Latest / The conspiracy / When TV Shows Inspire Real Crimes: 3 Disturbing True Crime Cases

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When TV Shows Inspire Real Crimes: 3 Disturbing True Crime Cases · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: Most of us can binge a dark show, shake it off,
0:03
Speaker 1: and go back to our normal lives. But every once
0:06
Speaker 1: in a while, someone watches something that doesn't just entertain them.
0:10
Speaker 1: It awakens them. They don't see the story as made up.
0:14
Speaker 1: They see it as a blueprint, a set of instructions.
0:18
Speaker 1: And what happens next feels less like a crime and
0:21
Speaker 1: more like a scene playing out exactly as they saw
0:24
Speaker 1: it on screen. And in today's video, you'll meet three people,
0:28
Speaker 1: each from a different walk of life. But all were
0:31
Speaker 1: drawn to the same disturbing idea, that violence on a
0:35
Speaker 1: screen wasn't enough. They wanted to feel it, recreate it,
0:39
Speaker 1: perfect it. And the stories that they left behind blurred
0:43
Speaker 1: the line between imitation and obsession. These are shows that
0:47
Speaker 1: inspired killings. Crimes. Conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder, all
0:53
Speaker 1: things that I love to consume, and I know you
0:55
Speaker 1: do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually-minded freak. And today
1:00
Speaker 1: we are talking about just that, three killers that were
1:05
Speaker 1: inspired by TV shows or movies specifically. So without further ado,
1:10
Speaker 1: let's unbuckle our seat belts, go Mach 5 down the highway,
1:13
Speaker 1: slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into
1:16
Speaker 1: these three bizarre cases together. Stefano Brizzi was born on
1:41
Speaker 1: June 26th, 1966 in a small Italian town of San
1:46
Speaker 1: Marcello Pistoiesi. And his upbringing was rooted in Catholic tradition.
1:50
Speaker 1: So his family was deeply religious. And one of his
1:53
Speaker 1: uncles was even a priest. So Stefano was naturally expected
1:57
Speaker 1: to follow a similar path of faith and structure. But
2:00
Speaker 1: from an early age, Stefano felt... different. He discovered he
2:04
Speaker 1: was gay at the age of 15 and he would
2:06
Speaker 1: hide his sexuality for the fear of what people close
2:09
Speaker 1: to him would think. Because naturally growing up in a
2:11
Speaker 1: very strict religious household, he was scared that they would
2:15
Speaker 1: disown him and think less of him. And to make
2:18
Speaker 1: matters kind of worse for himself, he started to become
2:21
Speaker 1: intellectually interested in Satanism to further reject his family's Christian values.
2:27
Speaker 1: So outside he seemed pretty normal, but inside he was
2:30
Speaker 1: clearly struggling. And as he would develop, he gravitated towards philosophy, art,
2:36
Speaker 1: and later, technology. He would study philosophy at university, and
2:39
Speaker 1: then he would slowly pivot to the rising world of
2:42
Speaker 1: computer science. And he would eventually become a very proficient
2:46
Speaker 1: web developer. And in time, that skillset would land him
2:48
Speaker 1: a job in one of the most competitive cities on Earth. London. London, England,
2:54
Speaker 1: to be specific. That was a terrible London accent. But
2:56
Speaker 1: he would secure a very high paying position as a
2:59
Speaker 1: developer for Morgan Stanley, a major global finance firm. So
3:02
Speaker 1: to the outside world, he was a success story. An
3:05
Speaker 1: Italian immigrant working at a prestigious job and living very
3:09
Speaker 1: comfortably in a modern flat in South London. But beneath
3:12
Speaker 1: the surface, Stefano was... disintegrating, because while working in London,
3:18
Speaker 1: Stefano would unfortunately become addicted to methamphetamine. But his descent
3:23
Speaker 1: into methamphetamine and his addiction was kind of quiet at first.
3:27
Speaker 1: He would occasionally recreationally use it with his friends, but
3:31
Speaker 1: the drug would eventually take complete control of Stefano, as
3:35
Speaker 1: they do. Don't do drugs, kids. And it wasn't long
3:38
Speaker 1: before Stefano was fully immersed in London's chemsex subculture. Basically
3:44
Speaker 1: a scene defined by long drug fueled encounters, often with
3:47
Speaker 1: strangers met through dating apps like Grindr, which Stefano used frequently.
3:51
Speaker 1: And his addiction would spiral so far out of control
3:54
Speaker 1: that he would lose his job at Morgan Stanley in 2014.
3:58
Speaker 1: And without structure, his life just became completely unrecognizable. And
4:02
Speaker 1: his drug and sex addiction would just run wild. And
4:06
Speaker 1: it was around this time that Stefano would become obsessed
4:11
Speaker 1: with the television show Breaking Bad. Same though, but not
4:15
Speaker 1: the sex and the drugs part, but Breaking Bad's a
4:18
Speaker 1: really great show. But unlike me, he didn't just enjoy
4:22
Speaker 1: the characters and the fantastic writing. He identified a lot
4:27
Speaker 1: with Walter White, a once overlooked man with quiet intellect
4:31
Speaker 1: who transformed himself into something extremely powerful. So his story
4:36
Speaker 1: like kind of aligned with Walter White. So he saw
4:39
Speaker 1: himself in Walter White. So Stefano would binge watch the
4:42
Speaker 1: series over and over again, not unlike myself, but we
4:46
Speaker 1: are different people. But he focused not on the dramatic
4:49
Speaker 1: arcs or moral conflicts. Instead, he would focus on the chemistry,
4:54
Speaker 1: the methods, the violence, and particularly the now infamous scene
4:59
Speaker 1: where Walter dissolves a body in acid. And actually, it
5:02
Speaker 1: wasn't Walter that dissolved the body in acid, it was
5:04
Speaker 1: actually Jesse, but it was Walter's idea to dissolve the
5:07
Speaker 1: body in acid to get rid of it completely. And
5:10
Speaker 1: the whole scene revolves around Jesse going to shop for
5:14
Speaker 1: specific barrels that you could put this acid in and
5:16
Speaker 1: it wouldn't wreck the barrel, but he ends up just
5:17
Speaker 1: being lazy and putting the acid in the bathtub and
5:20
Speaker 1: the body in the bathtub, and then actually the bathtub
5:22
Speaker 1: ends up going through the ceiling with the body, but
5:24
Speaker 1: the body is completely dissolved in So there's just blood
5:28
Speaker 1: everywhere and it's a crazy scene. If you haven't watched
5:31
Speaker 1: Breaking Bad, what are you doing? You should watch the show.
