00:00:05
in the early hours of New Year's Day in
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1981 police in Saint Paul Minnesota
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received an hysterical 9-1-1 call
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the anonymous call was made by her
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attacker and it was to be the first of
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many she was badly beaten with a tire
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iron left for dead in the snow when I
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went there the next morning the blood
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was still in the snow and we thought
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there's no way this person who'd been so
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viciously beaten could have survived
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the assailant soon became known as the
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weepy voice killer his Eerie tones were
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so distinctive that he was quickly
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linked to many more attacks
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you knew that it was the same person
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I've listened to those calls for many
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times over the years so you know it's
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the same person making these phone calls
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[Music]
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I think he was looking for absolution
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and he never got it
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he had confessed his sins but there was
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no forgiveness for Paul Stefani the
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weepy voice killer who'd become one of
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the world's most evil killers
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[Music]
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[Music]
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between January 1981 and August 1982
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police in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis
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and Saint Paul received a series of
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disturbing Anonymous phone calls from a
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serial killer
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each time they were linked to the
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discovery of a woman's body
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I can't stop myself
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there is a sense of urgency of the
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danger that he was out there and also a
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sense that he wanted to be caught
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because I can't remember a time in 40
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Years of covering crime of somebody
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calling up and leading police that way
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to the victims and seeming hysterical
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there is a lot of fear in the community
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there is a sense that this would be Saul
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quickly that the voice should be
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recognized
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but then nothing happened
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the now Infamous whiny voice in the
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9-1-1 calls caused him to be dubbed the
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weepy voiced killer he brutally attacked
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five women
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you find me I just passed somebody with
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a nice dick
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this isn't somebody who wants to be
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caught it's somebody who wants status
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who wants recognition
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he is absolutely desperate to be seen as
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a serial killer he wants a recognition
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of being a serial killer that's
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something that's quite important to him
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this killer Story begins in Minnesota
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Paul Michael Stefani was born on the 8th
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of September
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1944. Paul Stefani was born in a smaller
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town down in southern Minnesota by
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Austin
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it's my understanding that his parents
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divorced and that he had a very strict
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stepfather who was a devout Catholic
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it's quite interesting looking at the
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religious background of serial killers
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because it tends to affect them in one
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of two ways on the one hand they might
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use the kind of values that they've
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grown up with as a justification for
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their behavior on the other hand their
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failure to live up to those values might
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be something that they feel
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fundamentally ashamed of and it's that
