Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / Scarborough Rapist - Paul Kenneth Bernardo Canadian Serial Killer

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Scarborough Rapist - Paul Kenneth Bernardo Canadian Serial Killer · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got a doozy today. Huh. Paul Bernardo even decades later,
• 0:04
  that name sends shivers down your spine. Yeah, and you
• 0:07
  came prepared court records, psychological profiles. Clearly you want to
• 0:12
  get to the bottom of how a guy becomes the
• 0:14
  infamous Scarborough rapist, not to mention half of the Kennon
• 0:18
  Barbie killers.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a case that just it stays with you,
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  doesn't it. And the sheer volume of information, like you said,
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  it suggests there's something bigger here, like how many more
• 0:27
  potential Bernardos are out there? Can we even understand what
• 0:30
  makes someone capable of those kinds of things?
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  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what we're diving into. Not to glorify him,
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  god no, but to dissect what went wrong. Was he
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  always going to end up like that? Or were there
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  red flags moments where things could have gone differently. It's
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  interesting right off the bat, the aliasis Paul Teel. It's
• 0:46
  like he was trying to outrun something inside himself and.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: That's where his early life becomes so crucial to examine.
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  Not to excuse anything, but if we can understand his past, maybe,
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  just maybe it can help prevent future tragedies and Bernardo's childhood, well,
• 1:02
  let's just say it wasn't exactly leave it to beaver.
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  Speaker 1: That's putting it mildly. His father, a known pedophile, abused
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  Bernardo's sister. His mother dealing with that horrific reality basically
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  shut down emotionally. I mean, what does that kind of
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  environment even due to a kid's mind.
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  Speaker 2: It's significant, no doubt, those kinds of extreme environments, they
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  can absolutely wire a child differently, change how they see
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  the world. But and this is key, it's not a
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  one to one thing. Plenty of people survive awful childhoods
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  and don't become criminals. So what made Bernardo different?
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  Speaker 1: Right? Because if a messed up childhood was a guaranteed
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  life sentence to evil, well, we'd have a lot more
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  Bernardo's running around, wouldn't we. There's got to be more
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  to it, some kind of perfect storm exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And that's where that disturbing little detail from his youth,
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  the virgin farm fantasy, becomes especially important.
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  Speaker 1: I have to admit when I read that, I thought, okay,
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  kind of twisted, But teenagers have weird imaginations, right, Yeah?
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  Am I wrong to brush that off?
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  Speaker 2: It's not about the fantasy itself so much, but the
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  themes it reveals control, dominance, women as possessions. These are
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  echoes of what you find in the fantasies of a
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  lot of violent offenders. It suggests that darkness, that need
• 2:13
  was there early on, just waiting for the right push.
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  Speaker 1: So if that darkness was already there, what flipped the switch?
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  Was there some big event, some turning point where he
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  went from troubled kid to full blown predator.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't one single thing, more like a series of them,
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  each one pushing him further down that path. At sixteen,
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  he finds out the man who raised him wasn't his
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  biological father. Now for some kids, that's upsetting, but for
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  Bernardo was like something snapped.
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  Speaker 1: It turns on. His mother just unleashes this torrent of
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  verbal abuse, and it gets worse. The control over girlfriends escalates.
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  There's even an arson incident when one tries to break
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  up with him. Those aren't exactly typical teenage growing pains.
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  Speaker 2: You got it. Adolescence is already a time when identity
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  is forming, but Bernardo uses these events to justify his rage,
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  that need to control everything and everyone around him, And tragically,
• 3:02
  those early warning signs, well, they were either missed completely
• 3:06
  or worse, dismissed by people who could have intervened. Just
• 3:09
  imagine if someone had stepped in at that point.
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  Speaker 1: It's chilling to think about it. Almost seems like things
• 3:14
  really take a turn for the worse when Bernardo enters
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  the workforce, specifically his time with Amway. What does selling
• 3:22
  soap have to do with becoming a serial killer right time?
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  That can't be a coincidence, can it.