5:33
Speaker 1: It's a good show. It's a good show, but I digress.
5:35
Speaker 1: So like I was saying, he would pinpoint on this
5:38
Speaker 1: specific scene and you could see where this is going.
5:42
Speaker 1: So in April of 2016, Stefano took that step that
5:46
Speaker 1: blurred the line between fan fiction and reality. So using Grindr,
5:50
Speaker 1: the dating app that he used frequently, he messaged a
5:53
Speaker 1: man named Gordon Semple, a 59-year-old officer with the Metropolitan Police.
5:58
Speaker 1: And Gordon had worked with Scotland Yard and had a long,
6:01
Speaker 1: respected career in law enforcement. He was known to be
6:04
Speaker 1: very discreet, especially about his private life, and often enjoyed
6:08
Speaker 1: using dating apps like And on the 1st of April, 2016,
6:12
Speaker 1: Gordon would arrive at Stefano's flat on South Work Street
6:16
Speaker 1: for what was supposed to be a casual encounter. And
6:19
Speaker 1: what happens inside the apartment on this day is only
6:23
Speaker 1: known from Stefano's account. So the two had planned a
6:26
Speaker 1: group sex party. Yeah. awesome, inviting other men to join
6:31
Speaker 1: in the fun. And one such person even showed up
6:33
Speaker 1: but was turned away by Stefano who said that the
6:35
Speaker 1: party was cancelled. Little did he know he dodged a
6:38
Speaker 1: major bullet. So after Stefano and Gordon enjoyed each other's
6:42
Speaker 1: company as you do, Stefano would take it a step
6:45
Speaker 1: further and strangle Gordon. And he later would claim in
6:49
Speaker 1: court that during a drug-fueled session things just escalated. And
6:53
Speaker 1: Gordon just died accidentally during what he described as a
6:56
Speaker 1: sex game gone wrong. And he just insisted that it
6:59
Speaker 1: wasn't intentional. Yeah man, I hate when that happens. I
7:02
Speaker 1: hate when I'm, you know, having fun with my partner
7:04
Speaker 1: and I accidentally strangle them to death. What? It's like
7:08
Speaker 1: these people think people are stupid. I just don't even understand.
7:11
Speaker 1: And also because what Stefano did next did not support
7:15
Speaker 1: his claim at all. Because instead of, you know, calling
7:19
Speaker 1: for help, he left Gordon's body lying on his apartment
7:22
Speaker 1: floor for days. And then after thinking about what he's
7:26
Speaker 1: gonna do, Stefano began the process of dismembering him. And
7:31
Speaker 1: on April 5th, Stefano was caught on film purchasing cleaning products, buckets,
7:37
Speaker 1: and more to dispose of Gordon's body, just like he
7:40
Speaker 1: had seen in Breaking Bad. But unlike the show, it
7:44
Speaker 1: didn't work cleanly. And although in the show, The bathtub
7:47
Speaker 1: ended up falling through the floor, so it wasn't necessarily clean.
7:50
Speaker 1: It did work in disposing of the body, but for Stefano,
7:54
Speaker 1: it didn't. Basically, he filled his apartment with toxic fumes,
7:59
Speaker 1: and the acid failed to fully break down Gordon's body.
8:02
Speaker 1: And parts of Gordon were scattered through the flat, including
8:06
Speaker 1: even in a cooking pot. And during the trial, forensic
8:10
Speaker 1: examiners found a partially cooked human rib, with clear signs
8:14
Speaker 1: of bite marks on it, indicating that Brizzy had attempted
8:18
Speaker 1: to eat part of his victim, which did not happen
8:22
Speaker 1: in the show. He went a little off script with that.
8:26
Speaker 1: Just an insane, insane, horrible, horrible thing. Just to think
8:31
Speaker 1: that this guy went from, you know, a very successful job,
8:34
Speaker 1: had everything in life, to being a methamphetamine, drug-fueled, sex addict,
8:42
Speaker 1: cannibal is crazy. And during all this, during him trying
8:47
Speaker 1: to dispose of Gordon's body, basically, Gordon Semple's partner and
8:51
Speaker 1: friends had begun to worry because he's been missing for
8:55
Speaker 1: five days at this point. He hadn't returned home. He
8:57
Speaker 1: hadn't returned to work. And every call that went out
9:00
Speaker 1: to him went unanswered. And this is also when the
9:03
Speaker 1: smell began to leak through Stefano's apartment building. And neighbors
9:08
Speaker 1: would first notice it in the hallway. And it was
9:10
Speaker 1: a very harsh chemical scent mixed with something foul. And
9:14
Speaker 1: as we know, it was Gordon's decomposing body. So his
9:17
Speaker 1: neighbors would obviously complain to building management who would then
9:20
Speaker 1: in turn contact authorities. And on April 7th, six whole
9:24
Speaker 1: days after Gordon went missing, police entered Stefano's flat and inside,
9:29
Speaker 1: they found a scene straight out of a horror film
9:33
Speaker 1: or a Breaking Bad episode. There were body parts submerged
9:36
Speaker 1: in acid, bleach and chemicals scattered everywhere, and a pot
9:41
Speaker 1: on the stove with body parts in it as well.
