Pod Insights Criminology The Fast-Food Killer About this episode In 1997, an individual terrorized the area around Nashville, Tennessee. This person robbed several fast-food restaurants, killing workers in the process. A man named Paul Dennis Reed Jr. was ultimately identified as "the fast-food killer" and took seven lives before he was caught. Join Mike and Morf as they talk about Paul Dennis Reid Jr., dubbed by the press as the fast-food killer. Reid had a rough childhood, and he displayed concerning behaviors as a youngster. He also had a series of head injuries. His mental competency to stand trial became a focal point. You can help support the show through Patreon https://www.patreon.com/criminology For news about the podcast, old episodes and more, visit our website. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Youtube - Twitch - Tik Tok Find all of our social media in one place at: https://linktr.ee/criminologypodcast Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 362 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 00 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Mr. Morford, how you doing, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 00 I'm doing pretty good. The kids are out of school now and they're home and it's a little bit different hearing kids laughing and screaming and fighting and stuff. So having to deal with that, but other than that, I'm good. How you doing?
1:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, pretty good. My wife is, is done teaching for the year as well. So she's home, you know, during the day and it is different just because, I mean, pretty much most of the year, I'm used to being here by myself. The kids are off at college. My wife's at work. I'm working, but I'm, I'm at home with the dogs. And so it's nice to have her home. It's just nice to have somebody to talk to during the day.
1:26 Speaker 00 It's a little different when you're used to being alone and in a studio and recording and nobody's around.
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2:10 Speaker 01 All right, well, we're diving right into this episode. And this week, we're talking about someone who's a serial killer, but one who's different than most of the serial offenders we've covered in the past. This person didn't stalk women, target young couples, break into houses, carry kill kits, or even prowl around at night, looking for his next unsuspecting victim. He targeted mostly restaurants and committed what could almost be classified as spree killings, the murders of at least two people in multiple locations. But for a spree killing, it all has to take place in one incident.
2:50 Speaker 01 Even if the killer moves through space during the murders, a serial killer is one that kills at least three people in separate incidents. There's also no time limit. Unlike with a spree killer, the cooling off period is what really differentiates the two kinds of suspects. A serial killer may have fewer victims, but there are specific and separate incidents to point to. A spree killer may kill more people, but it will happen much closer together. We're talking about the man who'd become known as the Fast Food Killer, Paul Dennis Reed, Jr. And before Reed was finally taken off the streets, he would claim seven lives.
3:33 Speaker 01 But as you'll hear, police think that number may be a lot higher.
3:38 Speaker 00 Early in the morning on February 16th, 1997, two employees were inside the Captain E's Restaurant in the Donaldson neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, preparing for the day. It was just 16-year-old Sarah Jackson and 25-year-old Steve Hampton, the restaurant's manager, inside that morning. It was a normal start to their workday. A bit before they were set to open, a man knocked at the door. This must have been around 8:50 a.m. because a woman on her way to church saw Steve Hampton in the doorway, talking to another man who was holding a piece of paper.
4:12 Speaker 01 The man told Steve, the manager, that he was looking to apply for a job there. So Steve let him in. Suddenly, the man pulled out a gun and told both Steve and Sarah to get into the walk-in cooler. Once in the cooler, he ordered them to lie facedown. They both likely believed that they would have to stay that way while the man robbed the store, but he shot them both. Sarah was shot once in the back and four times in the back of the head. It was clear that the fatal wounds did not come first. Sarah tried to get up after she was shot, probably in the back. There was blood on her gloves and one of them left a patterned imprint on a shelf
4:55 Speaker 01 where she tried to stabilize herself. Steve was shot once in the back and twice in the back of the head. The man stole what he could from the cash register before he left the restaurant. Steve's wallet, which had $600 in it, was also taken. Steve's money, worth about $1,100 today, was his rent money for the month.
5:18 Speaker 00 At around 9:30 a.m., a man was seen walking away from Captain D's. He got into the passenger seat of a blue Ford station wagon with damage to the left front. The passerby took note of this because the car was parked oddly, facing the opposite direction of the drive-through areas. The man was wearing white tennis shoes that were obviously pretty old and worn even from afar. Between 9:45 and 10 a.m., Captain D's employee, Michael Butterworth, showed up but couldn't get in. The door was locked. He went to a nearby restaurant and called Captain D's, but he only got a busy signal. He knew something was wrong, so he called a coworker who had a police officer for her father. That officer showed up, and so did the assistant manager, who unlocked the door.
6:02 Speaker 00 Between 11 a.m. and noon, the bodies of Steve Hampton and Sarah Jackson were discovered in the walk-in cooler. Investigators believe they were killed with a .32 caliber revolver.
6:13 Speaker 01 With no living witnesses, it might seem odd that we know how the man got into the restaurant that morning, but employees had a hunch that they shared with investigators and the detectives agree it's the likely scenario, which is that the killer had been there the night before the murders. Just minutes before closing, a man wearing a Shoney's uniform entered the restaurant through the exit door and said he wanted to apply for a job. He was given an application and told to come back the next day when the manager, Steve Hampton, would be in. If Steve had been told he was probably going to get a visit from this man, he would probably unlock the door for him. Even if he hadn't, the man could have held
6:57 Speaker 01 up his application and Steve would have understood that he had an applicant. This application was likely the piece of paper that the witness had seen in the man's hand. Steve, if he was expecting, you know, this guy to be a possible new hire, might have thought that the man seemed pretty eager and motivated too. He came by one night, showed up the next morning, application filled out and ready for an interview. It's probably easier to take care of hiring stuff when you're not also trying to tend to customers and manage an open restaurant.
