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A (7:52)

So while in custody, Steven told probation officers and psychiatrists that he fantasized about being a serial killer. I know he told. He said this out loud. You know, most people keep it in their head, but he was like, yes, my goals and dreams in life, like, that would be great. So with These hopes and dreams. He was released from custody the following year. You'd think that they'd make a little note in his file saying, like, you know, he dreams of being a serial killer, maybe let's keep an eye on this one. But they didn't. So once he was out at this point, Stephen had cut, like, completely cut contact with his family and was ready to, like, just move on with his life. So he was able to get a flat in Manningham with different grants and like, government assistance programs. And while living there, he attended Bradford College, their psychology program, in 1988. So then in September of 1989, Stephen, he gets in trouble again. He was using, I guess, an illegal air pistol to shoot birds. He would go get them after he shot them and then dissect them. Well, he got caught for this, you know, and then he ended up getting sentenced to 100 hours of community service. He would be sent to Rampton Hospital where he was diagnosed with a personality disorder as well as sadistic and schizoid psychopathy. Nailed it. His psychiatric report described him as having a, quote, preoccupation with murder, particularly multiple murder. Like, okay, great, he sounds promising. The following year, Steven is given a two year prison sentence after he was holding. He, like, got caught holding a knife to a girl's throat. And, you know, I couldn't find any information about this. It was just like this happened. And he ended up serving a sentence at Leeds Prison. So feel like, you know, all the red flags have been there for quite some time now, you know. So he gets released from Leeds prison in like 1993, and, you know, he's still very fascinated with serial killers. And this leads him to just buying like a bunch of books and wanting to learn more about different killers so, you know, he could study them more efficiently. He was, I guess, really into like Jack the Ripper, the Moore's murderers, the Acid Bath Murderer, and one of his personal favorites was like, the Yorkshire Ripper. He really liked the Yorkshire Ripper because, like, he killed a lot of women. And also he was local to the area that Steven had lived in. So Steven's like, yeah, that's him jacking it to these killers. Then in 1996, at the age of 27, Stephen had moved into a one bedroom flat in Holmfield Court. And this was like a housing association complex. Now his place was right on the edge of Bradford's red light district. And it was known for being a spot where, like sex workers would hang out and, you know, walk along this area. It's like Thornton Road. And they'd be there, like, every day. When Steven moves here, he's still in school, and he seems to be doing really well. Like, he's really smart, this guy. He had really high grades. He was excelling. And I guess in the fall of, like, 1997, Steven begins pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology at Leeds University. So while he's there, he meets a girl and the two of them start dating. Her name is Zada. It was said that he would usually go over to her place, you know, like three or four times a week, and that he would, like, never invite her back to his place. Now, if you're dating someone and they don't invite you back to their place, usually it's like, oh, you must live with your parents or something, right? Wow. It was more than that. But according to Zeta, Steven would experience, like, sexual difficulties. And she said that he was just like, straight up odd at times. Like, he would get angry if she ever touched his hair. And that Steven was so afraid that insects or spiders would get into his ears at night that he would, like, plug them with cotton wool before bed. But listen, like on Tick Tock, the algorithm, you know, just. It. I don't know, but it's been showing me videos lately of people, like, cleaning out their ears and, like, a big old spider comes out. So, like, I kind of get it because after seeing those TikToks, I was like, I should wear earplugs. I wanted to die. It was so gross. But Steven was, like, super paranoid about it. She was like, okay, okay. So the two of them are dating for, like two years, and she still hasn't been over to his place. So it's like, okay, like, when are you gonna invite me over to your place? Like, do you even have a place you live on the corner somewhere? Like, I don't know, like, it's kind of weird, right? So he finally invites her over to his place. So she said that when she walked in, that her jaw just dropped because she said that his flat was horrific and very scary. She said that when he walked in, first of all, she would look to like her right or something. And there was a bookcase, and it was filled with different horror books on just different serial killers. And, you know, at the time, you got to think about this. This is like pre Internet and all that stuff. Like, it's got to be a little. It was a little weird. It was like, what is that? And then she also said that there was a ton of, quote, horrific video nasties. I know, I Didn't know what that meant exactly, but it was. It was. She didn't like it. She didn't like it. So she sees all that and she's like, oh, my God. Okay, I thought you liked psychology or whatever. She also said that on every single surface in the flat, it was covered in plastic. Plastic. Even the carpets. Like, everything was covered in plastic. Because Steven was apparently a bit of a neat freak. She's like, okay, this is so cool. Wow. So she said that when she got to his place, obviously, like, she was feeling uneasy, she was feeling unsafe, and she kind of just had that, like, gut feeling of, like, I need to get the F out of here. So she tells Steven, like, I don't feel well. Can you please take me home? And he does. She had to get out of there, like, asap. And then soon after this, she broke up with him.

