UTSKRIFT 🔗
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This is a very special episode of Vinny After Dark.
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We're breaking the format.
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And we are going to go somewhere where no one has gone yet, in the case involving Krista Pike, which is inside the mind of the killer.
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No one has talked about exactly what she did, her conduct, her statements, and what it means and why she may have done it and what it's telling us about who this woman is that we're all talking about.
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So get ready.
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I've got a special guest who is joining me.
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He is the best at this.
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He won't say he's the best, but he is the best at this, Dr.
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Gary Bocato, who will take us inside the mind of Krista Pike in this very special episode of Vinny After Dark.
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And joining me to take a look at all this, Dr.
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Gary Bocato, clinical forensic psychologist, author of The New Evil.
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Make sure you pick it up and read it.
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Also does a lot of work at Boston College, a lot of research there in this field.
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Dr.
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Gary Brucado, great to see you.
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Good to see you, Vinny.
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How are you?
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I'm doing uh uh really well.
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Um a lot of people are talking about Krista Pike, and there's there's a couple pieces of this.
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Like there's a lot of focus on the botched execution.
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I think that's one thing.
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Um what I'm trying to bring out is trying to understand, especially right here in this episode, is why you're here, is try to understand a little bit more about her, like who she is, what what we can figure out about her based upon uh what we know about her life.
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And specifically, I want to go through some of the conduct and some of the statements that she's made and get your take and tell us what you think it it it it could mean about Krista Pike.
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But let's start here.
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And just to give your uh sort of a baseline, um what's your what's your overall, if you just had to give me a quick summary, your overall summary of who you think Krista Pike is.
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Well, um those who are familiar with my work and and uh particularly the new evil that I did with with Michael Stone know that um I insist upon a very nuanced way of thinking about motives for homicide that can go all the way from the situational and emotional and impulsive all the way up to torture murderers, you know, and people who are fundamentally in their personality and in their fantasy life motivated to repetitively kill.
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By all accounts, although there are some stories told about an incident while incarcerated, where there was some potential for killing a second time, by all accounts, uh Krista Pike was one of these people who committed an atrocious, undeniably atrocious act in a kind of emotional situational context.
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In fact, she herself says that it wasn't her intention to kill as much as to intimidate, frightened, harmed, but not necessarily kill the victim and the Colleen in this horrendous case.
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My sense about her has always been that she was an emotionally immature, brittle kind of a person who had a horrendous trauma history herself.
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Um she was in a womb exposed to alcohol because of her parental dynamic and alcohol consumption, uh, which we know uh can have an effect on frontal lobe and inhibition and things like that.
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Um that's something that came up, for example, in the Nicholas Cruz case, uh the the this this idea of inhibition uh loss due to frontal lobe issues and in utero damage and as a possibility.
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Um so there was already from the beginning going to be potentially problems with inhibition, emotion control, things like that.
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And from the time she was a toddler, she was being sexually assaulted.
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There was a period in adolescence of of repetitive assault.
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And in that context, she gets into a relationship with a male who must have been one of the most stabilizing forces that she had ever had, right?
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Because you're talking about somebody who really didn't have, by her account, a parental system that was very stable, you know, would have been a little kind of dysregulated and traumatized and all of that, and then she finds this anchoring partner.
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And whatever you think of him, she would have seen him that way as kind of predictable.
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And then in that context, becomes afraid that this one person she's got this relationship with is going to be taken away potentially by another female.
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So you have to understand the image of a person who's going to experience that as an enormous threat.
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The other thing about her that's interesting is that she always seemed to go out of her way to give the impression that she had absolutely no feelings at all.
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None.
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Like in other words, I'm cold.
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I'm going to be able to, you know, I'll do whatever if I, you know, because nobody means anything to me, which is very typical of people who have messed up attachments.
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Abuse can do that to you.
Load full transcript
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It can harden you, it can make you feel completely incapable of forming a normal human connection to somebody, or you're too afraid to, or whatever.
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So that there can be this dissociated, detached way of dealing with connections to people.
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And what I think is in that moment when I when everything just sort of exploded out of her, I certainly don't mean that as an excuse, there were things that happened that really showed how much rage uh mixed with fear of abandonment and loss, I think, was present in her.
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And what you see is, you know, a box cutter being used to cut the belly of the victim, the fake the throat being cut, the the boyfriend carving a pentagram in her.
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And then the most horrendous thing of all, retaining part of the skull.
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Sure.
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And then boasting, boasting that she was going to use it to eat her cereal, uh, you know, that kind of thing.
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So, but what I have always thought about her was that this was an attempt to convey, I'm not no one's gonna hurt me.
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I'm cold, you know, that kind of thing.
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Now, let's say she was some kind of horrendous monster, you know, psychopath, serial killer, whatever.
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We would have expected to see behavior from age 18, when she did that on the whole entire way through her entire life.
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We would have seen prison life characterized by every manner of that kind of behavior.
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But instead, what it looks like is more consistent with a person who in youth does some angry, outrageous, over-the-top, hideous thing, but then like, you know, thirty-two years have gone on and it has eventually started to say, I don't know why I was able to do something like that.
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Growing up, she grew up a little bit.
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She grew up.
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She was 18 years old.
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And and and and and right now, but let me be clear to your audience, absolutely clear, that I do not mean any of that as a way of saying there's a justification, an excuse, I don't because what she did was so horrendous.
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But what I'm getting at is that you have to take things in a context of that there's always a why.
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Right.
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And and I and you and I'm saying to bring her to life is a fuller picture, because life is not the movies where the bad guys wear black and you know are always obvious.
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People can be human beings that do really horrible things, but they it's we don't say that the person is evil.
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We say that they did an evil thing, right?
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Because the it would be very difficult to find a person who day in and day out, from the minute they wake up, does evil things.
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I mean, I'm aware of serial killers that, you know, were good fathers.
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Right.
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Right.
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All right.
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So let's do that.
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So anyway, I want to be complicated.
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I want to get into some of the specifics, and I have some of the instances of the conduct and the statements, and we'll go through it.
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I got a I've got a bunch of them, but I I yeah, I think it'll give everyone a better idea here of what we're talking about.
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And you've mentioned some of this stuff.
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We look at the premeditation that she carried weapons with her, including the box cutter, a rag, and a miniature meat cleaver.
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Yeah.
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She was out to to scare the crap out of her, hurt her, torture her, whatever.
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Uh she she this woman, in her eyes, was a threat.
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Absolutely.
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Now, we get to the motive, and you've you've talked about this as well.
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Pike claimed she was jealous of Slemmer, believing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend to Daryl, and initially claimed she only wanted to fight Slemmer to tell her to leave me the bleep alone.
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Um That's what she says.
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That's what she says.
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If that's true, how does it go from that to this horrific, horrific event?
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Does something happen in your mind in the moment, if in fact this is a true statement from her?
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Because especially when people are overwhelmed with jealousy or rage, and especially if they're dysregulated and have you know executive issues or whatever, we don't know in her case, and uh they they can overblow what it is they originally tend to do.
