Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - Robert 'Lanky Bob' Spahalski

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Serial Killer Documentary - Robert 'Lanky Bob' Spahalski · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Around mid morning on Tuesday, November eight, two thousand five,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in Rochester, New York, a tall, gaunt man with thinning
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: black hair came into the police department. He gave his
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: name Robert Bruce Spahalski and asked an officer at the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: reception counter if he could speak to a homicide detective.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Do you have an appointment, the receptionist asked. He said
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: he did not, but insisted that he had to speak
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: with the detective right away. She asked him his reason,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and he startled her by replying that he just killed someone.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Who she asked. Spahalski told her the victim was a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: woman with whom he had been doing drugs a few
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: days earlier. He gave the location as two o two
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Spencer Street and said she was in a back room
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in the basement of that building. The officer noted that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: no homicide was called in from at that location. She
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: then notified officer Lords Bayez. While Saski waited at the counter.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Bayez came out and asked, what's the problem. When she
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: learned of Spahanski's claim, she asked for more specific details.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Spahanalski said that he killed Vivianirasary in his home. Her
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: body was still there. No one else knew about it,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: so it was not yet reported. When did you kill her?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Officer Baiers asked, and how Spahanwski did not fully remember.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: He was high on drugs, He admitted. Vivian came while
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: his girlfriend was at work to smoke some crack cocaine.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: When she used a knife to open the bag, he
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: claimed he thought she became a demon. I flicked out.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: He said it must have been a combination of the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: crack and some mental problems I have. He hit her
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: three times in the head with a blunt object, knocking
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: her down. When he regained some composure, he said he
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: saw that she was still breathing, but had soiled herself,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: so he removed her clothing and washed her off. He
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: thought she was dying, so he choked her out with
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a piece of twine to put her out of her misery.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: He claimed he didn't mean to kill her. His girlfriend
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: came back with money, so he bought more crack and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: smoked it for several days. Then he checked Vivian's body,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: which stayed cool, and decided to turn himself in. Bayez
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: contacted the dispatcher to send a car to Spencer Street
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to look for the body and secure the scene. She
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: invited Spahanski to continue to speak with her, but then
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: detective Glen Weathers, who already knew Spahanski from previous encounters,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: entered and took over the questioning. They went together to
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Weather's office on the fourth floor. Thank you for not
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: putting handcuffs on me, Spahanski said. Several more detectives came
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: in and introduced themselves. Spahalski consented to a search of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: his premises and agreed not to be present while it
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: was done. He was taken into a small interview room
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: accompanied by two detectives, but he said he was claustrophobic.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Can I go to another room, he asked. They went
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: into a nearby conference room. Spahanski took a seat at
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the end of the table, and the detectives placed themselves
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: on either side of him. They gave him some cigarettes
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and advised him of his Miranda rights. He said he
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: understood and told them he was willing to waive those
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: rights in order to speak to the officers. He seemed
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: alert and lucid, and the detectives saw no reason to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: question his competence to waive his rights. With the legal
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: formalities out of the way, the detectives asked about Spahanski's background,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and he told them he suffered from post traumatic stress
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: disorder and sometimes heard voices. Soon the sub turned to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: his reason for being there. Detective Weather recorded the interrogation
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: while Detective Benjamin asked the questions. What seemed like a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: fairly routine confession would turn into a fourteen hour marathon.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: When Spahalski's account of Vivian Irazari's death was wrapped up
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: after half an hour, he listened to an oral rendering
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: of the notes. Weather took as Spahalski did not read
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: well and agreed that it was accurate. He even complimented
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the officer and then signed it. While the interrogation was
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: going on, police and firefighters together found the nude body
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: of Vivian Irozari fifty four, in the basement of the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: apartment building where Spahanalski lived. She had been beaten and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: strangled and her body left in a back room. There
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: was blood on her face and a rope around her neck,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: and she wore only one sock on her left foot.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: There were bloody dragging marks on the floor trailing to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: where she lay. Although she laid there for days, the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: cool temperatures hindered decomposition. Spahalski's landlord, who let the police
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: into the basement, described him as a quiet tenant with
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a cat. He lived in the apartment with Christine Gonzales,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: a woman he called his girlfriend for about four months,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: although they'd been together for over a decade. I never