7:36 Speaker 00 The man's plea worked out perfectly for him. People in the area, whether they were fast food employees or not, were shocked by the murders. The suspect made off with a rather large but undisclosed amount of money by today's standards, but was that really worth two young, promising lives? Steve Hampton was married and had three young children. Sarah wasn't even out of high school yet. It's unlikely that either of them fought back against her attacker, so why not rob the place and leave them alive? Had they both lived, it would have been a traumatic event, but one they could have recovered from. But to murder them when they didn't resist, did that mean that one of the workers knew the killer? Or did the shooter just want to ensure he couldn't be identified later?
8:18 Speaker 00 Or ultimately, was murder part of the plan all alone? Police had to consider all these possibilities. Shoney's Incorporated, who owned Captain D's, put up a reward of $6,000 in the weeks following the murder, and lots of tips came in, but it didn't lead to a suspect.
8:34 Speaker 01 And we said more if this was shocking. I mean, you know, let's face it, all murders are pretty shocking, but you know, here we have People at work, one of them still in high school. And it always goes through my mind, when you have a situation like this where there's a robbery, why does the robber, when they're pretty much getting away with what you think they would want, end up killing the people there? Now, like you said, it could have been because, let's say, the person wasn't wearing a mask, they didn't want to be identified, that's always a possibility. But it could have been that murder was part of the plan.
9:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, employees in most fast food restaurants in these situations are trained to cooperate if they're ever robbed and not put up a fight, just give them what they want and get them out of there as fast as possible. And that's what it seems Steve and Sarah did, but yet they were murdered in cold blood. So I think this clearly to police told them they were dealing with a very dangerous person.
9:41 Speaker 01 Life in that area of Nashville went on as normal. Fast food places didn't close. No extra safety measures were put into place at other establishments. The Captain D's murders were unfortunate, but at the time seemed like an isolated incident, just a robbery gone wrong for whatever reason. So on March 23rd, 1997, the employees at the McDonald's in the Hermitage area, just outside of downtown Nashville, likely didn't sense that there was anything different or dangerous about that night. This location was more than three miles away from the Captain D's double murder and robbery.
10:21 Speaker 01 Since fast food places are often targeted after dark at closing, most of them choose to have several employees working at closing. The idea being that there is safety in numbers. And on this night, there were four people closing the restaurant, including 17-year-old Andrea Brown, 27-year-old Ronald Santiago, 23-year-old Robert Sewell, and 31-year-old Jose Antonio Ramirez Gonzalez.
10:53 Speaker 00 Just as the four employees were leaving the building, a man approached them with a gun. He then ordered all four of them back inside. With a gun pointed at them, they didn't think twice or try to resist. The employees were forced into the office in the back of the restaurant. The man ordered the employees over to the safe. Ronald, the manager, opened the safe for the man and gave him all the cash that was inside, nearly $3,000. After that, the man herded them into the storeroom and told them all to lie down on the floor. Without warning, Andrea, Robert, and Ronald were all shot in the back of the head, twice. Jose was looking right at the man when he pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger.
11:34 Speaker 00 Jose must have thought that his life was about to end, but nothing happened, just a loud click. The man tried multiple times to fire the gun, but again, nothing happened. Jose decided to take his chances, and he lunged at the man grabbing for the gun. During the struggle, he felt something hit his left side. He immediately recognized that he'd been stabbed. The killer was not only armed with a gun, he had brought a knife as a backup. And he didn't stop at one stab either. He kept stabbing Jose in the back, chest, face, and the back of his head and neck, 17 times in total.
12:08 Speaker 01 Eventually, Jose stopped reacting to the blows, trying to play dead. He knew that his life depended on it. Luckily, it worked. The man turned his attention away from Jose and fled the McDonald's. As soon as Jose knew he was alone, he crawled to a phone and called 911, but he couldn't say anything. Dispatcher Dorothy Carter sent both police and an ambulance to the location. When help arrived, the door was locked. Officers had to break one of the front windows out to get inside. Jose was still conscious but in bad shape and was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, he would survive. Andrea Brown was still alive, though badly injured.
12:51 Speaker 01 Sadly, it was too late to save her, and she died at the hospital. Investigators combed the restaurant, but there was no physical evidence at the scene that could point to the suspect's identity. No footprints or fingerprints. Investigators were able to recover multiple Remington 25 caliber casings from the scene that matched the rounds pulled from the bodies of the victims.
13:16 Speaker 00 Detectives believe that the McDonald's attack and the Captain D's attack a month before were committed by the same person. If they were correct, you would think with this big of a score, $3,000, which is the equivalent of $6,000 today, and with fast food employees and police in the area, perhaps on high alert after two sets of robbery murders within five weeks of each other, that the killer might lay low for a bit and maybe spend some of the money he had netted, or move on to a different area. But that didn't happen. On April 23rd, 1997, exactly one month after the murders at the McDonald's, a man showed up at the Baskin Robbins on Wilmer Rudolph Boulevard in Clarksville, Tennessee after closing.
