00:00:05
- MALE NARRATOR: In
December 1998, a man slipped
00:00:08
undetected into the home
of 39-year-old Claudia Benton.
00:00:14
By the time he fled the scene,
the mother of two
00:00:17
had been brutally beaten,
sexually assaulted,
00:00:20
and fatally stabbed.
00:00:21
- ♪
00:00:23
- KEN: He seemed
to be almost ghost-like,
00:00:26
the way he could get into houses
without being heard,
00:00:29
and you know,
ghosts scare people.
00:00:32
- NARRATOR: The killer
was a man named Ángel Reséndiz,
00:00:35
who'd been illegally boarding
trains across the U.S. border
00:00:39
from Mexico for over 20 years.
00:00:42
He would go on
to kill at least nine people,
00:00:45
but the authorities
couldn't find him anywhere.
00:00:48
- BOBBIE:
There's 140,000 miles of track
00:00:51
in North America, so how do
you get your head around that?
00:00:54
How do you find someone
that's riding the rail?
00:00:57
- NARRATOR: Capturing
the phantom killer would prove
00:01:00
to be one of the FBI's
toughest cases to crack.
00:01:03
No one was safe.
00:01:05
- DR. YARDLEY:
You never really knew who
00:01:07
was going to be the next victim.
00:01:09
It was whoever had something
that he wanted,
00:01:12
and that could be anybody.
00:01:15
- NARRATOR: Hidden away
for so long, Ángel Reséndiz
00:01:18
had emerged as one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:01:22
- ♪
00:01:36
♪♪
00:01:44
- NARRATOR: When Ángel Reséndiz
handed himself in
00:01:47
to U.S. authorities
in July 1999,
00:01:50
it signaled the end
of his reign of terror.
00:01:54
The 38-year-old Mexican
walked across the border
00:01:57
and was never free again.
00:02:00
For over 20 years,
Reséndiz had been illegally
00:02:04
crossing into the U.S.,
not by foot,
00:02:07
but via the vast rail network.
00:02:10
He'd murdered at least nine
people from Texas to Illinois.
00:02:14
The media had dubbed him
"The Railroad Killer."
00:02:18
Detective Ken Macha helped
crack the case
00:02:22
that finally brought
the elusive killer to justice.
00:02:25
- KEN: He turned out to be
very mobile, extremely mobile.
00:02:31
He was in one part
of the country,
00:02:34
then a few months later,
he's in another part
00:02:35
of the country.
00:02:37
- NARRATOR: Ken has his own
theory behind
00:02:39
Reséndiz's spate of murders.
00:02:42
- KEN: In Mexico,
he had a wife and a kid,
00:02:44
and he's stealing jewelry
from these women,
00:02:47
and then taking it to Mexico
to sell it
00:02:49
'cuz it was a business,
pure and simple.
00:02:51
This killing and the raping
of the women,
00:02:55
before and after death
was just sidekick, just for fun.
00:03:01
- NARRATOR:
This killer's story begins
00:03:02
on the 1st of August, 1960.
00:03:06
Ángel Reséndiz was born
in the state of Puebla
00:03:09
in the east of Mexico.
00:03:12
Little is known
about his childhood,
00:03:14
but during his eventual trial,
Reséndiz spoke
00:03:18
to forensic psychologist
Ramon Laval
00:03:21
about his early years
south of the border.
00:03:25
- RAMON: Ángel Reséndiz grew up
in a dysfunctional family.
00:03:30
He didn't have alot
of connections with his family,
00:03:33
siblings, or, for that matter,
his parents.
00:03:38
Little or no contact
with his biological father.
00:03:42
He told me that he had grown up
with his mother and father,
00:03:48
in fact, upon further
questioning, I realized
00:03:52
he was talking about
his maternal uncle,
00:03:55
his mother's brother.
00:03:57
- DR. YARDLEY: He felt rejected
by his mother;
00:03:59
he felt rejected by
his peers at school
00:04:02
because he was
quite awkward-looking.
00:04:03
He had protruding teeth,
he wasn't one of the cool kids,
00:04:07
and I think those--
those feelings stayed with him
00:04:11
and they really did
go on to shape who he became.
00:04:15
- GEOFFREY: Now, I'm not
saying that unsettled childhood
00:04:18
equals inevitably some kind
of person who's gonna turn
00:04:20
to murder and serial killing,
but I am saying,
00:04:23
in this particular case,
that childhood gave Ángel
00:04:27
the sense that there was no one
to depend on.
00:04:30
He was the only person
he could depend on.
00:04:33
- NARRATOR: Violence was a
fixture in the young boy's life.
00:04:37
- RAMON: His uncle,
whom he considered his father,
00:04:40
was reported to have been
physically abusive with Ángel,
00:04:44
and around 12, he quit school
and he actually left
00:04:49
his uncle's home;
started living on the streets,
00:04:53
just fending for himself.
00:04:57
He was sexually
molested by a local pedophile.
00:05:03
- DR. YARDLEY: Like any
violent offenders,
00:05:05
Reséndiz was a victim
before he was a criminal,
00:05:09
and this is a line that we don't
like to talk about very much.
00:05:12
We like to compartmentalize
victims and offenders
00:05:15
very clearly, but often that
line is a very blurred one.
00:05:19
- NARRATOR: Barely a teenager,
Reséndiz found himself
00:05:22
with no family and no home.
00:05:25
He had to learn how to survive.
00:05:29
- GEOFFREY: It must have been
a significant moment,
00:05:31
it's on that cusp
of adolescence and puberty,
00:05:34
it's that moment
when a young man,
00:05:36
especially a young man
from such a troubled background,
00:05:39
struggles out of the cocoon
and tries to find himself.
00:05:45
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz took to
illegally riding
00:05:48
the far-reaching network
of North American railroads.