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It's like the person who wants to eliminate a family member with a with a knife, you know, and stage it to look like someone came in and killed the person, but then they stab them like 55 times because they're so angry at them that that they overblow it.
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You in the moment you know it starts to pour out of you.
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Now, in my writing and in Michael's writing, we make a distinction between jealousy murders that are more completely impulsive and ones that are more plotted out, where you bring weapons with you and you do more cruel kind of stuff.
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Trevor Burrus, Jr.
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And she was allegedly lured
here, too, right?
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There they told her, hey, we're gonna go out and smoke some weed or something out in the woods.
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Right.
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This looks more like a a premeditated kind of thing where you know you're gonna do something very cruel.
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It's not like you're sitting in a bar, you get jealous, you know, you beat the crap out of person and they die.
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You know, this looks more like a plotted thing that does take some scheming and cruelty to kind of do.
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But but but you know, I think that it went probably farther than initially intended, but I think that there is no question that there was a premeditated element where something terrible was supposed to happen, right?
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So, like the two cases that I always compare to teach this point about jealousy murders, and I'm gonna give you the encapsulated version, okay?
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Is that okay?
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Oh, yeah.
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If I give you a very quick snapshot, okay.
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I think the audience will find it interesting.
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So one case, which is a very classic jealousy murder where it truly was impulsive, is a case that there was a man named Samuel Collins who was in Maine.
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He had he had an incredible deep love of his significant other, had her sort of on a pedestal, and he went to visit her at the supermarket where she worked, surprised her with flowers, and caught her sort of making out with a coworker.
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So he like goes home silently, waits for her to come home not long thereafter, and stabs her to death and cuts his own wrists, immediately calls his mother, expresses remorse, can't live without her, whatever, you know, and in his incarceration and all that, it reforms himself, never does anything like that again in his life.
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It was a totally impulsive, you know, like what they call in France, you know, the clim passionnel, a complete crime of passion.
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Now, this other case we compare it to is a different jealousy murder that involved a woman named Else Clautemann in Belgium, who was in a thrupple, essentially, with a diver, a skydiver and another woman in the skydiving troupe where they would take turns being with this same guy.
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One day a week you're with him, next day I'm with him, whatever.
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I never knew what the fuss was about, but they had this crazy thing with him.
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Okay.
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So what happens is one day, Els Clodeman has to stay at the apartment with the other two while they're making love in the other room, and she hears it and is furious.
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They're gonna go in a skydive a week later.
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So, in the cool light of reason, she severs the release cord on the parachute that the other woman's gonna use.
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And a week later, they go in the skydive, and Els Claudeman, with a camera attached to the helmet, films the woman dive out of the plane to her death.
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Both of these are jealousy murders, but the difference is that in the first, it was total impulse, where the person was completely overwhelmed emotionally, emotionally immature, just sort of had no coping skills, couldn't live without her, did his thing.
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The other one is cruel, meticulous, and the way she died shows the extreme hatred and the rage.
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Now, this Krista Pike thing has always felt to me more like that.
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Cruel in the cool light of reason.
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You bring a box cutter, you bring the rag, you bring the boyfriends in on it, the two of them go there knowing damn well some horrible thing is going to happen.
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So there's no denying that it was passionate and jealousy-based, but there was time taken to plot so that there's an awfulness factor.
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And then there were all these extras that things that weren't necessary for the commission of the crime that showed this extreme hatred and that thing of keeping the part of the skull and the pentagram and all of that kind of stuff.
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So there is no question that it was a hideous act plotted out with malice aforethought and everything else.
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I don't know if they intended to kill her, but certainly intended to do something horrendous, at least scare her, torture her, or whatever.
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And then, you know, a lot of years go by and people are sitting in a jail cell and a prison cell and they contemplate and they think their emotions burn low over the years, you know, and then they think differently of things, right?
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So that's very different than a serial killer.
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Right?
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So, so what else has she said that would be interesting to discuss?
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Well, we've got the initial assault, and this is the way it's being described been described.
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Pike began arguing with Slemmer, hitting her, banging her head against her knee, throwing her to the ground and kicking her repeatedly.
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Pike and Ship then held Slemmer down while she struggled.
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And this is Slemmer trying to get away, and they will not let her get away.
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So this is a point where it's clear that it's no longer trying to scare her because Slemmer's trying to save herself.
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Colleen.
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Right.
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Exactly.
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But what I'm getting at is that in these situations, it's very hard to tell what was part of the nefarious plan and what was the nefarious plan going haywire, right?
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It's a reminiscent, for example, of conversations we've had about Brian Koberger.
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Did he go into that house wanting to commit a mass murder or go into the house intending to do something and then everything went haywire and worse happened, right?
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It's kind of like that.
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I think that's probably what happened here, that something was supposed to happen and then it went extra.
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It went totally extra because in because rage took over, hatred, jealousy, whatever.
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And I think also probably this sense of power, feeling that this person was standing by you, loved you, wanted you, whatever, for the first time in your life, probably.
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You're having this kind of experience of, you know, this is how much somebody cares about me.
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They're gonna tie their fate to me like this.
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We're gonna do this thing together, right?
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Like you're so you gotta understand the psychology of that in a person who was previously the victim.
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And now there's that feeling of I'm in the in-group.
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I'm in control.
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I got somebody I'm in control.
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Exactly.
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And and so it starts getting overboard.
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Yeah.
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And here's some of the things you've been mentioning.
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Pike used the box cutter to cut her stomach while Slemmer screamed.
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Pike watched her bleed, and when Slemmer attempted to stand and run, she cut a long ash across her back.
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Again, this is another she's at the point where Slemmer is now trying to get away.
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So in my mind, as a prosecutor, the way I see that is, oh, if you were trying to scare her, if you were trying to do something, now she's a witness against you.
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If she gets away, I'm getting in trouble.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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And and the the thing is, I don't know if we're supposed to think that she sat around and said, you know what I want to do?
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I want to specifically cut her across her abdomen.
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Right.
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And I want to cut her throat.
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And I want, or if the idea was to say, I'm cold, I'd be willing to kill you with this box cutter.
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Like you keep your mouth shut, like stay away from my boyfriend, you know, that kind of thing.
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And then rage takes over.
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But it does seem to be characteristic of her to want to give the impression, at least in her youth, to give the impression of being ice cold.
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Like, don't mess with me.
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I have no attachments.
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And one of the other things I'm saying.
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One of the other things I heard about this moment in time was that there was another killing that took place close by, and there was already this fear in the community.
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You've got these two schools that are close to one another, and there were a lot of rumors about like satanic rituals taking place.
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Right.
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Do you think the chatter of that impacted the behavior of to Daryl, the boyfriend, and Krista in what they did?
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Do you think they were impacted by that?
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Is it coincidental that there's another killer out there at the time that all this is happening?
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It's a very interesting question.
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I think that if a person is trying to convey, you know, don't mess with me, I'm as bad as it gets, and you're in the heart of what, you know, some people call the satanic panic of that period, right?
