Serial Killer Documentary - Angel Resendiz

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In December 1998, a man slipped undetected into the home
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of 39-year-old Claudia Benton. By the time he fled the scene,
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the mother of two had been brutally beaten, sexually assaulted,
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and fatally stabbed.
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He seemed to be almost ghost-like, the way he could
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get into houses without being heard, and, you know, ghosts
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scare people.
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The killer was a man named Angel Resendiz, who'd been
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illegally boarding trains across the U.S. border from Mexico for
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over 20 years. He would go on to kill at
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least nine people, but the authorities couldn't find him anywhere.
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There's 140,000 miles of track in North America. So how
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do you get your head around that? How do you
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find someone that's riding the rails?
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Capturing the phantom killer would prove to be one of
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the FBI's toughest cases to crack. No one was safe.
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You never really knew who was going to be the
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next victim. It was whoever had something that he wanted,
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and that could be anybody.
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Hidden away for so long, Angel Resendiz had emerged as
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one of the world's most evil killers. When Ángel Reséndiz
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handed himself into U.S. authorities in July 1999, it signaled
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the end of his reign of terror. The 38-year-old Mexican
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walked across the border and was never free again. For
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over 20 years, Resendiz had been illegally crossing into the US,
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not by foot, but via the vast rail network. He'd
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murdered at least nine people from Texas to Illinois. The
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media had dubbed him the Railroad Killer. Detective Ken Maher
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helped crack the case that finally brought the elusive killer
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to justice.
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He turned out to be very mobile, extremely mobile. He
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was in one part of the country, and in a
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few months later, he's in another part of the country.
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Ken has his own theory behind Resendez's spate of murders.
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In Mexico, he had a wife and a kid, and
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he's stealing jewelry from these women and then taking it
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to Mexico to sell it.
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So it was a business, pure and simple.
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This killing and the raping of the women before and
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after death was just sidekick.
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Just for fun.
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This killer's story begins on the 1st of August, 1960.
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Ángel Reséndiz was born in the state of Puebla, in
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the east of Mexico. Little is known about his childhood,
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but during his eventual trial, Reséndiz spoke to forensic psychologist
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Ramón Laval about his early years south of the border.
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Ángel Reséndiz grew up in a dysfunctional family. He didn't
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have a lot of connections with his family, siblings, or
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for that matter, his parents. Little or no contact with
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his biological father. He told me that he had grown
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up with his mother and father.
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In fact, upon further questioning, I.
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Realized he was talking about his maternal uncle, his mother's brother.
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He felt rejected by his mother. He felt rejected by
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his peers at school because he was quite awkward looking.
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He had protruding teeth.
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He wasn't one of the cool kids. And I think
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those feelings stayed with him and they really did go
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on to shape who he became.
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Now, I'm not saying that unsettled childhood equals life. inevitably
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some kind of person who's going to turn to murder
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and serial killing. But I am saying in this particular case,
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that childhood gave Angel this sense that there was no
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one to depend on.
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He was the only person he could depend on.
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Violence was a fixture in the young boy's life.
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His uncle, whom he considered his father, was reported to
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have been physically abusive with Angel and around 12, he
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quit school and he actually left his uncle's home, started
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living on the streets, just defending for himself. He was
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sexually molested by a local pedophile.
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Like many violent offenders, Resendez was a victim before he
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was a criminal. And this is a line that we
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don't like to talk.
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About very much.
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We like to compartmentalize victims and offenders very clearly. But
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often that line is a very blurred one.
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Barely a teenager, Resendiz found himself with no family and
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no home. He had to learn how to survive.
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It must have been a significant moment. It's on that
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cusp of adolescence and puberty. It's that moment when a
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young man, especially a young man from such a troubled background,
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struggles out of the cocoon and tries to find himself.
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Resendiz took to illegally riding the far-reaching network of North
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American railroads. It was a transient lifestyle that would come
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to define him.
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Resendiz managed to travel quite far and wide within the
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United States by jumping on trains, jumping on an empty
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freight train and holing up in one of the carriages,
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and that would take him to a range of cities
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all over the place.
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Because.
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You could leap on. It's a stuff of movies, isn't it?
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Slow-moving railroad car, and the hobo is standing by the track,
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and he grabs it and lifts himself up into an
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empty car.
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It is thought that he first entered the United States
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when he was maybe 13 years old, and that's what
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he told me, that he was back and forth between
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Mexico and the United States. But in fact, The first record,
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formal record, is from when he was 16 years old,
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when he had entered and then deported.
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After serving five years of a 20-year sentence in a U.S.
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prison for burglary, aggravated battery, and grand theft auto in 1980,
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Resendiz continued to ride the rails. In fact, by August 1996,
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the 36-year-old had been arrested 12 times and sent back
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to Mexico on no fewer than seven occasions. But nothing
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deterred him, and his crimes would soon turn deadly.
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One of the most complicated questions about Reséndez in the
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first instance is why.
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He started killing. He was getting by. Things were not easy.
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And he was being deported back and forth across the Mexican-U.S.
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border on a regular basis. But that was no real
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reason in itself to kill. And one of the most
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fascinating aspects of Reséndiz' s character is where that initial spark
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came from.
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After illegally heading back north of the border on a
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train in the summer of 1997, Reséndiz carried out his
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first known murder In Lexington, Kentucky.
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In August 1997, there was an attack on Christopher Meyer
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and Holly Dunn, who were a young couple. So he'd
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spotted this couple after he'd jumped off one of the
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freight trains that he'd ridden on. And I think his
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intention from the outset was to get to Holly Dunn
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and to sexually assault her. And in order to do that,
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he needed to get Christopher out of the way. And
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he killed him relatively quickly with a £ 50 rock, which
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must have been the most horrendous thing for Holly to
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witness and for Christopher to experience.
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With her boyfriend taken care of, Resendiz turned his attention
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to 20-year-old Holly Dunn.
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She is terrified. Her hands are bound. She pleads with
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Resindez for her life. He sits down beside her and
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shows her an ice pick and says, look how easily
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I could kill you.
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But in the end, he doesn't kill her with an
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ice pick. In the end, he rapes her.
