User Reviews

I remember this Polly Klaas case as a very high-profile crime. After watching this episode of "FBI Files," I'm not sure why this got so much attention at the time although today, all kidnappings get national coverage on the news networks....and if it can help capture the criminals, more power to them. Perhaps the Klaas kidnapping paved the way for this kind of daily coverage on cable news. Whatever, the main thing is that an innocent young girl's life was needlessly ended thanks to another sick killer. The good thing is that a lot of new laws and improvements in child abduction cases were the result of this tragedy.

Watching the reenactment of the kidding of young Polly, I was stunned to see how lucky this scumbag, Richard Davis, turned out to be in the fact that Polly's mom was across the hall and had taken sleeping pills to help her sleep. So, she never heard this home invader come in, terrorize three young teens and take one with her! That's unbelievable. The FBI got called in quickly because they handle kidnappings.

Another really odd thing - and maddening - about this case was the two hoaxes. I couldn't believe some teenage girl could be so stupid and cruel as to call up Polly's father Marc and pretend to be her, quickly hanging up twice. Later, a guy comes down to the police station and confesses, but turns out to be a fake. Can you imagine the emotions of the Klaas family during these "tricks?"

How the FBI and Petaluma, Ca., police tracked down the killer comprises most of this episode. This was not a "cold case" that took years, but it still took several months before a key discovery led to the case breaking.

Regrettably, Polly Klaas is one of many kids abducted and killed but her name is one that will be remembered for a long time and, as mentioned, as led to many, many advancements in solving these crimes before some child gets killed.

On October 1, 1993, recidivist and convicted sexual predator Richard Allen Davis kidnapped the 12 year old Polly Klaas from a slumber party. She was never seen alive again.

This is a routine documentary about a notorious case, it includes reconstructions, and a lot of tech talk for crime buffs as well as contributions from the men who tracked him down. Sadly, there was never any prospect of finding the victim alive; it would be two months before Davis directed the authorities to her body.

Because the crime was carried out in California, Davis was eligible for the death penalty, and was a very deserving case, yet nineteen years after this documentary was screened and twenty-one years after his conviction, he remains on death row, which begs the question why, though an arguably bigger question is why was he at liberty to commit this crime considering he had already kidnapped two women and attacked others, one with lethal intent?

As with many American court cases, the trial of Richard Allen Davis was recorded, certainly there were cameras in the courtroom during the victim impact statements, his own statement, and the sentencing. These are not included here, but CBS did report at the time the despicable last words Davis attributed to his victim, something the judge said made it very easy for him to pass the death sentence awarded by the jury.