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There was that kind of idea that, I mean, remember, in that period, people from the 80s until about then, there was a concern about stuff like that.
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You know, uh kids are being picked up by people that are using them in rituals, you know, uh don't play Dungeons and Dragons, or you may, you know, wind up getting caught up in Satanism.
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You know, there was a feeling that that was a legitimate, frequent motive for crime.
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And um, you know, the the idea is I think, again, I see Krista Pike as a person who wanted desperately to convey fearlessness, strength, belonging, etc., because she was a victimized person herself originally.
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And I think that what you wound up with is a person who was trying to look like the most terrifying monster, you know, on the face of the earth.
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Uh so the idea is that the satanic elements and the thing and all of that, it's all part of conveying that.
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And and, you know, now, was she?
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I don't know.
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I mean, there are some people that are going to take a very black and white view that she did a monstrous thing, she's evil, that's the end of it.
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I think people are a little more complicated than that in general.
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And um, I I all I know is she did a thing that was horrendous, did a thing that was vile.
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And it is plausible that part of the purpose of that was to give the impression of somebody else doing it for a different motive.
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It could have been that the purpose of it was to really look bad, you know, and and terrible and scary.
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It's it is possible.
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The most disturbing aspect of that crime is the retention of part of her skull.
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Yeah.
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We're gonna get there in just a second.
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We're gonna get I want to do the gagging first here.
00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:07.599
Uh Pike removed a cloth rag from her own hair, tied it around Slemmer's mouth to prevent her screams from being heard.
00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:09.920
Is that as simple as covering up a crime?
00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:12.400
Is there anything deeper to that?
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:20.559
I mean, it could be, but I mean the problem is that because I'm making the point that I think there was definitely a goal to do some horrendous thing.
00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:36.480
I don't know how much was premeditated, but the thing is bringing a rag to, you know, in a box gutter, a pretty good case could be made that you sat there and thought you were going to do this horrible thing where you wanted somebody not to be able to scream while you quietly killed them.
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:43.279
So that, you know, let me be clear, I'm agnostic about what their intention was of this because instruments were brought there.
00:20:43.440 --> 00:20:53.920
Um just knowing what I know about these types of crimes and her and the advantage of her personality being glimpsed over all these years, I I wouldn't be surprised if it went worse than intended.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:02.960
Um I think what what it speaks to also is a desire to not only you know, because remember, everything has a practical function and a psychological one.
00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.079
From a practical perspective, you're keeping her from screaming.
00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:14.960
From a psychological perspective, you're also keeping her from being a human, talking, reasoning with you, uh, even being able to talk to your boyfriend.
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:28.720
So that there's also the symbolic thing of I don't want any words out of you, I just want you to be turned into an object, you know, into somebody that that isn't going to say anything that's gonna sway me, make me feel bad, give me any sympathy.
00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:34.720
You know, there are killers that can be very affected by you talking and becoming a human in their eyes.
00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:43.519
Even Ted Bundy, there's a famous story told that he had picked up a woman and and she started to tell him too much about her personality, and he dropped her off.
00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:44.240
Oh, wow.
00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:47.599
Because she couldn't be an object to him anymore.
00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:56.000
Once she started talking about her interests and her life, it it the the the the she was a person, and out she went, right?
00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.759
So that there is something about not wanting the person to have an opportunity.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.839
To plea their case and talk to you and be human, right?
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:11.039
So there's a little bit of an element of that at on at least at unconscious level, it can be very dehumanizing and prevent you from talking.
00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:19.279
So let's let's talk about the carving of the pentagram, this five-pointed star inside a circle carved into her chest while she was being attacked.
00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:29.279
So I want to go back to what I I mentioned before, which this that there was a lot of chatter and a lot of fear in the community even before this took place.
00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:31.440
And I look at it two different ways.
00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:38.480
Either, you know, you're sort of mimicking what's going on, right?
00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:51.839
And and you're doing that to maybe throw off investigators from looking at this case in isolation and looking at, oh, there's some serial satanic cult that's out there.
00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:59.599
Um but then I look at him and I say, well, he's 17 years old, she's 18, are they that sophisticated in that moment?
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:01.359
And I'm not sure.
00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:02.319
I'm not sure.
00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:02.640
Right.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:10.000
And then the other part of it is like you do it because yeah, you you somehow maybe believe in something like this.
00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:21.519
And there is some level of this that you're you're studying, and there was talks about, you know, witches and others who sort of penetrated the the student body down there.
00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:34.000
Well, it's interesting when you think about offenders who embrace Satanism, we think of it as being a hallmark of how evil the individual is.
00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:38.880
For example, Richard Ramirez, the night stalker, was identified that way.
00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:42.480
But I always thought, now let's just use him as an example.
00:23:42.720 --> 00:24:11.599
I always thought that Ramirez, who had a father that was allegedly abusive and uh, you know, and really no sense of stable home life and was longing for a male parentified figure, used Satan as a kind of paternal figure who gave him a clear mode of operating and gave him a permission structure for being an outsider, for being angry, for wanting his needs met, for being isolated, for being weird, for everything else.
00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:20.319
And then, of course, he, you know, he also embraces a cousin of his who teaches
him all about murder and perversion and he gets fascinated by it, right?
00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:24.240
So he's somebody who I think needed a parental, a stable parental figure.
00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:47.039
Well, that's true of a lot of these people to embrace Satanism, is that it it has the same, in a perverse way, the same function you can see in a more traditional religious idea, is that it gives you a kind of a stable sense of belonging and having a parentified authority figure that kind of says, do this and don't do that, and you'll belong, right?
00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:55.519
And this boyfriend, who was the one I think who had carved the pentagram, and who incidentally I just read may also be released.
00:24:55.759 --> 00:25:01.759
Uh uh I I read a couple of weeks ago that he that there's a potential of the boyfriend being released.
00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:09.759
Um but but I but I think that you want to see it that he would have had a it let's say he was embracing Satanism.
00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:25.200
I don't know for sure, but let's say he was, and he was drawing a sense of belonging from that, then she, looking for stability and belonging and a parentified figure and authority and an anchor in her life, would have gone right along with whatever the heck he wanted, right?
00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:28.640
Now I'm not suggesting that she did this for him.
00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:30.240
Oh yeah, I don't mean that.
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:39.200
I just mean that whatever his identity was, she would be pulled, she could be pulled into it because she wanted a stable belonging with somebody.
00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:45.039
And, you know, so who the heck knows, you know, what you he was talking to her about in private and all of that.
00:25:45.200 --> 00:25:52.880
And and but but I think that he was the one who was identified with that, is my understanding, and the one who carved the pentagram.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:55.359
Have you ever heard of her being a Satanist?
00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:56.319
No, no.
00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:04.000
What I've heard and what I've researched and and talking to people is that that that was something that was driving him and all this.
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:10.559
Now, this is the part that I personally find the most um yes disturbing about all this.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:14.319
And there's another part of this description that I'll get into, but let me read this first.
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:16.480
The Blood Force Trauma and the Final Blows.
00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:20.559
Pike and Ship threw rocks at Slemmer's head as she attempted to flee.
