Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior s01e13 Episode Script
Death by a Thousand Cuts
[Heartbeat thumping.]
[Water rushing.]
[Gunshot.]
[Heartbeat pounding.]
Why do we kill? It's a question that we face every day.
We all have darkness inside of us.
These people they have waged a war against their inner demons and they've lost.
So what's the difference between us and them? I'm sorry.
Noah, right? You said we all struggle with darkness, inner demons.
So then anyone in this room could be pushed to kill, right? The potentiality exists.
But I like to believe that we can find the strength to choose the light, to follow our higher selves.
And if we're pushed far enough [Knock on door.]
we're capable of just about anything.
Excuse me.
Dallas, Texas.
Local PD's reporting three shootings in the last two weeks.
First victim, 35-year-old homeless woman Sarah Markle, shot in a busy pedestrian crosswalk.
Next victim, Derek Williams, 48 years old, local drug dealer.
Shot outside Cowboy Stadium.
And just this afternoon, the third victim, retired grandfather and engineer, 74-year-old Peter Warsaw Found in the bathroom in a local shopping mall with a bullet in his head.
Different ages, sexes, races.
The victimology's all over the map.
How does the local PD know that they're related? The same type of gun was used.
It's a model 13 .
357 Magnum.
No prints.
Guns left at the scene.
Specificity and choice of weaponry, I mean That could be symbolic in some way.
Multiple guns.
No prints.
It's pretty impressive.
Middle of the afternoon.
A highly, highly public location.
It's a tremendous amount of risk for the shooter.
Any witnesses? No.
None that could positively I.
D.
the gunman.
All right, guys.
We're on our way to Dallas.
Let's go.
[Exciting music.]
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 1x13 Death by a Thousand Cuts - Agent Cooper? - Sam.
Wayne Sanderson.
Please tell me you have some answers for us.
Not yet, butwe won't be leaving till we do.
This is my team.
Agents Rawson, Sims, Griffith, and LaSalle.
Well, we cleared the conference room.
Case files, crime scene photos-- you name it, we got it for you.
We have the guns, so let's find the shooter.
Okay.
Three kill sites.
A crosswalk in the financial district, a loading dock outside Cowboy Stadium and one of the busiest shopping malls in Dallas.
High profile.
Heavy pedestrian traffic.
You don't pick a location that public unless you're trying to make a statement.
All three kill sites, the shooter leaves the gun at the scene.
It's like his signature.
He wants us to know he's responsible for all of them.
Could be a gang initiation or an act of terrorism even.
They're all very public locations.
It's creatin' chaos all over the city.
That's consistent with a terrorist agenda.
All right, so put in a call to NSA.
See if there's been any reports of domestic terror activity.
These are the witness statements.
There were several witnesses, but only one got a good look.
Dreama Reynolds, the first shooting.
She witnessed a car pull up to the crosswalk, a white male pull out a gun, shoot our homeless woman Sarah markle, drop the gun, and drive away.
Anyone I.
D.
the car the shooter was driving? No.
Unfortunately, the plates were removed.
Whoever the shooter is, they're making sure to cover their tracks.
All right.
Beth and Prophet, I want you to go to the first crime scene, retrace what the witness saw and where she saw it from.
Mick and Gina, I want you to take the gun.
Profiling the weapons could go a long way towards finding the person that used them.
- I'll get the car.
- Mm-hmm.
Beth, I, uh I got this call from Fickler.
He was asking me about a recommendation for you.
I was gonna tell you about that when we got home.
Honestly, it just happened yesterday.
About what? He didn't give me the details.
I got offered a job in New York heading up a terrorism task force.
It's all very preliminary.
I haven't made any decisions.
Heading your own team.
That's a big opportunity.
And if that's what you want, I'll give you my full support.
That's okay.
I doubt I'll take it.
The job, I mean.
Your support I will take every single day.
All right, well, you just tell me what you decide, okay? I will.
I promise.
Model 13 .
357 Magnum.
It's blue steel.
3-inch barrel.
Haven't seen one of those in a while.
Well, Agent LaSalle, that's because they stopped making them in '99.
They used to be the standard issue gun for all cops, even FBI, before they switched to semi-automatic pistols.
So you think our shooter could be ex-law enforcement? His taste in guns certainly points that way.
It also clues us in on his age.
I mean, using guns that were discontinued in '99 Probably not a spring chicken.
This kind of tape makes it almost impossible to get any latent prints or DNA off the gun.
Yeah, I had the cops check the serial numbers on them.
Guns have changed hands so many times since the original owner, practically untraceable.
Which means they were probably bought through back channels.
Right.
That's why he left them at the scene.
There's no physical evidence to trace it back to him.
His ego has got to be huge.
Every possible precaution.
Whoever prepped these guns They're good.
[Click.]
All right, so the shooter pulls up here.
He's pre-taped the gun to conceal the prints.
He's removed the tags from the back of the truck so no witnesses can I.
D.
It.
Then the guy pulls the gun, takes aim directly at Dreama, hesitates, and instead aims at a homeless woman and fires five shots, killing her almost instantly.
Planning-wise, this guy didn't miss a beat.
It's seemingly professional and calculated, but it does not match Dreama's description of his behavior.
Exactly.
I meanthis guy aims a gun at three different people before he finally finds his victim.
Then it takes him five shots to get the kill? Yeah.
Neither professional nor calculated.
It's like he thought all about the how but not the who.
It's like an afterthought.
Why not shoot the first person in the crosswalk? And why does he take a picture of the kill afterwards? Maybe he was being specific in who he chose, though.
Maybe he was just being specific of the people who were here at the time.
Okay.
That was definitely a kick.
I'm at 14 weeks, babe.
It's way too early for kicking.
You're right.
It's probably just gas.
You know what, you're lucky I think you're cute, because otherwise I'd kick you.
- Oh, crap.
- What? I left the picnic blanket in the car.
I'll be right back.
No, I'll get it.
I've been sitting all morning.
Just don't ditch me for someone less hormonal while I'm gone, okay? I make no promises.
So the unsub hesitates before he shoots the homeless woman, right? He has all these victims to choose from, and he picks her.
A woman on the fringe, presumably no job, no home, and no family.
The kind of person the shooter thinks that no one's gonna miss.
And that could apply to the drug dealer and possibly the old man as well.
Three victims, all disenfranchised.
That has to be significant.
