Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 43 | TV Shows That Drove People To KILL...

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

In today's episode, we dive into how these killers weren't just entertained by watching a show... but they were inspired. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Most of us can binge a dark show, shake it off, and go back to our normal lives. But every once in a while, someone watches something that doesn't just entertain them. It awakens them. They don't see the story as made up. They see it as a blueprint, a set of instructions. And what happens next feels less like a crime and more like a scene playing out exactly as they saw it on screen. And in today's video, you'll meet three people. each from a different walk of life.

But all were drawn to the same disturbing idea. That violence on a screen wasn't enough. They wanted to feel it, recreate it, perfect it. And the stories that they left behind blur the line between imitation and obsession. These are shows that inspired killings. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume. And I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectual.

minded freak. And today we're talking about just that. Three killers that were inspired by TV shows or movies specifically. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into these three bizarre cases together. Stefano Britsy was born on June 26, 1966 in a small Italian town of San Marcello Pistoese, and his upbringing was rooted in Catholic tradition. So his family was deeply religious, and one of his uncles was even a priest. So Stefano was naturally expected to follow a similar path of faith and structure. But from an early age, Stefano felt different.

He discovered he was gay at the age of 15, and he would hide his sexuality for the fear of what people close to him would think. Because naturally, growing up in a very strict religious household, he was scared that they would disown him and think less of him. And to make matters kind of worse for himself, he started to become intellectually interested in Satanism to further reject his family's Christian values. So outside, he seemed pretty normal, but inside he was clearly struggling. And as he would develop, he gravitated towards philosophy, art, and later technology. He would study philosophy at university, and then he would slowly pivot to the rising world of computer science. And he would eventually become a very proficient

web developer. And in time, that skill set would land him a job in one of the most competitive cities on earth, London. London, England, to be specific. It was a terrible London accent. But he would secure a very high paying position as a developer for Morgan Stanley, a major global finance firm. So to the outside world, he was a success story. An Italian immigrant working at a prestigious job and living very comfortably in a modern flat in South London. But beneath the surface, Stefano was disintegrating. Because while working in London, Stefano would unfortunately become addicted to methamphetamine. But his descent into methamphetamine and his addiction was kind of quiet at first. He would occasionally recreationally use it with his friends. But the drug would eventually

take complete control of Stefano. As they do, don't do drugs, kids. And it wasn't long before Stefano was fully immersed in London's chem sex subculture. Basically, a scene defined by long, drug-fueled encounters, often with strangers met through dating apps like Grindr, which Stefano used frequently. And his addiction would spiral so far out of control that he would lose his job at Morgan Stanley in 2014. And without structure, his life just became completely unrecognizable. And his drug and sex addiction would just run rampant. And it was around this time that Stefano would become obsessed with the television show Breaking Bad. Same though, but not the sex and the drugs part, but Breaking Bad's a really great show.

But unlike me, he didn't just enjoy the characters and the fantastic writing. He identified a lot with Walter White. A once overlooked man with quiet intellect who transformed himself into something extremely powerful. So his story like kind of aligned with Walter White, so he saw himself in Walter White. So Stefano would binge watch the series over and over. Again, not unlike myself, but we are different people. But he focused not on the dramatic arcs or moral conflicts. Instead, he would focus on the chemistry, the methods, the violence.

And particularly the now infamous scene where Walter dissolves a body in acid. And actually it wasn't Walter that dissolved the body in acid. It was actually Jesse, but it was Walter that dissolved the body in acid. It was Walter's idea to dissolve the body and acid to get rid of it completely. And the whole scene revolves around Jesse going to shop for specific barrels that you could put this acid in and it wouldn't wreck the barrel. But he ends up just being lazy and putting the acid in the bathtub and the body in the bathtub. And then actually the bathtub ends up going through the ceiling with the body. But the body is completely dissolved.

So there's just blood everywhere. And it's a crazy scene. If you haven't watched Breaking Bad, what do you do it? You should watch a show. It's a good show. It's a good show. So like I was saying, he would pinpoint on this specific scene and you could see where this is going. So in April of 2016, Stefano took that step that blurred the line between fan fiction and reality.