B (14:26)

And.

A (14:26)

Good thing. Good thing. So I guess after this, you know, Steven had, like, various different girlfriends, and he was just not ideal. It was said that he was very controlling. He would, like, make the girlfriends cut out all of their friends and families. He would stalk them. He would harass them, beat them. And it was said, like, at times, he would spike their drinks with different drugs, and then, you know, would do whatever he wanted with them. So what I'm getting at is that he was just awful to these women. There was one girlfriend, specifically, that had broke up with him, and he had stalked and harassed her, like, pretty badly. And she had even gone to the police. But, like, nothing. Nothing came of it. Steven would, like, go to her place and spray paint bad words on her walls. He would leave these, like, super long, creepy voicemails. There's like, one voicemail recording where he's like, I'm not going away. And then he laughs like a psycho. I'm not gonna go away. So I guess you'd better. It's like a cartoon, evil villain laugh. It's a performance. It's a performance. But he was awful. So he's doing this, and I think eventually he just realizes he's not really. I don't know. Maybe he could. Maybe he gets bored because eventually he starts leaving his exes alone. Maybe it was getting old and he was over it, but now he got into something new. He had a new hobby, and it was lizards and snakes. I know. Very random. I was like, what? I was a sharp left. Lizards and snakes. He got into reptiles. And it was said that he would carry a few of them, like, in his. In his backpack because it was a good way to. To Talk to people. I could see that, like, if you pull out a snake or, like, a big lizard or something, people are going to be like, whoa, man, that's cool. Maybe. I don't know. I'd run, but that's just me. So this was his new hobby. Lizards, snakes. His neighbors in the Bradford apartment building, they initially thought Stephen was just, like, a little weird boy. You know, like, nothing major. Like, he's just a weirdo. They gave him the nickname Lizard Man. Oh, yeah. Because they would watch him or see him outside taking his lizards on walks. Yes. He had the lizards on leashes, and he would take them on walks. I was very interested in this. I was like, tell me more. Do they walk fast? Do they run? Like, what. What kind of leash? But he was doing this, and his neighbors were like, that guy's weird. During his walks, Stephen always had, like, his hair slicked back. He would have his sunglasses on, and he would wear, like, a long black coat no matter what the weather. I guess Steven at this point was, like, in his goth phase, all black. Sometimes if his hair wasn't slicked back, it would be spiked. He'd be wearing makeup, and it was different for the community that he lived in. And again, he was just seen as, like, a weird boy, you know?

B (17:31)

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A (19:06)

