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[Music] the surf and sand of central florida make this a popular vacation spot but the area lost some of its luster in
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1995 when a serial killer set up shop after the fourth body was discovered police knew an important detail about
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the killer he had an unusual dog with an unusual drug habit [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] tampa florida is known not only as a tourist destination but it also has more
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thunderstorms than any other location in the united states the name tampa is derived from the
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colusa native american word meaning lightning along with the tourism there's prostitution
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on october 20th 1995 a pizza delivery driver discovered the nude body of a white woman in nearby
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clearwater 42 year old wendy evans was a crack cocaine addict recently released from a
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mental health clinic she was last seen hitchhiking in an area frequented by prostitutes
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wendy had been beaten and strangled but there were no signs of sexual assault the body had been dumped meaning she had
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been killed elsewhere not surprisingly a thunderstorm washed away possible evidence
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all the small artifacts that we would ordinarily hope to find on someone with clothing on
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we were doubtful we were going to get too much so we were going to have to use anything
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and everything at our disposal from from microscopic examination to the use of light energy to try to luminesce
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microscopic materials that our eyes could not see investigators used a luma light to
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examine the body this device uses high intensity light higher than sunlight which causes
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man-made fibers to glow or luminesce we felt it very important to use the light source the luma light in this case
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because of its power to search even though it was daytime and even though it was outdoors to do a
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search of that area in search of the victim's body for potential evidence the lumalite revealed several tiny
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fibers on wendy evans's body which were taken to the lab for analysis the lumalite also revealed a few strands
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of dog hair and about seven feet from where the body had been dumped was another potential clue
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a possible result of the rain a tire impression using dental plaster which hardens
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quickly into a flexible mold police made a cast of the impression which was photographed for analysis
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[Music] the tread patterns were clear meaning it was from a relatively new tire which had a small stone lodged in
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the tread just one month later police had another dumped body [Music] two teenagers found the nude body of
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peggy darnell a forty-year-old clearwater prostitute in the woods near a highway
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she had been dead for at least a week maybe longer her body was decomposed to the point
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that no significant evidence was recovered police believed the murders were committed by the same perpetrator
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and they quickly searched for other similar crimes in their cold case files they discovered another unsolved case
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sixteen months earlier ladonna gene stellar's nude and decomposed body was discovered in a
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vacant lot in downtown clearwater the cause of death like the other cases was strangulation
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ladonna was a former model a waitress at a local sports bar and had previous arrests for
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prostitution she was a single mother of two children police suspected they had a serial
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killer at work one that was one step ahead of their investigation in his mind he felt that he had denied
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us the physical evidence that would have tied him to a crime scene the bodies had been taken to remote
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areas they had been stripped of their clothing they had been moved from the original
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crime scene all of these things he had done to prevent us from catching him from
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finding evidence that would lead to him investigators fearful the killer would strike again
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we're racing against time [Music] in the fall of 1995 police in clearwater florida had three murdered women
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their nude bodies dumped in deserted locations [Music] with the passage of time between these
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three murders police knew they were dealing with a killer who lived in the area and not a tourist
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serial killers tend to hunt for victims close to where they work or live although the victims were nude
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the killer left behind some clues scientists analyzed the fibers found on wendy evans's body
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fiber specialist jerry cerino discovered that most were nylon but a few were made
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of polyester all were triangular or trilobal in shape and all were dyed with the same chemical
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pink but this positive news didn't come in time to save another life on january 18 1996
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there was a fourth victim 27 year old cindy pugh who had recently moved to clearwater from maine was
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beaten strangled to death and her body dumped in an industrial area near a dumpster
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again alumalite was brought to the scene and again it revealed the pink fibers i can say that these fibers from the two
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different cases could have originated from or could have shared a common source i think after all the examinations that
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i conducted that the fibers in these cases were very solid evidence another unusual piece of evidence was
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what looked to be a piece of cigarette paper on cindy pugh's body the little piece of paper that was found
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on the breast of one of the the victims if we would have got there maybe half an
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hour later it was ready to blow off it was barely sticking to the skin the cigarette paper
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contained saliva enough to get a dna profile but was the dna from the killer dog hairs were also found at the scene
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the dog hairs were sent to the fbi and identified as those of a pug the pug is a toy-sized dog with a very
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low tolerance to heat making them somewhat uncommon in states like florida investigators sent photographs of the
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tire impression found near wendy evans body to peter mcdonald a forensic analyst who literally wrote the book on
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the identification of tire he recognized the tire immediately i received the photographs
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and this was just amazing to me it was a tire that i had designed when i was at firestone
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we had no idea that he was the designer of the tire we were looking for so that was just a very lucky break for
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us also the tire was a firestone radial atx last manufactured in 1992 these were after-market replacement
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tires used on small pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles police researched sales records on how
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many of these tires were shipped and sold in florida and they got a break the atx was not a best-selling model
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and only one dealership in the entire state of florida had sold the atx tires in the last 12 months
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tire tracks can be a very valuable bit of evidence at a crime scene one set was purchased by a woman living
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in clearwater just a few miles from where the bodies were discovered and she also owned
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a dog [Music] florida investigators were on the hunt for a serial killer known to be driving
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a vehicle with firestone radial atx tires police discovered that a woman living in the area terry
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joe howard purchased a pair of firestone radial atx tires a few months before the
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murders began terry joe lived with a boyfriend 41 year old james randall we went to their belcher road address at
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night and we had a detective sneak up on the vehicle and identify the tires on the vehicle as
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being the firestone radial atx tires that peter mcdonald said they were terry joe was a recovering drug addict
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and a former prostitute james randall was a construction worker terry joe also had a dog
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a pug that she would walk in the neighborhood local prostitutes identified randall as