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:25.279
When Slemmer fell, Pike repeatedly smashed her head with a large chunk of asphalt.
00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:34.880
Pike stated she could hear Slemmer breathing blood in and out and saw her body jerking, but kept hitting her and hitting her and hitting her.
00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:49.920
The other part of this that was described in the trial was that once she smashes the head, she waits and does not want to leave until she sees the brain ooze out.
00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:01.680
And when I heard that, my jaw dropped and um any sort of benefit of any doubt kind of left my mind.
00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:03.680
And I'm a former prosecutor, okay?
00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:05.200
That's the way I see the world.
00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:17.039
Explain to me what's going on here and why she is seemingly reveling in watching the final moments of this life of her romantic rival.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:22.720
Well, uh I think it was a convergence of multiple psychological forces.
00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:23.920
This is what it seems to me.
00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:26.480
The convergence of multiple psychological forces.
00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:38.720
First of all, you have a person who is disempowered by years of her own lack of belonging, stability and um assault, who is empowered by an event like this.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:52.079
Number two, she's feels a kind of a connection, a belonging, a stabilization from having a romantic partner, and she's now, in a way, almost proving to him her devotion, her belonging, and he's doing the same, right?
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:57.920
It's like you're cementing, almost consummating the intense relationship that you have.
00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:01.759
You're not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere, we're in this together, we're bound together.
00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:16.400
It's sort of the way that some people with an abuse history can find it, for example, strangely attractive or stabilizing to be in a toxic fighting dynamic in a relationship, because they'll say, in the fighting, it it proves he's not going anywhere.
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:17.440
She's not going anywhere.
00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.240
He must love me.
00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:19.119
She must love me.
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:19.920
We're together.
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:21.039
This is passion.
00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:22.799
We're bound together, right?
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:26.640
So that there's something perverse about that, but it it's a binding thing.
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.319
Then you've got the idea that, you know, she's furious.
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:36.960
She's threatened that this is somebody who might take away the only person that she's got in her life like that, right?
00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:40.960
So she's absolutely 100% enraged.
00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:52.319
And I think what you have is a situation where in that moment, in this mixture of exhilaration, which she described, by the way, as feeling kind of multiple feelings after it, right?
00:28:52.559 --> 00:29:06.720
She she's exhilarated, you know, can't believe, you know, that this has happened, the horror of it, the strange satisfaction, the all of it all happening at the same time, one big giant soup of emotion.
00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:17.680
And I think in that moment, you know, there's a sense of satisfaction that it finally feels like
she's leveled the playing field and and secured for herself a person that's not going anywhere.
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:23.440
And it's like one big blow towards the forces that have tried to take things from her her whole life.
00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:26.240
Except that this woman was an innocent woman.
00:29:26.480 --> 00:29:26.799
Right.
00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:27.200
Right.
00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:29.519
But that's what's been projected onto her.
00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:33.359
And in that moment, it's like I watched it die.
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:34.240
That's it.
00:29:34.480 --> 00:29:36.559
Smooth sailing, now on, right?
00:29:36.799 --> 00:29:40.079
Except what what was she going to do?
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:41.519
She confessed a few weeks later.
00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:42.720
Well, very quickly.
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:49.680
Well, let's talk about this the the trophy and body disposal before leaving with uh Slummer's face down in a pile of debris.
00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:50.079
Yeah.
00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:50.960
Horrendous.
00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:57.759
She crushed and severed a section of her skull and removed the piece of the skull bone, put it in a napkin as a souvenir.
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:00.640
I believe when she was arrested, it was in her pocket.
00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:03.680
Like, what what what's going on here?
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:17.440
This is the other part that has disturbed many folks and enraged folks in Tennessee, and it's why overwhelmingly the folks in that community um want to see the state of Tennessee uh attempt the execution a second time.
00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:19.680
Now, let me be clear.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:25.920
My heart entities go 100% to the family of the victim and the victim.
00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:26.319
Okay.
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:36.640
Nothing that I'm saying is to be construed as an excuse or anything, as much as just creating a kind of psychological insight into what might be going on in an offender.
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:36.960
Okay.
00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:40.480
And the only reason I care about that is to prevent more offenders.
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.599
I have no interest in in you know in making excuse.
00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:51.519
And of course, in when I work on legal cases, uh I have to understand it because of fairness in in terms of the judicial process.
00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:54.240
But this is what I would say.
00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:57.920
You have to ask yourself, why do offenders keep trophies?
00:30:58.160 --> 00:30:59.759
Serial killers, for example.
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:06.319
Some of them eat people, some of them bury them someplace they could visit, some of them keep a part of the body.
00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:07.599
Why do they do that?
00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:23.599
Well, I've always thought, and in my writing, in a recent writing, I'm starting to lay out a real theory about this for the first time, is that there's too much emphasis on those offenders doing those things as part of a psychosexual kind of thrill.
00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:33.680
I think that a lot of those things are done to create stable objects in your life when you had an unstable life for years.
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:40.880
You had an alcoholic parent, you had someone who was abusing you, you had someone who was leaving you, you know, people bullied you, whatever.
00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:46.960
So to carve out a s a kind of predictable object, you do some of these things.
00:31:47.119 --> 00:31:51.599
When they asked Dahmer why he ate people, he said that it was because he was tired of people leaving him.
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:53.200
Right?
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:54.079
That was the point.
00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:57.119
They'll become part of me forever and then they'll never leave.
00:31:57.440 --> 00:31:59.039
Stabilization of objects.
00:31:59.359 --> 00:32:02.000
Stalking people can be about stabilization of objects.
00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:03.519
I always know where you are.
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:05.119
Right?
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:08.640
Burying a person and visiting their corpse, same thing.
00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:11.359
The killer will say, they belong to me.
00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:13.519
I go to them and they're mine.
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.559
You know, I have control now over.
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:20.079
And it's the same thing with keeping part of a body and all of that.
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:31.279
It's this weird way of keeping a person with you permanently, or keeping the event with you permanently, or reminding yourself that you had the ability to do it in that moment, right?
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:32.880
That you had the power to do it.
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:45.279
And I think this is a person who, in some twisted way, wanted a reminder that she had become the arbiter this time, you know, of life and death and who hurts her and who, whatever.
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:47.839
Because it's it's totally perverted and outrageous.
00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.559
But this is somebody who had herself been hurt.
00:32:50.799 --> 00:32:59.119
And so in this twisted way, it's like a memento of the day that you feel that you you stood up to the forces that had hurt you.
00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:02.000
You and I understand how perverted and outrageous that is.
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:04.240
But you got to see it through that lens.
00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:15.200
And this is a souvenir in the way that a per a normal person, an average person, might keep a photo of a wedding day or a the day that they graduated, they you know, they keep their diploma.
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:21.359
They can't this is like you see it as the day you became what it is that you wanted to be, right?
00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:23.039
And so it's a souvenir.
00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:28.000
And it's also a way of saying to the world, no one's, I'm not scared of you.
00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:30.079
I chose to do this.
