Hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of diagnosing a killer. I'm Koelle and I'm Kenna.
I said that all the way.
I said Kana. I'm pretty sure you've done that one before.
For fucking sure.
Oh, how's it going?
It's going.
I like being in here two days in a row.
I think I did too.
Yeah, we did a DAK live recording yesterday that's going to be coming out on Saturday.
And we did that with Hillary from Lady You're Scared Us.
And we're really excited about it because we did our very first ever collaboration,
like where someone else is on the podcast, but they weren't in the same room as us.
It was over discord and the audio sounds so good.
We were so concerned that it was going to sound like echoey or laggy or something.
Or just different.
And it sounds like she's sitting right next to us.
It's perfect.
I'm so excited. It does sound really good.
We like to pride ourselves on our sound quality.
That's something that we've been obsessed with since day one, even to the point where like,
now I feel like I'm like hitting things and I can hear things in the background.
And I'm like, oh my God, I wish I hadn't done that.
But we're getting better.
We're not perfect.
No one's perfect.
Except that sound quality.
Yeah, that sound quality is pretty perfect.
Sometimes we laugh at inappropriate times, but you know, who doesn't?
We're human.
Anyway, it's your case.
It is my case.
But first I would like to remind everybody that we have diagnosingandkiller.com.
There you can check out resources and merch.
You can also hit us up on any social media platform at diagnosingandkiller,
other than Twitter, which is at Killer Diagnosis.
And also, if you're interested in our podcast,
we have a great podcast review.
Oh, review.
Oh, yeah, review.
Oh, we did get a nice review from Jennifer.
Jennifer is one of the two people that I met at the Hooks game.
I told everyone on the podcast a couple episodes ago.
Super nice.
And she posted a five star review for us on Apple podcast.
And I saw it today.
It was a couple days ago that she posted it.
But her title is informative and entertaining.
Out of happenstance,
I'm now hooked.
I love the banter with her and her sister.
How the discussion will go from serious to laughing
because someone mispronounced a word.
It reminds me how my friends and I will rip each other.
The podcast is very informative of the case, killer, and victim,
along with the deep dives of mental illness diagnoses.
These ladies are funny and are very passionate about mental illness.
I feel anyone would benefit from listening to this podcast,
either to learn about the cases or to learn more about mental illness.
I'm looking forward to more episodes.
Thanks, Jennifer.
Thanks, girl.
That was really nice.
She was one that I said dead ass to in a serious situation.
But thank you.
That was honestly really nice because we get a lot of really great reviews,
but also a lot of mixed reviews about different types of episodes
and different parts of the podcast that people really enjoy.
I like that she enjoys all aspects of it,
not only the mental illness,
but the lighthearted nature when we are allowed to be lighthearted
and then also the educational aspect of it.
Thanks for that.
It can definitely be tough talking about tough things like this
and I think a little bit of humor kind of relieves a little bit of that tension.
Yeah, absolutely.
There's plenty of times where I've laughed at an appropriate time
and it's not, most of the time, it's not me being like,
it's uncomfortable as fuck.
And I'm not going to edit that out because it's a real reaction.
It is. It's a real reaction. It's a coping thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
But if and when, I'll speak for myself,
if and when I do laugh at an appropriate time,
I like to always try to relate back to it at the end
and remind everyone that that is not a malicious thing that I do personally
or that we do together.
But yeah, thanks so much for that nice review.
Yeah.
I love that.
So excited to have three episodes in like three days.
Oh my gosh, yeah.
So we're going to have...
Yeah, well we're going to have Thursday, Saturday, and then Monday already coming out.
And I'm going out of town this weekend, surprise, surprise.
I see that all the time.
Every weekend.
But me and my best friend Lindsay are going to the beach
and we're going to spend time with mom and dad
and then mom and dad are leaving for Houston
because they're going to go to the Astros games for Father's Day
and Lindsay and I are going to hang out because we have Monday off work.
So we're going to hang out at the RV.
Nice.
Yeah, really excited.
Are you ready?
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh, I'm like so nervous right now.
I know you wanted to tell me so bad last night who it was and you didn't.
I'm glad I didn't.
I'm anxious to know who it is.
Are you sure that I know this person?
Yes.
Like there's no way I don't?
I don't know if you know the case in and out, but you know who it is.
Everybody knows who this is.
Will it surprise you if I don't know who it is?
Yeah, especially because we've definitely talked about it before.
Okay, hit me.
Today we are going to talk about Paul, Michael, Stefani,
aka the Weepy Voice Killer.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
I swear, I don't want to talk about this one.
