← Murder, Mystery & Makeup
Murder, Mystery & Makeup
Failed Country Music Star Turned Fast Food Killer? - what was going on with Paul Dennis Reid??
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Bailey Sarian
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Listen, not many of us think of murder when we hear about fast food restaurants in the 90s. You know, I imagine, obviously, like, McDonald's, the play places and how stinky they were. And I mean, more than likely, when you think like fast food killer, you think like, the hamburger was the killer, you know? But no, okay, the hamburger was not the killer. Between February and April 1997, a newly fired fast food restaurant employee went on a rampage in Tennessee, robbing three different locations and murdering seven young and innocent employees who were just trying to fricking get a paycheck, you know? Now, you might not have heard of Paul Dennis Reed. Dennis Reed sounds like. Who was that guy? The BTK Killer. But it's not him. His name's Paul. Paul Reed. Paul wanted to be a country musician, okay? But instead, he went in the opposite direction, becoming a murderer and making a name for himself in American mass murder history, all in just 60 days. Okay, take a deep breath. This ride is wild. This guy had a. I don't know. I don't like him. Paul Dennis Reed Jr. Was born on November 12, 1957, in Richland Hills, which I guess is a suburb northeast of Fort Worth. Fort Worth, Texas. Okay. Texas people know at the time, the town had around 8,000 residents. It was transformed from a rural farmland to a residential residential suburb starting in the early 1940s. That's when World War II. Or it's around World War II, when weapon manufacturing plants were being built in Fort Worth. And this led to, like, a major boom in population. So Paul's born step one. Now, when he was born, he had a deformed ear, and because of this, he had hearing loss. Paul also had two older sisters. Their names were Linda and Janet. And they all lived together with their parents until Paul was about 3 years old. That's when Paul's father and mother divorced. I guess it was because Paul's father was abusive towards his wife. So she was like, I'm getting the fuck outta here. And good for her. But Paul and his sister Janet ended up living with their father, who was said to be abusive, right? And his grandma, Paul's grandma, now the other sister, her name was Linda. She ended up staying with their mother. So it was just Paul and Janet together with Grandma. You get it? Okay, great. I'm just going over it in my head so I remember now, Paul's father, a little sketchy guy. He was a private investigator who repossessed cars. It was said that he was an alcoholic and honestly wasn't around a lot of the time. So it left the grandma to raise Paul and his sister. It was said grandma didn't really know how to discipline the kids. So Paul was like getting into all sorts of trouble from an early age. I'm talking about real trouble, okay? He wasn't even five years old when he started stealing the neighbor's mail and clothes off of the clotheslines. He also. Little fucker put tax in his grandma's soup. Okay, Poor freaking grandma over here. Just try and have some soup. Paul put tacks in them. And then, listen. He barricaded his grandma in her room and then set fire to her bed while she was in it. She survived. I don't know how you could still love that child. I'm sorry, that might be mean, but I would be like, yeah, I'm leaving. You just try to kill me. But like, he wasn't getting disciplined for these actions. You're trying to set grandma on fire. And I. I don't know, like. Yeah, okay, well, he also took grandma's dog, and I'm so sorry, but he beat his grandma's dog to death with a baseball bat. So sad. So sad. Yeah, this kid's evil. Evil from the. The jump. It was said when Paul was five years old, he was hit in the head with a brick. Some say that it was an accident and the brick had fell on his head when he was playing at a construction site. Regardless of how it happened, the brick was one of the first severe head traumas Paul endured. Now, Paul wasn't sent to school until he was about 7 years old. So he got a little bit of a later start. His dad finally was like, okay, go to school. And when he finally got there, he had a really hard time adjusting to it. The school psychologist discovered that Paul had some kind of like, something, a brain dysfunction, like something was going on. Okay. And this could explain his impaired judgment and inappropriate behavior that he was showing in School at 8 years old. Paul was then sent to a Catholic school. It was like an all boys school in Houston, Texas, which later became a school for neglected Catholic kids. Now, at 14, Paul experienced another head injury. He was riding his mini bike and he got into an accident. He fractured his skull. And then he was in the hospital, like for some time. And it