So Stephen, I guess he like never. He never worked. He didn't have to. He was living on benefits and different grants and then he was going to school. So if he wasn't doing that, going to school or stalking his girlfriends or walking his lizards, he was spending his free time on MySpace. On MySpace he went by the name Ven Pariah. And many think he got the name Ven from the second half of his name. Steve Ven. You get it? And then Pariah, meaning like an outcast. If he wasn't on MySpace being weird, he was being weird by like downloading violent pornography for his own pleasure. Yes, he was a little weird boy, but he still managed to like graduate with a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Leeds University in 2003. And in 2009, Stephen was admitted to the University of Bradford to write a PhD in homicide studies. He was researching murders in Bradford in the 19th century for his thesis at the time of his crimes. And again, like, he was really smart. He was always at like the top of his class and it's a damn shame. So then on June 22, 2009, 43 year old Susan Rushworth disappeared. Susan had first married in her early 20s and had two kids. And it was said like, by all accounts she had a good life. And then after she and her first husband divorced, Susan would find a love again and would go on to, you know, have another child. But I guess when this second relationship had ended, she, you know, met a new guy and this new guy had introduced her to heroin. Not great. Susan's mother grew like very concerned for her daughter and she tried to help her go to rehab, which was successful for a few months. But then Susan found herself drawn back to the drug again and you know, so began a cycle of addiction and trying to get clean. At one point, Susan became a sex worker to help, you know, pay for her addiction. And the day of her disappearance, she was on her way to the pharmacy and she was last seen in Manningham area getting off the bus around 12pm now when she had gone missing, police, it's not like they didn't do anything. They, they actually like interviewed potential witnesses. They had searched nearby woodlands, they drained a local lake, but there were no leads in the search for, for Susan. And it just went like, no, nowhere. But then about 10 months after her disappearance, another woman would go missing in the area. Shelly Armitage was a bubbly girl who grew up attending Catholic school. There's photos from her family's, like, beach vacation that show her to be, like, a carefree soul. As a young child, Shelley wanted to be a model and travel the world, but sadly, she became addicted to heroin at just the age of 16 and, you know, she would struggle on and off with her addiction. And by the age of 31, Shelly had disappeared. She was last seen on April 26, 2010. It was, like, around lunchtime on April 26, and she had bumped into her parents while they were out shopping. Little did they know, like, this would actually be the last time that they would see their, their daughter, see and talk to her, because they stopped and, like, talked and. And then they went on their way and, like, this would be the last time they saw her. At 7pm that evening, Shelly had left her flat with a friend and had the two of them had dinner before walking toward Sunbridge Road and Rebecca street to, quote, go on the beat, which I guess was slang for, like, I'm going to go sex work and, like, get a client. She was last seen on CCTV footage at 10pm that night and, like, she just freaking vanished. So police had done a detailed search, hoping to find something, but again, just nothing. No leads. So then some time goes by and then another woman goes missing from this area. Suzanne Blamires was born and brought up in Bradford. Suzanne was described as, like, feisty, spirited and, you know, a lovely woman. And she actually, like, began training as a nurse. But her life, like, began to unravel in her early 20s where she started using heroin. And by 25, Suzanne had started to do sex work to pay for her addiction. Suzanne was last seen on May 21, 2010 by her mother, who had dropped her off at her flat. So police would get one lead that would break this case wide open. So there was a man, he was just finding his own business, walking his dog in Shipley by the water. And he looks out in the water and he sees a rucksack floating. He's like, oh, weird, you know, so he decides to, like, pull it out and it's heavy, it's filled with something. So he decides to look inside. So he opens it up. You know, he opens it up and he said at first he thought it was a football. It's not funny. It's just like, you know, I had a trauma, he thought it was a football, but when he really, like, looked at was actually a head. It was a head. Could you imagine? No. So the Head badly dismembered. And because of this, it made it really hard to ID who the person was. Police, obviously, they come out and they investigate. It was said at this point, like, police knew that they had, like, a serial killer on their hands. You think? But yeah, just two days before this happened, a caretaker who was managing the property where Steven lived, this caretaker was looking through footage from the security cameras. It was said that, like, part of his job, he would do this every couple of days, you know, to see, like, if there was any shitheads, like, who had vandalized the place or was doing something shady, whatever. But while looking at the footage, he came across something very weird. He sees that at 2.30am on CCTV footage, it shows Steven heading into his apartment with Suzanne Blaymires. And you see, like, the two of them outside. They seem friendly, like they know each other and they're heading inside. They get into the elevator and everything looked fine at first, but three minutes later, Suzanne is seen running out of, like, Steven's apartment. And she has this look of fear on her face. She looks panicked. Then you see Steven coming out of his apartment, coming after her, and he's holding a crossbow and trying to shoot Suzanne. So I guess he shoots it. It's off camera, so we don't know if he hits her or not, but whatever, he runs after her and again, all off camera, and I guess he attacks, tackles her to the ground. But then you see Steven come back to the cameras and he's looking directly at the camera and he flips it off. He shows his crossbow and he's like. Like he's fully aware that the camera's there and it's recording and he's kind of like just, I don't know, mocking it, I guess. Then you see him dragging Suzanne's body back into his apartment with an arrow in her head. So maybe he did hit her, whatever. But you see that he drags her back into the apartment. And then a few minutes later, you see Steven leave his apartment again. It seems like he's heading to the red light district in hopes to, like, lure another victim. Then at 3:35am, Steven is seen on CCTV footage outside his place with another woman. Now, the two of them are outside and they seem to be chatting and everything's fine. She must have felt that something was off, maybe he was weird, we don't know. But she decides to not go inside with Steven and instead she, like, takes off for the night. So after this, you see Steven on cctv, like, leaving his place again. With the goal again of like trying to find another victim. He's then caught on CCTV footage coming home around 4:28am and it seems like he had no luck of finding his next victim. When police got the CCTV footage, they arrested him like shortly after with 22 police officers like storming into his place on May 24, 2010. So after Stephen's arrest, he was questioned and he was pretty open about it. Like he told police everything. He explained that after killing the women, he ate parts of them. I know, I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with people. I don't know. I mean, like, he's kind of been telling everyone that he was gonna do this for a very long time. You know, like he told people he wanted to be a serial killer. I just feel like, you know, I don't know, maybe it could have been prevented.

