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Weepy-Voiced Killer - Paul Michael Stephani American Serial Killer · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ever heard of a killer who practically begs to be caught.
• 0:03
  It's kind of unsettling the story we're diving into today.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a wild one for sure, the case of
• 0:08
  Paul Michael Stephanie, the weepy voiced killer will try to
• 0:11
  understand his crimes, those creepy phone calls and what finally
• 0:16
  did him in.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: What makes this case so fascinating to see is Stephanie
• 0:20
  was driven by this need for attention, almost like he
• 0:23
  wanted to write himself into his own crimes, you know,
• 0:26
  and he used those calls to do just that.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's unpack this. It all starts New Year's Eve,
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  nineteen eighty, New Year's Eve. Yeah, Stephanie tax Karen Potec
• 0:36
  leaves her seriously injured. Hours later, he calls the police,
• 0:39
  guides them right to her. Little did they know, Act
• 0:42
  one in a horrifying play he was directing.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: And tragically, the stakes they just get higher. June nineteen
• 0:49
  eighty one, Kimberly Compton becomes his first murder victim. He
• 0:52
  stabs her with an ice pick and then you guessed it,
• 0:54
  he's on the phone with the police. Oh yeah, the
• 0:57
  calls there were this bizarre mix of what sound like
• 1:00
  I don't know remorse and this desperate plea for help.
• 1:04
  But then he'd hint at this inability to stop just
• 1:08
  terrifying foreshadowing.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So it's calling the police expressing guilt, but then correcting
• 1:12
  details in the newspaper about his crimes. It's like he
• 1:16
  wanted to be the criminal mastermind and the critic reviewing
• 1:19
  his own messed up performance.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: What's disturbing is like this need to control the story.
• 1:23
  It even extended to his victims. Take Kathleen Greening, for example,
• 1:27
  met her, casually got her number, later drowned her in
• 1:30
  her own bathtub. The fact that he kept her information,
• 1:32
  had it written down suggests well premeditation.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Chilling, total calculation. And then in eighty two, he takes
• 1:40
  another life. Barbara Simon's a nurse he met at a bar.
• 1:43
  One can only imagine she probably thought she was safe
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  accepting a ride home with him. Sadly that wasn't the.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Case, and true to form, right Stephanie calls the police
• 1:51
  after killing Simons, even tells him how many times he
• 1:53
  stabbed her. It's like these details, these awful confessions were
• 1:56
  some kind of twisted trophies for him to show off,
• 1:58
  you know.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Just unfathomed. But his attack on Denise Williams, it's different.
• 2:04
  It's like his need for a terrifying script. Well, it
• 2:07
  meant some resistance.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: She fought back right absolutely, and her courage in that
• 2:12
  moment it changes everything Williams. She manages to hit Stephanie
• 2:16
  over the head with a bottle, injures him and that
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  would ultimately be his undoing.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Wow, what an escape to have the strength to fight
• 2:24
  back like that. I can't even imagine.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Testament to her bravery. You see, in a way, she
• 2:30
  kind of sets the stage for his capture. Because of
• 2:32
  the injuries Williams inflicted Stephanie, he needed a doctor and
• 2:35
  it was this act of getting help that would lead
• 2:38
  to his arrest.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: It's almost ironic, isn't it. He tries to control the narrative,
• 2:41
  but ultimately it's his victim's actions that really start to
• 2:43
  unravel his whole facade.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: It's a good point, but remember at this point, they
• 2:47
  don't know he's the weepy voice killer. The authorities. They
• 2:50
  had their suspicions, of course, but they needed more to
• 2:53
  connect him definitively to well, you know, to everything.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So they've got Stephanie after Williams's escape, But how do
• 2:58
  they connect him to the Weekly Voice killer? It's not
• 3:01
  like he left a calling card, right.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: This is where those little details that become huge. Remember
• 3:06
  how Williams injured Stephanie.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Right hit him with a bottle, which got him to
• 3:09
  the doctor.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Exactly, and the medical staff they're on it, notice the
• 3:13
  injuries from the attack. Contact the police who are already
• 3:15
  on Williams's case, and things start to click.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: So she basically led them right to him.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Right, and that guy who rescued Williams. He gave a
• 3:23
  description solidifying their suspicions, and once they had him boom,
• 3:27
  they linked him to evidence from Barber Simons's murder.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: So, just as for Simons leased on paper, what about
• 3:34
  his other victims? Do they ever connect him to those?
