Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Failed Country Music Star Turned Fast Food Killer? - what was going on with Paul Dennis Reid??

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! Paul Dennis Reid... aka the 'Fast Food Killer'... was a failed country singer who became one of Tennessee’s most terrifying criminals in the late '90s.  This man went on a deadly spree, robbing fast food spots and brutally killing several people in just a few months.  His story is a mix of broken dreams, cold-blooded murder, and the chilling realization that no one is safe... not even in the place where they sell Happy Meals. Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey ________ FOLLOW ME AROUND  Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Business Related Mail:  Bailey Sarian  4400 W. Riverside Dr., Ste 110-300  Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Right now, you can get a 30-day free trial PLUS 25 percent off your annual subscription when you go to htttps://www.dipseastories.com/makeup.  Get the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at htttps://www.selectquote.com/makeup.

Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. Today's episode is kind of, it's graphic. It's not that graphic. I try not to go into heavy details about like how people were murdered. I just feel like it's gore porn. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But like this one, I was like, I don't wanna. But just a little disclaimer, okay? I think there's a dog mentioned at some point, so I apologize. Okay, so let me give you the intro.

Listen, not many of us think of murder when we hear about fast food restaurants in the 90s. You know? I imagine obviously like McDonald's, the play places, and how stinky they were. And I mean, more than likely, when you think like fast food killer, you think like the hamburger was the killer, you know?

But no, okay. The hamburger was not the killer. Between February and April, 1997, a newly fired fast food restaurant employee went on a rampage in Tennessee, robbing three different locations and murdering seven young and innocent employees who were just trying to freaking get a paycheck, you know? Now you might not have heard of Paul Dennis Reed. Dennis Reed sounds like, who was that guy?

The BTK killer, but it's not him. His name's Paul, Paul Reed. Paul wanted to be a country musician, okay? But instead, he went in the opposite direction, becoming a murderer and making a name for himself in American mass murder history, all in just 60 days, okay? Take a deep breath. This ride is wild.

This guy had a, I don't know, I don't like him. Paul Dennis Reed Jr. was born on November 12th, 1957 in Richland Hills, which I guess is a suburb Northeast of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas. Okay, Texas people know. At the time the town had around 8,000 residents. It was transformed from a rural farmland to a residential suburb starting in the early 1940s that's when world war ii or it's around world war ii when um weapon manufacturing plants were being built

in fort worth and this led to like a major boom in population. So Paul's born, step one. Now, when he was born, he had a deformed ear, and because of this, he had hearing loss. Paul also had two older sisters. Their names were Linda and Janet, and they all lived together with their parents until Paul was about three years old. That's when Paul's father and mother divorced. I guess it was because Paul's father was abusive towards his wife. So she was

like, I'm getting the fuck out of here and good for her. But Paul and his sister Janet ended up living with their father, who was said to be abusive, right? And his grandma, Paul's grandma. Now the other sister, her name was Linda. She ended up staying with their mother. So it was just Paul and Janet together with grandma. You get it. Okay, great. I'm just going over in my head.

So I remember. Now Paul's father, a little sketchy guy, he was a private investigator who repossessed cars. It was said that he was an alcoholic and honestly wasn't around a lot of the time so it left the grandma to raise Paul and his sister. It was said grandma didn't really know how to discipline the kids. So Paul was like getting into all sorts of trouble from an early age. I'm talking about real trouble okay. He wasn't even five years old when he started stealing the neighbor's mail and clothes off of the clotheslines. He also little fucker tacks in his grandma's soup.