Okay, so we have hesitation, which might be indicative of conflict over what he's doing.
- Right.
- Also the choice in victims could be an attempt to alleviate guilt.
It's like he doesn't want to kill.
Agent Griffith.
I had my guy send you the security footage you asked me for.
Yeah, I'm looking at it now.
Thank you so much.
What are we looking at? Okay, well, based on the behavior we've been discussing, I went back and took another look at the surveillance footage from the shopping mall.
This is from three minutes before the actual shooting.
He's, uh, agitated.
He has no sense of purpose.
He follows one person, he changes direction, and he follows a completely different person.
Right.
Now, check this out.
That is Peter Warsaw.
That's our victim, and he's walking straight toward him.
- Indeed.
- Beth, you got a name? Yeah.
All right, so I checked his image with the security footage from the parking lot.
I pulled the plates.
His name is Dale Dixon.
He's a school teacher in Plano.
It was terrible.
I heard the gunshot.
I didn't know what had happened.
What were you doing at that mall, Dale? Just grabbing some lunch.
In the middle of a school day? That mall's a good 20 miles from where you work, Dale.
We saw you on the security camera.
You looked pretty agitated.
Was there a reason for that? Security cameras? Why were you looking at the security cameras? Mommy--no! No! It's okay, Max.
It's okay.
These men are from the FBI.
They're good guys.
We're just here to talk.
You don't have to be scared of us.
Bring him up to his room.
I'll be up in a few.
Max always that jumpy around strangers? Max? Well, uh You know, he's a shy kid.
That's not the behavior of a shy kid.
You got him covering for you, Dale? Cov-covering? What are you talking about? You think you're a good liar, Dale.
You're not.
You're lying about the kid, and you're lying about what happened at the mall.
Is there something you're not telling us? He said he was gonna kill my son.
I told him I wasn't a killer, but he made me do it.
Someone made you kill? Are you gonna arrest me? [Laughs.]
It's murder, Dale.
Please! He took my son.
What would you have done? We can't help you unless you tell us everything.
What happened at the mall, what happened at the crosswalk.
He said he would let my son go if I went to the mall and killed someone.
A life for a life, he said.
[Sniffles.]
He didn't say anything about a crosswalk.
We've got multiple shooters.
[Car alarm chirps.]
Carolyn? Carolyn? Please, I'm looking for my wife.
Her name's Carolyn.
She's got long, curly hair.
She was wearing a tan sweater, a green top? Please! She's three months pregnant.
[Cell phone rings.]
[Ringing.]
[Line ringing.]
Hello? I have your wife.
And she's gonna die if you don't do what I tell you to.
What have you done with her? PleaseShe's pregnant.
You follow instructions, she won't be harmed.
Just--just tell me what I have to do.
It's time for you to go back to your car.
I want you to look at the passenger side, 'cause I left a little package there for ya.
What is this? There's a Farmer's Market downtown this afternoon, and I want you to go there and kill someone.
- What? - It doesn't matter who it is.
Just take the gun that I gave you, shoot them, take a photo of it once they're dead, and send it to me at this number.
And leave the gun there.
This is insane.
I'm not a killer.
I sent you a video on your phone.
You should watch that.
[Beep beep.]
[Whimpering.]
[Click.]
[Gasps, whimpers.]
It's up to you, Mr.
Malek.
Because if you don't hold up your end of the deal by 3:00 p.
m.
today, your wife is gonna die.
How much do you love your wife, Mr.
Malek? I mean, would you kill for her? A life for a life.
You got 30 minutes.
So he's kidnapping people's loved ones, holding them for ransom, and then he is, um, forcing them to kill innocent victims in order to earn their freedom.
Based on the testimony we got from Max Dixon, the eight-year-old boy who was abducted, we believe the unsub is a white male in his 40s and speaks with a southern accent.
Given his choice of weapon, we believe that he has experience in guns and that at some point he might have been involved with some branch of law enforcement.
Essentially what he's doing is he's coercing these people into murder.
And so far we think that there have been three separate shooters with three separate possible kidnappings.
This man, he's obsessed with death.
He's got a God complex.
Wants to prove that he can turn ordinary people into murderers.
He's a manipulator, and he's also highly proficient in how he gets these people to kill-- rigging of the guns, creating the murder scenarios, even asking for photographs of the deceased.
Stay with us after the break.
We'll check back with Casey Travis, who's been at the downtown Farmer's Market all day [Sobbing.]
Organic produce to the best barbecue in Dallas This is the part Where we see how much he loves you.
[Sobbing increases.]
Callers have spoken.
Multiple witnesses report seeing what they believed to be a kidnapping in Lakeside Park.
Someone saw the abduction? No, just the aftermath, a young husband looking for his wife.
So this husband is our next shooter.
We got an I.
D.
on him? No, no, but I think we have enough statements to get a good idea of what happened.
Okay.
I'm calling Garcia.
[Line rings.]
Good afternoon, temporary Texans.
Penelope, we need to find someone who was abducted from Lakeside Park earlier this afternoon.
And I'm guessing I have no security camera to work with? Beth: Just eyewitness testimony.
Ah.
Okay.
Gimme what you got.
Middle Eastern man, early 30s.
Looking for his missing wife.
Said her name was Carolyn.
She was three months pregnant, had long, curly hair.
Uhcan we narrow this, kind friends? My kingdom for more parameters.
Sure.
He was wearing a windbreaker with a Lakevale Hospital logo on the back.
That hospital's two blocks from the park and you see a lot of doctors and employees take their lunch out there.
This could be an employee.
Penelope, employees.
Middle Eastern couple.
Wife's first name is Carolyn.
Pregnant and has the potential of working at the hospital.
If I break into that, and I crosscheck his name with Hello, Martin Malek.
He's an internist.
His wife, Carolyn Malek, has been seeing an OB at Lakevale Hospital for the last three months.
Martin Malek.
That's our shooter.
House is clean.
No sign of Malek.
No indication of where he might be going.
I've got a couple of officers at the hospital with Agent Griffith.
[Cell phone rings.]
Sanderson.
Where? GPS on Malek's cell phone has him at the Farmer's Market downtown.
[Siren blares.]
[Tires peel out.]
Hey, Antonio, wait up.
[Indistinct chatter.]
He's got a gun! - Martin Malek! - Get down! Get down, get down.
- Get down! - Everyone just get back.
Drop the gun.
