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Serial Killer Documentary - Marion Pruett (Mad Dog) · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New Mexico, a few miles outside Albuquerque. The landscape gives
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: way to a dusty sprawl dotted by strip malls and subdivisions.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: On April 16th, 1981, Sandoval County Sheriff Gennaro Ferrara was
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: dispatched to a remote patch of desert 20 miles north
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of the city. Among the rocks and sand, two gas
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: company workers had discovered a body.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: It was a very gruesome sight. It was totally nude.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: There were no clothes on. The body had been burned off.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: And you could see where some predators, maybe coyotes, had
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: tried to gnaw at the body.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: It was clearly a homicide. The body had been burned.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: The skull fractured. The crime scene yielded no clues about
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: who killed this person. But a medic alert bracelet was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: found nearby. and it was quickly traced to a woman
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: named Pamela Sue Barker. Tattoos on the corpse suggested she
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: could be a biker. The sheriff tracked down the dead
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: woman's mother, who confirmed that her daughter was indeed a biker.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: This image is one of the only available pictures of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Pamela Barker. The mother revealed her daughter had been married
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to a man named Sonny Pearson.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: The mom says, Pearson. We start looking.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Police started canvassing local biker hangouts. They soon learned that
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Sonny Pearson and his wife were mysterious recent additions to
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: this part of New Mexico. Two years earlier, the couple
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: had moved to a subdivision outside Albuquerque called Rio Rancho.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Pearson invested in a trucking business and in this truck stop,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the Big Chief Cafe. Alice Vick and her son Daniel
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: were both working there when Pearson became part owner.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: He was a biker and hung around with the biker crowd,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: and you don't really, you don't ask a lot of
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: questions in that circle of people.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: I was prep cook, and he just always backed the
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: visiting with me, I guess because of my age. And
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: like you know, he calls me mom. And we just
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: got to be real friendly. Tried to turn him on
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: to God, but it didn't work.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: The 31-year-old Pearson was a distinctive figure, even among local bikers,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: standing 5'7, with a long beard, a limp, and a
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: glass eye from a childhood accident.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: When he didn't have any money and he was in
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: a bar, he'd take his eye out and drop it
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: in somebody's drink when they weren't looking, and then they
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: wouldn't want their drink anymore, and he'd take it.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Sonny could talk people into almost anything.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: He just had that personality, and he had that gift.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: He made me real uneasy.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Businesswoman Judy Crawley knew Pearson and his wife Michelle from
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: his trucking business.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: She was busy working on the motorcycles, and Sonny was
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: busy being the tough guy.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: I didn't see a lot of closeness with Michelle and Sonny.
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: They were more like friends.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Now, following the discovery of the corpse in the desert,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and two days after police got Pearson's name, Sonny himself
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: paid Sheriff Ferrara a visit. He said he had heard
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: about the body and was sure it was his wife.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: He said, I want to see my wife.
• 3:28
  Speaker 7: I want to see my wife.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I said, you know, sit down. We need to ask
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: you a few questions.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Pearson told police his wife had disappeared six weeks earlier
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: from their trailer home. He had filed a missing persons
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: report in neighboring Bernalillo County.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Pearson had filed a report on March the 2nd stating
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that his wife and him had gotten into an argument.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And about 2 o'clock in the morning, she took off
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and was walking. Last time he seen her, he says,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: he was heading south on the tracks behind the trailer court.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: And it just didn't fit. Where was this woman going
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to go at 2 a.m.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: The sheriff grilled Sonny for more than three hours, during
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: which Pearson revealed that he had a criminal past and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a secret identity, courtesy of the federal government.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: He gives me the story about the Marshal Service Witness
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Protection Program. Come to pass, he did say at one
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: point in time that he had robbed a bank at
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: one point in his life.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Pearson refused to say much else. but did mention that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: he'd served time at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. He
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: dared the sheriff to contact the U.S. Marshal Service for
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: more answers. Ferrara left Pearson in the interrogation room and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: went to call the Marshal Service in Albuquerque.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: I says, listen, yeah, we know this guy. I says,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you need to give me some information on Woodall. He says, well,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: we can't give out any information about his prior and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: this and that, but We have some other information.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: The marshal confirmed that his suspect and his wife had
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: both received new identities as Michelle and Charles Sonny Pearson.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Pearson's real name was Marion Albert Pruitt. The marshal divulged
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: one other startling detail. Apparently, the night before she disappeared,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Pruitt's wife called a marshal at home and said she
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: was afraid her husband was going to kill her. The
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: marshal told her to contact local police in the morning.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: That was the last anyone heard from her. Once Sheriff
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Ferrara was done talking to the marshal in Albuquerque, he
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: returned to the interrogation room and confronted his suspect.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I told him, you murdered your wife. You did it.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: You're going to be put downstairs.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: I'm locking you up as a material witness.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I know I could hold him for 72 hours and
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: then kept trying to develop more stuff.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: But the sheriff's case quickly fell apart. 48 hours later,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: a judge ordered the suspect released for lack of evidence.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Then the FBI sent back a report on the man's fingerprints.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: They sent me back a print card that said no record.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I was sort of taken back.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: No record?
