Becoming Evil: Serial Killers (2019) - full transcript

William George Heirens.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

Albert Fish.

Harvey Murray Glatman.

Clifford Robert Olson Jr.

James D'Angelo.

Sheila LaBarre.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer.

Ordinary names but
for serial killers,

ordinary names are
never good enough.

We have to give them names
that capture their dark souls,



names that capture the
evil they have become,

capture the rare unthinkable.

The Lipstick Killer.

The Grim Sleeper.

The Brooklyn Vampire.

The Lonely Hearts Killer.

The Beast of British Columbia.

The Golden State Killer.

The Avenging Angel.

The Milwaukee Cannibal.

- When we hear about somebody
who moves from community

to community, calculating
who to kill next,

which prostitute to get,

these crimes shock
the conscience



because they are so
out of the ordinary.

They are so different
from what, sadly,

we've become quite used to.

The more ordinary rape,
the more ordinary assault,

the more ordinary robbery,
the more ordinary kidnapping.

There are these crimes that
just shock the conscience

and so I fully understand

why the public is
preoccupied with them.

I think they are
so outside the box

that we have this
understandable need

to try to grasp why
would somebody do that?

That's human nature.

Why would somebody take a rifle,

sit behind a barricade, and
wait for innocent victims?

Why would somebody do that?

Why would somebody look
for vulnerable children,

kidnap them, torture them
sexually, and kill them?

It's hard for us
to wrap our minds

around these kinds of crimes.

And it makes
complete sense to me

that the average
human being would be

both fascinated by
this, horrified by this,

mystified by this, and
preoccupied by this.

Why, why, why?

- There's been a
long-held belief in the public

that serial killing is largely
an American phenomenon,

that America with its large
faceless urban centers,

street prostitution, poor
and neglected inner cities,

drug problems, and homelessness

is not only a unique
breeding ground

for murdering psychopaths

but has created a ready made
victim pool for serial killers.

Now we know serial
killing has no boundaries

nor time frames.

- Serial killers have been
active for 1,500 years,

long before the United
States was a country.

According to my research now,

about 63% of global serial
murder is by Americans,

United Kingdom is about 8%,

Germany and France about 4%,

and other nations also
have large percentages.

So it's inaccurate to
say that serial murder

is an American crime.

It happened long before
we were a country

and even though there's
a higher instance

of the crime here
that's reported,

it may be that because of
American police efficiency

and the media, we know more
about serial killers in America

than other countries.

So I think that these crimes

in other countries
are understated.

Particularly in Latin
America and Africa and Asia.

- Often these
early serial killers

were associated with possession
by mythological creatures

such as vampires and werewolves.

Peter Stumpp, a 16th
century German farmer,

accused of witchcraft
and cannibalism,

was also known as the
Werewolf of Bedburg.

The church made sense
of his serial killing

by saying he was an actual
monster and tried him for it.

- So Peter Stumpp did
admit after being tortured

that he had met the
stranger in the woods

and got a magic fur belt that
then turned him into a wolf

and then he had this
ravenous appetites

for tearing his victims
apart and whatnot

and eating parts of them.

Apparently there's one story
that he even ate the brain

of his own son

and that he committed
incest with his daughter

and so she ended up
on trial with him.

She also was tortured and
executed as well as a wolf pack.

But it was the
thinking of the times

in that sort of medieval area.

And those kinds of trials
played to what the church needed

in its propaganda.

I think he was a serial killer.

But we don't know for
sure if the things

that he's said were true

because if somebody's
tortured into saying them,

how much is that
confession actually worth

if you're told this is
what we want you to say

and you're tortured horribly
to say it, usually you will.

- Historically,
women were just as bloodthirsty

as the men.

Reviled as the Blood Countess,

Elizabeth Báthory was
a Hungarian noblewoman

whose serial murdering
spanned two centuries,

from the late 1500s
to her death in 1614.

Guinness World Records
has labeled her

the most prolific female
murderer of all time,

reportedly mutilating and
killing up to 650 young girls.

Of course, the most famous
international serial killer

doesn't come from
medieval Europe

but from Victorian England.

The enigmatic Jack the Ripper.

- Well, there's a few
things about Jack the Ripper

that I think made it
become such a big deal.

I think first of all
you have a big city

and so there's, with press
and all of that attendant.

You had the audacity
of the crimes,

which were often committed
right on the street

where people could
walk by any moment.