00:05:52
It was a transient lifestyle
that would come to define him.
00:05:56
- Reséndiz managed
to travel quite far and wide
00:05:59
within the United States
by jumping on trains,
00:06:02
jumping on an empty freight
train and holing up
00:06:05
in one of the carriages,
and that would take him
00:06:07
to a--a range of cities
all over the place.
00:06:10
- Because you could leap on it,
00:06:13
it was the stuff
of movies, isn't it?
00:06:15
Slow-moving railroad car and
the hobo standing by the track,
00:06:20
and he grabs it and lifts
himself up into an empty car.
00:06:24
- RAMON: It is thought that he
first entered the United States
00:06:28
when he was maybe 13 years old,
and that's what he told me,
00:06:32
that he was back and forth
between Mexico
00:06:35
and the United States,
but in fact, the first record,
00:06:40
formal record is from when
he was 16 years old
00:06:44
when he had entered
and then deported.
00:06:49
- NARRATOR: After serving
five years of a 20-year sentence
00:06:52
in a U.S. prison for burglary,
aggravated battery,
00:06:56
and grand theft auto in 1980,
00:06:59
Reséndiz continued
to ride the rails.
00:07:03
In fact, by August 1996,
00:07:06
the 36-year-old
had been arrested 12 times
00:07:09
and sent back to Mexico on
no fewer than seven occasions.
00:07:14
But nothing
deterred him, and his crimes
00:07:17
would soon turn deadly.
00:07:19
- One of the most
complicated questions
00:07:22
about Reséndiz,
in the first instance,
00:07:26
is why he started killing.
00:07:29
He was getting by,
things were not easy,
00:07:33
and he was being deported
back and forth across
00:07:34
the Mexican/U.S. border
on a regular basis,
00:07:37
but that was no real reason,
in itself, to kill,
00:07:42
and one of the most fascinating
aspects of Reséndiz's character
00:07:47
is where that initial spark
came from.
00:07:52
- NARRATOR: After illegally
heading back north of the border
00:07:55
on a train in the summer
of 1997, Reséndiz carried out
00:08:00
his first known murder
in Lexington, Kentucky.
00:08:04
- DR. YARDLEY: In August 1997,
there was an attack
00:08:07
on Christopher Maier
and Holly Dunn,
00:08:09
who were a young couple.
00:08:11
So, he'd spotted this couple
after he jumped off
00:08:14
one of the freight trains
that he'd ridden on,
00:08:17
and I think his intention
from the outset was
00:08:20
to get to Holly Dunn and to--
to sexually assault her,
00:08:23
and in order to do that,
he needed to get Christopher
00:08:26
out of the way and he
killed him relatively quickly
00:08:30
with a 50-pound rock,
which must have been
00:08:33
the most horrendous thing
for Holly to witness
00:08:35
and for Christopher
to experience.
00:08:38
- NARRATOR: With her boyfriend
taken care of,
00:08:41
Reséndiz turned his attention
to 20-year-old Holly Dunn.
00:08:46
- She is terrified,
her hands are bound,
00:08:49
she pleads with Reséndiz
for her life.
00:08:53
He sits down beside her
and shows her an ice pick,
00:08:56
and says, "Look how easily
I could kill you."
00:08:58
But in the end, he doesn't
kill her with an ice pick,
00:09:00
in the end, he rapes her.
00:09:03
It's impossible to imagine
the terror she must have felt
00:09:07
because now, Reséndiz goes away
again and finds a wooden board
00:09:11
and beats her
mercilessly with it;
00:09:14
terrible injuries to her head,
to her back.
00:09:17
An attack so dramatic,
that he thought he'd killed her.
00:09:21
- NARRATOR: But miraculously,
Holly Dunn had survived
00:09:25
the brutal assault.
00:09:27
- GEOFFREY: Holly Dunn,
to her eternal credit,
00:09:29
manages to struggle to her feet
00:09:33
and literally walks away
from the scene of the attack.
00:09:38
She makes her way to some
nearby houses where, thankfully,
00:09:42
they called an ambulance
and the police.
00:09:44
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz had
got away with it for now
00:09:47
and remained unknown
to the authorities,
00:09:50
but it was a mistake
that would later come back
00:09:53
to haunt the killer.
00:09:55
By December 1998,
the 38-year-old was regularly
00:09:59
crossing the border
into the USA.
00:10:02
Border patrol authorities
had apprehended Reséndiz
00:10:06
for illegal entry
into the country seven times
00:10:09
in 1998 alone,
00:10:12
unaware that he'd killed
21-year-old Christopher Maier
00:10:15
the previous year.
00:10:17
But now the killer
was back on U.S. soil
00:10:20
in Houston, Texas,
and had murder on his mind.
00:10:25
- That day in particular
was a Thursday, December 17th,
00:10:29
a day like most any other day,
the afternoon was uneventful,
00:10:35
I left from work around 3:30
and picked my son up
00:10:39
at the sitter,
it was his ninth birthday,
00:10:42
and picked him up
and on the way home,
00:10:44
I got a call from the dispatcher
00:10:47
at West University Police
saying,
00:10:50
"We've got a body, a dead body",
and I had chills and goosebumps,
00:10:55
thinking, "It just can't be.
It's gotta be something else,
00:10:58
it just gotta be
something else."
00:11:00
But she assured me that, yes,
there was indeed patrol officers
00:11:05
that had discovered
a deceased female.
00:11:09
- NARRATOR: The murdered woman
was 39-year-old
00:11:12
research physician
Dr. Claudia Benton.
00:11:16
She'd been home alone.
00:11:18
Ken walked into
a horrific scene.