9:44
Speaker 1: And a man who appeared to be completely calm, shirtless
9:48
Speaker 1: in pink briefs, and high, just sitting amongst everything. at all.
9:52
Speaker 1: It was just a horrifying scene to think of. And
9:55
Speaker 1: at first, he allegedly claimed that Satan told him to
9:58
Speaker 1: do it. Ah, man, I hate when that happens. But
10:01
Speaker 1: he later tried to minimize the crime. And he would
10:03
Speaker 1: just say that it was just a giant accident. Whoops.
10:07
Speaker 1: Didn't mean to go to the store and purchase hundreds
10:09
Speaker 1: of dollars of dismembering tools and chemical acid to get
10:14
Speaker 1: rid of the body and not own up to it. Oopsie-daisy.
10:16
Speaker 1: Just tripped into there. Don't know what happened. I don't know, officer.
10:20
Speaker 1: But yeah, he claimed he panicked and only dismembered the
10:23
Speaker 1: body to hide what he'd done. Oh, so a crime?
10:26
Speaker 1: So you committed a crime. But obviously investigators aren't stupid
10:29
Speaker 1: and they weren't convinced. And they would find Gordon's DNA
10:32
Speaker 1: on utensils and inside the cooking pot. And they would
10:35
Speaker 1: also find evidence of Stefano purchasing buckets, gloves, and chemicals,
10:40
Speaker 1: as we know. And they would even recover texts and
10:42
Speaker 1: online searches that suggested that premeditation, not panic. He was
10:47
Speaker 1: searching up, you know, how to how to get rid
10:49
Speaker 1: of a body, basically, which is just how to get
10:51
Speaker 1: caught 101. What are you doing, man? But thank God
10:54
Speaker 1: he was stupid as hell. And Stefano Brizzi would be
10:58
Speaker 1: charged with murder and brought to trial on October of 2016.
11:02
Speaker 1: And his defense held the story that Gordon's death had
11:04
Speaker 1: been an accident somehow. But the jury naturally rejected that
11:09
Speaker 1: version of events. And in November of 2016, Brizzy was
11:12
Speaker 1: convicted of murder. And in December, he was sentenced to
11:15
Speaker 1: life in prison with a minimum of 24 years, which
11:18
Speaker 1: I don't think is enough. But he wouldn't serve even
11:22
Speaker 1: one year. Because just a few months later, on February 5th, 2017,
11:25
Speaker 1: Stefano was found hanging in his cell at Belmarsh Prison.
11:30
Speaker 1: He had taken his own life. took the easy way out,
11:33
Speaker 1: piece of shit. And an inquest later revealed he'd actually
11:36
Speaker 1: made several slower slide attempts in the weeks prior, including
11:40
Speaker 1: ingesting cleaning fluid and other substances. So the man who
11:43
Speaker 1: once admired a fictional meth kingpin had followed the script
11:48
Speaker 1: all the way to the end. Spoiler alert. Murder, dismemberment, disposal,
11:52
Speaker 1: and ultimately self-destruction. But Stefano wasn't the last to confuse
11:57
Speaker 1: fiction for purpose. Because while he tried to emulate Walter White,
12:02
Speaker 1: the next man on this list modeled himself after a
12:06
Speaker 1: serial killer that didn't even exist. Mark Andrew Twitchell was
12:15
Speaker 1: born July 4th, 1979 in Edmonton, Alberta, a place more
12:20
Speaker 1: known for snowstorms and oil sands than crime thrillers or
12:24
Speaker 1: film sets. And from a young age, Mark was obsessed
12:27
Speaker 1: with storytelling, whether it was science fiction, comic books, or movies,
12:31
Speaker 1: anything that transported him out of his quiet suburban life.
12:34
Speaker 1: So he had this creative spark within him that he
12:37
Speaker 1: was just ready to use. And in high school, he
12:40
Speaker 1: was known as the movie guy because he was always
12:42
Speaker 1: writing and filming stuff. And he did really pursue this
12:45
Speaker 1: passion seriously. He would even go so far as to
12:48
Speaker 1: enroll in a radio and television arts program at the
12:52
Speaker 1: Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. And in 2000, he would
12:55
Speaker 1: graduate with a degree and a plan. He wanted to
12:57
Speaker 1: become a Hollywood filmmaker. But Edmonton wasn't exactly a launchpad
13:03
Speaker 1: for the film industry. Little Canadian fact, a lot of
13:06
Speaker 1: people call it Deadminton. That's how fun it is out there.
13:09
Speaker 1: No hate to all my Edmonton people, I love you, alright?
13:11
Speaker 1: But I've been there. Been there a few times, not
13:13
Speaker 1: a lot going on. But still, Mark wanted to make
13:16
Speaker 1: it work. So he would shoot commercials, and he would
13:19
Speaker 1: write short films, and he would gain some minor recognition
13:22
Speaker 1: when he directed a Star Wars fan film titled... Secrets
13:26
Speaker 1: of the Rebellion. And what started as a passion project
13:29
Speaker 1: somehow scored actor Jeremy Bullock, who played Boba Fett in
13:33
Speaker 1: the original Star Wars films, for a cameo, which is insane. Also,
13:37
Speaker 1: sorry if I said his name wrong. So among Star
13:39
Speaker 1: Wars fans, this short film made some noise, but unfortunately
13:43
Speaker 1: not quite enough to crack through the mainstream success. But
13:46
Speaker 1: Mark took this positive feedback really seriously, and this passion
13:50
Speaker 1: for filmmaking just fueled his performance. But he knew that
13:54
Speaker 1: if he wanted to make it he needed to write
13:57
Speaker 1: about what he loved. And right then, there was one
14:00
Speaker 1: show that had completely captured his full attention. Dexter, which
14:05
Speaker 1: is also one of my favorite shows. They're starting to
14:08
Speaker 1: make me not like my favorite shows. I don't like this,
14:10
Speaker 1: but Dexter, also good show. You should watch it. But
14:13
Speaker 1: as we know, Mark wasn't just a fan of the show.
