Latest / Legally Brunette / Killer Thriller: The Most Disturbing Thing About Ted Bundy Had Nothing to Do With Murder
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Amy Roboc and TJ.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Holmes present Killer Thriller with your host Alisa Donovan. Hey, everyone,
- 0:15Speaker 2: Elisa Donovan here and this is Killer Thriller. Today we
- 0:19Speaker 2: are continuing our conversation with filmmaker Joe Berlinger, director of
- 0:23Speaker 2: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile. In part one, we
- 0:28Speaker 2: explored the man behind one of the most notorious murder
- 0:31Speaker 2: spreees in American history and the challenges of bringing Ted
- 0:35Speaker 2: Bundy's story to the screen. Today, we'll dive deeper into
- 0:39Speaker 2: Bundy's psychology, the investigation, the women whose lives were forever
- 0:44Speaker 2: changed by his crimes, and what Joe learned after spending
- 0:48Speaker 2: years immersed in this case. Was there a moment during
- 0:52Speaker 2: filming where Zach's performance unsettled you or did he talk
- 0:58Speaker 2: to you about the psychological challenge just playing him?
- 1:01Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we didn't do a lot of I
- 1:07Speaker 3: think he nailed it tremendously. I mean, I had the
- 1:10Speaker 3: good fortune of doing the doc prior to the scripted movie,
- 1:16Speaker 3: so I truly was an expert, and we had a
- 1:18Speaker 3: lot of conversation, and the doc series hadn't yet come
- 1:22Speaker 3: out while I was shooting the movie, but I had
- 1:26Speaker 3: a whole in fact, we were doing the final editing,
- 1:29Speaker 3: and I was kind of doing double duty. I was
- 1:31Speaker 3: finishing off conversations with the killer, you know, giving notes
- 1:34Speaker 3: on cuts during prep of Extremely Wicked, and while while
- 1:39Speaker 3: we shot that and but the you know, but that
- 1:43Speaker 3: allowed me to, like, you know, I gave them lots
- 1:45Speaker 3: of archival footage. I gave them, like, you know, some
- 1:48Speaker 3: rough cuts of the doc. You know. We As a director,
- 1:53Speaker 3: I don't like over rehearsing, like I don't know, I
- 1:56Speaker 3: like just you know, for me, rehearsals are on the
- 2:00Speaker 3: scripted side of things. I mean, because I'm mainly a documentarian,
- 2:04Speaker 3: I like to bring that aesthetic to it. I don't
- 2:07Speaker 3: like get things up on their feet and rehearse. And
- 2:09Speaker 3: I'm not precious about every word. I like improv. I like,
- 2:12Speaker 3: you know, on the day, really finding what works best
- 2:15Speaker 3: and not being overly locked into rehearsing something. You know,
- 2:20Speaker 3: others direct differently, every word has to be spoken, everything,
- 2:25Speaker 3: every mark has to be hit exactly the way they
- 2:28Speaker 3: thought about it three weeks ago, which is not criticizing
- 2:32Speaker 3: that style of filmmaking or anything in between. But I'm
- 2:34Speaker 3: much looser, so rehearsal for us really was just Lily,
- 2:39Speaker 3: Zach and I sitting around the table just talking about
- 2:41Speaker 3: these things, talking about character, talking about motivation, you know,
- 2:46Speaker 3: me teaching them a little bit about the story. And
- 2:50Speaker 3: so I think Zach really just absorbed the role in
- 2:56Speaker 3: a way that, Yeah, there was a there was a
- 2:58Speaker 3: number of times that it was like whoa, that's like
- 3:02Speaker 3: I think he was all in. You know. There's my
- 3:04Speaker 3: favorite shot in the movie is John Malkovich.
- 3:07Speaker 1: Plays the judge so brilliant.
- 3:10Speaker 3: And this is why the film is called extremely wicked, shocking, evil,
- 3:13Speaker 3: and bile because the real judge Coward, Edward Coward, who
- 3:17Speaker 3: was in that courtroom, and you even seen see just
- 3:20Speaker 3: going back to the like even the judge found him likable.