• 6:40
  Speaker 7: This guy's telling.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Me he'd been in the Atlanta Penitentiary.
• 6:44
  Speaker 8: No record?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Couldn't get any, anything. Nothing.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: With no help from either the FBI or the U.S. Marshals,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Sheriff Ferrara and his deputies kept on trying to crack
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: the case. Almost two months later, finally, a breakthrough. Police
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: tracked down a close friend of Marion Pruitt's who seemed
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: nervous about talking. After some prodding, 24-year-old Bill Sherman confessed
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: that he saw Pruitt kill his wife and that he
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: helped dispose of the body.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: He tells me, I was there. I was there when
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: he murdered her. And you know what? He was eager
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: to get that off his chest.
• 7:29
  Speaker 9: There was no question that Bill Sherman was terrified.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: Of Marion Pruitt.
• 7:36
  Speaker 9: And that Marion Pruitt used his persona to totally control
• 7:45
  Speaker 9: and manipulate the accomplice in this case.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Sherman began telling the sheriff about the night Pruitt's wife disappeared.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: He said he spent the evening drinking with Pruitt at
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: his trailer. Then he claimed his friend told him to
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: go home and return later that night so they could
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: discuss his trucking business. Sherman returned and said Pruitt immediately
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: took a hammer into the bedroom where his wife was asleep.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: There were screams. Then Sherman entered the room.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Blood was all over. She was just fairly not even
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: moving at that.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Point in time.
• 8:21
  Speaker 10: And then what they did is they took the body
• 8:25
  Speaker 10: and put it in the trunk of a car and
• 8:27
  Speaker 10: took it out to the mesa, which is on the
• 8:29
  Speaker 10: west side of Albuquerque here, and then burned it and
• 8:33
  Speaker 10: left it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Based on this eyewitness account, authorities issued an arrest warrant
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: for Marion Pruitt, but Pruitt had disappeared. Investigators later found
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out that before he left town, he had stopped by
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to see his employee and friend, Alice Vick.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: He just told me he had to leave because the
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: law was blaming him for the murder of his wife,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: and he told me, he said, I swear to you
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: on my mom's soul that I did not kill my wife.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: And those were his words when he left.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt escaped New Mexico undetected and went on a
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: nationwide crime spree. And because the Federal Witness Protection Program
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: had given Pruitt a new cleaned-up identity, the government would
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: be widely blamed for allowing the rampage to occur.
• 9:22
  Speaker 11: The guy that turns a wild animal loose to kill
• 9:30
  Speaker 11: is responsible. It's not the wild animal. The wild animal
• 9:33
  Speaker 11: is just doing what comes naturally.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: In June 1981, police in Sandoval County, New Mexico, just
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: outside Albuquerque, issued an all-points bulletin for Marion Albert Pruitt.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: As a member of the Witness Protection Program, the man
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: had been living under the name Sonny Pearson. He was
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: now wanted for the murder of his wife. Pruitt would
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: elude capture for months, go on a killing spree, and
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: in the process live up to a nickname he had
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: carried with him since his teens, Mad Dog.
• 10:11
  Speaker 12: What caused him to become this way, how he became
• 10:14
  Speaker 12: that way, I don't know. I think he's a person
• 10:16
  Speaker 12: who just liked to hurt. and hurt in the most
• 10:19
  Speaker 12: severe way.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Pruitt's case would throw a harsh spotlight on the Federal
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Witness Protection Program and raise the question, does society sometimes
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: pay too high a price for the secret deals the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: government makes with violent criminals? Marion Albert Pruitt was raised
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: in Charlotte, North Carolina. His childhood pursuits of baseball and
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: roller skating gave way in his teens to a motorcycle
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: gang and drugs. He took speed, smoked pot, and drank
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: so much of the inexpensive brand of wine, Mogan David,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that his friends started calling him by its street name,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Mad Dog. Crime came easily to him, as did prison time.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: A six-month sentence for petty theft at age 17 cemented
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a lifelong hatred of authority. He took to robbing banks,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: which earned him, at age 21, a long stretch in
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the Atlanta penitentiary. Eight years later, in the spring of 1978,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: one year before Pruitt's scheduled release, his cellmate at informant
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: in a drug trial was murdered. The 28-year-old Pruitt claimed
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: he witnessed the crime and offered to testify if he
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: could win a spot in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: it fell to Gerald Shore at the U.S. Justice Department
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to consider the request.