14:17
Speaker 1: He was obsessed. He admired the duality of the main character,
14:21
Speaker 1: a seemingly normal man hiding a violent alter ego. Because
14:26
Speaker 1: Dexter Morgan wasn't just any serial killer. He had a
14:29
Speaker 1: purpose behind his killings. He would only kill the guilty. Basically,
14:33
Speaker 1: he was a vigilante. He would only kill people that
14:36
Speaker 1: were bad, quote unquote. And he was extremely methodical, and
14:40
Speaker 1: he even had rules and rituals that and he also
14:43
Speaker 1: had a kill room, or he would make a portable
14:47
Speaker 1: kill room, if you will. Tonight's the night. Tonight's the night.
14:50
Speaker 1: But Mark would watch every single episode. He would study
14:54
Speaker 1: the details and then began writing a script of his own.
14:57
Speaker 1: It was a story about a man who lures victims
15:00
Speaker 1: through online dating and would eventually kill them in a
15:03
Speaker 1: plastic covered garage. A Dexter signature. But this wasn't fiction.
15:09
Speaker 1: Not entirely. Because in September 2008, Mark would rent out
15:13
Speaker 1: a detached garage behind a house in Edmonton. And he
15:16
Speaker 1: began converting it into something eerily familiar to Dexter fans.
15:21
Speaker 1: With plastic sheeting all over the floors, walls, and ceilings.
15:25
Speaker 1: He would also have a table, good lighting, and weapons.
15:29
Speaker 1: And this would be all arranged for one purpose. A
15:31
Speaker 1: controlled and isolated universe. And after he was finished making
15:36
Speaker 1: his kill room, he would then create a fake profile
15:39
Speaker 1: on a dating site called Plenty of Fish, posing as
15:42
Speaker 1: a woman named Sheena. And his whole plan was to
15:45
Speaker 1: lure a man back to the garage using directions crafted
15:48
Speaker 1: to hide the actual address. Just like a scene from
15:51
Speaker 1: a psychological thriller, or like Dexter. So after a few
15:55
Speaker 1: months using his fake profile on Plenty of Fish, he
15:58
Speaker 1: would finally get a bite on October 3rd, 2008. Gillis Tetralt,
16:02
Speaker 1: a 33-year-old casino security guard, had recently gone through a
16:06
Speaker 1: very painful breakup. And that day he messaged Sheena within hours.
16:11
Speaker 1: And they had arranged to meet up for a movie
16:13
Speaker 1: and a dinner. But the directions that Sheena sent were bizarre.
16:17
Speaker 1: And I'll read them to you because they are bizarre. So, okay, Friday.
16:20
Speaker 1: If you're coming from the north, groat. Get on Calgary
16:23
Speaker 1: Trail and when you get to the south side and
16:26
Speaker 1: jump on White Mud. Then go south on 50th Street.
16:29
Speaker 1: Take a right on 40th Avenue and after a block
16:31
Speaker 1: or two, take the very first right into the alley.
16:34
Speaker 1: It's marked by a yellow crosswalk sign to pay attention.
16:36
Speaker 1: Then go left and pull into the only driveway on
16:39
Speaker 1: your left. that isn't paved lol seriously whoever heard of
16:43
Speaker 1: a driveway that looks like the amazon whatever it won't
16:46
Speaker 1: swallow your car i promise there's some garbage up against
16:49
Speaker 1: the fence like an old couch and such but it
16:51
Speaker 1: might be gone by friday who knows like i said
16:54
Speaker 1: the garage door will be open for you a touch
16:57
Speaker 1: don't worry about neighbors thinking you're a burglar everyone knows
17:00
Speaker 1: there's nothing valuable in there dot dot dot except my
17:04
Speaker 1: car of course oi see you then sheena yeah first
17:08
Speaker 1: visible back door coming out of the garage knock away
17:10
Speaker 1: there's certainly no other driveways along our alley like this
17:14
Speaker 1: one and the half open car door is a dead
17:16
Speaker 1: giveaway lol see you seven on friday like immediately no
17:21
Speaker 1: what No address, just 95 different landmarks to follow. Like this,
17:25
Speaker 1: it's just red flags all around. But even though he
17:28
Speaker 1: detected there was some red flags, Gillis figured she was
17:32
Speaker 1: just being cautious. Because, you know, being a woman, you
17:35
Speaker 1: don't want to maybe give away your address necessarily. So
17:38
Speaker 1: I guess I could buy that, yeah. Because after all,
17:40
Speaker 1: he was a stranger on the internet to Sheena. But
17:43
Speaker 1: little did Gillis know that... Sheena wasn't a she. So
17:47
Speaker 1: that night, Gillis followed the instructions and stepped into the garage,
17:52
Speaker 1: which remember, was only opened a touch. So he kind
17:55
Speaker 1: of crawled under the garage. And what happened next would
17:59
Speaker 1: feel like a Dexter episode. Because as Gillis stepped across
18:03
Speaker 1: the plastic floor, toward the door that was supposed to
18:07
Speaker 1: lead to Sheena's backyard, he felt something smash into the
18:11
Speaker 1: back of his neck. And that's when he would turn
18:13
Speaker 1: and come face to face with a man in a
18:16
Speaker 1: hockey mask and a stun baton. So the attacker would
18:20
Speaker 1: stun him once and then again, driving him to the ground.
