WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.319 Imagine just for a second that you are settling in 2 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:06.120 for the night. You walk over to your front door, 3 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:09.919 you turn the dead bolt, and you hear that heavy, reassuring, 4 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:11.519 metallic click, right. 5 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:13.720 That sound that just tells your brain you're safe. 6 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:16.320 Exactly, and you know. You punch the code into your 7 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.719 security system, you listen for the little chirp, and you 8 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.800 basically do every single thing you're supposed to do to 9 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:25.760 keep the monsters out, and you go to sleep feeling perfectly. 10 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:27.839 Safe as you should. I mean, you followed all the rules. 11 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:30.519 Yeah, But what you don't know, and honestly, what you 12 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:33.359 couldn't possibly know, is that the internal mechanism of the 13 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:37.479 lock is fundamentally broken. The security system's wiring was severed 14 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:38.039 months ago. 15 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:39.920 Oh that is a terrifying thought. 16 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:42.600 Right, And the monster you were trying so incredibly hard 17 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:45.240 to keep out, well, he didn't even have to break 18 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.039 a window. He is already holding a freshly cut copy 19 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:48.799 of your house key. 20 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:53.359 You know, it is a profoundly unsettling psychological space to occupy. 21 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:57.240 That false sense of security is in a lot of 22 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.520 ways demonstrably more dangerous than having no security at all. 23 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:01.640 I completely agree. 24 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:03.920 I mean, if you know your door is broken, you 25 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:06.480 stay awake, right, you stand guard. But when you trust 26 00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:09.959 the system blindly, it just lulls you into a state 27 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.239 of total, absolute vulnerability. 28 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:16.840 And that terrifying, stomach dropping realization you know that the 29 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.200 law is actually broken, is exactly what we are unraveling today. 30 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:22.159 So welcome to Thrilling Threads. 31 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:22.920 It's good to be here. 32 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.680 We have a lot to cover, we really do. Today 33 00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:29.840 we are embarking on an exploration into well the darkest 34 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:33.959 and most maddeningly frustrating corners of the justice system. I 35 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.480 have this massive stack of historical records, court transcripts, and 36 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.599 investigative files sitting right here on the desk today. It's 37 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:43.480 quite the pile, it is. And our mission for today's 38 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:47.239 journey on Thrilling Threads is to dissect ten harrowing historical 39 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:51.200 cases where the system inexplicably catastrophically failed. 40 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:53.560 You know, true crime is a genre, and just as 41 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:56.959 a societal interest, it usually focuses super heavily on the 42 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.719 meticulous detective work. Oh, for sure, the brilliant investigator right 43 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:05.799 like we love the forensic breakthroughs, the late night interrogations 44 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.759 and those dramatic court room reveals that finally put the 45 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:10.520 killer away. I mean, it makes us feel like the 46 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:11.960 world is ordered and safe. 47 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:13.599 It gives us closure exactly. 48 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:17.960 But today we are turning the magnifying glass completely around. 49 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.039 We are looking at the systemic failures, the blind spots, 50 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:25.400 the bureaucratic loopholes, and just the absolute institutional blunders that 51 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:28.080 let killers slip through the cracks and walk free. 52 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:30.800 Right Because I think a lot of us, and myself 53 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:34.879 absolutely included, have this default assumption that once a criminal 54 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:37.400 is caught, once the handcuffs click and the gavel drops, 55 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:40.960 the story is over. The credits roll, yeah, the credits roll. Yeah. 56 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:44.560 But today we're going to shatter that assumption entirely. For you, 57 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:47.680 catching a killer is well, is only half the battle. 58 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:51.520 Keeping them caught, as it turns out, is a completely different, 59 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:52.759 terrifying game. 60 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:53.479 It really is. 61 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.000 So let's just jump right in because the very first 62 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.719 way the system breaks down isn't through some brilliant cinematic 63 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.879 like Ocean's eleven style escape, and it's not a lack 64 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:04.039 of DNA evidence either. 65 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:08.000 No, it is the most mundane, infuriating thing in the world. 66 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:08.800 Bureaucracy. 