00:33:30.240 --> 00:33:31.839
I have the power, right?
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:36.160
I remember once I interviewed somebody who was covered head to toe in tattoos.
00:33:36.720 --> 00:33:38.880
And uh they had been horrendously abused.
00:33:39.039 --> 00:33:44.559
And I said, I'm just curious, you know, is there a psychological significance to why you're covered head to toe in tattoos?
00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:45.759
I'm just saying, I think it's interesting.
00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:46.480
I'm just curious.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.079
And they said, Yeah.
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:52.400
It's my way of saying to the world, I chose all this pain.
00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:58.400
I you could tattoo me head to toe, put needles in every part of me.
00:33:58.640 --> 00:33:59.680
I chose it.
00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:00.960
It doesn't hurt me.
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:02.720
I choose that it hurts me.
00:34:02.960 --> 00:34:08.000
So I think that there's a little bit of that that you got to understand in the mind of some of these people.
00:34:08.239 --> 00:34:16.800
And I think we also don't know how much he was kind of firing her up and pumping her up, and and we don't know how that dynamic was playing out.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:32.320
But the point is to have this thing that proves, like like a dissociative or lost soul, you know, might want, or a, or a person who wants to give a message to the world that they're a monster, they need a thing that says this was real, right?
00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:34.480
That this really happened.
00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:40.480
And um Haven't you ever had a souvenir that you kept to remind you of come to my house?
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:41.519
I'm like a hoarder.
00:34:41.599 --> 00:34:45.199
I have souvenirs like from every little thing that happened in my life.
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:46.480
I I have a ton of them.
00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:47.199
Let's do this.
00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:48.880
This is a perversion of that.
00:34:49.119 --> 00:34:51.199
Yeah, this is an extreme perversion of that.
00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:53.360
We've taken a look at a lot of the conduct.
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:57.840
I want to take a look at some of her words now, some of the statements that she made.
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:02.960
And I'll begin here, and this is the the alleged taunting or the actual taunting.
00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:12.639
While Slemmer was dying and groaning, Pike, Christopher Pike taunted her by asking, Colleen, do you know who's doing this to you?
00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:20.400
It's an interesting comment, right?
00:35:20.719 --> 00:35:26.800
From from somebody who on the one hand had a history of being the victim and now became the monster, right?
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:31.199
It's the right that you almost want to say, Do you know who's doing it to me?
00:35:33.039 --> 00:35:34.000
Who are you?
00:35:34.639 --> 00:35:34.960
Right?
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:36.880
So that is a it's an interesting thing.
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:40.559
You know, they say toys with this whole idea of identity, right?
00:35:41.039 --> 00:35:49.840
That and so that it's like it's almost as if she's saying, Colleen, I want you to know who I am because I want to see who I am right now.
00:35:50.079 --> 00:35:53.280
I right now I'm something different than I've always been, right?
00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:55.760
And I want you to know it and I want the world to know it.
00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:58.079
That's why I'm gonna carry this bone around.
00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:02.400
It's to it's to manipulate the way you are seen.
00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:05.280
So no one messes with you, right?
00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:07.440
You're bad, you're a monster, you're strong.
00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:12.639
So so I think that that question is very, very telling of an uncertainty in herself.
00:36:14.079 --> 00:36:14.400
See?
00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:15.599
I got it.
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:21.599
I I I mean, there's a definitely a theme that's very consistent throughout the conduct behind the statement.
00:36:21.840 --> 00:36:22.960
How about this part?
00:36:23.119 --> 00:36:25.280
Um no, that's the wrong one.
00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:26.480
Let me get the right one here.
00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:27.519
One second.
00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:31.679
Don't you love these deep dives we do, Vinny?
00:36:31.920 --> 00:36:35.920
Yeah, this is the way, this is how you actually get some insight into what's going on.
00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:37.280
That's great.
00:36:37.519 --> 00:36:42.239
Okay, this is part of the alleged boasting that's taken place, okay?
00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:52.480
So this is to the student Wilson, then when pointed out that there was red residue on her shoes, Pike stated, that ain't mud on my shoes, that's blood.
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:59.280
She then unwrapped the napkin, showed the skull piece, and detailed how Slummer's blood and brains poured out.
00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:01.519
This is back at the school.
00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:04.639
Like they're all students and and and you know, going to school together.
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:08.159
And she's not trying to hide what she did here.
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:11.280
She's boasting about it to fellow students.
00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:14.559
Her judgment is clearly impaired, right?
00:37:14.719 --> 00:37:17.280
I mean, you know, that this is uh this is impulsive.
00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:22.400
It's uh it it's almost as if she wants to get in trouble.
00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:34.719
One might make the Freudian interpretation that if you really are looking for a parentified figure and discipline in your life and a sense of belonging and stability, you're almost begging to be tucked away in a jail cell.
00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:37.440
Well, you'll have somebody who watches you forever.
00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:50.400
And she did have a history of being in in in settings like that, where authority figures watched after her and all of that, because she was, you know, not being watched after for part of her life.
00:37:50.639 -->
00:37:57.679
So I think, you know, in a psychological way, it almost comes across like come at me, be afraid of me.
00:37:57.840 --> 00:37:58.719
I'm immune.
00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:02.960
But secretly, this is what I meant earlier about the practical and the psychological.
00:38:03.199 --> 00:38:08.719
Secretly, it feels like lock me up, stop me.
00:38:09.440 --> 00:38:16.960
Give me a stable setting in which, you know, I get three hots and a cot, you know, and I and I uh, you know, and I and I could be okay.
00:38:17.360 --> 00:38:22.880
And um, you know, that that's I think the the the complicated way you gotta look at this case.
00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:32.559
Now, after her arrest, she waives her rights, gives a full detailed statement, agreeing to walk police through a reenactment at the crime scene.
00:38:32.880 --> 00:38:38.079
This is not normal behavior uh by a uh a murder defendant.
00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:44.000
Um, but it to me now um like this now seems consistent with what you're just saying.
00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:44.719
That's right.
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:49.280
So she's thrown in the towel, you got me, um, but now you gotta take care of me.
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:51.199
Now you gotta give me a place to live.
00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:53.599
Got to give me a place to live, exactly.
00:38:53.760 --> 00:39:01.760
And and you know, it's um if that's true, you would expect the person to do very well in an incarceration situation.
00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:05.360
To not have problems in that setting very much.
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:17.039
Now, there are stories uh about some of what went on there, but it does, but we're gonna see that there she does reflect and ultimately start to say different stuff as time goes on, whether you believe it or not.
00:39:17.199 --> 00:39:24.719
Right there there is this kind of growth in insight as time goes on, and and we'll and I'm sure we'll see those comments as time goes on.
00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:25.599
And how about those?
00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:26.960
But this is early on.
00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:27.760
Early on.
00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:29.360
This is all early on.
00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:31.360
You know, we're going back in time here on this.
00:39:31.519 --> 00:39:40.639
Now, again, the witnesses, the folks that she was talking to noted that she appeared calm, smiling, and laughing while describing the murder.