18:23
Speaker 1: And when Gillis would try to run naturally, he saw
18:26
Speaker 1: the man pull a gun, but something fell off. So
18:29
Speaker 1: when Gillis grabbed the gun mid struggle, he realized the
18:32
Speaker 1: gun was plastic. And that realization would give Gillis an edge.
18:36
Speaker 1: So fueled by adrenaline, he would fight back with his life.
18:40
Speaker 1: So Gillis would punch back only to realize he was
18:43
Speaker 1: weakened by the stun baton. And Mark would then punch
18:45
Speaker 1: him repeatedly in the head and would attempt to grab
18:48
Speaker 1: his jacket. So Gillis found a moment between the beatings.
18:52
Speaker 1: He would allow Mark to think that he got a
18:54
Speaker 1: hold of him only to slip out of the jacket completely.
18:57
Speaker 1: Like those toddlers when they're having a tantrum and they
18:59
Speaker 1: can just slip out. So he would slip out of
19:02
Speaker 1: the jacket and he would roll under the garage door
19:05
Speaker 1: to safety. Or so he thought. Because his energy was
19:07
Speaker 1: still sapped from the stun baton. So when he stood
19:10
Speaker 1: up to run, he immediately fell back down. Just a
19:13
Speaker 1: horror movie situation. And Mark would grab his leg and
19:17
Speaker 1: pull him back into the garage. But somehow he managed
19:21
Speaker 1: to get enough strength to roll back out of the
19:24
Speaker 1: garage once more, hop into his truck, and speed off.
19:28
Speaker 1: So Gillis would narrowly escape with his life, but he
19:32
Speaker 1: would tell no one because he was too embarrassed and
19:35
Speaker 1: ashamed that he'd fallen for an obvious setup. So he
19:39
Speaker 1: would just never call the police because he was just embarrassed.
19:43
Speaker 1: And this would cause another person to lose their life
19:46
Speaker 1: because a week later, Mark would try again. So on
19:49
Speaker 1: October 10th, 2008, 38-year-old Johnny Altinger received a message from
19:55
Speaker 1: a woman named Jen on the same dating site, Plenty
19:58
Speaker 1: of Fish. She was beautiful, blonde, and super friendly. And
20:02
Speaker 1: within a few hours of talking back and forth, they
20:05
Speaker 1: agreed to meet. So just like Gillis, Johnny was given
20:08
Speaker 1: odd instructions. He was basically run through the same rigmarole.
20:12
Speaker 1: Follow a series of landmarks, enter through a garage and
20:16
Speaker 1: walk into the backyard where she'd be waiting. But Johnny
20:19
Speaker 1: wasn't quite as trusting as Gillis. So before leaving, he
20:22
Speaker 1: forwarded the directions to a friend with a note that
20:25
Speaker 1: jokingly read, if I go missing, this is where I'm going.
20:29
Speaker 1: So Johnny would get ready, get in his car and
20:31
Speaker 1: go leave for his date. But unfortunately, he would never
20:35
Speaker 1: come back. And he would not be as lucky as Gillis.
20:38
Speaker 1: It's believed that Johnny followed the same instructions and he
20:42
Speaker 1: would go underneath the garage door and Mark would do
20:45
Speaker 1: the same thing. He would hit Johnny over the head,
20:48
Speaker 1: but this time with a pipe. But instead of letting
20:51
Speaker 1: him react like he let Gillis react, he would immediately
20:54
Speaker 1: start repeatedly stabbing him. And he would follow that up
20:58
Speaker 1: by dismembering Johnny's body afterwards. So a few days after
21:02
Speaker 1: Johnny's death, friends would receive an email from Johnny's account
21:06
Speaker 1: claiming that he had met someone amazing and was going
21:09
Speaker 1: away on a nice long tropical vacation. It would read,
21:13
Speaker 1: hey there, I've met an extraordinary woman named Jen who
21:16
Speaker 1: has offered to take me on a nice long tropical vacation.
21:19
Speaker 1: We'll be staying in her winter home in Costa Rica.
21:22
Speaker 1: Phone number to follow soon. I won't be back in
21:25
Speaker 1: town until December 10th, but I will be checking my
21:27
Speaker 1: email periodically. See you around the holidays, Johnny. The weirdest,
21:33
Speaker 1: if I received an email like that from literally anyone
21:36
Speaker 1: I knew, I would assume that something fucking terrible happened
21:39
Speaker 1: to them. And immediately people realized that something felt off.
21:43
Speaker 1: The tone wasn't his at all. And he didn't sound excited.
21:46
Speaker 1: It sounded like it was completely scripted and police were
21:49
Speaker 1: immediately notified. For a so-called writer, Mark completely fucking missed
21:54
Speaker 1: the mark on the stupid email, and thank God he did.
21:57
Speaker 1: And luckily, since Johnny had forwarded those instructions on finding
22:00
Speaker 1: the place to his friend, police would also have these instructions,
22:04
Speaker 1: and they would be led directly to the garage, where
22:08
Speaker 1: they would find Mark's Dexter-like kill room. And they would
22:11
Speaker 1: obviously go up to Mark being like, what the hell?