Okay, poor freaking grandma over here. Just trying to have some soup. Paul put tacks in them. And then, listen, he barricaded his grandma in her room and then set fire to her bed while she was in it. She survived. I don't know how you could still love that child. I'm sorry, that might be mean,

but I would be like, yeah, I'm leaving. You just try to kill me. But like, he wasn't getting disciplined for these actions. You're trying to set grandma on fire and I don't know, yeah okay well he also took grandma's dog and um I'm so sorry but he beat his grandma's dog to death with a baseball bat so sad so sad yeah this kid's evil evil from the the jump it was said when Paul was five years old, he was hit in the head with a brick. Some say that it was an accident and the brick had fell on his head when

he was playing at a construction site. Regardless of how it happened, the brick was one of the first severe head traumas Paul endured. Now, Paul wasn't sent to school until he was about seven years old so he got a little bit of a later start. His dad finally was like okay go to school and when he finally got there he had a really hard time adjusting to it. The school psychologist discovered that Paul had some kind of like something, a brain dysfunction, like something was going on, okay? And this could explain his impaired judgment and inappropriate behavior that he was showing in school. At eight years old, Paul was then sent to a Catholic school.

It was like an all boys school in Houston, Texas, which later became a school for neglected kids. Now at 14, Paul experienced another head injury. He was riding his mini bike and he got into an accident. He fractured his skull. And then he was in the hospital like for some time. And it was like, woo, dodged a bullet with this one. But no, because then he was riding his bike on a different day different whatever a car hits into him and he flies off his bike hits his head on the on the windshield and i don't even know what happened after that actually i hope they got a lawsuit but another traumatic head injury this guy his head is getting fucked up, okay?

At another point, it seems Paul's father like got really fed up with him, with his behavior and everything that was going on. So he actually tried to put him up for adoption. Yeah, his own dad at 15, 14. So that's when Paul's mother was like, okay, I'll, you know, take him in. He's my son.

So she takes him in to live with her and his other sister. But at 16 years old, Paul's mother kicked him out after he attempted to assault her. And also he tried to sexually assault his sister. So not great. It was said that Paul had attempted to do this with his other sister as well. Poor thing. So as you're probably gathering, this guy, not great. Not off to a good start, huh?

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So after that, Paul was on his own. And by 18, he had a juvenile record, including auto theft, forging sticks, forging checks, and assault. In the early 1980s, Paul got married when he was in his early 20s. Now, I had some questions, but whatever. We don't know much about his wife. I think she probably just disappeared after everything came out, and I don't know much about his wife. I think she probably just disappeared after everything came out and I don't blame her.

But what we do know is that Paul's sister had warned this woman, like, do not marry him. Don't marry him. Of course, you know, when you're in, love is blind. Season seven. Love is blind, so we tend to ignore any warning signals. Now he's married, but he's still acting like a damn fool. Okay?

He got charged with aggravated robbery where he dodged prison because he was found to be incompetent to stand trial, meaning he wasn't sound of mind. Then again, while he was still married, he stole city equipment to start his own business. He ended up getting caught for this and arrested and was awaiting trial. So, you know, right before his actual trial, there was a bunch of hearings to see if Paul

was competent. Like, you know, was he competent to stand trial? And Paul made sure to let them know that he was not sound of mind. was competent, like, you know, was he competent to stand trial? And Paul made sure to let them know that he was not sound of mind. He allegedly fell backwards in his chair when he's in court, okay, in front of everybody. He falls backwards on his chair.

He shot paper in the air with a rubber band. And then he made a little paper hat. Yeah, a paper hat. And then he put it on his lawyer's head. So he was behaving in a way that would make, make them think like, Hey, I don't think this guy is right. Now, the thing is he did these things when the jury was present, but when they weren't in the room, he would act normal and the judge caught on to this and was like no this this dude's trying to like play us so the prosecutor and the judge

they knew what he was doing they're like we're not falling for this paul you know and he ended up being convicted of aggravated robbery and would go on to serve, he got a 20-year prison sentence. Great. But he only served seven years because he was released on parole. So it's a shame because I think maybe jail would have been good for him. Knowing what's to come,

I think it would have been best if he stayed there. So when he's locked up, that's when Paul's wife divorces him. So Paul goes to prison and he spends some time there. And it was in Texas. He's serving prison. And I guess when he was in there, he started to get really paranoid. He started having delusions that he was being monitored by a secret government organization

that he thought was controlling his mind. He called this organization scientific technology. Very vague, huh? So Paul later wrote letters to the Texas governor and Washington Post claiming that he was under government surveillance going back to 1985. So people are thinking something obviously isn't right with this guy.