There's another way out of this.
We can help you with that.
We interrupt this story to take you back to the Farmer's Market where police are holding a man at gunpoint.
Martin! Oh, please, God, no! Shh! Watch now.
You're gonna want to see this.
Because this is the part where he thinks there's somehow a way out of this.
Why are you doing this to him? Shut up and watch! Yeah, the phone ain't gonna ring, dummy.
Look at that.
All right, there's no stay for you.
We got 30 seconds.
Hey, man, get out of the way.
Move it! Martin.
.
This isn't you.
Your wifethe baby They're the light of your heart.
A little girl.
We're gonna name her Emma.
I know you want to protect them.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
This is the part where he does it.
Shh, look, look, look.
A life for a life.
Just give me the gun, Martin.
Let me have the gun.
[Carolyn sobbing.]
Tell my wife I love her.
[Gunshot.]
Aah! That's crazy! I mean, that's crazy.
[indistinct radio chatter.]
Stanley Milgram was wrong.
Who's Milgram? Psychologist from the '60s.
Did this experiment to see how far people would go if an authority figure instructed them to do something, even if it was against their deeply held moral beliefs.
In my class, one of my students asked me if any one of us was capable of becoming a killer.
Well, there it is.
No.
There's some lines that people won't cross.
The unsub released her.
They just found Carolyn Malek on a median off I-20.
They're bringing her in now.
Life for a life.
I understand.
I will.
All right.
I'll speak to you soon.
Bye.
Are you all right? Yeah.
That was the, uh, Director? Yeah.
It's difficult to say no to the man.
Yeah, well, it seems like he really--they want you.
It's a hard decision, I guess.
Well, between his pull and your gentle push, it's getting easier.
My push? You didn't exactly beg me to stay.
Beth, you're as fine an agent as I ever worked with.
I mean, you--you're smart, you're focused.
I mean, you fit this team like a hand in a glove.
HonestlyI've grown to really care about you.
I just want you to do what's best for you.
I don't want you making your decisions based on my emotions.
Understood.
Carolyn Malek's here.
He made me watch.
Martin was on the television, and he wouldn't let me turn away.
Can you describe him? Did you get a good look at him? Brown hair and blue eyes.
150 pounds, maybe.
And he only had three fingers on one hand.
And cut marks all over his arms, like scars.
Where did he take you? I don't know.
He put a blindfold over my eyes and the last thing I remember was getting into his truck An old red truck.
It was horrible watching Martin put that gun to his head.
Did he say anything while this was going on? He said, uh [Sniffles.]
"This is the part where you see how much he loves you.
This is the part where he does it.
" Those were his exact words? Think carefully.
It's really important.
There was more, um Right before mar-- Martin He said something about how the phone wasn't going to ring, that there wasn't gonna be a stay.
What, a last-minute call? Yes, as in a call from the governor, a stay of execution.
You think a prison guard? Well, he's using model 13 guns.
I mean, we pegged him as potential law enforcement ever since we first examined the weapons.
Sure sounds like somebody who works in the system.
- Ground control to major Sam.
- Penelope.
This unsub may work, uh, in our prison system.
He may be a guard.
He may be an administrator.
May be a counselor.
Um I show more than a few prison guards that have strayed from the path of righteousness.
His choice of weapon indicates that he's in his late 40s.
He's also missing two fingers on one hand.
Uh Texas state prison guard Daniel Barnes.
He definitely falls in the malevolent category.
He was caught sexually abusing over a dozen prisoners.
Case was dismissed on a technicality.
- Go on.
- His current address? Is a pine box.
I'm sorry.
- He croaked ten months ago.
- Here's a crazy idea.
What if he's actually an executioner himself? It is Texas.
In most states, the executions are done by prison guards who've volunteered for the detail.
Penelope? Richard Stahl.
49 years old.
He spent the past 20 years on the execution team at Huntsville.
He's helped perform almost 50 lethal injections.
- What else? - Um Oh, he had a horrible childhood.
His entire family was murdered in front of him.
He saw the whole thing and oh, he lost his pinkie and his ring finger in a buzz saw accident when he was 12.
Penelope, how was his family murdered and what weapon was used? It's a model 13 .
357 Magnum.
Is he still working in the penitentiary? No, no.
He was fired six months ago.
Super-high profile.
All over the news.
A botched execution.
Stahl was blamed.
Did he do any time, P? Uh-uh.
Insufficient evidence.
And then he went off the grid.
There's no last known address.
But his aunt Mary Ellen lives in Frisco which is right next to Dallas, and she's the one who raised him after his parents were murdered.
[Buzzer.]
Takes a team to carry out a full execution.
Most people, they come here, do their job, try to leave it behind when they go home.
Not Richard.
You think he enjoyed the executions? He never came right out and said it, but, uh Yeah, I do.
And it got worse the longer he was here.
I was his partner for ten years.
I knew him better than anybody.
You said it got worse.
- How? - Well Prisoner'd be taking his final walk, and Richard would start taunting him, telling him how much it was gonna burn when the juice of that needle started coursing through his veins.
He liked to see them in pain.
I think he enjoyed pain, period.
That execution that went wrong, the one Stahl got fired for? What happened? The first drug, sodium thiopental, is supposed to sedate you before the second and the third drugs are injected.
Well, Stahl never injected the sodium thiopental.
When the other drugs started flowing through that condemned man's body, he went into convulsions, cried out, writhing in pain.
And Stahl claimed it was an accident.
And then I saw the news, that suicide.
Your other agent, uh, Cooper, he had to watch it.
Man I knew Stahl was sick, but I never imagined he'd go that far.
Have you talked to him at all since he was fired? Yeah, once.
I-I felt bad for the guy.
He's got nobody.
- Where'd he call you from? - Blocked number.
He didn't want me to know where he was.
He just wanted to talk.
What about? Well, his face was in the news and, uh, he was gettin' death threats and wanted to buy a gun for protection.
He felt like he couldn't do it out in public, so, uh I gave him the name of some guy off the radar.
Illegally.
Look, if I knew what he was gonna do with the gun, I wouldn't have given it to him.
We need to speak with the dealer.
[Laughs.]
You're FBI.
He ain't gonna give you anything.
He supplied the model 13s.
He's gonna know how to get in touch with him.
Set up a buy.
Set up a buy, tell your gun dealer that you got two friends who wanna buy some guns.
