out and walked
around the front of the car
to where she was standing on
the other side of the car
right at the front end of the car.
So he says he went around to her side
of the car and he does
with his left hand.
What does that mean when he
when he motions with his left hand?
She was standing on
the other side of the car.
Cognitive recall. I mean,
you're picturing what happened when
he's playing that back in his mind.
-He must be
-It's a clue.
He's like seeing it in his head
-and that's why
-I mean, that would be my
interpretation that he that that that
that is he's recalling a memory.
I mean, that's very interesting.
I was, I was trying to goad him,
and I was like,
"Oh, that's a bold move." It felt
like he was almost like enjoying
the idea of hitting a woman.
He says at least three times
during the course of the interview.
"I wasn't there,
but I, I wasn't there."
But then he just said,
I didn't see a rock there.
Those two statements
don't go together.
I didn't see a rock.
That's saying I'm standing
right where it happened.
I didn't see a rock.
I can't think of another
way to look at that.
You keep people talking,
sometimes they slip up.
And I think that the "I didn't
see a rock there" was a slip up.
It just feels like he was there.
He goes like this with his
right fist into his left hand.
-It's almost like he's reliving it.
-And
-Yeah.
-You know? And I popped her.
That shows me that
Keck's right handed.
What about the missing tooth?
Yeah. That's interesting with the
On the left side.
So if he was right handed
and he hit her straight on
in her left tooth,
that's non-public.
Is that something
that circumstantially
-has significance?
-Oh, absolutely, you know?
SHANNON: Did he, like,
ask you for help? Like,
say, help me get rid
of all this stuff?
He raised the word
Ring.
-Right out of the
-The ring.
-Was unsolicited.
The public doesn't know this,
but her ring was taken.
Her ring was missing.
What does that mean to you?
Doesn't pass the smell test.
I mean, this is somebody that was
suspected when it had happened
-and--
-And now he's got all,
this specific information.
Right.
What you captured here
is very telling.
There's no doubt that he has
intimate knowledge of that crime.
No doubt.
Media has done a tremendous
amount of legwork,
put together a compelling case.
I mean,
there's things that they're
uncovering that I didn't know about,
even from reading case files.
I think that you've renewed
interest in the case.
I think it definitely needs
to be explored more.
What do you think is next for us?
Like, any suggestions? Or--
I mean, at some point
I want to talk to him.
The case is still open. So
If you have a DNA sample
and you do get a match,
it can be very compelling evidence.
I need to tell you something.
The man that we think
killed your daughter.
I promise that we're going to try
our hardest to catch him. Okay?
Yeah.
I just want you to
know that your daughter,
she went down fighting.
Lieutenant Eager asked
us to go get Keck's DNA.
And the minute that happens,
he's never going to talk to us
again because he's gonna know
that we're the reason
he got arrested.
So, if we don't get him
to tell us exactly what
Benjaman and Chico did
and why they fled,
we'll never, ever, ever learn.
Like, this is our last chance.
ERIC: Hey, George. How you been?
Good.
-KEN: What's up man?
Same old, different day.
-You want to go get something to eat?
-That'll work.
Trying to figure out
how we're going to get Keck's DNA.
It's going to be very difficult.
I have one day to get his DNA
and find out everything
I need to know
about the hit that Benjaman
was allegedly involved in.
Hey, George, how's it going?
Yeah?
We took Keck to a
Mongolian barbecue.
Because basically, how it works
is you go up for seconds.
SHANNON: Here you go George.
It helps us then get in
and DNA test his utensils and straw.
Do you remember the Kozik
case that we talked about?
But I come up
with this Linda Ferri case.
This lady was found up in
national homes in the trunk of a car.
SHANNON: She had been
a janitor at Purdue,
and so I heard that Bill knew her.
-You were a janitor at Purdue.
-KEN: Did you know her?
Did you remember her?
SHANNON: Yeah, I want to ask,
this guy that he shot.
