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[Music]
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in 1992
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there were more than 75 suspicious fires
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set in seattle washington during a
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six-month period of time
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all
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appeared deliberately set
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it was the biggest arson case in
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american history
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solved with behavioral profiling
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hypnosis
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and a piece of art
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[Music]
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on the night of august 9 1992
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firefighters outside seattle washington
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faced a disaster
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three churches were engulfed in flames
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at the same time just a few miles from
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one another
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when we arrived the fire was probably at
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its peak
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the flames were shooting above the
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sanctuary which was a very large
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sanctuary you know i would guess
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you know it must have been
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[Music]
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three stories high
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the next morning
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parishioners of trinity lutheran arrived
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to find their church in ruins
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reverend rouse
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made an unusual decision
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he would conduct services anyway
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the parking lot was turned into a
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makeshift church
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and in the midst of smoking embers
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the congregation held their sunday
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service
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as i looked in the faces of many of my
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parishioners you could see the the
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sorrow
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the
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disbelief
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many were crying
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tears of of sorrow my staff
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were
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crying and holding each other
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they thought this can't be true
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arson dogs were brought in to look for
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traces of flammable liquids but they
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found none
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and chemical tests of the rubble
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couldn't find accelerants either
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there was really very little trace
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evidence for us to recover at the seeds
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there was no vandalism at the fire
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scenes so the motive appeared to be
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thrill seeking
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and all of the fire started the same way
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on the ground floor at chest level
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over the next several weeks there were
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eight church fires
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six were lutheran churches
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eventually
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the arsons moved on to businesses and
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homes
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in one night alone
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there were 12 different arson fires
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all of the fires were set at night
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without the use of accelerants i watched
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people
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burned in the middle of the night out of
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their homes losing all their possessions
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standing literally their night clothes
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with nothing but their life
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left with their children sobbing we
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heard stories about people jumping out
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of windows or being lowered out of
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windows
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a lot of stories about just devastating
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financial impacts
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one victim was inside her home when the
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fire started i was just getting out of
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the tub
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when i started to hear strange crashing
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noises outside my house like glass
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breaking
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i opened the bathroom and there was the
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front door and i just the wall to the
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left was entirely in flames it was up in
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flames
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she grabbed her roommate and ran
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frantically to the front of the house
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we opened the front door and the entire
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front porch is up in flames so our
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access to get out was denied and that
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was absolutely terrifying that was when
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you make a split second decisions am i
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going to live i've got to move
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the two made it out the back door and
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were lucky to be alive
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from august to january
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barely a night would go by
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without another family getting burned
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out of their home
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with each fire
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the arsonist was getting more daring
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he was becoming very emboldened
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and he would actually set a fire uh
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literally looking through the window at
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the family at dinner
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miraculously
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despite extensive damage no one had been
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killed
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no one
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until the arsonist made his next move
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in the fall of 1992
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residents of seattle and the surrounding
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area were under siege
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a serial arsonist had set over 25 buyers
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targeting churches businesses and homes
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all of the fires were set at night in
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the same way by someone igniting
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buildings at chest level without the use
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of accelerants
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i called our arsonist a guerrilla
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fighter because he under generally cover
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of night
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would go out prowl around be unseen
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hit his target and be gone basically
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before his target becomes
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known to anybody as a fire he was very
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very quick he was extremely covert
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residents formed vigilante groups to
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protect their neighborhoods
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local fire companies mounted all night
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patrols but still the fires continued
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the arsonist appeared to be taunting
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fire investigators
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he would draw out the fire department we
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would have one fire
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and one part of town and then he would
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go
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a fire station would be nearby and he
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would set another fire on the other side
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so he knew where the fire departments
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were
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a task force was formed to coordinate
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the investigation they commissioned a
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psychological profile of their suspect
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by interviewing past arsonists and
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identifying the traits they all have in
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common
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psychologists gain important information
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about the type of individual who commits
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these crimes
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the profile described the arsonist as
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white in his late teens to early
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twenties with an alcohol and or drug
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problem he was intelligent but an
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underachiever who had probably just