14:00 Speaker 00 This was about 40 miles east of Nashville. The two employees inside, 21-year-old Angela Holmes and 16-year-old Michelle Mace, let the man inside for some reason which isn't clear. Maybe he showed them his gun and they were afraid, or he could have charmed his way inside somehow. We really don't know. But we do know that once inside, the man quickly forced the pair into his car.
14:23 Speaker 01 Their abduction was noticed soon after it happened. The store closed each night at 10:00 PM, so as usual, Michelle's brother Craig pulled up outside to pick her up and take her home. Angela's car was still parked in the lot, and all the lights inside the store were still on. Both of these things were unusual. The door was also unlocked. So Craig entered the store to check on Michelle. There was no one inside. The freezer was wide open, and both Michelle and Angela's purses were still there. Craig immediately called 911, and officers arrived at the store in a matter of moments. Once they searched the store, they found that a floor safe in the back office had
15:08 Speaker 01 been pulled out of the floor, and the cash register was empty. Only a few coins had been left behind. It was later determined that about $1,500 was missing. Nothing had been stolen from either of the girls' purses.
15:24 Speaker 00 To investigators, it appeared that Angela and Michelle had been interrupted during their closing routine because the mop and bucket were still out in the customer area. Lavanda Zimmerman, a friend of theirs, was at the store with them from about 9:20 PM that night until around 10:00 when they began to close up. She recalled a man coming in just before closing and complaining about how much the ice cream options cost. According to court documents, Lavanda said the man was obnoxious and very loud with his complaints. He left a bit before Lavanda did. As Lavanda was leaving, she saw a red car, which she described as shiny, pull into the parking lot. Another witness, Jerry Perdue, who was one of Michelle Mace's friends, recalled seeing
16:07 Speaker 00 a red car in the parking lot just after 10:00 PM. And a third witness, a man named George Hertenstein, was driving to work when he saw a small red car driving slowly on Rossview Road near the Baskin Robbins store. It was around 10:00 PM. When George caught up to the car, he tried to pass it because of how slowly it was going. The driver of the red car quickly turned on Union Hall Road, just one road after the entrance to Baskin Robbins.
16:33 Speaker 01 The next morning, the bodies of Angela Holmes and Michelle Mace were discovered at Dunbar Cave State Park, about three miles away from the Baskin Robbins location. They had stab wounds and injuries to multiple areas of their bodies, and both of their throats had been slit. Both had bled to death from their injuries. Based on the position of their bodies in the park, it appears their killer marched them down to the edge of the water. At gunpoint, Michelle took her chances and ran through the woods in the dark. Angela was quickly killed, and then the suspect chased Michelle down and left her body where he caught up to her. The stab wound in Angela's neck was deep.
17:17 Speaker 01 It went all the way to her backbone, according to Dr. Charles Harland, who performed both autopsies.
17:25 Speaker 01 It severed her jugular vein and her carotid artery. A compound wound to Michelle penetrated her backbone, changed direction three times and indicated that the killer had used a sawing motion with the knife. In Dr. Harland's opinion, it would have taken up to 15 minutes for both Angela and Michelle to die from the blood loss. He also noted that they would likely have remained conscious for up to 80% of that time.
17:56 Speaker 00 A red car had been seen at the park the night before at around 10:30 PM. There's a house across from the entrance to the parking lot of the Dunbar Cave State Park. And that night, people at the home recalled seeing the red car because it wasn't parked in a lot. It was just sitting there, not in any space. The headlights were also on, so they knew someone was in the car. Naturally, they watched a little bit to see if they could figure out what the person was doing. All they noticed was that at one point, the headlights changed from low to high beam. Since several witnesses had seen a red car at the Baskin Robbins and at the park, police thought the car certainly was a suspect vehicle. They then wondered if this attack was the work of the same man who had struck at Captain D's and McDonald's.
18:41 Speaker 00 If so, this was a departure for him. He had now resorted to abduction. They were now more determined than ever to catch this killer before he struck again.
18:50 Speaker 01 I think more of if you're a fast food worker in this area, by this point in time, you have to be pretty worried. I mean, this is three different incidents where people are murdered at fast food restaurants.
19:06 Speaker 00 Yeah, you would hope that your employer would beef up security, make sure they have a good security system in place, maybe surveillance cameras going. And you would think the police are probably doubling patrols and keeping eyes out around fast food restaurants at that time. Just seeing this pattern that was going on.
19:29 Speaker 01 On June 1st, 1997, authorities got a break. At the Chatham County home of Shoney's manager, Mitchell Roberts, about 25 miles away from Nashville, a former employee named Paul Reed Jr. showed up unexpectedly between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. The 39-year-old Reed had been fired in February after he threw a plate that hit one of his female coworkers in the chest. When he showed up to his former manager's home, he was driving a small red car. Reed asked about how to get rehired at Shoney's, but Roberts told him that he couldn't help him. According to court documents, Reed then told him that he wanted to show him something in his car.
20:14 Speaker 01 It was a small gun and a large knife, about eight or nine inches long. When Mitchell Roberts saw the weapons and the red car, he knew in that moment that Paul Reed was the fast food killer.
20:28 Speaker 00 Roberts tried to play it cool and not let Reed know that he was on to him. He told Reed that it was too late on a Sunday to talk about it, so he should come to the Shoney's the next morning. But Paul Reed pointed a gun at him and handed him a pair of handcuffs, ordering him to put them on. He claimed there were two people watching him that would shoot him if he didn't comply. Roberts knew that if he put the handcuffs on, Reed would lock him in the car, kill his family, and then take him to Shoney's to rob it.