You know, that Bill shot, like,
when he had to get out of town?
Who was that?
SHANNON: Yeah. Who did he shoot?
I mean, you got to
help me out. You got,
I know you remember a first name.
A last name. Like a circumstance.
Like you got to give
me more on that.
I know you know more than
you're telling me, dude.
-Yeah, you do.
-Yeah you do.
I can see it in your eyes.
And when you smile
and laughing again.
KEN: You remember George.
You have a pretty good memory.
I'm gonna get some more to eat.
George. Let's get more to eat.
Pretty good stuff, huh?
I'll watch our stuff,
and then we'll take turns.
Then I'll go.
Go ahead.
I'll catch up to you.
Okay.
It comes to a point in your age
I think you'd agree with me,
you gotta stop playing games
and just tell the truth.
Right?
And that's what it's all about.
Because you meet the maker
he's going to be.
I think George remembers everything.
It's just.
This is what I have
to do to keep my
Very strange.
At least we can say we did
something exciting today.
KEN: Hey.
I got thrown out of better places.
(LAUGHTER)
We got to get out of here.
Because we're talking
about these crazy homicides.
The people next to us
ended up calling the police.
We're going to go to Panera.
KEN: You know, let's get back to
Bill Powell and Chico. Right?
That's our mission to solve
the mystery of Bill Powell and Chico.
And we've talked to both of them,
and they both lied to us.
You know?
I know all he does is just
(LAUGHTER)
So when Bill went missing,
there was a missing persons report.
His brother came and
cleared his trailer out.
One of the things he took was this
microwave oven and a cookbook.
(BLEEP) Really wanted
this microwave oven cookbook back
so bad that he had someone break
into Bill's brother's
house to get it back.
Based on what, you know,
doing job for (BLEEP) and with Bill,
what was in the microwave cookbook?
Let me ask you something.
Like when they left?
Come on.
Come on. We made a lot of progress.
You admitted to us about,
that Bill
shot this guy that night.
Why did he get shot?
Did he shoot that guy?
You sure of that?
It's good coffee, huh?
We got the evidence.
I have the DNA.
I have the straw.
I have the cup.
I have it all.
And we're headed over.
-Hey, this is George Keck.
-Hey.
All right.
It actually was a lot
easier than I thought.
All these things in here
need to be swabbed.
But then he talked
about taking a sample
from her since
she collected it barehanded.
All right, so I'm gonna
stick it in your mouth
-and swirl it around some times.
-All right.
Okay? That's it.
Great.
It would be awesome
if there's some sort of hit here
with George Keck's DNA.
What you all have
gathered definitely
warrants further investigation,
that's for sure.
You guys have done
an outstanding job.
-Thank you.
-We'll see you.
Hey, Ken.
Okay.
So first of all, thank you for
your cooperation.
Agreeing to be interviewed.
So here's what we're going to do.
All right.
Just to the best of your knowledge,
give us your account with
the main subject of our film,
William Powell, the bouncer.
That's a real tough topic.
When we first spoke,
you know, when I called you,
you were very, very shook up.
You guys don't know
how scary it is for me.
Because I had started
this whole new life,
you know, moved halfway across the
country to get away from the family.
I had had my life threatened before.
(BLEEP) often would say
that he could make a phone call
and make someone disappear.
He would even go
into detail and say.
"And don't worry,
we make it look like
it was an accident."
One day he told me,
about a situation
that had occurred in the mid '70s.
(BLEEP) was discovered
in her automobile,
and she had her hands
and her feet tied.
She had been robbed.
He hired
a gentleman that was a bouncer
by the name of William Powell,
and paid him to go
take care of the situation.
Powell was his right hand man
and did all his dirty deeds.
And what did you take that to mean?
Criminal activity.
There was a cookbook mentioned.
The cookbook had details in it.
Basically what he called
the game plan for William Powell,
so he could carry out,
what he was going to do to
the person who hurt (BLEEP).