Multiple events in a single day.

And then you had the fact
that the killer sent letters

to the press and got
the press involved.

I think those things,

in addition to just the
viciousness and brutality,

made it the huge
deal that it became.

- In the mid-1800s,

England experienced a
rapid influx of poor Irish

and Eastern European
Jewish immigrants.

This led to overcrowding

and terrible working
and housing conditions

in London's East End and the
civil parish of Whitechapel.

Widespread poverty drove
many women to prostitution.

In October 1888,
the police estimated

that there were 1,200
prostitutes in Whitechapel

and about 62 brothels.

The economic problems in
Whitechapel were accompanied

by a steady rise
in social tensions

between the old Londoners
and these newcomers.

In April of 1888,

police began investigating
a series of murders

and violent attacks on women.

A series of brutal attacks

that lasted until
February of 1891.

Known collectively as
the Whitechapel Murders,

there were 11 in all,

of which five are
universally accepted

as the work of a
single serial killer,

called since those dark days
only as Jack the Ripper.

The Jack the Ripper
killings began

on Friday, August 31st, 1888

when police discovered
the slashed body of
Mary Ann Nichols.

She was 43 years old.

Nicknamed Polly,
Mary Ann Nichols had
fallen on hard times.

She drank heavily,
abandoned her family,

and turned to prostitution
in order to make enough money

to pay for a room to sleep in.

At 3:40 in the morning,

London police stumbled
upon Nichols' body.

A maniac had sliced her
throat and made deep gashes

in her abdomen and womb.

The police force and
soon all London were agog

with the brutality
of the murder.

A murder that went
beyond simple killing,

a murder of rage and lust.

The only hope was that this
would be the single act

of a madman.

That hope was dashed
nine days later

when the killer struck again.

His victim this time was
47 year old Annie Chapman,

also known as Dark Annie,
a penniless prostitute.

Annie Chapman roamed London's
East End in Whitechapel,

looking for the few shillings

that would get her a
room for the night.

Early on the morning
of September 8th,

Annie was thrown
out of her lodgings

until she came up
with the money to pay.

A few hours later, she
was discovered by police

at 29 Hanbury Street,
her throat slashed

and her body mutilated the
same as Mary Ann Nichols.

Police had no idea
who their killer was.

They didn't even
have a name for him

until they received a
letter about the murders

bearing the signature
Jack the Ripper.

At last their serial
killer had a name.

All London was up in arms.

Citizens banded together
in vigilance groups,

stalking the streets
for this killer.

Extra police officers
patrolled through Whitechapel

and London's East End,

but their efforts
were to no avail.

On September 30th,
Jack the Ripper struck

with beastly cruelty
and swiftness,

killing twice in as many hours.

The Ripper's first
victim that foggy night

was Elizabeth Stride.

She had been born
in Sweden in 1843.

Tall and good natured,
friends knew her as Long Liz.

She was discovered near midnight

in a yard at Berner Street.

But her body was not
mutilated like the others

and there were doubts at first

if she was part of
the Ripper case.

Then an hour later, police
found the Ripper's fourth prey,

Catherine Eddowes.

She was 46 years old.

Her body, found in Mitre
Square in the city of London,

was mutilated.

Her womb and kidney eviscerated.

There was no doubt

that Catherine Eddowes was
the Ripper's fourth murder.

By now, the streets of
Whitechapel were deserted.

Prostitutes stayed indoors.

No one dared venture out,
especially certain women.

The first four of Jack's
victims had similar backgrounds.

They were close in age,
in their middle 40s.

They had been married or lived
in long term relationships.

Three has children.

All of them worked as
prostitutes either for a living

or occasionally.

As a result, London police and
citizens could see the work

of Jack the Ripper,

a serial killer of
middle aged prostitutes.

But Jack's last victim
did not fit the profile.

There were no murders in October

and nerves started to settle.

Women ventured out.

Their customers came after them.

Everyone thought that perhaps
the Ripper had moved on

or even stopped his
vicious attacks.

But there was one left.

Mary Jane Kelly was a beautiful
24 year old Irish woman

from county Limerick.

She had been married
but her husband died.

They had no children.

Young and good looking,

when Mary turned to
prostitution to pay her bills,

she had no shortage of lovers
who gave her extra money.

But the long month of October
had been hard with no work

and Mary had bills to pay.