00:11:22
- There was a bloody
butcher knife on a pillow
00:11:27
next to her head;
blood all over the carpet,
00:11:31
blood on the bed,
blood in the hallway
00:11:35
leading just out the threshold
of the bedroom door.
00:11:39
Overall, it appeared every room
in the house had been rummaged,
00:11:45
ransacked, drawers open,
everything appeared to be
00:11:48
touched and looked through.
00:11:51
- NARRATOR: Dr. Benton
had been stabbed to death
00:11:53
with a knife
from her own kitchen.
00:11:55
There were three fatal wounds
on her body.
00:11:59
- KEN: In addition to that,
she had 19 skull fractures
00:12:02
from being beat upon the head.
00:12:05
I can only surmise
that some of them may have been
00:12:07
from the bronze figurine.
00:12:10
It was probably maybe about
a foot in length that had been
00:12:15
on the mantelpiece; quite heavy,
part of it was broken off
00:12:19
during the beating.
00:12:22
- NARRATOR: It was a savage
and brutal murder of a wife
00:12:26
and mother of twin girls.
00:12:29
- I think there is an inherent
misogyny to Reséndiz.
00:12:33
There is an inherent hatred
of women, which I think
00:12:35
goes back to-to his rather
dysfunctional relationship
00:12:39
with his mother, so he thinks
that women are there to provide
00:12:43
something for him,
to give something to him.
00:12:46
He feels entitled to take that.
00:12:48
- NARRATOR: Further
investigation at the home
00:12:51
suggested that Dr. Benton
had been literally
00:12:54
fighting for her life.
00:12:56
- KEN: Dr. Benton had
a complete fracture to her ulna
00:13:01
and dislocated, uh,
elbow as well,
00:13:04
and so she put up a very,
very fierce fight.
00:13:07
From the blood in the hallway,
it looks like she was
00:13:11
very, very close to trying
to escape from the bedroom
00:13:14
and get away from him,
00:13:16
but being hit so many times
in the head already,
00:13:19
he was just able to physically
overpower her and subdue her.
00:13:24
- NARRATOR: After analyzing
the bloody crime scene,
00:13:27
Ken had to make one of the most
difficult phone calls
00:13:31
of his professional career,
to Dr. Benton's husband, George.
00:13:36
- Very, very difficult talking
to the man because here I am,
00:13:39
I'm having to explain to him
that there's a dead body
00:13:42
in his house and he's telling me
the only person
00:13:44
that should be
in there was his wife,
00:13:46
and I felt sick, felt really,
really sick inside
00:13:51
'cuz I'm thinking to myself,
I mean, "What if that was me?"
00:13:54
So I tried to be
as gentle as possible.
00:13:56
I tried to give him
every avenue out.
00:13:58
Could it have been a nanny,
could it have been a maid?
00:14:01
Anybody else and he just kept
telling me, "No, it's just--
00:14:04
the--my wife's the only one
that would be in there."
00:14:08
- NARRATOR: While Ken took
Dr. Benton's devastated husband
00:14:12
on a somber tour
of the crime scene,
00:14:14
he helped to point out anything
that was out of the ordinary
00:14:18
around the house.
00:14:20
- KEN: It was actually
George Benton that noticed
00:14:23
the steering column housing
in the garage.
00:14:26
He looked at it and said,
"That's gotta be from the Jeep."
00:14:29
- NARRATOR: The killer had made
his getaway
00:14:31
in Dr. Benton's vehicle,
but he'd failed to find the keys
00:14:35
that were hanging up
in a kitchen cupboard.
00:14:37
- KEN: The next best thing
he had to do was to try
00:14:39
to hotwire the car.
00:14:42
He knew he had to pop
the steering column off,
00:14:44
and so he did that.
00:14:46
In doing so,
he stuck his fingers in there
00:14:49
to pry it out, and then he just
set that into the garage.
00:14:53
That was some of the best
evidence that we had
00:14:55
right there, were his four
fingerprints on the underside
00:14:58
of that piece of plastic.
00:15:01
- NARRATOR: This would become
a crucial piece of evidence
00:15:04
in the future trial
of Ángel Reséndiz.
00:15:07
Lyn McClellan was an assistant
district attorney
00:15:10
who would eventually
help to bring charges
00:15:13
against the killer.
00:15:15
- The car's recovered
in San Antonio.
00:15:18
His fingerprints were found
on the car.
00:15:20
The car belongs
to Claudia Benton.
00:15:23
That kinda ties everything back.
00:15:26
What's her car doing
in San Antonio
00:15:28
with Reséndiz's prints on it,
and she's, uh, found dead
00:15:31
back in Houston, so,
put two and two together,
00:15:35
you say, "He's probably
the one that killed her."
00:15:38
- NARRATOR: A week after
the murder of Claudia Benton,
00:15:41
Ken had a major breakthrough.
00:15:44
For the first time, Ángel
Reséndiz would become known
00:15:47
to the homicide detective,
albeit under a different name.
00:15:52
- KEN: It was the day
after Christmas,
00:15:53
I'd received a call from
a sergeant with the Houston P.D.
00:15:57
He had received information
from their fingerprint division,
00:16:01
we had an identification
of the perpetrator.
00:16:04
Fingerprints came back
to an individual named
00:16:08
Carlos Cluthier Rodriguez,
one of his numerous aliases
00:16:13
that he was arrested under,
so his prints were
00:16:15
in the automated fingerprint
identification system
00:16:19
in Texas under that name.
00:16:22
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz had used
many different aliases,
00:16:25
which made it difficult
for the authorities to link him
00:16:28
to his numerous misdemeanors
through the years.
00:16:31
- KEN:
Every time he was arrested,
00:16:33
he seemed to give
a different name.
00:16:34
I mean, Reséndiz is what we
finally kinda settled on,
00:16:39
in terms of a name,
but he had used so many names
00:16:42
in the past, so we knew we had
fingerprint identification
00:16:45
at that time.
