Mission Accomplished

But luck would be on their side. Two hours after Western Union opened, Reeves walked in and was immediately arrested.

Gerald Ray Reeves

"I was pretty, pretty happy," Kilcoyne said. "I was actually at home and hadn't slept for a couple of days."

Reeves was extradited to Los Angeles and ordered to provide a DNA sample. Several deputies in the jail had to hold Reeves down to get the sample because he was kicking and screaming. The semen on the jeans found in Finch's apartment would later come back as a match to Reeves.

Reeves stood trial on a charge of first degree murder with the use of a knife during a robbery. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Even to the end, Reeves was quite the actor. Deputy District Attorney Connie Bugh recalled how he sobbed during the closing argument.

"No one's looking at me. And I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, I have the worst case they want me to sit down and shut up,'" she said. "So I stopped and I turn and he's over there sobbing and crying. That's where the con man part of it came. And I was so disgusted, but what could I do?"

Apparently jurors didn't buy his sympathy act. In the end, they saw Reeves for who he was, Bugh said: "A liar, a thief and a murderer. He would do anything for his own purposes, for his own good."