67 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.240 Yeah, the banal, everyday mistakes that govern our modern lives. 68 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:17.639 Only in this context they carry literal life or death consequences. 69 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:19.639 Hold, I want to ground this in a reality we 70 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.800 all understand. Think about when you make a typo in 71 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:24.319 a casual email at work. 72 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.360 Oh, the worst feeling, right. 73 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.520 Like, maybe you accidentally hit reply all on a complaint, 74 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:32.240 or you transpose two numbers on a spreadsheet. 75 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.360 Sure it causes an afternoon of chaos. 76 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:37.120 Yeah, maybe a few awkward conversations by the water cooler, 77 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.319 then you know it's fixed. But I am looking at 78 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:43.280 the case file for Kathan Guzman from twenty twenty four 79 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.840 and my brain is just struggling to process the math here. 80 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:48.360 It's a hard one to wrap your head around. 81 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:51.159 A literal typo unleashed a man who had just been 82 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:54.199 handled a life sentence for murder back into society. 83 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:58.159 It is the ultimate digital nightmare. To give you the 84 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:02.479 foundational context here, in twenty twenty, Cathan Guzman strangled his 85 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.680 girlfriend Delilah Grayson inside their apartment in Georgia. 86 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:06.400 It's awful. 87 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.400 It is. The investigative files show she had been trying 88 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:12.240 to pack her things and leave him. So it's a 89 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.159 tragedy rooted in domestic violence that we just see far 90 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:17.199 too often. Her body was found in. 91 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:18.839 A bathroom, so are breaking? 92 00:04:19.079 --> 00:04:22.439 Yeah. Fast forward to October twenty twenty four, and the 93 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:26.560 justice system appears to work perfectly. Gusman is convicted of 94 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.319 felony murder. He is sentenced to life in prison. 95 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:33.040 The gabble falls, the family thinks they can finally start 96 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.920 to grieve. The monster is lock away exactly. 97 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.959 But then we reach March twenty twenty five. Guzman is 98 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.680 sitting in the Clayton County jail. He is simply waiting 99 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.319 for standard processing to be transferred to a state maximum 100 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:49.360 security prison to begin serving that life sentence. 101 00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:51.480 Just standard holding, right, But. 102 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.319 Instead of putting him on a heavily guarded bus, the 103 00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.639 jail staff processes paperwork, they open the front doors, and 104 00:04:57.680 --> 00:04:59.959 they let him walk right out into the Georgia sunlight. 105 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.480 How I mean, legitimately, How does the physical mechanism of 106 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:07.040 a jail allow a convicted murderer to just walk out? 107 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.399 Well, it wasn't a physical failure, right, It was a 108 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:11.279 digital one, A simple coding error. 109 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:13.199 The coding air unbelievable. 110 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.879 Yeah, a data entry mistake deep within the jail's internal 111 00:05:16.879 --> 00:05:20.879 computer network misclassified his holding status. So when the staff 112 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:23.959 at the jail pulled up his profile. The screen essentially 113 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:25.800 told them he was cleared for release. 114 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.000 But don't they double check? I mean, doesn't a human 115 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.079 being look at the guy and say, wait, aren't you 116 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:32.560 the guy who is just on the news for a 117 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:33.240 life sentence. 118 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:35.279 You'd think so. But this gets to the heart of 119 00:05:35.319 --> 00:05:41.360 the fragility of our digitized justice system. We trust databases implicitly. 120 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:42.600 Too implicitly, clearly right. 121 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:46.160 When a computer screen tells a bureaucratic worker, you know, 122 00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:49.879 release this inmate, the human instinct to question that command 123 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:53.040 is heavily suppressed by our modern reliance on technology. 124 00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:54.600 Because the computer's always right. 125 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.120 Exactly, we assume the machine is infallible. It's the whole 126 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:01.759 computer says, yes, phenomenon, But the machine is really only 127 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:05.560 as good as the exhausted, underpaid data entry clerk who 128 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:07.120 typed the code in the first place. 129 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:09.720 Okay, but here is what actually sends me over the 130 00:06:09.800 --> 00:06:12.519 edge on this one. Are you telling me that my 131 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.199 phone has facial recognition that can tag me in a 132 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:18.800 blurry photo from a concert ten years ago? But the 133 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:23.000 state prison system doesn't get an automatic push notification when 134 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.839 a convicted murderer goes missing. For fourteen days. 135 00:06:26.040 --> 00:06:29.839 That is precisely what happened for two entire weeks. Guzman 136 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:31.360 was just roaming. 