20:55 Speaker 01 Roberts slowly but surely walked back to his front door. Reed told him that if he couldn't have his job back, he wanted money. As he pretended to open the door, Roberts swung around and punched Reed. He then ran inside and held the door shut. According to ANETV, trying to think quickly, he shouted loudly, "Hand me the gun", even though he didn't have one. Hearing this, Reed fled the scene, and immediately Mitchell Roberts called the police. While officers were at the home taking a statement from Roberts, Paul Reed called on the phone to apologize. Roberts took the opportunity to act
21:37 Speaker 01 and told Reed to come back to his house to talk about things, and they would straighten them out. Paul Reed took the bait, and when he arrived, he was arrested by police without incident. And man, Morf, you know, you really have to think about the actions of Mitchell Roberts. I mean, You know, he did some pretty smart stuff here. I mean, I think number one, he knew that if he didn't act and Paul Reed was the fast food killer, as he thought at that point he was, that he was going to die. His family was probably going to die, so he took action.
22:17 Speaker 01 But then, you know, when he gets behind the door, he has the, the presence of mind to yell, "Hand me a gun." He doesn't have a gun, there's not going to be one to be handed to him. But Paul Reed, on the other side of the door, doesn't know that and gets scared off. But what really shocks me is that Reed calls back to apologize. And then when Mitchell says, "Hey, just come by, we'll work it out." Paul's like, "Okay." It just seems so strange, the actions that, that Paul Reed took, based on, you know, him being thought to be this killer with no conscience.
23:01 Speaker 01 But yet he calls back to apologize.
23:04 Speaker 00 Yeah, it seems like it definitely clashes with the, the fast food killer who's been able to commit these brazen murder robberies and get away without leaving much in the way of clues. And I think it's pretty brave and heroic of Mitchell Roberts to make up his mind in that instance that, "Hey, if I don't fight back, or try and get away from him, I know I'm going to be a victim and my family is going to be victims." And he had to know too, if he was right about Reed being this killer, he knew what he was capable of, yet he still stood up to him and, and took his chances. And it wound up, wound up working out. Investigators now had to prove that Paul Dennis Reed Jr. was their fast food killer.
23:48 Speaker 00 They quickly learned that all the evidence collected pointed to him. When authorities searched his home, Reed had over $1,000 in coins spread between four one gallon jugs. Each had different denominations of coins. One jug for pennies, one for nickels, one for dimes, and another for quarters. Some of the contents of Steve Hampton's wallet, including his driver's license and a video rental card, were found on the center divider of Ellington Parkway in East Nashville, about one mile away from Reed's home. Prints recovered from the two cards matched Paul Reed.
24:23 Speaker 01 Though the Baskin Robbins in Clarksville was about 40 miles away from Reed's home, he used a credit card to purchase gas at a Texaco station less than one mile from the Baskin Robbins on the night that Michelle and Angela were abducted and killed. The receipt was still in his wallet when investigators searched his belongings. The car that Reed drove was consistent with the vehicle described by witnesses in the areas of the crime scene. He also still had their blood on his shoes. Drops of Angela's blood were on his left shoe and drops of blood containing a DNA mixture that could not be ruled out as belonging to either Angela or Michelle were on his
25:07 Speaker 01 right.
25:09 Speaker 00 Fibers found on Angela and Michelle's clothing were consistent with fibers from Reed's car. Linda Littlejohn, a fiber comparison specialist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, later described to the court just how important this finding was, explaining that it was a very rare case that you find 11 fibers that match one source, adding to the confirmation that this was their killer and this was the car he used to transport Angela and Michelle to Dunbar Cave State Park. The fibers that matched were not even original to his car. The fibers from the back floor mats were not standard issue for his Ford Escort. They were purchased by Paul Reed at a Walmart on March 25th, 1997.
25:51 Speaker 00 It makes you wonder if his original floor mats had been stained by blood from the murders at the McDonald's since he bought them just two days later. Jose, the sole survivor of Paul Reed's killing spree, identified him in a photo lineup as the killer, which was perhaps most damning of all.
26:07 Speaker 01 And I talked more about, you know, some of his actions, Paul Reed's actions.
26:13 Speaker 01 The night that, you know, he interacted with Mitchell Roberts, some of them were strange, but then you find out that, you know, he uses a credit card to get gas at a gas station very close to the Baskin Robbins. I mean, it seems like we're not talking about a criminal mastermind here. This guy did things that just didn't seem to make sense. Or at the very least, would easily lead the authorities to connect him with some of these crimes.
26:51 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think to your point, not being a criminal mastermind, he was probably lucky more than anything because he did leave a surviving witness. And he had been seen by witnesses talking at one of the scenes with a paper in his hand. And his car was spotted multiple times. So all that stuff together, it still took them a while to, to get Paul Reed in custody. So he was able to escape all those things, which shows that he had some, some luck on his side.
27:24 Speaker 01 But although detectives had a lot to work with, they didn't have everything. When investigators searched Reed's home, they didn't find any shoes that matched the bloody shoe prints left at Captain D's. But they did find a photo of Reed from the year before the murders, wearing white tennis shoes that appeared to be a match. Another lingering question was, what about the blue car? Seen outside of Captain D's, Reed owned a red car. Insurance records show that Reed drove a blue Ford station wagon that was damaged on the left side in an accident. Witnesses confirmed that the car they described was the same as the car in the photos from the insurance company.