00:16:47
We knew who he was,
we had pictures,
00:16:50
and so we were slowly able
to get these pictures out, uh,
00:16:54
into the media, and try to
generate some tips and leads
00:16:59
and so forth.
00:17:02
- NARRATOR: The hunt
for Reséndiz continued for over
00:17:04
three months,
but the killer remained elusive.
00:17:08
By the spring of 1999,
he was back in Texas,
00:17:12
this time in the small city
of Weimar.
00:17:15
On the night of April the 30th,
he entered the home
00:17:18
of Norman and Karen Sirnic.
00:17:22
- KEN: The Sirnics were both
asleep in their bed.
00:17:24
From the evidence
that was found,
00:17:27
Mr. Sirnic was laying
on his left side
00:17:30
and the blow to the head
with the sledgehammer
00:17:33
woke up Mrs. Sirnic.
00:17:36
She sits up in bed
and Reséndiz takes
00:17:40
the sledgehammer, left-handed,
like a baseball bat,
00:17:44
and strikes her square
in the forehead,
00:17:48
killing her instantly.
00:17:49
He then goes back and hits
Mr. Sirnic one more time
00:17:53
with the sledgehammer
for good measure.
00:17:56
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz had
bludgeoned the church pastor
00:17:58
and his wife to death.
00:18:00
It was a vicious double murder
by this seemingly
00:18:03
opportunistic killer.
00:18:06
- Reséndiz was not
an offender who would take
00:18:08
weapons along with him
to the crime scene.
00:18:10
He would use whatever
he could find that was there.
00:18:13
He would decide to kill when he
saw the opportunity to do so.
00:18:18
There is an advantage to this
as an offender
00:18:21
because if you're not carrying
weapons around with you,
00:18:24
then you're not carrying
evidence around with you.
00:18:27
- KEN: The escalation
in Dr. Benton's case,
00:18:30
he hit her with a smaller
figurine, and she fought back.
00:18:35
This case with the Sirnics
in Weimar,
00:18:38
there was no fighting back.
00:18:40
He made sure with that
first blow,
00:18:43
but he didn't wanna fight,
00:18:45
he had enough
fighting the last time.
00:18:47
- NARRATOR: Evidence at the
crime scene linked
00:18:49
the Sirnic murders to the
killing of Dr. Claudia Benton.
00:18:54
- KEN: They collected of course
very good DNA evidence from
00:18:56
the Weimar case that was sent
to Department of Public Safety
00:19:00
Laboratories, and DNA testing
was done and it was
00:19:05
an exact match
to our perpetrator in our case.
00:19:09
- NARRATOR: With at least three
confirmed murders
00:19:12
on his macabre resume,
the FBI entered the search
00:19:15
for the man who would later
be given the moniker,
00:19:18
"The Railroad Killer."
00:19:20
Ángel Reséndiz, however,
00:19:22
continued to use various
aliases,
00:19:25
so tracking him down
wasn't going to be
00:19:27
straightforward.
00:19:29
Special agent
Bobbie Knox Echard
00:19:31
was part of the team
assigned to the case.
00:19:35
- BOBBIE: There is 140,000
miles of track in North America,
00:19:39
so how do you get
your head around that?
00:19:40
How do you find someone
that's riding the rail?
00:19:43
So what you do is, you go in
and you meet with
00:19:45
the seven major railroad
companies.
00:19:48
They all have agents
that work for them,
00:19:50
they have railroad police,
so they started pulling
00:19:53
all of his records,
and he had dozens of
00:19:55
trespass records on the
railroad.
00:19:59
- The crimes
that Reséndiz committed
00:20:01
had a significant impact,
especially on those living
00:20:05
by railway tracks because there
wasn't a specific victim type.
00:20:10
You never really knew who was
going to be the next victim.
00:20:14
It was whoever had something
that he wanted
00:20:17
and that could be anybody,
so the level of fear,
00:20:20
the level of anxiety
that his crimes generated
00:20:23
was horrendous.
00:20:25
- NARRATOR: Not long after the
FBI's involvement in the case,
00:20:29
they were able to link
the unsolved murder
00:20:31
of Christopher Maier almost
two years earlier to Reséndiz.
00:20:36
- BOBBIE: We received a hit
from 1997,
00:20:39
where a couple was brutalized.
00:20:42
The male was killed,
the female was the only survivor
00:20:45
of Reséndiz, and that was in
Kentucky near railroad tracks.
00:20:49
Through DNA,
through eyewitness testimony
00:20:52
of the survivor,
and through a sketch
00:20:55
that she was able to give
to the officers there,
00:20:58
we were pretty sure it was
the same person.
00:21:01
Once the DNA came back,
it was a positive hit.
00:21:04
So, now we had him responsible
for at least four homicides.
00:21:10
- KEN: At that point,
we knew we had a serious,
00:21:12
serious killer on the loose.
00:21:17
- NARRATOR: But Ángel Reséndiz
was only just getting started,
00:21:20
and there would soon be
even more victims.
00:21:23
By late May 1999,
authorities across the U.S.
00:21:27
were desperately searching
for a man they now knew
00:21:30
was a serial killer.
00:21:33
The 38-year-old
Mexican had been linked
00:21:35
to at least four murders,
three of them in Texas
00:21:38
in the previous five months.
00:21:41
The so-called "Railroad Killer"
was headline news
00:21:44
across the Lone Star State.
00:21:47
- GEOFFREY:
Reséndiz is attracting
00:21:49
growing notoriety in Texas.
00:21:52
Inevitably, it feeds the vanity
that has been
00:21:56
growing inside him.
00:21:59
He knows people are beginning
to look for him, and yet,
00:22:02
he still feels
he can get away with it,
00:22:04
in fact, he was to kill again.