He finishes his prison sentence and he gets out. Now he's an adult and you know, out of prison, great. He can change his life if he wanted to, but of course not. In 1990, Paul, he got into another car accident and he again hit his head, but this time he got a concussion and he even lost consciousness. So I know we try to play it tough when you get a concussion.

We're like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, but you have to take it seriously, okay? You really do. And that's my Ted Talk. Thank you all. So Paul's erratic behavior also was getting worse as he was getting older. His father ended up passing away

and he attended his funeral. And this was like May of 1997. And to his father's funeral, Paul showed up wearing a lime green shirt, shorts, tennis shoes, which is fine, you know, that's, that's fine if that's what your family member wanted, you know. But to top it all off, he wore a Burger King crown on his head and he kept calling himself King Paul. And he's like, you need to refer kept calling himself King Paul. And he was like, you need to refer to me as King Paul.

Obviously the people who were there were like, why is he doing this? Like, this is, what's he doing? What are you doing? Like now is not the time for King Paul. But he refused to change. He was like, no, this is who I am. Live with it.

I'm King Paul. I wear lime green. As if there wasn't enough going on with Paul, he also had a really bad temper, a short temper, maybe too, is what I should say. But he was very impulsive and just a very angry man. I mean, there were a lot of people who were afraid of him, like family members.

In 1994, Paul somehow got a girlfriend. I don't know. But they were living together. She later said that, you know, living with him was like walking on eggshells. You just never knew what you're gonna get. But that one night he just went completely psycho on her. He picked up her cat and threw it across the room and then according to the girlfriend

Paul got so angry with her that he like threw her on the couch he got on top of her and like was holding a pillow over her head just smothering her with a pillow and he didn't let go until like that last second where she was like I'm gonna fucking fucking die, you know? And then he let go. So scary. And this ended their relationship. Linda, his sister, was also afraid of him because he often, growing up, would just threaten to kill her, like all the time. Plus, there were accusations of sexual assault. And then his other sister, Janet, later testified in court against him, saying that he also sexually assaulted her, but that he also threatened her with a knife, you know, trying to make sure she wouldn't say anything, I guess. But people didn't like being around Paul. So you know what Paul did?

He's like, you know what? F you guys. I'm going to Nashville to become a country musician. Yeah, it's gonna work out for me. It's funny, cause I couldn't find anything in his upbringing about him, like loving country music and playing the guitar and stuff like that. But okay, maybe he's gonna learn.

I support dreams and passions. So he gets to Nashville and you know what? You wanna be famous famous that's great but you still gotta like pay the bills. So he has to get a job and he gets a job working as a dishwasher at Shoney's which is an American diner. I've never been to Shoney's. Is it good? It's not the point of today's story but I was like what's Shoney's? So he gets this job working at Shoney's and Paul, you know, he's friendly with the other employees. And I guess he had talked to two other employees about some ideas he had.

So he tells these other employees like, hey, like, what do you guys think about robbing a fast food restaurant at night when there would be no witnesses? No, because his $100 a week salary was just not cutting it. So it's not clear what the other employees said, but it was definitely on Paul's mind. And he was like,

I really need you guys to help me execute this. I'll just do it. So King Paul went and bought a 32 caliber revolver from the pawn shop. And then a few months later, he purchased a 25 caliber automatic handgun. Oh no, he purchased two 25 caliber automatic handguns. And then the guy who was selling it to him was like,

didn't you just buy a gun? Like, what? And Paul it to him was like, didn't you just buy a gun? Like, what? And Paul told the seller, like, yeah, I didn't like how the other one shot. Like, I just want these instead. But he still had all three guns. So in February of 1997, during his shift at Shoney's, Paul, I guess, lost his temper over something

and threw a dish at a fellow employee, which led to Paul getting fired. Now, he was pissed. Not even pissed, he was raging, okay? And you know what? He was like, I'm gonna do something about it. He felt like he had the motivation and the weapons to set the stage for the crimes