If he knows I ratted him out, he'll kill me.
Way I see it, you got two options.
All right? You can cooperate with us or you can protect your scumbag gun dealer friend.
You do that, we're gonna put you away as an accomplice to murder.
Choice is yours.
Call him, man.
They said the murders were robbery gone wrong.
They never did catch the man who did it.
Richard was only seven years old.
But he found a place to hide.
You know, I think it's by the grace of God that he's alive today.
I believe that.
No little boy should ever have to see the things he saw that night.
What was he like after his parents were killed? Well, he used to disappear days at a time and At first I sorta got scared, but then he'd always turn up in the same places.
Where's that? O-on occasion, there'd be a crime around town, and Richard would go to the houses where they happened.
It was, uh, murders suicides.
It's a form of masochism.
Richard was exposed to death and murder at such an early age, he might have thought that's all he deserved.
He--he carved that into the headboard when he was ten.
He--he never told me why or what it meant.
"Ling chi.
" It means death by a thousand cuts.
It's from ancient China.
They would take these knives, cut off body parts over time.
It was slow, painful Oh, God! So that's why he hurt himself! [Sobbing.]
What do you mean by that, ma'am? He would tell people that, uh, he had had an accident with a saw.
His fingers, they The truth is, he-- he cut them off himself.
[Whispers.]
I see.
I know you think he's a monster.
But I just remember that little boy sitting there on the floor bleeding.
No matter how often I tried to hide the knives, he just couldn't stop.
[Sighs.]
Some people's pain is beyond their understanding.
He's making the whole world understand his pain now, isn't he? Think about it.
He puts these people in impossible situations.
If they don't kill, they're gonna lose the person they love.
And if they do kill, then they're gonna have to live with that guilt for the rest of their life.
Something doesn't add up.
I mean, if Stahl is a masochist then why does he act out on a grand stage? Why does he have a big show, the public killings, the, uh, the planning, the--the manipulation of others.
Those are the actions of somebody who has a gigantic-- a huge ego.
Okay, but his language He never makes himself the subject of his own sentence.
"This is the part where you see how much he loves you.
This is the part where he does it.
" You're right It's objective, submissive.
It's--it's like he's an innocent bystander.
His words are of a person who has no ego at all.
His personal traits are pure Masochism, and his actions are are those of a sadist.
He has a partner, Coop.
He is a puppet.
There has to be a master.
That's an MP7.
High-velocity muzzle.
4.
6x30 ammunition.
Shoot with that thing, you ain't gonna miss.
Pretty bad-ass.
You got anything smaller, though? You got any handguns? M13s, Smith & Wesson.
Do they still make those? That's a big gun for such a little girl.
- Can you hook it up, man? - Gimme some time.
Had a guy in here-- cleaned out all my model 13s.
But I can get some more.
He took everything you had.
Look, this ain't a bar.
You got the cash, I sure as hell ain't gonna cut anyone off.
[Gunshots.]
Ah! Go! Go! [Bullets ricocheting.]
Where's it coming from? I can't see him! [Gunshots.]
Beth, stay down! Uhh! Uhh! I think we might have a lead on Stahl's location.
So we know that Stahl has an affinity for murder sites, right? Check this out.
It's a house in South Dallas.
It's the site of a triple murder three months ago.
Now it's abandoned and boarded up.
But we looked at the satellite images from the past three weeks.
Check out the car.
Faded red truck.
- SWAT is ready to roll.
- Let's ride.
[Cell phone rings.]
Prophet.
Coop, I don't know how it happened, but we got hit, man.
Slow down.
Are you all right? Coop, he got her.
- What? - They got Beth! [Call waiting beeps.]
What? Prophet, hold on.
[Cell phone rings.]
Sam.
[Ringing.]
[Ringing.]
[Beep.]
Stahl.
Market Street.
Downtown there's a street fair goin' on.
That oughta give you a lot of targets to choose from.
You got 15 minutes.
[Thud.]
Richard.
I know you think you deserve this, but you don't.
There's no reason to go on suffering this way.
Thanks, darlin', but I'm not the one who's suffering.
Rawlins.
I told you, it takes a full team to carry out an execution.
Hey, Prophet, how you doin', man? All right.
Where's Beth? She's in an abandoned house in Dallas.
We're headin' there now.
Your boss seems like a stand-up guy.
You think he'll kill to save you? Hmm? Don't underestimate what people would do for love.
Love? Is that how you got Richard? You told him you loved him? Hell, yes.
First day he got to Huntsville, I saw that wimpy little kid, cuts all over his arms.
I knew I could get him to do whatever I wanted to.
Even murder.
Especially murder.
[Suspenseful music.]
Cooper, we're heading to the house in South Dallas.
All right.
Keep me posted.
[Cell phone rings.]
Yeah.
How's the fair lookin'? - There's no street fair.
- Oh.
Is that right? Let me speak to Beth.
No.
She's temporarily detained.
You didn't answer my question.
Will Cooper kill for you? No! What, doesn't he love you enough? It doesn't have anything to do with that.
He's one of the finest men I've ever known, and beyond that, he's noble.
Yeah.
Then he'll know exactly what to do to bring you home.
You have no idea what nobility is.
[Laughs.]
I know what'll happen if he doesn't pull that trigger.
It's a line he will never cross, and I don't want him to.
That's too bad.
I don't expect you to kill just anyone, Sam.
I already got someone picked out.
Who? Me.
Two minutes.
I know what love is, and nobility and integrity.
Can you shoot me right there? I always wanted to go like that.
You want to test someone? Do you want to see how far they can go? Then shoot me! Shoot me! Is this what your master wants you to do? He sent you here, didn't he? 60 seconds, and Beth dies.
I mean, do you care about her or not? You're a victim, Stahl.
Can't you see it? You do not deserve this.
50 seconds.
I know that you're in pain.
I know you feel you need to feed it.
But this is not love.
This is not devotion.
This is just pain.
Doesn't look like we're gettin' a phone call.
No last-minute reprieve today.
We were goodonce.
We were all good once.
And that that goodness it lives inside of you.
FBI! Clear! - Room clear! - Clear.
Clear! Hey, Coop, the house is clear.
There's nobody here.
She's not here.
Beth is not here.
[Sniffling.]
I just want this to be over.
Ten seconds.
No! This is the part where you kill me.
Now just do it.
Would you just do it? Would you please do it? [Sobbing.]