00:22:06
- NARRATOR: On June the 3rd,
Reséndiz was back in Houston,
00:22:10
and his blood lust
had become insatiable.
00:22:12
Under the veil of night,
he entered the home
00:22:15
of 26-year-old Noemi Dominguez.
00:22:19
- GEOFFREY: Noemi is an
elementary school teacher,
00:22:21
she is at home and he breaks in.
00:22:25
Picks up a pickaxe-like tool
and attacks her.
00:22:29
By now, Reséndiz is quite
clearly out of control,
00:22:33
any sense of order,
of civilization,
00:22:37
of propriety is gone.
00:22:42
He is now, literally,
like an animal,
00:22:45
lusting for blood,
with blood dripping from him.
00:22:49
Again, she's sexually assaulted,
and again, he kills her.
00:22:53
- KEN: She lived near
railroad tracks,
00:22:56
her body was covered up,
almost looked very similar
00:22:59
to the way Dr. Benton
was covered up.
00:23:01
The legs sticking out
from underneath the covers,
00:23:03
she was face down, and she
had been beaten to death.
00:23:08
- DR. YARDLEY: Reséndiz decided
to cover some of his victims
00:23:11
with blankets because this
essentially dehumanizes them.
00:23:15
It depersonalizes them, but also
it's about looking,
00:23:19
it's about seeing
and being seen,
00:23:21
so he's covering his victims
00:23:23
because he doesn't want to
look at them,
00:23:26
but he also doesn't want them
to look at him,
00:23:28
so it's this constant theme
of shame that comes up
00:23:32
time and time again.
00:23:34
- NARRATOR: As the killer
grew more experienced,
00:23:37
he became more
brazen in his actions.
00:23:40
Reséndiz had started leaving
calling cards
00:23:43
at the scene of his murders.
00:23:46
- RAMON: When he murdered
the victims, he would find
00:23:50
their ID, driver's license
or some other type of ID,
00:23:55
and would display them
in such fashion
00:23:59
that whoever entered the home
later would find out
00:24:03
who they were,
how they looked like.
00:24:05
In my mind, he wanted to see
how they looked like before
00:24:09
he bludgeoned them to death,
before he raped them,
00:24:13
and see what it would have been;
almost as if had already
00:24:19
developed a relationship
with the victim.
00:24:22
- NARRATOR: After killing
Noemi Dominguez,
00:24:24
Reséndiz wasn't finished.
00:24:27
Just as he'd done
after murdering Claudia Benton,
00:24:30
he stole the schoolteacher's
car and headed 100 miles west.
00:24:36
- KEN: It was a white Honda
and it was taken and driven
00:24:40
to Fayette County
near Schulenburg,
00:24:43
small community of Dubina,
where he then murdered
00:24:46
Josephine Konvicka.
00:24:50
He toyed with law
enforcement at that scene
00:24:54
by displaying a toy train,
displaying newspaper articles
00:24:59
about the cases, the murders.
00:25:02
- RAMON: This is like
reading an article that says,
00:25:05
"I am the Railroad Killer,
and I'm leaving this here
00:25:10
"for you to know and make sure
that you know it is me,
00:25:15
nobody else,
I am the Railroad Killer."
00:25:18
He was proud of that.
00:25:21
- GEOFFREY: It is yet further
proof, if anyone needed,
00:25:24
that he is now utterly
out of control,
00:25:26
and glorying in every moment
of his celebrity.
00:25:29
It is one of the most troubling
of moments when a killer
00:25:34
starts to live up
to his own hype,
00:25:37
who becomes obsessed
with his own fame.
00:25:42
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz had killed
73-year-old Josephine Konvicka
00:25:46
with the same pickaxe he'd used
just hours before
00:25:50
when murdering Noemi Dominguez.
00:25:52
- When he left the premises,
he'd actually left the pickaxe
00:25:56
in Josephine's head
and he tucked her up in bed,
00:26:00
which was quite a bizarre
kind of behavior,
00:26:03
but he'd left behind a really
important piece of evidence
00:26:06
because on that pickaxe
was some of Noemi Dominguez's
00:26:10
blood, so those two murders
were connected.
00:26:14
- NARRATOR: Less than two weeks
later, Reséndiz had traveled
00:26:17
far from Texas, over
800 miles north to Illinois.
00:26:22
On June the 15th, 1999, he
committed another double murder.
00:26:27
The victims were 79-year-old
George Morner
00:26:31
and his 51-year-old daughter,
Carolyn Fredrick.
00:26:35
George's home
in the quiet village of Gorham
00:26:39
was less than 100 yards
from the railroad.
00:26:43
- KEN: In Illinois,
he found a shotgun.
00:26:46
The elderly gentleman
was in his easy chair
00:26:49
reading his newspaper.
00:26:52
Reséndiz is able to gain entry
into the house,
00:26:55
ties him up with telephone cord,
ties him to his easy chair,
00:27:00
gets behind him
with the 12-gauge shotgun
00:27:03
and shoots him
in the back of the head
00:27:05
through the back seat
of the recliner.
00:27:09
Little while later,
his daughter comes in,
00:27:13
and she is immediately
beat to death
00:27:16
with the 12-gauge shotgun.
00:27:20
- NARRATOR: The slain father
and daughter took the tally
00:27:23
of known victims to eight.
00:27:25
Authorities were becoming
desperate to capture
00:27:28
the elusive Railroad Killer.
00:27:31
- KEN: He seemed to be
almost ghost-like,
00:27:34
the way he could get
into houses without being heard,
00:27:38
without disturbing the occupants
00:27:41
and that was one of
the strangest things.