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: even heard him say a curse word, the landlord said.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Vivian Irazari knew Christine and was apparently a frequent visitor.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: On Friday, four days earlier, Irezari's son dropped her off
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: at the location. Back at the station, the interrogation continued.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: The detectives were aware of a cold case in which
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Spahalski was once deeply implicated, so they left him alone
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: for about forty five minutes to gather their records, and
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: then returned. They mentioned the murder from October nineteen ninety
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: one of Charles Grande in Webster, New York. The man
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The police stopped Spahalski,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: who flashed Grande's driver's license and was driving his car.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: When investigators later found Grande's nude body, they arrested Spahalski.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: When they were unable to prove that he killed the man,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: they charged him with criminal impersonation. However, the jury decided
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that Spahalski looked nothing like the police description of the
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: man who was driving Grande's car, so he was acquitted. Nevertheless,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: investigators believed he was the killer only a few months before.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: They reopened the case with new evidence and were about
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to take it to a grand jury when Spahowski turned
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: himself in. Spahalski admitted to this murder as well, which
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: he claimed was the result of an argument over money.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Grande agreed to pay him for sex. They met downtown,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: where Spahalski turned tricks and Grande agreed to take him
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: home and pay himself sixty dollars. They made this same
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: arrangement in the past, but this time Grande tried to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: give him only forty dollars. Spahalski grew angry and Grande
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: punched him. He was very strong, said Spahalski, and I
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: felt it. So Spahanski grabbed a hammer that lay nearby
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and struck Grande three or four times, killing him. He
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: covered the body with a blanket and stole the sheets
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: and hammer to take away any DNA. He then grabbed
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Grande's wristwatch, five hundred dollars, and Grande's wallet and turned
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: up the heat in the home to accelerate decomposition, hoping
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to throw off the police as to the time of death.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: He drove around in Grande's car for a few days
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: before ditching it. I felt terrible, Spahalski told the listening detectives,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: adding that he prayed for the dead man every day
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: since then. He hoped to have the opportunity to apologize
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to Grande's family. The detective sat down again and took
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: yet another statement, this one being four pages long, to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: which Spahowski made only two minor changes. Before signing it,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: he said, I knew that coming forward is the best
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: thing to do. I settled all my past business to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: day and want to put it all behind me. He
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: then accepted a cheeseburger. The detectives had other cases associated
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: with Spahowski as well, and since he confessed so easily
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: to two, they thought they should take advantage of his
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: need to get these things off his chest. They left
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: him alone again, this time for an hour, before returning
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: to ask him about a murder victim named Morain Armstrong.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: This case was even older than the Grande murder. On
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the last day of nineteen ninety, investigator Tony Campione went
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to Lake Avenue in Rochester to look into the death
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of a twenty four year old woman in her apartment.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: She had been bound and strangled. The following day, as
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: investigators were about to knock on near by doors to
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: find and interview witnesses, Campionet encountered Robert Spoholsky. He said
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: he lived close by, just across the street, and was
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: curious about what was happening. When he learned of the incident,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: He said he was not acquainted with the victim. Police
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: had no reason then to arrest him, but any one
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: who intrudes into a case becomes a person of interest.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: When the detectives now interviewing him mentioned this victim's name,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: he asked, was that the woman on Emerson Street? No,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: said Weather, but who are you referring to? Rather than
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: steer him back to their case, they thought its best
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: to let him lead the way in case there was
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: yet another murder about which they did not know. On
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: July twenty first, nineteen ninety one, another woman died in
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: her apartment on Emerson Street, and in this case, Spahalski
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: could not have denied knowing her. He was, in fact
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: her sometimes boyfriend. Her name was Adrian Berger and she
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: was thirty five. Investigators went to speak with Spahalski and
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: they asked him to accompany them to the public Safety building.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: He agreed and they transported him there. After talking with him,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: they could find no reason to charge him, so they
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: took him home. On the same day, detectives talked with
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: David Huslander, who saw a man leave Burger's house. He
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: was shown six photos of men who all had similar features,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and he readily picked out the photo of Spahalski. Still,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: they had no cause to arrest him. In fact, due