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It's impossible to imagine the terror she must have felt
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because now Resindez goes away again and finds a wooden
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board and beats her mercilessly with it. to her head,
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to her back, an attack so dramatic that he thought
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he'd killed her.
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But miraculously, Holly Dunn had survived the brutal assault.
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Holly Dunn, to her eternal credit, manages to struggle to
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her feet and literally walks away from the scene of
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the attack. She makes her way to some nearby houses where, thankfully,
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they call an ambulance and the police arrive.
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Resendiz had got away with it for now and remained
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unknown to the authorities. But it was a mistake that
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would later come back to haunt the killer. By December 1998,
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the 38-year-old was regularly crossing the border into the USA.
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Border patrol authorities had apprehended Resendiz for illegal entry into
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the country seven times in 1998 alone. unaware he'd killed
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21-year-old Christopher Meyer the previous year. But now the killer
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was back on U.S. soil in Houston, Texas, and had
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murder on his mind.
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That day in particular was a Thursday, December 17th.
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And day like most any other day, the afternoon was uneventful.
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I left for work around 3.30 and picked my son
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up at the sitter.
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It was his ninth birthday.
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And I picked him up, and on the way home,
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I got a call from the dispatcher at West University
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Place saying, we've got.
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A body, a dead body.
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And I had chills and goosebumps thinking, it just can't be.
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It's got to be something else. It's just got to
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be something else. But she assured me that, yes, there
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was indeed.
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Patrol officers had discovered a deceased female.
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The murdered woman was 39-year-old research physician Dr. Claudia Benton.
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She'd been home alone. Ken walked into a horrific scene.
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There was a bloody butcher knife on a pillow next
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to her head, blood all over the carpet, blood on
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the bed, blood in the hallway leading just out the
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threshold of the bedroom door. Overall, it appeared every room
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in the house had been rummaged, ransacked, drawers open.
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Everything appeared to be touched and looked through.
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Dr Benton had been stabbed to death with a knife
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from her own kitchen. There were three fatal wounds on
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her body.
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In addition to that, she had 19 skull fractures from
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being beat upon the head. I can only surmise that
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some of them may have been from the bronze figurine.
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It was probably maybe about a foot in length that
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had been on the mantelpiece.
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Quite heavy. Part of it was broken off during the beating.
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It was a savage and brutal murder of a wife
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and mother of twin girls.
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I think there is an inherent misogyny to Rosanda's. There
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is an inherent hatred of women. which I think goes
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back to his rather dysfunctional relationship with his mother. So
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he thinks that women are there to provide something for him,
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to give something to him. He feels entitled to take that.
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Further investigation at the home suggested that Dr Benton had
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been literally fighting for her life.
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Dr Benton had a complete fracture to her ulna and
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dislocated elbow as well. And so she put up a very,
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very fierce fight. From the blood in the hallway, it
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looks like she was very, very close to trying to
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escape from the bedroom and get away from him. But
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being hit so many times in the head already, he
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was just able to physically overpower her and subdue her.
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After analyzing the bloody crime scene, Ken had to make
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one of the most difficult phone calls of his professional
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career to Dr. Benton's husband, George.
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Very, very difficult talking to the man because here I am,
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I'm having to explain to him that there's a dead
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body in his house and he's telling me the only
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person that should be in there was his wife. And
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I felt sick, felt really, really sick inside because I'm
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thinking to myself, I mean, what if that was me?
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So I tried to be as gentle as possible.
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I tried to give him every avenue out. Could it
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have been a nanny? Could it have been a maid?
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Anybody else, and he just kept telling me, no, it's
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just my wife's the only one that would be in there.
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While Ken took Dr. Benton's devastated husband on a somber
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tour of the crime scene, he helped to point out
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anything that was out of the ordinary around the house.
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It was actually George Benton that noticed the steering column.
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Housing in the garage.
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He looked at it and said, that's got to be
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from the Jeep.
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The killer had made his getaway in Dr. Benton's vehicle,
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but he'd failed to find the keys that were hanging
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up in a kitchen cupboard.
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The next best thing he had to do was to
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try to hotwire the car. He knew he had to
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pop the steering column off, and so he did that.
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In doing so, he.
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Stuck his fingers in there to pry it out And
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then he just sent that into the garage. That was
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some of the best evidence that we had right there
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were his four fingerprints on the underside of that piece
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of plastic.
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This would become a crucial piece of evidence in the
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future trial of Angel Resendiz. Lynn McClellan was an assistant
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district attorney who would eventually help to bring charges against
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the killer.
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The car's recovered in San Antonio. His fingerprints are found
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on the car The car belongs to Claudia Benton. That
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kind of ties everything back. What's her car doing in
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San Antonio? We would send his prints on it, and
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she's found dead back in Houston. So put the two together,
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you say he's probably the one that killed her.
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A week after the murder of Claudia Benton, Ken had
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a major breakthrough. For the first time, Angel Resentes would
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become known to the homicide detective, albeit under a different name.
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It was the day after Christmas. I'd received a call
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from a sergeant with the Houston PD. He had received
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information from their fingerprint division. We had an identification of
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the perpetrator. Fingerprints came back to an individual named Carlos
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Cluthier Rodriguez. One of his numerous aliases that he was
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arrested under. So his prints were in the automated fingerprint
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identification system in Texas under that name.
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Rusendis had used many different aliases, which made it difficult
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for the authorities to link him to his numerous misdemeanors
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through the years.
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Every time he was arrested, it seemed to give a
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different name I mean, Resendez is what we finally kind
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00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.419
of settled on in terms of a name, but he
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had used so many names in the past. So we
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knew he had fingerprint identification at that time.
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We knew who he was. We had pictures. And so
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we were slowly able to get these pictures.
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Out into the media and try to generate some tips
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and leads and so forth.
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The hunt for Resendiz continued for over three months, but
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the killer remained elusive. By the spring of 1999, he
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was back in Texas, this time in the small city
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of Weimar. On the night of April the 30th, he
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entered the home of Norman and Karen Cernik.
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The Cerniks were both asleep in their bed. From the
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00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:27.799
evidence that was found, Mr.
