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MAN: A night of violence in
northern Iowa has left

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two convenience store clerks
dead in two separate shootings.

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A teenage gunman is accused of
murdering a clerk in Algona

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and then heading south to
gun down another clerk

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in Humboldt.

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[theme music playing]

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

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the appetite.

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

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filling...the hunger.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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♪♪

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[music climbing]

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He has a complete disregard
for supervision,

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for sanctions, for the legal
and criminal system.

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

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It's also what we sometimes
see with very,

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very impulsive people.

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MORGAN: I don't believe
a statement like,

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

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I think that his acquisition
of guns and leaving was just

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

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He needs to be powerful.

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MUNDY:
Psychopathic youths,

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the literature shows that they
are more likely to be carrying

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specifically firearms than, say,

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

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Wanting to carry one,

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despite knowing you're
essentially a fugitive from

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the law,
and knowing that

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it carries really significant
consequences with it,

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it's just very consistent
with psychopathy.

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MAN: It all started in
Algona, Iowa.

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Pretty heartbreaking story
and unbelievable.

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WOMAN: Investigators
say a man wearing a ski mask

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walked into the store

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and demanded Bowman-Hall
put cash and cigarettes

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into a duffel bag.

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She did,
and he shot her.

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[bell jingles]

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She thought
the gun was fake.

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

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In his case,

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going for power is
the way he is going

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to express his psychopathy.

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SAHNI:
By standing up and re-enacting,

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I think he's showing off.

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

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and he wants to show someone
what he has done.

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Swanson is really showing us

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all the markers of
psychopathic behavior.

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SWANSON: Um...

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SAHNI: Swanson doesn't have
any real emotion.

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He's not upset or bothered by

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

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He is impulsive.

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He is detached.

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There's just no emotion.

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[car engine starting]

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When he was 17 years old,
in 2010,

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just about a month before
he committed these murders,

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he was evaluated.

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Michael was having some sexual
and violent themes, and there

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

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about him being impulsive.

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

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"to society if unmedicated,
and even if medicated,

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he is still
somewhat unpredictable."

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That is a very
strong conclusion.

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

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I'm scared.

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This evaluation is
absolutely a warning sign.

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His anecdote about being
high as a kite means

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that he was using enough

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to be completely
disinhibited in a public space

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to take his clothes off.

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He has all the characteristic
features that should alarm us.

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Swanson has this pattern of
drug and alcohol use and is

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willing to try anything
and everything.

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

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psychopathic behavior

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and in trying to
diagnose psychopathy.

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There is a relationship
between impulse control

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and drug use, and there is

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a relationship between impulse
control and psychopathy.

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People with psychopathy
tend to use drugs more.

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I think that's similar to what

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we're seeing here
with Michael Swanson.

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WOMAN: 25 miles south,
a similar scene.

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

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

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

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♪♪

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The fact that it's an hour
between the first

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and the second kill is
behavior that absolutely is

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becoming compulsive.

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And when you add in
an emerging compulsivity with

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the fact that he's had impulse
control problems

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his entire life,

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

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high, and in the process of
upping that ante,

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

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and he liked the high,
he liked the thrill,

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um,
and he needs it again.

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

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show where someone bangs
their head on something.

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He has a complete lack of
empathy about another

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human being --
they're just objects.

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That indifference is just
the hallmark of psychopathy,

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

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

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I think that really taps
into the high that

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he experienced,
and also maybe

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some budding
sadistic tendencies.

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This enjoyment that Swanson's
showing us is highly consistent

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with psychopathic behavior.

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♪♪

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♪♪

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♪♪

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♪♪

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♪♪

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[coughing]

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

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be essentially inconvenienced
by his crime,

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and where he's going to be sent.

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This is classic to psychopaths.

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They don't care about others.

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It's 100% about him.

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MUNDY:
Soldiers who have shot enemy

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combatants still feel
something after that.

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He's not talking about
an enemy combatant

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that he killed
in the line of duty.

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

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

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It must be mania.

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SAHNI: Swanson is not
being straight with himself.

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He's not being,
I think, honest.

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I don't actually think it
is complicated.

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

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It is really that simple.

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[phone ringing]

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[phone ringing]

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[phone line picks up]

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Swanson is an entirely
different person,

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with different tone,
different speech pattern.

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

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he's animated --
he's experiencing

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what feels like a high.

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MORGAN: There is
a status element in his mind.

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He's bragging about
what he's done,

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and he's acknowledging --
it felt good.

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So, these features of
the mimicry, the thrill,

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the lack of remorse,
enjoying it, and bragging

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about it, those are significant
features of psychopathy.

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WOMAN: The prosecution says
Michael Swanson did this in

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part for the attention
he got from it.

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

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from wrong.

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The state then called
a psychiatrist,

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who interviewed Swanson
after the crimes.

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He says Swanson
told him he'd been

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planning to kill
since he was 13.

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

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"and violence,

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

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rape, and cannibalism."

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

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His original plan was

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to kill his parents.

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Those were the first two people
he wanted killed.

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He's fully capable of
deliberating, premeditating,

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and forming the specific
intent to kill.

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MAN: Verdict number one,
we find the defendant

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guilty of murder
in the first degree.

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

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

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

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Swanson added two obscene
gestures to that

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ever-present smile.

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♪♪