137 00:06:31.079 --> 00:06:32.879 Free fourteen days. Wow. 138 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:37.079 Yeah, the county authorities had zero clue they had released 139 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:40.040 a murderer, and the state authorities had zero clue their 140 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:41.160 incoming prisoner was. 141 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.160 Missing, so they were just both waiting in the dark. 142 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:46.439 Yep. The mistake was only discovered when the District Attorney's office, 143 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.720 who was just doing a routine administrative follow up, tried 144 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:52.600 to locate him in the state prison database and came 145 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:53.800 up completely empty. 146 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:56.600 It is a total silo effect. They aren't talking to 147 00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:59.680 each other, thankfully, And I cannot stress this enough. Us 148 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.360 marsh was eventually tracked Guzman down to his mother's home 149 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:03.000 in Florida. 150 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:04.399 Right. They did get him back. 151 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:07.720 They returned him to custody, and Delilah Grayson's family expressed 152 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:12.120 just sheer relief. But my goodness, the emotional whiplash you 153 00:07:12.120 --> 00:07:12.639 would feel. 154 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.360 Oh. It fundamentally erodes public trust. I mean, if the 155 00:07:16.439 --> 00:07:20.199 state apparatus cannot even manage the digital paperwork required to 156 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.199 keep a convicted murderer behind bars, the public is left 157 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:27.560 wondering what other foundational errors are just quietly sitting in 158 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:28.519 these databases. 159 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:32.240 Absolutely, and if Kensan Guzman's case was a digital typo, 160 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:36.680 this next historical file is a legislative typo, like a 161 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:38.759 blind spot in the actual written. 162 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:40.519 Law, a very dangerous blind spot. 163 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:44.040 We are looking at Pedro Alnzo Lopez, infamously known as 164 00:07:44.079 --> 00:07:45.639 the Monster of the Andes. 165 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:47.560 A title that he earned through a scale of violence 166 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:50.360 that is almost impossible to fully comprehend, it really is. 167 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:54.040 Starting in nineteen seventy eight, Lopez began a reign of 168 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:58.480 terror across Columbia, Peru, and Ecuador. He'd abducted and murdered 169 00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:01.240 dozens and eventually one hundred of young girls, just. 170 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:03.240 A horrific, horrific scale. 171 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.839 And his psychological justification, according to his own statements of 172 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:08.160 these records, was that he strangled them so they would 173 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.519 quote go to heaven and not suffer in this world. 174 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:13.839 It's just this absolute chilling detachment from reality. 175 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.319 It is. And to understand how he operated for so long, 176 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:20.079 you have to look at the geography and sociology of 177 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:21.079 the region at that time. 178 00:08:21.319 --> 00:08:22.600 The terrain played a big part. 179 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:28.839 Yes, he targeted deeply rural, impoverished areas. He weaponized the 180 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:32.919 fact that disappearances in these marginalized communities were tragically easy 181 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.600 for the broader authorities to overlook or dismiss. 182 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:37.840 He knew they wouldn't get the same police attention. 183 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:41.000 Exactly. He lived in the transient spaces between borders. 184 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:43.840 But in nineteen eighty the locals caught him. He was 185 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:47.919 captured by villagers in Ecuador, and he didn't even try 186 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:48.559 to deny it. 187 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.159 No, he was quite open about it. 188 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:54.159 Yeah, he confessed to hundreds of killings. He physically led 189 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:57.440 the police out into the terrain and pointed out mass graves. 190 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:00.799 So the authorities have the killer, they have the confession, 191 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:03.279 they have the bodies. It is the ultimate slam. 192 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:04.000 Dunk in theory. 193 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.200 Yes, but the system breaks down not because of a 194 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.799 lack of evidence, but because the law simply didn't know 195 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:10.519 what to do with him. 196 00:09:10.840 --> 00:09:13.960 This is where we run into statutory limits. We assume 197 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:17.320 the law is an all encompassing that right, but laws 198 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:20.639 are generally written for the criminals a society realistically expects 199 00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:21.039 to face. 200 00:09:21.399 --> 00:09:23.480 They couldn't conceive of a Lopez exactly. 