that he would become known for nationally. I mean, he goes full psycho after this. Now that Paul was fired from his job, he was running low on money. So he drove to Captain D's which is a fast food restaurant in it's like a chain of them in Tennessee he gets there just before closing and then he enters through the exit door and when he does this he finds like some workers inside and asked them if they were hiring they told told him like, bro, we're closing,

come by the next afternoon. And he's like, okay, bye, and just leaves. So the next morning he comes back, even though they said afternoon, but he comes by the next morning, it's February 16th, he shows up before Captain D is even open. So it's around 8.50 a.m. So he gets there, he's banging on the door

because he knows people are inside. And the manager of this Captain D, he comes out and his name is Steve Hampton. Now we don't know what the conversation was that they have, but what we do know was that Paul somehow convinced Steve to let him into the restaurant. There was later an eyewitness who came forward and said she was driving by when she saw Paul

and Steve outside and Paul was holding like a white paper, like it was a resume or something. Okay, just want to throw that in there. So once he gets inside, Paul secures the door and he pulls out his gun, showing it to Steve. And also there was a morning shift employee there, you know, morning shift, 16 year old Sarah Jackson. She was there too.

And Paul demands that both of them get into the restaurants walk in cooler just holding the gun at them when he got them in there he made them lay lie face down on the floor where then he just shot them a ton of times, killing both of them for no reason. He didn't even know these people. So with both of them dead, Paul then goes to the cash register and he gets $7,000 from the cash register.

That's a lot of money in a register, huh? Then he goes through Steve's wallet and is able to get $600, which sadly was Steve's rent money. An hour later, around 10 a.m., an employee arrived for work, but was unable to enter the restaurant because the doors were locked.

So he calls a nearby Captain D's and he was getting no answer. So he called another employee whose father was a police officer. So when they arrived with the assistant manager, they entered the restaurant, you know, and that's when they find Steve and Sarah dead in the cooler. Both were shot with a.32 caliber revolver.

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SelectQuote. They shop, you save. Get the right life insurance for you for less at SelectQuote.com slash makeup. Go to SelectQuote.com slash makeup today to get started. That's SelectQuote.com slash makeup. Now this part of the story might seem random. It was for me at first. But then it'll make sense at the end. Okay so listen. Because on that same afternoon there was a man out on the Ellington Parkway Highway and he was collecting cans to recycle. He was about 11 miles from Captain D's. So this man, he's collecting cans and he comes across an ID for Steve Hampton's children. Now the can collector thought maybe the owner of the cards had been like robbed or something. So he called police.

I need more concealer. So the next day, February 17th, police, they searched up and down the highway where they found Steve's driver's license. They found his credit card, movie rental card, and birth certificate card. All of it was just like thrown about. So that happens. Put a pin in it, we will circle back. Three days after the Captain D's murders, Paul went to a car dealership and paid $2,000 in cash for a prepaid lease on a car. This car salesman was actually familiar with Paul

because Paul had come by previously and was like, hey, I want to buy a car, but he didn't have the money. So now he's showing up and he has $2,000 cash. So the car salesman is like, hey, where did you get this money? Like, didn't you just not have it? Like, I don't get it. How'd you get it so fast? And Paul said that, oh, I'm, I've been saving. I'm really good at saving. And I have my dad helping me. Paul, of course, was lying. But the guy, you know, cash is cash. and the guy sold him a car. So now Paul can move about the cabin.

Okay. Now let me tell you things are, they are dark already, but Paul doubles down on his rampage and things only get worse from here. So March 23rd, 1997, it's barely five weeks after the Captain D's murders and Paul, he sat in his car at a McDonald's around like three miles northeast of Captain D's.

So he waited there until closing time, which was at midnight, and then was just waiting for the employees to like come out of that back exit so when he sees these two employees come out they were taking out the the garbage he gets out of his car and like ambushes them so he forced the two employees at gunpoint back into the restaurant now there was a third employee just waiting inside the doors, completely caught off guard, right? And Paul just shoots him.

He shoots all three of them, okay? Dead. Again, he has like no connection to these people or the restaurant. He's just completely lost it, really. The three were 17-year-old Andrea Brown, 27-year-old Ronald Santiago, and 23-year-old Robert Suell.