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shame that actually drives their
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offending
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he seemed to have a strong bond with his
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mother there's a strength there so
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there's nothing that I could find that
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made any sense that that could even
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explain why he did what he did
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I think there would have been quite
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clear boundaries around what's
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acceptable what's not acceptable ideas
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about Sin
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Stefani had been diagnosed with epilepsy
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as a child and when he kept losing his
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jobs as an adult he blamed the condition
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nevertheless Heath did appear to settle
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down he moved out of Austin to Saint
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Paul and by the age of 26 had met his
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wife in 1970 he got married
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so far so normal
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didn't last all that long they divorced
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five years later
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the 1970s there's still quite a bit of
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stigma around divorce especially within
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Catholic communities so I think this on
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his part perhaps would have been seen as
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something of a failure so I think it's
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quite an interesting element of his
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background
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sometime after his divorce Stefani went
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off the rails and showed his violent
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side for the first time the details of
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the incident are unknown but Stefani was
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convicted of assault meaning his name
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was now on a list of known violent
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offenders
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Stefani soon moved on and began a
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relationship with a Syrian girl who he
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reportedly hoped to marry they were
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pretty close dating for four years and
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then she leaves in front and Reigns
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marries that she had no control over
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Stefani struggled with the rejection
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when he lost yet another job this time
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at momberg manufacturing things were
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spiraling out of his control
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something is burning at him inside
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something is eating at Paul Stefani
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in the early hours of New Year's Day
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1981 things took a sudden and Sinister
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turn as the night's celebrations wound
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down 36 year olds tafani encountered a
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20 year old student Karen potak
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she was walking home when she suddenly
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was attacked right off Pierce Butler
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Road a main road in Saint Paul
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it's absolutely vicious attack
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callus without warning and for no reason
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at 3am on New Year's Day
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the police instant Paul receive a phone
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call an anonymous phone call
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[Music]
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Nuremberg Manufacturing Company
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can you tell me what happened Financial
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the phone call was a hysterical person
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it wasn't clear if it was a man or a
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woman
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this is incredibly deliberate on his
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part He is wanting to appear to be
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somebody who can't help what he's doing
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he thinks she's dead she's certainly
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left if I did
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and he's consumed you've got two
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conflicting emotions inside Stefani one
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an absolute desire to hurt women two
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Fierce guilt about having done it
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[Music]
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this is urgency get there help her and a
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ambulance was sent there and that's
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where they found
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Karen potak near death in the snow