201 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:26.600 The authorities in Ecuador had him dead to rights, but 202 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:29.960 the statutory reality of Ecuador's legal code at the time 203 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:34.840 was entirely unprepared for a serial killer. Their absolute maximum 204 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:38.960 sentence for murder under any circumstances was just sixteen years. 205 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.200 Sixteen years for hundreds of lives. 206 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:45.919 The legislative framework was built to handle single homicides, crimes 207 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.200 of passion, or just standard violent. 208 00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:49.519 Crime, so it maxed out right. 209 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:53.559 The law literally treated a man who industrialized the murder 210 00:09:53.559 --> 00:09:56.120 of children exactly the same as a man who killed 211 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.799 a single person in a tavern brawl. The machine of 212 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:01.200 the law could not scale to meet the magnitude of 213 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:01.679 his evil. 214 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:05.159 But the outrage doesn't even stop there. I am looking 215 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:08.000 at these records and he didn't even serve the sixteen years. No, 216 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:10.279 he did not. He was released from the Garcia Moreno 217 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:13.240 prison in nineteen ninety four after serving only fourteen years. 218 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:17.480 Why because the system granted him two years of early 219 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:18.879 release for good behavior. 220 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:19.679 Good behavior. 221 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:21.519 I need you to explain this to me, because how 222 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:24.960 does a concept like good behavior even theoretically apply to 223 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:27.399 a man who literally filled mass graves. 224 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:31.919 Well, it is the blind, unfeeling application of standard penal policy. 225 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:35.279 A prison operates on compliance. 226 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.840 Just keeping the peace inside exactly. 227 00:10:37.559 --> 00:10:42.080 The bureaucracy says, you know, if an inmate makes their bed, 228 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:46.399 sweeps the floors, and doesn't assault the guards deduct time, 229 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.519 the bureaucracy does not have a mechanism to say, wait, 230 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:54.240 this particular inmate's baseline crimes are so uniquely horrific that 231 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:56.720 standard behavioral metrics should be suspended. 232 00:10:56.799 --> 00:10:58.519 They just look at a checklist on a clipboard. 233 00:10:58.679 --> 00:11:01.519 Yes, the system is blind to the nature of the 234 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:04.720 evil outside the walls. It only sees the compliance within 235 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:05.320 the walls. 236 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.519 So because he swept the floors nicely, they unlocked the door. 237 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:11.960 Pretty much, He's deported to Columbia. Yeah, they declare him insane, 238 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.639 put him in a psychiatric facility. But then in nineteen 239 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:18.080 ninety eight a psychiatric board pronounces him sane and he 240 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.960 is freed on bail. The bail amount ah less than 241 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:21.679 one hundred. 242 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:23.320 Dollars, a staggering failure. 243 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.960 One hundred dollars for the monster of the Andes, And well. 244 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:28.879 The inevitable happened. He vanished. He walked straight back into 245 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:32.399 the exact same rural, borderless terrain he had originally used 246 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:33.679 as his hunting ground, and. 247 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.879 He hasn't been seen since. He's just gone because the 248 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:40.559 system was so rigid, so bound by arbitrary maximums and 249 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:43.279 standard procedures that it willingly opened the door. 250 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:44.240 Yea's exactly right. 251 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.759 But that makes me wonder if Lopez walked free because 252 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:49.639 the rules were too rigid. What happens when a killer 253 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:52.360 faces a system that is designed to be flexible. 254 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:53.320 That's a great question. 255 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:56.519 Like what happens when a monster realizes the human beings 256 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:58.879 running the system can be manipulated. 257 00:11:59.120 --> 00:12:02.080 That is where we move move from systemic errors to 258 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:08.120 psychological exploitation. When a killer realizes that psychiatrists, parole boards, 259 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:11.519 and guards are just humans who want to believe certain narratives, 260 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:13.440 they weaponize that empathy. 261 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:17.279 Let's talk about Arthur Shawcross, because this case is a 262 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:20.000 terrifying study in the arrogance of the parole system. 263 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:21.639 Arrogance is the perfect word for it. 264 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:25.120 Right. In nineteen seventy two, Shawcross murdered two miners in 265 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:29.240 New York. He pleaded guilty demandslaughter. Now here's the crucial 266 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:32.519 detail that makes this so frustrating to read. The system 267 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:33.840 actually got it right at first. 268 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:35.759 They did. The initial safeguards worked. 