All language subtitles for Signs.of.a.Psychopath.S04E04.Most.People.Would.Be.Haunted.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[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.

Tell us about this ammo
that's no longer manufactured.

This box, this logo, we want
to know all about that.

WOMAN: Lead Detective
David Quinn let only

Channel 2 Action News
into the homicide unit

to reveal the somewhat
uncommon bullet that likely

killed two homeless men
just before Thanksgiving.

We have a particularly evil
individual that has shot two of

our homeless community
in Atlanta

with -- and less than three
miles away from each other.

WOMAN: Detectives are
hoping these bullets

will be the clue that connects
them with the killer.

RAGHAVAN: He was, in fact,
a failed Hollywood actor,

and the killings start after
his final failure.

So his grandiose narcissistic
dreams are shattered.

Murdering, for him, was to
overcome the rage and upset

that he had as a failed actor.

SAHNI: When Hollywood
didn't work out for him,

the need to have
his 15 seconds of fame,

I think, does play out
in his decision to kill

multiple people.

Really, what he craved wasn't
necessarily to be an actor

and to develop that craft,

but it was
really to be notorious.

When he kills, he realizes
that this gives him

so much pleasure,

he's not interested in
acting anymore.

This gives him
the thrill to replace

the feeling of disappointment
and rage at this other dream.

But this is exciting.
This is what he wants to do.

The context in which
he is a star is irrelevant,

and so he reenacts
the murder with glee.

He's enjoying the fantasy of
replaying the death,

and it's absurd, because he's
enacting a brutal murder.

This isn't stage,
and it isn't entertainment.

But for him, it is.

He said he's outside himself,
feeling that

something else is pushing him
to action.

There's not an ownership of
his feeling and his volition.

So there's a split,
there is a world inside

his head that's running the show
that doesn't comport

to reality -- that's what
I think makes him dangerous.

MORGAN: I wouldn't call it
remorse, because

that realization doesn't
change his future behavior.

He doesn't go turn himself in.

The feeling may be genuine,

but it's not
psychologically integrated

into his sense of self.

RAGHAVAN: There's a moment
of remorse and guilt.

It doesn't mean that
psychopaths never

feel remorse
or never feel guilt.

The issue is how brief it is,

how shallow it is,
and how quickly it's gone.

Mm-hmm.

SAHNI: Presley is very much
in his own gangster movie.

He clearly wants to portray
himself as a gangster,

but he killed a defenseless
person -- that doesn't make

him powerful,
that makes him weak.

But in his narcissistic
psychopathic narrative,

it makes him all powerful.

MORGAN: Presley represents
one of the most

alarming kinds of cases
of psychopathy.

There's no recognition of
the value

of someone else's life.

It's patients like this
where you don't usually

have a warning when
they might be violent.

He's scary.

SAHNI: I think Presley's
giving us a compilation of

movies and scenes that he is
glorified over his years.

I don't think he gave a whole

lot of thought
to reloading the weapon.

I think he enjoyed the power.

I think he enjoyed
the adrenaline rush.

We know with psychopaths that
they don't experience

the same normal range
of emotions,

highs or lows,
that most of us do.

And as a result,
they sometimes crave

a greater level of intensity
to feel anything.

Most of the science data about
it tells us that children who

are exposed to violence in
pop culture,

seeing violence in films or in
cartoons, don't turn into

violent members of society.

What we're seeing in
his murders is the playing out

of the fantasy life that
he's adopted for himself.

His inability to stay grounded
and rooted in normal society

well predates his observation
of these shows and movies.

Presley is somebody who was
violent at a young age.

His mother was scared of him.

He had had run-ins
with the law.

There was a foundation
that was broken already.

[makes moaning noise]

RAGHAVAN: He's aware
that his compulsion

to kill is just overwhelming.

He's also recognizing that,
you know,

brutally wounding
the guy wasn't enough.

If he didn't die,
he wouldn't be satisfied.

He's really losing control.

It's just been three days
after his last kill.

He's not able to contain
his desires anymore.

In a really grotesque way,

it's about extinguishing and
annihilating somebody's life.

SAHNI: He's getting more bold
in his need for a killing high.

I think he was testing out
the limits of

what other aspects of murder
could give him a high.

Would seeing blood
give him a high?

Would seeing brain matter
give him a high?

For individuals who experience
more sadistic interests,

the idea of force
or fear creating pain

in their victims --
suffering, essentially,

is something that is part of
their arousal pattern.

RAGHAVAN: This is the third time
that he's enacting

the moment of death,
which means that he gets to

explore his fantasies of being
an actor in the most grotesque

way imaginable, where he relives
details of the death,

including the really vivid
and lurid details

of how his victims die.

[makes moaning noise]

MORGAN: Describing him gasping
and then shooting him

again is very dispassionate
and matter-of-fact

and very callous.

There isn't really
an acknowledgment

that it's another person,
another human being.

Anyone could be his victim in
the way he thinks about people,

which I think makes it
even more horrifying.

SAHNI: Presley's reality

is a little different
than his narrative.

While he may have grown up in
impoverished circumstances,

he had a mother
that was very involved.

His mother moved him to a much
more affluent school system

so that he would be away from

those influences,
and by all accounts,

he started to get his life in
order, so much so that he was

actually interviewed
as a teenager

about his former life
in a gang.

But Presley is wired
differently than many of us

and unfortunately, he enjoyed
that high, that thrill,

and that power and that's
where we have

these series of people
that he's killed.

MORGAN:
Externalizing all blame

is something
that psychopaths do.

They'll acknowledge
their role in the actions,

but they really will feel
that society is to blame.

He views whatever he does as
being caused by something

outside of his control
and beyond him,

which means a very good place
for him is in prison.

SAHNI: The robbery
was an incidental

part of his narrative.

His goal was to kill again.

He broke his own rules and
boundaries by killing a woman

when he swore that he would
never kill a woman or children.

Presley became addicted
to the power, the control,

the ability to decide when
and how somebody would die.

MORGAN: In the big picture
of his perspective,

we see that non sequitur
between, "I'd never

hurt women and children
to murdering a woman,

but I don't think he sees any
contradiction in that, because

she represents, I think,
just now

the new class of targets,
which just have to be white.

RAGHAVAN: His pleasure comes
from annihilating alive.

So the question is why does he
get so thrilled when he kills?

The contrast between his

humdrum, low-feeling life
and the moment of killing

is very dramatic, and that's
what creates addiction.

SAHNI:
This really captures

the fantasy world
that Presley lives in,

where he is acknowledging that

he's playing a part.

He's acting as if it is a film,
and the camera can just be

turned off, the set dismantled,
and everybody will just go back

about their business,

not really recognizing
these are real human beings

he killed.

He's literally in a movie set
or on a movie set in his head.

RAGHAVAN: He's starting to feel
like he's a superstar.

There's the catharsis,

and then this cooling off
period where you're

fantasizing about it, and then
the compulsion starts again.

There is no doubt in my mind,
he would have kept killing.

WOMAN: DeKalb D.A. Robert James
planned to

seek the ultimate punishment
for the murders.

But Presley avoided the death
penalty by pleading guilty.

I am not a serial killer.

I am a brother

that has some real
serious issues

and problems
who did some things

that I am not proud of.