00:27:44
I still don't know how he got
into Dr. Benton's house,
00:27:47
and all the other houses,
and that was the scary part,
00:27:49
and ghosts scare people,
it's just a natural reaction
00:27:53
to something that can't
be explained,
00:27:56
and the way he was able
to enter people's homes
00:27:59
couldn't be explained.
00:28:01
- NARRATOR: The killings
were becoming more frequent
00:28:04
and the hunting ground
had become wider spread.
00:28:07
The FBI immediately took action.
00:28:11
- BOBBIE: On June 21st of 1999,
working with our
00:28:15
FBI headquarters,
we were able to add Reséndiz
00:28:18
to our Top Ten
Most Wanted Fugitives.
00:28:22
When anyone is made
a top ten, both the media
00:28:26
and the public are made aware
of how important this case was.
00:28:30
The media helped us
immensely in this case.
00:28:34
Everybody in the United States
and in Mexico,
00:28:37
to a certain extent,
wanted this guy captured.
00:28:40
He had turned
from a serial killer,
00:28:42
now he was a spree killer,
and I think
00:28:45
everybody in the world
wanted him caught.
00:28:49
- NARRATOR: The addition of
Reséndiz to the Most Wanted list
00:28:52
brought nationwide TV exposure.
00:28:55
- KEN: So that's when the tips
were coming in and as the tips
00:28:58
came in, anything that was
really, really helpful,
00:29:03
that sounded legitimate,
was funneled to the task force,
00:29:07
and it was just a huge
coordinated effort
00:29:10
in trying to find this guy.
00:29:14
- BOBBIE: I don't know
if it was the media or the FBI,
00:29:16
but he was given the name,
the Railroad Killer,
00:29:19
and in every media blitz
you would see
00:29:21
"The Railroad Killer's
on the run again,
00:29:24
he's been here, he's been there,
he's committed this crime."
00:29:27
- NARRATOR: The national
exposure put pressure
00:29:30
on the family and friends
of Ángel Reséndiz
00:29:33
across the Mexican border.
00:29:36
- BOBBIE: This was the most
complex case most of us
00:29:38
had ever worked because
the jurisdiction was huge,
00:29:41
it was all the way
in North America, you know,
00:29:43
you just didn't know
where he was gonna be.
00:29:46
Once we identified he had
a wife or a common-law wife
00:29:50
in Mexico was the pivotal
point for me.
00:29:54
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz's wife
was brought across the border
00:29:57
to be questioned by the FBI.
00:29:59
Bobbie led the interview.
00:30:02
- BOBBIE: She was brought
up here.
00:30:03
She brought her daughter,
who was approximately
00:30:05
three or four months old,
and we conducted the interview
00:30:08
over a two-day period.
00:30:10
There in that interview,
I was able to provide her
00:30:14
with enough information
that she came to believe
00:30:17
that he had committed
the homicides.
00:30:22
We showed her the DNA,
we showed her fingerprints.
00:30:26
We asked her if she
ever received anything
00:30:29
from his trips into the U.S.
00:30:32
After her visit here, the
U.S. Marshals, the Texas Rangers
00:30:36
went back down into her village
and she provided everything
00:30:40
that he had ever given her
that she still had
00:30:42
in her possessions,
and they were in fact
00:30:45
stolen at the crime scenes.
00:30:47
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz
remained in hiding,
00:30:50
but the authorities were doing
all they could to flush him out.
00:30:53
- BOBBIE: Once you take away
all their comfort zones,
00:30:56
they have nowhere to go
and they generally make mistakes
00:30:59
and you'll be able to
apprehend them that way.
00:31:02
- NARRATOR: The tactics worked,
with nowhere to run to,
00:31:05
a sister of Ángel Reséndiz
convinced the killer
00:31:09
to turn himself over
to the U.S. investigators.
00:31:13
- BOBBIE: We had one sister
who lived in New Mexico
00:31:16
that would prove to be
the person that negotiated
00:31:19
his surrender, that a
Texas Ranger developed trust
00:31:23
with this individual,
and through that development,
00:31:26
she end up contacting him
and arranged a surrender.
00:31:30
- RAMON: And then it was
his brother who accompanied him
00:31:35
when he turned himself
to the Texas Ranger in El Paso,
00:31:39
the crossing between Mexico
and the United States
00:31:42
by the Rio Grande.
00:31:46
- DR. YARDLEY: Now,
this is something straight out
00:31:47
of a movie, it really does
have a lot of dramatic effects,
00:31:51
and I think that is very
revealing about Reséndiz.
00:31:54
He's the director
in his own drama.
00:31:57
He is calling the shots,
he's in control.
00:32:01
- NARRATOR: After hunting
the Railroad Killer
00:32:03
for nearly seven months,
Detective Ken Macha was stunned
00:32:07
when Reséndiz gave up the ghost.
00:32:10
- KEN: I'm amazed
that he did it.
00:32:12
All he had to do
was stay in Mexico
00:32:14
and then come across on a train
or come across the border
00:32:19
whenever he wanted to,
and commit more murders,
00:32:22
and keep up his little
side business of selling jewelry
00:32:25
in Mexico and live happily ever
with his wife and kid.
00:32:29
I'm grateful that he turned
himself in.
00:32:33
To this day, I still will never
know the real motive.
00:32:37
I think he was maybe
a bit concerned about
00:32:39
his wife and daughter in Mexico
being harmed
00:32:43
if there were some
bounties on his head.
00:32:46
- NARRATOR: Soon after
the capture of Reséndiz,
00:32:49
Ken found himself face to face
with the serial murderer.
00:32:53
After speaking to so many
potential suspects
00:32:56
over the previous few months,
there was one thing
00:32:59
in particular that Ken
was looking for
00:33:01
to make sure they
definitely got their man.