At 10:45 on the morning
of November 9th,

her landlord's assistant stopped

by the single room Mary
rented at 13 Miller's Court

to ask for rent.

When he looked inside
through the broken window,

the gory scene that met
his eyes was overwhelming.

Mary's body had been
brutally mutilated.

Police hardened with the
squalor of the East End

had to turn away or
walk out of the room.

In fact, Mary's body
was so badly mangled

that her current
lover, Joe Barnett,

could only identify her by the
color of her hair and eyes.

After the slaying of Mary Kelly,

Jack the Ripper
mysteriously vanished.

The police had as much
information as the public

and only a few tantalizing clues

from the three letters
they had received.

Jack the Ripper was certainly
not the first serial killer

but he was the first to create
a worldwide media frenzy.

This was a time when
newspapers had become

the world's first mass media.

The widespread cheap
news of the day.

The medium of sensationalism
we know in the 21st century.

In fact, it was the
newsmen of London

who popularized the killer's
nickname, Jack the Ripper.

From then on, every
serial killer had an AKA,

an Also Known As.

The Boston Strangler.

The Green River Killer.

The Beltway Snipers, and so on.

The legend of Jack the
Ripper has lived on

into the 21st century.

Perhaps it's because the
identity of the Ripper

has never been revealed.

Jack the Ripper
was never caught.

As a result, the case has
lived on in popular culture

in books and movies.

The first and the best
known was a novel written

by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes,
published in 1913.

The Lodger is the story
of a mysterious guest

who takes a room
in a London home.

It is the perfect metaphor
for the killer among us.

So who was Jack the Ripper?

There are many theories.

It has long been speculated

that Jack the Ripper
had to be a surgeon

because of the way the bodies
of his victims were cut up.

- I've read a few books
on Jack the Ripper

and a number of theories as
to who committed the crimes.

It's always interesting to me

that people propose
members of the royalty

or very well known figures.

I think it's
probably most likely

that the person who
committed the crimes

is somebody that
nobody's mentioned,

that wasn't a
prominent individual,

that was just a person
who did his crimes

and either moved
on or was perhaps,

I mean, there's theories that
he was perhaps incarcerated

or was ill.

Maybe he just felt
the heat was too hot

and he moved somewhere else.

- Could be male, female,
a group, or a nobody.

There are several books
arguing it was a media thing.

Hype and there was no
real single killer.

- One of these
Jack the Ripper theorists

is Dr. Dirk Duran Gibson,

author of many books
on serial killers.

He has a new theory
about Jack the Ripper.

- The Jack the Ripper
murders and the perpetrator

are one of the biggest

and longest lasting
mysteries in crime.

Different people have been
proposed as the killer.

Some were Americans, American
surgeons and businessmen

who happened to have
collections of uteruses,

pickled in jars for
medical purposes

or for their own pleasure.

British royalty
have been mentioned

as a possible perpetrator.

I have a different theory.

At the time of the Ripper
murders in the late 1880s,

Britain was a very
stratified country,

almost a caste system.

The people in the West End lived

in opulent mansions and had
waiters and staffs and maids.

The folks in the East
End struggled to live.

There were things
called dosshouses

where you could
sleep for a night.

And the plight of the poor

in the East End is
hard to describe.

Every spring when the
Thames River flooded,

there were thousands
of drownings

by people who lived
near the Thames River

in basement apartments and their
landlord wouldn't tell them

of the flooding.

And then when the floods came,

they'd lock the door
from the outside

so that their tenants would die,

they'd get all their material,

and they'd clean the place up,

do it again the next year.

George Bernard Shaw has written

about the plight of the poor.

There was commission
after commission,

Parliament did studies,
and nothing happened.

My theory is the Jack the
Ripper crimes were designed

to publicize the
plight of the poor.

At this time in history,
there was a huge poverty issue

in Great Britain
in the East End.

There was anti-crown feeling.

Many folks didn't like the
Queen and the monarchy system.

There was also an event called
the Trafalgar Square Massacre

where a bunch of poor
people held a march

to ask for food and the response
of the British government

was to send troops in on
horses and trample people.

And lots of people died,
lots of folks were hurt

for daring to say
please give us food.

The man who was put in charge
of the CID of Great Britain

and Justification Division
was a former general.

And many of the Ripper
letters mention him by name.

His name was Warren.