I don't want to talk about it.
Oh, okay.
Damn, that's honestly, okay, see that's one of those moments where I'm not making fun
of him.
The voice just sounds comical, but that's really sad.
Like he's very clearly distraught in that moment.
And trust me, I had to listen to these recordings over and over and over and over again and
they are haunting.
Yeah, absolutely.
And sometimes the only way I can kind of get over it is, I mean, it's hard.
It's to exaggerate it in my head.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh man, I am looking forward to hearing more about this one.
I've heard a story on him before, but it's been a while.
Yeah.
Content Warning.
This episode will contain audio recordings of someone in distress, threats of suicide,
and of course murder.
If this episode is not for you, we encourage you to check out another one of our episodes.
Remember that your mental health comes first and we love you.
Love you.
Bye.
Throughout this episode, we are going to be playing real 911 calls as well.
If that does make you uncomfortable, I'm not really going to give a content warning right
before it happens.
You'll kind of know when it happens because I'm going to be leading up to it.
Either way, if that makes you uncomfortable and you want to skip ahead 20 seconds, 30
seconds, I'm also going to be reading them transcribed as well.
So you're not going to miss any of that content.
So Paul Michael Stefani was born September 8th to parents Isidore and Madeline.
His father's name was Isidore.
That's pretty cool.
That's such a unique name.
I feel like that sounds like the name of a knight.
Isidore.
Or like a...
Sir Isidore.
Yeah.
Like a...
Knight of the Red Table.
Like an army dude.
I don't know what it was.
You know what I mean?
I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about.
I'm already fucking up the podcast.
Go ahead.
He was born in 1944 to Isidore and Madeline.
He was one of 10 eventual children and he was born and raised in Austin, Minnesota.
Not Texas.
Oh, LOL.
I didn't know they had an Austin there.
I didn't either.
Before Paul had his third birthday, his mother and father would divorce and quickly his mother,
Madeline, would remarry.
Oh, wow.
So Paul's stepfather, Herbert Bliss.
Hibbit.
His last name is ironic, by the way.
LOL.
His family was brought up in a traditionally Catholic household and Herbert Bliss was known
to be a heavy drinker and would often times physically abuse the children and his wife,
Madeline.
Super religious of him.
Yeah.
Well, it's under the guise of religion because they should just be obedient, right?
Yeah.
It had been noted on several occasions that Herbert had actually tried to push some of his
children down the stairs in their second story home.
Oh my god, what a monster.
Other than this, there's not much to say about Paul's behavior specifically while growing
up.
Other than the physical abuse by his stepfather, Paul got along with his mother and his siblings.
He actually loved his mother a lot.
Paul did say that he had suffered from epileptic episodes when he was a child as well.
So just something to note.
Yeah, absolutely.
But other than that, there apparently wasn't really anything in his early life to indicate
that Paul would grow up to do what he eventually would do.
Yikes, well, you know, epileptic can mean a lot of different things.
It's kind of like an umbrella statement, but it's not far-fetched to think that they might
have been seizures and not, you know, they kind of, I don't want to say they go hand
in hand, but you see it a lot with epilepsy seizures as well are kind of common.
So that right there could be an indicator of what's happening.
Some type of brain trauma or something.
He would eventually graduate from high school and college with fine grades.
Nothing to report there.
He decided to move to St. Paul in 1970 and start a new life and quickly would meet and
marry Beverly Linder.
The two would have one daughter together, but after five years of marriage, they would
eventually divorce.
Although everything seemed to be pretty much normal up until this point in Paul's life,
something within him snapped shortly after his wife and his daughter moved away from
the house.
He had already had trouble finding work over the years as he claimed that his epilepsy
was so severe that it affected his performance at jobs.
This is Paul.
Paul.
And so I thought, what it sounded like to me at first was that he only had experiences
with that as a kid, but obviously like sometimes you don't grow out of that.
Sure.
I don't think that you really do grow out of that.
I don't think you do.
I'm pretty sure it's for life.
Okay.
My bad.
I misunderstood, I guess, in the beginning.
He settled at working at a manufacturing company called Malberg Manufacturing, and this would
be in the later years that he and Bever are still married.
And he seemed to be pretty successful at it.
It was a long-term position for him.
Although the details are not entirely known, sometime after his wife had left him, Paul
was actually arrested and convicted of assaulting a young woman.
Oh.
Again, it's not known how long the punishment was, or I guess she chose to remain anonymous.
I don't know how they settled it.
Either way, he would be put on a record, he would have it on a permanent record that he
was a violent criminal, essentially.
Oh, okay.