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experienced some major trauma in his
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life
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he would probably be working as a
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salesman or delivery person since he
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seemed familiar with many sections of
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the area
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the arsonist left no clues
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but two months into the fire spree when
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he started fire number 28
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he got careless
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[Music]
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investigators found two fingerprints
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near the window where the blaze was set
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the prints were run through a computer
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and checked against hundreds of
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thousands of prints on file
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there was no match
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which meant
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it was likely the arsonist had no prior
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criminal record
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two weeks later at fire number 42
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he made another mistake
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urine was found in the snow near the
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fire
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forensic scientists carefully gathered
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the sample for dna testing
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but since the urine was mixed with snow
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it was difficult to isolate any cells
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for analysis
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forensically we were told that there
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were just so few uh cells in there that
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were capable of extraction that it was
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not feasible
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months went by
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and the fires continued
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the task force was no closer to
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identifying a suspect
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there was a concern that there were more
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occupied dwellings that were being
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targeted
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and
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i mean a large concern that we were
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going to start seeing people
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dying
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unfortunately
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just after midnight on september 22nd
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1992 those fears were realized
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a fire broke out at a senior citizen
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home that housed more than 400 people
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three women
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all residents of the home died
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i felt personally responsible for their
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deaths whether it was true or not
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the guilt of that the misplaced skill of
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that was so severe that shortly
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afterwards i
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really lost all will to live
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now
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police were searching not only for an
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arsonist
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but a killer
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eventually the press coverage generated
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the first lead in the case
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a woman called police to say that a
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well-dressed man bumped into her near
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one of the fires this individual stood
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out to her
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fashion it was his clothing the
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mannerisms
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some odors that she detected both
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alcohol and an aftershave or cologne
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she said the man was intoxicated and had
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mentioned the fires
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she got a glimpse of his license plate
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number but didn't write it down
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the incident happened weeks earlier
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and she had only a vague recollection
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of what the man looked like
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in their desperation
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investigators made an unusual decision
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they decided to try
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forensic hypnosis
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[Music]
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after 60 suspicious fires had been set
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in seattle washington investigators
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finally had a lead
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a woman near one of the fires had seen a
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suspicious looking man who had bumped
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into her he was intoxicated and talked
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about the fires
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but this had happened weeks before and
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she couldn't remember much about him
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so investigators decided to try
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forensic hypnosis
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we're trying to find that specific
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unique event uh in her memory that can
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kind of trigger the rest of the memories
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to flood out
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so it's a relaxation technique we go
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back in time with her to this this point
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in time and have her really kind of like
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watch a movie for us and tell her what
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she sees
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this was one of the first times in u.s
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history that forensic hypnosis was used
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in a high-profile case and it was risky
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once a witness is hypnotized most state
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laws prohibit an individual from
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testifying at a trial
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as the witness keyed in on the alcohol
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she smelled on the man's breath
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it unlocked images from the night of the
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fire and she began to remember what she
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saw
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she recalled a man
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tall
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thin
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with hair pushed back off his face
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well dressed
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wearing an oxford shirt
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he appeared intoxicated
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and his car a sedan possibly blew
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was unusually clean
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when asked if she could remember the
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license plate number she recalled the
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first letter
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i see the letter okay
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she was asked if she could recall
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anything else she said she saw a four
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and an m
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that was all she could remember
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she was very receptive a great candidate
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actually i believe that she probably had
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a photographic memory after talking with
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her after the interview she has the
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ability for
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some some recall that most people do not
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have
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and i was probably unique of all the the
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interviews i've done
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there were 500 000 sedan cars in
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northern washington that had license
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plates with the letter k
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so investigators believed that the
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physical description of the suspect
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provided by their witness was the key
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piece of information
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to put this on paper
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they brought in composite artist john
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hines
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he interviewed the witness who was once
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again
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hypnotized she's the only witness i've
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ever done a composite drawing of who's
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been under hypnosis
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and that was
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kind of an unusual circumstance
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[Music]
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heinz asked her to divide the man's face
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into sections
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and try to recall specific details of
