06x19 - Pure Evil

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NARRATOR: On a sweltering Texas summer day in ,

a work crew noticed something unusual

off the side of the road.

Under a thicket of thorn bushes was

the nude, decapitated body of the young girl.

Just feet away was another body, a young, white male.

Residents of this small town wondered

who would be brutally k*lled two young people in this way?

And what was the possible motive?

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Cutoff Road, a remote spot in Telico, Texas,

linked by a rickety wooden bridge over Smith Creek.

This is the area where a road crew discovered

the nude body of an adolescent girl.

She had been shot, stabbed, decapitated,

and her hands removed.

She also had extensive wounds on her abdomen,

thighs, and genital area.

Under the bridge, was another victim, a young, white male,

fully clothed, who had been shot twice in the head

with a . p*stol.

On a barbed wire fence, detectives

found several long blonde hairs.

In the boys back pocket was a wallet with a library card.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: The library card

had the name which stated James Brian King.

And now we thought that may be him,

but we weren't sure at this point.

Because it was not a photo ID type.

It was just a card with the name on it.

NARRATOR: The girl's identification

was more difficult, since there were no hands for fingerprints.

And with the decapitation, no opportunity

for a dental comparison.

-She looked like a young, adolescent,

teenage, white girl.

She also had amputations of both nipples.

And a number of other cuts, mostly

on the front of her body.

Um, she had some very long cuts down the front of the abdomen

with extrusion, or evisceration of part of the intestines

to the outside.

NARRATOR: A r*pe test kit showed no signs of sexual as*ault.

Homicide investigators visited the father

of the boy, James King.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: And we showed Mr. King

the wallet that had been retrieved

from the white male's body.

And he opened it and looked at some of the photos

and looked at the library card.

And we could tell his eyes began to get watery.

And he said, uh, yeah.

You know, I recognize the wallet.

You know, this is a wallet I gave to him, my son.

NARRATOR: Mr. King also said that the girl's body might

be his stepdaughter, -year-old Christina Benjamin, but wasn't

sure because of the condition of the body.

Mr. King told police that a few nights earlier, Brian

was sleeping outside in a hammock when

a car sounded its horn out front.

He saw Brian talking to someone in a tan car.

Then Brian got in and left.

The next day, the family discovered

that Christina was missing, too.

Investigators compared to hear on Christina's hairbrush

to several long blonde hairs found near the m*rder

scene on the barbed wire fence.

CHARLES A. LINCH: Once the, uh, hairs from the barbed wire,

and the hairs from the strand that were found out

at the crime scene location were submitted to the laboratory,

I produced microscope slides.

And I compared those hairs to the hairs from the hairbrush.

And they were microscopically consistent with one another.

NARRATOR: The family also provided police

with an x-ray of Christina's recent foot injury.

That x-ray matched an x-ray of the girls

foot taken at the autopsy.

JEANE E. BELLOWS: [VOICE CRACKING] The night they found

her-- or the day they found her, Donna called me up at night

and, uh, she says, Mom, I need some help.

She said, Chrissy's dead.

She's been m*rder*d.

And I couldn't believe it.

And that's how we found out about it.

-I could never imagine losing a child.

And nobody, unless it's happened to you, nobody else can either.

I can't imagine what my mom went through.

NARRATOR: In the crime lab, Charles Linch

found a foreign blonde head hair on Brian King's pants, which

did not belong to either Brian or Christina.

Linch also spotted a single fiber

attached to Brian's sneaker.

It was nearly invisible.

CHARLES A. LINCH: When I looked at the fiber

from the male victim's shoe using transmitted light

microscopy, I had seen those types of carpet fibers

before, usually from Japanese vehicles.

And this was a tan fiber.

So that was my communication to the police,

that it may be from a tan vehicle of Japanese make.

NARRATOR: Investigators hoped that this single fiber would

lead them to the automobile Brian

King got into on his last night alive.

The grizzly m*rder of two local teenagers

was a highly publicized case in the small Texas

community where the bodies were found.

The viciousness of the murders even

shocked the pathologist in this case.

-It's the-- the worst case of mutilation

that I've seen in my work here.

I have seen other cases of mutilation.

And seen a lot of cases of what they call

the crimes of passion, or overkill, where someone

is stabbed or shot multiple times.

But this is the only case I've seen like this, where someone

had this much mutilation of the body, probably after death.

NARRATOR: Psychological profilers

say that K*llers like this usually

have aberrant drives and appetites.

The savage treatment of Christina

was indicative of vengeance and extreme hatred,

and suggested that the k*ller knew the victim.

Local prosecutors went to the FBI Behavioral Science Unit

in Quantico, Virginia, to find out more

about the mindset of this k*ller.

JOE F. GRUBBS: One of them said to me, after he looked

at the photographs, he said, uh, this is not a sexual crime.

And I was a little confused, because, obviously, she

was nude.

And, uh, we never found her clothing.

And he said, whoever committed this crime

did not have sex with her.

NARRATOR: One trait common among individuals who have committed

similar crimes is a history of abusing animals.