Would you just do it? [Gunshot.]
[Water rushing.]
[Gunshot.]
[Heartbeat pounding.]
Why do we kill? It's a question that we face every day.
We all have darkness inside of us.
These people they have waged a war against their inner demons and they've lost.
So what's the difference between us and them? I'm sorry.
Noah, right? You said we all struggle with darkness, inner demons.
So then anyone in this room could be pushed to kill, right? The potentiality exists.
But I like to believe that we can find the strength to choose the light, to follow our higher selves.
And if we're pushed far enough [Knock on door.]
we're capable of just about anything.
Excuse me.
Dallas, Texas.
Local PD's reporting three shootings in the last two weeks.
First victim, 35-year-old homeless woman Sarah Markle, shot in a busy pedestrian crosswalk.
Next victim, Derek Williams, 48 years old, local drug dealer.
Shot outside Cowboy Stadium.
And just this afternoon, the third victim, retired grandfather and engineer, 74-year-old Peter Warsaw Found in the bathroom in a local shopping mall with a bullet in his head.
Different ages, sexes, races.
The victimology's all over the map.
How does the local PD know that they're related? The same type of gun was used.
It's a model 13 .
357 Magnum.
No prints.
Guns left at the scene.
Specificity and choice of weaponry, I mean That could be symbolic in some way.
Multiple guns.
No prints.
It's pretty impressive.
Middle of the afternoon.
A highly, highly public location.
It's a tremendous amount of risk for the shooter.
Any witnesses? No.
None that could positively I.
D.
the gunman.
All right, guys.
We're on our way to Dallas.
Let's go.
[Exciting music.]
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior 1x13 Death by a Thousand Cuts - Agent Cooper? - Sam.
Wayne Sanderson.
Please tell me you have some answers for us.
Not yet, butwe won't be leaving till we do.
This is my team.
Agents Rawson, Sims, Griffith, and LaSalle.
Well, we cleared the conference room.
Case files, crime scene photos-- you name it, we got it for you.
We have the guns, so let's find the shooter.
Okay.
Three kill sites.
A crosswalk in the financial district, a loading dock outside Cowboy Stadium and one of the busiest shopping malls in Dallas.
High profile.
Heavy pedestrian traffic.
You don't pick a location that public unless you're trying to make a statement.
All three kill sites, the shooter leaves the gun at the scene.
It's like his signature.
He wants us to know he's responsible for all of them.
Could be a gang initiation or an act of terrorism even.
They're all very public locations.
It's creatin' chaos all over the city.
That's consistent with a terrorist agenda.
All right, so put in a call to NSA.
See if there's been any reports of domestic terror activity.
These are the witness statements.
There were several witnesses, but only one got a good look.
Dreama Reynolds, the first shooting.
She witnessed a car pull up to the crosswalk, a white male pull out a gun, shoot our homeless woman Sarah markle, drop the gun, and drive away.
Anyone I.
D.
the car the shooter was driving? No.
Unfortunately, the plates were removed.
Whoever the shooter is, they're making sure to cover their tracks.
All right.
Beth and Prophet, I want you to go to the first crime scene, retrace what the witness saw and where she saw it from.
Mick and Gina, I want you to take the gun.
Profiling the weapons could go a long way towards finding the person that used them.
- I'll get the car.
- Mm-hmm.
Beth, I, uh I got this call from Fickler.
He was asking me about a recommendation for you.
I was gonna tell you about that when we got home.
Honestly, it just happened yesterday.
About what? He didn't give me the details.
I got offered a job in New York heading up a terrorism task force.
It's all very preliminary.
I haven't made any decisions.
Heading your own team.
That's a big opportunity.
And if that's what you want, I'll give you my full support.
That's okay.
I doubt I'll take it.
The job, I mean.
Your support I will take every single day.
All right, well, you just tell me what you decide, okay? I will.
I promise.
Model 13 .
357 Magnum.
It's blue steel.
3-inch barrel.
Haven't seen one of those in a while.
Well, Agent LaSalle, that's because they stopped making them in '99.
They used to be the standard issue gun for all cops, even FBI, before they switched to semi-automatic pistols.
So you think our shooter could be ex-law enforcement? His taste in guns certainly points that way.
It also clues us in on his age.
I mean, using guns that were discontinued in '99 Probably not a spring chicken.
This kind of tape makes it almost impossible to get any latent prints or DNA off the gun.
Yeah, I had the cops check the serial numbers on them.
Guns have changed hands so many times since the original owner, practically untraceable.
Which means they were probably bought through back channels.
Right.
That's why he left them at the scene.
There's no physical evidence to trace it back to him.
His ego has got to be huge.
Every possible precaution.
Whoever prepped these guns They're good.
[Click.]
All right, so the shooter pulls up here.
He's pre-taped the gun to conceal the prints.
He's removed the tags from the back of the truck so no witnesses can I.
D.
It.
Then the guy pulls the gun, takes aim directly at Dreama, hesitates, and instead aims at a homeless woman and fires five shots, killing her almost instantly.
Planning-wise, this guy didn't miss a beat.
It's seemingly professional and calculated, but it does not match Dreama's description of his behavior.
Exactly.
I meanthis guy aims a gun at three different people before he finally finds his victim.
Then it takes him five shots to get the kill? Yeah.
Neither professional nor calculated.
It's like he thought all about the how but not the who.
It's like an afterthought.
Why not shoot the first person in the crosswalk? And why does he take a picture of the kill afterwards? Maybe he was being specific in who he chose, though.
Maybe he was just being specific of the people who were here at the time.
Okay.
That was definitely a kick.
I'm at 14 weeks, babe.
It's way too early for kicking.
You're right.
It's probably just gas.
You know what, you're lucky I think you're cute, because otherwise I'd kick you.
- Oh, crap.
- What? I left the picnic blanket in the car.
I'll be right back.
No, I'll get it.
I've been sitting all morning.
Just don't ditch me for someone less hormonal while I'm gone, okay? I make no promises.
So the unsub hesitates before he shoots the homeless woman, right? He has all these victims to choose from, and he picks her.
A woman on the fringe, presumably no job, no home, and no family.
The kind of person the shooter thinks that no one's gonna miss.
And that could apply to the drug dealer and possibly the old man as well.
Three victims, all disenfranchised.
That has to be significant.
Okay, so we have hesitation, which might be indicative of conflict over what he's doing.