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  Speaker 2: It's not about the soap itself, but the tactics they
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  pushed back then. Amway was all about manipulation, dominance, closing
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  the deal, no matter what. It taught guys like Bernardo,
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  young and impressionable to see people as Marx targets to
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  be conquered.
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  Speaker 1: And this was all happening as the pickup artist scene
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  was taking off again. That focus on control, on nagging women,
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  treating them like prizes instead of human beings. It's just
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  sickening that this stuff was so.
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  Speaker 2: Widespread, Absolutely, and for someone like Bernardo, already wired for
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  violence creaving control, those ideologies become a dangerous roadmap, a
• 4:00
  way to justify his darkest impulses. He wasn't just learning
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  how to sell soap or get a date. He was
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  getting a crash course in manipulation.
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  Speaker 1: And what's truly terrifying is how well he learned those lessons.
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  This wasn't just some awkward guy. It's like he got
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  off on the humiliation, the control. It's like those toxic
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  ideologies gave him permission to become the worst version of himself.
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  Speaker 2: And unfortunately, all that darkness, all that twisted potential, it
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  was about to explode into something far, far worse.
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  Speaker 1: Because this isn't just talk anymore. This is where the
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  Scarborough rapist actually emerges. Late eighties, early nineties. That whole
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  city starts living with this undercurrent of fear as the
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  attacks get more and more brazen.
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  Speaker 2: And what's important to remember, this wasn't some random thing.
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  These weren't crimes of opportunity. The attacks almost always young women.
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  They followed a pattern bus stops, late evenings, targeting women alone, vulnerable.
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  This was calculated predatory.
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  Speaker 1: He was hunting, and each time it seemed like the
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  violence escalated. Even if he didn't succeed, you know, fully,
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  it's like it just fed that need for power, that control.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, think about it. Every time he got away with it.
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  Every time the police didn't catch him, it probably reinforced
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  what he already believed, that he was smarter, that he
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  could outsmart everyone the whole system.
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  Speaker 1: Like that first attack right outside the victim's parents' house,
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  or the time he almost got caught at a bus
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  shelter but managed to slip away. Each one must make
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  him feel untouchable. And then there's the Anthony Hanamaer case,
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  which just makes it all so much worse.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, this wasn't just theory. This was a man's life stolen,
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  wrongfully convicted for one of Bernardo's attacks. Hannahmeyer spent over
• 5:36
  a year in prison for something he didn't do.
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  Speaker 1: It makes you wonder, you know, if they had caught
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  the right guy back then, would some of Bernardo's later
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  victims still be alive today.
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  Speaker 2: It's impossible to say for sure, but it shows how
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  tunnel vision in an investigation can be so dangerous. DNA
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  evidence wasn't what it is now, sure, but it also
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  shows how focusing on one type of perpetrator, one profile,
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  can completely blind you to other possible.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got the police focused on Hannemeier and meanwhile
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  Bernardo's out there feeling even more confident, more invincible. And
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  that's when Carla Homolka enters the picture, and well, that's
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  when things go from horrific to truly unimaginable. It's like
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  pouring gasoline on a fire that's already raging. You know. Bernardo,
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  already convinced he's untouchable, meets Carla Homolka, and suddenly it's
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  not just one predator, it's a team.
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  Speaker 2: It's a chilling reminder that sometimes evil finds its perfect partner.
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  But we have to be careful not to fall into
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  that trap of saying she made him do it. Let's
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  be clear, Bernardo was already deeply, deeply disturbed, already a danger.
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  Homolka wasn't the root cause, but she amplified everything.
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  Speaker 1: Right, He'd already committed multiple rapes by then, But with Homolka,
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  there's this shared darkness, this encouragement instead of holding him back.
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  It's telling, isn't it. They adopt the name Teal, inspired
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  by that serial killer movie, and this is before the
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  murders even start, like they were writing their own horror
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  movie script.