Paul would eventually meet a young Syrian lady whom he had developed a relationship with.
He believed in the relationship so much that he decided that he wanted to marry the woman
after dating on and off for four years.
However, her family was very traditional and didn't really care for Paul, so they had
actually arranged a marriage for her, and she was forced to break off the relationship
with Paul and move back to Syria.
Oh my gosh.
Just like straight up.
How hard would that be?
Oh my gosh.
That'd be really hard, especially if you didn't understand the culture.
Yeah.
That's got to be something that really affected him as well, like profound loss early on.
Not early on, but it seems like one of his very, very serious relationships.
Right.
And the only other one that he had was with his wife and his daughter, and he doesn't
talk to either of them at this point.
Paul's performance at work began to decline due to depression and feeling abandoned by
two long-term partners.
I'm hitting that chord.
Paul would eventually be let go from his job as a manufacturing company as well.
Damn.
Paul was driven further into desperation and depression.
Oh my gosh.
That's awful.
In the early morning hours of New Year's Day 1981, dispatch would receive a phone call
at 3 a.m.
No.
Yes, please.
This is an emergency.
Please send us quadrants.
Just follow the road.
Malmbeck Manufacturing Company Machineshop, please.
There's an ambulance too.
There's a girl who's there.
Can you tell me what happened to her?
There's two reasons.
She's laying on the ground in the back by the railroad tracks, by the engine.
What's the address?
I don't know.
Who are you?
And the call ends there.
So, for those of you that don't know this case, you probably now have a good understanding
of what we mean by our interpretation of the way that he talks and probably why he's
so called the Weeby Voice Killer.
Very, very, very clearly someone in a lot of distress.
Yes, absolutely.
And really, it sounds to me like a hell of a lot of immediate guilt as well.
So the transcription, quote, just please, this is an emergency.
Please send a squad car to Pierce Butler Road, Malberg Manufacturing Company Machineshop,
please send an ambulance too.
There's a girl hurt there.
The 911 operator asks, can you tell me what happened to her?
The caller, just hurry.
She's laying on the ground in the back by the railroad tracks, by the entry.
911 dispatcher, what's the address?
Caller, I don't know.
911, who are you?
And then the call ends.
What a fucking call to get.
What a call.
So strange.
And it actually kind of sounds like Lionel Menendez.
Yeah.
Like almost, because he's so upset.
You can't understand what he's saying.
The dispatcher is probably like, okay, I know it's a hard situation.
Please try to calm down because I cannot understand.
I can't understand what you're saying.
You know what?
You know I applied to be an 911 dispatcher at one point.
I couldn't do that.
I'm really like kind of thankful that I didn't get the job.
I couldn't hang.
I don't think I could.
You're listening to somebody's worst day.
Yeah.
You're the person that you're going to associate good or bad with that day.
Yeah.
Depending on what you fucking do in that moment right there.
Right.
Let's just give a big shout out to 911 dispatchers.
Seriously.
And all first responders, honestly.
Officers in emergency services arrived at the scene to find 20 year old Karen Potak,
who had been beaten with a tire iron so severely that the police and paramedics thought that
she was originally stabbed.
Oh my God.
Her skull had been smashed and even parts of her brain were exposed to the outside world.
Oh my God.
That's horrendous.
She had been found after being dragged behind the Malberg manufacturing company building
along the railroad tracks left in the snow.
That night Karen was attending a nightclub in celebration of the new year and around
1 a.m. Karen decided to make her walk back to her place when she was attacked from behind
and left her dead in the freezing night.
Karen would ultimately survive the attack, however she wouldn't remember anything from
the attack and therefore could not identify the identity of her killer.
She survived.
She survived but she doesn't remember anything from that crime at all.
Well yeah, I mean that's completely fucking understandable.
She did survive.
Wow.
Whether or not it's like shock, like her body, like defense mechanism, you're not gonna
remember or obviously brain damage but damn.
Well I think about the fact that it was cold.
I wonder if that slowed her blood a little bit.
Oh I'm sure.
You know?
I'm pretty sure.
It's really interesting.
Yeah.
Dang.
On June 3rd, 1981, five months after this first attack, another call came into dispatch.
Oh you f***ing f***ing find me.
I just got somebody with an ice pick.
I can't stop myself.
I keep killing somebody with an ice.
Quote, will you find me goddammit?
I just stabbed somebody with an ice pick.
I can't stop myself.
I keep killing somebody, end quote.
I keep killing somebody.
What a weird way to phrase that.
Just somebody.
Yeah but like instead of like I keep killing people.
Or women.