Neighbors told police that Brian and Christina we're planning

to go up to the boy named Jason on the night they disappeared.

And there was an anonymous telephone

call to the Sheriff's Office.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: The caller supposedly

told this this dispatcher that we needed

to be looking at a subject by the name of Jason Massey.

NARRATOR: Jason Massey was a -year-old high school

dropout, the son of an alcoholic and drug user,

who spent his time moving from one

rundown tenement to another.

Jason was a petty criminal with a history of stalking,

harassment, theft-- and most surprisingly--

a history of abuse to animals. LT.

ROYCE GOTHARD: A couple of days before the discovery

of the bodies, Ennis police had received a call of a calf that

had been mutilated behind McDonald's.

On their arrival, they observed a tan car.

They also found a bracelet on the ground with the name Jason

on it.

There was a figure who had ran from the scene, who was later

identified as Jason Eric Massey.

NARRATOR: Massey's friends painted

a bizarre portrait of the troubled young man.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: This guy also told me

about how Jason Massey liked to mutilate

animals, such as dogs, cats, cows.

And that-- that Jason would, every chance he would get,

he would k*ll a dog and cut his head off.

And he calls them his trophies.

And I said, well, what does he do with these heads?

And he said, well, he keeps them in a, uh, a metal cooler.

NARRATOR: And police discovered evidence

that Massey knew Brian and Christina casually.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: Jason Massey made comments about Christina.

About how he really liked her.

And he wanted to take her out.

NARRATOR: While everything seemed to point to Massey,

there was very little forensic evidence

found at the crime scene.

JOE F. GRUBBS: No smoking g*n, so to speak.

The case had to be developed.

We had the-- we had two children.

The bodies were horrific, the way

they were found, particularly, the girl.

Much work needed to be done to develop it.

CLAY STRANGE: The great difficulty

in the case, all along, was, what happened?

How did this boy get k*lled?

How did the girl get k*lled?

What was the sequence?

What, um-- was she sexually assaulted?

What was the motive?

Why was it done?

And that was completely missing from the crime scene.

NARRATOR: Police brought Jason Massey in for questioning.

SGT. JOHNNY CRUZ: I said, Jason.

I said-- I said, I want you to see something.

And he looked at me.

And I, you know, threw down some photos of the crime scenes,

which showed Christina Benjamin and Brian King.

And I said, Jason.

I said, I want you to look at her.

I said, tell me one thing.

I said, is she as pretty now, in these photos,

as she was that night that you had her?

And he looked down, and he looked at me.

And the next thing I know, he's-- he's kind

of bending over.

And he's gagging real, you know, real big time, you know?

And I knew I had hit a-- a soft spot in him, you know,

when he did that.

I never will forget that-- that expression of him.

NARRATOR: Despite the circumstantial evidence

against Jason Massey, there was no proof.

For that, investigators needed scientific evidence.

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Armed with a search warrant, police

collected samples of Jason Massey's hair.

And also impounded his Subaru automobile.

A piece of the tan carpet was removed

for scientific analysis.

Also inside were three stains on the seat,

which tested positive for blood.

-When we got into the trunk of Jason Massey's car,

there was a single leaf with a blood stain on it,

a roll of duct tape with apparently blood on it.

And also, a hammer.

And it appeared to have blood on it.

NARRATOR: There was no sign of the .

w*apon used in the murders.

However, police did find a cash register receipt for some .

amm*nit*on, as well as the set of handcuffs

and a hunting knife.

Investigators received another phone tip.

This one saying that Massey was seen washing his car, inside

and out, at a local car wash.

Police immediately searched the contents of the vacuum machine

at that car wash.

Inside, they found an appointment card

from Massey's probation officer, and a number

of long blonde hairs.

-Head hairs from the vehicle of Jason Massey,

and head hairs found at the car wash location,

were all microscopically similar to those of Christina Benjamin.

NARRATOR: The blood found in mass car was tested for DNA.

But it couldn't be compared to the bodies,

since they were too badly degraded for DNA analysis.

Instead, scientists relied on reverse paternity genotyping.

By analyzing the DNA profile of Brian and Christina's

biological parents, and comparing it to the DNA profile

of the flood in mass car, scientists

could see if there were similar genetic markers.

-We were able to determine that, yes,

much more certainly that blood did

come from Christina Benjamin.

NARRATOR: Scientists also needed to know

if the time of the deaths matched the time frame Jason

Massey and his automobile were in the victim's neighborhood.

-Our best evidence was a forensic entomologist,

that, looking at the, uh, the larvae activity

found the bodies, could come up with a pretty good idea of when

they were k*lled in relation to each other.

And in relation to time, in general.

NARRATOR: Samples of the insect larvae from both bodies

were sent to the prominent forensic entomologist, Dr. Neal

Haskell.

Haskell studied the larvae and attempted

to cultivate live larvae from the same heat and humidity

conditions that existed in Texas the week the bodies were found.

By doing this, Dr. Haskell could approximate the time

between when the flies laid their eggs on the bodies,

and the larvae developed to the stage in which they were found.

Dr. Haskell determined that Christina and Brian died two

days before their bodies were discovered.

