WEBVTT - S05 Episode 18: Learning to See (Pt. 2 of 2) 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.760 Membership, peace, apply after free trial, cancel anytime. Can I 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:04.920 be real with you for a second. That goal you 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:08.280 have to exercise and eat better? You really can do it, 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.200 but nobody is going to do it for you. Nobody 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:13.280 is going to push you out of bed to work out, 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.239 Nobody is going to make you eat better. But here's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.800 the thing. Nobody has to because you can do it 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:22.440 if you have the right tools and a community that 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.120 cares about helping you get results. 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Here's al Go to beachbody 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.880 dot com to claim your free membership and start feeling great. 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:15.880 You're listening to Unexplained, Season five, episode eighteen, Learning to 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:26.759 See Part two. Peter Herkos arrived at T. F. Green 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:31.600 Airport in Providence, Rhode Island, on Wednesday, January twenty ninth, 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.800 nineteen sixty four, just after eight pm, accompanied by Jim Crane, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.039 a wealthy speculator who'd offered to provide security for Peter 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.000 as a favor. Waiting for them at the airport was 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:50.920 Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General John Bottomley and Detective Sergeant Leo Martin. 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.440 With the authorities keen to avoid any unwanted press, Herkos 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.440 and Crane were quickly whisked through arrivals and out into 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:05.559 the bitterly cold night air toward a waiting vehicle. From there, 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.800 they were taken to the Green Inn Motel in Lexington 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:13.480 and checked in under false names. This would be their 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.560 base for the next week, where the police could utilize 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.760 Peter in secret, with doctor Andrea poo Harrich also present 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.440 throughout their time at the motel to supervise the proceedings. 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.200 It was early the following morning when Detective Julian Soshnik 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.639 from the Strangler Task Force arrived at Peter's room carrying 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:38.800 two large boxes and a stack of envelopes. Inside the 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.160 boxes were a series of items that once belonged to 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:46.400 the murdered women, and inside the envelopes over three hundred 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.680 photographs of the various crime scenes. With Peter sitting opposite him, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.560 Soshnik removed each batch of photos from the envelopes one 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.000 by one and placed them carefully faced down in piles 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:04.240 on the coffee table, as per Peter's instructions. Then Peter 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.080 leant forward and placed a finger on the back of 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:11.560 one of the piles. This is phony, he shouted, suddenly 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:15.800 shooting up from the seat, pointing at Soshnik. Why are 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:20.480 you playing tricks? Detective Soshnik shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.400 then got up and removed a photo from the pile. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.200 It was an image of an unrelated crime that he'd 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.960 placed there as a test, as he tried to explain, 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.880 he just wanted to see if Peter could be trusted. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.440 Grabbing the first photo from a pile without looking at it, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.600 he held it up to the detective. This is a 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:46.080 dead woman, her legs far apart like this, said Peter, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.880 theatrically throwing himself to the ground in a strange exaggerated pose. 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:56.560 The startled, Soshnik looked on in amazement her coos had 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:07.400 positioned himself identically to the body in the image. After 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:12.040 finally calming down, Peter began picking his way through the photographs, 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.360 describing details of each murder as they apparently came to him, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.960 while Soshnik captured it all with the tape recorder. Sometimes 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.679 Peter would sit naturally deep in concentration as he held 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.400 the objects in his hands or studied another photograph. Other times, 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.880 whenever he found it difficult to concentrate, or if he 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.000 found the presence of the others in the room too distracting, 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.800 he covered his eyes with washcloths and wrapped a towel 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.719 around his head to block out the light. It was 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.000 a condition of the Assistant Attorney General that members of 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.960 the task force keep an eye on Peter the entire time, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:55.279 even when he was sleeping, just in case any crucial 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.960 evidence cropped up, but also to make sure he wasn't 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:03.400 messing them around. It was a few nights in after 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.159 another eighteen hours spent working with the items with little 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:11.520 headway made that day that an exhausted Peter decided to 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.839 try something different. After preparing himself for bed, He opened 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.520 one of the boxes of items and took out a 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.159 blows and a nightgown that it belonged to one of 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.560 the victims, then took them into bed with him and 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:30.960 promptly went to sleep. It was sometime around two forty 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:38.040 am that he began talking in his sleep, Hello, Enginero 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:43.640 W two d K one, W two d K one. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:50.760 Sophia Mortar, Sophia Mortar. The others present looked about in confusion. 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.720 An hour later it started again. I take the shoes off, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.560 here is the body. I undress her. I go to 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.880 the church. I do nothing wrong, the words tumbling from 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:09.960 Peter's mouth in a strange, exaggerated, high pitched voice. Then 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:14.920 Peter's usual voice returned. Killed that bastard, he shouted, as 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.400 he went on to seemingly have a fight with someone 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.800 in his sleep, who he later identified as the killer. 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.800 Moments later, Peter announced that he was inside the man's 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.440 residence in his dream, describing it as a junk pile 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.960 in which oddly there was a spring bed with no 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.839 mattress on it. There was a diary there too, he said, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:41.640 there would reveal everything about the murderer's crimes. Then he 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.839 mumbled something about how the women let the man in 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:47.719 because he claimed to be selling shoes, and then he 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:52.000 would grab them when they least expected it. It was 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:56.680 just approaching three thirty am when Peter screamed, suddenly, get 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.720 out of my mind, then shot up awake with a 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.040 look of great torment on his face. Peter jumped quickly 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:07.240 out of bed and lit a cigarette, appearing rattled by 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.280 the experience. After pacing the room for a few minutes, 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.720 he took a final drag, then stubbed out the cigarette 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:26.240 and went back to sleep. The following morning, Peter attempted 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.720 to describe the man he'd seen in his dream. He 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.760 is not too big, maybe five foot seven or eight, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.840 a high hairline with thin hair, a mark or spot 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.040 on his left arm, and something wrong with his thumb. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:45.720 Heard an accent, not American French. I think he has 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.240 something to do with a hospital. He is a homosexual 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.880 and a misogynist. He takes their blood and washes his 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.200 hands in it. He has blue gray eyes and a 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:00.920 sharp pointed nose, a big Adam's apple too. He has 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:03.240 the energy of a twenty seven year old, but is 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.400 more like fifty two. After he kills he offers the 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.960 women to God. They are clean in his eyes because 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.680 he doesn't touch them after he's killed them. He has 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.080 strange habits, like washing his hands in the toilet and 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:23.160 sleeping in his clothes. He practices extreme sexual things on himself. 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.320 As for the bed with no mattress, sometimes he sleeps 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.120 naked on it as a penance for his crimes. If 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.240 he doesn't kill, he sleeps on the mattress, but if 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.240 he kills, he takes it off. He takes the victims 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.840 shoes and keeps them in a basement, and sometimes he 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.560 tries to sell them. Then Peter stopped and took a 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.920 moment to think, that is all I have, he said. 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.800 About the same time, Soschnik had the recording of Peter 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.840 talking in his sleep from the night before sent to 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.840 Bottomley's office to see if any one could decipher a 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.240 meaning behind the term W two d K one or 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.440 find any relevance to the other words he'd spoken. Later 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:14.000 that afternoon, he received a reply they hadn't been able 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.720 to find anything matching W two d K one, but 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.600 they did find a listing for a small ham radio 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:24.520 station operating out of New Jersey using the call sign 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:29.680 W two D k Incredibly, it belonged to the cousin 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.760 of Sophie Clark, one of the victims whose murder they 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.400 were investigating. The language Peter