All language subtitles for Signs.of.a.Psychopath.S04E07.Sometimes.People.Get.Shot.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

MAN: A night of violence in
northern Iowa has left

two convenience store clerks
dead in two separate shootings.

A teenage gunman is accused of
murdering a clerk in Algona

and then heading south to
gun down another clerk

in Humboldt.

[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.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[music climbing]

He has a complete disregard
for supervision,

for sanctions, for the legal
and criminal system.

And that's what we see with
very criminally-oriented people.

It's also what we sometimes
see with very,

very impulsive people.

MORGAN: I don't believe
a statement like,

"I don't know why
I took the pistol."

I think that his acquisition
of guns and leaving was just

going to be to extend what he'd
already been fantasizing about.

He needs to be powerful.

MUNDY:
Psychopathic youths,

the literature shows that they
are more likely to be carrying

specifically firearms than, say,

a roll of nickels or a knife
or some other type of weapon.

Wanting to carry one,

despite knowing you're
essentially a fugitive from

the law,
and knowing that

it carries really significant
consequences with it,

it's just very consistent
with psychopathy.

MAN: It all started in
Algona, Iowa.

Pretty heartbreaking story
and unbelievable.

WOMAN: Investigators
say a man wearing a ski mask

walked into the store

and demanded Bowman-Hall
put cash and cigarettes

into a duffel bag.

She did,
and he shot her.

[bell jingles]

She thought
the gun was fake.

She's challenged his power,
and he shoots her.

In his case,

going for power is
the way he is going

to express his psychopathy.

SAHNI:
By standing up and re-enacting,

I think he's showing off.

I think he's proud of what
he's done,

and he wants to show someone
what he has done.

Swanson is really showing us

all the markers of
psychopathic behavior.

SWANSON: Um...

SAHNI: Swanson doesn't have
any real emotion.

He's not upset or bothered by

the fact that he took another
human being's life.

He is impulsive.

He is detached.

There's just no emotion.

[car engine starting]

When he was 17 years old,
in 2010,

just about a month before
he committed these murders,

he was evaluated.

Michael was having some sexual
and violent themes, and there

was some concern that he had,
and the staff had,

about him being impulsive.

Another excerpt says, "I am
concerned that he poses a risk

"to society if unmedicated,
and even if medicated,

he is still
somewhat unpredictable."

That is a very
strong conclusion.

If I'm reading this report,
and I'm Swanson's family,

I'm scared.

This evaluation is
absolutely a warning sign.

His anecdote about being
high as a kite means

that he was using enough

to be completely
disinhibited in a public space

to take his clothes off.

He has all the characteristic
features that should alarm us.

Swanson has this pattern of
drug and alcohol use and is

willing to try anything
and everything.

Thrill-seeking behavior is one
of those markers we look for in

psychopathic behavior

and in trying to
diagnose psychopathy.

There is a relationship
between impulse control

and drug use, and there is

a relationship between impulse
control and psychopathy.

People with psychopathy
tend to use drugs more.

I think that's similar to what

we're seeing here
with Michael Swanson.

WOMAN: 25 miles south,
a similar scene.

61-year-old Sheila Myers
was shot and killed while

working behind the counter at
the Kum & Go in Humboldt.

She's been a clerk at
the store for 13 years.

♪♪

The fact that it's an hour
between the first

and the second kill is
behavior that absolutely is

becoming compulsive.

And when you add in
an emerging compulsivity with

the fact that he's had impulse
control problems

his entire life,

and he's a drug and alcohol
abuser who is seeking that

high, and in the process of
upping that ante,

we've now gotten to a place
where he's murdered someone,

and he liked the high,
he liked the thrill,

um,
and he needs it again.

He thinks it's just kind of
funny, like watching a comedy

show where someone bangs
their head on something.

He has a complete lack of
empathy about another

human being --
they're just objects.

That indifference is just
the hallmark of psychopathy,

and it's pretty disturbing,
because he's not that old.

SAHNI: He's jovial.
He's laughing.

I think that really taps
into the high that

he experienced,
and also maybe

some budding
sadistic tendencies.

This enjoyment that Swanson's
showing us is highly consistent

with psychopathic behavior.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[coughing]

He's 150% focused on his own
well-being, how he's going to

be essentially inconvenienced
by his crime,

and where he's going to be sent.

This is classic to psychopaths.

They don't care about others.

It's 100% about him.

MUNDY:
Soldiers who have shot enemy

combatants still feel
something after that.

He's not talking about
an enemy combatant

that he killed
in the line of duty.

He's talking about somebody
across one or two state lines.

This is so impulsive.
This is so pleasure-seeking.

It must be mania.

SAHNI: Swanson is not
being straight with himself.

He's not being,
I think, honest.

I don't actually think it
is complicated.

He doesn't feel bad,
because he's a psychopath.

It is really that simple.

[phone ringing]

[phone ringing]

[phone line picks up]

Swanson is an entirely
different person,

with different tone,
different speech pattern.

The pace with which
he's talking -- he's alive,

he's animated --
he's experiencing

what feels like a high.

MORGAN: There is
a status element in his mind.

He's bragging about
what he's done,

and he's acknowledging --
it felt good.

So, these features of
the mimicry, the thrill,

the lack of remorse,
enjoying it, and bragging

about it, those are significant
features of psychopathy.

WOMAN: The prosecution says
Michael Swanson did this in

part for the attention
he got from it.

The defense says he's insane
and doesn't know right

from wrong.

The state then called
a psychiatrist,

who interviewed Swanson
after the crimes.

He says Swanson
told him he'd been

planning to kill
since he was 13.

MAN: He said, "I have always
been fascinated by death

"and violence,

"and it was something
that I wanted to do -- murder,

rape, and cannibalism."

WOMAN: Swanson's mother broke
down when the doctor said this.

His original plan was

to kill his parents.

Those were the first two people
he wanted killed.

He's fully capable of
deliberating, premeditating,

and forming the specific
intent to kill.

MAN: Verdict number one,
we find the defendant

guilty of murder
in the first degree.

MAN: Even after a jury convicted
Michael Swanson, he smiled.

WOMAN: Mr. Swanson, how do
you feel about the verdict?

- Oh, I'm good.
- MAN: Earlier in the day,

Swanson added two obscene
gestures to that

ever-present smile.

♪♪