B (28:12)

I don't know.

A (28:13)

Police, they could confirm this because like on Steven's stove they found DNA that belonged to both Shelly and also Susan. Stephen went into great detail about like, what he did. He said afterwards he would place the parts into different, like duffel bags and plastic bags and then he would take them to the nearby lake to dump them. Now, police were able to get a very detailed picture of what happened to Shelley, partly because Steven actually recorded some of the killing on his frickin phone. Oh my God. I know. Now this is like a little side note, but at some point someone found a phone on the train. And this person, they went like looking through the phone, you know, they came across this footage of what seemed to be a murder. So they turned it into the police. Some people believe that like Steven might have left the phone on the train on purpose because like, he wanted the attention, something like that. Others say it was like a dumb accident, but either way awful. So police get this footage. It's linked to him, whatever. But on the video it showed that after dragging Shelly back into, into his flat, he tied her up in the bath. So he gets her in the tub and then I guess he spray paints on her back. My sex slave. Okay. And while he's filming, he gives like a little voiceover moment. So you hear him say, I am ven Pariah. I am the bloodbath artist. Yeah, Here's a model who is assisting me. He then again, all this is on. On. He's filming all this. He then dismembers her in his bathtub using knives and power tools. Yeah, not great. Once he's done dismembering her, he Takes parts of her body, puts it in a rucksack, and then is caught, like, leaving the flat with it. Okay, so then he caught a train and was captured on CCTV at one of the stations with the rucksack. He then, like, you know, gets off the train, whatever. He seems to dump the bag and then he's seen on CCTV going home. I guess when he was home, he tried to, like, disinfect all the surfaces and, like, get rid of any evidence. And then after killing his final victim, Suzanne, Steven, again going by Venparia, posted the following on MySpace. He said, Then, pariah has finally emerged into the world. What will this pseudo human do, one wonders. Poor Steven pretended to be me, but he was only the wrapping. He knew towards the end that I supplied the inner core of iron. Hatred bound tightly in flesh. At very long last, the time has come to act out, I guess these words, like, echoed authority, Thomas Harris's psychopath in the novel Red Dragon. It's the book that introduces the infamous Hannibal Lecter. Stephen told police that he would approach these women and tell them that he was a photographer and that he wanted to take photos of them back at his place. And he said that he. A lot of the times he would offer them either drugs or money in exchange, you know, for the photographs. So if the ladies accepted, you know, they'd go back to his place, and he would often tell them to lie on the bed and have their backsides in the air for portraits that would go in his new art gallery exhibit. You know, Stephen did, in fact, photograph the women, but sadly, the. I mean, the photos weren't taken until, like, they were dead. And. And the photos became part of his, like, personal trophy collection. So during questioning, he, like, bragged to the officers that he had actually killed, like, many, many more women than this. But he never gave details as to, like, how many, when, where, how. So police, they went out to Stevens, you know, and searched his flat. And while they're there, they found, you know, two crossbows and bolts along with 30 knives and bookshelves filled with stories and magazines on different serial killers. They also found DNA evidence of, like, victims on his walls, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, just all over the place. Like, he did not do a good job of trying to hide any evidence. So to the police, it seemed that Steven had tried to recently get rid of the evidence because his carpets, they were all ripped up, and some of the tiles inside of his place, they were removed, but, you know, wasn't successful. While Steven was in custody, a person out by the banks of River Aire, which was like five miles north of Steven's flat. They had discovered a woman's head and other body parts as well. There was the crossbow bolt. And again, there was like a knife still stuck in the head. The head had been skinned. And nearby was what seemed to be like a killer's killer's kit bag, which had hacksaws, knives inside. And it was assumed that this was used for dismemberment, you know. A few days later, police confirmed that the body parts belonged to Suzanne and also Shelly. So Stephen was charged with their