22:14
Speaker 1: What the hell happened? And he would say that it
22:16
Speaker 1: was just being used for a movie called House of Cards,
22:19
Speaker 1: in which a masked figure lures men into a garage
22:23
Speaker 1: for a date prior to killing them, basically giving them
22:26
Speaker 1: his MO. But a later search of Mark Twitchell's laptop
22:29
Speaker 1: revealed a deleted file titled SK Confessions. He wrote out
22:34
Speaker 1: SK Confessions. His confessions. Because it was believed to be
22:37
Speaker 1: a short for Serial Killer Confessions. That is the stupidest
22:41
Speaker 1: fucking asshole. Just bitch. Just scum of the earth. And luckily,
22:46
Speaker 1: forensic techs would be able to recover the file. And
22:49
Speaker 1: what they read completely stunned them. It was a document
22:52
Speaker 1: detailing how the narrator lured men to the garage, attacked them,
22:57
Speaker 1: and murdered them. And it would read as such. The
23:00
Speaker 1: story is based on true events. The names and events
23:02
Speaker 1: were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is the
23:05
Speaker 1: story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. Like
23:08
Speaker 1: anyone just starting out in a new skill, I had
23:11
Speaker 1: a bit of a trial and error in the beginning
23:13
Speaker 1: of my misadventures. Allow me to start from the beginning
23:15
Speaker 1: and I think you'll see what I mean. I don't
23:17
Speaker 1: remember the exact place and time it was that I
23:20
Speaker 1: decided to become a serial killer, but I remember the
23:22
Speaker 1: sensation that hit me when I committed to the decision.
23:25
Speaker 1: It was a rush of pure euphoria. I felt lighter,
23:28
Speaker 1: less stressed, if you will, at the freedom of the prospect.
23:32
Speaker 1: There was something about urgently exploring my dark side that
23:35
Speaker 1: greatly appealed to me, and I'm such a methodical planner
23:38
Speaker 1: and thinker very challenge itself was enticing to behold this
23:42
Speaker 1: realization was just the last in a series of new
23:45
Speaker 1: discoveries i made about myself i just knew i was
23:48
Speaker 1: different somehow from the rest of humanity i feel no
23:50
Speaker 1: such emotions as empathy or sympathy towards others for example
23:54
Speaker 1: this was just the beginning of the excerpt of the
23:57
Speaker 1: sk confessions i just love how this fucking thinks he's
24:01
Speaker 1: so different from everybody when he's just watching a show
24:03
Speaker 1: and then copying it verbatim because he has He can't
24:07
Speaker 1: even think of how to be his own person, you know?
24:11
Speaker 1: Just a stupid piece of shit. It just makes me angry.
24:14
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just, I just, just waste of oxygen. Anyway,
24:19
Speaker 1: so this confession ended abruptly after describing the dismemberment and
24:23
Speaker 1: disposal of the second victim, Johnny, which the different name
24:27
Speaker 1: he gave him in the confession was John. Wow. So methodical. So,
24:34
Speaker 1: such good writing. Just an idiot. So Mark Twitchell would
24:38
Speaker 1: be arrested on October 31st, 2008 on Halloween night. Trick
24:42
Speaker 1: or treat motherfucker is all I gotta say. And Gillis
24:45
Speaker 1: would see this on TV and he would come forward
24:48
Speaker 1: and finally admit what happened to him in the garage.
24:51
Speaker 1: And his story seemed to match up with the account
24:53
Speaker 1: in the document. You know, the confession that Mark wrote,
24:56
Speaker 1: and in court, the defense claimed the SK confessions wasn't real,
25:01
Speaker 1: just an early draft of a screenplay, but the real
25:03
Speaker 1: life evidence would match completely with the confession. So the
25:06
Speaker 1: jury didn't buy the story. And in April, 2011, Mark
25:10
Speaker 1: Twitchell was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced
25:13
Speaker 1: to life in prison with no chance of parole for
25:15
Speaker 1: 25 years. And to this day, Twitchell maintains the file
25:19
Speaker 1: wasn't real. But amongst the evidence, investigators found something else
25:23
Speaker 1: as well. A Facebook page he had run in character
25:27
Speaker 1: as Dexter Morgan. And he would post updates like, we
25:31
Speaker 1: all have a dark side, some darker than others. So
25:34
Speaker 1: this guy wasn't pretending. He was just... preparing but he
25:39
Speaker 1: didn't prepare well enough so surprise motherfucker rotten jail if
25:43
Speaker 1: you don't know what i'm quoting right now i'm literally
25:45
Speaker 1: quoting a cop from dexter the show dexter who thinks
25:48
Speaker 1: dexter is guilty which he is and he says surprise
25:51
Speaker 1: motherfucker just roll the clip surprise motherfucker and that brings
25:53
Speaker 1: us to our last killer Sarah Edmondson was born into
26:04
Speaker 1: power on July 26, 1976. She was the daughter of
26:08
Speaker 1: Jim Edmondson, a respected judge in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. And
26:13
Speaker 1: her uncle was Drew Edmondson, the state's attorney general. And
26:17
Speaker 1: her grandfather was Ed Edmondson, who had served in the U.S.
26:20
Speaker 1: House of Representatives. And even her great uncle was Oklahoma's governor.
26:25
Speaker 1: So she was born into a family of lawmakers and leaders.
26:28
Speaker 1: And Sarah was naturally expected to follow in the same
26:31
Speaker 1: path with success, structure, and legacy. But from a young age,
26:36
Speaker 1: Sarah kind of struggled to keep her footing. She was
26:38
Speaker 1: more sensitive and anxious and prone to emotional spirals. And
26:43
Speaker 1: when she was 13, she suffered a mental health crisis
26:46
Speaker 1: that actually led her to psychiatric treatment. And then high
26:49
Speaker 1: school would begin and she would spiral even And it
26:53
Speaker 1: would kind of start when her grandfather died. She took
26:55
Speaker 1: it really hard because she was close with him. And
26:58
Speaker 1: then came the slower slide of her best friend. And
27:01
Speaker 1: after that, a devastating car crash killed more of her
27:05
Speaker 1: close friends. So she's just going through waves and waves
27:09
Speaker 1: of grief. So by the time she graduated high school
27:11
Speaker 1: in 1994, Sarah had lost several people she had loved.