269 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.120 Yeah, the psychiatric evaluations conducted at the time were incredibly accurate. 270 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:45.600 They explicitly formally documented him as quote deeply disturbed and dangerous. 271 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:47.919 They waved the red flag as high as it could go. 272 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:52.240 The clinical experts looked at his neurological and psychological profile 273 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:56.480 and stated unequivocally that he possessed a severe deficit of 274 00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:58.840 empathy and a high propensity for future violence. 275 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:01.320 They basically said, do not let this guy. 276 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:04.879 Out, exactly, and yet despite that clear warning, he was 277 00:13:04.919 --> 00:13:07.679 handed a twenty five year sentence which left the door 278 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:08.799 open for parole. 279 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:10.919 And he didn't even serve the twenty five years. He 280 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.120 is paroled in nineteen eighty seven after serving just fourteen. 281 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:15.159 Years, which is astounding. 282 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:19.360 How does a documented, deeply disturbed killer convince a parole 283 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:20.080 board to let. 284 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:23.360 Him out by understanding what the parole board desperately wanted 285 00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:25.639 to see? You know, the parole system fundamentally exists on 286 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:29.320 the premise of rehabilitation. They want a success story exactly. 287 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:32.080 It is an optimistic institution. It wants to believe that 288 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:36.080 incarceration and reflection can genuinely change a human being. But 289 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:40.519 severe psychopathy and sociopathy are incredibly adept at mimicking human emotion. 290 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:42.919 So he just learned the script precisely. 291 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:46.840 He learned the vocabulary of remorse. Our historical records show 292 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:48.480 he portrayed himself as very sad for. 293 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:50.039 His actions, very sad. Wow. 294 00:13:50.519 --> 00:13:52.240 He told the board he realized what he did was 295 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:54.919 a real bad thing. He gave them a masterclass in 296 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:58.360 performative sorrow. And because the Board's mandate is to find 297 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:02.840 rehabilitated individuals to relieve prison crowding, they accepted his performance 298 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:04.879 over the empirical psychiatric data. 299 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:07.879 It's like the system assumed its ability to offer therapy 300 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.080 was somehow more powerful than his biological compulsion to kill. 301 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:15.000 It is a fatal institutional arrogance. You cannot therapy away 302 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.879 a fundamental psychological void, especially when the subject is actively 303 00:14:18.919 --> 00:14:20.559 gaming the therapy, and the. 304 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:23.919 Cost of that arrogance was just catastrophic. Shortly after his 305 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.120 nineteen eighty seven release, vulnerable sex workers began disappearing around Rochester. 306 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.080 New York, oh totally preventable tragedy. 307 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.120 Absolutely Their bodies were dumped near the Genesee River. It 308 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.360 took nearly two years of renewed terror before police finally 309 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:40.480 arrested him in January of nineteen ninety and that was 310 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:43.759 only because an eyewitness and a surveillance team physically spotted 311 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:44.600 him near a body. 312 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:46.879 He had already done so much damage by then. 313 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:50.159 He was convicted of ten more murders, given two hundred 314 00:14:50.159 --> 00:14:52.639 and fifty years, and died in two thousand and eight. 315 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:56.279 But those ten lives were the direct cost of a 316 00:14:56.320 --> 00:15:00.000 parole board prioritizing a deceptive performance over clinical tries. 317 00:15:00.559 --> 00:15:04.159 Shawcross manipulated a parole board in a controlled room. But 318 00:15:04.200 --> 00:15:07.840 if we expand that concept of manipulation, we find individuals 319 00:15:07.879 --> 00:15:09.759 who didn't just talk their way out of a sentence. 320 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.159 They manipulated the physical and societal reality of the justice 321 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:13.960 system itself. 322 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:16.039 I'm looking at the notes for Ted Bundy and my 323 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:17.519 brain is just short circuiting. 324 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:19.679 It's a baffling sequence of events. 325 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:22.039 Because he didn't just trick a psychologist. He literally walked 326 00:15:22.039 --> 00:15:25.960 out of secure facilities twice. Yes he did, We all 327 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.440 know the name, but the timeline of how he interacted 328 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.519 with the law is baffling. August nineteen seventy five, Bundy 329 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.279 is pulled over in Utah. Inside his Volkswagon, officers find handcuffs, 330 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:39.480 a ski mask, rope, and pantiose with eye holes cut out. 331 00:15:39.480 --> 00:15:40.720 The very clear set of tools. 332 00:15:40.720 --> 00:15:42.879 It is a literal horror movie prop kit in his. 333 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:45.679 Trunk, and compounding that physical evidence, he is placed in 334 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:49.320 a lineup and positively identified by teenager Carol Deranch as 335 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:51.120 the man who attempted to kidnap her. 336 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:53.440 So you would think with a murder kit in the 337 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:57.000 trunk and a positive ID from a surviving victim, this 338 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:59.159 guy would be locked in a subterranean vault. 