And sadly, all three of them died of their wounds, which is so sad. Like, you're just trying to, again, get a paycheck, and someone comes in and kills you. There was a fourth employee inside so he was kind of like laying low trying not to get caught when Paul sees him he went to go shoot him and his gun jammed so Jose Gonzalez is the employee notices his gun jammed and he attempted to fight back. They're having a scurfuffle

and Paul unfortunately had a knife on him. So he takes the knife out and stabs Jose 17 times, thinking he's a goner, he's gonna be dead, leaves him. So Paul went to the cash registers and the safe taking in total three thousand dollars then fled now by some miracle Jose Gonzalez was able to like get up even after being stabbed a bunch of times and call 9-1-1 now on the dispatch people they were like what? What? Like they could not understand what he was saying but they sent the the dispatcher sent police and paramedics to

the restaurant where they found all of the victims and Jose barely alive. They also found other evidence like fibers and stuff that would have to like, you know, go through a whole process. But they also discovered six 25 caliber cartridge casings. So they know this man's weapon. So this kind of, nobody has any leads or ideas like who, who's doing these murders. They're not making sense sense they're just random hits

so then a month later April 23rd 1997 Paul drove to a Baskin Robbins I know I was like not 31 flavors leave 31 flavors out of this and this Baskin Robbins was in Clarksville, Tennessee. He gets there about 10 p.m. When he got there, Paul convinced the two employees, Angela Holmes, who was 21 years old, and Michelle Mace, who was 16 years old, to let him inside because they're already closed. They're like, no, sir. Sorry, you have to get your ice cream tomorrow. But Paul somehow was convincing. He's like, no, no, let me in.

Like, I don't know what he told them, but he somehow was able to convince them to let him in. So once he got inside, Paul pulled out his gun once again. He robbed the cash register and the safe. But then instead of killing like he did the other victims, he forced both Angela and Michelle into his car. You know, one piece of advice I heard many, many moons ago, maybe you remember this show because it was on TV. And it was like this crime expert guy said, if something

like this ever happens to you, the best thing you could do is never go to the second location if someone's pointing a gun at you and telling you to move don't go you just stand there and if they shoot you they shoot you but at least they're you're not going to get moved to somewhere else where no one can find you or you get tortured or whatever as i say that out loud i'm like okay that sounds kind of awful but um that's something that's always lived in the back of my head like never go to the second location do whatever you can to avoid going to the second location hopefully you never have to use this information but just throwing that out there i guess guess. Michelle, one of the employees,

her brother would pick her up after her shift at night. So he gets there around like 10, 10. So literally like this Paul situation happened under 10 minutes. So he gets there and he's waiting outside and he notices that the other coworker, her car is in the parking lot. So he's like, okay, so they must still be working.

You know, so he's like waiting. He saw that like the store lights were still on, but he's peeking in and like no one was inside. He, thank God, felt that something was just not right. Something was off. So he dialed 911. When the police arrived, they noticed the cash register was empty

and the safe, the top of the safe was removed and the things inside was removed too. What the police found was interesting was that Angela's and Michelle's purses were still in the store and they were untouched, which was odd if this was just a robbery. Now, sadly, literally the next morning, Angela and Michelle's bodies were found

at the Dunbar Cave State Natural Area. It's a park, it's a park. It's 110 acre park in Clarksville tennessee so this was like three miles from the baskin robbins they were found in very gruesome way like they had stab wounds all over their body and that's as much as i'll say now paul he never forgot about what went down at shoney's getting fired and and all you know, he hated that manager who fired him. So naturally he's like, I gotta do something about that guy. So on June 12th, 1997, he went to the home of the manager who fired him. His name was Mitchell Roberts. He just shows up,

knocks on the door. Hey, remember me? Yeah, what's going on? What are you doing? But what Mitchell Roberts didn't know was that Paul had a knife on him and a gun. So Paul in the beginning kind of was acting like he was interesting in getting rehired, not begging for his job back, but you know, trying to explain like, "'Hey man, like maybe you could still help me out. I don't know.'" But in reality, according to Paul,

he wanted to kidnap Mitchell. Paul noticed in the background that Mitchell's son had a camcorder. Remember, it's like 97, I said. So it's like one of those janky big ones. Maybe it was smaller by then, but I imagine in my head it was bigger, but he was like playing around on it.