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to the advanced state of decomposition on Burger's body, the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: medical examiner could not confirm that she was murdered. He
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: listed her cause of death as undetermined. However, her family
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: believed that it was her no good boyfriend who had
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: done her in. Now, in the two thousand and five interrogation,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Spahalski admitted to this third murder. He said he choked
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Adrian while they were having sex. They were on the
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: couch about to engage in oral sex when all of
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a sudden, I snapped. I don't know why this happened.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: It's a mental problem I have. I started choking Adrian.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I put my hands around her neck and squeezed her tightly.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It took him four to five minutes to kill her,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and finally he noticed the yellow pin pricks in her
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: eyes that told him she was dead. He stole her
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: car to make it look as if she was not home.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Her rapid decomposition was what inspired him to come in
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: that day to confess. He didn't want the same thing
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to happen to Vivian. In fact, he had tried to
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: commit self check out with pills, and failing that, he
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: decided on going to prison. The detectives got another statement,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: which Spahalski signed. It was now four forty five pm,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: so they brought the discussion back to Moraine Armstrong. This
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: time it wasn't quite as easy. Spahalski insisted he was
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: not involved in the murder of Morain Armstrong. It wasn't
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: initially clear why he would so quickly confess to three others,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: but not this one, in which a witness placed him
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: at the scene. Questioning him further, they learned that Spahalski
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: believed that to be considered a serial killer, one had
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: to have killed more than three people, and he did
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: not wish to be called a serial killer. I don't
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: want you to think that I went around killing people.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: He was in fact incorrect, because the official FBI classification
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: at the time was at least three victims in three
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: different incidents, he was already a serial killer. However, Spahalski
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: was not going to budge, so they again left him
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: alone in the conference room. They wanted to give him
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: time to think, as well as devise a better apper approach.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: He didn't ask for an attorney yet, and that was
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: in their favor. Around six forty pm, detectives Whether and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Benjamin entered the conference room again. They found Spahalski to
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: be sullen and uncooperative. They spoke with him for about
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes, telling him the families of the victims needed closure,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and then asked if he would speak to other investigators.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: He said he would, so two other detectives, Cassidy and Dominic,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: went into the conference room. They were at Spahalski's house
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: earlier and found Vivian's body. When they asked him to
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: tell them what had happened. Spahanalski said he did not remember.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: He was high. They then changed the subject, showing Spahalski
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: photos of Moraine Armstrong. They asked if he knew her.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: He said he did not, but thought she looked vaguely familiar.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: He seemed to grow nervous and got up and walked
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: around the room. They gave him the medication from his
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: home that he requested, and he told them what each
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: bottle was for. He then said that the chance that
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: he killed Moraine was about fifty percent and he might
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: remember better if they allowed him to meditate, so the
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: detectives left him alone for about fifteen minutes. Once he
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: was talking again, he asked if an iron was involved
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: in the woman's death and was told that it was.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Then Spahalski confessed to being her killer, having choked Marissa
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: with the cord of an iron. She got stupid and
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I choked her out, Spahowski said, after smoking crack cocaine together,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: which he supplied, they got into an argument over money.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: She said he owed her for sex. Once again. He
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: didn't mean to kill anyone, It just happened. Four murder
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: cases closed in the space of a day. And Spahalski
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: was ordered held at the Monroe County Jail without bail.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: He was photographed and fingerprinted, and his shoes were taken
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: as potential ever evidence. Since he lived for three decades
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: in an area where a number of unsolved murders occurred,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: investigators looked into other ways to link him to crimes
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: he did not acknowledge. Only a year before his first murder,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Arthur Shawcross was picked up for eleven murders of prostitutes
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: in the Rochester area. He was convicted for those, but
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a number of others remained unsolved. Half a dozen were
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: linked to another suspect, but he died before any charges
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: were brought. Spahalski was not without his share of problems.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Since he was a teenager, he had a number of
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: run ins with the law for such things as burglary, arson,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and criminal trespass. He even went to prison four times
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: for short stints, the first when he was eighteen in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. As an adult, Spahalski operated a male
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: escort service and worked as a hustler. Given his persistent
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: antisocial tendencies, multiple murder wasn't much of a stretch. He