- Right.
- Also the choice in victims could be an attempt to alleviate guilt.
It's like he doesn't want to kill.
Agent Griffith.
I had my guy send you the security footage you asked me for.
Yeah, I'm looking at it now.
Thank you so much.
What are we looking at? Okay, well, based on the behavior we've been discussing, I went back and took another look at the surveillance footage from the shopping mall.
This is from three minutes before the actual shooting.
He's, uh, agitated.
He has no sense of purpose.
He follows one person, he changes direction, and he follows a completely different person.
Right.
Now, check this out.
That is Peter Warsaw.
That's our victim, and he's walking straight toward him.
- Indeed.
- Beth, you got a name? Yeah.
All right, so I checked his image with the security footage from the parking lot.
I pulled the plates.
His name is Dale Dixon.
He's a school teacher in Plano.
It was terrible.
I heard the gunshot.
I didn't know what had happened.
What were you doing at that mall, Dale? Just grabbing some lunch.
In the middle of a school day? That mall's a good 20 miles from where you work, Dale.
We saw you on the security camera.
You looked pretty agitated.
Was there a reason for that? Security cameras? Why were you looking at the security cameras? Mommy--no! No! It's okay, Max.
It's okay.
These men are from the FBI.
They're good guys.
We're just here to talk.
You don't have to be scared of us.
Bring him up to his room.
I'll be up in a few.
Max always that jumpy around strangers? Max? Well, uh You know, he's a shy kid.
That's not the behavior of a shy kid.
You got him covering for you, Dale? Cov-covering? What are you talking about? You think you're a good liar, Dale.
You're not.
You're lying about the kid, and you're lying about what happened at the mall.
Is there something you're not telling us? He said he was gonna kill my son.
I told him I wasn't a killer, but he made me do it.
Someone made you kill? Are you gonna arrest me? [Laughs.]
It's murder, Dale.
Please! He took my son.
What would you have done? We can't help you unless you tell us everything.
What happened at the mall, what happened at the crosswalk.
He said he would let my son go if I went to the mall and killed someone.
A life for a life, he said.
[Sniffles.]
He didn't say anything about a crosswalk.
We've got multiple shooters.
[Car alarm chirps.]
Carolyn? Carolyn? Please, I'm looking for my wife.
Her name's Carolyn.
She's got long, curly hair.
She was wearing a tan sweater, a green top? Please! She's three months pregnant.
[Cell phone rings.]
[Ringing.]
[Line ringing.]
Hello? I have your wife.
And she's gonna die if you don't do what I tell you to.
What have you done with her? PleaseShe's pregnant.
You follow instructions, she won't be harmed.
Just--just tell me what I have to do.
It's time for you to go back to your car.
I want you to look at the passenger side, 'cause I left a little package there for ya.
What is this? There's a Farmer's Market downtown this afternoon, and I want you to go there and kill someone.
- What? - It doesn't matter who it is.
Just take the gun that I gave you, shoot them, take a photo of it once they're dead, and send it to me at this number.
And leave the gun there.
This is insane.
I'm not a killer.
I sent you a video on your phone.
You should watch that.
[Beep beep.]
[Whimpering.]
[Click.]
[Gasps, whimpers.]
It's up to you, Mr.
Malek.
Because if you don't hold up your end of the deal by 3:00 p.
m.
today, your wife is gonna die.
How much do you love your wife, Mr.
Malek? I mean, would you kill for her? A life for a life.
You got 30 minutes.
So he's kidnapping people's loved ones, holding them for ransom, and then he is, um, forcing them to kill innocent victims in order to earn their freedom.
Based on the testimony we got from Max Dixon, the eight-year-old boy who was abducted, we believe the unsub is a white male in his 40s and speaks with a southern accent.
Given his choice of weapon, we believe that he has experience in guns and that at some point he might have been involved with some branch of law enforcement.
Essentially what he's doing is he's coercing these people into murder.
And so far we think that there have been three separate shooters with three separate possible kidnappings.
This man, he's obsessed with death.
He's got a God complex.
Wants to prove that he can turn ordinary people into murderers.
He's a manipulator, and he's also highly proficient in how he gets these people to kill-- rigging of the guns, creating the murder scenarios, even asking for photographs of the deceased.
Stay with us after the break.
We'll check back with Casey Travis, who's been at the downtown Farmer's Market all day [Sobbing.]
Organic produce to the best barbecue in Dallas This is the part Where we see how much he loves you.
[Sobbing increases.]
Callers have spoken.
Multiple witnesses report seeing what they believed to be a kidnapping in Lakeside Park.
Someone saw the abduction? No, just the aftermath, a young husband looking for his wife.
So this husband is our next shooter.
We got an I.
D.
on him? No, no, but I think we have enough statements to get a good idea of what happened.
Okay.
I'm calling Garcia.
[Line rings.]
Good afternoon, temporary Texans.
Penelope, we need to find someone who was abducted from Lakeside Park earlier this afternoon.
And I'm guessing I have no security camera to work with? Beth: Just eyewitness testimony.
Ah.
Okay.
Gimme what you got.
Middle Eastern man, early 30s.
Looking for his missing wife.
Said her name was Carolyn.
She was three months pregnant, had long, curly hair.
Uhcan we narrow this, kind friends? My kingdom for more parameters.
Sure.
He was wearing a windbreaker with a Lakevale Hospital logo on the back.
That hospital's two blocks from the park and you see a lot of doctors and employees take their lunch out there.
This could be an employee.
Penelope, employees.
Middle Eastern couple.
Wife's first name is Carolyn.
Pregnant and has the potential of working at the hospital.
If I break into that, and I crosscheck his name with Hello, Martin Malek.
He's an internist.
His wife, Carolyn Malek, has been seeing an OB at Lakevale Hospital for the last three months.
Martin Malek.
That's our shooter.
House is clean.
No sign of Malek.
No indication of where he might be going.
I've got a couple of officers at the hospital with Agent Griffith.
[Cell phone rings.]
Sanderson.
Where? GPS on Malek's cell phone has him at the Farmer's Market downtown.
[Siren blares.]
[Tires peel out.]
Hey, Antonio, wait up.
[Indistinct chatter.]
He's got a gun! - Martin Malek! - Get down! Get down, get down.
- Get down! - Everyone just get back.
Drop the gun.
There's another way out of this.
We can help you with that.