- 3:23Speaker 3: It gave him great latitude to represent himself as he's yes,
- 3:27Speaker 3: as he's sentencing him, he's saying, Hey, you would have
- 3:29Speaker 3: made a great lawyer, you know. I mean all that
- 3:32Speaker 3: copy in there is verbatim copy from the trial.
- 3:34Speaker 1: It's not like I cannot get over that.
- 3:37Speaker 3: Yeah, like you would have made a great lawyer.
- 3:39Speaker 2: You know, you're intelligent, harbor, no ill will towards you
- 3:42Speaker 2: or something like that.
- 3:44Speaker 3: You went the wrong way. I mean, this is the
- 3:46Speaker 3: effect he's had on people.
- 3:48Speaker 1: Take care of yourself, he said, exactly.
- 3:51Speaker 3: My favorite shot is we do this long push into
- 3:54Speaker 3: Zach's eyes as he's just still obfuscating. I mean, that's
- 3:58Speaker 3: the other thing that character ees Bundy from other serial killers.
- 4:02Speaker 3: Up until the day of his death. He obfuscated only
- 4:07Speaker 3: only right towards the execution. Was he willing to give
- 4:12Speaker 3: out information because he was trying to extend his life.
- 4:14Speaker 3: But like you know, Dahmer, when he was finally caught,
- 4:17Speaker 3: it was almost relieved. I showed conversation with the killer
- 4:21Speaker 3: the Jeffrey Dohmer tapes, and this young lawyer, Wendy Patrickiss
- 4:25Speaker 3: was able to extract from him because he was very contrite.
- 4:28Speaker 1: At that point.
- 4:28Speaker 3: I'm not excusing Dahmer or whatever. He did horrible things,
- 4:31Speaker 3: but he actually was very contrite and gave a lot
- 4:35Speaker 3: of details so that you know, they found human body
- 4:38Speaker 3: parts and they needed to know who these people were,
- 4:40Speaker 3: as gross as that is. And so he was willing
- 4:43Speaker 3: to give upon arrest, give information to this young lawyer,
- 4:50Speaker 3: and so they were able to identify a lot of
- 4:51Speaker 3: the victims. Bundy just you know, obfuscated and denied up
- 4:55Speaker 3: and almost up until his death and this shot where
- 5:00Speaker 3: I just see a zach Efron like we were all
- 5:02Speaker 3: just like whoa like took our breath away as we're
- 5:05Speaker 3: pushing in on him and he's just denying, denying and
- 5:09Speaker 3: talking about this is not me. So that was a
- 5:11Speaker 3: moment that really I felt he captured it. Yeah, you know,
- 5:15Speaker 3: but yeah, I thought he did an amazing job.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Yeah he did, and Lily as well. Everyone.
- 5:21Speaker 3: Yeah, Lily. I think Lily Collins is the great unsung
- 5:24Speaker 3: hero of the film. You know, Zach middle but I
- 5:27Speaker 3: think Lily was awesome, you know, and she got decent
- 5:30Speaker 3: notices or whatever, but Zach was the guy who got
- 5:33Speaker 3: all the attention. So I about that because I mean,
- 5:36Speaker 3: no one has to cry for Lily Collins because she's
- 5:38Speaker 3: gone on.
- 5:39Speaker 1: Yeah she's doing great.
- 5:41Speaker 3: Got onto amazing things. But you know, she should have
- 5:45Speaker 3: gotten a little more credit for a very difficult, really
- 5:48Speaker 3: good performance, you know.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Yeah, she was as well as the actress who played
- 5:53Speaker 2: Carol Boone. Carol Boone, right, the one that then he married.
- 5:58Speaker 3: I mean she was great Sculledaria.
- 6:01Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, she's.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Such an attractive woman in real life that she was
- 6:06Speaker 3: willing to make herself look like that too was very brave.
- 6:08Speaker 1: You know, yes, I loved that. I loved that. She's
- 6:11Speaker 1: very very good.
- 6:26Speaker 2: So Bundy escaped from custody twice, and looking back today,
- 6:32Speaker 2: that seems almost I mean, it seems unbelievable. I mean,
- 6:35Speaker 2: how did that. It seems like he was given so
- 6:37Speaker 2: much freedom for a person on trial for such uniquely
- 6:42Speaker 2: violent crimes.
