Original subtitles

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[theme music playing]

MAN: There's this thing inside of me, it's like...

the appetite.

It's like a wolf that's...

filling...the hunger.

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SAHNI: I think Sampson planned to return

to New England, where he grew up.

I think how he was gonna get there,

who he was gonna take out in the process, and how he was

gonna take them out was totally impulsive.

It was opportunistic crime,

and the fact that he could steal someone's car

and someone's money and also take their life at

the same time, and it all be impulsive is part of

what makes Sampson as dangerous as he is.

Sampson turned himself in so willingly, potentially, because

he wanted to have control over his apprehension.

It could be self-defeating,

but control is what psychopaths like to have.

SAHNI: I don't think he was crying.

I have a very difficult time believing

that a psychopathic person like Sampson is

in touch with any level of

emotion or empathy or regret or remorse.

The level of force and violence he uses is so much

greater than what is necessary to

subdue his victim and accomplish his goal

that you really have to think of it as overkill.

BERRILL: This is a killing that reflects rage.

It doesn't reflect an instrumental desire to

just get rid of this guy and then grab his car.

I mean, he really did him in.

So the question is why?

BERRILL: I believe him when he says he has no remorse.

Psychopaths get the idea that this is what people or society

would expect of them for doing

something bad, but they just say, "I don't feel it."

There's something defective in the wiring, you know,

there's no doubt about it.

Sampson's obsession with and desire

to maintain cleanliness, to present well,

to have nice clothes on,

it's part of his ability to manipulate people.

It's part of his ability to navigate environments

and blend in.

He has a very strong ability to be a chameleon, and that

certainly makes him a more dangerous psychopath,

because he is able to blend in in a variety of environments.

He's trying to, uh, essentially seduce them

and make them feel comfortable,

despite the fact that he knows he's gonna kill them.

So it's manipulative, smart,

and I think it reveals a level

of sadism, too, because he knows what he's gonna do.

So interestingly, he doesn't have

to frighten them and terrorize them.

SAHNI: His notion of what he's gonna do does start to

speak to maybe some compulsion that is now starting to emerge,

that there's a ritual, there's a script

on how this is supposed to go.

SAHNI: It seems clear to me that Sampson has more sadistic

fantasies than he's willing to let on,

while he identifies himself as someone who is not a sadist.

For sadistic violent offenders,

the high, or the arousal, comes from simply watching fear.

And for Sampson, if this is early in his experience with

sadism, over time,

what I would expect is that he's gonna need more to get

that same high.

TUSSEY: The fact that Sampson reported that his father

abused him does make me wonder if the choice for his victims,

the fact that they're all males, is intentional,

and perhaps he has a vendetta against men in general.

Maybe he was abused by other males in his life, as well.

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BERRILL: Sampson is becoming increasingly brazen.

That is typical of psychopathy.

You have a sense that he's flying

by the seat of his pants, you know?

So he's willing to do almost anything.

It's interesting that he didn't want any blood on him.

Killing someone is not upsetting to him,

but -- but getting messed up physically,

dirtied, that's really unappealing to him.

SAHNI: Sampson has now changed his method of killing.

For people who have child trauma,

or sexual trauma, that cleaning up is part of the ritual of

feeling okay,

but he didn't want to go through the ritual of having to

clean himself up, and he's dabbling now in that arousal

that is sadism.

He's trying out something else to see if he likes it more,

if he likes it differently, what kind of high it gives him.

WOMAN: William Gregory narrowly escaped the fate of Sampson's

other victims.

And then I got to the rest area,

where I pulled over and left the car

in drive and ran from -- out of the side of the car to the rear,

and then he tried to run me down in reverse with the car.

WOMAN: Gregory ran, climbing a bank,

hiding in the trees till Sampson was gone.

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SAHNI: He blames the FBI.

Samson's position is none of these people had to die.

His lack of attachment to people,

his matter-of-fact, glib attitude, is very,

very consistent with what we see in psychopaths.