was like, woo, dodged a bullet with this one. But no, because then he was riding his bike on a different day. Different, whatever. A car hits into him and he flies off his bike, hits his head on the, on the windshield. And I don't even know what happened after that. Actually, he. I hope they got a lawsuit. But another traumatic head injury. This guy, his head is getting bugged up. Okay. At another point, it seems Paul's father, like, got really fed up with him with his behavior and everything that was going on. So he actually tried to put him up for adoption. Yeah. His own dad at 15, 14. So that's when Paul's mother was like, okay, I'll, you know, take him in. He's my son. So she takes him in to live with her and his other sister. But at 16 years old, Paul's mother kicked him out after he attempted to assault her. And also he tried to sexually assault his sister. So not great. It was said that Paul had attempted to do this with his other sister as well. Poor thing. So as you're probably gathering, this guy. Not great. Not off to a good start, huh? There's been a lot going on, huh? Yeah. And sometimes you just want a little escape. Something fun, relaxing, and maybe even a little titillating. Huh? And that's how I found Dipsy. Oh, yes, Dipsea. 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And by 18, he had a juvenile record, including auto theft, forging stick, forging sticks, forging checks, and assault in the early 1980s. Paul got married when he was in his early 20s. Now, I had some questions, but whatever. We don't know much about his wife. I think she probably just disappeared after everything came out. And I don't blame her. But what we do know is that Paul sister had warned this woman, like, do not marry him. Don't marry him. Of course, you know, when you're in Love is Blind, season seven, Love is Blind. So we tend to ignore any warning signals. Now he's married, but he's still acting like a damn fool. Okay? He got charged with aggravated robbery where he dodged prison because he was found to be incompetent to stand trial, meaning he wasn't sound of mind. Then again, while he was still married, he stole city equipment to start his own business. He ended up getting caught for this and arrested and was awaiting trial. So, you know, right before his actual trial, there was a bunch of hearings to see if Paul was competent. Like, you know, was he competent to stand trial. And Paul made sure to let them know that he was not sound of mind. He allegedly fell backwards in his chair. When he's in court, okay, in front of everybody, he falls backwards on his chair. He shot paper in the air with a rubber band. And then he made a little paper hat. Yeah, a paper hat. And then he put it on his lawyer's head. So he was behaving in a way that would make them think, like, hey, I don't think this guy is right now. The thing is, he did these things when the jury was present, but when they weren't in the room, he would act normal. And the judge caught onto this and was like, no, this dude's trying to, like, play us. So the prosecutor and the judge, they knew what he was doing. They're like, we're not falling for this, Paul. You know? And he ended up being convicted of aggravated robbery and would Go on to serve. Technically, he got a 20 year prison sentence. Great. But he only served seven years because he was released on parole. So it's a shame because I think maybe jail would have been good for him, knowing what's to come. I think it would have been best if he stayed there. So when he's locked up, that's when Paul's wife divorces him. So Paul goes to prison, and he spends some time there. And it was in Texas. He's serving prison. And I guess when he was in there, he started to get really paranoid. He started having delusions that he was being monitored by a secret government organization that he thought was controlling his mind. He called this organization scientific technology. Very vague, huh? So Paul Lehner wrote letters to the Texas governor and Washington Post claiming that he was under government surveillance going back to 1985. So people are thinking, something obviously isn't right with this guy. He finishes his prison sentence and he gets out. Now he's an adult and, you know, out of prison. Great. He can change his life if he wanted to. But of course not. In 1990, Paul, he got into another car accident and he again hit his head, but this time he got a concussion, and he even lost consciousness. So I know we try to play it tough when you get a concussion. We're like, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. But you have to take it seriously. Okay? You really do. And that's my TED Talk. Thank you. So Paul's erratic behavior also was getting worse as he was getting older. His father ended up passing away, and he attended his funeral. And this was like May of 1997. And to his father's funeral, Paul showed up wearing a lime green