had been speaking at the 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:43.080 time was determined to be Portuguese, with the phrase Sophia 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:48.400 mortar translating as Sophie dead. This had been confusing at first, 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.800 until it was later discovered that Sophie Clark's father was 0:09:52.880 --> 0:10:04.160 Portuguese as well as the victims. Detective Soshnik also brought 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.319 photos of potential suspects to Peter to see if he 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.440 might have an opinion on them too. Peter discarded them more, 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:15.680 telling Soshnik that none of them were the killer. Then 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.160 one afternoon, Peter was examining the crime scene photos once 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.240 more when he looked up suddenly, as if struck by 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.959 an epiphany, then demanded a map of Boston and an 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.800 object belonging to one of the victims be brought to him. 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.080 Soshnik hurriedly pulled out a comb from the box and 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.960 handed it to him, along with a map of the city. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:41.960 Peter flipped it over, then quickly began tracing a line 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.439 with the comb on the back of the map. Here, 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:49.760 he said, flipping the map back over here you find 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.480 the killer. Peter was pointing at the Newton, Boston area, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:11:00.800 close to Boston College. Then another vision apparently came to him. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.600 I see him dressed like a priest. He said, he 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.240 has a French accent, and he's a pervert. Then Peter 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:11.920 bent his wrist in an offensive homophobic gesture, implying again 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.400 that the man was gay. Then he dropped down into 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.360 an armchair and announced he was done for the day. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:24.120 The following morning, Detective Soschnik picked up her Cos and 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.840 his chaperone, Jim Crane, from the Green Inn motel, and 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.160 drove them into Boston to meet with Assistant day John Bottomley. 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.760 Bottomley was keen to meet with the man himself to 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:40.120 go over again what he claimed to know. While Peter 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:45.240 and Jim sat waiting outside Bottomley's office, Detective Sergeant Leo 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.880 Martin approached them with a letter and asked Peter what 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:52.720 he thought of it. Peter grabbed it from him and 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:57.520 without opening it, held it tightly in his hands. By God, 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:07.719 he said, this is from the murderer. The letter was 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.560 addressed to the nurse director of the Boston College School 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.319 of Nursing, the headquarters of which was located in almost 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.400 the exact spot that Peter had pointed out on the 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.920 map of Boston only the day before, where he claimed 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:26.880 the killer would be found. According to journalist normal Lee Browning, 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.400 who wrote about Peter's life in her nineteen seventy one 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:35.199 book The Psychic World of Peter Herkos, Peter never once 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:40.880 looked at the letter. It read as follows, Dear Madam, 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.200 I have a difficulty. Perhaps you'll smile when you read 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.120 about it, but I'm coming to you because I think 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:51.120 you can help me. I'm a Boston College grad, and 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:53.559 when I look at the years I've been out of school, 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.920 I stroke my longish beard. I've tried selling off and 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.040 on for quite some time, and I'm still in the 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.880 selling field. My reason for writing now is to say 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:07.720 I am a bachelor, and for some time I've wanted 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.880 to meet a good Catholic nurse who might have graduated 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:15.240 from nursing school about nineteen fifty. Even an undergrad about 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.720 that time would be okay, one who is working near Boston. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.000 I've even had the idea of doing an article on 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.800 this class, interviewing as many as possible to learn their 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.959 opinions and experiences in training and in the field since graduation, 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.960 then offering the article to a nursing publication. Perhaps while interviewing, 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:38.560 I might see a nurse who might like me as 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.000 much as I'd like her, and if so, we could 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.240 begin a friendship that might lead to the altar. Chances 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:49.120 may be, however, the very few nurses of the year 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:55.280 nineteen fifty are eligible or might even consider me eligible. Okay, 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:57.840 if there are such, maybe there is a better way 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.280 to meet them than the way I have suggested here. 