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  Speaker 2: And that need for control we talked about, already warped
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  by his childhood, fueled by those toxic ideologies. With Hmulka,
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  it takes on this whole other dimension. She doesn't just
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  validate his fantasies, she jumps right in with.
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  Speaker 1: Him, which leads to what I think is the most
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  horrific turning point in this whole story, the murder of
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  Tammy Homolka.
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  Speaker 2: This wasn't just another crime. This was a line cross
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  that could never be uncrossed. The fact that they drugged
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  and raped Karla's own sister in their own home, it's
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  almost impossible to wrap your head around.
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  Speaker 1: And they almost got away with it. Initially, it's ruled
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  an accident. Can you imagine talk about validating Bernardo's twisted
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  worldview exactly.
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  Speaker 2: He's probably already starting to think he's above the law,
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  but getting away with Tammy's murder it just cemented, it
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  emboldened him, fed that delusion of grandeur, and it paved
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  the way for the absolute worst to come Leslie Mahaffi
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  and Kristin French.
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  Speaker 1: God, the details of those murders, there aren't even words,
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  the ritualistic aspects, the torture, of the fact that they
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  videotaped it all like something out of a nightmare.
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  Speaker 2: It's a level of depravity that most of us, thankfully,
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  can't even comprehend the way it was all planned out,
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  the way they seem to get off on the suffering
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  they inflicted. It's the absolute darkest side of humanity.
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  Speaker 1: And through it all, that chilling arrogance never goes away.
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  Bernardo keeping the receipts for the cement he used to
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  dispose of their bodies. It's like he couldn't even conceive
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  of getting caught, couldn't fathom it.
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  Speaker 2: That grandiosity, that total lack of remorse, It's sadly common
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  in these kinds of cases. It allows them to distance
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  themselves from their actions, to dehumanize their victims, to justify
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  the absolutely unjustifiable.
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  Speaker 1: But in the end, that arrogance it's what brought him down.
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  It's the violence toward Homolka that finally cracks the case
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  wide open.
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  Speaker 2: It's tragically typical and abusive relationships that need for control.
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  It escalates until the whole thing explodes, and in this case, Homolka,
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  facing her own charges, she makes a deal information, including
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  those horrific videotapes, in exchange for a lighter sentence.
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  Speaker 1: It caused outrage, and for good reason, but those tapes
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  they became this smoking gun, the evidence that finally brought
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  Bernardo to justice.
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  Speaker 2: He was convicted on multiple counts, including the murders of
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  Kristen and Leslie, and given a life sentence, And crucially,
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  he was declared a dangerous offender, which is a designation
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  reserve for only the absolute worst of the worst in Canada.
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  Speaker 1: Which, if I'm understanding this right, means he's basically never
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  getting outright, no parole.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, barring some drastic, unprecedented change in his psychological profile.
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  And all the assessments say that's incredibly unlikely Bernardo will
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  die in prison.
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  Speaker 1: Even knowing that, even with everything we've uncovered in this
• 9:37
  deep dive, I keep coming back to that question from
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  the beginning, how many more potential Bernardo's are out there
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  right now?
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  Speaker 2: It's the question that should haunt all of us. We've
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  traced the steps of this one monster. But the ugly
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  truth is the things that shaped him. Broken homes, toxic masculinity,
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  missed warning signs. Those haven't gone away. They're still out there.
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  Speaker 1: So what do we do. We can't just to erase
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  these things, not completely. How do we get better at
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  seeing the signs? How do we stop the next Bernardo?
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  Before it even starts.
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  Speaker 2: That's the real work, isn't it. It's about education, about
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  raising kids with empathy and respect, about creating a world
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  where those warning signs, those cries for help, they don't
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  get ignored or dismissed. It's a conversation we all need
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  to be a part of, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 1: You've given us a lot to think about, both about
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  this case and the bigger picture. To everyone listening, we'll
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  leave you with this, how can we as individuals, as
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  communities be more aware, more proactive in stopping these tragedies
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  before they happen. The answer might be closer than we think,
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  and it starts with understanding the monsters that walk among us.