EP. 175 : CALIFORNIA - The MURDER Of A CHILD STAR: The Tragic Tale of Judith Barsi
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It was 8:30 a.m. on July 27th, 1988, when Eunice Dolly walked out of her West Hills home in the simmering San Fernando Valley, just on the outskirts of Los Angeles. She began her day as she did every morning, watering her garden in her peaceful neighborhood. But that Wednesday morning was everything but peaceful. Eunice's heart thudded as an explosion rocked the quaint suburban street.

Before she knew it, smoke billowed out of the windows of her next door neighbor's home and flames licked the edges of the beige trim. As she ran into her home to call 911, one thought arose. And it wasn't just a passing thought. It was an assertion. He's done it.

He's killed them and set fire to the house, just like he said he would. Tragically, Eunice was right. For years, the neighborhood watched in horror as Joseph Barsi tormented his wife and daughter, 10-year-old actress Judith Barsi, and now their home was in a fiery tomb.

The violent mourning did not come as a surprise to anyone that knew the family. Over the years, they had watched Judith transform from a bright, promising little girl, scrubbed in sunshine, to a tormented soul who had plucked her eyelashes out and shrunk at the sight of her own father.

So how had anyone let this happen? How had this girl, who was already in the spotlight, starring as Ducky in The Land Before Time and Anne Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven, not gotten the help she deserved? So this is the story of Judith Barsi, the talented little girl who brought joy to so many people's childhoods while she simultaneously lost her own.

I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America. Mine is tucky. Yep, that is what it is. Yep, yep, yep.

if you're a child of the 90s like courtney and i then you probably recognize the voice you just heard the land before time was an animated movie about dinosaurs journeying across a treacherous world in search of their families ducky the big mouth dinosaur was a fan favorite the movie played almost constantly on tv in the 90s and early 2000s and it was hard not to mimic ducky's cheerful little yup yup yup anytime she came on screen

But the voice actress who played Ducky had a life that was anything but cheerful.

Judith Ava Barsi was born in Los Angeles, California on June 6th, 1978 to Maria and Joseph Barsi. Her mom had plans for her from the moment she was born. Growing up in war-torn Hungary, Maria had often turned to the glitz and glamour of the faraway Hollywood for comfort. But living in Hollywood as an adult wasn't enough to satisfy Maria. She wanted the life of stardom, luxury,

and attention she had always dreamt of. And she made it her goal to have her daughter achieve just that. A family friend, Elizabeth Linden, told the Los Angeles Times, quote, Maria had an obsession with having her child become a star. That's all she ever really thought of, end quote.

From the moment Judith could talk, Maria trained her to have what she described as a "star quality." She was taught always to sit straight, to carry herself with grace and poise, and to speak clearly, with a cherub-like quality that would make her impossible for casting agents to overlook. Judith's uncle, Joseph Weldon, described Maria's training of Judith in his interview for the TV movie Fatal Passions:

She's preparing this little girl when she was two years old she told me she's gonna make a star out of her. I said, "You should not do that." I said, "You don't know the odds." I said, "The odds are 10,000 to 1."

But Judith was that one in 10,000. From the time she was five years old, Maria would take Judith to the Iceland skating rink in Van Nuys, just outside of Hollywood. As one of the only ice skating rinks in Los Angeles County, it was frequented by both film crews and casting directors. That's precisely why Maria insisted that Judith go as frequently as possible, hoping to catch the attention of someone who could get Judy an acting job.

Sometime in 1983, Judith and Maria's hard work paid off. A casting director at the ice rink noticed Judy and immediately approached her mother to see if she would be interested in having Judy audition for some roles. The agent saw the star quality that Maria had tried to instill in her daughter from the moment she could walk.

Her blonde hair, effervescent energy, and bright blue eyes gave her the picture-perfect appearance, and her precocious nature made her easy to work with. Thanks to that carefully crafted meeting at the ice rink, Judy landed her first commercial in a Donald Duck orange juice commercial. And from the get-go, it was clear that Judy had something special.

Ever since mom and dad found out that Donald Duck is 100% pure orange juice, they've been acting kind of funny. I mean, I know she's good, but holy... Honest, a giant green gorilla drank it all up. Oh, please. In the commercial, Judy, clad in cute little pigtails, eyes her parents suspiciously while they steal sips of her orange juice. She's undeniably precious.

And it's easy to see why over the next five years, she went on to star in over 75 commercials, more than 10 a year.

Before Judy got a chance to experience a normal childhood, she was swept into a business that was commercializing her youth and innocence. Her kindergarten year wasn't one of nap times, kickball, and giggling with her classmates on the playground. It was primarily spent on Hollywood sets, working strange hours, surrounded by adults who were, essentially, her only peers.

Though she attended Nevada Avenue Elementary School, she missed most school days because of her shooting schedule. One of her friends, Lisa, told the Los Angeles Times after Judy's death, she missed being in school because she missed her friends a lot. Whenever Judy did have a rare chance to connect with other girls her age on set, she left a lifelong impression on them. When Judy was filming one of her first roles in a TV movie called Do You Remember Love?,

Fellow child actress Andrea recalls Judy being the highlight of the filming experience. The two shared a trailer on set, and when they were meant to be resting in between takes, Judy would pass Andrea's secret notes through the divider between their bedrooms. One such note read, quote, "I like you, Andrea."