00:39:41.119 --> 00:39:48.159
And that and you know, we're talking about this case, and and how on earth does an 18-year-old woman end up on death row?
00:39:48.400 --> 00:39:51.679
A lot of it is because of this, this type of behavior.
00:39:51.840 --> 00:39:58.159
I mean, you're not going to endear yourself to a jury uh when all of this is being described to them.
00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:11.119
Well, it you know, because um there's multiple layers to why people do a thing, but people have a tendency to think that there's just one big black and white reason why you do it.
00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:16.400
A person laughing and acting callous can have multiple motivations.
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:29.039
Um, you know, for example, if um I see two guys get into a fight and one is acting all tough and says, you know, you're not gonna, you're not gonna hurt me, I'll take you right now, whatever.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:37.599
You could look at it that that's really how he feels, or you could look at it that it's a compensation for feeling very small and insecure and and trying to posture.
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:41.440
You there's all different reasons why people have an observable behavior.
00:40:41.599 --> 00:40:42.159
We don't know.
00:40:42.719 --> 00:40:53.039
Another thing that's got to be taken into consideration is that Christa herself, Pike herself, refers to herself as having been mentally ill when she was that age.
00:40:53.199 --> 00:40:57.199
There are quotes where she'll say, I was an 18-year-old and I was mentally ill.
00:40:57.440 --> 00:41:08.239
When she looks back on it, she sees that that was a reflection of disturbance, and she'll even say, I'm sure you have quotes like that, she'll even say, I don't know how I could have done that to somebody.
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:13.119
That's very different than a than a psychopathic person, unless she wants something.
00:41:13.280 --> 00:41:15.119
Look, she thinks she's going to get something out of it.
00:41:15.199 --> 00:41:17.039
But what could she get out of it at this point?
00:41:17.360 --> 00:41:19.679
Well, I I think she does want to live.
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:20.719
Yes.
00:41:21.039 --> 00:41:26.960
She absolutely wants to live because she was given she knew she had the problem with the veins.
00:41:27.199 --> 00:41:32.800
She she may or may not have dehydrated herself, which makes it more difficult to find the vein.
00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:34.480
That's that's being debated right now.
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:53.679
Um but she chose, she had the option of the electric chair because of the time of her conviction, she was eligible for the electric chair if she wanted, but she said, no, I don't want that, and then chose a an alternative means that is not legal in Tennessee.
00:41:53.920 --> 00:41:56.559
So to me, that was really a false choice.
00:41:56.719 --> 00:42:00.079
Um whether it's her or her lawyers, I'm not sure.
00:42:00.159 --> 00:42:01.360
Uh, but it was a false choice.
00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:05.519
You say, yeah, uh, I'll, yeah, if you're gonna execute me, do it this way.
00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:07.840
Well, we can't, you know we can't do it that way.
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:16.320
But they could have electrocuted her, but she chose not to do that and went the route that she went, and obviously uh the state of Tennessee botched it.
00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:18.639
Um, but I believe she wants to live now.
00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:22.079
Like she does not want to go to the chamber.
00:42:23.440 --> 00:42:27.920
She says, I've heard, you know, I know that there are quotes
where she says, I'm not afraid to die.
00:42:28.079 --> 00:42:38.400
But then she goes on to say that it has more to do with like how, how that she's upset about afraid of the process, but that she's accepted the idea that of death.
00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:38.880
Right.
00:42:39.280 --> 00:42:42.159
And, you know, and it it it's it's an interesting thing.
00:42:42.239 --> 00:42:44.480
I mean, you know, I that we could debate all night.
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:58.559
I mean, you know, about it starts to almost get into a larger question about the utility of the death penalty and are there certain ways that are more moral than others to do it or more ethical to do it, or you know, how much of a public spectacle should it be when a person is executed?
00:42:58.719 --> 00:43:01.199
It's a fascinating thing to talk about.
00:43:01.519 --> 00:43:12.320
Um, but but I but I think that um I think that it's interesting that a person is saying, look, you know, I know I'm gonna die.
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:13.920
I did this thing, it was wrong.
00:43:14.239 --> 00:43:15.760
Because she doesn't have to.
00:43:16.400 --> 00:43:22.960
She if she wanted, if she really was still the person she was when she was 18, she'd still be putting on the act of I'm stone cold.
00:43:23.119 --> 00:43:23.760
You know what I mean?
00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:27.760
She would just be like, screw it, I don't care, I would do it again today and be happy about it.
00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:29.119
You know, that kind of thing.
00:43:29.280 --> 00:43:30.239
She's not saying that.
00:43:30.400 --> 00:43:30.880
Right.
00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:33.119
And I mean, the woman is 50 years old now.
00:43:33.199 --> 00:43:33.360
Yeah.
00:43:33.519 --> 00:43:34.960
This is when she was 18.
00:43:35.199 --> 00:43:36.000
I want to go back.
00:43:36.079 --> 00:43:37.360
Can we go back to when she's 18?
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:40.719
Because I I I don't want to leave this out, and I thought this was important.
00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:40.960
Yeah.
00:43:41.119 --> 00:43:46.239
And this was the letter that was intercepted that after her conviction, again, we're going back in time.
00:43:46.400 --> 00:43:54.079
She writes this letter to to Daryl, who is the boyfriend who she'll never be with because he was convicted as well, although he might get out.
00:43:54.239 --> 00:43:56.159
Um, and here's the letter.
00:43:56.400 --> 00:43:59.119
Hey, love, I just want you to know how much I love you.
00:43:59.199 --> 00:43:59.599
I have 10.
00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:04.079
Months left to live, not really, turned into several decades, right?
00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:05.039
Imagine that.
00:44:05.199 --> 00:44:08.159
I'd spend every moment with you if I could, baby.
00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:12.320
I want you to tell them you lied in your statement and go along with mine.
00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:13.840
Do you have a copy of mine?
00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:15.360
If not, I'll get you one.
00:44:15.599 --> 00:44:15.920
Okay?
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:18.000
I love you, big bunches, baby.
00:44:18.159 --> 00:44:21.840
And no matter what they do to me, they can't change what's in my heart.
00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:23.039
Please write me.
00:44:23.119 --> 00:44:24.400
I miss you so much.
00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:27.119
You see what I get for trying to be nice to the bleep?
00:44:27.440 --> 00:44:34.880
I went ahead and bashed her brains out so she'd die quickly instead of letting her bleed to death and suffer more, and they fry me.
00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:37.039
Ain't that some bleep?
00:44:37.280 --> 00:44:39.519
Please write me and tell me what you're feeling.
00:44:39.679 --> 00:44:43.280
Baker said he'd give you some paper and bleep while you're out there.
00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:51.360
Also, tell your lawyer if he wants me to testify for you, I will love you for the rest of my life, little devil.
00:44:52.559 --> 00:45:07.280
So you see, calling herself little devil, the the the idea being that in order to have a sense of bonding with this person, she had to kind of convey herself that she was capable of being pure evil.
00:45:07.599 --> 00:45:09.199
Like she's got to play it on.