So it's my theory that
the crimes were committed

as a media event to
draw attention to the
plight of the poor

and it worked.

- Many serial
killers would follow the profile

of Jack the Ripper.

Sadistic killers who murdered

and mutilated the
bodies of prostitutes.

Jack the Ripper was the
first and most publicized

of the international
serial killers

but he certainly
wasn't the last.

It should come as no surprise

that America's neighbor to
the north has not been saved

from this monstrous crime.

Indeed, the most barbaric
of all serial murderers

is the man or woman
who kills children.

Such was Canada's
Clifford Robert Olson.

AKA The Beast of
British Columbia,

who became Canada's
national monster.

A fiend who mutilated and
killed at least 11 children

and young adults between the
ages of nine and 18 years old

in the early 1980s.

- You don't usually
find adult men

who just kill children.

Is it possible?

Certainly, anything's possible.

That's usually not
their primary focus.

Sometimes a serial killer
might kill one or two children

while they're killing adult
women or killing adult men,

but you don't usually find
only children, very rare.

I have a case in Canada
where he killed 11 teenagers.

And when I say children,
I'm thinking about under 12.

Clifford Olson, again,
he killed 11 children

with a hammer.

And I did actually
interview him as well.

What was he like?

- Not very smart.

Not very
intelligent at all

but very, very dangerous.

Not to me dangerous but
to teenagers obviously.

He had a terrible childhood

and he was simply acting
out his own angst.

And he liked attention,
because he was nobody.

He felt like he was nobody.

He actually asked me one time

if I would write
a book about him.

And he sent me this letter,

Doctor, would you please
write a book about me?

So I thought about it
and I wrote back to him.

I said, well,
there's two reasons

why I'm not gonna
write a book about you.

One, you're old news.

Okay, you're old news.

Two, actually there
were three reasons.

Two, nobody knows
you here in the US,

no one knows of
your case in Canada.

And the truth is, I underlined
this, you're nobody.

I underlined it, I said to him.

He was so upset.

Yeah, he tried to get
me but no, no, no.

- Olson tried to
solve his lack of notoriety

in the serial killer
world in an unusual way.

- Several years ago, I spoke
with a serial killer in Canada,

Clifford Olson, who
had raped, tortured,

and murdered 11 children
in British Columbia.

He called himself the
British Columbia Monster

with some pride and he started
confessing to me murders

that I knew he couldn't
have possibly committed.

But he wanted to be kind of
the Heisman Trophy winner

of serial murder.

You know, suggesting

that he had amassed
the largest body count

in history, so he
was taking credit

for the crimes
committed in Seattle

by the Green River Killer
who eventually was caught

and confessed to having
killed 48 prostitutes.

He was confessing to
crimes all over the country

in the United States
and in his own country.

- Olson was born
on New Year's Day in 1940.

A troubled child, he was
constantly getting into fights.

As an adult, he was
in and out of prison.

And by the time of his
serial killing spree,

Olson was a middle
aged habitual criminal.

Yet by many accounts, he was
a rarity, a stupid psychopath.

Olson's first victim was
found on Christmas Day 1980.

Christine Weller, an
innocent 12 year old girl,

had been strangled
and mutilated.

Then when Colleen Johnsrude, 16,

was found dead that same spring,

it became apparent
to Vancouver police

that the unspeakable was
happening in their city.

A child serial killer
was on the loose.

May brought the disappearance

of Sandra Wolfsteiner, also 16.

And in June, 13
year old Ada Court

and nine year old Susan
Parington went missing.

All of southern British Columbia

as well as Vancouver
was terrorized.

In July 1981, six more victims
followed in quick succession.

All of them raped and strangled
or bludgeoned to death.

Among them, Judy Kozma, 14,

and Raymond King Jr., 15.

The missing children
were becoming a blight

on one of Canada's
fairest cities.

Police finally focused on Olson.

He was put under
heavy surveillance

but when it appeared
he had nothing to hide,

the surveillance was lifted.

The huge mistake allowed Olson

to murder three more
youngsters in late July

before being arrested
when he attempted

to pick up yet another
pair of young girls.

Olson was convicted
of 11 murders

but this figure may
understate the total number

of his victims by a
considerable margin.

In September 2011,
it was revealed Olson
had terminal cancer

and had been transferred to
a hospital in Laval, Quebec.

Canada's most brutal monster
died on September 30th, 2011,

at the age of 71.