His son was like recording everything. And when Paul noticed him, he was like, oh shit, change of plan. So he waves to the camcorder and he's like, all right, I'll see you later. And left. Now Mitchell, he was like, dude, something was up with him. Like he was acting weird. That was creepy. I'm gonna call the cops.

So as soon as Paul left, he's like, hello? Yeah, let me tell you. There's a weirdo out here, okay? Now by this point, like when this went down, police were already staking out like the local areas fast food restaurants they noticed a pattern was happening and they were anticipating the killer striking again and hopefully catching this person in the act the police had no idea who was doing all these murder slash robberies, but they believed like it had to be the same person. Plus they learned from Jose Gonzalez, the guy who survived the McDonald's murders,

that there was only one perpetrator. So they're looking for one guy. After receiving Mitchell's call, police went to Paul's house to arrest him. They booked him. They took his fingerprints and his photograph and that's when they would discover that Paul's thumbprint was a perfect match for the one on Steve Hampton's the Captain D manager remember Steve Hampton movie rental card that was found from the recycler. I told you I'd circle back. There

was a fingerprint on there and it matched Paul. Boom. This is why you should recycle. So now that they got a photo of Paul, they go to Jose Gonzalez and they're like, hey, is this the guy? And Jose like automatically was like, yes, that is the guy. Then Paul was positively ID'd by two other employees that were working at Captain D's restaurant when remember when Paul went there like that first night and was like hey you guys hiring and they're like come back later. So those employees were like yes that's the guy the guy. And if that wasn't enough, Paul's shoe size matched the footprints that were left behind at the Captain D's scene.

And on top of that, police found DNA of the Baskin Robbins victims on his shoes. Oh yes. They also matched fibers from Paul's car with those found on the Baskin Robbins victims, on their bodies. Evidence is beautiful, okay? And it was pretty damn clear that they had found their guy.

Paul would be charged with seven counts of first degree murder. Now the confusing part was that there would be three separate trials. Because each of these attacks and murders had taken place in separate counties. So you have to go through those counties. You know what I'm saying? Like it gets so whatever.

It's just what they do. So the first trials would take place in 1999 for the Captain D murders. And the Baskin Robbins murder. And then in 2000, he would be tried for the McDonald's murders. So the evidence, both forensic and eyewitness accounts or testimonies was overwhelming, you know? When it came to the McDonald's case, Jose Gonzalez, he testified in court identifying Paul as the attacker. Plus went through just every gruesome detail.

It was horrific. In the Baskin-Robbins case, the prosecution presented evidence of the victim's DNA found on Paul's shoes. Plus the knife used in the murders was also consistent with the one Mitchell Roberts identified Paul carrying when he tried to come into his house. Now, Paul, he pleaded not guilty in all three cases,

but before his trials happened, his defense raised the question of his competence, referencing his brain damage and earlier psychological diagnosis, diagnoses, but it was not allowed to be used as a defense against the charges. So in the first trial for Captain D's murders, Paul was sentenced to death twice, one for each murder

and to 25 years in prison for aggravated robbery. Eight days before the next trial, which was the Baskin Robbins case, Paul said that he was not competent to stand trial, that he's off. So the state had sent in an independent psychiatrist to evaluate Paul. And I've never had to do that. So I don't know like what they ask or what they look for. But they found that he was competent to stand trial. And he's like, shit. So the process went forward, you know,

and the jury ended up finding Paul guilty of two counts of first degree murder or premeditated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, and one count of especially aggravated robbery. I know. I was like, what is especially aggravated robbery? Especially? I was hung up on that. So I Googled it.