shirt, shorts, tennis shoes, which is fine. You know, that's. That's fine if that's what your family member wanted, you know? But to top it all off, he wore a Burger King crown on his head. And he kept calling himself King Paul. And he's like, you need to refer to me as King Paul. Obviously, the people who were there were like, why is he doing this? Like, this is this. What's he doing? What are you doing? Like, now is not the time for King Paul. But he refused to change. He was like, no, this is who I am. Live with it. I'm King Paul. I wear lime green. As if there wasn't enough going on with Paul, he also had a really bad temper. A short temper, maybe two is what I should say. But he was very impulsive and just a very angry man. I mean, there were a Lot of people who were afraid of him, like family members. In 1994, Paul somehow got a girlfriend. I don't. I don't know, but they were living together. She later said that, you know, living with him was like walking on eggshells. You never, never knew what you're gonna get. But that one night, he just went completely psycho on her. He picked up her cat and threw it across the room. And then, according to the girlfriend, Paul got so angry with her that he, like, threw her on the couch. He got on top of her and, like, was holding a pillow over her head, just smothering her with a pillow. And he didn't let go until, like, that last second where she was like, I'm gonna fucking die, you know? And then he let go. So scary. And this ended their relationship. Linda, his sister, was also afraid of him because he often, growing up, would just threaten to kill her, like, all the time. Plus, there were accusations of sexual assault. And then his other sister, Janet, later testified in court against him, saying that he also sexually assaulted her, but that he also threatened her with a knife. You know, trying to make sure she wouldn't say anything, I guess. But people didn't like being around Paul. So you know what Paul did? He's like, you know what? F you guys, I'm going to Nashville to become a country musician. Yeah, it's gonna work out for me. It's funny because I couldn't find anything in his upbringing about him, like, loving country music and playing the guitar and stuff like that, but, okay, maybe he's gonna learn. I support dreams and passions. So he gets to Nashville, and you know what? You want to be famous. That's great. But you still gotta, like, pay the bills. So he has to get a job, and he gets a job working as a dishwasher at Shoney's, which is an American diner. I've never been to Shoney's. Is it good? It's not the point of today's story, but I was like, what's Shoney's? So he gets this job working at Shoney's, and Paul, you know, he's friendly with the other employees, and I guess he had talked to two other employees about some ideas he had. So he tells these other employees, like, hey, like, what do you guys think about robbing a fast food restaurant at night? When there would be no witnesses? No, because his $100 a week salary was just not cutting it. So it's not clear what the other employees said, but it was definitely on Paul's mind. And he was like, I don't really need you guys to help me execute this. I'll just do it. So King Paul went and bought a.32 caliber revolver from the pawn shop. And then a few months later, he purchased a.25 caliber autom automatic handgun. Oh, no. He purchased two.25 caliber automatic handguns. And then the guy who was selling it to him was like, didn't you just buy a gun? Like, what? Like what? And Paul told the seller, like, yeah, I didn't like how the other one shot. Like, I. I just want these instead. But he still had all three guns. So in February of 1997, during his shift at Shoney's, Paul, I guess, lost his temper over something and threw a dish at a fellow employee, which led to Paul getting fired. Now, he was pissed. Not even pissed. He. He was raging, okay? And you know what? He was like, I'm gonna do something about it. He felt like he had the motivation and the weapons to set the stage for the crimes that he would become known for nationally. I mean, he goes full psycho after this. Now that Paul was fired from his job, he was running low on money. So he drove to Captain D's, which is a fast food restaurant in. It's like a chain of them in Tennessee. He gets there just before closing, and then he enters through the exit door. And when he does this, he finds, like some workers inside and asks them if they were hiring. They told him, like, bro, we're closing. Come by the next afternoon. And he's like, okay, bye. It just leaves. So the next morning, he comes back, even though they said afternoon, but he comes by the next morning. It's February 16th. He shows up before Captain D is even open. So it's around 8:50am so he gets there, he's banging on the door because he knows people are inside. And the manager of this Captain D, he comes out and his name's Steve Hampton. Now, we don't know what the conversation was that they have, but what we do know was that Paul somehow convinced Steve to let him into the restaurant. There was later an eyewitness who came forward and said she was driving by when she saw Paul and Steve outside. And Paul was holding like a white paper, like it was a resume or something. Okay, just want to throw that in there. So once he gets inside, Paul secures the door and he pulls out his gun, showing it to Steve. And also there was a morning shift employee there, you know, morning shift. 