A woman has exposed her chilling encounter with sexual predator and murderer Victor Paleologus, known for luring several women by offering to make their Hollywood dreams come true by posing as a film producer.
In 2003, Victor wandered around the Century City mall in Los Angeles looking for a beautiful woman who would soon fall victim to his deadly plot.
That’s when she met 21-year-old Kristine ‘Kristi’ Johnson and convinced her to audition to become the next Bond Girl. However, just two weeks after meeting Victor, hikers found Kristi’s lifeless body in a nearby ravine.
Nearly three decades later, Kristi’s story will appear in a new episode of Dateline airing Friday night, with another woman speaking out about her chilling interaction with Victor.
In an exclusive clip shared with DailyMail.com, key witness Alice Walker speaks for the first time on the NBC show in an interview with Keith Morrison.
Alice Walker has exposed her chilling encounter with sexual predator and murderer Victor Paleologus, known for luring several women into traps.
Alice remembers the disturbing encounter she had with Victor and how she later discovered that the killer was taking advantage of her at the same time as Kristi.
She said that during their “very strange” meeting she “walked in circles” and then Victor made her “cross her legs and then… put one ankle over the other ankle.”
“And it was very important that my ankles were very, very tight,” he added.
Hearing her story, Keith replies, “That’s strange,” and Alice repeats, “Very strange.”
In off-screen, the journalist adds: ‘But it’s not scary… yet. Then Victor told him that he would have to come back when the director was available, and he did so a few days later.
‘But there was still no director and this time, it became a bit strange. When he told her to try on the tie he had brought.
Alice then continues her story: ‘So what I did was he put the tie on and I put my thumb in front of the knot so he couldn’t tie a real tie. And I just kept my finger there…’
Keith asks, ‘Did you really do that?’
Now, a new episode of the podcast will detail another woman’s terrifying brush with death (the building where Alice met Victor).
The episode trailer begins with an interview with Alice and Keith.
She replied: ‘Yes, I took off my tie and left. He said, “Well, let’s try again in a day or two. I’ll see what the schedule is.”
The clip also shows the place where Victor lured Alice.
Friday night’s episode will also feature interviews with another key witness, Cathy DeBuono.
In 2003, Victor wandered around the Century City mall in Los Angeles looking for a beautiful woman who would soon become a victim of his deadly plot.
Alice’s shocking story became even creepier when she discovered what the man she had met had done to Kristi.
Before she was found dead, Kristi’s roommate told investigators that the aspiring star “was very excited when she came home because she was going to audition for a James Bond clip.”
Former prosecutor Ronald E. Bowers shed more light on the details of Kristi’s exchange with the man she met at the mall, previously telling Oxygen’s Real Murders Of Los Angeles: “They told her if she had a white blouse, miniskirt black, nylon stockings and stilettos. Heels, that would really impress.
The man also told Kristi that the job would pay him $100,000.
Kristi had worked as a makeup artist but when she went to the supposed audition she was working at a cell phone company, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On February 15, he drove to the Hollywood Hills in his white Mazda Miata and stopped to ask directions.
Kristi’s mother, Terry Hall, reported her daughter missing after she didn’t show up for work two days later.
To find out what happened to the 21-year-old, a hotline was set up for the public to call with any information about Kristi.
Kristine ‘Kristi’ Johnson (pictured with her mother Terry Hall) was just 21 when a stranger approached her in a Los Angeles shopping center and told her he was a film producer looking for the next Bond girl.
He arranged to meet her in the Hollywood Hills for the audition. A little more than two weeks later, hikers found Kristi’s body in a nearby ravine. She appears in the photo from left to right when she was a child.
Hundreds of calls came in, including from three women, one of whom was Susan Murphy, who recalled a story similar to Kristi’s.
Susan told investigators that she had been at the same shopping center where Kristi had been on January 24 when she was sought out by a man who asked her to audition for a Bond movie.
Another detail that stood out was that Susan revealed that she was also asked to wear an identical outfit that Kristi described to her roommate.
Wary of the situation, Susan took her boyfriend along when she met him for the second time the next day.
When asked to identify himself, the man, who would eventually be identified by Susan as Victor, ran away.
Other women who came forward had experiences almost identical to Susan and Kristi’s, and their stories matched their pattern of criminal records.
For example, in 1989, Victor, posing as a Columbia Records executive, attacked Christine Kludjian, then 21, in a hotel room after he invited her to a music industry party.
She was able to escape and Victor received three years’ probation for false imprisonment for violence.
Tragically for Kristi (seen as a child), almost three weeks after meeting Victor, hikers found her body in a ravine in the Hollywood Hills on March 3.
Almost a decade later, in 1998, he was accused of attempted rape of a 24-year-old woman, luring her back with the opportunity to appear in a Bond film. He was sentenced to prison but was released on parole in 2003 after spending three years and five months behind bars, the LA Times reported.
But, tragically for Kristi, almost three weeks after meeting Victor, hikers found his body in a ravine in the Hollywood Hills on March 3.
They had tied her hands and ankles and strangled her.
Victor avoided the possibility of the death penalty when he pleaded guilty in 2006 to Kristi’s murder.
Instead, the then 44-year-old man was sentenced to between 25 years and life in prison.
In July 2023, a group organized to honor the 21-year-old, known as Justice For Kristi, campaigned to block the possible release on parole of her killer.
Nearly 20 years after being incarcerated, Victor was scheduled for a parole hearing.
‘Paleologus does not deserve freedom and a second chance to endanger another innocent victim. “Prior to Kristi’s murder, he demonstrated how chronically dangerous he is when in 1998 he was convicted of raping Heather Maher,” the group said in a statement at the time.
“He served five years in the Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo and was released on January 20, 2003.”
Ultimately, the killer waived his right to a parole hearing and will not be eligible again until 2025.
“What a weight has been lifted off my back,” Kristi’s mother, Terry, told Oxygen.com after hearing the news.
“It’s interesting, sometimes in life you don’t realize how much of a burden you carry until it’s lifted off your shoulders.”
Friday’s special episode of Dateline titled The Girl With The Hibiscus Tattoo will air on NBC at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT.