At the ripe age of six, Judy was already a bit of an old soul. Crew members recall her being wise for her age, but bubbly and full of personality at the same time. It was an energy the early sets she was on needed, because the first true productions she starred in had some heavy subject matter. In Fatal Vision, her first television part, Judy played the role of a real-life child named Kimberly McDonald. It's a role that's truly chilling in retrospect.

Because Kimberly MacDonald was a girl who was brutally killed by her father, Jeffrey MacDonald, in 1979. In a fit of rage, Jeffrey stabbed his daughter in the neck between eight and ten times. He bludgeoned her head and body so severely that her cheekbone was protruding through her skin when law enforcement arrived at the scene of the crime. He then went on to kill his wife and his three-year-old daughter, Kristen, in a similar manner.

When Judy was under the bright lights, pretending to be a girl struggling under the wrath of a violent, angry father, no one on set had any idea that for her, it was like looking in a mirror. Judy's father, Joseph, was a wildly violent and volatile man. Throughout Judy's childhood, he worked as a plumber in the San Fernando Valley, but when he wasn't working, he was drinking away the money his daughter had earned.

and getting into fights. He was known to regale his friends with embellished stories. On multiple occasions, he told friends in Los Angeles that he had lost vision in one eye due to a vicious fight he got into.

He confided in them that he had once killed a man with ease in a bar fight, and as he told the story, he was smiling. At the time, however, the only mark on Joseph's record was for three separate instances of drunk driving. It's hard to say whether he did kill a man in a bar and got away with it, or if that was a tall tale he told to boost his ego. Either way, it speaks to the pride he took in violence.

What we do know is that often, Joseph's decisions and actions were rash. One friend told the Los Angeles Times, "He'd grab a two-by-four, not that he'd go after anyone who didn't deserve it." But that wasn't true. Joseph went after Maria and Judy almost constantly.

Now, it's hard to tell the story of Judy's short, tragic life without looking at the complicated relationship between her and her mother. Though Maria clearly pushed Judy to work hard and continue acting, the two shared a strong bond.

Maria and Judy were described by everyone who knew them as best friends. They were glued at the hip, and young Judy loved spending time with her mom. Maria was also known to shower her daughter in gifts. On one occasion, a neighbor recalls Maria buying Judy a special kite, one that she had been begging for for months. When her mom finally gave her the kite, Judy was overjoyed.

and eager to take it out to the skies. That day, she and her mom took the kite out into the yard. But upon hearing the joyous laughter and squealing that Judy was making, her father stormed out of the house in a fury. He snatched the kite out of Judy's grasp, which sent her into hysterics. The young girl started to plead and cry with her father, begging him not to break her kite.

But in response, Joseph looked at the neighbor who was overhearing this interaction. Then next he looked at his wife and in a cold taunting voice, he said, "Look at her. She's just a spoiled brat who doesn't wanna share her new toy." Then just minutes after Judy had gotten her new toy,

Joseph broke her kite into as many pieces as he could. In the Barsi household, this was normal. Joseph was possessive and abusive.

terrified that his wife and child would find joy, love and stability anywhere other than him. Joseph's behavior throughout Judy's life was abhorrent. But to understand how a person could come to a place where it felt so natural to do such horrible things, we have to look at where and how Joseph himself was raised.

Joseph Barsi was born in Hungary in 1932 to a single mother who abandoned him at an incredibly young age. He never knew who his father was, which carried an alarming stigma in 1930s Eastern Europe, where family and tradition were paramount. You're about to hear the voice of Agnes Barsi Little, Judy's older half-sister. We'll revisit her retelling of events soon.

But for now, this is what she has to say about Joseph's upbringing. If you don't have a father, I mean, that's just like the plague. And so when he would go to school, kids would make fun of him, always, always make fun of him. And my father had absolutely no self-esteem. The only time my father really felt like he was a person was when he was drunk.

As you can see, Joseph was an outcast from the start and unfortunately his country was veering towards total destruction.

Hungary was wildly unstable following World War I, and the economy was in a detrimental place. By the time Joseph was born in 1932, Nazi rule was starting to tighten its dangerous grasp around the struggling country. It was a time when Hungary was struggling to find its identity and footing in a rapidly changing world. There was the pressure of communism from the Soviet Union in the East, and the pressure of the Nazi Party in the West.

all while Hungary was operating as the Kingdom of Hungary under a monarchy. By the time Joseph was a boy of 10, Hungary was essentially a puppet state under Nazi Germany.

The citizens' livelihood depended entirely on Germany's economic state. In other words, the Hungarian nationals were trapped. At the same time, violence was widespread. People suspected of communism, Jewish people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those who were deemed intellectuals were routinely sent to slave-away and labor camps.

As the war progressed, they were then sent to concentration camps. Yet, just a few years later, after World War II ended, Hungary was under Soviet control. Then, it was the anti-communists who were hunted down like animals. Their housing was confiscated, and they were imprisoned or killed.

By the end of 1949, when Joseph was 17, there was a disastrous shortage of bread, sugar, flour, and meat. For an orphan like Joseph, already ostracized by society, this would have been life-threatening. The government erected what is called an Iron Curtain between Hungary and Austria to keep Hungarians from fleeing Soviet occupation. Watchtowers were erected along the border, and a system of barbed wire fences and landmines crisscrossed the countryside.