Or I keep, it sounds like you keep killing the same person.
Right.
What do you say?
I keep killing somebody.
But I think that is a true phrase because I don't think that he's killing with a purpose.
Yeah.
I think it's indiscriminately.
So what do you think is happening?
Like he can't control it?
Is it like a blackout or is it like a...
I don't know.
It's just...
It's very bizarre.
And it seems like there's literally no cause.
Right.
Like with the exception of the epilepsy potential seizures that he has, do you think that he
might be like in a certain state of mind during those episodes?
I don't know.
I mean I haven't heard of that happening before.
There's someone with epilepsy having violent outbursts during the episodes.
I don't know and I think we'll definitely talk more.
I think that there's stuff to unravel here.
It's just, it seems like so out of the blue every time.
So again this is June 3rd of 81.
This is five months after the first call and attack on Karen.
So within 30 minutes of this phone call being made, the second one with the ice pick, in
a park four miles away from the original first crime scene, Karen's crime scene, two boys
were playing catch in the late afternoon.
After the ball rolled away into some nearby bushes, the two would discover that an item
that they had originally thought was a mannequin discarded in the bush was actually the body
of a young woman.
She had been stabbed 61 times with an ice pick, strangled with a shoelace, and was left
with only her red jacket on.
So now not only are they getting evidence of a body, but now it's being able to be
tied almost to this call.
It matches what he said.
So it's like, okay this is not like a prank call.
Like this guy is clearly serious.
This is a real thing.
The body did not contain any clues whatsoever to who the woman was, but detectives did find
a key in her jacket pocket.
This key went to a bus station locker.
Like where you, you know.
Like when you go to like the only time I ever really see that is like at a water park where
you have to like, yeah.
So detectives headed to the Greyhound bus station, which was the nearest bus station.
Here investigators would locate the lock box.
They would find several travel bags, bus ticket information, and of course the young woman's
ID.
The girl was positively ID'd as 18 year old Kimberly Compton.
She had just arrived in St. Paul from Wisconsin that day in order to start a new life.
Oh my God that breaks my heart.
Like she didn't even.
That fucking breaks my heart.
Like, yeah.
Her poor family.
Through more investigation, detectives determined that Kimberly had actually traveled across
the street to an infamous diner that was really popular in St. Paul.
There while eating alone, she was approached by an older man who struck up a conversation
with her and offered to show the young lady around town.
This man would say things like, I'm old enough to be your father, ha ha ha, just to make
her feel comfortable.
Eventually Kimberly did leave with the man.
She would be found dead within 30 minutes of leaving the diner.
Oh my God.
So we can assume the phone call was made immediately after the crime took place.
Yeah.
So she had literally only been in St. Paul for like maybe a few hours.
Like two hours.
That's so awful.
Oh my gosh.
Because that's like one of the things that I find myself thinking about, like when I'm
out of town, like what if something bad happens when I'm out of town?
I feel like that would be arguably worse if it happened if I was here.
Right.
And I don't necessarily go as far to think things like this, but you know, I'm like,
I always bring like my insurance card with me.
Like when I leave town, like just in fucking case.
Right.
Like if I don't bring my whole, my whole get up, like my whole purse, my insurance card
is always coming with me.
Yeah.
Just in case you never know.
But that's got to be scary to be someplace by yourself, not know anybody.
And then literally the probably first person that you fucking meet, that offers to show
you around.
Yeah.
Everyone's so nice here.
And then he does that.
That is so fucking scary.
It's like gross to take advantage of a young girl like that 18 just figuring out her life.
Probably like I'm gonna, this is where the rest of my life is going to start.
And that's just awful.
Two days later, a phone call was made to a local news station.
This time the presumed killer did not confess anything, but instead called to correct
some information that the station had put out about the details of the crime that were
incorrect.
It was known, known recording for this call.
I don't know how I feel about that because up until this point I'm like, he can't control
it.
Right.
But now there's kind of narcissistic tendencies coming out.
And it's like, um, it's like, uh, John Wayne, Gacy, like, he's like, excuse me.
No, no, John Wayne, Gacy, BTK.
And he's like, Hey, you haven't talked to me in like 30 years.
Can you like, remember me please?
Can you like mention me?
Yeah, can you mention me?
Yeah.
Isn't that interesting?
Because up until now, the, the recordings are so, they sound so remorseful.
Sincere.
Isn't that interesting?
Sincere but accurate, I guess, is what he wants to be going for.
Right.
Five days later, police received another phone call.
Don't talk just listen.
I saw what I did to Compton.
I couldn't help it.
Don't know why I asked her to have her.