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.120 I'd be glad to call at the office to see 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.040 you about this if you wish at any rate, may 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.600 I hear from you? If you'd like to, you could 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:15.080 call doctor Richard H. Wright of Beacon Street, Brookline. He's 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:19.240 known me for many years. With every best wish, I 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.680 am sincerely yours. The name of the man who wrote 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.200 it has never been disclosed, though he is often referred 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:39.080 to as Thomas P. O'Brien. The letter had arrived that morning, 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.200 sent to the police by a concerned member of Boston 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.960 College who was struck by the writer's peculiar request, with 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.600 Peter insisting it was written by the killer. John Bottomley 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.200 called doctor Richard Wright whose name the pseudonymous Thomas O'Brien 0:14:55.360 --> 0:15:00.320 had given as a character reference to find out more Wright, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.000 who was surprised by the call, was also troubled by 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.600 the letter, as he went on to explain the so 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.560 called Thomas was a long standing patient in his fifties, 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.160 similar to the age of the man that Peter apparently 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:19.440 identified in his sleep, who had a history of severe 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:25.440 psychiatric illness. Things quickly escalated when, after looking back at 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:28.960 their records, police discovered that a call had been made 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.560 back in nineteen sixty two suggesting they look into Thomas 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:35.520 as a possible person of interest in relation to the 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:40.560 sexual assault and murder of Anna Slessers. Without wasting any 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:44.200 more time, police soon procured an address for the man, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.920 who was found to be rooming at a boarding house 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.800 not far from the Back Bay area of Boston where 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:56.520 Anna Slessers lived. At the first attempt, Detective Soshnik, joined 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.760 by a Detective Tommy Davis and Officer Stephen Delaney, knocked 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.320 on the man's door, only for him to open it 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.760 and then promptly close it again, telling them he didn't 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.720 want to be disturbed. Though it was only the briefest 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.360 of encounters, Soshnik couldn't help but be struck by how 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.400 similar the man looked to what Peter had described, from 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.760 his thinning hair right down to his large, Adam's apple 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:27.400 and sharp pointed nose. Now convinced more than ever that 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:31.120 he might be their man, the Strangler Task Force needed 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:34.080 to figure out a way to find some evidence before 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.640 making a formal arrest. Although they could take him in 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.440 for questioning, it would require something tangible to keep him 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.560 in custody. Such a move would be risky, since if 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.360 he failed to give them anything, if he was indeed 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:54.000 the murderer, the man would soon be free to kill again. Thankfully, 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.160 the state provided a loophole by granting the police the 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.080 ability to have suspects committed to a psychiatric hospital for 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.440 ten days provided a formal assessment who had been made 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.080 of them. With the man removed from his apartment, the 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:10.320 police would be free to search it for as long 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.200 as they needed in order to find the evidence that 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:17.800 Peter was convinced would be waiting for them inside. The 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.960 following day, the three men returned to Thomas's apartment with 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.480 the warrant to search the premises and a doctor to 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:30.639 carry out the psychiatric assessment. Peter was also invited, but 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:33.600 told to wait in the car until the coast was clear. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:46.600 This time, things went a little differently. Once again, Soshnik 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.920 knocked on the man's door, this time brandishing a warrant 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.280 to search the property and bracing himself for the inevitable resistance. 0:17:55.240 --> 0:18:00.960 Then the door opened. I'm so glad you came, said Thomas, suddenly, 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:06.080 catching them all off guard. Then, without further ado, he 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.760 pulled the door back wider and divided them all inside. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:15.000 The men stepped through into the tiny room no more 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.800 than ten feet by eight as the shy, nervous Thomas 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.880 tried to make room for them. The place was littered 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:26.800 with books and notepads and piles of junk. Just as 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.760 Peter had seemingly foreseen, Soshnik couldn't keep his eyes off 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.320 the wire bed with no mattress on top of it, 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:38.280 but also the oddly deformed shape of the man's thumb, 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:44.200 again just as Peter had described. As the doctor proceeded 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.160 to make a psychiatric assessment of Thomas, he quickly volunteered 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.480 that he'd once tried to have himself committed to an asylum, 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.480 giving the doctor all he needed to have him detained. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.320 Thomas was promptly removed and taken to the Massachusetts Mental 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.680 Health Center for a minimum stay of ten days. With 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:10.480 the man removed, Peter was invited up to the room. Meanwhile, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.720 detective Soshnik picked up one of the notebooks. It appeared 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:19.320 to be a diary. Always run from temptation, it said 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:24.480 in bold capital letters. Then he scanned another page. I 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:29.320 get angry, So angry. It read women sitting in doctor's 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:33.800 offices exposing their legs, wearing tight fitting dresses and highly 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:40.280 scented erotic perfumes. Then Peter appeared at the door. Within seconds, 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.560 he was on his knees frantically searching through the piles 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.800 of books. He put all the killings on paper. We 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.840 will find it, he said to the permused detectives. Then, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.080 spotting something, he pulled out a book from a pile 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:58.879 by the man's closet. Here it is, he cried triumphantly. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.639 Is there something interfering with your happiness or preventing you 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.000 from achieving your goals? Better help will assess your needs 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.359 and match you with your own licensed professional therapist. Sign 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.440 up today and start communicating. In less than forty eight hours, 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.879 you'll get timely and thoughtful responses. Plus you can schedule 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.560 weekly video or phone sessions so you won't ever have 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.399 to sit in an uncomfortable waiting room. You can also 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.080 log into your account any time to send a message 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.320 to your counselor. Better Help is not a crisis line 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.640 nor self help. It is professional counseling done securely online, 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.040 with a broad range of expertise available, and with better 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:45.879 helps commitment to facilitating great therapeutic matches, they make it 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.199 especially easy and free to change counselors to help you 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.480 find the right fit. This podcast is sponsored by better 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.520 Help and Unexplained. Listeners get ten percent off their first 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:59.639 month at better help dot com. Forward slash Unexplained, That's 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:04.680 better HLP dot com. Forward slash Unexplained joined the over 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.560 one million people taking charge of their mental health with 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.280 the help of an experienced professional. Better Help wants you 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:20.520 to start living a happier life today. The book Peter 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.960 picked out was a textbook on yoga, filled with diagrams 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.879 to illustrate the various positions. The first half of the 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.840 book displayed images of male figures, while the second half 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:37.520 showed female figures, a significant number of which had been 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:42.800 deliberately blotted out with ink. Peter counted them and found 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:47.320 precisely eleven figures had been marked in that way, eleven 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:52.600 for each of the eleven victims, he said. Meanwhile, Officer 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.960 Delaney was examining the contents of a draw when he 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.960 found half a dozen ties and scarfs knotted tightly together. 0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.040 In another set of drawers, they found a notebook brimming 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.280 with sketches of what looked like apartment buildings and their interiors. 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.439 In one sketch, a bath tub had been drawn with 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.080 an X marked on top of it. Soshnik thought for 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.760 a moment of sixty seven year old Jane Sullivan, one 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:25.240 of the eleven victims whose murders they were investigating. She 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:30.480 had been found dead in her bath. Another drawing depicted 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:33.640 a bedroom with an X marked on the bed at 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.040 the base of the headboard, just like where the body 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:41.800 of nineteen year old Mary Sullivan had been found. Soshnick 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:47.040 was dumbfounded. Mostly the diaries displayed the inner thoughts of 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:51.040 a deeply unhappy and unsettled man who had likely struggled 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.840 all his life with sexuality, and who was doing, as 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:59.479 he wrote, all that is humanly possible to master human nature. 