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00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.829
Cernik was laying on his left side, And the blow
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00:17:31.849 --> 00:17:34.089
to the head with the sledgehammer.
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Woke up Mrs.
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Cernik.
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She sits up in bed and Resendez takes the sledgehammer
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left-handed like a baseball bat and strikes her square in
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the forehead, killing her instantly.
283
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He then goes back and hits Mr.
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Cernik one more time with the sledgehammer for good measure.
285
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Resendiz had bludgeoned the church pastor and his wife to death.
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It was a vicious double murder by the seemingly opportunistic killer.
287
00:18:06.710 --> 00:18:09.509
Resendiz was not an offender who would take weapons along
288
00:18:09.569 --> 00:18:11.880
with him to the crime scene. He would use whatever
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00:18:11.930 --> 00:18:15.140
he could find that was there. He would decide to
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00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.420
kill when he saw the opportunity to do so. There
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00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.940
is an advantage to this as an offender because if
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00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:25.009
you're not carrying weapons around with you, then you're not
293
00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:26.700
carrying evidence around with you.
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00:18:27.549 --> 00:18:31.930
The escalation in Dr. Benton's case, he hit her with
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00:18:32.109 --> 00:18:36.970
a smaller figurine and she fought back. This case with
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00:18:37.049 --> 00:18:41.150
the Cernyx and Weimer, there was no fighting back. He
297
00:18:41.190 --> 00:18:44.250
made sure with that first blow, but he didn't want
298
00:18:44.269 --> 00:18:46.819
to fight. He had enough fighting the last time.
299
00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:51.599
Evidence at the crime scene linked the Cernik murders to
300
00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:53.900
the killing of Dr. Claudia Benton.
301
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They collected, of course, very good DNA evidence from the
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00:18:57.019 --> 00:19:01.359
Weimer case. That was sent to Department of Public Safety laboratories,
303
00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:06.529
and DNA testing was done, and it was an exact
304
00:19:06.589 --> 00:19:08.970
match to our perpetrator in our case.
305
00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:14.069
With at least three confirmed murders on his macabre resume,
306
00:19:14.349 --> 00:19:17.390
the FBI entered the search for the man who would
307
00:19:17.430 --> 00:19:22.539
later be given the moniker the Railroad Killer. Angel Resendiz, however,
308
00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:27.519
continued to use various aliases, so tracking him down wasn't
309
00:19:27.559 --> 00:19:32.269
going to be straightforward. Special Agent Bobby Knox Eckerd was
310
00:19:32.349 --> 00:19:34.470
part of the team assigned to the case.
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00:19:35.569 --> 00:19:39.730
There's 140,000 miles of track in North America. So how
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00:19:39.769 --> 00:19:41.400
do you get your head around that? How do you
313
00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:44.200
find someone that's riding the rail? So what you do
314
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:46.700
is you go in, you meet with the seven major
315
00:19:47.009 --> 00:19:50.349
railroad companies. They all have agents that work for them.
316
00:19:50.410 --> 00:19:53.640
They have railroad police. So they started pulling all of
317
00:19:53.670 --> 00:19:57.839
his records, and he had dozens of trespass records on
318
00:19:57.880 --> 00:19:58.539
the railroad.
319
00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:04.579
The crimes that Resendez committed had a significant impact, especially
320
00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:08.269
on those living by railway tracks, because There wasn't a
321
00:20:08.369 --> 00:20:12.880
specific victim type. You never really knew who was going
322
00:20:12.930 --> 00:20:16.660
to be the next victim. It was whoever had something
323
00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:19.880
that he wanted, and that could be anybody. So the
324
00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:23.259
level of fear, the level of anxiety that his crimes
325
00:20:23.299 --> 00:20:25.019
generated was horrendous.
326
00:20:26.059 --> 00:20:29.799
Not long after the FBI's involvement in the case, they
327
00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:33.180
were able to link the unsolved murder of Christopher Meyer
328
00:20:33.529 --> 00:20:36.170
almost two years earlier to Resendiz's.
329
00:20:36.869 --> 00:20:42.430
We received a hit from 1997 where a couple was brutalized.
330
00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:45.750
The male was killed. The female was the only survivor
331
00:20:45.789 --> 00:20:49.460
of Resendez, and that was in Kentucky near railroad tracks.
332
00:20:49.819 --> 00:20:55.140
Through DNA, through eyewitness testimony of the survivor, and through
333
00:20:55.259 --> 00:20:57.940
a sketch that she was able to give to the
334
00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:01.420
officers there, we were pretty sure it was the same person.
335
00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:04.049
Once the DNA came back, it was a positive hit.
336
00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:09.430
So now we had him responsible for at least four homicides.
337
00:21:09.450 --> 00:21:13.910
At that point, we knew we had a serious, serious
338
00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:15.750
killer on the loose.
339
00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:21.220
But Angel Resendiz was only just getting started, and there
340
00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:26.279
would soon be even more victims. By late May 1999,
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00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:30.279
authorities across the U.S. were desperately searching for a man
342
00:21:30.339 --> 00:21:35.259
they now knew was a serial killer. The 38-year-old Mexican
343
00:21:35.299 --> 00:21:38.279
had been linked to at least four murders, three of
344
00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:42.500
them in Texas in the previous five months. The so-called
345
00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:46.220
railroad killer was headline news across the Lone Star State.
346
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:53.940
Resendiz is attracting growing notoriety in Texas. Inevitably, it feeds
347
00:21:54.680 --> 00:22:00.019
the vanity that has been growing inside him. He knows
348
00:22:00.099 --> 00:22:02.799
people are beginning to look for him, and yet... he
349
00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:04.990
still feels he can get away with it. In fact,
350
00:22:05.019 --> 00:22:05.799
he was to kill again.
351
00:22:07.140 --> 00:22:10.599
On June the 3rd, Resendiz was back in Houston, and
352
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:14.599
his bloodlust had become insatiable. Under the veil of night,
353
00:22:14.619 --> 00:22:18.460
he entered the home of 26-year-old Noemi Dominguez.
354
00:22:19.559 --> 00:22:21.680
Noemi is an elementary school teacher.