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she'd been hit sorry for the head with a
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tire iron multiple times to the extent
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that some of her brain was actually
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exposed to to the elements so this is a
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really really significant attack and
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it's one that shows us that the person
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who carried it out wanted to kill the
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victim
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the location of Stefani's first attack
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would later form a key part of the
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investigation as police worked to
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identify him she's found in a very
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significant place
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near some railway tracks near a factory
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in which Stefani once worked
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it was the momberg manufacturing company
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where Stefani had lost his job
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he would later claim this upset to be
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the reason he attacked that's something
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about serial killers too when they first
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began killing people and of course but
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potaki didn't kill her but he left it
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for Dead really they go to places that
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are familiar with them at the beginning
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of their assaults
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Karen was taken to hospital but was not
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expected to survive
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when I went there the next morning the
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blood was still in the snow and we
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thought there's no way this person who'd
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been so viciously beaten could have
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survived
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in fact miraculously Karim is not dead
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although perhaps
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mercifully she doesn't remember anything
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about the attack and she certainly
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doesn't know who's attacked her
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please attributed that to the the
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cognitive damage that was done to her in
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the assault she was never the same after
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that
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Paul Stefani has got away
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with what he thought was murder but in
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fact wasn't
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I expected two things that Karen potak
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would not survive which he did
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and I expected this case to be wrapped
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up right away they would catch his
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person man or woman but nothing happened
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things were quiet for five months but on
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the 3rd of June Stefani is soon to be
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Infamous weepy Voice Was Heard again
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oh yeah
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I can't stop myself
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[Music]
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he sounds quite childlike and pathetic
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essentially
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there's an emphasis on poor me feel
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sorry for me I can't help myself so this
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is very deliberate on his part this is
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all about him
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30 minutes after the 9-1-1 call a grim
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Discovery was made in bushes by a
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freeway in Saint Paul
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some boys were all playing and a ball
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went over to the edge of where they were
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playing and they they saw they thought
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it was a dummy laying in the grass kind
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of hidden and they realized it was an
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actual person and a body and they called
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the police
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in the bushes it's things that we
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discard it's things that we don't want
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anymore it's things that we would
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consider to be trash and that's very
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much how Stefani saw this victim
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the body was that of a woman wearing a
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red jacket
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she had no identification but did have a
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single key on her person
