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THE VIDEO STRANGLER · Inside The Criminal Mind

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Criminal Mind podcast, where we analyze
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  Speaker 1: some of the most notorious criminal cases with psychology and
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  Speaker 1: criminology combined. Here's your host, doctor Carlos.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome everybody. Today we're going to be learning about the
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  Speaker 2: Saint Louis video strangler Maury Travis. And before we get started,
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  Speaker 2: if you want to share and subscribe, make sure to
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  Speaker 2: support us. Make sure you're share subscribe. Yeah, it backwards
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  Speaker 2: so well. Maury Travis was an American series killer who
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  Speaker 2: committed suicide in the Saint Louis County jail to being
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  Speaker 2: arrested for murder. Travis murder at least twelve prostitutes and
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  Speaker 2: claim to have killed seventeen, all in separate incidences between
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and two thousand and two. He was born
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  Speaker 2: in October twenty fifth, nineteen sixty five. Now, some reports
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  Speaker 2: of his background are a little suspect, we'll see, because
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  Speaker 2: he was one of the most vile predators of the
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  Speaker 2: two thousands. Because we'll talk about a little bit later
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  Speaker 2: about his two year Achilles pre He brually, tortured, raped,
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  Speaker 2: and strangled upwards as twenty women, according to some other accounts,
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  Speaker 2: mainly marginalized, he preyed upon the marginalized and impoverished communities
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  Speaker 2: of Missouri and Illinois, specifically talking targeting sex workers or
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  Speaker 2: prostitutes and women of color. Maury Travis was himself a
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  Speaker 2: man of color. Maury Travis was born I'll get into
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  Speaker 2: October twenty fifth in Saint Louis. His parents divorced me
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  Speaker 2: he was just a young boy. Despite this, though, they
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  Speaker 2: say Travis had a fairly normally will adjusted life. He
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  Speaker 2: was quiet and withdrawn in high school. But again, folks,
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  Speaker 2: most a lot of people are quieting, with drawn in
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  Speaker 2: high school. They don't become serial killers. That don't have
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  Speaker 2: become psychopaths of any nature. Maybe you've been called that.
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  Speaker 2: It's a very common trait. So sometimes they're just trying
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  Speaker 2: to make it even more sensational, right, it's more interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Seemed to hear about a serial killer who was just
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  Speaker 2: normal who then goes crazy, So just be careful with that.
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  Speaker 2: Upon graduating high school, he had served two years in
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  Speaker 2: the art of the Army Reserve and eventually went to
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  Speaker 2: attend Morris Born College. Now, the problems after that, and
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  Speaker 2: when he was about twenty four, he started getting addicted
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  Speaker 2: a cocaine and this seemed to have led through several
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  Speaker 2: robberies for Travis. Maury Travis, that is, and that could
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  Speaker 2: be a problem because it's hard to determine what was
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  Speaker 2: it was really the drugs that led to this behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Now he said in an interrogation later on that he
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  Speaker 2: was he always thought these thoughts, these violent, sexual violent fantasies. Again,
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  Speaker 2: I remember Mary Travis was a sexual sadist, just by
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  Speaker 2: the nature of his crimes and how he committed them.
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  Speaker 2: These individuals tend to have these sexual violent fantasies for years,
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  Speaker 2: usually an adelet essence and before they have a lot
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  Speaker 2: of times they can't get sexual gratification without this expression
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  Speaker 2: of violence and making these fantasies come to life. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: um he was a hotel waiter when he was on
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  Speaker 2: parole for nineteen eighty nine robbery. And at the time
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  Speaker 2: of the murders, they claimed that Travis claimed that he
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  Speaker 2: murdered seventeen and again we said, some authorities are doubtful
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  Speaker 2: of that fact. They don't know if that's true or
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  Speaker 2: just made up. Sometimes serial killers will make up how
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  Speaker 2: many they have killed. They'll say more, they'll say less.
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  Speaker 2: Really depends on what they're trying to get two women.
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  Speaker 2: At least two women survived encounters with him. One was
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  Speaker 2: brain damage though, and the other declined to press charges
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  Speaker 2: when police were called on the charanaut of his home screaming.
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  Speaker 2: His victims ranged in age from thirty six, forty six,
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  Speaker 2: fifty thirty three nineteen, and several other unidentified women that
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  Speaker 2: he targeted. But we're gonna take a little deeper look
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  Speaker 2: now at Marey again. We know the history, right. A
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  Speaker 2: lot of these individuals, especially sexual says a lot of
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  Speaker 2: high proportion of them have been sexually abused themselves or
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  Speaker 2: exposed to devian sexual behaviors such as parents having sex
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  Speaker 2: in front of them, bathing them naked. Like Gary Widgway,
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  Speaker 2: the serial killer. His mother used to bathe them naked,
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  Speaker 2: and he used to bath them. I think when he
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  Speaker 2: was older, like ten or eleven years old, she would
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  Speaker 2: bathe him and she was naked as well, have appropriate
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  Speaker 2: conversations with them. So we don't know what's kinding on
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  Speaker 2: with Morien Travis. He says he had a normal life,
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  Speaker 2: so who knows. In that sense, we don't really know.