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Well, initially he's only convicted for Simons and the attempted
• 3:39
  murder of Williams gets a forty year sentence. Case closed, right,
• 3:43
  not so fast? Nineteen ninety seven, Stephanie gets news that
• 3:46
  changes everything. Terminal cancer diagnosed.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: But given less than a year, I can only imagine
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  what goes through your mind, right.
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  Speaker 3: All those unconfessed sins, you know, Yeah, and that's exactly
• 3:56
  what happens. Stephanie decides to confess deathbed confession. Classic, right,
• 4:02
  someone on the verge of death feels this urge to
• 4:04
  unburden themselves, finally reveal their darkest secrets.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Like something out of a movie. Did he explain anything?
• 4:11
  Why the calls, the violence, the need for attention?
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Of course, there's a catch. He'll confess, but on one condition.
• 4:18
  He wants a photo of his mother's headstone.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: A photo for a confession.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: That's strange, makes you wonder, huh, guilt longing for something
• 4:29
  familiar even as he's confessing to these horrific acts. It's bizarre.
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  Whatever the reason, authorities agree and what follows, well, it's
• 4:36
  a series of chilling confessions. Stephanie admits to everything. The
• 4:41
  attack on Karen Pattak, the murders of Kimberly Compton and
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  Barber Simons, the attack on Denise Williams, and get this,
• 4:47
  the murder of Kathleen Greening.
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  Speaker 1: So he finally admits to Greening's murder. But why confess
• 4:52
  to that one after all these years, especially since there
• 4:54
  was no weepy voice killers call.
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  Speaker 3: It's one of the most perplexing parts of this whole thing,
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  isn't It never explained why he called after some and
• 5:01
  not others, almost as if well drowning greening a woman
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  he knew it fulfilled that need for control in a
• 5:07
  way that a call didn't. A terrifying intimacy, you know.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: But what makes someone make those calls in the first place,
• 5:13
  that kind of attention with such awful acts.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Well, some psychologists they think it's a form of get
• 5:19
  this high bristophilia, essentially being aroused by someone else's crimes.
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  The calls, the confessions, it's a way for him to
• 5:28
  relive those acts, keep the memory and himself front and center.
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  Speaker 1: That's a chilling thought to think someone could find pleasure
• 5:35
  in these gruesome acts.
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  Speaker 3: It's tough to wrap your head around, for sure. But
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  it's one explanation for this need for attention.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: So we have this confession, all this information. Did he
• 5:45
  explain his actions at all? Any insights into the why?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Sadly, the confessions, while detailed, they don't really offer much
• 5:52
  in the way of motive. We know he had a
• 5:54
  rough pass stepfather was abusive, and a large family probably
• 5:58
  added stress and instability to his childhood.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Difficult childhood, Yeah, it makes you think about those early experiences, right,
• 6:04
  Could that be why he did what he did later?
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Hard to say for sure, but it's something to consider, right,
• 6:09
  this type of trauma, especially at home, it can be
• 6:11
  unpredictable how it comes out. Some people withdraw, you know, internalize, others,
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  maybe like Stephanie, they externalize seeking control, attention through well destructive.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Ways, so a desire for control. And then there's that
• 6:25
  quote from Stephanie himself. He said a voice told him
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  to kill.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Send shivers down your spine. Right, Just a reminder of
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  that darkness, you know, lurking in the human mind, this
• 6:36
  potential for violence. Most of us we can't even fathom it.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: And trying to imagine those words kind of from the
• 6:41
  same guy who go to church after murdering someone, mind
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  boggling exactly.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: This really disturbing picture of well duality. On one hand,
• 6:49
  this guy capable of horrific things, taking lives, and yet
• 6:52
  he seeks solace forgiveness in a church. Just shows you
• 6:56
  the human mind is complex. We may never understand the
• 6:59
  depths of some one's darkness.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Chilling reminder that anyone, even people were close to, can
• 7:04
  have secrets darkness we may never see.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: And That's what makes this case so disturbing. Right, those
• 7:08
  unanswered questions, the confessions that delayed justice for those victims
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  their families, forces us to think about human nature, that
• 7:15
  line between sanity and madness, and it leaves us thinking
• 7:19
  about the impact of violence, not just on one person,
• 7:21
  but on everyone.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: We've certainly taken a deep dive today unpack the crimes,
• 7:25
  those chilling calls, and explored Paul Michael Stephanie's mind. But
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  even with his confessions, there's still mystery. Did his words
• 7:33
  give any peace to the families of his victims or
• 7:36
  just bring back the pain, adding to their grief. It's
• 7:39
  something to think about as you consider this unsettling case.