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the key was to the Greyhound bus locker
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in Saint Paul by Mickey's Diner
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pretty iconic location in Saint Paul
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through there they found some of her
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identification and were able to figure
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out it was Kimberly Compton
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working backwards at police and found
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out she had just arrived that that day
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from Pepin Wisconsin he said to tell her
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family that she was brutally assaulted
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and murdered
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so at this point we didn't have any idea
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of who or why or what
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what had happened
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that day gone to some pool on the
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Greyhound bus
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to start a new life after leaving
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Wisconsin
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this was going to be a clean slate this
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was the beginning of a new life and
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sadly it was the end
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tracking Kimberly's last movements
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police discovered that after arriving at
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the bus station Kimberly had gone to a
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nearby Diner where she'd met a friendly
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local who seemed Keen to welcome her to
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the city safani was personable got a
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conversation going with her and said hey
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you're from Wisconsin let me show you
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some of the sites of Saint Paul
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so he came across as sort of an older
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man looking out for this young woman
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with hopes and dreams
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15 minutes later she was dead
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Kimberly Compton was stabbed 61 times in
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the upper body mostly in that in a very
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violent assault with an ice pick
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later on the medical examiner determined
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Not only was she stabbed but she was
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also choked to death with some shoelaces
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[Music]
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this method of killing this ferocity it
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isn't about losing control this is about
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gaining control this killer is somebody
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who wants to not just kill but
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absolutely obliterate his victim
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two days after Kimberly was murdered
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police received another call from the
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high-pitched caller it wasn't recorded
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but investigators were hopeful it would
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provide more clues that could lead them
00:14:00
to the killer he stayed on the phone a
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little bit longer and the police traced
00:14:06
his phone call to a phone booth at the
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bus depot
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where she had just gotten off and police
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followed up and went to the bus depot
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tried to take fingerprints but there
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were so many people I had used the phone
00:14:19
in that area that it would not have any
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positive results
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on the 11th of June the killer called
00:14:28
again
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I couldn't help it don't know why I
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understand
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[Music]
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about it
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try not to kill anybody else
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he's quite frustrated he's quite annoyed
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he wants this murder to be recognized he
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wants something to happen
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he's telling the police you know hey I'm
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in charge I want you to do what I want
00:15:09
you to do don't talk listen stop me I
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can't help myself do your job you know
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basically saying catch me
00:15:18
police were quick to make the connection
00:15:20
between the recent 9-1-1 calls and the
00:15:23
one they received five months previously
00:15:25
in the unsold Karen potat case
00:15:29
one of the people I believe in the 911
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Center said that sounds like an
00:15:34
individual about a year ago that called
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that same squeaky High weeping type of
00:15:40
voice
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two young women found a few miles apart