Well, it's a legal term used to describe a more severe form of robbery. That is what I learned. Anywho, he was sentenced to death for that one, yeah. You know, for each of the first degree murder convictions. So not looking good for him, huh? I don't know what he wants though. Like what, you think you're just gonna murder

a bunch of innocent people and like, you're gonna be fine? Just go on and live your life like i don't understand and in the mcdonald's case paul underwent an extensive pre-trial hearing to once again determine is he competent to stand trial again once again he was found to be competent he was tried found guilty and sentenced to death for three counts of premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of especially aggravated murder. It's over, Paul.

It's done. Good, because honestly, this guy probably would have kept going, right? Paul was scheduled to be executed on April 29th, 2003. Paul, he wrote a letter on April 14th to the governor, plus like some other people, saying that he did not intend to pursue any remedies to stop his execution. Essentially, he was accepting it. I was like, okay, cool. But then Paul's sister, remember Janet? Janet turned out to be a lawyer and good for her, you know? She ended up submitting

something called a next friend petition, raising questions about Paul's competence. So the federal appeals court accepted it and ordered a stay of execution on April 28th, just one day before he was supposed to be put down. So she's trying to help him out and get people to see like that he's just not well. For the next 10 years, Paul's case bounced from one court to another as it underwent numerous competency hearings. This is partly because Paul refused to pursue the post-conviction appeal initiated by his sister and lawyer, which led them to argue,

see, he's incompetent. Because if he wasn't, or if he was, then he wouldn't be trying to resist and fight this. I know, I was like, why do they wanna save him so bad? You know? I mean, like if a family member killed a bunch of innocent people, bro, you've got to go. Sorry. Sorry about that. Sorry. But you murdered a bunch of people. I don't know. Is that mean? I mean, good for them, I guess. Really? She's fighting for her family from an abusive brother. I just was, I was a little, okay, I'm not judging,

but I'm like, ma'am, you know, okay, all right. Then in October, it was like 2012, the Supreme Court of Tennessee finally settled the case. They were upholding Paul's death sentences and found that the petitions on Paul's behalf failed to show he was incompetent. Essentially saying, yeah, look, he had some head drama, okay, but he should be held accountable for what he did.

So everyone agrees, except for his sister, that he should be put down. But before a new date could be scheduled for his execution, Paul Reed died on November 1st, 2013. It was like 11 days before his 56th birthday. He died at Nashville Hospital from heart failure due to complications from pneumonia and respiratory illness. Bummer.

Now the big question, was he sane or insane? In its 2012 ruling, the Texas Supreme Court referred to Paul Reed as a human conundrum. It was found that Paul was undeniably brain damaged and delusional. And Paul believed that he was constantly being monitored by the government who were trying to, they were trying to control his mind remotely.

He insisted that all his trials were mock trials and that his lawyers were actors who were controlled by scientific technology. The court also found that Paul told several mental health professionals over the years that he faked his mental health problems and also any delusions to avoid prosecution. So they're like, uh-oh, what is it? So the court was asking, look, is Paul a mentally ill person who's trying to appear sane? Or is he a sane person who's trying to appear sane or is he a sane person who's trying to appear mentally ill

during his court trials and appeal hearings many mental health professionals testified both for the prosecution and the defense they couldn't make up their damn minds okay there was again no doubt that he had some mental issues an MRI and a PET scan that was done in 1998 had found that the left side of Paul's brain was atrophied or in other words just dysfunctional. A clinical neuropsychologist who interviewed Paul like a ton in 1998 and 1999 determined that Paul's brain damage caused significant mental and behavioral disorders. She testified in court that Paul exhibited psychosis from at least 1978 and then he started having delusions in the mid-1980s. She also reviewed his childhood records where she discovered that Paul's IQ was in the 80s, which was quite low.

And they thought that Paul met the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. But that's not all. and testified that Paul suffered from speech and language problems, which can be a characteristic of people with traumatic brain injuries. Then, because so many people evaluated and none of them could agree, okay, a Columbia University clinical psychologist interviewed Paul for more than 20 hours. This person talked to his mother and his sisters and reviewed the records or his records. And this psychologist determined that Paul suffered from paranoid schizophrenia for at least 20 years. He determined that Paul's cognitive and behavioral disorder was due to his brain trauma. But throughout those 20 years, Paul has also acted rationally, which is confusing. I think you can be both at the same time.

