All language subtitles for Signs.of.a.Psychopath.S06E06.He.Thought.We.Were.Buddies.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

[eerie music playing]

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

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

feeling the hunger.

REPORTER:
Early this morning,

first responders answered
a desperate 911 call from

Albee's trailer park --
before the caller could

identify himself,

the line fell silent --
when investigators arrived,

they searched the trailer park
before finally locating him,

but it was too late.

40-year-old Randy Tomjack
was found

stabbed to death inside
his home.

Ball is starting
this interview off

with impression management
from go.

He's brought in for
questioning, and his response is

he tries to take off --
most law enforcement

have a perspective
that innocent people don't run.

Essentially what he's
addressing with the detective

that he's sorry
he had that reaction.

He realizes that wasn't
the right thing to do.

But I think what Ball is
really doing

is realizing that really made
him look quite guilty.

When looking at this case,

one of the things that stands
out about Ball

is his own narcissism.

He's somewhat entitled.

The reaction most of us
would have to finding out that

a close friend had just
been violently killed

would not be that this is
an inconvenience for me.

TUSSEY: First of all,
he's saying that he's a friend

of Randy,
but he actually shuts him out

and locks the door and ignores
him half of the time.

So the only time he really

wants Randy is when
he wants something.

So what I see here is someone
who is manipulative,

sort of parasitic,

just using someone
when they need them.

This willingness
to use people

however you need to and
dispose of them when you don't

is transactional.

That's really a marker of
psychopathic behavior.

SAHNI: He says he thinks
that his best friend

killed himself,
and he's laughing about it.

There's no grief there,
there's no sadness there.

Then he goes so far as to
throw the victim under

the bus and tell all his dirty
deeds, that he's now gambling.

The motivation behind it

really seems to be more
about humiliating the victim.

He really believes that
he's gonna get away with it.

This is very classically
psychopathic, feeling superior,

feeling grandiose,
and enjoying your own contempt

because it makes you
feel powerful.

He does not think
that there's any

proof to link him
to the murder.

Ball is stalling
instead of answering,

"Yes, there's blood in my
truck," or "No, there isn't."

He just flips the narrative
on the detective,

and he's doing something
that is a strategic

and manipulative technique.

It's a tactic.

It's consistent
with somebody who

is failing to take
any responsibility.

Here we have somebody who's

obviously being questioned
about a murder.

Even if you didn't
do anything,

you would typically respond
with a little more deference

than what we're seeing
Ball respond with.

And he is actually coming
as very grandiose,

trying to turn the questioning
around on the investigator.

SAHNI: On first glance, this
argument and interaction with

the detective, you might think
Ball is being childish,

but it actually adds to
his risk level,

because the confidence
and brazen behavior

that he's showing is
somebody who is willing to

assert control and authority
in a very impulsive way.

He's not thinking about
the consequences.

RAGHAVAN: This whole interaction
to me felt like Ball

was losing his balance,

and he got a little bit scared,
because he's starting to

feel cornered.

And so
he's speaking impulsively.

He doesn't understand
the nature of the question.

He's trying to figure out
why I didn't want him to die,

why that's important.

SAHNI:
Through all of this,

what we don't actually see
is any sincere remorse.

You see no real emotion.
You see no sadness.

You see no guilt over any
aspect of, "My friend died."

[crying]

[sniffles]

[sighs]

What it does seem like is he's
had time to think in his cell

that the evidence is so
overwhelmingly against him

that maybe he can salvage
his circumstances

if he chooses to
give them what they want.

So what we're really
still seeing here

is a manipulative tactic.

It's a strategy to try
and gain an advantage,

and to mistake it

for real empathy or regret
or remorse is to be duped.

So they worked together,
and then this other job

came up, but he didn't get it,
and Randy did.

And so he seems to have,
you know,

become intensely envious,
jealous, outraged.

He took it as a huge insult,
and he felt

that he didn't get the job
even though he was superior.

This is the narcissistic part
of psychopathy.

I am so great.

You know,
why was I ignored?

I am better than you.
Why was I discarded?

And this path from anger
to envy to jealousy

to revenge is very much
part of the --

a psychopathic trajectory
of anger.

It's interesting he uses
language like, well, you know,

"I planted the knife" rather
than "I stabbed him."

I mean, that language strikes me
as his way of softening,

manipulating his role in
the way that it comes across

in the --
in the interview.

Blackout states don't work

the way Ball is describing
the memories

he has and the memories
he doesn't have.

One of the things that Ball
may have been doing was

starting to set up

a situation where he wasn't
going to be culpable for

the murder itself.

But this was
very much premeditated.

It was calculated --
to enter the victim's home

at night, knowing that
the victim was sleeping,

where the victim had little
to no chance to fight back.

He didn't even see him coming.

RAGHAVAN: It doesn't
quite make sense to say

he doesn't remember the knife
when he picked it up,

and he's able to dispose of
certain things,

and he remembers some pieces
of evidence,

so he's not forensically smart

about how to describe
the blackout.

And I think that's what gives
him a little bit away.

It's the manner of
the blackout

that he's describing
doesn't ring true.

TUSSEY: He did stab him 59 times
according to the autopsy,

which would suggest that
he was in a fit of rage at

that moment.

The entire murder doesn't seem
impulsive at all.

He was able to plan enough to
get a weapon, bring a knife in,

make sure he attacked
the victim in the middle of

the night
whenever he was asleep,

and had the forethought to also
put his clothes, or evidence

basically, in the fireplace so
that he could destroy it.

It seems like it was something
that was calculated.

The irony of choice of masks
that Ball selects,

the Grim Reaper,

the Angel of Death, really
speaks to this fantasy

that he had going
in his own head about

what it would be like
to kill someone,

how it might
make him powerful.

Ball strikes me
as somebody who has

spent most of his life
being unremarkable.

He hasn't accomplished
a whole lot.

He has been in and out of
various institutions

and facilities.

Ultimately, the purpose of
choosing the Grim Reaper

may have been about Ball's
own arrogance,

his own narcissism
and his own ability to say,

"I am that important."

RAGHAVAN:
So on the one hand,

he's careful about masking,
burning the clothes.

On the other hand,
he leaves fingerprints,

traces of blood in Randy's
trailer as well as in his car.

So this feels like he thought
he could come back

and just clean up the mess
later, and everything would

be okay.

The one thing he didn't expect
was that Randy called 911,

and he didn't expect that,

because he knew
that he had stabbed Randy

59 times.

SAHNI: It seems like Ball
is very much wanting

to see what he's accomplished.

Going back to
the scene to see the mayhem

and chaos,
there's police officers there,

there's a crime scene
that's taped off,

there's a crowd of people, and
ultimately, Ball is quietly

able to take pride in the fact
that he did that.

And while he says, "I try not
to do damage anymore,"

that's him talking about this
impulse that he finally gave

into on the night of the crime.

And maybe this is something
he had fantasized about

for a while --
he wanted to revel in it.