In other words, it was a rapidly changing, unstable and confusing place for anyone to grow up in, let alone an orphan.

But in 1956, when Joseph was 24 years old, things went downhill at a frightening speed. An uprising in Budapest caused Soviet Russia to crack down and physically invade Hungary, arriving with tanks and weapons in the dead of night. Hungarians were desperate to escape and the entire world was watching, as told by this 1956 news clip from the United Kingdom.

Night on the Austro-Hungarian frontier. These refugees are crossing a 14-foot canal that marks the line, hated by red Hungarian border guards under the cloak of darkness. No peril daunts the iron determination of their quest for freedom. While Hungarian guards waved them on, Russian troops tracked them with grim intent. Many refugees hid through the freezing night in these border marshes, waiting till dawn for their final dash to the safety of Austrian soil.

Joseph was one of these refugees who had to flee under the cover of night to Austria. In November of 1956, he was put on a train leaving a refugee camp in Austria, bound for France. It was on that train that he met his first wife, Clara. In France in 1957, the two welcomed their first child, a son named Barna Barsi.

Just a year later, they had their daughter, Agnes, who went by Aggie. Judy's mom, Maria, had endured a similar journey, though with the added benefits of coming from a wealthy family. That being said, according to Aggie Barsi, things weren't all butterflies and roses in Maria's family of origin either. Maria came from an alcoholic family, an abusive family. Her father physically abused her and psychologically abused her.

It was this abusive family that Maria Virvodats was born to in Hungary in 1940. In 1959, as refugees poured out of Hungary, she arrived in New York City via Munich, Germany. Her first apartment in America still stands today at 149 Madison Avenue, just two blocks from the Empire State Building.

With everything she had been through in her war-torn youth, and her dreams as a little girl of being an actress in America, seeing the spire of the Empire State must have filled her with hope. It was the beginning of her American dream, but tragically, this would end more like an American nightmare.

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Across the country in Arizona, Joseph's first wife was watching as her own dreams of freedom and happiness crumbled to dust. In 1962, the two settled into a life outside of Phoenix, and Joseph's rage and need for control showed its ugly face. According to Aggie, Joseph would threaten his wife and two young children daily. He told them repeatedly that if they left him, he would burn the house down and kill them all.

He threw cast iron pans not only at his wife, but at his kids. And on more than one occasion, Aggie was convinced that her father was actually going to kill her. Joseph had a need for total control and possession over the people in his life. And at the mere thought that his children or wife would abandon him, he would launch into a fury. After years of experiencing this abuse, Aggie had a theory on why that was.

Now our pasts don't excuse our behaviors, but they do inform them. Both Joseph and Maria's upbringings were volatile, leading to horrendous coping mechanisms and poor decision-making skills. It's a reminder of why it's so vitally important that we protect our kids, children like Judy, who was handed down the generational trauma that both of her parents carried.

By 1977, Joseph had divorced Clara and Maria had also divorced her first husband, Sandor Bosca. Joseph and Maria moved to Los Angeles separately, but their paths crossed at a restaurant in the San Fernando Valley.

That restaurant in particular was catering to Hungarian refugees. Maria worked at the bar where her charm, poise and humor caught the attention of many men, but her sights were locked on Joseph Barsi. He came into the bar often,

and always paid in $100 bills. Maria, who was in her late 30s, was ready to get married and start having children. From the outside, Joseph seemed like the perfect man to pursue that with. And on August 29th, 1977, Joseph and Maria got married.

Ten months later, Judith Ava Barsi was born. This was Joseph's second chance at having a healthy, happy marriage with a beautiful child to take care of.

But sadly, he wasn't going to make any changes. Unfortunately, things were even worse with Judy and Maria than it was with his first family. While Maria encouraged Judy and was fully supportive of her career, the only thing Joseph liked about Judy's acting was the money she earned. In 1988, when Judy was 8 years old,

She starred in enough TV commercials, movies, and many series to earn a six-figure income. It was enough for her family to move out of their Los Angeles apartment and into a beautiful home.

The home they purchased at 22100 Michelle Street in West Hills was just another piece of the puzzle to make their American dream come true. West Hills is on the western end of the San Fernando Valley, surrounded by impressive hills and views of the mountains. It's an area known for its safety, and in the 1980s, it had a small town feel compared to other regions of the valley. It should have been a happy time in the family's life.

But it was around this time that things took a turn for the worse. It's all too common for abusers to ramp up their abuse when they feel their power is being threatened. And it seemed like the more popular and successful Judy got, the more desperate her father was to control her through fear and violence. It took hardly anything for Joseph to fly off the handle and things were far worse when he drank, which was often.

Almost daily, he would scream in Judy and Maria's faces, threatening to kill them. Sometimes he would threaten his entire family, saying he would have no problem killing them all. Other times he would tell Maria that he was just going to kill himself and Judy, leaving her to quote, suffer. But it wasn't just Judy and Maria that he told this to. According to friends of Joseph's,

He told anyone who would listen that he was going to kill his wife one of these days. He told Bill Genovese, a fellow plumber and close friend, "One of these days she's going to drive me crazy enough to kill her," in reference to Maria. Another friend claimed, "He told me 500 times he was going to kill his wife. I'd try to calm him down and tell him if you kill her, what will happen to your little one? I gotta kill her too."

