All language subtitles for Signs.Of.A.Psychopath.S10E05.I.Just.Smiled.and.Laughed.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

The thing
inside of me, it's like...

the appetite,
it's like a wolf that's...

feeling...
the hunger.

It's not
a typical 911 call.

I think there are definitely
times when the individual

is experiencing what I would
call transitory guilt.

He even describes feeling shock,

but it makes it
transitory because it
doesn't last very long.

This statement about not feeling
anything is preceded with,

"What's wrong with me?
Is it wrong?"

And the reality is that he is
wholly and completely self aware

that the impulse
that he just had

to run this person down

was totally
and completely wrong.

The compulsion was such
that he needed to do it.

He's sort of downplaying
the whole situation.

He's asking police, you know,

"What do you think
I can tell my mom?"

Again, sort of like he
is friends with them,

and they're gonna
help him sort of circumvent

the whole situation here.

He's minimizing
because he's out of tune
with what's actually going on,

which is the key
feature of psychopathy.

They don't register empathy
or emotions, and that,

coupled with a lack
of moral compass,

allows them to not display
remorse for what they did

and kill and engage
in violent acts.

It really seems
like Pennell experienced
a narcissistic wound here.

He lost his job,

so it seems like he
experiences anger from this

and he doesn't really
know what to do with it.

When a psychopath experiences
a narcissistic wound,

it essentially
bounces off them,

and they will put
it towards someone else.

Whereas more
of a neurotypical person,

when we experience
a narcissistic wound,

we feel it deep inside,

and it causes sadness,
perhaps some anger,

but it's often directed inward.

Whereas a psychopath
is going to direct it
mostly outward on other people,

and they're
going to direct their
anger to whoever's around them.

2
He says he feels stressed.

He says that he's potentially
experiencing anxiety attack.

It's another element where I
think it's important for people

to understand that
a psychopath feels emotions.

They just don't
feel emotions the way that

other people typically do.

What I think it is
is that he's prone to boredom.

What I think it is is that
he has a need for stimulation.

And the feelings that he gets
about taking someone's life

potentially making him happier.

He enjoys the harm
that he is inflicting,

which is certainly
an element of sadism,

and I think he
didn't recognize how much
he was going to enjoy it,

which is why he
smiled and laughed,

even though he could
recognize that Pratt was dying.

So there's certainly
an element where,

even though he is not
engaging in a prolonged sense

of torture of Pratt,
he would have if he could,

but the pole prevented
that prolonging.

He's not entirely
sophisticated on

how he's gonna
act out his fantasy.

He talked about
wanting to dissect people,

his fascination with knives,

but he didn't do that here.

He used his car, sort of like

he's a little detached
from the person.

It's not up close and personal,

and that's because
I don't think he was ready yet.

I think this was sort of his
first go at killing somebody.

2
Is he placing
more value on the car

rather than on a human life?

Yes, he is, but he's doing it
for a very specific reason--

He's doing it because
both things are objects

that can be disposed of.

But the car is his object,

one that he would choose not to
dispose of if he didn't have to.

He cares more about what's his

and cares less
about what isn't his.

In either scenario,
it's still just an object.

We see Pennell talking
to officers about how he gets

hungry when he
thinks about killing.

He's describing this behavioral
concept called conditioning.

So when you're doing
two different things at once,

like two stimuli
are paired together,

then you get
a conditioned response.

So when he tells the officers
that he sort of has this hunger

and feels like he
wants something to eat,

it's probably because he
usually does eat while he's

watching these horrific videos
and thinking about killing.

I think here
he is being a little
bit more theatrical.

He's expanding
on his fantasy, really,

that he's had
for this long time.

And I think he's doing
that because he wants

to get that rise
possibly out of officers,

and also it gives him
excitement himself.

So you can hear at that point
that he does not have

any regard for human life,
pretty typical of psychopath,

and he wants to just compare
brushing off a human life

just as easily as he
brushes off an animal life.

It makes
a lot of sense in a way

that he would have a lot easier
time talking about the murder,

because that is something
that he wanted to do,

that's a choice that he made,

that's something that he laughed
and thought was kind of fun,

whereas talking about even
the grades he got in school

was making him very angry
and upset and dejected,

and it doesn't make sense
to a neurotypical person
why that would happen,

but to him and the way
that he's thinking about it,

I think it made all
the sense in the world.

2

Because Pennell doesn't
view torture psychologically,

he views it as physical.

He doesn't view
the fact that though,

when he's going
50 to 70 miles an hour,

that Pratt sees
his impending death.

When he crashes
through the windshield

and Pennell can see his face

and Pennell is laughing at him,

he doesn't see that as torture

because he doesn't
view torture that way.

For him, all of this stuff
was just a quick end to Pratt.

When the reality is,
is that Pratt suffered,

suffered a lot,

and Pennell doesn't care.

Pennell's mother really
highlights that this hasn't

been just a recent problem.

This wasn't necessarily
a impulsive act on this day.

Like, this is a longstanding
problem that Pennell's had

since he was 13-years-old
or even before.

And they were
a problem back then

and probably only
got worse over time.

Justyn Pennell was
sentenced to life in prison
without parole

for intentionally running over a
75-year-old Vietnam war veteran

The victim, Michael Pratt,
was walking along Aripeka Road

in January of 2020
when he was hit.