- 6:44Speaker 3: And this is this is this is why when they
- 6:46Speaker 3: say why would you cast somebody like Zach who's charming
- 6:50Speaker 3: and good looking, then you're missing the whole point of
- 6:53Speaker 3: the movie and the actual story. Because he in Colorado,
- 6:58Speaker 3: he convinced the judge, because he was representing it was
- 7:02Speaker 3: co counsel, and he convinced the judge to not keep
- 7:08Speaker 3: them in shackles, to wear street clothes, and give him
- 7:12Speaker 3: access to the law library, where he noticed that the
- 7:14Speaker 3: window was open. He jumped out the window of a
- 7:18Speaker 3: Colorado courthouse. I mean, like, you can't make this stuff up.
- 7:21Speaker 1: You really can't make it up.
- 7:23Speaker 2: So much so that when I watched the film, I went,
- 7:27Speaker 2: this has got to be maybe a little bit you know,
- 7:30Speaker 2: theatrical here little dramatized, and the things in the courtroom.
- 7:33Speaker 2: And then when I watched the doc I was aghast
- 7:38Speaker 2: at how identical they were in that regard.
- 7:42Speaker 3: Yeah, No, the thing I'm most there's very little invention
- 7:44Speaker 3: in Extremely Wicked. You know, there's a few moments, you know,
- 7:49Speaker 3: hacksaw never happened, the dog barking at him and being
- 7:54Speaker 3: freaked out never happened. Wait.
- 7:56Speaker 2: You know what's really funny as you're talking about the dog,
- 7:58Speaker 2: when I watched the dock documentary with my dog, she
- 8:03Speaker 2: kept barking at Ted when he would look in the lens.
- 8:08Speaker 2: And this is my dog is like, she'll sleep all day,
- 8:11Speaker 2: you know, she's like not interested.
- 8:13Speaker 1: And I just went I was so creeped out by that.
- 8:17Speaker 3: Crazy. That's crazy. But those are those are a few.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Those are a few character inventions and whatnot. But for
- 8:23Speaker 3: the most part, you know, it's very authentic. And I
- 8:29Speaker 3: tried to infuse a lot of real archival footage into
- 8:32Speaker 3: the film, and that's been done to death now. But
- 8:36Speaker 3: you know, not that I invented it, but it's it's
- 8:38Speaker 3: now become very cliche to you know, have archival footage
- 8:42Speaker 3: in your Crime. At the end of the show, in
- 8:45Speaker 3: the credits, you see the crime, you see the real footage,
- 8:48Speaker 3: and again I wasn't the first one to do it,
- 8:51Speaker 3: but I wasn't the eight hundredth person. Right, Yes, very copied.
- 8:56Speaker 3: Now I'm not saying copied by me, but it's a
- 8:58Speaker 3: little it's a little over. It's a little over, but
- 9:00Speaker 3: you know, and and scenes if you compare archival footage
- 9:06Speaker 3: of the scene where like Ted rips up the indictment
- 9:09Speaker 3: in Florida and is giving to the Florida sheriff who
- 9:13Speaker 3: brings him in, if you look at the actual archival
- 9:17Speaker 3: foot it's you know, I really, I really a very
- 9:21Speaker 3: authentic feeling.
- 9:22Speaker 2: Yes, that is one of those things that I again thought, Oh,
- 9:25Speaker 2: there's no way that they let him stand next to
- 9:28Speaker 2: the sheriff when he's stating, you know, the allegations or
- 9:31Speaker 2: what he's being arrested for.
- 9:33Speaker 1: I just it's like unbelievable, which.
- 9:36Speaker 3: Is another reason I say to those who say you're glamorizing, No,
- 9:40Speaker 3: this is the reality. Unfortunately, this is the truthful story.
- 9:43Speaker 3: A charming, good looking guy. We can debate how good
- 9:46Speaker 3: looking he is, but he had that impact on people
- 9:49Speaker 3: that un likable and trusting, convinced judges to let them
- 9:54Speaker 3: represent themselves, convince judges not to be in shackles, so
- 9:58Speaker 3: he jumped out of the courtroom. I convince young women
- 10:01Speaker 3: to show up in that courtroom in droves, not because
- 10:03Speaker 3: they're like they're like into serial killers, but they thought
- 10:06Speaker 3: he was innocent.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Yep, yeap.