This coincided with the time frame

that the tan automobile, similar to the Massey's, was

in front of Brian and Christina's home.

Jason Massey was arrested and charged with capital m*rder.

He pleaded not guilty.

JOE F. GRUBBS: Jason Massey was a handsome young man.

And I was worried that if he took the stand and testified,

that he might sway some of the jurors.

NARRATOR: Guilt or innocence would

be determined by the forensic evidence.

CLAY STRANGE: No one of those sciences

was able to show, beyond a reasonable doubt,

that Massey committed the crime.

But put all together, it meant that either Massey had

committed the crime, or he had to be the most unlucky

person in the history of the world.

Because every piece of evidence pointed toward him.

NARRATOR: Before the trial ended,

prosecutors learned even more about Jason Massey.

Information that would seal his fate.

In , Jason Massey went on trial in Texas

for the murders of -year-old Brian King

and -year-old Christina Benjamin.

Prosecutors believe that both Brian and Christina

got into Jason Massey's car around midnight on July th,

for a ride in the country.

Prosecutors also believe Massey's plans

included much more than just a ride.

Massey stopped his car on the Cutoff Road bridge

and shot Brian King twice in my head at point-blank range

with a . caliber p*stol.

He then pushed him out of the car,

off the side of the bridge.

Christina got out of the car and ran.

Jason followed, shot her in the back,

but the wound wasn't fatal.

Later, he shot her in the head, then stabbed her.

Prosecutors believe the mutilation

occurred after death.

Christina's head and hands have never been recovered.

The motive was difficult for prosecutors to identify.

CLAY STRANGE: There was no traditional motive

in this case.

And in instead, Massey most likely

what's referred to as a lust m*rder*r.

That is a person that receives a certain degree

of sexual gratification from the k*lling

and mutilation of human beings.

NARRATOR: Before the trial was over,

a hunter, walking in the woods, made a gruesome discovery.

He found a red cooler.

Inside, with the decapitated heads of animals,

and also the journals of Jason Massey revealing

his hideous deeds and horrific thoughts.

These slayer book's of death, as Massey called them,

were a frightening and incriminating insight

into the mind of the k*ller.

A mind obsessed with m*rder, sex,

and mutilation of young girls.

The jury found Jason Eric Massey guilty of the two murders.

Two young lives were revenged.

REPORTER: Mr. Massey, any comment

on your guilty conviction? -No, ma'am.

I'm just glad it's over.

NARRATOR: For the penalty phase, prosecutors had just hours

to assemble the information contained in Jason Massey's

journals to convince the court that the death

penalty was appropriate.

-He started out with, uh, k*lling

eight cows, dogs, and cats.

And he cut off their heads and kept them as trophies.

PROSECUTOR: Here's one where he's

talking about a little girl.

And he says that, he has-- he loves her.

And he's decided to k*ll her.

He just doesn't know when.

NARRATOR: Prosecutors told the jury that Jason mass journal

contained evidence that he had planned

to k*ll again and again.

Massey's writings revealed that his greatest aspiration in life

was to become the most famous serial k*ller in America.

CLAY STRANGE: We wanted the jury to know just the kind of person

that we were dealing with.

And that person was one that was, um, obviously going

to be a predictor of incredible proportions.

NARRATOR: The jury deliberated just minutes

and decided upon the death penalty.

JEANE E. BELLOWS: Well, the judge said,

I sentence you to death by lethal injection.

And the only injustice in this court today

will be that-- that your death will be so much more

humane than that of your victims.

And the judge said that.

And everybody stood up and cheered for the judge.

NARRATOR: Jason Massey was ex*cuted on April , .

Christina's grandparents witnessed

his last moments alive.

This was Jason Eric Massey's final statement,

just prior to his execution. He said, yes.

"First, I would like to speak to the victim's family.

First of all, I would like to say that I do not know that any

of y'all, and that's unfortunate,

because I'd like to apologize to each

and every one of you individually.

I can't imagine what I've taken from y'all.

But I do want to apologize. And I want"--

-"I want to apologize To you for what I did.

And I want you to know that it wasn't

only I who committed the murders.

No one else was involved.

Christina felt no pain.

The things done to her occurred after her death.

I swear, the things done to her occurred after her death.

I swear.

Her head and hands I threw into the Trinity River.

I didn't r*pe or t*rture her, either.

I admit my guilt, and I ask your forgiveness.

I pray you will forgive me.

If not now, then in the future.

May God be with you and keep you through this.

His servant, Jason Eric Massey.

I don't know how to describe it.

Other than, we watched him die.

We had no emotions other than we were watching this person die.

He kept mouthing, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

We didn't believe him.

No, there's no way that you could

forgive this man for what he did.

-It was quick. It was painless.

He was lucky.

Yeah.

That's the way I look at it.

My brother and my step-sister weren't so lucky.

I mean, you know, they died horrible deaths.

JEANE E. BELLOWS:

that was going to have to judge him.

And I-- I can't-- I can't judge him.

But I can never forgive him.

MR. BELLOWS: Detectives were very good and efficient.

They did their jobs well.

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