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brutally attacked and that phone call
00:15:48
police felt they had a serial killer on
00:15:50
the loose and alerted the media that the
00:15:54
connection they believe existed in an
00:15:57
attempt to put a name to the voice they
00:16:00
released the 9-1-1 calls
00:16:02
we put the phone call on the air and we
00:16:05
were sure people would recognize the
00:16:07
voice
00:16:12
the media and dubbed him the weepy voice
00:16:15
killer we're hoping that somebody will
00:16:18
recognize the voice you know whether it
00:16:20
be a friend or a relative or a neighbor
00:16:22
or someone you work with or drink with
00:16:25
you would think that somebody would
00:16:27
recognize that anybody who had an
00:16:29
argument with him or he'd heard him
00:16:30
stress would recognize him from the
00:16:33
voice it was so distinct
00:16:35
with no immediate leads detectives tried
00:16:38
to find other links to the victims in
00:16:41
the hopes of identifying the Predator
00:16:43
they noted that both victims had been
00:16:46
wearing red FBI profilers theorized that
00:16:50
the color could be a trigger a warning
00:16:52
was issued to the public
00:16:55
he's got a whole town a whole city in
00:16:57
fear everybody is going to be watching
00:16:59
their backs and and making sure that
00:17:01
they don't wear anything red especially
00:17:03
women now Stefani is someone who enjoys
00:17:06
controlling women and when he says
00:17:08
something like this he's controlling not
00:17:10
just one but potentially thousands of
00:17:12
women
00:17:13
these victims of his were wearing red
00:17:15
and he had dated a girl from Syria for
00:17:19
about four years and the only picture I
00:17:23
ever saw heard that he had she was where
00:17:25
he read
00:17:28
this was a big story in the Twin Cities
00:17:30
a lot of coverage of the serial killer
00:17:33
we believe was on the loose even though
00:17:34
there'd only been one killing at that
00:17:36
point and then things got quiet
00:17:41
for months there was no word from the
00:17:44
weepy voice killer residents hoped
00:17:47
they'd Seen the Last of his horrific
00:17:49
Acts
00:17:51
then in late August 1981 police in Saint
00:17:55
Paul received an emergency call an
00:17:58
individual named Alan Lopez was holding
00:18:01
his family hostage
00:18:03
the negotiators sent SWAT team is sent
00:18:05
he insists that uh
00:18:08
he's going to kill them the police were
00:18:11
trying to get him to come out
00:18:13
and Alan Lopez during that conversation
00:18:16
with the police said he is the person
00:18:19
that killed Kimberly Compton
00:18:22
I covered that standoff and it was
00:18:25
bizarre enough on its own and then we
00:18:27
hear that he's confessing to being
00:18:29
Kimberly Compton's killer
00:18:31
eventually the standoff is resolved the
00:18:35
SWAT team entered the house to discover
00:18:36
that Alan Lopez
00:18:38
has indeed killed his father mother and
00:18:40
sister
00:18:43
26 year old Lopez was arrested for the
00:18:46
murders of his relatives and
00:18:48
investigators worked on connecting him
00:18:50
to Kimberly Compton's murder
00:18:53
however a voice comparison between Lopez
00:18:56
and the weepy voiced 9-1-1 calls found
00:18:59
no similarities
00:19:02
the questions remained unanswered and in
00:19:05
February 1982 Lopez committed suicide in
00:19:09
jail
00:19:10
in August another woman's body was found
00:19:13
across the river in Minneapolis
00:19:17
it was a very brutal scene and police
00:19:19
were called and Emma was called and she
00:19:22
was she was found deceased by numerous
00:19:24
stab wounds
00:19:26
investigators trying to piece together
00:19:28
what had happened struggled to identify
00:19:31
the woman two days later a 9-1-1 call
00:19:35
came in with a familiar sounding voice
00:19:39
by your emergency
00:19:41
[Music]
00:19:53
so now we knew it couldn't have been
00:19:54
Alan Lopez because now we have another
00:19:58
murder with the same weepy voice calling
00:20:01
the police department
00:20:03
it was a challenge to the police
00:20:05
department showing that a year here I've
00:20:08
done this now see if you can catch me
00:20:11
there's quite a lot that's happening in
00:20:14
this call firstly he's asserting that
00:20:16
status and Authority you've got to
00:20:17
listen to me then he's almost boasting
00:20:20
about the number of times that he's
00:20:22
stabbed during our attention to how
00:20:24
violent he is and then he's linking
00:20:27
those two killings
00:20:39
he'd gone quiet for close to a year and
00:20:42
suddenly we have this murder of a young
00:20:44
woman in Minneapolis
00:20:47
the Minneapolis Police Department got a
00:20:49
hold of the Saint Paul police department
00:20:51
and they started working together on
00:20:53
trying to identify who this caller was
00:20:58
investigators were also working hard to
00:21:01
identify the victim
00:21:05
a vital tip came when a postal worker
00:21:07
handed in a woman's purse belonging to a
00:21:10
local nurse Barbara Simons
00:21:14
the purse was in a mailbox
00:21:16
and they tracked down who Barbara Simons
00:21:19
was they knew she was the kills near the
00:21:21
Mississippi River and they found out
00:21:23
that she had been at a bar the hexagon
00:21:25
bar the night before her body was found
00:21:30
Witnesses from the bar remembered seeing
00:21:33
40 year old Barbara with a man Stefani
00:21:37
came up and asked her for a cigarette
00:21:39
and he danced with her and very open
00:21:42
that he was with her had made contact
00:21:44
with her
00:21:45
this food appeared to be quite a bold
00:21:47
move on his part so he's going out and
00:21:49
he's hunting for victims out there in
00:21:52
public where other people can see him
00:21:53
but by this stage he's gotten away with
00:21:56
murder and I think he's becoming a lot
00:21:58
bolder
00:21:59
seems like they hit it off According to
00:22:01
some people at the bar and he offered to
00:22:03
give her a ride home
00:22:06
in fact if I recall she said to the
00:22:09
waitress there at the bar saying boy I
00:22:12
hope he's a nice guy because he's going
00:22:14
to give me a ride home
00:22:18
obviously he wasn't and she was killed
00:22:21
that night
00:22:22
[Music]
00:22:23
he took her down to an area assaulted
00:22:26
her stabbed her numerous times and left
00:22:29
her to be found too
00:22:31
and I believe this time that they
00:22:33
thought that a Phillips screwdriver
00:22:35
similar to an ice pick was used in those
00:22:39
assaults
00:22:41
bostoff gave detailed descriptions of
00:22:44
the man's appearance and detectives
00:22:47
began trawling through a database of
00:22:49
violent offenders in the area based on
00:22:53
the description of what the bartender
00:22:55