27:15
Speaker 1: And at this point, she just was a completely different person.
27:19
Speaker 1: And by the time she got to college, she was
27:21
Speaker 1: just kind of drifting, dropping out within her first semester.
27:25
Speaker 1: And she would kind of pull away from her high
27:27
Speaker 1: profile family and just found comfort in pure chaos. And
27:31
Speaker 1: this is when she would meet Benjamin Darris. And Benjamin
27:35
Speaker 1: was also from Oklahoma. He was from Tahlequah, sorry if
27:38
Speaker 1: I'm saying that wrong, a small city not far from Muskogee.
27:41
Speaker 1: But his background was very different. Ben's home life was
27:46
Speaker 1: turbulent to say the least. His father hit him and
27:49
Speaker 1: was an alcoholic. And when Ben was a teenager, his
27:52
Speaker 1: father would die by sluice slide. And like Sarah, he
27:55
Speaker 1: turned to drugs and never finished high school. So different
27:58
Speaker 1: upbringings for both of them, but they both kind of
28:00
Speaker 1: ended up in the same position, just feeling completely lost,
28:04
Speaker 1: not knowing who they were or what they were supposed
28:06
Speaker 1: to do with their lives. So when Ben and Sarah met,
28:10
Speaker 1: something just clicked, but not in a really romantic or
28:13
Speaker 1: healthy way, just pure toxic, in a way that intensified
28:18
Speaker 1: each other's self-destruction. They would just share fascination with rebellion,
28:23
Speaker 1: with the idea of breaking free from the expectations of
28:27
Speaker 1: the world around them. And in March of 1995, that
28:30
Speaker 1: shared fantasy would turn into something deadly. So they would
28:33
Speaker 1: take a trip and isolate themselves in a cabin in Oklahoma,
28:37
Speaker 1: and take acid, and they would watch the very popular,
28:41
Speaker 1: very well-known cult classic movie, Natural Born Killers. A movie
28:46
Speaker 1: I also love that is now ruined. Thanks a lot.
28:49
Speaker 1: And for those of you who don't know, Natural Born
28:51
Speaker 1: Killers is Oliver Stone's famously controversial film about a couple
28:55
Speaker 1: who fall in love and go on a thrill-kill murder
28:58
Speaker 1: spree across the American Southwest. A film you actually might
29:02
Speaker 1: remember from the last deep dive about the world's youngest
29:05
Speaker 1: serial killers. So we got two shoutouts to Natural Born Killers.
29:09
Speaker 1: Probably not in the best way, though. But again, you know,
29:11
Speaker 1: it's a pretty decent movie. You should watch it. Don't
29:13
Speaker 1: take it seriously, though. So the couple wouldn't just watch
29:16
Speaker 1: this once. They would be tripped out on acid and
29:19
Speaker 1: watch it over and over and over and over again.
29:24
Speaker 1: slowly becoming obsessed with it, obsessed with the idea of it,
29:27
Speaker 1: obsessed with what the couple in the movie was doing.
29:31
Speaker 1: And then after their high would slow down, they would
29:33
Speaker 1: hit the road. And they would tell friends that they
29:35
Speaker 1: would be headed to Memphis for a Grateful Dead concert.
29:38
Speaker 1: But that was never the real plan. They were looking
29:40
Speaker 1: for something much darker. Something violent. So on March 7th, 1995,
29:47
Speaker 1: they arrived in Hernando, Mississippi. And inside a small office
29:50
Speaker 1: near a cotton gin, 58-year-old William Savage was working alone.
29:55
Speaker 1: He was a very quiet and very well-liked man, and
29:57
Speaker 1: he was also a manager, and a family man with
30:00
Speaker 1: literally no enemies, just salt of the earth. But Benjamin
30:04
Speaker 1: Darris would walk into the store and he would shoot
30:07
Speaker 1: him twice in the head at point blank range with
30:10
Speaker 1: no warning whatsoever. And then chillingly, he would take a
30:14
Speaker 1: piece of William's bloodstained shirt as a souvenir. And there
30:19
Speaker 1: wouldn't be any robbery, no motive. It was just cold
30:23
Speaker 1: blooded murder. So after he would kill William, take a
30:27
Speaker 1: piece of a shirt, he would hop back in the
30:28
Speaker 1: car and the couple would go next to Louisiana. And
30:32
Speaker 1: on March 8th in a small town in Ponchatoula, they
30:35
Speaker 1: would stop at another convenience store. And this time it
30:39
Speaker 1: would be Sarah's turn. She too would walk into the
30:42
Speaker 1: store with no warning at all and point a gun
30:45
Speaker 1: at 35 year old clerk Patsy Byers and pull the trigger.
30:49
Speaker 1: And the bullet would completely shatter Patsy's spine. But luckily
30:53
Speaker 1: Patsy would survive. but was left permanently paralyzed from the
30:58
Speaker 1: neck down. Just, Sarah completely fucked up a human's being life.
31:04
Speaker 1: Like these, again, just waste of oxygen, piece of shit monsters.
31:09
Speaker 1: And after shooting Patsy, Sarah grabbed money from the register
31:13
Speaker 1: and ran out the door. So both shootings just appeared random.
31:16
Speaker 1: There wasn't any connection and there was no warning at all.
31:19
Speaker 1: But as we know, they weren't random. They were basically
31:22
Speaker 1: just a twisted performance based off of a movie that
31:26
Speaker 1: they had watched several times days before. So after these shootings,
31:30
Speaker 1: Benjamin and Sarah returned to Oklahoma. But the story wouldn't
31:33
Speaker 1: stay buried for long, and the FBI would receive a tip,
31:36
Speaker 1: and within weeks, both were arrested. thankfully. And the investigation
31:41
Speaker 1: also thankfully moved very quickly because the evidence was damning.