• 11:47
  Speaker 12: I would have to be convinced that that witness was
• 11:49
  Speaker 12: very important to what I concluded was a very important case.
• 11:53
  Speaker 12: Here an informant had been murdered, that would be a
• 11:56
  Speaker 12: very important case.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So Marion Pruitt was placed in witness protection. He was
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: paroled in November 1979, 11 months early, based on his
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: cooperation with the government. He then married Pamela Sue Barker,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: whom he'd met while in prison.
• 12:12
  Speaker 13: The U.S.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Marshals moved the newlyweds to New Mexico and gave them
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: new identities as Charles and Michelle Pearson. For about nine months,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the couple received a monthly stipend of $ 800 until they
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: were deemed self-sufficient. Pruitt bought into two businesses and made friends.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: He said he was happy with his life. He wasn't trouble,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: drank a lot, and I'd be chewing him out telling
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: him to eat instead of drink. And That's when he'd
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: start calling me Mama. He'd say, yes, Mama, yes, Mama.
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: But we never had any trouble with him. Always treated
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: me great.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: But Pruitt eventually did get into trouble. In August 1980,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest after
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a barroom brawl. However, Pruitt had no arrest record under
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: his new identity, Charles Pearson. The judge had no idea
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: what kind of person he was dealing with. So instead
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: of a return trip to prison for breaking parole, Pruitt
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: received six months unsupervised probation. Just a few months later,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Pruitt's wife would turn up dead. Pruitt became the prime suspect,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: but New Mexico authorities still could not get access to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: his real record. They weren't allowed to hold him in jail,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and then the man disappeared.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: To be honest with you, I never got a copy
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: of his rap sheet from the FBI.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: They weren't releasing anything. Now wanted for the murder of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: his wife, Pruitt went on the run. On September 17th, 1981,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: a man dressed in a three-piece suit and a wig
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: walked into the Unifirst Savings and Loan in Jackson, Mississippi.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: He told the tellers he was armed.
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: This individual then handed one of the bank employees a
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: bag and asked her to fill it with money. He
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: was told that they did not have that kind of money,
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: to which he said, give me what you have.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: The suspect fled with about $ 7, 000 in cash and a hostage,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a 43-year-old bank loan officer named Peggy Lowe.
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: Someone else was going to be the hostage, and that
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: lady panicked and said, Peggy more or less volunteered to
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: be the hostage to get the other employees out of
• 14:45
  Speaker 7: harm's way.
• 14:47
  Speaker 14: My husband told me that there had been a bank
• 14:49
  Speaker 14: robbery and that they had abducted my mother. They didn't
• 14:53
  Speaker 14: know where she was at the moment, but I needed
• 14:55
  Speaker 14: to go to the bank, to the universe, and my
• 14:59
  Speaker 14: dad was there. The bank employees were there, the FBI, Jackson, police,
• 15:05
  Speaker 14: TV reporters, everybody was there.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Police scoured the area and found Peggy Lowe's car parked
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: behind the bank. Hoping to find her inside, they told
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: her husband to open the trunk. It was empty. Within hours,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: a statewide manhunt was underway. Authorities circulated Lowe's photograph. Helicopters
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: buzzed over state highways. The bank robber and his hostage
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: were nowhere to be found. the FBI distributed a composite
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: sketch of the suspect, drawn from eyewitness accounts to field
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: offices across the country.
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: He, from physical stature, was a short person, I believe
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: about 5'6, 5'7, wearing sunglasses, and he walked with a limp.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Calls came flooding in to Mississippi, from Corpus Christi, Texas, Tallahassee, Florida,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and as far away as Seattle, Washington. Each jurisdiction reported
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: that it, too, had a recent bank robbery with a
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: suspect matching that very description. Fingerprint evidence soon confirmed it.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Marion Mad Dog Pruitt had hit all the locations. This
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: was little solace to the family of the still-missing Peggy Lowe.
• 16:26
  Speaker 14: Life at home was waiting for the phone to ring,
• 16:29
  Speaker 14: waiting for somebody to tell us anything.