00:45:09.360 --> 00:45:10.960
Like that's part of their bond.
00:45:11.039 --> 00:45:12.880
That's their shtick with each other, right?
00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:14.079
I'm a monster.
00:45:14.639 --> 00:45:18.480
But the key of it is that she had a stable attachment with him in her mind.
00:45:18.719 --> 00:45:22.480
She would do absolutely anything she had to do to keep that attachment going.
00:45:23.039 --> 00:45:26.880
And um, you know, i I wonder if they ever had a breakup.
00:45:27.199 --> 00:45:30.400
I mean, do they does she still to this day think that she's involved with this guy?
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:34.239
No, well, no, I was gonna tell you, ask you about this because in 2012.
00:45:35.519 --> 00:45:45.760
In 2012, when she tries the uh is planning and plotting the prison break with her pal boyfriend from New Jersey who keeps visiting her.
00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:46.719
I forgot about that.
00:45:46.880 --> 00:45:47.360
Yeah.
00:45:47.599 --> 00:45:50.320
Um What do you think was going on there?
00:45:50.480 --> 00:46:05.920
Do you think that she because I have a big problem with this as well, um for obvious reasons, um, as do a lot of people, but do you think she's using this guy or someone's paying attention to her?
00:46:06.079 --> 00:46:13.679
Does she see him as because this is a guy who not only was planning this, he also got pinched for um mortgage fraud.
00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:28.800
So he had like over$100,000 available to himself at the time that he was planning and plotting and conniving with the corrections officer to get a key, to get false IDs, to to I mean, this was a real plot.
00:46:29.039 --> 00:46:36.559
What do you think was going on from her perspective, what she was um potentially thinking about in the future?
00:46:36.719 --> 00:46:41.519
Was she going to run off with this guy,
or is this you you think it's just an opportunity?
00:46:41.679 --> 00:46:45.920
This is someone who reached out to me, so, hey, I can get him to do something for me.
00:46:46.559 --> 00:47:07.760
Well, I think what it shows is that, and this is just a hypothesis, but it suggests a person who gets caught up in impulsive, not very thought-out fantasies that involve a person who comes like a kind of weird, perverted white knight and is willing to do things that are absolutely outrageous, throw their own life away as a proof.
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:11.039
So the so the attraction, I mean, my God, can you look at let me know?
00:47:11.280 --> 00:47:12.400
There's the happy couple.
00:47:12.960 --> 00:47:13.119
Right.
00:47:13.199 --> 00:47:15.280
I've seen better heads on boils, as they say.
00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:15.599
Right.
00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:24.880
So so it's this this whole idea that that um there's something thrilling about somebody wanting you that much, caring about that you that much, right?
00:47:25.199 --> 00:47:44.480
And in conjunction with the judgment problems and the impulse control problem and all this other stuff that is self-evident from the story, I just think it's getting caught up again in another one of these things where you have this need to have somebody who wants you so badly they would destroy their lives along with you in a kind of perverse bond, right?
00:47:44.639 --> 00:47:47.280
An outrageous bond you're gonna make with each other.
00:47:47.519 --> 00:47:51.599
And um, that's not uncommon in, for example, couples that kill.
00:47:51.840 --> 00:47:57.199
Is that that it becomes part of the cementing, right, of the of the relationship with each other.
00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:02.559
I mean, that letter that you showed me, doesn't it strike you as pathetic?
00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:06.719
This isn't that sad and pathetic in a way.
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:20.880
I mean, you know, it it comes across that she doesn't even care at that time that she did what she did, because as far as she's concerned, it bonded her to somebody finally who would live and die for her.
00:48:21.519 --> 00:48:23.519
I mean, that that's really what it comes down to.
00:48:23.679 --> 00:48:25.199
Throw themselves into jail for her.
00:48:25.280 --> 00:48:30.480
That that is more important than having a physical sexual relationship in person with a person.
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:47.920
It's like a person who because you gotta understand, when we go out and we have romantic relationships in a post-pubescent kind of way, hopefully we've resolved all the pre-puberty stuff of believing that somebody loves us just because we exist, you know, somebody would take care of us in the crib, you know?
00:48:48.159 --> 00:48:53.920
But if you don't resolve that, then sexual relationships are really about that.
00:48:54.559 --> 00:48:59.760
You're doing the sexual, but you really want is somebody who just cares about you like you're an infant, right?
00:48:59.920 --> 00:49:02.079
In fact, it's interesting she calls him baby.
00:49:02.320 --> 00:49:05.679
But you just want the person like it like basically just to be there.
00:49:05.840 --> 00:49:08.719
And in that kind of relationship, you don't even need physicality.
00:49:09.039 --> 00:49:11.280
You just want to know the person's there.
00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:12.480
That they exist.
00:49:12.800 --> 00:49:15.519
She thinks she wants to please write me, please write me.
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:16.159
She wants that.
00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:18.239
Pay attention to me, take care of me.
00:49:18.320 --> 00:49:19.199
I always want to know where you are.
00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:24.880
That's why if you talk to people who've who have hyperstophilia where you fall in love with an offender, right?
00:49:24.960 --> 00:49:32.719
That that that paraphilic disorder where you're romantically attracted to somebody who's in jail for killing or whatever, who's murdered, who's committed crime.
00:49:32.880 --> 00:49:36.320
If you talk to them, some of them will say, I always know where he is.
00:49:36.559 --> 00:49:37.679
He's never going anywhere.
00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:38.880
He's not going to cheat on me.
00:49:38.960 --> 00:49:40.880
He there's no other woman to cheat with.
00:49:40.960 --> 00:49:41.840
I always know where he is.
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:48.559
He's a he's in the and it also reminds me of a story of a person that uh there's a true story.
00:49:48.719 --> 00:50:00.159
I had a pr a person that I knew, well, I don't have to say who they were, not a patient, but somebody in the neighborhood had this weird thing where they inherited a bicycle from a family member that had died.
00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:03.039
This beautiful vintage bicycle.
00:50:03.440 --> 00:50:05.599
And they went and they threw it in the river.
00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:09.440
Threw it right over the side of the bridge into a river.
00:50:09.679 --> 00:50:11.760
And I said, Why would you do that?
00:50:11.920 --> 00:50:12.719
I'm just curious.
00:50:12.800 --> 00:50:20.480
I mean, this was given to you by this person that you missed that you and he said, I would I always know where it is now.
00:50:22.159 --> 00:50:25.599
It creates this twisted idea of permanence.
00:50:25.920 --> 00:50:26.239
See?
00:50:26.400 --> 00:50:30.719
So with him tucked in a jail cell and her tucked in a jail cell, you're not going anywhere.
00:50:31.360 --> 00:50:31.760
Done.
00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:32.639
See?
00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:33.440
We're bound together.
00:50:33.519 --> 00:50:37.440
Like, that's right.
00:50:37.840 --> 00:50:44.800
And and and so you wind up with this sort of Macbeck situation where the two of them have committed the deed together and that's it.
00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:45.760
They're in it together.