- 10:08Speaker 2: Did he ever, Bundy ever strike you as sincere? I mean,
- 10:12Speaker 2: his arrogance is striking, and it's it's very apparent. But
- 10:16Speaker 2: did he ever was there ever a moment where he
- 10:19Speaker 2: seemed sincere?
- 10:21Speaker 3: It's hard to say, you know, I think people like
- 10:24Speaker 3: that literally have no empathy, and that's such a sick
- 10:28Speaker 3: human quality when you lack empathy, and you can only
- 10:31Speaker 3: do that to other people if you are completely devoid
- 10:34Speaker 3: of empathy. Yeah, and again, this woman, Dorothy Lewis, you know,
- 10:38Speaker 3: did a lot of you know, research on actually there's
- 10:43Speaker 3: a physical piece of the brain responsible for empathy that's missing,
- 10:47Speaker 3: and I believe, I believe in those theories.
- 10:50Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 10:52Speaker 3: So it's hard to say any emotion other than self
- 10:55Speaker 3: preservation and self aggrandizement are the only emotions they've it's
- 11:00Speaker 3: hard to say, yeah, they're sincere about anything. But I
- 11:06Speaker 3: spent I believe in getting victim approval and spending time
- 11:11Speaker 3: with victim. The story, so in fact, Lily Collins and
- 11:14Speaker 3: I went out to I don't want to say where,
- 11:18Speaker 3: you know, because I don't want to betray her comment.
- 11:21Speaker 3: But the real is Kendall, which is actually a pseudonym,
- 11:26Speaker 3: and her real daughter Mollie. You know, I wanted to
- 11:30Speaker 3: make sure they were happy with the script. Lily had
- 11:34Speaker 3: never met a real person before that she played because
- 11:38Speaker 3: she played so. Lily and I took a trek to
- 11:43Speaker 3: see them and spent a couple of days and it
- 11:45Speaker 3: was fascinating meeting. They gave us a handful of notes
- 11:50Speaker 3: on the script that they felt were inaccurate.
- 11:52Speaker 1: That has to be here.
- 11:53Speaker 2: I mean again, like no one, I'm sure this woman
- 11:56Speaker 2: she you never really recover from this sort of experience,
- 11:59Speaker 2: but I would hope and I believe that things like
- 12:03Speaker 2: this have some at least a tiny bit of healing
- 12:08Speaker 2: for her, that there is care being taken.
- 12:11Speaker 1: About it, and that you know, people feel her pain.
- 12:16Speaker 3: I think they felt good about it. They came to set,
- 12:18Speaker 3: you know, they wanted to come to set, and I said,
- 12:21Speaker 3: well I would There's very few scenes that I think
- 12:23Speaker 3: you should be around, maybe the happy days of the
- 12:26Speaker 3: early courtship. So they came came for a couple of
- 12:30Speaker 3: days and we shot some some of the more benign
- 12:32Speaker 3: stuff with them present when they were first meeting.
- 12:35Speaker 1: Oh wow, oh.
- 12:36Speaker 3: You were now I remember you were asking me whether
- 12:38Speaker 3: he's sincere, sincere right and so whether or not? So, Oh,
- 12:44Speaker 3: that's right, that's the point. So Mollie, the daughter, who's
- 12:49Speaker 3: now obviously an adult, has wonderful memories of her interactions
- 12:55Speaker 3: with Ted. He never creeped her out her. He thought
- 13:01Speaker 3: she was he was the greatest, he was. She was
- 13:03Speaker 3: a surrogate father. So whether or not she was objectifying
- 13:09Speaker 3: something that didn't exist, or whether or not, there truly
- 13:12Speaker 3: was a bond between the two. And he was a
- 13:13Speaker 3: nice guy at times. I mean, that's the scary thing
- 13:16Speaker 3: about is that we'll never know literally can be the
- 13:20Speaker 3: people next door. I mean, John Wayne Gacy was you know,
- 13:23Speaker 3: well liked in his neighborhood, through neighborhood parties, you know,
- 13:27Speaker 3: was the local politic rep for the I forget what
- 13:32Speaker 3: Chicago or some.