28:09 Speaker 01 Shortly after the Captain D's murders, he put a down payment on a new car, using a large amount of cash made up of small bills and change.
28:20 Speaker 00 Paul Reed maintained his innocence despite the forensic evidence linking him to the crimes. According to court documents, he told detectives, "I am not the triggerman." According to ANETV, when he was left alone in the interrogation room, he muttered to himself, "This is crazy. I mean, why would they do this to Paul Reed?" Investigators didn't believe that these ramblings were genuine. Instead, they thought he was trying to come up with an insanity defense. Reed would stand trial for his alleged crimes three separate times. He wanted the cases to be tried at the same time, but this wasn't allowed for multiple reasons. The first reason was that they were not part of the same plan or incident. Some of them involved shootings, while other murders involved a knife,
29:05 Speaker 00 and only two of the victims were moved to a second location. If the circumstances had been identical, it may have been allowed. But the cases were all capital cases, which can be even more complicated and go on for longer than other criminal cases, even involving murder. And it was believed that the jurors would be able to focus better on a single case at a time, rather than trying to make sense of multiple timelines and multiple crimes in different counties.
29:30 Speaker 01 And I always like it when they have interrogation room video, especially video after like the detectives leave the room. Right? The suspect is in there by themselves. It's always interesting to hear what, you know, the person says. And especially fascinating when that person starts talking about themselves in the third person. Why would they do this to Paul Reed?
30:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's definitely an odd tidbit here of information. And, you know, you have to assume that he would know that, that that room is monitored. So it begs the question, was he doing as the police thought he was doing of making it look like he was going to plead some kind of insanity for, for the crimes?
30:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think most people know that those rooms are monitored for video and sound. I was watching a crime show the other day and they left a suspect in there by himself. And as soon as they left, he stood up and just started hitting his head on the table to the point where he knocked himself out. Don't know why, but I'm always fascinated. Potential jurors had to be brought in from neighboring counties to avoid any bias caused by existing news coverage of the crimes. For the Captain D's murders, Reed was charged with two counts
31:07 Speaker 01 of first degree murder and one count of especially aggravated robbery. For the McDonald's murders, he was charged with three counts of premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of especially aggravated robbery. And for the Baskin Robbins murders, Reed was charged with two counts of premeditated first degree murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, and one count of especially aggravated robbery.
31:39 Speaker 00 Many of the victims' parents couldn't bring themselves to attend the court proceedings. Andrea Brown's father left her room untouched and kept her car, which had been purchased the day before she was killed. Steve Hampton's oldest son associated his birthday with his father's death because they had just celebrated it the night before the murders. Sarah Jackson's parents blamed themselves for letting her work part-time. She was killed just three weeks before her 17th birthday. Angela's mother expressed that she would never take another family photograph because they would never depict the entire family ever again. Based on all of this, there's no doubt that these murders devastated the victims' families.
32:20 Speaker 01 It appears that Paul Reed was planning these murders for a while before actually committing them, according to court documents in January, just one month before the murders at Captain D's, Reed told fellow Shoney's worker Danny Tackett that it would be easy money to rob a fast food place in the middle of the night, specifically noting that at that time, there would be no witnesses. Jeffrey Potter, another Shoney's employee, would back this up, recalling that Reed was always talking about making easy money and that he hated his job. Potter and Tackett both admitted that Reed had asked them for help buying a gun. This was also just before he got fired from his job.
33:05 Speaker 00 Reed ended up purchasing two different 25 caliber handguns from a man named Robert Boland, just one month before the first murders. Boland also threw in a green and yellow box of ammunition. Agent Tommy Heflin of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations would later confirm that Remington ammo, like the casings found on the floor at McDonald's and the bullets recovered from the victims' bodies, was sold in green and yellow packaging. Boland also recalled that Reed wanted a 25 caliber gun because he already had a 32 caliber revolver, but that he quote, "didn't like the way it shot." Reed was also looking for something that held more bullets. It was also evident that after the murders, Reed appeared to have
33:46 Speaker 00 more cash than he should have, despite being unemployed at the time. In late April, Reed chipped in for half of the airfare from Texas to Nashville for Linda Patton, one of his friends. He also paid for her hotel, for food, and for all the things they did together while in Nashville. He also told one acquaintance he wanted to invest $3,000.
34:08 Speaker 01 All of the evidence and witness testimony was enough to convince a jury of Paul Reed Jr.'s guilt. He was found guilty and handed two death sentences on April 20th, 1999. Five more would quickly follow for the other charges. Even today, this is the highest number of death sentences given to a single person in the history of the state of Tennessee. Reed was sent to Tennessee's Morgan County Correctional Complex to await execution.
34:39 Speaker 00 Paul Reed Jr.'s appeal regarding his conviction of the murders of Angela Bowman and Michelle Mace was denied. Along with a few other issues, he claimed that he never should have been found competent to stand trial. There had been a multi-day competency hearing just eight days before his trial. Opinions on his mental status were mixed. As we're about to discuss, there's some really glaring and troubling things in Reed's past that could have been a warning sign of things to come. Reed experienced some instability growing up and had difficulty in school. He was born with a deformed ear and experienced hearing loss as a result. For many years, he and his sister were raised by their maternal grandmother. When he was seven, Reed finally entered school for the first time.
35:23 Speaker 00 At a young age, he got in trouble for stealing mail and abusing animals. He was also mean to other children and didn't make many friends.