355
00:22:22.099 --> 00:22:25.960
She is at home, and he breaks in, picks up
356
00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:31.640
a pickaxe-like tool, and attacks her. By now, Resendiz is
357
00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:37.839
quite clearly out of control. Any sense of order, of civilization,
358
00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:45.400
of propriety is gone. He is now literally like an animal,
359
00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.079
lusting for blood with blood dripping from him.
360
00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.660
Again, she's sexually assaulted. And again, he kills her.
361
00:22:54.019 --> 00:22:57.799
She lived near railroad tracks. Her body was covered up.
362
00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:00.180
Almost looked very similar to the way Dr.
363
00:23:00.220 --> 00:23:01.109
Benton was covered up.
364
00:23:01.589 --> 00:23:04.289
The leg sticking out from underneath the cover, she was
365
00:23:04.329 --> 00:23:06.849
face down. And she had been beaten to death.
366
00:23:08.789 --> 00:23:12.869
Resendez decided to cover some of his victims with blankets
367
00:23:12.930 --> 00:23:17.039
because this essentially dehumanizes them, it depersonalizes them.
368
00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:18.619
But also, it's.
369
00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:22.779
About looking, it's about seeing and being seen. So, he's
370
00:23:22.819 --> 00:23:25.920
covering his victims because he doesn't want to look at them.
371
00:23:26.430 --> 00:23:28.829
but he also doesn't want them to look at him.
372
00:23:29.250 --> 00:23:32.720
So it's this constant theme of shame that comes up
373
00:23:32.819 --> 00:23:33.880
time and time again.
374
00:23:35.160 --> 00:23:39.099
As the killer grew more experienced, he became more brazen
375
00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:43.839
in his actions. Resendiz had started leaving calling cards at
376
00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:45.619
the scene of his murders.
377
00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:51.059
When he murdered the victims, he would find their IDs,
378
00:23:52.740 --> 00:23:56.220
driver's license or some other type of ID, and would
379
00:23:56.259 --> 00:24:01.329
display them in such fashion that whoever entered the home
380
00:24:01.829 --> 00:24:05.170
later would find out who they were, how they looked like.
381
00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:08.170
In my mind, he wanted to see how.
382
00:24:08.069 --> 00:24:13.089
They looked like before he bludgeoned them to death, before
383
00:24:13.190 --> 00:24:17.009
he raped them, and see what it would have been,
384
00:24:17.650 --> 00:24:21.049
almost as if he had already developed a relationship with
385
00:24:21.069 --> 00:24:21.549
the victim.
386
00:24:23.059 --> 00:24:28.200
After killing Noemi Dominguez, Resendiz wasn't finished. Just as he'd
387
00:24:28.299 --> 00:24:33.180
done after murdering Claudia Benton, he stole the schoolteacher's car
388
00:24:33.589 --> 00:24:36.119
and headed 100 miles west.
389
00:24:37.220 --> 00:24:39.990
It was a white Honda, and it was taken and
390
00:24:40.170 --> 00:24:44.769
driven to Fayette County near Schulenburg, a small community of Dubina,
391
00:24:45.450 --> 00:24:48.750
where he then murdered Josephine Konvichko.
392
00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:52.329
He toyed with.
393
00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:57.109
law enforcement at that scene by displaying a toy train,
394
00:24:57.910 --> 00:25:00.089
displaying newspaper articles.
395
00:24:59.849 --> 00:25:01.970
About the cases, the murders.
396
00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:06.390
This is like reading an article that says, I am
397
00:25:06.990 --> 00:25:10.819
the railroad killer, and I'm leaving this here for you
398
00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:15.319
to know and make sure that you know it is me,
399
00:25:16.019 --> 00:25:16.779
nobody else.
400
00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:20.509
I am the railroad killer. He was proud of that.
401
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.740
It is yet further proof, if any were needed, that
402
00:25:24.779 --> 00:25:27.559
he is now utterly out of control and glorying in
403
00:25:27.740 --> 00:25:31.730
every moment of his celebrity. It is one of the
404
00:25:31.789 --> 00:25:36.670
most troubling of moments when a killer starts to live
405
00:25:36.750 --> 00:25:40.710
up to his own hype, who becomes obsessed.
406
00:25:40.299 --> 00:25:41.180
With his own fame.
407
00:25:42.579 --> 00:25:48.170
Resendiz had killed 73-year-old Josephine Konvichka with the same pickaxe
408
00:25:48.210 --> 00:25:52.230
he'd used just hours before when murdering Noemi Dominguez.
409
00:25:53.150 --> 00:25:57.170
When he left the premises, he'd actually left the pickaxe
410
00:25:57.329 --> 00:26:00.609
in Josephine's head and he'd tucked her up in bed,
411
00:26:00.990 --> 00:26:04.539
which was quite a bizarre kind of behaviour. But he'd
412
00:26:04.579 --> 00:26:07.779
left behind a really important piece of evidence because on
413
00:26:07.819 --> 00:26:11.799
that pickaxe, was some of Nomi Dominguez's blood. So those
414
00:26:11.859 --> 00:26:13.480
two murders were connected.
415
00:26:14.619 --> 00:26:18.990
Less than two weeks later, Resendiz had traveled far from Texas,
416
00:26:19.369 --> 00:26:25.430
over 800 miles north to Illinois. On June the 15th, 1999,
417
00:26:25.430 --> 00:26:30.559
he committed another double murder. The victims were 79-year-old George
418
00:26:30.660 --> 00:26:37.400
Morber and his 51-year-old daughter, Carolyn Frederick. George's home in
419
00:26:37.420 --> 00:26:41.160
the quiet village of Gorham was less than 100 yards
420
00:26:41.460 --> 00:26:42.440
from the railroad.
421
00:26:43.539 --> 00:26:46.700
In Illinois, he found a shotgun.
422
00:26:47.119 --> 00:26:51.500
The elderly gentleman was in his easy chair reading his newspaper.
423
00:26:52.579 --> 00:26:56.140
Resendez is able to gain entry into the house, ties
424
00:26:56.200 --> 00:27:00.420
him up with telephone cord, ties him to his easy chair,
425
00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:03.440
gets behind him with a 12-gauge.