Besides his desire to become
the greatest serial killer

of all time, his motive
is still uncertain.

He claimed that the
effects of prison

made him more dangerous.

He stated that after
courts kept him in prison

for 30 years and
then allowed him out,

society was responsible
for his crimes.

He declared "They never
should have let me out."

10 years after Olson's
horrendous crimes held Vancouver

in a grip of terror, Canada's
buddy kinky sex killers,

Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka,

started their vicious
killing spree.

Paul Bernardo was born
on August 27th, 1964.

He was described as an adorable
baby with bright blue eyes,

thick wavy blond hair,
and a cherubic smile.

He was a Boy Scout
and a good student.

However, he ran away at
the age of five or six

and returned home
several days later.

No one ever asked him
where he had been.

He did not socialize
with other children

and was subject to
violent temper tantrums.

After high school, he attended
the Scarborough branch

of the University of Toronto.

Karla Leanne Homolka was
born on May 4th, 1970.

Her father was a Czech
immigrant and salesman.

Her mother worked at St.
Catherine's Shaver Hospital.

Though she had a consistently
acrimonious relationship

with her parents, she had
an enjoyable childhood.

She made friends easily and
was a very good student.

She did, however, have
the disconcerting habit

of yelling fuck at
inappropriate times

and during her teen years,
angst led to self-mutilation.

She intentionally slit her
wrists with a small knife

a couple of times.

Bernardo and Homolka,

just a couple of young
Canadians ready to join paths

in serial killing.

It began when at age 17, Homolka
attended a pet convention

in Toronto, where she met
23 year old Paul Bernardo.

They had sex the day they met.

Besides an interest in pets,

they found they
shared something else.

Sadomasochistic fantasies.

It started with rape but
quickly led to murder.

Murders that took place
between December 23rd, 1990

and April 16th, 1992.

- The crimes of Paul
Bernardo and Karla Homolka

were among the most disgusting
of the serial killer cases.

Paul Bernardo, before his
serial murder career began,

was known as the
Scarborough Rapist.

He raped approximately 350
women over a series of years.

When he and Karla got
together, he was a macho man

and Karla was kind
of unconfident.

So for Christmas one year,
Karla gave Paul her sister

as a sex toy.

They took her downstairs
to the basement

and they gave her food
laced with Halcion

and then they put a cloth
saturated with ether

over her face.

Before Paul could
rape her though,

she choked on her own vomit.

And I think that level of
deplorability is not common

in all serial murder cases.

Another thing they did that
was especially terrible is

when they caught a woman,
they would kidnap her,

take her home, rape
her and torture her,

and then make her watch
TV coverage of the crimes.

And I consider that to be a
psychological sadistic act

that is not often found
in serial murder cases.

They turned on each
other after the event

and Karla pled to a lesser crime

and her testimony put Paul away.

But I think when you look
at all the things they did,

they were just horrible,
horrible people

and unusually vicious
serial killers.

- Like other
buddy serial killing teams,

one is usually dominant.

- It is believed that
Paul was the leader,

that he attracted
Karla, Karla wanted him

and would do
anything to get him.

As in many cases, the
exact victimage is unknown.

The best guess is
four or five victims.

- On June 29th, 1991,

just 14 days after
murdering Leslie Mahaffy,

Bernardo and Homolka were
married in an elaborate wedding

at a church in Niagara
on the Lake, Ontario.

The guests were served
a lavish sit down meal

after the couple
exchanged their vows.

Vows which included, at
Bernardo's insistence,

Homolka promising to love,
honor, and obey her new husband.

They looked like the
perfect loving couple

but they were anything but.

Eventually, the Canadian
media and public played a role

in this deadly couple's capture.

- Many of times, if there
aren't leads in a case,

publicity will
bring in enough tips

that someone can be caught.

That happened the case of Paul
Bernardo and Karla Homolka,

who were escaping
with their crimes

until the police broadcast
a TV show about this

and a couple witnesses
realized what they knew

and the salience of their
information of the crimes

and they called in.

- Recognizing
the writing was on the wall,

Homolka confessed
to their evil deeds.

Bernardo was arrested
shortly after.

When law enforcement
searched Bernardo's home,

they found a diary where he had
memorialized his evil deeds.

Having struck a
plea deal in 1993,

Karla Homolka was released
from prison 12 years later

on July 4th, 2005.

Paul Bernardo is
serving a life sentence.