31:45
Speaker 1: And soon, of course, the media would catch wind of
31:47
Speaker 1: the story. Two teenagers, one the daughter of a judge
31:50
Speaker 1: and the other a drifter from a broken home, had
31:53
Speaker 1: gone on a real life murder spree. Allegedly inspired by
31:56
Speaker 1: a Hollywood film, just something for media to eat. And
32:00
Speaker 1: it would just explode across headlines and national news. And
32:04
Speaker 1: in court, the prosecutors would lay out a very chilling
32:07
Speaker 1: timeline with first the drugs, the obsession with natural born killers,
32:11
Speaker 1: the souvenirs, and just the fucking senselessness. And after everything
32:15
Speaker 1: went down, Benjamin would actually plead guilty to the murder
32:18
Speaker 1: of William Savage. And he would be sentenced to life
32:21
Speaker 1: in prison without the possibility of parole in Mississippi. And
32:24
Speaker 1: he would also receive a 35-year sentence in Louisiana for
32:27
Speaker 1: his role in the shooting of Patsy Byers, because he
32:29
Speaker 1: was an accomplice. And Sarah Edmondson would also plead guilty
32:32
Speaker 1: to armed robbery with attempted second-degree murder and illegal use
32:36
Speaker 1: of a firearm. And she would be sentenced to 30
32:38
Speaker 1: years in prison, only serving 11. So in 2010, Sarah
32:42
Speaker 1: Edmondson was released on parole. And she would return to Oklahoma,
32:46
Speaker 1: where she still lives under strict conditions. But her parole
32:49
Speaker 1: is scheduled to end in 2025, this year. And Benjamin
32:53
Speaker 1: Derris remains behind bars, serving a life sentence with no
32:56
Speaker 1: possibility of release, which I think is probably good. But
33:00
Speaker 1: the case didn't just end in court. Patsy Byers actually
33:04
Speaker 1: filed a civil lawsuit, not just against the shooters, but
33:07
Speaker 1: against director Oliver Stone and Time Warner, the makers of
33:11
Speaker 1: Natural Born Killers. And she claimed that the film incited
33:15
Speaker 1: violence and that it gave Sarah and Ben a script
33:18
Speaker 1: to follow, essentially. But Patsy would unfortunately die one day
33:23
Speaker 1: before her scheduled appearance in court because she allegedly had
33:27
Speaker 1: cancer and was unable to feel any of the symptoms.
33:30
Speaker 1: which is so heartbreaking because she couldn't feel anything from
33:34
Speaker 1: the neck down. Just terrible. So the case was naturally
33:40
Speaker 1: dismissed and the court ruled that the filmmakers couldn't be
33:43
Speaker 1: held liable for their actions of the viewers, which in
33:46
Speaker 1: my opinion, I mean, it makes sense. I know in
33:48
Speaker 1: a lot of media, we glorify and romanticize killers, but
33:52
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it is fiction. I mean,
33:55
Speaker 1: you could put that up against video games, TV shows, movies,
33:58
Speaker 1: just anything in media, books. You just need to have
34:01
Speaker 1: the wherewithal to know that this isn't real and it's
34:04
Speaker 1: not a script to follow. But do I think that
34:08
Speaker 1: the romanticizing of killers is productive? No, I don't think so.
34:15
Speaker 1: But I don't think we can take incidences like this
34:18
Speaker 1: and pin it against the people that wrote the characters.
34:21
Speaker 1: So the question still lingers. Where does art end and
34:25
Speaker 1: influence begin? For Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Daris, that line
34:30
Speaker 1: wasn't just crossed, it was obliterated. But stories have always
34:34
Speaker 1: shaped human behavior. They reflect who we are and sometimes
34:38
Speaker 1: who we want to become. And in most cases, even
34:41
Speaker 1: the darkest fiction serves as a sort of release, a
34:44
Speaker 1: safe place to explore fear, violence, and power without real
34:49
Speaker 1: world consequences. just exploring curiosity. But sometimes those stories don't
34:55
Speaker 1: land the same for everyone. And for some, they become
34:57
Speaker 1: more than just entertainment. It just became a spark that
35:01
Speaker 1: struck minds already fractured by trauma, addiction, and delusion. So
35:06
Speaker 1: these aren't just stories of copycat crimes. They're reminders of
35:10
Speaker 1: how powerful media can be in the wrong context, especially
35:14
Speaker 1: when it meets people who are already teetering on that edge.
35:18
Speaker 1: Let me know what you think down in the comments below. Also,
35:21
Speaker 1: let me know what other cases you want me to
35:23
Speaker 1: dive deep into down in the comments below. I really
35:26
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys. If you want to watch something a
35:29
Speaker 1: little lighter, I do have a second channel. It's called
35:32
Speaker 1: Call Me Chris 2 if you want to check that out.
35:34
Speaker 1: I also have a new channel with Selena Spooky Boo
35:37
Speaker 1: called Can't Sleep. It's not too spooky. It's a little
35:40
Speaker 1: more uppity than this kind of stuff. If, in fact,
35:43
Speaker 1: you can't sleep after these stories, which I would... very
35:46
Speaker 1: much understand. And if you want something a little sweet,
35:48
Speaker 1: you can go over to sour.gg and grab yourself some candy,
35:52
Speaker 1: some candy that I made for you, baby. But with
35:55
Speaker 1: all that, I really appreciate you watching the video and
35:57
Speaker 1: I will see your beautiful face in the next one. Okay.
36:00
Speaker 1: Be safe out there.