Howard Stern's convo with a serial killer is just chilling, years later

This is so interesting. Have you ever seen it? My friend Jason just sent me the link. The story of a serial killer, straight from the horse's mouth (if he is to believed). His firsthand perspective. It's very revealing, and chilling enough to be a fitting post for Halloween.

Like both of the serials I've researched, John Eric Armstrong and Benjamin Atkins, this unnamed killer -- suspected of being the perp behind a string of New Orleans murders in 1991-1996 -- targeted prostitutes. He says in this 1997 call to into Howard Stern's live talk show that he wasn't abused as a child. He says he didn't start out as a youngster killing animals, that he had only ever killed a rat that got into his workplace. He didn't wet the bed as a kid but did start fires, he says. He holds down what is likely a regular job. He has two kids but is not "married to the mother." That's a couple more traits he shares with Armstrong, in addition to the fact that this (call me "Clay") guy picked up a transgender prostitute without realizing it. Clay followed his own case in the news, knowing who the lead suspect was.

In discussing the possible motives behind his alleged killings, Clay speculates that it's about the feeling of power it gives him, then later admits he is bored. He doesn't really understand why he does it, though, reminding me again of Armstrong, who told me he doesn't know why he killed, either (and yes, I believe him, not to sympathize, but just to try to understand).

This killer's tone is honest, very believable. Howard believed the guy. Clay's voice is completely undisguised -- anyone who knew this guy in his "real life" would certainly recognize him if they knew enough to listen to this. Plus, there are clues he drops here and there that someone he knew in his normal life would pick up on.

He had not killed in about a year at this point, in 1997, and when Howard and Robin ask him why, he doesn't really know, other than that his car broke down for a short time, then his self-control kicked in. This guy has two parents who stayed together, he says, no apparent childhood trauma. He used a hammer to kill the women, which he read about in a book (a la Atkins). Howard and Robin ask him a lot of questions that coax quite a bit of info out of him. One of the things he says is that he let a couple of these women get away. Those women could still be out there, but of course, women living at risk on the street more often than not don't come forward after violent encounters.

So what do you think? Is this guy on the level, as Stern put it?