00:50:45.840 --> 00:50:47.599
They're bound forever, right?
00:50:48.159 --> 00:50:53.599
Well, I wonder how she feels about the idea that he may get out and she's gonna die.
00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:54.320
Yeah.
00:50:54.880 --> 00:50:58.320
That's that's the next chapter.
00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:00.239
We'll we'll get to that in our next chapter.
00:51:00.400 --> 00:51:01.840
I just want to finish with this last statement.
00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:04.079
We go back to 2002 again.
00:51:04.320 --> 00:51:08.000
Um during a hearing where she briefly attempted to waive her appeals.
00:51:08.159 --> 00:51:09.519
Pike stated, I killed someone.
00:51:09.599 --> 00:51:13.920
I sat in this very courtroom with a jury that found me guilty and sentenced me to death.
00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:26.159
Um, it's an acknowledgement of what she did, and she's trying to just waive her appeals, which I looked at this and I thought this was important because that's the exact opposite of where she is now.
00:51:26.719 --> 00:51:28.239
She's not waiving appeals.
00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:35.920
They are filing motion after motion after motion, looking for a way to escape the punishment for her crime.
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:37.280
Mm-hmm.
00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:42.239
Well, look, I mean, I don't know if she really wants to be dead.
00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:46.559
I think the story for this woman was that she always just wanted a different life.
00:51:46.880 --> 00:51:50.800
It isn't that she wanted death, and she's never getting one.
00:51:50.960 --> 00:51:53.360
I mean, that the fate is sealed one way or another.
00:51:53.440 --> 00:51:54.559
I mean, that that's it.
00:51:54.719 --> 00:52:01.440
And, you know, and and then and in a way, I mean, I want to know if it's been a bad life for her in prison.
00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:08.159
It may be the first time in her life that she has a sense of belonging and order and in the middle of all the chaos of life.
00:52:08.320 --> 00:52:09.199
I don't know.
00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:16.719
But but I only know that those statements are suggestive of a person who realizes that what they did was horrendous.
00:52:17.440 --> 00:52:20.079
And I do think that she knows what she did was horrendous.
00:52:20.159 --> 00:52:20.880
I really do.
00:52:21.119 --> 00:52:25.199
I just don't know what would happen if she was out in the world again.
00:52:25.519 --> 00:52:38.559
But this looks like one of those cases where it depends on the context if she's in a c as long as the person isn't in some kind of attachment dynamic where they're they're horrified at the idea of abandonment or need to make a bond.
00:52:38.719 --> 00:52:52.239
Because I think that story about the guy that that she might escape with that whole story shows that once there's an emotional dynamic again with a man who gives her that feeling, it's you can start seeing that sort of unraveling.
00:52:52.320 --> 00:53:00.000
And I don't know if it unravels towards murder, but it certainly unravels towards being willing to do things that are a little outrageous.
00:53:00.320 --> 00:53:06.000
And I think that's the key of it, is is that is that that need gets her unraveled.
00:53:06.639 --> 00:53:08.639
And I think that's the center of this case.
00:53:08.719 --> 00:53:09.039
See?
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:11.039
So I hope this has been interesting.
00:53:11.280 --> 00:53:14.800
Yeah, no, absolutely, and I appreciate all the time that you gave us.
00:53:14.880 --> 00:53:15.760
Uh Dr.
00:53:15.840 --> 00:53:19.280
Gary Brucado, folks, the name of the book is The New Evil.
00:53:19.519 --> 00:53:22.079
Um, you gotta get it.
00:53:22.159 --> 00:53:30.639
Uh he's talked to so many people and studied all the cases and gives me the perspective that I don't get anywhere else.
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:38.480
And and by the way, the last time I had you on this show on this channel, I said you're, you know, the first guest that I've ever had.
00:53:38.719 --> 00:53:41.199
I still haven't had another guest since then.
00:53:41.440 --> 00:53:44.800
So it's usually just me talking.
00:53:44.960 --> 00:53:56.320
So um, but what we we needed your perspective, because I I think that's one perspective that we have not gotten in the intense coverage of this story and of this killer.
00:53:56.480 --> 00:53:59.760
We've never really taken the time to try to figure out, well, who is she?
00:53:59.920 --> 00:54:08.000
How did she end up like that, and what what's the significance of these decisions and that she made and the conduct that she engaged in.
00:54:08.159 --> 00:54:10.559
And I think we have a much better picture now.
00:54:11.360 --> 00:54:12.320
Yes, but but two things.
00:54:12.400 --> 00:54:22.559
One I'll say very quickly is remember, no matter what the reason is for what people did, always place your emphasis on the victims and their families of it, because I and and it our hearts have to go after them.
00:54:22.719 --> 00:54:26.239
This is horrible what happened to this to poor Colleen.
00:54:26.559 --> 00:54:40.079
And number two, always remember that line from the the the poet WH Alden that says I know what all school children learn, those to whom evil is done will do evil in return.
00:54:41.519 --> 00:54:43.599
That's the idea, right?
00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:46.320
So bear that in mind.
00:54:46.559 --> 00:55:07.840
The the the you know, this is why those of you who have children and are kind to your children and worry about them, you have to understand how you're altering the course of a person's life by loving them instead of abandoning them or loving them instead of abusing them, because you could set a person on a horrendous path.
00:55:08.159 --> 00:55:08.480
See?
00:55:09.119 --> 00:55:15.519
And um who knows what kind of a human being Krista Pike could have been if she had a different life path.
00:55:15.760 --> 00:55:16.719
We have no idea.
00:55:16.960 --> 00:55:23.039
She made her choices and she did a horrendous thing, but the start of her life had a cruelty.
00:55:23.519 --> 00:55:35.840
And um and I think we have to think about that, about this terrible web of evil where one person does a terrible thing to a person and that person does terrible things and it goes on and on and on, right?
00:55:36.159 --> 00:55:44.320
So it's like let the buck stop with you and and sort of see it, that the people that are in front of you, you can love them or treat them like crap.
00:55:44.719 --> 00:55:45.920
Try to love people.
00:55:46.159 --> 00:55:47.119
It makes a difference.
00:55:47.440 --> 00:55:49.440
What a great way to end this conversation, Dr.
00:55:49.599 --> 00:55:50.480
Yarek Cocotta.
00:55:50.719 --> 00:55:51.440
Thank you so much.
00:55:51.679 --> 00:55:55.519
I told you this was going to be a very special episode, and and it was.
00:55:55.599 --> 00:56:34.880
Uh I think what we covered here is something I haven't heard anywhere else, and gives us a little more perspective on the story, on the case, and on the killer that everyone is talking about now, as the state of Tennessee still must decide if they want to attempt to take her life one more time, uh, a second execution, and as all the legal battles ensue inside of a courtroom, um, at least now we I think have a better understanding of this woman who ended up on death row at age 18 and ended up now surviving lethal injection.
00:56:35.360 --> 00:56:36.719
Thank you so much for watching.
00:56:36.880 --> 00:56:43.360
Please like, please subscribe, and until next time, please don't forget to hug the kids.