- 13:35Speaker 1: Yeah they're all merging together for the church amber.
- 13:39Speaker 3: But but but Gaysey was you know well liked. Also
- 13:43Speaker 3: you know, horrible what he did. Oh, it's all horrible.
- 13:51Speaker 3: You can't rank the horror.
- 13:53Speaker 1: You really can't rank the horror.
- 13:55Speaker 2: But what what do you what do you make of
- 13:57Speaker 2: his mother listening to the tapes, his the prison tapes
- 14:03Speaker 2: and then saying, let's have apple pie and ice cream?
- 14:08Speaker 1: That completely baffles me.
- 14:14Speaker 3: It's just a woman in denial, denial, mother in denial,
- 14:18Speaker 3: you know.
- 14:20Speaker 2: I mean, so, okay, let's talk about the Kyomega murders.
- 14:28Speaker 2: They seem to be different from the earlier ones, the
- 14:31Speaker 2: earlier crimes because of just the sheer violence and the
- 14:36Speaker 2: court scene and extremely wicked.
- 14:37Speaker 1: As you mentioned, it's really.
- 14:41Speaker 2: We don't see the description of their It's like it's
- 14:44Speaker 2: almost unwatchable. It was one of the most uncomfortable and
- 14:50Speaker 2: I'm sure intentionally uncomfortable scenes in the film.
- 14:54Speaker 1: So did something change with Ted by that point?
- 14:59Speaker 3: Or think? You know, I do believe that deep down,
- 15:02Speaker 3: these guys do want to ultimately get caught. And I
- 15:06Speaker 3: think he was just, you know, the good guy. I'm
- 15:12Speaker 3: going to convince you, I'm going to lure you. He
- 15:15Speaker 3: just was. He was just kind of losing it and
- 15:17Speaker 3: going on a killing spray. And I think I think
- 15:20Speaker 3: he was because he was getting sloppier and messier and
- 15:24Speaker 3: more psychologically fractured, because I think, you know, subconsciously he
- 15:30Speaker 3: was hoping to get caught.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Which is hoping to get caught, right, because I think they.
- 15:35Speaker 3: All at the end of the day want want to
- 15:37Speaker 3: want it to end and be.
- 15:39Speaker 1: Caught and want the attention.
- 15:40Speaker 2: Perhaps, So going back to the kind of theatrics in
- 15:59Speaker 2: the in the courtroom and the judge, So what is
- 16:04Speaker 2: that about his kind of support of him, Like, I can't.
- 16:08Speaker 2: I had such a hard time metabolizing all of that
- 16:10Speaker 2: as as real like what was going on there?
- 16:14Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think he I think he had a
- 16:18Speaker 3: he wanted to you know, not have any reversible error
- 16:22Speaker 3: on appeal. And the issue of self representation is something that, okay,
- 16:28Speaker 3: would be reversible error if somebody is somebody people, right,
- 16:32Speaker 3: I mean reversible error just to explain, means that if
- 16:35Speaker 3: a judge makes a mistake, that creates grounds for appeal.
- 16:38Speaker 3: So he's being very cautious about not creating grounds for appeal. Okay,
- 16:43Speaker 3: that winnable ground. I mean, you know, every many cases
- 16:46Speaker 3: get appealed, but you know, winnable grounds for appeal. So
- 16:49Speaker 3: I think I think that's part of it. I think
- 16:53Speaker 3: that era in courtrooms was a little looser in terms
- 17:00Speaker 3: of security, and in terms of things you would expect
- 17:03Speaker 3: to see now, I think that you're in the seventies,
- 17:06Speaker 3: there were a lot of new legal ideas being tested,
- 17:11Speaker 3: and so doing things unusually was not unusual. For example,
- 17:17Speaker 3: for example, in New York State at this time it
- 17:21Speaker 3: became and elsewhere, but particularly in New York, which has
- 17:24Speaker 3: nothing to do with this case, not guilty by reason
- 17:29Speaker 3: of insanity became a very popular defense, and a lot
- 17:32Speaker 3: of people were spared going to death row but instead
- 17:36Speaker 3: went to homes for the criminally insane, more experimentation. But
- 17:41Speaker 3: that's why the story is so extraordinary, because there's that
- 17:44Speaker 3: was all I mean, of course, the condensation and you know,
- 17:52Speaker 3: a little bit of license, but basically a lot of
- 17:55Speaker 3: that dialogue is comes from courtroom transcripts. In fact, people
- 18:00Speaker 3: think the title is weird, and you know, it is
- 18:03Speaker 3: a little weird and doesn't quite roll off your tongue.