35:31 Speaker 01 When he was 16, Reed was kicked out of his mother's home after he tried to sexually assault her, as well as his sisters. He was arrested in Texas multiple times. He was arrested as a minor for simple assault and car theft. He was arrested for writing bad checks, but paid the balance and the charges were dropped. In 1982, he committed a string of armed robberies, but was found incompetent to stand trial. He was committed to a psychiatric institution, but obviously not for long. In 1984, he was convicted of robbing a steakhouse in Houston. He was paroled early in 1990 after serving only five years of his 20-year sentence.
36:15 Speaker 01 While in prison in Texas, he apparently expressed remorse for leaving witnesses to his crimes because he was only caught when a customer in a restaurant he robbed followed him and wrote down his license plate number. After being paroled, Paul Reed moved between Texas and Oklahoma, eventually moving to Nashville, Tennessee. In hopes of becoming a country music star, he went by the stage name Justin Parks, made demo tapes and got headshots taken. His dream didn't pan out and he ended up working as a cook and dishwasher at a Shoney's until he was fired on February 15th, 1997,
36:58 Speaker 01 just one day before the Captain D's murders. It seems that Reed stopped by Captain D's after he was fired. And after sleeping on it, he decided he didn't need to apply for a job there. Instead, he just stole all of the money in the store and killed the workers inside. So Morph, as we talk about, you know, Paul Reed's younger years, you know, the years before he began killing. As you said, there are some very glaring signs here. You know, the abuse of animals. He tried to sexually assault his mother and his sisters.
37:38 Speaker 01 And as often comes up in many cases, especially cases from, you know, 40, 50 years ago, people are caught. They're tried, they're convicted and they're sentenced. But they don't do or didn't do very much of what that sentence was. Right? He got a 20 year sentence for robbery and he served only five years. But what I thought was really telling, and you see this in some cases, that when people are caught and they realize that the only reason they were caught was because they left behind witnesses.
38:24 Speaker 01 That's the only remorse he had. It wasn't for what he did. It was for the fact that he left behind a witness and he got caught. So later on, when he decides that he's going to commit crimes, he's not going to leave any witnesses, or he's going to try not to, because he's already been down that road and it got him caught.
38:47 Speaker 00 Yeah, my heart really goes out to the families of these victims because having that kind of record, which he had, it's easy to wonder why he wasn't still in prison for some of that stuff and out on the street to commit these crimes. So, you know, I wonder if these families sort of blame the system, which you probably have a right to, that he was out on the street to commit these murders and take their loved ones from them.
39:15 Speaker 01 I think it would be hard for a family not to, right? Once they learn about some of the things in the perpetrator's past, it would be hard not to think, oh, if he would only still have been in prison. You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight Loss by Hersch offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight in 64 weeks in a clinical trial of Wegovy alongside diet and exercise. To
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40:46 Speaker 00 A deeper look into Reed's past revealed even more troubling things. He apparently believed that he had been under surveillance by the government for 20 years, going back to the year 1978. That same year, he was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. Reed described mixed feelings about the surveillance. Sometimes it scared him, and he felt paranoid, and other times he felt pride and loyalty for being part of this program. He told one doctor that he had been given doses of radiation, which created a magnetic field that allowed his body to show up on a screen at the CIA headquarters, a technique that he said had been developed by the Soviet Union.
41:24 Speaker 01 While many believed that Reed was trying to get away with the murders by claiming fake psychiatric issues, according to court documents, Dr. Xavier Amador, a clinical psychologist, believed he was faking his moments of apparent sanity and was mostly unaware that he was even sick, something called Anna Sognosia. Dr. Amador noted that Reed wants people to believe he is normal, which is kind of the opposite of trying to feign insanity. Those same court documents reflect that another clinical psychologist, Dr. Pamela Obley, described Reed's left temporal lobe as shrunken and distorted.
42:08 Speaker 01 After significant head injuries in 1962, 1971, 1972, and 1990. It's unclear when each incident happened, but he was said to have been hit by a car while he was riding his bicycle, fallen off of a minibike, been hit in the back of the head with a brick, and also involved in a car wreck. Dr. Obley noted that Reed's delusions had been around for a long time. They didn't pop up as an act when he was arrested. Dr. Obley did not believe he was competent, stating that his delusions also interfere in his ability to assist in his own defense.
42:50 Speaker 01 Neurologist Dr. Robert Kessler confirmed that brain scans showed several abnormalities, which included evidence of traumatic injury. Dr. Amador noted that Reed suffered from chronic schizophrenia of the paranoid type, a cognitive disorder not otherwise specified, documented brain damage and mental illness associated with brain dysfunction.
43:16 Speaker 00 While most of the medical experts backed each other's findings up, not all of the experts were convinced. Forensic psychiatrist Dr. William Burnett disagreed with the other professionals. In his opinion, Paul Reed was faking it. He had just been faking it for a long time. He noted a pattern of malingering and was very clear that he couldn't identify any relationship between the defendant's brain injury and the events that led to his arrest and these killings. There was also evidence that Reed had bragged about how he fooled the shrinks in Texas sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, and they had been diagnosed as malingering in some of those Texas cases.
43:56 Speaker 01 And it doesn't surprise me at all, Morf, that you have mental health professionals who disagree on Paul Reed. You see that in a lot of cases. The one thing I will say is that it seems like this man had a number of serious head injuries. And we know from all the cases that we've done that traumatic brain injuries can have serious effects on people.