00:33:05
- KEN: There were many times
that my partner, Joey Sanders,
00:33:08
and I would just get
a frantic call from--
00:33:12
at the police department,
sometimes transferred
00:33:14
from Houston P.D. saying that
the people swear they've seen
00:33:17
Reséndiz in some part
of Houston.
00:33:20
And one of the first things
we'd do was grab his right hand,
00:33:23
look at the ring finger,
and if it didn't have a scar,
00:33:27
even though it looked like him,
we knew it wasn't him
00:33:29
'cuz it showed upon every
fingerprint card that he had
00:33:33
was an extremely noticeable scar
just straight through the pad
00:33:36
of his ring finger,
and sure enough
00:33:38
when we caught him,
it's one of the first things
00:33:39
I was able to do, I think,
and sure enough it was there,
00:33:42
and it was true to life.
00:33:44
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz may have
surrendered himself
00:33:46
to the police,
but there was no way
00:33:48
this was going to be an open
and shut case for prosecutors.
00:33:52
With a trial looming,
defense attorneys
00:33:55
were going to tell the judge
that the killer was insane.
00:33:58
By now, investigators were aware
that he'd killed eight people,
00:34:03
and was still looking into
whether there may be even more.
00:34:07
The unsolved murder
of an 87-year-old woman
00:34:10
named Leafie Mason
in Hughes Springs, Texas,
00:34:13
was high on their list
of potential victims.
00:34:19
- KEN: At one of the task force
meetings we had,
00:34:22
police officer from
Hughes Springs,
00:34:25
where Leafie Mason was murdered,
they took out the complete
00:34:29
window frame where the suspect,
in their case, made entry,
00:34:35
and they preserved it
as evidence, and sure enough,
00:34:37
they matched up
his fingerprints.
00:34:39
Reséndiz, there he was,
we had a good match
00:34:41
to that case as well.
00:34:45
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz had
bludgeoned the 87-year-old woman
00:34:48
to death with a flat iron
in October 1998,
00:34:52
two months before the killing
of Dr. Claudia Benton.
00:34:56
Leafie Mason
became the ninth known victim
00:35:00
of Ángel Reséndiz,
00:35:02
but it's believed the total
number of people
00:35:04
who died at the hands
of the Railroad Killer
00:35:07
is even higher.
00:35:09
- BOBBIE: He confessed
to 12 or 13 crimes
00:35:11
and they were able to confirm
through DNA evidence
00:35:14
that he had in fact
committed those crimes.
00:35:17
- NARRATOR: The killer talked
about his many possible victims
00:35:21
with forensic psychologist
Ramon Laval.
00:35:25
- RAMON: We didn't discuss
the full chronology
00:35:27
and what came first and second,
third, fourth,
00:35:31
but I have an idea that
he--it--it started,
00:35:34
as far as we know, in '86.
00:35:37
- NARRATOR: Ramon had been
asked to evaluate
00:35:39
the mental state
of Ángel Reséndiz
00:35:42
after a judge informed
the defense attorneys
00:35:45
that the killer would be
prevented from pleading
00:35:47
not guilty by reason of insanity
00:35:50
unless he was assessed
by an independent psychologist.
00:35:54
- RAMON: He was not only
willing to admit culpability,
00:35:58
he talked about them,
he said yeah, he was the actor,
00:36:02
he was the one who
perpetrated them,
00:36:05
and he would not be willing
to give anybody else credit.
00:36:08
He was very narcissistic,
very self-absorbed.
00:36:12
His manner of communication
about the crimes was very calm,
00:36:16
emotionally collected.
00:36:19
He did not display any extreme
emotional feelings about them,
00:36:24
no sorrow, no regret.
00:36:27
- NARRATOR: Despite admitting
to many murders,
00:36:30
the prosecution only needed
Reséndiz to be found guilty
00:36:33
of one, so they had to find
the most airtight case
00:36:38
against him, the murder
of Dr. Claudia Benton.
00:36:42
- KEN: We had the strongest
case by far.
00:36:45
I think some of the other
counties might've wanted
00:36:47
to have had their own trial
and convict him,
00:36:51
but once he's convicted
of capital murder in--in Texas,
00:36:56
there's not much need
to do it again.
00:36:59
- NARRATOR: Assistant district
attorney Lyn McClellan
00:37:02
was part
of the prosecution team.
00:37:05
- LYN: In every criminal case,
you have to prove the case
00:37:08
beyond a reasonable doubt,
so it's really just proving
00:37:11
the elements of that crime.
00:37:13
The evidence that who did it
came from his fingerprints
00:37:18
and on Claudia Benton's case
and fingerprints
00:37:21
in the apartment,
fingerprints on the car
00:37:24
that was recovered
in San Antonio afterwards,
00:37:27
so that's really not
a real difficult case to prove
00:37:32
because all the evidence
is there.
00:37:34
Fingerprints and DNA
are much better than eyewitness
00:37:39
because eyewitnesses
can make mistakes,
00:37:41
and fingerprints
and DNA are not.
00:37:44
- NARRATOR: The trial began
on May the 8th, 2000
00:37:47
in Houston, Texas.
00:37:49
Ken Macha was in the courtroom.
00:37:52
- KEN: One thing that stuck out
immensely was the amount
00:37:56
of weight that Reséndiz gained.
00:37:59
He looked like
a completely different person.
00:38:04
He must have put on
40 to 50 pounds,
00:38:07
maybe even more.
00:38:08
He was quiet, didn't say a word.
00:38:10
I don't believe
he said one single word
00:38:13
throughout the trial unless
he was conversing, uh,
00:38:15
with his attorneys.
00:38:17
- NARRATOR: As expected,
the defense attorneys claimed
00:38:21
the 39-year-old Reséndiz
was not guilty
00:38:24
by reason of insanity.
00:38:27
- LYN: They say
he's schizophrenic.