I am so upset about it.
I keep getting drunk every time.
I can't believe I did a big dream.
I can't think of being locked up.
If I get locked up, I'd kill myself.
I'd rather kill myself, I'd rather get locked up.
I'll be trying not to kill anybody else.
Like bro, take a breath.
Take a breath?
I feel like he's still out of breath.
He's in distress.
Quote.
Don't talk, just listen.
I'm sorry for what I did to Compton.
I couldn't help it.
I don't know why I had to stab her.
I'm just so upset about it.
I keep getting drunk.
I can't think of myself being locked up.
If I get locked up, I'll kill myself.
I'd rather kill myself than get locked up.
I'll try not to kill anybody else.
End quote.
I cannot put my finger on this guy.
I know.
It's very strange.
It doesn't make any sense.
It's like, do you...
I feel like what I'm thinking is that he gets enjoyment out of the killing,
but then feels bad about it,
or he secretly doesn't feel bad about it at all
and he's really just putting it on.
So that if and when he gets caught,
they'll maybe go easier on him
because he sounds very distraught.
I don't know.
It's almost like he wants to take credit for all of it.
And he wants to get caught, it sounds like too.
It sounds like he wants to get caught,
but he's not really giving that much information.
He's just kind of linking these things together
so that you know it's one person.
He just wants the recognition as this infamous person,
not Paul, not Paul Shafani, what is his name?
Shafani.
But this person, the killer, the Weebie Boys killer.
Right?
It's very interesting.
And he'll leave like, he's like almost like little breadcrumbs,
but he doesn't really say,
like, I feel sorry for this, but like, don't catch me, you know?
It's very strange.
Damn.
At this point, police make the connection
between the attempted murder of Karen Potak
and decided to alert the media
that there's likely a serial killer on the loose,
and then he's likely to strike again.
They allowed the use of the audio recordings
in hopes that someone would recognize the man's voice.
He was then dubbed the Weebie Boys killer.
He didn't give himself the name, of course.
Like we've seen in the past.
Who wants to be, who wants to name themselves
the Weebie Boys killer?
I don't know, man.
You got a, you got a new,
he had to have known that that was coming though.
Like there's no, like name for him.
Yeah.
He's like, shit.
Damn it.
Should have had like a different accent.
I called him.
It was also put out in the media
that there may be a link between the two victims
as both had been apparently wearing red
on the days that they were attacked.
Should have called him like the bull killer.
The matador.
El Toro.
That's interesting.
That would have been wild.
The public was on edge for another two months
until another call came into dispatch.
26-year-old Alan Lopez,
who was going through a mental deteriorating state.
He had a very long history of mental illness.
He was actually threatening,
threatening the lives of his mother,
father, and his sister,
and took them all hostage.
Oh my gosh.
Hostage negoti, negotiate, negotiators.
Hostage negotiators communicated with Alan via telephone,
where he had confessed to being the Weebie Boys killer,
specifically responsible for the death of Kimberly Compton.
After a long standoff,
Alan eventually surrendered to police,
but unfortunately he did ultimately take the lives
of his three family members.
A quick evaluation of Alan's voice
compared to the Weebie Boys killer's voice
concluded that Alan could not have been the one
to make the phone call,
nor was he the one to kill Kimberly Compton.
Yeah, I mean, that's a very distinct voice.
It's really easy to just, hey,
make this weird sound with your mouth.
Right, you would try.
It doesn't sound like him.
Okay, cool.
He would be charged with the murders of his family members,
and after only serving a few months in prison for the murders,
Alan ultimately committed suicide in prison
in February 1982.
Oh, that's so awful.
It's a really sad story.
I tried to look up more about Alan
just to maybe talk about his mental health struggles,
but there really wasn't a lot of information about him.
Poor guy.
Poor family.
Six months later, in August of 1982,
a young paper boy was cutting through a wooded area
when he spotted a woman's body laying across,
laying across the Mississippi River.
How tall was she?
She was like 50 feet tall.
No, but unfortunately, she was laying along the Mississippi River.
This woman had been brutally stabbed
with what appeared to be a screwdriver.
Oh my gosh.
She had no identification on her.
However, a few short days later,
a man would actually turn in a purse to police
that he found in his mailbox of all places.
Oh no.
Isn't that strange?
Absolutely not.
He had looked through the ID and stuff
to see if there was any ID
and possibly returned the item back to the woman,
but that when he knew about the body discovery
that he decided to turn it into police.
Yeah.
Through this, investigators identified the woman
as 40-year-old Barbara Simmons, a local nurse.