• 16:30
  Speaker 7: I was thinking, you know, maybe there's hope, but really
• 16:35
  Speaker 7: after the second week, I I knew within my heart
• 16:38
  Speaker 7: that I'd never see her alive on this earth again.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And he wasn't done yet. In Fort Smith, Arkansas, on
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: October 12, 1981, a gunman walked into a convenience store
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and abducted the night shift clerk, Bobbie Jean Robertson. Her
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: body was discovered shot to death in a nearby wooded area.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: The suspect had escaped with $ 163 in cash. Four days later,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and 850 miles away, a police investigator in Loveland, Colorado
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: was dispatched to an early morning shooting at a 7-Eleven.
• 17:18
  Speaker 11: The victim was alive at that particular point in time.
• 17:23
  Speaker 15: We don't know for sure how long he was on
• 17:25
  Speaker 15: the floor of the store bleeding.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Anthony Tate, the 21-year-old clerk, had been shot four times
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: at point-blank range. The young man was pronounced dead at
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the hospital 45 minutes later. Police soon learned that 13
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: miles away in Fort Collins, Colorado, another 7-Eleven had also
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: been robbed and the overnight clerk, 24-year-old James Balderson, murdered.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: His parents found out later that morning.
• 17:56
  Speaker 11: We always had some reservations with him working at night,
• 18:00
  Speaker 11: but Fort Collins we thought was as good a town
• 18:03
  Speaker 11: as any. My first The reaction was I just broke
• 18:07
  Speaker 11: down and cried like a baby. Because I love my son.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: The Colorado police sent out an APB and got an
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: immediate response from the FBI. The Bureau was keeping an
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: eye out for suspicious robberies and sent back information on
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt's bank robbery and kidnapping in Mississippi.
• 18:29
  Speaker 15: Actually, you know, I thought the FBI was just throwing
• 18:33
  Speaker 15: us a bone when we got the original teletype.
• 18:34
  Speaker 13: I thought.
• 18:35
  Speaker 15: How could this have any connection? You know, it doesn't...
• 18:39
  Speaker 15: And Mississippi's a long way from Colorado, and I just
• 18:42
  Speaker 15: didn't see any connection at all.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Just two days later, the connection would be confirmed. On
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: a highway outside Amarillo, Texas, state troopers pulled over a
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: speeding Cadillac. A. 38 caliber handgun was found under the seat,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: along with drug paraphernalia and 7-11 receipts from Colorado. The
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: driver was arrested. His name was Marion Albert Pruitt. His
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: five-month spree of seven holdups, which had left three people
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: dead and one missing, was over. The arrest of Med
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Dog Pruitt made headlines nationwide. The victims' families were furious
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: when they found out the former bank robber had been
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: given a new identity in the Federal Witness Protection Program.
• 19:29
  Speaker 11: I did not have a feeling of anger at until
• 19:34
  Speaker 11: I found out his real name was Marion Albert Pruitt
• 19:37
  Speaker 11: and found out that he was a protected witness. Then
• 19:39
  Speaker 11: the rage started to build.
• 19:41
  Speaker 12: If he was never in the witness program, he still
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: would have committed crime. When I learned of Pruitt's crimes,
• 19:48
  Speaker 12: I was personally devastated. by the deaths of every individual,
• 19:52
  Speaker 12: young people, others that he had killed. It was just wanton,
• 19:55
  Speaker 12: reckless killing.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: The New Mexico sheriff who was pursuing Pruitt for killing
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: his wife believed the crime spree never had to happen.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Gennaro Farah insisted the FBI and the U.S. Marshals failed
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to give him assistance when it mattered.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: They're supposed to send us the information, especially when we
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: got them arrested and on the card it says material
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: witness homicide. Don't you think that they should have shared
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: a little bit with us? They turned this mad dog
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: out on society.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Pruitt was first extradited to Jackson, Mississippi to face charges
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: on armed bank robbery and the kidnapping of Peggy Lowe.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Authorities chose Mississippi because Lowe was still missing. Two weeks later,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Pruitt confessed to police that he had killed her and
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: agreed on October 28, 1981, to take them to the body.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: As they drove to a wooded area near the Mississippi-Alabama border,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Pruitt recounted the last two hours of Peggy Lowe's life.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: He said that after robbing the Unifirst Bank in downtown Jackson,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: He'd driven 125 miles east over the border into Alabama.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: He found an abandoned dirt road. Then he stopped the car.