Many claim their punishments
were not nearly enough

for the crimes carried
out by this deadly couple.

South of the United States,

Latin America has no
shortage of serial killers.

One of the worst was
Angel Maturino Reséndiz,

also known as the
Railroad Killer.

An itinerant Mexican
serial killer suspected

in as many as 23 murders
across the United States

and Mexico during the 1990s.

Some of his crimes also
involved sexual assault.

Reséndiz became known
as the Railroad Killer

because most of his
murders were committed

near the train boxcars
he used to travel

across the US and Mexico.

- Angel Reséndiz,
the Railroad Killer,

who I interviewed about three
months before he was executed,

he claimed to hear
voices in his head.

And I said, well, how did
you pick your victims?

And he said, well, I knew
who my victims were gonna be

because I had a tingling
across the back of my neck.

And I said, well, what
did that tell you?

And he said that either
means they were involved

in Satanic cult rituals or
they had performed an abortion

sometime in the last two years.

So as far as he was concerned,
that was setting him off

and he was feeling
this tingling behind,

which basically shows that
he was partially psychotic

if not more psychotic
than most people think.

Because I do think
in my interview,

I only had about
an hour and a half,

but I got the impression he
believed what he was telling me.

He had no reason to lie.

He was basically waiving
all of his appeals.

He was gonna be executed.

And he talked about the abuse
that he'd been involved in

but he also talked
about the voices

and he also talked
about this tingling.

And I don't believe
that happened.

A rational person wouldn't.

But I believe he believes it,

which means he was
mentally ill, clinically.

- Angel
Maturino Reséndiz was born

in Mexico in 1960.

Faced with a rough childhood
filled with physical abuse,

he ran away from
home at a young age

and lived on the street.

At the age of 16,
Reséndiz started a pattern

that he would follow for
his entire adult life.

He would enter the US illegally,

serve time in US prisons
for crimes such as assault

and car theft, eventually
be deported back to Mexico,

and then illegally
reenter the US again.

Reséndiz' first known killings
were the 1986 double homicide

of a homeless couple
in San Antonio, Texas.

From then on, the sound of a
train whistle struck terror

throughout the country.

Five years later, Reséndiz
claimed his final two victims

in Gorham, Illinois.

An 80 year old man and
his 52 year old daughter.

He might have continued
his serial murdering

except that his
fingerprints were found

at the scene of the crime.

Immediately, the
FBI added Reséndiz

to its top 10 most wanted list.

On July 13th, 1999, a Texas
Ranger met Reséndiz on a bridge

connecting El Paso,
Texas and Juarez, Mexico.

Reséndiz surrendered.

The Railroad Killer's
rampage was over.

Reséndiz, who was suspected
of killing at least 25 people

in five states and Mexico,

was executed at the
age of 46 in 2006.

However, between 1969 and 1980,

with over hundreds
of girl victims

between nine and 12 years old,

the worst serial
killer in modern times

was South America's
Pedro Alonso López,

the Monster of the Andes.

- He's believed to
have killed 350 kids.

350, and they found the victims.

They found 'em in mass graves,
found 'em in single graves.

He was picking up kids

while their parents were
playing a squeegee game

on the streets and
trying to earn some money

by cleaning windows
on cars that drove by.

And he posed as a priest,
he posed as a counselor,

he posed as a friend
of the family.

You know, he posed as
a whole range of people

who could basically
lure this child away

from where he was
supposed to be playing

or where he was supposed to be.

- I talked last week
with a journalist

from an Australian
newspaper about this case.

Why, I don't know, it
wasn't an anniversary.

Pedro López was one of the
saddest serial murder cases

that I'm aware of, both
because of the terrible nature

of his life and
the terrible nature

of what he did to people.

He was born the seventh
child of 15 people.

His dad wasn't around,
his mom was a prostitute,

and supposedly
with a bad temper.

When he was eight,
his mom thought

that he was touching
his sister's breasts.

He was kicked out of the house.

So at the age of eight, he
was fending for himself.

Then he met a kindly gentleman
who offered to help him,

but the gentleman
was a pederast.

Pedophile.

Took him home, abused
him, and the boy escaped.

Then he went to Bogota,

where an American
missionary family found him

and they put him in school.

He was very happy until at
the age of I think 11 or 12,

he was kicked out of the school,

supposedly for stealing money.