And to them, it's so black and white. Like you can still act rationally. You just have, I don't know. I'm also don't, maybe i shouldn't talk about this because i don't fucking know they're like look he's acted rationally throughout the years like before the murders took place he enrolled in a community college where he scored straight a's in almost all of his classes and then earlier in 1984 after his court remember when he made the court hat he wrote a letter to the state prosecutor apologizing for his courtroom behavior and asked for a shorter sentence so they're like he's like aware of what's going on in his behavior but again like it confused doctors they couldn't figure out his behavior it made no sense to. Mental health professionals who testified as witnesses for the prosecution

agreed that Paul's brain was fucked up, okay? But they disagreed that this could cause schizophrenia or lead Paul to commit premeditated murder. Even the experts couldn't agree. I watched this documentary and I wish I could freaking remember the name. Hold on let me look it up because if this is something interesting to you because I find this interesting. The correlation between between brain trauma and murderers because a lot of murderers have brain

trauma more than you think. So I watched this documentary a while back it's called Crazy Not Insane. It's on Max. This is not promotion. But it's all about head trauma and murderers. And it's like, oh my God, there's definitely something there. And I think a lot of people avoid the conversation because if you mention that,

that means we'd have to invest money in healthcare and taking care of people when they have brain trauma. And it just means like we have to do more. We have to do more. So a lot of the times people, I don't know if they're being paid or what kind of gain they're getting from it, but they will never say that head trauma and like murder links together. They won't admit it, even though there's so much evidence out there. Now I'm not saying this person should be out in the streets free

because it's like, oh, woo, like it's head trauma. So we forgive you. No, like they should be in a jail, but I don't know. I also don't have any answers. So circle back to me when I'm running for governor or something and I'll figure it out. Thanks. So watch that if you're interested in it. Crazy, not insane. I think this guy should have been put down, really, in my opinion. Okay, just letting you know. I don't think he should have been given any special treatment. Paul's

death seemed to have provided some relief to his victims' families, just knowing that this monster was no longer on earth. Jerry Jackson, the father of 16-year-old Sarah, who Paul killed at Captain D's, was happy that Paul was gone and was not going to be hurting anybody else. And for him, it was said that this was closure. The father of 17-year-old Andrea Brown,

who Paul murdered at the McDonald's, wished Paul was executed rather than dying of natural causes. I get that. But either way, he said he was glad that Paul was dead. He said Andrea was a great student and had saved just enough money to buy a car, which she did a day before

her murder so sad because of Paul's murderous spree after all this happened fast food restaurants in Nashville in the Nashville area started closing earlier. And at night, police would be out like patrolling around these places more often. So, I mean, the question that is asked a lot when it comes to Paul Reed, was he competent to stand trial? Was he sane? Did he plan to commit the murders?

Did he feel any remorse? Because he never said, sorry, like I did this, sorry did this sorry he never nothing I think it's a bit of both you know you could be sane and insane you have moments right he clearly had issues okay from birth all the way up to his his killings like he was hitting his head so many times severely traumatized and it it, come on, it definitely affected his judgment and behavior, but that does not excuse what he did. Nothing Paul said or did after his cold blooded murders

suggested that he felt bad about killing seven innocent people. And most likely everyone believes that the murders and the robberies would have likely continued had he not been caught, arrested, and locked up. The end. That, my friends, is about the awful fast food killer, which is a stupid name they gave him,

but it kind of makes sense because it was all, whatever. Paul Reed. He had a rough life and he made it worse. Huh? Can we get an amen? Amen. Thank you so much. Honestly, I couldn't imagine going to work like you're 16 or whatever.

And you're working one of your first jobs. Asking Robbins or McDonald's or something. And someone freaking kills you. Like you're just trying. You're just trying. Somebody just comes andicking kills you. Like you're just trying, you're just trying. Somebody just comes and fricking kills you. God, that's very upsetting. That's all I can think about, that's sad.

Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. Have a good rest of your day. You make good choices, please be safe out there. And I'll be seeing you guys later. Goodbye.