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: He took Mrs. Lowe out of the car, took her
• 21:23
  Speaker 6: into a wooded area, and had her take her clothes
• 21:27
  Speaker 6: off for the purpose of leaving her. And he was
• 21:30
  Speaker 6: thinking that, you know, perhaps this is not good. He
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: confronts her. at this time, makes her go back, kneel down,
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: and ultimately he shoots her in the back of the head.
• 21:41
  Speaker 16: One thing that I asked him, did he sexually molest
• 21:45
  Speaker 16: Miss Lowe? And he said he did not. I asked him,
• 21:49
  Speaker 16: did she die instantly? And he said that he believed
• 21:53
  Speaker 16: that she did.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: The agents followed Pruitt's directions to a clearing where they
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: found Peggy Lowe's decomposing body. Then Pruitt abruptly announced that
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: he was ready to leave and eat breakfast. The authorities
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: were appalled.
• 22:11
  Speaker 16: He had showed us, admitted to us that he killed
• 22:14
  Speaker 16: this lady, and now I want something to eat. That's
• 22:19
  Speaker 16: when the old good American red-blooded law enforcement man's blood
• 22:25
  Speaker 16: gets real high.
• 22:28
  Speaker 10: You know?
• 22:30
  Speaker 16: That's when you want to take the law into your
• 22:32
  Speaker 16: own hands, but you know you can't.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: That same day, after Marion Pruitt was driven back to Jackson, Mississippi,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: he granted an interview to four local reporters. From the start,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: he was remarkably candid about his crimes.
• 22:50
  Speaker 8: You know, I've become a mad dog killer. I've done
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: so much cocaine.
• 22:54
  Speaker 13: And I don't mind telling you, I killed two people
• 22:56
  Speaker 13: in Colorado and one in Arkansas, too.
• 22:58
  Speaker 10: That's how.
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: about a $ 4, 000 a week cocaine habit, okay?
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: It was a stunning free trial confession. Pruitt explained why
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: he had become a killer. He blamed it on drugs.
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: Peggy Long's death was something that, it was just, I
• 23:22
  Speaker 8: was too high, it was accidental, it was something that
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: shouldn't have happened.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: You were high on cocaine?
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: That and methadrine with ether base and crank.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: California crank.
• 23:35
  Speaker 10: You think so?
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Okay, you said you're trying to embarrass the federal government.
• 23:41
  Speaker 8: In what way?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Pruitt said he had harbored a grudge against the government
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: since his first stint in prison as a teenager. Now
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Pruitt added one more reason to be angry. He believed
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that the sheriff in New Mexico had told the press
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: about his protected witness status.
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: They let them tell everybody there that I was a
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: government witness and.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: So was my wife. In reality, that information was only
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: released after Pruitt fled. Pruitt used his bitterness as an excuse.
• 24:13
  Speaker 8: I started out just to rob banks and embarrass the government,
• 24:16
  Speaker 8: and there was a killing involved. Then I got a
• 24:21
  Speaker 8: little bit more crazy.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: He was so resentful that he was unwilling to give
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the government credit for capturing him.
• 24:29
  Speaker 8: The police in Texas did not apprehend me.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I let them catch me.
• 24:34
  Speaker 8: I guess, I mean, surely you're aware of that.
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: I mean, if.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I've killed five people and I got a.
• 24:39
  Speaker 8: 38 under the seat, what the hell am I doing
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: going through town 69 miles an hour and not pulling
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: a gun on them?
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: It was a bizarre performance from a man who hadn't
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: faced trial on any of his most recent crimes, the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: worst of which were murder charges for the killing of
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: five people, including his wife. At the end of October 1981,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: captured spree killer Marion Mad Dog Pruitt held a two-day
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: press conference in Jackson, Mississippi. He was facing charges for
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: killing his wife, as well as four other murders. Even so,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: he discussed his life in the Witness Protection Program and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: his nationwide crime spree. How did you do it? I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: was a solo artist. Well, I His statements also offered
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: a glimpse into the workings of a criminal mind. He
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: explained why he targeted savings and loans.
• 25:44
  Speaker 8: 99% of the savings and loans are run by female
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: and female managers. And women have not equal right things
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: of getting into, but women has more common sense than
• 25:59
  Speaker 8: the man does when it comes to bodily harm, okay?
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: Where a man would try to play gun holder. FBI says,
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: don't play hero.
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: How much money would you say that you came across
• 26:11
  Speaker 7: in these robberies altogether? Is there any way to spend
• 26:14
  Speaker 7: it quickly?
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, spend it very quickly. Too fast.
• 26:26
  Speaker 8: On what?