16 year old Sarah Jackson. She was there too. And Paul demands that both of them get into the restaurant's walk in cooler, just holding the gun at them. When he got them in there, he made them lay lie face down on the floor, where then he just shot them a ton of times, killing both of them for no reason. He didn't even know these people. So with both of them dead, Paul then goes to the cash register and he gets $7,000 from the cash register. It's a lot of money in a register, huh? Then he goes through Steve's wallet and is able to get $600, which sadly was Steve's rent money. An hour later, around 10am, an employee arrived for work but was unable to enter the restaurant because the doors were locked. So he calls a nearby Captain Dees, and he was getting no answer. So he called another employee whose father was a police officer. So when they arrived with the assistant manager, they entered the restaurant, you know, and that's when they find Steve and Sarah dead in the cooler. Both were shot with a.32 caliber revolver. Life insurance is important, but it's like, okay, great, where do I start? You know, you can Google, say, what does that. I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. Well, that's where Select Quote comes in to make everything a little easier. 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So this man, he's collecting cans and he comes across an ID for Steve Hampton's children. Now, the can collector thought maybe the owner of the cards had been, like, robbed or something. So he called police. Any more concealer? So the next day, February 17, police, they searched up and down the highway, where they found Steve's driver's license, they found his credit card, movie rental card, and birth certificate card. All of it was just like thrown about. So that happens. Put a pin in it. We will circle back three days after the Captain D's murders. Paul went to a car dealership and paid $2,000 in cash for a prepaid lease on a card on a car. This car salesman was actually familiar with Paul because Paul had come by previously and was like, hey, I want to buy a car. But he didn't have the money. So now he's showing up and he has $2,000 cash. So the car salesman is like, hey, where did you get this money? Like, didn't you just not have it? Like, I don't get it. How'd you get it so fast? And Paul said like, oh, I've been saving. I'm really good at saving and I have my dad helping me. Paul, of course, was lying. But the guy, you know, cash is cash. And the guy sold him a car. So now Paul can move about the cabin. Okay, now, let me tell you, things are, they are dark already, but Paul doubles down on his rampage. And things only get worse from here. So March 23rd, 1997. It's barely five weeks after the Captain D's murders. And Paul, he sat in his car at a McDonald's around like three miles northeast of Captain D's. So he waited there until closing time, which was at midnight, and then was just waiting for the employees to like, come out of that back exit it. So when he sees these two employees come out, they were taking out the, the garbage. He gets out of his car and like ambushes them. So he forced the two employees at gunpoint back into the restaurant. Now, there was a third employee just waiting inside the doors, completely caught off guard, right? And Paul just shoots him. He shoots all three of them, okay. Dead. Again, he has like no connection to these people or the restaurant. He's just completely lost it, really. The three were 17 year old Andrea Brown, 27 year old Ronald Santiago, and 23 year old Robert Sewell. And sadly, all three of them died of their wounds, which is so sad. Like you're just trying to again get a paycheck and someone comes in and kills you. There was a fourth employee inside, so he was kind of like laying low, trying not to get caught. When Paul sees him, he went to go shoot him and his gun jammed. So Jose Gonzalez is the employee, notices his gun jammed and he attempted to fight back. They're having A skerfuffle. And Paul, unfortunately, had a knife on him. So he takes the knife out and stabs Jose 17 times, thinking he's a goner, he's gonna be dead. Leaves him. So Paul went to the cash registers and the safe, taking in total $3,000, then fled. Now, by some miracle, Jose Gonzalez was able to, like, get up even after being stabbed a bunch of times and call 911 now