So using Grindr, the dating app that he used frequently, he messaged a man named Gordon Semple, a 59-year-old officer with the Metropolitan Police. And Gordon had worked with Scotland Yard and had a long, respected career in law enforcement. He was known to be very discreet, especially about his private life, and often enjoyed using dating apps like Grindr. And on the 1st of April, 2016, Gordon would arrive at Stefano's flat on South Work Street for what was supposed to be a casual encounter. And what happens inside the apartment on this day is only known from Stefano's account. So the two had planned a group sex party. Yeah, awesome.

Inviting other men to join in the fun. And one such person even showed up. but was turned away by Stefano who said that the party was canceled. Little did he know, he dodged a major bullet. So after Stefano and Gordon enjoyed each other's company as you do, Stefano would take it a step further and strangle Gordon. And he later would claim in court that during a drug-fueled session, things just escalated.

And Gordon just died accidentally during what he described as a sex game gone wrong. And he just insisted that it wasn't intentional. Yeah, man, I hate when that happens. I hate when I'm, you know, having fun with my partner and I accidentally strangle them to death. What? It's like these people think people are stupid. I just don't even understand.

And also, because what Stefano did next, did not support his claim at all. Because instead of, you know, calling for help, he left Gordon's body lying on his apartment floor for days. And then, after thinking about what he's gonna do, Stefano began the process of dismembering him. And on April 5th, Stefano was caught on film, purchasing cleaning products, buckets, and more to dispose of Gordon's body.

Just like he had seen in Breaking Bad. But unlike the show, it didn't work cleanly. And although in the show, the bathtub ended up falling through the floor, so it wasn't necessarily clean. It did work in disposing of the body. But for Stefano, it didn't. Basically, he filled his apartment with toxic fumes, and the acid failed to fully break down Gordon's body. and parts of Gordon were scattered through the flat, including even in a cooking pot. And during the trial, forensic examiners found a partially cooked human rib with clear signs of bite marks on it,

indicating that Brissy had attempted to eat part of his victim, which did not happen in the show. He went a little off script with that, just a, just an insane, insane, horrible, horrible thing. Just to think that this guy went from, you know, a very successful job, had everything in life to being a methamphetamine drug-fueled, six addict cannibal, is crazy. And during all this, during him trying to dispose of Gordon's body, basically, Gordon Semple's partner and friends had begun to worry because he's been missing for five days at this point. He hadn't returned home. He hadn't returned to work. and every call that went out to him went unanswered. And this is also when the smell began to leak through Stefano's apartment building.

And neighbors would first notice it in the hallway, and it was a very harsh chemical scent mixed with something foul. And as we know, it was Gordon's decomposing body. So his neighbors would obviously complain to building management, who would then, in turn, contact authorities. And on April 7th, six whole days after Gordon went missing, Police entered Stefano's flat and inside they found a scene straight out of a horror film, or a Breaking Bad episode.

There were body parts submerged in acid, bleach and chemicals scattered everywhere, and a pot on the stove, with body parts in it as well. And a man who appeared to be completely calm, shirtless in pink briefs, and high, just sitting amongst it all. It's just a horrifying scene to think of. And at first, he allegedly claimed that Satan told him to do it. Ah, man, I hate when that happens. But he later tried to minimize the crime.

And he would just say that it was just a giant accident. Whoops! Didn't mean to go to the store and purchase hundreds of dollars of dismembering tools and chemical acid to get rid of the body and not own up to it. Oopsie Daisy. Just tripped into there. Don't know what happened. I don't know, officer. But yeah, he claimed he panicked and only dismembered the body to hide what he'd done. Oh, so a crime?