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  Speaker 2: But he does have an interesting case of how they
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  Speaker 2: discovered him, which was a fascinating turn of events. At
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  Speaker 2: least I think it was fascinating turn of events. And
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  Speaker 2: twenty two, nineteen ninety seven, he enrolled in Morrisbourne Broun
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  Speaker 2: College with some two thousand students. It was about the
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  Speaker 2: time he would tell a judge lately he became addicted
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  Speaker 2: to cocaine. In March nineteen eighty eight, while home and
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  Speaker 2: Ferguson on a college spring break, he ran headlong into
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  Speaker 2: serious problems with the loss. He was about twenty three
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  Speaker 2: at the time. Hooked one. He described as a three
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  Speaker 2: hundred a day cocaine habit. Short in cash, Travis r
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  Speaker 2: robbing shoe stores. This eventually led him to being arrested.
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  Speaker 2: Travis politic guilty of the robberies in nineteen eighty nine,
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  Speaker 2: tell in the quarry here used a plastic coi toy
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  Speaker 2: gun to steal money to pay for drugs. He told
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  Speaker 2: the judge he was so strong out that he barely
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  Speaker 2: remembered the robberies. At the sentencing hearing six months later,
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  Speaker 2: the judge set whose support seemed to indicate the crime
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  Speaker 2: spree was an aberration in your character resulting from the
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  Speaker 2: drug habit. Travis told the judge he had gone through
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  Speaker 2: a drug rehab program was clean. I got that all
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  Speaker 2: out of my system, says Maury Travis. Another person a
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  Speaker 2: letter from a former US representative Congressman, I have known
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  Speaker 2: mister Travis and his family for years, and he feel
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  Speaker 2: he's deserving a special consideration. An age weel did it
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  Speaker 2: since nineteen eighty eight. In January nineteen eighty mister Travis
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  Speaker 2: has conducted himself and such as manners to pose no
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  Speaker 2: threat to society during his congressional career. Clay later defended
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  Speaker 2: himself by saying he sent thousands of similar letters. On
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  Speaker 2: July nineteen eighty nine, the judge sueddens Travis to fifteen
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  Speaker 2: years in prison. He was four months from his twenty
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  Speaker 2: fourth birthday. Two months later, Travis wrote a three page
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  Speaker 2: letter to Goldman, carefully hand printed on a yellow legal paper.
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  Speaker 2: The letter pleaded with the judge to reconsider the sentence,
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  Speaker 2: and it wasn't actually too long after where he was.
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  Speaker 2: Travis was paroled after five years and three months behind
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  Speaker 2: bars for the robberies working in the prison's janitorium food
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  Speaker 2: service area. Shortly after he was paroled and June fourteenth,
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  Speaker 2: he moved into a duplex. The Reverend Linda Harrison, whose
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  Speaker 2: home shared a common wall with Travis, said there was
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  Speaker 2: not the tiniest of problems while he was there. Once
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  Speaker 2: she said she was in the basement of the building
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  Speaker 2: doing washed when he surprised her coming down the stairs,
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  Speaker 2: and he was very apologetic after that. Each time Travis
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  Speaker 2: came down to the shared basement, he would bring into
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  Speaker 2: a hummer song to let her know that he was coming.
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  Speaker 2: And the years that followed between two more prison stents
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  Speaker 2: on drug related charges, Travis worked several restaurant jobs during
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  Speaker 2: the summer though two thousand and two thousand and one,
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  Speaker 2: he was a waiter at the restaurant the Mayfair Hotel.
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  Speaker 2: A coworker remembers Travis counseling him on the dangers of drugs.
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  Speaker 2: He told me that crack and heroin were the worst
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  Speaker 2: thing that God put on the earth. So at this point, folks,
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  Speaker 2: he's about now thirty five years old, and as we know,
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  Speaker 2: he hasn't killed anybody yet, So this is a little
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  Speaker 2: bit more different. This is a little bit different than
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  Speaker 2: other serial killers that we've talked about. Now, of course,
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  Speaker 2: we don't know if he has we don't know if
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  Speaker 2: he's raped anybody. He just may never been caught. His
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  Speaker 2: co worker told said, Sir Travis had also talked every
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  Speaker 2: day about his two thousand black eclipse. He told me
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  Speaker 2: how to wax my car Wooker. The co worker called
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  Speaker 2: Travis Carr, his pride and joy. Once his co workers.