The evening before her death,
Barbara had stuck up a conversation with a man
in a local bar.
He seemed nice enough, and Barbara mentioned to the bartender,
who was also a friend of hers, that she found him attractive,
so much so that she was going to go home with him after the bar.
This was the last time that Barbara was seen alive.
Oh my gosh, it's so sad.
Two days later, the police received another phone call.
Play your emergency.
Please don't talk to him, Larson.
I'm sorry I killed that girl.
I stabbed her 40 times.
Kimberly Compton was a baseball over in Facebook.
So were they.
They were the ones who died of the F.C.
I'm going to kill myself if I can.
Where are you?
I'm just going to die as a person with a gun,
it's too hot, I can't breathe,
I just can't breathe.
I'm going to make it to hell with this.
That one's raw.
That one was really harsh.
Quote, please don't talk, just listen.
I'm sorry I killed that girl.
I stabbed her 40 times.
Kimberly Compton was the first one over in St. Paul.
I don't know what's the matter with me.
I'm sick.
I'm just going to kill myself.
I think I'm just going to.
somebody dies with a red shirt on, it's me. I've killed more people. I'll never make
it to heaven." Oh my god, that is heartbreaking. So this one was really interesting to me because
he calls back to Kimberly Compton. That one was me. So he's trying to take credit for
that or say I'm the same person that did that. And then he says, and I thought the first
time I listen to this, when he says, I'm gonna kill myself, I think I'm just going
to, if somebody dies with a red shirt on, it's me. And I'm thinking he, like I thought
he was saying if you, if somebody commits suicide and it's a red t-shirt, then it's
me, I think what he's saying is that he's only going to kill victims with red clothing
items. Yeah, I thought at first it was like if you find a deceased male wearing red, it's
me. Yeah. That's what I thought he was saying, but that makes sense. But I think that he's,
that's what he's saying because the other two victims had worn red. Dang. And I don't
know what Barbara was wearing or if that's something that they just kept to themselves
or something, but I didn't, there was any indication that I saw that Barbara was wearing
red. Low key, like I would probably be like, yo, alert that right now to the media. And
they did. No one fucking wear red. Really? They did. They put that and they said, I forgot
what the headline was, but it just said women wearing red may be targeting, maybe targeted
or something. And it was an article about it. That, that one dispatcher was probably
like, oh shit, like it's him. Because there's no way that they didn't hear about it. But
like imagine like knowing that there's a serial killer at large that is their MO is to call
in upset after they murder someone and you're a dispatcher just kind of waiting like every
phone call you answer, so like, is this going to be him? Is this going to be him? And getting
that call and she was like, oh shit, like, you know what else is interesting is I think
that he might have inadvertently saved Karen's life too because he said send an ambulance
to this location. You know, I wonder if the immediate help didn't, you know, save her
life. Not to give the guy credit. And I'm not saying that. If his, if his point was
to kill her, you know what I mean? Or maybe he thought he was already dead. It's so hard.
The bartender at the bar that the two were at the evening before was able to provide
the police with a description of the man along with a few other witnesses. Police went through
a crime database searching for violent offenders in the area and came across Paul Stefani's
photo. He most resembled the descriptions the witness had given and was ultimately positively
identified by the bartender and a few other witnesses as well. While police were bulking
up their investigation, getting to know every detail about who Paul Stefani was, they were
actually surveillancing him as well. However, on the 21st of August 1982, he slipped through
the cracks. I fucking hate when they say the term like that. Like, oh, he just slipped
through the cracks. No, your patrol officer was probably sleeping or off getting donuts.
I was like, what are you gonna say? I don't know. I thought I thought about maybe not
saying donuts and then thinking like, no, fuck it, donuts. Saying he slipped through
the cracks is a nice way of saying someone fucked up. Somebody didn't do their job.
Someone dropped the ball. Yeah, absolutely. He was able to pick up 19 year old sex worker
Denise Williams. Denise had been in sex work for some while and she did know the ins and
outs of the streets pretty well. After exchanging money and completing a transaction, Stefani
was either meant to drive Denise back to where he originally picked her up or home. I've
heard differing details on that. Either way, Denise did become alert when he didn't seem
to be driving back to wherever they were supposed to go, right? Fuck that. That's so scary.
He probably gave her a few different answers like, oh, no, shortcut. I know, I always say
that. All of the sudden, Stefani pulls the car over and begins to stab Denise with a
screwdriver. Oh my God. Denise begins to fight back and she's, I mean, she's nobody's bitch.