But there's a thread
of thought that says

that he was molested
by a teacher there.

So at this point, he's
on the street again.

He gets active in auto theft

and gets arrested
and put in prison

and was gang raped his
first day in prison

by a gang of four men.

So his early life
was not very good.

He had a terrible life
and it's believed,

in fact he said at one point
that he was getting revenge

on all the people who hurt him.

He killed three of
the four men in prison

and got an extra two years.

Then he was released
from prison.

When he did, he went to Peru.

And this is where the
story gets strange.

Supposedly, he killed
100 kids in Peru,

100 more in Ecuador, and
100 more in Colombia.

Before he lured them
away, he dug a grave

in an isolated area.

Then in a strange
aspect of this crime,

he'd keep the girl alive
or boy, mostly girls.

He'd keep 'em alive until dawn.

He wanted to see the
look on their faces

when he killed them.

Then after they were dead,

he had a tea party
with the deceased.

He had little cups and saucers

and convinced himself
that his victims liked it,

they were enjoying the party,

when in fact they
most likely were not.

- That man is now out on parole.

He did approximately one
month for every victim.

He's now released again.

Is he gonna kill again?

What's gonna stop him?

- Tragically in 1998,

the Monster of the
Andes was declared sane

and released on $50 bail.

More than two decades later,

no knows if López
is dead or alive.

Traveling across the pond
from North America to Europe,

the pattern of serial
murderers has repeated itself.

Repeated itself because
since the mid 19th century,

like America, Europe had
become industrialized,

urbanized, creating large
victim pools for serial killers.

Victim pools made up of
prostitutes, poor immigrants,

and poverty stricken
families and children.

A serial murder case in
point, the Yorkshire Ripper.

In the late 1970s, a serial
killer the press dubbed

the Yorkshire Ripper
terrorized England.

Just like his predecessor
90 years earlier,

this Yorkshire Ripper
cleverly eluded the police

while he committed
his vicious crimes.

But unlike Jack the
Ripper, we know his name.

Peter Sutcliffe.

- Peter Sutcliffe was known

as the modern day
Jack the Ripper.

He had an extensive career,
a 12 year long career,

which is unusual.

And as a result of that,

there was a substantial
investigation.

His MO, he was a truck driver.

His MO was to strike someone
on the back of the head

with his sledgehammer and
then when they were stunned,

he would strangle them.

Then he would rape the
victim, rape the dead body,

and kinda discard it at
the place, didn't do a lot.

He, interestingly enough,

his career almost
ended before it began.

Before his first
successful murder,

he tried to murder a
woman who stopped him

and got his license number and
the police came to his house

and investigated
and he admitted it.

He said that he didn't
know why he did it

and he's glad the
woman didn't die,

but he wouldn't do it again,

promised he wouldn't
do it again.

And it's interesting that
happens again and again

in serial murder cases.

The killers are
apprehended early

and then law
enforcement let them go

and their career continues.

- And
continue it did.

In October 1975,
Sutcliffe attacked

and killed 28 year old Wilma
McCann, a mother of four.

Sutcliffe struck McCann in the
head with a ball-peen hammer

and viciously
stabbed her 15 times.

His appetite whet, the killer
attacked again and again,

killing at least 13 people
and perhaps as many as 30.

Mostly prostitutes, but not all.

It wasn't until
January 2nd, 1981,

that the Yorkshire Ripper's
deadly reign finally ended.

- He said at trial
that he was sent by God

to get rid of bad
women, of illicit women,

and that was the
motivation for the crime.

He also said though that he
was humiliated by a prostitute

when he was younger,

when he couldn't successfully
have sex with her,

so he began his career
to avenge himself

on the women that
had mocked him.

- Another European
Jack the Ripper wannabe

was Poland's Red
Spider, Lucian Staniak.

Born in 1941, little
is known about his life

because he did his killing

behind the Cold
War's Iron Curtain.

But like Ted Bundy, he
acquired his female victims

through charm and
romantic overtures.

Then he killed, raped,
and mutilated them,

sometimes in that order.

His serial killing reign of
terror lasted for three years

between 1964 and 1967.

- Lucian Staniak was an Eastern
European Cold War era killer

and we know very little
about these crimes

because they were suppressed

and the media would not
give any information.

Lucian Staniak was privileged

in that he had a very good job.

He was a translator for
a publishing company

and as a result, he had
a special train pass

that allowed him to
travel all over Poland

on the rail system.