426
00:27:02.869 --> 00:27:03.559
Shotgun, and.
427
00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:06.319
shoots him in the back of the head through the
428
00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:11.740
back seat of the recliner. A little while later, his
429
00:27:11.819 --> 00:27:16.660
daughter comes in, and she is immediately beat to death
430
00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:19.440
with the 12-gauge shotgun.
431
00:27:20.740 --> 00:27:24.259
The slain father and daughter took the tally of known
432
00:27:24.339 --> 00:27:29.099
victims to eight. Authorities were becoming desperate to capture the
433
00:27:29.180 --> 00:27:30.880
elusive railroad killer.
434
00:27:32.180 --> 00:27:32.940
He seemed to be.
435
00:27:33.730 --> 00:27:37.519
Almost ghost-like, the way he could get into houses without
436
00:27:37.579 --> 00:27:42.660
being heard, without disturbing the occupants. And that was one
437
00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:45.680
of the strangest things. I still don't know how he
438
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:49.109
got into Dr. Benton's house and all the other houses.
439
00:27:49.230 --> 00:27:51.710
And that was the scary part. And ghosts scare people.
440
00:27:52.069 --> 00:27:55.630
It's just a natural reaction to something that can't be explained.
441
00:27:56.470 --> 00:27:58.910
And the way he was able to enter people's homes
442
00:27:59.849 --> 00:28:00.650
couldn't be explained.
443
00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:05.759
The killings were becoming more frequent and the hunting ground
444
00:28:05.799 --> 00:28:10.480
had become wider spread. The FBI immediately took action.
445
00:28:11.660 --> 00:28:16.450
On June 21st of 1999, working with our FBI headquarters,
446
00:28:16.529 --> 00:28:20.069
we were able to add Resendez to our top 10
447
00:28:20.069 --> 00:28:25.730
most wanted fugitives. When anyone has made a top 10,
448
00:28:25.730 --> 00:28:28.470
both the media and the public are made aware of
449
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:32.349
how important this case was. The media helped us immensely
450
00:28:32.410 --> 00:28:37.319
in this case. Everybody in the United States and in Mexico,
451
00:28:37.779 --> 00:28:41.299
to a certain extent, wanted this guy captured. He had
452
00:28:41.619 --> 00:28:44.519
turned from a serial killer, now he was a spree killer.
453
00:28:45.059 --> 00:28:48.559
And I think everybody in the world wanted him caught.
454
00:28:49.460 --> 00:28:53.210
The addition of Resendiz to the most wanted list brought
455
00:28:53.289 --> 00:28:55.369
nationwide TV exposure.
456
00:28:55.990 --> 00:28:58.410
So that's when the tips were coming in, and as
457
00:28:58.430 --> 00:29:03.009
the tips came in, Anything that was really, really helpful,
458
00:29:03.410 --> 00:29:08.299
that sounded legitimate, was funneled to the task force. And
459
00:29:08.339 --> 00:29:11.500
it was just a huge coordinated effort in trying to
460
00:29:11.539 --> 00:29:12.339
find this guy.
461
00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:16.740
I don't know if it was the media or the FBI,
462
00:29:16.759 --> 00:29:19.559
but he was given the name the Railroad Killer. And
463
00:29:19.619 --> 00:29:22.900
in every media blitz, you would see the Railroad Killer
464
00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:25.960
is on the run again. He's been here, he's been there,
465
00:29:26.019 --> 00:29:27.279
he's committed this crime.
466
00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:31.779
The national exposure put pressure on the family and friends
467
00:29:31.859 --> 00:29:35.220
of Angel Resendiz across the Mexican border.
468
00:29:36.470 --> 00:29:39.109
This was the most complex case most of us had
469
00:29:39.170 --> 00:29:42.309
ever worked because the jurisdiction was huge. It was all
470
00:29:42.329 --> 00:29:44.690
the way in North America. You know, you just didn't
471
00:29:44.750 --> 00:29:47.859
know where he was going to be. Once we identified
472
00:29:47.890 --> 00:29:51.650
he had a wife or a common-law wife in Mexico
473
00:29:52.019 --> 00:29:53.599
was the pivotal point for me.
474
00:29:54.700 --> 00:29:58.579
Resendiz's wife was brought across the border to be questioned
475
00:29:58.640 --> 00:30:01.869
by the FBI. Bobby led the interview.
476
00:30:02.690 --> 00:30:04.759
She was brought up here. She brought her daughter, who
477
00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:08.099
was approximately three or four months old, and we conducted
478
00:30:08.140 --> 00:30:12.680
the interview over a two-day period. During that interview, I
479
00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:16.500
was able to provide her with enough information that she
480
00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:22.789
came to believe that he had committed the homicides. We
481
00:30:22.869 --> 00:30:27.660
showed her the DNA. We showed her fingerprints. We asked
482
00:30:27.720 --> 00:30:31.319
her if she had ever received anything from his trips
483
00:30:31.460 --> 00:30:35.920
into the U.S. After her visit here, the U.S. Marshals,
484
00:30:35.980 --> 00:30:39.400
the Texas Rangers, went back down into her village, and
485
00:30:39.480 --> 00:30:42.359
she provided everything that he had ever given her that
486
00:30:42.420 --> 00:30:45.740
she still had in her possessions, and they were, in fact,
487
00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:47.140
stolen at the crime scenes.
488
00:30:48.140 --> 00:30:52.210
Resendiz remained in hiding, but the authorities were doing all
489
00:30:52.250 --> 00:30:53.670
they could to flush him out.
490
00:30:54.380 --> 00:30:56.769
Once you take away all their comfort zones, they have
491
00:30:56.829 --> 00:31:00.150
nowhere to go, and they generally make mistakes, and you'll
492
00:31:00.170 --> 00:31:01.829
be able to apprehend them that way.
493
00:31:02.809 --> 00:31:04.069
The tactics worked.
494
00:31:04.349 --> 00:31:08.150
With nowhere to run to, a sister of Angel Resendiz
495
00:31:08.430 --> 00:31:12.750
convinced the killer to turn himself over to the U.S. investigators.