She sees a glass soda bottle that's in the passenger pocket side door thing. Bad bitch
alert. She grabs it and essentially smashes it over his head, cutting his face pretty
badly. This ain't no movie theater glass. This shit's real. This is like a glass to
those bottles. After this, Denise was able to make it out of the car and she sprinted,
screaming for help just to notice that Stefani was quickly gaining on her heels. Oh my God.
That is so scary. She's stabbed a few more times, but all of Denise's calls for help
would not go unanswered. Thankfully, a Good Samaritan came running towards the two in
order to break them up, eventually scaring off Stefani. Wow. Denise would survive her
attack. She was stabbed, I think, anywhere between 13 and 15 times. Bad bitch alert.
Also Good Samaritan bad bitch alert. Seriously. Denise would survive her attack thanks to
her gut instinct, her fighting back, and also the passing witness. Yeah. Police are called
to the scene and the witness was able to identify Paul Stefani as the perpetrator. Like, does
he look like this? Oh my gosh. Does he sound like this? Yes. Stefani returned home to assess
his wounds. He quickly realized that he needed medical attention. I'm sorry, that's not
funny for like. So what did he do? He called dispatch for help. No, he did not. Yes, he
did. He didn't just go to a local urgent care for like the ER. He called because he was
going to have to explain how he got these injuries. Yeah. Therefore, he said he was
the victim of a robbery. So he wanted it documented, in my opinion. That's what he called. Okay.
The operator who took the call heard similarities in this caller's voice and the Weebie Boys
killer's voice. So as a precaution, the operator sends an ambulance and police to this given
address. Bad bitch alert. Straight up. Meanwhile, as Stefani's home, police who are doing surveillance
sees officers and ambulances pulling up to his house. They're like, huh? They didn't
even see him walk in with a bloody face. Well, it was probably in the middle of the night.
That's true. I mean, it was in the middle of the night, not probably. But either way,
you know what I mean? Oh, wow, that's really great that they are doing something. I feel
like it's like that spider-man meme. Yeah. Like the spider-mans are pointing to each
other or whatever. That's it was the police watching the police. Police. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways,
long story short. It's not a short story at all or not a long story at all. Stefani
was arrested on the spot for at least the assault on Denise that night. Yeah. It would
be the next day that he would soon be charged with Barbara Simmons' murder as well. During
his interrogations, Stefani denied killing anyone. However, when the crime scene photos
were shown to Stefani in the interrogation room, he began to exude stress reducing behaviors.
And with this, his voice began to rise higher and higher and higher the more upset he got.
So he started sounding more and more like the killer. Can you imagine? Like you're like,
is it this guy? Is it not this guy? I mean, you know, but clearly he assaulted somebody
already. Yeah. They're pretty sure it's him. And then he gives his tell. And you're just
like, oh, it's him. Oh, it's like a heebies. The heebies. This proved to investigators
that they did have their perpetrator of all of these crimes. In court, however, it was
determined that there was not enough physical evidence to try Stefani for the attempted
murder of Karen and the murder of Kimberly. But Barbara and Denise's cases came with
witnesses, so they move forward with these two cases. Okay. He would be tried in 1984
and 1985 for each case. And in each case, Stefani pleaded not guilty. Throughout his
trials, Stefani was known to glare at each person as they spoke. And you could feel the
tension from him. It was almost as if he could snap at any moment. Like he was just waiting.
You know what I mean? You're around somebody like that, where you know that they're just
like one stubbed toe away from just like losing their shit. Yeah, I've seen it happen before
my eyes. Thankfully, it wasn't a murderer. But another notable thing that happened in
trial was that they had had people in Stefani's personal life who testified that the voice
on tape was that of Stefani, including his ex-wife, his sister, and his former roommate.