So you committed a crime. But obviously, investigators aren't stupid and they weren't convinced. And they would find Gordon's DNA on utensils and inside the cooking pot. And they would also find evidence of Stefano purchasing buckets, gloves, and chemicals, as we know. And they would even recover texts and online searches that suggested premeditation, not panic. He was searching up, you know, how to get rid of a body, basically, which is just how to get caught 101. What are you doing, man? But thank God he was stupid as hell.

And Stefano Brissy would be charged with murder and brought to trial on October of 2016. And his defense held the story that Gordon's death had been an accident somehow. But the jury naturally rejected that version of events. And in November of 2016, and Brissy was convicted of murder. And in December, he was sentenced to life in prison

with a minimum of 24 years, which I don't think's enough. But he wouldn't serve even one year. Because just a few months later, on February 5th, 2017, Stefano was found hanging in his cell at Belmarsh Prison. He had taken his own life. Took the easy way out. Piece of shit. And an inquest later revealed he'd actually made several slur-slide attempts in the weeks prior, including ingesting cleaning fluid and other substances.

So the man who once admired a fictional meth kingpin had followed the script all the way to the end. Spoiler alert. Murder, dismemberment, disposal, and all. ultimately self-destruction. But Stefano wasn't the last to confuse fiction for purpose. Because while he tried to emulate Walter White, the next man on this list modeled himself after a serial killer that didn't even exist.

Mark Andrew Twitchell was born July 4th, 1979, in Edmonton, Alberta, a place more known for snowstorms and oil sands than crime thrillers or film sets. And from a young age, Mark was obsessed storytelling, whether it was science fiction, comic books, or movies, anything that transported him out of his quiet suburban life. So he had this creative spark within him that he was just ready to use. And in high school, he was known as the movie guy, because he was always writing and filming stuff. And he did really pursue this passion seriously. He would even go so far as to enroll in a radio and

television arts program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. And in 2000, he would graduate with a degree and a plan. He wanted to be. become a Hollywood filmmaker. But Edmonton wasn't exactly a launch pad for the film industry. Little Canadian fact, a lot of people call it Edmonton. That's how fun it is out there. No, no hate to all my Edmonton people. I love you. All right, but I've been there. Been there a few times. Not a lot going on. But still, Mark wanted to make it work. So he would shoot commercials and he would write short films. And he would gain some minor recognition when he directed a Star Wars fan film titled Secrets of the Rebellion. And what

started as a passion project, somehow scored actor Jeremy Boloch, who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars films, for a cameo, which is insane. Also, sorry if I said his name wrong. So among Star Wars fans, this short film made some noise. But unfortunately, not quite enough to crack through the mainstream success. But Mark took this positive feedback really seriously, and this passion for filmmaking just fueled his performance. But he knew that if he wanted to make it, he needed to write about what he loved. And right then, there was one show that had completely captured his full attention. Dexter, which is also one of my favorite shows. They're starting to make me not like my favorite shows. I don't like this. But Dexter, also a good show. You should watch it. But as we know,

Mark wasn't just a fan of the show. He was obsessed. He admired the duality of the main character, a seemingly normal man hiding a violent alter ego. Because Dexter, Mr. Morgan wasn't just any serial killer. He had a purpose behind his killings. He would only kill the guilty. Basically, he was a vigilante. He would only kill people that were bad, quote unquote. And he was extremely methodical,

and he even had rules and rituals, and he also had a kill room, or he would make a portable kill room, if you will, Tonight's the Night. Tonight's the night. But Mark would watch every single episode. He would study the details and then began writing a story

script of his own. It was a story about a man who lures victims through online dating and would eventually kill them in a plastic-covered garage, a Dexter signature. But this wasn't fiction, not entirely. Because in September 2008, Mark would rent out a detached garage behind a house in Edmonton, and he began converting it into something eerily familiar to Dexter fans, with plastic sheeting all over the floors, walls, and ceilings. He would also have a table, good lighting and weapons. And this would be all arranged for one purpose. A controlled and isolated kill.

And after he was finished making his kill room, he would then create a fake profile on a dating site called Plenty of Fish, posing as a woman named Sheena. And his whole plan was to lure a man back to the garage using directions crafted to hide the actual address. Just like a scene from a psychological thriller, or like Dexter.