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  Speaker 2: He told Travis about a friend whose car was still
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  Speaker 2: and they have found burning in East Saint Louis. Moowie
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  Speaker 2: told him that East Lewis was a good place to
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  Speaker 2: dump things because there's not many police around. But it
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  Speaker 2: was a conversation between Travis and the co worker Julie
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  Speaker 2: that continues to haunt the co worker. The co worker's
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  Speaker 2: name by Leys Dave. Dave said she was working as
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  Speaker 2: an intern or Julius says she was working as an
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  Speaker 2: intern for KADNL Channel News. When Travis asked if my
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  Speaker 2: station he had done a story on prostitutes getting killed,
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  Speaker 2: He said he had friends who knew about bodies getting dumped.
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  Speaker 2: Julie says she pitched this story to her boss, but
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  Speaker 2: it went nowhere. After they could find no information about
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  Speaker 2: serial killings of prostitutes. It would be three months later
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  Speaker 2: before police would say publicly that a serial killer may
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  Speaker 2: have been praying on local prostitutes. Oh my god, said
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  Speaker 2: Julie when she realized that Travis was When Travis was
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  Speaker 2: a right said, he told us all about it. You
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  Speaker 2: know why we are here. When police with a search
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  Speaker 2: were and finally banged on the door of the one
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  Speaker 2: thousand and one four Drive the morning of Friday, June seventh,
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  Speaker 2: Travis was still sleeping. He met them in his underwear, groggy.
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  Speaker 2: He was not a particularly imposing guy. He seemed wiry,
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  Speaker 2: but still strong. This was the investigator's commentary. The detective
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  Speaker 2: would still with Travison and teleragation room for the next
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  Speaker 2: three hours until almost two pm, trying somehow to work
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  Speaker 2: his way into Travis's mind. Sachs the detective asking them
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  Speaker 2: about girlfriends. Travis said he had dated. He asked me
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  Speaker 2: about prostitutes, he got paid for them. He said he'd
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  Speaker 2: never been abused as a child. He asked about other
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  Speaker 2: issues that may have happened in his life. Travis said,
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  Speaker 2: He said, I would never under understand he was born
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  Speaker 2: like this. He said he'd been like this since he
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  Speaker 2: could remember. So that's kind of leads me to believe
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  Speaker 2: that he was sexually abused more than likely. Of course,
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  Speaker 2: it could be organic issues, right, There could be a
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  Speaker 2: tumor some part of his brain, abnormal hormone response, environmental
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  Speaker 2: toxins that could have contributed to this, imbalanced, a lot
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  Speaker 2: of other factors that it could have been in conjunction with.
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  Speaker 2: But it seems something was kind of bizarre about Travis,
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  Speaker 2: at least at that point. But again just because nobody
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  Speaker 2: knows anything to a lot of people that we've met
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  Speaker 2: over the years that have had sexual abuse, and nobody
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  Speaker 2: knew again his parents were divorced he was about thirteen
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  Speaker 2: and then divorced though, and he returns. The first murder
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  Speaker 2: was in two thousand. It was the body of Mary
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  Speaker 2: Shields was found in Saint Louis Police no Aboli Sheia
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  Speaker 2: had been Travis's first murder, and then November was the
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  Speaker 2: next one. Travis return Actually he returns to prison a
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  Speaker 2: second time. He was released from prison in March of
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  Speaker 2: two thousand and one, and then in April he goes
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  Speaker 2: and kills the body. I mean that kills Alyssa Greenwaye
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  Speaker 2: who's thirty four. Then in April fourth, three day later,
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  Speaker 2: he kills another person, and in May fifteenth, a month later,
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  Speaker 2: kills another woman, Teresa Wilson, and then it starts adding
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  Speaker 2: up every couple of weeks to a month to a
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  Speaker 2: couple of months. Between August and October, he had a
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  Speaker 2: couple of months span. So let's take a look at
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  Speaker 2: one of the some of the murders that he actually committed,
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  Speaker 2: and so you got to get an understanding of what
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  Speaker 2: type of murderer he was. So again, very unusual upbringing.
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  Speaker 2: So what Travis would do. He began he would lure
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  Speaker 2: victims to his home under the pretense of sex. Once
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  Speaker 2: inside the house, Travis would tie up his victims, faking
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  Speaker 2: interest in BDSM. He then hold the women in hostage,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes for days. During these twisted torture sessions, Travis would
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  Speaker 2: beat and rape his victims repeatedly, all the while documenting
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  Speaker 2: his attacks on video. By the end of two thousand
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  Speaker 2: and one, Travis had brutally slain seven women. Despite Travis
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  Speaker 2: ever expending lists of victims, the murders had garnered very
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  Speaker 2: little media attention. Police were reluctant to entertain the idea
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  Speaker 2: that aossible serial killer might be a large The victims
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  Speaker 2: were classified as higher risk by law enforcement because most
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  Speaker 2: of the women were involved in prostitution and in varying
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  Speaker 2: degrees of substance abuse issues. Remember we talked about this before.