Joseph was a ticking time bomb. His vitriol for his wife and his simultaneous fear of being abandoned by her and Judy was a dangerous vortex that everyone who knew the family got sucked into. Joseph's screaming became a norm on the once peaceful streets of West Hills, and neighbors were fully aware of the vicious threats he made.

Elizabeth Linden, a family friend, wasn't shy about telling the crew of the TV movie Fatal Passions exactly how Joseph and Maria's relationship was conducted. The hatred was mutual between the two adults. Joe Barsi would come and the first thing was to my husband, I'm going to kill that whore. One of these days, I'm going to kill her.

But it wasn't just his words and threats that Joseph used to control Maria and Judy. On one occasion, Maria received an urgent telegram about the death of a close relative in Hungary. Except it wasn't Maria who was the first to see it.

Joseph actually saw the telegram while Maria was at an audition with Judy. And in a rage, he threw the telegram in the trash can. He was terrified that Maria would take Judy to Hungary and never return. So instead of letting his wife know that she had lost a relative,

He hid the truth away in order to further control her. But later on, Maria would discover the truth. When her brother called from New York to discuss the news with her, Maria was surprised and heartbroken. When she learned that the telegram had already been sent, she knew instantly what had happened to it. She confronted Joseph who denied hiding any telegram. However, eventually he came clean

fishing the telegram from the trash can and slapping it into her hands. - Joseph would stop at nothing to stop Maria from escaping. And because of Maria's fear and her own background of abuse, she struggled to break free of him. Unfortunately, it was Judy who ended up suffering the most.

In December of 1986, after a very bad incident where Joseph threatened to kill her and Judy, Maria filed a police report against him. She told law enforcement that he had threatened to kill her hundreds of times over a five-year period. And on top of that,

His violence had been escalating. Maria reported that recently, Joseph had been choking her and hitting her in the face. But the police claimed that Maria had no visible injuries. So they ended up dismissing her claims of abuse.

Sadly, this was Maria's first time reaching out for help and it fell on deaf ears. Maria declined to prosecute soon after she filed her claim. And from there, the family returned to their everyday chaotic life.

1986 was when things really started to pick up for 9-year-old Judy's career. When she wasn't riding her bike through her neighborhood and enjoying the innocence of childhood like every kid should be able to, she was at auditions or on set. Her commercial career had rapidly evolved into a strong presence in films. Because of her small stature, Judy could play the roles of children much younger.

This appealed to studios because it meant they could cast someone older and more experienced to work with, even if the script called for a five or six year old. When you look at Judy's work,

there's a deep dread and sadness that settles into your bones. Unlike her television roles where she played abused children, in almost every mainstream movie she had a role in, she played the beloved daughter of an action hero. In Eye of the Tiger, she played the daughter of a Vietnam War vet who stopped at nothing to protect her.

Her relationship with her father in the movie, played by Gary Busey, conjured up lines like this that are heartbreaking in retrospect. "Mommy, daddy's home! Mommy, mommy, look at daddy!" "Oh honey, that's beautiful!"

This trend of playing deeply loved and protected daughters carried on in her first theatrical role as Thea, the granddaughter of the late Martin Brody, in Jaws: The Revenge. Her father, played by Lance Guest, works tirelessly to protect her from a shark terrorizing the community.

Though the cast and crews that Judy usually worked with knew something was wrong in her life, it wasn't until the filming of Jaws that the horror she was experiencing was unashamedly shared. And tragically, once more, nothing was done. The filming of Jaws began in September of 1986. As Judy's first significant role in a popular franchise, it should have been a thrilling time for her.

But instead, it was one of the most terrible times of her life. Shooting was scheduled to take place in the Bahamas, offering Judy and her mom a tropical escape from the abuse they were suffering.

even if it was only for a few weeks. But they spent the entirety of those few weeks on set terrified for their lives. While Judy was packing her bags in preparation for the role, her father drunkenly stormed into her room with a kitchen knife in his hand. His little girl, who was undoubtedly over the moon and proud of herself, was instantly overcome with pure terror. Joseph then held the knife to Judy's neck,

pressing the cold metal against the nine-year-old's soft skin, and with the knife firmly in his grasp, he growled at her. "If you decide not to come back, I will cut your throat."

This poor child, who had just earned the role of a lifetime, didn't gain any acknowledgement from her father for her achievements. Instead, he threatened her and delighted in the terror that he struck through her. And sadly, filming in the Bahamas provided no relief either. Throughout the entire experience, that threat was running through Judy's head. Watching her scream at the shark in the movie is sobering.

when you consider the real terror that this innocent child was enduring every single day. And the abuse wasn't hidden either. On set, her mother Maria was very vocal with the women on the cast and crew about what was happening at home. But once again, no one seemed to care. Judith's studio teacher, Linda Stone Eyster, described Maria's demeanor on the set and the crew's reaction to her.