So after a few months using his fake profile, on plenty of fish, he would finally get a bite on October 3, 2008. Gillis Tetralt, a 33-year-old casino security guard, had recently gone through a very painful breakup. And that day, he messaged Sheena within hours. And they had arranged to meet up for a movie and a dinner. But the directions that Sheena sent were bizarre. And I'll read them to you because they are bizarre. So, okay, Friday, if you're coming from the North Groat, get on Calgary Trail, and when you get to the south side and jump on a white mud. Then go south on 50 Street. Take a right on 40 Avenue and after a block or two, take the

very first right into the alley. It's marked by a yellow crosswalk sign to pay attention. Then go left and pull into the only driveway on your left that isn't paved, L.O.L. Seriously, whoever heard of a driveway that looks like the Amazon. Whatever, it won't swallow your car, I promise. There's some garbage up against the fence like an old couch and such, but it might be gone by Friday. Who knows? Like I said, the garage door will be open for you a touch. Don't worry about neighbors thinking you're a burglarer. Everyone knows there's nothing valuable in there. Dot, dot, dot.

Except my car, of course. Oi. See you then. Sheena. Yeah, first visible back door coming out of the garage. Knock away. There's certainly no other driveways along our alley like this one. And the half-open car door is a dead giveaway.

L.O.L. See you seven on Friday. Like immediately, no. What? No address? Just 95. different landmarks to follow like this. It's just red flags all around. But even though he detected there was some red flags, Gillis figured she was just being cautious because, you know,

being a woman, you don't want to maybe give away your address necessarily. So I guess I could buy that. Yeah. Because after all, he was a stranger on the internet to Sheena. But little did Gillis know that Sheena wasn't a she. So that night, Gillis followed the instructions and stepped into the garage, which, remember, was only opened a touch, so he kind of crawled under the garage. And what happened next would feel like a Dexter episode. Because as Gillis stepped across the plastic floor toward the door that was supposed to lead to Sheena's backyard, he felt something smash into the back of his neck. And that's when he would turn and come face to face with a man in a hockey mask and a stunned baton.

So the attacker would stun him once and then again, driving him to the ground. And when Gillis would try to run naturally, he saw the man pull a gun. But something fell off. So when Gillis grabbed the gun mid-struggle, he realized the gun was plastic. And that realization would give Gillis an edge. So fueled by adrenaline, he would fight back with his life. So Gillis would punch back only to realize he was weakened by the stun baton. And Mark would then punch him repeatedly in the head and would attempt to grab his jack.

So Gillis found a moment between the beatings. He would allow Mark to think that he got a hold of him only to slip out of the jacket completely. Like those toddlers when they're having a tantrum and they could just slip out. So he would slip out of the jacket and he would roll under the garage door to safety. Or so he thought. Because his energy was still sapped from the stun baton. So when he stood up to run, he immediately fell back down. Just a horror movie situation.

And Mark would grab his leg and pull him back into the garage. into the garage. But somehow he managed to get enough strength to roll back out of the garage once more, hop into his truck and speed off. So Gillis would narrowly escape with his life. But he would tell no one because he was too embarrassed and ashamed that he'd fallen for an obvious setup.

So he would just never call the police because he was just embarrassed. And this would cause another person to lose their life. Because a week later, Mark would try. again. So on October 10th, 2008, 38-year-old Johnny Altinger received a message from a woman named Jen on the same dating site, plenty of fish. She was beautiful, blonde, and super friendly. And within a few hours of talking back and forth, they agreed to meet. So just like Gillis, Johnny was given odd instructions. He was basically run through the same rigmarole, follow a series of landmarks,

enter through a garage, and walk into the backyard where she'd be waiting. But Johnny wasn't quite as trusting as Gillis. So before leaving, he forwarded the directions to a friend with a note that jokingly read, If I go missing, this is where I'm going. So Johnny would get ready, get in his car, and go leave for his date. But unfortunately, he would never come back.