Oh, wow. He would be found guilty of second degree murder of Barbara Simmons and guilty
of the attempted murder of Denise Williams. He would be sentenced to serve 58 years in
Oak Park Heights prison. Wow. 12 years into his sentence, Stefani would find out that
he had terminal skin cancer and that he only had six months to a year to live. Oh my God,
what a twist. Right, what a twist. And a strange twist. Stefani would ask to speak to investigators
assigned to the outstanding cases of Karen Potek and Kimberly Compton. No. He would
confess to the murder and the attempted murder. Wow. Furthermore, he confessed to one more
murder that investigators never even knew was a murder. On July 12, 1982, 33 year old
Kathleen Greening was found by a friend who went to check on the school teacher after
not hearing from her in the last 24 hours. When arriving at the house, the friend found
that Kathleen was in her bathtub and had seemingly slipped and drowned. This scene was ruled
an accident. However, Stefani was now admitting that he had held her underwater, drowning
the school teacher in her own bathtub after the two had gone on a date. And he, that was
my stomach growling. Oh my gosh, it's not like somebody talking. And he, like, there's
no way he would have known the details of that without having been there. Without having
been there. Well, her drowning was ruled an accident. There was no need to investigate
it. Wow. He was never linked to this crime and again, it was ruled by an accident. It
had no previous connections to him as his MO, including not making another phone call
afterwards. Yeah. So what was the difference? Maybe he did make a phone call and he hung
up or maybe he, I don't know, you know. So another way of explaining why this scene was
different was maybe because Paul Stefani actually knew Kathleen personally. Clearly, she felt
comfortable enough to actually go upstairs and get undressed herself and then get into
the bathtub because it didn't seem like there was a sign of a struggle at all. Yeah. So
she felt comfortable enough. Wow. It also makes sense if he really cared about her, why
he felt the need to claim the other victims as his victims versus something that he did
in a moment. Yeah. With a friend. It's very, like it doesn't make sense, but if you put
it that way, like I can see where he might not have that mindset. Like he probably didn't
have rage, but he wanted to kill her anyways. Yeah. And the other women, I think it was
very rage fueled. Yeah, I think so too. And that he had even said in an interview that
the night was going great. They had a great time at dinner. Everything was normal and
all of a sudden he just felt the need to strangle her. I wonder where that came from. That's
so bizarre. Like seemingly out of nowhere. I mean, the only thing like it had to have
been a seizure of some sort that skewed his brain chemistry or he was predisposed to
developing something and the seizures was the trauma that pushed it over the edge. I
think it's also another one of those like reclamation things where he didn't want another
or a single other woman to leave his life. And I think that maybe the recordings are
kind of like maybe not a keepsake, but like voicing it out loud means that he's claiming
responsibility for it so that it is his like essentially their kind of his trophies, even
though he knew that he probably didn't know that they had them until he knew that they
had them when they were broadcasted. That's true. So I think it's just kind of maybe a
time confessing it is lightning that load a little bit, but it's also taking ownership
of that crime and that woman. Yeah, it does kind of seem like he took his time to get
to know all of these women before he did anything like had a conversation with him at least.
And then you have a good point saying that he didn't want another woman to leave him
that he had a connection with. Right. So maybe it just so happened to be a woman that he
had a connection with that was also wearing red for some reason he associated that with
rage or whatever. Right. At least once or twice that we know about. Paul Stefani did
claim in his later years that he did have voices in his head that told him to commit
these crimes. And then after each crime, along with calling them in, he would actually go
to churches and pray afterwards asking for forgiveness. Oh my God. It was also found
out later that all of the photos that he collected of his ex-girlfriend, the Syrian woman, were
of her wearing red as red was her favorite color. Oh wow. That makes more sense now too.
June 12th, 1998, Paul Stefani would die in prison at age 53 years old. Dang. The end.
The end. That was a good one. I know we've been talking about him for quite a while,
just in general, in passing, but I didn't realize there was not a lot of information
out there on his childhood. There's like zero. Yeah. And the episode that I listened to,
a podcast episode about him a long time ago, and I just figured they didn't put any of
that in there because that's not their thing. They just talk about the crimes. They don't
talk about the childhood, but dang. Yeah, there really wasn't anything. And again, I
think it's just maybe we don't know a lot about him because he was the way that he
was, and nobody wants to associate with that or the way he was. And it seemed like he might
have been kind of controlling as well in his marriage. And that's just my perception, just
because of the way that he would participate later. He seemed like he might, that's his
thing is kind of controlling. Don't go. Don't, you know, kind of a thing. Yeah. Dang. Well,
thanks for bringing that. That was a good one. I know it was a little shorter, but...
It's all right. I mean, we have really long episodes, and sometimes we don't have so long
episodes because there's not a lot of information. Like you said. I found the tapes really interesting.
It's only the second time we've ever incorporated like by-one-one calls before. It's always
really interesting. That's true. Hear everything. I'm gonna have to get on top of my audio recordings
for the next episode. Yeah. Well, in the meantime, you guys can hit us up on anywhere on social
media, Diagnosing a Killer, check out DiagnosingAKiller.com for all of your merch needs. Check out
the episode coming out on Saturday with Hillary. That was a great time hanging out with her.
We talked about animals. We talked about Florida. We talked about Elliot Roger. We talked about
a lot of random stuff, but it was a good conversation. I'm glad we were able to do it. And we will
see you guys on Monday with another mental breakdown. Yeah, absolutely. Love you. Bye.