Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente analyzes the behavior and motives of some of America’s most notorious serial killers, including Robert Spangler, who killed his two teenage children and two of his three wives.
Spangler actually talked about when he was 14 with some friends and he made the comment about his sister’s cat, “If that cat gets into the trash again, I’m going to kill it.” He later did just that - suspending the cat from a tree and shooting the animal in the stomach, but recalled not having much empathy for the cat. “I actually kind of laughed a little,” he said.
“But his friends threw up, they were sick to their stomachs,” Clemente interjects. “He basically was torturing this cat, he hung the cat from a tree, and then shot it. And it was swinging around wildly and trying to save itself and it couldn’t, and he felt nothing from it.”
The killing and torturing of animals earlier in life is a recurring theme in the experiences of many serial killers. “That was an early thing he did… another brilliant serial killer, but he’s the ‘black widower.’
Clemente goes on to recount the cold, calculated, and matter-of-fact way that Spangler – whom he calls “the most egotistical and brilliant serial killer” he encountered in his career – orchestrated the killings of his family.
Watch the full episode for assessments on other serial killers – including Ronald Dominique, Gary Heidnik, and the Speed Freak Killers – and to hear Clemente’s view that Jesse Matthew – the suspect in the Hannah Graham abduction who is also suspected in the disappearance of another woman who was found dead – exhibits potential serial killer characteristics.
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