Introducing: My Friend, the Serial Killer 02:55

The following interview is being videotaped at the Dade County Public Safety Department. I was looking for a hitchhiker, potential victim. Do you remember the moment when the car picked you up? So I was on the side of the road and this, you know, a sedan, like a nice enough car, pulled up and there's this guy. He had a kind of, a bit of a drawl. I was sitting in the car, buying a set.

I considered to be necessary in the crime that I planned to commit. There was a funny thing that I recall. You go to kind of pull up the door handle to get out, and it like didn't catch. First on this list of items was disconnect the door handle on the right-hand side of the car. I'm Steve Fishman. In the 1970s, I hitched a ride that changed my life.

I was just starting out as a journalist and crossed paths with a local man with a secret. This guy wants to confess to these murders. Let him confess. Boy, he unloaded, I'll tell you that. He claimed to be the serial killer next door. Next door to me. He lived in my town. A killer who got his victims hitchhiking. You're a lucky man you're here. And now I had a connection to him. I'd sat in his car.

I hoped this would be my big journalism break, as long as this guy was telling the truth. We got a fine body. We don't have any bodies. We don't have any reports of anybody being found deceased. He was positive his victim was buried four feet under the road. He called me in the newsroom every day, as if we were friends.

Then, he invited me to visit him in jail. He confided in me. He told me he could have been stopped. But now, decades later, I'm not so sure. They caught him in possession of a crowbar, wire cutters, pliers, and razor blades, which he might use to escape. So I'm going back to find out what I missed. I know where I need to start. How old were you when you learned your father was a serial killer? Twelve.

And how old were you when you and I met? Twelve. This is My Friend the Serial Killer, coming soon wherever you get your podcasts.