and the waitress said they narrowed it
00:22:58
down to about eight or nine and the
00:23:00
bartender picked out Paul Stefani as
00:23:03
being the person that was talking to
00:23:05
Barbara Simons that night
00:23:09
police began to focus on him trying to
00:23:12
figure out where he lived try to put the
00:23:14
pieces together on Paul Stefani
00:23:17
investigators on both sides of the river
00:23:19
at this point are working on the case
00:23:21
they knew they had a very dangerous
00:23:22
person out there
00:23:24
investigators learned all they could
00:23:26
about Stefani's background making a
00:23:29
crucial link from another of the attacks
00:23:33
among the things they figured out about
00:23:34
Paul Stefani is that he had worked in
00:23:36
malmberg manufacturing which is the
00:23:39
place where Karen potak the first victim
00:23:42
had been attacked and I think that was
00:23:43
significant to them because not only had
00:23:46
he given a street where she was found he
00:23:48
named a business and that was unusual
00:23:51
police were now confident that Stefani
00:23:54
was the weepy voiced killer
00:23:57
they knew who they believed they were
00:23:59
looking for at that point and the Clock
00:24:01
Was ticking is he going to do it again
00:24:03
is he going to call in with something
00:24:05
and so investigators are working
00:24:07
comparing notes on both sides of the
00:24:09
river the media is we're in a kind of a
00:24:11
frenzy to keep it out there because we
00:24:13
didn't want one more victim
00:24:16
to everyone's horror there would be
00:24:18
another
00:24:20
despite now being under police
00:24:22
surveillance He Slipped through the net
00:24:25
and on the 21st of August 1982 went
00:24:29
hunting for his next victim
00:24:31
that night Stefani met Denise Williams
00:24:36
Denise has been engaged in sex work for
00:24:38
for quite some years so she she's out
00:24:40
and about on the streets quite
00:24:41
frequently and he offers her money to
00:24:44
engage in a sex act with him so she
00:24:46
accepts she gets in his car they drive
00:24:49
off they exchange business
00:24:52
and he says that he's going to take her
00:24:55
back to Minneapolis he found her a mini
00:24:57
apples he's taken her back
00:24:59
she got suspicious because he didn't
00:25:01
seem to be going back to where he was
00:25:03
supposed to take her
00:25:05
suddenly he pulls over his car and
00:25:07
viciously attacks her
00:25:09
she fights back she's Street Savvy she
00:25:12
fights back she saw a pop bottle she
00:25:15
takes that bottle smashes it across his
00:25:18
face and causes him to bleed she manages
00:25:21
to escape
00:25:23
and he started going after and stabbing
00:25:25
her again a person heard her screaming
00:25:28
came over and helped her out and Stefani
00:25:31
turned on him and threatened him and he
00:25:33
got Williams away Stefani took off and
00:25:36
left the scene
00:25:39
foreign
00:25:40
Stefani is a killer who is used to being
00:25:43
100 in control when it comes to his
00:25:46
crimes but this time he's really met his
00:25:48
match in Denise he's come up against a
00:25:50
woman who is not going to put up with
00:25:52
this she is not going to just let this
00:25:54
guy take her life
00:25:56
she is quite tough she's quite Street
00:25:58
wise and I imagine she's been in quite a
00:26:01
few altercations with with clients
00:26:03
before so this really rattles him like
00:26:06
this woman has won and he is lost in
00:26:09
this particular situation so I think it
00:26:11
really does knock him off balance
00:26:13
he had to think in the back of his mind
00:26:15
if he was rational at that time that
00:26:17
police are going to going going to be
00:26:19
interviewing him how did this assault
00:26:21
happen where did it happen who did it
00:26:24
and that it was unraveling very fast for
00:26:27
him after Denise Williams
00:26:29
started pounding him with that bottle
00:26:32
having failed in his attack the Predator
00:26:35
returned home to assess his injuries
00:26:39
he goes home to Saint Paul and then he
00:26:41
made another phone call
00:26:43
this time he wasn't calling to get help
00:26:46
for a victim he was calling for help for
00:26:48
himself
00:26:49
he actually calls 9-1-1 and requests an
00:26:53
ambulance and his voice wasn't quite as
00:26:56
high and quite as weepy or anything else
00:26:59
but he said he was hurt and he needed an
00:27:01
ambulance
00:27:02
the coal raised the lawn bells for the
00:27:05
person who received it
00:27:07
hey this sounds like the guy that's been
00:27:10
on television that I've heard that weepy
00:27:13
boys kill her it sounds like his voice
00:27:15
is is very similar so they got the
00:27:18
police involved
00:27:20
the Saint Paul police department who had
00:27:22
Stefani under surveillance saw the
00:27:24
police department show up
00:27:27
those is an ambulance shows up at
00:27:31
Stefani's residence
00:27:33
and the murder killing spree was over
00:27:36
they arrested Paul safani and it ended
00:27:38
right there
00:27:40
Denise Williams had become the second
00:27:42
victim to have survived the brutal
00:27:44
attack of a serial killer
00:27:47
she had been the victim of an assault
00:27:50
and went to the hospital
00:27:52
and she described her attacker and the
00:27:56
police then showed her some mugshots of
00:27:59
different people and she picked out Paul
00:28:02
Stefani
00:28:05
she became many ways the hero of all
00:28:07
this but she did and her response was
00:28:10
life-saving for others herself and
00:28:12
others
00:28:14
Stefani was charged with the assaults of
00:28:16
19 year old Denise Williams and with the
00:28:19
murder of 40 year old Barbara Simons
00:28:23
[ __ ]
00:28:25
but the weepy killer had lost his voice
00:28:30
although he said in his phone calls to
00:28:31
police somebody needs to stop me he
00:28:34
certainly didn't give them enough
00:28:35
information to actually make that happen
00:28:37
he wanted to continue but he wanted
00:28:39
people to think that he wasn't in
00:28:42
control of what he was doing he wanted
00:28:43
people to have sympathy for him to feel
00:28:46
sorry for him
00:28:49
Paul Stefani went from the guy calling
00:28:51
in confessing to when the police had him
00:28:53
he's not cooperating at all but as
00:28:55
oppressing him they show him I believe
00:28:57
some crime scene photos and that seemed
00:28:59
to be the trigger point
00:29:02
when the police would open up their file
00:29:05
there were pictures of Karen potak and
00:29:08
Kimberly Compton his voice elevated to a
00:29:12
higher pitch
00:29:15
he starts getting hysterical in his
00:29:17
voice and
00:29:19
they fell at that point this is it how
00:29:21
he sounded in that room paralleled the
00:29:24
phone calls they've been getting so at
00:29:26
