One detail keeps the Hi-Fi murders in true crime discussions: the killers tried to poison their hostages with Drano because they had seen it work in a movie. The method failed, which made the crime longer and more brutal than they planned.
Where the idea came from
In the months before the robbery, Pierre and Andrews wanted a way to kill quietly and quickly. They repeatedly watched Magnum Force, the 1973 Dirty Harry sequel. In one scene, a character is forced to drink Drano and drops dead almost instantly. The two decided this would be an efficient way to kill the people in the store.
What actually happened
Liquid drain cleaner does not kill the way the film showed. Forced on the hostages and told it was vodka with sleeping pills, the Drano caused blisters, burned mouths and throats, and peeled skin around the lips, but it did not cause quick death. The attackers tried to tape the victims’ mouths shut, but the blisters kept the tape from sticking.
Orren Walker survived in part because of how the poison behaved. Given the Drano last, he let it run out of his mouth instead of swallowing and faked the convulsions he saw in the others. When the poison did not work, Pierre shot the victims, which is how three of them died.
Why it matters to the case
The Drano plan is more than a grim detail. At trial, prosecutors used it to show premeditation: the men had planned the killings in advance and chose a method, which supported the first-degree murder charges. The half-empty Drano bottle, recovered from the storage unit with the stolen stereo gear, was physical evidence tying them to the crime.
Related: the full timeline and the trial.