And it goes without saying that Maria should have been taken seriously, if not for her own safety, for her daughter's, who had no choice in the matter. But even Judy's studio teacher

who is meant to not only teach her on set but serve as an advocate for her, was brushing off the horrible claims of abuse. And there's a reason for that, an incredibly sad one.

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This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Cybersecurity Awareness Month is still going strong, and LifeLock is here with a message about phishing, the scam cybercriminals use to trick victims into allowing access to their devices so they can steal their personal info. Being aware of phishing scams is one way to help protect yourself. For comprehensive identity theft protection, there's LifeLock. Start protecting your identity today with a 30-day free trial at LifeLock.com slash podcast.

You see, there are laws in Hollywood that protect child actors, but they're much less enforced than you would expect. Children under the age of 16 are required to have a parent or guardian present on set at all times. They're also required to have a studio teacher on set, like Judy did, who is meant to be a neutral representative for the child actor's mental and physical well-being. But there's a problem with that, according to former child star Alison Stoner. In an interview, she told HuffPost,

In almost every case, none of these people are actually neutral third parties. Their livelihood is intertwined with, affected by, and dependent on the child's ability to perform and a production's ability to get the shot on time.

And she's right. If Judy's studio teacher had demanded help for her, production may have been halted due to an investigation. Yes, it sounds callous and unimportant when it comes to someone's life, but Hollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry, and every day that doesn't go as planned on set can cost the production thousands,

if not millions of dollars. Studio teachers who are seen as preventing little kids from being on set can and are easily replaced by teachers who can ensure the child actors are focused on acting and meeting the demands required of them.

On many productions, studio teachers and a protective adult on set are merely the bare minimums that the production must meet. Their interests aren't really in the safety of the child. Their interests are in meeting the requirements so that their child actors can perform and make them money.

So even as Maria and Judy were explaining the abuse they faced, the show went on. When production wrapped in the Bahamas after two months, Maria took Judy to visit her brother, Joseph Weldon.

who still lived in New York, where Maria's family had immigrated all those years ago. There's no clear picture of what Maria planned to do once she got to her brother's home. There are some claims that she was going to move in with her brother to escape her husband's abuse, but there were other claims that it was her only chance to introduce Judy to her brother because Joseph had made it impossible for Maria to bring Judy anywhere.

Regardless of Maria's reasoning, the jig was up only a few days after she and Judy arrived in New York. Somehow, Joseph had managed to locate them and he called Maria in a fury. While on the phone, he demanded to speak with Judy. And when he did, he said eight chilling words. Remember what I told you when you left?

That's all it took for Judy, whose mental health was hanging by a thread, to break down in tears. According to her uncle, the experience was hard to watch. At that point, Judy dropped the phone and went to the bedroom, and my little daughter followed her, and both of them were crying because she was so frantic that I never saw such a thing. And Maria picked up the phone, and then Maria was going out of her mind, really. She was really scared.

Joseph's threats garnered the exact reaction he was hoping for. The very next day, less than 24 hours after he called and threatened to kill them, they were back on a flight to Los Angeles. But that call was a breaking point for Judy. When she returned home in early 1988,

She began plucking out her own eyelashes, and when she ran out of eyelashes to pull, she started pulling the whiskers off her five beloved cats. It wasn't an intentional act of violence against the cats, but a desperate cry for help and a need that clearly wasn't being met. Judy was engaging in what is now known as trichotillomania, a compulsion to pull out hair, be it yours or someone else's.

Trichotillomania is part of a group of conditions known as body-focused repetitive behaviors, which are used to cope with emotional turmoil. If a person does not have healthy means to handle intense feelings, they may begin to pull out their hair as a form of distraction. Initially, they'll feel tension, but when they pluck their hair from the follicle, there's a sense of control and relief.

This was the first time that Judy's inner turmoil was expressed outwardly and she was experiencing this at the very young end of the age range for the development of Trichotillomania and it's easy to see why. In early 1988, Judy was invited to a family friend's house to have homemade Hungarian sausages. Her parents weren't in attendance which gave Judy a rare opportunity to express herself.

Judy told these family friends verbatim, quote, I'm afraid to go home. My daddy is miserable. My daddy's drunk every day and I know he wants to kill my mother, end quote.

Imagine a 9 year old child saying that to you, and just hold on to that feeling for a moment. The family friends invited Judy to stay with them, but Judy declined, telling them that if she stayed, her daddy would find her and kill her. In Judy's mind, there was no escape. If she stayed with her father, the abuse would continue.

and she may be killed. But if she left her father, she knew she would certainly be killed. Sadly, these family friends did not contact the authorities on behalf of Judy, but soon enough, someone did.

If you love Murder in America, you love mysteries, you love true crime, you love murder stories and the unknown, then I have a new show for you. It's called The Conspiracy Files and it's hosted by me, Colin Browen from Murder in America and the Paranormal Files. On The Conspiracy Files, we explore everything from bizarre deaths to freak paranormal events, pedophile rings, gunshots,

government corruption, ritual sacrifice. No topic is untouched on this show. Everything that we talk about on the conspiracy files is backed up with fact. I release reference sheets with every single episode that we do. So you guys know everything we're talking about is confirmed to have happened and be real. It's a completely different type of show than anything else you've ever seen about conspiracy theories. Instead of a bunch of conjecture and theories, we're

We're presenting you people with facts, telling you the story, walking you through the story just as detailed as we do with Murder in America, and then letting the listener decide what they think. Anyways, you should definitely give it a listen. It's called The Conspiracy Files. The links are in the description of this show, and you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now let's get back to our story.