least from their experience in the room
00:29:28
they felt no question this was their guy
00:29:32
and so when we looked at everything that
00:29:35
we had between Karen potak and Kimberly
00:29:38
Compton and Denise Williams and Barbara
00:29:42
Simons the stronger cases with the
00:29:44
actual identification where the
00:29:47
Minneapolis case is Barbara Simons and
00:29:50
Denise Williams so went ahead with the
00:29:53
prosecution of those two cases first
00:29:57
in 1984 and 1985 when he faced trials
00:30:02
for the attempted murder of Denise
00:30:04
Williams and the murder of Barbara
00:30:06
Simons Stefani pled not guilty
00:30:10
the Denise Williams evidence was her ID
00:30:14
describing how the assault took place
00:30:16
the Good Samaritan that came up could
00:30:19
identify Stefani as attacking her and
00:30:22
then threatening him
00:30:23
with the screwdriver
00:30:26
the violence displayed in his attack was
00:30:30
evident in his demeanor in court
00:30:33
there seemed to be a lot of rage it was
00:30:35
contained and physically the thing that
00:30:37
stood out the most is just the glare
00:30:39
looking around the glare that he had in
00:30:41
that courtroom this sort of a disdain
00:30:43
for everyone in the courtroom
00:30:45
[Music]
00:30:46
when we're looking at his behavior in
00:30:49
court when he's having these outbursts
00:30:51
when he's quite antagonistic and he's
00:30:53
quite confrontational this is the real
00:30:55
him and I think up until this point in
00:30:58
time it's only his victims who've seen
00:31:00
this
00:31:01
the weepy voice killer had become
00:31:04
infamous for the 9-1-1 calls in which he
00:31:07
confessed to his crimes prosecutors use
00:31:10
these recordings in the trial
00:31:13
during the trial there are a number of
00:31:15
witnesses and evidence that was
00:31:16
presented but by far the most compelling
00:31:19
evidence
00:31:20
was stuff he gave to them his phone
00:31:22
calls he in essence put on a platter
00:31:24
here I am I'm the guy that called and
00:31:28
their efforts to challenge it and
00:31:30
whether it was really Paul Stefani or
00:31:32
not yes please this is an emergency
00:31:34
please that it was the same person I've
00:31:38
listened to those calls so many times
00:31:40
over the years so you know that it's the
00:31:43
same person making these phone calls
00:31:46
some key people who testified and said
00:31:48
they recognized the voice they included
00:31:50
his ex-wife his sister so people who
00:31:53
knew him
00:31:54
was able to describe that's the same guy
00:31:58
to have two women up there incriminating
00:32:01
him really does turn on his head all of
00:32:04
those values he's got about the role of
00:32:05
men and the role of women women are
00:32:07
supposed to be passive they're supposed
00:32:09
to be subservient they're supposed to be
00:32:10
compliant and here they are convicting
00:32:13
him
00:32:14
despite the seemingly overwhelming
00:32:17
evidence connecting Stefani to the 9-1-1
00:32:20
calls they were deemed inadmissible for
00:32:23
identifying the attacker in the earlier
00:32:25
weepy voice cases in Saint Paul
00:32:29
during the course of that trial the
00:32:31
judge threw out the voice identification
00:32:35
of the weepy voice killer he said it
00:32:37
wasn't sufficient
00:32:38
to tie him to Karen potak or Kimberly
00:32:43
Compton
00:32:44
the only thing we had connecting Stefani
00:32:48
was his voice on those calls and we
00:32:52
didn't think we had enough evidence to
00:32:54
prove Beyond a reasonable doubt that we
00:32:57
could prove it was him
00:32:59
consequently Paul Stefani was never
00:33:02
tried for those crimes
00:33:05
he was found guilty of the second-degree
00:33:07
murder of Barbara Simons and the
00:33:10
attempted murder of Denise Williams in
00:33:13
total he was sentenced to 58 years in
00:33:16
prison
00:33:17
essentially a life sentence he wasn't
00:33:19
going to be getting out we didn't want
00:33:22
to go through another trial if we didn't
00:33:24
have to unless we could absolutely
00:33:26
proven
00:33:28
in a shocking twist 12 years into his
00:33:31
sentence the weepy voiced killer himself
00:33:34
would give investigators all the
00:33:36
confirmation they needed Stefani had won
00:33:40
final confession to make
00:33:44
Paul Stefani found out that he had
00:33:46
terminal cancer and he wasn't going to
00:33:48
live more than a month to 12 months that
00:33:51
was what the doctors were giving him
00:33:53
because of skin cancer
00:33:55
so he asked the guards at the prison Oak
00:33:58
Park Heights to get a hold of the Saint
00:34:00
Paul police because he wanted to talk to
00:34:02
them about what he had done
00:34:06
and so the investigator went in and met
00:34:08
with him he'd already been convicted in
00:34:09
Barbara Simon's murder as well as Denise
00:34:12
Williams assault
00:34:14
Stefani admitted that he had assaulted
00:34:17
Karen potak
00:34:18
and he admitted killing Kimberly Compton
00:34:23
so all four he admitted that he was
00:34:26
responsible for their assaults or their
00:34:28
deaths
00:34:29
this isn't that he's suddenly become
00:34:32
remorseful that he suddenly grown a
00:34:34
conscience overnight that he knows he's
00:34:37
going to meet his maker and he needs to
00:34:39
offload all of this stuff what he's
00:34:41
trying to do is control what he leaves
00:34:43
behind he doesn't want to leave this
00:34:45
world not having the credit for all of
00:34:47
the murders that he's committed
00:34:50
Stefani had confirmed that he was
00:34:52
responsible for all of the crimes he had
00:34:55
been suspected of but his next
00:34:57
admittance would stun investigators
00:35:01
and then out of the blue he mentioned
00:35:03
that he also had drowned this woman he
00:35:06
couldn't remember her name but drowned a
00:35:08
woman in Lauderdale which is suburb of
00:35:10
Saint Paul
00:35:12
he confessed to a murder that nobody had
00:35:16
any indication that he'd ever done in
00:35:18
fact in it when in his confession it
00:35:21
took them for a while to identify who
00:35:24
that victim was
00:35:25
the place went back to say is there any
00:35:28
unsolved cases or someone was drowned
00:35:31
and you never found a suspect and sure
00:35:34
enough they found Kathleen Greening in
00:35:37
1982
00:35:40
she was a school teacher in the Saint
00:35:43
Paul Area and apparently she and Paul
00:35:46
Stefani had gone out on a date
00:35:49
and she was drowned and for many years
00:35:52
police suspected her husband
00:35:56
[Music]
00:35:58
when the police went back to look at the
00:36:00
evidence he gave them evidence about her
00:36:03
house that only the killer would know
00:36:05
the layout of the house how we did it
00:36:09
he had strangled her drowned her in a
00:36:12
tub in her own home
00:36:15