on the dispatch people, they were like, what? Why? Like, they could not understand what he was saying. But they sent the. The dispatcher sent police and paramedics to the restaurant where they found all of the victims and Jose barely alive. They also found other evidence, like fibers and stuff that would have to, like, you know, go through a whole process. But they also discovered six.25 caliber cartridge casings. So they know this man's weapon. So this kind of nobody has any leads or ideas like, who. Who's doing these murders? They're not making sense. They're just random hits. So then A month later, April 23, 1997, Paul drove to a Baskin Robbins. I know. I was like, not 31 flavors. Leave 31 flavors out of this. And this Baskin Robbins was in Clarksville, Tennessee. He gets there about 10pm when he got there, Paul convinced the two employees, Angela Holmes, who was 21 years old, and Michelle Mace, who was 16 years old, to let him inside. Because they're already closed. They're like, no, sir. Sorry, you have to get your ice cream tomorrow. But Paul somehow was convincing. He's like, no, no, let me in. Like, I don't know what he told them, but he somehow was able to convince them to let him in. So once he got inside, Paul pulled out his gun. Once again, he robbed the cash register and the safe. But then instead of killing like he did the other victims, he forced both Angela and Michelle into his car. You know, one piece of advice I heard many, many moons ago, maybe you remember this show. Cause it was on tv and it was like this crime expert guy said, if something like this ever happens to you, the best thing you could do is never go to the second location. If someone's pointing a gun at you and telling you to move, don't go. You just stand there, and if they shoot you, they shoot you. But at least you're not going to get moved to somewhere else where no one can find you or you get tortured or whatever. As I say that out loud, I'm like, okay, that sounds kind of awful, but that's something that's always lived in the back of my head, like never go to the second location. Do whatever you can to avoid going to the second location. Hopefully you never have to use this information. But just throwing that out there, I guess. Michelle, one of the employees, her brother would pick her up after her shift at night. So he gets there around like 10:10. So literally like this Paul situation happened under 10 minutes. So he gets there and he's waiting outside and he notices that the other co worker, her car is in the parking lot. So he's like, okay, so they must still be working, you know, so he's like waiting. He saw that like the store lights were still on, but he's peeking in and like no one was inside. He, thank God, felt that something was just not right, something was off. So he dialed 91 1. When the police arrived, they noticed the cash register was empty and the, the safe, the top of the safe was removed and the things inside was removed too. What the police found was interesting was that Angela's and Michelle's purses were still in the store and they were untouched, which was odd if this was just a robbery. Now sadly, literally the next morning, Angela and Michelle's bodies were found at the Dunbar Cave at State Natural Area. It's a park. It's a Park. It's 110 acre park in Clarksville, Tennessee. So this was like three miles from the Baskin Robbins. They were found in very gruesome way. Like they had stab wounds all over their body. And that's as much as I'll say. Now Paul, he never forgot about what went down at Shoney's, getting fired and all. You know, he hated that manager who fired him. So naturally he's like, I gotta do something about that guy. So on June 12, 1997, he went to the home of the manager who fired him. His name was Mitchell Roberts. He just shows up, knocks on the door, hey, remember me? Yeah. What's going on? What are you doing? But what Mitchell Roberts didn't know was that Paul had a knife on him and a gun. So Paul in the beginning kind of was acting like he was interested in getting rehired, not begging for his job back, but you know, trying to explain like, hey man, like maybe you could still help me out. I don't know. But in reality, according to Paul, he wanted to kidnap Mitchell. Paul noticed in the background that Mitchell's son had a camcorder. Remember it's like 97, I said so it's like one of those janky big ones. Maybe it was smaller by then. But I imagine in my head, it was bigger, but he was, like, playing around on it. His son was, like, recording everything. And when Paul noticed him, he was like, oh, shit, change of my hand. So he waves to the camcorder and he's like, all right, I'll see you later. And left. Now, Mitchell, he was like, dude, something was up with him. Like, he was acting weird. That was creepy. I'm going to call the cops. So as soon as Paul left, he's like, hello. Yeah, let me tell you, there's. There's