In May of 1988, Judy auditioned a song from an animated feature. It's widely speculated that this song is "Soon You'll Come Home" from the film "All Dogs Go to Heaven". The song is sung by the character Judy ultimately voiced, named Anne Marie. In the movie, Anne Marie is an orphan who's desperate to find a family that loves her. It seems that the lyrics of the song were too much for Judy to handle in her fragile state. During the audition, she began to sob and couldn't continue on. The lyrics go as follows:

All I have is a picture in my mind, how it would be if we were together. Let's pretend that you're far away. Let's say that you write to me, and you promise in your letter that you'll come home. Ruth Hansen, Judy's agent, told the Los Angeles Times, quote, That's when I realized how bad Judith was. She was crying hysterically. She couldn't talk.

So Ruth convinced Maria to take Judy to see a child psychologist. Now, remember this was the 1980s, a time when the idea of a child seeing a psychologist was still pretty taboo, especially if you came from a culture like Maria and Joseph's. But regardless, Maria took Judy to the psychologist. And after the very first meeting, the psychologist called Judy's agent, Ruth,

in a panic. There was a clear pain in her voice, and although she didn't give details, her ultimate decision was a potentially life-changing one. She told her, "Ruth, it is extreme mental, verbal and emotional problems with this child. I have to report it to Children's Services."

End quote. For the first time after years of abuse, Judy was given a much needed lifeline. Someone officially recognized the pain and suffering that she was enduring. And it seemed like she was on her way to getting help. But sadly, that help never came.

Soon after the case into Judy's well-being began, Maria had it closed. At the time, Maria had gotten an apartment in Panorama City, on the opposite side of the valley from where their home with Joseph was. She was calculating how exactly she was going to divorce him, and she had to go about it carefully.

When a partner is attempting to leave an abuser, it's statistically the most dangerous time of their relationship. After repeated threats that she or Judy would be killed by Joseph if she ever left, Maria surely was terrified.

During the day, Maria and Judy would escape to the Panorama City apartment, moving bits of their belongings as they went. At night, the two would go back to their shared home with Joseph and sleep there, trying to keep up appearances. Maria didn't want Joseph to know that she had an apartment because if he knew, her plan to escape would be foiled and

and she knew he would likely kill her. Now, because Maria had this apartment, a safe place for her and Judy to go, the agency felt comfortable closing her case in early June without investigating any further. They never once interviewed Judy alone, never toured their home in West Hills, and never even spoke to Joseph. Essentially, no investigation took place.

The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services, Robert Chaffee, later claimed it was satisfactory resolved as far as the client was concerned. But Helen Kleinberg, a member of the County Board of Supervisors on Children's Issues, had a different opinion. In late 1988, she told the Los Angeles Times, from my point of view, the client was the child, not

not the mother. Some blame Maria for closing the case, some blame the Department of Children's Services, and some blame both.

According to Judy's agent, however, Maria didn't close the case because she felt safe. She closed the case because the Department of Children's Services refused to do anything. We'll discuss the role that DHS played in this case a little bit later. By June, Maria did have a plan to escape Joseph's abuse, but she was hesitant to go through with it. Ruth would later say that she begged Maria to leave.

but it was clear Maria was nervous. She promised they would officially leave Joseph after Judy's birthday in mid-June, but in those few weeks, things got drastically worse. Joseph repeatedly showed Maria where he kept the gas cans in the home, and he reminded her that he intended to use them if she ever left. When Aggie, Judy's half-sister, came to visit, she was shocked and horrified by what she saw.

The last time I went and visited them, it was really hard because I saw her. We were the same person. It was just incredible. At that time, I really saw how afraid she was. I mean, he used to threaten us all the time too about burning the house down, killing us and burning the house down if we left him or if my mother tried divorcing him, that he would kill us all. She told me over and over again that she was afraid.

Despite Judy fearing for her life, nothing was done. June came and went and Maria still hadn't moved them into the apartment. Around that time, Maria had stopped doing any housework in an attempt to drive Joseph away. It's likely that she believed if Joseph was the one who left, not her, then she and Judy would be safe.

that around this time Joseph would give anyone who visited sarcastic, bitter tours of the home, pointing out all the messes Maria hadn't cleaned up. Just a few weeks before Joseph took Judy and Maria's lives, it seemed like Maria's plan was working. Joseph even started spending more time out of the house. He was infatuated with another woman who he showered in gifts.

But Maria couldn't have been more delighted by her husband's infidelity. Her niece, Eve Wrights, remembers Maria's reaction to it well. "Well, I spoke around Christmas time with my aunt on the telephone and she was very encouraged about the turn of events. She was very happy that her situation at home was improving because her husband had found another woman and he was running around with her and this woman was very well off."

On June 22nd, Maria spoke with her neighbor, Eunice Daly, and she talked with Eunice about how abusive Joseph was. Eunice encouraged Maria to leave,

But it seemed like Maria had been scared out of divorcing Joseph. She told Eunice, "I can't leave. He's threatened to come after us and kill us. He's threatened to burn down the house." Which brings us to Monday, July 25th, 1988. In the early morning, Judy was spotted riding her bike through the neighborhood streets. The sun was shining, the palm trees were crackling, and the Southern California heat.