496
00:31:13.730 --> 00:31:17.210
We had one sister who lived in New Mexico that
497
00:31:17.369 --> 00:31:21.150
would prove to be the person that negotiated surrender that
498
00:31:21.390 --> 00:31:26.210
a Texas Ranger developed trust with this individual. And through
499
00:31:26.250 --> 00:31:30.119
that development, she ended up contacting him and arranged a surrender.
500
00:31:30.819 --> 00:31:35.599
And then it was his brother who accompanied him when
501
00:31:35.640 --> 00:31:39.279
he turned himself to the Texas Ranger in El Paso,
502
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:43.619
the crossing between Mexico and the United States by the
503
00:31:43.809 --> 00:31:44.490
Rio Grande.
504
00:31:46.720 --> 00:31:49.099
Now, this is something straight out of a movie. It
505
00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:52.069
really does have a lot of dramatic effect. And I
506
00:31:52.130 --> 00:31:56.410
think that is very revealing about Resendiz. He's the director
507
00:31:56.730 --> 00:31:59.829
in his own drama. He is calling the shots. He's
508
00:31:59.910 --> 00:32:00.690
in control.
509
00:32:01.890 --> 00:32:06.140
After hunting the railroad killer for nearly seven months, Detective
510
00:32:06.220 --> 00:32:10.119
Ken Maha was stunned when Resendiz gave up the ghost.
511
00:32:11.099 --> 00:32:12.240
I'm amazed that he did it.
512
00:32:13.099 --> 00:32:14.680
All he had to do was just stay in Mexico
513
00:32:14.970 --> 00:32:18.279
and then come across on a train or come across
514
00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:22.869
the border whenever he wanted to and commit more murders
515
00:32:22.900 --> 00:32:25.420
and keep up his little side business of selling jewelry
516
00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:28.630
in Mexico and live happily ever with his wife and kid.
517
00:32:30.309 --> 00:32:35.089
I'm grateful that he turned himself in to this day. Still,
518
00:32:35.109 --> 00:32:38.130
I'll never know the real motive. I think he was
519
00:32:38.230 --> 00:32:41.710
maybe a bit concerned about his wife and daughter in
520
00:32:41.769 --> 00:32:45.509
Mexico being harmed, if there were some bounties on his.
521
00:32:45.430 --> 00:32:50.789
Head Soon after the capture of Resendiz, Ken found himself
522
00:32:50.890 --> 00:32:55.259
face-to-face with the serial murderer. After speaking to so many
523
00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:59.160
potential suspects over the previous few months, there was one
524
00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:02.460
thing in particular that Ken was looking for to make
525
00:33:02.539 --> 00:33:04.980
sure they definitely got their man.
526
00:33:06.220 --> 00:33:09.400
There were many times that my partner, Joey Sanders, and
527
00:33:09.480 --> 00:33:12.670
I would just get a friend to call at the
528
00:33:12.690 --> 00:33:17.450
police department, sometimes transferred from Houston PD, saying that people
529
00:33:17.549 --> 00:33:21.309
swear they've seen Resendez in some part of Houston. And
530
00:33:21.329 --> 00:33:23.150
one of the first things we do is grab his
531
00:33:23.210 --> 00:33:26.130
right hand, look at the ring finger, and if it
532
00:33:26.150 --> 00:33:28.549
didn't have a scar, even though it looked like him,
533
00:33:28.970 --> 00:33:30.990
we knew it wasn't him. Because it showed up on
534
00:33:31.089 --> 00:33:34.230
every fingerprint card that he had. It was an extremely
535
00:33:34.269 --> 00:33:37.069
noticeable scar just straight through the pad.
536
00:33:36.890 --> 00:33:37.710
Of his ring finger.
537
00:33:38.009 --> 00:33:39.589
Sure enough, when we caught him, it's one of the
538
00:33:39.630 --> 00:33:41.670
first things I was able to do, I think. And
539
00:33:41.690 --> 00:33:42.529
sure enough, it was there.
540
00:33:42.549 --> 00:33:43.369
It was true to life.
541
00:33:44.369 --> 00:33:47.809
Resendiz may have surrendered himself to the police, but there
542
00:33:47.829 --> 00:33:49.980
was no way this was going to be an open
543
00:33:50.019 --> 00:33:54.859
and shut case for prosecutors. With a trial looming, defense
544
00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:57.779
attorneys were going to tell the judge that the killer
545
00:33:57.819 --> 00:34:02.509
was insane. By now, investigators were aware that he'd killed
546
00:34:02.670 --> 00:34:05.730
eight people and were still looking into whether there may
547
00:34:05.769 --> 00:34:10.409
be even more. The unsolved murder of an 87-year-old woman
548
00:34:10.489 --> 00:34:14.630
named Leafy Mason in Hughes Springs, Texas, was high on
549
00:34:14.670 --> 00:34:16.550
their list of potential victims.
550
00:34:20.139 --> 00:34:22.860
At one of the task force meetings, we had police
551
00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:27.659
officers from Hughes Springs, where Leafy Mason was murdered. They
552
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:33.199
took out the complete window frame where the suspect in
553
00:34:33.239 --> 00:34:37.039
their case made entry, and they preserved it as evidence
554
00:34:37.489 --> 00:34:39.239
And sure enough, they matched up his fingerprints.
555
00:34:39.420 --> 00:34:40.820
Resendiz, there he was.
556
00:34:40.840 --> 00:34:44.159
So we had a good match to that case as well.
557
00:34:45.420 --> 00:34:49.219
Resendiz had bludgeoned the 87-year-old woman to death with a
558
00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:54.400
flat iron in October 1998, two months before the killing
559
00:34:54.440 --> 00:34:59.960
of Dr. Claudia Benton. Leafy Mason became the ninth known
560
00:35:00.019 --> 00:35:04.260
victim of Angel Resendiz, but it's believed the total number
561
00:35:04.300 --> 00:35:07.119
of people who died at the hands of the railroad
562
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:08.639
killer is even higher.