- 18:05Speaker 3: Tongue extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile. But that's what
- 18:08Speaker 3: Judge Coward said to him when he in that shot,
- 18:11Speaker 3: that I was talking about that extreme pushing. You know,
- 18:14Speaker 3: your acts are extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile. So
- 18:21Speaker 3: the judge demonstrated that while he's going to give latitude
- 18:25Speaker 3: to this guy, let him represent himself. You know, at
- 18:31Speaker 3: the end of the day, he knew what he had
- 18:34Speaker 3: to do, and he's right, sends the guy to death.
- 18:38Speaker 2: Because it is it's like he's almost making a mockery
- 18:41Speaker 2: of the you know, it's like his show.
- 18:43Speaker 1: It's just it's just unfathomable today.
- 18:48Speaker 3: So after that would not happen today for sure.
- 18:51Speaker 2: Right, yeah, yeah, after spending years of studying him.
- 18:56Speaker 1: So do you just think that he was a psychopath?
- 19:00Speaker 3: What's your well, yes, of course he's a psychopath, but worse. Uh, yeah,
- 19:06Speaker 3: I know, he's you know, I'm fascinated by why people
- 19:09Speaker 3: do bad things, you know, in part because I had
- 19:13Speaker 3: bad things done to me and I turned out to
- 19:16Speaker 3: be a nice guy who makes films and raised daughters
- 19:19Speaker 3: who go to the Colombian Mit. You know, I didn't
- 19:23Speaker 3: turn into a psychopath. Fascinated why some people go off
- 19:28Speaker 3: the edge and others don't.
- 19:30Speaker 1: Do you think he felt remorse at all? Ever?
- 19:33Speaker 3: No, no, No, I think Dahmer felt remorse, but I
- 19:40Speaker 3: don't think Bundy felt remorse. Yeah, he lied up until
- 19:44Speaker 3: the day he died, you know, and he just you
- 19:47Speaker 3: just can't do these things to people and.
- 19:49Speaker 1: Have a lot of remorse, you know, right, right?
- 19:52Speaker 2: Do you think in the final days before his execution
- 19:56Speaker 2: when he he began confessing to the murders, do you
- 19:59Speaker 2: think that he was finally telling the truth or was
- 20:02Speaker 2: he just still manipulating people?
- 20:04Speaker 3: Well? I think he was. I think both. He was
- 20:08Speaker 3: giving up useful information in the hopes that he would
- 20:13Speaker 3: he could prolong his life. Self very important to.
- 20:17Speaker 1: Him, yep. I mean, I think that's probably for most narcissists.
- 20:22Speaker 1: That's a key piece.
- 20:25Speaker 2: So after everything that you've learned about him, what's this
- 20:28Speaker 2: single you've sort of I think I know what you're
- 20:31Speaker 2: going to say, but I'll ask you anyway. The single
- 20:34Speaker 2: biggest lesson that people should take away from the Ted
- 20:37Speaker 2: Bundy story, Yeah.
- 20:39Speaker 3: I mean, I hate to be repetitive, but I made
- 20:42Speaker 3: the movie because my daughters didn't know who he was,
- 20:46Speaker 3: and I thought they should know. The basic lesson of
- 20:50Speaker 3: a Ted Bundy is that you know, just because people
- 20:57Speaker 3: look and act a certain way, he should not just
- 21:00Speaker 3: give them your trust. Trust needs to be hard earned.
- 21:03Speaker 3: And the most important lesson is that people who do
- 21:06Speaker 3: evil in this world are the people you least expect.