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Good living, I guess they call it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 8: Was it a good living?
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: Lonely, I guess, you know.
• 26:42
  Speaker 8: Not as far as people around me and stuff, just
• 26:44
  Speaker 8: lonely feelings, you know. It's like, what's that song they
• 26:49
  Speaker 8: sung about the clown deep down inside, you know, he's
• 26:54
  Speaker 8: a loser.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Pruitt addressed questions about his upcoming trials and what penalty
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: he thought he should receive for murdering 43 Jackson area
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: resident Peggy Lowe.
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: I think the people of Mississippi want to see me
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: dead just as much as I want to die. Nothing,
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: nothing justified the killing of Peggy Lee or whatever her
• 27:17
  Speaker 8: name was. If I think it was probable justification for myself,
• 27:21
  Speaker 8: I wouldn't be asking for the death penalty.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I killed an innocent person.
• 27:32
  Speaker 8: It's that simple, okay?
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: Do you think that you will gain anything by talking
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: to the four of us?
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: Or do you hope to gain anything by talking to
• 27:41
  Speaker 8: the four of us? I hope I can gain the
• 27:45
  Speaker 8: support of the people that will.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Turn around and help me.
• 27:48
  Speaker 8: You know, maybe this kind of sounds crazy, me asking
• 27:51
  Speaker 8: the people of Mississippi to help me, but I'd like
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: for them to help me, you know, for the state
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: to have me, to put me to death.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: In other words, you didn't want to stay in prison
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the rest of your life?
• 28:03
  Speaker 8: That's my question. No, I don't think so, because right
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: now society and everything is, as far as getting so
• 28:10
  Speaker 8: weak about violence and clearing the criminal's mind and everything,
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: they might have paroled me in 10 years.
• 28:18
  Speaker 13: I wouldn't have been before 42 then.
• 28:20
  Speaker 8: I'd still be ready to go raise.
• 28:21
  Speaker 13: Hell again, wouldn't I?
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Pruitt might have saved the people of Mississippi the expense
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: of a trial, but despite his bluster, he pleaded not guilty.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and left his fate to a jury. Pruitt requested to
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: act as his own attorney. The judge agreed, but appointed
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: lawyer William Kirksey as one of his advisors. Kirksey didn't
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: think much of his client, but he also didn't think
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: Pruitt was the only one to blame.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: Part of Marion Albert Pruitt's crimes should be laid right
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: on the lap of the United States government. They protected him.
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: The people of Mississippi did not. The people of New
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: Mexico did not. Or these other states.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt's trial for the murder of Peggy Lowe began
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: in April 1982 in Columbus, Mississippi. If there were any
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: doubts about the outcome, Pruitt quelled them by insisting on
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: taking the stand. There was some electricity in the air.
• 29:22
  Speaker 11: There's no question about it in the courtroom.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Pruitt recounted robbing the universe savings and loan and how
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: he took Peggy Lowe to the woods in Alabama and
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: murdered her.
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: I guess the worst part of it was his description.
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: of it and what he was doing and all he
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: was thinking about was getting his fix and all and
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: it was just so hard to restrain myself.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Pruitt displayed needle marks on his arms to the jury.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: His defense, he said, was that the drugs made him kill.
• 30:00
  Speaker 15: He refused to take blame for his true inner self,
• 30:03
  Speaker 15: and his true inner self was a murdering scumbag.
• 30:07
  Speaker 14: And I hate that my mother had her last thoughts
• 30:09
  Speaker 14: were with him and had to look at him.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: The jury only took three hours to determine that Pruitt
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: was guilty and deserved the death penalty. The judge agreed.
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: I will never forget when Judge Coleman read him the
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: sentencing order of the court. saying that he would be
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: put to death on so-and-so date at Partsman Prison. This mean,
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: tough guy, who I say is a punk, his knees
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: buckled and he almost went to the floor. I will
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: never forget that.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt racked up another death sentence in Arkansas for
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the murder of convenience store clerk Bobby Jean Robertson. In Colorado,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: in exchange for two life sentences, Pruitt pleaded guilty to
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: killing the two other clerks, Anthony Tate and James Balderson.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: This plea bargain satisfied Balderson's father.
• 31:07
  Speaker 11: I figured Pruitt would never see the light of day again,
• 31:11
  Speaker 11: which was fine with me.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Then in February 1983, Pruitt appeared in a New Mexico
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: court to stand trial for the one crime he maintained
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: he did not commit, the murder of his wife, Pamela
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Sue Barker. He was tried under the name he received
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: in the Witness Protection Program, Charles Sonny Pearson. During pretrial motions,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the defendant criticized Judge Thomas Meskel for refusing to grant
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: a change of venue.