Powell shot this individual,
and then he relocated immediately.
He basically disappeared
(BLEEP) to me.
"Oh, they won't find him.
He'll never be found."
Referring to William Powell.
(BLEEP) He's taken care of Powell.
I saw the transfer
of the envelope sending,
payment to Powell for several,
you know, decades.
Mr. (BLEEP) died in 2004.
And the kids
refused to Paypal any more money.
That was something
between their father and him.
But he had to come back
into society a safe way.
And I think he claimed
amnesia because,
he didn't want
the Mafia coming after him.
If they thought, hey, you know,
this guy can't remember anything.
You don't know who I am.
And quite frankly, neither do I.
Then he would be safe
coming back into society.
KEN: So a lot to unwrap there.
SHANNON: If I accept everything
she said about the cookbook
as being true,
suddenly that missing persons
report isn't so weird anymore.
Right.
So, William Powell, Benjaman Kyle,
he hurt some individual
in retaliation.
The (BLEEP) family funded his
time while he was away.
They pretty much bankrolled him
from 1976 until 2004.
He resurfaced shortly thereafter
because Mr. (BLEEP) had passed away,
and the kids most likely did not
want to continue to pay him money.
It's always been about Powell.
Right.
Suddenly it all makes sense.
Exactly. It was a mystery
that needed to be solved.
And as she gives us
a possible solution.
Yeah.
Now, we understand that most
of the unanswered questions.
We finally solved
Benjamin's true identity.
So, Eric and I decided it
was time to take a vacation.
I need you to listen to the call,
so you can hear exactly what
was said and how it was said.
My nanny is not on Facebook.
My social media is so private.
She's talking to William Powell.
That is the only way she would know
that I have a nanny and twins.
And the fact that that
(BLEEP) brought up the fact
that I have nanny
and twins to you in your car.
Eric and Shannon, they got twins.
Maybe they got a nanny.
And now she's saying it,
tells me this is coming from him.
My (BLEEP) life just blew up.
DONALD: The detective
who's coming over.
She's got all the connections
in the schools
because they'll go
over to the schools,
talk to the school too,
alert them of the situation.
The problem here is, like we've been
told by three independent sources,
he's a hit man for this family.
Yeah. He disappeared.
He wanted to disappear.
And he worked for them.
-So they're pulled into it.
-Right
It's like I just solved the mystery
of where this guy has
been and why he's lying.
I don't need to pull this criminal
organization into this because,
it just puts me in danger
for no reason.
Well, I mean, listen,
the more people that tell me
this guy's a hit man,
the scarier it is.
But I can't, like, I can't quit now.
Life before Benjaman Kyle
was very different.
I never had it in the back of my head
that someone was
going to try to hurt me.
Now, it's there all the time.
He thinks I've given up.
I am not giving up.
I know too much.
We have to confront him.
We're doing a drive by
at Benjaman's house.
William Powell.
His bike is gone.
Hey, Bill.
Bill, are you home?
Listen, I'm not going to be one more
of Benjaman Kyle's victims,
like, period.
He's just wasting our time.
We know he was involved
in something shady.
We find out he's William Powell,
and then we find out William Powell's
been missing since, like, 1978
Like, stop being himself
until he surfaced in 2004.
Don't you want to know where he was?
I still think we can
find out the truth.
I want to know what really happened.
This is a guy that's lied.
He's taken advantage
of a lot of people.
He's going to keep doing that.
He did what he did to Slater.
He did what he did
to Colleen Fitzpatrick.
He did what he did to Josh Schrutt.
He's an old scumbag who's playing
a game of cat and mouse.
He wants to be caught
and we're going to catch him.
It's like a game for this guy,
gets off on it.
I mean, if we stop, then he wins.
He gets away with it.
We become another (BLEEP) victim.
I'm not a victim.
I don't want to just walk away.
I don't care.
We can't give up.
I don't care what it takes.
I'm going to find him.