Neighbors waved to her as she rode by. From the outside looking in, she was a young girl full of life and joy. But tragically, this was the last time anyone would see Judy alive.

However, there is some beauty in the fact that in the final images many people have of her, she is doing what she should have been doing all along, being a free, happy kid. That afternoon, Judy missed an appointment at Hanna-Barbera Productions.

When her agent called Joseph to see where Judy was, he claimed she and Maria had gotten to a cab and gone to San Diego. The next day, when Ruth still hadn't heard from Judy or Maria, she spoke to Joseph again. Joseph told Ruth that he was leaving the home for good. All he wanted before he left was to say goodbye to his little girl.

and then he would be gone. This was the last time anyone spoke to Joseph Barsi. On the morning of July 27th, Eunice Daly was the first person to see the flames exploding out of the Barsi home. Terrified for the family, the neighbor bolted towards the flames and threw open a back door, trying to extinguish the fire with a hose until firefighters arrived.

Unfortunately, the flames were already too intense to try and save Judy or Maria. When the firefighters arrived and managed to put out the fire, the scene before them would prove to be one of the most grisly of their careers. The entire house had been doused in gasoline before it was set ablaze, including the bodies of Judy and Maria. Judy was found lying on her side in her canopy bed. Her body was charred from the flames and

and she had a single gunshot wound just behind her ear. To this day, it's unclear exactly when Judy and Maria were killed, though their living family members suspect that they were likely killed on Monday night, the same night that Judy missed her appointment at Hanna-Barbera.

Joseph had gone into his 10-year-old daughter's room as she slept, and he placed the muzzle of his gun against her skin. Judy usually fell asleep with her television set on. It was a Princess Pink TV that her father had bought her months earlier as an apology for an incident where he had yanked her finger in a fit of rage, nearly breaking it. Judy was just a child. The image of her lying peacefully in her canopy bed

with her pink TV flickering is a haunting reminder of just how young and innocent she was. She died the instant her father fired the .32 caliber pistol through her head.

That night, after hearing the gunshot in her daughter's bedroom, Maria raced down the hall to try and protect Judy. But Joseph was standing there, waiting for her. Maria was shot as she ran down the hall to see if Judy was okay. Her death is also assumed to be instantaneous. But for several days after murdering his wife and daughter, Joseph stepped over their bodies

as he floated through the home like a ghost. He even spoke to people on the phone as if Maria and Judy were still alive. Over the years, he had promised that he was going to kill them, and he made good on that horrible promise. However, it

It seems like from the 25th to the 27th, Joseph was panicking about what to do next. And on the morning of the 27th, he poured gasoline all throughout the house that his own daughter had bought them. Joseph doused Maria and Judy's bodies in the gas.

and then lit a match from the garage. As the fire began to rage, Joseph closed the garage door and fired a single shot through his head. The bullet exited his skull with so much force that it actually broke the garage door. When officers arrived, they discovered the can of gas four feet from Joseph's body and the pistol was still in his hand.

Soon enough, the news began to spread around the community and many people were horrified, but sadly, most were not surprised. After all,

Many people in their own neighborhood had heard the threats that Joseph made against his family, and soon enough, a crowd began to gather around the burning home. There's a photo of Coroner Javid Masuda carrying Judith's dead body out of her home, the home that she was so proud of earning. In the photo, there is a police officer standing off to the side, who is using a napkin to wipe his tears.

And it's hard to ignore just how small Judy's body was in the coroner's grasp. At the time of her death, she was only 3 feet 8 inches tall. The coroner is cradling Judy like a father should have cradled and cared for his daughter, something that Judy never got to experience while she was alive, except for when she was on camera.

On August 9th, 1988, Judith and Maria's funerals were held at Forest Lawn's Church of the Hills in Griffith Park. If you're from the Los Angeles area, you undoubtedly know the church. It's a stark white church with a tall steeple that pops out amongst the ever blue skies of Southern California and the rolling mountains that are the valley's backdrop.

it looks like it belongs in new england rather than los angeles which is by design the forest lawn memorial parks are known for being a popular final resting place for hollywood stars when you look at where maria began her life and war-torn hungary with dreams of going west it's a fitting place for her journey to have ended

75 people were in attendance at the funeral, including many of Judy's friends. One of her young friends was recorded as saying, "I didn't know a dad could do such a thing to his wife and daughter." Joseph never should have been able to, and as news of Judy's death spread across the city, concerns arose. As neighbors disclosed to newspapers that Judy and Maria had been threatened by Joseph multiple times, the public began to ask why nothing had been done.

On August 16, 1988, the Commission for Children's Services, an advisory body to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Children's Issues, demanded that the Department of Children's Services open the case files regarding Judith Barsi.

However, DCS denied this claim, saying that there were privacy issues regarding the files. In response, the commission, which was headed by a woman named Helen Kleinberg, petitioned Juvenile Dependency Court Judge Catherine Doy Todd to open and review the files. The commission cited their concerns, stating that Judith's psychologist was not informed her case had been closed, as is policy.