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  Speaker 2: Serial killers tend to target those individuals just because of
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  Speaker 2: that fact. Travis was unsatisfied with the lack of immediate attention,
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  Speaker 2: so he sent a note to Bill Smith and he's
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  Speaker 2: getting member, he's getting engaged here into the investigation. Typical
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  Speaker 2: organized defender, and closed with the note as a map
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  Speaker 2: pinpointing the exact location of an unidentified woman's body, who
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  Speaker 2: Travis claim was the seventeenth victim. Now this is interesting
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  Speaker 2: because of Pon reviewing this note, Smith contacted law enforcement
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  Speaker 2: the local reporter who then, with the assistance of the FBI,
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  Speaker 2: launched a full full scale investigation. After recovering the body,
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  Speaker 2: police took a closer look into who the killer might be. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 2: police didn't have to look too far. After a closer
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  Speaker 2: examination of the map, police realized it had been downloaded
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  Speaker 2: from Expedia. They contacted the website and obtained the IP
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  Speaker 2: address of the person who had printed off the map,
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  Speaker 2: which was Maury Travis himself. On June seventh, Travis was
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  Speaker 2: arrested and charged of murder. FBI agents and local police
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  Speaker 2: officers did an exhaustive search of Travis's home, at which
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  Speaker 2: point they came across his collection of home videos VHS
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  Speaker 2: tapes was seemingly innocuous. Titles like Your Wedding Day were
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  Speaker 2: littered throughout Travis's apartment. On these tapes document us off
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  Speaker 2: torturing and killing his victims. Again, another organized killer. You
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  Speaker 2: can see it won because he wanted his victims alive
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  Speaker 2: and he tortured him. He wanted to see the satisfaction
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  Speaker 2: of giving them playing pain. This is a classic sexual sadist.
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  Speaker 2: That's how they defined the clinical diagnosis, someone who actually
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  Speaker 2: gets sexual gratification by inflicting pain or humiliation or shame
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  Speaker 2: on a non consenting individual. These videos were sort of
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  Speaker 2: disturbing that see, the police chief ordered mandatary a counseling
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  Speaker 2: for those in the department who had watched them. With
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  Speaker 2: Travis behind bars, Saint Louis residents could finally arrest easy,
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  Speaker 2: but just days after his arrest, Maury Travis committed to
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  Speaker 2: a side while in custody at Saint Louis County Jail.
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  Speaker 2: I mean the suicide was a preferable choice over life
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  Speaker 2: imprisonment or receiving the death penalty. He was thirty six
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  Speaker 2: years old. When he died. So again an interesting twist
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  Speaker 2: because the Internet actually led to his demise as lack
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  Speaker 2: of technology knowledge. But typical things here. We don't get
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  Speaker 2: a lot of background on the Saint Louis video strangers,
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  Speaker 2: so I apologize for that. There wasn't a whole lot
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  Speaker 2: of data on him. But again we can extrapulate some
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  Speaker 2: of the information because of the typical characteristics of a
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  Speaker 2: sexual sadist. So again, a lot of them tend to
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  Speaker 2: come from these type of broken down homes. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of the times they've been abuse sexually or a large
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  Speaker 2: percentage of them could be from the parents, it could
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  Speaker 2: be from somebody else, It could be inappropriate behaviors, really
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  Speaker 2: sexually deviant type of behaviors. The investigators so they never
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  Speaker 2: saw any kind of signs of wet bedwetting or animal
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  Speaker 2: cruelty or any like that. But again you're talking about,
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  Speaker 2: you know, maybe he got under the radar, maybe nobody
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  Speaker 2: ever reported it, maybe he hit it really well, who knows,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people just don't know. It doesn't always
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  Speaker 2: have to be there to have those characteristics, but they
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  Speaker 2: were cofound in a large percentage of serial murderers, So
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  Speaker 2: there is some kind of pattern there, because it tends
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  Speaker 2: to evolve. Right they started doing it, It started having animal
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  Speaker 2: cruelty bed wedding usually because of nightmares and other issues,
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  Speaker 2: and this also causes more shame and humiliation, which then
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  Speaker 2: they hold it and repress it, and then they manifest
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  Speaker 2: into anger later. Also, he was quiet and withdrawn, so
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  Speaker 2: he had anti social tendencies already. So we can kind
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  Speaker 2: of decipher who this individual is by the characteristics that
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  Speaker 2: we've hurt. Very small snapshots of Maury Travis. We don't
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  Speaker 2: have a whole lot of information, but interesting. Nonetheless, thanks
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  Speaker 2: for listening everyone,