44:25 Speaker 00 Well, when you have the history of animal abuse and things like that, coupled with head injuries that we see in a lot of offenders, it's not surprising to me that this was the outcome here for Paul Reed.
44:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, unfortunately, that is something that we've seen in the, the past of a lot of serial killers. In the end, Reed ended up being found competent for trial because regardless of the delusions he experienced, or any brain damage he had suffered, he did understand what the charges he faced meant, and indicated that he would cooperate with his attorneys in his own defense. He did know right from wrong, but it was ultimately some of his own decisions that may have wound up working against him. He refused to waive certain privileges, making it impossible for important witnesses to testify on his behalf. Reverend
45:22 Speaker 01 Joe Engel would have testified that Reed was the most mentally ill prisoner he had ever counseled. But Reed wouldn't waive the priest parishioner privilege. A social worker, Mary Ann Hia, who was employed by the Davidson County Public Defender's Office, could have also backed up some of Reed's claims. But he refused to waive attorney client privilege. Defense investigator Ron Lacks interviewed Reed multiple times regarding the McDonald's murders, and as such, would have been subject to be questioned about that crime if he were cross-examined. So he was not called as a witness.
46:04 Speaker 00 Some people believe that Reed didn't seem to understand that he was facing a death sentence. He discussed at times his plans for after the trial and when he got out of prison, like becoming an attorney. Most of his questions for his lawyers and doctors during the trial were focused on what food he would get to eat, not legal defenses or anything about the case. He actually, at one point, refused to discuss the case with his attorney. However, he also complained about the poor performance of his representation, saying that the poor defense was quote unquote, "killing him," which would tend to show that he understood exactly what he was facing if he was found guilty.
46:42 Speaker 01 The prosecution refuted any role that mental health issues could have played in these murders, telling the jury, "This is not some crazy offense. This is standard greed. He'd rather kill and rob than work." He didn't kill Angela and Michelle because he was paranoid or delusional. He killed them simply because he wanted money. Most of the professionals did agree that his issues, whether it be a disorder, delusion, or brain damage, did not cause him to commit any of these crimes, and didn't mean that he wasn't capable of the charges against him either. Reed's sister, Linda Martiniano, was a staunch
47:25 Speaker 01 advocate for her brother, and firm believer that he was incompetent to stand trial. Eventually, Reed dropped all appeal efforts, and appeared to actually want to be executed. One opinion piece from the National Coalition to abolish the death penalty noted that Reed was operating under a psychotic belief, that he is being tortured by scientific technology, and that the only way to escape the torture is to succumb to execution. According to democracyinaction.org, Reed said, "If I'm going to wake up tomorrow in prison, then I don't want to live." He also said, "I haven't had a life since 1985."
48:09 Speaker 00 So after dropping all of his appeals, it seemed as if Reed was content to live in prison, counting down the days until his execution. Police continued to look at other crimes, trying to connect them to Paul Reed Jr., and authorities wondered whether the murders of Captain D's were really his first. Looking through unsolved cases that Reed could be responsible for, there was one that jumped out at them. In 1993, the Browns Chicken and Pasta in Palatine, Illinois had been robbed by two people who killed seven employees there. If Reed was involved, he had a partner who could have still been roaming around free. But it turned out that Reed had an alibi for the Browns Chicken massacre. No matter
48:51 Speaker 00 how hard investigators tried to get the alibi to fall through, it never did. It couldn't have been him. Just showing us again how truly dangerous it is to work in the fast food establishments. There wasn't just one guy in one area killing fast food employees. It was happening in different places. There was no real movement in that case until 2002, when a suspect was implicated by his ex-girlfriend. The death penalty was on the table for both suspects, but the jury wasn't unanimous, leading to a sentence of life in prison. Both perpetrators are still behind bars.
49:23 Speaker 01 There is at least one other crime that authorities still think Reed is responsible for, even though there's no forensic evidence. That can conclusively link him to the scene. On January 20th, 1997, the opening manager at a Nashville Shoney's on Dickerson Road, found the night shift manager, 53-year-old Charles Thot Jr., dead in the back office. He'd been stabbed 52 times. There were no tapes in the surveillance system, so the murder was not recorded. The killer fled in Thot's car. It was recovered from a parking lot just a few blocks up the street. A security camera was pointing directly at the spot where the car was parked.
50:05 Speaker 01 Unfortunately, that camera system was either broken or had been turned off at the time. This murder would have been the first in the series committed by Reed if he was responsible, and if the surveillance cameras had been operational. Perhaps he could have been stopped and his other victims would be alive. No footprints or fingerprints were found at the scene of that Shoney's, and the murder of Charles Thot still technically remains unsolved.
50:34 Speaker 00 There's another crime that investigators believe Paul Reed committed and never got caught for. And if it's true, an innocent man died in prison due to Paul Reed's actions. On July 14th, 1980, a man walked into the Fairlanes Windfern Bowling Center on Route 290 in Houston, just after closing time. He had knocked and said he was having trouble with his car, and that he just needed some water and he would be on his way. Then, the four people still inside, the manager, two employees, and one of their girlfriends, were ordered to lie on the floor. They did as instructed, making a semicircle with the positions of their bodies. The man made the manager open the cash register and then told him to lay back down. One by one, the employees were shot in the back of the head.