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his appearance
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composite artists categorize the human
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face by features
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there are for instance
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nine different eye shapes
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five different head shapes
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and so on
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each feature described by the witness is
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marked on a fact sheet
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an fbi facial identification catalog is
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also used to jog the memory
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it contains
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thousands of pictures of facial features
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all visual cues for the witness
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they're taking a visual image verbally
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telling me what that image is and i'm
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having to take that verbal description
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and turn it back into a visual image
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and that's difficult
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using the information from the interview
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heinz drew what the witness described
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the process is an unusual combination of
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interviewing skill and drawing talent
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each feature was put on paper
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with painstaking attention to every
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detail the witness remembered
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after two hours of meticulous work
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an image was formed
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perhaps
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this was the first look
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at the arsonist
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when the drawing was finished
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pine showed it to the witness
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she said that it looked just like the
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neatly dressed man she'd seen
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months into the fire spree the task
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force released their composite drawing
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to the press
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they also released two others as a
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control to help guard against false
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leads
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the psychological profile was also given
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to the press
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it wasn't long
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before the hypnotically enhanced
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composite drawing
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paid off
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the day that the composites appeared in
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the herald
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i just became physically ill
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[Music]
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when the composite drawings and
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psychological profile of the arsonist
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were released to the media this man
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george keller believed he knew the
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identity of the arsonist
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he immediately went home
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and looked through his cell phone
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records
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and discovered that one of his business
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phones was used on the dates of the
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fires from locations near the fires
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and his business credit card receipt
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showed that one of his cards was used to
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purchase gasoline in areas near the
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fires on the same dates
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george keller faced
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a gut-wrenching choice
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the person
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using these company credit cards
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was his son
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paul
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who bore a striking resemblance to the
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hypnotically enhanced composite drawing
00:16:15
i said there is a considerable
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resemblance between these pictures and
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my son paul then i went through the
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profile and
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because i was looking for
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a significant
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personality trait or something that
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might disqualify paul but as i went
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through all the items of the profile
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it
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i couldn't eliminate any paul keller was
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27 years old and employed in the family
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advertising business
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he was the oldest of three children in a
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deeply religious lutheran family which
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possibly explained why lutheran churches
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were targeted
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paul keller's sales routes took him all
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across the areas where the fires had
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been set
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he was
00:17:01
certainly emotionally rattled very upset
00:17:06
but as time went on we also understood
00:17:08
for him or from him and from his wife
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that paul's presence in their family
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had been unsettling from almost the time
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paul was born
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his father told police
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that paul had an obsession with fire
00:17:25
he said his son had applied for a
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firefighting job but had been rejected
00:17:30
and that he had set a fire
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when he was nine years old
00:17:35
he fit other aspects of the profile he
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was intelligent but had done poorly in
00:17:40
school had problems with alcohol and
00:17:43
most striking
00:17:45
had suffered an emotional crisis just
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before the arson spree began
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he at that time was going through a
00:17:52
divorce he was
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filing for bankruptcy his life was
00:17:56
falling apart he was drinking heavily
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and
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the first three numbers of his license
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plate were exactly what the hypnotized
00:18:06
witness remembered
00:18:09
the task force put paul keller under
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surveillance
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for 10 days
00:18:14
they followed him hoping they could
00:18:17
catch him in the act
00:18:19
the task force people were trying to
00:18:21
keep him paul under surveillance which
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was real challenging
00:18:25
and they would lose him periodically and
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everybody would panic
00:18:30
eventually
00:18:31
they decided to take him into custody hi
00:18:34
all right detective isaac's from the
00:18:36
everett police department yes
00:18:38
yes
00:18:40
yes it
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[Music]
00:18:47
when keller arrived at task force
00:18:50
headquarters
00:18:51
his father was waiting for him
00:18:54
george keller is a bear of a man and as
00:18:56
he embraced him he put his mouth very
00:18:58
close to his ear hugged him tightly and
00:19:00
said it's over son it's all over
00:19:03
i said it's all over
00:19:06
and i said the light life as you knew it
00:19:09
before this morning
00:19:11
is over
00:19:13
at first
00:19:14
paul keller said he was innocent am i
00:19:17
going to jail today or am i going to be
00:19:19
released
00:19:20
on my own
00:19:21
since i've never got anything wrong
00:19:24
15 minutes into the interview
00:19:27
the task force agents complimented him
00:19:29
saying
00:19:30
he was the best arsonist they'd ever
00:19:32
seen
00:19:34
[Music]
00:19:45
and with that
00:19:46
keller confessed to setting
00:19:49
75 fires
00:19:51
including the fatal fire at the
00:19:53
retirement home
00:19:55
paul keller's fingerprints matched the
00:19:57
ones found on the window at one of the
00:20:00
arson fires
00:20:02
his method of operation was surprisingly
00:20:05
simple
00:20:06
he just walked up to each site and
00:20:09
started the fire with the cigarette
00:20:11
lighter
00:20:12
did you commit the service yes
00:20:14
just blocked the stairs there was
00:20:16
corrugated
00:20:17
you can see where some of it's left yeah
00:20:20
i'll do the same thing just
00:20:22
that fast i pulled around and the door
00:20:24
was just wide open there i was in that
00:20:26
state of mind and i lit a chair and she
00:20:29
just went that was the only one that i
00:20:30
really ever
00:20:32
stayed to watch of all it went real fast
00:20:35
very fast it also went to multiple
00:20:37
alarms very fast very fast
00:20:40
keller also said he was sexually
00:20:42
molested by a volunteer fireman when he
00:20:45
was 12 years old
00:20:47
paul keller was convicted of arson and
00:20:50
murder and was sentenced to 99 years in
00:20:53
prison
00:20:54
he won't be eligible for parole until he
00:20:57
is 113 years old
00:21:01
again a word to the victims all our life
00:21:05
we will be sorrowful
00:21:06
for your pain
00:21:08
and your loss
00:21:10
we shall never forget
00:21:13
to pray for your healing
00:21:15
restoration and peace
00:21:18
may god in his help
00:21:20
in his grace
00:21:21
help all of us
00:21:24
paul keller's arson spree
00:21:27
was the biggest in us history
00:21:30
it's very hard to rationally explain why
00:21:34
i did that because there's no rational
00:21:36
reason i was not angry at trinity i was
00:21:38
not but i was very empty and perhaps
00:21:41
i thought that others needed to be as
00:21:43
empty as i was
00:21:47
but it was not a valid
00:21:49
thing to do
00:21:51
and investigators say
00:21:53
he may not have been caught
00:21:55
if not for the forensic hypnosis
00:21:58
and the composite drawing
00:22:03
[Music]
00:22:10
[Music]
00:22:17
[Music]
00:22:30
[Music]
00:22:36
you