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a regular customer police surveillance teams followed randall for days and followed him into a
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car dealership driving the vehicle with the firestone radial atx tires not wanting to give away anything the
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officer following stayed in the background and the dealer took the two tires off and replaced them
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then the detective called me all excited he said pete we've got the two rear tires
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but investigators needed all four tires to get a proper match so police devised a ruse
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posing as an employee from the tire dealership a police detective told randall that his
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new tires were defective but if he brought his car in right away he'd receive four brand new tires for
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free as a gift for his inconvenience that same afternoon terry joe howard showed up with james randall and gave
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her four brand new tires that the sheriff's office had purchased and the new tires placed on randall's vehicle
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were marked we marked them in a certain way so that if those tires showed up at one of our
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crime scenes in the future we would know for sure that they were at the tires from james
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randall's truck peter mcdonald studied the four original tires from randall's vehicle
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tires have a feature called sipes small cuts in the tread that grabbed the road in an effort to prevent
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hydroplaning the molding process creates marks in these sites marks that can distinguish one tire from
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another the sipes from james randall's tire matched those from the crime scene
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photos and so did one other distinguishing feature i found that the right rear tire
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as chance would have it was the best photograph tire and there was a stone that was held in
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the groove in exactly the same location that was recorded at the crime scene the
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stone being held in the tire allowed for a positive identification but police wanted as much evidence as
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they could gather and they wanted to examine the hair of the pug owned by terry jo howard
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two female detectives knocked on terry joe's door saying they had a new dog grooming service and offered to wash her
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dog free as a promotion terry joe accepted before what do you think come on in great
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terry joe howard let the detectives in the house and they washed the dog and at that time
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they were able to pull dog hairs onto clean white towels and use them to compare the dog hairs from
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cindy pugh's body scientists discovered that the hair from terry joe's pug
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was microscopically similar to the pug hairs found on two of the victims a background check on james randall
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revealed some startling information in violation of his parole randall fled the state of massachusetts
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after serving six years in prison for twice raping his first wife james randall has been identified as a
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sexual sadist and that is a person who has to inflict pain on his sexual partner in order to
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obtain sexual gratification for himself terry jo howard described randall the same way
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he got really mad at me and i sat down in the chair and he was yelling at me and he
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came over and he picked me up by my throat and pinned me up against the wall that
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was the last thing i remembered until i woke up on the bed and he was on top of me having
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intercourse with what i believe he thought was my dead body inside of their apartment
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police found more forensic evidence more proof that the murders were committed here
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i never felt so betrayed in my whole life and he was a master master manipulator
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[Music] when they told me that they thought that jimmy was the one that was killing all the girls
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in the area i was so shocked i just started screaming james randall and terry jo howard were
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living together during the time police suspected randall was killing clearwater prostitutes
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i think he liked the life he lived with me it was a clean good life i don't think
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either one of us had ever lived life that good boot in our previously [Music] dinner waiting at home
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someone who cared about you someone to go to movies with someone to chat with someone to watch tv
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with armed with a search warrant investigators discovered a pink throw rug under the couple's bed
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scientific tests found that the main portion of the rug was nylon the fringe was polyester
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the fibers were triangular in shape and the dye was the same as those on the victims
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because the fibers had so many different characteristics that i could examine and
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compare that told me that either these victims came in contact with this particular
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rug or with a rug that is composed of the exact same fibers as this particular rug
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in searching randall's home police found something unusual small bits of cigarette paper scattered
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all over the floor evidence that their dog the pug had an unusual habit terry jo howard's dog
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had a nicotine addiction and the dog would normally take cigarette butts out of the
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ashtrays and chew them up and spit them out and leave them on the floor of the apartment terry joe was a smoker and
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would you know toss out her cigarette butts and the dog would pick them up and chew
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on them and so there were at least little flecks of cigarette paper all around remember the cigarette paper found on
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cindy pugh's body that contained saliva the dna from that saliva belonged to terry joe howard
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proof the cigarette paper had come from inside their apartment we believe that it was one small piece
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of a cigarette butt that the dog had chewed up and left behind that was attached to cindy pugh's breast
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unbeknownst to gene randle which was a major major piece of physical evidence i believe some of
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these murders happened in my home in my bed i know some of them did two of them did
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i was over here in west palm visiting my sick and dying mother prosecutors believe that randall would
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pick up victims and take them back to the apartment when terry joe was gone [Music]
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[Music] on the pink carpet randall acted out his sadistic impulses strangling the women during sex and
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killing them [Applause] while there the victims picked up carpet fibers and dog hairs
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later found on the bodies with the lumalite the cigarette paper chewed by the dog
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with terry joe's dna was found on cindy pew when randall dumped wendy evans body his
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truck left the tire impression in the sand terry jo confronted randall about all of
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this when she went to see him in prison i just kind of looked and said why not me
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huh why not me jimmy and he looked at me and he started crying he didn't want them to hear what
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he was about to tell me which was i heard others so that i would not hurt you at the trial
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james randall's first wife testified against him her description of randall's sadism
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was chilling and told me to lay down and tied my hands up behind my back of my shoelace
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i'm at this point it was like i didn't know if i was going to make it out of there or not
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james randall was convicted of the murder of wendy ann evans and cynthia gene pugh
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and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms i really wanted to see him die for what he's done
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life in prison is not good enough for this man he wanted to kill them he knew he was going to kill them
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and afterwards when after i did find out i was talking to him didn't seem like it was that big a deal
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to him they were just prostitutes they were just drug addicts they were just women
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[Music] [Music] you