We interrupt this story to take you back to the Farmer's Market where police are holding a man at gunpoint.
Martin! Oh, please, God, no! Shh! Watch now.
You're gonna want to see this.
Because this is the part where he thinks there's somehow a way out of this.
Why are you doing this to him? Shut up and watch! Yeah, the phone ain't gonna ring, dummy.
Look at that.
All right, there's no stay for you.
We got 30 seconds.
Hey, man, get out of the way.
Move it! Martin.
.
This isn't you.
Your wifethe baby They're the light of your heart.
A little girl.
We're gonna name her Emma.
I know you want to protect them.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
This is the part where he does it.
Shh, look, look, look.
A life for a life.
Just give me the gun, Martin.
Let me have the gun.
[Carolyn sobbing.]
Tell my wife I love her.
[Gunshot.]
Aah! That's crazy! I mean, that's crazy.
[indistinct radio chatter.]
Stanley Milgram was wrong.
Who's Milgram? Psychologist from the '60s.
Did this experiment to see how far people would go if an authority figure instructed them to do something, even if it was against their deeply held moral beliefs.
In my class, one of my students asked me if any one of us was capable of becoming a killer.
Well, there it is.
No.
There's some lines that people won't cross.
The unsub released her.
They just found Carolyn Malek on a median off I-20.
They're bringing her in now.
Life for a life.
I understand.
I will.
All right.
I'll speak to you soon.
Bye.
Are you all right? Yeah.
That was the, uh, Director? Yeah.
It's difficult to say no to the man.
Yeah, well, it seems like he really--they want you.
It's a hard decision, I guess.
Well, between his pull and your gentle push, it's getting easier.
My push? You didn't exactly beg me to stay.
Beth, you're as fine an agent as I ever worked with.
I mean, you--you're smart, you're focused.
I mean, you fit this team like a hand in a glove.
HonestlyI've grown to really care about you.
I just want you to do what's best for you.
I don't want you making your decisions based on my emotions.
Understood.
Carolyn Malek's here.
He made me watch.
Martin was on the television, and he wouldn't let me turn away.
Can you describe him? Did you get a good look at him? Brown hair and blue eyes.
150 pounds, maybe.
And he only had three fingers on one hand.
And cut marks all over his arms, like scars.
Where did he take you? I don't know.
He put a blindfold over my eyes and the last thing I remember was getting into his truck An old red truck.
It was horrible watching Martin put that gun to his head.
Did he say anything while this was going on? He said, uh [Sniffles.]
"This is the part where you see how much he loves you.
This is the part where he does it.
" Those were his exact words? Think carefully.
It's really important.
There was more, um Right before mar-- Martin He said something about how the phone wasn't going to ring, that there wasn't gonna be a stay.
What, a last-minute call? Yes, as in a call from the governor, a stay of execution.
You think a prison guard? Well, he's using model 13 guns.
I mean, we pegged him as potential law enforcement ever since we first examined the weapons.
Sure sounds like somebody who works in the system.
- Ground control to major Sam.
- Penelope.
This unsub may work, uh, in our prison system.
He may be a guard.
He may be an administrator.
May be a counselor.
Um I show more than a few prison guards that have strayed from the path of righteousness.
His choice of weapon indicates that he's in his late 40s.
He's also missing two fingers on one hand.
Uh Texas state prison guard Daniel Barnes.
He definitely falls in the malevolent category.
He was caught sexually abusing over a dozen prisoners.
Case was dismissed on a technicality.
- Go on.
- His current address? Is a pine box.
I'm sorry.
- He croaked ten months ago.
- Here's a crazy idea.
What if he's actually an executioner himself? It is Texas.
In most states, the executions are done by prison guards who've volunteered for the detail.
Penelope? Richard Stahl.
49 years old.
He spent the past 20 years on the execution team at Huntsville.
He's helped perform almost 50 lethal injections.
- What else? - Um Oh, he had a horrible childhood.
His entire family was murdered in front of him.
He saw the whole thing and oh, he lost his pinkie and his ring finger in a buzz saw accident when he was 12.
Penelope, how was his family murdered and what weapon was used? It's a model 13 .
357 Magnum.
Is he still working in the penitentiary? No, no.
He was fired six months ago.
Super-high profile.
All over the news.
A botched execution.
Stahl was blamed.
Did he do any time, P? Uh-uh.
Insufficient evidence.
And then he went off the grid.
There's no last known address.
But his aunt Mary Ellen lives in Frisco which is right next to Dallas, and she's the one who raised him after his parents were murdered.
[Buzzer.]
Takes a team to carry out a full execution.
Most people, they come here, do their job, try to leave it behind when they go home.
Not Richard.
You think he enjoyed the executions? He never came right out and said it, but, uh Yeah, I do.
And it got worse the longer he was here.
I was his partner for ten years.
I knew him better than anybody.
You said it got worse.
- How? - Well Prisoner'd be taking his final walk, and Richard would start taunting him, telling him how much it was gonna burn when the juice of that needle started coursing through his veins.
He liked to see them in pain.
I think he enjoyed pain, period.
That execution that went wrong, the one Stahl got fired for? What happened? The first drug, sodium thiopental, is supposed to sedate you before the second and the third drugs are injected.
Well, Stahl never injected the sodium thiopental.
When the other drugs started flowing through that condemned man's body, he went into convulsions, cried out, writhing in pain.
And Stahl claimed it was an accident.
And then I saw the news, that suicide.
Your other agent, uh, Cooper, he had to watch it.
Man I knew Stahl was sick, but I never imagined he'd go that far.
Have you talked to him at all since he was fired? Yeah, once.
I-I felt bad for the guy.
He's got nobody.
- Where'd he call you from? - Blocked number.
He didn't want me to know where he was.
He just wanted to talk.
What about? Well, his face was in the news and, uh, he was gettin' death threats and wanted to buy a gun for protection.
He felt like he couldn't do it out in public, so, uh I gave him the name of some guy off the radar.
Illegally.
Look, if I knew what he was gonna do with the gun, I wouldn't have given it to him.
We need to speak with the dealer.
[Laughs.]
You're FBI.
He ain't gonna give you anything.
He supplied the model 13s.
He's gonna know how to get in touch with him.
Set up a buy.
Set up a buy, tell your gun dealer that you got two friends who wanna buy some guns.
If he knows I ratted him out, he'll kill me.