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:04.680 A section in one diary under the heading remarks made 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:09.400 to Me by others listed numerous insults such as, you're 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:13.800 a menace, You're no good, You're a goddamn liar, you're 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:18.359 a disgrace to Boston College, you're a womanish man. I'd 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.080 rather see you dead drunk in the streets than see 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.440 you as you are. When are you going to get married? Eh? 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:29.000 So you like that boy? As for the rest of it, 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:33.240 the similarity of his body and facial characteristics to what 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:38.040 Peter had described the misogyny, ink blots and strange apartment 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.920 diagrams were certainly more than a little hair raising under 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:46.800 the circumstances. All in all, it was arguably a smoking 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:57.359 gun at least, but it wasn't the bullet. With the 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:01.800 pseudonymous Thomas P. O'Brien undergoing his assessment at the mental 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.720 health center, police took the opportunity to question him over 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:09.359 the next few days. The man was told he didn't 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:11.639 have to answer the questions if he didn't want to, 0:24:11.840 --> 0:24:15.840 and was also offered a lawyer. However, since he didn't 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:18.960 believe he had anything to hide, he declined the offer. 0:24:20.440 --> 0:24:26.160 Over three separate sessions, Detective Soshnik, assistant Da Bottomley, and Peter, 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:30.000 under the guise of being a doctor of psychiatry, each 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:34.240 took it in turns to ask the questions. The man 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:36.840 was sat huddled over on the edge of his bed, 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:41.119 looking anxious and scared. When they entered his room. A 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:47.879 hospital psychiatrist was also present to supervise. Soshnik asked first 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:51.000 why he'd written the letter to the nurse director of 0:24:51.080 --> 0:24:55.280 the Boston College. Thomas replied that it was a desperate ploy, 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:58.560 the last of many, to try and meet a Catholic woman. 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.840 When pressed on his relationship with doctor Wright, he explained 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:06.560 that the doctor had once treated him for a persistent 0:25:06.640 --> 0:25:10.080 ear problem that he was suffering from, in contradiction to 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:14.679 what right himself had said. The man also confirmed that 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.800 he'd once spent time with French Trappist monks and had 0:25:18.800 --> 0:25:22.880 once been a shoe seller, as Peter had suggested, at 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:27.399 which point Peter saw his opportunity. You lose a button 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:30.920 once in a lady's apartment, he said, when he went 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:36.520 inside to sell shoes. Thomas looked confused. No, he insisted, 0:25:36.920 --> 0:25:39.560 he never sold door to door and he'd never been 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:44.400 inside an apartment under those circumstances. Peter then pressed him 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:47.280 on why he'd recently been sacked from a job at 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:50.400 a shoe store after only working for half the day. 0:25:51.480 --> 0:25:54.240 It was because they excited you, wasn't it, he said 0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:58.840 the female customers. You couldn't control yourself, That's why they 0:25:58.920 --> 0:26:03.840 fired you. But Thomas denied the accusation and insisted that 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:06.919 he just wasn't cut out for the job. Then he 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:10.359 changed the subject and began talking about how he'd become 0:26:10.359 --> 0:26:14.639 convinced that the police were following him. Why they asked, 0:26:15.560 --> 0:26:19.520 but Thomas wasn't sure. Maybe, as he explained, it was 0:26:19.560 --> 0:26:22.159 because he once thought about approaching a woman in the 0:26:22.240 --> 0:26:25.560 street to introduce himself, but just as he got close 0:26:25.600 --> 0:26:29.360 to her, he turned away, realizing it might be strange 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.800 for her. Perhaps a police officer had seen him do this, 0:26:33.000 --> 0:26:36.560 he said. Also, a man had once sat next to 0:26:36.640 --> 0:26:39.479 him on a bench and asked him forcefully if he 0:26:39.560 --> 0:26:42.199 was gay. He thought the man might have been a 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:46.880 police officer trying to catch him out. Puzzled by this 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:51.560 meandering answer, Soshnik turned the conversation to the yoga book 0:26:52.000 --> 0:26:55.040 and the peculiar sketches of apartments they'd found in his 0:26:55.160 --> 0:27:05.040 note books. You don't have to worry any more. We 0:27:05.160 --> 0:27:10.639 know everything. We've searched your room, said Soshnik. Thomas looked up, 0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:16.640 confused the sketches, replied Soshnik, the ink blots, but Thomas 0:27:16.680 --> 0:27:20.160 insisted they were nothing, just a legacy from the time 0:27:20.200 --> 0:27:23.919 he spent studying to be a commercial artist. The sketches, 0:27:23.960 --> 0:27:26.280 he said, was something he liked to do from time 0:27:26.320 --> 0:27:28.720 to time, part of a game he used to play 0:27:28.760 --> 0:27:31.480 with his brother, where they challenged each other to draw 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:34.879 places they'd lived in from memory. And as for the 0:27:34.920 --> 0:27:38.000 ink blots, that was just something he diared out of habit. 0:27:38.520 --> 0:27:41.639 He always covered the female form whenever he saw it. 0:27:42.640 --> 0:27:47.360 Soshnik and Bottomly glanced at each other. Unconvinced by his explanation. 0:27:48.400 --> 0:27:50.560 Thinking it was time to move things up a notch, 0:27:50.920 --> 0:27:54.560 Soshnik reached inside an envelope, then pulled out a photograph 0:27:54.600 --> 0:27:57.440 and held it in front of Thomas. It was an 0:27:57.440 --> 0:28:01.639