• 31:39
  Speaker 8: I have a couple other requests I'd like to make.
• 31:41
  Speaker 8: One is I want a gag order on the case.
• 31:44
  Speaker 8: I'd like the news media removed out of this courtroom.
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: I believe this is nothing but a political trial for
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: certain people to use as stepping stones for their political
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: future on me, okay?
• 31:55
  Speaker 17: Was a very hostile individual. But he was also a
• 32:01
  Speaker 17: person who liked, and I believe, craved attention. He just
• 32:07
  Speaker 17: didn't want to have a silent part. He wanted to
• 32:08
  Speaker 17: have a speaking part in those shows. He'd have statements,
• 32:14
  Speaker 17: which I'm sure a defense attorney would be aghast at
• 32:18
  Speaker 17: him doing.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: The result in this case was the same as in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: all of his other trials. The jury convicted Marion Albert Pruitt, a.k.a.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Charles Sonny Pearson, of first-degree murder. He received a third
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: life sentence on top of his two death sentences.
• 32:40
  Speaker 9: When you looked into his eyes, you could see right
• 32:46
  Speaker 9: through him. It's kind of analogous to sharks. When you
• 32:49
  Speaker 9: look into their eyes, you just, you see ice.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt, the self-proclaimed mad dog killer. By 1999, he
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: had been on death row for 17 years. Just two
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: weeks before his execution in Arkansas, the 49-year-old gave one
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: last interview. A Swedish television crew filmed it with a
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: fisheye lens for a documentary on the last meals of
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: death row inmates.
• 33:26
  Speaker 13: Well, let me ask you this. Are you trying to
• 33:29
  Speaker 13: tie the last meal on death row guys in with
• 33:33
  Speaker 13: the last supper of Christ?
• 33:35
  Speaker 14: He was skinny, scrawny, druggy when he did this to
• 33:40
  Speaker 14: my mom. They said that was his main objective in
• 33:43
  Speaker 14: jail was his feedings and getting his food and making
• 33:47
  Speaker 14: sure all of his needs were met. He was absolutely
• 33:50
  Speaker 14: a blimp by the time they executed him.
• 33:54
  Speaker 13: It's been so many years since I had junk food
• 33:57
  Speaker 13: out on the streets. I'm going to order one of
• 33:59
  Speaker 13: them big Pizza Hut pizzas with the cheese in the ring.
• 34:03
  Speaker 13: I'm going to order about four big Burger King Whoppers
• 34:07
  Speaker 13: and French fries and about three big two-liter Pepsi's, a
• 34:14
  Speaker 13: bucket of ice, a bottle of ketchup, some salt, and
• 34:16
  Speaker 13: a I want a big plate of eggplants rolled in
• 34:19
  Speaker 13: cornmeal deep fried and some squash rolled in cornmeal deep
• 34:22
  Speaker 13: fried and some okra rolled in cornmeal deep fried and
• 34:25
  Speaker 13: a big pecan pie. And I'm going to eat from,
• 34:28
  Speaker 13: you say I can do that. I'm going to get
• 34:30
  Speaker 13: my money's worth by that last meal.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: In the years following his killing spree, Pruitt had professed
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: a belief in God. He had decided to forego his
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: last set of appeals and let his death sentence proceed unimpeded.
• 34:44
  Speaker 7: Buddy, I was a devil.
• 34:47
  Speaker 13: I mean, I wasn't nothing nice. How could I honestly
• 34:50
  Speaker 13: take a life and say, you can't take mine? I
• 34:56
  Speaker 13: got no beef whatsoever with mankind.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Pruitt said he accepted his fate and was no longer angry.
• 35:04
  Speaker 13: But I believe in my heart I should die for
• 35:07
  Speaker 13: what I've done. I really do. But the last 17 years,
• 35:10
  Speaker 13: the one thing it's done, it gave me a chance
• 35:12
  Speaker 13: to receive the Lord and to get to study this
• 35:14
  Speaker 13: Bible for 14 years. And I'm at peace now, man.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Pruitt had maintained contact with some people on the outside,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: including Alice Vick, a friend from New Mexico during the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: period when he was in the Witness Protection Program. She
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: believes Pruitt had a true religious conversion in prison.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: They just got mixed up with drugs and it made
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: him crazy. He did some horrible, horrible things, but like
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: I told him, if the Lord could forgive him, I
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: sure could.
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: And they did.