a weirdo out here, okay? Now, by this point, like, when this went down, police were already staking out, like, the local area's fast food restaurants. They noticed a pattern was happening, and they were anticipating the killer striking again, again. And hopefully catching this person in the act. The police had no idea who was doing all these murder robberies, but they believed, like, it had to be the same person. Plus, they learned from Jose Gonzalez, the guy who survived the McDonald's murders, that there was only one perpetrator. So they're looking for one guy. After receiving Mitchell's call, police went to Paul's house to arrest him. They booked him. They took his fingerprints and his photograph. And that's when they would discover that Paul's thumbprint was a perfect match for the one on Steve Hampton's. The Captain D manager. Remember Steve Hampton movie rental card that was found from the recycler. I told you I'd circle back. There was a fingerprint on there, and it matched Paul. Boom. This is why you should recycle. So now that they got a photo of Paul, they go to Jose Gonzalez and they're like, hey, is this the guy? And Jose, like, automatically was like, yes, that is the guy. Then Paul was positively id'd by two other employees that were working at Captain D's restaurant. When. Remember when Paul went there, like, that first night and was like, hey, you guys hiring? And they were like, come back later. So those employees were like, yes, that's the guy. And if that wasn't enough, Paul's shoe size matched the footprints that were left behind at the Captain D's scene. And on top of that, police found DNA of the Baskin Robbins victims on his shoes. Oh, yes. They also matched fibers from Paul's car with those found on the Baskin Robbins victims on their bodies. Evidence is beautiful, okay? And it was pretty damn clear that they had found their guy. Paul would be charged with seven counts of first degree murder. Now, the confusing part was that there would be three separate Trials, because each of these attacks and murders had taken place in separate counties. So you have to go through those counties, you know what I'm saying? Like, it get. It's so. Whatever. It's just what they do. So the first trials would take place in 1999 for the Captain D murders and the Baskin Robbins murder. And then in 2000, he would be tried for the McDonald's murders. So the evidence, both forensic and eyewitness accounts or testimonies, was overwhelming. You know, when it came to the McDonald's case, Jose Gonzalez, he testified in court identifying Paul as the attacker, plus went through just every gruesome detail. It was horrific. In the Baskin Robbins case, the prosecution presented evidence of the victim's DNA found on Paul's shoes. Plus, the knife used in the murders was also consistent with the one Mitchell Roberts identified Paul carrying when he tried to come into his house. Now, Paul, he pleaded not guilty in all three cases. But before his trials happened, his defense raised the question of his competence, referencing his brain damage and earlier psychological diagnoses. But it was not allowed to be used as a defense against the charges. So in the first trial for Captain D's murders, Paul was sentenced to death twice, one for each murder and to 25 years in prison for aggravated robbery. Eight days before the next trial, which was the Baskin Robbins case, Paul said that he was not competent to stand trial, that, you know, he's off. So the state had sent in an independent psychiatrist to evaluate Paul. And, you know, I've never had to do that, so I don't know like what they ask or what they look for, but they found that he was competent to stand trial. And he's like, shit. So the process went forward, you know, and the jury ended up finding Paul guilty of two counts of first degree murder or premeditated murder, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, and one count of especially aggravated robbery. I know, I was like, what is especially aggravated robbery? Especially. I was hung up on that. So I googled it. Well, it's a legal term used to describe a more severe form of robbery. That is what I learned anyhow. He was sentenced to death for that one. Yeah. You know, for each of the first degree murder convictions. So not looking good for him, huh? I don't know what he wants, though. Like, what, you think you're just gonna murder a bunch of innocent people and, like, you're gonna be fine, just go on and live your life? Like, I don't understand. And in the McDonald's case, Paul underwent an extensive pre trial hearing to once again determine, is he competent to stand trial again. Once again, he was found to be competent. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death for three counts of premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of a specially aggravated murder. It's over. Paul is done. Good. Because honestly, this guy probably would have kept going, right? Paul was scheduled to be executed on April 29, 2003. Paul, he wrote a letter on April 14 to the governor, plus, like some other people, saying that he did not intend to pursue any remedies to stop his execution. Essentially, he was accepting it. I was like, okay, cool. But then Paul's sister, remember Janet? Janet turned out to be a lawyer, and good for her, you know, she ended up submitting something called a next friend petition raising questions about Paul's competence. So the federal appeals court accepted it and ordered a stay of execution on April 28, just one day before he was supposed to be put down. So she's trying to help him out and get people to see, like, that he's just not well. For the next 10 years, Paul's case bounced from one court to another as it underwent numerous competency hearings. This is partly because Paul refused to pursue the post conviction appeal initiated by. By his sister and lawyer, which led them to argue. See, he's incompetent because if he wasn't, or if he was, then he wouldn't be trying to resist and fight this. I know. I was like, why do they want to save him so bad? You know, I mean, like, if a family member killed a bunch of innocent people, bro, you've got to go. Sorry. Sorry about. Sorry, but you murdered a bunch of people. I don't know. Is that mean? I mean, good for them, I guess. Really? She's fighting for her family from an abusive brother. I just was. I was a little. Okay. I'm not judging, but I'm like, you know, okay. All right. Then in October, it was like 2012, the Supreme Court of Tennessee finally settled the case. They were upholding Paul's death sentences and found that the petitions on Paul's behalf failed to show he was incompetent, essentially saying, yeah, look, he has. He had some head drama, okay? But he should be held accountable for what he did. So everyone agrees, except for his sister, that he should be put down. But before a new date could be scheduled for his execution, Paul reed died on November 1, 2013 13. It was like 11 days before his 56th birthday. He died at Nashville hospital from heart failure due to complications from pneumonia and respiratory illness. Bummer. Now the big question. Was he sane or insane? In its 2012 ruling, the Texas supreme court referred to Paul Reed as a human conundrum. It was found that Paul was undeniably brain damaged and delusional. And Paul believed that he was constantly being monitored by the government who were trying to. They were trying to control his mind remotely. He insisted that all his trials were mock trials and that his lawyers were actors who were controlled by scientific technology. The court also found that. That Paul told several mental health professionals over the years that he faked his mental health problems and also any delusions to avoid prosecution. So they're like, oh, what is it? So the court was asking, look, is Paul a mentally ill person who's trying to appear sane, or is he a sane person who's trying to appear mentally ill? During his court trials and appeal hearings, many mental health professionals testified, Both for the prosecution and the defense, they couldn't make up their damn minds. Okay? There was, again, no doubt that he had some mental issues. An MRI and a PET scan that was done in 1998 had found that the left side of Paul's brain was atrophied, or in other words, dysfunctional. A clinical neuropsychologist who interviewed Paul like a ton in 1998 and 1999 determined that Paul's brain damage caused significant mental and behavioral disorders. She testified in court that Paul exhibited psychosis from at least 1978, and then he started having delusions in the mid-1980s. She also reviewed his childhood records, where she discovered that Paul's IQ was in the 80s, which was quite low. And they thought that Paul met the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. But that's not all. A licensed speech and language pathologist evaluated Paul in 1999 and testified that Paul suffered from speech and language problems, which can be a character, a characteristic of people with traumatic brain injuries. Then, because so many people evaluated and none of them could agree, okay. A Columbia university clinical psychologist interviewed Paul for more than 20 hours. This person talked to his mother and his sisters and reviewed the records or his records. And this psychologist determined that Paul suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenia for at least 20 years. He determined that Paul's cognitive and behavioral disorder was due to his brain trauma. But throughout those 20 years, Paul has also acted rationally, which is confusing. I think you can be both at the same time, and to them, it's so black and white, like, you can still act rationally. You just have. I don't know. I also don't. Maybe I shouldn't talk about this. Cause I don't fucking know. They're like, look, he's