The commission wanted to know why Judith's case was closed, why her therapist wasn't informed, and whether or not the system needed to be improved to determine when a case could reasonably be closed. On August 19th, Judge Catherine Doi Todd determined that there was good cause for the commission to review DCS's handling of the case and ordered the files unsealed. With the unsealing of those files came evidence of just how unorganized and overworked DCS was.

At the time of Judy's death, the social worker handling the Barsi case was assigned 67 cases, 27 more cases than what was considered already a full caseload. There were no guidelines determining when a case should be closed. However, Chaffee, the director, claimed that this was because you rely on the professional judgment of the staff. But how can you rely on the staff's judgment when handling almost double the number of cases they should be?

the commission began to fight to have rules put in place to protect children including the formation of an independent review board that would be tasked with monitoring how the child welfare cases in la county were handled chaffee however disagreed stating you had a man who was bound and determined to kill his family and that's what he did unless you had a police officer on the premises with the mother 24 hours a day it would have happened i don't see how this agency could have stopped it

- DCS's job is to protect children. So Chaffee's claim that the agency couldn't have stopped Joseph from killing his family rubbed many people the wrong way. Had more resources, checks and balances been put in place,

it's likely that Judy's case never would have been closed and that she may have escaped her father's wrath. However, it's important to note just how underfunded DCS was and still is. Chafee made it known that it would have taken several years for them to get the funding to hire new caseworkers. At the time of Judy's death, the department was short $9 million. And although that isn't an excuse, it's still a huge problem.

As you can see, with Judy's death came brand new discussions about child welfare and the ethics of child fame as well. It's a discussion that's still taking place today, nearly 40 years after her death. - Judy never got to see the premiere of her most famous roles. "All Dogs Go to Heaven" where she played Anne Marie was released in 1989. She had actually recorded all of her lines before her death. But upon learning that she had passed,

her co-star, Burt Reynolds, requested to redo his lines at the very end of the film. "All Dogs Go to Heaven" ends with Charlie, played by Burt Reynolds, saying goodbye to Anne Marie before he returns to heaven. It's a tear-jerking scene, but knowing that Burt was directly speaking to Judy when he recorded the lines you're about to hear makes the love and grief in them all the more palpable. - Goodbye, buddy.

Oh, Charlie, I'll miss you. Yeah, I'll miss you too, Squeaker. Now you go to sleep. Charlie, will I ever see you again? Sure. Sure you will, kid. You know, goodbyes aren't forever. Then, goodbye, Charlie. I love you. I love you.

There are also reports that it took him 60 plus times to get the recording right because he couldn't stop crying. The Lamb Before Time was also released posthumously. Judy's famous line as Ducky, yep, yep, yep, is forever etched into her headstone at the Hollywood Hill Cemetery. Her headstone reads, quote, in the memory of the lovely Judith Ava Barsi, our concrete angel, yep, yep, yep.

Beside her, her mother's headstone reads: "Wind beneath J.E.B. Judith Eva Barsi's wings." Judy's half-sister, Aggie, passed away after a battle with breast cancer in 2008. Despite 20 years passing, Aggie never stopped thinking about the loss of her sister, with whom she never got to grow old. Throughout her life, Aggie held on to the one thought that helped carry her through the death of someone she loved so dearly.

I truly believe in my heart and this is why I think I can get through this. That Judy now is really in a happy place. And I'll probably start crying. But I do, I believe she's in a really happy place right now. And she always wanted to go somewhere where people were happy.

And so I believe now that she's in her magic kingdom and she's happy. She really is happy. She always wanted to be and life for her has got to be better now. We will be making a donation to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which helps remove people from domestic violence situations, teaches financial literacy, and aims to educate youth on what healthy relationships look like

so that they can prevent domestic violence from carrying on to the next generation. If you or a loved one are struggling with domestic violence, there are resources to help. Social services to assist people in need have greatly changed since the 1980s. The National Domestic Violence Support Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233. Once again, that's 1-800-799-7233.

Their website, thehotline.org, can connect you with local resources that will provide you with safe, confidential assistance. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Murder in America. Courtney and I are currently in New York City, so shout out to all of our listeners in the great Empire State of New York.

This is a crazy story. I had never heard of this before Courtney brought it up to me. But I mean, obviously, when you start getting into the ethics of child stars, I mean, not only do you deal with cases like this and parents that fail their children that they're putting in the Hollywood system, but then you have all the sexual predators and the criminals who specifically get into Hollywood to get access to children. That's a whole different tangent. But yeah, you guys kind of understand my thoughts on that matter, I would say already.

Anyways, if you want bonus content from Murder in America, if you love our show and you want to get bonus episodes, consider joining us on Patreon. If you join us on Patreon, you can get access to, like I said, bonus episodes of the show. You can also get access to every single episode early and ad free. So if you don't like the ads in the show, consider joining us on Patreon. It helps us grow and we have a great community on there. Hopefully y'all on Patreon can all become best friends and maybe one day we can do a big event.

But that's a pipe dream, and that would be cool. Don't forget to follow us at Murder in America on Instagram. Join our Facebook group. And yeah, thank you to every single one of you people out there who listens every week. Courtney and I couldn't be more thankful. We're truly blessed. And yeah, we'll catch y'all on the next one.