• 35:48
  Speaker 13: I know I'm forgiven them, you know. And that's going
• 35:53
  Speaker 13: to be.
• 35:53
  Speaker 8: My last words.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Marion Pruitt's execution went forward as planned on April 12, 1999,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: in Grady, Arkansas.
• 36:04
  Speaker 14: All of our family went, even though he wasn't being
• 36:06
  Speaker 14: executed for my mother's death. We were grateful that he
• 36:12
  Speaker 14: was going to get just treatment for what it meant
• 36:14
  Speaker 14: to other people besides her. And just out of support
• 36:19
  Speaker 14: for them, we wanted to be there.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Pruitt was strapped to the lethal injection gurney. He begged
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: God and the family members of his victims for forgiveness
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: before the needle was inserted in his arm.
• 36:30
  Speaker 7: Okay, it's official.
• 36:33
  Speaker 8: They administered the lethal injection at 8.04. Pruitt expired at 8.09.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Pruitt's execution closed the book on one of the Federal
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Witness Protection Program's worst embarrassments. His brutal crimes had brought
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: unpleasant publicity to the program.
• 36:51
  Speaker 11: It's operating on the premise that one criminal is going
• 36:55
  Speaker 11: to testify against another criminal and tell the truth. Well,
• 37:01
  Speaker 11: I think experience has shown, as in the case of Pruitt,
• 37:07
  Speaker 11: that if you offer incentive to a person, he'll testify
• 37:11
  Speaker 11: to whatever he thinks you want to hear.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Before his execution, Pruitt even told a reporter that his
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: claim of having witnessed the murder of his cellmate in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary back in 1978 was false. That
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: testimony had earned him his place in the Witness Protection Program.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: He now insisted that he was the real murderer. Justice
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: Department officials denied Pruitt's story, saying it was a lie
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: spun to get attention.
• 37:41
  Speaker 12: I think that was Pruitt again trying to strike out
• 37:43
  Speaker 12: and just hurt. but this time he can't strike with
• 37:46
  Speaker 12: a gun.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: The former director of the program for the Justice Department,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Gerald Shurer, says that Pruitt's killing spree was a sad
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: but rare aberration.
• 37:56
  Speaker 12: We had never had this happen before with anyone who
• 38:00
  Speaker 12: had been in the witness program. The witness program didn't
• 38:03
  Speaker 12: go wrong in the Pruitt case. Pruitt went wrong in
• 38:06
  Speaker 12: the Pruitt case. If I saw Pruitt again today, yes,
• 38:10
  Speaker 12: I would put him in the program in prison. And
• 38:13
  Speaker 12: I suppose I would be inclined not to put him
• 38:15
  Speaker 12: in the program when he left prison, but how would
• 38:18
  Speaker 12: I ever stop him from killing? He was determined to murder.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: After Pruitt murdered their son in 1981, Frank Balderson and
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: his wife Betty started lobbying against the Witness Protection Program.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: They testified before a congressional committee demanding that surveillance of
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: protected criminals be improved. Three years later in 1984, Congress
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: amended the program. It gave new directives to the Justice Department,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: which raised the standards on who would be allowed into
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: the program. These included mandatory psychological testing of prospective witnesses.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Congress also provided compensation to victims up to $ 50, 000 for
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: their losses due to the crimes of protected witnesses. Frank
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Balderson and his family eventually collected $ 25, 000.
• 39:11
  Speaker 11: We had to make a claim for him. My wife
• 39:16
  Speaker 11: wanted to go ahead and make the claim, make him
• 39:18
  Speaker 11: pay through the nose, so to speak. And our friends
• 39:22
  Speaker 11: and relatives encouraged us to do that, so I did.
• 39:24
  Speaker 11: But there's no amount of money that can compensate for
• 39:28
  Speaker 11: the loss of our son.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: The Balderson family is still angry with the Witness Protection Program.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Even some in law enforcement wonder whether the Pruitt case
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: was handled properly.
• 39:41
  Speaker 13: I don't know.
• 39:41
  Speaker 16: I had mixed feelings about it. How many crimes can
• 39:46
  Speaker 16: a person commit before his true identity is revealed.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: To the public.
• 39:52
  Speaker 12: This program was responsible for making this country significantly safer. Unfortunately,
• 39:58
  Speaker 12: some of those people entering this program were still going
• 40:00
  Speaker 12: to commit crime, still going to commit murder, and there
• 40:04
  Speaker 12: was that one Pruitt that committed so many murders that
• 40:07
  Speaker 12: sort of rocked us all back on our heels.