acted rationally throughout the years. Like before the murders took place. He enrolled in a community college where he scored straight A's in almost all of his classes. And then earlier in 1984, after his court, remember when he made the court hat? Boop. He wrote a letter to the state prosecutor apologizing for his courtroom behavior and asked for a shorter sentence. So they're like, he's like, aware of what's going on in his behavior. But again, like, it confused doctors. They couldn't figure out his behavior. It made no sense to them. Mental health professionals who testified as witnesses for the prosecution agreed that Paul's brain was fucked up, okay? But they disagreed that this could cause schizophrenia or lead Paul to commit premeditated murder. Even the experts couldn't agree. I watched this documentary and I wish I could freaking remember the name. Hold on, let me look it up. Because if this is something interesting to you, because I find this interesting, the correlation between, between brain trauma and murderers. Because a lot of murderers have brain trauma more than you think. So I watched this documentary a while back. It's called Crazy, not insane. Insane. It's on, Max. This is not promotion, but it's all about head trauma and murderers. And it's like, oh my God, there's definitely something there. And I think a lot of people avoid the conversation because if you mentioned that, that means we'd have to invest money in health care and taking care of people when they have brain trauma. And it just means like, we have to do more. We have to do more. So a lot of the times people, I don't know if they're being paid or what kind of gain they're getting from it, but they will never say that head trauma and like murder links together. They won't admit it, even though there's so much evidence out there. Now, I'm not saying this person should be out in the streets free because it's like, oh, woo. Like it's head trauma. So we forgive you. No, like they should be in a jail. But I don't know. I also don't have any answers. So circle back to me when I'm running for governor or something and I'll figure it out. Thanks. So watch that if you're interested in it. Crazy, not insane. I think this guy should have been put down. Really? In my opinion. Okay, just letting you know. I don't think he should have been given any special treatment. Paul's death seemed to have provided some relief to his victims families. Just knowing that this monster was no longer on earth. You know, Jerry Jackson, the father of 16 year old Sarah, who Paul killed at Captain D's, was happy that Paul was gone and was not going to be hurting anybody else. And for him it was said that this was closure. The father of 17 year old Andrea Brown, who Paul murdered at the McDonald's, wished Paul, Paul was executed rather than dying of natural causes. I get that. But either way, he said he was glad that Paul was dead. He said Andrea was a great student and had saved just enough money to buy a car, which she did a day before her murder. So sad. Because of Paul's murderous spree, after all this happened, fast food restaurants in Nashville, in the Nashville area started closing, closing earlier. And at night police would be out like patrolling around these places more often. So I mean the question that is asked a lot when it comes to Paul Reed, was he competent to stand trial? Was he sane? Did he plan to commit the murders? Did he feel any remorse? Because he never said sorry like I did this. Sorry. He never. Nothing. I think it's a bit of both. You know, you could be sane and insane. You have moments, right? He clearly had issues, okay, from birth all the way up to his, his killings. Like he was hitting his head so many times, severely traumatized and it, come on. It definitely affected his judgment and behavior. But that does not excuse what he did. Nothing Paul said or did after his cold blooded murders suggested that he felt bad about killing someone. Seven innocent people. And most likely everyone believes that the murders and the robberies would have likely continued had he not been caught, arrested and locked up. The end. That my friends, is about the awful fast food killer, which is a stupid name they gave him, but it kind of makes sense because it was all whatever. Paul Reed, he had a rough life and he made it worse. Huh? Can we get an amen? Amen. Thank you so much. Honestly, I couldn't imagine going to work like you're 16 or whatever and you're working one of your first jobs asking Robbins or McDonald's or something and someone freaking kills you. Like you're just trying. You're just trying. Somebody just comes and freaking kills you. God, that's very upsetting. That's all I can think about. That's sad. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. Have a good rest of your day. You make good choices. Please be safe out there and I'll be seeing you guys later. Goodbye.