murders as well as with Susan Rushworth. Stephen confessed to killing Susan Shelley and Suzanne during interrogation. So when police asked him, you know, hey, why did you do it? He said, sometimes you kill someone to kill yourself or kill part of yourself. I don't know. It's like deep issues inside of me. Okay, at least he's self aware, I guess. I don't know. Stephen had told police that he killed in total six women, but he wouldn't say who the others were. He also wouldn't tell them, like, where they are, you know, when, where, how, where, why, nothing. He also wouldn't tell investigators where Susan Rushworth's body was located. And to this day, he still hasn't said where. She hasn't been found. So Stephen made his first, first appearance at Crown Court on May 28, 2010. Now, this was just like one day after the tabloids had referred to him as the Crossbow Cannibal. And he seemed to really like this. He was like, that's fun. Because when the magistrate asked for his name, Stephen had responded back saying, the Crossbow Cannibal. I mean, again, since a young age, he said he wanted to be a serial killer. So I'm sure this title, like, made him happy. Well, did it? I don't know, gave him something. So after this, his trial date was set for later that year. So December 21, 2010, Steven dressed in a gray tracksuit. He was surrounded by, like, five security guards. He enters the Leeds Crown Court. So during proceedings, the court showed the CCTV footage footage and presented the DNA evidence as well as a confession. And, like, there is no denying that he did this. Steven's defense argued that the quote, unquote system is the one who's at fault because Steven had been diagnosed as psychopathic nearly, like 20 years earlier. And, like, maybe they should have done something about it. It wasn't his fault. The judge convicted Stephen Griffiths of all three murders and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So England's then Prime minister, his name is David Cameron, he said that the murders were a terrible shock and that the government should once again look at decriminalizing offenses related to sex work. You know, so they have protection and protection and. But, you know, that in itself, like sent people into a frenzy. Oh, God. As for Steven Griffiths, he's still in prison and throughout the years, I guess he's attempted to off himself like numerous times. After his sixth failed attempt, he decided to go like on 120 day hunger strike. And the prison staff said that they knew that this was like Stephen's attention seeking behavior and that he was essentially being a drama queen. They're like, go ahead, starve yourself. Eye roll. In 2019, Steven was attacked by another prisoner with like a sharpened piece of wood. And he was rushed to the hospital, but he would survive the attack. And yeah, I mean, that is where he is at even now, sitting in prison. And that is the case of Stephen Griffiths. You know, I will agree with his defense that the system as a whole definitely failed on this one. Like throughout the years, I mean, you saw or you listened that they had been saying, like, hey, red flag. This guy's a little concerning. Like, he openly is saying he wants to be a serial killer. Like, I don't know, I don't know, maybe he might be. I mean, it's really frustrating when you hear cases like this because it's like, all the signs were there. I mean, come on. But then again, I was thinking if all the signs are there, you can't just arrest someone because all the signs are there. You know, like, you need evidence, right? So it's like, okay, all the signs are there, but you can't just arrest someone because they're, they're weird. You would think if local women were going missing who also do sex work, you'd maybe go to like, as police, you would go to your files and like have a flag on certain accounts, like Steven's account. Like, hey, this guy has been kind of weird throughout his life. Like, maybe we should pay him a visit. I mean, I don't know how police like, work, so I'm just a girl on the Internet. But you would think, right? I don't know. I just. I'm sure we can all agree that maybe this, this could have been prevented and sadly, like three lives were lost. He claims more, but I kind of think a lot of people think too, that he's just saying that because he wants to be up there with that acid bath killer guy. No, the Yorkshire Killer. Guy. He wants to be, like, up there with him, but whatever. I mean, get better goals. Get better goals. He could have, like, done something great. He was going really smart in school. It's a shame. It's a shame. He's an idiot. Thanks for hanging out with me. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. All right. I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.