51:19 Speaker 00 Only one of them survived. Before fleeing, the man stole the wallets of the three men. The sole survivor managed to make his way to the phone and call his parents.
51:29 Speaker 01 At the time of these Houston murders, Paul Reed Jr. was living there. He got married in Houston just over one week later. Placing him in the area at the time, he would later divorce. One of Reed's friends, Stuart Cook, who was also his accomplice in multiple armed robberies in Texas in the 1980s, has provided some pretty compelling information that points to Reed as the suspect in the bowling alley murders. In 1982, Reed fired a shot during a robbery, which surprised his accomplice Stuart Cook. According to ACLU.org documents, when Cook confronted Reed, asking him why he fired,
52:11 Speaker 01 Reed explained that he had done much worse during a robbery he had committed before they had started working together, and mentioned having a problem while he was robbing a bowling alley out on Route 290. Specifically, he mentioned that he had shot four people.
52:28 Speaker 00 Eventually, a man named Max Sofar was arrested and charged for the bowling alley murders, and he quickly confessed to the crime. The problem was, almost none of the information he gave investigators matched the facts of the crime scene. He claimed he forced the victims to lie down in line, when in reality, they were in a semicircle. And just about every detail he told investigators that was true and accurate had already been reported in the newspapers. Sofar would later admit that he was lying, first to try to get the reward money in the case, and then later to try to get out of a different, although much less serious, charge. Still, a jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to death.
53:09 Speaker 00 Sofar died of complications from liver cancer at age 60, after spending 35 years on death row.
53:16 Speaker 01 If Paul Reed Jr. was really the bowling alley killer, and left Max Sofar to die in prison, paying for his crimes, then Reed took that secret to the grave. And like Max Sofar, he would die in prison, but not due to execution. Paul Dennis Reed died on November 1, 2013. The 55-year-old had been at Nashville General Hospital for two weeks, battling pneumonia and experiencing heart failure, among other health issues. The legacy he leaves behind is one of infamy and terror for the Nashville area. And if some of these other cases are connected to him, it may extend much further beyond the state
54:00 Speaker 01 of Tennessee. I think, Morphe, as we wrap this one up, the big problem with Paul Reed Jr., as it is with many killers, is that we may never truly know the level of his dark deeds. I mean, we know that he committed these murders in Tennessee, but we also know that he lived in Texas. He lived in Oklahoma. He committed crimes out there. It's pretty hard to believe that he probably didn't commit murders in some of those states as well.
54:38 Speaker 00 With this kind of lengthy rap sheet, you would think there's not going to be a lot of instances where there's big stretches where he's not committing robberies. So you have to wonder, are there ones that just were never connected to him?
54:52 Speaker 01 Well, there's no doubt. I mean, the murders he committed in Tennessee, you know, they were so senseless, as most murders are. But these in particular, and we kind of talked about it earlier on. It seems to me this was a guy in Paul Reed who was looking for fast, easy money. He'd been fired from his job. I don't think he really wanted to work that much anyway, but it seems to me that he could have gotten this money. He could have committed these robberies without killing all of these people.
55:29 Speaker 01 I go back to what he apparently expressed to someone early on, that he only got caught because he had left a witness alive. So it seems to me at a certain point, Morphe, he made the decision that when he was going to commit robberies, he wasn't going to leave anybody alive.
55:56 Speaker 01 Anyone who could identify him, anyone who could give police a description or you know, his license plate number, because that's what had gotten him caught before.
56:07 Speaker 00 And I go back to these robberies being obviously financial gain is a motive, but sort of as you mentioned, why kill these people? Why not just take the money and get out? Why not going with a ski mask maybe so you can't be identified and get out? And to me, it makes me think he wanted to kill people and the the financial gain was just a bonus in it. And that's really, really frightening.
56:37 Speaker 01 And I think you have to discuss Reed's mental state. You know, it came up big in his trial. They ultimately found him competent. I don't doubt that he had some mental issues, some mental health issues. You know, the number of head injuries, the different, you know, diagnoses that that he had from health professionals. Now, whether that meant he was competent or not to stand trial, that's not for me to say, but it does seem to me that there's little doubt that he had, he had some stuff going on.
57:16 Speaker 00 Yeah. And Mitchell Roberts, his ex-manager that he had the confrontation with at his house, to me is a hero in this story, because if he doesn't stop him at that moment and get the police involved and ultimately arrest Reed, he himself may have become a victim and Paul Reed may have gone on killing other people. So there may have been even more victims. I think he eventually would have been caught because there were a lot of clues, his car, damage on the car, he was seen in a Shoney's uniform. So I think, I think eventually enough was going in the favor of police. They would have got on to him, but the actions of Mitchell Roberts really sped things up for them arresting him.
58:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, you have to talk about Mitchell Roberts as being a hero, because I think ultimately he did save lives.
58:12 Speaker 01 I don't think Paul Reed Jr. Was a guy who was just going to stop on his own. He had to be stopped, or he was going to continue to rob and kill. But that's it for our episode on Paul Reed Jr. If you love the show, I haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, leave us a rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really helps us out.
58:39 Speaker 00 And remember to check out all of our social media, whatever platform you like interacting on. We also have a Facebook discussion group if you want to interact with other listeners. That's Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. And remember, check out our new website, criminologypodcast.com.
58:56 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike.
59:05 Speaker 00 And Morph.
59:06 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
59:07 Speaker 00 Take care of you.
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