And he would not be as lucky as Gillis. It's believed that Johnny followed the same instructions and he would go underneath the garage door and Mark would do the same thing. He would hit Johnny over the head, but this time with a pipe. But instead of letting him react, like he let Gillis react, he would immediately start repeatedly stabbing him.

And he would follow that up by dismembering Johnny's body afterwards. So a few days after Johnny's death, friends would receive an email from Johnny's account, claiming that he had met someone amazing and was going away on a nice long tropical vacation. It would read, Hey there, I've met an extraordinary woman named Jen, who is offered to take me on a nice,

long tropical vacation. We'll be staying in her winter home in Costa Rica. Phone number to follow soon. I won't be back in town until December 10th, but I will be checking my email periodically. See you around the holidays. Johnny. Just the weirdest email. If I received an email like that from literally anyone I knew, I would assume that something fucking terrible happened to them. And immediately, people realized that something felt off. The tone wasn't his at all. And he didn't sound excited. It sounded like it was completely scripted and police were immediately notified. For a so-called writer, Mark completely fucking missed the mark on the stupid email and thank God he did. And luckily, since Johnny had forwarded those instructions on finding the place to his friend,

police would also have these instructions and they would be led directly to the garage, where they would find Mark's Dexter-like kill room. They would obviously go up to Mark being like, what the hell, what the hell happened? And he would say that it was just being used for a movie called House of Cards, in which a masked figure lures men into a garage for a date prior to killing them. Basically, giving them his M.O. But a later search of Mark Twitchell's laptop revealed a deleted file titled S.K. Confessions. He wrote out his confessions because it was believed to be a short for serial killer confessions.

That's a stupidest fucking asshole. Just bitch. Just scum of the earth. And luckily, forensic texts would be able to recover the file. And what they read completely stunned them. It was a document detailing how the narrator lured men to the garage, attacked them, and murdered them. And it would read as such. The story is based on true events.

The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. Like anyone just starting out in a new skill, I had a bit of a trial and error in the beginning of my misadventures. Allow me to start from the beginning, and I think you'll see what I mean. I don't remember the exact place and time it was that I decided to become a serial killer, but I remember the sensation that hit me when I committed to the decision. It was a rush of pure euphoria.

I felt lighter, less stressed, if you will, at the freedom of the prospect. There was something about urgently exploring my dark side that greatly appealed to me, and I'm such a thoughtical planner and thinker, the very challenge itself was enticing to behold. This realization was just the last, in a series of new discoveries I made about myself. I just knew I was different somehow from the rest of humanity. I feel no such emotions as empathy or sympathy towards others, for example. This was just the beginning of the excerpt of the S.K. Confessions.

I just love how this fucking asshole thinks he's so different from everybody when he's just watching a show and then copying it verbatim because he has, he can't even think of how to be his own person, you know? Just a stupid piece of shit. Yeah, it just makes me angry. I don't know. I just, I just, I just, they're just waste of oxygen.

Anyway, so this confession ended abruptly after describing the dismemberment and disposal of the second victim, Johnny, which the different name he gave him in the confession was, John, wow, so methodical, so, such good writing. Just an idiot.

So Mark Twitchell would be arrested on October 31st, 2008, on Halloween night. Trick-or-treat, motherfucker is all I gotta say. And Gillis would see this on TV and he would come forward and finally admit what happened to him in the garage. And his story seemed to match up with the account in the document. You know, the confession that Mark wrote? And in court, the defense claimed the S.K. Confessions wasn't real.

Just an early draft of a screenplay. But the real life evidence would match completely with the confession. So the jury didn't buy the story. And in April 2011, Mark Twitchell was convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. And to this day, Twitchell maintains the file wasn't real. But amongst the evidence, investigators found something else as well. A Facebook page he had run in character as Dexter Morgan.