And that was his MO.

He'd see a woman on the train,
approach her, charm her,

and when they got to
their destination,

they go off for some privacy,

at which point her would
strangle them, kill them,

rape them, and
mutilate the bodies.

He was an especially
unpleasant serial killer.

His victimology included
two types of people.

Besides the train passengers,
he was a member of an art club

and it's believed he killed
two members of the art club

who were sisters.

Which is very rare.

Very seldom in serial
murder history,

do you have members of the
same family being killed.

Unlike mass murder, where
it's kind of common.

He was apprehended when a
special task force was created

and there's a belief that
serial killers won't kill

in their hometown,
they kill elsewhere.

So the investigation
centered on places,

where the bodies were
found were discounted

and the murders were committed,

and they went to big cities

where victims
hadn't been located.

And he was one of
1,000 people or so

who were identified in this way.

When police searched his
locker at the art club,

they found a painting of
a woman being tortured

and being killed, which
led them to interview him.

Another aspect of Staniak
is he was a writer.

Like I mentioned before, many
serial killers are motivated

by communication and
they need to communicate.

He wrote five
letters to newspapers

and I'd like to share
with you a brief glimpse

of these five publications.

At the first murder,
which was July 4th, 1964,

he wrote a newspaper

and said "There's no
happiness without tears,

"no life without death.

"Beware, I'm going
to make you cry."

Three weeks later,
he killed again

and wrote a letter
to another newspaper

saying "I picked a
juicy flower in Olstyn

"and I shall again
somewhere else.

"There is no holiday
without a funeral."

At the final killing,
he slipped a note

through the slot of a mail car,

different than his previous
submissions to newspapers,

and this note simply said
"On the day before Christmas,

"you see I've done it again."

So Staniak is an
example of a killer

for whom the communication
attended to the crime

may have been the
motivation behind the crime

or at least the prime impetus.

- Staniak, who killed
at least 14 innocent women,

was called the Red Spider

because of his red
spidery handwriting.

Today, even with the
fall of the Iron Curtain,

it isn't known if he is dead
or behind bars somewhere.

The Staniak case
reflects the difficulty

of tracking serial murder
in much of the world.

Poor police work,
nonexistent records,

and an unwillingness to claim

or even recognize serial killing

as a problem in the country.

However, one interesting
distant international case

points to a serial killer

who may have been trained
to kill by his country.

Yoshio Kodaira, Japan's most
notorious serial killer.

Kodaira, a Japanese sailor,

was one of the few
ex-military men who said

that the Japanese military
had committed atrocities

before and during the war.

Indeed, as a sailor,
Kodaira had raped

and murdered Chinese civilians

in the years leading
up to World War II.

After the war, it is believed
that between May 25th, 1945

and August 6th, 1946,
in Tochigi in Tokyo,

Kodaira raped and
murdered at least 10 women

in age from 15 to 32.

- Yoshio Kodaira was a
post-World War II killer.

And it's interesting,

at the same time he
was committing crimes,

there was a second
Japanese serial killer

with the same exact MO.

And we know this
because at trial,

Kodaira admitted the
crimes he committed

but vehemently denied his
guilt in the other crimes.

Then later, the other
criminal was apprehended.

Kodaira had a checkered past.

He was a Japanese
sailor in World War II,

he committed war crimes.

He raped it's believed
between 40 and 60 civilians.

He killed six unarmed
Chinese soldiers.

And in the most horrible act,

he stabbed a pregnant
woman, killed her,

and took out the fetus
and killed the fetus.

He also killed
his father-in-law,

which wasn't part of
the serial murders

but happened much
earlier in his life.

And in post-World War II Japan,

there was a lot of shortages.

The black market
was the only place

you could get certain
kind of goods.

And he was positioned in a store

where he had access
to things like this.

So his MO was to lure
women to isolated areas

in the hopes they would
obtain commodities from him

or products that he could
never get otherwise.

His downfall was interesting.

He gave his last victim's
parents his name.

He went to the house
to pick her up,

which is unusual
for serial killers,

and told her parents who he was.

So when the girl
didn't come home,

they knew who to come
after and who to apprehend.

- Kodaira
was executed by hanging

on October 5th, 1949.

One thing is certain in the
study of modern serial killing.

As the rest of the world
continues to industrialize

and urbanize, serial
murder will be on the rise.