00:38:29
They say he's any kind
of a mental disease.
00:38:32
Did that cause him to do it?
00:38:36
Did he know right from wrong?
00:38:38
Obviously he knew
right from wrong
00:38:40
because he was trying
to get away, and he got away.
00:38:45
I mean, there's lots of people
that have mental diseases,
00:38:48
they don't all go around
killing people.
00:38:51
- NARRATOR: Before the trial,
Reséndiz had been quoted
00:38:54
in the media,
calling himself an angel of God.
00:38:58
But Ramon Laval didn't agree
with the killer's theory.
00:39:03
- RAMON: My main concern was
if he was insane
00:39:06
at the time of the offense,
00:39:09
and if he was doing
the will of God,
00:39:13
where did the rape come from?
00:39:16
He could not quite explain that.
00:39:18
He was like, "Huh, I wonder why
you're asking me that question.
00:39:21
You know, I hadn't
quite thought about that."
00:39:24
- LYN: So, basically
it's almost a confession
00:39:25
that, "I did this,
but when I did this,
00:39:29
"I didn't know right from wrong.
00:39:32
"I didn't know what I was doing
and thus I can't be held
00:39:34
"legally responsible.
00:39:36
"I get a get-out-of-jail-free
card 'cuz I didn't know
00:39:39
right from wrong."
00:39:41
- NARRATOR: Ramon's testimony
put the idea that Reséndiz
00:39:44
was insane firmly to bed.
00:39:48
- RAMON: My conclusions
at the end were, despite
00:39:52
his expression of delusions,
00:39:55
statements that had a very
delusional flavor,
00:39:58
I came to believe that he was
not insane
00:40:01
and that he was
just smart and manipulative,
00:40:05
and knew how to use information.
00:40:08
- NARRATOR: As a final nail
in the coffin,
00:40:11
prosecutors called
Holly Dunn to the stand.
00:40:14
The testimony of the girl
who cheated death
00:40:17
at the hands of Reséndiz in
Kentucky three years previously
00:40:22
left the jury in no doubt.
00:40:25
On May the 18th, 2000
Ángel Reséndiz was found guilty
00:40:30
of the murder
of Dr. Claudia Benton.
00:40:33
Four days later,
he was sentenced to death.
00:40:37
- KEN: I knew that the verdict
was gonna be guilty.
00:40:40
There was really
no defense put up.
00:40:43
When he was sentenced
to death, I was happy.
00:40:46
To me, it was
the appropriate punishment.
00:40:48
Not to get into any
of the debates about
00:40:51
death penalty right or wrong,
in Texas,
00:40:54
that was the punishment,
and that's what he got.
00:40:57
- NARRATOR: Reséndiz was on
death row for six years
00:41:00
before his stay
of execution came to an end.
00:41:04
On June the 27th, 2006,
FBI special agent
00:41:09
Bobbie Knox Echard
went to Huntsville, Texas
00:41:12
to witness the death of the
Railroad Killer firsthand.
00:41:17
- BOBBIE: He's brought in,
he jumped up on the table,
00:41:21
they prepare him and, um,
they allow him
00:41:23
to make a statement.
00:41:25
In this case,
he apologized to the victims,
00:41:27
but he then kinda claimed
that the devil made him do it.
00:41:31
He said,
"It was my fault because
00:41:33
I let the devil into my life,
but the devil was responsible,"
00:41:37
and the drugs were administered
at that point,
00:41:40
and the very last thing,
00:41:41
he was asking in Spanish
for forgiveness from God,
00:41:45
and then he died very
peacefully.
00:41:48
I felt no joy in the fact
that he had been executed,
00:41:53
I felt nothing towards him
other than anger
00:41:56
for what he had done
to the victims
00:41:58
and what he left the victims'
families to deal with
00:42:01
for the rest of their lives.
00:42:03
He was gone,
but they still are here
00:42:05
having to deal with his crimes.
00:42:09
- LYN: What Claudia Benton's
husband said
00:42:11
probably sums it up.
00:42:13
"He was evil contained
in human form."
00:42:17
A creature without a soul.
00:42:19
No conscience,
no sense of remorse.
00:42:23
No regard
for the sanctity of life
00:42:25
'cuz with Reséndiz,
it's all about him.
00:42:28
He's the one in charge, he's
the one he's trying to satisfy.
00:42:32
He went through his whole life,
you know, thinking he had
00:42:35
the right to do all these
things,
00:42:36
and whatever he wanted to do,
he did it,
00:42:38
because
he was the one in charge.
00:42:40
- NARRATOR: After taking
the lives of so many others,
00:42:44
45-year-old Ángel Reséndiz had
himself been put to death.
00:42:49
He is no longer
a danger to innocent people.
00:42:53
- BOBBIE: He was probably
the most evil person
00:42:56
that I ever was involved
in the investigation
00:42:58
and I've investigated
lots of murderers,
00:43:02
child molesters, kidnappers,
but I think this guy
00:43:06
was inherently evil.
00:43:08
- KEN: He's just a savage
animal, absolute savage animal.
00:43:12
The way he dealt
with his victims
00:43:13
was just completely savage.
00:43:17
- NARRATOR: Ángel Reséndiz
spent his entire life
00:43:20
in the shadows of society.
00:43:22
Holed up in freight train
carriages across America,
00:43:26
he was able to carry out his
crimes completely undetected.
00:43:31
Why he started raping
and killing the victims
00:43:34
of his burglaries,
we shall never know,
00:43:37
but the amount of people
he slayed
00:43:39
suggest that he enjoyed
the act of murder,
00:43:43
and proves that Ángel Reséndiz
00:43:45
is one of the world's
most evil killers.
00:43:49
- ♪
00:44:05
♪♪
00:44:17
- [swooshing sound]