And he would post updates like, We all have a dark side, some darker than others. So this guy wasn't pretending. He was just preparing. But he didn't prepare well enough, so surprise, Motherfucker, rotten jail. If you don't know what I'm quoting right now, I'm literally quoting a cop from Dexter, the show Dexter, who thinks Dexter is guilty, which he is, and he says, surprise, motherfucker.

Just roll the clip. Surprise, motherfucker. And that brings us to our last killer. Sarah Edmondson was born into power on July 26, 1976. She was the daughter of Jim Edmondson, a respected judge in Muskogee County, Oklahoma. And her uncle was Drew Edmondson, the state's attorney general. And her grandfather was Ed Edmondson who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives. And even her great uncle was Oklahoma's governor.

So she was born into a family of lawmakers and leaders. And Sarah was naturally expected to follow in the same path with success, structure, and legacy. But from a young age, Sarah kind of struggled to keep her footing. She was more sensitive and anxious and prone to emotional spirals. And when she was 13, she suffered a mental health crisis that I, actually led her to psychiatric treatment. And then high school would begin, and she would spiral even further.

And it would kind of start when her grandfather died. She took it really hard because she was close with him. And then came the sluerslide of her best friend. And after that, a devastating car crash killed more of her close friends. So she's just going through waves and waves of grief. So by the time she graduated high school in 1994, Sarah had lost several people she had loved.

And at this point, she just was a completely different person. And by the time she got to college, she was just kind of drifting, dropping out within her first semester. And she would kind of pull away from her high profile family and just found comfort in pure chaos. And this is when she would meet Benjamin Derris.

And Benjamin was also from Oklahoma. He was from Telequa, sorry if I'm saying that wrong, a small city not far from Muskogee. But his background was very different. Ben's home life was turbulent to see the least. His father hit him and was an alcoholic, and when Ben was a teenager, his father would die by slewer slide. And like Sarah, he turned to drugs and never finished high school. So different upbringings for both of them, but they both kind of ended up in the same position,

just feeling completely lost, not knowing who they were or what they were supposed to do with their lives. So when Ben and Sarah met, something just clicked, but not in a really romantic or healthy way, just pure toxic, in a way that intensified each other's self-destruction. They would just share fascination with rebellion, with the idea of breaking free from the expectations of the world around them. And in March of 1995, that shared fantasy would turn into something deadly. So they would take a trip and isolate themselves in a cabin in Oklahoma and take acid, and they would watch the very popular, very well-known cult classic movie, Natural Born Killers. A movie I also love that is now ruined. Thanks a lot. And for those of you who don't know, natural born killers is Oliver

Stone's famously controversial film about a couple who fall in love and go on a thrill-kill murder spree across the American Southwest. A film you actually might remember from the last deep dive about the world's youngest serial killers. So we got two shout-outs to natural born killers, probably not in the best way though. But again, you know, it's a pretty decent movie. You should watch it. Don't take it seriously, though. So the couple wouldn't just watch this once.

They would be tripped out on acid and watch it over and over and over and over again. Slowly becoming obsessed with it, obsessed with the idea of it, obsessed with what the couple in the movie was doing. And then after their high would slow down, they would hit the road. And they would tell friends that they would be headed to Memphis for a Grateful Dead concert. But that was never the real plan. They were looking for something much darker, something violent. So on March 7, 1995, they arrived in Hernando, Mississippi. And inside a small office near a cotton gin, 58-year-old William Savage was working alone.

He was a very quiet and very well-liked man, and he was also a manager, and a family man with literally no enemies, just salt of the earth. But Benjamin Derris would walk into the store and he would shoot him twice in the head. at point blank range with no warning whatsoever. And then chillingly, he would take a piece of William's blood-stained shirt as a souvenir. And there wouldn't be any robbery, no motive. It was just cold-blooded murder.

So after he would kill William, take a piece of a shirt, he would hop back in the car and the couple would go next to Louisiana. And on March 8th, in a small town in Pontchatula, they would stop at another convenience store. And this time, it would be Sarah's turn. She, too, would walk into the store with no warning at all and point a gun at 35-year-old clerk, Patsy buyers, and pull the trigger.