339 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:00.440 You'd certainly so. 340 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.559 He is convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to fifteen years. 341 00:16:04.279 --> 00:16:07.519 He is then transferred to Colorado to face murder charges. 342 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:11.240 And this is where the system completely loses its mind. 343 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:15.240 How does a man with that profile escape from custody. 344 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:17.720 It comes down to a psychological blind spot known as 345 00:16:17.720 --> 00:16:18.679 the halo effect. 346 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:20.360 The halo effect, yes. 347 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.600 In the nineteen seventies, the prevailing law enforcement profile of 348 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:27.399 a deranged killer with someone who looked the part, someone 349 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:32.240 visibly unhinged, perhaps unkempt, a lurking monster like a movie villain. Right. 350 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:36.960 Bundy completely contradicted that archetype. He was handsome, articulate, educated 351 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:39.759 and white. He was a law student. He spoke their language, 352 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.360 so he just subconsciously relaxed around him entirely because he 353 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.120 looked and sounded like a young professional. The guards and 354 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.000 officials afforded him courtesies they would never have given to 355 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:52.559 someone who looked well rougher, that is wild. During his 356 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:55.840 time in Aspen, Colorado, he elected to serve as his 357 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:59.480 own defense attorney. This allowed him access to the courthouse, 358 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:04.759 lawless library, wait, unsupervised pretty much. He wasn't shackled. He 359 00:17:04.839 --> 00:17:07.799 was simply left alone to research. And because they didn't 360 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:10.160 view him as a feral threat, they didn't realize he 361 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:12.599 was just waiting for them to look away. He opened 362 00:17:12.599 --> 00:17:14.559 a second story window and jumped out. 363 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:17.359 He literally jumped out a window because they thought he 364 00:17:17.400 --> 00:17:18.200 was too polite to flee. 365 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:19.960 That's exactly what happened. 366 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.240 But they catch him. He's recaptured a week later, so 367 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:25.039 you'd think, Okay, fool me once, shame on you. Now 368 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:28.440 he's in maximum security, right, but he escapes again from 369 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.599 a jail in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. 370 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:32.920 The second escape was even more methodical. 371 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:33.799 How do you do it? 372 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:38.319 He mapped the guard rotations, He purposefully dropped a significant 373 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:41.720 amount of weight. He acquired a hacksaw blade, which again 374 00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:45.359 is a massive failure of basic physical security, and he 375 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:48.279 sawed through a metal plate in the ceiling of his. 376 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.799 Cell, just sitting in his cell sawing away. 377 00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:54.519 Yep, he crawled through the duct work and dropped down 378 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:56.839 into the chief jailer's apartment, which was actually in the 379 00:17:56.839 --> 00:18:00.680 same building, and simply walked at the front door in clothes. 380 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:04.480 He weaponized their own biases against them. He knew they 381 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:06.440 didn't see him as a physical threat, so he just 382 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.400 quietly dismantled their prison from the inside. 383 00:18:09.640 --> 00:18:11.160 And the cost was immense. 384 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.440 It was he flees to Florida, goes on a horrific 385 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.880 rampage at a sorority house and kills several more young women. 386 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:19.640 It's devastating to think about. 387 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:22.160 He was finally caught during a routine traffic stop in 388 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:25.880 nineteen seventy eight and executed in nineteen eighty nine. But 389 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:27.359 the fact that he was able to walk out of 390 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:30.759 secure facilities because people just couldn't reconcile his clean cut 391 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:32.480 face with his horrific crimes. 392 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:36.160 It's chilling, which brings us to an individual who took 393 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:39.799 that concept of systemic manipulation and escalated it to an 394 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:40.920 international scale. 395 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:42.279 Oh, this one is a wild ride. 396 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:45.640 It is if Bundy used his charm to get unsupervised 397 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:49.000 time in a library. Charles Sabraje used his intellect to 398 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.279 play sovereign nations against each other, The. 399 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:56.440 Bikini Killer the Serpent. During the nineteen seventies, Subroge traveled 400 00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:01.279 across Asia, specifically targeting young Western tourists traveling the hippie trail. 401 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:05.680