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: was arraigned in the early hours of the morning of
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: November ninth, two thousand and five, in front of Judge
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Corretorare for the murder of Charles Grande. Soon he was
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: charged for two additional second degree murders, including that of
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Vivian Irazari. While detectives looked for corroboration for the other two,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it was never sufficient just to have a confession, which
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: might always be recanted. I'm guilty, Spahalski stated, I just
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: want to get this over with. His usual strategy for
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: dealing with unpleasant situations was to try to forget what
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: he did to others, but he believed he had a
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: fatal illness and that it was time to set his
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: affairs in order. During his police interview, he worried about
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: being labeled a serial killer and indicated that he had
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: different motives for each. One was a dispute over money
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: for sex, while another was supposedly caused by hallucinations. A
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: third occurred during an argument and subsequent robbery, and the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: fourth happened when he snapped during a sexual encounter. Three
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: occurred in nineteen ninety in nineteen ninety one, while the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: fourth took place years later. Three days prior to turning
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: himself in. The victim's ages ranged between twenty four and
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: fifty four. Two were strangled, while two were bludgeoned, and
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: one of those was also strangled. Three victims were female
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and one was male. He knew them all and two
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: were friends. Reporters were confused about this issue as well,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: since in New York the legal definition for a serial
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: killer was having three or more victims, a similar method
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of killing, and crimes that occurred within a fairly tight
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: time frame. In addition, Spahalski's behavior did not fit what
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: has been claimed about serial killers. He did not have
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a clear victim type, he was not compulsive or pre datory,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: he was able to stop, and he suffered remorse. The
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: confusion over Spahalski is understandable, but in fact, when analyzed
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: case by case, serial killers often do not fit into
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: neat categories. This was an issue of technicalities. Spahalski was
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: a serial killer, not only that his identical twin brother
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: committed a homicide as well. Robert Spahalski's identical twin brother, Stephen,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: killed forty eight year old Ronald Ripley when Stephen was sixteen,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: nearly seventeen, Stephen claimed that Ripley approached him sexually and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: he reacted. Robert was a strong suspect in this homicide,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: and the police was surprised when Stephen stepped forward to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: plead guilty to manslaughter. They suspected, but could not prove,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: that Robert was present at this incident as well. Journalist
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Gary Craig for The Democrat and Chronicle tracked Stephen down
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in Attica Correctional Facility for an interview, though Robert would
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: not talk unless he was paid. Even with only one
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: twin willing to speak about the family history, it was
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: a rare opportunity. Stephen was initially imprisoned for eight years,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: but upon release, he committed a burglary in kidnapping, which
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: sent him right back. A second release ended in incarceration
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: again in nineteen ninety nine following a parole violation. While
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: he was due for release in the spring of two
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: thousand and six, he refused to take a required anti
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: violence course, so he remained in prison. Both brothers used
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to be skilled gymnasts as youths. Their parents divorced when
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: they were twelve, but neither twin attributed his violent behavior
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: to his upbringing. Both had a history of antisocial attitudes
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and criminal offenses. I thought I was the only murderer
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: in the family, said Stephen. When Craig interviewed him. He
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: could not identify any specific reas reason why his brother
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: might have killed someone. They were close when growing up,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the way identical twins often are, and after Stephen went
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: to prison, Robert visited him often. Over the years, however,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: the visits turned into letters, and the letters came less frequently. Once,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, they were incarcerated together at Auburn
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Correctional facility, and Robert tried to escape. The guards had
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: trouble identifying him because Stephen covered for him, and therefore
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: both were sent to solitary confinement. Stephen, whose nickname was Christmas,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: was gay, while Robert was bisexual. Stephen did not know
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: why his brother would confess, except that possibly his conscience
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: bothered him. He wanted it off his chest. Stephen claimed
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: he certainly wouldn't have turned himself in, although he did
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: when he was seventeen. He added that Robert never admitted
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: to him that he killed someone. In learning of Robert's twin,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: said Gary Craig. We also learned that Stephen lived a
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: life of crime, killing a man when he was sixteen
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: and never leaving prison for any extended period of time.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Since this raised the inevitable nature versus nurture question, what
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in their lives or upbringing shaped them into the violent
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: men they became. Are they the eerie but consummate example
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of the harmonic behavior you sometimes hear of with twins?