And the bullet would completely shatter Patsy's spine. But luckily, Patsy would survive, but was left permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Just Sarah completely fucked up a humans being life. Like these, again, just waste of oxygen. piece of shit monsters. And after shooting Patsy, Sarah grabbed money from the register and ran out the door. So both shootings just appeared random. There wasn't any connection and there was no warning at all. But as we know, they weren't random. They were basically just a twisted performance based off of a movie that they had watched several times days before. So after these shootings, Benjamin and Sarah

returned to Oklahoma. But the story wouldn't stay buried for long. And the FBI would receive a tip and within weeks, both were arrested, thankfully. And the investigation also thankfully moved very quickly because the evidence was damning. And soon, of course, the media would catch wind of the story. Two teenagers, one, the daughter of a judge and the other a drifter from a broken home, had gone on a real-life murder spree. Allegedly inspired by a Hollywood film, just something for media to eat up. And it would just explode across headlines and national news. And in court, the prosecutors would lay out a very chilling timeline with first the drugs, the obsession with natural board killers, the souvenirs, and just the fucking senselessness. And after everything

went down, Benjamin would actually plead guilty to the murder of William Savage. And he would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Mississippi. And he would also receive a 35-year sentence in Louisiana for his role in the shooting of Patsy Byers, because he was an accomplice. And Sarah Edmitson would also plead guilty to armed robbery with attempted second-degree murder and a legal use of a firearm. And she would be sentenced to 30 years in prison only serving 11. So in 2010, Sarah Edmondson was released on parole. And she would return to Oklahoma where she still lives under strict conditions. But her parole is scheduled to end in 2025 this year. And Benjamin Derris remains behind bars, serving a life sentence with no possibility of release, which I think is

probably good. But the case didn't just end in court. Patsy Byers actually filed a civil law not just against the shooters, but against director Oliver Stone and Time Warner, the makers of natural-born killers. And she claimed that the film incited violence, and that it gave Sarah and Ben a script to follow, essentially. But Patsy would unfortunately die one day before her scheduled appearance in court,

because she allegedly had cancer and was unable to feel any of the symptoms, which is so heartbreaking, because she couldn't feel anything from the neck down, neck down just terrible. So the case was naturally dismissed and the court ruled that the filmmakers couldn't be held liable for their actions of the viewers, which in my opinion, I mean, it makes sense. I know in a lot of media we glorify and romanticize killers, but at the end of the day, it is fiction. I mean, you could put that up against video games, TV shows, movies, just anything

in media books. You just need to have the wherewithal to know that this isn't real and It's not a script to follow. But do I think that the romanticizing of killers is productive? No, I don't think so. But I don't think we can take incidences like this and pin it against the people that wrote the characters. So the question still lingers. Where does art end and influence begin? For Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Derris, that line wasn't just crossed.

It was obliterated. But stories have. always shaped human behavior. They reflect who we are and sometimes who we want to become. And in most cases, even the darkest fiction serves as a sort of release, a safe place to explore fear, violence, and power without real world consequences, just exploring curiosity. But sometimes, those stories don't land the same for everyone. And for some, they become more than just entertainment. It just became a spark that struck minds already fractured by trauma, addiction and delusion. So these aren't just stories of copycat crimes. They're reminders of how powerful media can be in the wrong context,

especially when it meets people who are already teetering on that edge. But let me know what you think down in the comments below. Also let me know what other cases you want me to dive deep into down in the comments below. I really appreciate you guys. If you want to watch something a little lighter, I do have a second channel. It's called Call Me Chris too, if you want to check that out. But I also have a new channel with Selena Spooky Boo called Can't Sleep. It's not too spooky. It's a little more uppity than this kind of stuff. If, in fact, you can't sleep after these stories, which I would very much understand. And if you want something little sweet, you can go over to sour.g.

And grab yourself some candy, some candy that I made for you, baby. But with all that, I really appreciate you watching the video. And I will see y'all beautiful face in the next one. Okay? Be safe out there. Bye.