this time Stefani hadn't phoned 9-1-1
00:36:18
and in another stunning Revelation he
00:36:21
claimed that wasn't the only thing that
00:36:24
was different in this case he'd met with
00:36:27
Kathleen on several occasions he
00:36:30
described the murder you know they're
00:36:32
going up to a bathtub are they going to
00:36:34
have consensual sex this is completely
00:36:38
different he had feelings for this
00:36:40
person he's a master of information
00:36:43
control he wants to be very careful
00:36:45
about the story that's emerging around
00:36:47
his murders the reason that Stefani
00:36:49
didn't call the police after killing
00:36:52
Kathleen was that he didn't want them to
00:36:54
know about it
00:36:55
is something he feels ashamed of
00:36:57
something he feels embarrassed about
00:36:59
something that doesn't quite fit with
00:37:01
the Persona that he's trying to create
00:37:03
reporter Caroline Lowe was intrigued by
00:37:06
this killer who'd suddenly confessed all
00:37:09
I went to prison to meet with him to see
00:37:12
what I could learn because most Killers
00:37:14
most criminals I've covered never admit
00:37:16
they've done anything I thought is there
00:37:17
anything we can learn from him
00:37:19
and I remember sitting there in prison
00:37:21
as he's describing Kathy Greening he
00:37:23
said we had a really good evening we
00:37:25
went out we went home
00:37:27
and then he takes his hands up to his
00:37:29
throat and he said I just suddenly felt
00:37:30
like doing this to her and he's showing
00:37:33
me with his hands it was chilling
00:37:35
to see him just calmly describe what he
00:37:38
did
00:37:40
talking like what did you do for your
00:37:43
vacation last summer but he's talking
00:37:44
about killing people and attacking
00:37:46
people
00:37:48
investigators re-examining the evidence
00:37:51
in Kathleen's case were able to prove
00:37:53
that she had known her killer
00:37:56
they found his telephone number in her
00:38:00
address book
00:38:01
that the authorities had overlooked in
00:38:03
their original investigation
00:38:05
we didn't have these smartphones and
00:38:07
everything in those days that you could
00:38:09
put somebody's name and telephone number
00:38:10
in she had it in there Paul S and they
00:38:13
knew from the arrest of him that that
00:38:16
was his telephone number
00:38:18
there was one aspect of the confession
00:38:20
that bore a striking resemblance to the
00:38:23
Barbara Simons case
00:38:26
he mentioned that he'd put her purse in
00:38:28
a mailbox and that was one of those
00:38:30
details that only the killer knew and
00:38:32
one of the other cases a person put in a
00:38:34
mailbox but that was so significant so
00:38:37
he gave them things that there was no
00:38:39
doubt
00:38:40
by the time they were done that Paul was
00:38:42
in fact her killer
00:38:45
it was a big Revelation for the media
00:38:48
and county attorney's office because two
00:38:51
or three different offices had reviewed
00:38:53
that case and part of the problem was
00:38:56
the medical examiner
00:38:58
couldn't determine if it was accidental
00:39:00
or a homicide so the cause of death was
00:39:04
undetermined
00:39:06
it had taken 15 years but finally her
00:39:10
loved ones knew the truth about who was
00:39:12
responsible for Kathleen's death
00:39:15
the depraved killer had confessed to
00:39:18
murdering three women and to the attacks
00:39:21
on Karen potak and Denise Williams
00:39:24
the way he abused those women stabbing a
00:39:28
person 61 times beating a woman with a
00:39:31
tire iron until she's unconscious
00:39:32
leaving her for dead that's a violent
00:39:35
evil person
00:39:38
when you look at that in the brutality
00:39:40
and the anger you just wonder why
00:39:42
somebody wasn't alerted to to the rage
00:39:45
in this person and the evil of this
00:39:47
individual a long time ago
00:39:50
but Paul Stefani hadn't finished his
00:39:53
final chapter before he died he
00:39:56
contacted Caroline
00:39:58
she wrote me a letter actually I got the
00:40:00
next week and he asked me
00:40:03
if I would reach out to the victims
00:40:06
families this is a letter which I still
00:40:08
have
00:40:09
he asked me if I'd reach out to the
00:40:11
victims families because he's wanted me
00:40:14
to tell them that he wanted to put
00:40:15
flowers on their graves
00:40:19
I would not be a go-between between
00:40:21
between serial killer and these families
00:40:24
to help him maybe feel better
00:40:26
as his life is winding down
00:40:30
I think that he wanted to make his slate
00:40:34
clear in the eyes of law enforcement
00:40:38
in the eyes of God
00:40:41
as a devout Catholic I am admitting to
00:40:44
all my sins please forgive me
00:40:48
I'm telling the police everything I did
00:40:50
and that's why I believe that he did not
00:40:53
commit any more murders than those he
00:40:55
confessed to
00:40:57
53-year-old Paul Stefani died of cancer
00:41:01
in June 1998.
00:41:04
after all of his confessions one
00:41:07
question remained unanswered
00:41:09
why
00:41:13
a lot of us thought that maybe his
00:41:15
religious upbringing in his family
00:41:19
falling apart he was taking it out on
00:41:22
women
00:41:24
he was very hostile in the brutality of
00:41:27
the attacks you don't stab someone 61
00:41:30
times with a nice pick
00:41:32
you know without having a lot of rage
00:41:34
and anger
00:41:36
[Music]
00:41:37
I'm sorry I killed that girl I stand
00:41:41
before
00:41:42
Twin Cities will never forget the losses
00:41:45
suffered by their communities at the
00:41:47
hands of Paul Stefani you mentioned the
00:41:50
weepy voice caller killer anyone in
00:41:53
Minnesota remembers that if they were
00:41:56
around back then they remember the weepy
00:41:57
boys killer
00:41:59
Paul Stefani thought he could do
00:42:01
whatever he wanted to do in his rage and
00:42:04
his being evil and that he could call up
00:42:08
and tell the police that he's sorry and
00:42:11
that he would be forgiven or go to
00:42:12
church and he would be forgiven
00:42:15
but I think he was looking for
00:42:17
absolution
00:42:18
and he never got it
00:42:20
he's a small town boy became one of the
00:42:23
most notorious serial killers in
00:42:25
Minnesota History
00:42:27
Paul Michael Stefani has become etched
00:42:30
in the minds of all who knew him as the
00:42:33
notorious weepy voice killer whose rage
00:42:36
fueled and vicious attacks took the
00:42:39
lives of three unsuspecting women and
00:42:42
forever changed the lives of two more
00:42:46
Stefani may have believed he would be
00:42:48
forgiven for his sins but his horrific
00:42:50
and violent actions mean he will never
00:42:53
be absolved as one of the world's most
00:42:56
evil killers
00:43:02
foreign
00:43:11
[Music]
00:43:20
[Music]