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Robert Bruce Spahowski by himself was a fascinating story, a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: serial killer whom the police first suspected of a murder
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: in the early nineties, but who managed to evade authorities
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: until he turned himself in. But adding a murderous identical
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: twin to the mix made the story even more bizarre.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Gary Craig continued, Craig hoped to interview Robert one day
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: as well. We are seeking to talk to him in
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: that that could be months away because he is temporarily
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in transition at a holding prison where officials don't allow interviews.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: He noted that Stephen demonstrated the same occasional disconnect with
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: reality that was apparent in Robert's confession. In the prison interview,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Stephen claimed he recently communicated with his nineteen seventy one
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: victim through computers at the prison, despite the fact that
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: inmates aren't given unfettered access to computers, and also despite
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the fact that his victim is of course very dead.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Stephen tells that the two he and Robert often had
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: those experiences you hear of with twins thinking similar thoughts,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: though miles apart knowing what each other is up to.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Clearly there is a connection between twins that often seems
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: almost psychic. I'm not ready to make a definite leap
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to judgment that the genesis of the brutal acts of
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: these two was as much genetic as environmental, but I
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: also so admit that I'm not ready to dismiss that possibility.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: They did not seem to share the same attitudes about
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: their homicides. In his confession, Robert expressed remorse. Was it
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: sincere Only he can tell, and he's also a hustler
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: who can lie with the best of them. Stephen, on
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the other hand, still seems to believe that his killing
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: was justified, and in the interview, Stephen claimed that there
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: had to be good reasons for his brother's slayings. They
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: must have deserved it, he said of his brother's victims,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: as if the killings were self defense and not the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: taking of innocent lives, as each of the four murders was.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It does seem that Robert had a bout of conscience
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and was genuinely remorseful, if only long enough to turn
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: himself in to the police. It also seems that his
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: final victim was a friend, and perhaps this is what
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: prompted the remorse, the realization that this time his violence
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: took someone who had been genuinely towards him. You could
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: surmise that he turned himself in because he likely would
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: have been targeted as a suspect because of his connections
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: with the victim. But the weakness with this theory is
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the fact that Robert was a suspect in other murders
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: he committed, but always managed to avoid arrest. Given that,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: it's likely that he believed he could literally get away
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: with murder, That's why it does seem more likely that
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: he truly regretted his final slaying. In The Antisocial Personalities,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: David Lichn compares a number of studies of twins across
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: several cultures to try to determine how heritable violent behavior is.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: He concludes that certain heritable personality traits found more often
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: in violent than non violent individuals. Risk taking, aggression, impulsivity,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: adventure seeking, and fearlessness mean that the propensity for violence
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: can be inherited. The Spahalski brothers seem to have these traits.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Studies of monozygotic twins found a much higher incidence of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: both being violent and antisocial than occurred in twins who
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: are not genetically identical. Some of this derives from the environment,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: such as the culture's affirmation of violence, and some from
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the quality or lack of parenting. Even so, there are
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: few examples of environments in which most siblings raised together
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: become violent, even when there's abuse or parental criminality. John
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Blatt gathered a number of cases of violent twins in
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Evil Twins, but even he failed to find many pairs
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: like the Spahalskis. Aside from a few cases of twin
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: mothers Jane and Jene Hopkins or Gloria and Gretchen Graham
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: who killed their children together, most of the twins involved
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: cases where one was violent and the other was not,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: or where they turned the violence on themselves. One of
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the pairs, Betty Ian Peggy Wilson, allegedly enlisted a hit
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: man together to kill Betty's husband. Another pair of twins,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: George and Stephen Spitzer, were both rapists. The Cray twins
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: are probably the most notorious criminal twins. Born ten minutes
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: apart in nineteen thirty three, Ronald and Reginald Cray were
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the sons of an army deserter, so right from birth
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: they had a poor role model. They developed a reputation