563
00:35:09.559 --> 00:35:12.480
He confessed to 12 or 13 crimes, and they were
564
00:35:12.599 --> 00:35:16.239
able to confirm through DNA evidence that he had, in fact,
565
00:35:16.280 --> 00:35:17.389
committed those crimes.
566
00:35:18.230 --> 00:35:22.309
The killer talked about his many possible victims with forensic
567
00:35:22.369 --> 00:35:24.469
psychologist Ramon Laval.
568
00:35:25.579 --> 00:35:29.440
We didn't discuss the full chronology on what came first
569
00:35:29.519 --> 00:35:32.579
and second, third, fourth, but I have an idea that
570
00:35:33.159 --> 00:35:37.960
it started, as far as we know, in 86.
571
00:35:38.019 --> 00:35:41.019
Ramon had been asked to evaluate the mental state of
572
00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:45.639
Ángel Reséndiz after a judge informed the defense attorneys that
573
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:49.030
the killer would be prevented from pleading not guilty by
574
00:35:49.130 --> 00:35:54.170
reason of insanity unless he was assessed by an independent psychologist.
575
00:35:54.960 --> 00:35:59.500
He was not only willing to admit culpability. He talked
576
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:02.920
about them. He said, yep, he was the actor. He
577
00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:06.429
was the one who perpetrated them. And he would not
578
00:36:06.489 --> 00:36:10.510
be willing to give anybody else credit. He was very narcissistic,
579
00:36:10.730 --> 00:36:16.010
very self-absorbed. His manner of communication about the crimes was
580
00:36:16.090 --> 00:36:22.369
very calm, emotionally collected. He did not display any extreme
581
00:36:22.849 --> 00:36:26.889
emotional feelings about them. No sorrow, no regret.
582
00:36:27.760 --> 00:36:32.960
Despite admitting to many murders, the prosecution only needed Resendiz
583
00:36:33.219 --> 00:36:36.239
to be found guilty of one. So they had to
584
00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:41.159
find the most airtight case against him, the murder of Dr.
585
00:36:41.219 --> 00:36:42.099
Claudia Benton.
586
00:36:43.079 --> 00:36:45.360
We had the strongest case by far.
587
00:36:45.780 --> 00:36:47.679
I think some of the other counties might have wanted
588
00:36:47.719 --> 00:36:51.829
to have had their own trial and convict him. But
589
00:36:52.710 --> 00:36:57.849
once he's convicted of capital murder in Texas, there's not
590
00:36:57.889 --> 00:36:58.530
much need.
591
00:36:58.369 --> 00:36:58.989
To do it again.
592
00:36:59.829 --> 00:37:04.920
Assistant District Attorney Lynn McClellan was part of the prosecution team.
593
00:37:05.719 --> 00:37:08.659
In every criminal case, you have to prove the case
594
00:37:08.739 --> 00:37:12.099
beyond a reasonable doubt. So it's really just proving the
595
00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:15.619
elements of that crime. The evidence of who did it
596
00:37:16.519 --> 00:37:21.500
came from his fingerprints In Claudia Ben's case, fingerprints in
597
00:37:21.539 --> 00:37:26.320
the apartment, fingerprints on the car that was recovered in
598
00:37:26.360 --> 00:37:30.579
San Antonio afterwards. So that's really not a real difficult
599
00:37:31.039 --> 00:37:35.630
case to prove because all the evidence is there. Fingerprints
600
00:37:35.969 --> 00:37:40.570
and DNA are much better than eyewitness because eyewitnesses can
601
00:37:40.610 --> 00:37:43.989
make mistakes and fingerprints and DNA are not.
602
00:37:45.269 --> 00:37:49.670
The trial began on May the 8th, 2000 in Houston, Texas.
603
00:37:50.139 --> 00:37:52.159
Ken Maha was in the courtroom.
604
00:37:53.260 --> 00:37:57.139
One thing that stuck out immensely was the amount of
605
00:37:57.260 --> 00:38:04.159
weight that Resendez gained. He looked like a completely different person.
606
00:38:04.820 --> 00:38:08.030
He must have put on 40 to 50 pounds, maybe
607
00:38:08.090 --> 00:38:11.309
even more. He was quiet, didn't say a word. I
608
00:38:11.349 --> 00:38:14.389
don't believe he said one single word throughout the trial.
609
00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:17.059
unless he was conversing with his attorneys.
610
00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:23.809
As expected, the defense attorneys claimed that 39-year-old Resendiz was
611
00:38:23.949 --> 00:38:26.989
not guilty by reason of insanity.
612
00:38:28.250 --> 00:38:29.750
They say he's schizophrenic.
613
00:38:30.190 --> 00:38:33.489
They say he's any kind of a mental disease. Did
614
00:38:33.550 --> 00:38:37.409
that cause him to do it? Did he know right
615
00:38:37.449 --> 00:38:42.190
from wrong? Obviously he knew right from wrong because he
616
00:38:42.250 --> 00:38:45.510
was trying to get away. And he got away. I mean,
617
00:38:45.530 --> 00:38:48.349
there are lots of people that have mental diseases.
618
00:38:49.230 --> 00:38:51.010
They'd all go around killing people.
619
00:38:52.340 --> 00:38:55.719
Before the trial, Resendiz had been quoted in the media
620
00:38:56.059 --> 00:39:00.480
calling himself an angel of God. But Ramon Laval didn't
621
00:39:00.579 --> 00:39:02.280
agree with the killer's theory.
622
00:39:02.300 --> 00:39:07.400
My main concern was if he was insane at the
623
00:39:07.440 --> 00:39:10.760
time of the offense and if he was doing the
624
00:39:10.820 --> 00:39:16.670
will of God. Where did the rape come from? He
625
00:39:16.710 --> 00:39:19.650
could not quite explain that. He was like, huh, I
626
00:39:19.690 --> 00:39:22.269
wonder why you're asking me that question. You know, I
627
00:39:22.309 --> 00:39:23.750
hadn't quite thought about that.
628
00:39:24.670 --> 00:39:26.909
So basically, it's almost a confession that I did this.
629
00:39:27.070 --> 00:39:31.739
But when I did this. I didn't know right from wrong.