Way I see it, you got two options.
All right? You can cooperate with us or you can protect your scumbag gun dealer friend.
You do that, we're gonna put you away as an accomplice to murder.
Choice is yours.
Call him, man.
They said the murders were robbery gone wrong.
They never did catch the man who did it.
Richard was only seven years old.
But he found a place to hide.
You know, I think it's by the grace of God that he's alive today.
I believe that.
No little boy should ever have to see the things he saw that night.
What was he like after his parents were killed? Well, he used to disappear days at a time and At first I sorta got scared, but then he'd always turn up in the same places.
Where's that? O-on occasion, there'd be a crime around town, and Richard would go to the houses where they happened.
It was, uh, murders suicides.
It's a form of masochism.
Richard was exposed to death and murder at such an early age, he might have thought that's all he deserved.
He--he carved that into the headboard when he was ten.
He--he never told me why or what it meant.
"Ling chi.
" It means death by a thousand cuts.
It's from ancient China.
They would take these knives, cut off body parts over time.
It was slow, painful Oh, God! So that's why he hurt himself! [Sobbing.]
What do you mean by that, ma'am? He would tell people that, uh, he had had an accident with a saw.
His fingers, they The truth is, he-- he cut them off himself.
[Whispers.]
I see.
I know you think he's a monster.
But I just remember that little boy sitting there on the floor bleeding.
No matter how often I tried to hide the knives, he just couldn't stop.
[Sighs.]
Some people's pain is beyond their understanding.
He's making the whole world understand his pain now, isn't he? Think about it.
He puts these people in impossible situations.
If they don't kill, they're gonna lose the person they love.
And if they do kill, then they're gonna have to live with that guilt for the rest of their life.
Something doesn't add up.
I mean, if Stahl is a masochist then why does he act out on a grand stage? Why does he have a big show, the public killings, the, uh, the planning, the--the manipulation of others.
Those are the actions of somebody who has a gigantic-- a huge ego.
Okay, but his language He never makes himself the subject of his own sentence.
"This is the part where you see how much he loves you.
This is the part where he does it.
" You're right It's objective, submissive.
It's--it's like he's an innocent bystander.
His words are of a person who has no ego at all.
His personal traits are pure Masochism, and his actions are are those of a sadist.
He has a partner, Coop.
He is a puppet.
There has to be a master.
That's an MP7.
High-velocity muzzle.
4.
6x30 ammunition.
Shoot with that thing, you ain't gonna miss.
Pretty bad-ass.
You got anything smaller, though? You got any handguns? M13s, Smith & Wesson.
Do they still make those? That's a big gun for such a little girl.
- Can you hook it up, man? - Gimme some time.
Had a guy in here-- cleaned out all my model 13s.
But I can get some more.
He took everything you had.
Look, this ain't a bar.
You got the cash, I sure as hell ain't gonna cut anyone off.
[Gunshots.]
Ah! Go! Go! [Bullets ricocheting.]
Where's it coming from? I can't see him! [Gunshots.]
Beth, stay down! Uhh! Uhh! I think we might have a lead on Stahl's location.
So we know that Stahl has an affinity for murder sites, right? Check this out.
It's a house in South Dallas.
It's the site of a triple murder three months ago.
Now it's abandoned and boarded up.
But we looked at the satellite images from the past three weeks.
Check out the car.
Faded red truck.
- SWAT is ready to roll.
- Let's ride.
[Cell phone rings.]
Prophet.
Coop, I don't know how it happened, but we got hit, man.
Slow down.
Are you all right? Coop, he got her.
- What? - They got Beth! [Call waiting beeps.]
What? Prophet, hold on.
[Cell phone rings.]
Sam.
[Ringing.]
[Ringing.]
[Beep.]
Stahl.
Market Street.
Downtown there's a street fair goin' on.
That oughta give you a lot of targets to choose from.
You got 15 minutes.
[Thud.]
Richard.
I know you think you deserve this, but you don't.
There's no reason to go on suffering this way.
Thanks, darlin', but I'm not the one who's suffering.
Rawlins.
I told you, it takes a full team to carry out an execution.
Hey, Prophet, how you doin', man? All right.
Where's Beth? She's in an abandoned house in Dallas.
We're headin' there now.
Your boss seems like a stand-up guy.
You think he'll kill to save you? Hmm? Don't underestimate what people would do for love.
Love? Is that how you got Richard? You told him you loved him? Hell, yes.
First day he got to Huntsville, I saw that wimpy little kid, cuts all over his arms.
I knew I could get him to do whatever I wanted to.
Even murder.
Especially murder.
[Suspenseful music.]
Cooper, we're heading to the house in South Dallas.
All right.
Keep me posted.
[Cell phone rings.]
Yeah.
How's the fair lookin'? - There's no street fair.
- Oh.
Is that right? Let me speak to Beth.
No.
She's temporarily detained.
You didn't answer my question.
Will Cooper kill for you? No! What, doesn't he love you enough? It doesn't have anything to do with that.
He's one of the finest men I've ever known, and beyond that, he's noble.
Yeah.
Then he'll know exactly what to do to bring you home.
You have no idea what nobility is.
[Laughs.]
I know what'll happen if he doesn't pull that trigger.
It's a line he will never cross, and I don't want him to.
That's too bad.
I don't expect you to kill just anyone, Sam.
I already got someone picked out.
Who? Me.
Two minutes.
I know what love is, and nobility and integrity.
Can you shoot me right there? I always wanted to go like that.
You want to test someone? Do you want to see how far they can go? Then shoot me! Shoot me! Is this what your master wants you to do? He sent you here, didn't he? 60 seconds, and Beth dies.
I mean, do you care about her or not? You're a victim, Stahl.
Can't you see it? You do not deserve this.
50 seconds.
I know that you're in pain.
I know you feel you need to feed it.
But this is not love.
This is not devotion.
This is just pain.
Doesn't look like we're gettin' a phone call.
No last-minute reprieve today.
We were goodonce.
We were all good once.
And that that goodness it lives inside of you.
FBI! Clear! - Room clear! - Clear.
Clear! Hey, Coop, the house is clear.
There's nobody here.
She's not here.
Beth is not here.
[Sniffling.]
I just want this to be over.
Ten seconds.
No! This is the part where you kill me.
Now just do it.
Would you just do it? Would you please do it? [Sobbing.]
Would you just do it? [Gunshot.]