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: for trouble making, exacerbated by their boxing skills, and after
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: military desertions, themselves developed a criminal enterprise in London of racketeering,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: arson and armed robbery. Ronnie shot a man, which appalled
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the other and started a rift between them. Ronnie was
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Their respective fortunes went up
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and down, and finally, in nineteen sixty seven, Reggie stabbed
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Demand to death. An informant turned them in and they
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: were found guilty of two murders. They received life sentences.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: After their deaths, five years apart, they were buried in
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the same grave. In a somewhat more updated overview of
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the issue of twins and violence, Gail Anderson's biological influences
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: on criminal behaviour The conclusion is also that there is
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: some genetic predisposition toward crime, at least as found in
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: studies in several different Western countries. There appears to be
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a heritable component to property crimes, but not so much
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: for violent crime, especially homicide. Given how few actual cases
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: there are, this makes sense. Gregory Moffatt, in A Violent
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Heart says, even though there are a few rare exceptions,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: violent individuals are not born that way. Instead, they become
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: violent through the process of cultural and sociological interaction, vigual physiology,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and psychological development. In January two thousand six, Spahanski pleaded
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: not guilty to all the charges. Initially, he intended to
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: plead not guilty by reason of insanity, but he changed
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: his defense strategy. The trial lasted two weeks and involved
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: all four murders, although there was some question about whether
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: there might be four separate trials. The prosecutor, Ken Hyland
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: offered a narrative that involved about forty witnesses and over
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: two hundred exhibits to show that Robert Bruce Spahanski was
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: a dangerous man who should be locked away for as
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: long as possible. His confessions matched the physical evidence, so
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: it was clear he did exactly what he claimed he did.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Spahalski's attorney, Joe Demilio, protested the reliability of Spahanski's thirteen
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: hour interrogation. He said that due to Spahalski's drug use
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and his inability to take the medication he needed for
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a psychological condition, he was not of sound mind when
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: he came into the police department to turn himself in,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: nor when he signed four separate admissions of guilt. Dmilio
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: wanted the confessions thrown out, but the judge allowed them
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: to stay. Dmilio then focused on the fact that Spahalski
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: was high on crack cocaine during each incident, suffered from
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: extreme emotional disturbance, and could not have formed the requisite
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: intent to kill the demons. Here, he said, as he
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: placed two bags of cocaine in front of the jury,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and it affected his mind. However, Hyland pressed home the
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: fact that beating someone with a hammer over small change
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: is quite personal and brutally violent, as were the strangulations
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: with ropes and wires. In addition, voluntary intoxication is not
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: an exculpatory defense if the person chose to take drugs
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: aware of such possible outcomes. In Spahalski's case, he knew
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: he committed murder on other ac occasions when he used cocaine,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and yet he kept using it. He also knew each
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: time that what he was doing was wrong, because he
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: tried to cover it up and mislead the police. On
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: November thirteen, the jury began to deliberate. They took less
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: than three hours to find Spahalski guilty on several counts,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: intentional second degree murder in the strangling death of Vivian Irazari,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: two counts of second degree murder in the beating of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Charles Grande, one count was for the felony robbery associated
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: with the murder, and two counts of intentional second degree
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: murder in the strangling deaths of both MraY Armstrong and
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Adrian Berger. In other words, the jury concluded that Spahowski
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: had been aware of what he was doing when he
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: killed these four people, and that it was wrong. He
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: continues to be suspected in other deaths, but the evidence
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: is lacking and he may not be prosecuted for them.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: On December twelveth Hyland asked for the maximum sentence of
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: twenty five years for each count. To be served consecutively.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Spahalski was sentenced to one hundred years in prison. Stephen Spahalski,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: the twin brother, didn't do well outside when he was
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: released in July two thousand nine after serving the maximum sentence.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Within a short period after release, he attempted a bank
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: robbery in Elmira, New York, which led to his immediate
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: return to custody. Neither of them are likely to see
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the real world ever again