- 21:11Speaker 3: And most often trust, not the guy who emerges from
- 21:15Speaker 3: the shadow and you're like, oh God, I gotta run
- 21:18Speaker 3: because that's an evil person. That's not how evil works.
- 21:22Speaker 3: Whether you know. I did a show about Bernie Madoff.
- 21:24Speaker 3: You know, he came across as very o buncular, like
- 21:29Speaker 3: a great guy, but he was taking widows money and
- 21:34Speaker 3: just taking it in a Ponzi scheme. You know, he
- 21:38Speaker 3: bankrupted Eli Vizl, a Holocaust survivor. I mean, he did
- 21:42Speaker 3: such horrible things, but you would think he's you know,
- 21:46Speaker 3: your great uncle who just is so caring and loving,
- 21:49Speaker 3: you know, right. You know, the Catholic Church obviously has
- 21:52Speaker 3: a massive problem with you know, you know, child sex abuse.
- 21:58Speaker 3: I mean, can you think of anything more evil then
- 22:01Speaker 3: somebody in that trusted position doing anything remotely like that
- 22:06Speaker 3: to a child. I mean, we want to take comfort
- 22:09Speaker 3: in the fact that serial killers look a certain way
- 22:13Speaker 3: and they're just you can just spot them a mile away,
- 22:16Speaker 3: like you know, the Buffalo Bill character in Silence of
- 22:19Speaker 3: the Lambs or whatever. But people who do evil are
- 22:24Speaker 3: often you know, Richard I did a show called The
- 22:26Speaker 3: Times Square Killer. Richard Cottingham was you know, a mild
- 22:30Speaker 3: manner computer executive who had lots of friends and went
- 22:33Speaker 3: out drinking with his buddies, and no one could believe
- 22:36Speaker 3: that he spent years going to Times Square when Times
- 22:40Speaker 3: Square in New York City was like the den of
- 22:42Speaker 3: iniquity of section, you know, every every o their store
- 22:47Speaker 3: was a pornography movie theater and.
- 22:52Speaker 1: Right before it was Disney like it is now.
- 22:55Speaker 3: You know, Times Square in the mid seventies was you know,
- 22:58Speaker 3: just set, you know, a den of iniquity of sex
- 23:02Speaker 3: and drugs. And he would go there and pray upon
- 23:05Speaker 3: the marginalized sex workers there that nobody cared about, and
- 23:09Speaker 3: the police weren't really investigating because the police were just
- 23:12Speaker 3: overwhelmed with crime in the New York in the seventies,
- 23:15Speaker 3: and they used to call it fear City, you know,
- 23:18Speaker 3: because there was just so much crime and not enough
- 23:21Speaker 3: police because New York was in a financial crisis. And
- 23:23Speaker 3: this Richard Cottingham, who only recently you know, was tagged
- 23:28Speaker 3: with some new killings. You know, Richard Cottingham preyed upon
- 23:33Speaker 3: these women but went home to a normal house, you know,
- 23:36Speaker 3: with a normal family and didn't look creepy and had
- 23:40Speaker 3: you know, the Gilgo Beach.
- 23:42Speaker 1: Killer, same thing same thing.
- 23:44Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the nature of these people. They walk among us.
- 23:48Speaker 3: They could be your teacher or your friend, your neighbor.
- 23:52Speaker 3: That's the scary lesson of bundant Joe.
- 23:55Speaker 2: This has been just so fascinating to me and I
- 24:00Speaker 2: deeply appreciate the work that you do and the documentaries specifically,
- 24:07Speaker 2: and this movie extremely wicked, shocking, the evil and vile
- 24:11Speaker 2: is really really powerful and it's still streaming on Netflix as.
- 24:17Speaker 3: His Conversations with a Killer, which is the Ted Bundy.
- 24:20Speaker 2: Tapes, yes as well, and they're they're great to watch,
- 24:27Speaker 2: sort of, you know, one after another, which is what
- 24:30Speaker 2: I did because it's just fascinating.
- 24:33Speaker 1: You did a beautiful job on the narrative. So it's
- 24:37Speaker 1: been a pleasure meeting you. Thank you so much for
- 24:39Speaker 1: taking this time.
- 24:40Speaker 3: Pleasure was mine.