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NEWSREADER: A night of violence
in northern Iowa

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has left two convenience
store clerks dead

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in two separate shootings.

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A teenage gunman is accused of
murdering a clerk in Algona

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and then heading south to gun down
another clerk in Humboldt.

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(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

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The thing inside of me, it's like...

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The appetite, it's like
a wolf that's...

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..feeling the hunger.

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(WIND WHISTLING)

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He has a complete disregard
for supervision,

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for sanctions, for the legal
and criminal system.

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And that's what we see with very
criminally oriented people.

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It's also what we sometimes see
with very, very impulsive people.

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I don't believe a statement like,
"I don't know why I took
the pistol."

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They think that his acquisition
of guns and leaving

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was just going to be to extend what
he'd already been fantasising about.

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He needs to be powerful.

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Psychopathic youths, the literature
shows that they are more likely

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to be carrying, specifically,
firearms than say,

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a roll of nickels or a knife
or some other type of weapon.

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Wanting to carry one, despite
knowing you're essentially

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a fugitive from the law,

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and knowing that it carries really
significant consequences with it,

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it's just very consistent
with psychopathy.

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NEWSREADER: It all started
in Algona, Iowa.

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Pretty heart-breaking story
and unbelievable.

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NEWSREADER: Investigators say
a man wearing a ski mask

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walked into the store and
demanded Bowman-Hall put cash

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and cigarettes into a duffle bag.

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She did, and he shot her.

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(DOOR BELL JINGLES)

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(GUNSHOT)

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She thought the gun was fake.

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She's challenged his power
and he shoots her.

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In his case, going for power

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is the way he is going to
express his psychopathy.

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By standing up and re-enacting,
I think he's showing off.

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I think he's proud of what
he's done, and he wants to
show someone what he has done.

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Swanson is really showing us
all the markers

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of psychopathic behaviour.

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Um...

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Swanson doesn't have
any real emotion.

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He's not upset or bothered
by the fact

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that he took another
human being's life.

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He is impulsive, he is detached.

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There's just no emotion.

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(ENGINE STARTS)

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When he was 17 years old,

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in 2010, just about a month before

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he committed these murders,
he was evaluated.

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Michael was having some sexual
and violent themes,

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and there was some concern that
he had, and the staff had,

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about him being impulsive.
Another excerpt says,

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"I am concerned that he poses a risk

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to society if unmedicated.

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And even if medicated, he is
still somewhat unpredictable."

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That is a very strong conclusion.

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If I'm reading this report,

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and I'm Swanson's family,
I'm scared.

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This evaluation is absolutely
a warning sign.

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So, if we put this in context
with the earlier reports saying,

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"Hey, since the age of three,

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he's had trouble controlling
emotions and behaviour,

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and he's oppositional and defiant."
And then we add to the mix,

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writing about sexual issues
and violence issues,

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we see this progression.

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It hasn't gone away.

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It seems to be expanding and
becoming more pronounced.

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Because the doctor's terms are
becoming more, um, intense,

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like, "severe" and "risk"
and "unpredictable".

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So, the problem has grown.

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His anecdote about being
high as a kite

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means that he was using enough

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to be completely disinhibited

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in a public space
to take his clothes off.

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He has all the
characteristic features

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that should alarm us.

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Swanson has this pattern
of drug and alcohol use

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and is willing to try anything
and everything.

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Thrill-seeking behaviour is one
of those markers we look for

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in psychopathic behaviour and in
trying to diagnose psychopathy.

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There is a relationship between
impulse control and drug use,

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and there is a relationship between
impulse control and psychopathy.

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People with psychopathy tend to...

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use drugs more.

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I think that's similar to what we're
seeing here with Michael Swanson.

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REPORTER: 25 miles south,
a similar scene.

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61-year-old Sheila Myers
was shot and killed

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while working behind the counter
at the Kum and Go in Humboldt.

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She's been a clerk at the store
for 13 years.

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The fact that it's an hour between
the first and second kill

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is behaviour that absolutely
is becoming compulsive.

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And, when you add in an
emerging compulsivity

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with the fact that he's had impulse
control problems his entire life,

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and he's a drug and alcohol abuser

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who is seeking that high,

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and in the process of upping that
ante we've now gotten to a place

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where he's murdered someone.
And he liked the high,

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he liked the thrill, um...

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and he needs it again.

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He thinks it's just kind of funny,
like watching a comedy show

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where someone bangs their head
on something.

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He has a complete lack of empathy
about another human being.

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They're just objects.

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That indifference is just the
hallmark of psychopathy,

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and it's pretty disturbing

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as he's not that old.

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I think Michael Swanson knows
there's something...

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diabolical.

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Or that, that most of society
would even call evil

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or something like that...

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..by laughing right after
you take another life.

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I think he accepts that about
himself and embraces it...

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..and shares it with the detective.

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I think that's quite likely
a very honest report.

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He's jovial, he's laughing.

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I think that really taps into
the high that he experienced.

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And, also, maybe some budding
sadistic tendencies.

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This enjoyment that
Swanson's showing us

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is highly consistent with
psychopathic behaviour.

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(COUGHS)

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He's a 150% focused on
his own well-being.

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How he's going to be, essentially,
inconvenienced by his crime,

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and where he's going to be sent.
This is classic to psychopaths.

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They don't care about others.

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It's 100% about him.

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Soldiers who've shot
enemy combatants

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still feel something after that.
He's not talking about

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an enemy combatant that he killed
in the line of duty.

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He's talking about somebody across
one or two state lines.

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This is so impulsive. This is so
pleasure seeking, it must be mania.

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Swanson is not being
straight with himself.

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He's not being, I think, honest.

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I don't actually think
it is complicated.

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He doesn't feel bad
because he's a psychopath.

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It is really that simple.

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(TELEPHONE LINE RINGING)

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Swanson's an entirely different
person with different tone,

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different speech pattern.
The pace with which he's talking,

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he's alive, he's animated, he's
experiencing what feels like a high.

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There is a status element
in his mind.

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He's bragging about what he's done,

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and he's acknowledging it felt good.

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So, these features of the mimicry,

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the thrill, the lack of remorse,

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enjoying it and bragging about it,

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those are significant features
of psychopathy.

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NEWSREADER: The prosecution says
Michael Swanson did this in part

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for the attention he got from it.

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The defence says, "He's insane,

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and he doesn't know
right from wrong."

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REPORTER: The State then called
a psychiatrist who interviewed
Swanson after the crimes.

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He says Swanson told him he'd been
planning to kill since he was 13.

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He said, "I have always
been fascinated by death

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and violence,

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and it was something
that I wanted to do -

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murder, rape, and cannibalism."

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Swanson's mother broke down
when the doctor said this...

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His original plan was...

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..to kill his parents.

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Those were the first two people
he wanted to kill.

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And he's fully capable of
deliberating, premediating,

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and forming this specific
intent to kill.

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JURY MEMBER: Verdict number one -

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we find the Defendant guilty

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of murder in the first degree.

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REPORTER: Even after a jury
convicted Michael Swanson,

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he smiled.

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Mr Swanson, how do you feel
about the verdict? I'm good.

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REPORTER: Earlier in the day,
Swanson added two obscene gestures

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to that ever-present smile.

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