630
00:39:32.599 --> 00:39:34.780
I didn't know what I was doing, and thus I
631
00:39:34.820 --> 00:39:38.340
can't be held legally responsible. I get a get-out-of-jail-free card
632
00:39:38.380 --> 00:39:40.780
because I didn't know right from wrong.
633
00:39:41.730 --> 00:39:46.909
Roman's testimony put the idea that Bracindes was insane firmly
634
00:39:46.989 --> 00:39:47.349
to bed.
635
00:39:48.489 --> 00:39:55.610
My conclusions at the end were, despite his expression of delusions,
636
00:39:55.889 --> 00:39:59.809
statements that had a very delusional flavor, I came to
637
00:39:59.849 --> 00:40:02.610
believe that he was not insane and that he was
638
00:40:02.690 --> 00:40:07.820
just smart and manipulative and knew how to use information.
639
00:40:09.179 --> 00:40:13.260
As a final nail in the coffin, prosecutors called Holly
640
00:40:13.340 --> 00:40:16.969
Dunn to the stand. The testimony of the girl who
641
00:40:17.090 --> 00:40:21.349
cheated death at the hands of Resendiz in Kentucky three
642
00:40:21.409 --> 00:40:26.409
years previously left the jury in no doubt. On May
643
00:40:26.449 --> 00:40:31.130
the 18th, 2000, Angel Resendiz was found guilty of the
644
00:40:31.210 --> 00:40:35.260
murder of Dr. Claudia Benton. Four days later, he was
645
00:40:35.340 --> 00:40:36.480
sentenced to death.
646
00:40:37.760 --> 00:40:40.780
I knew that the verdict was going to be guilty.
647
00:40:40.820 --> 00:40:44.309
There was really no defense put up. When he was
648
00:40:44.369 --> 00:40:47.570
sentenced to death, I was happy. To me, it was
649
00:40:47.590 --> 00:40:50.519
the appropriate punishment. Not to get into any of the
650
00:40:50.539 --> 00:40:54.840
debates about death penalty right or wrong in Texas, that
651
00:40:54.880 --> 00:40:56.659
was a punishment, and that's what he got.
652
00:40:57.679 --> 00:41:01.130
Resendiz was on death row for six years before his
653
00:41:01.170 --> 00:41:08.030
stay of execution came to an end. On June the 27th, 2006,
654
00:41:08.030 --> 00:41:12.880
FBI Special Agent Bobby Knox Eckerd went to Huntsville, Texas,
655
00:41:13.280 --> 00:41:17.019
to witness the death of the railroad killer firsthand.
656
00:41:18.099 --> 00:41:21.510
He's brought in. He jumped up on the table. They
657
00:41:21.550 --> 00:41:25.210
prepare him, and they allow him to make a statement.
658
00:41:25.630 --> 00:41:29.150
In this case, he apologized to the victims, but he continued.
659
00:41:29.409 --> 00:41:32.179
then kind of claimed that the devil made him do it.
660
00:41:32.210 --> 00:41:33.849
He said, it was my fault because I let the
661
00:41:33.889 --> 00:41:37.670
devil into my life, but the devil was responsible. And
662
00:41:37.909 --> 00:41:41.389
the drugs were administered at that point. And the very
663
00:41:41.449 --> 00:41:45.030
last thing he was asking in Spanish for forgiveness from God.
664
00:41:45.849 --> 00:41:51.530
And then he died very peacefully. I felt no joy
665
00:41:51.590 --> 00:41:53.719
in the fact that he had been executed. I felt
666
00:41:53.840 --> 00:41:57.170
nothing towards him. other than anger for what he had
667
00:41:57.210 --> 00:42:00.690
done to the victims and what he left the victims'
668
00:42:00.730 --> 00:42:03.199
families to deal with for the rest of their lives.
669
00:42:03.780 --> 00:42:06.079
He was gone, but they still are here having to
670
00:42:06.119 --> 00:42:07.199
deal with his crimes.
671
00:42:09.739 --> 00:42:14.420
What Claudia Benton's husband said probably sums it up. He
672
00:42:14.460 --> 00:42:19.329
was evil, contained in human form. A creature without a soul.
673
00:42:20.289 --> 00:42:24.429
No conscience, no sense of remorse, no regard for the
674
00:42:24.489 --> 00:42:28.309
sanctity of life. Because with Resendez, it's all about him.
675
00:42:28.769 --> 00:42:31.610
He's the one in charge. He's the one he's trying
676
00:42:31.650 --> 00:42:34.590
to satisfy. He went through his whole life, you know,
677
00:42:35.110 --> 00:42:37.219
thinking he had the right to do all these things,
678
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:39.050
and whatever he wanted to do, he did it because
679
00:42:39.110 --> 00:42:40.219
he was the one in charge.
680
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:46.239
After taking the lives of so many others, 45-year-old Angel
681
00:42:46.260 --> 00:42:50.360
Resendez had himself been put to death. He is no
682
00:42:50.420 --> 00:42:52.840
longer a danger to innocent people.
683
00:42:53.829 --> 00:42:57.289
He was probably the most evil person that I ever
684
00:42:57.349 --> 00:43:02.659
was involved in the investigation. And I've investigated lots of murders,
685
00:43:02.760 --> 00:43:08.119
child molesters, kidnappers, but I think this guy was inherently evil.
686
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:12.760
He's just a savage animal, an absolute savage animal. The
687
00:43:12.800 --> 00:43:16.030
way he dealt with his victims was just completely savage.
688
00:43:17.670 --> 00:43:22.530
Angel Resendiz spent his entire life in the shadows of society.
689
00:43:23.050 --> 00:43:26.900
Holed up in freight train carriages across America, he was
690
00:43:27.019 --> 00:43:32.269
able to carry out his crimes completely undetected. Why he
691
00:43:32.349 --> 00:43:36.340
started raping and killing the victims of his burglaries, we
692
00:43:36.380 --> 00:43:39.920
shall never know. But the amount of people he slayed
693
00:43:40.280 --> 00:43:44.309
suggests that he enjoyed the act of murder and proves
694
00:43:44.349 --> 00:43:48.769
that Angel Resendiz is one of the world's most evil killers.